Op Session on the Harrisburg Terminal

I was pleased to get the opportunity to participate in an Op Session on Rick Bickmore's Harrisburg Terminal layout. It has been about 2 years since I was last there so it was great to get reacquainted with this great layout. Rick posts regularly to the Railroad-Line forum, so I know and have seen pictures of a lot of his progress since I was last there.


The layout is essentially a loop that is operated as point to point. His double ended staging yard represents Philadelphia to the east on one end and Pittsburg to the west on the other. In between Rick models what he calls the 7 miles of sheer hell. What makes it difficult (or more appropriately, interesting) is the density of traffic and the uniqueness of trains modeled. In addition to through trains and locals, Rick models steel mill operations that sees special hot metal cars and slag cars moved. All the movements keep a dispatcher pretty busy and a crew of 10 with just enough downtime to enjoy a little socializing. His session runs about 3-1/2 hours.


I didn't take a lot of pictures as I was busy running a number of road freights. But I did take a couple.


Here we see 2 shots of the general layout area.

The main yard to the left, and part of the steel making process on the right, along with other industries. The PRR double track mainline can be seen passing the yard, it continues around the entire layout, except where a couple branches break off.

This is exactly 90 degrees to the left of the other picture. The same double track mainline curves around the peninsula making its way back to staging. On the left is part of the massive steel mill. Rick dedicated a large space to it and a lot of operations occur there. Really neat.

Just one of the great scenes along the right of way. Rick is a great structure and scenery builder, and often comes up with and shares new ideas and techniques.

In relation to my previous post about turnout control in St. Johnsbury, Rick has really nice little control panels for controlling turnouts that are not hand thrown (which most are). A single push button and Red/Green LEDs really make it simple. If I find the need to change out my turnout control method, I would definitely build something like this. I need to see if there is a similar product that can take a pushbutton control to drive DCC stationary decoders instead of Tortoise machines, hmmm...

I ended my night by operating a high and wide movement, delivering this transformer to a GE Plant. One of Rick's great background buildings can be seen.

The return of the high and wide also had a load - good planning by the railroad! This GG1 was at the GE plant getting some electrical work done. Now it needs a repaint and can go back into service. Thats the massive Harsco Steel Mill in the background.

Operating St. Johnsbury

Note: This was also published on the railroad-line forum...

One cool thing about visiting and operating on other layouts is the chance to see something and sometimes try something that you would not have otherwise thought about for your own layout. I had the pleasure of operating on Phil Monat's Delaware & Susquehanna layout up in NY a few years ago and drew an assignment as a yard engineer (Drill as it was called). A lot of times we will call these jobs yardmasters, but on Phil's layout, that was really a separate job from the yard drill jobs.

http://www.opsig.org/convention/hartford_layouts/monat.shtml

Phil has a large yard that employs 2 yard engineers and a yardmaster. The yard engineer is what you would think. You are assigned a yard switcher and need to make up and break down trains, and also switch some local industries.

A cool aspect of Phil's layout is that with 2 yard engines, it is not strictly the case of each engineer working separate ends of the yard. There are times when the engines are side by side, and also working in unison to get something done more efficiently. A lot of credit goes to Phil's excellent trackplan for the yard and the approach trackage.

http://islandops.org/layouts/DS/MonatMap.html

With that going on and avoiding inbound and outbound trains, you get quite involved in the simple aspect of running your locomotive and getting things done. What you do not do however is handle car cards. So how do you know what work needs to be done?

That is where the yardmaster comes in. He handles the car cards and the train schedule and directs the yard drill operators on what they need to do. For example, if you have a train to break down, he might say "2 for track 3, then 1 for track 7". When that is done you'll get more instructions. Reporting marks really do not matter to me, the engineer/switchman. He is handling that at his desk, sorting and planning. I just need to know how many and where they go. The yardmaster is in his "tower" communicating with me, as well as the other yard drill.

It really worked well for a lot of reasons. First of all, having never operated on the layout, it would have been a stressful job to handle all of the switching AND juggle car cards, a train schedule and a throttle - AND be on the look out for the other yard engine and have to communicate with road crews.

Sometimes I think we overburden certain jobs and it makes it tougher to get a lot of enjoyment out of the operations night. A lot depends on the layout, the operating scheme, etc., but it is something to consider. For me, I got a lot of enjoyment just taking direction and operating the locomotive. There was plenty to do and think about but not too much that it became overly stressful or shut down operations while others waited for me.

It was also really cool to have others involved in the yard operations. We worked as a team and got things done while also having a good time talking to each other.

The concept is similar to having a 2 man crew on locals I suppose, an engineer and a conductor. But I had never experienced this division of duties in a yard situation. At most, I have operated a yard with another operator and we each handled all the aspects of certain parts of the yard individually.

Which brings me around to my layout. When I built my St. Johnsbury yard I envisioned it as an operating position for one person, the yardmaster, who would handle everything. But after that operating session I am now fully convinced the yard will operate better with 2 people. One person will run the locomotive, while the other will handle the car cards and plan ahead. I think it will make for a more enjoyable time for both. And if they want to trade off halfway through the session, that is fine.

But it is not like the yardmaster position will be without operational duties. First of all there will be times where assistance is needed in handling other locomotives. One train, the southbound CP 917, will have some power to drop off for a later northbound CP 937. The second throttle and operator will come in handy to help get the power off the train and into the yard.

One other duty will be to assist the yard engineer in throwing switches. I built this yard with Tortoise switch machines and instead of building the traditional control panel, I hooked them up to DCC decoders that can be operated with the Digitrax DT402 throttle. So the yardmaster will also serve as the brakeman. So both operators will have a throttle, but each will have a different set of duties.

As an operational tool, I just put together this yard schematic with switch numbers indicated. It will be interesting to get feedback from others operating St. J on how it feels to throw switches using this method. If necessary I can alter switch numbers and modify the schematic based on their input. We'll see how it goes.

Getting ready for Ops

I have been busy with lots of things, including model railroading, but I have not been good about updating this blog unfortunately. Since the last posting I did attend the Springfield train show with my Free-mo module, participated in a couple Op Sessions, worked on the web site for the MER Fall 2015 Convention (DelawareValleyTurn.org), changed jobs(!), and spent some time getting the layout ready for an initial Op session.

The Springfield show was a blast and New England Free-mo does such a great job organizing the layout. My model railroading buddy Anton and I headed up Friday and spent some time railfanning at the Springfield station, catching some Amtrak trains and a CSX auto rack.

The southbound Vermonter has backed into the station while another Amtrak train  lays over before the evening rush.

The Vermonter leaves Springfield.

Then we headed over to the Expo center to set up the modules. The layout was already coming together and my Woodstown Jct. modules were added to the start of the branch line segment. In just about 2 hours we were all done and heading out for dinner. The next day started off with snow that started over night. We got the layout running, had an Op Session at 1pm, met lots of great folks and did a little shopping. No doubt the snow kept many people a way as attendance was unusually light. This made it easier to quickly walk around and then get back to the layout though.

An overall look at the layout from one side. Hard to capture the whole layout in one shot though. There are two return loops at the end of the peninsulas, and one third peninsula serving as the branch line.

My Woodstown Junction module set attracts 2 generations of railroaders!

The Op Sessions I attended back home were part of a long running monthly session at my friend John Rahenkamp's CL&W layout. This is a really big layout and has about 15 or more people needed to run the 4 hour session. For more info and some recent pics, check out this page from the railroad-line forum:

http://www.railroad-line.com/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14346&whichpage=11

On the home layout, I want to get Ops going this month, and I am also on the schedule for the Ops Callboard of the MER Fall convention in nearby Mt. Laurel. I have been busy preparing and staging freight cars, double checking waybills, testing locomotives and doing some speed matching, and most importantly developing a master schedule. This has been time consuming, but enjoyable. I have always had a plan in mind for operations, but pulling it together into a what I hope will be a workable and enjoyable schedule has been pretty fun. I have test run a few of the trains as well and posted some photos of that on a newly started thread on the railroad-line forum:

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44172

In getting ready, I had to make some decisions on what to finish now and what to leave be in order to get sessions started. A good example is the track in North Stratford. This area has never progressed past the benchwork stage, but I really wanted to include at least the MEC YT-1/TY-2 train as that interchanges with St. Johnsbury and affects cars in other trains. So what I decided was to just temporarily lay some flex track to hold an already staged TY-2.

The MECs pair of RS11s will handle TY-2/YT-1 on the layout. Here is the train staged on temporary flex track, ready to head down to St. Johnsbury.

 The job will be more fun once some more track is in place in North Stratford, but for now it will still be a nice little job. One thing that is kind of cool is the need to run around the train in Crawfords in order to reverse direction and head to St. J. I ran the train to try this out and it works well. Here is a pic of the locos after running around the train, pulling the caboose off, and then going back to get the train cars to reassemble onto the caboose.

TY-2 at Crawfords, running around the train in order to head to St. J.

I did finally get a master schedule done, although I still have to work out a few loco assignments. I also have to finish staging a few trains, like the CV ones. Almost there though!

This will at least be a starting point for the first session. We'll see how far we get and what does and does not work. Now to finish up a few more things, and put a date in the calendar to get trains rolling.

I still want to do some modeling though, so I have been doing a little weathering and flat finish on some of the locomotives that will be on duty. Here are a few getting their windows masked prior to the weathering. One of the newest additions is the B&M Bicentennial unit, #200. Pretty cool paint scheme. Probably didn't venture up the Conn River main line often, if at all, but I could't resist this loco!

Ways to Weigh

I have continued my rolling stock weighting program over the last few months. It has worked in conjunction with getting ready for operating sessions. I have been staging the railroad and getting the proper cars in the right places, and checking and updating waybills as necessary. In doing that I also check the cars for proper coupler movement and height, proper wheel gauge and tightness of truck screws to prevent wobbling. Along with this I also add the additional weight I am seeking.

It is a fairly easy task and lends itself well to the "try to do one thing everyday on the layout" method of getting (model railroad) things done. I can easily spend just 30 minutes getting 3 or 4 cars "upgraded". Over time that has added up and I now have well over 100 cars ready for "heavy" operations.

Some cars are easier to address the weight issue than others. Boxcars with removable underframes are the easiest. Ones with removable roofs may take a little extra work depending on whether they were glued or not. Covered hoppers also vary depending on the design. Kato ones were easy as the whole shell pops off the underframe, while older E&B Valley ones are a little tougher having to pry off a glued on roof.

Tank cars have been another matter entirely. In Mike Confalone's e-books he mentioned and showed a picture of an Atlas tank car where he simply drilled a hole in the bottom and filled the car with sand. Besides being extremely cost effective, the amount of sand in a Kaolin tank car puts it at 7.5 ounces, right where I want to be for appx. 40 foot cars. As there is no real easy way to disassemble the cars to add weight, this seems to be the best method.

Doing the drilling takes a little care. I started with smaller drill bits and worked up to a larger one, 1/2". Starting with a larger one can easily cause the drill bit to grab the plastic and start spinning the whole car, sending parts all over. Yeah, that happened once, and I took great care not to do it again!

Once I have a hole about 1/2" wide I use a paper funnel and slowly worked sand into the car. It takes  little longer than I would like and I needed to keep shaking the car to get the sand to work its way around the car. There is a weight that you will see that runs through the car, and the sand needs to work its way past the small openings along the edges to get to the top half of the car.

I fill it up until it weighs 7.5 ounces. There is not much more room to add sand at that point anyway, so weighing it makes it easy to know when I can stop. I plug the hole with some acrylic caulk and when it is dry hit it with a grimy black marker to make it nearly invisible.

This Atlas Kaolin tank car is filled with sand, weighing int 7 ounces. The white dot is the plug, which will be painted black. The paper funned and a dish to catch spills is on the right.

I found with Walthers tank cars that you can pry off one of the end caps using a finger nail. With practice, I was able to keep it attached to the handrail, add self stick weights and pop it back on.

The Walthers tank car can be opened up at the end allowing a quick and easy install of self stick wheel weights.

I still have a number of cars to do, and some will require some thought. Gondolas with a load are not too difficult. I have been able to add flat weights from older box cars underneath loads by Motrak models. Open hoppers I have decided to just add the self stick weights to the inside slopes even though they will be visible when a coal or wood chip load is not present. My layout height makes it difficult to see inside these cars most of the time. It is a compromise, but well with it for the better operating reliability.

A woodchip hopper with additional weight. I'll go back and weather the inside to help disguise the weights when the car runs without a load.

In operating tests, I have really liked the extra weight. The cars do not wobble, couple easily and stay on the tracks well. One or two cars that have derailed have identified either a truck issue or in one case a track work deficiency. On the Maine Central route there is not much in the way of grades. The LVRC does have a steep grade, but two RS3s are easily handling 10 freight cars (which represent about 5 pounds of trains). Ten cars should be the max I operate on this line, much like the prototype.

Railroad-Line Forum

There are lots of online places to look at and talk about model and prototype trains. As such, it is unlikely anyone can really know about or visit too many on a regular basis. I have a few places I like to frequent, and I also follow a few blogs here on blogspot to keep up with what is going on with some layouts I am interested in.

One place I do visit and post to is the railroad-line forum at http://railroad-line.com. There is some really nice modeling there and it can be a good place to ask a general question now and then.

railroad-line forum main screen

I recently started a thread there on my layout. A number of modelers here in South Jersey have active threads detailing their layouts with info and photos. A few of them include some great information that has helped my model building. For example, the use of grout as a scenery material was something I learned from Rick Bickmore, aka Harsco on railroad-line, in his great thread on building his layout.

My thread was started to focus on operations on my layout. It will be a way for forum members to see my layout and also allow for interaction regarding my operating plans. I hope to be able to detail my plans and show photos, and perhaps get some feedback on things I can consider and change to make for a better experience. The idea is to help me get operations off the ground with an initial session sometime this winter.

Check out my thread at this address:

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44172

You do not need to have an account to view on the forum, but you do need one if you want to post or comment (it is free).

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish all those who stop by here to check out my model railroad blogging a very Merry Christmas, and thanks for your interest in what I am modeling and continuing to check in here to see what is new.

Although I had trains at an early age, various train sets on 4x4 and 4x8 tables, I feel that I became a model railroader in 1980, at Christmas, when my parents left a copy of Railroad Model Craftsman under the tree. It really opened my eyes to scale model railroading and what people were doing that was so much beyond what I knew about "trains".

That October 1980 issue of RMC is pretty worn out now, I know I went cover to cover for weeks poring over every word and picture. Just the front cover alone with this realistic looking coupler I had never seen before was so realistic and fascinating. And weathered freight cars, trees, a road scene - such great stuff!

And to top that off, an article inside about Whitefield, New Hampshire's ball signal. This was a place I had been to! I didn't really know much about what happened in Whitefield other than that was where we came across trains during our summer camping trips in the 1970s. This showed me exactly what was happening there.

I would start picking up back issues of RMC and later MR and absorb everything model railroading that was between the covers. It was a great education in how to do all things related to the hobby.

I still keep this issue in my office with other railroad books and special magazine issues that I refer to often. And I am glad to see RMC rise again with White River and continue on. Hopefully an issue this year will make it under the tree for a young kid interested in trains, and help them start a journey into the hobby of model railroading and all it has to offer.

Everyone be safe and have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Facing point switching

We have a local Conrail (Shared Assets, so it is still Conrail, shared by CSX and NS) branch nearby that runs out of Camden's Pavonia yard towards Mt. Holly. It is former PRR and then Penn Central, and it used to go further east, and was called the Pemberton branch. It even featured passenger service including RDCs into the 1970s, and when the line went to Fort Dix, featured troop trains during WWII.

Back to the present day, the line sees trains pretty much every weekday. And as pointed out by Lance Mindheim in various articles and clinics, not every industry is switched every day. There are a couple of different industries that receive different car types, so sometimes it is easy to tell what will be switched just by looking at the manifest of the freight train.

One thing that is interesting is how I have seen the crew operate facing point sidings. Although there is a run around further down the line, the local does not always make it all the way there based on industries that need to be switched. One of these is a paper company that receives a number of boxcars from the northeast, Canada and the upper midwest. Sometimes the train is only switching this one industry in a day's work.

I have seen the train with 2 locomotives on the head end work a facing point siding by stopping short of the siding, separating the lead unit from the train and pulling it into the siding. Then the second unit with the train pulls past the siding. The lead unit backs out onto the main track and is able to work the train from the rear, pulling the cars in the siding and respotting cars as necessary. This includes putting some cars back that have not yet been unloaded, and spotting cars at specific delivery doors. All of this has been covered by Lance various times, and it is good info to use when designing, building and operating your layout. It takes a bit of time for the crew to switch a single siding. A lot of times on a model railroad, we simply pickup what is there and drop off what we have. On the prototype it is much more complicated and time consuming, but if you like to operate, a lot of fun.

Lately I have noticed that the crew has arrived with a locomotive on each end of the train. This eliminates the need to separate the locomotives once at the facing point siding. Here is a picture I took recently as the train stopped in Maple Shade across the street from a Wawa (a local convenience store in our area) to grab lunch before getting busy switching further down the line.

The 4 man crew has exited the train to pick up lunch before continuing work further down the line.

A quick look at the boxcars on this train, and the fact that the train is 6 cars in length, confirmed that they only needed to switch the facing point paper company siding this day.

I find this interesting as I have been looking at how to operate 2 locations on my layout that have facing point turnouts in regards to the locals that will switch them. Lyndonville along the CP and Johnson, the talc mill along the LVRC, both not only have facing point sidings, and are also complicated by coming off the mainline which is on a grade.

This earlier work in progress photo shows the siding at Johnson. The yellow LVRC loco is downgrade. Operationally, this siding would be getting cars out of Morrisville, upgrade and along the track at the bottom left of the photo. A local would therefore approach this siding head on, a facing point switch to be worked.

A model railroad solution would be to add a run around off the main, or as part of the siding itself. Sometimes that is prototypical, but usually not. It is interesting that when the paper company located along this CR branch in the 1990s, the railroad built the siding but did not build anything extra such as a run around track to make switching easier. They knew there were ways to accomplish the task without building more track.

Another solution is the out and back turn local train that only works trailing point switches on the way out, and then trailing point on the way back (which were previously facing point). Sometimes that is how Conrail switches this siding, just going right past it on the way out, and then switching it on the way back towards Camden. That doesn't work for me for perfectly as I do not model the portion of the line where the Canadian Pacific turn around would occur.

For example on the CP, the local originates out of Newport, which is staging on my layout, runs to Wells River, also staging on my layout, then turns back for the return trip. I could get around this by first operating the return train coming back from Wells River before modeling a different local train in staging that would then switch Lyndonville as a trailing point siding. It would work, and best represents what the prototype did. The oddity would be modeling 2 different versions of the local.

Another way around this might be to do some active staging during the session to put the locomotives and caboose on opposites ends while in staging, and then have the train operated later in the session. This would preserve the locomotives and cars of the original local turn, and I could drop and add some cars within staging representing work done off the visible layout before returning. However this would require someone to actually do this during a session.

But another option is to look at what the Conrail local is doing and use 2 locomotives operating independently on my local. Either of the 2 methods would work well, and with DCC it is easy to duplicate. In my era, it would have been more likely to split the locomotives at the siding instead of having one at each end of the train.

Another advantage is that this method eliminates problems with the mainline on the grade. For example, if it is switched as a trailing point siding, I cannot leave anything on the main without some sort of braking system for the cars left on the main. Even the caboose would have to be switched into the siding complex, which does not seem too prototypical (outside of needing to clear the mainline for through freights). By having the locomotive proceed past the switch (and go downgrade), the locomotive will provide the necessary "anchor" to hold cars on the main while the switching work is done.

I can't say I have decided yet on how I think it will be best to operate these 2 locations. All these methods will work, and I can certainly try each of them out to see how it goes with the operators. The key thing is that by looking at the prototype, I found another solution that could be employed.

One last picture of a car in this train, a Maine Central boxcar, albeit in Pan Am paint. Somewhere under there is the Harvest Gold and green pine tree. Occasionally I have seen some older paint schemes on boxcars for the paper company, but that is getting more scarce nowadays.

MEC 31786, FMC 5272cf XP boxcar, series 31750-31899, built 1978.

Free-mo Layout in Bordentown

The annual Bordentown Holiday Train show again features scale model railroading in the form of a Free-mo layout using modules from the NJ Free-mo group. This year we were able to arrange the layout in our space in a way that supports good operations. the layout features the car ferry module peninsula connected via a 90 degree curve to my Woodstown Jct. module. Due to space constraints my modules are set up without the 2 foot bridge scene. What we did though was use that as a switching lead section off of the car ferry peninsula module set. We had to do some special work to make this fit, and one of the sections of my module set is supported by removing the legs and turning them sideways in order to avoid a radiator. Overall this again showcases the flexibility of Free-mo.

The train show is open to the public for free Fri-Sat-Sun, 4 to 8, the next 2 weekends 12/12 and 12/19. It is also opened for visiting schools during the week helping expose kids to not only the big Lionel and Thomas stuff, but actual scale model railroading. 

Overall view of the layout.

Right after setup, no cars on the layout yet!

Mike Prokop's Camden Ferry peninsula module

Mike Prokop's module section with standard ends, the car ferry peninsula section is off to the right 

90 degree curve "mini-mo" comes in very handy

Morrisville Scenery

One other area that I worked on prior to the open house was Morrisville along the Lamoille Valley. It was somewhat unplanned but I had some inspiration to start something, and then ended up with more done than I would have thought. This is one of those interesting aspects about model railroading where you can end up doing something totally unplanned when you entered the layout room.

Before I discuss that though, I realized in my previous post I forgot to show one of the main pictures I was discussing, that being the view of the layout when you first enter the Layout room. Shown below, you can see how having the trees and scenery here is important as it is what visitors see first as they enter the room. I think that making a good impression here will subconsciously make the rest of the layout look good as well, even though other areas have less scenery and are less complete overall.

This door leads into the layout area. Now that the trees are planted, the appearance is of a completed layout.

A view looking back while in the layout area provides perspective on the amount of scenery competed in this area.

A while back I completed the track work for Morrisville Vermont, which is the center of operations for the Lamoille Valley. The area includes a small yard, a few industries and the engine house for the railroad. All of this is prototypical, but in my implementation, I have compressed things into something that supports operation more than it follows the prototypical layout of trackage. One of my goals is to support interesting operating sessions, and in my space I really cannot dedicate the 15 feet or so of space required to model Morrisville faithfully. 

So one night I was working on my car weighting project, adding additional weight to all cars bringing them up to 7 to 9 ounces each (see earlier posts on this topic). I started work on an Atlas Plywood Mfg. double plug door boxcar. It got me to thinking about the car operating on the layout, and soon I was looking at the 2 spurs for Morrisville Lumber.

A while back I had read and heard about using Fast 'n Final lightweight spackling for roads and had a container on hand. AsI looked at the tracks and thought about how I wanted the tracks to be embedded in asphalt for forklift unloading of lumber-products boxcars, I figured, why not give this stuff a try and see how it works?

Next thing I know, I am spreading out a layer of Fast 'n Final around the tracks to represent the asphalt. I find that the material is very interesting and different than say plaster. It tends to stick to itself better than other things, at first. This makes it very easy to control. I would get a little on the rails, and it was a simple matter to just remove it with no residue. It is almost like a putty in that regard. Anyway, it is really an interesting product to work with.

I built an initial layer and let this dry overnight. I should note that I added black craft paint to get a gray color that looked like sun bleached asphalt. The next night I applied more and took care to get the product leveled and even with the height of the rails. And letting this dry another night, I cam back and used small amounts to fill in any areas that were still not flat, and also added styrene pieces between rails. It is probably possible to use the sparkling here too, and as it dries, clear out a flange way. But I would try that on a test piece first before committing it to a finished track on the layout. 

I then used some chalks to weather things a bit, and tried used a black Sharpie to create the look of cracks that have been filled with tar. Not sure if I totally like that look or not, so I may revisit that.

The Fast 'n Final dries very hard, but is still a little pliable and soft which I think will prevent any chipping like plaster. Overall I was pretty happy with this and will use it again elsewhere.

Here is a look at the scene. I added the Motrak Models brick shed, some wrapped lumber and a forklift for the open house. I plan to add more details and lumber later.

The overall area. The idea is that the lumberyard structures are mainly off the layout and this is the receiving yard.
 

The Caboose Industry Ground throws along the front edge are easily accessible and somewhat blend in with the scenery.

To help blend in the edges of the asphalt, I decided to add a little scenery base to the area. This is part of that "one thing leads to another" aspect as well. I built up gravel, dirt and static grasses, and it quickly looked like a completed scene. I decided to work this scenery all the way along the front edge of Morrisville. I found it really amazing how that quickly transformed the area into looking much more complete than it is.

The yard tracks in Morrisville are behind the initial scenery added to the front edge of the layout.

From a normal viewing angle the area looks like much more complete than it is. Like many of my areas with more trackage, I have integrated a shelf under the area into the fascia.

This has gotten me to thinking that adding a basic scenery treatment along all of the front edges, from the fascia back for a couple inches, or up to the track, would not be a bad idea to focus on in the remaining areas that are not sceniced. There might be a spot or two I want to leave alone until I have planned the area, but a lot of it is just basic scenery in these areas and I think it will go a long way to making the layout look more complete.

One other area I started the thought process on was Whitefield. In addition to the diamond and ball signal BM-MEC crossing, I wanted to include a bit of the downtown area. Whitefield has a small little section of brick and wood frame business buildings along Routes 3 and 116, and I'd like to include a representation of this on the layout. Most of my layout is either rural or focused on rail served industries, so a place to add a few other kinds of structures will be fun. 

I wanted to have the Stella Models diner in a good spot that can be easily viewed, so starting with that, I worked on a scene that goes slightly uphill representing Rt. 116. Again, not an exact prototype replication, but something that captures the feel of the area. this will be another area where I can use the Fast 'n Final, and also have a grade crossing with the B&M line heading south.

The B&M will cross the road here, the MEC is on the bridge to the back. The area to the right will need additional planning as it will include an industry switched by the B&M.

Fall progress

I started general cleanup and also worked on some scenery prior to the open houses. Straightening up took a bit of time as the layout area was housing a lot of stuff from upstairs while a remodeling project was going on in the kitchen during the summer and into September. After getting stuff out of layout area, I was able to put train stuff back where it belongs, clean track and stage trains for running during the open houses. Next I wanted to do some scenery in order to have some visual progress for repeat visitors.

First up was an afternoon of building about 70 trees for the Crawford Notch area. Nothing too difficult here, just takes some time. I start with the Scenic Express Super Trees, and working from the box separate and break off tree-like sections, different shapes for different uses. These get a quick hit of black primer and set aside (I do this in the garage near the open door to keep the paint smell out of the house). Once I get a bunch done, I get to adding the leaf material. I have 3 methods to do this.

The first and more traditional is to use ground foam. I use this a bit less now as I prefer the next two methods, but it still produces good trees, and some of the Fall colors I have from Scenic Express look good. I spray the tree with inexpensive hair spray from a pump bottle (Suave, Rave, etc. in the super hold-extra sticky variety). Then I sprinkle the ground foam over the tree structure, letting the extra get caught in a shirt box so I can recapture and reuse it. I usually put a second coating of hairspray and another ground foam coating, then I stick the tree to dry in a piece of foam with holes poked in it.

I should mention I do not go through the process of dipping trees in matte medium and hanging upside down as mentioned in the instructions. I'm sure this does a good job, and certainly helps straighten trees, but to be honest I just don't have the patience for all this extra work. Anything that is bent I address during planting by putting it next to other trees, letting them help "straighten" each other.

My second method is essentially the same as the first but I use the newer Scenic Express Noch Leaf Flake. They make some nice Autumn colors and the look is better in my opinion than most ground foams. One thing I did notice though is if I put a second shot of hairspray it tends to darken the color. Sometimes that is OK, but other times it makes the color too dark, so some care is needed here, In many cases less is more with this material anyway.

My final method uses a Tacky Web Spray Adhesive from Scenic Express followed by an application of  Scenic Express Super Turf. This material is more like pieces of ground up sponge-like material, a bit more airy looking than ground foam. I use this for a lot of the "green" fall trees on the layout. The web spray helps this adhere better to the Super Tree material and I usually do not do another coat of this adhesive or the hair spray. Some pieces will fall off before planting, and these I generally collect and reuse.

Here is a look at two of the foam pieces with trees drying:

And here are some shots of the area after planting. I still need about another 50 or so trees along the backdrop to get me out of this section of the layout. Luckily the grassy area behind the tracks as well as the foreground do not require any additional trees. It is a amazing how quickly what you think are a lot of trees get used up in a relatively small area!

Train RY-2 passes through Crawford Notch with U18B 405, while GP38 258 sits on the siding.

GP38 258 heads up ballast extra YZ-X from St. Johnsbury, VT to Bartlett, NH, waiting in the siding at Crawfords.

Winter is coming, got to get the plow out and in place for the upcoming season!

I often get a question about my photo backdrops. These are images on CD from LARC Products. They are printed on full page labels (8.5x11) and then trimmed and mounted, abutting to each other to make a seamless photo. Here you see just the tops of Fall mountains, this representing the White Mountains around Crawford Notch.

Here is a look at some trees that I make into birches. I use a little white craft paint over the trunks and then use yellow Leaf Flake material for the leaves. Makes an effective looking birch I think.

The shanty was built from a Hogdon kit around 1990 - nice to finally have it in use and at it's actual prototype location!

And here is a stepped back view of the area. I pretty much doubled the trees in this area, they extend about another 2 feet to the right. Now I just need to finish up the foreground scenery, including a gravel parking area and the addition of some signs for Rt. 302 and Crawford Notch State Park, and build the Crawford Notch station kit. I also need to add more people and some vehicles as this is a popular spot always with some people around, even when it is a chilly day in October of 1980!

Open House Photos

The two open houses in November went well. A little busier on the Saturday, but still a good turnout both days. Not everyone signs in, and some groups only have one person sign in, so it was tough to get an accurate count, but I had about 50 people on Saturday and about 35 the following Sunday.

This year I had a helper on the Saturday open house, Ken K. from up in New York. Ken has a similar modeling interest and had visited my layout last Spring. Ken plans to model the D&H in the same basic time period as my layout. Ken was looking for another visit as he is planning and working on his layout, and I jumped at the chance to have another operator on hand during the open house. Usually I get busy answering questions and socializing and it helps to have someone else running some extra trains (in addition to the 2 running on loops) and keep an overall eye on things. It also gave me a chance to run some trains with Ken when things were not too busy.

Another benefit was that Ken took a few pictures during the day, something I almost never get a chance to do. I always want to get pictures of visitors, but once the conversations get going, I totally forget to snap a few pics. And never any pics of me eitherSo thanks Ken for these photos!!

Some Q and A about the layout.

One thing I enjoy about these open houses vs. NMRA events is that you get a lot more spouses and children out to see what the hobby is all about.

Some questions about St. Johnsbury yard

November Open House 11/8 and 11/16

My layout will once again be part of the Model Railroad Open House layouts during the month of November. This annual event features open model railroad layouts in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A complete calendar of open layouts and dates is on line at modelrailroadopenhouse.com

My layout will be open on Saturday, November 8th and again Sunday, November 16th, both days from 1pm to 5pm.

On those days there will be a number of other NJ area layouts open, so you can visit multiple layouts on those afternoons without too much additional driving. In fact, there are 3 layouts that are each about 10 minutes from my house, one in Delanco and two in Moorestown.

Hope to see you then!

Conway Scenic

We were up camping in New Hampshire's White Mountains last week. Driving along Rt. 302 I was able to hear and then see the Notch train, led by the ex-MEC GP38. Unfortunately I was not in a position to grab any pics.

But continuing on, we were in Bartlett at Bear Notch Road just when the Valley train was arriving and doing it's run around before heading back to North Conway. Here are some pictures I was able too grab.

The train led by one ex-MEC GP7 arrives, looking real good in the old maroon and gold paint. Not sure if it was repainted or just kept in good condition, this unit has been on the roster for almost 20 years now, and I have pictures just as old in this same scheme. 573 is the original MEC number and has led quite a life (see MEC In Color books for more info)

The head brakeman jumps off to cut the passenger cars from the locomotive.

The old MEC signals still stand in a scene that is not really changed at all through the decades. 

After resetting the switch on the siding back to normal, the head brakeman walks back to the train. In the distance you can see the White Mountains that the Maine Central had to get over on its journey to St. Johnsbury.

Meanwhile the locomotive has run around the train and is ready to couple back onto the passenger cars. Here you can see the state of the MEC jointed track, slightly exaggerated by the telephoto lens. Nowadays with so much welded rail, you don't see this too often. Slow speeds are of course the rule, not just for the scenery but for the track!