There were still a few more fundamentals to become acquainted with before we could get rolling. Because there was no scenic treatment of any kind on this Inglenook the kids’ attention was focused on the trackwork and it quickly became apparent to me that even this was entirely new to them. I showed them how flipping the lever on the ground throws moved the switch points. Even that tiny bit of animation drew exclamations of surprise, “Oh, I get it!”
They were intently examining the geometry of the frogs, too, and discovering exactly how they allowed flanged wheels to take either path. One student asked about the “extra bits” (the guard rails), and when I explained how they worked her eyes opened wide and she said, “That’s so clever!”
Finally it was time to learn about running the engine. The entire time we’d been discussing other matters the 0-8-0 was faintly hissing and clanking like a living creature, and we’d become accustomed to the sound. I went to the Zephyr control box and assured the students that they only had to learn about a couple of the buttons for now. First and foremost was the red one marked Power – “This is the panic button, press it if anything gets out of control.”
Next we needed to consider safety and communication.
“How does a railroad engine tell you something?”
Everyone shouted at once, “It blows its whistle!”
I admit this was like Christmas morning for me. I reached down and delivered a classic long blast followed by a short toot, and the audience went wild. Digital sound is awesome.
I also demonstrated the bell, and explained that a very elaborate language of bells and whistles allowed railroads to function smoothly, and although they were especially useful in the days before radio communication we all hear railroad horns frequently and understand the warning message they represent.
Although the prototype doesn’t normally use either bell or whistle when switching in a yard-like situation like the Inglenook I wanted to exercise every element of active engagement that I could, so one student was assigned to blow the whistle whenever the engine was about to move forward, and another was assigned to ring the bell during any back up moves. Those were popular assignments.
Last but not least, making it go. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m interested in conveying some of the power and majesty of massive objects moving on a railroad, so I’d configured the CVs to provide a lot of momentum effect on both acceleration and braking. I also set the throttle knob to stay on the fourth notch so that all engine movement could be accomplished at realistic speeds by simply moving the reverser off of Brake.
I have a goal of using my RailDriver console via JMRI to control the trains and I’m hoping DCC decoder technology continues to evolve in the direction of the highly realistic emulation of locomotive behavior and control that we see in pure software implementations like Trainz. I find it fascinating to manage boiler pressure, water and fuel levels, two separate brake systems, etc. and I think kids would too. Rotary knobs kinda bum me out.
The engine was close to the end of the lead, facing away, so I moved the reverser to Reverse. The kids were enthralled by the clank and I’m sure some of them imagined heavy metal was moving around somewhere inside that engine. Then it slowly started to creep back and the game was on.
Jeff
