Amtrak's Broadway Limited, HO scale, CIRC layout

[indie1361]

Gorgeous Amtrak!

[araquan]

@indie1361 Thanks!

[brasszebra]

The most I have seen is one baggage cars on a VIA train today. And thats with 8 coach cars(520pax's) on train 57.

[araquan]

@brasszebra This represents the period when Amtrak still carried express freight. Most of it would ride in the Material Handling Cars (the boxcars with HEP pass-through connections) but Amtrak would sometimes use additional streamlined baggage cars for this freight as well. The arrangement of head-end cars you see in the model is based on the actual consist of the train on one particular day around 1994.

[WAYNE1980AA]

question: a via rail train made up of a fp9a and f9b with a baggage car, how many full coach cars can you add on before adding a second baggage car (in short, how many coach cars does it take to fill up a full size baggage)

[fixierider97]

Lol, thats a lot of baggage cars!

[TEMPLE7D]

thats like 15 bags per person--lol

[schomymolly09]

nice layout how big ur board

[araquan]

Thanks. The layout room itself is about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide... I'm not sure about dimensions more precise than that right now.

[killerbees177]

Are the lounge coaches air tight seal connected together, if so how do you do that?

[araquan]

There's not an air-tight seal, no... in the case of the model, the diaphragms aren't even touching each other most of the time, except perhaps on curves.

[killerbees177]

Its a nice illusion

[araquan]

Indeed. The diaphragms come with the cars, also, there's almost no work- I like to add some silver to the edges of the striker plates to give the impression of the metal frame found there on the real cars, but that's it.

[NorfolkWestern34]

is this HO scale? haha jk jk greeat video

[northlanderdude]

what kind of car is the 4th last ?

[araquan]

Sorry for the delay in replying to this- the 4th car from the rear is a Heritage lounge car rebuilt from an ex-Pennsylvania/Penn Central 29-1 parlor car. There are links to it in the video info text, as well as a bit more description.

[northlanderdude]

no problem !

thanks for the extra info !

ouu, how much do you want for it ?

[araquan]

The car, I fear, is not for sale. Way too much work tied up in that one.

[northlanderdude]

D'oh ! I know, the interior work has got Rapido Quality written all over it ! :-)

it's too bad those little pepsi cans weren't coke cans instead ! but let's just say it was for sale, how much would the lounge car be ? $60, $70, $80 more ?

[araquan]

If I were to do another as a commission piece... I'd charge hundreds. There's a lot of external modification there, and a nearly completely scratchbuilt interior. It took months to build.

[zoeylilcuds]

Awesome Video!!!!!!!

[araquan]

Thanks!

[cnwlover]

That shot from 2:00-2:26, is that by where the roundhouse and the tractor plant are at by the yard?

[araquan]

Yes.

[Smittaye]

my dream broadway limited would be a superliner 1 and 2 train from philadelphia to chicago and oakland jack london square

[RCdash9]

The Broadway Limited used to be a full service train.

[araquan]

Yup. It used to be all-sleeper too, but that was in the days before Amtrak... n.n

[araquan]

Thanks! :)

[train69lover]

Impressive work, a great change from the normal stuff found on this site. Excellent job on the lounge, what was your source for the emergency exit windows?

[araquan]

Thanks! The exit windows on 3118 are taken from a damaged Walthers Superliner I coach-baggage car that I've been pulling parts from over the years. The rest of the windows were tinted to (mostly) match.

[mdamttc199]

I'd like to see some photos of the Lounge you kitbashed. It looks really good from the video! I'd encourage you to correct the kitchen side of the Diner. I've done quite a few similar jobs on my Walthers cars myself. Consider joining the yahoogroup amtrakmodeler.

[araquan]

I've got some photos, but the DSLR's sensor was a bit dirty, and the car had a list to the kitchen side- if you look carefully you can spot it in the video. Defective truck on the vestibule end (axle point holes misplaced on one frame) now replaced. New photos eventually.

Rebuilding the kitchen sides of my HEP diners (three) is on the agenda, but a Viewliner diner is in the works and may happen first. It'll probably happen when I do my Auto Train kitchen car. So many projects, so little time...

[araquan]

I just added links in the video info to three of the old photos. Forgive the sensor dirt and the car's lean...

[mdamttc199]

3118 looks really good! The food service interior is insane! I love the custom decals on there. What did you use to tint the windows. How'd you go about making the emergency windows and what did you use for the refridgeration box under the car?

[araquan]

Heh. I'm probably going to have to send a private message to cover all that- too few characters allowed in comments. I'll have to do that later though- my offline life is demanding far too much of my attention at the moment. Hopefully I'll get a message off to you here in the next day or two.

[Moosey1789]

This is, by far, more breathtaking in person. The railroad display at the Iowa State Fair is tops.

[araquan]

Thanks- we're continuing to work on it throughout the year and hopefully make it even more impressive come 2009!

[missymonroe72]

Amazing train !!!. Can you describe cars type and manufacture ?

Thanks a lot.

[araquan]

Pretty much all the cars are from Walthers, either Heritage (baggage, sleeper, slumbercoach, diner, lounge) or Amfleet II types (coaches). There are also some Material Handling Cars (MHC II) cars in the train, also made by Walthers, including one fitted with a track cleaning pad. You can see it in the video- it's the MHC with the US Postal Service logo.

[techphy100]

thats really nice footage, i could watch it all day. nice angle on the way the train carries over the interlocking like the prototype and the S angles too. i tried to start up a Night Owl and ended up smashing my Walthers Bud cars to bits cause they wouldn't run at all. they would derail, decouple, deflip so i destructed them. never bought Walthers again except their F40PHs and husky stacks.

[araquan]

Heh, thanks.

The Walthers cars do take a bit of tweaking before they'll run reliably, especially their older (2001-2003) Budd cars. All of my cars have been through a rebuild program to run as well as they do. I should do a website or video about all the stuff I do to 'em someday. See my Empire Builder video (this year's train) for a 17-car train that ran for 8 days at the fair with exactly one derailment, and that may have been the fault of a maladjusted turnout.

[techphy100]

i actually texted i would by a DVD of something like that but then took it out. i once bought a HO dvd that said it had Amtrak, and all it had was the HO F40ph, said about three words aobut it, and ran it off the screen. Threw the DVD away, that was bout 5 gallons of gas. i've always tried tweeking my walthers amfleet, the only ones that worked for me was the Amfleet II's, and the viewliners which i removed the truck support castings that block extra rotation.

[ACLTony]

Araquan,

Beautiful work with this train. At first I thought these F40s were Katos. Amazing what a difference small details make! When you're ready for sound, the latest F40PH sound scheme is better than the first version Digitrax introduced. It has one of the best K5LA horn recordings I've ever heard. Has a "tail" echo on playable mode. If I'm not mistaken, it was provided by a railfan/modeler who is a regular on the Digitrax Forum group on Yahoo. - High Greens to you :)

[araquan]

Thanks! It may not show up in the video but they do still need grabs and some other details installed. Almost all the work I did was with some paint and a couple decals, just to get them a little more realistic-looking. I do have a single Kato F40PH in the fleet but it wasn't ready for operation at last year's fair. I installed the Digitrax sound unit intended for it... I'm not hugely happy with the thing.

[shifta65]

Do you know if there is an easy/practical way to transition from Bachman EZ Track on a main line to flex track on spurs? Prototype railroads have well-ballasted main lines (like EZ Track)and minimally-ballasted spurs (like flex track). I'm trying to re-create that scenario without using loose ballast material.

[araquan]

You'd probably have to make an adapter piece that would interface with EZ Track at one end and ended at 'base' level at the other... That might mean having something cut out of wood, then painted and/or very lightly ballasted to match the EZ Track. You could do that in 9 inches but it might be better to take up 12-18" to reduce the possibility of uncoupling cars going through this vertical transition.

[shifta65]

Thanks. I didn't think about the potential uncoupling problem. Maybe I can start with a wooden shim of some sort, like roofers used to place underneath shingles. Those seem to be gently sloped/angled nicely.

[dkslfjgh]

What brand are those Amtrak F40PH locomotives?

[araquan]

Both are Walthers Trainline F40PHs from a few years ago. I added white paint and decals for the number boards, and darkened in grilles, but for the most part their exteriors are factory-original. Internally they have Digitrax DCC decoders installed for control and lighting. The lights are all provided by the original bulbs in their original mounts. There's no sound installed at this time, but that may change in the future. I do plan on installing working beacon strobes at some point.

[updash9]

What is the curve radius at 0:43?

[araquan]

I'll have to get back to you on that one- I missed this week's club meeting so I won't be able to ask anyone for a while. It's fairly wide though- I'd be surprised if it were less than 40" radius. I'll let you know when I have more definite numbers.

[mercenary454]

Thats just too cool, not enuff ppl model passenger service.....those f40's look sweet lashed 2gether....

[shadowstep77]

One of the more reason why I love Amtrak

[yawotton]

nice, i always wanted to built a layout dedicated to amtrak passenger and freight. nice

[araquan]

Thanks. :) There's been a lot of work done on the layout since last year- I hope to have more videos up come August. :D

[foxbox66]

Great layout!

[araquan]

Thanks. It'll be even better this year though- a lot's been done since this video was shot. :)

[SF3751]

I'm building the last car in the consist right now, cool layout.

[railmogul2]

I remember the day the broadway limited left town and never came back

[brownbrownson]

just like the Desert Wind in Las Vegas..

[garginshmunkle]

Also, when the diner's bad ordered, they'll put an Amfleet I café on as the normal lounge and an Amfleet II Café on in place of the diner. For the past few weeks, one of the equipment sets for the Lake Shore has had that Amfleet II in place of the diner.

[araquan]

Food service car bingo happens a lot yeah- but in this case I meant a Horizon coach. A friend of mine was seated in one once between Chicago and New York. Passenger traffic was pretty light, fortunately, and he was able to get re-seated in an Amfleet II car- the Horizon car still had the commuter layout and its airline style seating pitch. Not fun!

[garginshmunkle]

I've only ever seen a Horizon coach on the Lake Shore once.

[araquan]

It's pretty rare I'm sure, but I've seen a couple photos of it, and as noted, a friend's ridden in a train so-equipped once. Still, I have the cars to represent that, so now and then I do just to see what funny looks it gets. :D

[garginshmunkle]

I was going through my old video and found one of the 2003 Lake Shore with two Horizon coaches. I talked again to the yard manager in Chicago, and he said that if the lounge on the Cardinal is bad ordered, they will take the Amfleet II from the Lake Shore because the Cardinal only has one food-service car and relies on it being arranged to serve meals, whereas the Amfleet II on the Lake Shore is only a lounge.

[garginshmunkle]

However, a few of the Amfleet II coaches and one of the Amfleet II cafés were put on the Broadway. However, because there weren't enough Amcans to retire the Broadway's Heritage coaches, only one of the three equipment sets for the Broadway received Amfleet II coaches - and two of the other sets stayed Heritage.

[araquan]

*grin* Well, the variability of Amtrak's consists is one reason I try to base things on actual experience or video runbys when possible. But, that being said, sometimes I do run the train with Heritage coaches- just not on the day the video was shot. Most of the time this year I had an Amfleet II lounge as a stand-in for the Heritage car as it was only completed on the day of shooting.

[araquan]

What really drives some people up the wall is when I drop a Horizon car into my Lake Shore Limited consist. I've got photographic proof that it happened... ;)

[garginshmunkle]

It happens all the time! In Chicago just yesterday, I saw them taking the Amfleet II Café off the Lake Shore and putting it on the Cardinal. Then, they took a spare Horizon café and put it on the Lake Shore. That night, I saw the Lake Shore leave with the Horizon café.

[garginshmunkle]

Because of these reasons, the Lake Shore, Cardinal and Capitol Limited (back when it was Heritage) had priority in the Chicago yard. Thus, the coach section was often a mishmash of whatever was left after assembling the other three trains. When the City of New Orleans and the Auto Train received Superliner II equipment in 1994, some Amfleet II equipment was freed up. At the time, most of the displaced Amfleet II equipment was assigned to the New York section of the Lake Shore Limited.

[garginshmunkle]

Hold on - we're both right. This morning, I talked to the stationmaster in Chicago. She said that the Broadway had scheduling issues and problems with routing. Plus, the Lake Shore Limited had prettier scenery and got passengers between Chicago and New York more quickly than the Broadway Limited. One of the Broadway's three or four coaches was always filled just by people who had missed their connections to the Lake Shore, Cardinal and Capitol Limited.

[jmnpc]

Wonderful video! So realistic! I like the way the train's not going too fast, as it would in real life...or wouldn't. And, of course, the length is quite realistic too. Not to mention how you've got lots of wide curves that aren't too sharp therefore giving it that extra sense of realness. Great!

[araquan]

Thanks- I tried to get a railfan's perspective wherever I could. And I always try to operate at or near scale speed, which is something not everyone in the club seems interested in doing without some coaching. Fortunately the new layout being constructed is allowing for some substantially wider curves than before- and the old layout had a 30" minimum mainline curvature!

[jimbotrains]

very nice. i love the camera views

[araquan]

Thanks. :)

[Train538]

Did you use a tripod to this video?

[araquan]

Yup.

[garginshmunkle]

Incredibly nice!!!!! One thing I'd recommend, though, is custom-building some Heritage Fleet 44-seat coaches. The Broadway didn't ever go Amfleet. It stayed Heritage until the end.

[araquan]

Well- the Broadway Limited consist I ran was based on footage from around 1994-1995, shot from a Heritage 10-6 sleeper. Ahead of that were a Heritage diner and lounge, three Amfleet II coaches, then the head end cars. Now, I don't have a 1994ish timetable handy, but were there any other trains besides the Limited running through Horseshoe with sleepers and a full diner?

[garginshmunkle]

The train NEVER went completelely Amfleet. I rode the Broadway twenty-four times and not one were all the coaches Amfleet.

[araquan]

I'd YouTube the video I'm basing this on, but that would be a violation of copyright... It shows shots of more than one train (shot from the train one day and from the ground another day) going through Horseshoe Curve- it carried a diner and sleepers, and the coach section was in fact entirely Amfleet II in both cases... So if it wasn't the Limited, what other train going through Horseshoe carried a diner and sleepers in 1994-1995?

[chatanugadotorg]

I grew up on the original route of the Broadway and went to college right next to the final route. The train definitely had a mix of Amfleet and Heritage fleet cars. There's only one time that I saw no Amfleet cars on it.

[chatanugadotorg]

Very nice!

[araquan]

Thank you!

[cnwfan]

Very nice. The KSHB( Kate shelley brigde) will be a very nice addition to the layout, Will it be background or will group run trains accross it? It will be a very nice lay out once compleated! Looking foward to the '08 improvements all ready

[araquan]

Thanks! The bridge will be part of the mainline, when it's built and installed, so you'll get to see plenty of trains running across it. I'm looking forward to all the new stuff too. :)

[maineboy1979]

Very nice work!

[araquan]

*grin* Well, I can't take responsibility for any of the scenery, but the whole train is mine- Walthers cars and locos, mostly factory painted, but all have had some detail or paint improvements- grilles darkened, numbers added or changed, etc. The lounge car is a custom job though, based on the Walthers 29-1 parlor car (which they call a lounge...) which Amtrak rebuilt into lounges with numbers 3118-3127; mine's number 3118, named for General Casimir Pulaski.