The KP&W's RDC

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Chris Gilbert, a UK modeler who posts here, redid the Alaska layout he posted about on this site as a Florida Tri-Rail station. This, of course, is a long-and-narrow, freestanding for exhibitions, but it could be a shelf. His friend Nick Palette has done something very similar with GO Transit equipment on a layout he calls Northpoint <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nick.palette/Gallery.html">http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nick.palette/Gallery.html</a><!-- m --> It seems to me that push-pull equipment ought to lend itself very well to small layouts.

That Northpoint layout looks pretty good! I wish they sold American commuter models as well detailed as some of the European ones, like the yellow and black one about midway through the page. The Athearn Bombardier Bi-Levels are pretty good, but after that they start getting kind of devoid of detail. Many of the more modern cars are smooth sided, but sometimes I'm not sure the models do them justice.

I definitely agree that Push-pull commuter trains probably deserve more attention on model railroads. Short consists aren't unheard of, and they don't ever need to be "turned". They make a good replacement for the RDC (indeed, the prototype RDCs started fading away just as the original purpose-built Push-Pulls arrived).

Yet, the never seem to get mentioned more than VERY briefly in most modeling publications. Heck, you can get away with some fairly short consists.

Actually, I'm tempted to try to resuscitate a thread on one or another of these forums to discuss passenger modeling. A lot of the most active guys several years ago seem to have gone to graduate school and then started careers, so they don't seem to be as active as they used to be. I designed a fair amount of passenger operation into my current layout -- I haven't taken as much advantage of the possibilities I've built in, partly for want of encouragement!

I was thinking about doing the same. Passenger train modeling beyond a few select trains and "terminal" operations almost never gets discussed.