General Discussion (Model Railroader)

Centurion:

So do you guys think I'll be able to do a 2 or 3 loco consist with fairly long train on a roughly 6'x10' HO layout? I say roughly because I have the whole garage to work with, but this is my first attempt. I'd like to plan on expanding later, but we will see. Would it be best to start with some of the 4 axles or can I get away with a 6? Later down the road I plan on running a steam just for fun too.

I have a roughly 24' x 36' layout in my basement and my fleet consisits of mostly 4 axle units. The main reason is that I like 4 axle units, but realisticly on my layout 2 or 3 units look good pulling a 20 to 25 car train. IMHO a 25 car train with 2 or 3 six axle units looks overpowered. Also my layout is a midwestern layout so the terrain is flat and open.

As a locomotive engineer working for a "modern" railroad, I can tell you from first hand experience that it does not make any difference what kind of locomotives you have in a consist.  You'd think logic would dictate that they keep the same type power together, but in reality that is very far from the truth.  You're likely to see six axle units mixed with four axle units, and all sorts of variety within those two types.  EMD's and GE's are run together often, as are old units like SD40's lashed up with Dash-9's or even EVO's or whatever.  AC and DC traction motor locomotives are often mixed.  And don't get me started on road names.  I work for Norfolk Southern, but I see just about as many locomotives with other railroad's names painted on them as I do our NS units. 

Small short trains are often run with one locomotive, but more often than not,  you'll have atleast a pair of engines, although if the train is short enough and light enough one or more of the trailing units may be shut down (or if in cold weather, may be isolated and just running in idle...as the railroads do not shut down engines when it's freezing temperatures, because it's cheaper to pay for diesel fuel than it is to put anti-freeze in the cooling system.

Pretty much, you can buy whatever locos you wish and put them together, within reason of course.

MisterBeasley:

If you are running DCC, then you can tune the engine parameters so the engines you normally consist together have similar running properties.  If you're running DC, you don't have that option.  In that case, it's probably a good idea to buy similar engines from the same manufacturer to consist with each other.

Although there is some rearward visibility from the cabs of today's road engines, many are clearly designed with a front and back end.  Since turntables have mostly disappeared and wyes require extra real estate, you will usually see the first and last engines of a consist pointing in opposite directions.  At the end of the line, railroads just run the consist from the other locomotive instead of turning it.

I like to have at least 1 sound engine in each consist. 

I wish you'd tell Norfolk Southern about this concept about having locos on each end of the consist pointing in opposite directions...

Back in the old days of Southern Railway, you'd often see the long hoods forward (and other times not), because back then most of the fleet were designated long hood forward...

But after the N&W/Southern merger, all locos were "considered" to be short hood forward, even if they were still marked the other way...and the vast majority of the time, they'll have a short hood forward, but there's nothing that says you'll find the last unit in the consist pointing the opposite way.

They send turn trains (trains that will layover somewhere and return the next day) out all the time with all the units in the consist facing the same direction.  Other times they'll be two short hoods facing outward...you just never know...it's the luck of the draw.  It's not so bad to have to come back the next day long hood forward, if you can't find a wye...as long as you have an old southern unit, or at the very least a standard console locomotive to operate from.  But at the times they send out all desktop locos and they're all pointing one way, you literally have to run the locomotive backwards (meaning YOU are facing backwards too, perhaps using the mirror or looking over your shoulder to run)...and that is a total pain in the ***.  Actually running a desktop locomtive FORWARD is a pain in the *** (or more precisely the middle of your back, because it forces you to stay hunched over for the whole trip).  Also, if you happen to get a foreign line locomotive (meaning one that is not an NS loco), there's a really good chance you won't have ditchlights on the long hood end, as a lot of other railroads such as UP, BNSF, CSX and others often don't put them on the long hood end, because they tend to run theirs in pairs facing outward, and the short hoods ends all have ditch lights.

 There's really no excuse for this either...

We often go into the engine terminal to get a locomotive for a small light train that will only be using one locomotive (such as a welded rail train, camp car train, high/wide movement, etc), and that locomotive is backwards.  The first thing the main tower tells you is to go out to the mainline and run the wye, then come back into the yard and couple to your train.  Yet you can look around in the engine terminal and there'll be 35 or 40 other locomotives of the exact same engine class sitting there, and over half of them are facing the right direction.  They claim it's because the control center assigns locomotives, rather than the engine terminal...and the control center is in a building many miles away (but they still know which way those locos are facing, because every time you pass by a ACI scanner it reports every locomtive and car in the train, and which end is facing which direction.  It's really just laziness on their part.  But I really find that to be a problem when they send out two or more locomotives and you don't have them facing outward, or you have one in the middle somewhere that is facing the opposing direction, and you COULD switch it out to come back on...but that particular unit has some kind of mechanical problem, and is tagged for trailing unit operation only...making it useless

When I choose to run consists, I always check to see that the two locomotives I am planning to hook up will run at the same speed. If not, I put the slightly faster one in the number 2 spot. But the main thing I do is run dummies in the number 2 and 3 spots. They are getting harder and harder to find but worth the time if you want to run a consist without having the lead locomotive eventually running ahead of the rest of the train. Best place for finding them is on e-bay, and you can buy decals from Microscale at your local hobby shop to duplicate road names and change numbers if necessary.

bladeslinger:

As a locomotive engineer working for a "modern" railroad, I can tell you from first hand experience that it does not make any difference what kind of locomotives you have in a consist.  You'd think logic would dictate that they keep the same type power together, but in reality that is very far from the truth.  You're likely to see six axle units mixed with four axle units, and all sorts of variety within those two types.  EMD's and GE's are run together often, as are old units like SD40's lashed up with Dash-9's or even EVO's or whatever.  AC and DC traction motor locomotives are often mixed.  And don't get me started on road names.  I work for Norfolk Southern, but I see just about as many locomotives with other railroad's names painted on them as I do our NS units. 

Small short trains are often run with one locomotive, but more often than not,  you'll have atleast a pair of engines, although if the train is short enough and light enough one or more of the trailing units may be shut down (or if in cold weather, may be isolated and just running in idle...as the railroads do not shut down engines when it's freezing temperatures, because it's cheaper to pay for diesel fuel than it is to put anti-freeze in the cooling system.

Pretty much, you can buy whatever locos you wish and put them together, within reason of course.

bladeslinger,

Thanks so much for this information. It's good to know straight from the source. This will definitely open up more options as to which locos and lines I can run together. And thank you for the general knowledge about how the locos run.

bladeslinger:

As a locomotive engineer working for a "modern" railroad, I can tell you from first hand experience that it does not make any difference what kind of locomotives you have in a consist.  You'd think logic would dictate that they keep the same type power together, but in reality that is very far from the truth.  You're likely to see six axle units mixed with four axle units, and all sorts of variety within those two types.  EMD's and GE's are run together often, as are old units like SD40's lashed up with Dash-9's or even EVO's or whatever.  AC and DC traction motor locomotives are often mixed.  And don't get me started on road names.  I work for Norfolk Southern, but I see just about as many locomotives with other railroad's names painted on them as I do our NS units. 

Small short trains are often run with one locomotive, but more often than not,  you'll have atleast a pair of engines, although if the train is short enough and light enough one or more of the trailing units may be shut down (or if in cold weather, may be isolated and just running in idle...as the railroads do not shut down engines when it's freezing temperatures, because it's cheaper to pay for diesel fuel than it is to put anti-freeze in the cooling system.

Pretty much, you can buy whatever locos you wish and put them together, within reason of course.

Hey bladesligner,

Another question in regards to your quote. So if I had my Southern Pacific & Rio Grande locos in a consist, would it make sense to see them pulling a variety of cars too? For example, Santa Fe, Norfolk Southern, BNSF? Does it matter which side of the coast they would be on? Would you see an East coast car being pulled on the West coast in my mix of cars?

Thanks 

Cars from East Coast, Midwest, and Canadian railroads are very common out here. It is not unusual to see cars from Mexico also, although they are not as common. I do see BNSF cars on UP trains and UP, and railroads the UP has bought out, cars on BNSF. However, from my observations, this does not appear to be as common as the first group of cars I mentioned. Cars owned by shippers and lessors are also very common.

 Looks like a popular subject... I recall the L&N havining one of almost everything and it seems they didn't care what they mu'd with what and I photgraphed a lot of three builder consists,but they also mixed 6 axle and 4 axle locos fairly indiscriminately like an CRR sd-45, SCL U18b, CNSD-40, L&N rs-11,L&N C-630 ! CSX is almost as indiscriminate,now that they've gotten rid of most of the GP-40s,you see fewer 4-6 mixes but I'll still get an sd-50 followed by a cw44ac,slippin all the way uphill and never get over 25 ! what a great combo!