My Pacific National pairing

It's been 3 months since I unvieled 'The Coast'. In that time I've been able to complete a few medium length operating sessions to fine tune what works best, and determine what I need to do operations-wise to integrate Philden Harbour into an expanded Philden Coast layout when I rebuild my staging shelf later in the year. One big thing I am pleased about, was my decision to broaden my layout's time period to include a pair of Pacific National locos to operate on my North Coast Line. It is refreshing to have some relatively modern models in one of my favourite paint schemes.

NR22 was the first of my Pacific National locomotives to arrive on Philden Coast back in February 2023.

BL28 followed in March 2023. These louvre vans are destined for Brandon Industries No. 4 track.

BL28 joined NR22 to become the first new locomotives purchased to run on The Coast. The Pacific National pair joined my 4 surviving incumbents from Philden Street Yard in the form of my CFCLA pairing of JL406 + FL220, and my Indigenous NR's of NR30 + NR52 to give me an initial 6 locos for a mid-sized shelf layout. Not a bad start, and a mix of locos that are visually interesting.

For an up-and-back layout, the BL was a great choice given that it has a cab at both ends. Since getting down to the nitty-gritty of shunting the yard, having the flexibility of a bi-directional loco, (even an NR that can operate long end leading), is something that becomes more noticeable the more you operate.

BL28 runs around the vans and shoves them back alongside the Brandon Industries warehouse doors.

The loco uncouples and will now go to the diesel service tracks to shut down for the day.

BL28 joins NR22 in the diesel service tracks, (No. 2 & 3) to await their next call of duty.

I tend to like that early to mid 2000's era, right through to the early 2010's. Given that my layout can simultaneously have 3 to 4 locos in play at most, I've discovered I simply like pairing my models together on a running 'sesh', and let the combinations on the day define which particular year I'm operating within. One of the funny terms I refer to with my models are 'dance partners', and if I add an 8th loco to my fleet... I keep everything even. The pairings go something like this;

NR22 + BL28 Pacific National.

NR30 + NR52 National Rail (Indigenous locomotives).

JL406 + FL220 CFCLA, (Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia).

C509 Cootes Industrial (leased locomotive) + ???

So I've been doing a bit of research lately to decide if there's a suitable dance partner for my green C Class loco which I have on pre-order. With a few operating sessions already under my belt, I've ruled out any single direction locos such as the CLP and CLF, or any further large NR sized locomotives such as the GT46C-ACe, C44ACI's or 90 Class. Aside from waiting for any future pre-order announcements or re-runs, there are a couple of interesting possibilities available at the moment that would look great alongside C509.

Whether or not that happens, I'm very much looking forward to my C Class arriving. Having some green and gold on my North Coast layout is going to look great!

Until next time...