As I mentioned in my previous post, I am upgrading my steamer locos by removing the reverse units and hard-wiring them to run in forward only. Works on this RR.
The slider shoes I've added are enhancing electrical pick-up nicely. I'm further enhancing that by adding a wire to run from the slider shoe box to the pick-up wires inside the tender. I'm not leaving anything to chance - electrically.
It is now becoming fun to stand in one spot and watch the trains recede away from me - towards a far corner of the large layout - sometimes disappearing briefly. Nice. Then they emerge and slowly start coming towards me, chuffing huge volumes of smoke all along the way. Nice. Now I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to sound a whistle in a far corner of the layout. I have an activating button for that whistle in the far corner, but how hard would it be to wire a whistle button in at the other end of the layout. Not too much. I have the wire. I have the technology. We can make him stronger - faster. Wait a minute. Wasn't that the tagline from the Six Million Dollar Man?