Interesting mix of lightweight and heavyweight - Nice Video

My modeling is somewhat paralleling your Tulsan, etc.   Working on the ATSF Denver and Albuquerque-El Paso  trains in 60's and 70's.   Mixes of Alcos and EMDs and lightweight and heavyweight cars.  Still acquiring and modifying/painting the cars.   With Union Station products kits (streamlined cars) of many of the ATSF types as well as Con-Cor, Kato and modifications of Micro-Train heavyweights, Walthers/Lifelike lightweights can put together most everything in N scale.  Lots of fun.   Biggest issue is the silver paint variations on lightwieghts.   Prototype trains are a mix of shades and weathering.

My modeling will be shorter train sets of 3-6 cars + mail and express cars.  Huge variations possible for train operations and variety.

Great video.   Phil C.

Thank You

Phil,

I love passenger trains and my layout generally reflects that. I have had some issues with trying to get all of the different manufacturers' passenger & express cars, both lightweight and heavyweight, to successfully run together. As I run each of the passenger trains, it has helped me to identify and correct problems. For example, I have a set of Rivarossi Milwaukee Road heavyweights that I just had to replace all of their trucks.  Have fun.

John 

Nice video

Hi John,

Again a real joy to follow a nice long train and see all the switching. I love the way you comment the action !

Have fun !

Happy Season greetings & keep safe,

Best wishes,

Filip

Thank You

Hi Filip,

I appreciate your comments very much. As I work my way through all of the ATSF named trains, it has helped me learn a lot about passenger car switching as well as identifying problem cars.

 Hope you and your family have a very Happy Holiday season.

John

How Did I Miss This Layout?

Hi John,and

Again, you have done another great video description of a a passenger train operation at Kansas City.  You are teaching me a lot.  Your 11+ car passenger trains are impressive AND in N scale at that.  Speaks well of your track and car tuning.   We rode Amtrak to KC Union Station back in the early 1970s when it was still Texas Chief-Santa  Fe equipment.  If memory serves me right we used an escalator from trackside up to the over-walk and down when we departed. We were busy herding our 3 daughters so I got zero time to study the place. 

Based on your suggestion in another thread I was able to stop your tour Part 1 video and make out the condensed two track coach yard. Being adjacent to the engine service yard reminds me of Rick De  Candido's  Fillmore Avenue layout where he had a lot in small space integrated together. Your two tour videos helped me to better understand your layout - amazing. 

Two or three years ago when I was studying the FW&D passenger operations at Fort Worth I was searching the Net for info on how other modelers did a passenger operations layout, I missed your layout. I have no idea how I missed it but your posts in MRH led me me to your video channel. It is going to take me a while to look at them. Awesome!!

curved crossover

I've sunk quite a bit of time struggling with what radii to use for a similar curved crossover I'm planning for my layout. I'm curious what radii you have there? Inner curve radius, outer curve  radius, and the other radii of the two switches that form the crossover, if you recall them, would be great to have.

Also, from your narration, you have not had bulletproof operation across that crossover, do you know why that is?

Thanks for the vid. I think I've seen pics of this layout before, if it's the same one I'm thinking of, you've made a lot of progress on that end of the layout.

Thanks Again

Hi Steve,

Thank you again for your comments.  I am glad that the tour videos helped answer your question about the coach yard. The one problem with trying to model passenger train operations is that you need a lot more room (especially if you run more than one railroad like I do) than is always available. I used both the actual track diagrams of Union Station plus the information that I got from Dr. Nick Muff to create my version of KCUS. Since the engine facility/coach yard sit over the east helix, I had to have an opening to get into the middle of the helix so the coach yard was cut back to what is only 4 tracks.

Have fun,

John

Curved Turnouts

EW,

First a bit of background - I used Peco electro-frog code 80 curved turnouts on the main level and insulfrogs on the staging level. I believe the radii are 36"/18". When I was designing the track plan for the layout, I used a program called Railmodeller (Mac only) that had models of all of the various turnouts and crossings from different manufacturers.  After I was satisfied with the plan, I printed out the layout in full scale and glued it down to the plywood so I knew that everything would fit properly.

The Peco curved turnout crossovers match up very well and I have two on the east helix and one (recently added) at Michaelson Junction.  The newest one took a little bit of work trying to find the sweet spots on both tracks when locating the ideal location. Most of the time I will precut a short section of track and join the two turnouts together and lay them over the track and move it back and forth until I locate a spot where it is close enough. Sometimes I have had to change the curve on on of the tracks to accommodate the curved turnouts a little better. 

The only engines that I occasionally have trouble with on the crossovers are the Broadway Limited 6 axle diesels. Some of the older passenger cars (Con-Cor) will also derail on occasion until I replace their trucks with Micro-Trains trucks.

Have fun,

John