Hi everyone,

I have a multi part question... I am primarily modeling 1954 but I have set my railroad up to change for multiple eras. I am now looking to 1969. My railroad is the GN and I am familiar with their changes in the 1960's, "circus cars, glacier green, and big sky blue" but I am less familiar with rolling stock changes around the nation at the same time. The GN was acquiring covered hoppers but the vast majority of their fleet was 55% boxcars and they were one of the few railroads making good money during this time. My questions are as follows.

Let me explain the problem.

I have 3 different types of road loco available for a train - lets say (1960-1980 maybe - and excuse me if I get this wrong being of British extraction :-)

an RS-3 HP = 1,600 - Tractive Effort 61,775
a GP9 HP = 1,750 - Tractive Effort 64,750
a GP30 HP 2,250 Tractive Effort 63375

What would be the basis for selecting one or other of these. Would it be purely on HP or tractive effort? 

I was given this little SW1 for Christmas by a friend in CT (I am in the UK). There was a big mess up and it took two months for it to finally arrive. I have now installed a TCS decoder and here is its first run around my little layout.

One of the things I want to do on the Office Park Zone is have large-scale switch stands on along the front.  Back in the 90's I picked up one of the Alder Models G-scale remote switch stand kits with the idea of some day installing it on a layout.  Last year I happened across Trevor Marshall's blog where he did just that.