Electroburgers on the menu!

This week marks the triumphant return of the Electroliner to active service. I bought the Electroliner new in the early 2000's. It is the only brass model I own, manufactured by 3rd Rail/Sunset Models. It is a beautiful scale model, but from day one it has had problems. While troubleshooting these problems, I quickly learned that I don't want to invest in any other brass models in the future. They are very finicky.

Earlier this year, I had the motors serviced in Michigan. This week I performed the final major work, which involved swapping two motor lead wires in the head unit (#802). The photos below show the 'Liner laid out on a foam "workbench", with wires attached to the roller pickups and wheels. It kind of looked like it was connected to life support, or was possibly part of an experiment being performed by Dr Frankenstein. Regardless, this allowed me to power up the train while it was laying on its side, and confirmed without a doubt that the front and rear motors were turning in the opposite directions. I also saw that the rubber tires on the front wheels had degraded to the point that pieces of them were whipping around. I removed the offending pieces of rubber. Later this year I'll apply some Bullfrog Snot to these wheels to provide more traction. Anyway, I opened the shell on the lead unit and unplugged the wires that lead to the motor. I cut the two wires and swapped their placement on the motor connector. I reconnected everything and powered up the Electroliner again, and all the wheels were running in sync. I can't prove it, but I think this was a problem from the factory, as the 'Liner had never run smoothly on the layout in Illinois. The two motors working against each other caused the rubber tires to fall apart, and eventually resulted in one of the motors being damaged (repaired earlier this year).

I placed the Electroliner on Track 4 and tried it out. I found that it has some trouble with electrical flow on the west side of the layout at slower speeds. But when I opened up the throttle, it zips around the whole loop flawlessly. The sounds and horn features work too. There is still some work to do: the aforementioned traction tire repair, the interior lights are out on the rear unit, and most of the interior window frames need to be reattached. But, I've placed the train back on the active roster, since it is performing very well on the track. I've now run the Electroliner more in Montana then I had in Illinois, and am very pleased with its performance. It has a GREAT "clickity-clack" sound which is quite realistic. I know this because I've had the pleasure of riding on the original #801-802 Electroliner at the Illinois Railway Museum. They are currently restoring it again, so we'll all have the chance to ride it again in the coming years. I won the race though: my Electroliner got fixed before theirs!

Also this week another historic Lionel Postwar 6464 car was added to the roster. The red Minneapolis & Saint Louis 6464-525 boxcar is from the original 1957-1958 production run. So far I've collected 5 of the 29 original 6464-series boxcars, and it's been fun so far!

I've updated some of my model railroad spreadsheets to reflect current train prices, and improved the layout on a tab containing Postwar Lionel information. I also purchased some more rolling stock, which will be detailed in next week's blog post.

Keep those rails shiny ~

Electroliner on the operating table

Electroliner rounds the SE curve of Track 4

6464-525, nearly 60 years old

More Red

Hello, today I received the two new Great Northern cars I mentioned in last week's posting. After clearing the train table (of various paperwork that was being sorted), I tested them out.

Petersen Supply Great Northern Stock car #63172

MTH Great Northern caboose #X54

Another Postwar 6464 car should be coming soon! Keep your rails shiny, and see ya next time ~

GN Stock car and Caboose

New O scale rolling stock for the roster

Building the Great Northern empire

This year, I'm focusing on purchasing Great Northern rolling stock. On the train layout of the future, GN will be the 3rd-most represented railroad (after C&NW and NP). At the beginning of 2016, my GN roster consisted of a Mikado steam locomotive, a reefer car, a hopper car, and an express mail car. Since then, I've acquired two Postwar Lionel 6464 boxcars, a Lionel boxcar, a Weaver boxcar, and coming next week, a Weaver stockcar and MTH caboose. I've also had some repair work done on the Mikado steamer. So far, my plans to beef up the Great Northern stock has been working!

Ultimate plans for the GN will include another boxcar, a pair of flatcars, two ore cars, two more reefers, another stock car and another caboose. Additionally, (and further down the line) I'll be adding an F3 or FT diesel-powered streamlined passenger set, a Geep diesel, and a small yard steamer. Photos of the new GN equipment will be here next week. Keep those rails shiny!

Searchlight 6520

Hello, this week I purchased a Postwar Lionel searchlight car at a local estate auction. My folks were actually the purchasing agents, so thank you to them! I purchased this in order to use the searchlight housing to replace the broken one on my existing car, but now I've found out this won't work... My searchlight car is #3520, but the new one is #6520, which is a bit fancier. So now I've ended up with two different Postwar searchlight cars, both of which need some repair, but I'm happy to own them. The 6520 also includes the original box. Here's a photo, and keep those rails shiny:

Searchlight #6520

The Town of Red Stone

Howdy folks, there wasn’t any train activity this week, so today I’ll talk a bit about a town I’ll be building on the future train layout.

The train layout will be based on the mid-1950’s, and Red Stone will be a bustling western town of about 2,000 people. It will be an important railroad community, linking the fictional layout to big cities like Denver, Kansas City and San Francisco. The four chief railroads that will have operations in Red Stone will be the Santa Fe (ATSF), the Katy (MKT), the Rock Island (CRI&P) and the Frisco (SL&SF). The town will have plenty of through-passenger traffic, and will be located near oil fields, cattle ranches, crop fields and a military base, which will provide interesting freight traffic.

Generally, Red Stone will be south of the city of Silver Falls and west of Cedar Falls, a logging town. North of Red Stone will be a desert area with some interesting sandstone rock formations, and a small creek will run along the east side of the town. Several train tracks will be located along the south side of town, and that’s where a collection of railroad buildings will be found (station, sheds, water tower). East of these structures, at the end of McLintock Avenue, will be a church with a cemetery and a small park. Traveling north on Huskie Street will bring visitors to a variety of businesses including the Big Boy Bakery, Jackey Lowp’s Bar, and the Wall Pharmacy. There will also be several homes and a gas station near the corner of Huskie Street and Tamarack Road. North of town will be some bleachers where onlookers can view rodeos and other events near the sandstone rocks.

From a real-world standpoint, the Red Stone area will be located at the southwest corner of the future train layout, and will a 7x9 foot area, so it will be roughly the same size as the current train set I’m operating. Initial plans are shown in the pictures below. I hope everybody has a great day, and keep your rails shiny ~

Red Stone details

Red Stone showing Area divisions

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