Right now, Am thing of the four listed below. Not sure if they are still available. 1) Arnold/ hornby- comes plug in play for dcc. China EMD SW1. Current 2015 2) Yeah, i know... but everyone i know says they are great...Bachmann Equipped (china) GE 44 tonner Made in 2009. Not sure they are available yet. 3) Kato Comes equipped dcc (japan) EMD NW2 2013. 4) Atlas Dcc Ready (China) Baldwin VO- 1000 Made in 2007. not sure i can find any. 5) A RS1 Not sure who makes them and if they are any good. Don't know about dcc. 6) I would love a S-1 but i don't anything about the current models. Last one shown at spooks was a 1983 model made by Key? Samhongsa i think (Korea) made. 7) Atlas makes a S-2 That could work. Dcc ready or equipped. (China) 2015. Thats the list. one or two rs-1's would be main line. Maybe a small consist of 2-3 VO -1000's or EMD NW2's. Maybe S-1's or 2's could work too! I do like the 44 tonner for the yard and its going to be flat for it. I may take a chance on it. All are ok for dcc. Now if i can find some.... Later,Dan
Spookshow has a review of the Arnold SW1. It's the first one on the list if you search by importer and filter out steam, traction and brass. He gives it an A. They are excellent runners and DCC conversion is a simple plug in. I just looked at the vendor where I got mine and it shows every road name still in stock.
Mike i am better but now Deb has got something. She may go to the Doc tomorrow. Still working on a working plan. would like more room for town and more scenery, less track. I am working on it. may take awhile. Now My family is making noise that they want us closer to them. That means about 200 miles north of here. Wichita Falls, Texas. I want to go the other way. We are going up in march to check out the area. They may not like me but am still thinking about going south. Anyway, once i get us settled, its bring on the trains. Starting with new foam and plaster cloth. go from there. Nothing like a blank canvas...
I looked over that list and a few are still being made or being sold. I was told on another forum that if i did late 40's i should be able to use the early diesels. They didn't buy new diesels and used was the way to go but for companys like Boise Cascade. They also said that most of the mid to late 40's and from the 50's on that it was cheaper to bulldoze the ground and run trucks instead of trains. I don't know what i am going to do right now. I am going to have to think about this awhile.
There was still plenty of rail logging ongoing after WWII. They could still cheaply lay rail in the woods. What made the difference after WWII was availability of cheap war surplus machinery. Cats, tank chassis which were adapted as yarders and mobile spar trees, trucks cheaply made over to haul logs and lumber.
What started changing was the woods operations in and around the 1930s but rail was still cheaper and more efficient for the long haul from the camp to the sawmill. Skidders, trucks, and high lines were being used more and more to get the logs to a reload point on the main logging line where a loader loaded the cars. In some cases the log train carried it's own loader in the form of a slide back loader that worked it's way from the last car of the train to the first car. A number of the big logging shows bought new stuff as it came out while other smaller companies picked up used equipment as the Class one roads upgraded to more powerful units. A few even took some old Class A Climax locos and tore out the boiler and cylinders replacing them with a diesel geared to the drive shafts. The main thing that set a lot of the early woods diesels apart from the class one versions were the applications of spark arrestors. Early diesels could occasionally belch out sparks due to soot build up in the stack.
That is what i was thinking. I have some plem drawings. These are just different ideas. On the left the track follows the hills it is climbing. After the waterfall and bridge it continues. The 3d in Scarm isn't that great. It shows cliffs up where the logging camp is. Its a gradual drop to the valley. The back area around the waterfall area is rock cliffs And on the lower left where the track crosses the river. It don't show it very good but the track will go a bit under the water. On the right there is a single spur that is for overflow or a parking track. Left with the three tracks is car repair and engine house. Also service tracks. With Diesels there is only fuel and sand. thats easy. the three lines going to the sawmill is one for log dump and i will have to change that i think. not sure yet. The other two are loading track for wood, and unloading track for stores. Town is off to right. This is one thing i wanted before on the old layout. Anyway, Thats it for now.Any other ideas?? Dan
Instead of that long tunnel on the main level, how about popping out into view for a short bit on each corner?
Especially that upper left one, on the backside of the hill from the branch it could be its own scene, and that's that much less tunnel track to have to maintain. I like the idea of tracks at or below water level like the one road in Wva I read about that has a few crossings on spillways. Will be neat to see how you pull it off. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Echoing the previous comments on a long tunnel I agree. To much of a headache waiting to happen. I have one on the current small layout and although not too long it is still a headache, even with adequate access points. Series of short tunnels would be better with adequate room to reach in when needed. And the water level crossing is neat approach. I believe the one on the short line in West VA is still operating. Comment in the story I read on it, I believe in Trains, was that they occasionally had to replace the track after a high water event , but it did not seem to affect operations for more than a day or until the water receded.
The one in Wv isn't there anymore. Meadow River sawmill closed in 1976. I worked there. Its kinda hard to get the one track in the tunnel to come out as the hill is higher than the track. I had this in the tunnel for the last two layouts. That was the best track on the whole layout. Never had any issues with that one. It is used for main line and the staging yard on the side where the logging camp is under the logging camp part of the board. i have easy access to it from there. My main issues with the main line was out front. One way it worked perfect. the other way it kept jumping the track at the yard. No issues with the tunnel. or the turnouts in the staging yard. I am planning to use that same track on that part of the layout as was on this. The yard will be different. Maybe this time i won't have those issues.........
Found the Trains article, different railroad called the Beech Mountain, September 2012. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
yep. I was thing about changing the area i was going to switch to Maine where Deb came from. But can't find enough about there logging and sawmills and trains, so back south. Plan stays the same
I think i am going to close this thread. It was for a layout that isn't here anymore. Will open a new thread for the No Name Layout. Thanks all, Dan
