WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[wm3798]

Nothing photogenic yet, but last night I worked on adding some wiring drops, and installing the trackwork for the newspaper and freight house behind the station.  Should have that all wrapped up tonight, then I can start in on the scenic elements.

Lee

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I think I finally understand the geography you are modeling here.  I was confusing this Cumberland setting:

with the B&O/Amtrak station a few blocks over.     (I've only been to Cumberland in modern times.)  So if I have my bearings right, the WM main crosses the the Potomac just to the right of the US 48 bridge as shown here:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=298862&nseq=15

which also includes the confluence with Wills Creek and the start of the C&O canal.   The way you have US 48 laid out, you could include this confluence almost verbatim, including the curved bridge.  Is that your plan? 

I would also be tempted to put a photo backdrop of Cumberland in there too.  Something like the top half of this shot, which is slightly hazy and not too detailed, and therefore good background material:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianbreighner/4945800651/sizes/l/in/photostream/

(You can also see the Potomac bridge in this shot pretty clearly.)

-gfh

[wm3798]

That second aerial is a good reference, it's just about the same angle as my picture.
RE the confluence of the creek and the Potomac, that will be occurring in the aisle.  The elevation change necessitated by the Connellsville line makes it impractical to try to include the scene.  There is a bridge a bit further along, but it's straight, and a thru truss.



The lower track is the Connellsville Sub which is routed underneath Cumberland, a concession to the layout's givens.  I've installed the creekbed at an elevation about 1/2" higher than that, with the Cumberland main line crossing directly above.  I'm using a steel girder plate to mask the "Tunnel to Nowhere" on the lower line.  I'll try to tidy up and take some progress shots tonight.

Another project I'm going to try to engineer will be the WTBO neon sign up on the hill side above the east side of town.  It lights up W- T---B---O--- then it flashes on WTBO.  I'm sure there's a circuit wizard out there who can bring these red LED's to life...

Lee

[GaryHinshaw]

Another project I'm going to try to engineer will be the WTBO neon sign up on the hill side above the east side of town.  It lights up W- T---B---O--- then it flashes on WTBO.  I'm sure there's a circuit wizard out there who can bring these red LED's to life...

Yes!  I was looking for pictures of that too.  Very iconic for Cumberland.

-gfh

[Philip H]

if you get to rub a couple pennies together, Micromark has an "experimenters kit" for the electro-luminescent stuff that they make their HO light up bill boards out of.

[wm3798]

That's an idea...  I was thinking of doing a piece of etched acrylic, you know, going to the sign maker, having the call letters cut into the back of some clear stock about 1/8 thick, then arranging four red LED's under each letter, then having someone much smarter than me whip a circuit to make it go.

I'll have to have my Cumberland Connection shoot a night time video of the sign in all its glory...

Lee

[DKS]

if you get to rub a couple pennies together, Micromark has an "experimenters kit" for the electro-luminescent stuff that they make their HO light up bill boards out of.

That's true--their animation kit has a programmable circuit that has the classic 1-2-3-4-all sequence (among about 30 others). The only problem with the EL stuff is that it doesn't produce bold colored light--just a wimpy blueish color or a wimpy pinkish color. Even gels don't help much--they just tend to diminish the brightness. Ngineering might offer a better solution--if they don't have a circuit for the sequence, they'll program a custom circuit for $20.

[wm3798]

While I'm dreaming of my radio station sign, I've otherwise been having fun with Cumberland.  Here's the new freight house for Cumberland, starting with a DPM Trackside Transfer kit.



I modified the loading doors with some corrugated styrene to represent rollup doors, the roll covers are cut from sprues I had laying around.  I also changed the dock roof to corrugated, and built a sloped roof for the main building.  The trackside wall was eliminated and replaced with a solid wall of 12' wide roll up doors, more typical of WM practice on its later freight houses.  (I'll post some shots of that side once the batteries recharge for the camera!)

But that's not all... as night falls over the city...


The lights begin to come on to illuminate the round the clock nature of the railroad...







I love LEDs.  I can eat them by the handful!

Lee

[MVW]

OK, Lee. For ignoramuses like me who've barely thought about adding exterior lighting, can you give us a brief how-to and list of materials?

Looks like the makings of a great scene!

Jim

[MichaelWinicki]

Luv the roll-up doors Lee.

[wm3798]

I went on eBay and bought some of those direct from China LEDs, they're usually 100 pieces for about $12 with free (but painfully slow) shipping.  I'm using 5mm bright white for the interior lighting, and 1.8mm yellow for the outside lights.

The LEDs are shipped with the resistors needed to step down 12-16v, and I'm using a 9v power DC wall wart power source.  As such, I have to wire the resistor to the + side consistently, or they won't light.

To route power, I run a pigtail into the building using a 2-conductor phone cord, with the jack end dangling below the benchwork about a foot or so.  I use an old piece of c80 track or two as roof rafters, and solder the phone cord one side to each rail, with jumpers as needed to get to the other rails.  From their, I simply solder the resistors to the + side, and black wire to the -, wash, rinse, repeat until all the LEDs are lit.

Finally, I wire the 9v power source to a series of phone jacks under the layout, plug in the pigtail to the phone jack, then the wall wart into a power strip, and Bah Zinga!  The building blazes forth in unparallelled glory.

I'll be using this method to wire entire city blocks, with the phone jack allowing me to unplug and pull the block into the workbench for further detailing etc.  I'll take some pictures to illustrate the process and try to post them this evening.  At some point I'm going to go back and retrofit the paper mill, which I did with Christmas lights.  It was cheap, but not quite as effective as the LEDs.

I do like the contrast of the bluish interior lighting, similar to flourescent or mercury vapor lights, and the yellow sodium lights outside...    I've also got some warm white, blue, green and red in the repertoire...  Coming soon to a street corner near you!

Lee

[MVW]

Thank you, Lee. This ignoramus thinks that is quite doable.

Jim

[wazzou]

Looking good Lee.  You'd better pull that cork out so the trailer deck matches the height of the dock or your going to have to stuff those trailers by hand.

[wm3798]

We threw out a bunch of old cordless phones at the store today, so I salvaged some more wall warts.  I've got a 9v AC which will hopefully reduce the frustration level if I get a wire backward somewhere.  And yes, dear Wazzou, the photo is "for placement only"... the details will be parsing down in the coming days.

My plan is actually to build up the paving.  The dock is set at boxcar height, so a few extra inches of backfill will be needed before the asphalt goes down!

Lee

[wm3798]

Here's the "topless" picture you've all been waiting for...



You can see how I used old c80 rail to provide the power to the various LEDs in and outside the building.  A pair of wires run into the annex at one end of the building to light that.



Here it is all lit up.  I added two lights to the fascia over the rail loading bays to help illuminate the industries that will be behind the freight house.  This will also be below the highway bridge.  I'm pretty excited about how this is going to look...

Lee