u/Ornery_Feature_3466

I have a 4S RC LiPO that has got a bit too hot on several occasions due to the stock tuning of the electronics forcing them to pull a ton of amps. Because of this, the LiPO has begun to puff. When warm, the gas between the cells and the soft casing expands until the casing protrudes 3mm or so above the cells. It can be pressed back down, but there is a decent amount of pressure. Otherwise, the battery seems to function alright.

So my question is, at what point should a spicy pillow be considered too spicy?

I have attached pictures.

Edit: I’ve been told by another who uses this brand LiPO that this puffing isn’t usually something to be worried about. The cells themselves aren’t puffed; there is a cavity between the cells and the wrap that fills with gas over time. This is accelerated by the battery getting particularly hot during runs. IR while charging is ranging between 1 and 3.5, indicating the cells are still in pretty decent shape.

I decided at my club yesterday that the stock couplers on my ScaleTrains ET44 had to go—mainly because the springs both went to the backrooms.

I was expecting a somewhat challenging installation (having to at least modify the hole to fit the MTL coupler box). Instead, I discovered the stock coupler box fits MTL 1015s almost perfectly. Making this conversion a real breeze. Though the couplers are a bit sticky. I’ll have to see if some graphite lubricant fixes it.

This is my car shop. The concrete pad was my first time doing imbedded tracks and I think it went pretty good.

Purchased this B40-8W not knowing if it had a decoder or not. Someone had taped a little not that read "DCC 550" on the end of the case, so I figured I'd take the risk and buy it. Luckily, my gamble paid off! It's a digitrax decoder (ew) but still, it's a decoder! Anyway, I've wanted one of these locomotives for a while. The eventual plan is to make it into BNSF #538, since that locomotive hangs out around the city I railfan in a lot. For now, though, it'll remain as #550 and work the imaginary locals on my WIP layout.

This is an image on the cover of Pentrex's Great Northern Railway 3-part combo DVD and I'm wondering if anyone knows where the picture was taken (or even if they have a link to a digitized version of the original photo) because it looks an awful lot like Downtown Minot (where I railfan).

One thing that's bothered many people (including myself) is the space between Kato F7s when coupled together. Its way larger than it should be. Kato Close-Coupling Knuckles, which are intended for freight cars, improve coupling distance a ton. I've attached a number of Before/After photos showing the difference. They're very easy to install, and the end result looks great.

I railfan primarily in Minot, ND, where CPKC and BNSF regularly use old cabooses as shoving platform. Technically, they're not classified as cabooses anymore, but they're still caboose shaped, so I'm calling them cabooses.

CPKC has 2 Soo Line cabooses used as shoving platforms during the interchange with BNSF, while BNSF has a BN caboose in shockingly good condition that they use only for yard jobs as far as I'm aware.

I've seen the Soo Line cabooses pretty often, since the interchange occurs several times a week. However, its harder to see the BN caboose since it doesn't seem to be used very much. I finally managed to get some good pictures of the yard job/local pushing back towards an industry a few days ago.

Don't know much about these tracks, other than they were laid down by Great Northern (as evidenced by the lettering in the second to last image). They clearly went to an industry of some sort (actually, from the aerial view in the last image, it looks like it went to 2), but I don't know what the industries were.

These tracks are located near Moose Park. Apart from the siding in the first image (which is still used by BNSF from time to time) and the remains of the switch, near the road, the track is nearly completely buried. The ties are impossible to find 20 or so feet after the switch, and the railhead becomes the only thing visible not long after that, and even it is undetectable for most of the length. At the end of the sidings, only one piece of rail is above ground. I believe the track was intentionally buried once it was out of use. There were buildings at this site as late as 2016 according to Google Earth, though I don't think they were the same ones as in the 1960s aerial image at the end of the post.

If anyone can find out any further information regarding the history of these tracks, it would be great appreciated.

Here's all my locomotives (minus my Big Boy, which is in Florida being repaired) on the whisker tracks around my turntable. The newest addition is the sole steam locomotive, which has quickly become my favorite locomotive (I say that about every new locomotive I get, but I think its going to stick with this one cause its GN steam).

My Great Northern collection so far. I know, the USRA Heavy Pacific and ES44 definitely aren't realistic, but I still really like them.

I've been wanting a Great Northern steam locomotive for a long time. I found this one on eBay for a pretty good price. Unfortunately, it does have the suicide decoder (Paragon 3), but even if it fails and I have to put a LokSound in, it will be cheaper than buying the Paragon 4 one that is currently up for pre-order.

Anyway, I just got the locomotive today and so far its great. Sounds pretty good, looks fantastic, and can pull my 15-car Empire Builder on level track (I have no grades to idk if it would do it uphill). Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase.

Genuinely shocked at how little glue these Sledgehammer tires have compared to stock. The original tires for my Hoss had more than enough glue. Took months for the first tire to unglue. In the space of only a week after getting them, all 4 of the new sledgehammers came unglued. Some in multiple places. As you can see from the first picture, the tire seems to have almost zero glue. Quality control at Traxxas seems to be going downhill.

Edit: Because some people apparently can't tell, this is not a bead lock wheel. The bead lock design is there simply for aesthetic.

Personally, I'd like to see Great Northern 2584 returned to steam. Its the only GN S2 left, as well as the largest surviving Great Northern steamer. I personally think it would look great running excursions. And, from what a Wikipedia article says, BNSF might still own the locomotive, making it a prime candidate assuming it doesn't have significant mechanical issues.

Another option, of course, is ATSF 3751, which is already operational, making it another prime candidate. However, as it is currently owned by a different entity, I don't think it would be the locomotive chosen.

Another option would be CB&Q 5629 at the Colorado Railroad museum.

There are quite a few other possible locomotives, and obviously Northern isn't the only type of locomotive that could be used for excursions. What locomotive would you like to see in the hypothetical (and very unlikely) scenario that BNSF established a steam program?

Edit: So far, the consensus seems to be that one of these locomotives would be most possible/preferred: ATSF 3463, Frisco 1522, ATSF 3751, or SP&S 700.

Almost a year and a half ago, I received a Kato Great Northern F7A as a gift. After running it with some freight cars, I decided it was way too pretty to be used for freight and decided I wanted to built a Great Northern Empire Builder in N scale.

It took 15 months to gather all the equipment needed. Since the cars have been out of production for a while, they're somewhat rare and usually sell for a lot of money (upwards of $80 for in individual car, or around $300 for the 4-packs). That's way more than I wanted to pay for the cars, so I waited until I found them for a good price. Naturally, this took time. There are 15 cars total, almost all Kato, but there are 2 oddballs: A Con-Cor RPO and a Walthers coach.

I wasn't going for a super historically accurate configuration, but I do have a good variety of cars, including RPOs, coaches, diners, sleepers, domes, and an observation. I'm particularly happy with the observation, because it is "Twelve-Mile Coulee." I would have been fine with any observation, but this is the one I particularly wanted because I like the name better than the other options.

The last 2 locomotives were acquired around Christmas time last year. I'd been holding out for 365B and 365C because the first unit is 365A, so they'd be a set. I got tired of waiting, however, and found 364B and 364C for a good price. Since they're so close to 365, I decided to buy them. All 3 locomotives are fitted with ESU decoders. The A units both have LokSound, while the B unit has a LokPilot. 364C has an MTL 1015 coupler (fitted in a 2004 box and secured with a screw) in place of the original Kato coupler. I plan to eventually add a Mars light to 365A.

The only thing left to do now is put LED lights in all the cars. 4 of them have been fitted with incandescent sometime before I got them, but I want to swap them out because they pull far more amperage than I'd like them to considering my Powercab only has a 2 amp fuse. Since adding lights is inessential, I consider the goal fulfilled.

I have recently installed LokSound in my N scale Kato F7As. One issue I'm running into with them, however, is that the sound will cut out when going over switch frogs. One one unit, this doesn't happen every time and it generally doesn't result in the sound resetting to off. The other one, however, will cut out pretty consistently and its sound will cut off about 75% of the time, requiring me to press F8 twice to get it back on. This is annoying, and probably could be fixed via frog juicers.

However, I also run at a club with many electrical issues that results in momentary loss of power. So, I think it would be a good idea to get a keepalive. I'm looking at the TCS KA-N1, since its the only one I can find small enough to fit. According to TCS' website, the KA-N1 has enough capacitance to keep a locomotive going for 1-2 seconds. That should be plenty of time, since the power loss seems to be pretty brief.

So my question is: Will a TCS KA-N1 work? I know you have to disconnect keepalives for programming. Other than that, will it work? Also, how would I go about connecting it?

A few days before a trip I took at the end of May, I discovered that along our route lay an abandoned railway bridge and tunnel. They were only a few miles out of our way, so we decided to stop and check it out.

The bridge and tunnel are located near East Fairview, North Dakota, where the railroad crossed the Yellowstone river. Consequently, the bridge is known as the Fairview lift bridge. It was built by the Great Northern Railway as part of its unfinished Montana Eastern line in 1913. One of the most interesting features of the bridge is its liftable span, which was intended to allow steamboats to pass underneath. As per research, the bridge only ever lifted once, to test the mechanism.

Originally, the bridge was used by both trains and cars. Traffic from the former ended around 1955 with the construction of a dedicated automobile bridge, and the last train crossed the bridge in the 1980s. Today, the bridge is preserved as part of a hiking trail. The rails are gone, replaced by metal nets spread over the ties. This leads to a slightly disconcerting feeling as you cross the bridge, since you can see the water rushing far below and feel the net sag as you step on it.

The tunnel is the only completed railroad tunnel in the entire state. The walls are lined with massive wooden beams to support the crumbly earth. It curves to the south somewhat as you walk through, and gets completely dark in the middle. A flashlight is a must. Walking through the tunnel is eerie. It smells of pigeon droppings, old wood, and dirt. It was a dry and hot 70+ degree day, but in the tunnel, it was much cooler, and damper. It is extremely quiet in the middle, and at each end, you can hear and feel the sound of air rushing as the heat outside collides with the cold inside, making it seem like the tunnel is breathing.

The western entrance to the tunnel is in pretty good shape. The eastern entrance, however, is collapsing. You can see efforts have been made to repair it, but they seem to me more like band aids on a wound which requires stitches. If something isn't done, the tunnel may have to be closed. Within the tunnel, too, you can see signs of instability. At one spot, a wooden beam lay on the ground, although I'm not sure if that was part of the wall/ceiling or a railroad tie. Near the eastern end, one or two of the beams that formed the walls had come dislodged.