Last month I had to attend a meeting in Washington, D.C. The cost of a flight into Reagan National Airport was about $1800. The cost of a flight into Baltimore/Washington Airport was $370. Easy choice. The only hooker was the B.W.I. was about 30 miles from downtown Washington. However, Amtrak has many trains that run every few minutes from the B.W.I. airport into the city. I took one.

Although short, the trip was pleasurable and without problems. Some things that impressed me were as follows. The leg room on any Amtrak train is better than first class on any airplane. In the car I was in, there was a 110-volt electric outlet right in the wall to my right. If I had needed to, I could have plugged in a computer without worrying about batteries. The PA system was clear as a bell and brief! The train was on time in spite of a rainstorm (tell that to American Airlines). One may regard this as either a good thing or a bad thing, but there was no security check in. You simply grab your suitcase and walk it on board. There is plenty of room to stash it around your seat. This also eliminates baggage check-in (no waiting in line). Actually, the only line I waited in at all was to get onto the train, and that only took about five minutes. One thing one needs to be careful of is the extremely short stop at stations for loading and unloading (when it is time for you to get off - you better be ready to get off NOW).

Overall, I thought it was a great ride and a great experience. If Amtrak would ever come to Lubbock, I would be a customer.

On June 18 and 19 the club set up members’ modules at Carillon House. The residents of Carillon seemed to enjoy our display very much as they have in the past. Our new DCC equipment was used and it was quite different to be able to run three trains on the inside track at the same time with no rear-end collisions. We were using the outside track like the old way - one train fro those of us who don’t have DCC equipment.

I would like to thank Rip maples, T.H. Holmes, Homer Morrow , Randy Bittick, and Shirley Bunting for their help on this project.

Union Pacific Corp., the nation’s largest railroad, is declining some business as it struggles with a crew shortage that has its system near capacity.

For one month beginning Monday, United Parcel Service will put packages on trucks that normally would run express rail routes once a week each way from Los Angeles to New York, Dallas and Memphis, Tenn.

“They explained they had been having some congestion problems,” said Normal Black, a spokesman for UPS. “They need to get a handle on them quickly.”

Union Pacific will pay the added costs of drivers, gasoline and other expenses, of putting those items on trucks, Mr. Black said.

The express routes are a minor part of UPS business with Union Pacific, and it is important that the railroad get any problem corrected before it deepens across the railroad’s system, Mr. Black said.

Union Pacific is the nation’s largest railroad, stretching across 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country.

Its traffic snarled in 1997 and 1998 as it adjusted to its merger with Southern Pacific Railroad. Train speed then dropped as low as an average of 12 mph.

Today’s problem is not as significant, with train speeds averaging about 21.5 mph, down from about 25 mph for the first quarter of 2003, railroad spokesman Gene Hinkle said.

Still, the railroad has heard complaints from some customers about slower service, and it began hiring train crews at an accelerated rate last summer to get the railroad back up to speed, said Kathryn Blackwell, general director of corporate communications.

Service problems began as business surged and trains slowed along the Sunset Corridor, which runs from Los Angeles to El Paso, Ms. Blackwell said.

Figure 2. END DETAILS. The brake stand can be seen in this closeup shot. Notice also the holes drilled in the corners of the deck for the handrail stanchions.

Larry Puckett

handrail stanchions. The handrails and stanchions originally were constructed of 1"-diameter pipe connected with standard pipe fittings. Although the original drawings show the handrails attached to the cabins, it appears that no cars were built that way.

I used stanchions cut from a set of plastic Atlas GP7 handrails and drilled holes in the deck for them following the spacing in the prototype drawing. I then drilled no. 77 holes through the pipe fittings on the stanchions and inserted .015"-diameter brass wire to serve as handrails. Similar brass handrails and stanchions from Smokey Valley Railroad & Machine Co. could also be used, especially those for the Train Master. Once the holes are drilled and handrails assembled, they can be set aside until the rest of the project is completed.

It’s a good idea at this point to provide mounting holes for the brake stands. My brake stands were salvaged from a scrapped Athearn caboose I picked up at a white elephant table, although I did replace the brake wheels with more detailed ones from Kadee.

First I drilled a no. 77 hole on each side for attaching the handrails, exactly three scale feet up from the deck. On the original drawings, the brake stand location was not shown, so I had to work from photographs. I cut a hole in the last board immediately to the side of the coupler pocket and squared it using a square jeweler’s file. Once the fit is correct, set the brake stand aside.

From the photographs it appears that the shop crews simply removed the rivets holding the stake pockets on, leaving the holes in the side sills exposed. Following their example, I did the same, leaving off the stake pockets and ignoring the open holes.

I then installed straight grabs made from Detail Associates grab irons in the holes provided on each end sill (fig. 2). Finally, I installed a couple of Detail Associates eye bolts near the top of the end sills on the same side as the brake

Figure 3. RUNNING BOARD STEPS. The vertical supports were Design Associates brass strips a scale 4" wide and 3/8" thick and 26" long and were attached to the sills on 26 ½" centers.

stand and inserted a Detail Associates uncoupling lever modified to look like those in the photographs.

Funaro & Camerlengo caboose kit. Since that kit is no longer available, you may have to scratchbuild your steps. I’d suggest you use .010" sytrene and follow the measurements in the drawing.

The running board step below the cab door is made from K&S Engineering and Detail Associates brass shapes (fig. 3). The vertical supports were attached to the side sills and also support the horizontal running board. The running board is a K&S brass angle 6" on each side and 6'6" long. I simple attached it with cyanoacrylate adhesive to the supports.