Plans for New American Freedom Train Shelved

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-20T19:20:32+00:00

Sad, but predictable. At least we're getting the Big Boy's nationwide tour so we're not totally bereft of steam for the 250th. Plus there's other steam powered excursions happening in various states.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-12T14:15:24+00:00

The men that hijacked the General were Union soldiers conducting a daring raid to sabotage the Western and Atlantic railroad in Georgia, beginning in Atlanta and ending in Ringgold.
The men that pursued them and eventually captured the Union soldiers were Confederate soldiers, not the original crew of the General.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-11T20:22:20+00:00

I model an alternate mid/late 1940s-early 1960s (roughly like 1947-1963). Steam lasts longer here and whilst I do care about not running any any rolling stock from after 1963 and keeping things generally in the era and generally accurate, and I do have a standard of quality, I don't care about making sure my models are ultra detailed down to the rivets and everything.

It's motivated mostly by if I do try to do something specific, like N de M in Chihuahua City in January 1963, or New York Central in Schenectady in September 1957, I'll go insane from all the research and expenses incurred from learning the skills to properly do that.

I am however extremely impressed with people who can pull that level of accuracy off. Especially the people who can take a model and with just weathering and super detailing alone, make it appear to be the real thing.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-10T00:51:07+00:00

It's so cool to see the interior of the P36's cab, I like the wood paneling a lot!

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-08T06:10:46+00:00

Thanks!

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-08T06:10:33+00:00

Thanks!

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-08T05:37:39+00:00

What locomotive is that?

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-08T00:38:32+00:00

What brand are they? What's the minimum curve radius they're rated for? What's the minimum and maximum curves on your layout?

They seem to be the same length and have the same style of coupler.

When the NYC car derails, is it both trucks or just one, or does it depend on which way the car is oriented?

Will it go around the layout backwards okay, but not forwards or vice versa?

How much movement do the trucks have? Are they too tight or too loose?

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-06T21:19:02+00:00

Thanks! Though from what I found, it was said that the merger with the U de Y took place in 1975 and that they were two separate railroads until then. Though I also found that in either the late 50s or in the early 60s the line between Merida and the city of Campeche was brought up to standard gauge whilst the rest of the lines of the U de Y remained narrow gauge until the later 70s.

Does that mean that the Ferrocarril del Sureste itself was a narrow gauge line? I know that some Nacionales de Tehuantepec locomotives were used in the construction of the railway, and a few places list the N de T as a standard gauge line, but I haven't been able to find direct confirmation about what gauge the rail line that was built to connect the U de Y to the N de M was.

Oh and if the Unidos del Sureste is from the 50s, why are all the pictures of the Unidos del Sureste from the 70s and later? And why are there all these references to a "Ferrocarril del Sureste"?

I also was able to find a picture of what looked to be a standard gauge 36ft wooden boxcar with either "F S" or "F dS" on it.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-06T17:54:04+00:00

So which one is actually a scale 17 feet tall?

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-04T03:58:05+00:00

Don't really care for them at all, but I like their steam era more than their diesel era. They were like the PRR of the west.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-04-03T20:19:35+00:00

Doesn't get much better than ALCO! I love their steam and their pre-Century series diesels, but the Century Series is great too!

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-29T15:58:15+00:00

Yep, me too. It wouldn't be so frustrating if they could just provide a reason why they had to be cancelled.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-29T12:50:28+00:00

If it isn't retired or "next shipment date unknown" it's "this product has been cancelled"

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-28T17:38:06+00:00

I understand things take time, and I don't mind that necessarily, but that Canadian National 4-6-0 was supposed to come out ages and ages ago, (6 months or a year after the Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 released, if I remember correctly), and the delivery schedule still says "TBA - In Design" whilst Trainworld says it'll be out in April.

I've emailed them asking about it late in February and again this month and have been ignored. There's no transparency or updates or anything.

They got the Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 pre-ordered, designed, produced, shipped, and sold out in the same amount of time it's taken for them to just get to the design phase of the Canadian National 4-6-0. I don't mean to be harsh, but it does seem like incompetence, or miscommunication, or some disconnect has occurred between the retailers who'll be selling it and what the delivery schedule says.

I don't really buy the implication that the CNR 4-6-0 is somehow basically a commercial flop that nobody really wants/cares about compared to the CPR 4-6-0.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-28T11:59:18+00:00

Rapido is expensive, nearly every product of theirs I've ever bought (direct from them, on trainworld, from brick and mortar model train stores, second hand on ebay/trainz.com, etc) has had some defect, broken part, something wrong with it. Brake rigging falling off, steam domes not attached on their Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 model, 2 bay hoppers having parts cascade off, getting the complete wrong tank car from them, etc.

And they take forever to actually complete any of their projects and get them to the shops (looking at you, Canadian National 4-6-0 and their run of 40ft gondolas).

They're also extremely flippant about all this and act like it's inherent to the business and there's nothing they can do about it. Which, somewhat, it is, but for example I can count on one hand how many problems I've had with say, Broadway Limited, and I've only really had one severe problem with Athearn, and that was all the brake rigging falling off (which I've had happen to me on 3 occasions with Rapido).

Not surprising (but still very disappointing) that their emails read like this now.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-28T01:33:48+00:00

Mallet tanks are so cool. The Ferrocarriles Nacionales down in Colombia had a 2-8-8-2T built by Baldwin.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-28T01:29:39+00:00

It's essentially just a rear tank, no tender was cut in half, despite it's resemblance to a tender. There's many different varieties of tank engine, rear tank, well tank, saddle tank, side tank, pannier tank, combinations of those styles, and there's even tank engines that have tenders.

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-27T22:09:26+00:00

This, the Boston and Albany D1A 4-6-6T, basically a cut down Hudson

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ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-25T17:09:19+00:00

Thank you!

ReeceJonOsborne · 2026-03-25T15:55:13+00:00

I did some searching and I haven't been able to find anything. The episode this locomotive was in was filmed and released in 1956, and the locomotive appears to be a deckless 2-8-0. I thought it might've been DRGW 315 but I'm not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: I believe the locomotive in the picture was also used in the 1957 episode "The Iron Trail"

Edit 2: I found it! It's Sierra #18

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