Running Trains

I'm not sure how many months it has been since it happened last, but yesterday trains were running on all four of the mainline tracks. The "trains" consisted of locomotives, two steam and two diesel, running light around the mainline loop. At the present time only the loop is operational...

Mainline Loop

The loop simulates the two railroads the Average Eastern connects to. It appears as a Class 1 four track mainline at Average and along the river east of Quotidian. Passing Carbon Point and East End it resembles the two track main stem of another Class 1. The track is laid, but really needs a lot of tweaking before it will look like the well maintained roadbed it's supposed to be.

Mainline trains are powered and controlled by two MRC "Dual Loco Pack" transformers. Both have modulated DC, or "pulse power options. The pulse power leads to some unexpected results. It's easier to show than explain so I made a video of the test runs. Please forgive the quality. They were taken with a cell phone...

The Pennsy L1s is a Kato Mikado with a pewter GHQ kit. It runs as we've come to expect from a Kato product. The real surprise is the Pennsy I1s. It's a ancient Minitrix model. It has been modified cosmetically to center the steam pipes on the smoke box. The driver flanges were ground down to suit codde 55 rail. Other than that it is pure Trix. No motor or gear mods. I think the electrical pickup may have been improved with extra wiring from the tender, but I didn't do it. I bought the beast second hand. A good part of that crawl can be attributed to the modulated DC. I did find that this stunt requires VERY clean track.

I've been going through the roster and checking to see what locomotive needs what work. Looks like most of them need some kind of repair. A lot of it is cosmetic, but quite a few don't run well at all. The rolling stock also needs a good going over.

Some of the Average Eastern roadbed is already in place but it'll be a while before a train can run through from Average to East End. To save money most of the switchwork will probably have to be hand laid. Fortunately I standardized on #7 turnouts. That should make that portion of the project a bit easier.

That's all for now.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad