Mike McNamara's Model Railroad

Of Operations, Car Cards and Waybills

2012-01-01T20:37:00.000-05:00

The February 2012 issue of Model Railroader had an interesting article on advancing the state of car cards and waybills used for operations. The goal is to move towards a more realistic waybill following the prototype a little more closely than what many model railroaders have become familiar with, the 4 cycle waybill put into a car card holder. This got me to thinking about waybills for my layout, making me revisit my plans for car cards and waybills. So I thought I would share some details about how I plan to use paperwork to operate my layout.

I have slowly been moving the operating scheme for my layout forward in preparation for the (hopefully not too distant) future initial operating session. I plan to use the familiar and popular car card and waybill system. In our general area, most layouts are using this system and the pool of available operators will be familiar with their concept and use. I did however make some initial changes.

Many layouts use the original larger style car card, which is about 3” x 5” size. Personally I find them a little too large to deal with and find there is plenty of unused space on the card as well as the waybill. So it made sense to look at a smaller alternative. I am going with a custom size that is 2-1/2” by 4”, a little larger than “smaller” versions that are available from Micro-Mark among others. Through a couple of tests I found this to be a comfortable size.

As I had already started a database to track my freight cars, I used a “merge” process to put my database entries into a printable template. This allowed me to print just what I wanted and meant I did not have to hand-write all the data. I did have to then trim the cards to size after printing, but that seemed easier than writing out all the data. Here is a picture of some of my completed car cards.

The next step is waybills. This is an involved process because you really need to look at your layout, the sidings you have, their capacity and the types of cars that can be spotted there. My basic plan will use a method to keep track of this info when preparing the waybills that has been shared locally, was printed in the OpSig Dispatcher magazine and also discussed on the web site of Mark Fryzstacki, a local modeler who helped refine the process. I suggest reading that info to help understand how to do it. Here is a link:

http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/ccandwb.html

So I started designing a waybill and test fitting it to see what looked good and could be easily printed and cut out. As far as the data on the waybill, I simply took the approach of following a car’s travels across my layout. I started in location 1 and routed the car through 4 steps, for instance from staging to a siding, then in the next step from that siding to either another siding, or back to staging, etc. for all 4 steps. The only consideration is that the car needs to be back at the location of the first waybill in order to restart the process at step 1 again.

An example: A Boxcar goes from East Deerfield CP staging to Vermont Wallboard on the LVRC (waybill 1), then loaded it moved to the MEC and Portland staging (waybill 2), then from Portland staging as an empty it moves from the MEC to the Groveton Paper Mill on the B&M (waybill 3), then finally from Groveton loaded with paper to the CP and on to ED staging, representing a printer in the Mid-Atlantic (waybill 4). At this point the waybill can restart its journey with the same car, or I could swap it with a different boxcar’s car card perhaps.

Nothing unusual, just a manual process to visualize the steps the car will take. And you need to keep track of the steps so you do not overload a siding with too many waybill movements, as explained in the linked article.

Getting back to the MR article, I looked at this alternative method that is using plastic sleeves and single sheets to list the car and the waybill. It is certainly more realistic in a prototype sense. But I wasn’t sure if that really mattered, at least to me. After all we are just model railroaders and most of us do not see real prototype waybills, so the goal for a more prototypical waybill is really a decision for the layout owner in what he wants most. I don’t think one way is wrong or right, just a different approach to the same need – moving cars on the layout.

One thing I did like however was the idea of plastic sleeves holding the waybills. It seems this might help the paperwork hold up better to operator handling. There is a bit of wear on car cards I have seen on other layouts and this seems to help address that issue.

I also like that the full face of the document can be used to convey info to the operator. On traditional car cards, the lower pocket is really wasted space, about 1/3 of the available area in my case.

So, for now I have ordered a few vinyl sleeves to play around with. I am thinking of trimming off the folded pocket on the car card and inserting that into the sleeve. Then print smaller waybills that sit on top of the car card, using a full 2-1/2” x 3” area to convey the waybill information.

I did download the sample spreadsheet and played around with it and tweaked it, adding and removing some fields to better fit my goals. I do like the look of it, but until I get the sleeves and mock one up, I am not sure yet how well it will work. So I will put another entry up once that happens.

Visitors From Virginia

2011-12-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, December 3, I had two visitor's to the layout by special invitation. Marty McGuirk e-mailed me asking if he and Bernie Kempinski could stop by on their drive from Virginia up to northern New Jersey where they were visiting some other layouts and partaking in an operating session. Of course, I said!So I spent an enjoyable couple of hours discussing model railroading and showing my layout. Marty and Bernie even bought me lunch. Thanks guys! Here are a couple of pictures of me and my guests:

Here a couple of shots Bernie took. It is always interesting to see what other people come up with when photographing my layout.

I'll always try to accommodate anyone who would like to visit the layout. So just e-mail me if you are passing through and I will let you know if it is possible.

National Model RR Month

2011-11-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

As always, I open my layout to the general public during November as part of National Model Railroad Month, where the goal is to show off our great hobby. This year in conjunction with the open house, I worked with 2 local newspapers to publicize the event a little. Some layouts further south in NJ do this and regularly get a large number of visitors. For me and a few others in my area, just having the listing through modelrailroadopenhouse.com was only producing about 10 visitors during the 5 hours we were open. Not really making it worthwhile in my opinion.

The Burlington County Times ran a large article with a giant picture of my Hardwick, VT road crossing. The Courier Post had a smaller mention amongst a larger 2 page spread promoting Model RR Month. Here is a link to the BCT article with photos:

BCT Article

All in all, this was a success as each of of the 3 of us had anywhere from 8o to 100 visitors, and a large number of these were families with kids. So hopefully this will pay off in the future with more model railroaders join gin our ranks.As always, I forget to take a picture during these open houses as I am usually quite busy talking to everyone while keeping an eye on the changes.

Timonium with Captiol Free-mo

2011-10-30T14:36:00.000-04:00

I traveled down to Timonium, MD for the train show, again bringing my modules to connect to the Capitol Free-mo group. Despite the snow (in October!) on the way down, it was a nice time. The crowds were probably a little light because of the weather Saturday. It was another good demonstration of how well Free-mo works. We quickly assembled a sequence of modules for the weekend layout and had trains running in a little over an hour. My Woodstown Jct. modules were in the center and we ran some basic operations during the 2 days. Some photos:

More photos can be found at capitolfreemo.org, clicking on the Photos link from the main page.It was also fun to meet the many people at the show and explain what Free-mo is all about. I really enjoy hanging out with the Capitol guys and look forward to more shows in the future.

NJ Division Open House

2011-09-12T23:20:00.000-04:00

On September 11th, I opened my layout for members of the New Jersey Division MER-NMRA. This happens about every 2 years as the Meet locations rotate throughout southern NJ. I am glad to do it because it is always a well attended event with lots of model railroaders that ask good questions and lead to nice discussions on layout building. This year was the best yet as I had over 80 people sign the visitors log (meaning a few more may have come through) in the period from 1 to about 4. The layout was open until 5, but by then most had visited and headed out to the other layouts. I have about 5 people the last hour. Of course I always forget to take any pictures because once the people start arriving I get real busy. The layout was built with 2 separate loops that both pass through St. Johnsbury. This was done specifically for open house events and even though I won't operate this way, it really makes it a lot easier for days like this. So I would definitely try to work this into a layout if at all possible. It is also nice when I just want to break in a loco or run a train for fun, watching pass through the different scenes.I will also have my layout open for the annual National Model Railroad Month open layouts coordinated through modelrailroadopenhouse.com. This is for model railroaders as well as the regular public. The open house will be Sunday, November 13th, 12 to 5. There are a number of layouts in the NJ area open that day, so you can make a nice day of it. I arranged for some local publicity as well with a couple of newspaper reporters and also had a video crew visit from phillyburbs.com. When those go online, I'll post some links here. The hope is that we'll expose our layouts to more of the public, a goal for Model Railroad Month. So if you can make work it into your schedule, please plan to visit it for the open house. If not, then there is always next November!

Focus on trackwork

2011-08-15T22:39:00.000-04:00

Been busy most of the summer with other activities, but in August I was able to get back to working the layout. After some initial clean up of the area, I looked around and tried to determine what I should focus on. There are plenty of things to do, but I am committed now to getting in all of the remaining trackage on the layout in order to host an initial operating get together. Not a formal session, but just something to introduce my layout to some local operators and run through the train schedule to see how things play out. I have a full operating plan on paper and in my mind, so I would like to see if it will really all come together as planned. (I imagine adjustments will be made).

First up was to tackle a staging deficiency I identified after I started to revise some of my Canadian Pacific train operations. Originally I built Newport staging with 3 separate tracks. But with the addition of an Amtrak train to 2 CP locals and 1 through freight meant I would have trouble staging 4 trains. I could see a (somewhat) easy remedy by adding a new track, but it meant working in a tough location under benchwork for Gilman, VT above. Over the course of 3 nights I fit in subroadbed, Homabed and track, cutting in a new turnout and adding a new Tortoise switch machine. It was not easy to work here and I would recommend building hidden staging completely before adding stuff above it! Now I have space to stage either the Amtrak train or one of the CP locals, and the other 3 tracks for the remaining trains.

With that out of the way, I turned my attention to the area above, figuring out the track layout and building arrangement for the paper mill in Gilman. Using some prototype information about the real Gilman mill sent to me from fellow MEC modeler Cam Green, I determined that long sidings can be used to handle multiple car types at different spots. I know of this concept but sometimes you just get hung up on one siding having to be for one purpose and used to hold all the cars for that purpose.

So I have one long siding that will handle inbound pulp paper boxcars and also kaolin tank cars. And further up a siding that splits off will hold outbound paper loads, with extras on the main siding. This overcame an obstacle I had trying to fit in multiple turnouts. With less turnouts, I have more track to spot cars. I also have another siding to handle covered hoppers of starch and hoppers of coal. These 3 sidings along with one long passing siding (which will also hold cars off spot for a local to spot later) seem like not too many tracks but actually serve all the needs of the mill and actually follow the prototype fairly well. Here are two overhead kind of shots with the building pieces mocked up and some cars spotted in appropriate places.

Then I moved over to East St. Johnsbury where I put in 3 sidings. Two long sidings will handle Maple Grove Farm food products and Ciment Quebec (cement) and another will be used for a pulpwood loading siding. I removed the temporary trackage and put in the three turnouts and fit in new sections of code 83 track between them. I also added under track uncoupling magnets on each track. Next up will be adding Tortoise machines to the 2 turnouts out of reach and a ground throw on the other that is easily reached. Here is an in progress photo. The kaolin cars were just used to test the track and do not represent cars that would be spotted here.

So progress has been made. I need to next tackle the final track in Sheldon Jct., which I have not touched since putting in track about 5 years ago. I have also started to lay out the track in Morrisville for the yard, engine house and assorted industries. This I may do next because it is pretty much finalized. I also have the track for the talc mill in Johnson, some B&M track in Whitefield, the B&M track in Groveton for the other paper mill and the track up on the North Stratford shelf. Hopefully I can keep at it and meet my goal of hosting an operating night sometime this winter.

Heat Wave

2011-07-25T18:23:00.001-04:00

Has it been hot enough for you? At least most of the country has been at or near 100 degrees this week. Yikes, nowhere to go but the basement I suppose!

Well, I have not been real good about posting something at least each month this year like I planned. It was April, and now July is almost over! Well, let me post some stuff to get back on track.

I will have my layout open for the New Jersey Division Meet on September 10th. Check out njdivnmra.org for more info. It will also be open again in November on a date TBA for model railroad month as part of the MD-DE-PA-NJ full month of open layouts.

On the Free-mo front, I am disappointed that the NER Convention in Warwick, RI will not have a Free-mo set up. The New England Free-mo guys tried real hard to get it to happen, but the convention committee seems to have dropped the ball on having a great addition to their convention. Oh well, these things happen.

I will have my Free-mo modules at the October 29-30 Timonium, Maryland Great Model RR Trainshow. I'll participate with the Capitol Free-mo group. I should have some more updates to my modules, and I look forward to doing some operating amongst the modules set up.

Speaking of the modules, I thought I would share a couple of photos about how I store them when I am not using or working on them. My layout was pretty much designed and all benchwork was built before I learned about and started down the Free-mo path. The layout is not changing, and I am not able to incorporate my modules into the layout. Which is OK because part of doing the modules was to allow me to model a time period after my layout which is set in 1980. So things you would see circa 1996 to 2005 are on the modules and would not be easily integrated into my layout.

So I needed a place to store them safely within the confines of the layout room. I built a set of brackets under the layout and use plastic sheeting to keep dust and debris from above the layout.

The smaller module sits to the side and the legs go underneath. They are safe here and still allow me to work on the layout above with no problems.

These have been in storage since the last Timonium show, but they should be up in the garage in September to get ready for the NJ Division Meet, as they will be on site at the Meet location.

Free-mo Update

2011-04-22T12:59:00.001-04:00

A while back, I wrote about my Free-mo modules, but I have not given too many updates. Well, I have been working on them pretty steadily since January to get ready for a display at the Timonium, MD train show on April 9-10. You can see my previous Free-mo posts using the Labels listing at the right.

Started in 2 years ago in the Spring of 2009, my modules were designed to be self-operational as I was the only one who would have any in my geographic area. I have been bringing them out to various NJ Division NMRA Meets since May of 2009. After getting the 2 main modules constructed, I built a small third module to complete the set and have to ends with standard Free-mo interfaces. Here is a trackplan of the modules:

After getting the basic benchwork done, using the ideas presented in the August and October 2008 RMC articles, I completed all trackwork and wiring before moving on to scenic elements. I painted all the track, highlighted individual ties and painted the rails. I then set to start ballasting all track. This always takes a while to get down properly and then totally cleaned up, removing ballast particles from rail sides and on the tops of ties. But it is well worth the effort and really makes the track look great.

Knowing I had the show in April, where I would be connecting my module to those of the Capitol Free-mo group, who in turn would be connecting to the larger (250' x 75'!) Sipping & Switching Society layout, I wanted to get some base scenery and structures in place and finally stop looking at the plywood pacific of the last 2 years. I used ground foams, real sand, static grasses and Siflor weed clumps to get a base layer in place. Then I spent some time building a few structures. This included a DPM freight depot I purchased around 1984 (prince tag was $6), finished of a LaserKit Yard tower started years ago, a Rix shortline enginehouse and a Walthers background building for a rail served warehouse. I took time to paint all of these so they would not necessarily look like the pictures on the box.

Finally it was time to drive down to Timonium. I left my place real early and headed down I-95. The good news here is that there is a lot less traffic to deal with instead of leaving later when I go to a regular show as an attendee. I met up with the Capitol Free-mo guys and quickly integrated my module into the layout. For the rest of the day and Sunday, I had fun running trains on the Free-mo modules as well as taking my train out onto the big S&SS layout where I was gone about an hour traversing their 1000+ foot branchline track. Lots of fun!

I also had some time to walk the show floor and caught up with some manufacturers, such as Scotty Mason, James Harr at Stella scale models, the guys at Nick & Nora Designs, the guys at Yankee Dabbler (great prices on model railroad stuff!) and others.

I stayed the night at my buddy Anton's place, catching up on his layout and watching some Canadian Pacific Alco DVDs. Anton is also a member of the Four County Society of Model Engineers and he was there at Timonium with his club as well. All in all a great model railroad weekend.

Here are some pictures from the set up. I hope to return again in October for the Fall show.

For now, I will put the modules back into their storage location under the layout as I want to get back to working on the layout after spending most of my time on the modules. But I wil get them back out before the Fall for some more work as I hope to also take them up to Rhode Island for the NER convention, plus local NJ Division NMRA Meets, and the October Timonium show. Hopefully I can get most of the scenery completed and maybe start work the remaining structures. That would pretty much complete the modules. Either way it will be fun just to operate on them, alone or part if a larger layout.

For more info on my modules as part of NJ Free-mo, check out the NJ Free-mo web site. And for more info on Free-mo in general, check out the main Free-mo web site.

Hydrocal Structure Kits

2011-03-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

Continuing with my structure building bug that has hit recently, I built 2 structure kits based on Hydrocal wall castings. The impetus for building these came from my recent acquisition of Motrak Models latest HO kit, the brick supply shed, item #87602. Jeff at Motrak asked me to do a review of the kit on the ModelRailCast podcast, so I knew I wanted to get building it sooner rather than later.

The other kit, well, that has definitely been a 'later'! The CC Crow Safety Hook & Ladder building kit has been on my shelf for about 20 years. I knew I would always get around to it, but there it sat. So instead of building one Hydrocal based kit, I thought it would make sense to build both at the same time and take advantage of doing each step needed on both kits.

A full review of my building experience will be on an upcoming ModelRailCast show. I'll post the exact show number here when it is available. But I'll hit a few highlights here. First, couple of pictures of the completed kits.

Here is a look at the Motrak kit unpacked:

I started construction by first spraying each wall white primer, with light coats. After drying overnight, I applied 2 different red colors to get a brick color I liked. Then I used Durham Water Putty, supplied in the CC Crow kit, to do the mortar. This took some trial and error to get just the right amount, but I do like the results.

I painted the windows and added the glazing, then inserted them into the openings. The CC Crow kit includes strip wood to cut for the window frames top and bottom, as well as the full frames for the small windows. This made them look more unique in my opinion. Here are the walls while the windows were going in:

With each wall done, I assembled the basic boxes and used some clamps to lightly hold them together.

You do need to be careful when working with Hydrocal parts as they are very easily broken. I did have some trouble with the CC Crow kit breaking but each one was easily fixed, except for one which did not go back together invisibly. I used some small gauge wire to hide the break, making it look like a conduit or hose running from the upstairs window down to the ground.

The CC Crow roof was also cast Hydrocal. I painted the top silver to look like metal roofing, and the edges white to look like wood trim. The Motrak kit uses black paper to represent tar paper. I used 3M Transfer Tape (available from Fos Scale web site, and others), a first for me. I really liked this product and will use it extensively in the future. It is not real cheap, but the results are great. It lays down an impossibly thin sheet of double sided stickiness that is really easy to then overlay with shingles, tarpaper, etc. I recommend giving it a try.

All in all these were a lot of fun and went together in only a few evenings. Most of the work is paint and finishing. I used chalks to add some weathering to the sides and roofs, but most of the details are in the castings. These really stand out in a sea of wood-based structure kits, and also look different next to a styrene based brick kit. So give one a try. The Motrak kit is definitely good for a beginner (which I was with hydrocal before these kits). Check out motrakmodels.net for all their products, as well as this kit, which lists for $25.

Three Little Sheds

2011-02-24T11:33:00.001-05:00

As Bob Marley says in Three little Birds, "Every little thing...is gonna be alright"! Well, if you have this kit in your stash, I recommend pulling it out and getting started on it. It goes together easily and quickly, and you should have no problems with these at all, mon!

These three little sheds I built from a kit by KingMill called 3 Sheds at Cohasset. I built these as directed in the kit's instructions, including ideas on painting. The instructions are good and you should read through them all first as it will make assembly easier knowing what is coming later.

The walls were painted gray first and then drybrushed with Aged White over that to give the effect of peeling paint. I think that technique is pretty effective and I recommend giving it a try to see what effects you can create.

The roof material (self stick shingles and tin panels) was painted LV Cornell Red by airbrush. However after installing the roof, I still had to go back and repaint and touch up, so I m not sure painting it ahead of time really saved me any time or effort.

I finished these off using weathering powders from Bragdon, using grays on the walls and rusts on the roof, with some black applied sparingly here and there.

All in all a fun and easy time building these. A good kit for the beginner to the expert. Now, where to put these on my layout?

Here is the kit on the KingMill web site:
KingMill 3 Sheds

Their website indicates that these are sold out right now, but maybe you can find them at a show or hobby shop. You could also send KingMill an e-mail and let them know you are interested in getting these kits run again.

If you have any questions about these or want some photos, let me know in the comments section.

Springfield Report

2011-02-02T13:47:00.008-05:00

[FYI...yes, I updated the look of the blog. I figured after 5 years it as getting kind of stale]

Just back from the Big Hobby Show in Springfield, Mass. My second time there, I went up with my buddy Anton and also his father this year. We left Friday morning hoping to avoid the rush hours, but we still had lots of traffic going up I-95 and it took us about an hour and a half longer than usual. We arrived in Palmer in mid afternoon and had lunch at the Steaming Tender. Pretty good food and a beautiful station restoration. Hokey old music was a tad too loud, but all in all pretty nice. We went outside and watched some of the action as a CSX train passed and the New England Central sorted cars. That is the restaurant and next is my buddy Anton next to the 12 foot icicle hanging from the side of the depot.

We were waiting on the northbound Amtrak Vermonter hoping to watch it do its reverse maneuver. It was getting late so we headed towards Springfield and in about 10 minutes heard that train 56 was due into Palmer in about 15 minutes. We quickly found a side road and stood trackside as the Vermonter passed at 61 mph. Here is some video from Palmer. I unfortunately screwed up the Amtrak recording so it is very short.

We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Springfield and it was pretty much filled with people there for the show. Almost like the convention hotel at an NMRA event. We headed to the show about 45 minutes early and waited in the car until about 15 minutes before the doors opened, then we got in line. We decided to focus on the biggest building first, the Better Living Center. I quickly found some Atlas Kaolin tank cars I needed for the paper mills on my layout and then came across Dave from Perkins Road Depot. He had wonderful custom painted and modified freight cars including some great wood chip hoppers. I had to have some!

Other highlights included talking Flyers hockey with Mike Baker at Nick & Nora Designs, watching (and buying) 2 Blu-Ray DVDs on the CP/CN and the Pan Am/Guilford, saying hi to Dave Frary, and coming across other people I see but once or twice a year. Also checked out the latest kit from Stella Scale Models. I need to finish my New Erie Cafe before buying another one! Also looked at some great images by the guys at The Pixel Depot. Really nice shots of prototype railroads.

For the next 5 hours we walked the BLC building before declaring it complete and then spent the next 3 hours walking the Stroh and Young buildings before calling it a day. Mainly took advantage of show specials throughout the building to add to my goodies bag. We left about 15 minutes before the show ended. This helped us get out of the parking lot and get a seat at a restaurant before everyone else did. Apparently the attendance on Saturday was around 11,500 and totaled out somewhere around 21,000 for the 2 days.

On Sunday we walked the Mallery Building. Said Hi to Mike Rose and Scotty Mason, took advantage of great prices on Tsunami sound decoders and the Soundtraxx instant $5 cash back program, and picked up an EOT flasher that I can use with my Free-Mo modules (I pretty much model post-1990 on that as opposed to the layout where it is firmly 1980). Got to meet Jeff Adams of Motrak models, who I had previously did an interview via Skype on thr ModelRailCast show. Picked up some loads and his latest kit and Jeff gave me the 15% ModelRailCaster discount. Met Ron Kosmider of LaserModeling3, a relatively new company and pretty young guy for a manufacturer. They had 3 really nice kits, but they are a bit early for my layout. But he did show some nice simulated embossed tin panels that I can use for modeling the ET & HK Ide building. Finally something that looks like the siding on that building! Also talked to Atlas and found out that the long awaited (by me at least) GP40-2W locomotives should arrive in April. This will finaly give my Guilford SD26 company on the Free-Mo module.

All in all a great time and well worth attending. Looking forward to going next year and possibly arriving earlier to catch more trains in Palmer.

Happy New Year

2011-01-14T10:34:00.006-05:00

I have not been real diligent in posting updates and info to the blog. I'll see if I can remedy that this year and put more info out there. Anyway, Happy New Year to all that follow or otherwise come across my blog. This blog works in conjunction with my main web site, nekrailroad.com. That has more static type information about the layout while the blog is more about in progress stuff and updates.

I thought I would start of 2011 with some updates on layout building progress in the past year. As previously mentioned, I completed the staging yard for Portland/Newport (double ended serving as staging for 2 different mains, MEC and CP). After that was in, I started to figure out how to get the track from the MEC up to the new shelf I added for North Stratford. Here is a pic of the "ramp" that gets a train there. It will be hidden behind the backdrop as you will see later. Building it was done with laminated spline and simple risers. It was kind if like those old train and trestle kits I had as a kid that raised the track on a figure 8 so it could pass over itlself!

Next up was installing the long backdrop behind Whitefield and Crawford Notch. I again went with styrene and here are some in progress building shots. if anyone has specific questions, just use the comments section here.

I then painted the styrene blue and started installing photo backdrops. Here is a couple of views of the completed backdrop. I'll post some more with the photo backdrops in place later.

One thing I did not do this past year was post updates from my trip to the Fall NMRA convention. I actually attended 2, one in Burlington, VT and the other in Princeton Jct., nearby here in New Jersey. I just got caught up in things and didn;t have time to post daily updates. I did however post photos and a video from the Burlington VT convention. Check out the foloowing 2 links to view those:

NER Burlington Photos
NER Burlington Video

My other activity going on this past year or so was building a Free-Mo module set. I think I did post something about Calais, Maine a while back as my design choice for the modules. I need to add a page to my web site about the modules I suppose. The only real drawback is that I cannot configure them into the layout. However I plan to take advantage of them being separate to model more up-to-date stuff that would not fit on the layout. I plan to share more info about building the modules on the railroad-line forums. For now you can check out njfreemo.org for more info and some photos.

The Model RailCast Show

2010-10-02T08:51:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have started contributing to the Model RailCast Show, a podcast that you can listen to on your computer, iPod or other MP3 device. Starting with episode #112, I have been contributing segments on the prototype railroads of Northern New England. These segments are mixed to the regular show content and are about a 10 minute segment of the 90-120 minute shows.

Here is what I have contributed so far:

Episode #112 - North Stratford RR
Episode #116 - Canadian Pacific in Vermont
Episode #117 - Portland Terminal, Belfast & Moosehead Lake, Aroostock Valley
Episode #123 - Recap of the NER-NMRA Convention in Burlington Vermont

Upcoming is a look at the Maine Central's Mountain Division.

The MRCS podcast is a great way to find about other model railroaders, prototype and model railroads, manufacturers, big names in the hobby - and lots more. It is well worth a listen and can help make your commute to work or wherever a little more enjoyable.

The Model RailCast Show is hosted by Ryan Anderson and you can find out more info by checking out the website modelrailcast.com. If you like what you hear, please consider a small donation to the show to help keep it on the "air" and available to all model railroaders.

Photo Backdrops

2010-07-17T16:55:00.004-04:00

I have been working on the layout during these hot summer months. I'll show a little bit of what has been going on for you now...

I had picked up some CDs of Photo Backdrops at the Springfield show in January and I decided to try and make use of them. These are the ones from Larc Products in New York. I printed on full page labels and then cut them out as instructed. I installed them in 2 places. The first is behind the MEC track between East St. Johnsbury and Gilman. I am pretty happy with how this turned out and I am looking forward to putting some trees and scenery between the backdrop and the track to finish the effect.

The next location I worked on was a new section, a shelf above the existing track at the end of the aisle. I added this to represent North Stratford. I'll detail a little more on how the trains get up to this level in a future post. This was an even longer run, with the backdrop measuring 11 feet I believe. Here is a look at part of it over the Gilman scene below.

I really like how these turned out and look forward to using them on the scenes behind Whitefield and Crawford Notch. I played around with using parts of them behind existing ground foam covered backdrops I installed along the LVRC, and I think this will work well also.

Princeton Jct. Convention

2010-07-08T16:39:00.002-04:00

My layout will be open for the upcoming NMRA Mid-Eastern Region (MER) Fall Convention, Princeton Junction 2010. Being held from Thursday September 30th through Sunday October 3rd, there is plenty to see and do at the convention. More details on the MER Convention Website, http://mer.nmra.org/MERConv/MERConv.html

I will open my layout on Thursday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I was asked to submit 4 photos of the layout to the promotional committee, so here they are:

This does not show any of the unfinished areas, including the 2nd and 3rd phase areas of course, so there is more of the layout to see than this. But the finished scenes work better for promotional purposes.

Hope you can make it to the convention and a visit to my layout!

DVD Review: Rails Along the River - WRJ to St. J

2010-04-21T12:20:00.004-04:00

Just finished up watching the DVD "Rails Along The River: White River Jct. to St. Johnsbury, VT" from Tell-Tale productions. I picked this up along with part 2 "St. J to Newport" at the Springfield show. (Have not watched part 2 yet). Here is my impressions of the video (I have no affiliation with the producer).

Pretty good overview of the line from south to north. Some period photos help explain the importance of this line in earlier times. Footage mainly from the 2000's, with some CP Rail RS18 footage from the early 1990s. Includes current VTR Washington County ops, as well as predecessor Iron Roads’ Northern Vermont RR from the first half of the last decade. “Side trips” to the Claremont Concord, Lamoille Valley (including snow plows and covered RR bridges) and Conway Scenic’s ex-MEC MountainDivision (including a steam excursion) are nice extras that flesh out railroading in this area. Video includes freights as well as some passenger excursions.

A little sparse on commentary about the trains themselves, but it does include some historical interviews about certain areas throughout the video that go beyond a normal train video, kind of like a Ken Burns documentary at times. Cuts to a topo map at each town are a nice touch as they help you see where the rail line is in relation to the Connecticut River and other towns. Action from all seasons gives one a good feel for the area. I wish they spent a little more time on certain train segments (like switching at the customers) and a little less run-by shots.

Some trains were filmed the whole length of the line, so you see the same train in a run-by multiple times in different locations which starts to get old after a while. Also, you sometimes want a little more of a shot, or a less zoomed in view, like when the train plows snow through a grade crossing, which is not as dramatic because it is zoomed in and you don’t see the snow bank getting blasted at the road. I did like some of the shots of buildings, stations and right-of-way intermixed with the train footage as it really helps with ideas for scenery and structures on a model railroad.

Coming in at 100 minute (with a 10 minute bonus feature and 10 minutes of ads for other titles), the DVD sells for $25 (I got mine for $19.95 at the show). Overall 3.5 out of 5 boxcars. Good video quality and good camerawork. Could have moved along a little faster and perhaps been just 75 minutes in length. But a good deal ($25 includes shipping and tax) and certainly a good look at something different than a lot of today’s videos that feature big trains from just the big railroads. More info:www.railroadvideodvd.com

Track in at Crawford Notch

2010-03-22T08:57:00.010-04:00

With wiring tasks done for right now, I am turning my attention to getting sidings and passing tracks installed off of the Maine Central main line. First up was the small yard at Crawfords Notch. I pretty much followed the prototype by having a 3 track double ended yard. Operationally I will use this small yard to receive gravel cars from the LVRC that the MEC would use for ballast along the Mountain Division. These could be dropped by YR-1, but more likely I will have these delivered by a ballast extra, returning with empties back to Hardwick gravel on the LVRC.

I installed Walthers #5 turnouts and Atlas code 83 track here, but used a piece of Micro Engineering code 55 flex track for the far #3 track. Pictures show this track as being pretty light and somewhat overgrown in 1980 as it was not used too much I suppose.

After getting the track in and feeders wired in (aaahh, more wiring!), I ran a local MEC train through the tracks to see how they worked. Next I stalled Details West tie plates and turnout brace castings on the rails facing the layout edge. This is the first scene visitors will encounter when entering the layout room, so I want to make it look as good as possible. However I used up all that parts I had, so I need to get some more to finish up here. Also, the castings are too big for the code 55 track, but I might be able to install them and then file down what extends above the rail. We’ll see.

For turnout controls, I went with hand operated throws as this is right along the layout’s edge. I decided to give the Caboose Industries high level switch stands a try. I am not sure yet if I like these. They do look a little better than the standard ones in use on most layouts. But they are a bit delicate and I am not sure how they will hold up over time. I actually broke one by throwing it back and forth too much while getting the alignment right. We’ll see how it goes. I do like being able to add the target to the pivoting rod. That is neat.

I also plan to use this yard in a somewhat freelanced way by having a local out of St. Johnsbury travel to the yard, pick up any cars for North Stratford dropped by RY-2 and then run around the train to head back up the line towards Whitefield, taking the switch to North Stratford. This will then travel to a section on a shelf above Groveton to interchange cars with the North Stratford. I’ll post more on this later when I build that small section. It will make a nice model railroad operational job, although it is not prototypically accurate.

Next up will be adding the interchange tracks in Whitefield between the B&M and MEC, getting the B&M mainline track in place, descending downhill, under the MEC line and into a hidden section that turns back and heads to Groveton. Here is a look at the Micro Engineering bridge on the MEC and the B&M roadbed underneath. I attached Chooch abutments here although I need a small stone block to reach the bridge footings.

It Ain’t Fun, But It Has To Be Done

2010-03-18T17:18:00.009-04:00

Wiring of course. I don’t know too many people who enjoy it. I don’t mind too much as I like the results you get, being able to run the trains or operate turnouts, etc. But it is tough to get under the layout and reach areas for soldering, work on wires in tight spaces, etc. Luckily it is something that you do and get out of the way, and if done well, you do not need to revisit it too often!

A lot of time recently has been spent getting the wiring done on the third phase section. All feeders have been put in on the staging tracks and the Maine Central main line. Next up was the installation of Tortoise switch machines for all remote turnouts, in staging and also on the main where it is not close to the front of the layout. In all, I installed 15 Tortoise machines and wired them into Digitrax DS44 stationary decoders in the last couple of weeks. My knees are telling me “Enough!” with crawling around, getting up and down and sitting in awkward positions to get the Tortoise alignments correct. I still have at least 4 more Tortoise’s to install, although these are in places where the turnouts are not yet installed (the B&M line leading into Whitefield and the MEC switching at East St. Johnsbury for Maple Grove Farms and Ciment Quebec. So, I’ll work on getting the trackwork done in these locations and give my knees a break for a while. One good thing is that these installations are not too hard to reach from the front of the layout, so they will be easier to do than say the staging yard machines. Here is a look at the work done at the Rigby (Portland) end of hidden staging, showing the Tortoise machines, various feeders and bus wires, plus the DS44 decoder.

Another wiring task I took on prior to the Tortoise blitz was installing a remote Short Circuit panel. This feeds off of the PSX circuit breakers that split the layout into separate power districts. As I could not determine a good local location for each short circuit indicator LED ( I do not have local control panels), I decided to centralize them and install them above the backdrop in the central peninsula. This makes them visible from about 80% of the layout. I might still run another local LED over to the paper mill sections as they are visually behind this indicator board. But this is better than walking over to the DCC shelf to look for the warning LED on the circuit board. I built the panel out of styrene, making a small box. I ran the wires as a bus from the circuit boards and used regular LEDS from Radio Shack in plastic mounts. I printed the background on my computer using a drawing program and setting the background to black with white text. Here is a look at the panel:

I plan to build some more panels like this to show turnout positions as well as track occupancy lights for some of the hidden tracks on the layout. I picked up a few IR detectors from Boulder Creek Engineering to install on the Central Vermont hidden staging tracks. When that is in place, I’ll post an entry on that letting you know how it turned out.

Layout Update

2010-03-18T11:19:00.021-04:00

It has been a little while since I posted an update on the layout, so here comes a few updates on the layout in a couple of postings.

Work on phase 3 has been progressing nicely since I started construction back in August. I have all of the benchwork and mainline track in place prior to the open houses in November, so I was able to run the trains on this section. This was also the debut of the U18Bs and they performed quite well (operationally and sound wise). I’ll give an update in a lnear fashion, moving from the existing layout area starting at Gilman and finishing up at the other end of the room.

Putting the trackwork into this latest phase solidified some things that were up in the air and opened up some new possibilities. First, I removed the MEC Connecticut River bridge crossing. It is nice to see a train roll through a bridge, but it just felt too cramped and forced right next to the paper mill at Gilman. It also created a difficult scenery situation. So now I extended the track out of Gilman into the area where the bridge was, which gave me a nice sized passing siding and a realignment of the mainline through a broader curve. I still have to get in there and finalize the actual track sidings and of course get some of the paper mill building built. But Like this arrangement better. Hiding the hidden CP track behind the mill is also easier now as it will just be behind trees. To the right is a look at the revised Gilman area.

The MEC line after Gilman will parallel the CP line and head behind a new foreground scene that has been opened up. Before, I planned to have Whitefield in the 2x 8 area across from Gilman, but it was just too hard to fit the track in correctly. So I moved Whitefield further down the benchwork on phase 3 and created a new area as a destination for B&M local trains, the Groveton paper mill. This will provide a good switching location for an operator and give some purpose to the B&M trains crossing and interchanging with the MEC at Whitefield.

In the picture you will see the 3 tracks along the wall. The far track is the CP mainline into staging (having come out of St. Johnsbury’s south end) and the near track is the MEC main. In between is the staging track for the B&M, representing the south end (i.e. White River Jct.) From this staging track the B&M train will come “on-line” to the layout entering Whitefield. It will then travel and turn back on itself, descending as it does (more on this later). It will end up here on the pink foam which will be the Groveton paper mill. I will also incorporate an interchange track with the Grand Trunk as another car destination (and I could make it an operational interchange if I want to add some GT engines to the layout!).

After Groveton, the tracks pass through the utility closet to the rest of the phase 3 section. The B&M track into Groveton will pass in front of the doors on a shelf or drop leaf. In the picture the MEC track curves towards the front as it approaches Whitefield. The B&M track is in the middle, also heading to Whitefield. The far track is the CP heading to the staging yard.

Here is an overall look at the bulk of the phase 3 section built since last August. The front track near the edge of the layout is the MEC. The B&M track/roadbed is seen heading diagonally towards the diamond crossing and then along the front of the layout edge, descending to a turn back curve and then reappearing under the staging yard and the MEC track (the spline and Homa-Bed is the B&M). In the back is the double ended staging yard to handle CP and MEC trains at each end. There are 6 tracks in total and this, along with their length will fully support all the trains I will operate. The staging yard will be hidden by a short backdrop, allowing someone to peer over it to see the yard, but visually separating it from the foreground scenes. The sidings and interchange tracks at Whitefield still need to be added and are next up on the work list. At the far end is Crawford Notch and the curve that leads into the other end of staging, representing Portland, Maine. (Pictures and info on that end will come in another post)

I’ll close out this post with 2 more views of the new area. The first is a look in the reverse direction, back towards where the above photo was taken. Here you can see the existing layout sections to the right, and Crawford Notch is directly on the left. The throttle is sitting atop the B&M line.

And finally a look at the new section from the existing layout area where St. Johnsbury is located. In this view you are looking directly at Whitefield. The freight cars in the background are in staging will get hidden by the short backdrop coming later.

MER Hagerstown: Day 4

2009-10-18T20:24:00.004-04:00

Sunday and time for a little more model and full size railroading before heading home. Checked our door prize tickets before leaving (I luckily picked up a couple of prizes). With time to spare before layouts opened up at 1pm, we headed south to Brunswick to see if any CSX trains were running. We did pretty well, getting 4 CSX trains and an Amtrak train in about 1 hours time. I shot video on these trains, but there were also 2 coal trains tied up, not running but hooked up to air. Perhaps these are staged coal trains to meet specific delivery requirements.

I programmed the GPS to hit 4 layouts in order on the way back east. This included an in-progress N scale layout by Steve King, plus a nicely completed Western Maryland layout (although oddly no trains were running) and a HUGE N&W layout. These were well worth the stops. After dropping off Anton, it was another 2 hours up I-95 and back home.

Another great NMRA convention weekend. As I always say, if you've never taken advantage of one of these conventions, you are really missing a great time. Try to get to the next one in your area. Next Fall should be a trip north to Burlington, Vermont for the NER convention. Hope to see you there!

MER Hagerstown: Day 3

2009-10-17T22:15:00.004-04:00

Up early, too early it seems with the rain making it very dark outside. But we need to get over to the convention hotel by 7:30 to leave for the EBT trip. This turned into a drive your self car pool trip, which as it turns out was better than a bus. As we headed north into Pennsylvania, the temperature continued to drop and soon the rain was snow. By the time we got to the EBT, there was 3 inches on the ground! First up was a ride on the standard gauge trolley line.

Then we headed back to the station and got some pics of the train before the 11am departure.

The train ride was very cold, with unheated cars. At least we were not in the open-air cars (some people were!). We headed out the picnic area and the wye. Originally we were to picnic here, but instead we ate in the car. But man, it was cold in there! We did get off to get some pictures of the train. Tough to get a good shot with all the people walking around, but I was real happy with this photo:
After the train got back it was into the car to get warm!! Had to run the car and sit there for about 10 minutes until it was safe to head back out. Next up was a tour of the shop buildings. Really interesting (and cold), looking into the machine shop that runs off of a central belt drive system, then over to the roundhouse to see all the locomotives, and finally into the paint booth building to see the rebuilding process on a combine. Lots of great info about how the railroad operated in the early 20th century and a chance to see some of the current behind the scenes activities of the tourist line.

With that, we were able to head back to the hotel. After some rest and dinner, we went back to the convention hotel to check out the after-banquet activities. The live auction was entertaining, although I did not find anything to bid on.

MER Hagerstown: Day 2

2009-10-16T11:59:00.001-04:00

Friday and we have some time to figure out what to do. First up we catch a clinic on layout design by Lance Mindhiem. Well done and plenty of good points made. Wanting to get some railfanning in and seeing a break in the rain, we decided to head down to Harpers Ferry WV to catch some CSX action. This is neat place of course with tunnels and bridges, a double track mainline plus a restored station that gave us some shelter while we waited on the trains.

We did catch a train, a westbound empty autorack powered by one diesel, but that was it in the 2.5 hours we were there. This seemed very unusual for a weekday; perhaps the weather was playing a factor. I only got video of the train, so I'll include a shot of where the train was, showing the bridge and the tunnel looking eastward from the station.

With not much train action we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the night's op session. We drove to Blue Ridge Summit early in order to visit the nearby hobby shop, and then after catching some dinner went to Brian Wolfe's really nice Western Maryland layout. Although the layout is still in progress, there are plenty of finished scenes, and everything operated very well. I signed up for the York switcher job, which was a great little op session of its own. After the morning train departed I had all session to switch local industries, work the interchange, make up the next day's outbound train and then make up a local to head out on the line to switch some on-line customers. Lots of fun! Anton had his hands full working the Hagerstown yard. Here are some pics from the session:

This is yard at York, where I worked for the session.

This is some of the local industries outside York where I delivered cars. As you can see, very nice modeling. Very enjoyable to operate this area.

Here is the Hagerstown yard where there was lots of activity. This was in the next room over, with the track on the shelf to the left connecting the 2 rooms. Anton (center) has his hands full, not only with the yard work, but also battling his fellow yard operator to keep things running smooth. One night I was glad NOT to get the main yard job!

The session ended around 11:30 and we headed back to the hotel to try to get some sleep before the early wake Saturday morning for the EBT trip.

MER Hagerstown: Day 1

2009-10-15T23:30:00.001-04:00

In Hagerstown for the Mid Eastern Region NMRA convention, the Western Maryland Transfer. I headed south on Thursday to meet up with my modeling buddy Anton. As he lives minutes away from the MB Klein hobby shop, I was obliged to stop in and find something I needed! After finally getting a chance to see Anton's layout in person (CP Rail/CN present day theme), we headed west into the mountains. Rain fell the whole time I drove south and continued as we drove west, something that would repeat all weekend as it turns out.

We arrived at the convention hotel with just enough time to register before heading out to an operating session that night. We saw plenty of NJ Division people in the hotel lobby, and also had familiar faces join us on the operating session. We drove out to Mike Shockey's Great Northern themed layout. This was a fairly large layout with most track in place, but not too much scenery yet. We had a good time operating for a few hours. Even though we managed to run into trouble in the session right away, we did get through all the trains and had things running OK by the end of the night. A good first night, and thanks to Mike for hosting (a Capital's fan, but I won't hold that against him!) [Sorry, did not get any pics this first day to post]

Layout construction for phase 3

2009-09-18T22:25:00.009-04:00

Well, with some things behind me like the NMRA national, vacations and other summer stuff, I am getting back to working on the layout. Actually it has been a while since I have done any real layout construction. I kind of finished most benchwork and trackwork I needed to get in prior to the Philly national convention in 2006, and since then I have spent time focused on scenery, detailing, locos and freight cars since then. But the time has come to start getting the rest of the layout built with permanent benchwork and track replacing the temporary return loop I put in for the convention and open houses.

First task was taking apart the temporary benchwork and moving everything out of the way in order to have a clear area to work in. This means a few things had to move into the other layout area creating a (temporary) mess. This part was hard because I really enjoy the finished area, looking at the layout and running trains. But this will be just for a short while.

With the area cleared out I started building the permanent benchwork. I actually started at the far end near the workbench and the window because this is the spot I needed to have the Maine Central turn back to head into staging. So I worked with the curve I wanted to figure out how far out to bring the benchwork and still leave room for the workbench. Drawing on paper or the computer is one thing, but seeing some wood and and track in place really helps you make sure you are on the right path.

The benchwork moved along pretty quickly and I realized I should probably paint the walls the sky blue color, even though I may have backdrops brought forward in some areas. It would have been easier to do before the benchwork went in, but it wasn't too hard with only the basic L-girders and cross sections in place.

I built a section under the layout to store my Free-mo modules. Had I planned the modules before the layout was started I could have come up with a way to incorporate them perhaps. So they will only be for module events and can be worked on in the aisle or in the garage.

So work will continue, but I do have a deadline coming up. the layout will be open in November for the annual layout tour throughout NJ, PA, DE and MD. Check out modelrailroadopenhouse.com for a full list. I will be open on the 8th and the 14th this year.

B&M "Un" Covered Bridge

2009-08-21T19:21:00.007-04:00

While on vacation in New Hampshire this year, we did a hike along Snyder Brook to see some waterfalls. The trail starts along Rt. 2 a little west of Gorham. At the start it crosses the old B&M line to from Whitefield to Gorham that has since been converted to a rail trail. The hike was nice and the woods were cool with the tree cover and rushing stream nearby. As enjoyable as the hike was, I found something at the end of the hike that I really was glad to finally find.

As we came to the end of the trail, it was tough to find the exact way back to complete the loop. Following along the river we found a little trail that led back to the old rail bed. Once on the rail bed we turned left and I could not believe what I had found.

This is a railroad bridge I first read about in Model Railroader in August 1993. I was never able to figure out where it was exactly along Rt. 2 even when looking while driving. Although not far from the road, it is almost impossible to see through the foliage. But I did actually start building a model from the article, which included drawings and scratchbuilding instructions. I never quite finished it and it has been sitting in a box, partially constructed for about 10 years.

It was neat to finally find this bridge. Now it has inspired me to get that model finished and get it into the B&M portion of my layout. That is where benchwork is currently going in what I refer to as my third phase area. Here is where my construction of the model stopped:

HN2009: Day 5 - 7/10

2009-07-10T23:49:00.003-04:00

Friday in Hartford and it is time for the National Train Show (and agreeing with Tony Koester that this should be the NMRA Train Show really). The first 3 hours are just for the NMRA attendees, so we all have a chance to walk the floor before it becomes crowded with the public. After the Digitrax forum last night, I checked out (and picked up) equipment to switch over to Duplex Radio. Nice to have Digitrax right there as they were able to update the software on the throttle right there at the show. I also picked up the Erie Cafe model from Stella Models that I want to use in Whitefield as cafe along main street.

I must say that there were not as many manufacturers and dealers as I thought there might be. Still plenty to see but not as much as I thought there might be. Nice to be able to talk to some of the people behind the manufacturing of the products we use. I was able to see preproduction models for the Rapido CP caboose coming later. These will look good on the CP freights on the layout! There were also some pretty good display layouts from various groups.

After about 5 hours of checking out the floor, I was ready to sit down, So I headed upstairs to catch the afternoon clinics. I decided to find out more about JMRI and DecoderPro. I really came in cold, even though I feel pretty comfortable with computers and DCC. I really knew nothing about JMRI and using it with DCC. Well, I must say I am really looking forward to trying out JMRI when I get back home. Some software on the computer, an interface to the Digitrax command station and I will be ready to go. The best thing is programming decoders via DecoderPro. It makes it real easy to make changes and save them to a Profile. This way you can make all the settings without worrying about actual CVs and hex values. Nice. And you can save the settings so you can easily reprogram to copy the same settings to another locomotive. Also lets you do Ops Mode programming and do locomotive speed matching. Also a nice demo showing the software in action and having it run on a Mac laptop, so I know it will work OK and not require a Windows machine.

This is one of the great things about conventions - coming home with some information to make your model railroading better and more enjoyable. Another great aspect is the people you meet. All week it was great to see familiar faces as well as meeting new people. People I see regularly at Division Meets, people I only see once a year at regional conventions and also new people I have met just this week. I look forward to seeing some of these new acquaintances at future conventions.

After another walk around the show floor and a little rest in the hotel room, I headed back for the evening clinics. I dropped in on the craftsman kits clinic. Next up I figured I would drop in on the Forced Perspective clinic along with a room full of other folks. Well, it seems the presenter was missing in action, so I ended up re-presenting my clinic on designing and building the layout. I hope it was a nice fill-in for the people in the room. I definitely got good mileage out the clinics this week!

That pretty much wraps up HN2009 this year. I will be heading home on Saturday. I would have to say this convention was a real success on many levels. The committee did a great job overall, the venue was first class and John McGloin is to really be commended for putting together and running a great track of clinics.

HN2009: Day 4 - 7/9

2009-07-09T14:53:00.005-04:00

Thursday at HN2009 is all about clinics with no other excursions planned. Plenty to chose from with 3 morning, 3 afternoon and 3 evening time slots with about 6 different clinics going on at any one time. Great job by the convention committee on what they have put together.

I attended a clinic on building an HOn30 module based on a Maine coastline scene. No, I am not planning another module diversion, but interesting to see some building and scenery techniques. The presenter, Sam Swanson, is from the Great Lakes area and is part of a modular group there. The influence of Hayden and Frary on their HOn30 articles from the 1970s continues, even outside of the New England area. Of interest was his use of Gator Foam for benchwork.

Next, I headed over to the large community area that was set up for breakfast and lunch to get some food. This was a great idea as it means you can eat locally between clinics and it also a good place to meet other people and have some conversations. I had Tony Koester join my table and I was able to find out a lot about the NMRA future plans, including the NMRA branding campaign, internet future directions, plans for the headquarters and the NMRA presence within the California State RR Museum.

The afternoon I volunteered to help oversee the clinic rooms, to help with any issues and help get rooms set up between sessions. After that I was able to drop in and catch Dave Frary's interesting clinic on building a museum display for the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Great layout he built and a neat time-lapse photo section showing the install into the museum.

Now, many people complain about the aging of the hobby and lack of newer modelers. I guess that is generally true, but I must say I do see a good number of younger folks here and also a good number of women modelers. Meeting both requirements I helped set up a room for a clinic entitles Model RRing for Women. The presenter was a young woman in her twenties who brought a complete layout in 2 sections, featuring a narrow gauge steam train with sound, operating on DCC! She is the modeler and her fiancee does not model. An interesting twist!

I attended a clinic on modeling rocks. This is from the guy that sells the rubber rock sections (not molds, actual ready to install rubber rocks. In addition to his product there was a lot of good tips for modeling rocks, cuts, debris and other scenery elements.

A little time to head out to get some dinner, than back for presenting my 2 clinics again tonight. After the first presentation, I had time to get in a clinic and I went to the Digitrax forum. I was able to learn about the new Duplex Radio products, what they do and what the new features are. I must say the room really ranged from experts to novices as far as DCC and Digitrax were concerned. I guess it was good for the newer people to get some questions answered, but unfortunately it stalled the presentation and I had to leave finally before the presentation ended in order to get back to my room for the final presentation I was giving.

A long day with lots of information gained and shared. But that is what it is all about!

HN2009: Day 3 - 7/8

2009-07-09T14:48:00.004-04:00

Tuesday morning, up early to head to the Danbury Rail Museum, it is an hour or so bus ride before we arrive. The museum is located in the depot for Danbury. The track arrangement here is very interesting with the old yard that now houses the museum collection circled by a multi-track reversing loop. It is like something right off a model railroad really. There are also some unused tracks of the Housatonic that pass by the opposite side of the depot as well.

The museum collection is housed in a fenced in area on the old yard tracks. They opened up the gates for us and we had a guided tour of the equipment on site. Lots of interesting pieces on display, some very unique. I particularly enjoyed the MEC caboose #681 that we were able to walk through.

A Conn DOT commuter train came around the reverse loop for a crew change so I was able to get some pictures and video of the clean locomotive in a New Haven inspired paint scheme.

Pretty neat also was a refurbished PRR RPO. The inside was restored giving us a look at how the mail was handled and sorted aboard the train.

After looking around inside the depot we were taken on a short ride through the yard on a coach pulled by an SW unit. We headed out to the turntable, detrained and then took a spin on the turntable. Then it was back to the depot and onto the bus for the ride back to the convention center.

In the afternoon I checked out a few clinics before heading back to the hotel to recharge, get some dinner and get back to the convention center for the evening clinics. At 7pm I attended a slide presentation on the Bangor & Aroostock and Maine Central prototypes. Then it was time for my two clinics. First up was a look at the prototype railroads of Northern New England, followed by a look at my layout and the design process I used to incorporate 5 railroads onto 1 layout.

A note about the convention center - it is a great location for presenting clinics, but I do find the opening and closing of the rear door distracting and noisy. Before I started I propped the door open to prevent this distraction. It seemed to work out OK and there was not to much noise from the outside hallway. I guess there isn't too much you can do about people coming and going I suppose, but it would be nice if the doors worked in such a way to not be so noisy. A small nit I suppose. Otherwise the convention center is a good location, clean and modern. Very nice are the abundant displays with up-to-date information on clinics throughout as well as outside each clinic room.

HN2009: Day 2 - 7/7

2009-07-07T23:39:00.001-04:00

An early morning departure by bus takes us to Thomaston to the RR Museum of New England, home of the Naugatuck RR. A small collection of equipment is at the station along with our train, lead by an ex-P&W U23B with a New Haven logo applied. We board for a trip up to the runaround track in Waterville and then the locomotive switches ends and we head back to the station.

Next we ran back to the shops for a walking tour to see the rest of their equipment and their new shop building. Inside they are working on various pieces getting them back into running shape.

Out in the yard area, there are many pieces of rolling stock. Particularly interesting for me is the Maine Central boxcar in its rebuilt paint scheme. Very nice!

We got back to the convention center in the afternoon and I had time to catch a clinic before going to the Op Sig room for instructions on the night's operating session. The clinic I saw was on Phil Monat's layout, how he designed it and how he rebuilt it. A good introduction before I get to see the layout on Saturday.

After heading back to the hotel to get changed, I headed east to Rhode Island to operate on Don Irace's P&W modern day layout. What a neat layout and a great one to operate. I got the yard job at Worcester and this kept me busy all night. I was pretty much on my own but I did have a coach nearby to help out and explain things as they came up. It was a great time and well run by Don and his crew. Here is a look at the Worcester yard, with Fresh Ponds yard below (run by another operator.

One last picture: Here is a shot of the dispatching panel on Don's layout. He also uses a dispatcher in Georgia to control half the layout. Wow!

Time to head back to the hotel. Early call again tomorrow as we head out to Danbury for a look at the museum there.

HN2009: Arrival - 7/6

2009-07-06T14:27:00.008-04:00

Just got up to Hartford, having driven up this morning. About a 4 hour drive, uneventful and not too much traffic. Great weather for a drive today. In fact the weather looks pretty good all week, continuing the great weather we had this past holiday weekend in Philly. I just got settled into my hotel room and now I am going to head over to the convention center to check in and see what is going on.

Arrived at the convention center, very nice building and great place for the NMRA. I immediately ran into a few Philly and NJ Division members. Before registering I had to get to the OpSig meeting area to coordinate driving to the layout I was assigned to for the evening. Turns out Jim Dalberg and Dick Foley, regulars who I operate with on a layout back home, were assigned to the same layout, so I was able to catch a ride with them. As the layout was located about 1-1/2 hours to the south, we needed to get on the road in order to have time to stop for dinner. I quickly picked up my registration packet and we were off.

The layout is called the Boston & Maine Central and the host is Franklin Lang. The layout is nice, featuring somewhat freelanced design but using prototype B&M and MEC equipment and locations. Wide aisles and a laid back operating scheme made it easy to quickly get into the session and have fun. Here are two pictures of the overall layout.

Franklin says he has only been building the layout for about 3 years and is just getting operations going on a regular basis. He is off to a great start. His layout is operated with a yard at each end and a center yard (where I was stationed). Of interest is his town of Relief, pictured below.

The session ended around 10pm, but we did have an hour and a half ride back. We nearly hit some bad traffic approaching Hartford, but using the GPS we got off and diverted around it. Then it was back to the hotel. So day one went quickly and I did not see too much of the convention or the clinics, contest room, etc. yet. Tomorrow is an early day with a trip to the RR Museum of New England and a ride on the Naugatuck RR.

HN2009 National Convention

2009-06-30T20:59:00.003-04:00

I also want to mention that I will be at the NMRA National Convention next week up in Hartford, CT. I will be giving a couple of clinics, but mainly I plan to enjoy all that the convention has to offer. I plan to post daily entries to this blog, so check back during the week to see what is going on up in Hartford.

Unbuilt Kits Stash takes a hit

2009-06-30T20:29:00.004-04:00

The next big project up for the layout will be removing the temporary benchwork along the far wall to put in the permanent benchwork, track and staging yards. I have a plan in mind now for that area and I am ready to start building it. But right now was not the best time to dive into this work, for a few reasons. So I found I had some time and needed some model railroading projects to work on.

Recently I went through my entire freight car and locomotive collection and looked for items I do not plan to use to donate to the NJ Division raffle at our Meets. In doing so I also took a look at my stash of unbuilt freight car kits, weeded out the donations, and with the remaining I decided to go on a building spree to get some of these things built. It was basically a no cost activity. I already bought these kits and they are just waiting to get onto the layout. Here is a picture of the stack before I started:

Over the course of about 2 weeks I finished about a dozen of these cars and got them onto the layout. I also had to get the airbrush out for a customer's project so I took advantage of that to also weather these cars. Now I really need to get the rest of the layout built as St. Johnsbury is not big enough to hold all these cars now! Here is a few of them, from Athearn, Intermountain, Branchline, Red Caboose, even an old McKean kit for TOFC flatcars and a Robins Rails kit:

So if you are looking for something to do, but reluctant to spend some money right now, be sure to look over your unbuilt kit stash. Assembling some of these is fun and not too taxing on the skill set, so it makes a nice summertime modeling activity.

The Calais Free-mo Module Project

2009-03-20T18:10:00.010-04:00

Just a quick note that I am working on a set of Free-mo modules in the hopes of drumming up interest here in the greater NJ and PA area. I'll still work on the layout, but I do plan to get these modues up and running quickly. I'll be giving a clinic on them at the May Meet of the NJ Division. Here is a picture of what I plan to model with the modules - yes sticking with Maine Central, just moving (way) east into Maine at the end of the Calais branch.

For more on the activities of Free-mo in our area, visit the NJ Free-mo web page.

LVRC Caboose 200 Arrives!

2009-02-05T11:18:00.010-05:00

I got home on a snowy night this week and went to the mailbox. Inside was a brown box. I grabbed it and headed back up the snow covered driveway. Shoveling would have to wait. I hurried inside to get it open. There it was, the Intermountain model of Lamoille Valley's caboose #200. Wow! It looks great and seems to have all the proper lettering and logos, even the ones up on the cupola. Really nice!!

I'll have to add a little bit of weathering and paint the trucks and couplers and then it will be ready to leave Morrisville for its trip to St. Johnsbury behind train MJ-2!

Layout Fascia

2009-01-26T14:24:00.008-05:00

One comment from a recent posting asked me to elaborate a little on my layout's fascia. In general I use quarter-inch Birch plywood from Home Depot, sold in 2 x 4 foot sections. I hand pick through it to get non-warped good looking pieces. One side is usually better than the other. The smaller size of these pieces actually makes it easier to work with although I need more supports added to the benchwork. I cut the pieces to size to fit the area and attach them with stainless steel screws with mounting washers. These give a real nice look to to the layout and I take care to mount them evenly to help promote a professional look. After the pieces are installed I stain them with Minwax Cherry gel stain. I top that with a few coats of water-based Minwax polyurethane applied with a foam brush, lightly sanding between coats. Pictured to the right is a new piece added in Lyndonville, a section just getting started.

On the end of the peninsula I set the wood for mounting on a curve and bent the plywood around to match. I think it gives a nice complimentary look top the curve of the tracks.

In some areas I am using pieces of 3/4" pine and also poplar. I selected pieces without knots. Some of these were used because they were leftover from a previous layout and I did not need more than the 6 inch height they provide. In other areas I used it to build out shelves, as evidenced here in St. Johnsbury. I recall seeing something similar on another layout years ago and thought it would be a good idea to provide some flat surfaces to put things while building, working and also during operating sessions. It has been one of the most commented on features of the layout from other modelers. It was not too hard to build but does require a little forethought to provide adequate benchwork support and clearance. Basically the shelf rests on the 1 x 2 cross pieces direclty on the L-girder, while risers wee used to support the actual yard (plywood base).

Under Morrisville, I did another long shelf like St. Johnsbury. In this picture you can see how the birch plywood simply butts up to the shelf section. It is all just built in place to fit and I add wood t the sides and behind the shelves to keep a good look to it. The shelves will be built in different areas mainly where switching activity will take place.

I have a not had any issues with the fascia and it cleans up real well if I spill some scenery material or glue on it. I know that this is a bit more effort than other styles of fascia (i.e. Masonite) but I like the look of wood and I think the Cherry color fits the theme of the layout, New England in the Fall.

As far as access, I have not built any doors or access panels in as of yet. Hidden track under the LVRC between Danville and Sheldon Jct. is basically accessed from underneath. But I may have to consider that a bit more as I get on to the areas with more hidden staging. The CV staging is probably OK because it is not close to the edge anyway. I may actually consider open areas below structures for some access. The Newport/Montreal staging is in place against the wall. If I build the fascia out far enough, i can ensure access from below and behind the fascia.

If there are any more questions, just add them in the comment section for this post.

Locomotive Projects

2009-01-12T17:00:00.002-05:00

As mentioned earlier, I spent some time working on locomotive and car projects. This I guess was a natural follow up to all of the caboose work I did in the summer! I had some things I wanted to finish and get onto the layout for the openhouse, so I concentrated on getting these lingering projects completed.

First up I worked on the Lamoille Valley's tourist train by completing a pair of coaches and RS3 #7803. The coaches are by Hornby. I could only get them lettered so I used Solvaset to remove the lettering and then used a Microscale alphabet set to letter them. I was not sure what the LVRC used for numbers on their coaches, so I just used 1203 and 1204. These Hornby coaches are nicely detailed and with 4 wheel trucks and a shorter length they work well on the layout. They closely resemble the real coaches I have seen in pictures, although they are a little darker green than the prototypes.

To pull the train, I added 7803 to the roster. This followed the usual LVRC RS3 paint and decal process, although I decided to keep the weathering light and also paint the trucks silver. This seems to match the photos I have seen of tourist trains. I also added a Soundtraxx Alco DSD sound decoder to the locomotive, putting the mini oval speaker in the cab. It was a tight fit and I had to remove the weight over the rear truck as it interfered with the enclosure. But pulling two coaches is no problem for the unit. I am going to see if I can remove part of the weight and then reinstall it. It is nice to have some sound on the LVRC now!

I also completed a long in process locomotive project, a pair of B&M GP9s. These have a long story, starting about 7 years ago when I happened upon a pair of Front Range GP9 shells molded in blue. I immediately thought of B&M Geeps because of the blue plastic, so I bought both for $9 total. I had no idea how I was going to finish them however. Over the years I accumulated parts and such for the project but never really started it. One big obstacle was the frame, trucks and drive train. I thought maybe I could use an Atlas GP7 mechanism, but the shells did not fit. About 4 years ago I found a pair of Front Range GP9s on eBay. I quickly picked these up, although this gave me another set of shells with no frame (oh well!). With everything on hand I finally started the project, about 2 years ago.

This was very much a project like I used to do 20 years ago. Lots of Details Associates and Details West parts added. Drilling and installing wire grab irons, rebuilding the plows to better match the prototype. I'll spare you the blow by blow process as I doubt you'll be building B&M GP9s from Front Range models (why p2K has not done a B&M GP9 I cannot figure).

Of interest is that I equipped these with Lokpilot decoders and put a DSX sound-only decoder in one unit. This was a new experience. The Lokpilots are nice and run the motor quietly, not bad considering it is a 20 year old original can motor. I did have some problems programming 2 decoders in one loco. I had to use separate addresses and temporarily cut the sound decoder wire to program only the Lokpilot, but eventually I got it all working.

Another "neat" thing about this project was when, after I painted the shells and prepared for decaling I realized I only had one set of B&M Herald King decals. I was certain I had more, but no, just the one. What to do? By coincidence I had just recieved an e-mail from another modeler letting me know that HK was back in business. I called them up and ordered the same set I already had. Amazing! The new decal was exactly the same as the one I bought 25 years ago (although it cost 5 times more). This seemed to indicate to me that this project really deserved to get finished!

I must say this was much more complicated than using locomotives produced in the last 10 years or so. I think we (or at least me) have started to really take for granted the amount of details and the quality of locomotives produced now. They tend to really be ready to run and only need weathering to get them on the layout.

One other locomotive to note (there were a couple others, but they are still in progress: MEC 564, LVRC 7802). With the pending release of the Intermountain U18Bs (April it looks like as of now), I ended up with some undecorated Atlas U23Bs that now will not get converted to U18Bs. What to do? Well, looking through my decal collection, I have a few sets of Herald King Lehigh Valley locos. I always liked this scheme. I also get a chance to operate on a layout that includes some LV trains and routes. So I decided it would be fun to do something different and give me a loco that I could take to the other layout on occasion. LV 512 is the result. I am happy how it came out. I made the weathering heavy but the engine is not too beat up as some prototype photos show. I also added a GE sound unit to this. The speaker was a challenge, but I got a mini oval with enclosure into the cab. It is fun to operate and gives a different sound then the rest of my locos. I could probably theorize that the Lamoille Valley leased a Conrail ex-LV U23B for a short period to help keep trains running on my layout...

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-18T18:20:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays to everyone out there. Here is a photo I staged on the layout for the season. Enjoy:

Busy Fall

2008-12-04T23:48:00.010-05:00

I have not posted anything since my return from the NER Syracuse convention but that was not because I have not been busy. I hosted an open house on November 22nd and in preparation for that I did a lot of projects and worked quite a bit on the layout. I'll get you up to date on what I've been doing and also discuss what is in the works for this winter.

First, I wanted to make some changes to the layout area, to give it a more finished look now that I completed the other half of the basement (non-railroad family room). So time was spent working on curtains to hang below the benchwork and to install carpeting. I really have enjoyed having this in place as it makes the area so much nicer looking and the carpet feels great under the feet.

The skirting was made from material we purchased and then sewn into panels by my wife. They are all 44" wide, so it is easy to get in where needed. They are attached with clothespins glued to the back of the fascia boards. It is also easy to disconnect the panels at a few clothespins and pull the material back to work without actually removing a whole section. The skirting does a good job of hiding the support legs and the shelving that holds layout supplies and kits. This makes it much more attractive for visitors. I am very happy with the results.

The carpet I installed is made up of 20" square tiles sold in a box by Home Depot. They are ready to lay down onto the concrete floor and include padding. They don't move when put in place but are easily lifted and moved if needed. Installation went real quick and works well for a layout as I only need to carpet the open areas, not under the layout. The squares extend under the skirting a few inches. I can remove sections if I am really doing some dirty work and want to protect them from damage. Here is a look at a section with unfinished benchwork so you can better see how they are placed onto the floor:

These were the main room enhancements. In my next posts, I'll show you some of the locomotive projects I completed as well as some scenery and detailing work done in Hardwick.

NER Syracuse Day 3

2008-09-13T07:24:00.005-04:00

Saturday here and the weather has stayed cloudy with the threat of rain. We got some tips about a lot of CSX westbound traffic moving on Saturday mornings, so we are going to head out and see what we can find before going to the hotel for some clinics and more layouts this afternoon. More to come later today.

LATER: So we spent quite a few hours at an area just west of DeWitt yard watching the trains. It was probably a little lighter today than a weekday, but still plenty of trains for us. We were able to catch the usual CSX power as wel as an Amtrak train. But UP power on one train and BNSF on another was a real treat for us. Mostly I shot video, but here are a few pictures I got whil etrying to juggle the camera and the camcorder at the same time.

A couple trains were manifest freights and I was able to see some older MEC and B&M cars (not the Guiolford versions, but the 1970's schemes. Also going by was this neat Ontario Northland car in original paint plus a CV blue boxcar. You can see it has been relettered for FEC.

After this extended railfan session, we were able to get to a couple of layouts and another interesting hobby shop. Brian Curry's N scale layout was terrific and really shows that great modeling looks great regardless of the scale. The video I took could have easily been an HO or O scale layout if you did not know better,

Now it is off to the banquet to wrap up festivities. I'll post a wrap up entry tomorrow.

NER Syracuse Day 2

2008-09-12T23:03:00.010-04:00

Friday starts off cloudy with rain threatening. I registered late for this convention so I am not doing any of the prototype tours this year. Instead the focus will be clinics, layouts and railfanning. After breakfast in the Hampton Inn lobby (got to love that free breakfast buffet they all have!) we headed over to the Holiday Inn convention hotel to get registered. A contingent of NJ Division modelers was found wandering the area (PJ, Bruce B. and Bob P.) and we traded notes on what was seen so far.

Anton and I decided to get some railfanning in before the weather turned bad. This worked well as most layouts did not open until the afternoon anyway. We headed over to Solvay yard where the CSX interchanges with the Finger Lakes Railway. Lots of big industry here such as Crucible Steel, a paperboard mfgr. and several chemical industry receivers. We scoped out the entire area and watched the ex-CR FGLK Quality diesel do some switching, but by now some rain started to fall. It was still early so we decided our best bet was to take advantage of overhead shelter and do our railfanning at the Syracuse Transportation Center, shooting trains from the Amtrak platform. We were quickly rewarded with a CSX train already passing by as we ascended to the platform. Next up was an Amtrak commuter train (Buffalo-Albany). While this was in the station a westbound CSX passed by. We quickly got our cameras repositioned to catch the train.

Listening to the scanner was fun too. There was some back and forth between the ND dispatcher and a work train trying to get track time to do their work. The scanner was vital too to find out when trains were coming of course. Both an eastbound and westbound train were in the area and sure enough the headlight of the eastbound was soon upon us. However the westbound track was now showing a green signal. As luck would have it both trains would be passing right in front of us. I did my best to get a still shot of the eastbound before switching to video to get the westbound.

The scanner talk died off, so we decided to get lunch and head to another trackside location to eat and wait for more trains. As luck would have it we missed two trains while trying to find a suitable spot to park trackside. The first "train" that passed us by was this CSX track car:

Later the Amtrak Maple Leaf snuck up on us but I was still able to grab a shot:

It was then time for some layouts and we headed off to see a nice Pennsy layout featuring Horseshoe Curve. Now, coming from an area outside Philadelphia you might think the last thing that I'd want to go see is a PRR layout. There are plenty back home, so PRR is not high on my must-see list. But this layout was really great. The wharf scene alone was easily 8' x 12' and was incredibly detailed. In fact all the areas were great like this and we were really happy with our decision to visit this layout. (This layout was recently featured in RMC).

We also made a stop a Central Hobby Supply to exchange some money for hobby items and then went to visit a new developing layout that featured many of the areas we have been railfanning. Dewitt Yard, Solvay, CSX, Finger Lakes, it was all here. We could find the places where we stood trackside to take pictures. It will be nice to see how this layout develops once scenery and structures are added.

Back at the convention hotel, we checked out a couple of clinics, including Earl Smallshaw talking about a new section he has finished on his classic layout (one of the structures was scratchbuilt 55 years ago!). A clinic on using photos for backdrops was interesting and made me think about some areas I might be able to incorporate some photos onto the layout. There was time for one more local layout, an N scale D&H, before calling it a night.

NER Syracuse Day 1

2008-09-11T22:46:00.004-04:00

Like last year, I am at the Fall NER Convention and will be posting what is going on here to my blog, at least once a day, maybe more. Day 1 (Thursday) is the drive up to Syracuse NY. I have not been this far west for an NER convention yet (furthest before was Utica, so the area is new to me.

CP Rail modeler Anton M. is joining me for this year's pilgrimage. We made our way into Syracuse by mid-afternoon. We were pacing an NYS&W train along I-81, but were unsuccessful in getting off in time to set up and get a picture. We did get to a good location but just as the engines were passing by. The train was moving! Once in Syracuse proper, we decided to check out the railfanning opportunities and headed towards the west end of the area near Solvay yard. Using the July Railfan & Railroad magazine we found an overpass and a road that put us trackside just east of Solvay yard. I got the scanner set up and soon we heard an Amtrak train approaching and it was quickly upon us. This was quickly followed by a CSX intermodal train. It was pretty easy to figure things out by having the R&R map with CP locations identified. It has been a while since I was able to do some real railfanning where there was a good density of trains and this was fun!

Next we tried to find where the NYS&W moves through Syracuse, and although we did, it was easy to get lost and stuck in downtown traffic. Eventually we maneuvered to CP 286 on the CSX just west of DeWitt yard. We found a good location trackside and were rewarded with a train right away. The scanner picked up notes from the Dispatcher about a train moving from track 2 to track 8 and we were able to see the switches being thrown to do this. Soon the train was snaking through switches and moving past us. The dispatcher was talking to another train with 5 cars for Solvay and soon that too was going past us.

We finished up by scouting out the DeWitt yard area to be prepared for more railfanning later in the weekend. Near the east end we found a god spot to watch as the yard switchers worked a cut of cars using a GP40-2 and a GP38-2.

As it was getting late we decided to head over to the hotel and get checked in. We are not at the convention hotel (it was full when I tried to book), but just down the road at the Hampton Inn. After getting checked in, we looked over the layout book and had time to visit a couple of layouts and get some dinner before calling it a day.

Caboose Work

2008-07-17T10:50:00.020-04:00

I have been in a caboose state of mind lately. Having gotten a few new cabooses over the past year, I decided to round them all up and do some basic upgrades to make them ready for the layout. As I received these, I pretty much just took them out of the box and put out them out there to test run, so they were all still a little shiny and such. They looked a little out of place in relation to my other weathered rolling stock and locomotives.

I started by bringing them all together and taking stock of what I have. I also looked through books and on the Internet for relevant pictures to see what I might need to do as far as details and weathering. One great book is Cabins, Crummies and Hacks: Vol. 1 covering the northeast. Lots of great photos there.

One of the main things I do with all freight cars is to paint the trucks and wheels with rust and grimy black. If nothing else, this (to me) seems to impart the most realism into the model. I use a brush to paint the wheel faces rust and the trucks grimy black. Usually this is enough as the rust dries dark enough to look pretty good. If it is too bright a hit it with a light coat of grimy black. I also take the opportunity to check the gauge of the wheelsets against the NMRA gauge to make sure they are accurate.

I also installed Kadee #58 scale size couplers. I have decided to try to standardize on these, concentrating on locomotives and cabooses first as these are usually most noticeable. Many of the models have the Accumate couplers which I have not really liked to much, in appearance or in operation.

The final standard upgrade i did to all cars is to install coupler cut levers. I use Detail Associates part #FC-6215 for this. I drill the #80 hole for the eye bolt and run the lever through it. I glue the end to the bottom of the coupler box making sure it does not interfere with operation of the coupler. Once dry I painted the lever with grimy black. A small detail to be sure, but it is neat when your eye picks up the bent wire ends of the lever as the train rolls by.

My roster has three B&M cabooses now, with the addition of 2 new Intermountain ones in B&M blue. These are really nice and pretty accurate based on photos I have looked at on-line. For my time period one of the important items to add are the consolidated lube plates an the U-1 wheel stencils (yellow dots). I used Microscale decals to add this to the models, right onto the existing glossy surface. The photos helped me find the proper placement of these items on the models. I checked the weight on these cars. Coming in at 2.5 oz. these cars are a little light (should be 3 oz.). I did not find an easy way to get the body off the underframe and did not want to risk damaging the details. So I will have to see how these perform and add weight later if necessary. The painting, couplers and cut levers finished up these B&M cabooses.

I also have a Athearn RTR caboose, #C23. The Caboose book actually had a great shot of C23, which shows the Athearn paint job is pretty accurate although the model is just close. I took care of the trucks and added the decals to match the photo.

My MEC caboose fleet has been built using the Atlas releases from the past few years. The first release was the wide cupola #670. I unfortunately only picked up one of these when they came out. I should have looked to see if additional road numbers were released, or picked up more and changed the numbers. So far Atlas has not done another release of wide cupola cabooses in MEC paint, although the MEC did have 13 others (numbers 640-645, 651-654 and 670-672). Perhaps another wide cupola caboose will be a future release coming up?

Atlas has since released two runs of standard cupola cabooses in MEC paint. Numbers 656 and 659 came first and have green cupolas. Then 657 and 658 were released in a different lettering scheme with yellow cupolas. Somehow I picked up an extra 656 model, so I used Walthers Solvaset on a q-tip to remove the numbering on the sides and ends and then used Microscale decals from set 87-903 to renumber it to 655 (which I have a picture of in the same paint scheme). I'm not sure of all the standard cupola cabooses the MEC had, but I only have found pictures of 655-659, so I might have all of them covered.

I should point out that none of these is 100% accurate as a MEC caboose model. The MEC caboose have varying windows and none of the steps are correct (the MEC had 3 while the models have 2). I can live with these discrepancies. Other modelers may want to address filling in the extra window(s), although paint matching to hide the work might be tough. And I believe Moloco makes a part to replace the steps with proper, more detailed 3 steps. It is just a question of how much of a project you want to make it.

For each of these I did the usual truck painting, KD #58 couplers and cut levers. These models already had the lube plates, so it was just a matter of adding the U-1 stencils, using prototype photos as a guide. I also checked the weight on each of these. They are just about correct. Being 5 inches long, the NMRA recommended weight is 3.5 oz. and these came in at 3.4, close enough!

I also simulated the end flasher on these caboose by cutting a piece of clear acrylic rod (Plastruct 92031), gluing it to the end and putting a spot of Tamiya Red Clear gloss paint (#X-27) on the end. This does enough to capture the look of the flasher. I also installed sinclair short antennas to the roofs and hit them with Polly Scale MEC green.

I did notice a problem with the first standard cupola release (656 and 659). These wobble very easily and rock side to side unprototypically. I compared these to the later release which does not exhibit this problem. What I found is that Atlas has molded 2 stabilizing pins into the truck bolster to keep the caboose from rocking. On the earlier release, these pins are not as long as the later release. So Atlas fixed this problem between releases. My fix was to also install longer stabilizing pins using styrene strip, sanded to match the angle of the bolster and glued to the other truck bolster to help stabilize the caboose. I made them a little long and then filed them until the trucks attached and pivoted OK while still keeping the caboose stabilized.

On the 670 wide cupola caboose, I finished up a project I planned to do a while back. While watching videos at one point, I noticed the flashing red beacon on the back of the caboose as the train passed by. I see these on the MEC caboose in the photos as well. I had already picked up a Miniatronics flasher with red LED and Tomar contact wipers. With everyting on hand, I decided to complete the project now. I will be writing this up for the MER Local newsletter and will probably publish the details on my web site. For now, here is a picture of the caboose done and ready for reassembly.

The caboose with the flasher looks pretty neat on the track. There is a little more resistance and less free rolling with the wheels having contact wipers, but this does not seem to be a big deal. It will look nice on the end of the train during the open house in November.

I also have an Athearn recent release of MEC #661. this is neat in that it has the covered window. I limited my work on this to painting the trucks and replacing the couplers.

Not addressed right now are my older pair of Proto 2000 NE style caboose models. I have never liked the orange paint on these - it just looks too orange and not like MEC paint. I am thinking about removing the lettering and masking off the green areas, then airbrushing some MEC harvest gold onto the model. If it looks good, I will then re-letter it. I'll cover that in a future post.

Moving onto the Canadian Pacific, I acquired a couple of the Atlas Trainman "C&O Style" cabooses. Again, these are most likely not 100% accurate for the CP Rail cabooses they represent, nor do they have the level of detail of the other cabooses, but I am OK with them for my layout right now. I added the U-1 stencil above the existing lube plate and also took care of painting the trucks and swapping the couplers for #58s. The rest of the model looks OK, especially for a $12 price tag! Maybe later I will look into a more accurate modern caboose for CP Rail, getting appropriate input from me CP modeling buddy Anton.

My last two caboose to be worked on are the True-Line Trains Central Vermont wooden cabooses. While these do have the CV noodle logo, I am not 100% sure they would have been in use on the Richford Branch in 1980. No matter, my modeler's license allows me to use these models on my layout! For these I added the lube plates, U-1 stencils and painted the trucks. I decided to leave the installed couplers as these are a scale size metal spring coupler that looks pretty good. I'll see how they working operation and replace if necessary.

Now all my caboose models are ready for final weathering. I'll use an airbrush to hit them all with dust and some diluted grimy black. Then I will finish up with some Bragdon chalks for soot, dust and rust.

Lamoille Valley caboose

2008-06-10T08:49:00.004-04:00

So I was checking my e-mail and looking at the usual new release e-mails I get from my supplier (Mitch at Hobbies USA) when I scrolled down on the Intermountain July Releases and saw the NE-5 cabooses. Now, I had just received the B&M Blue ones earlier this week, so I was not surprised to see new paint schemes coming, including B&M in maroon. But I was not prepared for item CCS1225, LVRC #200! I cannot believe that they are producing this caboose prepainted and assembled in LVRC yellow with green! I had already planned to custom paint an Atlas NE-style caboose and had been using the undec unit on the back of my LVRC trains. I guess that saves me one custom painting project! Now I have the undec caboose to do something with, though...

NJ Division / RPM Meet

2008-03-18T23:30:00.002-04:00

Not too much to report on the layout front over the past few months. Lots of other things have been keeping me busy, but I do hope to get to some things as we move into the Spring. Hopefully you'll see that reported here. Anyway, here is a quick update on my model railroad activities.

Last weekend the New Jersey Division MER-NMRA held a meet and also celebrated the Division's 40th anniversary. It was a good time and I think everyone enjoyed the Meet. I appreciated the other NJ Division board members work to make this Meet special with lunch and a birthday cake, as well as coordinating an interesting slide presentation on local railroads. I plan to write up the event for an NMRA publication.

I currently am serving as Superintendent of the Division and recently reported that I will be stepping aside after 10 years serving in that position. I feel I have done my part to strengthen the Division and keep the train rolling. It is time to let someone else step in with fresh ideas and passion to take the Division into its 5th decade. I must admit I am a little burned out. I do plan to keep editing the newsletter for another year, and I'll stay active with the Division of course. But stepping back will allow me to spend some more model RR time doing actual model RRing!

Right now I am getting ready to attend the RR Prototype Modelers Meet in Malvern, PA (outside Philadelphia) at the end of March. I will be giving a slightly modified version of my clinic I gave at the Albany convention, focusing on researching the prototype railroads around St. Johnsbury to plan for my layout. I look forward to presenting again and this will help refine the presentation for the NMRA National in Hartford next summer 2009. This time I plan to include a handout, so I am finishing that up. For those interested I will post a PDF to my web site for download.

So, that's it for now. Talk to you again soon!

November Open House

2007-11-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

With the NER Fall Convention done, I turned my attention to getting some things done on the layout in preparation for the November Open House. This year the open house coincided with the public layout tour, so I had visitors from the Division Meet as well as some general public. As it turned out, over 50 people visited, but only about 15 were general public. I think there was an issue this year with not having printed layout books this year, they were only on-line. So I don't think enough public people were aware of the open house tour this year (by contrast, I had over 40 general public visitors last year). We'll have to see if we can do something about this next year to spread the word.

Anyway, I focused my attention on 2 areas for this year - adding more scenery and details to the Hardwick area and putting scenery into the section between Morrisville and Johnson. As I mentioned before, I put in crossing signals at the road crossing in Hardwick and added to that were some new structures, more details and more scenery elements. The video here shows the scene and the crossing signals:

In Hardwick, I added lots of the Siflor "tufts" and some more trees. I also added power poles (no lines yet), people and details, the recently completed church and the farm stand with pumpkins. I also started the swampy area with tall reeds right next to the road. I will continue this down between the tracks.

Over by the farm, I located the potato house and sceniced around it. I also added some larger foreground trees. Here are 2 pictures from a different angle than usual (along the track instead of straight on from the aisle.

For the area west of Morrisville, I have a curve going downgrade with a switch leading to the talc mill location in Johnson. I struggled with what to put in this small area and then thought about giving a winter scene a try. I have seen how late Fall in the high hills in VT and NH sometimes result in some snowfall, so I decided to try that. I also needed a place to put the A-frame house I won as a door prize a few years ago at the Stamford NER Fall convention. So I put in basic scenery, then added trees. I used larger trees here as I was not trying to force the perspective at all. With the location visually separated from the other areas of the layout, I think using snow works OK. Dusting on the snow was fun and I slowly built it up until I got the look I wanted. I then added some cross country skiers getting in an early run. I found it hard to get a good pictures of the scene, so I shot a little video instead:

Having the open house date helped me get these scenes finished. I got to sit back and watch trains run and also did a little yard switching in St. J. It got me to thinking about operations and what I still need to do to get there. So I want to finish up the other scenery, clean up some details in St. J and then think about work on the next phase, to get the required staging yards in place. That will be my goal by next year's open house!

NER Albany Convention Update Day #3

2007-10-20T11:43:00.000-04:00

This morning I am heading out on the Port of Albany Tour. Two large buses are here, so it looks like more than half of those in attendance will be going on the tour. We arrived in the Port and did an around the area tour by bus narrated by Tony Steele so we would know what we were lookoing at. Nice to see the D&H lightning stripe geep switching cars in the yard.

Next we stopped adjacent to the Cargill grain unloading facility and were able to get off the bus and stretch our legs. We were able to go over and check out the Port of Albany RR SW9 and CP caboose they use. We even got to climb on the equipment and go through the caboose! No one was on hand from the RR and they were not operating today.

Across the street a couple of Cargill employees came out and answered questions while operating their remote controlled switcher. This locomotive works a lot like model railroading with the engineer walking alongside the loco and using a large radio throttle to control movements.

We arrived back at the hotel around 11am, so I had time to grab lunch before going to see Dominic Bourgeois's clinic on D&H modeling. Dominc's clinic was a nice mixture of prototype and model slides and he provided a good deal of information on various paint schemes and uses for the cars. Many of the models seen in the slides were on hand in the next room on his impressive Schenectady layout section. Here are a few pictures of his impressive modeling.

Due to the staggering of clinic start times, I was not able to get in to see the start of a Jim Six presentation on structure building. I think it was interesting to try staggered start times, but the result seems to be too many clinics where people are coming in late off another clinic. Probably best to have uniform start times and provide half hour breaks to allow prep time and social interaction. So I will head in to see an update on Tony Koester's NKP layout at 3:30.

Tony's clinic was crowded so I am glad I arrived with time to spare. As usual it proved to be interesting and thought provoking. I have been to a number of Tony's clinics through the years and his clinics follow a rolling pattern. His ideas and concepts are presented and then through subseuent clinics you get to see the results presented on his layout. As these items are "checked off", he moves onto newer topics. As displayed in the lcinic, he is progressing well on his layout. I enjoyed seeing things he presented as concepts years ago at the Boston convention (2003) now implemented on his NKP layout.

The Happy Hour and Dinner Banquet followed and the food was suprisingly good (better than the usual convention fare). Having Sam Adams on tap doesn't hurt either. The awards presentation went OK, not taking too much time but still getting the recognition out to those who excelled at modeling, which was good. I was real happy to see Dominic get awards for his models and layout section. A real nice turn of events was Dominic winning not only 2 Merit Awards for his structures, but also the Baldwin Award for the best in show, awarded to his Schenectady layout section. The ironic part about this is he was not even going to enter the contest, but instead only display his work. Just goes to show you that it never hurts to put something into the contest. Same could be said for Glenn Glasstetter who did not build his structure of a residential house for contest purposes but still walked away with awards because he decided to bring the model and enter it.

The presentation for next years NER Fall Convention in Syracuse looked really interesting. Nice to see the use of technology in helping present, plan and execute a convention (i.e. an on-site iMac allowing those to vote on choices for rail and non-rail activities, using Mac software to put together photos, video and text to advertise the convention). They have some nice new concepts to try out as well, including a CD packaged with the map book so you can get photos of the layouts with full 360 degree views and turn by turn directions to get from layout to layout. And they have 50 layouts planned so far. Looks like a full slate of events with a group well organized and ready to go. Check out empirejunction.org for more info.

Wrapping up the night (after checking raffle tickets and winning a CP Rail boxcar) is a layout building clinic presented by Jim Six. He touched on a lot of his clinic topics while presenting his overall concepts for building his latest layout. A nice way to end the on-site convention activities.

NER Albany Convention Update Day #2

2007-10-19T10:47:00.000-04:00

Friday morning. Breakfast is included in the room price which is better than trying to head out and find a suitable breakfast place on your own. Met lots of other NJ and Philly Division guys here - more of us than the "locals" so far! Things starting at a laid back pace. Registration just getting set up but there are some clinics in progress. Most people here seem to be heading out to the afternoon operating sessions, and most of them seem to have also participated in last nights Op Sessions. That is an activity at Regional Conventions that has really become quite popular.

Looking forward to seeing some good clinics and layouts today. I also am fine tuning my own presentation today between conversations with others. Jim Dalberg has asked that I present my clinic at the Philly RPM Meet next March, so it is good to know that I will get some "mileage" out of what I have put together.

First clinic I am attending is Weathering with Mike Rose. Mike covered topics that have been featured in RMC over the past few years. These include the Dullcote and alcohol fading and using oil paints to do rust and letter streaking effects. It is really great to see these processes in action and be able to ask questions. The effects from start to finish are quite dramatic. Also good to see demonstrated is the ability to reverse many of these effects if you make a mistake. To me this is the essence of a convention, getting really great hands-on information that I can take home and use on my layout.

Headed over to the hospitality room. Of interest is a great display for next year's NER Fall Convention in Syracuse. Go to empirejunction.org for more info. Also on display are DVDs on building stuctures and weathering including one by Mike Rose on the same presentation he just gave. Needless to say, I decided to pick one up! Here is the producer of the tapes, Scott Mason.

A great clinic was followed up by a great layout. Andy Clermont's Rutland is really nice. He has steam in northern New York circa 1950. I really liked the scenery he has in place and trains really looked good running through those areas. I look forward to seeing the layout again, I'm sure in a magazine at some point.

Next up was time to give my clinic, an overview of Northern New England RRs and how I adapted that into my layout. It went well, although it went a little longer than I expected. But I did get a second request to give it again, this time at the Hartford National in 2009, So I guess people enjoyed it!

With not too much time left, I decided to head out for some more layouts. I went north to Lou Sassi's with the plan to make my way back south and see some more layouts on the way to the hotel. Lou's layout always looks great and it was good to see lots of detailing ideas up close so I can take ideas back to my layout.

Leaving Lou's the rain really started to fall and quickly became a torrential downpour. So I decided to skip more layouts considering how wet I would get trying to go from my car to the house. It took me about twice as long to get back to the hotel. With it nearing 10 pm I decided to get to the bar as soon as possible to get some food and drink before "last call" like the previous night. I just made the food cut-off! At the bar was fellow NJ Division members, so we discussed the days activities and upcoming NJ Division events. As people emptied out over the next hour, an early "last call" came again. Probably OK though as the Port of Albany tour leaves early tomorrow.

NER Albany Convention Update Day #1

2007-10-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

Well, a good italian dinner was had at Tony and Diane's. I arrived early enough to see all of their recent landscaping first hand while there was still daylight. I also saw where a 50' tree recently fell onto their deck. Nothing like having a major distraction whilst trying to keep the convention planning on track! Looks like both the deck and the convention are on firm footing at this point. Joining me for dinner was Dominic Bourgeois. A few other invited guests got held up at the hotel getting things ready for tomorrow's clinics. Dominic is from Montreal and I only knew of him through published photos and articles in the magazines, so it was nice to meet him in person. Dominic has sections from his D&H layout to set up at the convention hotel. Some interesting discussions took place about getting model railroad sections through customs across the border from Canada into the US.

After dinner we headed down to the basement to view the layout progress. Tony and Diane have quite an ambitious plan underway. Utilizing sections from the past USS D&H and Diane's Rutland layout, they are piecing together a multi deck (like 7 levels!) layout featuring the D&H and the line into Vermont to interchange in Rutland, VT. Right now they are getting key scenes in place and working out how everything will fit together. Very interesting to see the genesis of a new layout like this.

Some scenery is in place and it looks pretty good as the photos show. Tony is explaining the Howe's Cave section of the layout to Dominic above. And below Diane is discussing the scenery on the highest level (both are standing on step stools).

Getting back to the hotel, it is really much more crowded now. I headed to the bar to see if any other model railroaders were about, especially with some arriving back from operating sessions. Unfortunately the bar closed up early and I was getting the last beer for the night. Strange because while I was there many people came in looking for drinks, including a group who just got back from Massachusetts from a session. They were directed to a place down the street. Oh well. But the wireless internet throughout the hotel is real nice. I was able to check e-mail and get news (Flyers beat Devils 4-0!) while at the bar. I'll leave you tonight with a few more layout pictures.

NER Fall 2007 Convention - Albany

2007-10-18T15:57:00.000-04:00

I will be posting updates here throughout the weekend as I attend the Northeastern Region NMRA Fall 2007 Convention, the Commodore Vanderbilt, in Albany, NY. This is being hosted by the Hudson-Berkshire Division and is chaired by my friend and past Suth Jersey resident Diane Steele. I'll share some observations and things that I see, along with some photos, from this weekend event.

I really enjoy coming to NMRA Regional Conventions. These usually are attended by 200+ model railroaders and feature lots of great clinics, layouts, some prototype visits and just a good general interaction with other like-minded people. this convention is a return to Albany which last hosted a Regional in 2001. There are some great layouts in the area as you will see in the coming days and they also have a great slate of clinics on tap. I am also giving a clinic here on the railroads of Northern New England and how I used them as the basis for my in-progress layout.

The drive up went very well. It is very warm right now, not like October at all and much warmer than past Fall conventions I have attended. The high while driving hit 79 degrees. I had to stop by the local Best Buy on the way to pick up a special Mini-DVI cable that will allow me to attach my laptop to the digital projector. After that it was relatively easy driving and only took me about 3 1/2 hours. Fall is a little ahead up here vs. back home, so I saw lots of nice foiolage on the drive up - plenty of reds, yellow and oranges like I am trying to duplicate on my layout. Here is a quick camera-phone picture I took:

The hotel is the Best Western right off I-87 near I-90 in western Albany. Nice enough place although just one elevator might be an issue once people start to arrive. Right now it is fairly empty although I did run into another contingent from the NJ Divsion as I arrived, including Carl Corsi, Ken O'Brien and Chris Widmaier who serve on the NJ Division Board with me, and Division member Bob Doan. They were going to scout out a local hobby shop. I have "reservations" with Diane and Tony Steele who graciously invited me to dinner for this first night. I was told that Jim Six will also be in attendance, so I am looking forward to meeting him as well as seeing Diane and Tony's layout progress. I'll post an update later tonight when I get back.

Getting Ready for NER Albany

2007-09-12T16:00:00.000-04:00

I have put aside some of the layout work for now as I prepare my clinic for the NER Fall Convention, Commodore Vanderbilt, in Albany, NY this Oct. 18-21. I am adapting a past clinic where I looked at the railroads of Northern New England through slides by me and my late friend Glenn Salvatore. I am expanding the clinic to include adapting the prototype into a layout and looking at my layout's design and construction. I hope to share information the railroads of the VT and NH area, circa 1980, and show some layout design concepts that others can take home and use when building their layout (New England based or not).

One key difference between the clinics is that I will not be using a slide projector, but instead a laptop to do the presenation. I then had the problem of how to best convert some of the 120 slides from the first clinic into digital form so I could paste them into my presentation. I tried scanning them, but that was just too time consuming and the quality was not real great.

So instead I opted to set up the slide projector and display the slides onto a screen. Then I set up my digital camera to take shots of the projected image, turning them into digital photos. Pretty quick and painless and the results are pretty good. Here is a shot of me going through that process:

I'll have to put up another post later to let you know how the clinic and convention went. After the convention, I have an open house set for November 17th, so work on the layout will be back in full swing. That should lead to some more posts with construction updates.

Wiring!

2007-05-15T11:56:00.000-04:00

I think it is safe to say that most (not all, but most) model railroaders do not enjoy wiring. It is one of those necessary tasks to make a model railroad work and increase the enjoyment. This means the wiring has to be done well of course! Personally, I don't mind doing wiring, but I can't say that I look forward to doing it. I have tried to keep the wiring installation concurrent with my track laying. This means putting in feeders on each track section and ensuring that connections to the bus wiring is made and tested right away. The pay-off is being able to run trains on new track sections right away, making the task a little more enjoyable. But, as the pictures in this post show, wiring in itself does not do much to make your layout look any better to you or your visitors.

I'm not fanatical about by wiring. Some guys do really nice jobs under the layout with labeling, routing and neatness, and I admire that. But I'm more functional and pretty much just use color coding to make trouble shooting a little easier. That's about it. I am, however, more particular about how the wiring looks above the benchwork. In that regard, I take care to solder my feeders to the underside if the rail so the connection is totally hidden once the track is ballasted. I also make sure that all pieces of rail get a feeder to ensure continuous electrical connection. Sometimes this seems like overkill, but it really makes a difference, especially when you operate sound-equipped locomotives.

Recently I made the decision to finish up some wiring work that I put aside in order to have other things completed in time for last year's open houses. This included dividing the layout into separate blocks and installing circuit breakers. I picked up a Tony's Train Exchange PSFour Intelligent Circuit Breaker last summer and decied it was time to get it installed. I also needed to complete the installation of some turnout decoders to complete the control of all installed Toroise switch machines. (This is a picture of one of the Digitrax DS44 turnout decoders (blue) installed on my layout)

I had already knew how I was going to split up the layout into blocks. Basically each "leg" of the E-shaped layout would be isolated. This meant that the LVRC section would be one block, the St. Johnsbury peninsula would be another section and MEC Whitefield/CP Rail Wells River section on the far wall would be the third block. I have found from operating experience that is nice to have separate operating areas under separate blocks so that one short doesn't interrupt other operators in another area. This left me with one circuit on the PSFour and I soon knew what I would use this for. With the layout under one block, if a short circuit occurred because a locomotive encroached on a turnout, I had no way to reverse the decoder controlled turnout to clear the short. By putting all of the Digitrax DS44 turnout decoders on their own circuit I was able to eliminate this issue across the entire layout.

What this meant is that I had to run a new bus wire just for the turnout decoders. I also needed to take the existing sets of bus wires and separate them out to the separate connections on the PSFour. This took 2 afternoon sessions to get completed, but everything went well and worked. I tested shorting out blocks to make sure trains in other areas continued to run. I also installed a center off switch to set up a programming track for locomotive decoders. The picture here shows the completed wiring of the Digitrax command station with the PSFour board attached to the shelf. This area is hidden by a layout skirt, but removing it gives me full and easy access. There are a set of leads I wired to a terminal block for remote LED short circuit indicators. These are real handy on my friend John Rahenkamp's (much larger) layout, so I know I want to have these installed in relevant areas on the layout. I just need to figure out the best spot for each one. That will be a wiring job for another day!

Chill in the Air

2006-10-29T23:00:00.000-05:00

(Note: I wrote this in October 2006, but realized I never posted it!)

Well, we're at the end of October and model railroading season is strarting to pick up here on the Northeast Kingdom layout. I've been somewhat busy with other things, but I have a few projects readyto start and some things coming up to get things going.

First up, I have an electrical project just finished up. I'm certainly no electronics expert, but I can solder and run wires pretty well. Back in July at the National Train show I stopped by the booth for Logic Rail Technologies <http://home.houston.rr.com/lrt/>. They had a neat display of a train going through a grade crossing with the flashers going on and off automatically. If you've seen the pictures from my earlier posts, you know I completed a road that crosses the mainline and siding on the Lamoille Valley at East Hardwick, VT. I talked about installing the unit and was convinced it was something I could handle. I picked up their Grade Crossing Pro package along with a bell ringer circuit and speaker.

I had planned to use the Details West Grade Crossing model, but I was unable to get it working with the LEDs supplied. Soldering them and getting them into the castings was frustrating and I ended up with some LEDs that did not work and did not disguise the wires easily. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I went through the Walthers catalog and decided on using the Tomar crossing flashers.

Well, to make this long story a little shorter, I got the flashers and the circuits installed with no real problems. Because I added extra sensors to activate the flashers from the passing and siding tracks, I have a pretty good amount of wires under the layout. But using terminal strips helps keep things under control. I added the bell circuit and speaker and hooked up the power supply. Everything worked! I did have to adjust the sensitivity on the photocells to get the on/off timing to work well. I also found that it helps to have a light source over the cells to avoid accidental tripping of the cuircuit when someone leans close to the layout. I actually already had this covered by havnig a set of three spotlights installed in this area because it seemed a bit dimmer than other areas. This answered my question of whether I needed that light!

I'll post a little video of the grade crossing flashers in action soon, but for now here is a photo:

It's nice to have a project like this completed as it adds sound and animation to the layout, something that is fun for me and for visitors. Speaking of which, I have my layout open on the annual November layout tour that occurs each year throughout the Philadelphia area. So I'll have a few weeks to get a few more things done before the visitors arrive.

Quiet Summer

2006-08-15T13:58:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is the middle of August and all is quiet on the model railroad front. The long road to get as much done as possible on the layout before the Philadelphia National convention is now over. I knew about the convention before we moved in to our house and before the layout was started, so this was always a goal and a driving force to keep me motivated. There were also a couple of local open houses to keep me going as well. But now the convention is over and I must say I have taken a break from things the past few weeks.

First a recap: I had my layout open for 2 tours on the convention as well as one other night where I had some friends visit. (If you want more info on my layout, be sure to visit my website for the layout at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mikemcnh/mrr.html) The focus up to that point was to have the 2 independent mainlines in place so 2 trains could run unattended. That accomplished I focused on the scenery on what I termed the first phase. I wanted to get more done, but I think I got enough in to convey what the layout will look like, Fall in 1980 in upper Vermont and New Hampshire. I completed the farm scene at the right to help convey the feel of Vermont. I also comlpeted the majority of the scenery in St. Johnsbury plus I had the scenery in Sheldon Jct. completed last November. I put sound into a few more locomotives, completed a second Lamoille Valley RS-3 and weatherd a lot a freight cars. This work really paid off because many of the visitors commented positively on the weathering and the scenery, so this was quite satisfying.

The convention itself started for me Sunday evening working in the Silent Auction room, which was being run by the New Jersey Division MER-NMRA (go to the web site at: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/njdivnmra/). I also spent all day Monday there. (Tuesday was the 4th of July and I was of with the family). My first tour was Wednesday night and I spent all of that day making final preparations. Around 8:30pm the bus pulled up and about 20 people from all over the country descended on the basement. The trains ran without incident, everyone took pictures and had a good time, and I was happy that all went well. Whew! Thursday was back to the Auction room, then back home for the private layout visit. Friday I went to the opening of the train show, was floored by the Intermountain pre-production sample of an HO GE U18B locomotive, and purchased more stuff for the layout, of course. Friday night was the second tour and again all went well for the 20 visitors. I only wish I had time to take in some clinics, but sometimes you just have to be a volunteer!

So since then, I have not done too much. I have really enjoyed wathching the trains run through the new scenery and listening to the sound equipped units. But I think things will be picking up soon. At the train show, I picked up a crossing flasher circuit and I really want to get that installed now that I have a highway grade crossing in place (here at Hardwick, VT). I also just received in the mail my Digitrax sound decoder for the Kato F40PH. This is supposed to be an easy install and then I can try out my Amtrak train (a bit of proto-freelancing to have an Amtrak train travel through St. Johnsbury - I'll have to post my thoughts on that in the future). So I am starting to feel like doing some things now that the burn out is wearing off. The good thing now I suppose is that I don;t have to feel to much pressure of an approaching deadline. I can do some projects I enjoy and still run the trains around for my own enjoyment.

Of course, there is the local November model railroad self-guided tour. I could put my layout on that tour I suppose, just to help keep things moving. Maybe I can get that corn field in place and that rough scenery in Lyndonville, VT completed. And perhaps I can get the paper mill at Gilman, VT started. Hmmm....

South Jersey Workshop

2006-05-28T10:17:00.000-04:00

In my last entry, I mentioned an informal "club" that I participated in where we built some modules and worked on home layouts in a round robin style. That group was called the South Jersey Workshop and the idea was based on the Hartford Workshop, a group of modelers in Connecticut that worked on each others layout. The group started out with members who participated in another, traditional model railroad club but were each interested in starting personal layouts.

I dug through some old photos and found 2 pictures from about 1988. Not the greatest quality, but they do show what we were doing at the time (Interesting how today with digital cameras I take pictures of everything and sort through them on the computer, but when it was film that had to be developed I was much more selective before pressing the button).

The first photo here is from Glenn and Diane's layout. It depicted the Rutland from Bellows Falls to Rutland. This was the first scene, Gassetts, VT. Diane really did some great scenery here and we did get the foreground and fascia in later. To the left, the layout crossed the entrance to the room on a drop bridge into a workshop area. Under the top level is the lower level. The layout used an alternating upper level/lower level scene, giving space between each town on each level, with the backdrop creating a shadow box type look.

In the next picture, this is to the right of the Gassetts picture, turning 90 degrees. Here the layout continued down the wall, across the far wall and back up the wall to the left. At this time, Rutland yard (and the hidden Whitehall staging yard) were not built. The 2 modules we first built as a group are temporarily added here to the end of the mainline so we could run trains back and forth. I really wish I had more photos documenting our accomplishments on this layout.

There were a lot of good times working on the layout with Glenn, Diane and our friend Anton, plus a few others here and there. The SJW concept worked well for us. We all learned a lot about building layouts and we got a lot more accomplished then if we worked alone. A few years later we started work on a layout in my home. Glenn helped a lot getting the basement area ready and then handlaying some track.

Here you see me doing some early benchwork assembly on the area of the layout to depict Bartlett. This photo is from October 1995. A lot of the concepts learned on Glenn's layout and then this layout were applied to my current layout, such as the benchwork style and spline roadbed assembly.

In this last shot, we see more of the Bartlett benchwork completed. The corner location meant that we were going to include the wye in Bartlett. The tail leg was going to be used for a continuous run option and that is where the loco and boxcar were sitting at the time. This area progressed to full trackage with handlaid code 70 and code 55 track featuring switches built by Glenn. A move from this house in 1996 ended the layout. But one thing I realized from the trackplan and what I had built is that the layout I was building, Portland staging feeding into Bartlett, Crawford Notch, Whitefield and finally St. Johnsbury, was going to be faithful but did not offer too much in the way of operations. The St. J area would have the most action, including north and south Canadian Pacific staging and a short Lamoille Valley staging track in the electrical closet. These lessons were important as I planned my current layout and found that focusing on St. J offered the most operating potential for the era and geographical area I wanted to model.

As for the South Jersey Workshop, Diane moved to New York a few years ago and Anton is curently living and working in Maryland. Anton did help out on a lot of the initial benchwork on the current layout when it was started in 2003. So the SJW is somewhat in hibernation I guess, pending visits from past members for work sessions (hint, hint) or bringing some new people into the fold. My advice: In the area where you live, look into establishing a round-robin group like this. There are many benefits and it can really boost your ability to get things accomplished on the layout. You'll make some great friends along the way too!

My model railroad background

2006-05-23T16:00:00.001-04:00

(Note: The idea for this web log was inspired by a similar blog by Mike Hamer. Mike actually hosts a few blogs, including the bostonandmaine.blogspot.com blog and the www.fridaynightgroup.blogspot.com blog. Both are very interesting with great pictures and I highly recommend a visit to both)

My interest in model railroading goes back to having trains when I was young. My parent's gave me HO trains at Christmas and helped me set up a 4' x 8' layout in the basement. They supported my "hobby" by giving me additional gifts of cars, structures, etc. as I grew up (in the 1970s). Meanwhile, our family would go camping each summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. At this time, the Maine Central ran regularly through the are, Crawford Notch and Twin Mountin, on its way to St. Johnsbury, Vermont or back to Portland, Maine. Seeing these trains helped cement my interest in railroading and model railroading.

One Christmas, my parent's included a Railroad Model Craftsman magazine with my gifts. Included in this issue, the October 1980 issue, was an article about the ball signal at Whitefield, NH. Wow! This was a place I had been to. Along with the other articles and photos, this feature helped me realize that playing with trains could be based on what was going on out on the real railroads. I would say this is the point that I became a model railroader. I started getting more copies of RMC, including back issues, and started learning a lot about model railroading. The Editor's Notebook column in RMC written by Tony Koester really influenced how I perceived model railroading should be done, how things should be based on the prototype and how operations could really enhance your enjoyment of the hobby.

At this point, my main prototype knowledge was the current day Maine Central running through New Hampshire. That became my modeling focus and remains so to this day. It was probably the purchase of the MEC by Guilford and the abandonment of the Mountain Division through NH that kept my interest locked into 1980 or so.

My model railroading was helped along by having the good fortune of quality hobby shop in my hometown, Sattler's Hobby Shop, in Westmont, NJ. I was lucky enough to also work there for a little over 1 year while I was in high school. It was from Sattler's that I learned about the Gateway Model Railroad club and soon I was visiting their large layout in Gloucester. I soon became a member and learned many new skills over the next few years. I also had the good fortune to meet Glenn Salvatore and his wife Diane, members that also had an interest in New England railroads. (The top picture on this post was taken by Glenn in 1981). Soon after Glenn and Diane moved into a new home, we set up the South Jersey workshop, a modeling group that functioned like a club, but without the politics, dues and other "club" issues.

Our first project was a pair of HO modules based on North Stratford, NH. These would be my first "real" model railroad as I would consider it as it was fully wired, had scenery and was used in a few local modular set ups. Next, we started work on Glenn's layout, which featured the Rutland line between Bellows Falls and Rutland, VT. We met weekly at Glenn's for a number of years, and had the layout open for a local NJ Division NMRA Meet. We also started a layout in my home based on the Mountain Division between Bartlett, NH and St. Johnsbury, VT. Sadly, Glenn's health deteriorated and I lost my good model railroad friend in 2000. (I do remain freinds with Diane, who has since moved to NY state.)

In 2002, we moved into a new home with a nice basement and plans were underway for a new railroad. I knew I would still want to model the Maine Central in New England and the timeframe would be the late 1970s to early 1980s as that was the focus for much of my model building and research. How I came to choose the theme for my current model railroad will be the topic for a future post.