Weekend Photo Fun 7/29/16 HONGZ

Continuing the CSX theme, how about a pair of N scale SD70Ms from Athearn:

Bob

My newest N scale Atlas engine arrived earlier this week and I love it. Now I don't have only Virginian Train Masters.  I have also ordered a couple of freight cars to go with this engine. 

Bob- That top CSX engine you have looks identical to the model K-line came out with in 2005 through their collectors club just when they went out of business. I was lucky to get mine after some time passed and that engine was actually shipped by Lionel when they took over K-line. I did not realize that Athern made those in N scale.

My friend Tom was over last night helping me get for my proto-op session tomorrow night.  He brought over his Athearn Genesis FP7 / F7B and some passenger coaches, and we ran it around the whole railroad to make sure everything ran fine.  It did. 

Regards,

Jerry

Received a call from a fellow realtor who asked if I was interested in some trains that a client of his was wanting to move as her husband had passed. I went over and sure enough, it was HO.

I have a small collection of HO that I've added to over the years but am not really familiar with the operation of DCC and the like or how to tell IF the engines have DCC.

Plan to sell  most of it on the auction site but will keep a few of these. There are 28 locomotives plus a lot of freight cars, mechanical accessories like Tortoise switch machines, an older MRC 'Sound & Power' 52VA pack and tools, paints, and parts.

Hey Chessie 1971 - there are 7 or 8 Chessie engines here if you'd be interested in any of them let me know.

Will hang onto these locomotives below - the B&O F units are Bachmann as is the handsome C&O 4-8-2 with the oil tender. No markings on the B&O steamer however. Quite a few of the diesels (in the rear of the photo) are Atlas and appear to be in excellent condition.

This little Geep struck me as very attractive and we've not had any L&N equipment before. I'm saving it and the Atlas U boat too!

I had one of these MRC 'Sound & Power' units back in the 1990s at our Hobby Shop. It was a workhorse and will operate G gauge as well.

Had my first TT&TO operating session on the Spokane Southern in EIGHT YEARS on Friday evening. 

The first photo shows the west end staging of the railroad at Spokane WA / Cle Elum WA.  All trains that will run during the session are staged, car cards for the trains are in the car card boxes.  BTW, if any of you are considering operating, Micro Marts car card boxes, and car card kit are excellent values for the money.  I will never waste my time building car card boxes on my own, these things are cheap and well built.  I saved an immense amount of time buying and installing these.  The train register for this location is hanging on the clip board. 

Staging for the east end of the railroad sits underneath Worley yard, which represent Craig CO and Boseman MT.    There are four tracks, and the back three have trains staged on them.  The fourth track is left open for trains that will terminate here before any of the staged trains leave. 

All the motive power needed by the jobs originating at Worley are on the ready tracks, Car Card packets for the Craig / Boseman trains are in the card holder above the control panel.  

Worley yard at the start of the session. 

It was about 3:30 PM on Friday when I shot these photos.  I was pretty anxious at this point for the session to start, and hungry.  A bowl of goulash soup and a nice stiff rum and coke solved both issues. 

Regards,

Jerry

The op session started at 8:00PM last night.  It was 6:00 AM on August 23, 1952. 

The poor photo below pretty well captures the essence of the session.   Bessemer was pretty busy at this point.  Two trains met on the main line, and the passing track., GN X4001 West takes the siding, while GN X263B East sits on the main line and waits.   A third train sitting in Bessemer waiting for the main line action to pass, and waiting for his paperwork to authorize him to leave Bessemer.  The model railroad at this point mimics the real thing.  Trains do a LOT of sitting and waiting for meets, and clearances.  The three guys participating in this activity were all having a ball.  The guy shooting the photo felt like a proud papa. 

Don is the hogger on GN X307-A on its way for a meet with NP X6017-D in Bessemer.  He is crossing the COD viaduct, observing the 20 MPH speed restriction. 

The person sitting is Scott, and he is the dispatcher, located in Spokane, WA.  He is dictating a train order to the operator, Allen, who is physically about 30 feet away in the other room of the layout.  Allen will then create the clearance that authorizes the train to leave, and he will communicate that back to the dispatcher.  Yes, there are people that actually DO like doing this paperwork, and performing the jobs of dispatcher and operator. 

At the end of the session, which was at 11:00 PM last night, we only had one train that had not completed his job, as the GN X307-A East terminated at Bessemer.  Next session will have him switch Bessemer, and take the empty ore cars back to Spokane.  Of course, he will need a train order dictating the movement, and a clearance to go back out on the main line.    The paperwork that was generated for this train movement is shown in the two photos below, the train order (green), and the clearance (white).  The car cards for the consist are inthe lower right of the first photo.  

The two photos below are the train sheet showing the train movements for the session, and the Dispatcher's Log, which records all train orders that the Dispatcher dictated to the operator. 

11 people played for three actual hours, and then had pie, coffee, cheeze and crackers, after the session before we all turned into pumpkins at 12:00 AM. 

Regards,

Jerry

Wow Jerry!

How cool is that!

chessie1971 posted:

Here updated picture's of my Athearn N Scale CSX Hopper.Post away guys and gals and hope everybody has a safe weekend. 

Looks good Jeff, I have a few as well in G. 

Thanks Nick! Great photo's everyone!!!! 

Here's another train headed by CSX engines.

Very Nice Joe!