It's too bad that, in the face of a disaster like this, parties with an axe to grind are more interested in finger-pointing and placing blame than finding reasons.  That the engineer would be blamed is not surprising, as he is the most visible individual.

AMTRAK spends huge amounts of money on the Northeast Corridor, supposedly even makes money there.  But the knee-jerk reaction is for AMTRAK to spend even more money there.  Even so, most of the rest of the country goes without trains or with only one.  Proposals to add more trains in the hinterland are met with howls of pain from advocates of the NE Corridor.

As a retired locomotive engineer, I understand the tendency to make him a whipping boy.  All kinds of terrible life-wrecking punishments can be leveled at him.  But if in fact the wreck was not his fault, nothing will be gained by destroying this person.  The underlying cause of the accident will remain, and the act will be repeated with a different cast.

Les

I suspect your problem was due to exposure of the higher continuous voltage provided by the DCC system.

In DCC, the track carries a continuous voltage of about 18v. AC.  The DCC decoder in the locomotive converts this to a variable DC voltage of around 12v.  This DC power may be half-wave AC, I don't know.

The light bulbs in your cars were designed to operate at a maximum of 12v.  You may be able to install a resistor in the cars to lower the voltage going to the lights, or power the lights with a self-contained power source (battery).

Les

I think a discussion of how to defeat a loco safety system is inappropriate.  In American practice the use of deadman pedals is outmoded.  One problem was that they had to be depressed continuously.

Another dead passenger has been found.  This is indeed a tragic event.  I have lost friends in accidents of this type.  About the best outcome is to find out what actually happened so repeats can be avoided.  For the victims, it is too late already.

My sympathies go out to those involved, and to the Bachmann staff for having their neighborhood impacted by this event.

Les

It would depend on the type of train involved.  Run-through freights especially would carry a caboose from a connecting railroad sometimes.

When I worked for railroads in the Midwestern US, local freights would often operate with the same crew everyday.  In these instances, especially if they were "turns" (returning to the same terminal every day), cabooses would actually be assigned to individual conductors.  Woe to anyone who roughly handled or used another conductor's caboose!  Those cabooses would always belong to the operating railroad.

In the modern era, caboose use is unusual.  Examples would be the ATSF caboose used by the BNSF on a local freight out of Dodge City, KS; or cabooses used as cars to ride on when making long shoving moves.

In the early years of the merger era, when equipment from merged railroads were pooled, cabooses from merger partners would wind up on the other partners' trains.

Les

Several months after I built my model railroad, I began to have problems with my EZ-Trak switches not throwing when I activated the control box (as illustrated in an above post).  Turned out the problem was not in the track switch, but was corrosion on the three aluminum contact tabs on the bottom of the control box.  After I cleaned them with a spray contact cleaner, the problem went away and has not returned after several years.

I think the problem was caused by a gas water heater in the same room.  I also replaced the water heater with a new one with electronic ignition instead of a pilot light.  Problem solved!

Les

Roger,

I can't personally tell if what you said about American vs. foreign practice of marketing model locomotives is true, but I think I know why that is likely the case.  Before the mega-mergers started eating up the smaller Class One Railroads, there were a great many railroads in this country, but only a very few manufacturers and models.  So it would stand to reason that a model manufacturer would market a handful of locomotives in a variety of paint schemes, geared to what would sell best, not to what is the most accurate.  This problem is worse with Diesel locomotives than with steam, that tended to be a least a bit individualistic.

For example, everyone's F-units looked pretty much alike.  So take a common prototype (F7?) and letter it for a bunch of common railroads, regardless of whether or not they used them.  The modeler can detail them to represent a particular railroad's units.

This isn't a matter of liking or not liking American railroads.  It is a good thing, because the more units sold, the stronger it makes the hobby for all of us.

Les

My initial "great inspiration" was John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid Railroad as featured in January 1969 MR.  This railroad would be considered a sort of caricature by today's "experts", but to me, it fairly blew me away.

John, a professional photographer, was very interested in realistic operations on his free-lanced model railroad set in Northern California.  It featured intense detailing and spectacular scenery.  It was definitely something to aspire to.  The article, as was later ones on the V&O, tracked the progress of a train around the railroad.

The V&O of Allen McCllenland was also a great inspiration as it appeared for several years in RMC.  I must admit I liked the earlier version of it better, with steam locomotives, first generation Diesels, and railroad-owned passenger trains.  Later versions featured closed stations and AMTRAK trains.

Frank Ellison was a little before my time, but I have read some of his writings.  His concept was that of a model railroad being a stage, and the trains as actors that came on and left.  I guess that is the general idea of my own model railroad.  Some trains are "prima donnas" (California Zephyr) and others are "understudies" (Billings Local).  By today's standards, both the G&D and Ellison's Delta Lines would be considered "spaghetti bowls" (maybe mine, too).  But that was the way things were built back then.  The V&O was more linear.

Ellison's railroad was built in O-scale, and his locomotives ran on outside third rail.  I don't know if it was AC or DC.  That was common in the 1940's. 

All these guys and more were inspiration to me and many others.  Others that come to mind are Whit Towers (Alturas and Lone Pine) and Eric Brooman (Utah Belt).  My railroad of 28 years, the West Central Nebraska, was inspired and based on David Winters'  Winter Park Regional Railroad.  This railroad began in Minnesota, traveled to South Dakota, Texas, and Mississippi, and wound up in West Central Nebraska!  The secret to its longevity was its good track plan and its small size.

Les

My railroad is based in Denver and never leaves town!

The N-scale Denver Union Terminal Railroad is based on my impressions of Denver passenger railroading when I discovered it in the 1960's.  Much of the "glory days" had already passed, but enough remained to capture my imagination and interest.  I fudged the era slightly back to 1959.

Denver Union Station sits front and center.  Six platform tracks (five are run-through) extend toward the viewer. Two tracks that served the Moffat Road station (not modeled) act as storage tracks for trains laying over.  Finally, a double-track main line fronts the layout.

All passenger trains that served the terminal in the decade before AMTRAK are modeled.  ATSF; CBQ; C&S; DRGW; RI; and UP.  MP is there too, but by the time their trains reached Denver, they were running as DRGW trains.

This gives me a nice mix of transcon streamliners and heavyweight, secondary locals.  Mail and express business is there too, and have their own tracks alongside the terminal building.  The view the operator sees is roughly what one would see from the South Platte River.  Cherry Creek is modeled too, but as a wild river, not the concrete-lined ditch that tamed it.

I use a sequence operation based on the operating cycle of the real thing.  Twenty arrivals and twenty departures scheduled (plus extras, of course).  All trains that existed in the prototype.

I have lots of people on my layout.  It is fun to imagine myself among them.

Three engine terminals support this operation.  Pullman (UP); Rice (ATSF, CBQ, C&S); and Burnham (D&RGW).
Control system is DC, with Atlas selectors and an MRC 2800 Dual Pack.  This is fed through a Kato Sound Box sound system which provides both sounds and momentum.  Two Bachmann trainset power packs control the turntables.  Turnouts are powered by the Bachmann packs and old trainset power packs.

My railroad may not please the pickiest "experts", but it is good enough for me.  If I had more room, I would have used gentler switches and broader curves.  But it achieves its purpose for me.  It is my only attempt at modeling an urban railroad.  Lots of buildings.  I have tried to capture at least the flavor of 1960's Denver.

Les

It may be helpful to remove the body shell and run your loco through the turnout.  This will at least tell you if interference between the truck and some part of the body is causing the problem.  If side steps are interfering with truck swing, you can thin the steps with a mill file or gently bend them outward.

Les

I got a Lionel 0-27 set for Christmas in 1951.  In 1953 it went onto a permanently mounted sheet of Masonite.
A little extra track and cars, and some Lionel action accessories rounded it out.  Eventually, the loco quit.

Fast forward to 1968.  I was in college and used passenger trains on a regular basis.  I decided to try to model in HO some of the trains I was riding.  I traded the Lionel stuff for used HO equipment.  Added one used and one new HO train set, some extra engines and cars, and I was in business.  I built a 4x6 ft. railroad that was small enough to survive several moves.

Jump to 1978.  With a new family, it was hard to afford a place to live with enough room for an HO railroad, so I switched to N scale.  I built an N scale railroad that lasted until 2006, and several cross-country moves (keep it small to survive moves).

Bump to 2009.  I was getting tired of the N scale railroad, so I replaced it with a new one in what I intend to be my last house.  Changed the focus from freight operations to passenger trains.  It is my current railroad.

Les

jbrock,

You are giving me too much credit.  I had forgotten about that 2011 post.

I'm glad you remembered it, though, as it still applies.

Les

The way this thread is going has got me thinking of another thread that may be helpful.  How about a thread dedicated to suggesting some basic tools that a new model railroader wishing to move beyond the "plug and play" phase of model railroad construction?

Basic soldering equipment and supplies; basic power tools for building framework and working on/modifying models; basic measuring devices, etc.  I think this would be useful for beginners wanting to take their hobby to the next level.

Les

That looks like an interesting project for someone who is good with a Dremel Tool.

I was impressed with the picture of it pull in five Superliner cars.  I never considered buying this engine because it didn't look like it could really pull anything.  Looks like I was wrong.

Les

I run a DC-only railroad, but were I to build a DCC railroad (or convert my DC to DCC) I would still want to be able to isolate tracks that I may use to store engines.  I don't like the idea of power going to sitting locomotives.
Many years ago, operating on a DC club layout in HO with automatic train advancing in hidden staging tracks, the system malfunctioned and melted the drivers on my 2-8-8-2.  An expensive and discouraging development!

My current system uses two turntables.  One is fed by only one track and is just used to turn equipment.  The other has nine storage tracks and an approach track.  The approach track and bridge track are one block that is isolated and can be run from one of two throttles.  The other nine engine parking tracks are all individual blocks, isolated and powered from one of two throttles.

If a power selector switch is left in a position other than centered ("off") an engine may creep out of the roundhouse unexpectedly!  This is rather surprising when you are concentrating on the train you are running.  I don't get upset when this happens, because this sometimes happened on the actual railroads, too.  The result is an engine in the turntable pit, tying up all the other engines in the roundhouse until the mess is cleaned up.  This was especially a problem with steam locomotives, that would slowly build up enough steam pressure in the cylinders to take off by themselves.  Engines that did this were called "night creepers".

Les

I think a reason for "breaking in" is to help seat the motor brushes.

Les