Weekend Update 7/1/18

[up1950s]

https://ggwash.org/view/4412/how-track-circuits-detect-and-protect-trains

[rickb773]

Spent a couple of days re-weathering part of the fleet.
When you are colorblind you stick to pastels with the adjective "grimy" in front of them and hope it turns out for the best.
That Neolube 2 works great at darkening the wheels on the steam engines and makes the drivers look better by hiding their oversized flanges.
The Atlas GP38s are the only mass market PRSL engines I know of.
I have 5 and need to get 2 of them renumbered.

[cbroughton67]

The PRR F22 flat is ready for primer!

I've decided I'll need to make the "wood" deck from cast pewter in order to get the car to a usable weight. Supplies have been ordered, so it might be a week or so before I can add the deck. I can still complete the rest of the car, since it will be painted separately from the deck, anyway.

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[BCR 570]

This week's modelling activities began with a visit from fellow Railwire members Gary Hinshaw and Otto (Cajonpassfan):



Always nice to meet another Railwire member and learn about each other's layout progress.


While waiting for some control panels to be corrected and reprinted, I have been working on some new freight car projects which can be completed fairly quickly.  This week's effort comprised a set of five new ballast hoppers.  The Atlas cars received two modifications to get closer to the versions built for the PGE by the Eastern Car Company:  I replaced the left corner bracing with two longitudinal grab irons, and converted the door levers to knobs.  Fittings included Fox Valley #3302 wheels in the original Atlas trucks, and MT #905 couplers:








They will be finished in PGE Freight Car Red with the map logogram, and will receive the excellent ballast loads from Hay Brothers.


Tim

[MVW]

I've been MIA on the 'Wire for about five months. I was just getting started on Clinton Cereal Co. for the first TRW challenge of the year when life happened. I didn't have anything substantive done at the deadline, but have kept plugging along as time permitted. Here's how the scene stands today:




Trying to capture the flavor of this:




I still need to pick up three Middlesex Mfg. kits for the two large buildings. Here's a closer look at what I've done with what I had on hand:




Still more work to do, but a big improvement from where things stood back in January:



Jim

[Tom L]

I had three InterMountain MStL boxcars in the boxcar red Peoria Gateway scheme that I didn't care for due to the ride height, inaccurate paint, thick roof paint, roofwalks with virtually no detail or detail buried in paint and fragile detail parts that spontaneously ejected themselves off into space. I complained about it in a thread about IM a while ago, which made me feel lame because I didn't do anything about it other than complain, so........I decided to see if I could make them more to my liking.

I pried off the roofs and added weight, body mounted the couplers, added BLMA trucks/wheels, pulled off the ladders that hadn't fallen off and replace with Gold Medal Models etched ladder stock, replaced roof walks with Micro Trains roofwalks sanded down to a thinner profile, replaced missing brake wheels with MT ones, repainted the roofs and ladders and re glued any detail parts that were loose with epoxy.

The car in the red scheme was an old kit, so in addition to the above improvements I used MT Superior doors to match the prototype. They still need stirrups, but I may have wait until Atlas reruns the BLMA detail parts or I can get some GMM ones.

I really like them now and am doing another one in the MStL green scheme, which Tichy offers the decals for.

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Tom L
Wellington CO

[unittrain]

I began scratch building another bridge, this one is of a Pennsylvania Railroad highway over pass bridge which consist of 3 types of bridges making up the 250' span, the one pictured is a skewed I beam and channel span, next is a 88' through plate girder then finally for the last bridge I'll use the Munroe models wooden country bridge. Here's a picture of the I beam bridge.

[jereising]

More details and some corrections made - the scene has come together nicely and I'm really happy the way it turned out.  Here are four shots, no description needed.









Of course I've also been working on other parts of the layout, the cleanup seems endless.  I'm most grateful the damage was confined to the big room.

[Philip H]

https://ggwash.org/view/4412/how-track-circuits-detect-and-protect-trains

Dragging equipment detector perhaps?  The more I think about it, in the modern era between dragging equipment detectors and flange oilers there are many opportunities to disguise feeders like this.

Nice catch.

[C855B]

That's a power feed for a third-rail operation. You can see an insulated mount and the third rail in the upper right corner.

[Philip H]

That's a power feed for a third-rail operation. You can see an insulated mount and the third rail in the upper right corner.

Having spent a lot of time on and in the DC Metro system I recognize the third rail insulator, but that thing is wired to the web of the main rail, not the third rail.  Plus its got angle iron on both sides to protect the joint.  Could also be a signal system component.

[C855B]

It's wired to the web of the main rail since that's half of the circuit. Works just like MRR wiring, but we split the circuit between the two main rails. And it has to be protected - something snags it and disconnects, trains stop.

[peteski]

That's a power feed for a third-rail operation. You can see an insulated mount and the third rail in the upper right corner.

Having spent a lot of time on and in the DC Metro system I recognize the third rail insulator, but that thing is wired to the web of the main rail, not the third rail.  Plus its got angle iron on both sides to protect the joint.  Could also be a signal system component.

Dragging equipment detector perhaps?  The more I think about it, in the modern era between dragging equipment detectors and flange oilers there are many opportunities to disguise feeders like this.

I guess you guys didn't read the photo caption or the info provided in the link below the photo.
https://ggwash.org/view/4412/how-track-circuits-detect-and-protect-trains

 

[MK]

More details and some corrections made - the scene has come together nicely and I'm really happy the way it turned out.  Here are four shots, no description needed.









Of course I've also been working on other parts of the layout, the cleanup seems endless.  I'm most grateful the damage was confined to the big room.

You can really bring it more to life by adding some highway signs. Speed limit signs and "No U-Turn, Official Use Only" for that break in the Jersey barrier. Maybe even an overhead green upcoming exit sign for the area you are modeling.

[C855B]

I guess you guys didn't read the photo caption or the info provided in the link below the photo.
https://ggwash.org/view/4412/how-track-circuits-detect-and-protect-trains

 

Interesting. Learned something new. First thought was "signal shunt", but it didn't look like any shunt I ever worked on 40 years ago, plus I had only seen these on third-rail heavy commuter operations. Apparently these low-impedance shunts are necessary because of the data imposed on the circuit. DC signalling doesn't care (much) about impedance.