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A Comment and a Question A comment and a question: In the Sept. 04 Issue on page 45, you say, “…diesel engines in locomotives seem to speed up or slow down on their own….” Yes, most certainly! When idle, and the governor in the air brake system which monitors the air pressure in said system drops below a preset pressure point, the prime mover (diesel engine) automatically speeds up to operate the air compressor at a little higher speed to pump up the air pressure in the air reservoirs and air brake system. When motoring, the prime mover is being operated at a higher speed and there is no need for the governor to speed up the prime mover to pump air. This was an automatic procedure based on the needs of the Automatic Air Brake system. The Engineer had no control over this action except as below: When we were pumping up the air in the train line (brake pipe is the proper name — the air brake pipe or the air line from the head to the rear end of the train), we would use the throttle and move it to notch three to cause the compressors to pump up faster. However, it’s a proven fact that running the prime mover faster than, or above, the 3rd notch was not pumping more air, it was simply wasting fuel and causing more wear and tear on the compressor, prime mover, and the like. The orifice at the exit end of the compressor system was of such a small diameter that no more air could pass through, no matter how fast the primer mover/air compressor was turning. Okay, now to a DCC question: I have some O Scale DCC models. I do not have a layout — only test tracks, and I use the NEC Pro Cab controller. I am interested in purchasing a few Weaver and Atlas models equipped with Lionel RailSounds. Will the NEC Pro Cab operate models equipped with the Lionel RailSounds equipment? Tom “N&W” Dressler Portsmouth, OH
Thanks for the clarification, Tom. Until you actually work on trains as you did your entire working life, you never get to know the inner workings as well as you’d like. In response to your question, I called NCE to confirm what I pretty much already knew. Lionel’s RailSounds is part of the TrainMaster Command Control System invented in part by rock musician Neil Young so that his disabled son could enjoy operating trains. It’s considered to be a very good system, but it works very differently from DCC, and so the two are not at all compatible. — Ed.
@#*!$&?!! Graffiti I recently bought one of the Athearn Genesis Golden West Service boxcars. I took it home and put it on track in my shop. In the morning, I returned to find that the little @#*!$&?!! graffiti artists had struck again. Reading Jim Norton’s comments, I have to agree with him on most points. This is destructive to the railroads, but it is also a part of the railroads of today. Years ago they drew on the cars with chalk to produce their graffiti. There are even web sites for chalk graffiti. I don’t know how they will ever stop the spray paint graffiti artist. It’s a shame they have to do it on cars. Some of this “artwork” is really fantastic. I, myself, being a sign painter am fascinated at some of the designs I see. I enjoy taking pictures and hand painting the actual graffiti on my cars. It adds to the realism of modern model railroading, and that’s what a lot of model railroaders strive to achieve. Until the railroads come up with graffiti proof cars, we just have to live with it. I’ve sent along a picture of the car the “artist” has tagged. Butch Eyler Biglerville, PA
Looks pretty authentic, Butch. The New York Subway System which used to suffer from an insane level of “tagging” is now mostly graffiti-free, at least the last I heard. It was done through aggressive enforcement. It’s axiomatic that cars that are moving almost never get tagged, and cars which get tagged are almost never moving. About ninety percent of the tagging takes place where cars are parked in certain fairly open locations. Fencing and law enforcement could reduce this dramatically. — Ed.
It’s Not a Dummy Plug To “Thinking of DCC’s” John Sipple: The October issue “Thinking of DCC” was sure a teaser. I am looking forward to your blow-by-blow account of getting it going. Meanwhile, let’s stamp out the term “Dummy Plug.” This is sloppy terminology. If it were a true dummy plug, it would not be able to tell the loco what to do. As the DC plug, it tells the loco what to do when on DC power. Bob “BulletBob” Burton, Road Forman WEA Railroad, a back yard road. Edgerton, KS
Good point, Bob. I’d go for the DC Operations (or DC Ops) plug. However, I doubt that the two of us together have enough pull to move that train! Meanwhile, the NCE Powerhouse system has arrived and testing is underway. As a preliminary finding, it is pretty doggone cool! — John
Decals for Central Oregon & Pacific I really enjoy your magazine. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska now but have recently purchased land nearer you in Sutherlin, Oregon. While looking for property, I have become interested in CORP’s operation, and may want to model it...now or in the future. Do you know of any hobby shops (or anyone) that sells locomotives in CORP colors? Alternatively, do you know if someone sells decals for CORP locos? Bill Howitt Fairbanks, AK (Soon to be Sutherlin, OR)
That will make us nearly neighbors. Sutherlin’s a nice little town and the country there is just beautiful. Our friends at CORP are actually part of the RailAmerica family, and all of the members use the gray-over-red with a white stripe on their locomotives. It is a fairly simple paint scheme, so any competent custom painter should be able to copy it. Microscale Industries has CORP decal sets in their catalog (see www.microscale.com) for both HO and N scale. Your local hobby shop should be able to get them. Ours, Hobby Tree of Medford, can. — Ed.
More on the Super 7 GE locomotive Dear Readers, In the October Issue of Model Railroad News, Dee Ellison of Koshkonong, MO inquired about the GE C30-7 diesels used on the Santa Fe and BNSF. I handled some of the answer, but we are fortunate this month to have additional clarification from none other than Stephen Priest, the dean of Santa Fe writers and a Santa Fe engineer. — Ed.
The General Electric Dash 7 line was not and should not be referred to as Super 7s. The Super 7s were a General Electric program to rebuild older U series locomotives to more modern specifications. Again, the Super 7 line was a rebuild program giving the older locomotives Dash 8 features. Some of the specifications are as follows: Super 7 B23 Fuel-efficient GE 12-cylinder engine with GE’s latest reliability improvements and upgraded for quick load acceleration. High productivity traction system: GTA24 alternator driving 752 traction motors with full-time motor parallel connections. GE’s SENTRY high adhesion system and MTP motor thermal protection system safely utilize the motors’ maximum tractive effort capability. High capacity Dash 8 dynamic braking system. Refined car-body design. Modern, quiet operator’s cab. Excellent accessibility of all locomotive components. Large number of standard features including: Pulse speed recorder/indicator/alerter system, Microphor toilet, Vapor Tundra refrigerator, radio and EOT provisions, Exide “maintenance free” battery, automatic coolant drain valve, automatic ground relay reset system. Here is an example of a Super 7 rebuild from General Electric. As for the older Dash 7 which the letter from your reader was referring to, the GE Dash 7 line had several major flaws that made maintaining the units time and money consuming. First, the air filter system was mounted below the floor and was difficult to access; second, all of the auxiliary motors were DC, not brush-less AC motors, meaning that they contained brushes that wore out over time. The shops at the ATSF regularly replaced the brushes, but as the locomotives aged, the problem of failures became almost unmanageable. The Dash 7s also used a 4-cycle prime mover that required considerably more moving parts that did their EMD counterparts that use 2-cycle prime movers. The GE prime movers with their additional parts did yield better fuel efficiently but at the cost of more mechanical down time. The Super 7s addressed many of these issues, but the line never really did get off the ground and their sales were disappointing. The EMD locomotives of that same generation were more reliable, and that is why you see the SD40-2s etc. to this day. Stephen M. Priest
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