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Rusty Traque posted:
breezinup posted:

That Blue Goose was certainly a curiousity. The MTH Blue Goose cars are make-believe, of course. In real life, the Blue Goose pulled dark green Santa Fe heavyweights.

The Goose was assigned to secondary trains, so whatever cars were in the mix:

Rusty

When nearly new, it was assigned to the 1938 lightweight Chief.*  However, records indicate that the assignment did not last long  The 3460 Class 4-6-4's were too useful to keep one engine assigned to a particular train, and the 3460 was then put back into the pool on the Eastern Lines.  So, actually, both Breezinup and Rusty are correct.

The one and only time I ever saw this engine (1949), it was running very fast on the eastward Grand Canyon, the penultimate secondary train of Santa Fe, far from its usual home.

*The Chief was steam powered until the end of World War II, and then regularly had 4-unit passenger FT's until the F3's arrived at the end of 1946.

Number 90 posted:

Rob, I like your Rear-End-Only Company work equipment in the train.

Thank you Tom.

I always thought the MTH tank car looked great in photos, but after I bought one I discovered it is hideously oversized.  I sold it and replaced it with a properly sized RailKing model.  The baggage car is one I painted and lettered.  The boxcar is one of the more fascinating plastic models PRB ever made...painted for M-O-W with the old paint scheme ghosting through.ATSF_MoW_boxATSF_MoW3

A block of outfit cars always jazzes up a good freight train. 

I can remember walking a freight train about to leave east out of our Oklahoma City yard, and there was an old coach-turned-outfit car in the wheel report.  I walked around it two or three times before I found the brake wheel inside the vestibule.

Kids, huh?

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COCONUTS posted:

Here’s a fun old time Santa Fe video that will put a smile on your face:

Payday 

Nice layout to the OP👍

https://youtu.be/RO4xn-NJjmU

Our checks would come in to the yard office on afternoon train 537 (from Springfield ,MO) along with all the other company mail.  And they would arrive one day before actual payday.  The 4pm and midnight yard crews would needle the clerks and agents on duty to give them their checks a few hours early so they would not have to come back to the yard office the next morning. (which makes sense, but rules are rules).  The friendly battles and warped lines of reasoning were highly entertaining.

That story has little to do with the video, but my mind wandered back.

Rob Leese posted:

Headed to Slaton...

Got a kick out of this. Spent some time in Lubbock (in the Air Force) many (many) moons ago, so I know Slaton. Not exactly a tourist destination, to say the least, and I'm glad I'm not headed there. Santa Fe country, though. I'm sure No. 90 (Tom) knows where Slaton is on the map, too! 

breezinup posted:
Rob Leese posted:

Headed to Slaton...

 

I'm sure No. 90 (Tom) knows where Slaton is on the map, too! 

Yes he does, not only on the map, but he knows his way around the town, too.  He went to Sweetwater as Assistant Superintendent in 1993, and, when that position was eliminated, he chose to stay in Sweetwater as Road Foreman of Engines, rather than go to North Dakota as Superintendent of Operations.  Slaton was thus part of his territory from 1993 until 2007.   He has gone to Sunday mass at St. Joseph's, attended employee funerals at First Baptist, eaten pastries from Slaton Bakery and enjoyed smoked sausage and brisket from Klemke's, as well as Mexican food from Irene's, bought a new Suburban from the Chevrolet house, and watched the ancient -- I mean, ancient -- cable-hung traffic signal struggle to change aspects.  And it really was the traffic signal downtown, now replaced by 4-way stop signs.

For a guy who lived a hundred miles from there, he left a lot of footprints in Slaton. 

But, back to Rob's video . . .

The 800-Class Alco RSD15's were gone almost 20 years before Tom ever set foot in Slaton, so Rob's realistic Slaton Division train was 1959 or '60, probably ignoring speed restrictions on its rear-end outfit cars, making a run for the Slaton yard heading-in switch to get clear of the main track before Number 76 was due.  Harry Briscoe, the Trainmaster, was probably upstairs in the depot, making a visit to the Dispatching Office to be sure the passenger train was on time and staying that way, and he didn't care about the outfit car speed restrictions at that moment, either.

Last edited by Number 90

Here's a classic from about 1948.  Not much run time.  Very little brush dust.  Probably a second run - after Lionel ran out of nickel plated rear steps.  The pilot shields are nickel plated though.  Probably never serviced.  All the wiring appears to be where the assemblers put it.  Even has the strip of tape to keep the front motor brush tubes from shorting on the relay bracket screws.DSC04002DSC04003DSC04004DSC04005DSC04006

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