markoles

I'd struggle to restore one of these with my own money, too! There is a lot of work that has to go in to these things to make them run again. They have to remove all the tubes from the boiler, then do a complete ultrasound survey for the thickness of the shell. That;s a time consuming and labor intensive job. Then, once you've got all that done, if there are no repairs you need to make, you have to put all new tubes in. Only a few places to procure those tubes, which also need to be machined and then rolled in to place. The good thing about this engine is it had a relatively short life as a road engine before it was retired. It'd probably take a month or two with a full time shop to rebuild this engine back when you had the people, and know how to do it. Now, it will take about 2-3 years. But I still think it will be worth it to see an engine like this running in tourist service in mountains!

I don't know if you guys saw this or not, but the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad negotiated the sale of Chesapeake and Ohio Mallet 1309 from the B&O Railroad Museum. Their plans are to return it to service and use it to pull their excursion trains up the mountains in Western Maryland. Here's a link to the B&O info page. Here's a blurb in the Baltimore Sun: paper I have never ridden the WMSR, as it is just a little on the far side for a day trip from here, but it might be a good weekend destination when this locomotive is restored. The bike path that parallels the route most of the way would be the other item of interest for the rest of my family.

Wow. Well, I suppose that twisted drive shafts and other failures are an indication that engineering is sort of a loose term, thrown around. OTOH, it could be a case of scaling down doesn't always work. In other words, there's safety factors in larger diameter shafts that won't translate in to scale size shafts. And had accucraft used a larger diameter rod or harder material, they'd have been flambayed by the would be users. Why don't we use 332 scale carbon steel rails for our outdoor railroads? Real railroads use steel, why not us? The answer is because the real rails corrode 1/8", and in our scale, that's going to be more than our rail web thickness. So we're stuck with brass, aluminum, stainless and other materials that don't fall apart. Sort of like why I don't mind oversize flanges, if they keep my trains on the tracks!

Guys, I have made all the pictures I load to this forum as viewable by 'friends'. As we are a public forum, and I may have pictures of my house or kids, etc. in the photo, I tend to keep my privacy settings a little bit higher. Not a big deal for those of you who are members, though.

Guys, I was able to get out super early Wednesday morning and get to the 4014 just after sunrise. Unfortunately, I was so early, the light is pretty bad. But I got to see the 4014 pretty close. I think I heard her whistle as I was headed away, as well. HEre's my pics: It was cool to see this historic move in person. But, I was there for work training, so I had made this the start for a one way run. After these shots, I headed East to Las Vegas BLVD and turned right and ran the entire Vegas Strip back to my hotel, a distance just shy of 9 miles. A word to the wise: IF you run the Las Vegas strip, be prepared to climb and to descend a lot of stairs. This is particularly difficult to do at speed ( I was attempting to run a quicker pace per mile (6:00 ish pace), but barely managed a 7:15 pace due to the nasty climbs).

I created a new album for 2014. Here's the two photos there so far.

We've been outside playing and riding bikes a lot lately, and I plan to start doing small projects here and there. Started with some minimal ballasting, but there's still work to be done. The trains seem to run OK, but I am concerned about passenger train speeds!! My new pacific runs significantly faster than all my other power, so I'll have to pay special attention to curves and kinks, etc..

Ok, Raymond, time for you to find a reason to be in SLC so we can get complete coverage of this move.

Chuck, I even worked on the real things in Strasburg, PA, once upon a time.

The Railroad Musuem of New England is sending New Haven FL-9 2019 to this event. You can see her on their website: http://www.rmne.org/ This locomotive used to haul the shuttle train between Danbury, CT and South Norwalk, CT, and I used to see it run past all the time!

Hahahahaaahhaaaa!! ! Guess who will be in Vegas next Wednesday!?

Not sure if you can see this video, But this is my Mallard running on the kitchen floor in a test run I did in January: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202965504488653&set=vb.1535050491&type=3&theater

Jens, Well, I guess I am a little weird. After all, I do play trains outside in the backyard!! Ha! Yes, I ran up the line from Schierke to the summit of the Brocken. Here's their schedule: http://www.hsb-wr.de/fileadmin/user_upload/images/Mehr_erfahren/Fahrplaene/HSB_325_So_2014_Dritte_bis_19.03.14.pdf The railway miles (km's) show it is 14 km to the summit, and 440m elevation gain (1320 ft approx). That makes a round trip 28km (approx 17.5 miles). With nothing to do that Sunday, and no where to be, and the beautiful mountain, I took that 8:55 Wernegerode train, and disembarked at Schierke. I knew I had 10 minutes head start before the train would start, and chose a path that paralleled the tracks. This was a gentle climb for a runner, 2% or so for the train. I covered about a mile and a half in that time, and then the train came thundering through the tall pine trees. At about 3k, I came to a sign that indicated the summit of the Brocken was about 5km away. That was much shorter than the railway mileage, and it is because the railway had to climb around the shoulder of the mountain, and then do a complete circle on the Brocken itself to gain the elevation. Undaunted, I turned, crossed the tracks, and proceeded down a rock slide until I was certain that I was really lost. Also, I knew I would eventually have to climb back up! I did have a small map of the national park, so I made my way to another trail that would get me where I needed to go. I thought following the tracks would be very dangerous considering the speed and the frequency of the trains. I climbed a beautiful trail and linked up again with the railway as it starts its circle of the mountain. On this part of the trail, there were many people. Some were hiking, some biking. No one running. Just me. The trail undulates and another train roared past us. I reached a paved road that was much steeper. Still, I kept running. Many people were taking breaks as they climbed. The mountain bike riders were struggling in 'granny gear'. I slowed my pace, but kept running, and was passing the riders. I hit the summit in a little over an hour (and I estimate I ran about 8 miles to get there). High-fived the rock at the actual summit, and then ran down to the concession stand where I purchased a liter of water. In early September, it was about 45 degrees on the summit (5-10C). I drank my water, and did not linger. Running down the mountain is a bit of a misnomer. For really, what I was doing was a controlled fall. I zoomed down to the railway crossing, and decided to keep going straight (as opposed to followign the tracks on the undulating trail). I picked my way along the trails, and found my way back to the Shierke station. It was 15 degrees warmer there (nearly 60-65), and I had time before the next train was headed down. So, I found a bench situated across from the station in the sun, and had my two bratwurst and pils. Here's a selfie I took of myself post run! It was one of the best runs I've ever had and I hope to repeat it some day. Next time I may try and run all the way from Drei Anne Honne, since it really wasn't that much further.

Jens, You should go. Wernigerode is very quaint. I spent a weekend there. Rode up the Brocken mountain twice the first day. Second day, I rode the 2nd train of the day one stop past Drei Anne Hone, and ran 8 miles to the summit of the Brocken ( I didn't realize how straight the trail was vs the railway line, so I had to divert to a quiet, steep rocky path.) Once on the summit (and I ran all the way up, passing many cyclists and shocked German pilgrims, slapped the highest rock a high-five, and then turned around and ran right back down again. All told, it was a 13 mile run, which was rewarded with two biers and two wursts at the railway station. Summer seems to be the time to go. Their schedule is very busy and you can buy a weekend pass for Eur 64, which allows you to ride as often as you like over the entire line. On my final day, I rode down to Nordhousen, but my HSB railcar didn't go all the way to the main station, and I ended up a lost traveler at a wind turbine blade factory. No joke!

Nick, I have a live steam OO Scale Mallard (yes, electric live steam). When my kids are bigger and out of college, I may reconsider live steam.

Nick, I had a 1994 Roundhouse Liberty Belle. Never could get it to run right. I sold it in 2010 to a guy in North Jersey. It was related to me later that the throttle valve was actually just a ball valve. This explains why I never could get it to run right. A ball valve, when cracked, will vent 50% of its volume. It needed a throttle, got a ball valve instead. I had worked with Roundhouse directly for spare parts and they were great on the phone. It's for the best. Maybe someday in the future I will be back with live steam.

You know, since the REVO interface is on-board, I wonder if a smaller add-on board could be developed to convert the signals sent from a smartphone app to the locomotive. This type of interface could possibly be made for a variety of outputs. Not just model train related! I hate my garage door opener, for example. Maybe make adaptors that you can link to your garage door opener... Just throwing it out there. Coffee pot...house lights....etc.. The problem, Raymond, is going to be my ability to run my train when I'm not home. Who's going to remove the sticks and leaves?!

Well, that is true. I was really talking about the 'looks', but then again, I seem to recall there was a guy who had problems with the cowling on a GS-4. Who was that guy? Even complained about the shade of red. Gosh, if only I could remember his name. Seems like his initials were Raymond Manley! The Aster stuff seems to be the gold standard for live steam. Then again, I was told that Roundhouse was a great and easy locomotive to run. Mine never ran well. Not even once in all the years I owned it. As a rule, though, live steam is cantankerous and needs constant attention. Availability should be about 50% if you're doing it right.

Now, THIS is a super exciting development. No wonder this specific video is showing up on other fora. Mike is clearly trying to remain cutting edge with technology trends. He is making it easier to run trains and to get involved with model trains. No specific remote will be required, reducing costs. I already have two smartphones and two pads, so that'd be 4 potential remotes I already have. I wonder if Crest will develop a similar device to convert wifi signals to REVO signals. That would be great. Think of the possibilites: a small camera could be installed in the locomotive's engineer side and you could have a small pop up screen that gives the operator a view of the tracks. Perhaps even the ability to record the live feed. I got my son a RoboME robot for Christmas. It uses a smartphone app for some controls and customization. It was fun and Luke liked it a lot. It had a feature where if you had the iPad controlling it, you could connect using facetime and then the user's face appeared on the robot's 'face'. Just made it more fun. And isn't that what this kind of stuff is for? Having fun? Mike is making it too easy to use his system. I still like that Norfolk Souther Executive train and hope that I never see it in person!! And Luke's been talking about the 4014 and making drawings, etc. Even though he's never seen a Big Boy up close, he keeps talking about it. I'm going to make sure my railroad can handle one...

Jens, I am in awe of how realistic the steam and smoke and sound is integrated in your BR-50! Reminds me of the HSB 2-10-2T's I rode out of Wernigerode in September 2012! I guess I should start running my trains and taking some pictures.

Joe, looks good!!

We've had a lot of rain the last few days here. But I did do a cursory inspection of the railroad on Sunday, and what I discovered is that I have a LOT of work ahead of me this year. 1. My steel bridge is listing about 10 degrees. Yikes! Need to lift and straighten, again. 2. After 3 years of settling and freeze-thaw, my once nicely curved brickwork/retaining wall on the East End high line has become oblonged or falling apart. I need to remove all the bricks, and relay them. I am also thinking that I should get fill dirt and start making a natural slope here. To the left of the upper curve is where I am planning to do work. This side is exposed to the main roads, and is the most public visual section of the railroad. aka, my wife notices when this is looking bad. 3. the track immediately in front of the woodpile has also sunk about 1"-2", since there is nothing to hold the ballast in place. This photo is from last Fall.

Well, the good news is that the potential locomotive was sold in a lot and I didn't have the opportunity to purchase it alone.

I seem to recall catalogs being made at one point. Accucrap is not an accurate monniker. Their models are very well done and their price point is well below Aster / Fine Arts Models. Like everything else, they can be improved.

Chuck, It was a lot cheaper than the LGB mogul, but didn't hold a candle to the operating characteristics. Needed metal wheels on the engine and trailing trucks and tender wheels, too. Couda been a contenda! I had no idea it was short for 1/32, but never paid close enough attention. Hey, it has solid drivers!!