Pipopak:
The late Frank
Ellison had his layout marked
with “smiles” (scale miles) that
were about 1/10 of the scaled
down real thing. Smileposts
were located as needed. He
also had “scale time” provided
by fast clocks about six times
faster than reality. Speeds
were enforced accordingly.
Timetable was law.
Speedy yard switchers can
be either regeared (prototype
practice, by the way) or elec-
tronically limited.
I used to run several NWSL
boxcars with a flywheel built
in. Two or three of them
would put a real drag on
any train, both starting and
braking! After a couple of
spinning-wheels starts, you
learned to be gentle with the
throttle.
John Allen had another trick
to slow a “hot rodder opera-
tor:” the hot box car. It was a
regular boxcar that had a set
of rails and a steel ball to close
MRH Q-A-T |
7
ADVERT I SEMENT
