Control Systems on the Union Pacific Cheyenne Division

How do you like to operate the railroad? Well, unfortunately, good or bad, here we are in the middle of the high-tech world, and yet the control system of this layout is Linn Westcott's "How to Wire a Model Railroad" of 1959, basically. I try to do it single-handed as much as I can, which means you can do only a limited amount of switching. So I assemble trains, and I just run 'em around this double loop so that I can just see them from different points of view. So it's a single-handed running operation using toggle switches and blocks, at this stage. Now, a future project is to take advantage of some of the DCC technology that's out there and some of the computer control systems that are being developed to see if we can automate this layout. Do you see the layout as a way for you to capture warm memories? Yes, I think all layouts, all model railroading is driven, at least the people that I know, by nostalgia. I mean, I collect old cars, and I collect model locomotives, and it's nostalgia. We remember things as they were, or we remember things as we think they were, and that's what drives me more than anything else. I think that drives us all. You like long, long trains. Now, with long, long trains, the weight of course increases, and you've got some grades on here, I guess, that are approaching 3%. Yes. What kind of problems does that cause for your motive power? Huge problems, on freight trains, it's a non-issue, because a Big Boy, even on a 3% grade will haul easily, the way we have them weighted, 40 to 50 cars, brass cars. With no helper? With no helper. That's about the limit for a Big Boy. We usually double head, and again the Union Pacific was very generous with their locomotives, so that double heading is what we do a lot here, so I can run 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 car trains. Wow. Diesels, no problem. The Union Pacific put a lot of diesels on, so there's four or five on every train, no problem. The real challenge, though, is passenger trains, and in fact, on any layout, it's always passenger trains. It's not the freight trains. The cars are long, the cars are heavy, and a prototype passenger train on the Union Pacific was 18 to 22 cars. So if you're running up the railroad in the ruling grade direction, which is almost a 3% grade, with steam engines, it's a real challenge. You cannot run two steam engines pulling much more than about a 14, 15-car train up a 3% grade, no matter how you weight the cars. And the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the train sets that are available today where do you have a number of manufacturers building these beautiful, full consists, like Challenger builds a number of 'em. They all have beautiful interiors now. Well, the weight, for example, I'm collecting other trains now, so for example, the Daylight, 1955 Daylight, we weighed it the other day, is 22 pounds. Well, 22 pounds drug up a 3% grade takes all of what two Daylight double-headed locomotives can pull. It's a challenge. So if I had to do it over again, I wish I didn't have the grades, certainly not a 3% grade, but that's another one of the compromises of the space.