was at a hobby store that is moving and seen a beautiful P2K 2-8-8-2 Virginian at a fantastic price. What a beautiful engine, the detail is superb, the running qualities fantastic and I love big steam. I can still remember the decapods running in Germany in the mid 70’s, even under catenary.
The only issue is that my railroad is the Canadian Pacific and the era is from 1998 to 2005. The question is what is your best excuse to be able to justify a purchase of a locomotive that is way out of the era you model.
there is always the story of those crazy steam loco enthusiasts, who after having inherited a significant amount of money, bought the loco, which had been a static display over more than 50 years, had it refurbished and now run the occasional steam rail fan special over your road.
Get some heavyweights and a gondola, with some benches and figures in it, and you are all set.
I own steamers ranging from Pacific’s to Big Boy wich are what I’m building my layout for.But I also have a few SD-90’s and AC 4400’s that I can’t decide to sell yet…certainly won’t throw them away so guess what?I’ll likely have a Challenger meeting my Trainmaster some time in the future.Come to think of it…not sure…maybe Trainmaster meeting a Challenger has indeed happened in the real world,I won’t fuss if it didn’t.
I had that problem with a Proto 0-6-0. I run late Transition Era.
But, I’ve slowly been acquiring rolling stock and automobiles from the 20s and 30s. Since my structures are generally of older buildings anyway, I now have the capability to set the Wayback Machine for the 1930s and run steam to my heart’s content.
I love to go see steam trains still running at historical Rail Companies around my area, and ride steam loco pulled excursions. {I love the smell of coal burning in the morning}. I also like to go to the nearby yard and watch {unfortuantely not CSX} NS and CPR play in the yard {where I hate teh smell of diesel burning in the morning}
That is one of the pleasures I have in protolancing the B&O and all incarnates. I can run B&O/C&O steam and change out a few things to run Chessie and CSX Diesel locos. SO I have over a century of “era playtime” to choose from… .
The CPR was notorious for their pranks. They used to change signs on stations in the wee hours of the mornings to confuse other crews, moon women and children from their trains as they road by churches on Sundays, and there are at least three well-documented cases where a crew drove down to the USA and managed to steal locomotives, drive them up across the border, and park them in a roundhouse overnight. The locomotive repair guys would scratch their heads in the roundhouse next morning and wonder how the heck they got a big Hudson from the IC in their roundhouse.
I just happen to be the opposite. I run steam and very early diesels but when I saw that AC4400 paint scheme on that GE demonstrator I had to get it. How In the heck do I justify that??? Museum of future rail road locomotives? Maybe some Steven King type thing happened to it like going into a tunnel and came out into the past now its stuck doing drag freight for eternity?
Granted that you run CP - is there any possibility that the big Mallet might belong to a mining company that used it in their open pit until they either electrified or pulled the tracks out?
Now the company, which had been prosperous enough to stuff and mount their last steam locomotive, has refurbished it to cash in on the, “Ride behind a steam locomotive,” craze. Since they run on their interchange with the CP they don’t usually have any problem about getting CP’s permission to run - but there may be an occasional excursion over the Class I if the Provincial Government exercises its PI.
(Translation - keep the Mallet and an excursion train on a hidden track that comes into view just long enough to run to a passing/runaround siding on your main. You might even combine it with an empties in-loads out to the still-active mine located somewhere behind the backdrop.)
Easy as they said. Tourist train, historic run, museum that is located off the layout if you don’t have the room on the layout, just passing through from rebuild or sale to site where it will reside, private company that has their own loco instead of plane and looooves steam, somebody who has more money than he/she needs, some other special event you can make up, or just because you want to run it. Gotta be thousands of ideas. Who’s gonna stop ya anyway. Trust me the power supply will power the loco no matter the type.
I typically run Modern Loco’s but recently have been mixing it up with Steam. I now have 2 steamers and am considering a 3rd. Here’s a pic of My M1a sharing the layout with an SD70Ace.
Do whatever makes you happy. Personally, I’d hold off purchasing the locomotive a while to see if the “love affair” lasts. You may decide the money could be spent more wisely on stuff that fits your railroad’s context.
How about doing an era shift? Some times you run modern era, and sometimes you run transition era. Plenty of buildings, bridges, and roads from the transition era are still standing, and in use today. Switch out modern cars and trucks for 50’s cars and trucks and you are halfway there. Swap out a few advertisements and you are even closer. This gives you the ability to collect TWO sets of rolling stock, motive power, and scenery items. Almost as good as having two layouts, but lower maintenance requirements.
How about a severe shortage of diesel fuel and the road is resurrecting its old coal burners to offset the shortage? Or the RRs diesel roster has been bad ordered due to mechanical issues like GE just went through with the turbos blowing up and not enough other makes to get the job done? There were hundreds parked waiting for parts.
CCE (Canadian Coal Enterprises) test locomotive similar to ACE (American Coal Enterprises) 1980s test using the 614 as the 614T- the T next to the number stood for test…[tup]
