Anyone else greedy like me?

[Bealman]

I'll be stepping on a few toes here, but while the PA is a most impressive locomotive, I've always thought them as a bit evil-looking. I think it's the cab windows and long nose.

Sorry!

[Webbo]

No need to apologise, George. I wonder how you'd go on an inkblot test.

[Bealman]

The locos would have to be nose to nose

[grumbeast]

I'll be stepping on a few toes here, but while the PA is a most impressive locomotive, I've always thought them as a bit evil-looking. I think it's the cab windows and long nose.

Sorry!

Thats part of thier appeal!, evil looking can be beautiful!

[Train Waiting]

Hello Chums

Thanks for your photo, Graham. My loco is the same as yours.

I've just been thinking that it would be wonderful to see a photo of a PA on Poppingham's rails (John?). I realise that it may seem blasphemous, but the PA is a special locomotive and Poppingham is a special layout.

Sorry Graham, I don't wish to further interrupt your thread!

Webbo

Requests from Friends of Poppingham are always taken SuperSeriously, especially very nice ones like this.

As you are possibly aware, SuperSmelly diesels are prohibited from running on the Table-Top Railway due to the present weather conditions.  However, a special exception has been made in this instance:-





The first production PA+PB was delivered to the Santa Fe, so it's appropriate that the first picturingham features that fine railway.  Hardknott looks on with interest but Flossie has turned away from the diesel locomotive.  American trades unions can be every bit as intransigent as British ones, so the individual machines, which look like locomotives to us, are called 'Units'.  Once they are formed together, the resulting 'lash up' is called a 'Locomotive'.  The labor unions, thinking about steam traction, insisted each locomotive had its own crew.

Then 'Uncle Pete' turned up, resplendent, then as now, in Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray:-





The 'PA' A1A-A1A, later 'PA-1', was a 2,000hp unit, the same as a British EE 'Type 4' 1Co-Co1.  The later 'PA-2' had the V-16 four-stroke engine uprated to 2,250hp.  In the US and Canada, it was assumed that multiple units would be used to power a train, a practice which continues to this day.  For some time booster, or 'B' Units, without a driving cab, were popular as these were cheaper.  They had a basic set of controls for moving the unit in a yard or suchlike.  Gradually 'B' units were phased out as railroads appreciated the greater operational flexibility of cab-fitted units.

The locos would have to be nose to nose

On Poppingham* anything is possible:-





I hope you enjoy your 'inkblot' test, George.  Although I urge you to exercise caution (sounds like it's a dog) and not spill your ink over my train set.

Finally, this was the first time these Kato models had run in years - more than five, I think.  They performed splendidly.

* Given the US locomotives, Poppyville might be more appropriate.


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

With all best wishes.

Toodle-pip

John

[Webbo]

Thank you, John

No doubt the appearance of these PAs at Poppingham must have caused quite a stir in the village even if they are smelly diesels.

Webbo
 

[Webbo]

I'm responding here to Graham's desire expressed in his post #14 that he is drawn more and more towards older stock. I've got a bit of stuff from my initial foray into N Scale in the 1970s (in my twenties). Even though I've sold about half my old stuff meaning pre-1980, I still have 6 locos that I'm keen to get running as well as I can. First are 3 steam locos:



From the front they are a Minitrix K4 (1970), a J3a Hudson from ConCor but manufactured by Kato (1975), and a Y6b 2-8-8-2 Mallet manufactured by Rowa (1969). The dates are when these particular versions were first introduced. The J3a and the Y6b both have 5 core motors and are still fine runners. The K4 is not a fine runner caused by poor pickup issues according to the N Scale Encyclopedia. I would like to get it going better than it does as to me, it is a finely proportioned locomotive for an American steamer. Interestingly, the K4 locomotive was largely used as the inspiration for the design of the A1 and A3 by Sir Nigel Gresley. It would seem that some of the fine looks of the Flying Scotsman have been inherited from the K4.

Now my oldy diesels:




The diesel in the foreground is a Bachmann GP40 (1968) which is overscale, has a poor paint job, and howls when it runs. The NS Encyclopedia gives it a D rating, but I'm keeping it because it is part of history even if it is awful. The middle loco is a Minitrix F9A (1966) which was refurbished in my Deadwood thread, and the third loco is the ConCor PA-1 which we have met earlier on this thread.

I'm now regret selling off some my other oldies including a GP9 by Roco, a GP30 by Roco, and a FP9A by Arnold-Rapido. Yes, the Rapido couplings ubiquitous in the UK were introduced in N scale by this latter company in the early 1960s. This company bears no relationship to the modern Rapido Trains.

Sorry Graham for veering sideways once again. 

Webbo

[grumbeast]

Those are glorious Webbo!  Its not a sideways diversion at all.  I was thinking of setting up a thread specifically for 'vintage' N scale / gauge whether US / Continental or UK outline stuff.   As I read this I was looking at a box of bits of a K4 and was wondering where I put the chassis and motor!

G

[Webbo]

Great idea, Graham, about starting a thread on elderly locos of various nationalities.

Can I suggest a title: "Bring Out Your Dead". Though that might put some people off.

Webbo

[Train Waiting]

Great idea, Graham, about starting a thread on elderly locos of various nationalities.

Can I suggest a title: "Bring Out Your Dead". Though that might put some people off.

Webbo

Especially appropriate for any old Life-Like locomotives, often known as 'Death-Like' by US modellers.

Great idea for a thread.

With all good wishes.

John

[The Q]

Ludgershall Wiltshire, set 1940 EM gauge, big but progress is glacial. 53ft x 16ft

Tiree, highlands and islands,  N gauge set 1960s, slow progress, but it is worked on twice a week. New buildings are being constructed.. 15ftx6ft L shaped,  boards 2 ft wide

Decoville, just inland from D-Day, set 1944, French, work stopped at the moment due to a puppy with teeth. 6ft by 6ft L shaped, boards are 18 inches wide

Heigham Furlgate, N guage set 1959, probably progressing fastest as it's a simple layout, but temporarily stopped as it's in an unheated building. 10 ft x 2ft 6 inches.

There's a 5th layout I'd like to build, but at the moment I've no room to do so.

[Webbo]

That's an impressive list of Layouts-in-Waiting you have there Q.

You are a braver man than me as for me, it looks like about 40 years worth of work.

Webbo