American 'HO' Gauge - Los Angeles based

[Guest jonte]

 

Jonte

[Sir Ray]

Your woodworking seems pretty good, looks like clean straight. cuts and tight construction...but... Los Angeles, CA itself is a real big city, and an even bigger metro area (LA County/Orange County etc) Several shortlines around there with dense trackage and a good number of customers - not to mention the Class Is w/ lots of trackage themselves.

Do you have a more definite location (or several scenes) in mind, and also which era?

 

(I don't see any long slots in the substructure, so I guess you're not going for the Alameda Corridor)

[Guest jonte]

 

Jonte

[Guest jonte]

Your woodworking seems pretty good, looks like clean straight. cuts and tight construction...but... Los Angeles, CA itself is a real big city, and an even bigger metro area (LA County/Orange County etc) Several shortlines around there with dense trackage and a good number of customers - not to mention the Class Is w/ lots of trackage themselves.

Do you have a more definite location (or several scenes) in mind, and also which era?

 

(I don't see any long slots in the substructure, so I guess you're not going for the Alameda Corridor)

 

Hi Sir Ray, and thanks for your interest.

 

Much appreciate your compliment about the standard of woodworking, but I'm simply not worthy. Just tidied up the sharks teeth edges with a bit of sandpaper to make it 'look' half decent. As for the straightness : please don't look too closely.....and the terms plumb and true are alien to me. Not trying to be humble here, just honest in the hope that it encourages somebody else in a similar position to 'have a go'. I posses neither the skills, know how or tools to do anything like a half decent job (I cannot wield a saw properly and my only power tools are a standard Black and Decker drill and a cheap 'own brand' jig saw that wasn't much more than a tenner. Mind you, did myself no favours by deciding to 'enlarge' the existing boards; these were built from odds and ends stored in my garage as I'd initially decide to do this on budget. As always with these things, it proved false economy.....the wood is of different thicknesses and thus levels, so when it came to adding on these new bits you see in the photos, I was at pains to find a datum level, ending in much swearing and cursing especially when trying to fit the brackets from which the pelmet will be suspended. Ultimately, this is just a bit of fun and an excellent learning curve (I've even built my own track to adorn it after I got tired of my one and only loco pitching and rolling over proprietary points affixed to the original 'oblong' boards you see in the photos Again, this wasn't easy and my very first attempts were consigned to the bin after my skills, surprisingly, continued to improve and the ends of my fingers became asbestos like after continuous singeing from a hot iron- Iain Rice's book is excellent by the way!!). Frankly, I'm pleased - and surprised - I've got this far with it as I really can't wait to get some modelling done.

 

So, what on what am I baseing said modelling attempt? And your right, LA is rather "Big".

 

When I decided to model in HO, I'd originally gone for the area you'll know as 'The Patch' - enamoured by the sight of a loco squeezing between buildings. But then I encountered difficulty with the points I mentioned earlier - but was pleased with my attempts at making the 90 degree crossings - so lost a bit of interest.

 

Anyway, got distracted by the area of Vernon after seeing some black and white photos of a location that turned out to be the old Bandini fertiliser (fertilizer) plant - location verified after I wrote to the photographer for more details - and then an area adjacent to the Santa Fe yard on the west of the LA River - a real backwater- after seeing some more! But I got carried away and decided to have it curving away behind buildings and onto a sector plate........ Just got too big, so that was that!

 

Then, a contributor on an American modelling forum inadvertently sparked my interest when he sent me a Google street view of a corrugated iron building situated just off South Santa Fe Ave - not a million miles from the Alameda Corridor - again, via Google, I followed the single track through a building, across a minor streetand on down a series of alley ways until it just ran out....presumably built over by new builds. So that was that; I just had to build it. It also made me realise that you just can't squeeze a quart into a pint pot - well you can, and there are many excellent micro layouts that prove the point - but I'm after an industrial backwater; single track and not much operation; a model rather than a model railway - sounds a little strange here on a railway modelling forum - but I've realised that's the scene I'm after.

 

Short trains: a single loco/switcher, with one or perhaps two box cars just dawdling along; one minute in view as it crosses the highway but swiftly disappearing into an alleyway or under a corrugated roofed single storey building only to reappear between a gap in those tight knitted, box type, non-descript industrial units redolent of the area behind S> Santa Fe Ave. Even though I've managed to produce 5 turnouts to date, sadly only two will be used for fear of cluttering the scene (again, just my taste). I've spotted an old white painted building with a service platform and canopy situated to the rear of Center Street in another area of the city which I'm thinking of making into a fruit warehouse/producey type thing - the canopy is bent and distorted in parts and I'm thinking of replicating it in annealed brass to make it more malleable. This is where the tunouts will be located and thus the only point at which there will be any switching - not sure many of you will give it an audience but I hope you'll pop in and check it out anyway . A traverser at one end, with a simple sector plate at the other to return said train back from whence it came via a single track behind the backscene, will enable the train simply to 'run through' without stopping on scene - I'll just see how the mood takes me. (A backscene - how the h*ll am I going to build that without gaps - oh, I forgot to mention that this is intended to be portable as my wife doesn;t want holes in the walls of my little office!!).Yet another hurdle to surmount; hopefully I'll come up with something.

 

So there you have it, Sir Ray; a plan. Yes, one of many, but I'm pretty certain that this one WILL get built barring any unforeseen circumstances of course.

 

I hope that I haven't gone on too long and that you will continue to check out any future updates of my progress.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

 

PS......forgot to mention that it's set around 1978 so I've an excuse to use that GP38 adorned in Chessie Livery we talked about - replete with amended identity marker.

[Sir Ray]

I hope that I haven't gone on too long

I've been know to go on a bit myself, so be it

I'd originally gone for the area you'll know as 'The Patch'

Actually, I never heard of that term in LA railroading - Do you mean the Rat-Hole by chance?

Google street view of a corrugated iron building situated just off South Santa Fe Ave - not a million miles from the Alameda Corridor

This one? (E. 25th & S. Santa Fe - one very long block from the north end of the Alameda Corridor)

 

Anyway, LA area modeling is very popular, as you might guess. A few examples

Robert Smaus used to be reknown for his SP modeling and did many articles in Model Railroader and RMC over the years - here's his website featuring I guess his latest layout. http://www.bobsgarde...com/trains.html

There was another guy who modeled Downtown LA (and had at least 1 article about it) - not sure if he was using Photo of real buildings mounted on cardstock, but what he did stress was having the streets and buildings angled w/ respect to most view angles to enhance the feel of dense urban space stretching out.

And - OK, this bunch seems suspiciously UKian in their speech patterns -

Now, I realize the UK is a sizable place, but i figure it can't hurt to post it. (Eh, kinda mixed era there, laddies, and yes, Golden Pig(gyback) Service was offered by the Southern Pacific

that it's set around 1978 so I've an excuse to use that GP38 adorned in Chessie Livery we talked about - replete with amended identity marker.

Now I remember, last time I recommended getting at least one if not more CF7 locomotives in Santa Fe Blue & Yellow (and for 1978 they should be relatively clean, not black like the example I posted last time). Also, in 1970s LA you will need this vehicle - painted gold- so as to yield this very important vehicle (A favorite show of mine as a young kid, it was one of the coolest, witty, and intelligent show of its era - if not for the car-cashes it'd been almost BBC level). I'll leave it to you to find the HO scale mid-70s Ford T-Birds, Galaxies, and LTDs that apparently all villians in LA drove at the time...

[Guest jonte]

I've been know to go on a bit myself, so be it

Actually, I never heard of that term in LA railroading - Do you mean the Rat-Hole by chance?

 

This one? (E. 25th & S. Santa Fe - one very long block from the north end of the Alameda Corridor)

 

Anyway, LA area modeling is very popular, as you might guess. A few examples

Robert Smaus used to be reknown for his SP modeling and did many articles in Model Railroader and RMC over the years - here's his website featuring I guess his latest layout. http://www.bobsgarde...com/trains.html

There was another guy who modeled Downtown LA (and had at least 1 article about it) - not sure if he was using Photo of real buildings mounted on cardstock, but what he did stress was having the streets and buildings angled w/ respect to most view angles to enhance the feel of dense urban space stretching out.

And - OK, this bunch seems suspiciously UKian in their speech patterns -

Now, I realize the UK is a sizable place, but i figure it can't hurt to post it. (Eh, kinda mixed era there, laddies, and yes, Golden Pig(gyback) Service was offered by the Southern Pacific

 

Now I remember, last time I recommended getting at least one if not more CF7 locomotives in Santa Fe Blue & Yellow (and for 1978 they should be relatively clean, not black like the example I posted last time). Also, in 1970s LA you will need this vehicle - painted gold- so as to yield this very important vehicle (A favorite show of mine as a young kid, it was one of the coolest, witty, and intelligent show of its era - if not for the car-cashes it'd been almost BBC level). I'll leave it to you to find the HO scale mid-70s Ford T-Birds, Galaxies, and LTDs that apparently all villians in LA drove at the time...

 

 

Hi again, Sir Ray, and thanks for the input.

 

'The Rathole' (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dpdproductions.com/photos_rrgallery_rathole/05a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_rrgallery_rathole.html&usg=__ncc91ggA7druyBF4wlUa19MdKW8=&h=750&w=1000&sz=256&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=GaBzQxTqEmdtbM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drailroad%2Bonly%2Balley%2Blos%2Bangeles%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2GGLL_en%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=W1o_TYzPGsztOa3Z9JoD), I think I'm right in saying, was situated on the East side of LA whilst 'The Patch' (http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/ATSF_ThePatch.html) was located on the west.

 

Excellent detective work using Bing, by the way; that is indeed the building I was referring to.

 

Having enjoyed the video of 'St. Mark's', I've come to the conclusion that none of the voices could possibly have been 'UKian' in pattern: not once did I hear the word "Guv'nor" uttered nor did any of the protaganists sound anything remotely like Dick Van Dyke

 

With regard to the CF7, this has been my at the top of my wish list ever since you pointed it out to me. However, in light of the fact that the loco would have to appear 'clean' in my chosen period, I'll have to have a rethink; having just received Mr. Soeberg's 'Done in a Day' as a recent birthday present, my chosen traction would have to be absolutely filthy!!! Also, I think a small 'switcher' would best suit my small diorama type model, so was thinking of something like this: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=71139&nseq=10 . This was working out of Vernon in the early to mid 70s, so do you think I could get away with it on South Santa Fe Ave ? If so, Sir Ray, which manufacturer do you recommend? If not, is there anything similar that might fit the bill?

 

And how about this as an antidote to all those villains http://www.placement-post.com/wp-content/uploads/ford_gran_torino_starsky_hutch_1974_011.jpg

 

Or was that NY?

 

Best wishes for now,

 

Jonte

[Guest jonte]

This is the old white building off Center Street referred to in my earlier post that I'd like to use as a fruit warehouse or similar structure.

 

 

Jonte

[doctor quinn]

Or was that NY?

 

IIRC it was the fictional "Bay City" although as I seem to recall that Strasky & Hutch held the rank of Inspector it was pretty thinly disguised San Francisco.

 

All the best

 

Nick

 

 

[Guest jonte]

IIRC it was the fictional "Bay City" although as I seem to recall that Strasky & Hutch held the rank of Inspector it was pretty thinly disguised San Francisco.

 

All the best

 

Nick

 

That's near enough, Nick

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

 

PS..if my memory serves me right, they were sergeants (perhaps promoted in later series?). Always found it bizarre that two 'undercover cops' should choose to ride round in such a highly conspicuous vehicle !! Jonte

[Guest jonte]

From the attached Bing 'Birdseye view' image (dated 2010), it would appear that this apparently abandoned line is still being used (or part of it at least - a little further on there appears to be an obstruction placed across the rails), as denoted by the pair of box cars spotted immediately adjacent to the premises of Angelus Mills at 2420 East 24th Street:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funnily enough, I was only just reading an article by Mr. Mindheim extolling the benefits of modelling the present railway era in which he states that a number of abandoned looking spurs or tracks are, surprisingly, still in use. What a coincidence!

 

Jonte

[Sir Ray]

Having enjoyed the video of 'St. Mark's', I've come to the conclusion that none of the voices could possibly have been 'UKian' in pattern: not once did I hear the word "Guv'nor" uttered nor did any of the protaganists sound anything remotely like Dick Van Dyke

Don't be silly Dick Van Dyke speaks USian in 'Mary Poppins' - remember, in regards to UK dialects, the average American (including me) can at most identify the 'Queens English' (whatever sounds like Received Pronunciation), whatever passes for Cockney nowadays,and whatever it is that Sean Connery speaks - such concepts as Mancunian or Geordie are too advanced to even consider (if they ever did exist in real life), so just lump it all together as UKian. Same way for USian, which covers the remenants of the various American regional dialects (now more defined by physical characteristics of the speaker e.g. are they nasal, are they bassy, are they kinda slow) - as an example, nobody in Brooklyn, NY has spoken "Toidity-Toid & Toid" since 1962 (I asked all 2.4 million of them), instead they will say a bland "Thirty-Third & Third (or equally likely, "Treinta-tres y Tercer"). Its as simple as that

 

With regard to the CF7 <edit>. However, in light of the fact that the loco would have to appear 'clean' in my chosen period, I'll have to have a rethink; having just received Mr. Soeberg's 'Done in a Day' as a recent birthday present, my chosen traction would have to be absolutely filthy!!! Also, I think a small 'switcher' would best suit my small diorama type model, so was thinking of something like this: http://www.railpictu...d=71139&nseq=10

Well, the CF7 was created (converted) for light duty switching services, which is why it's still popular w/ shortlines and industrials (the Santa Fe sold them off, I belive in the 1980s) - check the wiki page if you haven't already, and you'll see "most saw action switching cars and transporting local freight" - exactly what you want.

Second, don't weather the heck out of your Santa Fe locomotives - it most certainly was not the Penn Central or (even better worse, the Central of New Jersey) c 1972. It was a well run railroad w/. good maintainance standards, near the top of 1970s era railroads -(the Southern Pacific, however, another big LA player, was notorious for beat-up, ilk-kemp and rusted looking locomotives). Santa Fe = locomotives with little to moderate weathering, don't go crazy (save that for the freight cars from Eastern Roads - especially patched ex-PC/ex-Reading/ex-CNJ/ex-El and so on owned by ConRail - those you can go wild on... (From this site)

As for the Alco LAJ railroad S-2 you linked to, well the standard recommended model for that is the Atlas HO model, good runner I understand - but it maybe out of stock - get prepared for eBay and/or web searches, especially in the UK. Eh, you could substitute an SW-1 (Walthers/Athearn) if you're looking for somewhat older (1950s) switchers to look beat on a 1970s layout - but remember, 1970s Santa Fe = fairly clean, 1970s Southern Pacfic = kinda beat looking (the bad rusty look comes later), the various LA shortlines you'll need to search on-line for...

 

From that CF7 wiki-link "Santa Fe's aging fleet of 200-series F-units were in dire need of overhaul, and were not suitable for switching service in their original configuration due to the poor visibility resulting from their full-width carbody; the engineer was required to stick his or her head out of the window in order to see the end of the train or locomotive when coupling and uncoupling cars" - this was my first question on RMWeb, about suitablity of BR class 28s/31s/47s engines in local trip working service due to their full-cab configuration....Hmm, if it worked for the Santa Fe...possibly a Class CF 47?

[Guest jonte]

Don't be silly Dick Van Dyke speaks USian in 'Mary Poppins' - remember, in regards to UK dialects, the average American (including me) can at most identify the 'Queens English' (whatever sounds like Received Pronunciation), whatever passes for Cockney nowadays,and whatever it is that Sean Connery speaks - such concepts as Mancunian or Geordie are too advanced to even consider (if they ever did exist in real life), so just lump it all together as UKian. Same way for USian, which covers the remenants of the various American regional dialects (now more defined by physical characteristics of the speaker e.g. are they nasal, are they bassy, are they kinda slow) - as an example, nobody in Brooklyn, NY has spoken "Toidity-Toid & Toid" since 1962 (I asked all 2.4 million of them), instead they will say a bland "Thirty-Third & Third (or equally likely, "Treinta-tres y Tercer"). Its as simple as that

 

 

Well, the CF7 was created (converted) for light duty switching services, which is why it's still popular w/ shortlines and industrials (the Santa Fe sold them off, I belive in the 1980s) - check the wiki page if you haven't already, and you'll see "most saw action switching cars and transporting local freight" - exactly what you want.

Second, don't weather the heck out of your Santa Fe locomotives - it most certainly was not the Penn Central or (even better worse, the Central of New Jersey) c 1972. It was a well run railroad w/. good maintainance standards, near the top of 1970s era railroads -(the Southern Pacific, however, another big LA player, was notorious for beat-up, ilk-kemp and rusted looking locomotives). Santa Fe = locomotives with little to moderate weathering, don't go crazy (save that for the freight cars from Eastern Roads - especially patched ex-PC/ex-Reading/ex-CNJ/ex-El and so on owned by ConRail - those you can go wild on... (From this site)

As for the Alco LAJ railroad S-2 you linked to, well the standard recommended model for that is the Atlas HO model, good runner I understand - but it maybe out of stock - get prepared for eBay and/or web searches, especially in the UK. Eh, you could substitute an SW-1 (Walthers/Athearn) if you're looking for somewhat older (1950s) switchers to look beat on a 1970s layout - but remember, 1970s Santa Fe = fairly clean, 1970s Southern Pacfic = kinda beat looking (the bad rusty look comes later), the various LA shortlines you'll need to search on-line for...

 

From that CF7 wiki-link "Santa Fe's aging fleet of 200-series F-units were in dire need of overhaul, and were not suitable for switching service in their original configuration due to the poor visibility resulting from their full-width carbody; the engineer was required to stick his or her head out of the window in order to see the end of the train or locomotive when coupling and uncoupling cars" - this was my first question on RMWeb, about suitablity of BR class 28s/31s/47s engines in local trip working service due to their full-cab configuration....Hmm, if it worked for the Santa Fe...possibly a Class CF 47?

 

Greetings, Sir Ray.

 

I thoroughly enjoy your posts: educational and witty (widdy for the benefit of Brooklyn residents ).

 

As an Englishman, I can assure you that there are few dialects - Cumbrian being about the only one I can think of (possibly Zummerzet and Darzet?) - although there are many accents, including R.P. (standard english) which is an amalgam of several regional accents. Even so, R.P. speakers pronounce certain words differently e.g. Grass pronounced as 'gr-a-s' (short 'a') or 'grars' (long 'a') and House as 'howse' or 'h-i-se', although the latter is considered pretentious. Still, accents continue to evolve - as per Brooklyn - for instance, your task would be onerous to find a Liverpool or 'scouse' accent in the Liverpool of today, as spoken by the Lennons and Mcartneys of the swinging sixties, and good old cockney - as hopelessly attempted by Mr. VD - has morphed into 'estuary english' heavily influenced by London's Afro-Caribbean culture e.g. footballer has now become 'fut- bollah' (or at least the utterances of the presenting staff on BSB sports channel would have us believe).

 

Meanwhile, Messrs. Connery and Brosnan remain enigmas

 

Back to the downtown streets of LA.......

 

Disappointed to learn that Santa Fe looked after their rolling stock; I'm after careworn. Therefore, would it be beyond the realms of plausibility to find S.P. enjoying running rights on the piece of track I've identified?

Is it pushing it too far to even consider an LAJ switcher traversing the tracks?

 

Thanks for the heads up regarding the choice of stock; this is exactly the sort of info. I'm looking for. Just off to digest the contents of the wiki pages you recommended.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

[Guest jonte]

 

Jonte

[Sir Ray]

Disappointed to learn that Santa Fe looked after their rolling stock; I'm after careworn. Therefore, would it be beyond the realms of plausibility to find S.P. enjoying running rights on the piece of track I've identified? Is it pushing it too far to even consider an LAJ switcher traversing the tracks?

You know, from what I can determine (and you may have already found this), the LAJ seems to be only a few blocks from the building in question - and since the LAJ was owned by the Santa Fe (and is now owned by BNSF), just go for it - say you're modeling the North End of the Central Manufacturing District, and that will keep the critics quiet. <BR><BR>BTW, Quote from another board: "Forget modeling the Los Angeles Junkyard in the 1990's. go for the 1960 to the early 1970's. Atlas or Proto's S2 & S4's painted in the dark blue with silver safety strips. now that was a good railroad. and if you want you can model 1977 and run the early warbonnett CF7's with the round hoods with your S2 & S4's." - there you go, clean Santa Fe CF7s, and somewhat clean LAJ, and maybe a beat-up SP locomotive visiting.<BR> <BR>This would still be more realistic than many America-based layouts are Lots of info about the LA J seems to be in older magazines or books, couldn't find any good track maps on-line. Maybe you saw this, if not, maybe it will help..<BR>As for video, here's a start from some modern era

- as usual, from the first one you can look at the other videos if you want - Note extensive use of Santa Fe/BNSF locomotives

[shortliner]

I don't know if you can see it without being a member - but this Santa Fe CF7 in San Diego turned up in Train Orders.com this morning http://www.trainorde....php?11,2466255

 

[Scottish Modeller]

I don't know if you can see it without being a member - but this Santa Fe CF7 in San Diego turned up in Train Orders.com this morning http://www.trainorde....php?11,2466255

 

Hi Jack,

 

Correct - we can't see the big picture!

 

Just the message and a thumbnail shot.

 

Clicking on the thumbnail takes you to the Join Trainorders page.

 

Thanks

[shortliner]

Hi Jack,

 

Correct - we can't see the big picture!

 

Just the message and a thumbnail shot.

 

Clicking on the thumbnail takes you to the Join Trainorders page.

 

Thanks

 

Phil - I thought that might be the case, I've been a subscribing member for some years and thought that was the only way to see full size photos - so I have PM'd Kit, requesting his permission to re-post it on here, and giving him a link to this thread - If he approves the request - I'll post it

Best

Jack

[trisonic]

It's a nice photo too - of a brutal looking loco!

 

Best, Pete.

[shortliner]

I have just had permission from Kit to re-post his picture on here

 

From: CimaScrambler To: shortliner 05/14/11 15:51Hi Jack

 

I don't mind at all. Go ahead and re-post it.

 

Regards,

 

Kit

 

So here it is - taken somewhere in San Diego in 1992

 

[Guest jonte]

You know, from what I can determine (and you may have already found this), the LAJ seems to be only a few blocks from the building in question - and since the LAJ was owned by the Santa Fe (and is now owned by BNSF), just go for it - say you're modeling the North End of the Central Manufacturing District, and that will keep the critics quiet. <BR><BR>BTW, Quote from another board: "Forget modeling the Los Angeles Junkyard in the 1990's. go for the 1960 to the early 1970's. Atlas or Proto's S2 & S4's painted in the dark blue with silver safety strips. now that was a good railroad. and if you want you can model 1977 and run the early warbonnett CF7's with the round hoods with your S2 & S4's." - there you go, clean Santa Fe CF7s, and somewhat clean LAJ, and maybe a beat-up SP locomotive visiting.<BR> <BR>This would still be more realistic than many America-based layouts are Lots of info about the LA J seems to be in older magazines or books, couldn't find any good track maps on-line. Maybe you saw this, if not, maybe it will help..<BR>As for video, here's a start from some modern era

- as usual, from the first one you can look at the other videos if you want - Note extensive use of Santa Fe/BNSF locomotives

 

 

Gosh!! Plenty of options there, Sir Ray.....I'm almost spoilt for choice Thanks for sharing.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

[Guest jonte]

I have just had permission from Kit to re-post his picture on here

 

From: CimaScrambler To: shortliner 05/14/11 15:51Hi Jack

 

I don't mind at all. Go ahead and re-post it.

 

Regards,

 

Kit

 

So here it is - taken somewhere in San Diego in 1992

 

 

Wow, Jack....what proportions!!!!

 

Certainly worth all the effort. I'm sincerely grateful to you both. Please pass on my kindest regards to Kit.

 

Jonte

[Jez]

Hi Jonte,

 

The Athearn CF7 is an excellent choice of loco for switching and light road duties. I have 4 of the LAJ liveried examples. The Athearn motor and trucks run fine, but if you want something a little more special with excellent slow speed characteristics, then you can re-power the locos using Kato/Stewart motors and trucks. Great little locos to detail and weather, although the coupler cut bars are a little tricky.

 

 

 

Jez

[Guest jonte]

Hi Jonte,

 

The Athearn CF7 is an excellent choice of loco for switching and light road duties. I have 4 of the LAJ liveried examples. The Athearn motor and trucks run fine, but if you want something a little more special with excellent slow speed characteristics, then you can re-power the locos using Kato/Stewart motors and trucks. Great little locos to detail and weather, although the coupler cut bars are a little tricky.

 

 

 

Jez

 

Hi Jez

 

Thanks for sharing as my next task was to 'check them out' on the web; retrucking sounds the business but not sure if this a step too far for a'newbie' at present ,however, I shall certainly look them up (hopefuly there'll be a blow by blow somewhere as to how it's accomplished. Their 'compact' proportions would certainly be in keeping with the limited size of my proposed layout (that LAJ livery looks great too!).

Jack (Shortliner) has kindly found one available in Santa Fe guise on Ebay which is certainly worthy of some serious consideration.

 

Thanks again and great to hear from you.

 

Jonte

 

PS.....just thought you might like to know that earlier, my daughter was peering over my shoulder whilst I was browsing the net when she remarked, "is that real, Dad?". You will no doubt be pleased to learn that I was, as usual, tuned into the 'Overseas Modelling' section of RMWeb at the time - and the layout: Harrington, no less! High praise indeed. Jonte

[Guest jonte]

Now here's a couple of CF7s I'd like to run on my layout folks.....

 

 

The sole tractive power, I believe, of the Clinton Terminal Railway, NC. Here's a link to the video where I captured them:

 

 

Coincidentally, they're ex ATSF..........what do you reckon to modellers licence? Pushing things a little too far perhaps? (they've got flaking paint and rust spots galore)

 

Okay, I'm pushing my luck here aren't I?

 

So how about this as a compromise:

 

 

If anyone's passing, would they kindly let me know their thoughts?

 

Many thanks,

 

Jonte

[Guest jonte]

 

 

Jonte