The pros and cons of loose loads

 

The picture say it all - loose loads look great, until you accidentally knock a car off a cliff. Then you have a big mess to clean up. It will probably take me more time to clean up this mess than it would have taken me to make a simple balsa-wood insert for the car and glue some copper ore on top, years ago when putting the car in service. My train layouts are full of examples of "short cuts" that I took while constructing them, which I'm now paying for in unintended (or in this case, predictable) consequences.

Another issue with open loads is, if you put your finger(s) in them by accident, well, they look kind of weird. Here's an example, this time with a standard gage car in aggregate service:

I like the way the load exposes part of the rusty slope sheet, which would be harder to do realistically with a solid load. And, in a way, I like the "plot tension" associated with operators handling loose loads in their trains, making sure they don't have a derailment, or worse. But on the other hand, to empty them out involves picking them up, turning them upside down and re-railing them back in place on the layout. With a removable load insert you can usually take them out without having to pick up the car.

Yet another example of the many trade-offs involved in an operating model railroad!

Bayside Geeps

This is why I love modeling the BN in 1973 - all of these GP and SD locos in such a variety of paint schemes! Lately (thanks to encouragement and tutoring from friend Tim Taylor) I've been applying decals to re-number some of the models from their legacy road number to appropriate BN numbers, as was done after the merger in 1970 but before they were re-painted in BN green. It will take a while to get them all done, but the photo above is a sample of them that appeared parked one day at the "Bayside turntable". Of course, on the prototype BN the turntable was at Everett's Delta Yard, not at Bayside, but sometimes in model railroading you just have to make compromises. Also, I need to finish the track and scenery near the turntable. All in due time. The point is to just enjoy these stunning locomotives! 

By the way, notice the clear depth of field in the photo. This photo is a composite of 6 photos I took with my iPhone, focusing each one on a different part of the scene, and then processing all 6 photos together using a computer program called "Helicon Focus". I just learned about this recently, although it's been around for years, and it's really changing the way I take pictures on the railroad now.

The SD9 in the foreground - notice its coupler. This is a "long shank" version of the "scale head" Kadee coupler, and the long shank is needed to keep the pilot from fouling the uncoupling pins of any cars that it might try to hitch to. The alternative is to cut the uncoupling pins off all your cars. I decided to use the longer coupler instead, despite its slightly strange appearance.

Finally, I apologize for the brick building held together by a rubber band. I've been busy laying track for the past 25 years and just haven't gotten around to finishing up some of the buildings that are needed in some of the scenes. In this case, the brick building will be replaced with a version of the "Scott Paper Co." paper mill in Everett, so it will eventually look quite different, and hopefully more realistic than it does currently. You can see the MILW and SP&S wood chip cars there, in the process of being unloaded. No bad smells, though, so far - I don't plan to model those.