a month or so back, I for reasons that I can't explain, decided to buy a pair of Kato steeple cabs for the upcoming, not yet fully designed Play Desnuda branch. After a lot of thought and more whiskey, I decided to use some locomotive numbers that were skipped by the real PE, create a fictitious history, and use them for some locos that were supposed to be sent from Baldwin to Japan for their electric railways. They do look unusual because they were built to Japanese specifications only to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles on Monday, December 8th, 1941. With the Ports already mad at the PE over the Gas Electrics failing (true history) and the PE using their 0-6-0's now in the harbor (again true), the PE decided to accept these oddballs and press them into service. 1578 is showing the WWII "as delivered" scheme and 1567 is in Postwar black....I seriously was too lazy to tiger stripe 1567, and decided that PE logos would look cool on them.
After running these little critters for a while, I have found that 6 Micro-Trains boxcars and a caboose, or 6 MT tank cars is the sweet spot, and they will easily (double headed) pull a ten car train around a small oval with a 7" radius. The limiting issue is not the motor or gearing, but traction. I also learned that the Atlas USRA outside brace boxcar weighs more than two MT cars, and rolls a lot worse, I see MT trucks on it soon.
and I have discovered a new issue
