Model Railroading > Its not all fun & games out there

Out on the track, sometimes things go wrong.  Rerailing a 1.5" scale engine
can be a bear.  We had a switching ops weekend this past weekend east of Dallas
and these photos show :

It takes a posse to rerail a NW2

3 guys are needed to run the classification yard.  When 6-7 guys are in the yard, things get screwy.

Our train for the day, engineer, conductor, brakeman.  We use car cards to switch industries in various
towns along the line.  Typically there is a yard crew and 4-5 trains out on the track running road freights.

Its a fun way to spend a couple days with friends. 

In the words of Commander Cody

"Theres a whole lotta things that I've never done but,
I've never had too much fun"

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/19 19:57 by WrongWayMurphy.

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WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> Out on the track, somethings things go wrong. ...

Better call Hulcher and their big-hook.

Looks like a lota fun Shane,well ,perhaps not the rerail job.
Regards,DK

Man, welded rail and  ole John still put one on the ground.  And the worst part of the engine.  The rear truck which supports the internal engine and weighs a ton on that end.  The front is a piece of cake.

Volunteer brakemen are not always dumb.  Look at all the shade in the yard.  No wonder they were working there instead of on the main.

That’s an electric engine (he’s a EE).  There are (4) 12 vdc deep cycle batteries under the long hood.
The cab contains electronics, so that is the lighter end under the rear truck.





tomstp Wrote:
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> Man, welded rail and  ole John still put one on
> the ground.  And the worst part of the engine.
>  The rear truck which supports the internal
> engine and weighs a ton on that end.  The front
> is a piece of cake.

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> It takes a posse to rerail a NW2
>

You're lucky. On the MILW, when we had an engine in that position, we had to first build some railroad to rerail it on to. Sometimes, after we put it on and moved it to the existing track...we had to repeat the process.


TAW

Wow never have seen that before, right, you bet part of large scale trains have done that so many times dont even think about it anymore.  Had one of my spray train cars derail with 60 gallons in it got it back on by myself and paid for it. Boyd in Chiloquin

I hear you.   A frog in a switch must have been jamed with a rock and derailed my 4-6-0 and tender off the track by a foot or so.  Fortunately I kept the engine from going over on its side.  Trying to keep it that way and move a jack knifed tender full of water with my arthritic hands was not fun.  It took me over and hour to get both back up on the rail.

Each time I lifted the tender or engine  I would say to myself "this is gonna hurt" and it did.  I had to wait a while before lifting again.  Same thing for the engine. When you are all alone you will do things you might not have been able to  do with people around.

Yes was welding an item yesterday you know one of those 20 second welds, no gloves just my hood, guy commented,  wow no gloves what a man.  My comment back, no just a mechanic you know they cannot be taught things. LOL Yes lifiting a heavy item is one thing am guilty of too often and keep paying for it. Take care Boyd in clear cool, so far Chiloquin OR