Model Train Layout Ops Session w/ Cabooses - Santa Fe & Rio Grande
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- jointlinetrains/
Model railroad operations session on my HO scale model train layout. My layout is based upon Colorado's Joint Line between Denver and Palmer Lake. Trains include Rio Grande, Santa Fe, and Burlington Northern. All trains are operating with cabooses in this 1985 ops session.
Wow, you do a great job narrating and editing your videos!
Thanks for the nice compliment and feedback on the narration. Cheers, Kevin
What a great video, with the timing of two coal trains at the Larkspur bridge, wonderful.
Thank you. Cheers, Kevin
Very nice. I used to watch the coal trains at Palmer Lake in the early 90's when I was stationed at Fort Carson. A wonderful place for a rail fan. Very nice layout, brings back lots of memories.
Always enjoy your operating sessions. See you've got your "gremlins" worked out. This layout is on my bucket list of must see railroads, Super job Mr. Smith.
Joe, thanks for the compliment on the video. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. And, yes, I got the gremlins worked out. Cheers, Kevin
great job of showing the layout and the trains for each area.
Thanks for the feedback. Cheers, Kevin
Very informative, good looking as well. The line really has come a long way.
Thank for the compliments on the video and my layout. It may have come a long way, but it still has a long way to go too. Cheers, Kevin
Thank you for all the info you share about Denver railroading, I find it very educational. Good work!
Tim, thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear you enjoyed the video. Cheers, Kevin
This is so well done that it was a MUST for me to subscribe! SUPERB work, layout and narration with great informative 'play by play' as not to miss anything. Again, SUPERB !!
Thanks. Cheers, Kevin
That is one good looking layout! Looks like it operates as well as it looks also!
Thank you for the nice compliments on my layout. Yes, it does operate rather well. Cheers, Kevin
Another great ops session, always nice to see your different era equipment run. You got a nice collection going.
Peter, thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video. Cheers, Kevin
That is some really good speed matching between the lead units and helpers. Great ops session, thanks for all the info during the video.
Thanks Joe. Cheers, Kevin
Great video Kevin. Excellent narration. That was very helpful. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the compliments and feedback. Cheers, Kevin
Well done Kev!!
I've chased a lot of trains down there and miss the action now that I live near Sand Point, Idaho .
Your videos remind me of my old stomping grounds.
Thanks, Bill
Bill, I'm very glad to hear that the video reminds you of chasing trains in Colorado. That's a pretty good compliment. Thanks. Cheers, Kevin
Great vid Kevin, I'm currently on the track planning stage of my layout, I'm modeling modern East/Central Texas with the Fort Worth & Western.
Thanks for the compliment on the video. Good luck in planning and building your layout. Cheers, Kevin
Great video! On a side note your layout is really well done! I mainly model military vehicles but I've had a tremendous interest in American Railroading ever since I was a little kid.
Eryk, thanks for the compliment on my layout. I used to build 1/35 military models too. Cheers, Kevin
Keven, it's been a while since we've seen you on Atlas Rescue Forums. Looks like things are coming along on the Joint Line RR there - nice operations video; and cabooses I see!
Once you start down the caboose path, forever will it dominate your destiny! Consume you it will! I used to model the late 1980's through early 1990's but having grown up with cabooses being the norm, ultimately I could not resist the schwartz. I have given in and back-dated 10 years to late 1970's through early 1980's, solidly in caboose era. You still get those unit coal trains on the front range and pig trains, and colorful per-diem box cars to boot.
Great job on the Joint Line - a favorite since I watched trains there in the mid-1980's passing through during my college years.
Cheers, Jim Fitch
Jim, thanks for the nice compliments on my layout. You're right about the cabooses--they're so much more interesting than the EOTs/FREDs. Cheers, Kevin
What a beautiful masterpiece that you have done there and I am a train lover I love to watch the trains goes by because I live right by a train track I just love what you have done there keep up the good work always
Thank you for the nice compliments on my layout. Cheers, Kevin
You are very welcome
I like this layout
Thank you for the feedback. Cheers, Kevin
great video like always
Thanks. Glad you liked this video as well. Cheers, Kevin
Really nice video Kevin! I always enjoy watching the trains roll through your Larkspur scene. You have a nice selection of period equipment for your 80's session. I didn't model the DRGW but at times I wanted to. I was always planning to sneak a DRGW run-through set of power onto my UP layout, but UP went and bought the Rio Grande and painted surviving units into yellow :-) The BN trains reminded me of the early 80's when I was regaining my interest in model trains and would go out to the BN yard in Lincoln, NE. I appreciated the "rainbow" of different locos that came through on the coal trains before the mega-mergers. One could see UP, CNW, MP, Frisco, KCS, MKT,or ATSF power either in complete sets or mixed with BN units. Your video photogrphy is good and your trains are very entertaining. I enjoyed this show quite a bit.
Gary, thanks for all the nice compliments and feedback. I'm with you in that I like all the different paint schemes and railroads that were around before all the mega-mergers. That's why my primary timeframe is the early to mid-90s. Cheers, Kevin
That was really nice Kevin! Thank you for the great ops session. Cheers, Dan
Dan, not a problem. Glad you enjoyed the video and ops session. Cheers, Kevin
Very nice video everything properly done love it.
Thank you for the nice compliment. Cheers, Kevin.
Nice job Kevin! The scenery is looking great sir, a lot of work there, the road and bridge scene is very nice.
Cheers Gregg.
Gregg, thanks for the compliments on the scenery and video. Cheers, Kevin
Great lay out,love your video.
Thank you for the nice compliments on my layout and video. Cheers, Kevin.
Nice video, Kevin. I just want to say how much I appreciate the narration. Quite often, I've seen ops videos with no narration, and lacking narration, I've had very little idea of what was going on in those videos. ...Roy
Roy, glad to hear you liked the video. Appreciate the feedback on the narration. I've felt the same way in watching some other layout ops sessions. Cheers, Kevin
Great Video
Thanks. Cheers, Kevin
Awesome video and awesome layout. I think big lift needs updated a little with scenery. Nice video!
Thanks for the compliments on the video and my layout. You're right about Big Lift, but it's not the only are that still needs a lot of scenery. The layout is still a work in progress and there will be several more changes before the scenery gets finished. Cheers, Kevin
Nice op session, thanks
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers, Kevin
Trackwork looks smooth no warpage on thetrack nice and flat no problems.
Thank you. Cheers, Kevin.
Great layout and info thanks
Very nice thank you for sharing
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed the video. Cheers, Kevin
Nice work Kevin! I'm watching from down here at our equivalent of the "Air War College."
Thanks James. Enjoy SNCOA. See you when you get back. Cheers, Kevin
James I like your produucked reveiws
Great video as always!
Thanks. Glad to hear you enjoyed the video. Cheers, Kevin
Beautiful I subscribed
Thanks. Glad you liked the video. Cheers, Kevin
Excellent job on that Santa Fe bridge. I like the narration too.
What sounds are in those Rio Grande SD40T-2? They sound good.
Thanks for the compliment on the bridge and feedback on the narration. The Rio Grande SD40T-2 has a WOWSound 101 decoder in it. Cheers, Kevin
Geat video, impressive layout, hope mine looks half that good someday. Like your narration with the video really adds to it. What does the P stand for on the BN cabooses?
Thanks for the compliments on my layout and the video. To answer your question, the P stood for Pool Service. IE the caboose was not assigned to a specific division. Cheers, Kevin
Hey Kevin! Another great op session. You make these sessions very interesting by interjecting actual facts about the locos, their history and how and why operations happened the way they did. I noticed that you had several vehicles at Palmer Lake which moved as the trains stopped and started. I tried to see whether the joggers at Palmer Lake also moved but couldn't see that area!! Nice work! One question - when you use helpers are they consisted with the head end locos or are they a separate consist? If separate, are you using two DCC throttles to control them? Thanks for sharing this. - Brian
Thanks for the compliments and feedback on the layout and video. Glad you noticed the vehicles moving, but no--the joggers didn't change. I MU the helpers to the lead units when the are added on. Essentially there are several MU'ed consists in each train. To start with the lead units are MU'ed together. Separately the 2 helper engines are MU'ed together. When the helpers are added onto the train, their MU'ed consist is MU'ed to the lead MU consist. I use a Digitrax Super Chief DCC system. The two knobs on the handheld make it really easy to control, add/drop, etc the two different engine consists. Cheers, Kevin
Wow You got D&GRW 5371 Nice
Cool video my compliments sir, I'd like to see your whole layout from what i saw on your drawing of your layout i bet its awesome
Thank you for the feedback and nice compliments. Cheers, Kevin
Prototypical ops, at work we always get shoved into the siding for a Z train or Amtrak.
Thanks for the information on your experiences. Cheers, Kevin
Very nice! I know you said this was a joint yard prior to the BNSF merger but is
/was it prototypical to have a consist of mixed Santa Fe and BN engines running trains at this time? Just curious.
I used to build these models.
Larry, that sounds pretty cool. Cheers, Kevin
👍👍😎Amazing!
I love this video. I am a believer that all trains should use cabooses. But then, I model the mid to late 80s. Thank you for posting this video. Slightly off topic, when will you be doing another layout update video? That last one I can find was from January 2017.
Dave, thanks for the nice compliment on the video. I like caboose a lot more than EOTDs too, but that's what they had in the 90s which is my primary timeframe. The Jan 17 layout update is my most recent. No real changes to the layout yet except I put all the track back in and got it running again. I decided I want to run a few more ops sessions before making such a large change. I've also got several non-Joint Line side projects going. Probably won't have a true layout update for another month or so. But I'll have other videos out during that time. Cheers, Kevin
Great vid, really enjoyed. Like the old Santa Fe bridge,,very sweet, enjoyed the Rio Grande units, and your commentary. Look forward to next vid. Looks like you have a lot of ballast to do yet, not one of my favorite things to do. Are you making an engine service facility?
Pat, thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video. I haven't ballasted the rest of the layout because there are quite a few changes I want to make to the overall footprint and track plan from Big Lift north. If you go back and watch my latest layout update video from February I talk about some of my plans in it. Cheers, Kevin
Cool
Thanks. Cheers, Kevin
Nicely done as always Kevin! Although I didn't see any evidence of your remodel taking place. Hows the progress of the new additions?
Very nice layout I do have one question? How big is your layout? Thanks for showing us your layout.
Thanks for the compliment on the layout. It is 15'x27' in size. Cheers, Kevin
In the 80s they had piggy back cars
Amazing ops session! I really enjoyed it and dropped a like.
One thing that would help improve your comentry is at several points in the video, after you finished a sentence sometimes a second later the last few sylibols of what you had just said would be repeated. I'm not sure why this is. I just wanted to point it out to you.
Thanks for the feedback on the narration and audio. Glad you liked the video. Cheers, Kevin
Hey man r the buildings new havnt seen that before. K
Yes, the buildings are relatively new. I still need to work them into the scenery around them. Right now they are just stilling on the ground foam that was already there. Cheers, Kevin
HEY Kevin I see that there is a turntable in biglift r u going to put in also. K
I'm not aware of a turntable at Big Lift. Cheers, Kevin
Just a suggestion, could you lower your camera and angle it to where it looks up to the train in amore realistic manner
Hay Kevin , the train leaving Denver with the 4 BN & the two santa fes at the end of the cole train , do all six engines need to be programed on the dcc , i find dcc is soooooo complicated to use more then one engine at a time looks so hard i don't have a railroad my self but youtubing layouts , every one uses dcc instead of just a power pack love your your layout and your narrating you are one of my favorite , thank you for all you have done .
Brian, thanks for the nice compliments on the layout and my videos. For your DCC question, yes. All engines should have a DCC decoder and the decoder address should be unique to that engine--usually people set it to the engine's road number. Then you built a consist of each engine you want to run together. Individual DCC systems vary on how you do this, but generally it just a couple of extra button pushes. With the consist built, every engine in the consist will respond to throttle commands that are sent to the consist address--which is normally just the lead engine's DCC address (ie, road number). So when I ran all those engines you mentioned, I was only sending commands to the lead engine and then the DCC system took care of sending commands to all the other engine's in the consist. DCC can be daunting at first, but it is actually pretty easy to learn and makes running multiple engines and multiple trains a lot easier. Cheers, Kevin
Hay kevin . You are welcome , you really put a lot of time and effort in all you have done 20 thumbs up . thank you for your response i did not expect a long one like that . So dcc makes it so you can all so run two or more engines facing each other so you would program one unit to run backwards and the other one forward ?
One more question please , how many dcc controllers do you need two run more then one train , say if you had a double main line and three trains , you would need three controllers ? Why i ask on UA-cam be leave it or not i went to my hobby shop witch is called ( wholesales hobby - Edmonton Alberta ) and the fellow who takes care of the model railroad part of the store , he could not answer any of my questions on dcc he told me that he has not much knowledge of dcc .
Cheers , Brian .
Brian, you're welcome again. For running an engine backwards you do not need to program the engine to run backwards. When running a train with DCC you tell the engine to run either forwards or backwards with the throttle you are running it with. When building a consist you tell the engine whether it will be facing backwards or forwards in the consist. That way it knows which way to go when the consist goes forwards. On the number of handhelds, it varies a bit based upon DCC system, but generally each DCC handheld send commands to 1 engine or consist at a time. You can leave another consist running at a given speed and then change to a different engine or consist to control with the handheld, but then you can't stop the first one without switching back. Some handhelds have 2 throttle knobs and can therefore control two trains at a time, and some others make switching to your previous train pretty easy with a specific recall button or something. If you had several loops of track where you weren't worried about the trains hitting each other, you could runs dozens of trains with a single handheld, you just would only be able to control 1 at a time and the others would just do whatever you told them to do last. Hope all this makes sense. Cheers, Kevin
yea that makes sense thank you . Well if i can ever get one what i would like is two main line with a huge yard that will hold about 200 to 250 cars like a major fright yard were they are made up . I love switching , may be a 12 track yard , i don't have an area or a plan just a lot of bridges and tunnels . Have two trains running while making up two more ready to leave . Something like a point to point with some towns and a lot of hills. Do you really need a prototype to go with.
Cheers Brian.
Hi. I noticed you haven't weathered the rails. Is there a particular reason or you're planning to do it in the future ? Thanks.
I didn't weather the rails before putting the track in so I am doing that before ballasting. At first I was using the Woodland Scenics paint pens to weather the track (around Palmer Lake). However, I found that it was a bit lighter than I wanted, so I started spray painting the track prior to ballasting (from about Larkspur on). I found that looked a lot better. If I was starting over, I'd spray paint the track before installing it. If you watch some of my recent engine review videos (the ones where the engine is sitting at Larkspur for the detail shots) you can see some up close pictures of the rails when I'm shooting close ups of the engine's wheels. Cheers, Kevin
nice looking layout but why do the trains go so slow ? When I was a kid my trains would go much faster, I guess they don't make them like they use to, that is too bad.
Who in the Well are the 8 dodo"s that gave this a thumbs down, I think it is Great. Thanks...
Great video, I still think that cabooses belong on the ends of trains but with growing innovation the chance of that is slim sadly. Still awesome video nonetheless.
Thanks for the compliment on the video. I like the cabooses as well. Too bad they were replaced by EOTDs. Cheers, Kevin
It's not just innovation It's also length and time adding cabooses onto almost 3 mile long trains wouldn't be very time saving.
Maybe on the Locals
At 16:33 why didn't the helpers use the crossover that was prior to County Line Road instead of the single switch located beyond the road?
Alan, using the crossover switches would have added several extra switch throws to the movement and would have taken longer. In addition to the two crossover switches, the switch south of County Line Rd would still have to be thrown. In order for the northern of the two helper engines to clear the crossovers so they could be realigned, the southern of the two helper engines would have to proceed onto the switch south of County Line Rd so that switch will have to be thrown as well. Additionally, the engines need to continue south until they clear the block and stop just south of the signals. Then they can get a clear signal and proceed north. Cheers, Kevin.
@@Modeltrains Thanks for the explanation.
Can you do a lot more videos of these and modern ops sessions
I have a question where is ups c30-7 sd40-2 sd45 gp38-2 gp40-2 etc
Bill, in the timeframe for this ops session, UP was not a joint owner/operator of the Joint Line. Cheers, Kevin.
Up units could be used here though
I feel like there was more colors in the late 1900s
Agreed. There were still lots of colorful paint schemes around in the 1990s. There were more class 1 railroads still around and it seemed like all of them had more than one paint scheme one their engines back then. Cheers, Kevin
I am just wondering if rio grande was an American train company? If so what state?
Yes. The Denver and Rio Grande Western was a class 1 railroad. It ran through Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. It was headquartered in Denver. The Rio Grande bought the Southern Pacific in 1987, but kept the Southern Pacific name for the merged railroad. Cheers, Kevin
Where did you get the plow for the front of the DRGW SD-9?
It came with the model. It is a Proto 2000 model if you're wondering. Cheers, Kevin
I am building a Colorado Joint Line myself and I would like to see a detailed version of your track plan so I can get some inspiration, Do you have any tips for me? Also, what brand is the track and what is the radius of the curves?
My current and future track plans are in some of my update videos from last year. I use Peco code 83 track and switches. Cheers, Kevin
Thanks. I am using Atlas code 100 and 18" curves, I can't do any bigger radius with the space a have (11 1/2 x 9 1/2 FT) I would love to see some more videos and updates on your future plans. Thanks again!
HEY Kevin, check it out on google earth thats were i saw it. K
Just checked Google Earth and Google Maps, no turntable. Big Lift is just north of Louviers Colorado just south of the intersection of Titian Rd and Highway 85. Is that where you're looking? Cheers, Kevin
kevin I saw it in denver it self thats were i saw it KERNAN
Kernan, that explains it. There were several in Denver. The most prominent one left is at the UP's (formerly Rio Grande's) Burnham Shops. There is also a transfer table there. I don't plan on having any of them on the layout though. Cheers, Kevin
HEY Kevin thanks for the info lets keep intuch,KENAN
Can you do another 1980's era OP session?
I may do another at some point. I'm working on a few other things right now. Cheers, Kevin.
Nice ...BUT Nothing is weathered... ?!?!?!!
I have a few engines and cars weathers, but yes, most of mine are not weathered yet. With the limited time I have to work on trains I have to prioritize what I work on and working on the layout has taken priority over weathering. Eventually everything will be weathered. It will just take a while to get there. Cheers, Kevin
I have a train set too
What horn sound file does helper engine 5027 use?
5027 actually doesn't have sound. The sound in the video is from SD40-2 #5032. Which is coupled to it. 5032 is the lead engine in the helper consist so its horn and bell will still sound. So when 5027 crosses County Line Road at Plamer Lake in the lead, it is actually #5032's horn you hear. 5032 is a BLI model with a BLI Blueline series sound decoder. Cheers, Kevin
Scale Model Trains & Colorado's Joint Line okay thanks best horn I e heard in a while
You have any industrial sidings?
There are industrial sidings in Denver, but not along the Joint Line. Cheers, Kevin
Does BN 3061 have an E-Bell?
Why don't you "weather" any locos or rolling stock?
I have plans to weather all of them. A few are already weathered, but with limited time to work on the layout and trains I've been focusing on the layout more than weathering for now. Cheers, Kevin
Nice work regardless....I will look forward to it for sure
Too bad the original Burlington Northern black, green, black corporate image is gone for good. Should have been the new BNSF scheme.
I miss seeing the Cascade Green engines too. Though when the MACs came out with their Cream and Green paint schemes, I really liked it better than the Cascade Green paint schemes. Thanks for the comment. Cheers, Kevin
Dont coal trains need cabooses
Cabooses were used on freight trains until the 1980s. The laws were changed to allow various types of end of train (EOT) devices to replace the cabooses. The various railroads phased them out pretty quickly to save costs. There are still a few trains that run cabooses if there is a special situation that requires them. Cheers, Kevin.
Não gostei dos comentários relativos a minha pessoa.
you said it would be Santa fe and Rio grande, you liar, there is more!
I never said "only". Cheers, Kevin
Scale Model Trains & Colorado's Joint Line, I was making a joke
I figured you were. Glad you liked the video. Cheers, Kevin