Back to school!

Here's our N-scale school bus that is being shipped.  Remember riding these?

Almost ready to ship to customers

Wheels of Time Transit Motor Coaches are almost ready to ship.  These buses have changeable destination sign, rubber tires, full interior, finely painted according to the Real Thing.  The destination sign are accurate to that snapshot in time. These highly detailed transit motor coaches are a must for any layout or collector.

Notes from a couple of old ATSF steam locomotives

To some they might be old rusty relics from another era. But wait until you hear their story.  If they were to speak, what would they say? Would they tell us the many miles they ran in New Mexico? Would they tell us how the engine men like riding them? Would they tell you they were Santa Fe's finest in steam locomotive development?

Perhaps one would say:

Brilliantly designed by ATSF Mechanical Engr. H.H. Lanning and his team - days before there computer simulation models!
Born at Eddystone, Santa Fe's only builder of steam engines.

Santa Fe's 2-10-4 were inspired by C&O sucessful Class T-1 steam locomotives.  ATSF No. 5021 operated between Fort Madison (IA), Bakersfield (CA) and San Bernardino (CA) - through Abo Pass, Cajon Pass, and over the Tehachapi Mtns. These 5011 class engines were one of Baldwin's best lugging long reefer blocks of California produce for eastern markets, or at sustained speeds of 70 mph pulling the Grand Canyon Limited.  Equipped with 74-inch drivers, 310 boiler pressure, it developed over 5000 h.p. at speed or around 93,000 lbs in traction effort.*

Santa Fe's 4-8-4 No. 2925 was born during the war (1944) under a nickel steel shortage making them the heaviest Santa Fe 4-8-4s. Hailing from Clovis as home and assigned originally to pull freights between Argentine and Clovis, effectively replacing the Mikado. Dropped it's steam in 1956 . . . a mere youth of 12 years.

In early '57, only 5021 and 5027 (2-10-4) and 2907 and 3780 (4-8-4) were still in steam at Belen, NM - all the while Santa Fe's EMD GP9 fleet kept growing. Then on August 27, 1957, No. 5021 tied up for good after helping a freight up the Abo Pass. Even though they still have unexpired flue time, the economics of running a steam vs. diesel-electric locomotive, water issues in arid districts, and the recession of 1958 sealed Santa Fe's steam power fate for good.  So for now we can only imagine them at speeds . . . waiting longer than they were alive . . . hoping for a new day to begin when they be made anew.

-----
Footnotes: This is a super-powered engine! Steam locomotives horsepower increases with speeds until it reaches train's rolling resistant and ability to make enough steam (boiler capacity). When the rolling resistance increases such as a grade through mountains, the steam engine horsepower drops while a diesel electric does not. Due to electric transmission, the horsepower is constant regardless of track speeds which is unlike a steam locomotive. It's why in the steam days, the engineer relied on slowly taking up the slack to start a heavy train which is different than today's diesel-electric powered train operations. The trade-off is that a steam locomotive can pull more  tonnage after the train is moving than it can start a train, while a diesel-electric can start more tonnage than pull once the train gets going.  EMD's entry into the road locomotive market at this time were the FT 4-unit diesel-electric which produced 5400 h.p. and developed 160,000 lbs of traction effort at 9.3 mph. Santa Fe conducted tests with FTs thru the Tehachapi and found that they out performs steam since it can keep the train moving at higher speeds.  UP, KCS and N&W, to name a few, operated steam locomotives over 300 psi. The more pressure, the more energy - hence greater power. 

Below: 2925 and 5021

Tracking real time . . .

Wheels of Time N scale Transit Motor Coaches should be arriving at the Port of Oakland on 5/10 and then give another 12 days to clear customs and freight forwarders. It's on-board the container vessel MOL Contribution. If you like to track Wheels of Time goods on-board this vessel, go here: vessel tracking: AIS Marine Traffic.  You want to type in, for instance, MOL Contribution and then click on the vessel's name for it's location.

If you are into transit systems including commuter rail, you can track the trains, subways & buses real time with really nice maps of the rail lines including the number of tracks and sidings. It takes a while for it to load up.  You can move the map around to see currently 72 different transit systems around the world.  Below are a screen shots of San Jose Caltrain and the other Penn Station NYC. The link:  Travic - Transit Visualization Client. Times-a-changing, no more pulling out that paper schedule, Official Guide and Randy McNally.

Save

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road. . .*

The Rock Island or Chicago Rock Island & Pacific (reporting marks: CRI&P / ROCK) started life in 1852 to link Chicago with Rock Island. The Rock Island adopted the all aluminum paint scheme for some of it's heavyweight passenger rolling stock to better match their lightweight rolling stock as these Wheels of Time cars will be. In 1927, the American Car & Foundry constructed nine heavyweight baggage-express cars numbered 4112-4120 with a follow-on order from RI in 1928 for ten more numbered 4121-4130. These cars had the classic lines of the arched roof with the Utility roof ventilators. The "star" by the car number signifies they were equipped for messenger service - facilities for the express agent working onboard. These cars were seen on many RI trains including jointly-operated trains -  such as the destination to the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal via SP. Wheels of Time will roll out these heavyweight RI baggage-express cars. Multiple car numbers are offered in single and 2-car sets. Pre-Orders are due May 19th.

*The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road. The Rock Island Line is the road to ride… (the chorus from the name sake song - link sung by Johnny Cash)