ToyTrains1's Blog

Today Mr. UPS delivered the MTH Premier model of the PRR's B28 USRA Six-Coupled (0-6-0) steam locomotive.  This is the one that I hadn't ordered until I saw it during my visit to MTH.  It's an exquisite model loaded with detail as you can see in the photos on the page linked above.  I've also shot a short video of it in action, which you can see on my Multimedia page.  Here it is, in reduced resolution and quality, on YouTube.

One of the really neat features of MTH's DCS and PS2 locomotives is the ability to change the personality file that's located in each PS2 locomotive.  If MTH issues a revised or updated file, you can make the changes simply by changing the file.  If you're doing an upgrade to PS2 and had to use a "similar" file, you can change it when a more appropriate one becomes available.  That's recently happened with the Premier model of the N&W Class A (2-6-6-4) articulated steam locomotive.  When I did the upgrade to PS2, there was no PS2 Class A available and hence there was no personality file, so I use the one for my MTH Premier N&W Y6b.  MTH recently issued a new, enhanced PS2 Class A, so I was able to download that sound file and upload it into the locomotive.  The new whistle is much more appropriate and is a good match for that heard in recordings made of prototype Class A locomotives when those giants roamed the rails.  The other sounds are more appropriate as well.  The video is available in the usual three formats (Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG-4) on the Multimedia page of the web site.  Here it is, in reduced resolution and quality, on YouTube.

I finally built a small display case to sit at the right-hand side of the control panel.  This one completes the walling-off of the entire front of the layout with display cases, a total of seven of them.  This is also the eleventh display case that I've built.  It was built very much as the one a few entries down and it turned out quite nicely as you can see from the photo below, showing it installed and holding the remainder of my 6464 boxcar collection.  Photos of all of the cases are on the Display Cases page of my web site.

Yesterday, my friend Bob and I visited the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD.  We did so five years ago but this was our first visit since the roundhouse roof collapsed a few years ago.  They've done an extraordinary restoration job to both the roundhouse and the trains that were damaged in the collapse.  I will be posting photos on the B&O Railroad Museum page as time allows — with the digital camera, I took about three times the number of shots that I did five years ago.  They have done a lot of work at the museum and it shows.  It was good to see the mighty Allegheny indoors and out of the weather.  Afterward, we drove the short distance to Columbia, MD and visited MTH.  Andy Edleman was a great host and we had the chance to chat with him about trains and see much of what goes on there, including testing of newly arrived trains.  The first photo is the B&O Railroad Museum roundhouse; the second is Bob and Andy at MTH.

Today a large box with ten (!) new Atlas 40' woodsided reefers arrived.  As with all Atlas reefers, they're exquisite!  I've updated the master listing of Atlas reefers and their photos have been added to the photo roster.