Grand Trunk 3711 (Schenectady - Oct. 11, 1918) on the turntable at Lowbanks. She's currently on lease to parent CNR, and has just arrived from Leetown. After some light maintenance, she'll head down to a new assignment at Port Union:





Accompanying her will be a couple of Port Union locos, also here for servicing. The 8119 is recently acquired from the B&O...



...while sister 8117, also ex-B&O, has been here before:



Wayne

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.carendt.com/small-layout-scrapbook/page-118-june-2015/">http://www.carendt.com/small-layout-scr ... june-2015/</a><!-- m -->

Hey guys,

Before you burn me at the stake for rivet counting or anything, I want to point out that this isn't about criticizing people. Its a little more complicated.

I was at an open house, when a friend of one of my club members came up to us and started talking about the FL9 locomotives. Apparently, he had worked on rebuilding these engines in the 1980s.

From what I know, the FL9s were rebuilt around that time to be function on the LIRR "under-running" third rail so they could operate into Penn Station, but truthfully, this is something I know little about.

Before I could even ask about this however, he began insisting that before he worked on them, the FL9 was only Diesel powered. This simply is not the case, they were purpose built this way in the 1960s to run into Grand Central Terminal.

At this point, I'm stuck. If I tried to ask my question, I'd have to correct him or otherwise point out he was wrong, which makes me look like a jerk. Or I could just shut up, not learn anything, and be generally shut down.


I figure this is a difficult situation to resolve.

Hey guys,

It may be worth dusting off the cobwebs in the "traction modeling" section, but I am curious if anyone here has experience with it.

At my club, their is a possibility of putting in a trolley. At this point, its seeming unlikely, since there may not be enough time to do it. That said, I was able to establish that a dogbone-style run through our city streets was potentially viable.


My main concern is the track, however. the Girder rail seems to be a different animal than the usual HO tracks. From what I can tell, there is either this "ORR" rail that I would have to hand-lay, or there is the "Proto:87" track, which is actually a flat piece of metal with a groove cut into either side (the top is the flangeway, the bottom is a locating groove).

Either one seems intimidating and expensive.

Any advice on getting started?

Right now I only have an unpowered IHP Kawasaki LRV, but I plan to pick up a few of the local philadelphia prototypes if I get the chance. there are a few SEPTA and PTC "PCC" type units out there, and some resin models of the Red Arrow Double-ended PCCs.

While looking over Railway Age Magazine ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railwayage.com/">http://www.railwayage.com/</a><!-- m --> ) I came across a interesting outside of the box transload operation on the Greenville & Western Railway. They transload and store heavy machinery.

All that is needed is a switch and a piece of flex track and a unloading dock and crane for unloading buckets,beds and other optional machinery . The equipment can be stored off layout or one could park some equipment along the edge of the layout.

See: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/freight/short-lines/short-line-opens-machinery-distribution-hub.html?channel=46">http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/fre ... channel=46</a><!-- m -->

The best part this industry could be used in any era that has heavy machinery.

To my mind any industry outside of the normal layout industry box is interesting and maybe a tad exciting..

Well, The chat room has been active a bit now, so, I guess it's time to start a poll....

If you are interested in forming a chat group --- an Informal chat group, please reply here and we'll see what we can do.

Informal: You do not have to participate every week. If you are busy, fine, just stop by when you can. There are no serious obligations.

What we need to decide:
What night(s) -- Preferably 1 or 2 nights a week. 1 week night and 1 weekend night or maybe only just one night a week.

What time of night?....and time zone? We used to have the chat a few nights a week, around 10:00 Eastern That's 7:00 PM Pacific, but it's also 3:00 am in London
So, maybe we could have 2 or 3 chats at different times for members in different countries.

What do you think? Reply with a day and time you would be available to chat and we'll see what we can get together. As always the chat room has the same PG rating as the main board, but no single member has to run a chat. Just meet up in the chat room and talk. Yes, you can use your mobile device to chat too, just watch your battery usage

WPMA-40 works the pier.

Bruce

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