A T&NO P-6 Pacific locomotive. The basic mechanism is a Mini Trix but there are bits and pieces from lots of places.
In my world - the SP wanted to evaluate the BL-2 for possible branch line use - so, we "borrowed" one from the Rock: @r_i_straw -- The franken pacific is great!! Thanks, Wolf
I managed to complete a couple of more cars this week. First up is 1937 AAR IMWX Boxcar kit, substituted a Viking Roof (Also used by the C&O and NKP all Van Swearigin Roads). Used Yarmouth Models Sill Steps in place of the Plastic Sill Steps. Painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and lettered with Speedwitch Media Decals. Car was built in 1940 and this is a 1945 Repaint where the Erie used the yellow diamond for a couple of years, later reverted back to the white and larger diamond. Car is in general service. Next up a new Athearn ACF 4600CF Covered Hopper Car, car built as well as can be with no instructions and a line diagram. Painted with Scalecoat II UP Covered Hopper Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. Car was in grain service in the southern areas of the DT&I. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
I think the Bl-2 is a good looking engine. Shame GM didn't design it with MU capability, or more companies would have bought it. B&M had two.
The Rock did add MU to there 5 unit fleet -- sometime in the mid '50's (Going by my crummy memory) Wolf
MinitrainS HOn30 passenger cars, converted from their European style couplers to M-T. Railway Recollections resin shell, lightly modified and some details added, on Bachmann center cab 44 tonner chassis. All ready for decals and dull coating, etc. Just need to get the decals made.... And start building a few modules.
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but the BL2 is actually one of my favorite diesels. C&O had the largest fleet of them. They were ordered by the Pere Marquette and delivered post-merger to the C&O. Most spent all or most of their lives in Michigan, where their light axle loading was ideal for the many lightly railed ex-PM branches. In fact, while my memory is blurry, consisting of a man sitting high in the cab of a blue and yellow diesel, I'm pretty sure the first train I saw was pulled by a BL2. C&O also installed MU capability on theirs, but had considerable trouble with broken frames due to it. They dealt with the problem by repeated welding and only one engine- (Don't remember the number, but it spent most of its life sitting in the diesel shop at Wyoming MI) was permanently sidelined due to a broken frame.
My neighbor and yours truly enjoying some wine as we go down the track on an observation car platform in this screen capture of a video we just finished. John
I may have read somewhere that the BL's unique design was partially a result of locomotive frame engineering at the time, when an interior truss was used within the carbody for strength as found in the F-Series. The BL's layout was much the same, adjusted for better visibility. The GPs advanced to stronger frames, so didn't need any sort of carbody truss. I was in Hagerstown, MD sometime in the mid-1980s and found a WM BL-2 at work in their yard. I rubbed my eyes, thinking it was an apparition.
Happily, WM's two BL-2s survive. No. 81 is at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore and is not operating. You're right that No. 82 operates on the West Virginia Central Railroad hauling tourists out of Elkins, WV.
Well, a friend of mine gave me this old MDC four window caboose. I decided to bring it into the Turtle Creek Central family, as #52.
Testing out the new Bachmann light mountain on the club layout. Seems it'll pull 12 microtrains heavyweights or 20 nmra weighted coal cars up the 2+% loop. On the flats it'll pull 20/40, color me impressed! After the break in period it'll be repainted to WP for mixed traffic.