I just finished a P2k GP-18 today.  When I worked for the Mopac I saw these locomotives were all over the system.  Mopac owned 151 of these locomotives so they had the largest fleet in the world.  So if you model the Mop you really can't ignore not having one on the layout.  Towards the end of the 1970's many were found in this faded Jenks Blue with several Mopac signature additions.  Traded in Alco FA trucks, spark arresters, snow plows for local service.

Question for the European crowd:

I'm interested in modeling a small British outline layout; basically a loop with a runaround and couple of sidings and interchange track.  The goal would be to allow for some shunting of wagons.  Looking at the British/European wagons, they come with a variety of coupling systems.

The most common (that I see) seem to be the Hook and Loop couplers.  How well do these work for shunting operations?  (They really look "ugly" to me though ...)

Hey Guys I just bought this Broadway Limited Alco PA and while running it I discovered a few issues that maybe somebody can provide suggestions.  Last month I also bought a BL F7B that seems to run awesome on my layout with no problems.  The Alco on the other hand seems to start through a turnout and then just stops, restarts, and then continues down the line.  Also there is one corner that it likes to derail for some reason.  I am scratching my head on why it is doing this when I have no issues with the other broadway limited loco or any of my other Atlas locos.

Have a updated "what-I-did" of the 2006 web article about lowering Mantua's 1860's boxcar to the more common side height.

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/1879/cars/lowering_mantua/

The update has mounting better trucks that are from the era: