Two videos featuring the MTH Union Pacific Heritage Units.
Here is my first Union Pacific heritage unit, this one is the UP1988 The Katy from MTH. Amazing sound, and great build quality.
Here is my second Union Pacific heritage unit, UP1996 ‘Southern Pacific’ working as a double header with UP1988 ‘The Katy’, both are from MTH, both have amazing sound, and great build quality.
An Athearn SD40 and a 70 ton GE switcher in Southern Pacific colours with various rolling stock. Most of the rolling stock is by Walthers, either Proto or mainline.
Originally this was meant to be up sometime around WE layout update 3 but I was already late with the next update video and didn’t want to delay that further, so if the layout looks like its gone back in time, that is why. When I recorded the running session, I ended up with a lot of shots of the SD40 going over the bridge, as I only had a single track running at the time, I decided to mix in some of the bridge shots to try make it look a little more interesting with multiple trains running. You may also spot the ‘Katy’ heritage unit sitting by the track in one of the shots, its by MTH and may feature in the next video.
No layout update this week, so here are some pictures and a video from the summer that I had forgotten to share, this is the first run of an Athearn Genesis Southern Pacific SDP45 road number 3200 with DCC Sound. The part number is ATHG63651. As you can see from the first pictures, sadly the trip from the US was not kind to the loco, the air tank had come off and the fuel tank screw was damaged. I suspect the blame for this falls onto the ebay global shipping program, who decided to re-pack the loco from its original box done by the seller and then didnt put sufficent packing in – it was loose in the box. I managed to get the air tank to push back on and the fuel tank I had to add some glue to the screw, quite disapointing when you have to repair a brand new loco.
The pictures of the loco in the green bridge were originally to check the clearance from the snow plough to the bridge walk ways, as I’d had some issues with a previous loco not making it through easily, however this turned out to be a track issue later, but the pictures look nice so there included here.
In the video I run the loco around a bit and randomly try out some of the sounds.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
A bit late with this update as I had limited internet access, and this was actually posted while away in Canada, as I didn’t have enough time to upload it before leaving. This will be the last ‘Weekend Engineering’ (layout update) episode until I return in 3 months time. I will continue to provide videos while I am away, but they will be mostly running sessions I recorded just before I left.
In this update I cover the need to paint the MDF boards with MDF sealer, and this ofcourse meant I had to tidy up a lot, which has certainly made it look better and made it easier to work. I also cover some changes to the bench work – its now more sturdy and a little higher. I also fitted an extension socket to the front of the bench and had the wall socket moved up ready for adding in back boards later. I also splashed some grey paint around where the track will go just to make a background for when the ballast is done.
Today I leave on a flight to Orlando, Florida where I will be meeting up with a friend before embarking on a road trip up the east coast of the US and up into Canada over to Nova Scotia. Actually I’m writing this after the event, as I didn’t actually have time to pack properly, let alone write the post, but nevermind that. This is the shortest notice of a trip I have done todate, with only 2 weeks between the first mention of the idea and actually going! It started out as an invitation to visit my friend’s new place in Nova Scotia, but then I had the opportunity to fly out earlier and join the trip up from Florida. The time was so short that I didn’t even have time to fix the minor issues with my new laptop, and so ended up taking my 5 year old Vaio. As I couldn’t get my new laptop to play nice, I grabbed a spare SSD (which I normally use for video recording) and dropped that into my old vaio. The newer Vaio has a different type of SSD, and its an ultrabook, so it wasn’t practical to swap out the drive, where as the older model is only 6 screws or so. As I was worried about the airport security scrutinising my laptop and the risk of it saying it was unlicensed (as it was a re-install on a new drive and I didn’t have time to sort that out) I had to quickly go buy a retail copy of windows, I ended up with Windows 10 Pro (which I didn’t really want but its all they had) and I got that finished mere hours before running out the door for my flight. My packing was the worst and most unplanned ever, and forgot several items I really should of thought about, but I can get replacements in the US later. I hope to be able to get some photos and maybe some videos while out there, including some US or Canadian trains, but will have to see what happens there. I also still need to edit and upload the layout update ‘Weekend Engineering 4’ which I filmed before leaving, that should be fun with a core 2 duo, how I wish I had my i7 ultrabook with me….
Time for a quick coffee before my flight, in a very nice and cute penguin cup.