TOPIC CHANGE
I'm gonna' leave my above motive power "overthinking" drivel behind for a spell and blather-on about other drivel instead. 
Lemons n' Lemonade...
So today's a crappy day. Rain, rain, rain. I had intended to spend quite a bit of time out there in my layout building working on the Switch Tower and other projects... but the rain is a significant deterrent. Traipsing in/out of the rain sucks.
So what to do?
I decided to piddle-run my engines I've acquired on a small oval on the kitchen table.
2023's:
The FA's work great. They run very smooth and quiet. The horn takes a blow or two to wake up. (Sort of sounds like a sick goat at first.) In all, they have indeed turned out to be a genuine bargain. (i.e. Cost vs value.) Now, what road name to repaint them into? Hmmm.
What to run next? Then I had a wild hair...
You see, over the decades I've frequented these forums at OGR, I remember well reading about how great Lionel's SP's smelled and have read many times about memories associated with same. Truth of the matter, I don't think I've ever been around SP's in use, either when I was at my Lionel-owning friend's houses in my childhood years, nor in my 3-rail past. (My 3-rail smoke has been all liquid generated.)
Hey! I just happened to have a partial bottle of SP's leftover from years ago.
Hm again.
Well, like Lady Chatterly said to her next prospective lover: "Sure! Why not?"
So, out came the 2055 and onto the rails it went. Into it's stack went an SP. I preheated it a bit... then cracked the throttle. Off she went with some wisps of SP smoke trailing faintly behind.
I couldn't resist... on the very next run-by I leaned over and took a whiff.
Oh my... no wonder you all like that smell! It smells great! (What I can smell of it, that is. To my olfactory senses, it's a very subtle fragrance. Like an expensive perfume, perhaps? Or, it could be that my smeller don't smell like it used to? )
Next was the 2065. Same treatment, pop a pill into its stack... preheat... off we go! Ah, that's better. It's a bit more enthusiastic about smoking than the 2055. Not "robust", mind you, but better. Same thing, though: That smell! It really does have its own smell, doesn't it?
I have concluded that Postwar Lionel really has its own set of sensory inputs. It is a totally different experience than running my HO layout. With HO, there's the simulated "heft" in the way the engines run (momentum, very slow speed capabilities, etc), and given the sophistication of today's DCC, the auditory experience is quite realistic.
Postwar is entirely different. It has its own set of sensory inputs. Consider...
* Sight: Bulk. Larger means more visual impact. Plus, if the model happens to be a steam engine, then you can add the whirling of the valve gear, the puffing of the smoke, and such things as that. Impressive.
* Sound: Obviously, there's the sound of the whistle or horn (I'm beginning to think a whistle is preferred by this junkie), but it's far more than that. It's the buzzing E-unit that shouts "Postwar!", it's the sound of the gears and mechanical noises as it paces the rails, it's the clacking over the joints, and more. There's lots of auditory input.
* Smells: Yup, those smells. As I've fawned before, there's that sweet smell of ozone. There's the smell of warm grease and oil... AND... now there's the aroma of SP's to add to the list.
However...
In addition to the sights, sounds, and smells, you can add to it the tactile input of "heft". Not electronic "momentum" as is the case with HO, I'm talking 5 lbs of sure 'nuf heft. You "feel" Postwar when you pick it up off the shelf (or table) to place it on the rails. Same when you lift it off the rails. You feel it. You can even hear the heft as it pounds and clatters over the rail joints.
SO...
I was able to take lemons (the crappy day) and turned it into lemonade: I ran some Postwar on the kitchen table. Lemonade indeed, and as they circled that simplistic oval, I was smiling like a kid and soaking it up. No wonder kids felt like royalty when they were running their Postwar trains as a youngster in the 50s. They do sound and look quite "Imperial", don't they?
Hey... I think it's stopped raining...
Andre
