I was returning this afternoon from a weekend road trip to Dallas. While approaching Crawford, TX on TX 36, I drove past a BNSF train which certainly appeared more like a model train consist than a real BNSF train. It had two four-axle locomotives pulling about 6-8 cars. Sounds like the kind of train most of us run on our railroads, so there are prototype precedents for running short trains with multiple locomotives, even on modern railroads.
Portland&Western/Wilamette&Pacifi runs just about every train around the Hillsboro/Forest Grove/Beaverton area with 2 GP39-2s
Boxcab, I suspect you are right about being able to find a prototype for just about everything. It was just nice to see that a short train with a couple of locomotives, the kind of thing most of us want to do on our layouts, actually does happen.
Two trains I saw back on my Y2K visit: BN SD70MAC and 3 grain hoppers! NS C40-9W, 1x gon + 1x bulkhead flat! So they don't neccesarily have to be small loco's either!
Hi all, The Big New Santa Fe runs that kind of train around here 6 days a week. Its called the Oly turn. (Olympia turn) There is also a 5 day a week job that works Fort Lewis an out to other industry in the area. These trains are always 2 locos back to back and 7 to 15 cars. Model Railroading full size. Shannon WP LIVES (no matter what the UP says)
Have seen 2 Burlington Northern GP38,or whatever, with 1 boxcar, several times. On the other hand, I've also seen 2 BN/BNSF SD70's with 132 empty coal hoppers in tow!!
While out around Middletown, NY a few years back photograghed the M&NJ GE44t switching an elevated reached by a double-slip switch. Never saw one before that wasn't part of an interlocker!
let's see..... 2 CSX GP38-2's pulling a 100 car loaded coal train..... 2 SD70MAC's and an SD40-2 switching 5 covered hoppers at an industry on the far end of a lightly-used spur..... GP40-2 running backwards with 2 tankcars and no where near any industry that i know of.
Here in Sherman, we have a GP50 and GP39-2 running switch jobs south with 5-20 cars. The Dallas, Garland & Northeastern uses SD40-2s as road and yard switchers, and have even used them to switch the Con-Agra flour mill (And I thought the track couldn't take 6-axle diesels... ). And how about using a GP40 as a yard switcher????
Just realised, I have a shot of the NS dash nine online already... This is heading down the (now removed) street trackage in Erie PA, it headed through town to an industrial plant, dropped the bulkhead flat off, picked up four or five corn syrup tanks and went back again (long hood forward on the way back!)
A few years back a model railroad magazine showed a picture of a double track mainline. One line went through a short tunnel, the track next to it went around the tunnel. The explanation was that this location was next to a canal. When the canal company went out of business, the rr bought the right of way to the tow-path and laid down track. They did not daylight the old tunnel.
The latter in the following example and just a slight twist on this theme... Some years back I read of a newly formed shortline using a freelanced model's paint scheme, either in MR or Trains. The modeller had developed his freelanced MR from an abandoned class 1 branchline complete with a ficticious paint scheme. When he heard of a new shortline outfit reactivating the abandoned line he contacted them to say hello. I imagine they got talking and they saw either images or the painted models themselves and asked permission to adopt the model's paint scheme for the prototype! That has to be the ultimate accolade to a modeller!
I remember seeing about five diesels pushing one lonely red caboose down the track out in the middle of nowhere. All caboose traffic was stopped within a couple of weeks after this, so my guess was the caboose was to be dropped off on some dead ended spur for good.
