Randy’s recent thread on the five pointed wye prompted me to share this Google satelite view that I came across while looking at some of the fascinating trackage around Kansas City.
How many of us have a place on our layout that looks just like this! Tight radius loop, cars scattered around, many not on rails, but wait… IS that an F-unit in the middle of the whole mess???
[edit, it looks longer than an F-7 and the radiator fans are toward the rear? Maybe an FP-7? Looks too short to be an E unit? I did pinpoint the business name: http://www.kcrailcar.com/]
Looks like it could be Bachmann or Model Power maybe? It hasn’t been weathered yet, no exhaust soot. Does anyone recognize the orange paint and yellow nose? I’d love to see a 3/4 or broadside of this engine. Anyone know about it?
This scrap yard is just east of Argentine yard across the Kansas River by S. 12th St. AMAZING what you can find with the eye in the sky!
I wonder what they’re using to power the reverse loop?
Ya that is pretty cool, looks just like someone’s layout. Yep they need a PSX-AR if they are running DCC.
I have no idea about that F unit, but it needs weathering and doesn’t match the scene. And the ballast looks sloppy, maybe they forgot to glue it down.
All kidding aside, it looks like one of the KCS executive service FP9s that came from VIA. These are now in the “Southern Belle” paint scheme of yellow, red and black. Also it is at K C Railcar, a contract repair shop, that I believe does work for KCS.
If you want something interesting that looks like some model railroaders collections of locomotives, go look at National Railway Equipments shops in Mount Vernon, Illinois, on Google Earth.
I have come across quite a few of these unprototypical areas in scanning Bing or Google maps. Tight return loops with industry inside; perfectly proportioned ovals that would make great 4x8s; industries on both tails of switch backs. Based on just the number of these I’ve come across randomly, I’d say all these type track arrangements were a lot more common, esp in tight areas during the days when more went by rail than today, than the standard track planning wisdom states.
