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Questions of a Time Traveller from 1987
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Question 1- <br /> <br />Knuckle Couplers were once ruled by Kaydee until the patent expired. Now everyone who wants to can make "Similar" couplers. I once had to replace horn and hooks with kaydees in addition to the expense of the rolling stock. Now some include clones with the rolling stock.. however, I maintain a stockpile of Kaydee's (about 20-50) because the clones will fail at some point in the future. <br /> <br />Question 2 <br /> <br />Rolling stock made some time ago have deep flanges or does not confirm to current standards today. I say this is kind of not-a-problem... because of the abundance of fine metal wheelsets. A box of Intermountain, Protos (they dont sell bulk, my favorite wheels) and other wheelset makers have made sure that there are good quality wheels ready to go. For Athearn Blue Box, Accurail, Walthers etc etc they are adequate. Similar to couplers, manufactors are beginning to include metal wheelsets in the offerings. <br /> <br />Question 3 <br /> <br />I feel your pain, perhaps a careful search of Chicago area may yeild a shop that is able to produce these models you seek. Chicago is a rail hub of the USA and I think there has to be some one who has the ability and the resources to commercially create these models as either a retail offering or a custom order. <br /> <br />Question 4 <br /> <br />I have dealt with Aurora in Trucking over the years and let me tell you.. it is BUSY. I dont know too much about Naperville. <br /> <br />Question 5 <br /> <br />I cannot tell you about Amtrack, however some of my projects used Microscale decals... for example I built a small Dominos Sugar Fleet of tank and Covered hoppers only to find Athearn releasing Tanks in ready to run (Better than my adequate workbench skills I may add) in the Dominos roadname shortly after finding out the supply has dried up from Microscale. <br /> <br />Road numbers are in very short supply, I have several peices of rolling stock that have the same road number simply because there are not any availible. Maybe someday I will renumber them but they to me, are a pain to do. <br /> <br />Question 7 amd 8 I will leave to others. <br /> <br />Question 9. <br /> <br />I plan a 24" radius as the minimum however anything bigger always helps your models to perform better (and look better too) You may want to let one of those mains go and use the extra room to go from 24 to 26". <br /> <br />Question 10-12 I leave to someone else <br /> <br />Question 13... <br /> <br />I am going to proclaim my absolute ignorance and very dense inability to know anything. Here I think the technology required to get AC power to do the work that DC has done for a long time is amazing. Think of AC power as a locomotive with very big batteries and a series of switches that are fast enough to keep the power to the rails in a controlled manner. <br /> <br />They are also among some of the most powerful giants ever to see the rails. I have a feeling that 14,000 Hp and beyond is possible with one unit and a booster instead of a lashup of 3-6 desiels driving DC power. <br /> <br />What is awesome is Steam Technology on the 40's and 50's rivaled the power of some of these modern locomotives.
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