Weekend Update 6/5/16

[up1950s]

More shots and lnfo below

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a2EGKGcBLrpFlg5N0jPN5ny-nhGoWRXR3mWX9-jTDwqjAEHSb14pu_cdI7qKHCkkCMXhl4saCTI7a_7apPy8CSQm2T5T3ov9IY4fzPxKKZh4noLE1crvfmtZ5cdnKfmknUiGgHxVDTs3Kxq-jCOCbW64SxWL9lQiu1GP4m4d7ES3xp0utRNqcPgRLvkCMhzCW2HRsfRUshI5OxVuxZkQzeiUiqbrS_0QdgqjNtJ_dsdVTOJQPPAV-LHrbpA_svl0Cf3m59sGwTTBjmUuxpDr1TyU4Ib-ywKpS2mYrHX4TFvTz1yiiElDWkoA7NSZ6-PbxqOeguEfYKFhX14MDiUXS1zLiyWFX9S__DHG1eyK0jaa6LuxExq3JqvJGgRH4pKROJMn6RpuJoOKG0wIKQSlBy1IGVj2vAknepp7YH8mpe06yXeCzl6Jw8KZhh3TARX5hZA1VXM6pLB6CX9bc6XHvUtfHXnBo5Wwn2hc9VgvqQbIk8I9kGBGinU0ztp2P0nTRFlAPWtQVdS84k6RZlG8U0W3mcXyi5_PcvUcMcEmwd47uap8s7LO_5ljN4Dy_XF2gOCOHA8ffgcrO82szojgnyWooShPQ8rP=w1101-h729-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JLZUi2qUAE2UqsUIRxQKgQDbbtRdPS6t9498qFwV_jiTKgd9O0hW8ovujnD6jnXPk-kGk5Y60F6L3NuvbYI26n6-dyzWED-DNo3Uj0b2zz93hTZFqQeEvrkYy2NuxpZOb4BK9-fDc4UDncBu3D9G0WiRj7u5-0hy70h7ZzIm5M6Cb-50WD63gA2n6rjr8EogaHv4o63ceCtzgUtpHpVdILzsRoumDCtXsu6AnUitif2x5iBG-9kciYC8zTb-6auBmqBvDR3jV7T-f1DPg-h9U4Ivg5Ip29Y1UYH1bWuh3EVjb7D-HxEQb4AXjsc4tEEYkxNIFiqrE4jBFNc8NY15uBvxfxKQNwFIkykxmZQTUjD26PXbaw33bSbz-h7PZnHmZOW5WwkijLi7rs3cTgNE4lB7yi2I19PHr0YEZx0P81XirOdCIg-fPHEXzg8ObBFuFQsLogaCIo24P4_5XgzRIGBkWs_rrawuPQ1kJ4WVPEC6WVWysT-YzcRA42DIbco7sFIlJogOqe2NGSAouMfk8MWRABqy6otHTwOan56yZniG-LRh7Dvomi3PaYJcG-zRqdm9nkXarf4famdcwYHKR7R50OkJqipU=w619-h331-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IdiV_2YeU5KNMmlvADO1prmnDsWtifT9OBfISuU2moysz9O3utEHQxLXHhixw0oP3rqX1FJAGO6EnrCc5i_hZid07ttXNocPjJ8_yzeSu3uXnPdX2pg3YtTiCenI4lEUsWn2QwEmRVGzidGt3T-32bKswWxTsak2F7vZo2kYZgKfd2Qo6azkuE33Z3uGfkCu_ZNYQnHBkrYQlwUUWU5GKzd88TQJW378TAyXksL_tmdX-R6FuhWt3CkapxohA0W5VYuvXAq75upCi6qT84PR7yvJFVmwvaYrKgbfprEOkDa6-oLI2KUxcHiAyTAC_FUntCbQvkwxUm6pHfGmAsDDkJSXo2YbbnRK7bC4yqJJA-AizAsukpiA_qR_p-EotiB96pwnDoCNruf5JjAkPEZ3hc1EguhEYIC8rtJfvzAvzpdbXj-VwYi5_0Mdrk8ZQY2njpqv5gVQUTZzIs8MA_S_wxEExJ91ZdGEDfoITckwJWiB3nEuKBBD_uhotxpMbD63_gdA-BmqaU57QHPUKv9KMBEc-8e6aPcazSpjGjms2JR6XqMYQJ1kFjG09K3LFOU_rE0vfZg4LFeUxjT4La1OU6zwACMuNHOy=w1134-h838-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2qvT-pXaFvSvaAA9AIB7V-3K3bFbyPoYHUr0edJkocHgG_5RabnmWb8F_3HxZ9ozlnZSqGeBWg6m2EbOeONlJ6LS2rAo0xcIvLAr_-cBefqyh0gYrJ-AsQZAwT02pTA8dSdBadAgggfVkjYENv9ntosFWd0rdTZP_MGFJVv4T8UJjNPuJnzNHLOzE_cQHfzcvqB_C3WKS7TYFOF1dWTss1zCJj-Oq_57fy_CkZuQefrvdI6j6CJfZbBY8uRmD8zlZIkKAq7pUHeT5EQQBj7fONr3AxBwIKvRArkoJlL7Y5bEuZnjb_Zq_3woi23Vd6pHOoEtZK9fXRl6f_GazmnlDY6fj6KLqNeqKN1E5owBbOENq2Ibi8UDMVdB_bybkq69xO5k8t6CB-GWUswuwG4rx-_ZoqIBQqXcnPpwdsKv_8P-5MmTRuhrexsmz55MDxj49MeDrzeca_Uzafd-iIBWrncMig8fU0jmUBm3BbsZN8zfm2I7MyOvItllzZrmM_k3p6OtejR8_Tn-86qPWhOPGLW-B6e_6C7dyP_ZsJsihIPfMO5zA-uG2Eu0AK1R3J8jup6jdni244l252SNUo-ylFey3P7PLhO3=w1133-h848-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2vrgiNx-gcq7I2vypzTJ87aK-POp-0zqExwQjUkNKC4pL146KMW3cYXrO1rBCuhijzCFWfSrtmR58hltoQHbBdU8lhQ4H0OdcP7gCfNHkz_mWiFbX7VFayE62ktjsbHjnNs3dfwcjebNVae6W785DWHlX9wL_O0_8p9LXuvKbaNlN7DzOLKyI7DQDN6DNroICCHm9V0pPJg7VUQni-sQYmsUeTK01tZMO_IVen2L8v7iNR7QqyApyEMztgu9KWmbhTC0VDo2DsvTNAaKE-AN-ip6jwZ1oW3D2wHAc_D4yZN9uafpMTUfaLy8wY0W7CNYcyMP1JUadAHO7xHlkzOQ5tCT7UJ8ctYgS0z5BqZvv_ShMOwt3YM92wmPOFghBzy1gpUJgz1qRuwg6HYHUfrjEpLSQLYIf3LjiJ7eYNe4kWAVyCs3A1XR68Y_qo2Cn3C92gPibisBnGjvQuzgYqLFe_NSpg5mAY1zcjngJhCuXvPlkEdmqMyNcXeHZvOjDo9TlY9C6y4AE0OA-bNVc8sKiQwpFXTunAVfj-xpDRoqsGgCZZuUNrHNboOM00Lmi1qqjFMUR-RxRBuJHcY08qnfwBuy63oWE82c=w633-h838-no

http://worldlandscapearchitect.com/jerusalem-railway-park-tichnun-nof-landscape-architects/#.V1IRb9QrKXJ

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1619803

[eric220]

That's one way to convert to a walking trail.

[mu26aeh]

I finished all of my sedum trimming this week and packed all the trees I made into a 18 gallon tote for transport to friends layout on Sunday for work session.  I was hoping to get more trees out of my harvest, we'll see how far this batch gets us.  I'm going to need to find more sedum owners next fall/winter that I can gather from to finish this project.
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[rickb773]

Continuing my journey through my 55 years of paper MR issues, I have run through the 60s and 70s. The magazine was pretty steady through the 60s. 70 to 90 pages and 50 cents a copy, then we hit the rapid increases in price and pages: $0.65, $0.75, $1, $1.25, $1.50. But now we had color and 150 to 200 pages per issue.

Layouts at the time were center islands. You could guess their size by counting the number of access hatches embedded in them. The Smith cartoons went from 1 or 2 per issue to occasional status and the humor seemed to have changed. (I thought maybe someone else was writing under his by-line.)

Anyway what happened to Astrac (1963)? It seemed like such a good idea when it burst onto the scene. Did it fail due to price or frying engines with 24v AC?

MR humor:

1.1  “It sure is good to run the trains again. During the steel strike, in order to be true to prototype, my pike had to be idle.”
1.2  Termites with Diner’s Club Card
2.1  “Couls it wait a minute, Mac? Our leader is in the middle of a tricky train movement.”
2.2  “Train 711 for New Ritus, Clunkneyville and Chicago arriving on Track One.”
3.1  “Something tells me this picture isn’t going to be too authentic.”
3.2  “You and your live steamers.”


1.1    “I still think for a starter, we ought to keep the wiring simple.”
1.2  “Have you seen the latest L&N color scheme? All Black!”
2.1  “I vote we take up the question of couplers tonight.”
2.2 
3.1  “All right! All right! So I’ll move it over a little.”
3.2  “It says, ‘This end up.’”

[Missaberoad]

Anyway what happened to Astrac (1963)? It seemed like such a good idea when it burst onto the scene. Did it fail due to price or frying engines with 24v AC?

Short Answer is it was too far ahead of its time...
 
Allen McClelland was a early proponent of Command Control and a user of Astrac. He even managed a way to stuff the hardware into a primitive walk around throttle... From what I can gather from his and Tony K's writings its downfall was the limited number of locomotives it could control (off the top of my head I think it was 5) and the complexity/size of the hardware.
 
General Electric dropped Astrac pretty quickly claiming there was no market, and Command control really didn't take off until better Systems like Dynatrol and the home built CTC-16 came on the scene...   

http://www.dccwiki.com/ASTRAC

[jagged ben]

2.1  “I vote we take up the question of couplers tonight.”

Winner.  Some things haven't changed.

 

[nkalanaga]

I remember the first 1.2, 1.2, 3.3, and the second 2.1, 2,2, 3.1, and 3.2 from when they first ran.  I didn't necessarily READ them when the issue came out, some of them were in used issues I bought in the mid 70s.  I especially liked the termites...  Find a way to actually bill the credit card and you'd have the first model railroad with a paying online customer.

[Catt]

I've been working on the grain elevator on the new layout.This pic shows my progress so far. As of 11 pm Friday ,June 3rd 2016,this is Gorman Grain. Technically I can now start hanging the brackets to support the Z layout,but I am having to much fun working on the N. So the Z is going to wait till next Monday.

[Mark W]

Spent the week playing with 3D Printed Code 40 Z Scale Flex.  I'm glad to say they turned out fantastic!

Here's a comparison of a small bit of Code 55 rail next to the Code 40 flex.


The print came out nice and clean with acceptably square tie ends.  And yes, they're 100% to scale on all dimensions.


Just by handling the free piece, I predict working with it will be about half way between working with ME C55 vs Atlas C55.  On my next version, I'll make the spikes on the gaped ends slightly wider to allow that rail to slide more freely.  Currently the friction on either rail is about the same, and you can see how different sections of the strip 'cling' to different rail, causing them to bunch up or spread apart at those breaks. 


My biggest fear was that the material would be too fragile, but this little test bit held up to quite a bit of stress when trying to feed the rail through. 
I'm definitely excited to use it on Thunder Ridge and any other Z project I find myself dabbling in.

When combining it with some crushed rock dust as ballast, I think it looks fantastic!




One final comparison:  Kato Unitrack (C80), Atlas C55 Flex, Rokuhan Z Snap (C55), 3D Printed C40 Z Flex, and, wait a minute whats Eishindo T Gauge Snap Track doing here?! (Oh, I can't wait to show off that project soon!)

[BobRunty]

Spent the week playing with 3D Printed Code 40 Z Scale Flex.  I'm glad to say they turned out fantastic!

Here's a comparison of a small bit of Code 55 rail next to the Code 40 flex.


That's pretty impressive Mark. Well done.

[chicken45]

Terriffic stuff, @Mark W !

[BCR 570]

I have installed the risers for Highway 97, and pinned the inclines in place for a test fit.  This enabled me to get a fairly accurate 6% grade on an S-curve through the overpass to match the prototype:




Here is a photograph of the prototype scene on the Dawson Creek Subdivision:




And with a piece of foam trackbed substituting for asphalt and some vehicles, here is a preview of my scene from a similar angle:




Meanwhile, tracklaying continues at Sundance.


Tim

[OldEastRR]

A PRR BM85 from a KATO smoothside RPO:



Yeah, yeah, I know, it should have round  windows ... I'm wondering if I can buy one of those RPO roofs separately from Intermountain/CCS, as they look much closer to the prototype. I'm going to put that rub-on foil for the smash plates.

[hegstad1]

I assembled and painted the GHQ Bucyrus Erie B30 crawler so they could update the photos in their online and print ads.  Fun project.

[chicken45]

A PRR BM85 from a KATO smoothside RPO:



Yeah, yeah, I know, it should have round  windows ... I'm wondering if I can buy one of those RPO roofs separately from Intermountain/CCS, as they look much closer to the prototype. I'm going to put that rub-on foil for the smash plates.

I think that's looking pretty good! I love the idea of using foil for the smash plates.  My only criticism is that the windows and doors look too small. I think the windows and doors could be "taller".  I know those aren't easy things to fix, though. Good job!