AC&Y - Litchfield to Spencer OH

[wazzou]

That looks really great Steve.

[Dave Schneider]

Great story Steve. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't know that it's impossible.

Best wishes, Dave

[SAH]

Thanks guys.

The cool thing is that, if I'm not mistaken, these loads originated on the Akron Barberton Belt at Columbia-Southern Chemicals in Barberton, OH.  The ABB was an Akron area switching line, part owned by the AC&Y.  Other interesting rolling stock that made it to Akron on a regular basis included helium cars (for the Goodyear blimps) and carbon black hoppers of the rubber industry.  Both were featured in the Dollar Car series. 

It's still a mystery to me why N scale doesn't have a 3000 cu ft carbon black hopper yet.  The outsized advertising graphics one those early cars would be a seller I'd think.  I guess I'll have to build one.   

[unittrain]

Your work is top notch  .

[mcjaco]

I'd do the same thing in the dog days of August.  Climb under the layout and pull out my Dad's collection of old MRs. 

My favorite was the article on how to do a Mars light in a dummy HO F unit.  It was literally a brass tube with a light at one end, a rubber band drive, and a set of gears IIRC, that would actually mimic the rotation. 

Great work. 

[GaryHinshaw]

I am reminded of this thread:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=435804&nseq=5

[SAH]

Ooooh.  Very nice Gary.  Great overhead shot.  Reminds me that I need to weather my H16-44s.  I think the location is Brittain Yard in Akron though, not Mogadore.  The brand new "expressway", as it was called then, serves as the backdrop.  The AC&Y HS is working with Morning Sun on a color book covering the AC&Y and Akron Barberton Belt.  The ABB would make a fabulous switching layout.  I've seen some of the AC&Y images they've dug up.  A lot of interesting things packed in 170 route miles.  It will be a keeper for sure.

On the modeling front I'm pleased to report that the AC&Y Spencer to Litchfield layout will rise again.  After four months of observing the very valuable living space the layout once occupied be used for nothing more than "stuff" storage, I pointed out same to my spouse and reclaimed the space.     All the essential parts will be employed.  The connection to staging will be rebuilt but that's OK.  Ops will essentially remain the same.  Photos when I get it back in service.

Steve

[GaryHinshaw]

Delighted to hear it will rise again!

Don't forget to weather your cabeese too.

-gfh

[packers#1]

IT LIVES!!!
Glad to hear the layout will be back, I enjoyed seeing the progress 

[Rich_S]

Steve, As a fellow modeler of a All FM road and sister road (I'm modeling the P&WV), nice looking layout. Also two thumbs up on your Bachman FM H16-44's, you did a super job on both of them. Did you use the Atlas Train Master hand rails for your H16-44 project?  Like you've mentioned, the motors seem suspect in these models. I've gone through 3 Digitrax decoders so far in my Bachman H16-44. The first one was plugged into the built in circuit board and went up in smoke about two months later. The last two were hard wired and lasted between 3 and 6 months. Not sure why the engine can run fine for 3 months and then one day go up in smoke? I have shrink tubing on all of my solder joints.

Regards,
Rich S.
Modeling the P&WV in N Scale.

[LKOrailroad]

Two cheers for FM.    All FM road power here too. Alcos in the yard.

[SAH]

Thanks Rich.  I took note of your P&WV layout post.  Another fascinating RR for the modeler to study.  Their FM paint scheme is striking.  You're as better man than I to take it on though.  I have a hard enough time masking off a 2 color scheme.

Yes I used Atlas TM handrails.  Tricky to get them firmly mounted given the differences between the attachment points of the two prototypes.  So far so good.  I've not run them enough to find the failure point though.  The B'mann board with the decoder solder points seems to work pretty well.  We'll see over time. 

Steve, As a fellow modeler of a All FM road and sister road (I'm modeling the P&WV), nice looking layout. Also two thumbs up on your Bachman FM H16-44's, you did a super job on both of them. Did you use the Atlas Train Master hand rails for your H16-44 project?  Like you've mentioned, the motors seem suspect in these models. I've gone through 3 Digitrax decoders so far in my Bachman H16-44. The first one was plugged into the built in circuit board and went up in smoke about two months later. The last two were hard wired and lasted between 3 and 6 months. Not sure why the engine can run fine for 3 months and then one day go up in smoke? I have shrink tubing on all of my solder joints.

Regards,
Rich S.
Modeling the P&WV in N Scale.

[SAH]

Trains are running again!!!  Here's an eastbound coming off the new connection module into Spencer.



Approaching the NKP diamond.



I moved the layout about 4' towards the long wall, which allowed me to open up the space by the window for a futon and more importantly leave 6+ feet of length for the staging yard.





I reused the 5 track staging yard built for the last set-up.  Also used the cassette as a fixed staging track to serve the east side of the layout and to compensate for the slight elevation change.  There wasn't supposed to be an elevation change between the two ends but - **it happens.    So i only had to build one section to tie everything together.  I'll scenic the Spencer end and stick a backdrop in to hide the view of staging seen here.  From an ops standpoint it will work pretty much the same as before and will do for now. 



Thanks for looking - Steve

[Philip H]

Steve,
Glad to see you back in business. Does this. Mean we'll see more corn?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome! Glad to see you back up and running.