This is really a great topic. Guess I need to take some pics and get them posted. That is if I could get some help posting them. What do you say Paul. Any chance?
Richard you are quite welcome to join rail images to post pictures if not email them to me and I'll post them for you. Rail Images
At 838, BN bested UP's few hundred. BTW, BN 6843 is an ex-UP unit repainted by me. Even the 8002 was a Kato CNW unit.. The 7041 was a chopped CP snoot... I have 2 more snoots to chop and paint with whitefaces. Chop how-to:
Ok guys thought I'd restart this topic as it is one of my favorites. Some of you will notice yourposts have been deleted this is because the pictures were linked to the old rail image site. so lets get this topic up and running with morepics of unit trains.
I am near Denver NOW But the pic was taken earlier this year (before the move) at the Belmont Shore MRRC, which was the only place I could run long trains. And photograph them - nothing like a great setting to make mediocre trains look great, is there" One thing about the layout is the backdrops make it look so much bigger than it really is. William
Alan and John, Yes, I've been to DANS a few times. They are a great group of guys, but they're still building their new layout. Great digs, right next to a railroad museum with a for real U.P. Big Boy! I tried a few times to help with the building, but the impression I got was everyone seemed not to want any more help with their part of the layout. ("We're fine here, thanks, why don't you go and offer your help over THERE!" LOL) On one hand I was a little disappointed, but on the other hand I can understand that nobody wants to take time away from their own activities to get a newbie going on something. In the meantime my wife got (very) interested in the Nuggets basketball team, which, as you can imagine, takes up many free evenings. (I know, blame it on the wife, right! ) So I figured if I want to help build a layout, why don't I just go ahead and build my own? Hence my planning efforts in that direction, and all the research into the industries. With the advent of the New Year I plan to try and re-enlist at the club. Maybe they'll do some thinking and planning for the year ahead and I can scrounge out an assignment or two to help things along. But in the meantime the old coal, passenger and intermodal trains are doing some shed time... but when they come out to play, at least they'll have low miles, right? William
Paul, I've gone back and forth on unit trains. A few years ago, I permanently coupled 40 ore cars together, using the "chopped Rapido" method. It didn't work very well, so I replaced all the trucks with Atlas/Accumates. This does not work well on the new layout, which has steeper grades--the Accumates uncouple. I've learned that a tiny drop of ACC will hold couplers together, so that they can be taken apart later (tho with a little effort). I doubt I'll get to this before the New Year, but will post pics as soon as I can run without uncoupling! Pete
I will try to take more pics after work, of the layout, and have a new tour, with unit trains included. I have modified my Great Dome for the 'Builder, and installed MT 1015's body-mount style,and cut off the truck-mounted boxes. It works great! Sure wish I had done that before I took it to NM, cuz it just would not stay coupled or stay on the rails on Pete's incredible layout... The bonus of the 1015's is that they couple closer, and it looks much better than the rapido-box-mounted Kato knuckle coupler.
Pete, Look forward to seeing more of your pics. Did you have similar problems with MT couplers as they seem to be more robust??? Jeremiah, Love your pics and look forward to seeing more.
Pete, I had the same problem on my coal train. The solution that ended up working best for me was using Unimates (Red Caboose). They couple close and NEVER uncouple. And on a long train, with grades, all the ocuplers hold firm. In fact, I use Unimates between all my locomotives too. FWIW William
Hi Paul, Very nice layout! I run several unit trains including: PFE, piggybacks, "Overnights", and a nice string of black tankers. If I can get some decent photos I'll post them.
Hi, all, Now that I see that 1960's style Santa Fe reefer trains qualify as unit trains, I'll contribute the following. (was previously posted in a SNFF in Oct 2003). ======== In January 1961, the Santa Fe's 'Peavine Line' branch to Phoenix, Arizona, still left the transcontinental Santa Fe main at Ash Fork. Phoenix (denoted on ATSF timetable as the Salt River Valley) was a large vegetable farming area, and Santa Fe during season ran lots of of reefer trains to carry the goods to Eastern markets. The power on these trains at that time was varied; F7s, GP9s, and occasionally even the new SD24s. Here we see three of those new Santa Fe SDs in the brand new blue and yellow Santa Fe paint scheme introduced in 1960, bringing a load of empty reefers through the rugged mountains above Prescott, down towards Glendale and Phoenix: The Peavine Line south of Prescott and north of Skull Valley was a twisting, turning, 3% grade - which made for great train watching as the Santa Fe reefer trains snaked over bridges and through the desert mountains. Here's some other shots of the Santa Fe Trainmaster on an ice reefer train at the Belmont Shores Club in San Pedro, CA, in May 2004: Enjoy and thanks to all of you for sharing. [ 23. December 2004, 13:47: Message edited by: atsf_arizona ]
Here's a couple additional Santa Fe reefer unit train shots. Both shots taken by Dave Salamon on his Deep River Southern layout, with my ATSF Zebra Stripe GP7 engines and reefer train running as guests on his layout: Thx for having a look and thx all for sharing. www.railimages.com/gallery/johnsing community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona
Impressive rockwork surrounding those zebra striped units, John! Thanks for the pics. Oh, for the good old days
This is just a small sub-set of the PFE Reefer train I like to run. I have over 40 cars and a caboose that I usually pull with a 2-10-2 that I built from a Kato Mikado. Here a Cab Forward is posing with some of the cars.