Boxes North and Boxes South

I recently set up a new roster and ran everything through shakedown trials. I was not able to place all of the rolling stock as planned, because of a surprise I encountered with some Atlas boxcars. Some of the Great Northern boxcars have trucks that will not navigate the tight O-31 radius curves of Track 1. These cars are by no means long, so length is not the issue - it is the trucks! Anyway, I shifted some things around and now each track has a more diverse representation of rolling stock from different regions (just like real trains).

Another small obstacle was a coupler that wouldn't lock shut, and a bit of wire took care of that.

The biggest shakedown snafu was a human error, and it was a bit costly. In my eagerness to run a BCR-equipped MTH PS1 locomotive, I failed to let the BCR charge for 60 seconds (as prescribed by the manufacturer). I used the Direction button on the MRC transformer remote, and that proved to be a no-no. The interior lights on the loco flashed brightly for a moment and then failed. Dang. The full damages are the cab lights, and both pairs of number board lights. At this time I don't know if there is a board failure or just the bulbs. Thankfully, all other lights and locomotive functionality are operational, and this has likely taught me a valuable lesson I won't forget.

Everything is 1:48 O-Scale this time around:

On Track 1 is a short Great Northern freight pulled by MTH GP9 #620, including an MTH outside-braced brown Chicago & Alton boxcar and an MTH wood sided brown Great Northern boxcar, and trailed by a K-Line Great Northern caboose with a handsome livery that matches the locomotive. This is the first run on the temporary layout for all of these. Speaking of "temporary", this layout has been in use for over nine years now! I'm still making steps towards the new layout's construction, but "temporary" may not be an appropriate term for this setup. Perhaps the "basement layout" or the "fifty six layout" (7' x 8').

The Great Northern Geep

Anyway, Track 2 is powered by the reliable Lionel Chicago & North Western 4-6-0 "ten-wheeler" steamer. Its 6-car consist includes an Atlas yellow Armour reefer with the "star" logo, a pair of MTH brown C&NW steel-sided boxcars, a pair of Atlas brown Great Northern boxcars (which can't navigate O-31 curves), and an MTH red C&NW CA-1 caboose. This is my first run of everything on this train except the locomotive.

Brown boxcars are also a theme this time

Track 3 is powered by another reliable Lionel steamer: the #4100 Frisco 2-8-2 mikado, which is celebrating 30 years of operation this year. The mike is pulling an eclectic bunch of freight with road names known for southern routes. Following the loco is an MTH brown Cotton Belt boxcar, a Weaver brown Illinois Central "Mainline of Mid-America" boxcar, two MTH blue/gray/yellow Missouri Pacific boxcars (the one with the gray roof comes from my Uncle's collection), a Weaver brown Frisco outside-braced boxcar with a pesky coupler, a Lionel silver Southern tank car from my Uncle's collection, an MTH orange Frisco hopper with coal load, and the Lionel brown Frisco wood sided caboose. This is the first run here for everything between the hog and the cabin.

Happy 30th to the reliable Frisco mikado!

Track 4 is the token passenger train of this roster, and I believe it steals the show. For the first time, my complete version of the Milwaukee Olympian Hiawatha is on track and rolling. This is the first time I've had any of these on the layout, and is the very first time some of the passenger cars have been out of their box. The entire train was manufactured by K-Line in 2000, and everything matches brilliantly. And yep, this has the full 21" passenger cars. All together this is one of the gems of my collection, and I'm excited to finally get it out and play with it! Motive power comes from an F3 ABA, which is followed by the train's express boxcar, and then a baggage car, parlor car "Maple Valley", dining car, coach car, and finally the extra-spiffy "Dell Rapids" skytop lounge car. Altogether a stunning streak of orange, maroon, and black.

Strength of the Olympian Hiawatha

The Dell Rapids Skytop Lounge

Until next time, keep your rails shiny 

Good bye and Hello

Happy Train Day 2022 to all. It's been a long time, and there have been plenty of long trains that have passed in the meantime. I'll fill in some missing railroad-related adventures in future posts, but the most important events in the past 29 months involved a good bye and a hello.

Just before Labor Day 2020 I got a call from my Uncle Bill Monteleone, a great man and model railroader. He has always been a part of my enjoyment of this hobby and my interest in trains in general. We had a wonderful conversation, about family and trains. When we finally said “good bye”, I had no idea it would be our last good bye. He passed away about two weeks later. Maybe some future posts will relate some of our train tales; until then:

Here's a toast to Uncle William, may his name forever stand

And always be respected by folks throughout the land

For when his mortal race had run and the curtain around him fall

We carried him home to Glory on the Wabash Cannonball

And five months later I said a loving hello to my son Maverick (“Ricky”) Zephyr, who arrived in February 2021. He's exploring everything now, including trains, along with his older brothers Wesley Hudson and Cody Selkirk. So, much of my model railroading quests of late have occurred with Ricky in a baby carrier on my back (Lille Baby – a fantastic product for new moms and dads). Perhaps he is absorbing lots of railroad experience... in addition to locomotive oil, grease, and smoke fluid...

Anyway, in celebration of Train Day the boys and I watched some steam locomotive videos on YouTube, and later Ricky and I repaired a diesel locomotive, and now we have a fully functional roster again. I also did some initial research on replacement diesel truck side frames.

Young Railroaders

I've had a used Canadian Pacific GP9 in storage for some time, but hadn't had the opportunity to run it until now. After initial lubrication, it would run smoothly at first, but then behave strangely – slowing down and speeding up on its own, and eventually slowly coming to a full stop. And regardless of what speed it was running, the rear pickup roller would spark more than any Post War Lionel locomotive I've seen! This is a dual motor model 206, road number 8488 manufactured by Williams. I performed some basic troubleshooting steps before poking around with anything. I overturned the locomotive and placed it on some fabric, then connected leads from a transformer to the rear pickup roller and one wheel. This powered both motors without all the sparking that was present when the unit was on rails. For another test, I put masking tape over the rear pickup roller and applied power with it on the track. This resulted in no power at all to the locomotive, which told me something was amiss with the front pickup roller. I removed the shell, and thankfully this is one of those times when the problem was immediately apparent. An important-looking red wire near the front motor was attached to * nothing *. I could see where it was originally attached to a crimp-style connector, but the front truck had likely been swung too far to the engineer's side at some point, which broke the wire. So, I removed the old crimp-style connection, found a new one, and attached it to the important-looking red wire. After re-affixing everything I ran the shell-less locomotive on some test runs around Track 1 with great success. I reattached the shell, and was able to run the all-CP freight train continuously at a relatively slow speed. So, a bit of time and ingenuity netted me another fully functional Geep on Train Day – not bad!

Seems like that important-looking red wire should be connected to something...

A shell-less test run

Back on track

I have a different used diesel locomotive set that is in need of several replacement truck side frames. The set seems to run perfectly – it just needs a couple cosmetic parts to complete it. This is an MTH Premier FT set, and currently there are no parts for this listed on MTH's (new) parts website, and I have a feeling that even if they were listed, they would be out of stock. So, I've started looking at other potential ways to get decent looking truck side frames for this locomotive set. I have seen various Post War Lionel truck side frames for sale on eBay, and they are plentiful. Perhaps one of these parts would be close in style to the ones I need? I inspected one of my existing truck side frames, and compared it visually to the many Post War styles online. I found that replacement truck side frames for a Lionel 2343 may be built in such a way that one could be augmented for my purposes. I then referenced my big Post War Lionel Repair & Service book, to see what would be involved in removing a side frame from one of my PW locomotives for comparison. While there was lots of good information to be found, none of it was overly helpful for this particular quest. I believe a bit more online searching will give me the answers I need.

Truck Side Frame Research

Okay, lets get to my current fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL roster!

On Track 1 is an all-Canadian Pacific freight headed by the Williams GP9 mentioned earlier, sporting the handsome grey/maroon paint scheme. The freight cars are a Lionel single-dome black “water only” tank car, an MTH grey/maroon boxcar, and an MTH red bay window caboose. This is the first run for all four members of this train.

On Track 2 is an all-Chicago Northwestern freight train, headed by Lionel 4-6-0 “Ten-wheeler” #361. This loco had a guest appearance at church last year – I'll get to that in a future post. The rolling stock on this train features a K-Line yellow/green woodside reefer, an Atlas brown outside-braced boxcar, and MTH green hopper with coal load, an MTH boxcar in boxcar-red sporting the “Challengers” motto, and a sporty yellow/green bay window caboose. This is the first appearance for all of these cars except the reefer and the hopper.

On Track 3 is another Chicago Northwestern-helmed freight, but this time all the freight cars are reefers of various small-to-large companies. Oddly, but by popular request from my boys, it is also headed by a CNW rotary snow plow. This MTH yellow operating plow has seen plenty of action on this layout, but it is always a crowd pleaser and is genuinely fun to run. The locomotive is a Lionel 8056 Fairbanks Morse Train Master, which I've had since high school. Ever the trend setter, I posed with this locomotive in my senior pictures! Anyway, the motors in this loco can growl along with the best of any of its older Post War brethren, and it is strangely refreshing to send this one around the loop surrounded by more technologically advanced steam locomotive models on neighboring tracks. Following the Train Master is a colorful assortment of reefers: K-Line white/blue Rath's Blackhawk Ham, Atlas grey/brown Marty Cheese from Monroe Wisconsin (relatively close to where I grew up in Illinois), MTH yellow/brown Lakeshire Cheese from Plymouth Wisconsin, K-Line McLhaney Creamery from the breezy plains of Texas, Lionel green A&P milk car based in West Bend Wisconsin, K-Line red/yellow Black Hills Packing from Rapid City South Dakota, and the reliable MTH yellow/green CNW center cupola caboose. This is the first run for all of the reefers.

Track 4 is a shay-powered caboose train. You may find a real-life version of this train at the Illinois Railway Museum on steam days throughout the summer season. Powering this tourist train is Lionel Elk River 3-truck shay #12. Shays are fascinating and fun to watch and experience. This Lionel model does a pretty good job of capturing the motions and sound of real shays, and the resulting ultra-slow speed operation is strangely peaceful, despite the cacophony of motion required in the engine's gears to make it happen! The six cabeese in the train comprise some old favorites and some first-time runs. It starts with a K-Line orange woodsided Milwaukee Road rear cupola, followed by an MTH Tuscan N-8 Pennsylvania Railroad cabin car, then a K-Line red woodsided Illinois Central rear cupola, then an MTH blue/white Electro-Motive extended vision, followed by a K-Line silver Chicago Burlington & Quincy offset cupola, and finally an MTH red Great Northern extended vision.

Shays look fascinating 

Until next time, here's another toast to Uncle Bill, and keep your rails shiny

Milwaukee Road Gifts

For the past few months I've been trying to help a fellow Billings resident with selling a large train collection, which had belonged to her late husband. He and his father had worked for the Milwaukee Road in Montana, and I was gifted a few items from his collection. There are lots of Milwaukee items, along with a few other railroad mementos he picked up along the way. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, and had some interesting artifacts from his time with the union.

There are some MRR pencils and a spiffy Christmas matchbook, a few maintenance handbooks, and several MRR official business envelopes. There's also a NP Vista Dome North Coast Limited train schedule from 1958, and a photograph of a UP Big Boy from 1966. Of greatest interest to me are some handwritten notes listing details about various MRR round houses in Montana, and a listing of many of the unique MRR diesel and electric locomotives in use in the 1960's and 70's.

All of these items will be stored and treasured like the rest of my railroadania collection, and will eventually be housed in the museum/display section of the "train room of the future". Thank you Dee, for giving me this wonderful collection of railroad history!

MRR pencils and a matchbook

Christmas wishes on a MRR matchbook

MRR business envelopes and booklets

NP schedule, UP photo, handwritten MRR notes about Montana roundhouses and locomotives

Through-lines coming Through

Here's an update from the train room for March 2017. I'm very happy to report that my son, now 3 months old, really enjoys model trains. When he's upset, I run the trains for him, and he calms down every time. The combination of the train's motion and sounds have a lulling affect, and he's even fallen asleep a couple of times as the trains circle about in front of him.

Since my last post, I celebrated another birthday, and my parents and my parents-in-law all gifted me some nice railroad-related items. I received two nice posters of steam locomotive paintings, for the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads. I was also given several model railroad scenery supplies, including a bag of real coal. I also received an authentic chain for my railroad pocket watch. And, my wife gave me an evening with just the two of us, which meant a lot more to me than a thousand trains. Thank you to everybody for your generosity!

I've been running NP 0-6-0 for my son (well, for me too) and haven't had any problems until recently. I warmed it up one day, and there were no audible sounds from the speaker. This is the same issue I encountered last year, and took it to Caboose Hobbies in Denver to have it repaired. I've contacted The Caboose (new owner and location) to see if they have detailed records of what was specifically repaired last year, in hopes that I can duplicate it.

Over the past week, with help from my father and son, the train layout roster has been changed. We also performed a bit of inventory on the previous and new roster items. As of now, there are 97 items remaining to inventory. The theme of the roster is "through-lines", meaning that these trains are not run by local/regional railroads - they are "passing through". The locomotives in use are the only ones in the collection from their respective railroads. So, here's the new March-April 2017 roster for your review and entertainment:

On Track 1, the Blue Train makes its first-ever run this month. With the majority of its members hailing from the mostly-blue livery of Montana Rail Link, I developed this train simply because my bride likes the color. With last year's acquisition of the Union 76 tank car, this mixed freight now includes three scale-and-time-displaced cars with a locomotive and caboose. As more primarily-blue rolling stock is collected, they will be added to this special freight. This version of the Blue Train consists of the MRL SD9 (Lionel), a Needham Packing reefer (MTH), a Union 76 oil tank (K-Line), an MRL double-door boxcar (Lionel) and an MRL extended vision caboose (Lionel).

Track 2 hosts an all-dairy-related train. The Dairy Express is led by the MPC-era MKT NW2 (Lionel), a GN stock car (Petersen) a Borden milk tank car (Lionel), a Carnation reefer (K-Line), a Dairy Men reefer (Lionel) and an MKT extended vision caboose (Lionel). The NW2 is a single-motor unit and runs very well - it growls like a Postwar locomotive and was the first diesel model I had as a youngster.

On Track 3, reliable and mighty Mikado #4100 pulls mixed freight #408. A variety of goods and materials are in tow behind the Frisco 2-8-2 steam locomotive, built by Lionel in 1993. First, a CP log car (Lionel), followed by two recently acquired Lionel tankers with Philadelphia Quartz and Army liveries, a Midnight-Chief-inspired boxcar (#97191, K-Line), a Peacock reefer (K-Line), an Old Dutch reefer (K-Line), a GN hopper laden with coal (MTH), a CNW flatcar with semi trailer (called a "piggyback") (MTH), a late-80's MRR tank car (Lionel), an IC hopper (Williams) and a Frisco wood-sided caboose.

The ATSF boxcar has a brake-side coupler issue. It's opening at certain spots on the loop, but I haven't determined the cause yet. I thought the magnet was activating, but I've proved that isn't the issue. It only opens when it is coupled to another car, so weight and force, combined with certain sections of track are somehow causing it to malfunction. I'll keep troubleshooting, but for now I've placed the boxcar at the end of the train to prevent uncoupling problems.

Also, as I learned while holding my son, one should not shift the Frisco Mikado into forward from neutral at 25% power. I had gotten used to running the NP Switcher, which has a very gentle shift and can run smoothly at low speeds, but the 2-8-2 experienced extreme acceleration. The log car uncoupled from the tank car and both derailed. Of course, this happened at the inaccessible corner of the layout, so it took some ingenuity, while holding a baby, to pull the cars closer and re-rail them. No harm done, and everything is running again, but it was a small adventure to fix it.

And on Track 4, I've assembled the longest-yet version of the Northern Range heavyweight coach train. This time, its being pulled over Pennsylvania Railroad ROW, so the train is called the "Philly Phoenix" and is pulled by a big GG1 electric locomotive (Williams). The real-life prototype for this locomotive is nicknamed "Blackjack", and can be viewed at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Behind my O-scale version of Blackjack is a troop car converted into an REA head-end car (Weaver), the Van Twiller combine (Lionel, first time on rails ever), the Willow River coach (Lionel), the Willow Valley coach (Lionel), the Willow Range coach (Lionel), the second Willow River coach (Lionel), the Highland Falls sleeper (Lionel), and the Granite Canyon coach (K-Line) takes up the rear.

The GG1 horn sputters frequently while pulling the Philly Phoenix. This can be prevented by holding down the Bell button on the controller. I think this is just a symptom of something fishy going on electronically with Track 4, as I’ve had problems with Whistle/Horn-Bell functionality in the past.

With my son around, the trains are all getting a lot more run time, which means more fun for everybody!

Have a blessed day, and keep those rails shiny!

Bday steam locomotive artwork

The Blue Train

Dairy Express

Frisco 2-8-2

"Chicaqo" piggyback

Santa Fe Blackbonnet paint scheme

Mike and Blackjack

Part of the Philly Phoenix

An Intense Day of Ferroequinology!

Happy First Day Of Autumn to all ~ this past Sunday I crammed a lot of train fun into a few hours. 

I headed out at 5:30AM traveling west. I met with friend and fellow modeler Darren in Butte, MT, and had a great conversation regarding the world of trains. After some breakfast, I headed northwest and viewed a static outdoor railroad equipment display in Deer Lodge, MT. The equipment has been cosmetically restored, and consists of all Milwaukee Road equipment: a bay window caboose, an E-9 diesel locomotive, and a Little Joe electric locomotive. The electrified Milwaukee Road line used to travel through Deer Lodge, beginning further east in Harlowton.  

Leaving Deer Lodge, I continued northwest. I attended a train show in Missoula, MT. I sold the 5 pieces of equipment that I brought, and purchased a Lionel PW 6464-125 NYC boxcar from Jim Caras, and a K-Line K742-8025 Kingan's ham/bacon reefer from Bob Peterson. About 60 tables were set up, 5 of which included O gauge trains. There were lots of kids, HO trains, and railroad artifacts. There were also two or three small, functional layouts. 

After the train show I visited the restored Northern Pacific depot in Missoula and photographed NP 4-6-0 steam locomotive #1356 on static display. Then I viewed the "City of Spokane" passenger train parked in the Missoula MRL yard. The train was made up of 18 or so historic, road-worthy passenger cars from throughout the country, generally traveling from Denver to Spokane. I've seen several of these cars parked in Billings at various times, but it was neat to see them all together. 

On my return trip I photographed the ruins of a Milwaukee Road electrical substation along I-90 east of Missoula. Then I explored the abandoned BNSF tracks in Homestake, MT right along the Continental Divide east of Butte, MT. I found a loose piece of a switch mechanism to add to my railroadania collection. 

All in all a great day of trains and 10 hours of driving in Montana! Keep those rails shiny ~

Deer Lodge MT: Little Joe E70, my Yukon, and E9 36A

Sunlight through the E9's cab

Missoula train show

NP Ten-wheeler 1356 in Missoula

The City of Spokane parked in Missoula

Abandoned Milwaukee Road substation along I-90

Forgotten rails atop the Continental Divide

Unused rails at Homestake at the end of summer

Switch equipment with a loose part

Framed

Welcome to March - I hope Spring is on the tracks ahead.

This week saw a major advancement in the Train Room. First, continuing the final touches on the hallway log cabin, I cut some large decorative log pieces "manually", and treated them with bleach to prep them for permanent display. I measured and cut the border molding and shelf piece for the faux fireplace too. My wife started staining the boards I cut the previous week for Craft Room shelving project. I purchased the majority of wiring for the train set as well. I will be using 10-gauge stranded wire for the main runs, and smaller gauge for the "short lines" to lighting and accessories. So the big milestone is that I cut all of the 2x4s for the train table frame, and completed their assembly over the weekend. It will be able to support the trains, and also myself, as construction goes on. I used one of Lionel's current display layouts as an example when planning the under-structure. It is basically made of 4 walls, attached to create a rectangle, and topped with support beams for the table top. On two of the walls, I placed the studs so I could easily get in and out, along with the many storage boxes and tubs which will reside under the table. That is the primary reason the table is so tall: storage. My two storage closets are basically full, and there are a lot more trains headed this way from my folks' house in Illinois. When finished, the top of the table will be a whopping 52" above the floor. And yes, of course I will be building platforms and steps so our shorter friends and family can see and enjoy the layout too :) I'm thinking about building step pieces similar to what the railroads used to help passengers board and exit their trains. But that will be a bit further down the track... Last night I installed some diagonal braces along the train table frame studs to give it a bit more sturdiness. 

For the twelfth future passenger train discussion, we'll head back north for The Olympian Hiawatha.

In my earlier years of model railroading, I was quite against acquiring any Milwaukee Road equipment, as this would be in direct competition to my existing fleet of Chicago & North Western trains. My sense of rivalry between these two now-defunct railroads has mellowed over the years, and I now welcome a bit of competition in my empire. The Milwaukee Road, and even this specific passenger train, used a big variety of unique and visually striking motive power on their lines from Wisconsin to Washington. The Olympian Hiawatha began service in 1947 (its predecessor starting in 1909) and ran from Chicago to the Twin Cities, and across the Dakota Territory to Harlowton, MT. Harlowton is an otherwise unsuspecting town just east of the Castle Mountains, but its location made it a very important place. Here the train's steam or diesel locomotives would be traded for electric locomotives for the next leg of the journey. The Milwaukee had one of the largest electric divisions of American railroads. I've spent a bit of time in Harlowton, performing some railroad archeology, and tracing some of the same steps as the mighty Hiawathas. In one of their parks, they display a MR boxcab locomotive. Of the Road's many electric units, I fancy the L-5 "Little Joe" the best, and hope to one day add one to my roster. In the realm of steam, the F7 Hudson is the one I would pick for my line, to race with the C&NW E-4. The Milwaukee Road used interesting passenger equipment as well, with some of the most unique being the Otto Kuhler-designed "beaver tail" observation cars. What a treat it would have been to ride in one or see it rushing across the Montana plains or climbing the mountains! For the train layout of the future, I'm looking for a specific version of the Olympian. This set would feature the orange and maroon color scheme, pulled by the F7 over the prairie and the Little Joe up over the Roosevelt Range. Keep those rails shiny this week ~

Before...

...and After!

The Milwaukee Road F7 Hudson

The Milwaukee Road "Little Joe" Electric