PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[C855B]

And when you need a break from both?? 

Then there's the large scale in the back yard. Dave has no shortage of rail-interest diversions.

[Dave V]

And when you need a break from both?? 

Well, I do have a complete set of beer brewing equipment in the storage room in the basement...   

[Bsklarski]

Beer FTW. 

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Can you brew N-Scale Beer? and if so how many can you drink before you get drunk 

[VonRyan]

All those other layouts? They're all poised for a new home in a 30-yard roll-off. Seriously.

I thought I was seeing things... guess not. But that's fine by me.
I'm glad to see you back DKS!
Best Christmas gift ever.

And if you don't mind, I'd love to know when and where that dumpster is. I've a sudden hankering to get back to my roots and go diving again. 
I see it as being akin to the efforts to save parts of John Allen's G&D after the fire.


-Cody F.

[casmmr]

Dave, before you get that brewing stuff out of storage, check on the CO laws regarding home brewing.  50 states and 50 different laws.  Some allow only certain types others don't care what you do as long as you don't sell it to the public.  Check with a CO attorney on CO home brew laws.  If legal, have fun.  Craig

[Dave V]

Dave, before you get that brewing stuff out of storage, check on the CO laws regarding home brewing.  50 states and 50 different laws.  Some allow only certain types others don't care what you do as long as you don't sell it to the public.  Check with a CO attorney on CO home brew laws.  If legal, have fun.  Craig

Colorado is probably the most easy-going state for brewing.  Most of my neighbors brew, as do many of my close friends.  The law has no limits on how much or how strong as long as I don't plan to sell it.  I don't need a lawyer, LOL.  Besides, there are so many amazing craft brews in this state I haven't needed to brew my own.

[VonRyan]

Colorado is probably the most easy-going state for brewing.  Most of my neighbors brew, as do many of my close friends.  The law has no limits on how much or how strong as long as I don't plan to sell it.  I don't need a lawyer, LOL.  Besides, there are so many amazing craft brews in this state I haven't needed to brew my own.

Sounds like you need a good copper pot, cap, thump, and worm. 

[Dave V]

Started a track replacement project today to correct the kink on the westbound track at Spruce Tunnel.

I had to separate the Enola Yard section to access the tunnel.





I removed the old track and here I'm test-fitting the Unitrack replacement.  Note that I painted the rails and ties to match the old track.

[Dave V]

Happy to report that the new track seems to have made the difference.  L1s 2-8-2 #762 brought a mixed freight through the westbound bore of Spruce Creek Tunnel at restricted speed with no slippage or stalling.

The Unitrack is painted to match the existing track and initial ballasting is nearly done.  I also dropped another set of feeders (one can never have enough feeders!) and soldered the ends in place.  I just need to finish blending the ballast shoulder with cinder and then weather the ballast to match.  As with my other visible Unitrack patch job, it's indistinguishable from the code 80 flex once finished.

I'm ready for a ChuckPak of H30s and eventually those BLI M1s!

[Bsklarski]

Sounds like fixing that curve is giving you a shot in the arm to work on the layout 

[Dave V]

Replacing the code 80 with Unitrack isn't terribly difficult...except that the disturbance in the force surrounding scenery can be a pain.  I find myself (often unsuccessfully) vacuuming ballast out of trees and so forth.  Unitrack has a rigid attached roadbed that can make up for imperfections in what remains beneath the old roadbed.  I'm still nervous about going code 55 and not having vertical deflections due to some of the chaos left when one removes old track and roadbed.  More importantly, a code 55 conversion would involve some track arrangement changes that might place roadbed over former bushes and ditches.

I'll save the leftovers from the Colorado Midland layout for some future incarnation of the JD.

[OldEastRR]

Nice to hear reports again from Dave and Lee ... looking forward to hearing layout reports from Chris333 and Ed K. again soon.

[Dave V]

The JD needs an overall sprucing-up...  It's gotten dusty (seriously, Colorado is the dustiest place I've lived outside of the Middle East) and therefore drab.  Might be time for a good cleaning.

I'm keeping the current setup for now with respect to Enola.  Actual construction funds (versus maintenance funds) are currently allocated over to the Colorado Midland.

[Dave V]

I had yet another epiphany at the gym on my thrice-weekly treadmill 5K...

Abandoning Jacob's old layout in favor of the Colorado Midland frees up a lot of Unitrack code 80 switches that could be used to make things more interesting...  like a passing siding and additional crossover at Lewistown!  That would put 3 tracks in front of the depot...  Looking a little more Lewistown-ish than before.

I'm finding that with the more practice I have, the more indistinguishable the Unitrack becomes from the remaining code 80.

Oh, sure, someday I'll do something Pennsy in code 55...about the time I've wrung every last drop of interest out of the JD.