A few shots, of the rebuilt section in use! Coal train in action. Ran great, without the problems I was having before. A little minor grading to do, from what I see. Rocks in wye moved, and other rocks dropped in place and filled in. Coal train in action, over rebuilt area. Stretched out along house! Caboose at one end. Middle Burlington unit at the other! Exceeds length of house, by at least 1 locomotive length here. If straightened out, it would stretch a bit farther! Again, total length of train is about 30 feet! Another general shot of the coal train in action. More updates of today's work later.
Managed about 90 minutes play time tonight. Needed to test out some of the recent track work done. Set up a short freight train this time. Didn't have the time or motivation to set the coal train up! USA GP30, AML and USA boxcars and USA caboose. Cookie cars are the newest additions to the collection, as are a couple of white Aristo Craft Cookie cars. IF I can be up early enough, I'm gonna set up and run the coal train again! Adjusted some track in back that was causing a few minor issues! Also had someone stop by, and comment on the railroad. Asked if I knew someone down the street, which I did not. Used the railroad as a landmark! Was headed down the street, to do some electrical work. Asked friend where he was, in relation to the railroad out front!
Latest locomotive, Rio Grande GP30 #3017 is now ready to start earning its keep! The Airwire R/C board and Phoenix sound was installed a little earlier tonight! Works and sound as it should! Gonna test it, with the rest of my units tomorrow, or Friday. Did a quick coupler swap as well. Swapped an LGB and Kadee coupler between units, so I have Kadees on the front of both Rio Grande units. Until I can get a set of Kadees to finish the coupler swap! With railroad club meeting tomorrow night, I might not be doing too much as far as the railroad goes! Maybe a quick test of the 4 GP30's. Maybe some quick track work Friday. Getting ballast groomed a bit, where I have it! Full coal train test run Friday sometime as well. Gotta make sure everything is gonna run good for club open house over the weekend!
Got the radio control and sound in the other Rio Grande unit Weds night. Have a total of 4 GP30’s now. 2 Rio Grande(3001/3017) And 2 Burlington(949/950). Gets quite loud, when sound is on, on all 4 units! Just wish that RPM’s would increase/decrease on units, when set up in a consist. Have to shut sound OFF on 3 units, so it sounds right, when increasing/decreasing RPM’s when climbing or descending grade(s). Not gonna complain though! Whether 1 unit, or all 4, the sound is great! Here’s hoping everything goes good, for railroad club layout tour this weekend! May set up a short, second train, for folks to operate, if they choose to. Plus the coal train! Will try to get photos over The Weeknd, of any action.
I don’t need to stinking ordinances! However, the horn and bell are preprogrammed to activate for the following: 1 honk when power first applied. 1 honk when train comes to a complete stop. Bell rings. 2 honks when moving forward. Bell rings. 3 honks when moving in reverse. Bell rings. Can’t do anything about this! Other than turn master volume down some!
Roster consists of the following: 1 Bachmann K27 1 BLW Goose #6 1 LGB DRGW #50 1 USAT ALCo PA 1 USAT SD70MAC - DRGW heritage paint. Not correct, but looks good! 2 Aristo GP40 4 USAT GP30 - 2 DRGW, 2 Burlington 1 USAT NW2 cow/calf. And an array of standard and narrow gauge freight and passenger cars. And cabooses.
Have been trying to run the GP40’s lately, with problems though! One unit would NOT accept the speed step setting I tried to apply. Power up, it ran 4 feet then stopped. Moved another foot or so, IF I increased/decreased speed. Would NOT accept decoder reset attempts. Finally pulled the body off early this morning, pulled the Airwire antenna cable and used my Digitrax system to reprogram a few CV’s that reset the de order! Then figured out how to reset the throttle! Once I did that, reconnect ted everything and made a quick test inside, it ran as I wanted it to! Test run with the other unit today, it ran perfectly! Now, I just need to reinstall the screws that hold the body on, and install front handrails again. The, I shouldn’t be in violation of any rules, that I’m aware of! Ran for a couple hours, since it wasn’t too late, and it was still nice, and light out! Gave up so I could clean up before it got too dark to see! And so that I could grab dinner, since I’m getting hungry! Overall, not a bad day. Might look into changing transmit frequency though. Can’t run the GP40’s and the GP30’s together, without one or the other not responding to the throttle. I’ll work on that later! Time to take a break and rest for a bit!
Quite the roster you have building up there! Have you got a snow plow? All too soon, it could see a call to service!
I have a plow! I’ve used said plow on several occasions! Have a few videos of it in action, on YouTube.
Swapped power supply outside briefly. Set up a DC power source, and ranthe NW2 set for a bit. Now, I just gotta get Airwire and Sound for them! Getting darker earlier. Couldn’t stay out and run for too long! But then, it was also a nice warm 52* outside, when I decided to go and run. Gonna be in the mid to upper 80’s tomorrow!
Our highs for today and tomorrow predicted as 47 degrees. Methinks outdoor model RR season is closing soon.
Was 80*+ here today! Getting to the 40’s overnight though. Was a great day today. Ended up helping build a fence instead! Getting a wooden fence built, so dogs next door don’t cause problems! Jump up on fence, unheard, usually less than 2 feet from your face, when you stand up! Bark at you constantly as well. They do NOT really care for, or pay attention to the dogs! Been joking with Mom, about running a coal branch along the edge of the backyard, along the fences! To add more operating interest!! Got some NOT so nice looks after that comment! With October a day away, it’s gonna start going downhill pretty quick. First freeze/frost could be around birthday, around Oct 18,according to weather reports on the news. With snow not too far behind that! Possible by Halloween! My YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWbdN8eSJ5nCEeEy6oTcGbQ?app=desktop Has a bit of everything. From railroad videos, to train show, to severe dust storm to dumb people!
I love your outdoor railroad, Keith. The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson debuted the day before my tenth birthday, October first, 1962, my birthday being October second, of course. Doug
Mine is 17 days later, on the 19th, 1968. Used to watch Johnny Carson every night! And the Jay Leno, when he took over. Looked forward to Monday nights - Headlines. I mean, did news editors ever check what was about to be printed?? Now, I gotta get Airwire and sound for the NW2 set. IF the Phoenix sound card is readily available. My source was telling recently, that he was having trouble getting things from Phoenix. Hoping the programming CD arrives at some point! Was hoping to run the NW’s today, but got involved helping get a fence up! But, Mom is happy! A little more to go Sunday and we will be done with the fence, for this year. Will finish the rest next year.
A few, not so great one, from the NW-2 today! Not as sharp. Think it was because train was moving. Auto focus, so.... Newest purchases running today! USAT NW-2 cow/calf. Calf direct from USA, Cow as part of an RTR set! Purchased specifically for the locomotive! 2 USAT Rio Grande cookie cars, silver, different numbers 2 Aristo Rio Grande cookie cars, white, duplicate number AML Rio Grande boxcar, purchased a while back. Aristo short Rio Grande caboose, purchased several years ago! Next up, Airwire Radio Control and Sound