John: I don't want to but in here but Litchfield Station has lower prices. www.litchfieldstation.com If you spend over $75 they ship for free. If you haven't purchased anything yet you might want to give them a look. I have purchased many items from them. They keep their stock up to date and ship really fast. Bob Wintle
John, If you are after Digitrax, the consistly low price people have been www.yankeedabbler.com . There might be someone else cheaper but I doubt it.
John, If you are interested in the Mop Topeka branch if you can get down to Carona sometime we have over twenty boxes of files that came out of the Mop Topeka depot before they tore it down. Lots of information on train makeup, industries served, etc. John Chambers
John, Railroad interchanges were two basic types - reciprocal and non-reciprocal. Most interchange was non-reciprocal. This means that after the delivery of cars from railroad A to railroad B the engine and caboose returned "light" (without cars) to railroad A. If there were cars to be delivered to railroad A, railroad B would make a separate run, also returning light to their railroad. This was driven by local union agreements and often favored the union workers to "protect jobs". A couple of other issues impacting these arrangements are size and extent of facilities. In a reciprocal arrangement, the delivering railroad would take back cars to be delivered to their railroad. In this arrangement railroad A would deliver cars to railroad B, then pick up any cars for for railroad A and return with them to their railroad. Typically the agreement would alternate in a cycle interval (6 months or 1 year) so that the crews of one railroad were not favored with jobs over another. I recommend getting together to talk through your desires, favorites, eras, etc. Once you have a solid focus we can work together to help you develop your thoughts and that will lead to a workable plan. What to model rests with what you want, but Rick and I are willing to help. You also met many good designers at breakfast Saturday that would be willing to provide input if you would like. Give me a call and we can set up a time to get together. Thanks! Mark
