Your idea of painting Bachmann 70-tonners got me pretty interested, and I checked my file of magazine articles. There have been major articles on the M&ET, one in MR and two in RMC, all covering the 70-tonner era. What they say about the use of the locos is that the line runs three shifts daily, two jobs per shift. Each job normally used two or three 70-tonners in MU, exactly how many depending on the work each job had. One job switched the industries, and one job handled the runs to the SP/UP or ATSF interchanges. When the locos were MUed, they always ran with cabs at the ends of the consists for grade crossing visibility. It seems to me that for the locos you now have, you're in good shape to have two locos on one job and three on the other. Photos indicate the M&ET is very similar to the LAJ in scenery and industries.
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@jwb, thank you. That is the information I was looking for (found it on both forums).
I did find one photo with one engine pulling two cars. It has a text that one engine only is a great exception. Most photos and videos on PayPal show at least two often more engines pulling a train. I noticed, as you posted, that they are running with the cab ahead. Visibility vs. safety, an interesting decision.
My 5 engines are not sufficient to staff my four track staging yard. I did therefor order 5 engines from Trainworld and asked for urgent shipping to get them here before we go to Egypt for vacation. The decals have been ordered too but I asked them to delay shipping until end of September. With then 10 engines I will pick the best running and make the others dummy units.
But all that will happen in October when I am back to work for another six month turn ......
ps. I did Mu 2 and 3 engines with motor. The noise of 2 or even 3 drives is outstanding  hock:
Reinhard
There's still a 70-tonner running within driving distance of me, on the Santa Maria Valley. I'm going to try to get up there, now that you've inspired me. By the way, are you going to use the Santa Maria Valley lettering on all those Micro Scale sets? Maybe we could work out some sort of trade! Hmm -Ventura County's on there too. Could use a factory painted red one for that. Hmm.
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Something niggling away at the back of my mind says that Josh Mader (Trucklover) is/was a MET fan
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jwb Wrote:There's still a 70-tonner running within driving distance of me, on the Santa Maria Valley. I'm going to try to get up there, now that you've inspired me. By the way, are you going to use the Santa Maria Valley lettering on all those Micro Scale sets? Maybe we could work out some sort of trade! Hmm -Ventura County's on there too. Could use a factory painted red one for that. Hmm.
I have 5 sets in my hand with the SMVRR and Ventura County parts unused. It is no problem to put them in an envelope and send them back to the US. Just drop me an email with your postal address and they will be on the way before we go on vacation.
![[Image: file-8.jpg?t=1346433094]](http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149/faraway52/Misc-1/file-8.jpg?t=1346433094)
Reinhard
PM sent, thanks very much!
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A more prototypical consist.
I have a sixth engine with an unusable drive and unpainted shell due to no more decals. I made the drive a dummy and put the shell #5 (the worst of the drives 1 - 5) on top. After mating with #4 we get a niche consist with only one drive creating noise.
![[Image: file-4.jpg?t=1346439272]](http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149/faraway52/FL2012/file-4.jpg?t=1346439272)
Reinhard
Reinhard, your projects often seem to hit a chord with something that was in the back of my mind. I remembered I had a project that I'd done some basic weathering for, but hadn't reassembled. I haven't gotten much else done today, but I did finally finish this!
Modesto is best known as the home of Gallo wine, and this type of car, along with similar BNSF cars, carries a lot of wine back east.
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jwb Wrote:...Modesto is best known as the home of Gallo wine, and this type of car, along with similar BNSF cars, carries a lot of wine back east. A nice car. They own an amazing number of boxcars.
I looked several times with Google at the Beard industrial area and did wonder about the huge amount of brown boxcars parked all over the area. Do they have rolling wine cellars?
Is that just a snapshot photo without any relevance oder do they have all time so much more boxcars parked close to the industry than I did see in any other industry park in the LA area?
Reinhard
My guess offhand is that they keep enough empties on hand to make sure there's a good supply. Checking around on the web, I've seen that it's not just Gallo that ships outbound loads, but other food and canned goods suppliers. As a result, you're going to see a lot of insulated and plug-door cars, at least on outbound loads, but you're also going to see lumber coming inbound for the transload.
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The noisy rattle can be reduces somewhat by lowering the resonance frequency of the shell.
That is easy done if you glue the weight with double side sticky tape under the hood and a rectangle of plumb under the cab roof. A little bit more weight is always welcome.
Reinhard
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Reinhard,
Very nice work! Are those the original 70 tonners with the dual power trucks, or the newer one with the mid-mounted motor, universals and gear towers? I found the original ones quite noisy, but by replacing the crude decoder in the newer ones, they run fairly quietly... until the axle shafts split like the old Proto 2000 ones did. :o
So the ones you have coming from Trainworld may be the newer, quieter drives.
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They are the new ones with the middle motor. I never owned one of the old 70 (or 44) tons Bachmann switcher. They must have been pure horror to the ears.
To my ears is an Atlas GP38 drive silent, an Athern Sw1500 drive ok, an Athern CF7 drive to noisy and the little 70 ton are not within my scale of noise acceptable in a living room (until I painted five of them and felt in love  )
Reinhard
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The M & E ran these little GE's in pairs running nose to nose so that they always had a good view of the road ahead.At one point in their history they owned every surviving 70 tonner still in rolling condition.
I have thought for a long time that a pair of these in the M & E colours but lettered for my GVR would really look cool. :mrgreen:
Johnathan (Catt) Edwards
"The Ol Furrball"
"I'm old school,I still believe in respect"
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Catt Wrote:At one point in their history they owned every surviving 70 tonner still in rolling condition.
Not sure where you got that factoid, but I'm pretty sure it's spurious.
Here are two right off the bat that are have been in more-or-less continuous service and haven't been in the M&E roster.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/OSR/babcock.htm">http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/OSR/babcock.htm</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopicture.aspx?id=144077">http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopi ... ?id=144077</a><!-- m -->
Interestingly, the M&E 70 tonner fleet may live on in Saskatchewan. 7 of the locos were purchased by MGLX (601- 605, 607 and 608). Scroll about halfway down this page for the details and #601 being loaded on a flatbed.
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