The Little Rock Line

[Bendtracker1]

Made some good progress on my crummies this weekend.

Primered
 

Red sides and end rails painted
 

Yellow ends
 

Roofs
 

[Bendtracker1]

I got the cabooses wrapped up a few weeks ago, but have been working with JMRI and getting ready for a quick Op session this weekend.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh man, more great work. Those cars look like peak RI!

[Bendtracker1]

Thank you sir!

[Bendtracker1]

It's been awhile since my last update.
Talk about a rabbit hole!  Actually JMRI Ops is more than just a rabbit hole, it's a huge time suck in the space and time continuum.
I started working with JMRI last November as the request and suggestion of a buddy who's been using it for 20+ years.
He offered to help me as he likes this kind of work and puzzles.  So off we started down the yellow brick road.

Most of the time we Zoomed together for a few hours a night. 
Getting things set up and running wasn't too difficult.  I picked up on the basics pretty quickly but he kept throwing me for a loop as he could see into the future and knew what was coming as he made changes and suggestions.

With everything ready to start building the trains and get the cars moving, we had decent luck but a lot of changes and tweaks were needed.
Finally around March of this year, we found the path we'd been looking for.

The biggest issue we were having is getting the software to deal with the huge amount of cars that I've acquired over time. The software kept stumbling over itself while choosing the cars for the two trains.  Too many cars total for the small amount of cars needed for each session.

My yard is nothing more than a glorified two track staging yard with an small engine facility.  As I'm not a huge fan of yard work, but I did want to get a feel of some yard work.  I keep the entire rolling stock fleet in six 9 drawer storage cabinets that I built years ago. 

What we came up with for the solution is to have multiple digital trains and only four physical trains during the session.
For the Southbound train, there is a SB select train that chooses the cars needed from the Drawer Yard (what we called my storage drawers) and runs them to a temporary yard (a digital yard), from there a temp train brings them to the NB Departure track in the actual yard.  At that point these are just a list of cars that I can 0-5-0 from the drawers to the arrival track and pre stage the train.  This is done for both the SB and NB locals (the two main trains that run).

There is also a similar setup for an ICG train that the locals interchange with during the session.
Once the session is over, each train has a Store train that does the same as the Select train but they take the cars back to the drawer yard.
So far this is working very well.  I've ran about 4 or 5 sessions with only minor tweaks needed.
I have run a couple of full sessions with a couple of different crews now and have another planned for Aug 19th.

I still need to make a few minor tweaks to keep the cars from jamming up in one location, but Dave said it will take awhile before I can get all the kinks ironed out.

Before the the first full session with a crew I ran a solo op and while I was doing that I tried to video each train as they went about their duties across the layout.  Did this mainly so Dave could see how his effort worked out since he lives a few states away.

I made playlist of all 15 videos from start to finish, each video lasts between 2 to 9 minutes long.   They are not going win any Oscars, but it tells the story.
Be sure to watch for the disappearing car...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL32Ycc7bBlCemffBXpJfykkRJUT6KHC_c

I also decided to do a little trackwork recently to remove a small siding that doesn't serve a purpose with the new Ops that I'm running.  Here's a quick video of that work as well.

 


 
 
 

[Cajonpassfan]

It's been awhile since my last update.
Talk about a rabbit hole!  Actually JMRI Ops is more than just a rabbit hole, it's a huge time suck in the space and time continuum.

Etc.....
 

Hallelujah, brother, well put!
I hope the initial investment will pay off for you in the long run. I don't have that kind of patience and energy myself...
Best, Otto

[Bendtracker1]

In the last post I mentioned about ripping out a small siding at Winnfield (on the Rock main) that was no longer needed.
I got that ripped out and then ripped out some more track.  I ripped out the ICG track, then moved it to be exact.

I was never really happy with how the ICG track worked on the layout or in operation practice.  I was chatting Karl (jpwisc) one night and he mentioned something about moving it away from the backdrop so it could be reached easier for switching and uncoupling.  Then the area between the track and backdrop would have no restrictions.  I kind of liked having a minimum amount of track out front, but having less restrictions should be worth the tradeoff.

This is what I had planned to do, you can see the ICG track running close the backdrop.


This is what I wound up doing after Karl's suggestion.


Here's a quick video of how the ops will work.
So far I've ran one full session with the new tracks in place and it has worked as planned.
Mainly that means I didn't have to remove the cars from the SB Rock Island train off the ICG tracks before moving cars onto the Jct. track during the session.

With all this done, it was time to paint most of the track in this area and prep the backdrop for final painting.
I'll cover that in the next post.

[Bendtracker1]

Some clouds rolled in over Dubach, Ruston and Winnfield today...

[Bendtracker1]

I did get the track painted before I worked on the clouds.
Instead of using just the Dark Camo brown this time, I mixed in two other colors to vary the look.



The first coat was with the Dark Camo, I covered the tracks with roughly a 75% coverage. I followed that with the Rustoleum Brown and misted it on patchy then followed that coat with the lighter Krylon Bark Corteza, misting it on with an even less coverage.  It may not be perfect, but it gave me a nice variation in color.







I also decided to add a horizon for a distant tree line. 
I have plans to paint a closer tree line over this in certain places so the distant tree line shows through.
Then I'll come back and stipple on the detail.





These are still a work in progress and a few more layers to add to them yet.

Next up is ballasting, yay....

[Bendtracker1]

My painted trees turned out pretty decent but after applying the final leaves, I see that I'll need to do a little more practice yet.
So I switched back to ballasting. Tonight I wrapped up the last of the ballast between Ruston and Winnfield.
I left the area around Union Scrap unballasted until I decide the final track location and footprint of the scrap yard.

I used a custom blend for the Grey mix on the ICG trackage and another custom Buff mix for the Rock's mainline.
I plan to use some weathering powders to tone them down and give a weathered look after the scenery is in.

Ruston


Winnfield

[John]

Outstanding work .. I love the videos - they help a lot .. also the blog is well done

[Bendtracker1]

Thank you John.   

[Cajonpassfan]

Nice progress! Are the fascia graphics not up to date...?
Following with interest,
Otto

[Bendtracker1]

Nice progress! Are the fascia graphics not up to date...?
Following with interest,
Otto

Thanks Otto!
Yes, that is correct. LOL
There are only few lineal feet that still matches what I have on the layout.
I got really excited about getting that applied to my layout and I didn't give it much thought that I would or could or need to make any changes to the original track plan over time, a fool was I.   

I'm seriously thinking about sanding the entire fascia down and repainting it solid black.
1- It kind of draws my eyes away from the layout.
2- It's a little hard to see when everyone is standing around the layout when operating.
3- I know there will be a few more changes coming to one more big town.
4- I also plan to shape the scenery with some slopes, waterways and other things that will require me to re-shape the fascia as well.

When I visited JD Colombo's layout years ago, he had done the same thing and I thought it was a great idea to help newcomers to become familiar with the layout.
Having done it now, I'm having seconds thoughts?
So I'm not sure what I'll do.  I still have one or two towns that I'll probably go back and re-adjust the tracks, so I may wait till then?

I have small printed diagrams of each area that I hang from the backdrop for now to help with Ops and spotting since the landmarks are not finished.
I may make these in a different way and apply them to the fascia?

[Cajonpassfan]

Allen, lol, I'm so happy to hear that. I know aesthetics are a very personal choice, and I wouldn't dare comment if you didn't bring it up, but I personally find full size continuous graphics unattractive and a distraction from the modeled world. I even did away with traditional control "panels" in locations with simple trackage... Of course DCC does away with the requisite block/cab assignment switches where you better be sure you're flipping the right switch In my case, I even did away with most fascia mounted turnout controls (I use DCC switch addresses) so it's easier to just follow the trackage instead of a diagrammatic representation.

Three are lots of ways to do this, and I'm sure you'll figure out what works best for you.
Best, Otto