Hi

this has bugged me for a while. Not being too familiar with north american locomotives when I first saw the cab forward I was quite intreiged. The benefits of having the cab at the front are fairly obvious, but I'm struggling to figure out how the coal from the tender was transfered all the way up into the firebox. Somehow I doubt if the fireman was made to climb all the way along the length of the loco with shovelfulls!

If anyone can set me straight that would be appreciated.

Thanks
Dan

I have a few HO locos from, Bachmann, the J 4-8-4, a Berkshire plus a couple of smaller ones, a Proto 2000 2-10-2 and some British Hornby. My son has a few of the Bachmann Thomas Range. Who's the strongest puller? Spencer!

In fear of upsetting a few people here I can't help but think this thread may be a little unfair to Zachary. One of the unfortunate things about communicating solely through written words is you gain little or no insight into the author unless they specifically tell you about themselves. It occurs to me that Zach may suffer from some sort of dissability in which case his ability to communicate with us should be commended rather than ridiculed.

I hope that if this is the case he doesn't feel too offended or humiliated and can come back to the forum for help getting the maximum enjoyment from the hobby.

Innocent until proven guilty?

Just my 2c.

Dan

In which case the course for you would be the one Ray found, the Modec Rail academy, and not the Penn State course.

Best of luck, you'd be living the dream of many.
Dan

Cody,

it's never too early to think about what career you want. Be careful about the meaning of the word 'Engineer' here though. Normally (at least here in the US) when the words engineer and train are used in the same sentence it is refering to the person who actually drives the train. However according to the Merriam Webster's collegiate dictionary, engineering is defined as the 'application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people'.

The new Penn State course you found is essentially civil engineering with a railroad twist (the science and math stuff in other words). So what you need to do is figure out for yourself if you want to drive trains or build railroads. Then you need to investigate what you need to do for the rest of your time in school in order to accomplish this. If you want to go down the math and science route, obviously math and science may be a little more important.

Don't forget about mechanical engineering also. That could easily lead into designing and building locomotives and rolling stock.

Oh, and life is never just work, so also think about what Ray said, driving trains is not as family friendly as other careers. You could be away from home for long stretches at a time.

Good luck.
Dan

This is my son and I riding in the cupola on the caboose at Strasburg Railroad Day out with Thomas about a year ago.

Last year in the UK a group of steam enthusiasts completed the first brand new steam engine in, well quite a while. It was built using original designs for the A1 Pacific. Since it's completion it has been run all over the country on enthusiast excursions etc.

See the link below for a recent story.................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8428097.stm

Think we might have found the modern train's Achilles heal.

Yeah, hindsight is 20/20! I had run in a couple of times on a lower table, thought I'd got the hang of it, moved it up to this one so the in-laws could see it (mother in law can't get down the basement steps) and wahey! Off we went. D'oh.

Yes, the Hornby website states you can get in excess of 20 minutes run time out of one filling and it's true. I think I had it just run around in circles for close to half an hour on one run. Not bad for ~ 25ml of water. The loco is a model of the British class A4 pacific 'Mallard'. Holder of the world speed record for a steam train of 126mph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4468_Mallard

Dan

The lights are basically valve position indicators. The train is controlled by a single valve which you put either in forward, stop or reverse. The red light is on when the valve is in the closed position, the green light is on when the valve is in an open position (forward or reverse). You can vary the speed by adjusting how far the valve is open, but there is no indicator showing this, you just see open or closed. Sufficient pressure is indicated by the pressure relief valve on top 'blowing' periodically, which you can see/hear on the video.

It takes some practice to control, and that along with the loco needing to be run in when new resulted in the answer to your next question Jim, no I haven't had it pull any cars yet! That's because while I was still learning how to run it, and before the reversing mechanism had loosened up I managed to get it to shoot off in reverse at warp speed resulting in a bit of a canyon dive. Fortunately the only casualty was the coupler on the back of the tender which I can fix.

It may be a while before I can fix it though as I haven't found a US supplier carrying the couplers, I may have to get them sent from the UK.

Dan

Addition, make sure you have your sound up for best effect.

Dan

Jim

I did have it running on the dining room table there for a while. Click on the picture it will take you to the video on photobucket.

It's OO scale, HO gauge, made by Hornby. Takes a little practice to run, requires a special controller which would destroy a normal 12V locomotive. It's great fun!

Dan

Ok, I did it. bought the Hornby Live Steam Mallard set. I was going to get the Flying Scotsman, but the price was too high for me right now.

See video below

Wahoo!

Trying to post a picture for the first time. Let's see if this works....

Eric

I'm not really sure how big the layout will be in the end. I've built a 10' * 8' table with a duck under to the center (it's basically an 8' * 4' with a 2' wide extension running out from one end and back to the other end). It's in the basement, which is unfinished right now. I should finish the basement before I get too far with the layout so I don't have to do the layout too much damage in order to finish the basement (that should also win points with the wife also!). It may not get any bigger than the 10' * 8' thing, but knowing me when I finally get to building it properly it will probably all change.

Dan