Model Railroading > Beet run at Signor's this past weekend

Spent the 4th holiday in the shadow of Mt. Shasta in Dunsmuir. As posted on the SP modelers forum, we ran a 64 car beet drag on John's layout. 45 cars were mine and 19 live loads from John's layout. We ran with great success until I asked to try and run the train with no mid train helper and 5 units on the head end and that was when we pulled 4 cars into the center of the curve. My loaded cars are to NMRA standard of 4 oz. and 45 cars is pushing 12 pounds of train weight. The main line curve was a little tight, but shows how helpers cut in as the prototype works well in the model world.The head end power was three 1970's 45's and a 45T-2, but the mid train is a KM with a F unit B
The photos are clips from a movie John took from the top of tunnel 2 on his layout looking toward the cement plant at left.
http://johnsignor.com/modelrr/concept.php layout info

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/19 12:06 by dmaffei.

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At first I thought the title said Beer run, but then I saw beet gons!  Not that I'm complaining!  Very cool!

That's Bad A$$... Love it!!!!

Did you “Consist” the helpers with the head end, or run them independently?
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/19 12:40 by sawdust.

Beets me!   wag216

sawdust Wrote:
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> Did you “Consist” the helpers with the head
> end, or run them independently?

Ran power sets independently watching car bunching with two Engineers. The mid train power started shoving first then the head end starts the train rolling. Correct freight car weight is critical doing this.

That's a respectable train! Nice to see your cars put to good use. How long were SP's beet extras, usually?

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> That's a respectable train! Nice to see your cars
> put to good use. How long were SP's beet extras,
> usually?
70-100 cars

Great looking train Dave.That was a huge modelling project you took on with those.
Regards,DK

Here's a few more from a pocket point and shoot:

#1 Here's the stringline event, the sugar beets must have exceeded their hours of transit and melted together...

#2 One of the beet runs leaving Indio with the midtrain helpers ready to be cut in, the Indio Depot in the foreground, the CTC Panel in the background, a recent addition is the Business car shed near the center of the photo. The CTC panel is explained in John's website.

#3 a previous run looking in the opposite direction with three U25B's about to be cut in as midtrain helpers.

Lots of fun Dave, thanks for bringing the beet train to Dunsmuir.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/19 18:24 by TCnR.

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TCnR Wrote:
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> Lots of fun Dave, thanks for bringing the beet
> train to Dunsmuir.

Great photos neighbor. I just brought the beets, no camera. Thanks for sharing these...

Try taking off  the mid train helpers  eliminating them and put one on the rear.  You might find you can do it like railroads do today saving one unit. 

I tried this by putting all units on the front, loaded it down with more cars until it stalled on the grade.  Then backed it down, take one off the front and put it on the rear and the train made it up the hill with no problem. The more curves you have the better it works.

Nice pictures and very nice layout.

Not enough HP for a helper

What is the radius of the curves?

The beet trains used to pass my housing development in north Davis headed to Spreckles sugar plant north of Woodland CA. Ive wanted to model a beet train. Slowly building a fleet of gons.

Posted from Android

Nice shots Clive. You can't beat a basic point and shoot for model railroad photography.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Suprised that more beets didn't spill from those overturned gons.

Here's some still shots from the video I was shooting.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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Here's a couple of more including Johns beet loader.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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photobob Wrote:
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> Here's a couple of more including Johns beet
> loader.

That beet loader is amazing!

Posted from iPhone

I want to build a beet gon in 1" scale. How to model the beet load....