First & Forty And A Trip Down Memory Lane

Greetings all!

First & Forty!!! What do we have in the playbook for first & forty? Nothing, but it's OK as the first & forty relates to trains not football. With the recent Intermodal Op in the books and the layout changed over to more 'modern' rolling stock and motive power I had the opportunity to run some long boxed up engines that belong to my two sons and enjoy a trip down memory lane.

Two of those engines are my eldest son's first and fortieth diesel engines which is where today's title comes from. How he ended up with so many diesel engines when he was still in his teens can only be speculated on😊

Here it is Numero Uno. An Athearn BB AC4400 bought at least 20 years ago at the Strasburg Train Shop in Strasburg PA when my son was about five years old. He saw it and wouldn't stop talking about it. Maybe because we were staying in a Union Pacific caboose at the Red Caboose Motel? So I surprised him with it later that day. I also surprised him with a BB UP caboose to go with it. 

After the UP engine both my boys got into a Conrail state of mind probably after we visited Northlandz in Flemington NJ and spent a second weekend staying in a Conrail caboose at the Red Caboose Motel. The CR F7A was my youngest son's first engine. The Conrail Quality GP20 is the older guys engine. I still have the letter to Santa that has him asking for it. These are both from Mantua and flywheel equipped.

That year Santa also came up with some CR rolling stock and cabooses to go with the engines. Each boy received 1 CR box car.

They also received a CR covered hopper and a CR caboose. These cars were from IHC 

Maybe the following year they each received a ConCor Conrail flat. Pipe loads courtesy of a friends cigar tubes.

With the flat cars came also came Concor Conrail gondolas. Chooch scrap metal loads were added later. I'm happy to report that all engines ran extremely well out of the box. You know there was a time when running this F7A and GP20 just didn't look right but in the last few years this consist hs grown on me.

Here's number 40, a BB white face BN SD40-2. I think this one came from ebay. He wrote on the box 40th engine so that's how I remember it.

After that he convinced me at a train show that he needed this ex BN HLCX SD40-2 to go with the SD40-2 above. His argument was obviously good seeing he brought it home! This might have been the last train show we went to.

This set of Athearn BB engines could only run together in harmony when the boys were not around. The BNSF GP38-2 belongs to one and the NS GP50 the other. Neither would have tolerated their engine not in the lead. A run from Terminal Yard to North Side Yard and back would give both the opportunity to lead but which engine would be better, faster and stronger etc is a debate that would have raged on for both legs of the trip. 

It was really nice to pull these engines out, enjoy running them and also enjoy the memories they brought back. I'm hoping both sons will be home for Christmas so all three of us can once again convene in the train room. Maybe Santa will place a train under the tree for each of them to get them in the right mood.😉

Thanks for reading!!!