Freelance 2013-2 (MAW)

[Painkiller]

Speaking of bricks I remember seeing an article on MR where someone did in very much different way and with very realistic results. He shot a photo of a brick wall and scaled the bricks in to scale and printed on a decal and placed on the structure. The results you have looks good.

[lajry]

Reinhard
Is that the "F" on the side sill at end of long hood vs cab end?

[doctorwayne]

Looks like it to me, and the bell is on that end, too....just like this one, although the "F" is mostly hidden by the handrail:




Wayne

[faraway]

Reinhard
Is that the "F" on the side sill at end of long hood vs cab end?

Andy, yes, the NS GP38-2 (ex SOU) are running long hood forward. I read an article that the stand in the cab, located on the right side if long hood is forward, is designed for use in both directions.
You will find a lot of photos running short hood in front.

[lajry]

Reinhard
Knew the N&W & SOU ran their locos long hood forward to give the crews better protection. And it's carried over to NS these days. Guess w/ all the locos they've picked up thru mergers w/ cab forward only controls, it doesn't really matter anymore which directions the controls are setup. Ditto w/ all the run thru trains these days.

[faraway]

The very front building at the right side of the road


is replaced by this two buildings. They fit better into the overall style of the town.

[Brakie]

Reinhard
Knew the N&W & SOU ran their locos long hood forward to give the crews better protection. And it's carried over to NS these days. Guess w/ all the locos they've picked up thru mergers w/ cab forward only controls, it doesn't really matter anymore which directions the controls are setup. Ditto w/ all the run thru trains these days.

Andy,Both the Southern and N&W ran their engines in either direction..Photos will show just as many running short hood forward as there is running long hood forward.

I think we been hoodwink into thinking both railroads ran long hood forward.

The more I studied the Southern and N&W the more I found it didn't matter to either road which way the engine was pointed.

[lajry]

Larry
Back in the begining of diesels for N&W and SOU always ran long hood forward. But probably in last 20 years or so they stopped because it cost too much time & money to do it. Were you around them 30-50 years ago?

[FCIN]

I was certainly around the Southern 30-50 years ago (gee whiz!) and all the GP's and SD's were set up to run long hood forward. Of course you would often see them operated short hood forward. But I'd say 9 out of 10 trains I saw with GP's/SD's on them would be operating long hood forward.

The Southern's SD-45's were equipped with dual control stands so the engineer would always be on the right side regardless of how the engine was pointed, but other models simply had conventional control stands. Later models they purchased, such as the GP-50's had what were called bi-directional control stands which were simply positioned so that the engineer sat with his back to the window and looked in the direction he was running.

Even the high hood and later low short hood GE's were set up long hood forward. They did begin purchasing power from both GE and EMD that had low short hoods, but those were still set up with the long hood as front, and it was a cost saving measure as the manufacturers charged more for the high short hoods. This seems to have carried over to the early NS day's too. If you've seen some of the older NS TV commercials, you'll notice that they often featured GE's running long hood forward (what an ugly sight!).

Back in the day, the crew would climb on the power and run the train regardless of which way the power was pointed. These days, your typical NS crew will refuse to operate any of the GE's or EMD's long hood forward on through freights and I don't know how many times I've seen them run a set of engines out of the Danville yard to the wye at SJ Tower to turn them.

[faraway]

Worked on the two new buildings over the weekend. I found the vertical brown paper very typical in the windows of temporary not operational shops.
The buildings are like all the others not glued in place but can be easy put on the worktable for further details. Very convenient for my back!


One building got a fettled side wall. Looks as boring as the prototype

[Painkiller]

Looking good! I think the taller building adds a little more vertical deep to the scene and having two structures makes the area less isolated! love the progress you do!

[faraway]

I have a question about possible engines to be used on my layout.

There are four Athearn SOO bandit MP15AC on my roster. WSOR got a nice batch of those bandits and patched them for a while until they got the red WSOR scheme. That triggers two questions

1. Did SOO use it's former MILW bandits MP15AC to run locals in an area similar to mine (I know it is not Ohio)?
2. Runs WSOR locals with MP15AC in an area like my small town in Wisconsin?

Remarks:
1. I am under the impression SOO used the MP15AC mainly in urban areas (e.g. Chicago) and in larger yards only.
2. I can not find enough photo of WSOR locals with MP15AC only to proof they have been (as bandits) and are still (in WSOR red scheme) used to run locals.
3. I am thinking to use the nice models either as is (SOO) or put a simple patch on the patch and use them as WSOR "IF" SOO or WSOR used them to run locals in rural areas like on my layout.

Thanks for your help.

[wsor4490uk]

Good morning faraway,

I believe the MP15ac units were purchased by the WSOR for yard work and light branch line trains, but as the traffic has grown over the years, now they are just mainly as extra horsepower.

There is a nice photo shoot of WSOR's Plymouth turn heading north near Fredonia WI. with 1502 to be seen at http://www.mikeyuhas.org/albums/wsor/20092094.php taken in 2009.

here are a few photos of my two WSOR units, which by the way , are up for sale if any one is interested.

   

   

   

   

[lajry]

Chris
Is that "rust bucket" an old SW1500?

[wsor4490uk]

Chris
Is that "rust bucket" an old SW1500?

Nope it's one of the WSOR's MP15a's