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BTW I believe the GN's FA units were all freight engines, I don't believe any were used for passenger service. For your period you could 'mix and match' F3's and F7's if you wanted a little diversity.

For a brief period, I think 1962-67, GN passenger diesels had their trucks painted silver...or at least many of them did. Before that, both freight and passenger trucks were black. So...it depends on your era. For a true "1955 Empire Builder" the trucks would be black.

Well my HO Spectrum Climax cruises along nicely at about 6-7 MPH, I would assume the Shay should to. Did you give it a break-in run - 15 min. running continuously forward at about 3/4 throttle, then the same backwards?? That can make a big difference.

That's a good point about temps, the first year tends to affect plywood and roadbed under the track. After that it seems to stabilize. Could be the undertrack movements have skewed the track itself, or could have moved the track in relation to the switch machine or ground throw, so that the...

Back at the MRIA train show in 1983, a Marklin rep (who was a German) told me it was pronounced "Mare-clean"

Blasting and mining do go together, I have a DM&IR timetable from the 70's that lists a Hercules Powder Co. warehouse as an iron range customer served by the Missabe. BTW one interesting thing I remember seeing in a mining museum was a big metal box hanging from the mineshaft ceiling with...

FT's were designed by EMC/EMD to come in A/B sets with a drawbar between the two units - it was considered one two-section engine, kinda the diesel equivalent of a Mallet. Originally, there wasn't even a door that you could close between the two units, just the walkway and diaphragms. So FT's...

I remember seeing an amazing no. of 40' boxcars, some still in 1940's paint schemes, in Thunder Bay Ontario in the mid-eighties. Here in MN 40' cars were still common on long grain trains (like the CNW's "Alco Line") in the seventies too. I wouldn't worry about removing roofwalks from cars you...

I have a book on the history of Athearn that goes over when each car and engine was first made, when different versions came out, and what the boxes looked like in different periods. I've never seen one, but there might be something similar out there for MDC/Roundhouse?? Maybe a website...

I assume it's the chemicals used to make the gunpowder being shipped in tank cars (like the ammonia shipped in the reefer) not the finished product, which was shipped in crates in boxcars I believe. (I remember an old serial movie from the 30's-40's where the bad guys are being chased in a car...

For many years, that was the way DC layouts were powered - car batteries with a "trickle feed" to power them up between operating sessions. If the batteries died during a session, someone would have to go out to their car and bring in their battery to use!! No one has done this regularly for...

Walthers bought Train Miniature in the 80's, I assume the Train Miniatures FA unit would be the same (with some improvements) offered today by Walthers. Most of the stuff you list is stuff I've seen sitting on flea market tables year after year, usually with a pretty low price tag, maybe...

When people asked how much he spent on the hobby, he said about the same as he would if he smoked and had to buy cigarettes. He used kits at times, and in the later part of his life bought brass engines when they were available, but most of his work was scratchbuilt - items that took a lot of...

Long story short, billboard reefers were outlawed (or restricted) at the request of the railroads. Too many times a shipper would request a reefer, and then refuse it when the RR supplied one lettered from a competitor to that company. Then the RR had to go back and get another reefer, losing...

Athearn's heavyweight cars are based on ATSF prototypes. Their Baggage, RPO and Coach cars are full scale length, the Diner, Pullman and Observation cars are "shorties", 80' cars shortened to 72' length.

Did a search on Walthers, looks like Atlas is coming out with a DME GP-40 soon in HO. http://www.atlasrr.com/HOLoco/hogp38404.htm

Not sure about ICE but since related-railroad Dakota Minnesota and Eastern has been around since the eighties, I would assume someone makes decals for them?? Could be someone has even offered RTR engines in that scheme??

Well, actually now that I look at a pic of CN 6060, the tender is pretty close to the real thing. I was thinking it should be more like a standard Vanderbilt tender.

Bachmann has two lines basically, the Spectrum line is their best stuff, and their...well I don't know that they have a name for it, but let's call it their "regular line" is the cheaper made stuff. It can be hard to decipher, for example their GP-30 was originally a Spectrum engine but now is...

Yes mixing heavyweights and lightweight cars was very common in the 40's-60's, particularly using heavyweight baggage and RPO cars in an otherwise streamlined consist - many railroads never bought streamlined baggage or RPO cars and just used their old heavyweights to the end. Some railroads...