Jeff, at left, is trying to master the throttle on locomotive 2313. In order to take advantage of the cool ALCo turbocharger sound, there’s some momentum built into the decoder settings. This allows the turbocharger to “spool up,” (sounding like something akin to a jet engine) before the locomotive actually moves. Jeff said it took some adjustment, but he liked it.
Conductor Don directs the movement of Job 322 in the 7th Street alley, the heart of the Patch. Don grew up in Los Angeles and has been helpful with some of the details for the Patch.
While not very visible in this photo, Alameda Street sits at the far end of the alley, with an SP ALCo HH-660 posed on the street tracks. Don has volunteered to operate that job next time he’s invited over!
Sixth Patch Session 12/15/09
This was the second session with the sound-equipped HH-1000. Operators Don Ball and Jeff Needham agreed that it sounded “just like an ALCo should.”
Both Don and Jeff have neat layouts: Don’s Stockton and Copperopolis is set in Northern California in the 1890s (not a very common era setting) and Jeff’s Colorado Northern features the Santa Fe in Colorado in the 1980s—some 90 years after Don’s time period!
