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    Train Crew Question, Transition from yesterday to today

    caboose spotting Jetrock- Way freights or locals are one place where, if real lucky, we still might see a caboose today. A few railroads still use them for the crew .........although I can't think of a specific one right now. Otherwise the extra trainmen ride in a second unit or that leat...
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    What is your favorite RailRoads?

    favorites A little late on this thread, but :( I have some favorites I never saw. Thanks to books and magazines, I've become a big fan of my namesake road, and WP- which was part of UP before I ever saw any of it, but have railfanned its territory several times. Spectacular! I worked for...
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    MOW Quiz

    that thing About a month ago I was at the BNSF yard in Galesburg IL and they were using a similar machine to blow out switches. (lots of snow and ice, about 10 degrees at the time) Sounded like a small jet. Seemed to be purely high speed air, no heat involved- I guess. ** VERY loud ** had...
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    Train Crew Question, Transition from yesterday to today

    flagging Ted, yet another response.... well flagging today is essentially performed by the dispatcher and/ or radio communications between trains. Radio is much better now than 20-25 years ago. If you have a scanner, you'll hear it sooner or later "Dispatcher, 4732 West in emergency at...
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    Train Crew Question, Transition from yesterday to today

    More on crews Ted, I forgot to say what a brakeman did. I can't cover it all, but here's *one* thing a head-end brakeman did in the territory I worked: (We operated in single track "dark" territory. ie, No block signals, CTC, etc) We had train meets dictated by the dispatcher and provided to...
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    Train Crew Question, Transition from yesterday to today

    Ted- I can tell you what it was like in the late 70's early 80's as I was a brakeman on the C&NW at that time. Typical over the road freights had the engineer and a brakeman in lead unit. Rarely was there a "fireman", which at that time meant a student engineer, but I did see this a few times...
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    Building made by me

    Ricardo-- that is a great building and I especially like the rooflines. Fits in well . :thumb: Keep up the good work :D CBnQ
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    TV/Railroad Accuracy

    trains are here! Nscale4-- I bought a home after looking for months for the right combination of : close to busy main line, a couple acres, and not "too far" out in the sticks. ;) So, I'm about 2 miles north of the BNSF (former Santa Fe) in central IL. When the air is calm I hear them...
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    A Trains issue made for me!

    Trains " i think they have done Minneapolis/St Paul, Omaha/Council Bluffs, Detroit, and Cincinatti so far." Trainworm....they also have done Chicago. (Yes!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Re: Trains......I've been subscribing since 1989 or so. And I try to locate older issues...
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    TV/Railroad Accuracy

    silly movies & tv Was "runaway train" the one with Jon Voight, escaped convict? most of the movies and tv that have had train scenes where the train was really important are pretty goofy and not accurate to real operations. Almost all, I'd say. What's more, I have met over the years, a...
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    To catch those mistakes

    apron George, I hope that apron isn't fastened too securely .......I would get up to answer the phone, forget to disengage and flip the workbench, put a kink in my neck and smash my shins all at once. :D I guess I watched the 3 stooges too much as a child. :D does sound like a good idea if...
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    To catch those mistakes

    This is probably not a new idea to many here but maybe somebody will benefit. One night, while assembling a couple kits and seeing, (sometimes only hearing) some small part go flying away from my fingers or tweezers or whatever tool I had ..........and onto the floor where they would be...
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    Model Railroader. then and now

    MRR Ralph, I have to agree. And I was recently looking at Nov '01 MRR-- chock full of how-to, advice, tips of all kinds, advanced and not so advanced. It is easy to be critical when we don't sit around the table and make the decisions on what to come up with every month. cBnQ ;)
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    Time to vote for best photo!!!

    Photos......? Maybe I'm missing the obvious, but where are the photos? I'd like to vote but..... thx cbnq:confused: :D
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    Different makes of ground foam

    grinding foam ezdays--- I was experimenting a little last night: grinding foam in my Hamilton Beach blender. First, it's probably best to use the lighter density foam- I had the denser kind that is probably a little hard to chop up with the blender. (fabric stores usually sell 2 or 3...
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    Different makes of ground foam

    Mossy stuff Zeeglen--- that is a great idea!~ Hot Darn. And it looks great, too. Thank you kindly. I'll try that. :thumb: Did I mention I'm mostly Scottish? :D It may be that we have a frugal gene. ;) ~~~~~~ Off to catch a couple real trains on the BNSF. (the westbounds must have...
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    Different makes of ground foam

    Sawdust, indeed I was searching for "Sawdust" in posts, since it occurred to me as I looked at 2 cubic foot of the stuff in the shop vac......hmmm.....ground cover? dried grass or clumpy clay in foothills and dry climates? color it? mound it? Well, looks like a few others have tried it and...
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    Model Railroader. then and now

    MRR Since I'm still a newbie- about 2 years ago I bought my first HO items and started thinking about a real layout-- MRR to me is not great but still decent. They do seem to lean to the beginner and/or small layout person that might be dipping toes in the hobby. I agree with many...
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    layout weight on foam

    foam warping FWIW, the pink/blue foam seems to be prone to warping (isn't that a funny word? WARP.....say it 15 times to your dog :D ) when it is 1" thick or smaller. I rescued a 2" thick piece of blue that had been left as scrap on a construction site. It was the base for my first crude HO...
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    layout weight on foam

    CN1- thanks. If I had to guess I would have supposed the dense pink foam (or blue dense kind, either of which I am planning to use) would hold up pretty well. And I guess the hills, mtns above would have to be pretty dern heavy to compress the 1 inch layer badly. I just experimented a...
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