Buster Keaton. Yep, another staple of my childhood movie collection. Though I could never find a copy with the piano score that played on that specific showing we recorded off the TV in the 80s. I loved it, and it doesn't sound right to me without any other music. Those engines aren't of the Civil War era, but just afterward. Interestingly, Keaton wanted to use the original General for the film, and almost got it. But when the owners found out he wanted to do a "comedy" they were like "no way." Too bad.
Civil War history and Tyco’s General locomotive kit is what really began my love of railroad modeling.
Oh, of course. Thanks for the correction. The stunts in this movie are amazing. I think I last saw it on Turner Classic Movies and I think it had a good piano score. In 2013 the film was restored and enhanced to 4K resolution.
New arrivals today... excited to get them on the road. Atlas 4-4-0 USMRR “Gen. Haupt” from Streamlined Backshop w DCC installation. Atlas 4-4-0 PRR No. 1510 from eBay, no DCC yet. Bachmann W&ARR Boxcars (4).
It'd be interesting to scratchbuild one of the siege guns someday. Wow, look at that featherweight rail!
Welp, I lost a brake wheel from the MTL flatcar. They merely rest in a small tube at the end of the car, not permanently attached. I'm guessing they made them like that so they wouldn't break off completely. But if they're falling out all the time, wouldn't it seem to be reason to include an extra one in the package? They included extra coupler links. Just mentioning. Also, I'm returning the Arnold passenger cars. Too much work to retrofit them. Will look into Bachmann or another maker for passenger cars. There are many on eBay.
I have a combine / coach of the old Rapido cars that I use on my Hickory Valley. The road I'm imitating - Sheffield & Tionesta - had second-hand open platform PRR cars that lasted until they closed the line in 1942. Before those cars, they had four open-platform cars they got from the D&H Gravity Railroad originally built back in the 1850's, so these were the 'new' cars. The major modification I did on them was to trash the Rapido trucks and put on MDC Overton passenger car trucks, which have an extension. http://www.spookshow.net/trucks/psriveted4.html A little modern for Civil War but far better performing than the Rapidos. There's a shot of my Atlas 4-4-0 and that train at 4:14. For the sharp 8" curves I have on that module, I mounted caboose steps to the coupler extensions so the steps swing with the couplers.
Work on the actual locomotives has been slow, as I only have about an hour at night available. I cleaned up the wheels of the Gen. Haupt, and its pickup is already improved. But I think much of the pickup issues has to do with the track being 20+ yrs old. Some of the track is actually 30-40 yrs old. Still, considering, I've had only one or two stalls during a complete runaround of the 3'x3' layout I'm using right now. I also didn't solder anything or take any of the care I'm supposed to while laying track. I used fine sandpaper on top of the rails and cleaned them with alcohol, which cleared up 80% of the issues. I'm going to add more weight to them in the cabs and front of the tenders. I'll need to cover up the decoder anyway, so it should work out nicely. In the meantime, I got antsy and way ahead of myself, so I did a draft layout for the room I'm going to use. It'll be a shelf layout and the room structure already accommodates that. You'll see when I get photos posted. But for now, here's what will eventually become a Civil War single-track railroad, loosely based on the W&ARR. I plan to use Peco C55, which I know is a little expensive, but I want to be able to run my old pizza cutters on it, too. Plus, I read the switches are better. I'm going to build this in DCC, so I'll also need the auto-reversers for the reverse loops. All of this is months, if not a year away, so I don't expect to update anything about the layout for a good long while.
Posted this in the Swap Meet forum. I'm looking for balloon stacks. If anyone has any parts locos or leads on some, let me know: http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/n-scale-4-4-0-balloon-stacks.117868/
One thing to maybe consider is a diamond stack which was used for wood and coal burners. The only thing about that is the fact they were Detail Associates parts and they were meant to replace the entire stack.
For my Civil War modeling I was inspired by this passage from: Three Months in the Southern States: April, June, 1863: Fremantle, Arthur James Lyon, Sir, 1835-1901 It describes the train that ran through the town where I now live.
Added five more freight cars. Found them cheap. To be honest, I was shocked to find them at all. But one thing I still can’t seem to find more of is the regular boxcar. The converted house cars will do just fine for now. I also wanted to see how well the Atlas engines pulled. So I coupled up an 11-car train, which included the four heavier Bachmann W&ARR boxcars. And aside from a little hesitation for a moment, the two Atlas had no problems. I’ll upload a short video to YouTube tomorrow.
I have a few of those cars in my little train although I have re-lettered them for Civil War railroads that ran in Texas. I put the same trucks on my old Bachmann cars too and link pin couplers between all. The scratch built 4-2-0 has a decoder in the tender under the huge pile of firewood. I stationed brakemen on the car roofs periodically as there were no air brakes on these old trains.
Here's the PRR No. 1510 pulling 11 freight cars. I blame the moment of hesitation on bad track/pickup. This engine was running on pulse setting using a Throttlepack 501 N, but I hope the Tech 7 I ordered will help with the slow speed control. The U.S.M.R.R. Gen. Haupt (which has a decoder installed, the PRR doesn't) doesn't react to the pulse setting at all, which is bothersome since the Atlas engines on the full setting start moving at about 40 mph. Not realistic at all. The Bachmann engines, surprisingly, have much better slow speed reaction with the 501. Not sure if that's a motor thing.
