Weekend Update 5/12/19

[up1950s]

https://www.milwelectric.org/visit/

[pdx1955]

That's a great place to stay both in the  inn and in one of the cabooses on-site. Hope they re-open after the fire that burned out a good portion of the roof...

[PAL_Houston]

For everyone wonder where they'd have to travel to visit:
http://kittitashistory.com/sites/depot/

[C855B]

The one and only time I was in Cle Elum was in 1980, and the abandonment of the Western Extension had just been announced. Shared a teary moment with the station operator, who was about to lose his job with no transfer opportunities, mere weeks before he would have qualified for his pension. As the story of his tragedy unfolded, he lowered the train order semaphore to "clear", an eastbound rattled by, with the scene framed by a rainbow as the caboose passed. No gold to be had here, sadly.

 

[Missaberoad]

The one and only time I was in Cle Elum was in 1980, and the abandonment of the Western Extension had just been announced. Shared a teary moment with the station operator, who was about to lose his job with no transfer opportunities, mere weeks before he would have qualified for his pension. As the story of his tragedy unfolded, he lowered the train order semaphore to "clear", an eastbound rattled by, with the scene framed by a rainbow as the caboose passed. No gold to be had here, sadly.

 

The story of the Milwaukee Road is a sad one. A management who decided they no longer wanted to be in the business, and based every decision upon that fact with no regard to the communities or railroaders they affected.

[craigolio1]

I got a bit more work done on my CN business car this week.

The back porch has three recessed lights in the roof and I wanted to replicate that, but it’s pretty busy back there with two marker lights as well, and all in a very tight space.

I had an idea to light the Center light with an 0603 LED and then use fibres to light the outside two.

Here’s how it turned out.

I used Bare Metal Foil to block light from coming through the thin roof:



And then covered that in more foil tape to prevent it shining through the roof, and also to block light from the red LEDs that will light the markers.

This all fits nicely under the roof. All three lights are lit up. The centre one is a touch brighter but I’m pleased with the over all effect.

[peteski]

I got a bit more work done on my CN business car this week.

The back porch has three recessed lights in the roof and I wanted to replicate that, but it’s pretty busy back there with two marker lights as well, and all in a very tight space.

I had an idea to light the Center light with an 0603 LED and then use fibres to light the outside two.

Excellent!

[BCR 570]

Going to be a spectacular model, Craig!

Last weekend was  a busy model train for me and many others here in the Pacific Northwest.  On Saturday I presented a clinic and hosted an op session for the Railway Modellers Meet of B.C.  The op session was a small milestone of sorts as it was my tenth, and the first as part of a a larger event.  My three guests were from Calgary, Courtenay and Vernon, and fellow NSMR and RW member Michael served as dispatcher.

Jim watching the eastbound Dawson Creek Switcher pass his work train at Tremblay:




Doug switches Chetwynd Yard while Ray switches above at Dawson Creek:




On Sunday I travelled to the Victoria Train Show and met up with Jeff Briggs and Dave MacKinnon to exchange models in various stages of completion.  I came home with C-630M 701 and M-630 708 which were away for minor upgrades including adjustments to cab lighting, body shell fit, and addition of a second capacitor.  Also home is C-424 CN 3218 after its DCC install, and it is now ready to enter service on the layout.  (A number of CN C-424s including 3218 were on lease to the BCR during the 1970s.)  Here are the three locomotives arriving at Chetwynd:




My three new RS-3s are now out of the paint shop and went back with Dave for their DCC installs.  This photograph was taken prior to final paint touch-ups including the MU hoses:




I have finished decaling a total of twenty new freight cars and they are now undergoing weathering and final seal coat.  More decaling is on the agenda for this weekend, as well as preparing for next week's op session.


Thanks for looking,

Tim

[Chris333]

[johnb]

[rickb773]

Progress is Our Most Important Product! (Forgive me General Electric)

Sculptamold and first pass ground covering is in (and a few buildings indiscriminately thrown in).
After I finish the last 3 feet of track (and spur) and actually finish hooking up all the feeders, I can actually plan how the scenes will be planned and finished.


Timber Creek


Glassboro/Thorofare Junction (depending on which crossing leg you follow) at the far end.


South of Woodbury

[Joetrain59]

Happy "Mother's Day" Chris.LOL
 Joe D

[mark dance]

Well as Tim noted, the RMMBC meet is in the rear view mirror.  Seems a good time was had by all and the insights of guest speaker Lance Mindheim were broadly appreciated. The C&W hosted one ops session:









More info here...http://railwaymodellersmeetofbc.ca/

With the installation of the Nelson shops on the layout, we have been working on hostling protocols to map the prototype's procedures to something "simple" we can replicate during ops sessions.  We started out with a written table so the hostler could record the in/out times for each servicing step a consist follows.  This proved time consuming and thus unworkable given the hostler job was added to the existing responsibilities of the Nelson East switch crew.  The current iteration involves a simpler table generated before each session (nothing to fill out) and "timer tags" to mark the end of a consist's dwell time at a servicing step. 







Much better but more testing required.

Finally as part of an article on the operations of the prototype shops and planning a shop operation based on these, I spent a large chunk of this week playing around with Helicon Focus to trying  to get decent photos of the model "in operation".   Quite time consuming so its nice to have these photos in the can.





Have a great weekend!

md

[DKS]

Finally as part of an article on the operations of the prototype shops and planning a shop operation based on these, I spent a large chunk of this week playing around with Helicon Focus to trying  to get decent photos of the model "in operation".

Simply magnificent.

[SAH]

md

Very interesting replication of hostler work Mark.  Like all the other jobs on a railroad loco service has a purpose.  I don't know that I've seen it executed better than the path you're taking.

The thing I like about this photo is that it looks busy.  Not cluttered in a contrived way, but busy, like there's work going on here.  Well done.