End of Summer updates

As you can tell by the inactivity here on the blog, there is not too much to report on the model railroading front during the summer months. At the end of May, I finished up the fascia work, including staining and applying the clear finish, to all remaining areas of the layout. This certainly now gives the layout and the room a real finished look throughout.

View down main aisle, new stained fascia in Whitefield on left, and Groveton, N. Startford (upper) and Gilman in back.

Groveton on left, N. Stratford (upper), Gilman (back right) and Lyndonville (right).

Now on to getting some track down in Groveton and North Stratford!

I also completed a couple of LVRC RS3s for some customers, including one that was chop nosed. Just recently, Atlas announced a new run of RS3s and they will be doing 2 road numbers of the Lamoille Valley. I knew this would happen eventually as just about every small railroad has been getting included in new releases by manufacturers. So there may not be any further demand for custom painted LVRC RS3s, but having done about 2 dozen of them, I am OK with that! As these locos are difficult to get sound into, I might be looking at replacing one of mine with a sound equipped Atlas offering.

LVRC 7803 with chopped nose ready to ship to a customer

In June it was reported here locally that a large model railroad would be coming down as the owner was going to move. I used my iCar to do a a bit of video work covering many areas of the layout before it was gone. These have been edited down and posted to YouTube. Here are some links:

Video 1 - Bayview to Clairmont
Video 2 - Clairmont to Sayre
Video 3 - Tamaqua to Easton

I still have a couple more to post, but the good news is that the layout will remain as the owner changed his plans for moving. So we still have more Op Sessions to look forward to on this large layout in the future.

In early July I did get a little time to finish up feeder wiring for the yard in Morrisville. All track tested and functional, although I do need to install ground throws for the turnouts.

Not much to look at, but the wiring needs to be there for reliable operations!

I also finally fixed a pesky issue with a Maine Central U18B (Intermountain with QSI sound). Loco was totally unresponsive and made no sounds at all, and could not be accessed from a boosted programming track. I could tell power was making it to the board with a tester, so I figured maybe the chip was fried or something. I called QSI for suggestions but they could not help as the decoder was factory installed. I decided to pull out the chip out of the decoder board socket and swap it with a working one from another unit to see if it resolved the issue. Then I worried that I might end up with 2 bad locomotives. So I put the same chip back in and tried one more time. Finally the loco responded! I have no idea why pulling the chip and putting it back in would have any effect, but it did. So something to remember for the future should this happen again. In general, I have not been a big fan of the QSI decoders because of weird things like this (and function key magic that sometimes allows the sound to work but the engine to not move). They do sound good in the U18Bs though.

In August, about all I accomplished was measuring and cutting wood for a drop in section that will connect Groveton to the rest of the layout in front of the bi-fold doors. I did not get to assembling this bridge section yet, but all pieces are cut and waiting for me.

Summer is now coming to a close and I look forward to getting some more time to spend on the layout as well as the modules (as there are some events coming up for Free-mo).

Paper Buildings

You may have noticed a recent increase in the use of and articles about using paper based materials for structures on model railroads. Lance Mindheim has written about using prototype photos for the basis of structures on his relatively modern layout in multiple publications (www.lancemindheim.com). And there are a number of good examples of roofing and siding material printed on sheets of thicker paper by companies such as Kingmill, Clever, Paper Creek (out of business now) and others that you can find on-line, at your hobby shop and at train shows.

Recently while reading the ongoing saga of nearby modeler Rick Bickmore's steel mill themed layout over on the 'railroad-line' forum, Rick mentioned a British company offering some interesting paper based structures that he has been using for buildings on his layout. (check out Rick's discussion at http://railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20007&whichpage=104. Page 104 is right in the middle of the paper model discussion and has nice photos of Rick's 84 Lumber building. If you have some time, the other 100 or so pages that detail Rick's layout and model building are a pretty good read with lots of tips and ideas).

The company Rick mentioned was Scale Scenes, http://www.scalescenes.com/. They have a free download to try of a low relief brick building that would work well against the backdrop. The free download link is right off the main page. 

What you get is a of PDF file that you print yourself. They have 2 different brick colors to choose from and a separate PDF download for the instructions. The instructions are great and I had no problem following along and building the model. The structure PDF itself I printed on a color printer. You need to resize the output to 87% to get true HO (they have instructions for printing to other scales as well). This was no problem at all. I also sprayed the output pages with Krylon Matte Finish to protect the ink and prevent it from damage during assembly. 

The process involves gluing some of the sheets to thicker paper, such as matte board (Heavy Card), Poster Board (Medium Card)  and 67lb paper (Light Card) to give you stronger sections and allow for gluing surfaces of walls ends. The web site has some details in the FAQ that can answer questions on what paper and card to use. Some of the sections are wrapped with another image and help build out the 3 dimensional details of the building. the door and window pieces are glued with clear styrene in between for window glazing. I used Canopy Formula 560 glue and that worked real well on this structure along with a glue stick for gluing larger sheet sections to their backers. Overall I found the kit to be really well thought out and convincing.

Here are pictures of the completed structure. Considering it cost me virtually nothing to build this, I am pretty happy. I like how it includes the 3 dimensional aspects such as the end pieces and roof caps, as well as the recessed window and interior office. There is just enough there to fool the eye. Some additional features, like down spouts and lights would also help. 

Basic completed structure. I have not added any weathering to this at all, and may not need to.

The interior office adds a lot of dimension, and I look forward to adding some people, a vehicle and other detail parts.

I will probably investing a few "euros" and purchase one of their other kits. Rick discusses how he just used multiple print outs from one kit to give him plenty of siding material for the "paper-bash" of his 84 Lumber kit. I agree this is great idea and can really help get some structures on the layout, whether they are permanent or just mock ups.

Final benchwork and trackwork progress

As we head towards summer, I am still trying to stay busy working on the layout and associated projects. Recent news about a nearby layout being taken down, and the subsequent end to a monthly operating session there really have me wanting to keep work progressing towards getting my layout ready for an operating session. In that regard, I have made more progress, getting subroadbed and fascia in place for the Groveton paper mill area. This represents the last area of relatively major "lumber cutting". With this in place, I can finalize plans for trackwork here and put in the removeable bridge that the B&M will use to cross in from of the utility closet between Whitefield and Groveton.

Along with this work, I did more of the fascia work and under shelf construction for Gilman and Lyndonville. These are nearly complete and I will post pictures of that once they are completed. At that point I will be able to stain and clear coat the rest of the fascia, moving the overall layout area to a completed look. it also will help the operators as I will be able to give them a place to work with the waybills.

An in progress shot of the work at Groveton, to the left, below the shelf for North Stratford. The removeable bridge section will join in below the level where the clamp is seen. To the front right is the Lydonville Industrial park, and behind that the paper mill at Groveton. The 4 locations in this picture are all served by different railroads from different mainlines. This could be a busy area during an Op Session. Hopefully the 4' wide aisle will do! Since this photo, all fascia and subroadbed work are completed.

The other major area needing attention was the yard and industry tracks at Morrisville. Operating the LVRC really would not be possible without this in place, and I am happy to report that all track is in place. I still need to install ground throws, but it is possible to operate without them as I have seen on other layouts.

Morrisville finally has yard tracks and industry spots to switch, plus tracks to head into the engine house.

Trackwork still remains to be done for the B&M in Whitefield, specifically a couple of spurs past the ball signal that will add operational interest. This is not needed however before an operating session commences, This can be added later, with appropriate waybills cycled in at that time too.

Another similar area to get trackwork is the talc mill on the LVRC at Johnson. This will be an industry that will ship and receive a fair amount of covered hoppers, but again does not need to be in place before the first attempted operating session. The area here has received no attention since the initial benchwork went in place 6 years ago. I don't even have a picture of the area!

The industrial park at Lyndonville has long been my "last to do" area because of the convenience of having a large flat area to work on things (see first photo, lower right). I could think about simply running some flex track here and having the local just drop the cars there while I contemplate where to spot the industries I have planned, and that I have already made up waybills for!

A final small location needing some additional trackwork is the CV interchange with the LVRC at Sheldon Junction. I anticipate one or two CV served industries here, but right now there is just a switch off the CV main. Also another example of something that can wait, or can at least be temporarily set in pace with flex track and some spikes. Initially the CV trains do not even have to be operated as they are not critical to any other trains on the schedule.

This area has not changed at all since I took this picture a few years ago. Those CV engines need an industry or two to switch, don't you think?

The point seems to be that I could indeed probably look at the calendar now and set a date for an initial op session. Something to get a crew familiar with my layout and concept, and run a subset of the overall train schedule. The Maine Central is fully in place. The CP could also be operated with at least that temporary track in Lyndonville to receive the local cars. The B&M does not need to be fully functional at this time, and could perhaps just terminate at Groveton on a temporary track after it works the Whitefield interchange. The LVRC can also be fully run, perhaps leaving the covered hoppers for Johnson in the yard for now (replacing empties also in the yard).

I can think of a ton of other things I would like to do before an initial session, but I wonder if it is just better to plan on a date and do it. Otherwise it seems I will always be pushing it back as I find more things to work on that seem "critical" but probably are not when a layout is first starting to get operated.

Whitefield Ball Signal

One of the signature scenes on the Maine Central's Mountain Subdivision is the ball signal protecting the crossing with the Boston & Maine in Whitefield, NH. Even in 1980, the time period of my layout, train crews would stop here and raise or lower the ball signals to get authority to cross the diamond.

Maine Central train YR-1 stops at the ball signal in Whitefield, NH in order to raise the lowered ball signal, giving the crossing two raised signals, thereby giving the MEC train clearance to cross the B&M tracks on its way to Crawford Notch and ultimately Portland, ME.

On my layout I have included this scene and have had the Best Trains kit of the signal and supporting structures ready to be built for some time. Recently, my wife was interested in working on another structure as she has done in the past and I pulled this kit out. She worked on the signal shanty and car shed while I assembled the ball signal. I used some craft beads for the ball signals instead of the ones supplied in the kit as they represent an older style which was replaced in the 1970s. 

Once we had the shanty and signal complete (although the shanty is still without the faded tar paper roof like the prototype shot above), I could not resist mocking up the scene on this unscenicked area of the layout. I posed a MEC and B&M locomotive here and recorded the grand moment.

 

Cat-proofing the LVRC

My Lamoille Valley track runs around the walls from St. Johnsbury to Johnson before passing through the wall into a small closet area, then reentering the layout room below these scenes on the wall to get to Sheldon Junction and the Central Vermont. As the picture shows, this hidden track is just a simple piece of wood to span between the wall holes.

Well, I have found that my 2 relatively new cats have figured out how to open the bi-fold doors which can lead into this area. Being curious they seemed to have learned that this shelf leads to holes in the wall and ultimately a whole new place to explore. As I found out one day when the remnants of what I can only guess was Hurricane Lexie followed by tropical Storm Roxy...broken trees, freight cars knocked on their sides, some power lines down in Hardwick...even the moose at Fisher Bridge was "sleeping" in the water.

To avoid a repeat of this, I installed a simple foam core protective cover for this track and used sections on top secured by blue painters tape to act as hinges, meaning I can lift up the top and get to the track for maintenance.(I have a pretty good supply of foam core board from a friend)

I am happy to report no further feline incursions to the Northeast Kingdom!

Before, pretty easy access for the cats to the layout room through those holes

With the protection in place, the cats can only visit the layout room under supervision!

Were we bad?

An update on Car Cards and Waybills

Between other modeling projects I have slowly been finalizing my car cards and waybills. As mentioned before, I was intrigued by the more prototypical waybill and especially the plastic sleeve mentioned in Model Railroader’s Feb. 2012 issue. I did order some plastic sleeves and these worked well with the car cards I already had once I trimmed off the fold up pocket.

Next I turned to the waybill. Using the template provided in Excel on the MR web site, I started adjusting boxes in the document and removing things I did not like. The result was a 2” x 2-1/2” area to identify the shipper, receiver, their locations, the commodity and any special instructions. It follows the basic left-right concept of the prototype template, but eliminates a few things to allow larger printing of the data that mattered. I found that I could group 4 waybills in a block and by folding them I could get all 4 steps, one at a time, to be displayable on the front, simply by turning the waybill front to back, then folding it and doing the same again. Kind of hard to describe but the pictures below should help. Once cut out and folded, it was inserted into the plastic sleeve, overlaying the car card.

I printed these on white paper but used Blue print for the variable data and highlighted the box representing the destination location as this is usually what an operator is most interested in knowing. After doing a few of these, I was satisfied that this would work, so I went ahead and ordered enough plastic sleeves (vinyl actually) for the rest of my rolling stock and set forward on the task of creating waybills.

In excel I created new sheets for different cars and routings and printed these out, matching them up with likely freight cars. For example paper will move in MEC boxcars,  appliances will move in my D&RGW HyCube boxcar, etc. This takes time, and can really get to you, so it is best to do a little at a time I find. So far I have done a little more than half of all my rolling stock. I have been keeping track of how many waybills I create for each siding and staging track as recommended in the article I referred you to in the last post.

One thing it quickly identifies is where I have a need for certain freight cars, and maybe too many of another. For example, I doubt I need any more boxcars (although it will be tough not pick up new ones that come out) but I have no oil tank cars that I need for the MEC to interchange with the B&M at Whitefield for the paper mill to the north. So this will help me focus a bit on cars I should be looking for in the future.

Here are some pictures. The first shows the waybill printed and cut out. You can se the fold lines. Also note that I used a highlighter in the boxes for step 3 and step 4.This was something that I picked up operating on someone elses layout. The color coding can help yard operators quickly identify how to route cars. An orange highlight is for cars heading on the MEC to Portland. A Green highlight is for cars heading up north on the CP. I also have blue for southbound cars on the CP/BM and Yellow for cars destined for the CV St. Albans yard. This can help an operator who may not be sure how a car should be forwarded.

Next is a picture showing all phases of the car card and waybill. You can see the plastic sleeve, the sleeve with car card and finally also with a waybill. Above that is the waybill before and after folding.

Finally here is a look at the completed product for a number of different car types on the layout. I color coded the car cards to help crews identify them .

The car cards in their plastic sleeves with waybills inserted.

 

So far I am pretty happy to have found a way to address this need to move me closer to operations. I know once we start I will probably need to tweek the waybills, and possibly fix some errors. But this has me on a good start. Now, to finish waybills for the remaining cars…oh yeah, and I need to print some car cards for the freight cars I picked up at Springfield in January…

Of Operations, Car Cards and Waybills

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

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

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

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

Traditional car cards with fold up pocket, although the size is somewhat custom, in between the original large ones, and the later small ones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visitors From Virginia

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

Mike and Marty

Mike and Bernie

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

The shelf under St. Johnsbury always receives a positive comment!

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

National Model RR Month

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

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

 BCT Article

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

Timonium with Captiol Free-mo

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

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

NJ Division Open House

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

Focus on trackwork

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heat Wave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free-mo Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hydrocal Structure Kits

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

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

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

Here is a look at the Motrak kit unpacked:

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

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

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

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

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

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