Model Railroading > Owl on the Loop: Director's Cut...

Had a chance to assemble some of the shots taken last Saturday on the La Mesa club's Tehachapi layout d'extravaganza, while my 1965 "Owl" was under FP7/F7B power.

The cuts are not all contiguous, and some locations double with the same train headed in an opposite direction. And I had to shuffle a couple cars that didn't like running together for the first time. So the equipment continuity of the consist is a bit loose around the edges -- like most movies of the period!

Hope you enjoy. Thanks to Dave Hussey and the LMMRC in San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park...

~ BZ

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A workhorse, mostly unsung train...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Outstanding video!  Loooks like a pretty expensive train - but the result is very nice.

Regards, Jim Evans

I was able to find all of the EcoBags at much lower than the going retail prices. Some of those bargains were several years ago, but I've sold off most of my plastic to finance select bargain brass. It's an easier way for me to go, I've figured, for SP cars that can't be gotten in plastic. I'm particular about prototypes and detail because I rode the trains with my detail eyes open, so place holders only hold the place for so long.

Also, this is it: this is what I'm modeling... and nothing else now. Valley passenger, mid-1960s.

Thanks for the nice words, Jim! This train will get better, and I'll have cars of my own soon, ones that I was fortunately able to borrow to fill in for Saturday's run.

Cheers,

~ BZ

> A workhorse, mostly unsung train...

Yep. None of the panache or class of the "Lark" -- just a place to sleep on a long overnight journey. At least by this era, anyway. Last available upper and lower "section" sleeping space on the SP.

~ BZ

Director's cut is always better, but what happened to the 80 foot RPO? Did it get bad ordered? Almost as good as listening to "Mr D's Machine" in High Fedelity. 
My vote for video of the day!
Even the birds liked the sound of the M5 horns



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/18 23:30 by dmaffei.

There were some musical chairs going on during the video recording! The RPO, the stainless-skinned Chair Car, and the Six Section, Six Roomette, Four Double Bedroom sleeper were generously on loan from Chuck Sted. Chuck's cars operate flawlessly, but we didn't expect them to arrive until after the operating session had begun, and I felt like it was best to sieze the moment and start shooting vid. So in at least one shot there's no RPO, and in some cases the edit or a wide shot de-emphasizes the fact that there are only two cars at the rear, not the four of the full train consist that eventually materialized!

I'd also just finished the Coffee Shop, SP 10405, as a placeholder that morning on the Hussey's dining table! And there was a bit of interference between a diaphragm and a neighboring coupler that hadn't been worked out prior to plunking everything on the track. Not optimal, but with a flip of direction of the Coffee Shop to put the kitchen at the rear, all four "SSS" Scarlet stripe passenger cars were eventually able to negotiate the railroad without incident. And finally, another little tweak had everything in proper order and position for the final going-away shot off the Loop.

Sharp eyes might notice one shot where there's a PA as lead unit. We don't call those things out, you see, in the movie business! Maybe we need a new TO board called "Bloopers"?   ;-)

~ BZ

As REALISTIC as it gets in model railroading !
I love the sound of the horn. What horn model is it suppose to imitate ? Thanks in advance.

The horn on the locomotive is a Nathan M5, however the sound it produces is more like a Nathan M3.

Athearn produced FP7 6457 that had an M3 horn and they have that correct including the sound for an M3.

Regards, Jim Evans

Glad to see someone elses cars don't always work together

First photo is a BZ pic of FP7 6457 with Nathan M3 and 2nd photo is Nathan M5.
Great Air horn web site: http://www.dieselairhorns.com/sounds.html to hear them hooting



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/18 08:20 by dmaffei.

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Beautiful train. I do remember seeing Common Stardard baggage cars well into 1964. On occasion, a UP baggage car. Even a UP "Pacific" deadhead entrained behind the locos. This train was a perfect conduit for re-positioning UP cars for operation on the COSF from East LA yard. Later, the SJ Daylight seved this purpose as well. 

WAF Wrote:
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> Glad to see someone elses cars don't always work
> together

It was analagous to a comic trying out new material on the Tonight Show... you don't wanna do that if you can help it, but I did get my feet wet, at least. :-)

The sound wasn't optimized, Jim, because I was really throwing things together to make the three layout runs of late. I think it's also garbled in the digital recordings. But either way, I don't like the stock Genesis T1 effects.

When I get a chance to recover from this pioneer set of outings with my box-stock units, I'm intending to change the decoders and speakers and dial in the horns much better. 

SP 6450 will become 6458 but keep the M5. But I want some variety as well, and my "backwards ice bars" SP 6456 will have a disappointing P3!

~ BZ

FiveChime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The horn on the locomotive is a Nathan M5, however
> the sound it produces is more like a Nathan M3.
>
> Athearn produced FP7 6457 that had an M3 horn and
> they have that correct including the sound for an
> M3.
>
> Regards, Jim Evans

Mister Maffei, I was a-horn spottin' when you was just a little sprout, and git off my lawn!

Kidding... but I was fortunate to have a friend when I was about fifteen who was a horn junkie, so I learned my ABCs about S's, M's and P's at an early age. What's lagging now is my practical return to the active operational hobby after a hiatus of, oh, 32 years but who's counting? And technically, it isn't a return at all, since I never was an operator, short of having a train that could circuit a display layout without derailing and making early diesel sounds way back in PFM Sound System II days. (Bob Longnecker never got the Diesel Sound System off the ground. It's too bad; the horns were completely tunable, had adjustable attack and decay, and you could dial in the Doppler if I remember right. It was awesome with the PFM subwoofer choke coil adding true bass response. Man, I wish that had flown!)

Gimme a year and things will be different -- including an "Owl" consist that works together without being BO'd, with the exact right cars by number for the day and date, and horns that sound like the proper bell reversals and the C major diminshed chord with an A441 tuning. Or something like that. :-)

~ BZ

 

Nice, but would it be too much to ask, to show the entire train more than just the last shot???

Trying to see the whole thing to get a real feel for the train itself, not just the usual 3/4 shot of the power and head end cars.

Too many railfan videos and pics are, IMHO, derivative of Beebe / Clegg AND BORING!