I love the layout. Inspired me to do more ops on my own layout and take a break from building scenery. Thanks for the post.

I have, amongst my 28 other locos, an Athern blue box GP30 which is still running well, despite its 61 year old life! I also have a Tyco F9 which is also 61 years old. I replaced the plastic wheels with metal and despite the fact that it is only 4 wheel drive, is quite useful in multiple unit lashups and for running the track cleaning car.

I do love watching slow moving , realistic running models. I used to repower my older BB Athearn models, to make them run slowly, but these days, with DCC well advanced, the decoders do the job instead of repowering them, especially if you spend a little more for a good decoder. I spend a lot of time on my layout just doing switching.The track has to be spotless & loco wheels also, & I have a lot of fun.Just to add more prototype running, I program momentom & braking into my decoders. Takes a little practice, but it gets better with use.Thankyou for the vid, sir. Michael NZ

That is very impressive. The joy of switching -reliably - can be very addictive. The blue box loco looks, sound and run great! You are 100% right: it outperforms some very expensive current book holder available on the market today.

Lance, your track work is awesome. Train runs smoothly & the sound is very nice. Thank you. P.j. Carpinteria Calif

Well filmed Leo. Keeps the interest up on what can be boring for some. Those different camera angles really work well.

WOW, so cool

Love the paint scheme on that switcher . Nice trackplan also!!

A nice little switching session. There's a lot to be said for older, smaller locomotives. First, there are a lot of them out there, and they're inexpensive. Secondly, they are easy to upgrade with new sound decoders, speakers and LED lighting. And most importantly, their small size works much better on small switching layouts. Thanks for sharing your switching session.

I am the same way. Drop everything and run some trains. The layout is looking great. That Athearn runs and sounds great. Thanks for the share.

Love lance’s designs.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Always gotta make time to run some trains. Great video and share making great progress

do you have a video of the DCC install in the switcher? That thing sounds sweet

Excellent operations session, looks fantastic, you need to show me how you installed your ground throws , great video

Looking great! The engine is perfect (and clearly has a very effective horn!) Nice neat video, thanks! (editing it down is always a task, but worth it I think?)

Do you have a track plan of this? I would love to see the dimensions.

As you say, nothing wrong with a "Blue Box", plenty of space for speakers, keep alive etc.

Whats the dimensions of your shelf? What Kind of Locomotive is that and where did you get it from?

Great layout and video! Just curious as to the sound file you used. The engine looks like an EMD SW1000, but sounds like an Alco S series! Just curious! Great layout!

Very enjoyable. Maybe need more horns? 😄

Do you have a video of you installing the DCC and sound in the Athearn bluebox SW1500.

Hi, what type of uncoupler is used? I see a disk type in the first shots where you uncouple the caboose. Nevertheless a nice video.

The angled camera really doesn't work here. It's used in cinema to create a sense of unease, which surely isn't what you're looking for. Alternatively, it's used in still photography to create interesting geometric effects, like lining things along the diagonal of the frame rather than parallel to the edges -- again, that doesn't seem to be what you're looking for, as your compositions aren't putting anything strong along the diagonals.

Can barely hear your voice, then get BLASTED! With train noise.