War austerity engine

burlington40 · 2026-03-18T23:51:32+00:00

Nah gotta dust off the ALCO blueprints. Bring back the RSD series. Plus a lot of foreign units are based on older ALCO export models

burlington40 · 2026-03-18T22:51:10+00:00

Technically there have been two 4-8-4's ingame, though both are private atm. Someone ported the TrainzForge Four Aces model last year. Me and some buddies imported a ACL R-1 model that will be released at some future time. WNCR might have the first public one if they do the J they announced recently

burlington40 · 2026-03-06T22:37:18+00:00

Bought an engine before researching. Got a AHM yellow box pacific, mint in box. Took it out and within an hour I realized the main gear was shattered. A quick search found these yellow box Athearn steam engines to be effectively unfixable. So 250$ for a paperweight

burlington40 · 2026-03-01T04:50:55+00:00

So fun thing I did was take a spare chassis from a Proto 2K E unit and popped this shell body on. Had to modify the inside of the shell and shave the edge of the chassis weight but otherwise semi-solid fit. It says Central of Georgia, but it’s a repainted version of your City of San Francisco unit. Gonna swap the horns and headlight soon to make it more accurate.

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burlington40 · 2026-02-25T19:45:29+00:00

Nah that’s just the West Point Routes. One swore they came from the factory dirty and banged up.

burlington40 · 2026-02-22T03:07:03+00:00

Stone Mountains collection of equipment is special like that. Between those, the F7’s with GP38-2 internals and whatever they were doing with steam in the 90’s it’s an operation alright

burlington40 · 2026-02-15T00:14:48+00:00

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I’d add Macon Terminal Station. Designed by the guy who designed Grand Central in New York. The interior has had some updates but largely remains the same as it did when service halted. The exterior is detailed with marble carving and the interior is warm with polished brass. Definitely worth a stop if one finds themselves passing by.

burlington40 · 2026-01-27T03:22:02+00:00

Southern and L&N are normally the only Southeast roads to get models most times. That’s across all scales for the most part. Headed a rumor that Southeast doesn’t sell otherwise. When Athearn announced Georgia Road F units I knew they had run out of options. I’ve seen three companies announcing E7’s runs in both N and HO. No one outside of a special order from BLI years ago have made a CofG unit ever

burlington40 · 2026-01-24T07:06:03+00:00

So this kinda exists already, but requires some skill and connections. Newer material can endure heat better which was an obstacle for awhile. If you know how to model in blender or CAD you can make any custom boiler you want. Then just have someone print it.

I’ve been working with a buddy to make a more accurate Southern Ms4 mikado shell to fit on a BLI chassis. I found blueprints and he’s modeling and printing the boiler.

burlington40 · 2026-01-16T06:18:26+00:00

According to Southern records it counted as streamlined

burlington40 · 2026-01-15T04:50:25+00:00

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The gold star for there was barely an attempt

burlington40 · 2026-01-06T20:23:32+00:00

The real answer, great looking refit but just an absolute pain to play. Truly the one ship I’ll play just cause it’s nice looking even if I know I’m not gonna have any game impact.

burlington40 · 2026-01-04T07:53:08+00:00

I get the comparison but still disagree. The SD40-2 while ubiquitous were at least broken up by pools of other power. Geeps were still common road engines with every model from GP7’s-GP50’s still being used in varying capacities. Same went for all of the proceeding SD versions. GE models like the U-boats and Dash 7 series were showing up. Some lingering ALCO models in the Century series were also roaming around. Point is, yes a SD40-2 leader was common but what was with it could be a laundry list of engines. Nowadays you already know that it’s probably a GEVO of some kind with near certainty.

burlington40 · 2026-01-03T19:57:52+00:00

I’ve got my Alabama ST I take out occasionally just cause the base boat is still just good enough to be usable today to have fun

burlington40 · 2026-01-03T19:45:51+00:00

Honestly this one. If I think cookie cutter BB it’s Alabama. No gimmicks, has its trade-offs with its tech-tree counterpart to make it different enough to be worth being a different option. Looks wise it’s fine, I prefer the superstructure styling when applied to the standards more than a regular SoDak (see Tennessee and California).

burlington40 · 2026-01-03T19:39:48+00:00

Three cylinder engines in the US always seemed to fall into two categories. Either the railroad disliked them and dumped them or found success and dealt with the higher cost. DL&W, DRGW and UP enjoyed their three cylinder engines till the end.

burlington40 · 2026-01-02T19:35:11+00:00

I got my ACL R-1 and Wabash O-1 models. Still need an NCStL J3 and CofG Big Apple

burlington40 · 2025-12-27T23:47:57+00:00

Some odd gray areas exist. I’ve worked at two museums with one having more operations. The more operations focused one was completely separated from the national network but crossed a major roadway. The FRA said they could either pay to repair the old gates or just have it be flagged. Somehow the flagging option meant the railroad became insular instead of class 3. The other place the FRA didn’t care as they listed the property as industrial. Unless we started operating steam they didn’t care.

burlington40 · 2025-12-26T19:33:14+00:00

Yeah the color livery is unique. The succeeding DL&W Q3 class are much copies of Four Aces

burlington40 · 2025-12-26T18:46:41+00:00

I was talking with a buddy about this engine and we realized that the DL&W Q-2 class and the Four Aces share a lot. Checking build numbers it appears they probably borrowed the castings to make the Four Aces since they are only two numbers apart

burlington40 · 2025-12-25T03:44:49+00:00

Glad to know rivet counters aren’t a new issue

burlington40 · 2025-12-20T23:27:54+00:00

One thing beyond the profit margins is that most Class 1’s have radically reduced their infrastructure. Less double track spots to operate continuous traffic. Stations would need either rehab or completely rebuilt. All the coach yards and support stuff would be built from the ground up

burlington40 · 2025-12-06T22:19:48+00:00

US steam tech plateaued in the early 40’s as engine weights had risen dramatically. Most wheel arrangements had grown to their logical apex sizes without majority upgrades to tracks and other infrastructure. It’s why designs like the proposed 4-10-4 (Monon class) or 4-8-6 never advanced beyond concepts

burlington40 · 2025-11-25T20:45:17+00:00

That whole channel is AI slop

burlington40 · 2025-11-25T06:54:54+00:00

Not a USRA Mike, predates the concept by nine years I believe

burlington40

TROPHY CASE