With the arrival of diesels many main-line railroads sold off their steam power and many of these locomotives found very productive new lives on other roads.The Elora Gorge & Eastern took advantage of this opportunity and purchased two classic steamers which have out-performed many of their diesel counterparts on the Leetown Division 

       

if the old paint on a plastic model is in good shape is it still necessary to remove the old paint before applying the new paint?

I had a couple of questions that I wanted to post here, then I remember back when someone would ask a question on a train forum and invariably, someone would reply, “hey, are you too lazy to look it up? Just Google it fool.” I don’t every remember seeing that kind of response on Big Blue or it’s predecessors. One of my questions was about the capacity of an Auto Carrier car; there is a vehicle staging yard that I drive by almost every day and frequently see some 50 empties waiting on one track to be picked up. There are several more tracks with empties and a bunch of cars inside the fence being unloaded. I’m guessing maybe 150 cars in all on any given day. Anyway, I decided to do a Google search first, and sure enough, I got my answer. Then, a few days ago I was watching a show on TV and it answered my second question, “how long can a train be?” I could have asked these questions here and I’m sure I would have answers within a short time, but it was fascinating to find that this information was lying around and I could have tripped over it if I wasn’t careful. The one thing that attracted me to these forums back when I started in the hobby, was that regardless of how simple or how often a question had been answered, someone would always jump in to help. The one thing I didn’t get from either Google or the TV was the good feeling or the little smile that goes along with reading an answer on Big Blue. So although those trolls may have been right, it really wasn’t the best answer.

What’s my point? Well, you can always find the answer to your question somewhere, but you miss out on the camaraderie, genuineness and friendship if you don’t ask on train forums where trolls may lurk, but don’t dare challenge. Thank you all for your participation, your insight, your knowledge and most of all, your friendly smiles....

Oh, the answers I got:
1. A two-tier car can hold around eight trucks, vans or full-size SUV’s, while a three-tier car can hold up to fifteen automobiles, depending the type. That means there could be between 1500 and 2000 vehicles on this lot awaiting distribution to parts of Arizona, which is why I was curious in the first place. That’s a lot of new cars.

2. A 1.6 mile consist with 240 iron ore cars in Canada is the longest pull in North America on record, and they’re doing it several times a day with two EMD F40’s and a mid-consist helper. The load is 24,000 tons.

Posted with a smile....

If you had to restart the hobby from ground zero knowing what you know now what would you do?
Would you:
A: Choose another era? All steam? All early diesel? Both? The 60s? 70s? 80s? 90s? Today?
B. Downsize your "dream" layout and use the "kiss" method?
C. Prototype or freelance?
D. Go with how you currently model?
----------------------------------------------
For me:
A. I would model the 60s or if freelanced 1958/59.. 
B. I would stick with industrial switching layouts..
C. This is a tough question for me to answer. While I like and did model the C&O, I always had a secret desire to model either the U.P or M.P-I like M.Ps Jenks Blue scheme.
D. No way! I would cut out the multi road names and return to my roots-one road name prototype or freelance.
As far as freelance I would stay with Summerset Ry with a twist.. I would use two Atlas RS-1s for motive power since the era would be 58/59.. What can I say? I like those West India Fruit & Steamship boxcars with the railroad car ferry on the side.
I would without a doubt keep Kiss in mind and probably stay with simple DC operation since I still enjoy using my Control Master 2 or Control Master 20.
 
 

WPMA-40 works Pier 32W.

Bruce

   

Just leaving on the next train.       Charlie

A true adventure yesterday (09/10) watching trains with a couple of good friends---thankfully we didn't get too lost and I managed to get everyone home safe at the end of a long day---here's some of the action along the way.Hopefully our luck will continue today as we're heading out shortly to catch some more trains---at least today I know where we're going.

                   

A Conrail SW1500 switches Pier 34.

Bruce

   

A few months ago we held several auctions as a way to celebrate our 10th anniversary and to help support the Big Blue Train Forums. We also said we have a few more things coming. We do, we have yet another Doctorwayne decorated HO car. We decide that we'd wait until now to present this so as those folks that were away on vacation would have an opportunity to bid. Remember, we have kept our promise of no ads and no sponsors and so, this is one way to help get the much-needed funds to keep us going, but a way to give something back in return. We're opening an auction of a hand-painted and detailed Big Blue Trains HO scale decorated boxcar. The car has been stripped, repainted in Big Blue colors, decorated in our Anniversary scheme and clear-coated. Along with the new Big Blue logo, it has the “10th Anniversary Special” lettering. Also, note that this car has a unique number that will not appear on any other Big Blue or BB&G rolling stock. We will leave any weathering to its new owner if they think it’s appropriate, or, Doctorwayne has offered to do the weathering if asked. This car, we hope, will become treasured and be a show of pride for your membership and support of the Big Blue Train Forums.

Now, let’s get started. We are offering this HO scale car BBT201910 to the highest bidder. Here are the bidding rules:

1. There is no minimum bid and no reserve, the highest bidder at the time the auction closes will get the car.
   
2. Please keep you bid raises in increments of at least fifty cents and preferably a dollar or more.
   
3. You can bid publicly by posting it in this thread. This thread is for bidding only; any comments or questions should be made in this thread or by PM to either ezdays or ngauger. Non-bid posts will be deleted from this thread.
   
4. If you want to enter an anonymous bid (just like the rich and famous do), you can PM either ezdays or ngauger and we will bid on your behalf, (we will post the bid amount, but keep your name confidential, just like at those big auction houses). You may also want to give us the maximum you would want to go and we’ll bid for you by adding one dollar above the last bid, up the maximum that you have set, again, just like Christie’s does for the big boys.
   
5. The auction will run until October15th, at which time we will announce the winner and ship the car to them.
   
6. The successful bidder will pay all shipping costs. Remember, the car will be shipping from Canada.
   
7. Payment can be by PayPal, check or MO. We will give the winner instructions on how and where to pay.
   

We're moving house (again) and before we do that I've decided to cut down on my rather large collection of Model Railroad, Railroad, Railroad Paper (Working TIme Tables, Employee Timetable and other interesting Railroading paperwork), and general modelling books

There are about 100 items up for sale. Some very rare.

There is a POST describing the sale workings, and the main page with all the book covers scanned and described for you.

Any questions, please use the contact form on the page. I'm off on holidays this week so I'll get back to you sharpish (depending on time zone of course).