The other day my dad made reservations for our family to participate the Run-a-Locomotive program at the Western Pacific Railroad museum (http://www.wplives.org/ral.html)

The engine he reserved is Western Pacific 608, an NW-2 Switcher engine. The same kind of engine that I have on my layout

The reservation are for tomorrow(May 14th) and I can't wait!

I will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Omigosh!!!! Have a GREAT time!!!!!! I'd want to run the F7. Take lots of pictures!!!!
Ralph

That's going to be great!

That is great Justin. I want to fly a Herc, as long as it doesn't leave the ground. :mrgreen:
Charlie

That is fantastic! I got to run a Grand Trunk GP 9 in a yard when I was younger. Great memories. Make sure you get lots of pictures and post some for us!
Chuck

Congrats Very cool, have fun with it.

Just remember one thing....don't ever tell anyone it is easy to run a locomotive. We try to keep that a secret.
Charlie

Congrats Justin!! Have fun.

That is AWESOME!!! I can not wait to see the pics.

Matt

I just got back from the railroad museum, and I gotta say, Charlie was right, driving a locomotive is hard work

Only one photo for now, and sorry about the bad quality, I took this one with my phone.

cool, can't wait for more...

Me driving the NW-2:

I know you enjoyed that Justin. First time I ever got to operate a locomotive was when I was 10 or 11 years old. A hostler at the Southern RY yard in Danville, KY, invited me up into the cab of an F7 A-B-B-B-A set and let me move them around in the shop area.

Later, as a teen, I was frequently invited in to the cab of GE 70 tonners, NW-2's, SW-1200's, GP-7/9's, ALCo RS-3's here in town and the engineer or shop personnel would often let me run them. Those experiences really cinched it with me that I wanted to work for the railroad when I grew up!

Did you happen to notice the differences in the engine rev sounds on the prototype NW-2 and the BLI model? The BLI model has the correct engine sound, but I think the engine rev's don't match up with what is happening very well. Still, it's the best running of all my DCC/Sound locomotives and adding some acceleration delay helped a lot with the sound. Not to mention having to reduce the overall sound output. Way too loud out of the box. When the wife and the dog upstairs can hear it running, I know it's too loud!

FCIN Wrote:Did you happen to notice the differences in the engine rev sounds on the prototype NW-2 and the BLI model? The BLI model has the correct engine sound, but I think the engine rev's don't match up with what is happening very well. Still, it's the best running of all my DCC/Sound locomotives and adding some acceleration delay helped a lot with the sound. Not to mention having to reduce the overall sound output. Way too loud out of the box. When the wife and the dog upstairs can hear it running, I know it's too loud!

I know what you mean, the first thing I did when I got home was start up my BLI model and I quickly realised that the engine revs were completely wrong, For example it revs up when the engine is slowing down . I think there may be a CV that you can change that alters when the engine revs.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:I know what you mean, the first thing I did when I got home was start up my BLI model and I quickly realised that the engine revs were completely wrong, For example it revs up when the engine is slowing down . I think there may be a CV that you can change that alters when the engine revs.

I've looked at the CV settings that came with the BLI model and on their web site and can't find anything that will stop it from sounding like it's revving up when it's slowing down at times. Sounds like it has dynamic brakes, but there is no D/B setting that I've found that you could turn off. You can adjust the times on when the engine revs up based on the throttle setting, but haven't had much luck with that either. Always end up with it revving up too much too soon or something.

One other thing that annoys me, is the engine start sequence. You hear the engineer knock off the hand brake before he starts the engine and it builds up the air! I can just see the engineer standing there with a silly look on his face as the engine rolls out of the shop track! Should be engine start sounds then release hand brake. But over all, it's a great running model. Never stalls, operates nice and slow - I think its scale top speed is about 30mph. Slower than what the prototype could achieve, but perfect for switching.

Each sound equipped model has its own quirks. My MP-15 sounds and operates just like the prototype, but the darn horn doesn't work like it does on the BLI model. You press the horn button for a second, then release it before the horn sounds. Often the horn sound seems to get stuck too! Now and then, I'll mute the sound on my engines and just run them like the couple of non-sound DCC loco's that I have. The sound is fun and adds an interesting dimension to things, but sometimes it gets on my nerves.