Empire Builder Coming Along

I acquired the latest Walthers Great Northern Empire Builder car today. The train I am putting together is abbreviated compared to the real thing. The real train might have been 18 cars and that is too long for my layout. The length of the 12 car train I am settling for is pushing it. This is the train I am doing:

1. Burlington E7A diesel

2. Burlington E8A diesel

3. baggage mail #42 (similar car photo)

4. Baggage-Dormitory #1205

5. 60-Seat Coach #1214 (similar car photo)

(6. 48-Seat Vista Dome Coach) (similar car photo)

(7. 48-Seat Vista Dome Coach lettered for Burlington rather than Great Northern) (similar car photo)

8. Ranch Coffee Shop Lounge #1245 Whitefish Lake (similar car photo in blue)

9. 7-4-3-1 Sleeper #1260 Skykomish River (similar car photo)

10. 6-5-2 Sleeper #1374 Park Creek Pass (similar car photo)

11. 36-Seat Diner #1250 Lake of the Woods (similar car photo)

(12. Full Length Great Dome Glacier View) (similar car photo)

13. 7-4-3-1 Sleeper #1269 Poplar River (similar car photo)

(14. 6-4-1 Observation #1390 Grand Coulee) (similar car photo)

The ones I don't have yet are in parentheses. The complete train will be out by June or so.

Here is a picture of the train as pulled by Great Northern engines.

The numbers by the sleepers refer to the different types of accommodations in the cars. The 7-4-3-1 sleeper had 7 duplex-roomettes, 4 upper and lower berths, 3 double-bedrooms and one compartment. The 6-5-2 sleeper had 6 roomettes, 5 double bedrooms and 2 compartments. The 6-4-1 observation car had 6 roomettes, 4 double bedrooms and one compartment.

The real train in its heyday might have had a couple of baggage cars, another coach and 2 or 3 more sleepers. The train ran between Chicago and St. Paul on the Burlington pulled by silver Burlington engines. From St. Paul to Seattle, the train was pull by Great Northern F units.

You can read my earlier post on this subject.

Passenger Train Idea #1

I would be more likely to ride on an Amtrak train if I didn't have to get to the central depot in the big city. Such as Denver Union Station. That station is just fine for its purpose but what if Amtrak made a short stop on either side of town in addition to the centrally located station? Maybe this isn't practical in Denver given the route of the Zephyr but in some cities it might work.

Imagine a train that ran through Denver from Wyoming all the way south to Colorado Springs and farther. It would make perfect sense for such a train to make a stop in Denver's suburbs of, let's say, Littleton and Westminster.

Lights

I just finished adding lights to several buildings on my HO train layout. Sounds easy but this project has complications. For instance, it is easy enough to stick a light in a 4 story building. However, now that the building is lit up inside, you can easily tell that it is a hollow shell of a building with a light bulb inside. One of the tricks is to put intermediate floors in the structure using cardboard so that the light only lights up some of the building. It's also good to ensure that the light bulb is not easily visible. It looks more interesting if these tricks are used.

I was also concerend with having the lights not be too bright. If the light is too bright, it doesn't look natural espacially with the room lights off. You can make the bulbs shine less bright by wiring two of them in series. This trick was very effective as well in improving the appearance of the buildings.

I am going to continue this project since there are still numerous buildings with no lights. I also need to add some additional street lights to increase realism.

All I need is a bunch of bulbs and some more wire. There must be a mile of wire under the layout now. Why not add some more?

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Here is yet another train station. This time, it's the large Rock Island / Southern Pacific depot in Tucumcari, New Mexico.



According to this page, this station is the only original Spanish architecture Train Depot in New Mexico.

Antonito, Colorado Depot

Here is the Rio Grande station in Antonito, Colorado in 1986. It was built in 1882 and is still there today. The building is 124 years old!



I don't know why it was boarded up at the time. The building otherwise appears to be in good shape. The semaphore signal is especially interesting.

Antonito is the end of the narrow gauge line called the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic which was once part of the Rio Grande as well. The C&TS does not use this station, however. They have a newer one a bit south of this old gem.

Here are some interesting photos of this same station of other sites:

Evidence of third rail to accommodate the narrow gauge.

Photos of various vintages.

Las Vegas - New Mexico, That Is

I have run out of Texas railroad depot photos so I will now move elsewhere. This is the station in Las Vegas, New Mexico which is just down I25 about 111 miles from Raton. Amtrak's Southwest Chief stops here at 12:38 pm westbound and 3:45 pm eastbound. This train runs from Chicago to Los Angeles on the route of the Santa Fe's famed Super Chief.

Train Station in Denton, Texas

Here is yet another train station in Texas, this time in Denton. This is the Texas-Pacific station taken in 1986.



Train stations vary in architecture quite a bit but they also often seem to have some common things about them such as the overhang you see in the picture. They almost always have the name of the town on both ends of the building as well.

Yet Another Waxahachie Railroad Station

Now, this train station is the neatest of the three Waxahachie train stations I have put on this blog. It was built by the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad.



There is another station much like it in Corsicana, Texas. See it here.

The T&BV after a bankruptcy, became the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. It was jointly owned by the Burlington and the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific. Later it was part of the Fort Worth and Denver. Today, it is part of the BNSF Railway.

Another Train Station in Waxahachie

I am pretty sure that this train station is in Waxahachie, Texas. I do not know which railroad owned it.

A Train Station in Waxahachie, Texas

This is one of the train stations I found in Waxahachie back in 1985. It belonged to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.

Sherman, Texas

This little depot is really neat. It's in Sherman, Texas. I am not sure which railroad owned it and I doubt if the building is still there. This photo was taken in 1985 and you can see that it is not in very good shape.

Brownwood, Texas Railroad Station

This train station is very large for a town the size of Brownwood. According to this web site, the station served 15 trains a day in its heyday. It was built by the Santa Fe in 1909 and the last passenger train to use it ran in 1968.

Train Station in Bonham, Texas

This is another Texas-Pacific train station, this time in Bonham, Texas. This picture, like the TP station in Paris below were taken in 1985. Both the Paris station and this one are on the same line that ran across Texas not too far from the Oklahoma state line. This one is obviously quite a bit larger than the one in Paris.

Another Station in Paris, Texas

This is the Texas-Pacific train station in Paris, Texas. It is much less interesting looking than the Frisco station in the same town (see below). But, this is what makes train stations interesting. Some are plain, others quite elaborate.

Paris, Texas Train Station

I think this old Frisco train station was quite attractive in 1985 when I took the picture.

It is still there as this link can attest. Scoll down a ways.

San Francisco Zephyr

When Amtrak was formed, their train that ran between Chicago and the San Francisco area was called the San Francisco Zephyr rather than the California Zephyr as today. The original pre-Amtrak California Zephyr ran on the CB&Q from Chicago-Denver, the D&RGW from Denver-Utah and then on WP to California. When Amtrak was formed, the D&RGW did not join so the Amtrak train did not use their rails. Instead the train went through Wyoming on UP and it used SP from Utah to California. This was in 1971.

In 1983, D&RGW finally joined Amtrak and they moved the train to D&RGW rails so that passengers could enjoy the more scenic although slower route. And they renamed the train back to the California Zephyr even though it still ran on SP out west.

Here is a picture of the SF Zephyr in 1981 passing through the Belmont station in Downers Grove, Illinois. I like this picture because of the lighting and the presence of the passenger platform between the rails. It has since been removed. The F40PH up front sports the original Amtrak paint scheme for these locomotives. It is known as Phase I. The second loco is also an F40PH but has the Phase 2 paint scheme - the stripes are different.

Passenger yard completed - sortof

The passenger yard has been completed. It has 4 tracks spaced apart 2.5 inches to allow for easy handling. I am not making use yet of the track closest to the abyss (a drop to the floor). There is no barrier between this track and certain doom for the little HO sized people inhabiting the passenger cars.

I had in mind creating a wall along there using cheap 1" by 36" pieced of wood - better known as yardsticks. I even bought a bunch of them and painted them (rendering them useless as yardsticks). But I have decided that I don't like this idea. Instead, I am going to buy a bunch of girders by Atlas to form a wall with them. These plastic girders will each be held in place by 4 small screws so it will take a while to drill and insert about 100 of them. But I think it will look better. I have used this technique elsewhere on the layout.

I bought one package of girders last time I was at Caboose Hobbies, their last one on the shelf. I need 6 more packages of 4 to complete the wall.

Work Has Begun

After much consideration, work has begin on the expansion of my passenger train yard from 2 to 4 tracks. Right now, what a mess! Sawdust everywhere, tools everywhere, loose track everywhere, cork, screws (not corkscrews), stray pieces of wood, etc., etc.

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.

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.