Big locomotives on small layouts

My topic for this post could apply to any era and type of layout. Many of us naturally have added large locomotives to our rosters because we like them. What my topic refers to, then, is the question of how to make a large locomotive look reasonable when operating with a short train or otherwise obviously not suitable for its environment, such as a branch line.  In fact, one can question if such locomotives can reasonably be operated on small layouts at all.
     The photo below compares a Southern Pacific 2-10-2, no. 3688 (Class F-4) in the foreground, with the standard power for most duties on my layout, a Class C-9 Consolidation behind it. You can readily appreciate the considerable size difference. Short trains behind no. 3688 simply look wrong.

(The brass F-4 model is from Westside, painted and weathered by Al Massi.)
     There are some ways to circumvent this problem. I remember once visiting a layout that was primarily a major backshop for steam power, so locomotives of all types and sizes, in everything from brand-new paint to very tired and dirty appearances, were all appropriate. This is perfect for the locomotive collector! . . . but is operationally limited for most modelers.
     My own layout mostly depicts a branch line, and has only a small segment of SP’s Coast Division main line. Moreover, its staging capacity is quite limited for length, only handling trains of modest size (ten freight cars, plus engine and caboose). This is fine for small steam power or single diesel road-switchers. But clearly something like a cab-forward or a 2-10-2,  truly large locomotives and common power in late steam days on Coast Division, is quite a different matter. I for one don’t want to operate, say, nine freight cars behind a cab-forward.
     So what to do? Speaking now just for my own modeling year of 1953, this was pretty late in the steam era for Southern Pacific, and certainly it’s true that locomotives sometimes filled assignments they would never have had in earlier years (passenger power on freight trains, for example). But this situation only extends so far.
     Perhaps the best possibility is something that did happen throughout the late steam era, namely power balancing between terminals, or return of locomotives to their home divisions. These were sometimes made as light locomotive moves, sometimes as caboose hops. Such a locomotive being moved was simply operated as an extra train. Here’s how it might look on my layout (in the background for scale is a Ten-wheeler on the turntable).

     Another possibility is a “high-wide” movement, in which an oversize load of some kind is moved with just the load (or loads), a locomotive, and a caboose.  Photos of such movements often show a far larger locomotive than would really be needed for the load. Even for a load not exceptionally high or wide, but needing careful handling en route, a special train might be called. As an example, it might be something like the photo below, showing a really large depressed-center flat car with a load. Such a train might well be severely restricted in speed, perhaps a plus in an operating session!

     Finally, most railroads operated dynamometer cars, to measure locomotive performance. This was of course usually with a train behind the locomotive, but locomotives were also measured without a trailing load. So a dynamometer car behind almost any large locomotive, and sometimes a caboose also, make up another possible movement.

The dynamometer here is a Custom Brass model of a Nickel Plate car, very similar in every detail to SP no. 137, which is how it has been decaled.
     I would only occasionally want to include special movements like any of the above in operating sessions, but they can  provide interesting variety when they do appear in the line-up. And of course they permit some larger locomotives to enjoy a little exercise.
Tony Thompson