Hi, another stupid question from me! It is crazy how very simple things from the past can quickly become big mysteries when you never witnessed them.

My question is about cattle pens operation. I've often remarked that cattle pens in small towns are often located directly on passing track that otherwise are used for scheduled trains to meet. That means it is unlikely a stock car was spot on these tracks for days. Given cattle had to be moved swiftly before losing too much fat and that mandatory rest stop existed, I'm a little bit at loss figuring out how operations went in such small places. I've found information about large stock yards but almost nothing about the smallish ones. Doctorwayne had a few of these small cattle pens on his layout, most of them on the main line.

How railroads di operate such stock pens (generally small ones, not the large stock yards)? Would the cattle be loaded only when the freight train stopped in town?

Matt

I bought two Bachmann Spectrum 8-40CW at an affordable price some years ago just have "something" big on my small switching layout two or three times a year for 5 minutes. That worked quite fine. Bachmann constructed a drive that negotiates everything kids would do on the carpet. That includes my sharp curves and the nasty transitions on the hatches of my layout.

I got the idea to use a Loksound 4 sound decoder and a Lokpilot DCC decoder. They are a simple plug into the PCB (8 pin decoder socket). Both are in my cabinet and not used for any other models (remember the ESU humming sound at low speed I can not stand). Big surprise, the ESU Loksound and Lokpilot and the Spectrum motors felt in love immediately. The humming is extreme low. That motivated me to add ditch lights too (you did not expect anything else, do you ;-) ).

It is time to solve the duplicate road numbers and add some weathering. The old ladies deserve it :-)

Hi,

I'm actually looking for a good plastic Heavy Mikado (N-2) or Heavy Pacific (K-5) for an Erie kitbashing project. BLI steamers reequipped with better decoders seem to be a decent option. However, I've read more than my share of people sending them back for repair. Since it is for a small project involving switching and based on Dayton Branch in Ohio (yes, Erie did use Pacific to handle local freight in the late 40s and early 50s), smooth running and crawling is an uttermost criterion for me. What are you experience with these locomotives? It seems the difference between Paragon 2 and Paragon 3 is mainly the decoder, which I don't care for this project.

Another related question, anybody has an idea which model could be a could starting point for a K-4 (Pacific). An Erie photo report from Erie Magazine show the local freight was pulled by a K-4 back then. Though I know K-4 were downgraded to freight service, I wasn't able confirm if it happened with the last K-5 that survived until 1953-1954.

BTW, any good Erie steam locomotive book recommendation?

Matt

Hi,

I'm actually trying to read a set of Erie Railroad Track Program Charts made in the 50s. Basically, it tells everything about the type of rail, ballast, bridge, culvert, signal, grade crossing, etc.

However, I'm having a hard time trying to decipher an abbreviation which isn't covered in the accompanying legend.



The abbreviation is: Sig. T. H.

Sig. is probably about signal, but T.H.? Tool House? Makes no sense because in the extract here you can see they identified the tool house and the depot clearly. Also, I know it's not a tower because it would have be clearly identified as such.

So I hope so gents here with better knowledge of railroad lingo can help with this one.

Best regards,

Matt

Don't worry. The patient with ditch light fever and sound disease feels quite well. It the bank account that suffers.....

All Scale Rails

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The Atlas HO 8-40B is equipped with a small PCB preventing a 1:1 swap with a Tsunami 2 PnP decoder. The front weight can be cut easily and the Tsunami 2 fits with double sided sticky tape and Kapton tape pretty well. The sugar cube fits in the designated speaker position and front ditch lights need just one hole per light. A quick and dirty / easy conversion. It looks awful but it works perfect.

The model is a CR engine with patches for CSX 5961. It will be in revenue service soon!



ps. Yes, the Tsunami 2 replaced an ESU Loksound. There is another 8-40B awaiting that very same procedure.

I am in the process of picking out some motive-power for my modern-era proto-freelance railroad and could use some input. It's a short-line railroad covering about 40 miles, serving a quarry in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, an industrial bakery, a couple of breweries, and a smattering of other local industries. I've done some googling, and have come up with what I think is a pretty decent motive power roster, but I'd like some input to see what you guys think.

So, to handle the quarry and bakery traffic (both are up the mountain on the same stretch of track), I'm looking at an SD9 as an "It's old, but it still works" type of power or an SD35. The rock trains are heavy and the quarry is up a mountain, so a piece of heavy duty power to handle heavy trains up and down a mountain seems to make sense.

To handle the mixed train for the local industries and transload tracks, I am looking at an SW1500. It would also handle the yard switching duties.

To handle the beer trains, two of them, I am looking at either one or two GP30s or GP10s.

The part of the layout I am going to be doing first has 18-20" radius turns, which shouldn't be an issue since the SD9 or SD35 wouldn't be running in there anyways except for possibly slow speed.

Does anyone have any input or other ideas? DOes this seem normal or typical? Would appreciate thoughts.