The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@Ed Kapuscinski,

Well, I went and did it.  As we discussed on Sunday, check out this filth!  Sweet Southern Ry. goodness- a high hood GP38-2.  Long hood forward!

This will be the power on the former original Norfolk Southern Ry. line from Aberdeen to Star, North Carolina (the branch on my layout).  I'm altering history slightly, since the SOU actually abandoned the line sometime after it bought the NS Ry. in 1974.  The line was bought up by the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Ry. that operated it from 1984 to 1987.  The Aberdeen, Carolina, and Western Ry. has owned and operated the line since 1987.  I love that Southern tuxedo scheme, so I've stretched history.

Oh, and you should hear this Geep- it's heaven to my ears!

DFF

Niceeeeeee. I dig it!

[davefoxx]

DKS,

Makes perfect sense, but, you're right, I'm too far along.  I preferred for the mainline to go through the straight side of the turnout, so I did it the way that I did.  It will be a minor issue, and I still think that there will be no derailments, because my rolling stock goes through worse S-curves than that.

Thanks,
DFF

[wm3798]

Another example of the benefits of HO physics...

[davefoxx]

I received my Athearn Genesis GP40-2 back from the manufacturer after a warranty repair.  The squealing noise and surging (some problem in the driveline) has been fixed.  All is well again.  Thank you, Athearn! 



DFF

[Dave V]

DKS,

Makes perfect sense, but, you're right, I'm too far along.  I preferred for the mainline to go through the straight side of the turnout, so I did it the way that I did.  It will be a minor issue, and I still think that there will be no derailments, because my rolling stock goes through worse S-curves than that.

Thanks,
DFF

I feel like we make a bigger deal about S curves than they really warrant.

Another example of the benefits of HO physics...

...and body-mount couplers.

[davefoxx]

The double-tracking project continues.  The worst is behind me . . . hopefully.  So far this weekend, I ripped out a single track bridge, moved the river by cutting out and replacing sections of 2" foam subroadbed, and installed a No. 5 crossover and double-track bridge.  I moved the river, because the single-track bridge was a deck bridge installed under curved track.  The replacement is a straight double-track plate girder bridge.

Before:



The current state of the project:



Now, I just need to install the second track between here and the stub created on the other end of this 160-degree turnback curve.  But, I'll have to move the layout to get back there, which, of course, requires me to first move Aly's layout. 

DFF

[davefoxx]

And this is why I love that the layout is on casters.  I was worried about having to remove all of the rolling stock from the layout as well as moving Aly's layout.  By removing the one piece of Unitrack that the feeders are soldered to (Aly's layout is currently hardwired into Daddy's layout), I was able to just pick up and move Aly's layout.  Other than her toys on the layout table, there's really nothing to mess up.  In fact, I need to figure out the balance of Unitrack that we need to order, so we can build the new track plan.  But, that's another thread.

Anyhow, by carefully going under the layout, unlocking the casters, and pointing them all in one direction.  I was able to easily roll the layout without anything derailing or falling to the floor.  The disadvantage of the casters is that I cannot adjust the legs to level the layout.  But, that's solved by merely shimming the wheels when the layout is in its final spot.  No biggie.

This will now allow me to get at the end of the layout and install the final stretch of double-track.  There should be a golden spike celebration this weekend.  Stay tuned.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Golden Spike!  The double-tracking project is complete, with the exception of feeders and ties under some rail joints.  Trains are running!  This is the first double-track layout that I've had for more than thirty years.  Fun, fun, fun!





DFF

[davefoxx]

Well, that went better than expected.  I installed my first Tortoise switch machine this afternoon.  I actually used a Smail, which is a Tortoise with an integrated DCC decoder.  The trick was that the turnout is one that is not only out of reach, but it's on the SOU grade and is a couple of inches above the 1/4" lauan plywood that is the base of my 2" subroadbed, as seen here:



That created a few problems: (1) it would be a real bear to get a Bull Frog manual throw to work up in this recess, (2) there was nothing to screw the Smail to, as the subroadbed here is only foam, (3) there was not enough clearance between the bottom of the subroadbed and the top of the plywood substrate to fit the Smail, and (4) I was worried that the wire for the throw wouldn't have sufficient tension through more than 2" of foam and cork roadbed.

But, last night, I had a brain storm to take a hole saw and drill several holes to create one large hole in the lauan plywood to provide clearance for the Smail.  That worked really well, so I went ahead and glued a small piece of lauan plywood to the bottom of the subroadbed, which was made just large enough to attach the Smail with four screws.  The adhesive set overnight, so I was able to install the Smail today.  I really thought that I would have to get some heavier wire, but it seems to work.  I have enough clearance around the Smail now, so that if I had to change out the wire, it would be easy.  Finally, since I had pre-soldered two feeder wires to the Smail, I tapped into the bus wires under the layout and powered the layout up.  It worked on the first try.  All I had to do was change one CV to reverse the "normal" and "reverse" settings, and done!



Whew.  I don't plan on installing anymore powered switch machines, as the rest of the turnouts on the layout are/will be controlled by BullFrog manual throws.  Oh, and all of this will be hidden when the hillside on this side of the track is installed.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  I just got an email that my Atlas HO scale SCL U36B No. 1776 in the bicentennial scheme, which I preordered, has shipped and will be here tomorrow.  I have waited decades to own a high quality model of this locomotive.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

DFF

[Missaberoad]

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  I just got an email that my Atlas HO scale SCL U36B No. 1776 in the bicentennial scheme, which I preordered, has shipped and will be here tomorrow.  I have waited decades to own a high quality model of this locomotive.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

DFF

Awesome! Have to love that kid on Christmas morning feeling! 

[davefoxx]

I spent this evening getting into the not-so-fun world of speed-matching locomotives from two different manufacturers (Atlas versus Athearn) and two different brand sound decoders (ESU LokSound versus Soundtraxx Tsunami, respectively).  The Atlas/LokSound was easy to set at my predetermined rates of starting speed at 1 mph, mid-speed at 35 mph, and top speed at 70 mph with CVs 2, 6, and 5.  However, the Athearn/Tsunami locomotive didn't recognize CV6 (mid-voltage) and CV5 (max voltage), so I had to activate the speed table on that engine by changing CV29 and CV25 and then manually adjusting the forward and reverse trim (CVs 66 and 95) to bring the speed down to match the Atlas unit.

Since I haven't yet been successful on connecting my NCE system to my laptop with a USB to Serial Adapter (I don't have the drivers and my laptop lacks a disk drive), I had to do the speed-matching on the NCE ProCab.    But, it wasn't that hard, since I kept good notes of each modification to CVs on each locomotive.

Sooooooo, right now, I am JFRT with a consist of two speed-matched locomotives and twelve freight cars.  Sweet!



There's that thumb tack I've been looking for.    I look forward to consisting No. 1776, my SCL bicentennial U36B, but I'll wait until I get the parts ordered to get that locomotive running smoothly.  But, that's another thread.

DFF

[LIRR]

I speed matched 2 Bachmann locos. It was a pain.  They match perfectly at low speed (1 & 2 on the powercab throttle) but at higher speed one starts to outrun the other. This was deemed good enough by the chief mechanical officer as  they are never run past 2.

[davefoxx]

Thankfully, that wasn't my experience.  I was able to match the top and bottom ends, and the mid-range worked out close.  I then tweaked the mid-voltage with the forward and reverse trim on the Athearn unit, which made their top speeds mismatched by about five or six smph (the Atlas hits 70 smph and the Athearn now does 64 smph).  But, since I don't generally run my trains at maximum speed, this top-end mismatch should not be a problem.  And, truthfully, I ran them for several minutes at full speed last night, and I didn't notice any problem, despite the mismatch.

This morning, I may see if I can speed-match the C&O U30B.  This is an Atlas unit, but it has QSI sound decoder.  We'll see how much of a pain it it to speed-match a third brand of decoder.  If this locomotive recognizes and allows adjustments of CV2, 5, and 6, it should be no big deal.  My goal for speed matching at this point in my neophyte programming is a straight-line speed curve: Speed Step 1 at 1 smph, Speed Step 63 at 35 smph, Speed Step 126 at 70 smph (for some reason, my NCE ProCab won't go to Speed Step 127 or 128).

DFF

[peteski]

While it is really nice to have closely speed matched locos in a multi-unit lashups, is is not absolutely critical.
The slower loco will pull less (or none) of the load, depending where in the consist it is, there should be no damage to any of the models. After all, for decades, many modelers ran multi-unit lashups of locos pulling long trains on NTRAK layouts using DC for hours at a time. In DC is is pretty much impossible to speed match locos (from different manufacturers,or sometimes even identical models) and we didn't and up with any locos failing or getting damaged.