A couple of adaptable Prototype ideas

[pcarrell]

Interesting indeed. I like the air line thing especially.

[ndbprr]

I had a few momenst this morning to stop in Homewood, Illinois where the IC Woodcrest yard enters the mainline and saw a couple of previously unnoticed ideas for model railroads.
1. There is at least one mainline siding where transfer runs are parked outside the yard which is separated from the main by a treeline. The end car had an airhose attached that is fed from a compressor(s?) in the yard somewhere. Thus the trainline was kept charged so when it is ready to leave and the engines are attached there is no wait to pump up the train. The interesting thing was that the hose had a blue flag attached to it so only the person who connected it can remove it. An interesting application for an operating session.
2. On the north end of the passenger platform used by Amtrak was a large chest on rubber wheels. This is approximately 30" high by 30" wide and 4-5' long. It was painted white with CN on the ends and Canadian National on the top. It was chained to a telephone pole. While I was there an employee drove up, unlocked the top which was a full legnth chest type took some form of mail from it and relocked it. Then he left with the mail. Looked like a lot of internal communication in those manilla envelopes where you put the person's name and department and then it gets mailed internally. I have no idea how it got there or what it was. I assume some trainman got to be delivery boy since there is no other way or reason for it to be there. Any thoughts are welcome on this one. This could require an occasional freight to make a stop at a passenger station.