UPS NW2 and box car

My newest acquisition is a UPS branded EMD NW2 and a 40' steel box car by USA trains. Both are beautifully decorated in Pullman Brown with gold trim. This gift came from Charlie, via Kris, and I think I'm now the fourth owner, but this mint condition locomotive looks like it had never been run on tracks until today.

The box car features on both sides a large UPS logo, "Think Safety" slogan and an 8' sliding door.


The locomotive has the full company name spelled out along the hood in gold. The truck frames, exhaust stacks and bell are all in gold as well.


There is a large logo under the windows on both sides of the cab. Check out those gold trucks!


And the front of the hood includes a small logo as well as an Olympic sponsorship logo. Note the hook-and-loop coupler which I will replace in time.


I was expecting the train to arrive today so I had already cleaned the tracks this morning in preparation. Once I had the cars unwrapped, I immediately had them outside and running on the track. Below are a couple of short clips of the UPS train in action...

Couplers

As I've been purchasing a variety of new and used rolling stock from different manufacturers not all of the couplers have been the same. Also, couplers on some of the cars have been damaged and need to be replaced. I'd like to standardize my couplers so that any of my equipment can be hooked up in a train in any order.

The photo below shows an example of three couplers. From top to bottom are:

• #1 scale (1:32) knuckle coupler (this one is from Kadee)
• G scale (1:22.5) knuckle coupler (this one is from USA trains)
• Hook and loop coupler (also from USA trains)

The hook and loop coupler is typical of what comes with most garden train cars regardless of scale. They are very easy to use and provide great flexibility even around tight curves and uneven track, but they don't look anything like couplers do in the real world.


So my plan was to replace everything with Kadee brand knuckle couplers as they're generally considered the best of show. And as all my locomotives and rolling stock are about 1:29 scale, I thought I would try a #1 scale coupler which is pretty close at 1:32.

Replacing a coupler is pretty easy. I just need to take the truck off the car and remove the existing coupler...


And then figure out how all these little parts go together...


After the first one it went pretty quickly. Replacing the couplers on the locomotive, however, was far more complicated and took much longer than the cars did. But the end result looked awesome...


Unfortunately on my first test run in the garden I immediately saw the problem with using #1 scale couplers. They are true to scale and do look absolutely perfect on my cars. And I bet they would work great on a very well built indoor track with broad curves and perfectly aligned track. Unfortunately, in the real world of my garden, the track is not perfectly even or level, and the tiny little couplers kept slipping apart and couldn't accommodate sections of track that were uneven.

So I then ordered some G-scale Type "E" couplers from Kadee. These are about 1:22.5 scale so they are oversized for my cars, but the extra large size helps where the track is uneven. Only problem now is that the coupler for my locomotive doesn't provide as much give on horizontal curves as I need, leading to a derailment if the trailing car is too light. So I may try to replace that coupler or see if I can adjust it to provide more horizontal movement.

What I really need to do is solve a more fundamental underlying problem -- some of my curves are just too tight. Once I replace my temporary loop with my intended layout the tight curves will be gone and likely the derailment problem will be too. In the meantime, I'll leave the Kadee G-scale knuckle couplers on all my BN equipment, and I'm keeping hook-and-loop couplers on my UP equipment for now as I don't want to buy more couplers until I'm satisfied with the ones I have so far.

As I haven't done any track work recently to show, here's a picture from elsewhere in the garden. Looks like May! In the future, trains will be running just behind the rhodie.

Rolling Stock: 2-bay Covered Hopper (BN 421526)

My latest acquisition is an Aristo-Craft two-bay covered hopper, a great addition for my growing Burlington Northern collection.


A covered hopper is used to carry bulk commodities that need to be protected from the weather, such as Palouse-grown dry peas and lentils. As the company motto goes, "Peas go the way of the PE&A."

I could not find a picture of the real Burlington Northern 421526, but here is a picture of a similar two-bay hopper in the same numbering range.

Don't forget the 2016 National Lentil Festival is coming up August 19-20. Check out the short promo video on the website and mark your calendar!

Touring the Southeast

There has not been any progress on the railroad for over a week as I've been traveling in Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. So I thought I would share a few photos from some of the railroad themed sites I've been to on this trip, including rides on four railroads.








On the first day, the only railroad related item I came across happened to be a garden railroad at the Atlanta Botanical Garden location in Gainesville, GA. Every garden, even a botanical garden, needs a garden train! Two independent loops with lots of nice bridge work and a tunnel for each locomotive to hide in when it rains.


The highlight of the next day was a ride on the Tennessee Valley Railroad along the Hiwassee River, through the gorge and up to the famous Hiwassee Loop, where the railroad corkscrews up around a mountain. The photo below shows the trestle work at the top of the loop. The train passes under the trestle on its first loop, then crosses over the trestle after completing its second loop.


The following day included a ride (two, actually) behind this beautiful 2-8-2 built by Baldwin in 1943. It was originally built for the U.S. military for use on the White Pass railroad and today is one of two coal powered locomotives that pull the Dollywood Express. There are about 200 operational steam locomotives in the U.S. today but only a small fraction of those still burn coal. It was a truly great experience to see, hear, smell and ride behind this locomotive on a track with a grade that approaches 6% at one point. Amazing!


Here's a second photo including the coal tender.


The next day included a visit to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. The 611 was in the yard, and was still hot as it had just been on a run from Spencer to Roanoke the day before. The 611 is one of 14 J-class locomotives built by the Norfolk and Western in their Roanoke shops, the most powerful passenger steam locomotives ever built. Built in 1950 and retired in 1959 when the N&W converted to diesel, the 611 was placed on static display at the museum. Following a restoration in 1981-82 she hauled passenger excursion trains up until 1994 when she retired again. After a big fundraising campaign, a second restoration occurred in 2014-15 and she returned to service last fall. This locomotive was, and is, capable of reaching 110 mph.


611 is the only remaining J-class, and below is 1218, the only remaining A-class locomotive built by Norfolk and Western. This is also the only suriving 2-6-6-4 of any manufacturer. Built in 1943, it had a similar timeline to 611, being restored in 1985 and hauling excursion trains up until 1994 when it retired. It has been on static display since then. This type of locomotive was incredibly powerful and built for hauling freight, not passengers, but could still reach 70 mph. When in revenue service this locomotive regularly hauled coal between Crewe, VA and Norfolk, VA (more on Crewe coming up).

There are several dozen locomotives and rolling stock cars at the VMT, but I'll just include a couple more pictures. The first one is Wabash 1009, which is looking very pretty as it just had a cosmetic overhaul a couple of years ago at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum shops. This E8 was manufactured by EMD for passenger service on the Wabash and hauled trains such as the Wabash Cannonball. EMD built 450 E8 locomotives and this is one of 58 that survive, a surprisingly large number that is due to how popular these are with rail fans.


And I had to include this photo just because it's a NW2. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are several NW2 locomotives preserved at museums, as here's one of them! This particular one was one of four purchased by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway (W&LE). It saw service on a few railroad before retiring in 1987.


A few days after Roanoke we stopped by the Crewe Railroad Museum. Crewe was a significant spot on the Norfolk & Western which built railroad repair shops here due to Crewe's central location on the railroad. Nothing remains of the roundhouse today except photos. This was a very small museum but worth the stop. Below is a photo of one of their locomotives, 606, a 2-8-0 Consolidated built by Lima that spent it's entire operational life in Virginia. Much more information on this locomotive can be found at the site linked above.


And here is Norfolk & Western 2185, an EMD GP7u originally built for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. This was never owned by the N&W, but was repainted by the museum. Again, much more on this can be found on the link above.


The latest addition to the Crewe museum is very cool, a passenger car that they recently did a remarkable restoration job on. Look at those beautiful antimacassars!


Later the same day we found our way to Danville, VA. No train museum, but several preserved train related structures. Below is a picture of bridge across the Dan River built by the Richmond & Danville Railroad in 1856, used today as a pedestrian bridge. This bridge barely escaped being destroyed during the Civil War; in the two months following the war, over 33,000 soldiers passed through Danville and across this bridge, some headed north, some headed south.


Trains still cross the river at Danville on a more modern structure a couple thousand feet downstream. I happened to find this beautiful picture of the new bridge taken just a couple weeks ago that you've got to see. What's the train crossing it? It's the 611, headed from Spencer up to Roanoke!

The Richmond & Danville Railroad fell into bankruptcy in 1892 and in 1894 it was sold in foreclosure to the Southern Railway. Another preserved structure in Danville is this beautiful station, built by the Southern in 1899 and renovated most recently in 1995. It is currently served by Amtrak's Crescent line.


And one more picture from Danville, this one of a former Southern Railway office building, which today houses the Danville Science Center.


The next day we made it to Spencer, site of what was once the Southern Railway's largest steam locomotive servicing facility, employing 3,000 workers at its peak. The massive roundhouse has been preserved and part of the building is still being used for what it was intended -- servicing, repairing and restoring locomotives and rolling stock. Walking around this site was incredible.

Below is a picture of Southern 6133 which we rode behind. This is an EMD FP7 built in 1950 -- the FP meant that it was intended for use with either Freight or Passengers. It was restored in 1980 and has been used at the museum for hauling passenger trains since then. If you're keeping count, this was our third rail trip (fourth, if you count Dollywood twice).


There are many, many locomotives on the grounds of this museum, and I'm not about to post pictures of all of them (but I did get a picture of each one I saw!) But I had to post a picture from inside the back shop of this locomotive, historically the most significant one currently at the museum. This is Western & Atlantic 49, a 4-4-0 American type locomotive built in 1856. It is better known as "The Texas", the locomotive that pursued "The General" in the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War. This had been on display in the basement of the Cyclorama in Atlanta since 1927. It is currently undergoing cosmetic restoration after which it will move into a new building at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead, GA.


Here's a picture of one end (this is a short side) of the massive back shop. When this was built in 1905 it was one of the largest buildings in the Southeast.


And here is a picture of the 100-foot turntable and part of the massive roundhouse. This 37-bay roundhouse is one of the largest ever constructed.


Finally, a picture from our fourth rail trip (or fifth, depending on how you're counting), this time on the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad. You'll probably recognize that, yes indeed, it's another FP7. And just like the one above, this was built for Southern Railway in 1950. These two locomotives are practically sisters -- 6133 was delivered to Southern in April and 6143 was delivered in November.