After getting my S3 and SW8 P2k Switchers a couple of weeks ago, I was very, very good and made sure I got all my rolling stock converted to KD #5's and body mounted, built and painted my P2K Rolling stock kits, but eventually, I had to do it... I RAN TRAINS TODAY! For the first time in 20 years, I turned a dial and watched a locomotive light turn on and it slowly move along the track.... OMG! The bliss! Rapidly converted the wife's craft room table into a 9' long triple track yard with lead track and ohhhhhhh, it was so good watching those locos idle up and down the tracks. No heat, absolutely silent (no underlay on the track yet either' and little 'clickety-clacks' through the switches....<swoons>. Then I made the big mistake of clapping and cheering myself, and the wife woke up..... so I made her come sit there and watch.....me clapping like an idiot....her saying "thats real nice dear". No appreciation for the finer things in life...LMAO. In case you didnt notice, I;m pretty excited about this.....Man, they are sooo quiet, and they are soooooooo slow. Flat out they are about 1/4 the speed I expected, but probably a good scale 35mph. No heat, no noises, no nothing after 2 hours of going back n forth....OK, back to the craft room before the wife wakes up again!
Indeed..I love my P2K switchers and their realistic switching speeds. Now that is saying something after my older Athearn SW1500 that runs like a swiss watch and my Stewart Baldwin and my 3 Atlas switchers..Sorry guys ya just can't beat those P2K switchers IMHO.
Now you've given me an idea! It's been six years since I moved into this house. So that long with no layout. While still finishing a basement, there's no place to run trains. But this has inspired me! Boxcab E50
boxcab....a 9' stretch of table, kitchen bench or workbench is just the ticket..... Only needs to be about a foot wide too to setup an inglenook and just watch your beloved loco do some switching. eck, my track isnt even attached to anything...its all just floating there, and the power is actually being supplied by to clamps holding the wires to the rails at one end...LMAO. Cant get more basic than that. Just watch out taht your track really IS flat, because I had 4 cars disappear off the end of the table at a great rate of knots after I uncoupled them on a seemingly flat surface....talk about gravity yards! Still, the excitement of running the trains more than made up for having to pick em up and glue em back together!
Off the table! There's a switching disaster! If it would happen to anyone, I'm the man. I have a nice piece of 2' wide, by 8' long, 1/2 inch plywood. Hmmmmm. Maybe some sketching tomorrow, and........ Boxcab E50
Yeah...Ran down to my magnetic uncoupler, un hooked em, game em a lil push and off they went clickety clack clickety clack, swoosh...thud... Thank god for carpet. Poor old box car that was first off got the brunt of it, the last guy was just dandy. BTW, you only need that much space for HO... 4' would do nicely for N scale. In 9' you've got a potential empire!
I'm glad to hear of the first run. I only have one P2K diesel (a Frisco E8A), but I can attest to its running abilities. How much space do you have for a layout? Sounds like a shelf-type layout may be in your future, and with the switchers you have, they would work really well.
I plan on building an Inglenook, initially, so that 9' x 1' is actually a bit long for my requirements. It should fit on an 8' x 1', but I expect to make it about 8'x3' and scenic it a bit. Thats also why I am running the P2K switchers, based upon recommendations fro the guys here on trainboard. The 'real' layout will be about 20' x 10' in N scale, with the inglenook laid along one wall above the big layout.... It will give me somewhere to run trains while I put together the empire, plus refresh my really rusty modelling skills scenicing it before I do the 'real stuff' in fiddly little N Scale I am actually pondering a double inglenook, which wont take up a lot more room with a single link between the 2. Will look just like a double main running into team tracks. With my Bachmann EZ Controller DCC system (hurry up and arrive!) I may even get to see 2 people inglenooking at the same time in 8' x 3'
