Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[svedblen]

Just not at warehouses they allow to ship to the US.

Which countries do they ship to? Perhaps there is an  in a legit place that can help you out. Well, double shipping costs and so on...so perhaps not worth it, economically. But just to beat the "system" 

[C855B]

I was thinking that, Lennart. But truth be told, in the interim I've been doing additional sniffing around, and don't trust hobbyking.com any further than I can throw them. I'll assume some risks since they haven't burned me yet, at least not directly, but I'm really hesitant to get a third party involved in a potential mess. They have cutoff all customer service contact channels - "24-hour chat" goes to their FAQ page, all phone numbers I can find are disconnected, the contact form on the website doesn't work any more, and the web page for the servo I bookmarked a year ago suddenly has Cyrillic links in the header. That happened yesterday. Something is screwed up and getting worse.

An additional data point discovered a couple of minutes ago - the backup version of the particular servo I'm after with the wrong connector is now at backorder status. They indicated 47 in stock not four days ago. There is apparently demand and they are still taking orders and shipping product, provided you don't need to talk to anybody.

I need to wait this one out and go with my rationing plan in the interim, including removing a handful of installed switch machines on turnouts going nowhere at the moment.

[svedblen]

I need to wait this one out and go with my rationing plan in the interim...

Wise. Hope you eventuelly find a substitute.

[C855B]

Good news on the servo front. Hobby King... yeah, I know... has restocked. I ordered 60, sufficient to complete the Phase 0 plan. There were no glitches with the ordering, a good sign. We'll know if this comes through next week. Another good sign, their customer service actually responded regarding the backorder status; at that time they didn't have an ETA.

This is well-timed. I am making good headway on Daggett:



After a few adjustments with the AnyRail plots, roadbed is done, some track is tacked down and, given the prospect of servo inventory replenishment, I can install turnouts relatively angst-free. One minor change to the plan is a #7 turnout in the top track, trailing points, for a MoW equipment spur east of the crossovers. I was checking satellite views of the real thing, and was reminded of the spur.

[C855B]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!



I need to use better tape.   

[C855B]

Today was a really good day on the GC&W. Fighting the flu since a train show the weekend before last had us down for over a week, so it was great to get back to the layout.

Work resumed on Daggett, with a couple more turnouts down and the roadbed cut-in for the MoW spur. Barring interference from delayed chores, I'm hoping to have functioning track to just past the Yermo junction switches this weekend. This milestone is very close to the 50% point of the Phase 0 plan. Ran a couple of trains this evening. With no turnaround or loop, "running a train" means backing-up the entire length of the layout after reaching end-of-track. End-to-end is a total run of about 100 feet, and my main test train is 35 cars now of extremely mixed configuration, size and heritage. Talk about acid testing track quality. No mishaps.

Emboldened with the clean running, I decided to turn on the JMRI web server for the first time, everything still running on the dedicated Raspberry Pi3. Web throttle and web panels worked perfectly from my iPhone. I found the web throttle a lot smoother than WiThrottle, so maybe I need to adjust WiThrottle settings.

On the workbench was a Life-Like GP20, a non-DCC version bought at the train show, $10, labeled "DOES NOT RUN". Ran very well after a touch of lube, so it's going to jump the bench queue for DCC as soon as I remember where my CN-GP decoders are hiding. These GP20s are one of my favorites because they've always run well for me, look good, and it's a prototype I'm fond of. While I had the shell off I installed a pair of TSC short-shanks, a completely straightforward swap with the original.

Dust-Free

It dawned on me tonight that layout construction has been progressing for over a year now, with various bits of rolling stock hanging out on the layout deck for nearly the entire time. You'd think there'd be a layer of dust to clean (or leave on for "natural weathering" ). So I checked. Nope. Everything is clean as a whistle. Sitting out for a year. With the building next to a dirt road. Hmmm. Apparently all the intense planning and doing things differently paid off big. Here's a recap of what I think are the contributing details:

• Concreting the entire space. If you'll recall, half the original room was asphalt.
• The ridiculously expensive industrial floor paint I scored from a car dealership. After 18 months it's showing some wear under my desk (chair scrapes), but in the low traffic area the luster is astounding. I have people come in, and they ask if it's OK to walk on the floor since it looks wet. Still. Really.
• Fiberglass commercial ceiling tile in the grid. It has a plastic film surface, not the painted pressed paper of more conventional tile. I'll betcha this was one huge factor - the tile doesn't shed, or attract dust.
• Double filtration on the HVAC. There is a 1" filter on the intake as a pre-filter for the 4" media filter on the air handler. This is awesome because the cheap(er) filter gets the worst of it and the 4-incher catches the rest. Maybe not HEPA, but I swear it's got to be darned close.
• Vapor-barrier primer on the drywall. A step I didn't mention before. Even with the double-layer insulation, a couple of contractors indicated concerns about no continuous sheet-plastic vapor barrier behind the exterior metal, just the normal foam-with-foil sheathing, not taped. Sherwin-Williams had a special primer with vapor barrier qualities (a factor of "1.0", whatever that meant), and Robyn painted all that drywall with it. Aside from my punctures with benchwork, this and the topcoat have apparently kept the drywall shedding to zero. Nice.
• Non-wood, non-fiber benchwork. Wood sheds dust. And heaven help the guys who insist on old-school Homasote. Now that crap is dusty. Constantly.
• And then there's Roomba. I bought it for Robyn's studio as a luxury to worry less about maintaining her creative space, for more "play" time. Turns out this was a very wise move. Running in the wee hours four times a week, Roomba tends the highest-traffic areas in the place and, though not perfect, collects an amazing amount of dust tracked in from the parking pad. Even better, does a great job on dog hair (and dust) on the rare occasions she has Moe-Ray ("moiré") over to keep us company. No, he is not allowed in the train space!

That's a long list, with both large and small contributors. In combination it has worked great so far. I was originally considering positive-pressure and HEPA to keep the bad stuff out, but the equipment and installation got really expensive really quick and just wasn't going to happen. Maybe we did a bunch of nickel-and-dime things, but it seems to have worked. I'll take it.

This does raise the question of scenery finish medium, given how dusty plasters and shredded paper can be. Robyn was figuring on Sculptamold over foam terraforms. I might do some more research on artist's shaping media and see what may be available in polymers.

[C855B]

Somebody's going to catch heck for allowing the excursion all the way into Daggett. In the meanwhile, while they wait for the brass to figure out how to get them back to Barstow without totally gumming the works, the head-end crew is biding their time in the general store over a six-pack of Orange Crush. Swamp cooler or not, it's a damnsight more comfortable than that cab in the desert heat.

[C855B]

Crisis averted. HobbyKing came through. Sixty micro servos plus support bits arrived a few minutes ago:

[C855B]

Crisis averted * 2. Alternate supplier, http://www.himodel.com , came through:



Same product as the HobbyKing servo but with a black case, negligible price difference (still <$4). I was a little nervous about it since it was a direct Chinese vendor transacted through PayPal, and after ordering an "in stock" item, it came back as back-order, oh, BTW, we processed your money anyway. Nice to see they value my business.

This concept has been working very well with the 20 installed so far, so it's probably high time to write an article. One last test is ballasting to see if I get into any trouble there.

I had an HO'er buddy comment on how quiet they are, much quieter than the Tortoises on his layout. The first dozen or so installed had a whisper-level buzz while moving the points, the latest servos installed are totally silent. The points just move, as slow or fast as I want. Done.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Very cool.

Although, I actually kinda like the audible aspect of the Tortoise. It lets me know it's working when I'm not watching it.

Of course, you could always rig these up to play the appropriate sound: either the mechanical sounds of a switch machine or the "thunk" of a handthrow.

[C855B]

Valid point - the audible confirmation has value. Controlling through PanelPro with the Tam Valley quad servo boards mitigates this somewhat. The boards always seem to know what position the points are in, even on layout power-up. This is versus the TV "singlet" boards, which don't provide this feedback to JMRI and have to be initialized (although the fascia indicator is always correct). My fear is initializing points with a train on them that were in the non-default position, so in critical locations where it is possible I might leave the layout with stuff parked over turnouts, they'll have to be wired to quads.

[C855B]

Coffee Shop, Revisited

Remember last year's machinations about making a silk purse (coffee shop) out of a sow's ear (those damn apartments)? New coffee shop opened this past weekend, three blocks away. Railroad-themed, very tasteful:



Better them than us.

[MichaelWinicki]

Coffee Shop, Revisited

Remember last year's machinations about making a silk purse (coffee shop) out of a sow's ear (those damn apartments)? New coffee shop opened this past weekend, three blocks away. Railroad-themed, very tasteful:



Better them than us.

That looks good!

Yeah, tough business... But if I were in the food game, this is the type of business I'd do.  Relatively simple (at least compared to other food service businesses) and decent margins.

[wazzou]

I'd hate to have the HVAC bill in that place.

[Philip H]

Coffee Shop, Revisited

Remember last year's machinations about making a silk purse (coffee shop) out of a sow's ear (those damn apartments)? New coffee shop opened this past weekend, three blocks away. Railroad-themed, very tasteful:



Better them than us.

And you rented the adjacent space for a railroad hobby shop I take it?