Weekend at the Movies 6/27/2014

Running with a warbonnet.  Santa Fe C44-9W no. 695 is in great condition!  Some of these locomotives are worthy of preservation.

 

Here is a short video I made earlier this week featuring a freight train being pulled by a Lionel NYC Mohawk and a passenger train being pulled by Sunset 3rd Rail's new B&O P-7e Pacific.  Hope you enjoy the video.  Bo

 

 

There have been some massive train derailments on Union Pacific's Salina Subdivision just east of Topeka. http://www2.ljworld.com/photos...ent-near-grantville/ 

In the article, a piece of rail went flying through a house and landed on a bunk bed where a child was sleeping During a coal train derailment.  Two major Union Pacific arteries converge into the (Kansas City-Denver) Salina Subdivision at Topeka to funnel traffic to Kansas City, the nation's third largest rail center after Chicago and St. Louis.  The Marysville Subdivision, where my father began his railroad career as a signalman, drops down southeast from the Nebraska mainline and joins the Salina Subdivision just west of Topeka funneling eastbound traffic toward Kansas City.  The old Rock Island mainline comes up northeast and joins the Salina Subdivision just west of the former Union Pacific station in downtown Topeka.

The Topeka station was heavily damaged by fire during a period of abandonment but was nicely restored with private donations and federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA, 1991) funding and is now a railroad history museum and visitor center renamed into the Great Overland Station.  Due to the joining of these lines, the station is a great place to watch trains which can number 100 per day.  Union Pacific recovers quickly from the derailments and resumes high speed freight operations through Grantville.

 

 

The Great Overland Station at Topeka

Bo, your personal record is awarded ten merits for running a good-looking B&O passenger train which does not have an observation car, and for running at realistic speed.

The Great Overland Station has survived its share of difficulties.  The "palace on the prairie" sits just north of the Kansas River and in 1951 flood waters rose to a height of 8 feet in the main concourse. Then there was the fire that heavily damaged the building and that was, perhaps, the single most motivating force for preservation and restoration.  The fire burned the roof off the baggage room at the far (west) end of the photo.  The near (east) end was the dining room.

Both Union Pacific and BNSF contributed toward restoration though the station was built by Union Pacific and served UP and Rock Island trains.  Rock Island built a massive bridge across the Kansas River where its trains could reach the Union Pacific line on the north side of the River.  Santa Fe operated on the south side of the Kansas River and had its own Topeka station.  Prior to restoration, a large "Union Pacific" sign (running lengthwise) dominated the front (south) side of the concourse roof with the Union Pacific shield in between the words "Union" and "Pacific".  Maybe Miller Engineering can replicate that sign for model railroaders.

Bo:

 

Your B&O P 7-E is just beautiful. Thanks for posting the video.

With no operations for over two weeks, I was eager to see how things ran. I just did some basic operations this afternoon, to be sure all were still running OK. They were.

Since the 4th of July is nearing, I thought I would share a video of my Army supply train.  Since this video was taken, I added 4 baby Madison troop cars and 7 more Army flat cars with various loads.  I will post an update of my Army train when I get my layout modifications completed.  I hope you enjoy.



Steve, Lady and Tex

Here is a short video I took of the 1225 entering the turntable during Trainexpo 2014. 

 

Anyone recognize that whistle?  I can't wait to hear it attached to the locomotive it belongs too!

 

Long time fan of this thread, first time poster. The unique consist in this video was prepared by the four year old in our house. Enjoy!

Great post, bigtruckpete! I really like the consist, being a fan of UP doublestacks and having a 4-year old set consists on my layout as well.