Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Love the plaid shirts and bandage combo. Gives you edge.

Funny thing: both my wife and daughter were more worried and horrified by the plaid shorts than my burned, mangled hand.   

Alrighty!
On Sunday brought my real camera and had time for videos.
Here's the overall:



Just realized it's kind of a heart shape, with Devil Mt. in the middle.

Ryan brought his kids down from Sacramento again (with a 4' module, too!) and they made sure the freight kept rolling:



You can see Effett Yard had to be flipped around to fit in our space, so the junction where we usually clamped on the Storage Yard O' Necessity faced into the aisle.

So we stuck it on the branchline of Murph's Murph Junction (16'):



Which also has a long stretch of double track which came in very handy with all the long trains rolling.

Other new modules joined the party, like Rick's 12'-long Silicon Valley CalTrains Station, with separate frieght bypass (on the left):



Built especialy to accomodate his uber long El Cap, COLA and Daylight passenger trains.
Too bad they fit in only a few other places on the layout.
The station lights up, too.

Youngster Patrick brought in a 45 deg module with an Asian Urban scene in progress:



The lack of scenery on the surrounding modules made it look like a section of Post-Apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, which I guess made us Free-moNsters the Godzillas.

Nils took a break from his 24'-long Davenport Cement module to build a 2' bridge scene:



Complete with eagles and their nests, deer, lightning strikes at trunk bases, and some lovely fast-moving water.

And as Rick's CalTrains station module is made up of 3 sections, he took the 4th of the two pairs (matched for easier transport) and created a ghost town in a desert:



Many of the fab detailed structures are available at Showcase Miniatures http://www.showcaseminiatures.net/structures.html

[cont.]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Running trains-wise, we decided to try to develop an ops plan to combat the craziness from Saturday.
Here it is:



Most of the clogging was due to people leaving their trains on passing sidings (instead of the storage yard) and then wandering away, or not paying attention to their trains--got busy talking to people, etc.--or just not looking ahead to the next passing siding to see if there was space or a train coming.
So these two rules--physically (and mentally) stay with your train & LOOK AHEAD--helped moocho to keep things running smoothly.
Eventually we'll get to track warrents and specific "jobs" (both dispatcher and local switching), but that might take more organization that we're capable of at this point.

We'll see what happens for the November show!

And sometimes, if you can beat 'em, join 'em!
At every show there's a point where Nils strings together as many cars as he can into an Uber-Train and clogs up as much of the layout as he can:



The run ends when he can't get the train around the Wye Knott return loop.
(He actually took about 15 cars off by that point but it still wouldn't fit).

Soon after late Sunday lunch Rule G was tossed and the silliness really started.

My 2-6-0 Mogul decided to play chicken with Nils' Uber-Train and won:



And letting the chips fall where they may, SP gons had fun tumbling down the Shoofly slope:



For which everyone observed a moment of silence:



Or maybe they're just running trains.

At 4 o'clock it was time to pack up, which we did by 5:





And I was back home with the seats bolted back into my car by 6:30.

All-in-all a groovy weekend of running trains!

Even the hand is doing better:



A little Paint and it's looking good.
I'm just glad the pain scaled down to N as well.

And, of course, the video:

I try to keep 'em short, but there were so many more modules this year!

Thanks for looking and hope to see you at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in November the weekend before Thanksgiving!

[Philip H]

Thanks MC - there's always a ton of good stuff to learn in your updates.

Tell Nils he needs some DPU's next time, and possibly a beat up shoving platform.

Any chance any of your group will head east for Roanoke next year?  It's never too early to start planning an east meets west  mini-convention.

[PRRATSF]

Is it strange that as great as everything looked, it was the music from the video that put a smile on my face?

Sam

[Philip H]

So I traced the curve of the cork on the other modules, and started the tedious process of building a two long trestles:



I use woodglue applied with a toothpick for the stripwood ties and CA or GG for the PC board ties at 1"-1.5" intervals.
Originally I intended to spray paint the whole structure when done, which is why I didn't stain all the wood pieces before assembly.

M C,
Since I'm about to embark on a double trestle adventure for the Bufkin Bayou scene on the BRS, I wanted to ask - what size of basswood did you use to frame the deck?  And how'd you bond the ends so they  stick to the curve?

[davefoxx]

Is it strange that as great as everything looked, it was the music from the video that put a smile on my face?

Sam

Agreed, the sudden change of the music to the horns when the trains crossed the Bridge O' Wonder literally made me laugh.  M.C., you need to wire up a sensor at the shows, so that music plays each time a train heads out on the bridge.   

DFF

[M.C. Fujiwara]

M C,
Since I'm about to embark on a double trestle adventure for the Bufkin Bayou scene on the BRS, I wanted to ask - what size of basswood did you use to frame the deck?  And how'd you bond the ends so they  stick to the curve?

If you're smart, Stringer Height = (Corkroadbed + Plastic Flextrack ties) - PC board height.
That way the stringers can sit on the pink foam butted up against the cork roadbed and the rails transition smoothly from flex to deck and back to flex (meaning all you have to do is remove the plastic ties from a section of flex and solder to install)

The thicker the stringers, the more you need to dig down into the pink foam and make it even.

I cut the inner stringers a wee bit shorter than the outer.
In the photo you can see the strips of double-sided tape at each "bend" to hold the ends in place.
I inserted short pieces of stripwood between the pairs at the joints and then dribbled some woodglue down the joint.
Yes, it's that fancy. 
Not a fab securing of the sections, but I knew I'd have double-bents at the bends so everything would be supported okie dokie.

DaveF: The horn Fanfare is a running joke now.
Started with the video I made at the Richmond, CA GTE show when Nils brought the "Bridge O' Wonder" to it's first show [start at 4:00]:

Then referenced it again on the WGH show video [9:45]:

I was going to lay it to rest, but this weekend Ryan's kids (and many other "adults" both operators and audience) started mimicking the fanfare as trains went across the "BOW".
Funny stuff when an old dude just starts "Baaaa-badda-baaaaaa-badda-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baaaaa-badda-baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"ing as a train passes.
So I threw it in again.

I'm also waiting for my brother (who writes/orchestrates music for movies in L.A.) to write/record some more sound bites I can use on my videos.
(I've asked for some Woody Guthrie / Johnny Cash / Neil Young-ish-type grooves)
So little-known fact: the musicians you hear on my videos are also those you hear on such films/TV shows as Space Chimps, Source Code and Bates Motel, and the music was recorded at Warner Brothers in Burbank or at Skywalker Sound in Marin, CA.

My art teacher said "You can't polish a turd" but my brother's music does put a purdy sheen on mine 

[wm3798]

Good looking hoppers there at 3:50...

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Good looking hoppers there at 3:50...

Was wondering if you'd spot them 
It's a fab game of "Where's Weldon"?

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Haven't done sheeeeeeeet on my Free-moN modules since the last show back in September (been working on the dude's "Meadow's Lumber" HO layout), but we just had a show with a pretty groovy configuration (sans Newlywed Nils' "Bridge O' Wonder" or "Davenport Cement" modules)

For some reason Picassa Web Albums is not letting me upload photos, so those will have to wait.
But here's the video from the Great Train Expo show this weekend.

Fellow Free-moNster brought a Looxcie camera so finally there's some POV shots mixed in.

Thanks for looking.

[mirage]

Great video "M.C. Geek-zilla" 

I must start thinking about buying a Looxcie camera... 

[Philip H]

Great video "M.C. Geek-zilla" 

Indeed . . . except for the parts where the camera train passes the train it's supposed to be representing, or moves around a curve in the opposite direction of the original's travels.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Indeed . . . except for the parts where the camera train passes the train it's supposed to be representing, or moves around a curve in the opposite direction of the original's travels.

Yeah Yeah...
Make sure to put those in the "Goofs" sections of the Free-moN IMDB page 
Don't forget the one of the WP passenger train entering the yard on the main and then the POV sudden shifts over to a siding to allow two Amtraks to pass... on the main 

The dude with the looxcie train ran it without me knowing (as you can tell from my flailing ignorance in the video--good thing I put the beer down first  ) and when I got the copy and started splicing it into the footage I shot the earlier I realized it always went the "wrong" way around the loops and even some passing sidings.

The POV section "backwards" through the rock shed I debated ad nauseum on including but in the end put it in because it's a cool shot.
Next time we'll script it and stage it better and more in line with our blockbuster budget.

Would be cool to figure out how to have the camera track with the trucks (camera was just rubber-banded to a flatcar) so the frame wouldn't slide so far off around curves.

[Zox]

Would be cool to figure out how to have the camera track with the trucks (camera was just rubber-banded to a flatcar) so the frame wouldn't slide so far off around curves.

http://lordzox.com/mrr/camcar.html

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Happy Free-moN New Year!

Just got back from Day 1 of the GTE show in Richmond, CA (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=31624.0)

bobdobbs just posted some fab photos of many of the layouts there: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=31697.0

But obviously he got there waaaaay in the afternoon, when the sun was primo.

Here's the Craneway Pavilion pier at 6:45am:



That's looking south, so the Berkeley Hills are to the left, Yerba Buena Island in the center, San Francisco far in the distance to the right of YB, and the auto unloading dock lit up on the far right. 
The sun is just starting to push up over the Berkeley Hills to the east:



The rails embedded in the pier used to come off the pier and curve around a causeway to run parallel to the plant, as in this 1930's photo of the Ford Plant:  http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Overview/Richmond_Plant.htm

Speaking of coming up from the East, a SPF a$$hat appeared to run some trains:



K4 in California? But it's a steamer, so all's ok in the 1:160 world 

Other a$$hat sightings:



Nils & Alvin (Wutter)

Notice Nils's short sleeves (it was really warm inside and out today!) and the 21st Amendment IPA can placed on the layout solely for scale reference 

That afternoon light was very, very nice (and warm!), so some picts:



Mt. Coffin short 45's and Devil Mountain return loop.



Mt. Coffin depot and Shoofly in Sonoma.



Rick B's Silicon Valley CalTrains station.



Nils' in-progress 16' Paper Mill module.



As a neighboring layout setup 15' into our space, we snaked out into the free-space in a rather loose "?"-shaped layout.
The Devil Mountain return loop is the dot (to the left of the "Free-moN" sign at the far left and back), with the layout curving around to the right & behind the camera to end at the Wye Knot return loop (foreground) at the other end.
Silicon Valley Free-moNster Steve W. fiddles in the foreground on the Wye Knot modules, Scott F. (who's building an amazing S.F. State Belt module from scratch) stands ready to rock in his SP shirt in the background, and Rick B., hand on hip, holds the right flank.

The Silicon Valley Free-moN anarcho-collective is quite amazing: a small group but not a dud among the dudes!
Everyone has great (and various) talents to contribute--from JMRI / e-genius to detailing locos to carpentry to styrene-scratchbuilding-superskills to LED enlightener. 
We have no rules, no dues, no nothing, except somehow we build groovy modules and get together and have fun running trains.
That makes a Happy New Year for me 

I'll get some video tomorrow (maybe).

Speaking of happy new year's:



My wife claims to have spent 7 hours preparing the traditional Japanese New Year Osechi-ryori food, so I promised to include a photo of it along side other masterworks of craftsmanship.

Happy New Year!
Akemashite Omedeto!