Happy to see that you guys are upholding the high standards of ZoCal. I wonder if they might require us to be politically correct and also display a Menorah.
Lindley We missed you this past weekend.......... Don't ask me ask David it was a BNSF Day :thumbs_down: lol............
More pictures: My transfer table with the concrete floor now in (not real concrete). The concrete colored road is concrete (real concrete!). Henri's Butte (pun intended) of an end module: An overall picture of the layout. When the "big train" (started out as an 88 car train and finally an even 90 cars - 21.5 ' long!) pulled by the five SD70's was running, the end was coming out of the tunnel on the far left and the front was in the turn in the yard.
The problem with Henri's module. He told us that double stack intermodal cars would now make it (failed at Del Mar). He said autoracks would now make it (failed at Del Mar). So Sunday morning Don and I switched in Henri's module into the layout. And I brought around the Challenger (which had run ALL day Saturday). When the front hit, it lifted the drivers on the outside off the track. The evidence your Honor: Got it past the entry and WHAM! Epic fail! The boiler is hitting - never mind the smoke deflector clearing. Done with the Challenger for the day. We never even tried autoracks or intermodals. So Henri, this gives you an idea how much wider the portal needs to be. Please
Durn kids! My Pennsy running along. Now add these 42 UP boxcars to the other train with the five engines and you get an idea of how long a train we had going. I did get the long train on video. Coming soon.
I don't see any pictures in these last posts... and I even selected edit (moderator's license) just to see if the path to the pictures was correct, and there is no path, just blank spaces?
Sorry Robert. Pictures are linked to the ZoCal site. Only members see the pictures. I will remedy this soon.
Excellent video! I love watching those long trains. I thought the video was in loop with all of those UP boxcars! Alex, what you are seeing with the couplers is a classic example of long heavy train and MTL couplers. With extreme tension, the couplers tend to shift vertically. Notice how the condition is worse towards the front of the train were the train is the greatest versus the rear of the train. I have seen this for years running long trains on modules. Any slight dip in the rails, and you have a break-away. AZL and Bowser couplers are not as prone to this condition. I know of some Z scalers who actually shimmed the top of the MTL couplers to try and keep them from shifting up. I actually did this with one locomotive many years ago. Rob
