Rock Island Rockets pt3

Last week a buddy in Ottawa, IL told me he'd heard that the Rock was suspending passenger service on The Rock Island Ottawa Division.  The next day he snapped a shot of train heading westbound with four Rock Island passenger cars on the head end.

He'd heard through the grapevine that they were heading my way.  

This evening I saw them slip quietly into El Dorado yard.

I'm willing to bet these will be placed into to service on the two mail trains that make a stop in El Dorado daily?  I can't believe they are actually going to use a Dome car?  Maybe it's for parts?

*****

I happened to be talking with Steven Johnson the other week about looking for a few more passenger cars for use on my two mail trains, specifically a couple of coaches.  That's when he mentioned he wasn't planning to run anymore passenger service on his layout and he stated "I HAVE JUST WHAT YOU NEED!" 

He's such a pusher of model trains!

I actually sold these to him about a year ago when he decided to build a passenger train for his Ottawa Division.  He re-decaled three of them Rock Island, the two coaches and the dome, but left the Baggage car in it's original "Q" scheme. The two coaches he named Ottawa and LaSalle.  These I will leave, but I'll need to redo the coach and give it a name or number.  

When I get some time, these will be re-worked and be added to the two mail trains that I ran during the last ops session. Not sure what I'll do with the Dome car though.  There's not much to see down here in Arkansas?

Rock Island Rockets pt2

Time for a bit of an update on the Rockets.
Here's a link back to    Pt 1 for a refresher

In the latest ops session I was able to get two mail trains assembled and running for the night.

I wound up using 6-8 TOCF cars and 2-3 baggage and coaches per train.
On the NB I used a WOT Express baggage, a Walthers baggage and a Kato coach.
The SB train I used a Kato baggage and Kato coach.

Here's a quick video of the two trains.

And a couple of shots from the last post.

These ran pretty good and the crews seemed to enjoy them, it gave a couple more intermodal trains as well some passenger which require a little bit of work for the trains. So instead of just running the layout, each train will be required to make a short layover in El Dorado, so I plan to move forward with them.

I recently found two Kato coaches and another baggage to complete the passenger end of the trains.  Once I acquire them and get them on the property I'll get some pics uploaded.