A rundown on the past week's activities - The 90-day inspection is complete on
the RS-1's, so they are back in service at Terminal District and Mooar Yard.
#30 was MU'd to 50A-52B when that set was turned on the wye for the outbound
freight train.
Non DCC-equipped SW-1 #22 began stubbing its toe on the back elevator track
switch, concurrent with the appearance of Don T's photo on the Yahoo Home Page,
so it is sidelined pending investigation and repair. RS-1 #33 is pinch-hitting
as The Humongous Company switcher until that problem is resolved.
FP-7 #12A has entered the paint shop after a general overhaul and is only
awaiting its stripes before being released, at which time #12C will go in for
its 90-day.
The Symatico throttle still has not shown up. The vendor agrees that it has
taken way too much time to get here, so he packed up a new one and sent it out.
I'm still waiting for it to show up I don't know whether the problem can be
traced to the Canadian version of the TSA or plain ol' USPS ineptitude, but I
have faith the situation will be resolved. I have found someone to rebuild my
RIX throttle and look to have it back within a week or so. Now time is pressing
me to get that Mt Zion dispatcher panel in by the time of the proposed SHABBONA
open house in April.
The passenger trains have been running on there normal schedules, using the GML
throttle (#4) and the old Troller (#1). The switch engines have been busy
shuffling cars in the yards, while the Terminal District enginehouse has been
lining up power for outbound trains. I still wish I had room for a reverse loop
at Terminal District so I could run trains through to Des Moines and have them
return to TD, but the current setup is working fine and will probably continue
to do so - I'm just not in the mood for major layout renovations. Besides, if I
did that, the TD yard engine wouldn't have anything to do, but it would be a
nice change in operations. I could probably re-institute intermediate terminal
caboose changes at TD, something I had initially planned on establishing,
anyway. Anybody want to come around and excavate the basement area under my
back bedroom? Be good exercise.
I was reading where someone was reminiscing about the good o;' days with the LV
group where everybody helped dig out someone's basement for model railroad
construction and I was thinking, "Does anybody do those things anymore?"
Unfortunately, such activity is out of my realm now, especially since I have
health issues to worry about, but it is something I would have enjoyed "back in
the day". The closest I ever came to that was helping a friend dig up a sewer
tile that a Chinese Elm had plugged with roots after we exhausted all
possibility that his young son had tried to flush a diaper down the toilet
(considering that this was mid-November, and the temperature dropped faster
than the setting sun at sundown, we were beginning to wish that had been the
case - railroad content; we had spent some time earlier that day tuning up a
Hobbytown diesel for his HO loop of track).
Anyway, the way things stand now, arriving passenger trains pull into the coach
yard, the engine escapes through the far end and goes to the turntable lead
where the hostler takes over and turns it for the outbound train, then the yard
engine comes in behind the train and switches out cars that have to be turned,
and takes them to the turntable to do that, one at a time, then takes them back
and lines up the next outbound passenger train. This is an interesting activity
since I have devised a method of locking the turntable while running equipment
on and off of it. I'm still wondering if an E8 would fit on the turntable. If
you've read this far, your eyelids are probably getting heavy, so I'll wrap
this up (for now)
"S"tring boB
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
