The "Two Longs, Two Shorts, Two Longs" Story

The lead diesel-electric engine exits the engine house on Jerry's layout.
Click on photos to enlarge them.

It was an ordinary day.  Pushing the button on the controller as the train approached the crossing; two longs on the horn followed by two shorts, followed by two longs.  I'm running Jerry's two new engines that he had just unpacked; #7608 and #7609.  

The detail, including the engineer, is amazing in HO scale.

These HO scale engines are so realistic that if you closed your eyes and listened to the horn or bell you'd swear you were sitting in your car at a train crossing listening to a real train approaching.  Jerry's engines are a matching pair of diesel-electric engines that simulate the 1957 to 1958 General Motors Electro Motive Division engines that were manufactured for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  

The controller is used for throttle, lights and sound.

The detail on the miniature engines is amazing with lights, railings and even bolts that you would swear are real.  There is even an engineer sitting inside the lighted cab running the engine.  Each engine has six axles with two wheels each in order to yield greater pulling power with more surface touching the rails.  

The twin engines pull the train past
the reconstructed Lancaster Train Station.

With two engines, one facing backwards, pulling the load it can pull a greater amount of cars than one engine is capable of pulling.  The engines have motors powered with diesel fuel that turn a generator that makes electricity that powers the wheels; that is in real life.  On these miniature engines the power is supplied by direct current operated by a hand-held controller.  The controller acts as a throttle to run the engines as well as a device to add lighting and sound to the engine.  I pushed and held the #2 on the controller to activate the horn while the #1 activated a bell sound that would be used when heading into the station.  A few other things the controller could do were: #3 - coupler clanger, #4 - simulate an air compressor, #5 - revving up the engine, #6 - revving the engine down, #7 - illuminate auxiliary lights, #8 - mute all sounds, #9 - diesel engine start-up.  

#7609 leads the train along the rails on Jerry's HO layout.

When Jerry unpacked his new engines he had to program them before operating them and had to set the one engine to run in reverse since the two engineers face in different directions when they run tandem.  The sound, as I said before, is authentic train noises.  Jerry has a friend who owns a business where he records real locomotive sounds and digitizes the sounds then sells the digital sounds to model train manufacturers.  

This engine is an electric engine. The rear pantograph is
raised to get power from the overhead catenary wires.
Jerry has a catenary system throughout his entire layout
so that he can, if he wishes, run his electric engines using
overhead power.

And, each type of engine has different sounds.  The older steam engines have an entirely different set of sounds than the new engines Jerry just got.  The Electric engines have a different sound than the diesel-electric.  So to have a real authentic train layout you need to have a few of each type of engines on your layout and Jerry has some of all types.  Fun to hear the differences in the engine noise as it would be if you were sitting on a bench in a train station watching the real engines pass through.  Well, I have to get back to work and back the dual engines onto a siding and pick up a dozen or more car carriers so I can take them around the small town at the other end of Jerry's layout.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.