Friday, October 27, 2006

What is One To Do?

What is one to do when the model railroad layout is basically finished? Well, in truth, there is no such thing as a finished model railroad layout. At least this is true for the one who builds the layout. My current layout might be considered finished by some people but there is always more that can be done. Such things can be small or large. Maybe add some people; maybe add some scale size trash; build a fence; add some more trees; add more lights to buildings; on and on, really.

While more light in buildings would be a good thing, that is not what I have in mind. You see, I have a fondness for passenger trains. I have these:

Santa Fe - an 11 car San Francisco Chief
C&NW - a 4 car commuter train
C&NW - a 5 car streamliner (needs a diner)
C&NW - a 10 car heavyweight train
GN - a 3 car Empire Builder (adding a new car each month until 10 cars)
Amtrak - an 11 car Superliner

There are also some older ones that are "retired" because they are from older and now inferior models:

UP - 12 car "City" train (actually 18 cars at one time!)
Santa Fe - 10 car Grand Canyon Limited
CB&Q/D&RGW/WP - 11 car California Zephyr
Santa Fe - 10 car Super Chief

The layout isn't nearly big enough to have all these trains on it so some of them rest peacefully in their boxes.

What I am thinking about is to have someplace to park them where they can be seen as if in a large passenger station. This would also enable me to trade off trains periodically without having to box or unbox them.

But, how will I do it - that is the question.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Yet Another Load of Coal on the Joint Line

That Union Pacific train I wrote about in my previous posting had 6 locomotives each with 4400 horsepower for a total of 26,400. This is the typical configuration for UP coal trains going south on the Joint Line south of Denver.

Today, I got a nice photo of a southbound BNSF coal train in the exact same place as the UP train - the far south end of the dam at Chatfield State Park. BNSF has a different approach to coal train motive power for the Joint Line. They typically place two locomotives up from and 2 at the end of the train pushing.



This train had this configuration:

At the front of the train:
9954 - SD70MAC built in 1998
9514 - SD70MAC built in 1995

At the rear of the train:
9613 - SD70MAC built in 1995
9331 - SD70ACe built in 2006

The last one, the SD70ACe, is quite new. My picture of it did not turn out well so here is a link to a nice clean one.

The SD70MACs have 4000 horsepower and the SD70ACe has 4300. So this train had a total of 16,300 horsepower - quite a bit less than what UP uses for similar trains.

Notice that these two engines do not have the same paint scheme. The 9514 is one of the earlier SD70MACs that Burlington Northern acquired before its merger with the Santa Fe. The paint scheme was called the "Executive Scheme" because BN had an executive passenger train and the special engines that pulled it were painted similarly to these SD70MACs. Here is a picture of one of those at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The 9954 is a newer SD70MAC. It has one of the "heritage" schemes that BNSF came up with. It combines colors from some of the predecessor railroads such as Santa Fe and Great Northern.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Another Load of Coal Going South

Here is a nice coal train heading south on the joint line just west of Highlands Ranch. It is a Union Pacific train led by UP 6007. This load of coal most likely originated in northwestern Colorado or it could have come from Wyoming.

At the front of the train were similar engines but different models:
6007 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6485 - AC4400CW built in 2000

In the middle of the train was:
6882 - AC4400CW built in 1995
5939 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6414 - AC4400CW built in 1995 - ex SP 368

At the end of the train was:
6582 - AC4400CW built in 1997

Union Pacific has about 520 AC44CCTEs and about 850 AC4400CWs. UPs most common model is the SD70M - with over 1400 of them.

Here is the 6007:

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Celebrity Engines

The Union Pacific Railroad has painted 6 locomotives in special paint schemes to honor some of the railroads the UP has gobbled up over the past 25 years or so. I saw my first one in person today. It is UP 1989 painted to honor the Denver and Rio Grande Western whose track runs between Denver and Pueblo as part of the joint line. It runs about a mile from my home and this is where I saw the 1989 today as the 4th unit of 4 on a northbound train.

The set of locomotives are all model SD70ACe built in 2005 and 2006. They are:

UP 1982 - for the Missouri Pacific
UP 1983 - for the Western Pacific
UP 1988 - for the Missouri - Kansas - Texas
UP 1989 - for the Denver and Rio Grande Western
UP 1995 - for the Chicago and North Western
UP 1996 - for the Southern Pacific

You can see pictures of them here.

Let me know which one you like best.

I would like to see one commemorating the Union Pacific itself.