Weekend Update 3/20/11

[up1950s]

Liberate some work you have done this week please . :

[up1950s]

Done , on now to 2-8-0 UP 105 from a MDC 2-8-0 .


 

[Dave Schneider]

Looks great as usual Richie. Have you thought about adding a bridge plate between the tender and the engine?

Best wishes, Dave

[nscalesteve]

nice steamer Richie... !

after five weeks doing this sort of stuff on the Mainland...
 

(it was bloody steep !)
 

 

...it was time to do some detailing and painting again
 

(this one has working ditch lights from a C40-8W shell)
 

[seusscaboose]

fixed a fincky friend

[up1950s]

Looks great as usual Richie. Have you thought about adding a bridge plate between the tender and the engine?

Best wishes, Dave

Thanks Dave , the plate crossed my mine but they get in the way when separating the thing . Much easier to deal with when I was in HO .

[up1950s]

Steve4 thanks , Aren't you ascared you are going to wound your trigger finger if you fall a mountain ? My work would never prove worthy of a close shot like yours always does .

[Chris333]

Again, nice work Richie!

I didn't do much, just threw a tin roof on my little coal dump.

[DKS]

I've been knocking out a whole bunch of little structure kits for the G&D in Z (little being the operative word--most of them are about the size of a postage stamp).

This is a kit from Wild West Scale Model Builders. It has some of the finest laser work I've seen. The roof, however, came from a new Micro-Trains kit.
 


This series of little shanties are bashed logging camp house kits from Micro-Trains (source of the roof for above). This first one is pretty much a straight build, with a new roof from Builders In Scale, and etched brass windows from the spare parts drawer.
 


The same, without the porch.
 


The last two were much more heavily bashed.
 

 
This is two Micro-Trains livestock pen kits grafted together.
 


Plus I've been honing my skills with rubber rocks. I've got some techniques down now that allow me to fit rocks together with great precision. This area has six separate pieces of rubber rock grafted together such that they wrap around the two tunnel portals perfectly.
 


More details on everything here: http://ganddinz.blogspot.com/

Also, the above images were shot with a new toy, a Canon PowerShot SD4000. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a really versatile pocket-sized point-and-shoot. It has manual overrides so you can control aperture, among a lot of other useful features, so you can do stuff like this:
 


There's just not enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

[mark dance]

On Monday night the C&W hosted its second Dispatched operating session.  Newly transplanted Railwire member Gary Hinshaw joined us for the first time and here he is piloting a Westbound MT ore freight as it approaches West staging.  The pushers cut off at the summit and Gary piloted the train down the 2.2% grade with just the head end power.  Gary is using a duplexed radio throttle and we are converting over to these exclusively to assure reliable and convenient train control especially as increase the pusher operations.



The current operating sessions are testing the layout prior to VanRails in September when upwards to 40 operators will descend on Vancouver from all over north America  This will be the C&W’s first year with VanRails so there is much to be done to assure it is ready.  On Monday 20 trains were called and run on a new timetable, most as Extras, and 9 operators and myself took part in the session.  The layout seemed to accommodate the people and trains well…not too many conflicts.

What didn’t’ work well - for me anyways – were the radio headsets for OS’ing train locations to the Dispatcher.  While operators used them effectively their reliability wasn’t great and they have a tendency to slip on your head easily.  I have decided to move towards a phone system with phones adjacent to the TO stations.  At the end of this week I experimented with relatively inexpensive Panasonic cordless handset phones operating in intercom mode.  There are many good things about this approach (no wiring, the small cradles can mount above the layout and out of the aisle ways, the TO location can be displayed on the handsets, the Dispatcher can page a TO station if required, etc.), however operators will need to press 3 buttons to OS the Dispatcher.  The system is relatively painless to try out so I may experiment with it at the next op sessions while I research a more traditional phone system as an alternative.

Here is a photo of Dispatcher Len Thompson writing orders and filling in his Trainsheet.  In front of him is the computer running JMRI/Panelpro and interfaced to the layout.  For this session it was just controlling the fast clock but for the next session I hope to have it controlling the Train order panels which I posted in last weekend’s update.  Also in front of him is a cold beverage that helped the session flow smoothly after he was thrown into the fray when the originally scheduled dispatcher was significantly delayed.



Both photos courtesy of Tim Horton (Nelson yardmaster)

md

 

[conrail98]

Mark, here's someone using the system you just described:
http://shendiv.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/using-wireless-phones/

I'd take a look at what Bruce has to say and contact him if you have any questions or want some further ideas,

Phil

[mark dance]

awesome link Phil...thx!

md

[BCR 570]

During this past week I began work on MLW M-630s BCR 710 and 719.  The Atlas C-630 mechanisms now ride on Briggs Models Dofasco trucks, and the Briggs Models M-630 shell has been dressed to fit the Atlas mechanism, deck and cab:




The rear end of the carbody, radiator top and inertial air filter housings are separate parts and have yet to be fitted:




The coming week is Spring Break, so I hope to enjoy some quality modelling time for a few days.


Tim

[chuck geiger]

Updated rail blogs today and tomorrow will have all mainline
track on layout complete.

http://scalewestrails.blogspot.com/
http://sandiegoandarizonaeastern.blogspot.com/

[DKS]

http://sandiegoandarizonaeastern.blogspot.com/

Chuck, you may want to check the links in your Interchange section. Some of them need to be fixed.