One of my model trains, the White Pass diesel locomotive, has been defective since the day I bought it. I never did anything about it, because it’s a real hassle to get repairs on this kind of item. When my young neighbor recently mentioned to me that the White Pass locomotive was his favorite, I realized that I could no longer live with it not working properly. So, rather than repair it, I applied the first rule of model train budgeting: why just have one train when you can get two for twice the price? Yes, my solution to the problem was to just find another one and run them back-to-back… with the defective sound turned off on the old locomotive and the new locomotive providing proper sound.
This makes 20 locomotives in my collection now… and these two White Pass diesel engines are the only two identical locos that I own. I like seeing them running back-to-back in a double header configuration.
Playing a big role in this video is Gavin, my neighbor from across the street. He likes model trains, so he comes over and helps me set mine up and operates the tablet that controls the trains while I shoot the video.
I shot this video a few days before Thanksgiving 2020. The weather had definitely turned colder at my new house in Washington state! When I woke up that morning, it was 28 degrees outside! By the time we got around to shooting this video, it had only warmed up to 38 degrees… so we set up the trains in my garage (where the temperature was 59 degrees) instead of out in my back yard.