markoles

Sorry, that's just my impression!!! She does have a cavernous firebox, though. Do locomotives like their fireboxes to be called 'cavernous'?

Jim just point out one line in there that's giving us more clues. "The Norfolk Southern F7 is a passenger train modeled after NS Executive Train and will be feature in the catalog with passenger cars. " So, that means that the NS F7's should have coaches painted like the current NS scheme: Seems similar to the Norfolk and Western passenger scheme. Or am I mistaken?

MTH announced this on facebook just now: MTH Electric Trains in Columbia, Maryland is putting the final touches on the next RailKing One-Gauge Trains & Accessories Catalog. The MTH RailKing One-Gauge Line is G Gauge or Garden Trains and Rolling Stock built for indoor or outdoor modeling and are true 1/32 scale models. Here is a first look at the Norfolk Southern F7 featured in the next MTH RailKing One-Gauge Catalog. The Norfolk Southern F7 is a passenger train modeled after NS Executive Train and will be feature in the catalog with passenger cars. The Norfolk Southern F7 AA Set is on-line for pre-ordering. http://mthtrains.shptron.com/p/f-7-aa-diesel-set-with-proto-sound-3-0?pp=8 Not newer than yesterday's news...

The Railroad Museum of PA is part of the state run museums. It is actually separate from the for-profit common carrier Strasburg Rail Road. The museum organizes and benefits from the funds raised through the sale of the tickets. I suspect that it is about 98% pure profit for them. They do have some advertising and printing to do, but it's not like they're giving me money to do trackwork or add motive power (but it would be nice!!) It also give the local g-scaler community an opportunity to promote our hobby! I got involved when the museum originally organized this in early 2007. I was on a list of members the local garden railroad club gave them. That first year, we had about 400 people come through the backyard. In 2009, the local paper and county magazine did articles about our railroad, and we had over 600 show up. Average attendance is somewhere about 350. Last year, it rained and we only had 250 come by. I keep a guest book and ask people to sign it. That's how we get these figures. If you like, you can search youtube for 'trainman24' and look at his videos of 'RR Museum open house'. You'll see my original Millersvillanova Railroad as it grew and was modified over time to accomodate longer and varied trains. We did not host in 2010, my daughter was born 3 weeks before, and our yard was all torn up from a sewer project. 2007-2008-2009 and 2011 are shown. I think floaman has a video from 2012. I was doing a search of videos, and one of the other guy's railroads popped up:

Allegheny is kind of cool, but when I visit the 1604 at the BORM, it just seems like a huge block of steel, and not really a locomotive. Now, a Class A? There's a locomotive!

Jim said he might be able to help me with the height comparision. I looked at pictures of the 1:1 PA's with passenger trains, and it appears the height was low, and the roof of the locomotive was close to the roof of the passenger cars. With the aristo heavyweights being somewhat diminutive themselves, and running AA sets, this might be a non issue. In any event, I'm more curious to see how it would look than actually purchasing the AA set, since I'd have to do some work to make them run on my railroad.

So, with PS3, I don't need to worry about the polarity on my track. That's making it easier to consider this brand of train.

We're scheduled to have an open house Sunday October 6 from 1-5 as a part of the annual garden railroad tour hosted by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This year, 11 railroads will be open to the public for touring. http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/visitors/seasonal/modelrrday/GardenRailwaysTourFlyer.pdf If you are in the area, this is a great event and the money raised goes right back to the museum. Hope to see some of you there! Mark

Nice shots, Jerry!

Raymond, I have seen your videos of the Hudson with heavyweights, I think it looks fine. The way my trains get run, we have freight locomotives handling all passenger trains at this point. Well, I guess my LGB mikado is my 'passenger' engine. But, with parts and service questionable (to me, anyway), I'm reluctant to run t hat engine very hard. We've been using the mallet as our go-to power for passenger trains longer than 3 coaches. I keep passing over the aristo pacific and I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because I've seen and run Jim's hudson and it's just that much better of a model? I don't know. Anyway, I saw the PA's and got to thinking that for $550, that's a pretty good deal for passenger power. Plus, I have a custom painted FA-FB in that same Brooks Brothers paint scheme. So, I could position them for photos and they'd look 'ok'. Since MTH is still sitting on them, I doubt they're thinking about re-running PA s in the green and gold that the PA's wore for a majority of their service life before the McGinnis era.

Raymond, I would be super excited about that. I have been fortunate in being able to get up close with some of the N&W locomotives including 1218 when she was in the old paint shop in Roanoke, the 611 at the VMT. I also assisted with firing the 475 on Strasburg more than a dozen years ago. So, while the New Haven is my favorite railroad, generally, the N&W is my second favorite! BTW, I posted a video of the 475 with a chime whistle last Saturday. They must have swapped it out from the standard hooter whistle that my kids don't like! The J is such a classy looking locomotive, but is also a speed demon. I wonder if they did make it, if they'd gear it so that it runs at the passenger train speeds, and up to the 'reported' 115 mph. I'd probably have to get some of the MTH coaches to go along with it, just so I could have a Powhattan Arrow!

Hi guys, While I really don't need one, I'm kind of curious to see how a 1/32 MTH PA lines up with an aristocraft heavyweight coach. Any takers?

For some reason, I was looking at the Garden Railways website today and saw an ad from MTH for pre-orders for a NS F7 AA. I know a lot of us have been waiting for the new catalog, even if its just to see what they're going to make. Anyway, here's a link: http://mthtrains.shptron.com/c/railking-one-gauge_dieselelectric-locomotive_norfolk-southern While in the shop, I looked to see if they've got any steam engines there, and along with the triplex were a couple of N&W Class J's....but HO SCALE!!

Nice video, Jim! It was hot on July 4!!

I've been generally impressed with how Bachmann has improved their g-scale offerings over the years, but I'm not a big buyer of their trains, either. I would like the new big hauler with the metal gears, same with the 2-4-2T, but other priorities prevent me from purchasing. Still, I think it is interesting that they have gone in this direction, considering they have two trolleys that are what? 1/24 scale-ish? The closed and open sided single truck streetcars. I'd probably be more interested in a Brill semi-convertible streetcar, you know, the old style wooden ones.... but I'm more of a steam locomotive kind of guy in any case!

Raymond, It so happens that years ago, I came across the November 1958 Trains magazine, which has a huge article about riding the Big Boys on the UP. It's a pretty good article, but I can't scan and repost it here, I;m sure that would infringe on copywright laws. David Morgan wrote it from his personal experience, and there's a lot of photos of a climb over Sherman Hill. Anyway, I have a renewed interest in this beast of a locomotive, and it is possible that a model of 4014 would be something I might 'have to have'! Admittedly, there are a lot of locomotives on that list. I'll need to check with Jim and see about getting a demonstration of his BB on my layout before I'd contemplate a purchase. The biggest question: do they navigate aristo wide radius turnouts? And what is the length of the engine coupled with tender? If it's over 54", I'm going to have a hard time justifying the expense. Of the MTH engines, I never saw the Big Boys go on clearance at Trainworld or anywhere else. So from a pure moving stuff out of the warehouse POV, I'd expect they would be highly motivated to do another run of the BB. Still holding out some hope for the N&W J to get running again next year, too. Maybe a model of that engine will be produced as well, but a Lima super power Berkshire would have a lot of paint options, but would require a few different molds for the front end to allow for the changes that separate the C&O, NKP, PM, and ?? versions.

Guys, I never thought that Bachmann would enter the 1/29 scale market, but they've announced and shown a 1/29 scale version of their popular Peter Witt streetcar. This is an interesting development, consdiering that aristo made the PCC in that same scale. Any of you guys in to the trolleys? I have been able to resist them so far, but who knows, this might be a reason to start some transit lines..

Raymond, You beat me to the punch! I was going to say "Nevermind if MTH is going to make a One-gauge version of a N&W J, we can go see the real thing!!" Still hoping for a model of a J....

Well, it is July 1 and I just realized that I have only run trains a handful of times this year. How are all of you guys doing? The weeds are growing great in the rainy weather we're having in Central PA. Nice and almost sub tropical! I've been doing a lot of road running and general travel for work, so I haven't had much time for train running. I did fix one trouble area on my railroad (close clearance on the East end), only to find out today that the Garden Railroad Tour that has always been Columbus Day weekend is now a weekend ahead. All 4 of my guest engineers, plus my lovely wife, are unable to assist with train running! I guess that just means we'll scale back our normal operations for that day.

So many topics in one thread about a catalog! I've been anticipating the new catalog, as well. Even though I am primarily buying the aristo 1/29 line of trains, I am hoping that MTH will produce a Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 steam locomotive. I look to their HO catalog for clues as to their direction in large scale, and this appears to be a good seller for them. I've decided that the electronics and the fit-finish of the MTH trains that I've seen (I live vicariously through a friend who owns a Big Boy, Hudson, GS-64, PA-PB-PA, and VO switcher) make the scale differences irrelevant. I disagree with most of you and feel that MTH should have gone with 1/29 as the market already existed for those products and they would have been able to sell to a wider market. Again, only my opinion, and it was their money and marketing that got many of you excited about large scale. It is what it is. Fall 2013 will be here soon, so I can wait!

Hey, I know there's a rolling attendance list going on at the Aristo board, but is anyone on here planning to attend the York show March 22-23? I'm planning to go at least one day on my own, might take the kids on the second day.

I found some old pictures of my locomotives: Our wedding train, LGB Mikado and LGB streamlined domes/observation, custom painted: A bachmann 4-4-0 that I repainted. Aristo mikado lettered as New Haven 3016: She has been fitted with a Mallet pilot:

Forgot how good Jim's (And Chris's) engines and trains looked...on my railroad!!

Dang!

Just a heads up for those of you who don't frequent other train boards: NS is planning several public steam train trips this spring. NKP 765 will be running in Ohio and Pennsylvania this spring. Southern 630 will be operating on the mainline in VA and TN. I am thinking about riding one of the PA trips, but have to see the timetable and ticket prices..