During October 2008, an upgraded Aristo Pacific was
delivered to the GIRR. It got DCC immediately and now does what I
had hoped that the original one would do. Read more about it at New Aristo Pacific
Tips.The GIRR relies on the Santa Fe to provide most of the motive power. Equipment that was supplied with different road names has been repainted and relettered to Santa Fe.
Much of the rolling stock is lettered for the Santa Fe also, although there is quite a collection of foreign road stock as well. The GIRR purchases much of its equipment second hand but most was originally manufactured by AristoCraft with a fair number of cars from Bachmann, USA Trains and MDC. LGB has provided only the cars from an industrial starter set and one 2 bay hopper.
During October 2008, an upgraded Aristo Pacific was
delivered to the GIRR. It got DCC immediately and now does what I
had hoped that the original one would do. Read more about it at New Aristo Pacific
Tips.
An addition to the GIRR motive power roster is a
USA Trains GP-9. Read more about it at GP-7/9 Tips. It's got DCC and
sound.
An ABA set of Alco FA-1 units is assigned to heavy freight
service. Two of these are early production units which have been
tuned up and provide excellent service. This locomotive set will
pull 45 cars on the 1.6% ruling grade of the GIRR. They would pull
more, but the trains straighten in the curves. Use these links to
find information on Tuning
and Lubricating Aristo Diesels or FA Tips. One of these locos has
been lowered, converted to battery power and has DCC as a multimode
loco. The other two have been converted to DCC. The two oldest ones use MRC
AD322 DCC decoders with sound, but there is no speaker in the B
unit. The "newer" (black box) FA has a Digitrax DG583S and a Dallee sound system.
An FA/FB Warbonnet set has been added to the
roster to pull a set of streamliners. As described in FA Tips, these engines
have been modified to reduce the unit spacing so that the
diaphragms nearly touch. These two units are also early production
units and work fine after a tuneup. Both have been converted to DCC
and have been lowered to match the lowered streamliner set. The FA
unit also has Sierra sound.
An Aristo fast Pacific is dedicated to passenger
service pulling a string of four Aristo Heavyweight passenger cars.
The Pacific Tips Page
contains some information you might want to see if you own or are
considering buying an older Aristo Pacific. The Pacific has also
been converted to DCC and has PH Hobbies sound.
A Lionel Atlantic is by far
the most heavily modified engine on the GIRR. Even though this kind
of engine rarely pulled freight in 1:1 scale service, on the GIRR,
it pulls whatever consist fits the chief engineer's fancy. The most
common consist is a local passenger and mail consist consisting of
an RPO and a Standard Heavyweight coach. The Atlantic has been
converted to DCC. It also has a PH Hobbies sound system.
An Aristo
RS-3 provides much of the day to day way freight service. A
second RS-3 has also been added to the roster. Both have been
converted to DCC. One RS3 has a PH Hobbies diesel sound system, the
other has an older Dallee sound system.
An Aristo
0-4-0 works as a yard goat and does some industrial switching
on the shorter sidings. This loco has also been converted to DCC
and has an older Dallee steam sound system.
A Bachmann Shay is completely out
of character and time for this mid-20th century railroad. It is
also completely out of scale as most of the equipment is either
1:29 or 1:32 scale. The Shay is 1:20.3 scale and therefore 50% too
big but it runs so damn well that it is used for a lot of switching
service. The loco has been converted to DCC and has a Sierra steam
sound system.
Since the couplers are truck mounted in a completely un-prototypical fashion, the engine works well in switching service in tight places as the couplers tend to line up and couple on curves.
My lone LGB engine is an LGB 2060 which is a
holdover from a starter set. Its seen hard service as a yard goat
but most often it pulls the Aristo Track Cleaning Car. This loco
has recently been converted to battery power.
An AristoCraft Center Cab
industrial switcher has appeared on the property. This engine is
usually used for making up trains, but it has been seen on the main
heading up a freight to two. Even though it ran well on track
power, it got converted to battery power as an experiment with the
newer 75 MHz TE equipment and then got a DCC decoder and Dallee
sound system too. IT will run on DCC, DC (with the decoder analog
converted), radio control with DCC or DC on the track for power or
straight up battery/RC. The Dallee sound system works in all
modes.
A Bachmann Climax was originally
intended to run on the GIRR Mountain Division, but it got a DCC
conversion so that it now runs on the GIRR, usually doubleheaded
with a DCC converted Shay. The Climax also has a Sierra steam sound
system.
On light
traffic days, an Aristo
Doodlebug handles the passenger requirements of the GIRR. The
Doodlebug has also been converted to DCC and has a Phoenix P5 sound
system.
The SD45 has been added for heavy
drags. This loco has been converted to DCC and Sierra Soundraxx
sound.
An RDC has appeared for local
passenger traffic to augument the Doodlebug. It also has DCC and a
Dallee sound system.
An Thomas The Tank Engine also
appeared long ago when I had little kids. Thomas was never a very
good runner on track power, it's brass wheels would crud up too
quickly so it got converted to battery/RC control. I added an old
Bachmann analog sound system as well.
An Bachmann Big Hauler is
also on the roster. Actually, this engine belongs to one of my sons
but he's lost interest in trains. This Pennsy version is pretty
much box stock except for the DCC converstion.
A USAT Speeder followed me
home from the 2009 Big Train Show. It got converted to DCC almost
immediately. This one has no sound.... yet.
A Bachmann Davenport is also
on the roster now. This one has also been converted to DCC with an
ESU LokSound decoder.
A Bachmann Handcar is also
on the roster now. DCC conversion is pending acquisition of a suitable N scale decoder, an HO decoder did not fit.