Motive Power and Rolling Stock

Motive Power

It's all steam on the OPRR and the railroad has four steam engines and one Goose (motor #2).

All engines get Kadee couplers and those not painted yet will get new paint, weathering, and OPRR custom dry transfers from Larry Larson. DCC command control decoders and SoundTraxx Sierra sound is also planned for the future.
 

OPRR #1    0-4-0 LGB model #2117

This was my very first G scale engine. I got in in one of LGB's starter kits. Now that their are bigger engines with the railroad old #1 gets relegated to switching duties mostly around Dean. I'm going to build a small tender for this engine so light runs up to Planter Flats can be done. Although the bigger engines get more running time you always have a special place for that first engine and #1 holds that spot.

Modifications:

• Removed the cow catcher and put on a Kadee couplers.
• Put a step platform on the back in order to get a little room on the cab roof overhang and a trailing boxcar.

Another Picture of OPRR #1

OPRR #37    4-6-0 Bachman Big Hauler Plus

The lines second purchase was a kind of compromise. I really wanted an LGB Mogul but couldn't afford it at the time. The main line was far from complete and practically all the budget was going into track so $500 for and engine that couldn't go very far didn't sound so good.  But I did want to get an engine to experiment on for painting, weathering and electronics so $75 for a Big Hauler worked out pretty well.

The engine has become a somewhat of a test bed. It was the first engine to get a paint job, sound board and DCC decoder. It has been apart more times than I care to count. It has run well and the DCC decoder adds a real nice crawl speed. The plastic main gear needed to be replaced after two seasons and it has a modified motor mount from the "Bachman Guy" Ken Martin.

#37 handles most the passenger duties now that the moguls are here although it still
runs a mixed freight every so often.

Modifications:

• Paint, weathering and OPRR dry transfers.
• CHI sound board. It's ok. It was an experiment. This will be replaced some day.
• Digitrax DCC decoder. The decoder controls the engine movement, lights, whistle and smoke.
• New LGB smoke unit. The old unit burned out in an experiment.
• Kadee couplers.
• A pair of LGB electric pick up wheels on the tender. This improved the electrical pickup immensely. If you have a Big Hauler I highly recommend this fix.

I finally got my wish to buy a Mogul at the Queen Mary show in 1996! I found this new 2119S "Bumble Bee" painted mogul with no sound for a good price. No sound was fine since I wanted to put a digital board in the unit. Never really cared much for the LGB analog sound that comes in moguls.

Also at the Queen Mary I found a metal "Bear Trap" stack kit and a nice plastic snowplow in a toy bin. It was a bright orange but the plow looked like it could fit the mogul.  Sure enough, with a little work it did! And it bolts right to the mogul's cow catcher mount points!

Until the engine got painted it was pretty garish looking. Yellow and black paint job with a bright orange snow plow. Check it out.

I waited to paint it until I had decided on a DCC system and what kind of sound board so I only had to take to engine apart once. I decided on a Digitrax decoder and a Sierra SoundTraxx digital sound board.

Painting, weathering, dry transfers, a few more cast parts and more wiring transformed my ugly ducking into a real beauty. It turned out great. Here's a better look at the plow.

The DCC decoder controls the engine's movement, lights, smoke, bell and whistle which can be "played" to a certain amount. Check out the sound. Guests who haven't seen the control DCC can offer are really amazed to hear this engine setting at the station and all of a sudden its bell and blow its whistle in different patterns.

It's a great engine and my favorite. All the other engines will be modified to at least this level of features and looks.

#21 Is one of two main freight hauling engines and will due some passenger duties when #37 is in the shop..
 

• Modifications:
• Paint, weathering, some metal detail parts and OPRR dry transfers.
• Sierra SoundTraxx sound board.
• Digitrax DCC decoder. The decoder controls the engine movement, lights, whistle and smoke.
• Lighted firebox with two sets of lights. One orange/red set on all the time and  a yellow light that comes on when the fireman sound of shoveling coal is on.

The second mogul came a bit sooner than I expected. When I heard that LGB was
discontinuing the analog sound moguls and only building digital units so I needed to
move fast. Since I was putting in Sierra sound boards in my engines I didn't want to pay an extra $300 for a board I didn't want so I needed to get a "Bear Trap" mogul before they were all gone. The train shop was all out and I had to call about ten places to find one at a good price.

Plans for this engine are basically the same as the others. New paint and dry transfer but this time I'm going to try one of the Sierra combination DCC decoders that has a SoundTraxx unit in it. This DCC 3 amp decoder is a little bigger than a mustard pack and should save a lot of wiring between the DCC decoder and the sound board. This is due out in March '99 so stay tuned.

#21 Is one of two main freight hauling engines and will due some passenger duties when #37 is in the shop..

Modifications:

• Only Kadee couplers at this time.

I never really had plans to have any motor units but when I saw the prototype Goose #2 at Accucraft's Bay Area office I signed up on the waiting list! If you haven't seen on up close your missing something. This is an excellent model. Something about brass...

I really don't have the heart to paint this one. Since there are only 500 in circulation I think I'll leave the outside alone. I think I might put a DCC decoder in it but haven't really decided.

Rolling Stock

General Notes

The rolling stock on the OPRR comes from LGB, Bachman and USA Trains.
I haven't done much with the cars except to put on Kadee couplers and metal wheels.

The Kadee's are for looks and operations. They work pretty well as long as you put the magnets in straight level places.

Metal wheels are a must. The first thing I do when I get a new cars is replace the plastic wheels with metal. Plastic wheels will pick up dirt and redeposit the dirt back on the rail head in a nice thin bead which makes electrical pickup difficult.

Before metal wheels I would clean the track before running and in about an hour the engines would get spastic and loose connections. I'd clean the track again and in an hour do it again.

Metal wheels changed all that. Now I do maybe two or three major cleanings during the summer and some spot cleaning ever once in a while and that's it. The metal wheels help keep the track clean, trains roll better and they sound soooo much better. Click clack.... click clack... click clack.

I do plan to paint almost all the cars and dry transfer with OPRR markings. So far I have a Bachman combine,  reefer, stock car and caboose painted.

Here's a image of the logo used on the cars.

(I post pictures when I get some of these cars.)

Standards

One other thing I would like to do is set up some standards for car weights to make certain cars run better. I've seen NMRA standards up to "O" scale but nothing for "G" scale (bug surprise!). I guess I'll extrapolate out the "O" scale standard as a start. If you have any thoughts on this please let me know.
 
 

To the OPRR Chapters Page