After that fake RR news, I thought maybe we could have some real RR stories going. My first will be The prototypicle SD7 Tonight 22/06/00 I ahd a SD7 catch fire. It was a nice, but quick show. SD7 #422, and 423 were leading a Northbound freight of 33 cars up the D'arcy Sub. on the Eastern BC Rail Link when suddenly one stalled and started to shoot out smoke. I immediatly took the locomotive to the washroom for safety, and opened a little thing where the DB housing is, when suddenly I came across a fire, small albeit, but a fire. The locomotives had just returned to service after about 6 months out, since 2 SD60s arrived on property (under the christmas tree), but were needed to replace the GP35 as it got a freid decoder. The 2 SD7s were excepted to be in service for 2 weeks. We will replace the motor of #423, we will use the motor of SD7 #423A (still awaiting renumbering) to get the #423 back in service. The reason we were not just sticking the SD7 #423A in is the fact of a severly bent frame attributed to a scale 950 feet fall (of my dresser). For those of u who know me well, you will say "well Dane, you have 4 SD7s", and I do! But I seem to have misplaced the SD7 #424, and nuts, it ran last time I saw it! Happy Railroading!! Dane N. ------------------ BC Rail King TAMR2860@Canada.com for TAMR info. BCRailKing@Canada.com
Speaking of Fires, The BNSF of the Taylor River Divison scraped all plans of using Spectrum Locomotives as a inexpensive roster filler. After purchasing two EMD SD40-2 locomotives in Sante Fe blue and yellow colors only one is still in "running" service. Both locomotives were lashed up to a 20 car coal consist on the temporary lines of the Taylor River Divison. After less than 20 minutes of service, one of the locomotives caughet on fire and created a short on the entire system. Cause of fire is still not determined. On lookers testified to large amounts of black "stinky" smoke spewing from the locomotive. The CEO of the BNSF, Taylor River Divison, Matthew Taylor was quoted saying "Cheap Crap!!!" and stormed off. A written statement later stated that the Spectrum locomotives were being explored due to the five pole skew wound motors and flywheels. The burned out locomotive was converted to a dummy loco but it is far too heavy for this purpose as well. The future of this locomotive will likely be a pretty scenery piece in a yard somewhere. As for the other loco, no plans of operation have been disclosed. No other Spectrum or Bachmann locomotives will be purchased again unless the sell price is extremely low. The Union Pacific, Taylor River Division was quoted to saying "ha ha". The Taylor River Divison is split between the BNSF and UP with most track belonging to BNSF. Currently all track is temporary as the actual layout has not been constructed (forever in planning and re planning) Sorry for my lousy spelling, Matt
Sad but true: A local gandy dancer on the NP & UP N-Scale Ry. was impaled by 6 pine trees, as he was doing routing track maintenance. The incident occured when he reached across the layout to remove a stalled loco so he could clean the rails. The loco slipped from his grip, and on a botched save attempt, he was impaled by the tops of 6 bamboo skewer/furnace filter pine trees. Only 4 of the trees stayed planted, while 2 remained imbedded to plug the profusely bleeding holes left in his right arm. All track work was halted for 2 weeks while the track team recovered from those stinging wounds. Management ordered all pine trees topped, and the saftey record now stands at 190 days without accident. ------------------ Robert Ray The NP & UP N-Scale Railroad
Phoenix,OR.-UPI Gone are the days of of the Archaic Sentinals, the Semaphores, signals used by the great railroads of yesterday. Very few remain today, as a reminder of the past, as they are being removed for more modern signals. Today, one can find several Semaphores on the branch lines of the Southern Pacific RR. in Oregon. Today, sadly, one more is gone, it seems that a Giant cat got locked in the train room of the SP's Newberg Branch. No fatalities, but several locomotives were toppled as well as full trains, and not to mention, one scratch built lower quadrant semaphore near the #5 tunnel. "I've seen carnage before, but never have I seen a whole semophore chewed to pieces like that, it was just terrible" said one worker. The feline was removed from the area, not without some words said, it should be a long time before this happens again. ------------------ espee2 Home: www.tunnel13.com layout: SP's Newberg Branch in N scale [This message has been edited by espee2 (edited 23 June 2000).]
AP News, Corpus Christi, TX. The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF in Texas, also has had bad luck with the Spectrum SD 40-2's, all have been scraped. The C/CW40-8's however have served the road well. We've used them for coal and stack-train service without any problems and have work well MUed with Atlas and Kato units as well. The AOW has also had use of some of the Bachmann Plus F units. All ran well. The Main-stay of our fleet remains Atlas/Kato, but the Spectrum/Bachmanns will always be concidered for use on the AOW. ------------------ RAILROADING-TO-THE-MAX, Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Style! Brent Tidaback, Member #234 [This message has been edited by Maxwell Plant (edited 23 June 2000).]
The Taylor River Division of the Union Pacific RailRoad expressed great joy in todays press release concerning the Taylor River Division's newest locomotive. The Union Pacific put into service a Spectrum/Bachmann UP DD40AX locomotive for pulling local coal drags and other heavy service. The UP local spokesman was quoted saying "damn that thing is loud" Matthew Taylor CEO of the Taylor River Division of the BNSF was on site to view the locomotives performance. He was quoted saying "how come their bachmann cr*p works and ours did not?" The Union Pacific is considering installing a decoder in the locomotive as the dual motored loco only pulled .5 amps when stalled. Based on the BNSF's poor experience with this manufacturer, the Union Pacific will wait to install the decoder until the loco has been in operation for some time. The UP operates on joint trackage with the BNSF on the Taylor River Division. The track is actually owned by BNSF. Currently both roads share access on the single tracked temp line. Constuction on the Taylor River Divison will start this fall. CP Rail and Amtrack are also expected to have operations on the Taylor River Division. ------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 Taylor River Tribune [This message has been edited by mtaylor (edited 05 September 2000).]
The SW&G (Somewhere & Generic) divison of the BNSF experianced a derailment of the Pacific Zip when a large feline animal slept on top of the motive power. The 3 C44-9W's tumbled over and knocked over the power on the generic genral merchindice express. The crews of both trains were able to run to safety and were not hurt. However the Cat did recive a slap on the butt and was yelled at a little. Kevin
