Grant-Kerr

That is extraordinary work. Still trying not to step on my tongue.

I remember the horse drawn milk cart in the morning. Milko would run from house to house and the horse knew the round so well that he knew what street to turn down and when to stop and start. Milk in bottles. REAL milk, not homogeniesed pasteurrised and (Purely Oz) Buggerised.!!!

Hello Tony. Nice to see you made it. Welcome to a little sanity here,

I guess with Large Scale in general you have to look a little at the age group of most of the (dare I say) modelers in the over all scheme of things. plus at the available capital to that age group. Most are over 40. A lot are over 50. The rest are 60 or better. Kids gone, House paid for, Wife is interested in the garden side of things so the R.R. gets to be built out there. Why those models in particular? Been a member of LSC for over 13 years and heard a lot from the regulars in chat, and some of those fellas can or did , (passed away) have some very fond memories of particular loco's. Joe, you are right. The F3 was iconic in it's own right and always will be but until I started talking to these fella's I never knew just how popular the PA, was with them, In fact a couple of them stated they were the only dismal to achieve steam engine status. Why? The amount of smoke that erupted from the exhaust at throttle up. (Blower fueling up). That and the stunning Santa Fe Scheme. Those PA's looked like they were doing a 100 mph standing still. I was always curious about the VO. Did we need another SW1 whatever? No. So the next best would be the VO. For the same reason I said before. These fellas saw them all the time around yards and such. A friend (deceased now) who lived in NM always said " Make a USRA light Mike and it will sell like hot cakes. Aristocraft did but screwed it up. MTH wouldn't. Why did he say that. Cause that again was what they saw. Any of this making sense now. The Big Boy made sense to make purely because of it's Iconic value. Everyone knows the loco. Maybe some not by name but they have seen a picture of it. I recall as a boy of 11 looking at it in the Encyclopedia Britannica. That was in 1960. It was on the first page of the loco pictures. Not the Rocket, that was the next page. As Ray said, the GS4 is still running and widely known, Plus that beautiful paint scheme. Also, if you ever watched the black and white t.v show of Superman when they say "more powerful than a speeding locomotive", it is a GS4 shown, Kids remember that. Kids become adults and they see it again as a model. The Dreyfuss? OK in the states maybe but elsewhere? Not so sure about it but the J3a makes sense. The Challenger again because it is the largest loco in the world still running and is very well known. (Sorry to shoot you down Ray but Uncle Pete was not the only road to have the 4-6-6-4 Challenger type but Clinchfield was the only other road to have the series 2 type apart from U.P.) ... 3985 is a series 2 as are the MTH models. They are a heavy Challenger. Would I like to see modern diesels? Yep. Would they sell in numbers? Maybe. I say maybe because of the sales of the Aristocraft and USA trains modern loco's. Most guys had to do some serious realignment work to get them to look right on their R.R. or they sit on the shelf as a Queen. I would love to see a Century but it would probably not sell. I think Ray is right in saying a J makes sense. Would that sell? More than likely it would and in numbers too. Oh and by the way, you think Accucraft is expensive, look up Fine Arts scale models and prepare to be shell shocked. Try 20 grand for a Big Boy. and sold out before a tool or die was made. Museum standard of course. Ray, I am interested in the UP pa units if you still have them and also what is the chance of getting your hands on a centipede u.p. tender? You just know where I am going with this. heheheh

Piko units are the same.

I have some code 215 rail here on a display case and the MTH wheel flanges bottom out on the spikes.

Looking forward to that Ray. Have a couple of items in mind.

Awaiting with great An----tic----i-----pation

Wonderful work Jerry The U.P did have one boat tail dome unit. It was called Moonglow. After some years they cut the rear of so it could be used mid train

Understand why and I agree fully. As an entry level headset the 151 is very very good value. Just the little niggle of the ears thing but that is what happens for long term use.

I use teamspeak also for gaming. Mainly for Run-8 and use the Senhiesser 151 units listed above. They are ok but I will be upgradeing to a much better set shortly. Only because those units sit on your ears and not around them and over a 2 hour period or longer they can become uncomfortable. That said the mic and sound are quiet fine.

http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/heritage_and_steam/2013/0723_4014.shtml I had to look this up and as it is on the UP heritage web site so then the rumor mill can now simmer down. This does not mean though you will see it any time soon. Also, do you think that what is needed is another LARGE loco or for that fact oddball (like the Triple X) for our layouts. I have been saying for years that a Light Mike (USRA) would sell like hot cakes. And what is the point of no rolling stock. I am seriously giving thought to going to 2 rail O scale and getting rid of all the Large scale, 1:32 stuff I have.

Thank you for this Larry. It is appreciated.

Coal Trains are also my thing

Larry, could you go into some further detail with this please. I have a lot of MDC rolling stock and I am intrigued.

The Ballast I use is known here in Oz as crusher fine. I get it from a garden supply and as a rule I have seen it at a few so it seems to be readily available. It is bluestone dust basically so I tend to run it thru a sieve and get the excess dust out and also the bits that are to large. Locks up real well and looks good also. Cost is about 50 dollars Aud a small trailer load and it is HEAVY.

Very nice Jerry

Check your Back to Back wheel settings as well. I use the G1MRA standard. Been around for a century now.

du-bousquetaire said Another thing which I find surprising in garden railway videos is why people stick to short radius curves and pointwork in the great outdoors, where you usually have all the space available you want (which isn't the case indoors usually) It makes those big engines look ridiculous, when a chalenger or a big boy goes over small radius curve the boiler overhang is such that in real life the loco would probably tip over! I guess it's time some of the fabulous input great model railroaders of the '60 and '70 gave to us old timers like John Armstrong, and many others seep into the wonderfull world of garden railroading, to help bring the level of realism up to what ti is in indoor modeling. Not that I have anything against the naive or beggining modeler, if he gets fun and enjoyment that's fine with me. But for those who strive to improve their standards, if only to match the detailing of their models, it would be good to see more attempts at reproducing the real Mac Coy. and they hardly run standard gauge over curves of less than 360 scale feet (and at least twice that on mainlines) Thats about 4 yards radius in 1/32 scale. Try to put a curve like that in your garden and place such a big loco on it: Presto you will see that all of a sudden it starts looking realistic. Evening gents et all Not new to LS as some of you who know me, know. Years ago now, I used to make LS switches (points to our English cousins) and sold them into the states thru Eldorado Railways. 2 things happened about the same time. The Australian dollar started getting stronger and John Pritchard died. He owned Eldorado Railways. The Challenger I bought from MTH I had ordered and placed a thousand dollar deposit on it (half its retail price here +shipping and + customs) 1 year before it was released for sale. Got some ribbing from folks over that until they saw it. In reply to the above I knew long before it arrived that there were going to be visual problems with what turned out to be a very large loco and planned accordingly. hence I show this photo to you all When I showed this photo years ago I got the usual questions, and then the response on inquiry as to how much, that it was to expensive, that I stopped making these switches in total and only just for myself and local consumption Then rarely above a number 6. These are #10,s in a crossover. Seems to me that people want the trains and will pay for them, but track? How dare you make money out of large scale was one response. I think this answers your question?