We have a club member who has the Turbo Train in HO. The smaller unit trains like this make interesting modeling too. I have a Con Cor M-10000, which is a three car train, and I have a fourth add on car.
Show your layout sized passenger trains
- Thread starter Espeefan
- Start date
DakotaLove39
Always Improvising
The only passenger train I have. My Twin Cities Hiawatha weighs in at 11 cars long. A couple cars are lit but I have yet to add passengers. This train only gets to stretch out at the club. I don't have any room at home to run it.
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I know how that is. I have a COLA a COSF, a Lark, two Daylights, and a Super Chief, plus a mail train and a generic train of heavyweights I've put together over the years. They only run at the club because of their size. They sure do eat up the real state!
Boris
Beach Bum
I have a B&O Capitol Limited, a NYC 20th Century Limited, and two Broadway Limited sets, on as built, the other with the 50s mods. I also have sufficient care to represent several additional 50s era PRR Blue Ribbon trains, and a B&O Heavyweight consist. Unfortunately I do not have the room to run any of these trains on my layout, so they sit in boxes. I do like prototype length pike sized trains of three to five cars in length, but even those eat a lot of real estate. My solution is to run Budd RDCs.
Boris
Boris
KB02
Well-Known Member
Well, here's my 4-6-4 pulling heavyweights on 18" curves. pulls them quite nicely, too.
A Rivvy Hudson will take 18” radii no sweat. Not sure about a BLI or MTH Hudson, they might be iffy. A Brass Hudson probably wouldn’t work. Whose heavyweights? Full length or Athearn shorties? Talgo couplers? There’s ways to make it happen and if you like it that’s all that matters. Me, I don’t care for the excessive overhang. That’s why I advocate smaller stuff. Cheers!
otiscnj
Well-Known Member
Even though they may not be prototypical, my 'name' passenger train for my freelanced line uses mostly Athearn shorties, a Lifelike full dome, and a couple of Model Power sleepers, all about 73' each. Its a 10 car train, of about 8'. If they were 85' cars, it would be longer than 10', with the locos. My planned layout uses 26-30" curves on the mainline, which are pretty large, considering I started with 18" and 22" radii curves when I was a kid in the 1970's. Even with the larger curves, I still am trying to avoid using 85' cars, passenger or freight. I got some Athearn SD40-2's back in the 90s and I decided then, that anything much bigger than those, would require larger curves to operate reliably, and I figured it would be easier to model the 70's and 80's than most stuff after that.
If you've got the money and space, great! If not, there are compromises which you can make, which don't really lessen your enjoyment of the hobby, although the magazines and manufacturers may not want you to think so.
trailrider
Well-Known Member
Haven't figured out how to post photos, but I have my Zephyr E6A/B with a mix of 85' and 72' streamline passenger cars (7 cars plus the motors) easily going around 18" radius curves. As I've posted before, I have no trouble getting kitbashed Mantua 2-10-4's going around 18" curves, as well at a 4-8-4. The ten-coupled locos have blind drivers except for the end wheels. These were made from Mantua Mikados and the Northern from kitbashed Mantua Pacifics. The E5's are Walthers P2K's unmodified E6's except for the corrigated plastic added to their sides to make the Burlington units.
My small wheelbase loco and 60 footers are just such a compromise, and don't look terribly out of place on the small radii. Some of you are missing the point. You absolutely CAN run the big stuff if you want to and I'm not saying you can't or you shouldn't. How you enjoy your railroad is up to you. I'm just suggesting the smaller stuff fits the space better, and looks better going around the sharper curves. You don't have to do extensive modifications to locos as Trailrider did in the above post with his steamers, you don't have to deal with talgo coupling, which is reliable enough pulling, but can give headaches backing a train, and you don't have to do any surgery on passenger cars to get them around the tighter curves. You just run trains. An added benefit is that it all looks more prototypical. I've got big stuff too. As I said previously, my Lark consist is 19 feet long, but it only runs at the club where the minimum radius is 48" Some of the brass cars in the train wouldn't take anything much smaller than a 30" minimum radius. I just like the train to look "at home" in the scene. Seeing a rail and half the tie span sticking out from under a passenger car as it negotiates one of these 18" radius curves, and the extended car spacing necessary to do so just doesn't look right to me. If you don't mind it, highball!
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dennis461
Well-Known Member
Mr montanan
Post #14 shows a 2-8-0 with two? handrails?
Could you tell me if one is a headlight wire and why does the lower one seem to stop short of a logical place (no stanchion).
Reason I ask is I have a similar loco I am trying to run headlight wires external rather than drill though the boiler.Thanks (Hijack OFF)
Post #14 shows a 2-8-0 with two? handrails?
Could you tell me if one is a headlight wire and why does the lower one seem to stop short of a logical place (no stanchion).
Reason I ask is I have a similar loco I am trying to run headlight wires external rather than drill though the boiler.Thanks (Hijack OFF)
The upper one looks like conduit. Look where it goes: around the smokebox front to the headlight. The lower one is a handrail I believe. Look further frontward and you'll see a smaller second handrail that would be used to step down to the pilot beam. That's my guess.
MikeM
Member
I had just installed Soundtraxx in this old Proto 2000 and was testing it on my wifes soon to be holiday layout. Pulling some BLI articulated cars with a Bachmann (only one with people in it) observation. I have three more "two car articulated" cars but that would just look silly on a 6 foot oval....LOL
MikeM
Member
Nope, if you dont have money and space you are not allowed to even build a layout. LOL I recently joined this hobby for the first time as an adult and its pretty amazing how many a holes there are that play with trains and if you dont play with trains like they do you're doing it wrong.
Well, you've got the right railroad and the right train at least as far as I'm concerned LOL! Nothing wrong with a single E and a few coaches. I have a pic of a Santa Fe passenger train in the late 50's/early 60's that I've modeled. One E unit, one baggage/storage mail, and one coach (Denver/LaJunta) A neat little train, prototypical and everything. I also have a UP PA that pulls one baggage storage and two coaches. Not sure how prototypical that one is, but it works! As ridership dropped off lots of these large trains got really small.
hunslet040
Well-Known Member
My layout is very small ( 40inches x 30inches) so I run small trains in H0e scale which is H0 scale on 9mm gauge track.
Here is a Tram loco with a couple of coaches which is a typical passenger train on the layout.
Steam and Diesel locos are also used as is a steam railcar. All rolling stock is about 50 or 60 years old and made by Jouef and Eggerbahn. The trolley bus is by Eheim.
The trolley bus is fully operational as are the barriers which are servo controlled.
Regards, Colin.
Here is a Tram loco with a couple of coaches which is a typical passenger train on the layout.
Steam and Diesel locos are also used as is a steam railcar. All rolling stock is about 50 or 60 years old and made by Jouef and Eggerbahn. The trolley bus is by Eheim.
The trolley bus is fully operational as are the barriers which are servo controlled.
Regards, Colin.
A couple of guys at the club have those RDC's. SP had only one, and Rapido did it, but I had other priorities at the time and missed it. They did a good job on them.
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Steve, nice looking Milwaukee Road equipment. Too bad you can't run it at home. We have a club member who has the Empire Builder with an A-B-B-A power set up and 14 cars. He has no place to run it at home also. I have my version of the North Coast Limited as no accurate train has been offered and really don't have much room for it to run.
But, being that this past is about pike size trains. I also have a couple of Harriman coaches I can pull around the layout.
But, being that this past is about pike size trains. I also have a couple of Harriman coaches I can pull around the layout.
CambriaArea51
Well-Known Member
Sorry it took so long.Took them in stages. Parked on a passenger station corner module built by one of our members.
