Depot Days 2016

We've been prepping for a yard sale, and nothing has happened in the train room this week. So, I'll share some thoughts and photos from the Cheyenne, WY Depot Days event that we attended last month.

Every year in May, the historic Cheyenne Depot hosts a railfan event called "Depot Days". During this weekend, attendees to the Depot have the opportunity to tour the Union Pacific Steam Shops and roundhouse, which are located just south of the Depot in the classification yard. The Depot also hosts vendors and model railroad exhibits. The west wing of the Depot houses the permanent Union Pacific Railroad museum, and the upstairs section of the building has more permanent exhibits and a highly detailed HOn3 model railroad layout. Outside, there are food vendors and a trolley bus station. Visitors can ride the trolley into the rail yard for tours of the steam shops and roundhouse, which are only open to the public during this one weekend every year.

The steam shops building and roundhouse are all that remains of a once gigantic locomotive facility, but they are still very impressive. The shops now contain modern equipment for servicing and repairing steam locomotives, but the mighty timbers that hold up the building have been witness to 1,000's of engines being fixed the old-fashioned way. Two steamers are currently being refit in the shops: #844, a 4-8-4 Northern class, and #4014, a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy class. 844 has plenty of steam excursion experience already, and in a few years 4014 will join it for special tourist events. It was a special treat to be able to see 4014 under repair and up close.

A half-block away is a 7-stall section of the original 48-stall roundhouse. The turntable is still present and functional, and many classic pieces of equipment are stored around it. There are many passenger cars from various railroads, a UP rotary snowplow, and CNW F7A business train engine #401. The lucky locos that get to live inside the roundhouse are #838, another 4-8-4 Northern, #5511, a 2-10-2 Santa Fe class, and #3985, a 4-6-6-4 Challenger class. There's also a Centennial class diesel inside. The 838 and 5511 are not going to be restored to functional condition, but seem to be getting a cosmetic touch up. I reckon that 838 is handy to have around as a source of replacement parts for 844. 3985 is in the northern-most stall and looks rather small after seeing 4014. Inside the building, I was again impressed with the feeling of vastness and admired the heavy duty construction that has allowed the structure to stand for a hundred years.

After visiting the depot, shops, and roundhouse, we headed over to Frontier Park (where the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo is held every year), and attended a model train show. While not a huge event, its the largest one I've been to in 9 years, so it was very fun and refreshing. Also, it was unexpected, so it was a happy surprise! There were several layouts on display and plenty of folks selling railroad stuff. I bought a brand new Lionel boxcar for under $40, which is kind of a miracle nowadays. In the parking lot of the Park was a Union Pacific kid's train, which looked great and would be a lot of fun to ride on.

It was a great railfan event, and I highly recommend a trip to the Depot just to see the museum, or to visit during Depot Days for a lot of extra adventures. Enjoy the photos below, and until next time, keep your rails shiny ~

Depot from the yard

Steam Shop equipment

#844 being refit

#4014 project headquarters

#4014 up close

Myself and the roundhouse

#5511

#5511 (L) and #838 (R)

The HOn3 layout at the Depot

Train show at Frontier Park

A great model of the UP locomotive facility, the way it used to look

Four F-Units

This week I finished inventorying the new roster. Here are the trains that are now set to run:

Track 1 – C&NW F7 AA and short freight

Track 2 - SR F3 AB and long freight

Track 3 - CP F3 AA and the Northern Range

Track 4 - NP F3 ABA and 5-car Vista Dome North Coast Limited

Notes:

-The Lionel Northern Range (actually Commodore Vanderbilt) heavyweight cars are made for O-54 track, but Track 3 is only O-42. This train needs to run slowly, and will bump passenger cars on Track 4, so I run it independently.

-First all-F-unit-powered roster.

-SR Postwar #2356 is performing well after making repairs last week.

-First time running for K-Line ATSF “Midnight Chief” boxcar 97199, Lionel GN boxcar 24872, and Weaver GN boxcar 2512.

-First time running (on this train set) for Weaver CNS&M boxcar 500814

-NP #2390A seems to need a new battery, as the sounds are acting strangely.

The all-F-unit lineup

Williams C&NW F7 and a short freight

60-year old SR F3 pulls a scale boxcar freight

Brand new boxcars on Track 2

North Shore boxcar and a brand new GN boxcar

CP locos pull a 4-car Northern Range

Lionel NP engines pull a 5-car MTH NP passenger set

More engines back in service

Over the past week, I was able to make some nice progress in train-land.

Northern Pacific Quirk

I tried running the NP 0-6-0 on a track by itself. Upon startup, the whistle began sounding non-stop automatically. Pushing the whistle or bell buttons on the transformer would not resolve this. I looked up solutions on the Internet, and after a few trials, I found a fix. MTH locomotives running Proto-Sounds 2.0 or 3.0 should not be the only thing on a track drawing power. Add a lighted car to the track (or wire an accessory that uses a lightbulb to the track), and the extra power usage somehow resolves the issue. So, all is well with the 0-6-0.

Southern Railroad Surprise

I opened up the SR F3 A unit to repair it, but found that it was working properly. Previously, it seemed like the rear motor was frozen up, putting a lot of pressure on the front motor. I checked the connections and confirmed that both motors were spinning merrily along, so I closed up the engine and deemed it ready for service. This #2356 locomotive is at least 60 years old.

Rock Island Return

I opened up the RI 4-8-4, and confirmed that the motor drive is not staying in contact with the main gear (slipping). I experimented with different motor angles and came up with a good one using some scrap pieces of cork. The cork worked well temporarily, but needed to be replaced with something safer and more permanent. The next day, I picked up some rubber erasers and cut them to fit the locomotive. The locomotive tested well with the new rubber spacers, so I re-affixed the shell.

I also got out more trains for the new roster and inventoried them.

Fancy new blue rubber spacers under the Rock Island 4-8-4 motor

This Northern is back in action. It is currently the 2nd-largest locomotive in the fleet.

RI 4-8-4 ready for service

Back from the Engine House

Three steam locomotives are back on the active roster list! C&NW 0-8-0, NP 0-6-0, and GN 2-8-2 have received computer repairs and have now been tested successfully here in Billings. The C&NW had a board literally burn out this past Christmas. The NP was not outputting any sounds at all. The sounds on the GN seemed to be out of sync with the wheel movement, and that movement was rather jerky. The engines were repaired by Xavier at Caboose Hobbies in Denver last month. The GN runs smoothly now, although the sounds are still a bit out of sync. Using a human emotion to describe the sounds, I'd say it sounds "insane". However, this doesn't prevent it from running, so if the sounds really bother me, I can just turn the volume down. Overall, I'm very happy to have these steamers running again!

NP 0-6-0 Switcher #1163 tested and ready to go

C&NW 0-8-0 Switcher #65 running on Track 3

GN 2-8-2 Mikado barrels along with a freight train in tow

Snippets of 2016 so far

Hello there, various influential persons have requested an update, so let's hop to it!
I'll expand on some of these topics and events over time, but here's what I've been up to regarding trains this year:

I've run two different train lineups on the train set thus far, an all-Postwar Lionel roster, and an all-steam roster. Speaking of steam, I had Caboose Hobbies repair 3 locomotives that were suffering from computer-related problems.

I sold off the last of the O-27 track and rolling stock that I did not want for future developments, which has freed up some storage space.

The train room has received a few improvements through paint and frames.

I've started collecting Postwar Lionel 6464-series boxcars, and have 4 of 29 so far.

Several new pieces of rolling stock have been added through purchases and gifts.

A very fancy piece of railroadania has been gifted to me.

I was able to visit the Union Pacific Steam Shops in Cheyenne, WY and had a great time!

More later ~ keep your rails shiny!

Postwar Trains

All steam

Cheyenne, WY

4014

3985