Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The ROCK 3.0: Fast Tracks FreightCrate

Between sessions, I have quite a few cars that are stored basically anywhere I can find a place.  I have been placing them on my Hot Wheels / Matchbox car shelf, but I have too many to fit there.  I have been looking at the Fast Tracks FreightCrate for some time.  I finally broke down and decided to purchase a pair of the 90' car carrying cases.  Do I have any 90' cars?  Heck no.  I figure I would place two cars in each slot.  The largest car I run on the railroad is a 57' Mechanical Reefer.  Everything else is small with many being in the 40' range.  So, I figure I can get 24 cars in a crate.  Not bad.  These two should resolve storage issues between sessions and won't take up much room.

So, tonight, my daughter and I constructed one of them.  It went together pretty well.  We took our time with it.  I would say we completed it in about 45 minutes or so.  I'm sure the second one will go quicker now that we know what we are doing.

Tomorrow, I'll snap photos of it.  I haven't placed any cars in it yet, but overall they are very nice crates.  I like them!

The ROCK 3.0: Peoria Operations Video Part III of III

Sunday evening, I worked on filming part three of the Peoria Operations series.  This will be the last part as I was able to finish up the job.  I had to remove some of the cars to complete this local.  When I started this series, I just randomly selected cars to stage.  It was way too many and makes if difficult to operate.  There are definite limits that must be heeded to operate this train.  Overall, the video series is just shy of an hour long.  It is a cool job to run and I love it!

I must say, I'm quite impressed with the lift out and drop leaf sections.  I have taken them in and out numerous times.  It is quick and works well.  I couldn't have asked for more.  On my next layout, I might consider just building a modular layout.  No plans now, but if we ever moved, I think that is what I would do.  I'm really pleased with the Anderson Pole connectors as well.

So, enough talking, here is the last of the Peoria Operations video.  Enjoy!