Thats awesome Ken.  I hope im still around 30 years from now with something similar to show off.

Wow! It was worth the wait.
It was a Canadian Pacific passenger train. It was headed by a 4-6-4 Hudson #2816 with a pair of tenders. It was followed by one the boxy diesels, then a pair back to back F "A" units and bunch of passenger cars.
2816 was first retired in the 1960's and sold. CP reacquired it in 1998.
It was refurbished and put into service in 2001 for excursions. That program was discontinued in 2012 and it was stored at CP's Headquarters since then.
CP and KC Southern merged in 2023 and 2816 was just put back into service in Spring of 2024.

 

I wonder what's fixing to come by. A bunch of people with cameras are waiting.
I thought maybe it was the Amtrak but it passed and they  are still there. I am hoping for something of a steaming nature. I can't see people gathering just to watch diesels.
The tower guy keeps shifting the camera toward the East and watching that way.

Here's a long shot view of the tracks.

If you want to watch live trains all day, this is a busy spot. This is a live feed from Tower 26 in Houston, Texas. I've been watching it for a couple of days.
It seems like at least a couple of trains an hour pass through.
Sometimes there is an operator in the tower who pans and zoom the camera. I saw him do that earlier when there was a train going through the "S' that is out of view camera now. Maybe it is done remotely. I don't know.
The view is looking West and slightly North.

Thanks for the help.

It might be helpful if you said what loco you have in mind. Perhaps someone here has already done it. It is a diesel or steam?

You can move the gaps further away from the switch if you want. I prefer having them closer to the switch.

Len

When I first went DCC I did a cost/benefit analysis of existing systems at the time (2004.) EZ Command at the time came with a locomotive and was around $100, half the cost of the Digitrax Zephyr I ended up purchasing. It has since gone up in price to be only slightly cheaper than a new Zephyr. Dynamis seemed to me to be significantly more expensive than the other systems, which is why I didn't get one. At the time, I bought a DCC OnBOard locomotive for my son to run. I was impressed enough with it to take a second look at the rest of Bachmann's offerings. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were at least as good as the Athearns I already had, and much easier to convert to DCC. While I don't have an exact number, I now own approximately 50 Bachmann locomotives.

Quote from: trainman203 on May 24, 2024, 09:52:57 AMPutting the iron through a plastic shell was basically a joke.

But. Fill me in.  I've not been very aware of availability of separate DCC only Decoders without sound, and a separate sound only decoder. If that's the case, can one piggyback a sound only decoder onto an existing Silent DCC Decoder.  Please elaborate on this for my enlightenment.

WHile I was specifically referring to the added complexity of adding a speaker and the associated hassle of finding a location, which may require a complete disassembly of the locomotive and milling of the chassis in some cases, yes there are separate add on "decoders" which can add sound to a non sound decoder. Digitrax calls them Sound Bugs, and they can be added to any decoder that is set up to accommodate them.