Folkston and Miami Trains

Excuse my very short, brief postings but time has been scarce. I am settling back in and ready to continue the HO layout.

Folkston, Georgia has 60 trains a day. Roaring through at speeds up to 50 mph, trains like intermodal, autoracks, coal drags, et al make Miami look very lackluster. Well, it's not.

I had spent "Railwatch Weekend" in the small town of about 10,000, enjoying a popular event called Railwatch. This is a more or less official gathering of railbuffs on a hit Saturday to watch trains. The roaring weekend brought  the town 58 trains that day (April 14th), 38 of which I caught and 3 of which were very remarkable but I had to miss. I had really enjoyed spotting trains and catching them like I photograph planes here in MIA, one good one every 20 minutes. The experience was indelible and "dabes" as you'll see in these videos that are channeling in to YouTube (I'll share the playlist while all 7 parts are uploaded). Add to that me bagging 11 more catches on Sunday.

Though, I felt refreshed instead of "Trained out" when I spent this past Friday night hunting Y220. Y220 is a yard job whose work varies. Usually it serves the greater Hialeah area but lately characteristically, it has started making headway for East Rail. East Rail is an industrial area at which Lance Mindheim has admired, by way of his website and once, his Webshots album. He did a spoof layout, combining it with the upper end of the Downtown Spur, hitting the nail on the head.

Sadly the district has lost some activity. SALCO, Seaboard Terminal, and Guixens have gone the way of being very sporadic customers. Luckily Weeks Gas, Sentry, Veco (a new one), and Pan American Paper are strong at it. I caught Y220 working the Big Hole lead (Veco as a matter of fact), spotting one or two boxcars and setting out two more on the waiting track. (The video below). It was a nice experience. Very bizarre anyway for being in this harsh area at night (though it was 8:50 PM and not past midnight) but it was a fun little chase. I also got it stopping for 37 AV to let its very close triggers function, and also at MLK Blvd. so the fireman boards the train. This is where it is, fellas. Miami Industrial action is extremely remarkable and if you're fairly lucky you'll make it through with success. I think this area in particular, Hialeah, has improved over the last decade and is a little bit of a safe bet to fan at night. I have previously conducted O721 chases as late as 1 am, and even made the trial of Y120 at 12:30 AM on a Friday night (no sign of it proved a failure).

Folkston is nice for mainline action. But if you want last mile boxcar action, Hialeah's got it. I am having the bug, not for catching 60 trains through Folkston but a number of switchers working E Rail, W Rail, Downtown, and Homestead. The switching consists of a number of moves and the area is just eccentric. Also I hear from Mr. Mindheim the Cuban Coffee at COD off of 58th St. and 37th Av. is just great.

Change of Ops...

The job Y120 used to frequently handle East Rail, usually Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don't know if this is based off an increase or decrease in demand, but Y220, notably on Fridays, does this job. This follows a Y150 I missed that did work on the Lehigh in MIDDAY.

This is my first catch on East Rail. ENJOY!

CSXT Y150-20

It's nice always hearing different IDs on CSX these days around. For the first time in several months CSX is shipping Cemex coal with the 6-axle power, but for a first in a long time I will be catching it under the Y150-20 ID. I am at least glad the business is there for both Y150 and Y220, the normal Lehigh job, to run.

Folkston Railwatch Trip: The Best One Yet

Just now I am recovering from a sea of trains, that is the Folkston Railwatch trip. It was a fun ride and a great experience being with my South Florida buddies. This year was the most attended by South Florida railfans, us numbering about 8. I am very pleased of our presence and hope it is as large if not larger by future railwatches.

Already the flood of videos are starting to pour in, mine included. I'll follow this up with my $0.02 on video posting later on down the line.

So basically, this nice big trip is truly why progress on the Miami Sub, both real and model has been stifled.

Re: "Sound" - Lance Mindheim's Blog

It is very nice when people come up with innovative ideas for their model railroad hobby. Lance has written of industry switch/gate locks, waybills, and other creative kickers that enhance the model railroad hobby. Well, the most eureka-like moment, if you want to call it that, was when he saw a Metra F59 throttling with the surround sound of its 16-cylinder motor. He wrote of installing a headphone jack for his Tsunami sound system to listen to the real sound and not the sub-par whine emanating from the engine itself, which is pretty common in the hobby.

I had not much of an idea that it was possible-- well, yes, electrical properties of physics allow it to be circuited into the loop, but in practice it doesn't happen often. In his case, instead of plugging the decoder into the engine, it's an under table installation, brilliant so far.

But what I vividly remember is when I went to Cocoa Beach, the "Home Away From Home" which I refer to occasionally has a Playstation 3 setup. But not only that, our family friends have a speaker of their own. Not only does it have a rich sound as much as Mr. Mindheim described, it is indeed.... wireless. For about 70+ dollars you can purchase your way to not having to be tethered to anything. Then again, he did indicate that these wired ones were speakers he already had. Yet, what my post is doing is bringing a new idea to take further the use of headphones.

Wired or not, this, believe it or not, could even bring sound to my Atlas GP39-2 which may not be compatible for a sound decoder at all. I really like the added convenience it can bring in that respect. Silver series owners would love this idea too.

I am absolutely for the idea. The 150 ft. (50 m) transmission helps greatly so you can control your train from anywhere, with one plug having the sensor.

The only possible drawback is that two trains cannot sound simultaneously, or will require different headphones. For Lance it is not a problem at all since the Downtown Spur has literally ONE train movement at a time. For me, with the onset of Tri-Rail commuter hauls, it is. Obviously the dominant sound will be CSX's own 16-645 turbocharged engine but I guess I could settle for the lame sound on Tri-Rail. Or if I want to switch it around, circuitry could solve that problem (ie. switching from a 16-645 decoder to a GE AC engine decoder) with a circuit switch. Then again it could work anyway in my case as it is a CSX switching layout after all and Tri-Rail is only there for show.

Though a great liberty of this system may be recording for YouTube. You can probably hook the decoder up wired or not wired (Infrared, radio?) to a camcorder while recording, with the sound source as a microphone. I do have to check on that and prove it before trying it out, but the mics do look for sound and this has sound, so it might work.

Let's see and try out the system and see what can come out of it. When I get to wiring/scenery in my Deerfield Bch layout (which has to get a redesign due to BrickAmerica/Southern Grout BOTH back in receivership), I'll place the orders for these items.

O717 Videos

As I blogged last weekend, last Friday I hunted O717 the Pompano switcher around its course of work. Here's the video footage that turned out, as always, a great help of reference for the layout. Now I need more tankers :)

Railwatch and People

There is one week left until "Le Big Day" and too much is going on in the group media, and it's really not pretty. It's going to get fairly deep so play well when reading it.

The first concern, chronologically, was made on March 26th, a Monday. I will say now that the railfans involved will not be named. One railfan made a vow that he would bring the Confederate rebel flag to Railwatch and "let 'er fly" especially when the P052 Auto Train passes. One other railfan posted a comment saying simply it wasn't a good idea, and three others supported the idea. I went in there out of a fairly moderate viewpoint, speaking through common sense, saying it is not recommended as it can ruin several reputations. Each year CSX in some way seems to support the event and they would probably feel misrepresented if their hobbyists display signs of hate. I not only mentioned that but two railfans of which are my friends and fully committed to the trip are African-American and would take offense to that. I get a reply from someone else saying that I must've failed Social Studies and that I'm a sandal wearing liberal, (which is absolutely wrong, I lean to the right). He made the S.Stud. comment in regard to the fact GA had the Confederate stars on their flag until 2002 and it was because of those liberals it was gone (not only that he had the audacity to put in expletives). I, not wanting to cause further dilemma, went passive from there on but my thought was he was absolutely wrong and it was out of common sense and simple modernity that it was removed. Anyway...

The second concern does not relate me at all. Yet seeing it on Facebook gives me bad faith that a lot of hate is going to go on during the event. Two well known Central Florida buffs are having an issue with each other over silly little things. One of them had a well priced cell phone bill considering he has talked with his friend, this other's son, religiously last month. Lashing out against the father/kid for this money, the other side of the story is that the guy is backing out and basically not manning up that it's his own cell bill that is to be paid. The more bizarre part is the argument that in taking the person out so much for these trips that he is just using them (F/Son). A clever remark stated that the gas paid was = the sum of money, which is considerably true, but this "middle school fight" doesn't place well in a hobby society. I remain absolutely neutral on this issue but feel very, very annoyed and their vows for the Railwatch event are telling me this is not going to "let the good times roll" as I had hoped.

How will I answer these fits? Much of my South FL group will be there (4 folks will be at Waycross for the last half of Sat. but I intend to join them). Aside from acquainting with other railbuffs, I will probably be railfanning alongside my South Florida buddies, not minding the mess that can happen down the street. It gets really nasty seeing people in the hobby get real personal at the event, and I'm just doing my right thing and hanging out with the people who I know have zero conflict. We South Florida Railfans have had NO true problems with each other that haven't been resolved within days (though one minor issue was someone just wanting to take a break from a couple of us myself included for 17 months, but that was resolved over time; "time heals all wounds"). This is a real blessing in the hobby, that I am among people who have nothing personal, but I do admit it's an acquired fellowship.

However, two merits of the event are as follows.

Dennis is taking his time out of his however busy it is schedule to craft name pins for all attendees. My name tag is visible in this photo:

Also, as always, there is a railfan cookout every year. Danny Harmon and a few donors of food are participating in this cookout to make it ideally better than any cookout in the past. Someone just mentioned how they're bringing food to the thing to add to the selection. I will look forward to it and appreciate the efforts in advance!

With these difficulties I philosophize a lesson. These events are supposed to be for fun and not for resolving a flame war. This stuff should be done not in the eyes of railfans from across. The way people have been acting online has just been ridiculous, like we've had middle schoolers on here. Rudy and Mike (South FL), for instance, have much more maturity and are younger than the above parties.

I hope for one thing at this point: that I can enjoy this event happily.