A little more progress, a little more trains...

Slow and steady beats frantic, especially in terms of progress, and FOR SURE beats NONE! Yeah, more time working on things would be nice, but life goes on and too often we do what we need to, not what we WANT to. But it does make the enjoyment all the more enjoyable...

First off: maintenance. There were a few places that things didn't always work out the way nature, or mechanical engineering, dictated. One of those was the turnout into the passenger station: a few of the bigger locomotives liked to choose that spot to go to ground. Not good at all. So a bit of track repair was in order. I managed to discover that one of the rails was slightly out of gauge, pushing the whole thing narrow, so I applied soldering iron, file, and cutting wheel as needed to space it out properly. As long as you don't try to fly through (and I tried) everyone is happy. Normal running speeds are no problem.

Next, tidying up the feeder wires. Since I only have one track running through there is little point worrying about panels, right? Besides, it takes time away from running trains. SO I did drill a few holes through the yard boxes, and fed the feeder wire through them. I also secured the terminal blocks to wood, though the screws I used were just a bit too big, so they need to be re-done next time. Or the time after that...

I've managed to to glue down all the cork for the passenger platforms and coach yards, but didn't get much more track laid.

Lastly; the reason we do all of this:



The locomotive is "lettered" for my mythical shortline, the IPT (Inland Port & Terminal Railwy, or "The Terminal"). I've always liked the Alco C-420, and this one, number 405, moves an odd combination of freight cars through the passenger station area. After suffering through years of "Mehano" junkers, the Atlas incarnation is SO sweet. Just too bad it doesn't pull better, but I got a jar of green stuff for THAT problem!



This time 405 gets a little help from a friend, a Life Like GP38-2, thouh the train is a bit longer from the inclusion of a bunch of box cars. Mostly CNW now, though a few other names appear as well. Thanks for the caboose Bob!



I prefer the "older" railroad-owned passenger cars, but have a good selection of Amtrak in N-Scale from over the years. You have to admit Kato seems to know how to do it best, mixing quality and reasonable selection of models. Here we have six Material Handling Cars, and thirteen Superliners (in two schemes), pulled by three EMD F40PHs.



This time it's same train, different locomotives, with GE P42s doing the honors. I remember thinking when the E and F units started to disappear from Amtrak that I'd never learn to like F40PHs, but they are a bit less alien than these brutes, though the GE units do have a sleek line to them. Points for style? I'm not voting on this one...

Needs better lighting, but it's happening...

High angle shot of the official "first run" on lofty ambitions; 4 Atlas GP7s, forty MDC/Roundhouse/Athearn 57' mechanical refrigerated cars, and one bay window caboose (compliments of Bob). Need to sort out the power issue (you can hear the locomotives 'kick in' past the camera) and invest in some better lighting. It looks good enough to work on, but very dark in the video:



A low angle shot of a later pass of the same train:



And just because I had to; ninety-three Micro-Train box cars, behind four Atlas GP7s, on the same section:



I'll see if I can do something about the light, and update these videos soon...