I’ve got an old yellow late 1950s Chevy pickup on my layout that I use as an MOW truck. Since day one, it’s been Santa Fe with Santa Fe emblems on both doors. Yesterday I decided to remove the emblem from one side and put a small Union Pacific emblem in its place. Now if I have the layout set up for Santa Fe I can turn the truck one way, or for Union Pacific I can turn it the other…
TL [:D]
Sneaky, but effective.
Brings to mind a modeler who had reverse-loop staging, but no way to turn cars or locos on the visible tracks of his layout. He put different reporting marks on opposite sides of his cars, and different numbers on the sides of his tenders (AT&SF.) Effectively doubled his apparent roster, and prevented nitpickers from jumping on him for bringing the same train back too soon.
There was an article in Model Railroader years ago, where a modeler with an out and back layout modeled two railroads sharing a yard. His locos and cabooses were lettered for both so that they left the yard as a train on one railroad and returned as a train on the other.
I’ve been thinking about doing this myself. What I’d like to do is take a set of old 65’ Bachmann heavyweights and do them in Santa Fe on one side and Southern Pacific on the other. That way I’ll have two trains in one, and all I’ll have to do is change out the locos and turn the cars the other way…
TL