I discussed these maps lately in another thread, fire insurance maps updated periodically for very many communities that happen to show railroad trackwork existing at the time.

I am fascinated by these maps and saddened also because nearly all the trackwork shown in these maps circa 1950 is gone today, graphically documenting the decline in rail traffic and its  everyday importance to local commerce.

These maps are great resources in designing layout switching facilities and types of industries.  Nothing quite as good as looking at the prototype! 

Has anyone else consulted these maps? What have you found?  I found in looking at 1909 maps of my hometown that lumber-related facilities like sawmills and planing mills were once a major player for the railroads there at the time. Their disappearance coincided with the nearly complete logging out of virgin Cypress Forest in the area in the 1920's.  The 1909 maps explain to me for the first time why there were a couple of spurs that, when I was living there 50 years later,  were abandoned and had no explanation for their existence.  I also now have a very strong reason to believe that Cypress lumber was a big reason that the (later) Missouri Pacific branch was built at all in that very same year.

It was an entirely different world .  The railroads were everything to everyday life

https://youtu.be/YDk9EtOR8JI?si=2xRFwrS5ZH0Pevtt

Society's views were different.  Be prepared and understand the times.

The railroad action shots are priceless.  I remember nearly all of this just a few years later. When I was little the railroads were still the biggest deal in the country pretty much.

Plastic or die cast?

1.  Consolidate
2.  Mogul

Safety film on the Missouri Pacific on the late 1940s.

My favorite Railroad, my favorite time period.  The railroads were perfect art form in those days.

Watch, and comment.  Several very interesting interesting things are seen that I'll discuss later.

https://youtu.be/8ZgoSfD0TVM?si=QkhBPpOeQkSP0Por

The Spectrum Richmond 4-4-0 that came in a black box had a multitude of spare parts like extra pilots and fuel loads for the tender, noticeably a very nice oil bunker.

The second version of the 4-4-0 came in either a blue box or a red box, depending on whether or not it was DCC.

My question is, did these blue and red box engines come with an oil bunker? It shows on the parts diagram, but in looking through all the parts I collected after buying a number of these engines, I can only find enough of those oil bunkers to address the Richmond engines I bought.  it's been such a very long time now since I bought those I can't remember what all came with them. I could use at least a dozen of those bunkers on different engines.  If could confirm that I really got them I'll keep looking. But it's the classic deal with putting them in a safe place that was so safe that it's too safe and now they can't be found.

I'd previously seen that an N scale Frisco 2-8-0 was going to be offered, but today's email from the Bach Man did not include it.  What gives here?  Was production cut short?

I have one and the whistle selection is really good.  There are at least five out of 15 that I like, setting a record, I usually don't like that large of a percentage in any decoder selection.

However, I don't know what they are called. Could I get the Bach Man to please post a numerically ordered list of each Whistle by name?  Many thanks in advance.  Normally Soundtraxx posts this information on their website, but this particular engine is not shown yet there.

PS.  The Whistle choices on the N scale Hudson as per the Soundtraxx web site are the best yet, I like all but two. The problem is that I am never going to get a N scale Hudson.  It wouldn't hurt to use that particular whistle Library on all of your Econami equipped engines! At least as far as I'm concerned!

Has there been a second run of the consolidation lettered for Southern Railway?  Particularly with Econami decoder, instead of the previous sound value decoder.

I just bought a consolidation lettered for Santa Fe number 2525.  It came with an Econami decoder, which is a big improvement over the previous sound value. But there is no indication on the box that there's a different decoder, it just says sound value, even though an Econami is in the engine.  If there has been another run of the southern railway version of this engine, and if it has the Econami, I would like to know how I could be certain if I bought one that it would contain the Econami decoder.

Almost unknown, but great. One of my favorites.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fo4FbJhGFPE&pp=ygUpRnJvbSBOZXcgWW9yayB0byBOZXcgT3JsZWFucyBQZWUtd2VlIGtpbmc%3D

I'm about to acquire a Missouri Pacific 2-8-0 from way back in the Jurassic period.  I'd like to know if the present edition of the 2-8-0 has an improved motor over the motors from these engines made at least 25 years ago.  If the present motors are that much better, I'll get a sacrificial donor new one at sale price and put my MP shells on it.

When a DC power pack started being called a "controller."  Or even DCC power sources like the EZ command.

Some people with very large layouts run very long trains, and need a lot of cars to fill out such a train. I've always modeled a branch line and never had a whole lot of space to start with, so I have always run short trains, nine cars is long for me.  And the most cars my layout can hold is about 30.

When I first started model railroading, I bought cars based on low price and didn't look at the detail quality. Then I started looking at more expensive, but better detailed cars, and went WOW despite the higher price, these look so much better with the finer details such as scale sized stirrups and ladders and separately applied details.

For a while I redetailed the lesser detailed cars with better stirrups and brakewheel and such, and upgraded their performance with Kadee couplers and metal wheels, but they still didn't look as good as the better but more expensive cars, so I slowly got rid of a large number of relative toylike appearing cars in favor of much fewer with enhanced realism.

At this point, I can say for myself, that all the money I spent on couplers, wheels, and details could have been better spent on a few more better detailed cars. 

The downside of these beautiful cars is that they are very fragile compared to cheaper cars. They cannot take handling by children or frequent loading and offloading onto the layout.  They may not be for you. 

1. I see that there is a new N scale consolidation lettered for Frisco. Will there be one in HO? Please note that the tender numerals are a little too large and a little too close together.

2.  Will we get a HO Southern Railway consolidation with a different road number besides 630? Again, note that the tender numerals are little too close together.

3.  Will we one day get an HO Frisco 2-8–2 with a different number besides 4027? And will it come with Econami sound? Also, the rectangular number plate under the headlight is erroneous, it should be the Frisco "coonskin" design. It was done correctly on the decapod and on the light 4–8–2 of many years ago, it would be nice to have the rest of the Frisco engines done properly as well

As I've said many times in the past, one of the big things was unfortunately omitted from sound value decoders was CV 113, the one that keeps the engine quiet when first powered up until moved, then shuts the sound off after a time interval selected by the user. The blower and air pump just keep whirring all the time when you first turn it on, very annoying when all your other engines are still quiet.

It occurred to me that you could solve this aggravation by turning down the volumes of the blower and the air pump.  It worked. CV 132 is the air pump volume. CV 134 is the blower volume. I turned both down to a value of five. You can barely hear them, but you know they're there and they're not overpowering everything else around it.

Try it out and report back.

Part 8 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - wrap-up

You have to look very hard today to find anyone interested in branchline model railroading, especially modeling such railroading in the entirely steam era. I know, I've looked. I only know of one other guy on the entire Gulf Coast who is. If you're looking for heavy, exciting mainline action, it's not for you.  But, as far as fitting relatively realistic operation onto a small model railroad, you're never going to get a Big Boy or the Super Chief looking very realistic on a 4 x 8 layout, or even anything a good bit bigger.

 You can, however, create a reasonable facsimile of small time railroading in such spaces.  But it is not the first choice of almost everyone entering model railroading.

First of all, small time railroading just does not have the kinetic appeal of the big time operations. Secondly, many, if not most, old-fashioned short lines and branchlines are long, long gone today, so there is no first-hand witness to these operations anymore, although there is somewhat of a resurgence in modern short lines that often are the result of local businesses purchasing a soon to be abandoned branch to retain rail service at their facility.  Personally, I don't find the same appeal in these modern operations as I do in the short lines and branches of 75 years ago with steam power, outdated rundown equipment, and weed grown track.  But that's just me. I was lucky to be raised in a town with not one, but two branchlines, both very fine prototypes to model. And they are both gone today.  If there's anyone interested in modern short line modeling, I'd like to hear about it. Thirdly, the few people I've ever known that have re-created short line and branch line operations have been model railroading a very long time, and have matured into more realistic aspirations about their space available. Or, like me, were witness to these now-disappeared operations. On small layouts with sharp curves and switches, small steam engines like 10 wheelers and consolidations just look a heck of a lot better and more realistic than  giant modern excursion-era steam and full-length passenger cars.

Part of my motivation to detail a typical train trip on my layout was to show that very realistic operations can be duplicated on a small layout.  You don't even need a loop of track.  I have a 50 foot long point-to-point main line with two terminals and two intermediate communities. That's longer than some layouts, but a whole lot shorter than many larger ones where prototypical operations are typically conducted.

Prototype operations have a lot more detail than is needed to merely make a model train roll, but if you have knowledge of what the prototype really does, you can incorporate some parts of it into your own operation.  My own experiences working on an operational steam locomotive 40 years ago are invaluable, but this knowledge can be found online.  Advanced DCC decoders like the tsunami2–2 have multiple functions that give you a gateway to some of the prototypical functions of a steam locomotive.  Cylinder cocks, wheel slip, coupler crash, Johnson bar are only some of them. There are others I still need to educate myself how to use, such as dynamic digital exhaust, and engine/train braking. 

Plus, knowledge of rules of the road is good to have.  I have a friend who is a retired SP engineer who unsuccessfully (and regrettably for me) tried to get me to go to work for the Southern Pacific almost 50 years ago.  Many long conversations with him gave me much great insight, as well as model railroaders who had railroad experience.  Rulebooks are good to have if you can get through them.  The ones I had for the Houston Division of the SP were like a mid-sized city telephone directory.

Obviously, not everyone is going to dig this deep into actual railroading to simply operate their train and relax.  You can always do that. Before I retired, nothing relaxed me from the workday more than doing simple switching moves for an hour or so on the layout, with a TV show going in the background. But if you choose, you can immerse yourself and completely lose yourself in prototypical operations.

I hope my little series has provided enjoyment for a few people in their model railroad journey. Comments are welcome.

My friend has one of the high boiler 10 wheelers that Bachmann discontinued many long years ago. This one had not run in years, 10 or 12 at least.

I provided a full service lubrication on all rods with light oil and on the driver gear with some Labella light grease, very small applications of each. Plus, a droplet of oil on each axle bearing.

Running forward, performance is perfect, smooth as silk and purring like a kitten. In reverse, performance is smooth, but there is an intermittent snag that cannot be predicted when it will happen. It is, however, always at the same point of the driver revolution. Sometimes it catches hard enough to stop the engine .

The only thing is, though, when you block the engine up to spin the wheels in reverse in traditional time-tested run-in method, the snag disappears. The wheel spin, just as smoothly and perfectly when blocked up as when running forward.

I know for certain that the problem is between the driver axle gear and the worm gear. Some type of axle slack is allowing it to be pushed up too firmly into the worm gear when the engines weight  pushes it up. I am very reluctant to disassemble this engine to look at this problem head on. 

Has anyone else ever had this happen before? If so, what did you do about it? Please report. This engine is nowhere to be found used anywhere anymore, so we can't replace it. Besides, it is a beautifully done custom decal job.

Part 7 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - on into Thunder Grove

Note:  all DCC references are for operation with an NCE pro cab running steam engines with tsunami 2–2 decoders.

The Midland Western is a subsidiary of the Gulf Coast Lines, operated by both the Missouri Pacific and the Frisco.  The year is 1940.

While the two brakemen walk the train length in preparation for departure from Donna Pass, checking the couplers and the air hose connections, the engineer is on the ground walking around the engine, oiling around all the valve, gear and rods. The fireman is in the cab, rebuilding the fire and building up a head of steam for the last few miles. The cross-compound air pump is busily thumping away, building the air, brake line pressure up to service level.

Once all the checking of everything is complete, the brakemen return to their assigned locations and the engineer climbs up into the cab.  He opens the cylinder cocks (F4) and sounds two shorts on the ATSF six chime whistle to announce departure. The engine slowly begins to roll forward, and after 10 seconds, the hogger closes the cylinder cocks (F4.) As the engine rolls over some wet leaves, the drivers slightly slip (F19.) The train approaches a gravel road grade crossing, and the hogger sounds the appropriate warning on the six chime - two longs, short, and a long.

Thunder Grove is only 8 miles to the west, and the downgrade trip does not require the Johnson bar to be notched all the way back  (F5, 3 taps). As the train approaches town, the track begins a long, slow turn to the south. The hogger blows a single long blast on the six chime, announcing approach to the station which is actually the Midland Western general office building, a converted former two-story wood frame house painted in standard railroad yellow with brown trim.

The train smoothly drifts to a stop with the caboose in front of the office building, and the passengers hurriedly jump down from the caboose and run to Hattie's Hotel and Bar, next door to the office building, for liquid refreshment after bouncing around in the caboose for 20 miles over the poorly maintained weedy Midland Western track. While the brakemen are unloading the LCL freight from the side door caboose, the engine uncouples from the train,  and pulls up past the southernmost switch on the Midland Western.  It then backs up around the train on the run around track to pick up the caboose and shove it down to the southern end of the single yard track, since there is no luxury of a caboose track in Thunder Grove.

With this final task done, the the road crew is relieved by a yard crew that has been waiting at the office building. They will sort the cars in the yard and switch the several railroad customers and Frisco, interchange in Thunder Grove. It has taken almost 8 hours to get the train over the 20 miles of Midland Western track, so the crew also heads to Hattie's, where over liquid refreshment they will tell and retell yet another time the stories and legends of the Midland Western ... the dramatic downgrade runaway from Donna Pass, and particularly the great Midland Tragedy of generations ago.

Most of us got involved with trains and railroads as children, many with electric trains, others by living close to the railroads and seeing trains pass. Your age has a lot to do with what you saw and what brought you into this pastime that brings us together.

This is a place to relive those memories and share them with us. I've got a lot to say here, but I've got to gather my stories together.  I'll let a couple other people lead off first.

I may have done this on the old forum. If, so, forgive me, I slip sometimes.

Log in and comment if your layout is strictly all – steam locomotives. I'm talking about Standard Gauge Railroading the way it was was in the mid 1930's or so.  No diesels on your rail, period. Yes, I know there were a few diesel-powered streamliners around in the mid-1930s. They are not a discussion issue.

I'm also not counting narrow gauge railroading like in Colorado which is nearly always all steam.  I am interested in those folks that model classic American golden – age railroading before diesels appeared. People like me, who don't run one single diesel, ever. I suspect the list will be pretty short.

Question for the Bach Man:

What sound system will the next group of Pacifics have? Soundtraxx sound value? Or TCS Wow sound?