NS Action in New OrleansSort of keeping in line with my "Random Roll" scanning concept, I am currently methodically scanning images in sequential order from a large photo album of images taken by me in 1996. I was pleasantly surprised to find this group of images taken on February 22, 1996 of Norfolk Southern Yard Job AN-03 using GP38-2 5126 to deliver a cut of cars to the New Orleans Public Belt (NOPB) in the French Quarter. Railroad activity between the south end of NS Oliver Yard and the NOPB along the river does not occur very frequently. Adding to this the less-than-safe nature of the neighborhood at the time meant the this was really a little photographed aspect of railroading in the Big Easy! The set begins with a few shots of the train leaving Oliver Yard at North Rampart Street. There is a large block of gondolas on the head end.
Most of the images were taken from the trackside dock of the Port of New Orleans Esplanade Avenue Wharf where the train can be seen nosing into the French Quarter before shoving the cars onto the NOPB interchange track. There is a great shot of the NS 5126 passing the Souther Railway Park sign on a classic light pole. This is where the NS could spot up to three business cars allowing guests excellent access to the French Quarter and the Louisiana Super Dome. Dan Akroyd's private car, GM&O 50, can also be seen in its French Quarter home. The last shot is of the NS 5126 crossing St. Claude Avenue by itself as it returns to NS Oliver Yard after having delivered the cars to the NOPB. Chris
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1975 and 1997 Resurface!I received a couple of e-mails this week with images from my past. The first was a picture sent to me by my father. The image shows my mother, while pregnant with me, taking a movie of the Southern Crescent complete with FIVE E8 locomotives! Is it any wonder that I would be destined to enjoy trains and make a career of railroading with prenatal experiences like this? I believe I was fluent in EMD 567B before I was born, let alone before I learned my first word (which I am sure was EMD)! The second e-mail came from Mike Walsdorf. He had scanned a slide he had taken on January 3rd, 1997 in New Orleans. This picture shows three people (Left to Right: Kurt Hampton, Steven Palmieri, and myself) at East City on the NS New Orleans Terminal mainline watching a westbound SP consist roll across town. This seems like such a LONG time ago! Thanks Dad and Mike for this random glipmse into my past!
Chris Display Case - Main Construction CompleteIt has been about three months since I started this project. Progress has been slow and steady. I also now own many more clamps than I had before this project began. Of course this is a good thing as a model railroader can never have too many clamps! I managed to squeeze in time to add one or two shelves a week once I figured out a process that worked for me. The image below shows the basic structure complete with some HO locomotives for size comparison. The next steps will be some sanding, filing, and filling. Then the whole thing will be painted white and mounted on a wall in the man cave. Finally comes track installation and then the model occupancy. I am very pleased with the shelf spacing and the overall dimensions of this display case. Each of the sixteen shelves will hold four or five locomotives. This allows for great flexibility when building locomotive consists to show off. This means that the distance between each 6" shelf is 5.5" with the distance between the very bottom two 6" shelves being 5.0". I made Poplar spacers in both 5.0" and 5.5" lengths using wood clamped together as a guide. The images above and below depict the measuring and cutting process for the 5'0" spacers. Next began the process of installing the shelves. The outer vertical 6" sides were placed first. The back of the display case was also warped with the center between the vertical side pieces bowing upward. I decided it would be best to then start from the very bottom and work upward with shelf installation. Using the spacers and lots of clamps, each shelf and the main structure were straightened out. Moving in this upward direction sort of mimicked the action of a zipper, straightening and closing the display case as progress was made. Each shelf was test fit and the outline traced on the back and side pieces. Then each shelf was removed and guide holes for screws were drilled out in outlined area. Finally a thick bead of Tightbond III wood glue was placed within the traced area. Again, using spacers and clamps, each shelf would be reinstalled and screwed into place. The slideshow below shows the progress of shelf installation from bottom to top. Once all of the shelves had been installed and set, I decided to take the display case off the saw horses and orient it vertically to see for the first time how the structure would appear on a wall. Of course I had to put a few locomotives on to get the full visual effect. The images in the slideshow below depict this temporary setup. I have to say I am pretty excited about the way it is turning out! Chris
New Tangent Cars and IC SD70 1032 Arrive TodayThe third Athearn Genesis Illinois Central SD70 joined the fleet today, 11-16-2016. IC 1032 came equipped with a Tsunami decoder and joins like equipped IC 1021 and IC 1025. I must say that the three locomotives together are quite impressive! Three Tangent Scale Models freight cars accompanied this locomotive to the Meridian Speedway stable with this order: General American 4180 Airslide Covered Hopper ATSF 310651 as well as PRR/PC Class G43 52' Steel Coil Gondolas CR 607078 and CR 607104. As with all of Tangent's offerings, these cars are most exquisite! Chris
Three New Tank CarsI had some business that took me to Dallas today so I made a side trip to Discount Model Trains in Addison. The inventory there seems to have declined over the last few years and there is often less and less new stuff to look at so my visits have become more infrequent. As expected, I noticed lots of sparsely populated shelves, though there is always something to buy. Three Athearn RTC 20K Acid Tank Cars from the latest release caught my attention. I think that tank cars are the largest deficit in my freight car fleet and I need to focus there. Especially since I will be modeling an area with traffic going to and coming from the chemical rich Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast regions! The three cars I picked up were RTMX 2027, UTLX 802654, and UTLX 802726. Each one represents a different paint scheme series. Though Athearn made three numbers in each release, Discount Model Trains only had multiple copies of the same number. I have noticed that they seem to order only one number per release. Regardless, these three cars are very nice models. The UTLX numbers represent a series of former RTMX cars in the Union Tank Car Company fleet. The RTMX 2027 is adorned with the distinctive Eaglebrook Corp logo. In 2004 Eaglebrook was purchased by Kemiron (Kemira) which produces coagulants for waste water treatment. While it is possible that I have photographed more cars wearing the Eaglebrook color scheme, the below image of UTLX 130207 which I took in Albuquuerque, NM on 1-9-2007 is the only one that came to mind. I think this car could be nicely represented on a Walthers 54' Funnel FLow model! Chris
Jacob and I make a "Guy's Trip" to KC!It has been a long time since I lived and worked in Kansas City (2002-2004). During this time I was fortunate enough to make many new friends and get some exposure to a few of the extraordinary model railroads there. With a little coaxing from Dan Munson, I decided to make a road trip with my son Jacob this past weekend to revisit some old relationships, do some photography, and operate on three railroads. For Jacob, this would be his first exposure to some of these things! Many thanks go to Dan Munson who coordinated the events, Joe and Tanya Brice who allowed us to stay at their awesome downtown loft, and Joe Kasper, Mark Steenwyk, and Eric Goodman who hosted operating sessions on their railroads. The view above is what we awoke to at the Brices' on Saturday Morning. We had left Fort Worth Friday afternoon after I got off work. The drive was eight hours...really not bad at all! Saturday, October 8, 2016Dan picked Jacob, Joe, and myself up at 0900 sharp and it was off to Starbucks for the obligatory morning caffeine injection before heading to Joe Kasper's house for an operating session on his N-scale Burlington Northern railroad. Most of the crew was already in Mr. Kasper's basement when we arrived. In addition to Joe Kasper and the four of us, the operators on-hand included Paul De Luca, Joel Priest, Steve Priest, Eric Goodman, Keith Robinson, Mike Ditmars, Jacob Ditmars, Greg Murray, and Larry Tiffany. Joe Kasper is very disciplined with his track geometry! This N-scale railroad operates smoother than many HO railroads. The theme of this railroad is the Burlington Northern--all routes into Kansas City. Represented are operations to Lincoln, Omaha, Brookfield, Springfield, and Tulsa. The centerpiece of the layout is Murray Yard with the complex Ustick interlocking at the south end. Even more impressive is the home-made CTC panels designed specifically to operate this railroad. Housed on three walls of the tiny dispatching office, the three CTC panels can keep two dispatchers very busy during an operating session! After the operating session at Joe Kasper's we got some lunch to go and ate next to the BNSF Emporia Sub main line in downtown Olathe (pronounced oh-lay-thə), KS. A unit sand train and a unit ethanol train passed in short order. We checked out the new LPK Logistics Park Kansas City intermodal facility and set up for this shot of westbound BNSF train Q-CHILAC6-08 at West 199th Street in Edgerton, KS: No more trains were approaching on the BNSF Transcon so we decided it would be best to run south to the BNSF Ft. Scott Subdivision where we expected to find a couple of loaded coal trains. This jaunt landed us south of Paola, KS where we found two coal loads in beautiful sunlight. Scherer, GA bound train C-NRMMHS1-43 was holding off the main road crossing at Henson, KS with BNSF and NS SD70ACes basking in beautiful sunlight. Big Brown, TX bound coal train C-CAMKBB0-25 was stopped several miles behind the Scherer train at the Hospital Road crossing. Below are some of the shots of these two trains: Though the light was excellent, an operating session on Mark Steenwyk's HO scale Milwaukee Road beer line was scheduled to begin at 1800. We had to make haste to his house after shooting the two coal trains! Mark's railroad takes up three rooms in his basement and is primarily a switching road with a number of "zones" of industries and yards along the route. There is one job that runs the length of the railroad, picking up and setting out cars along the way. All of the other jobs work in designated areas. All of the jobs call for two-man crews. Jacob and I would work together on the Gibson Yard switcher. We were given two switch lists. There was a lot of work to do! Several maps of the zones and track numbers assisted with the moves to be made. I think we only got through the first switch list. Dan Munson and Joe Brice worked the Beer Hauler. This was the only other job we interacted with during the session. They dropped cars off as they passed in both directions. A second trip was begun to pick up all of the outbound traffic we had accumulated during the shift! Rule G does not apply on this railroad! A great time was had by all. In addition to Jacob and myself, the list of operators included Dan Munson, Joe Brice, Bob Willer, Lou Steenwyk, Paul De Luca, Keith Robinson, Jeff Carlson, Greg Murray, and Mark Steenwyk. By the end of this operating session it had been a LONG day! As we neared Joe Brice's downtown loft apartment, someone in the vehicle mentioned that the searchlight signals at Grand Avenue were scheduled to be replaced on Tuesday. These signals are on the KCT at the east end of the Kansas City Union Station platform. The searchlight signals at Penn Avenue at the west end of Union Station are also set to be replaced, but at a later date. The new signals were in place next to the searchlight signals at both locations. Needless to say, instead of calling it a night, we spent several hours taking night photographs around KCUS. A slideshow of those images is below: Sunday, October 9, 2016Sunday, October 9, 2016 began with a walk to Kansas City Union Station for breakfast. Harvey's Restaurant is located in the grand waiting room of this amazing building! Not too long ago Union Station was in a state of disrepair with a questionable future. It was wonderful to see that this treasure has been recognized, restored, and turned into the focal point of downtown Kansas City. We managed to shoot a couple of trains from the bridge in splendid daylight. An eastbound BNSF stack train and a UP coal train made quick appearances. The sit-down breakfast did have Dan Munson suffering from GEVO withdrawal so we charted a course for the BNSF St Joseph Subdivision with the intent of intercepting train M-KCMKCK1-07 which had a pair of GP50's in charge. The I-435 bridge over the St. Joe Subdivision on the very western edge of Parkville, MO yielded a nice vantage point to photograph this train. BNSF 3160 was in the lead. This is one of five GP50's built with an experimental "extended cab" deigned to offer crews more room. This rare catch looked great in the morning light. Continuing on the St. Joe Sub we caught two BNSF coal trains meeting at Waldron, MO and then found train H-SIOKCK1-08 rolling through the former double-track bridge at Platte City. CSX ES44AC-H 3180 was in the lead...GEVO withdrawal cured! Next it was off to Steve Priest's house where we got to take a look and some of the top-secret projects he is working on. Among other things in his basement is his latest HO scale model railroad under construction. This railroad is his freelanced Santa Fe St. Louis Subdivision. As expected, the work going on there is second-to-none! There was still some more time for shooting before out 1800 operating session at Eric Goodman's house so we headed to Parkville, MO. Here we found Hondo, TX to Columbus, NE train U-HOTCNB7-06 beginning its trek on the St. Joe Sub towards Lincoln. While I was working in Lincoln, ADM Columbus was probably the highest-focus customer we had. It was nice to see this train destined for the Bellwood Sub and Columbus, NE...and not be responsible for it! We made the obligatory pass by Mid America Car. I was pleased to see BNSF 2701 there for overhaul and painting. This locomotive was assigned to Lincoln yard service while I was there. The 2701 was probably the crew's least favorite because it did not pull very well. It was generally kept in industry service. Regardless it was good to see the 2701 again. An empty UP coal train caught our attention next. We followed this train across Kansas City, by the River Market area to the West Bottoms and into the Fairfax District. There was nothing special about this train with a particularly ratty looking AC4400CW leading the way, but is was headed the right direction and the light was good. With the chase ended at Fairfax, we grabbed a couple of shots of a UPRR remote control yard job switching. We had several failed attempts to connect with some friends who were blocked by trains in the west bottoms so we all headed again for Union Station. Some BBQ from neighboring Fiorella's Jack Stack in the Freight House was ordered to go and we tailgated next to the KCT main line. Not a bad evening at all! The last operating session of this trip was in Eric Goodman's basement. He as built an HO scale Santa Fe Emporia Subdivision layout with some fantastic Santa Fe models! It very quickly brought back memories of the many trips I made see the Santa Fe in the 1990's. In lieu of running one of the many Santa Fe Warbonnet powered hotshots, Jacob and I took the old Wellington Local with an awesome trio of Santa Fe GP30's for power. These were Proto 2000 models re-powered with Kato GP35 mechanisms. They ran great! The crowd of operators here was quite lively! We had a blast. Track Inspector Bender even made an appearance on the radio. I think the M-KCDV train spent most of the session in one siding primarily due to the engineer's conduct on the radio...HA HA HA! Let's hope no one pulls the tapes. We switched our industries at Augusta, El Dorado, and Helix while dodging mainline trains. The Santa Fe office car special even ran with a pair of silver-and-red FP45 locomotives up front. It was a pleasure to operate on the same crew with my son. Monday, October 10, 2016This day would be a travel day back home to Fort Worth. We decided that we had some time for a leisurely breakfast before departing. Kansas City now has a streetcar that connects Union Station with the River Market area. Branded "RideKC", operation began on May 6, 2016. Four CAF Urbos 3 model 100 vehicles make up the entire fleet. With ridership levels considered a success, plans are under way for future expansion. The was a streetcar stop only a few short blocks from the Brice's loft, so we walked. In short order a car showed up and we hopped on. It is free to ride so there was no hassle buying tickets. Our leisurely breakfast ended late morning. It was time to say goodbye to Kansas City once more and hit the road. The eight-hour trek home was safe and uneventful. This was a most excellent weekend adventure! Many thanks to all of my friends who coordinated and participated in the events! I believe Jacob had a very good time...
Chris KCS Meridian Speedway Trips - February 2016Garland McKee made two excellent adventures to the KCS Meridian Speedway in February 2016! After seeing some of his images from the trips online, I reached out to him regarding an essay and slideshow of his material on my Meridian Speedway website. The result of that conversation can be found via the button below: Chris Jim Norwood Passes Away - 9-27-2016It was with great sadness that my newsfeed this week alerted me to the passing of fellow railfan and model railroader Jim Norwood. I have known Jim for a very long time. Both he and my father were active members of the KCSHS. My family made many summer trips to KCSHS conventions in the '80's and '90's. These conventions are where we met Jim. He was always very pleasant, exuding "southern hospitality" to those he interacted with. In 1998 I left New Orleans, moving to Fort Worth to begin my career with the BNSF. Jim Norwood quickly welcomed me to his home and introduced me to his operating group. Over the many years since then I have been fortunate enough to attend a number of operating sessions on his large HO scale railroad. Jim's railroad is quite impressive, a bit overwhelming in scope (the entire KCS in theory), with a number of very detailed scenes. Not having my own railroad, I asked him if he would mind allowing me to do a photo-shoot of my proto-freelanced equipment on his railroad. Jim graciously agreed and on March 19, 2009 I spent several hours photographing the green-and-white locomotives of my T&GN and NT&O on his railroad, yielding many of the stock images I use throughout this website. Time does fly--that photo-shoot seems like yesterday. In 2011 I moved to Lincoln, NE and remained there until 2014. Upon moving back to Fort Worth my time has been consumed with work and family. In fact it was not until last month that I came across his name and realized that I had not reached out to him since I returned to Fort Worth. One simple e-mail later and I had an invite to an operating session to be held on Wednesday, August 24, 2016. He encouraged me to invite some friends and so Ronald Jones and Rick Simpson came along for their first visit to Jim's railroad. The usual cast was there. In some ways the five years that had elapsed since my last visit seemed to vanish. Jim assigned me to train No. 423, handed me the paperwork, and directed me towards the room that contained Heavener Yard. KCS 638 and KCS 642, a pair of Athearn RTR SD40-2s, were my power and I would build the train with the noted cars on the paperwork. One train with three more KCS SD40-2s passed through Heavener while I was switching. Jim played the role of dispatcher. Once I had my train built, I contacted the dispatcher and was given an excellent run across the railroad which can best be described as a labyrinth of tracks that occupy all of the second floor of his house. Though it was late when my train reached its destination of Deramus Yard (Shreveport), Jim coaxed me into accepting a second assignment. "It'll be a quick run," Jim said. There was a new third-level on this layout that was not there when I last visited. This assignment was a Rock Island local that operated from Winnfield to Baton Rouge in his world. A pair of maroon Rock Island geeps did indeed make quick work of this task! My alarm clock would be going off very early in the morning, ensuring that I made it on time to my real job dispatching the BNSF Ravenna Subdivision. It was time to put up my radio and my throttle and say goodnight. On my way home I contemplated how I almost did not accept this invitation. I never stay out late on work nights. I made the right choice I thought satisfied. It was good to see my friends again. It did not occur to me that this would be my last run on his KCS. R.I.P. Jim Norwood. You will be missed. Thank you for the memories! BN and CR Magor 4750's Delivered TodayFive ExactRail Magor 4750 cuft covered hopper cars arrived on the property today:
BN 439547 BN 439562 CR 888697 CR 888738 CR 888743 These are the first examples of this model I purchased. It is nice to have some variety to spie up a fleet of P-S 4750 covered hoppers! Chris Last Run on Matthew Sugerman's HO RailroadOne of a handful of operating model railroads in the Fort Worth area which I have operated on is Matthew Sugerman's HO scale "Lewiston Terminal". The setting is 1965 and the focus of the railroad is the Potlatch paper mill which is switched by the Northern Pacific. Mr. Sugerman has decided to move into a new house so one last crew call went out for a final operating session on this railroad. Lance Lassen, Ryan Harris, and myself accepted the call and we would man the final operating session at this location - held on the evening of Wednesday, September 14, 2016. There are plans to rebuild this railroad in a larger space in the new house, so there is the hope of more Lewiston Terminal operating sessions in the future! In the current layout environment there are two jobs during the operating sessions. One is the mill switcher which calls for a two-man crew. Lance Lassen and Ryan Harris worked this job. The second is a local that brings inbound traffic from staging into Lewiston and then gathers outbound traffic from Lewiston and takes it to staging. This job blocks the cars into two NP blocks and a UP block before departing Lewiston. I worked this job. The railroad features many hand-laid switches, all of which work extremely well! The mill switcher is a very labor intensive job. Quite a few cars are handled and some thought has to go into the moves. Because there was so much outbound traffic, sawing the two jobs by each other at Lewiston was tricky. As always, operating with this group was a pleasure. I eagerly await the reincarnation of the Lewiston Terminal! Lewiston Terminal PagesThe buttons below will take you to pages with more information about this HO Scale Lewiston Terminal model railroad: The text in this section has been provided by Matthew Sugerman as an introduction to his Lewiston Terminal concept! The Camas Prairie Railroad History During the late 1890’s and early 1900’s, arch rival railroad companies, the Northern Pacific Railway and The Union Pacific Railroad, built duplicate rail lines to many small towns in Eastern Washington. These lines were mostly “granger” lines, serving the vast farming communities of the Palouse Prairie. Consequently, both railroad companies struggled to pay for the lines, as the traffic was seasonal and divided between the two railroads. A similar pattern of duplicate construction in central Idaho seemed to be developing also. By 1908, both railroads had reached Lewiston, Idaho and had their sights set on the rich farming communities of the Camas prairie in north central Idaho. Both rivals realized that duplicate rail lines, in conjunction with the expensive construction from Lewiston to the prairie would not be profitable. The two railroad companies came to an agreement, in which they would build one rail line and establish an operating company that would handle the traffic for both railroads. The Camas Prairie Railroad was the result of the agreement. Starting in late 1909, the Camas Prairie Railroad took over operating and maintaining the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific lines between Riparia, Washington, Lewiston, Idaho and Grangeville, Idaho. Two additional lines were also placed under control of the Camas Prairie Railroad in the late 1920’s. Traffic The original intent of the agreement was to manage agricultural traffic from the camas prairie region, primarily wheat, to ports and millers in the region. As the 20th century unfolded, after the Second World War, lumber and paper business developed in the region near Lewiston, becoming the primary source of traffic for the railroad. Potlatch Forests built a massive lumber and paper mill on the east side of Lewiston, which accounted for approximately 50% of the traffic that originated on the Camas Prairie Railroad. Additionally, many small lumber mills were built along the railroad adding to the overall forest products traffic the railroad hauled. The Lewiston Terminal The railroad modeled represents approximately 3 miles of railroad through Lewiston, in August of 1965. The line modeled includes the Potlatch Forests lumber, pulp, paper and plywood mill, as well as many smaller industries serving the community. The era of operations is August of 1965. August is the beginning of the wheat harvest on the camas prairie. Passenger service in the form of a Rail Diesel Car was still in service from Spokane, Washington to Lewiston. Additional Items of interest: Chris
New ExactRail Delivery - P-S 5344 Box CarsThis year I have not purchased many ExactRail cars. Last year, the monthly specials were appealing and quite a few were added to the fleet. The monthly specials this year really did not fit into my plan. Locomotive purchases have taken priority. The August ExactRail monthly special however was a must grab. The P-S 5344 box cars were on sale for $28.95! The following eight cars showed up today via UPS (free shipping): BAR 5548 - D&H 27284 NOPB 3556 - NOPB 3571 - NOPB 3597 TASD 78013 - TASD 78037 - TASD 78052 Chris
Display Case Construction - Design and AcquisitionAs if I do not have enough open projects, I have decided to build a display case to mount on a wall of the man cave for my growing locomotive fleet. It just is not satisfying to have a fleet of locomotives in boxes, I want to see them! Some thought went into the design. I decided that I wanted the shelves to be two-tiered. I used some half-inch thick pieces of wood to experiment with spacing. The final verdict: each back shelf would sit 1 1/2 inch above the front shelf. These shelves would be three inches wide and the main shelves would be six inches wide. There will then be three-and-a-half inches between the top of each recessed three-inch shelf and the bottom of the next six-inch shelf. To Home Depot I went to purchase lumber. I got two 4'x8' sheets of half-inch thick Birch plywood. I had them rip them into pieces of the following dimensions: 1 piece - 48"x49" - this will be the back of the case 11 pieces - 48"x6" - these are the outer frame and the 6" shelf inserts 8 pieces - 48"x3" - these are the recessed shelves
As expected, the cuts from Home Depot created some rough edges that would need to be sanded. A three-pack of fine grit sanding pads from the paint department did the trick! The 48"x49" dimension of the back piece was chosen so that all of the remaining pieces could be made from 48" strips of wood. By making the display case 49" wide, the outer vertical pieces, 1/2 inch wide, would leave 48" in-between that all of the shelves would fit into. lWith enough clamps and the Poplar braces the warped strips of wood were easy to corner and connect. First I test fit and clamped the wood pieces together. Once clamped properly, I traced the outline of the shelf onto the back piece. After removing the clamped piece I would drill pilot holes in the outline on the back board to guide screw installation. Then I applied a healthy bead of wood glue to the outlined area and re-installed the shelf, clamping it securely in place. Once satisfied with the position of the piece being added, I drilled into each shelf using the pilot holes as guides and then screwed them in place. More to come...
Chris IC 1021 and IC 1025 Make Their DebutIt has been awhile since I uploaded a model railroad video to YouTube. Recently my new IC SD70s were delivered to Greg McComas' Michigan Interstate (MCIS) for a test run. The locomotives performed very well! This break-in run was recorded for YouTube upload. I decided to immerse the viewer with the sights and sounds of these models, so I chose a random montage format with multiple runby scenes. The video is linked below: With regards to detail, paint, prime mover sound, and motor control these locomotives score very high marks! The epic fails are the Athearn standard light bulbs and the extremely poor Tsunami horn files. Both of these locomotives are equipped with Nathan P-5 horns and the decoders were set to the P-5 recording. The sound is nothing like the LokSound P-5 unfortunately. Despite these flaws the overall effect is outstanding. I plan to add the other two numbers to the fleet in short order. There are a number of videos on YouTube of the prototypes, mostly in the post-CN time period. A few are linked below to provide some perspective: Below is the shot used for the YouTube Thumbnail in my video: Chris
New Equipment Delivered 08-13-2016The Meridian Speedway took delivery of a second Athearn Genesis IC SD70 today. IC 1025 now joins the IC 1021! Beautiful locomotives... I now have an IC CONSIST! Walthers Proto 54' 23,000 gallon Funnel-Flow tank car UTLX 641541 was also received today. Chris
New Equipment Delivered - 8-3-2016Today I took delivery of my first new Illinois Central "Death Star" painted locomotive: Athearn Genesis SD70 IC 1021! Of course there are plenty of opportunities for me to script Illinois Central power in Vicksburg, MS on my proto-freelanced HO scale railroad. Those of us interested in modelling late IC power are in luck as many models are coming out. Athearn Genesis has just released four road numbers of IC SD70's and has four numbers of GP38-2's in the works. Athearn RTR will be releasing three number of IC SD40-2s as well. And...if/when the InterMountain GP10's come out, that will be another four road numbers available. This will be a total of 15 unique Illinois Central locomotive models that will be available in the very near future! So there is no time to waste to start tackling this fleet... The model of IC 1021 received today is factory equipped with a Tsunami Soundtraxx sound decoder. One freight car was part of this order as well. I picked up Walthers Proto 54' 23,000 gallon funnel flow tank car UTLX 14850. This car is from the Walthers latest release. Chris
New Essay Added to the Meridian Speedway LibraryThis essay was found on-line on the late Bobby J. Garraway's Blog. This particular post was dated Monday, September 19, 2011. Records indicate that Bobby J. Garraway was born on November 2, 1930 and passed away on Sunday, April 28, 2013. This is a wonderful first-hand account of a classy Mississippi Railroad that is now long-gone. Mr. Garraway published additional essays on his blog that may be of interest to you. The button below will take you to his main blog page: Respectfully, Chris Y&MV Locomotive Roster Made CurrentThe Y&MV locomotive roster has been updated. Previously the roster posted was the 1986 startup roster for my proto-freelanced Illinois Central regional spin-off railroad. Someone has purchased a couple of Y&MV locomotive decal sets from me and will be modeling a few more modern examples from the roster, so it was time to update the roster! I have added acquire/new date and retirement date columns to the roster. This will make it easier to visualize the roster at any given point in time. The button below will take you to the Y&MV locomotive roster page. Chris
Video Digitized - Illinois Central Action at BrookhavenNick Huth and I spent this day on the Illinois Central in Mississippi. I think the mission was to photograph the paper mill at Ferguson, which we did. The day ended with a visit to Brookhaven, MS which is where, once upon a time, the East-West Mississippi Central crossed the IC mainline. We were rewarded with some great IC action. First up was train JANA switching in the yard with IC SD40A 6013, IC SD40 6052 (Ex GM&O 902), and IC SD40-2 6111. JANA was the Jackson to Natchez turn and is seen on the return leg of its trip back to Jackson. The train kept the same symbol in both directions. Of interest is a large block of modified pulpwood flats on this train. Next we catch southbound intermodal train I-01 with IC GP40's 3119, 3106, and 3134 in charge. There is a large block of manifest fill traffic ahead of the intermodal traffic. I think it was pretty common for manifest to fillout tonnage capacity on this train. Finally train JAFE shows up with IC SD40-2s 6144, 6157, and 6121. This is a Jackson, MS to Ferguson, MS manifest train which pulls into the yard to make a pick up en-route. The final scenes of it switching are on the tight curve which connects with the former Mississippi Central. New Freight Cars Delivered TodayToday's shipment was just two cars, ones that I have been excited about since they were announced. Athearn Genesis has released an Illinois Central version in the latest run of their 50' PC&F exterior post box car. This run is a unique Missouri Pacific patch-out. It is interesting that Athearn Genesis choose to model three consecutive numbers: IC 151659, IC 151660, and IC 151661. I chose to add the model of IC 151659 to the Meridian Speedway fleet. I was only able to find two photographs of cars from this series on-line. The picture above was taken by Alan Gaines and posted to rrpicturearchives.net. The image is linked to that posting. This image is of the IC 151659. The model is very close to the original! The image below of IC 151644 is also taken by Alan Gaines and is linked to his posting. This is an example of this car type repainted into the IC grey scheme. Perhaps this will be a future Athearn Genesis release... Below is a picture of IC 151662 taken by Patrick Harris in New Orleans, LA at the West end of CSX Gentilly Yard in December of 1996: The other car I received is an Atlas model of GGCX 1184. This is an ACF 5800 cuft plastics hopper decorated for the Georgia Gulf Plaquemine Division. Plaquemine, Louisiana is of course not far from where I grew up so I am please to have this car in the fleet! The fine print on the car is very crisp. Going over it with a magnifying glass, I was a little disappointed to see that "Plaquemine Division" does not appear anywhere on the car. Either way, modeling this part of the country one cannot have too many plastics hoppers! Chris
Vicksburg Video FoundLately I have been spending my time going through my collection of VHS tapes. Going through them, converting them to a digital format, editing, and publishing them is very time consuming. While my primary venue for sharing my videos is my YouTube channel, I have begun sharing simpler clips to my father's FaceBook page. For those of you on FaceBook the below button will take you to his page. Send a join request if you are not already on a member of his page! The below clip was taken on April 3, 1993 in Vicksburg, MS. Since myself, my father, and my brother are visible in some of the edited out footage, I am certain that the videographer is my mother! The sights and sounds of the MidSouth era in Vicksburg are long gone! The stars of this video are MSRC GP10 1082, MSRC GP9 9002, MSRC GP10 1028, and MSRC GP18 1801 - power for an eastbound freight. Chris
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