How far from home rails would a hopper car likely to be found?  My North Central in Maine has no local coal, yet will need it, both for its own locomotives and for various on-line customers.  Would it  ride in cars belonging to railroads in Pennsylvania and West Virginia?

Cars like boxcars and flats can move anywhere, and that will influence my rolling stock roster, but I suspect I'd only see the hoppers from one or two lines at most--is this right?

Happy Holidays and welcome to my Illinois Division of the St. Louis Southwestern.  The layout is based in the late 60’s to early 70’s and runs from the fictional town of Marysville, IL (Paris, IL) southwest to E. St. Louis. 

This is a photo of Bud Yard which is the main yard that is located in Marysville.  This yard servers all the local industries and is an interchange point with the PC.

 I commissioned a mate in South Australia to add sound to my Atlas/Kato RS-11.

He installed Loksound, using the 12 cylinder engine which is correct for the prototype. He also printed up number boards, fixed the fixed the electrical pickups and fixed the lights.

The loco now performs flawlessly and sounds great.

Here it is hauling some freight on speed step 3/128

http://vimeo.com/80436873

and going through the startup/shutdown process