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 Posted - September 19 2014 : 8:40:03 PM
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Here's a fun video from my childhood. First, a little overview: the "Real Wheels" series of children's videos (a.k.a. there "There Goes A..." series) was produced in the 1990s, starring Dave Hood who takes a straightforward (and sometimes comical) approach to educate kids about various modes of transportation and jobs relating to them. There were ones about fire trucks, police cars, motorcycles, racing cars, garbage trucks, mail trucks, ambulances, aircraft, etc. I believe they are also now on DVD. This particular one is entitled "There Goes a Train"...
The video was produced in 1994, shortly before Amtrak unveiled "Phase IV" on their equipment, and a year before the BNSF Railway merger. It was mostly shot in the Southern California area. Dave takes us through a Santa Fe railway yard to learn about freight trains, into Union Station LA and aboard one of those Amtrak Superliner trains, the maintenance area of Union Station including an up-close and personal tour of their then-new P40DC "Genesis" locomotives, and to the San Diego Railroad Museum to see some neat vintage train equipment and ride on one of their excursion trains (complete with a thrilling "vehicle stalled on the tracks" action sequence!) We see various railroad crew members at work, and we also learn some railroad safety (they did enforce the "stay away from tracks" rule quite a bit!)
There are quite a few clips shown of the ATSF 3751 steam locomotive in action (probably pulling an excursion train), and some great pre-BNSF shots of Santa Fe locomotives in action (Dash 9-40CWs in Warbonnet colors, SD40-2s in the "Bluebonnet" colors, some FP45s, lots of good stuff), seeing the Amtrak F40PHs and rolling stock in "Phase III" colors (how I miss seeing all that at South Station), an early Genesis locomotive, plus the excursion train for the railroad museum is hauled by a classic U.S. Air Force Alco MRS-1 that has a great-sounding horn (especially during the railroad crossing scene near the end.)
Also there is a small error during the credits: they show ATSF 3751 in action, but you hear the sounds of the Southern Pacific "Daylight" 4449 locomotive instead!
This video may be one reason why I use a lot of Santa Fe equipment on my train layout and have made the BNSF my main railroad of choice! Though I don't have a Superliner yet: maybe I'll get some Concor Superliner cars, as I heard they run on 18-radius curves fine.
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Posted - September 19 2014 : 10:37:45 PM
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That brings back some memories for me! My nephew, who's 23 now, used to watch "There Goes a Train" over and over when he was little. The video is probably still around somewhere!
On another note, if those Concor Superliners are anywhere near scale length, they're gonna look silly on 18" radius curves...just something to consider before deciding to plunk down your hard-earned cash for them.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - September 20 2014 : 10:20:43 AM
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On another note, if those Concor Superliners are anywhere near scale length, they're gonna look silly on 18" radius curves...just something to consider before deciding to plunk down your hard-earned cash for them.
Originally posted by gmoney - September 19 2014 : 10:37:45 PM
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I have a set of those Superliners, and I wouldn't recommend them for any curve less than 22" radius. That's pretty much the problem with most modern passenger car models, they're too long to run properly on 18" radius curves. If you're looking for an Amtrak car that would run well on tighter curves, the Athearn blue box passenger cars come in Amtrak colors.
Edited by - ChessieRR on September 20 2014 8:50:12 PM
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Posted - September 20 2014 : 11:15:16 AM
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Great video - thanks for posting it!
About those Superliners - sometimes I wish I would have gone with the Con-Cor version instead of Walthers. Much more inexpensive! But still...they sure are nice to look at 
Have to agree though with gmoney, those long cars look a little funky on 18" radius curves. Even 22" is a stretch.
But....as the rule says, "it's your railroad", go for it 
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - September 20 2014 : 4:40:32 PM
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I'm with Jerry; It's your railroad, you can't do it "wrong."
I simply wanted to make sure you are aware that HO scale cars in the 80-scale-foot length range have huge overhang on 18" (and 22") radius curves. It's totally up to you to determine whether that's a "problem" or not.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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