After looking through my photos, all I could find was this. Wrong end of the train. The BNSF usually runs two units on the front of these UFIX coal drags one on the back. I believe the engines are interchangable so this one could very well end up pushing at times.
I don't have anything spectacular, but here ya go. All of thse are from Saginaw, Tx. outside of Ft Worth:
OK, I finally found my box of slides from a power plant tour I took at the HL&P plant in Thompsons, Texas. Here is the tail end of a coal train.
The UFIX used to come into Newton and leave to Wichita every other day. I havn't seen them in several months. What happened? Did their route change? Great images by the way. So in N scale, is DCC the only way to run DPU effectively?
I believe those would be the UFIX trains that UP was hauling. The BNSF UFIX trains usually come down through Denver, Pueblo, Amarillo, Fort Worth etc. BNSF hauls the bulk of coal for Utility Fuels (now Reliant Energy). The UP picks up what the power company buys on the spot market so it varies month to month. As for DPU in N scale, we de-power or make a dummy out of the last engine and pull it and 50 cars with two engines on our NTRAK layout with straight DC.
Anyone got pics of mid-train helpers? There is something special about locomotives in the middle of a train Are mid-train helpers used much these days?
Rocky Siding/Little Ten Curve, CO: West of Rollinsville, CO: South Draw, CO , west of old Tunnel 17: Tunnel 1, east of Plainview, CO: Louisville, CO:
Thanks Alan, the Moffat Route comes through again with a stunning example of horsepower, stiff grades, tortuous curvature and extraordinarily heavy trains!
I have tried using pusher units on 100 car grain trains in N w/ DC. works fairly well with some really well matched engines on straight shots around the club's NTrak layout, but it didn't like going onto sidings with much speed at all. just creeping, it could be coaxed onto one to clear the line at the end of the session. HTH beast [ March 03, 2005, 11:13 AM: Message edited by: beast5420 ]
Here's an early example (1982) using U Boats. Detroit Edison at Cleveland, going east with empties. The coal cars, BTW, are 125 ton capacity.
This power complex at Smithers Lake, southwest of Houston is so huge, one could take an entire monster layout to model it. With both BNSF and UP serving it, you would need an endless supply of coal gons with plenty of DPU to fill it up.
Actually Ron, those last two were taken a little further down the way. The 9846 was shot on the south side of Wichita Falls (in March 2002) and the 9724 was taken while pulling out of Herman siding south of Decatur. (in June 2002) Russell, Thanks for the shots of Smithers, that's one place I've really wanted to visit but haven't yet. I've seen the other end, though! (Jacob's Ranch and Caballo Rojo)
Here is another one from Smithers. One of the roatary dumpers with the empties on the outside and a car being rotated inside.
Here is the DPU on the tail end of a UFIX coal train leaving 1951 Sugar Land on our NTRAK layout last November. Love them time warps.
Here is another one from Smithers. One of the roatary dumpers with the empties on the outside and a car being rotated inside. </font>[/QUOTE]Very cool. That photo could easily translate to a model scene as a "flat" with the trackage going into backround staging and/or a silo load out in an empties in/loads out type of deal.
