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as others have already stated the masonite pads work quite well but i want to give you a little hint. where your track is within reach a cheap leather palm/fingered work glove will do the trick. try to find a pair with the suede looking fingers. just wipe the track now and then and use a wire brush to clean the crud off the leather. i do this about once every couple of months and i have never needed any other method of track cleaning since i started using the glove. once you try this, you will never
according to what i have read, and i remember seeing these markings when i worked on the railroad the whole thing started in march of 1978. i don't know the exact fault but certain wheels were banned due to a high rate of failure. the dot / fra required inspection for the banned wheels whenever a car was interchanged or otherwise subject to being inspected by the car department. cars with the banned wheels received a white dot in a black square and those without the banned wheels got a yellow
don't worry about plastic wheels. unless they are the antique pizza cutter style they will work just fine so long as they are in gauge and don't wobble. i have been in this hobby for 45 years and half the 450 cars on my layout are running just fine with plastic wheels. i run 50 car trains with near zero derailments and track cleaning is a rare event. sure there are some advantages to metal wheels but i think their main advantage is to the people who sell them. the truth does not support their
i don't know about pennies but i've heard that a single spike is hard to climb over. always wanted to try it with a diesel but never had the nerve. if something went wrong then the road foreman or traveling engineer would have a calf. grizlump
it became common practice on many railroads to "overpower" trains because of on the road failure of one or more units as age and deferred maintenance took their toll. been there-done that. PC used 3 or 4 big six axle units on 4000 ton trains out of E St Louis because it was almost a sure thing that one or two of them would throw craps before reaching Indianapolis. when they still had a fireman, he spent most of his time resetting ground relays. ATSF started running a fifth f unit on their
"But, there must be some validity to the general idea of a chock - elsewise, why did they old-time crews drape a heavy chain fore and aft of a single driver to keep the rod-type steam locos from rolling away, even when some steam would leak into the cylinders ? " anytime a steam locomotive was left standing the cylinder cocks were opened so any steam leaking by the throttle would not pressurize the cylinders. failure to do this was like getting out of your car and leaving it in drive. every
if you have more painting to do and the shine is a problem, try mixing in a little talcum powder to get a flat, non gloss finish. just stir it into the paint before you apply it. grizlump
hold it back while you put the power to it and when the wheels slip you will know. if it makes the noise you described or jumps up and down a bit then it is 99% sure an axle gear. grizlump
if you can find an old copy of the Railway Equipment Register, i suggest you read up on car hire or per diem charges and the car service directives and orders therein. it will enlighten you as to the why's and wherefor's of car usage on the railroads. i will offer a hypothetical but somewhat long winded example. lets say a shipper in Memphis needs a clean 40' box car for a load of widgets destined to Milwaukee via the IC to Chicago and Milw to destination. assuming we have available these
yeah, they are a pain. i just whittle out hinge hole a bit with a number 11 blade and shave the flash off the pin on the latching bar. grizlump p.s. a bit of judicious scraping and filing helps the top and ends to fit the body better too.