Weekend Update - 9-14-2008

[John]

Ok, whats new ..

[DKS]

Started getting some pavement down. (Need to work on the road stripe effect.)



Article on paving roads: http://jamesriverbranch.net/part_20.htm

Installed a relay box, a modified BLMA kit.



Article on the relay box: http://jamesriverbranch.net/detail_1.htm

And I managed to make something that resembles a Z scale ground throw.



Article on the ground throw: http://jamesriverbranch.net/detail_3.htm

[Chris333]

David,
Nice to see the website/layout back in motion. I always get excited to see an update!


Still playing with HOn30. Tried out a rubber band gear reduction:



And did a mock-up of the pieces:



And to see it run here is another thrilling nail biter:

[Puddington]

That rubber band machine is one for the books - awesome !

Tim Horton, of PGE/BCR book fame got a small group of us together and we commisioned a 40' Can Car trailer in resin. Tim was the project manager and recently he delivered two versions of the Can Car to us - with and without a side door. I have managed to finish one of the Refigerated units in the mid 1960's map scheme....



On a PGE flat at Samuel Ridge....



Caught her on the afternoon shunt to cross docking



Ready to unload at United Freight



The trailers die on a Micro Train frame; have several resin cast referigeration, battery and fuel applicance options and Tim commisioned four sets of decals representing the era's that the PGE and BCR ran these vans....

Also been removing some buildings from the hollow core door module I bought last winter and starting to "puddy-ize" the area with some structures from my former Puddington Valley Divison... first up is Patterson Paper and Publishing....



Been a fun week !

[MichaelT]

Had a pretty productive day on Saturday here...

Here is the latest update on the Arkansas Southern Railroad.

The full blog can be seen here: http://www.scalerailsonline.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4028

Even with the remnants of Hurricane Ike bearing down on our area (which turned out to be not as bad as expected), we (Larry and myself) got quite a bit done on this Saturday work day.

We discussed some changes to the yard plan to get more use out of the space. Before the yard work can proceed I'll need to pick up some supplies (turnouts, tubing, wire, etc).

We also installed foamboard further along the branchline.

This new area will be where the lumber facility will be built. The branchline will continue in front of the facility and continue its' path towards the end of the layout, and three or four sidings will be used with the lumber facility to allow pickups and setouts.

So to make things a little more interesting, lets follow MP GP38 #850 as it tours the new trackage. The train has already entered the passing siding on the southern end of the peninsula, and has cut off about 1/2 of it's cars.


Here the engine is shown with its' cut of cars approaching the holding track. This track extends to the end of the peninsula where the main and passing siding sit, and will be utilized to help engines pull past the turnouts that go to the printing company and the brewery. There will also be some more industries on the end of the peninsula, they'll come later.


Here you see the last car has cleared the turnout so the brakeman can hop out and switch the turnout.




The train has backed onto the brewery/printing sidings and started to set some cars. A couple box cars are set at the Huffman brewery loading dock to be filled with pallets of beer to deliver.


Another couple cars are pushed into the building to unload dry items, hops, paper, and other items.


Might be able to squeeze two 50' cars in there at once, but most times they'll unload/load one car at a time.




A one car track is on the back side of the industry, to allow for misc. items, coal dumping for the boiler, and other uses as needed by the brewery.


Next, the engine pushes two boxcars onto the Weldon Printing and Paper Company siding. A variety of products necessary will keep this little siding hopping during a session I think.


Here you see the work that has been done already. Seven cars setout and the engine uncouples and prepares to grab the rest of the train waiting on the passing siding.


These Atlas GP38's are very nice engines, and might make me consider moving my "era" time frame just a bit.


The engineer gets the all clear to roll onto the mainline to runaround the remaining cars, and get into position to push them onto the holding spur.


After a bit, their behind the cut of cars and coupled up, check the brackes, push the slack out, and they start inching towards the holding track.




Here you see the second cut of cars pushed into the holding track, and the engine has backed up to a ready position. The engineer decided to power down and go grab some beans at the local cafe.


Behind the engine you can see the work performed at the brewery and the printing company.




So there is where things stand on the Arkansas Southern Railroad for now. Of course buildings still have to be built and planted, scenery still has to be worked in, and tracks need to be painted and weathered, but for a nice bad weather Saturday, we got quite a bit done.

Michael

[ryourstone]

Who makes the 50' cars with angle panel roofs? I thought the DI 40' cars were the only ones out there with those, good thing I didn't start chopping any up yet!

[wazzou]

Rich -

Those cars there are Atlas ACF boxcars.  40' diagonal panel roofs are available from Intermountain and the best 50' ones can be found on Athearn NACC Boxcars which are not molded to the sides or ends.

[wm3798]

Looking good, Michael... don't forget to paint the track before you ballast.   ... and Weldon paper?  Should I blush?  No doubt a major supplier of TP!
Lee

[ryourstone]

Rich -

Those cars there are Atlas ACF boxcars.  40' diagonal panel roofs are available from Intermountain and the best 50' ones can be found on Athearn NACC Boxcars which are not molded to the sides or ends.

Cool - Looks like those cars also have 3/1+4 Dreadnaught ends I would need too, thanks for the info!

[MichaelT]

Looking good, Michael... don't forget to paint the track before you ballast.   ... and Weldon paper?  Should I blush?  No doubt a major supplier of TP!
Lee

hehe...was wondering if you'd catch that!
I'll get to the track probably tomorrow unless I have some more time tonight. Have to go to work for awhile and make some changes on a couple flights.

tape up the points on turnouts, spray or brush the rails, then bright boy the tops and insides, right??

[SirTainly]

I managed to redo my woodchip extensions ready for casting. The rear ladder is just placed on, hence the jaunty angle, and the whole thing is held togehter with blu-tac.

[wm3798]

I've been tinkering with my new steam project, trying to figure out the best way to handle the boiler taper, and looking up photos so I can bash the oil bunker.  I also turned down the flanges to prep it for running on the Atlas c55 track on the layout.  It was surprisingly easy, even the little wheels on the lead truck.


Next up is the decoder hook up, which will be a little trickier than I anticipated.  It looks like it's going to have to ride in the tender, which means stringing wires to the engine...  I'm debating hardwiring the headlight to just stay on all the time, which will eliminate two of the wires (leaving 3... the red track pick up lead can be connected to the tender)  I'm a little nervous about the contact scheme, which has one rail picking up only from the tender, and the other from the engine, including the pilot truck.  We shall see...

UPDATE.. I did a little research, and it looks like a DZ125 will fit in the cab roof with a wee bit of frame milling.  This will greatly simplify matters.  I found it here... http://www.raybob.boche.net/

ANOTHER UPDATE..  Back to square one on the decoder install.  The model shown in the link above was the Arnold release, which apparently had a different motor.  Mine has the poles at the top and bottom, with the bottom one attached directly to the drawbar pin, which is how the pick up gets in from the tender.  It again looks like the tender will be the place to go with the decoder, and I'll just have to route the orange lead across the draw bar, and isolate the tender end of it...  I tried turning the motor so the contacts would be on the side, but then the mounts don't work and I'd have to completely rebuild the draw bar pin.  I may go ahead and fab a new drawbar to close up that coupling distance, too.

Grrrr.




Lee

[Bob Bufkin]

Found some decals for a Sherman tank I've had for awhile.  So I decaled the tank and placed it on a flatcar.  Besides gave me an excuse to try out a new 50mm micro lens I just bought.  I got a lot of learning in using this lens.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I've been making the scenery happen on my latest OneTRAK module, but don't have pics yet.

I ALSO made some design changes on my Conrail1285.com site, check it out.

[up1950s]

Chris , your talents are being wasted on your day job , you need to hire yourself out to do prototyping of loco drives for model manufacturers . That runs as smooth as all get up .