Weekend Update 1/8/23

[up1950s]

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oldest_railroads_in_North_America

https://wjla.com/dc-refined/the-oldest-railroad-station-in-the-us-is-a-museum-in-ellicott-city?photo=1

https://www.tenement.org/blog/on-this-day-1878-the-first-elevated-trains-run-in-nyc/

https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/nyelrail2.htm

https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/record/653232

https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll6/id/263

https://www.historicpictoric.com/products/historic-1850-map-railroads-united-states-operation-progress?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwLGV8beq_AIVTPvICh3q-wjXEAQYASABEgL4ifD_BwE

https://www.quora.com/Where-were-most-of-the-railroads-located-in-1850

https://www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/?fa=language:english%7Csubject:maps%7Csubject:railroads

https://railroads.unl.edu/views/item/bryan_rr_chars?p=6

[bbussey]

Got the first sections of layout lighting mounted and functional earlier this week, which will help in finishing the cove area.

[draskouasshat]

I've been working on my designing/printing. Bryan Bussey and John Lemerise have been thankfully answering allot of questions!
There's more improvements but I'm happy with the progress on my second printing.
Drasko [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Curtis Kyger]

I was a bit bored yesterday so sat down and decorated this Bluford hopper to match the image on page 79 of Morning Sun's ATSF Color Guide:

[peteski]

Got the first sections of layout lighting mounted and functional earlier this week, which will help in finishing the cove area.

Wow!  That wire terminal panel inside the helix is wicked impressive.  Looks like something I would find in a PBX closet.  I'm sure it will be tremendously useful in the unlikely event that there is some sort of electrical problem requiring troubleshooting.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

A little late for Christmas but it's the return of the DCC in a Box.

I cut two more holes in the box.

Then I put some more junk in the box.

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This is all in service of making a bunch of dated "dick in a box" jokes and adding my new Lokprogrammer.

[Erik W]

More progress on my 3D printed N scale D&RGW "Fowler Clone" single sheathed boxcar.  I spent some time sanding the parts on the car that represent metal on the real thing in order to remove the horizontal lines that are part of the printing process.  Also, since the doors are made to represent vertical wood boards, I carefully sanded the visible printing lines that ran perpendicular to the board detail.

I next added the details to the body, sprayed another coat of primer on it, and then after reviving an old bottle of Polly Scale Boxcar Red, airbrushed that on.  Followed by a gloss coat as prep for decaling.  Since the material the boxcar was printed out of is so brittle and fractures unpredictably when cut, I decided to leave the printed on ladders and side grab irons, I did however cut off the grabs on the roof walk and added stainless steel replacements, since those will be the most visible when the car is on my layout.  The brass brake wheel, left over from another project, is mounted on .008" brass wire.  The stirrups are made from thin strips from a photo etched fret that separated the actual parts on the fret.  Kind of cool to repurpose that.  All in all, I'd say that after the coat of paint, the boxcar is looking pretty good, with little visible evidence of the layering look from the 3D printing process.

















Erik

[Scottl]

Finished the benchwork of the new layout.

[lock4244]

Finished the benchwork of the new layout.

This escaladed quickly... 

[bbussey]

Wow!  That wire terminal panel inside the helix is wicked impressive.  Looks like something I would find in a PBX closet.  I'm sure it will be tremendously useful in the unlikely event that there is some sort of electrical problem requiring troubleshooting.

It's all modular and digital.  The connections are through 52-pin ribbon wire buses.  Each IR pole wire is color coded, white for emitter and gray for receiver, and at the endpoints has color-coded shrink tubing to identify if it's an eastbound or westbound sensor and connected to the anode pole or cathode pole.  Each set of four IR wires is in a 2x2 male housing that plugs into the 2x13 female connectors at either end of the ribbon cable, and the wire position in the 2x2 housing determines if the wire is connected to the anode or cathode pole.  The module sensor wires then plug into a 52-pin ribbon wire bus that runs back to the control panel.  The first two pins are 5v and ground to power the modules, the remaining pins are for signal wires.  A pair of SMLEDs on the modules indicate power and IR detection.  It's very easy to troubleshoot even though there are 160 IR wires and 40 signal wires.  Elegoo controllers light LEDs in the control panel based on the signal input from the IR sensor modules.

All the electronics designed for Arduino projects adapt incredibly well to model railroading needs without having to design intricate circuitry or incurring major expense.  The IR module comes with the IR diodes soldered to the board and is designed as a proximity sensor. I replaced the diodes with pins so that the diodes could be positioned line-of-sight on either side of the track, diagonally across. So the modules always are “hot” until a train passes between the IR diodes. When the signal is interrupted, the Elegoo controller lights the respective LED on the control panel. I employ the same design on the hidden trackage but the IR modules are in much smaller concentrations, no more than six per cluster, and counted to 14-pin ribbon cable back to the control panel.

[davefoxx]

Working on fascia, turnout throws, and skirting:



More on The Carolina Sandhills Lines thread in the Layout Engineering forum.

DFF

[BCR 570]

Good progress Bryan and Scott!

My first equipment project for 2023 is an MLW M-420B.  This kit was issued by Briggs Models originally with cast resin parts and an etched fret.  The kit has now been re-issued as a 3D printed kit with an expanded etched fret including handrails:




I began by de-spruing and cleaning up the printed parts:




The pilot assemblies are designed to accept Micro-Trains #1015 couplers, which fit beautifully:




Here is the body shell with pilots added sitting on the Atlas B36-7 chassis:




The chassis will require milling for the fuel tank and frame rails, and conversion to wire pick-ups.

Tim

[dem34]

A little late for Christmas but it's the return of the DCC in a Box.

I cut two more holes in the box.

Then I put some more junk in the box.

This is all in service of making a bunch of dated "dick in a box" jokes and adding my new Lokprogrammer.

Speaking of, is it still flipping out on you?

[fcnrwy23]

W

[altohorn25]

I finished up three more cars for my Rock Island passenger train that I've been working on.

I may add one or two more storage mail cars, but this will be it as far as far as revenue passenger equipment for the train.

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