I got tired of doing scenery so I switched to running trains.  Over the couple of weeks, I have been testing the first section of my "Train Sequence Schedule". The first 6 of 19 trains scheduled during the 0001 AM - 0600 AM time frame have been run so far and I have had to make some changes as to where trains are parked in the staging level as well as in Union Station. The first 6 trains took 4 1/2 hours for me to run and make sure everything worked correctly.  One of the main reasons to run these tests was to find any problems/issues with the operations plan that had been developed based on the ATSF passenger/freight schedules from the 1949 time frame. While running these trains, I had to pull a few engines off to check and reprogram decoders (they were replaced with other engines), a couple of passenger car couplers that had kept loosing their link to the next car, finding one tank car that kept shorting out one of my power districts due to a metal axle that did not have any insulation on one wheel, as well as finding that there were more cars in a stock train than I had planned.

The first video shows the WB ATSF Texas Chief moving from Ready Tracks East up the East Helix to Union Station and arriving on track 5. The train's motive power is a Kato F7 ABA consist of engines with Digitrax DCC decoders installed.

The second video shows the WB ATSF train # 37 Oklahoma - Texas Fast Freight.  Today this is a unit train of tank cars led by a Kato F7 ABBA set of engines.  The two A units have NCE 12K0b decoders installed, one of the B units has a factory installed ESU LokSound decoder.  The other B unit (not in Santa Fe paint yet) was a used engine that I bought recently for $60 with a Digitrax DN163K0B decoder already installed.  

The third video shows the EB ATSF LSX also known as the Southern District Live Stock Fast Express.  The train starts from Ready Tracks West track # 1 in the staging level, stops at the Morris Stock Feed Lot to take care of the animals with food, and water plus cleaning of the stock cars. Then the train continues its trip to Chicago through Union Station and back to the staging level to complete its trip. 

The motive power for the train is provided by an FT ABBA set of IMRC engines with Digitrax decoders. The neat thing about this train is that there are 4 Broadway Limited (BLI) cattle sound stock cars distributed throughout the train and they make a lot of noise with all of the mooing and kicking.

Modeling the ATSF Paradigm Division in N-Scale 

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