Wiring work on the Modules

Having just completed a long weekend of Free-mo, I wanted to take care of a few things on my modules while it is still fresh in my mind. I don't have a plan yet for the next Free-mo event, but I want to make sure a few issues and upgrades are taken care of before that occurs.

I have clamped plastic throttle holders to my module to make a place for them to reside without adding a permanent projection from the side fascia, which is something to avoid on modules as much as possible. This would be easily damaged in transit or set up. I noticed Bill Grosse had taken the idea a step further on his modules and mounted his plastic holders to a thin piece of wood which is then clamped on to the module. This is a good idea and makes for a sturdier mount of the throttle holder. I decided to upgrade my pair to match what Bill has done, also painting them in the standard NJ Free-mo fascia color.

The throttle holder "block" can now be firmly clamped to the side of the module.

I have 2 clamp-on extensions for my module, one that serves as the shortline interchange off of the yard, and a one that can be used off of the mainline when no module is connected past mine. This allows a locomotive set, or loco and car to use the run around of the passing siding. While these were painted to match the fascia, the roadbed remained gray homasote. I decided to give these a spray from my favorite track color, Rustoleum Camouflage Brown, a great very flat railroad color. I'll also spray the track and rerailers. This will help them stand out a little less.

The Homabed is now darker to match the track placed on there after clamping to the module.

Free-mo as a national group recently decided to modify the standards for the wiring, converting from RJ connectors and trailer plug connectors to Anderson Power Poles, and also adding a DCC common bus line. I have had dual RJ and PP connectors for a few years, but decided this would be a good time to remove the older connectors and have just Power Pole, along with adding the DCC common and converting the accessory bus from trailer plugs.

The module is clamped onto the table top above my pool table in the "non-model railroad" portion of the basement.

 A great thing about the modules is being able to move them, turn them on their side, etc., when work needs to be done, as shown above. Here you can see my main bus, the loconet cable, the terminal strips at the ends, and one of the non-manual turnouts controlled by a Tortoise and a DCC/pushbutton control module developed by a New England Free-mo member.

Accesory Bus, DCC/Track power bus , and the DCC Common bus with their Power Pole connectors

You may be wondering about the wire colors (a lot of red there) and the Power Pole Connector colors shown. No standards exist for wire colors or Power Pole Connector colors. This may seem odd, but it becomes apparent that it is unfeasible once you take into account that a module left and right will change when you get to the other end. A black wire to the left rail will become a black wire to the right rail on the other end when you are facing the end. So I am using different colors where possible within my module to assist me, but in reality once wiring is done and working, you never need to mess with it on a module.

I am still working on this and also plan 2 other changes. First, I picked up some Cobalt intelligent turnout controllers in Springfield and I want to test it out on one of the module turnouts to see if it will allow me to convert it back from the ground throws. Although the ground throws continue to work, they are subject to damage from moving the modules, and also detract from taking realistic photos on the module. I need to make sure I can control the Cobalt from push buttons mounted on both sides of the module.

The other change I want to make is to isolate my module trackage from the DCC bus and include a circuit breaker. This way if a short circuit occurs (usually from running a turnout), I will not take out the whole DCC block and stop everyone else from running. This is the same as what you want to accomplish on a layout with separate power districts. Having 10 turnouts on my module usually means someone (like me) will forget to throw a turnout now and again, especially when they are switching and a someone starts to talk during a show. I'll be running a separate bus for the DCC, and tap into it for powering the circuit breaker. My existing track bus will be connected only to the circuit breaker, and I'll insulate the track ends to isolate my module trackage. So 2 more Power Pole Connectors on the intra-module joints only. More on this as work progresses.

Meanwhile work continues on the Crawford Notch station. I'll post about that soon, plus a few other small projects. And hopefully I'll have an Operating Session to report on in late March.

Springfield Wrap Up

A great weekend up at the Springfield show. The weather was much warmer than any time I have been there before. I needed to buy a D&H T-shirt to wear Sunday as it was so warm in the building. The crowds were pretty good and I talked to a number of new and also familiar folks about Free-mo and model railroading.

I posted pictures I took of the Free-mo layout up on Flickr. Go to the link below to see them all (76).

https://flic.kr/s/aHsktHAXzn

Woodstown Jct. setup and ready to receive visitors - people and trains!

Saw some cool stuff at the show, picked up a few things of course, but mainly enjoyed operating on the Free-mo layout and talking to people. I know I probably missed a few of you who visited however. We ran operating sessions both days, and it was quite a run I had on Sunday when I went from Italy Yard down the branch to Woodstown, about 200 feet. I switched towns along the way and decided to terminate in Woodstown rather than head back as it took me an hour to do that part of the run. Very cool!

It was great having so many new people join with modules. Others from NJ and a new group out of Albany, plus a fantastic Bridge module from Ontario joined in this year making for a spectacular layout. The show director was quite pleased with the layout and people's reaction to it, and we have the same space available again next year. James Koretsky of NE Free-mo did a great job with the plan, which fit the space perfectly. And Fred Hessler and Bob Hall, also of NE Free-mo did a great job coordinating an operating plan that offered plenty of trains to run and industries to switch.

My friend Anton assisted with my modules and also brought some of his road power to run. Some of his nicely weathered Canadian units were operated Sunday with a good deal of natural sunlight coming through a  roof sky light making for some great photo opportunities.

My GRS GP40-2W (ex-CN) and Anton's CN GP40-2Wget some sunlight on the bridge at Woodstown Jct.

We did experience some issues with short circuits within our power district. This brought to mind my desire to isolate my module from the bus and install a circuit breaker. This way if I am the one causing a short I won't impact others in the power district. So while the modules are out and it is on my mind I will spend a little time working on that, along with getting the rest of the Power Pole changeover done to match the revised Free-mo specs.

So sorry if I did miss any of you looking for me, but glad to meet and say hi to those that read the blog and were at the show.

If anyone has any specific questions, post a comment here and I'll respond.

Who needs a Pepsi?

TBT - Free-mo module

Getting the module together for the trip up to Springfield got me thinking about when I started to build it and everywhere it has been. It has also led to new friendships and good times with modelers and folks I otherwise would not have met. I am certainly glad I embarked on this project. So here is a Throwback Thursday look at my Woodstown Junction Free-mo module.

It started with an issue of Railroad Model Craftsman in 2008 where Free-mo was explained and demonstrated, including construction ideas. This looked like a great way to do modular railroading, something I had participated with in the past with traditional style modules in the 1980s. Back then, an HO version of what N-trak was doing was all the rage. That group fell apart after a few years and modules built by me and some friends were disassembled.

I certainly did not need a new model railroad project as I was fully involved with my home layout. But this looked like something that could augment that and allow me to participate in other events besides home layout tours and open houses. I've always enjoyed the idea of modular layouts coming together at shows and events, and this new (to me) style had a lot going for it with a more prototypical look to things, and no difficult backdrop to deal with.

So I embarked on a design inspired by a prototype scene in Calais, Maine, the end of a Maine Central branch, I am not sure how I came upon that idea exactly, but it probably was from studying some pictures and seeing a view much like the picture below. The arrangement of track seemed like it would fit nicely into the parameters of a module, and offer operating potential even without other modules attached.

This early picture shows construction progress in early 2009, shortly after I started building. Here the track is in with basic wiring. It was just about ready for it's debut at an NMRA Division Meet, demonstrating Free-mo to a group who had never seen it before.

Initially I completed just 2 sections of the module set before starting on the shorter bridge scene section.

That the module was something that could provide operations when set up by itself was important as I was the lone pioneer in the New Jersey area with Free-mo. It would be a few years before more modules came on-line in our area, so it was great to have what was essentially a self contained portable layout. It certainly would have been easier (and maybe wiser!) to start with the traditional 2x4 module with maybe a single siding, but luckily things worked out well construction-wise and the module has performed well.

Since that debut in May of 2009, the module has been to 23 events, traveling nearly 5000 miles and getting looked at by thousands of people. Pretty cool when you step back and think about it!

When the modules were 2 years old they had their first chance to connect to other Free-mo modules, traveling down to Timonium to integrate into the Capitol Free-mo group's layout. This was certainly a moment of truth to see just how well a Free-mo module built in a vacuum might hook up with other modules from other builders. Luckily there were no issues and the module performed well. A testament to the Free-mo standard that I could build this and have it work so well right away.

The modules have attended multiple NMRA Regional conventions, public train shows such as Timonium and Springfield, numerous NMRA Division Meets and a few public displays. The modules have also participated in numerous formal operating sessions. 

My module is somewhere around 80% complete. I still have a little more scenery work I'd like to do and finalize some structures. Certainly if I did not also have a home layout I would have completed these things long ago. But the fact that the module is operationally sound and relatively complete looking has not let these things deter from my enjoyment. I look forward to many more adventures with these modules!

The bridge section, getting an initial scenery base in 2011. This bridge has survived a complete collapse when the module fell over and flattened out the bridge. I was able to rebuild it, but it is a reminder that dealing with modules requires extra care. This is often why I turn down assistance from those who want to help me carry the modules in and out from events. I would love their help, but it is easy to damage things and I don't want anyone to feel awful if something goes wrong! 

To get a full look back at all my posts that included Free-mo, click on the 'Free-mo' link at the right under Labels to filter just for those posts.

Springfield Big "E" Show This Weekend!

Just a note to mention I will attending the Big "E" Train Show, also known as the Springfield Show, or the Amherst Train Show, depending on who you are talking to! It will be great to see all the Free-mo guys again as I will be bringing my Woodstown Jct. module up to include in the very large Free-mo layout. We'll be set up in the Mallory building, the larger area in the back, and we shouldn't be hard to spot as we will have an area about 200' long filled with modules.

Here is a peek at the layout plan, and a link to the plan PDF file:

http://www.nefree-mo.org/Springfield_2016_Final.pdf

My Woodstown Jct. modules are at the far right on this plan, connected to fellow NJ Free-mo member Bill Grosse's Yardville module, and across from Capitol Free-mo member Dan Picciotto's Boston Street module.

We will have modules coming in from Ohio, NY, Toronto, NH, MD, VA, MA and of course NJ. It is an impressive layout and great work from James Koretsky of NE Free-mo for finding the best use of the space and also arranging them into a suitable operations oriented layout.

We will be conducting a few operating sessions during the show. At other times I may be out on the show floor looking around and seeing people and vendors. So if you don't see me at the layout, look for me walking around or stop by later in the day.

Hope to see you there!

A CP switcher and CR transfer caboose idling in the heart of Woodstown Junction at last year's Springfield show

Some Words for this Wednesday!

In addition to tweaking the Operations and getting ready for the next planned Op Session, I want to get back to doing a bit more actual modeling. Some of this would be making trees and installing them along the backdrop at Crawfords and down through Whitefield, I think having a complete tree line between the tracks and the backdrop will really help give a more finished look to the layout in that area. So I am preparing some Super Tree armatures for painting and flocking.

This area will look better with some trees along the backdrop, even if the foreground is not complete.

I also want to get track in the remaining few areas completed. I'd like to tackle the North Stratford area up on the shelf above Groveton first. Right now Maine Central trains TY-2 and the returning YT-1 simply depart and arrive on a single track here. Adding the interchange with the Grand Trunk and the North Stratford track will mean some work for the crew to do here prior to departing, and then again when returning. It won't take a lot of track either, just a few turnouts and some flex track will do it. So I'm finalizing the track plan there and making a list of track components I will need.

This will be a lot more fun to look at and operate once a little more track is in place!

And finally, I want to address the lack of structures on the layout, and in some cases the replacement of stand-in structures (I'm looking at you, generic Walthers grain mill in Sheldon Jct., looking particularly non-New England!).

To start with I dug out my kit of Crawford Notch station that I acquired, oh...about 20 years ago, and started work on it. It will be located right where you enter the layout area, so it will be good to help get that scene to completion and make a good first impression.

About time I tackled this kit. I was just glad that there did not seem to be any missing parts. Might be tough to get them 20+ years later!

Some filing and sanding of the resin parts and cutting out the window areas to start. Then I needed to take care of some warping by dipping pieces in hot water and laying out on a flat area. Overall a pretty nice kit just a little different than what I have done in the past with wood or styrene. I have competed painting the wall sections green (there are many of these!) to match the depot as it looked circa 1980. A few trim pieces are a light gray. This is just before the more intricate paint job it still wears today that seems to have been applied around 1983. Installing window glass and then on to building up the walls on the base. I'll post more pictures of that as progress is made.

For now though, lots of other Holiday activities, so I probably won't get too much more done until January. And in January I'll have to get the modules ready for the Free-mo layout set up in Springfield MA. Plenty to keep me busy!

Waybills of Winter

That title sounds like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song doesn't it? :-)

With the MER convention  and open house in November now in the rear view mirror, I have had some time to evaluate things and plan my next projects. High on the list is to maintain regular Op Sessions. These may only be every 3 months or so, but I think it will be important to move things forward. With what I learned at each session I am able to develop a plan for what needs to be addressed and worked on. These would be things in addition to any regular layout building, i.e. scenery, structures, etc.

First up was some revisions to the waybills. Seeing the guys use them has identified some areas for tweaking. There is a big difference in reading a waybill when you are the layout owner vs. a visiting operator. Destinations for example are most important for the operator to understand quickly. It doesn't really matter what the destination is as long as the operator understands what that tells him to do with the car.

I previously posted about using a color in the upper right hand box to help the St. Johnsbury yard crew classify cars by destination railroad, Orange for MEC, Yellow for LVRC, Red for CP North and Blue for CP/BM South. I added a new color, Purple, for CP 937, hot cars off of MEC RY-2 that go on this train. These arrive in a block and quickly depart. But it should help the crew in breaking down RY-2 when it arrives. 

This boxcar is coming from Augusta ME and heading to Chicago IL. The new purple color code in the corner alerts the yard crew that this car is hot and needs to go on the CP 937 train. This is also reflected in the Instructions section. But why is the To Station showing Montreal and the From Station showing Portland? Read on for details!

I also previously posted about a subtle change to the waybills as far as Destinations were concerned. I thought I would expand on that a little more now that I have been working on that.

When I developed my waybills I utilized the Op Sig database to come up with prototypical off-layout destinations and shippers.While that is fine and interesting to those who care to read the details, one thing I think I made a mistake with was on the routing line, the "To Station Name" box. Having a To routing of Detroit MI for example does not really help a crew or operator understand what needs to happen with that particular car. Does the St. Johnsbury yardmaster put it on the westbound LVRC train, the northbound CP train, or southbound B&M train?

An operational aid for the yardmaster will help tell him that a car for Detroit should go on the CP northbound 904 train. That train is destined for Newport and then Montreal, and the car will eventually be routed to Detroit from there. This aid would be a list of destinations applicable to each train passing through or departing the yard. 

But even something like this could still be unwieldy. What if 5 cars arrived with 5 different destinations, and each one was checked against this list to determine which train the crew should route the car on? It takes too much time to scan a list for Destinations and find the appropriate trains.

I decided it made far more sense to limit all my To Station destinations on the waybills to either the town on the layout where the car will end up, or the destination of the train which will carry that car.

Going back to my Detroit example, the Consigneee box can still list Detroit, but up at the top where the operator looks for the To Station routing it will say Newport VT. Newport is the destination of only 1 train, the CP 904.

Taking that one step further, I am making sure my From Station names are also matching the origin point for the trains. Portland originates the daily MEC RY-2. Not as critical but sometimes it helps for operators to know where a car is coming from. (I can also tell you that it helps me immensely when it comes to restaging the layout!)

An example of a car being delivered on-line is shown below. East St. Johnsbury is on the layout and when that car arrives in St. Johnsbury, the crew will know that all E. St. J cars go on MEC YQ-1.

One further step to help the operators: For all cars destined to an on-line industry, I am highlighting the consignee box. This will help alert the crew that this car is going to be spotted by a local train, another aid for yard crews and also local train crews to distinguish between cars to drop and those to carry through to the destination.

This B&M Covered Hopper will end up at Ciment Quebec, a local industry on my layout. The colors on the waybill help the crews. 1) the Orange in the upper right box quickly tells the CP St. Johnsbury Yard crew that this car will be routed to the MEC, 2) the highlighted To Station Name tells the yard crew that this car goes on the YQ-1, and 3) the highlighted Consignee box will alert the YQ-1 crew that this car will be dropped in E. St. J at Ciment Quebec.

I think these simple changes will help the crews and provide consistency for those that attend multiple sessions. At the St. Johnsbury yard it will be easy to spot destinations on the car card boxes or by looking at the schedule of trains and know for certain that this car belongs in this particular train. 

Wordless Wednesday #4

Wordless Wednesday #3

Annual Open House - Sat. Nov 14th

It's that time of the year again. Dozens of great model railroads will be open throughout November in the NJ, PA, MD and DE area. Your complete guide is at http://modelrailroadopenhouse.com.

My layout will be open on Saturday, November 14th from 1pm to 5pm. Stop by and say hi!

There are 3 other model railroads open that are within 10 minutes of my house, so you can easily see our 4 layouts and then more a little further away.

Hope to see you on the 14th!

Wordless Wednesday #2

Wordless Wednesday #1

Op Session #2 Lessons Learned

Op Session #2 went pretty smoothly last week and I am very happy with the results. Definite progress in getting the operations plan tweaked, and a few things learned to help going forward.

We had 1 extra guy, making a crew of 7 plus myself. I think it probably runs better with 6 guys, but all in all, things went pretty well. I think when the schedule is balanced better and the guys are more familiar with the layout, things will run well. But good to know I can accommodate an extra guy if that happens. And if we only had 5, I would probably have to jump in to help, as just 2 road operators would slow things down. There are also a few trains on the schedule that could be skipped if necessary, without disrupting other trains.

First time attendee Rick B. is dropping some cars from MEC RY-2 at the interchange in Whitefield for the B&M.

We started rolling trains at 7:45 and finished up about 11:30. Ideally I'd like to be done by 11 so it is not too late for the guys heading home. As there was still a fair bit of instruction to get things started, I do know that time will be shaved off at the start as we do this more often. Normally it will not take 45 minutes from when guys arrive to when we start running, even with a bit of socializing.

Three trains did not run. The Amtrak and CP TOFC trains could have run - these need to run near the same time as they must pass each other in St. Johnsbury. I held these trains as things were pretty busy enough in St. Johnsbury without additional trains coming through. Ideally these will run at a time when the yard quiets down, perhaps when the yard crew guys are grabbing a snack. And the CP 904 northbound train which is scheduled to depart late in the session did not run again. This was really just a time issue as it was too late.

The Crew Call Sheet at the end of the night.

I tried to be as accurate as possible in recording train times for started and ended. Some of the crew helped out too filling this in as they came off duty and returned the train card. I made some on-the-fly changes in the schedule to keep things balanced and will use that in sequencing the trains for next time. I also will fill in start times for trains based on the info from this session. I'll update this with actual times during the next session to see how it compares.

The goal will be to get a good spacing of trains and allow crews a little down time to snack and socialize, knowing what else is coming up. This works well on other area layouts, and hopefully I can get there after a few more sessions. 

Mark F. and Joe C. held down St. J yard duties again. I thought it would be helpful not to start moving people to different assignments yet as I try to get the operating plan nailed down.

The guys were still having some trouble with the waybills and I had to do some explaining now and again. I thought about the questions they were asking and ways that I might address some of those issues encountered.

One of the things I have on my waybills is information about where the car is coming from and going to off the layout. For example, a car of cement might be coming from Howes Cave in New York, and the waybill reflects that.

While this is pretty cool (at least I think so!), in the heat of operations, guys are pretty much just wanting to know where does the car go NEXT. That can be difficult not knowing as much about the layout, the railroads modeled and the geography of the area as I do. What is easy for me to figure out is not quite the same for everyone else.

With that in mind I am making some subtle changes to the waybills to assist. First, on the To and From boxes, I am using only actual layout locations. This will assist yard crew in figuring out which cars go on which trains. For example, if a To destination is East Deerfield, that car needs to get onto CP 917 heading south, the only train heading to that destination. Even if the car is later destined for Howes Cave NY, that is off the layout and does not really concern the crew in St. Johnsbury. As much as it is nice to have waybills that are more prototypical, if it does not help the crew get the job done, then that is an issue during operations

The other change will be to highlight the Consignee destination box for any car that will be spotted locally on the layout, i.e. a car that will not end up in staging. This is just one more helpful hint to assist the operator.

An updated waybill, the To and From are layout destinations now, while the Shipper and Consignee contain some of the prototype info that I want to include on waybills (and used to be in the To and From boxes). This car will be set out locally at Ciment Quebec, which the highlighted box helps convey.

It is now easier to tell the crew to just look at the colored sections of the waybill: The upper right color assists yard crews in sorting trains (orange is a MEC destination), the highlighted To box is where this car is going next, and if highlighted, the Consignee box indicates the 'local' industry receiving the car.

I also know that the turnout controls operated via DCC with the throttles are slowing things down too much, and are not making for a good experience for the crew. This is another thing that worked well when it was just me operating the layout, but does not work as well for a visiting Ops crew. This I already have started to address and will write up in a new post later.

There was also a few mechanical type layout issues (a dead frog, a short circuit issue, some cars not operating well) that are normal things to fix on the layout, but are not necessarily an issue with the operations plan.

For now, a couple more pictures from the last session. As always, I wanted to take more, but when things get busy, I just forget to do so!

Bill H. again handled duties at Morrisville, keeping the Lamoille Valley humming right along. Bill provides good feedback and has helped me in refining the operations plan.

John R. ran the MEC local YQ-1, seen here spotting cars at Ciment Quebec and Maple Grove Farms in East St. Johnsbury. In the back is another newcomer, Phil D., handling the paper mill switch job on the B&M at Groveton.

Moving Along

I have been able to dedicate time just about each day to the layout. I have another Op Session scheduled for the end of the month, and there were "hit list" items I wanted to address.

A couple of freight cars had issues and these were corrected and put back into service. I am also trying to add a few more cars to the layout as I find that I really do not have enough cars to adequately fill out trains. This was evidenced by trains that terminated in staging only having a couple of cars, like the LVRC MV-1 train and the CP 917.

What I need to add are simply some cars for interchange, going from one railroad to another. I spent a good deal of time making sure I had cars and waybills for local industries across the various railroads on the layout, and also some run through cars, but not enough cars that get passed to another railroad and then terminate off line in staging.

So I have been putting a few of my more recent acquisitions on the layout and generating the appropriate waybill for them. As usual, my "workbench" in Lyndonville has been a convenient location to do this work. The picture here looks messy but really is not that bad. I have a few cars in progress, getting weight and checking wheels and couplers. The cars actually on the track are part of the CP RS-2 and RS-1 trains getting restaged before moving back into the staging yards.

Once I get the rest of the track in Lyndonville, I'm going to miss my "work station"!

I also took care of some other things like raising the Digitrax UR91 and UR92 receivers up above the backdrop to get better overall reception. I was able to control a locomotive from out in the other room of the basement, so I think this will alleviate the issues we had in the first session.

In St. Johnsbury yard there was an issue in having space for the MEC power on RY-2 and YQ-1. I found that the tracks used to store the power for RY-2 and get to the storage track for YQ-1 were just a little short when the caboose was included. I do not have a dedicated caboose track, as St. J was not really that type of yard in the 1970s. The cabooses tended to stay with the power. So it was a relatively simple matter of adding a little flex track to 2 stubs in the yard to address the problem. 

Extending this siding to hold three MEC U18Bs and a caboose from RY-2 was easily accomplished. The RY-2 power lays over until later in the session when it returns to Portland, Maine as YR-1.

Another issue operators had was knowing exactly where to spot cars in some locations. I made sure the waybills identified the location and contents, and I know where it is supposed to go, but it is not that obvious for the operator who does not know my prototype so well. So I just used a few post-it notes for now to identify where cars should go.

At Gilman, empty boxcars go to the Outbound paper track to be loaded.

Also at Gilman, it might be obvious where the Kaolin tank cars go, but this is also the Inbound pulp unloading track. Bales of pulp from another paper mill in Maine are shipped here to be processed into paper goods.

I also worked on a couple of track issues in Hardwick. I had to replace the throwbar on a Central Valley turnout and then instal la ground throw. I also had to install a missing ground throw to the team track spur. After doing this I test ran a locomotive and some cars to ensure all was operating well. This peeked the interest of our one cat Roxie. From the looks of it she might be in line to be a future operator!

She just needs a throttle in her paw as she intently watches the LVRC train pass through the covered bridge.

St. Johnsbury Yard Power

A few years ago I purchased a Proto 1000 of Canada CP Rail RS2. I have seen many pictures of these units holding down the switching duties in St. Johnsbury yard. I also have a few slides from my late friend Glenn Salvatore showing these in St. J circa 1980.

Glenn captured CP RS2 8403 in St. Johnsbury yard in the Fall of 1980. This view shows off some of the interesting details, like the front numberboard, extended cab window, ditch lights and radiator fan cover,

A few months back, getting ready for the initial Op Session, I finally got around to installing a DCC decoder. The space inside the cab area allowed for a speaker, so Tsunami sound it was!

Unfortunately during the Op Session, the yard crew mentioned that the RS2 just did not have enough power, or more accurately weight, to push long cuts of cars given the slight grade the loco gets to once the cut of cars gets long enough. It looks good (even without weathering and a few specific details) and sounds great, but it can't really cut it in operations, at least not by itself.

Some of this is my own doing. First of all, I imposed a grade just outside the yard as I needed the CP mainline to drop down before hitting Newport staging. In hindsight I should have kept the parallel MEC track level to avoid a grade in the same spot, and that would have helped, but maybe not completely.

I also have weighted my freight cars a little heavier than NMRA specs. A 50' boxcar comes in around 8 ounces, nearly double the spec. I enjoy the operational benefits, but once a grade is encountered, things get a lot more like the prototype and you start needing more horsepower to move tonnage. This wouldn't be an issue at a yard, but with compressed distances, that grade comes a lot sooner than on the prototype.

The third thing working against the little RS2 is my application of graphite prior to the session. There is no doubt in my mind that this has now caused a slightly slippier rail for the trains to traverse. BUT, given the benefits and much improved electrical contact, there is no way I am giving up on the graphite.

Here you see the (unweathered) CP RS2 pushing a cut of cars uphill into the yard. The yard crew would on occasion have to give an assist when the loco had more than it could handle!

I could consider doubling up locomotives for the yard job, although that is not real prototypical. The best solution would be to add more weight to the RS2, and I'll have to see what is possible.

For now I will go back to another locomotive used by the CP in St. Johnsbury yard, an Alco S2 made by Atlas. Most layout owners will agree that these heavy little switchers are great for yard operations, and can really push a cut of cars. The S2 was used by CP in St. Johnsbury in the 1960s and 1970s, but by the late 1970s and early 1980s the RS2s were more common.

This picture from RailPictures.Net shows CP S2 7098 in St. Johnsbury in May of 1975. Note the trackwork, dirt and oil, good modeling reference!

I did however have to address an issue with this locomotive. A few years ago I swapped the decoder I had in it with an MRC sound decoder. Nicely engineered, this MRC decoder drops in and has a speaker already mounted on the board. There is a small section of weight to be cut off, but nothing too significant. Unfortunately the sound quality out if this is just OK. Certainly not Tsunami.

But the real trouble was the way the locomotive continued to deteriorate operationally. For some reason, no matter how much programming and resetting I tried, the loco would just not operate very well after a few years. Talking with another modeler he mentioned that sometimes the MRC decoders just start to go and the motor controls stop working well even though the sound is still there. That is what I was seeing.

So a quick pop open of the hood and back in goes the original decoder and out comes the MRC one. Nothing too complicated and only about 20 minutes at the work bench. And the best part is that the old decoder is already programmed from when it first resided in 7063!

That is the MRC board now removed. CP 7063 is now ready for yard duty again, repalcing the RS2. This should be good news to the St. Johnsbury yard operators at the next Op Session!

The RS2 will now get MU'd to the other RS2 I have operating on the CP local out of Newport, the RS-1 (that is not too confusing is it?).

Preparing for the next Op Session

With a bunch of summer activities done, I am getting some things accomplished on the layout each day in preparation for Op Session number 2 later this month. This will be followed up by the MER Convention at the end of October, and I have a list of operational and scenic things I'd like to get completed.

The first thing I did was assess the layout and see where all the trains were from the last session. There were a couple of trains that did not complete, and 2 that never left their staging tracks. This I hope to address through some changes to the overall train schedule. For this first restaging I decided to generally put the cars back where they were for the first session instead of flipping waybills. The main reason is I want to make some minor adjustments and assess how well cars got to their intended destination. In some cases the waybills will need some updating for clarity to the operators, and in other cases I think a car may be in the wrong place to start based on the sequence of trains.

An example the first condition is a car not picked up by the MEC QY-2 local heading back to St. Johnsbury. Looking at the waybill I can see how the operator might be confused about whether to pick up the car or not. So I can fix that.

An example of the second condition is the LVRC train from St. J back to Morrisville, MJ-1. Once that runs, any additional cars for the LVRC that come into St. Johnsbury yard won't get picked up until tomorrow (the next session). What this means is that I should have some previous day cars in the St. J yard already for the LVRC to pick up.

This was evident by the small size of the LVRC JM-1 train, and the accumulatiuon of LVRC cars in the St. J yard at the end of the session. Starting with no LVRC cars in the yard was the issue, and I can balance that a bit by getting some cars into the yard before the session starts, and reduce the amount coming in on later through trains accordingly as these will sit until the next session. Overall the LVRC MJ-1 should be the same size I planned for.

Another reason I want to use basically the same cars again is to take better notes on how I staged things and how many cars in a train were destined for other locations. I realize now I need this data to properly balance the consists of trains in staging and make sure I get proper staging for the next session. Some minor differences are OK, but each session should be about the same when it comes to the number of cars in each train.

One issue I am sure each owner of an operating layout deals with are cars missing their car card, and car cards missing their car. I had one of each as shown below.

A Conrail Gondola was missing, while this SP&S car that I know came from North Stratford into St. Johnsbury was missing it's car card and waybill.

Many times it might be a car and car card get swapped, and if you find one, you've found the other. No luck in this case. I checked every inch of track for the CR gon to no avail. Looking at the waybill was even more confusing as this car came out of Newport staging on train 917, briefly stopped in St. J as other cars came off the train, and then continued on to East Deerfield staging. Really no where it should have gone off of that train.

So next I started looking under the layout. Really nowhere else to look! And there it was!!

Now how did this gondola fall from the staging yard approach and land on top of this box?

My first thought is that there was a derailment when the operator brought the train out of staging. But this seemed unlikely as the operators were real good about pointing out any issues that occurred, and a derailment there would have been obvious and reported.

What I think really happened is that I myself derailed the car while doing the initial staging before the Op Session. The car card was in the middle of a block that was just passing through from staging to staging so the St. J operators did not even notice. Anyway, mystery #1 solved.

Now the missing car card is still that - missing. I checked everywhere obvious, and all car card boxes but no luck. It could have been dropped, so I will need to do a thorough check on that. It is possible it ended up going home with someone but no one has reported that yet. Worse case I can reprint the car card and associated waybill.

So, restaging is nearly complete - all trains are restaged, but now I am checking and balancing things. Just a few more cars to balance out and a few additional cars to add to a few trains and in the yard. It is amazing how many cars a layout will consume for operations. And more amazing there are still some cars I need to acquire or get up and running to represent certain traffic that is missing. Just a single siding that receives 1 car can theoretically mean I have 3 cars on the layout representing that traffic. I'll write more about that in the future.

Quick August Update

Been a busy July and August, so not much to report. Summer activities, band rehearsals and gigs, including some cool ones on the beach at sunset, have put a dent in model railroad work for sure. But a few things have occurred.

I attended an Op Session on Mark Fryzstacki's PRR Northern Division, which just started up Ops this year. I'll have to post some more pics and info on that, but here is a look at one area of the double deck layout, as well as my paperwork for one train I ran.

Mark Fryzstacki's PRR Northern is a large double deck layout with a double track helix .

Mark's Waybills, Locomotive Card and Train Card. As you can see my train cards were inspired by what Mark has implmented on his and other local layouts.

I also worked on the short circuit issue. Running a long length of bus between the command station and circuit breakers did not do the trick, but I did notice that at some point I decided to wire jumpers to up the short circuit trip level. I think I was trying to fix an issue at the time, but now this causes a new issue with the circuit boards never tripping before the command station does. Cutting those wires seems to have fixed the issue. We'll see if this is a permanent fix as more Ops continue on.

I did raise the UR92 panel for better reception, but really should do the UR91 panel as well as most guys are running simplex throttles (all my throttles but 1 are duplex, so I need both to accommodate local guys who bring their own throttles). I still need to address a track issue in Morrisville and a dead spot in Hardwick. It would be nice to have some more trackage in Lyndonville and North Stratford to make those jobs a little more interesting. We'll see.

UR92 Panel now above the backdrop aty the end of St. Johnsbury.

I hope to have another session in early September. I have put it off only because I really have not addressed too much from the first session. Some adjustments to the Op Session schedule, along with some tips picked up at Mark's session, will be made implemented in the next session.

If anyone is on Facebook, do a search for Northeast Kingdom Model Railroad. I started a group there to occasionally share a picture or other update.

A reminder that the MER NMRA Fall Convention is coming up in October. My layout will be open for visits Friday afternoon. (The op session is already sold out). There will be Free-mo modules at hte hotel, including my Woodstown Jct. module. Check out http://delawarevalleyturn.org for more info.

The annual November Open House is scheduled for Saturday November 21st from 1 to 5. I'll post this again later.

And, if you noticed, I also updated the theme for this blog page. Was having trouble really reading it myself, so went a little more traditional with just a touch of fall or Maine Central-like colors!

Short Circuit Issues and possible fix

The Northeast Kingdom uses Digitrax, with a DCS100 and DB150 in booster mode handling DCC duties. I route the output from these 2 units into 6 separate PowerShield circuit breakers to create distinct power districts. The goal is to prevent a short circuit in one location from taking out the whole layout. In general this has worked fine. A derailment or engine running into a thrown switch in Groveton would not impact operations in St. Johnsbury yard, or Morrisville yard. All was fine except for one issue.

If too many sound locos were in one power district (and especially if this included QSI sound decoder equipped locos) a short circuit would trip the breaker, which was good, but it was unable to reset itself. The rest of the layout was good, but the power district would remain down until enough locomotives were removed (or at least tipped off one rail) to reduce the power draw and allow a reset of the circuit board controlling that district.

In research and asking questions, I found out that I could use jumper wires on the PowerShield boards to up the threshold for current draw before tripping, allowing for a reset even when a large number of locos are drawing power on the attempted restart (the sound decoders were drawing a larger amount of power on startup then settling back down a bit).

This basically worked, but then I started to see an occasional issue where a short would take down the whole layout, essentially rendering the PowerShields useless in providing power districts. I contemplated what to do and thought about removing the jumpers that upped the threshold to at least get back to what was working before, and the undesireable issue within just one power district to deal with.

During the Op Session, just such a short occurred and took out the railroad. A quick fix is to cycle the track power on and off via to the DT400 throttle. But I started to discuss the issue with Bruce Barrett and he asked to see how I had my DCC system set up and located, physically, which I though was interesting.

I have the wire outputs from the command station and booster running a short distance to inputs for the PowerShields, maybe 8 inches of wire. Bruce said "Aha!", but I was not getting it.

He explained that what was happening is that the PowerShields were letting the short occur long enough before tripping that the command station was seeing it and shutting down, thereby impacting the whole layout. Interesting I thought - but how to fix it...

Bruce said some people have their circuit breakers out on the layout, further away from the command stations, and the running of the power bus out to the boards was enough to prevent a short from getting to the command station before the PowerShield tripped.

In my case, Bruce suggested routing the existing power outputs out one leg of the layout and back before attaching to the PowerShields. Maybe creating a wire distance of 30 feet or so between the command station and the PowerShields should do the trick he advised.

It does sound logical given what I have seen occurring. I will give this solution a try tonight and test out short circuit impacts within each district. I'll report back the results, in case anyone else has experienced similar issues. And if you have tried this solution, please comment and let me know your results.

This is an older look at my power center, before expanding to a DCS100 and another PowerShield board. But it helps show the relatively short distance between the command station and the circuit boards.

First Op Session Success!

On Wednesday night I had a group of 6 local model railroaders, experienced at layout building and operations, over to conduct the first formal Op Session on the Northeast Kingdom. This has been a long time coming, having started the layout 12 years ago. The last few months have all been final preparations to make for a successful session.

Did I get everything done on my check list? No, I did not. But probably the best thing I did was send out invites on June 1st, setting a target date of 6/24. This helped me use the time available to just focus on the must-haves - the absolutes that would otherwise prevent trains from running.

I had to scale some things back, and eliminate certain trains, like the Central Vermont runs 537/538, St. Albans to Richford and return, because of missing track in Sheldon Jct. to make them serve any real purpose. But all in all it was enough to fill more than 3 hours, and left me with 3 trains out of 28 scheduled that did not run at the end of the ssession. Some schedule adjustments and better informational aids for the crews will help address this, allowing all trains to run and keeping the session at a reasonable length.

Once everyone assembled, we went over some basic info, and I explained the waybills and the train cards to the operators. A lot of good feedback regarding operational aids was received, things like linear maps, additional info on the yard instruction sheet and the like will be easily implemented to help.

I assigned 2 people to the St. Johnsbury yard position. This was a recent idea, and I am glad I did. It is very busy there, and having a yardmaster as well as an engineer really helped keep things flowing well.

 Joe Calderone (front) and Mark Fryzstacki (back) volunteered for St. Johnsbury duty. 

 Mark and Joe ran things very well and picked up quickly on the operating scheme. There were some issues, mostly being unfamiliar with the layout and lacking some operational instructions that would help, but they did a great job. The yard itself was a bit different than they expected as it is really an interchange yard and not a traditional arrival/departure yard that an operator might expect. With trains from 3 railroads and tracks heading N, S, E and W, it takes a little bit of an adjustment. One issue was the planned CP MLW S2 for yard power died a few days earlier. The replacement RS2 lacked the weight needed to handle large cuts of cars. Getting the S2 back in service should alleviate that issue.

John Rahenkamp operated a number of road and local freights.

 Three operators were assigned to road duties, which included locals, a paper mill switcher and general run through freights. I found that I will need to keep track of start/stop times and develop a balance of when trains should be released for operation to help keep things flowing nicely. There was a little too much down time here and there for the road crews that could be eliminated with some schedule adjustments.

Bruce Barrett (left) and Bill Howard (right) working together in Morrisville, VT.

 Bill signed up for Lamoille Valley yard duty. Bill picked up things quickly and got things done efficiently. The schedule affected Bill a little with some down time. We discussed some ideas to address this and Bill had good input. It is very interesting to start to get input from others who experience your layout and start to understand how you are modeling the prototype. In fact it is one of the real rewards in having an Op session, seeing the operators bring your layout to life, and use terminology for your trains and locations.

Jim Homoki (left) checks his waybills for CP job RS-1 before switching Lyndonville, VT.

 Jim did a great job as well, quickly understanding the work needed for the first train of the night, Maine Central's RY-2. He also had no issue throwing some of the remotely controlled Tortoise machines that operate as DCC addresses of off the DT400 throttle. This was a little concern for me, and I do want to put up track diagrams with instructions for throwing the switches. There are not too many, but I want each operator to feel comfortable in routing the turnouts.

John waits while the yard crew reviews the train that he just brought in, MEC TY-2 from North Stratford.

 One thing that will help alleviate road crew down time, and perhaps give St. operators a little break and a chance to grab a snack, will be getting the remaining trackwork in place in North Stratford, Beecher Falls, Lyndonville and Sheldon Jct. This is not to big of a task and even if just the track is in without ground throws, the operators can deal with this until the time is available to finish things like that. Getting that track in adds work for a number of trains, and work = time, and fun, for the operators.

With the 3 road crews occupied with other jobs, Bill ran the LVRC freight to St. Albans, VT, which included switching the feed mill (with the stand in elevator, until I build a more appropriate New England style elevator!)

Bruce ran the Maine Central local YQ-1, which is shown here switching cars at Giman, VT.

 One big change will be establishing a paper mill switch job for Gilman. This is very much a case where strictly following the prototype does not always scale down well on a model railroad. The prototype ran a local out of St. Johnsbury, switched the paper mill at Gilman, ran on to Whitefield to interchange with the B&M and then headed back to St. J.

Initially this train left too late as I did not indicate it's importance properly to the St. J yard crew. And then, because of switching work, it takes a long time to operate. This is not an operator issue, it is just the reality of having to do a lot of back and forth, throwing of switches, dropping and picking up cars. On the prototype they had something like an 8 hour window to do the work. Most of this time was not running between towns, which on a model railroad is scaled down. It is the switching work that takes so much time, and same thing on a model railroad. Meanwhile planned trains get stacked up waiting for YQ-1 to complete.

So the solution I will implement is to establish a Gilman paper mill switch job, This job can do advance work to gather outbound loads, and then handle drops that will get left by YQ-1. This will allow YQ-1 to proceed to Whitefield and do work there. On the return trip as QY-2, the Gilman switch job will have spotted all outbound cars on the passing siding for a quick pickup.

The benefit will not only be a shorter time period for YQ-1/QY-2 but also a new operating job for the Gilman paper mill. It will need collaboration with the road crew, which also adds fun and interest. This was not what the Maine Central did in 1980, but for my model railroad, it will work better.

All in all it was a great experience. The layout ran really well, which was a relief. There were some issues that were put on the hit list, but that was to be expected. A few cars need couplers or trucks adjusted, but again, expected.

But I also have a long list of things to address to make for a better session, outside of the physical layout. Schedule change, paperwork, operational aids, some crew comfort items, and staging adjustments that I make to balance freight cars, will go a long way to making session 2 an even better experience. I plan to try to get that one scheduled sometime in August, so no time to waste on getting things started!