The Average Eastern

[kelticsylk]

DIVERSITY

One of the things that makes model railroading such an interesting hobby is the diversity. I'm not sure if there is any other leisure time endeavor that covers quite so many areas of an individuals interests. You can try your hand at just about everything. For my own part this includes quite a few things, including inventing the crazy tools I use.

In the past day or so I've covered quite a lot of ground, interest wise. I started out trying to perfect that turnout I'm building. It's own its third or fourth revision. If I don't like the way it came out I try again. So far I haven't gotten where I want to go. Each time I try, however, I develop new methods and new ideas for the next attempt. The last version was pretty good, but I can do better. One thing I learned was that the NMRA standard for track guage is "sloppy". We can build our track to a much tighter spec. I've been tightening up the tolerances on the turnout and it seems to work a lot more reliably.

In addition to the turnout, I also started the actual painting of the Jersey Central diesels. The new F7 shell is here and I cleaned off the factory paint. I used the Testor's Tangerine to paint all four shells. Trouble is I didn't think it all out. A 1/4 oz bottle is not enough paint for four shells with multiple coats. I had to mix my own tangerine using Model Master "Mango" and Insignia Yellow. The mixture is roughly 1:1...

Jersey Central Diesels

I'm waiting for the paint to dry before I mask the units for the blue coat. The Baldwing units seem a bit light in color, but that's because the plastic they are made from is translucent. Painting the inside of the shell should fix that right up.

I usually run trains while I'm at my workbench and I noticed the PRR L1s was having a bit of trouble. I flipped the beast over and noticed the wheels were dirty. I tried cleaning the wheels with a knife tip but decided that wasn't gonna get the job done. So I took some styrofoam and quickly made a cradle to hold the locomotive upside down. I then took a short section of track, a 6 volt DC wall adapter and chunk of weight from an old HO engine and created this gizmo...

Maintence Cradle/Wheel Cleaner

The weight slips into notches cut in the cradle and holds the track to the tender wheels. This supplies the juice to turn the drivers. At 6 volts the wheels turn at a moderate speed and I can lightly apply the brass brush seen in the photo to the wheels. It only takes a few minutes and the drivers are good as new...

Cleaning Locomotive Drivers

While I'm on the subject of maintenance I found that I need to keep track of what I do. There are some things I may want to remember about what I'm doing on all this equipment. To do this I made up a maintenance log using Microsoft Excel...

Maintenance Log

The main purpose of the log is to keep track of what needs to be done to what item on the roster. Things like couplers that need to be body mounted, weight and wheels to be upgraded, DCC and such.

I also found that one of the Lehigh Valley PA's I recently purchased has a decoder. The locomotive was making a noise and when I took off the shell I saw it had DCC. This gave me reason to pull out another of my weird contraptions, Decoder Central...

Decoder Central

Think of it as a portable workbench for DCC installs. I took a pine board I had laying about for some other project and mounted a length of track on it. I then installed my MRC decoder tester with all it's various clips and connectors. There is some wood pieces to hold motors in place so they can be tested too. I also fastened an Atlas Commander and Generator to the board. The Commander is set up for programming only.

(A brief word about the reasoning behind that, if I may. The Commander has a devestating flaw. The device can be attached to the layout track and a separate programming track at the same time using two different sets of terminals. It cannot, however, actually do this. It will destroy itself. To keep it from doing so an "either or switch" of some kind must be installed. I destroyed my first unit this way. To protect the second one I originally used a DPDT so that the unit cannot connect to both tracks at the same time. When I found one cheap enough I bought this third unit rather than mess about with that. One operates the layout and this one programs decoders.)

Now that I've scared the hell out of everybody who has considered buying an old Atlas system I'll program a decoder.

Unlike current DCC, the Atlas system  can only use double digit decoder numbers. While it would be nice to have the decoder ID match the locomotive it's not a problem for me. On the Average Eastern itself all the engine numbers have only two digits anyway. Out on the Class 1 mainlines I use the last two digits of the locomotive number. Case in point the Lehigh Valley PA I had mentioned. Since the loco bears the number 611, the decoder ID will be 11. Simple enough.

For those who are interested I took some images of the process of using the Commander to change the decoder address. When the Commander boots up it displays the last address it was controlling, in this case #01...

Atlas Commander

To access the programming mode you press both the direction buttons at the same time. This brings up a menu that allows you to access the various functions of the controller. You move through the menu by pressiing the plus or minus buttons. In this case I choose the Pro menu item...

Decoder Programming Option

Pressing F0, the Enter button, selects the programming mode. The Commander displays that it's ready to read register 1 (CV1 in current DCC terms)...

Register 1

Pressing the F0/Enter button again starts the read function...

Read Function

Pressing F0/Enter once more causes the controller to read the current value in register 1, the decoder address, which in this case is 03...

Current Decoder Address

I want to change the address to 11. To do this I hit the plus button until 11 shows on the display...

New Decoder Address

Hitting the F0/Enter button sets the new address. To make sure it works I take the locomotive out to the layout and test it. I have to place on the Average Eastern tracks as the AE is the only part of the layout currently controlled by DCC. I set the layout's Commander to address 11 and crack the throttle...

DCC On The Layout

I'm not sure how the speed steps are set on the decoder, but this is LV 611 moving through the yard at Average

One other thing I did in the last couple of days was work on some scenery. It's not much, but it's a start...

East Portal, Gateway Tunnel

And finally, some train watching...

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Finally, Decals for The Masses

After several weeks of trial and error I think I've made a real advance in producing decals. There are a ton of variables that had to be tested but in the end it was probably more serendipity than anything else. Here's what I came up with....

The Photo EZ emulsion film seems to work the best of the different brands I tried. The High-Res works great for this application.

I used transparencies for ink jet printers. I had to print the same image twice on the same transparency twice to make it dark enough to work properly with the emulsion.

I tried various artificial lighting but sunlight works the best (and cheapest). Circuit Bridge has a list of suggested exposure times. I found they were too short. Rather than the 20 or seconds recommended I left the film exposed for almost a minute. Anything less left the film underexposed which means the entire piece of film disolves in the developer (clear water) and washes down the drain.

Between the double printed image and the exposure to sunlight I was able to produce a screen where even the smallest lettering was clear and usable.

Leave the film in the water for at least 15 minutes. Rinse it with clear water. I use a drop or so of Dawn dish detergent and gently rub the film with my fingers to loosen up the unexposed emulsion.

Once the screen is rinsed leave it dry in the open air and light....

Latest Screen

The screen I created ended up being a negative which is not what's needed. You should be able to read the text in the normal fashion.

I use screen printers ink. It is very thick so it doesn't flow easily. I use it at this consistancy with no thinner of any kind

The screen should be placed with the emulsion side up. I fasten one edge down with some scotch tape and make sure the screen is flat before taping down the opposite edge. I use a brush to pile some of the ink at the edge of the screen and then I use a plastic or rubber squegee to spread the ink. I apply slight pressure and holding the squeegee at an angle I move slowly across the screen...

Best Yet

This is the first print where the lettering around the logo was visible. It's also possible to read the small class numbers and reporting marks. The sample shown here is actually meant to be used with the CNJ diesel set I'm creating, so it will eventually require colors. For freight cars and such the white lettering is just fine. I was able to reproduce these results on clear decal paper. I forgot, however, to spray a coat of clear to seal the decal and the ink washed off. The label says the ink is permanent on metal paper, etc. Maybe I didn't let it dry long enough. I made another decal and sprayed it with a clearcoat. I'm still waiting for it to dry. I tried to get an image and had to play with the contrast a bit so the white showed better against the white background. This is a clear decal with a white paper backing...

Actual Decal

At this point I'm pretty confident that useful decals can be made with this process. The costs of materials is pretty low. All that is required is Photo EZ sheets, screen printing ink and clear decal paper. There may even be a way to print directly on the nodel itself. Haven't tried it yet.

Another observation I have comes from working on the CNJ units. The test unit I did came out great. The "real" units did not...

Test Unit Left, Ruined Unit Right

The reason seems to be the masking tape I used. I switched to Testor's tape and that was a mistake. I should have stayed with the Tamiya tape. The Testor's is too stiff and will not conform properly to the contours of the model. As a result there is quite a bit of overspray. This is not an issue with Tamiya...

Tamiya: Good

Testor's: Bad

I tried to salvage the models. Stripping them again might cause problems. The shells, especially the Baldwins, are liable to break. So I masked off the blue and resprayed the orange. After that dried I masked off the orange and shot another layer of blue. They came out much better. Not perfect, but passable...

Rescued CNJ Units

Since I believe I'm now able to make the decals for these units, I tried to tint the white ink I have to make the orange and blue. Didn't like the way it came out so I'm ordering two small jars of ink in the appropiate colors. A four ounce jar cost about five bucks.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

UPDATE


Rather than spend so much time writing about it, I thought I should spend more time actually building the layout. Hence the long delay since my last post.

Quite a few things have happened over the intervening interval. The Average Eastern has "downsized". A problem arose in accessing some of the garage storage and the narrow aisles finally got to me. I shaved off two of the tables, reducing the overall size from 15 x 15 to 15 x 9. The plan went from this...

Previous Version

Downsized

While I lost a lot of real estate quite a lot of the character of the layout survived. The east end was reduced dramatically. There is still an interchange, but it's suggested rather than functional. The change enabled the addition of a fairly large colliery and a second turntable. The industrial section of Quotidian remained intact. The yard, howecer, has been rlocated to Owertown. Owertown itself is about half its former size but still retains all of its industries.

Presently all of the scenery is roughed in with all the land forms in place. Rather than talk you to death I'll just post some images with captions.

AVERAGE
Unchanged from its previous design, Average is still the main facility with a functional interchange and engine facilities.

Average Eastern Equipment. 2-8-0 #12, Gas Electric #4 and sundry Cabeese

Reading Peddler Passes Through Average

#12 Backs into the Enginehouse While #4 Waits to be Turned

Same Scene From Behind #4

Overall View of West End of Average Yard

OWERTOWN

Arch Bridge Over Split River, Looking Towards Clark's Summit

Owertown Yard and Sidings

Owertown Transit Crossings

Bridges Over Llanerch Creek

QUOTIDIAN
Quotidian is rather flat and there's not much to show. Sidings are in place, but no turnouts or structures yet.

Quotidian Grade and Bridges

Quotidian, Split River Side

ALONG THE SPLIT
Previously the Split River was inferred by the aisle. Now the Split runs between the two railroads with tracks following the course of the river. It's a little hard to see but you may get the idea.

Looking East Along the River

Looking West

EAST END / CARBON POINT
After tunneling through Gateway Point, the Average Eastern reaches its eastern terminus, the yard, interchange and colliery at Carbon Point.

Carbon Point, Interchange at Left, Colliery to the Right

There is now enough room at East End for a second turntable. Motive power will be turned for the westbound trip.

The DCC bus and controls are installed. The electrical bus is also in place with feeder every five feet or so. Turnout polarity and position will be controlled by sub-mini SPDT switches.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[Scottl]

Giving up space is not ideal, but I think this is still a great layout.  I particularly like the Owerton industrial area, I see things like that all the time on Google Earth but few find their way into layouts.

[Baronjutter]

Love that industrial area, and you've still got a plenty big layout!

[kelticsylk]

Thanks guys. The industrial peninsula was designed by David K Smith. I kept it exactly the way he drew it up.

[CodyO]

Stinks you had to downsize but there was a few good pro`s out of it!

[kelticsylk]

OWERTOWN TRANSIT AND OTHER THINGS

Going in several directions at once. I'm adding colors to the scenery. I mix Rit dye into the drywall compound rather than using paint...

B&O Sharks Rounding Clark's Summit

CNJ Babyface Along the Split River

The colors are very subtle in the images so it may be hard to see any difference. Rock faces are gray, balance of scenery is green or tan. "Real" scenic materials like grass, dirt and rock carvings will cover this base. Thinking of cutting down that peak towering above the train.

I'm working on wiring turnouts using sub-mini DPDT switches. I've been doing this at the workbench. The idea is to create an assembly I can drop into place...

Switch Throw Wiring

Switch Throw Support

The turnouts in the photos are Atlas, but most will be hand laid. The plan calls for over 40 so the cost of "store bought" turnouts would be prohibitive.

Freight cars are readily avaible since they can originate from any road. I need more local equipment from the modeled roads. The AE suffers from a dearth of more passenger equipment. The cars on hand are lettered for Illinois Central, AT&SF and Burlington. I stripped most of them so they can be repainted for LV, PRR, B&O etc...

Passenger Equipment

That jug in the background is brake fluid. I've found that on this batch I can leave them soak for days without damaging the plastic. I don't warm it up as some suggest. The fluid has been reused over and over and over.

I got a chance to paint some equipment for the Owertown Traction Co. The "expansive" roster includes a PCC car and a Transit bus. The PCC is a lowered Bachmann. The bus is one of Brian Federoff's excellent resin models...

O'Town Mockup

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Relocation?

The Average Eastern is faced with a new challenge. It's more than likely the layout will need to relocated in the near future. Not far mind you, just thirty miles or so. This presents some difficulties. For one, the new home of ther layout will be a bonus room, not a garage. Believe it or not, The Boss, aka Wife, has decreed that the Average Eastern shall not be consigned to a garage. The layout will have its own room in our new house. A room with heat, air conditioning and finished walls. I love that woman.

While each section of the benchwork is is mounted on wheels none of them are designed to pass through a normal doorway or up a stairway. These considerations have caused me to rethink the basic idea of my model railroad. As it stands the layout will have to totally dismantlied. How can I take advantage of this situation?

I decided that it might be a good idea to modify the layout so it can be moved to its new location. and fit when it gets there. We don't expect the future location to be bigger than the current space. In fact it may be somewhat smaller. In all likelihood we'll be dealing with a bonus room, typically 15' x 20' in size. The Average Eastern's current benchwork is 9' wide and 15' long...

Track Plan: Current Average Eastern

One of the biggest issues to moving the layout is the long bookcase that supports the Average side. Fifteen feet long, the beast was cobbled into a single unit fron three smaller bookcases. It is firmly attached to benchwork, thus making it impossible to easily move it or the rest of the layout. In any scenario the bookcase has to go. If it does, the town of Average will have to disappear along with it.

I fired up XTrakCAD and started playing with track plan. After several attempts I came up with what I hope will be a reasonable design...

Track Plan: Average Eastern Redesign

The new design is 10' wide x 15' long. It is comprised of four sections. The 2' wide by 15' long.benchwork section replaces the bookcase. The aisle has been eliminated and this "extension" mounts directly to the wall. The two large 4' x 8' sections are attached to the Average extension. Quotidian has its own 4' x 6' section. All the setions are bolted together and can be separated. The new arrangement allows for a 48" wide aisle in the center of the plan. The entire Average Eastern mainline can be operated from this area.

Probably the biggest change to the track arrangement is the four track loop. Trains on the current "short" loop appear too often. The only way to lengthen the frequency of their "orbits" is to stop trains somewhere on the mainline in plain site. The "Class 1" mainline on the new plan now runs arond the entire perimeter, about 1 1/2" scale miles. A long freight moving at 15 mph takes over four minutes to make the entire loop. In addition the new loop also includes staging for eight trains, four in each direction. Each track can hold a four unit lashup, forty 40' freight cars and a caboose. This staging yard is open but separated from the rest of the layout by a view block. Finally, a lift gate has been added that spans the aisle and supports four tracks.

The yard and mine at East End are gone, replaced by the AE engine facilities and the two staging yards. Further "east" the interchange track at Average itself has become a small yard. The town is now supported by the 2' x 15' "exstension" that replaces the bookcase. The yard at Owertown still serves as the sorting yard for Quotidian and rests on a 4' x 8' section of benchwork. Quotidian has some changes to the track arrangement. Including the four track loop meant changing some of the industrial sidings...

Track Plan: Current Quotidian

Track Plan: Quotidian Redesigned

While the general track arrangement probably won't change much, it will be modified as the simulations are run and reconstruction begins. I may reduce the interchange yard to add more industries. I wish the AE mainline had a longer run, but that might entail reducing Quotidian or eliminating the staging yards. Not sure, I'm still mucking about.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Dismantlefication

The dismantling process started last week. The first step was to tear the Average section apart...

Step 1: Hollow Mountain

Clarks Summit: Empty Roadbed

Split River Bed, Neked Right of Way

Should have left the bare roadbed intact. New hobby idea...Modeling Rails & Trails.

Destroying Average yielded a 7' section of benchwork that was under the Split River...

7 Feet of new Average

Another 8' section needs to be built. The two sections will be bolted together, It will make them easier to move in the future

Benchwork Removed: Top of the Bookcase

You can see the growing pile of debris in the aisle at the left of the photo. It's time to go at the bookcase. I had to move these...

Fifteen Feet of Books

Pile O' Books

Fortunately the 2" x 4" frame is aturdy. Must be several hundred pounds of paper there.

I forgot to take a picture of the "disassembled" bookcase. Needless to say there was quite a bit of broken wood filling the aisle. I filled the Ranger's 6 foot bed with scenery, styrofoam, and flakeboard. The bookcase and attached benchwork served as a kind of anchor for the layout. The other sections are mounted on casters. Without the book case they tend to move a bit when leaned on.

I laid the indispensable parts of the layout on the Owertown section. Trains, tools, controllers, DCC system, scenery items and a host of other paraphenalia...

Owertown

I've learned the hard way that model trains, especially N scale model trains, have a tendency to migrate to the garage floor. This migration, often as not, has little to no effect on the concrete. It does, however, take quite a toll on the migratee. I don't keep the little plastic boxes the trains come in, and many of them never had boxes to begin with. Even if I did keep them I would still need a place to put a jillion boxes full of rolling stock. I chose to make my own storage boxes. I purchased a few plastic storage containers and lined them with foam my wife had left over from upholstery projects. A bit of tacky glue to hold the foam together and Voila!!! Some place to keep things like this out of the parts bin...

Lehigh & New England #705 ALCo FA-1 A-B Set

Train Storage

Sharks, Steam & Cabeese

I probably could put foam between the items, but the foam does a good job of keeping things in place. As long as the box is handled carefully, IE not dropped or thrown across the room, they should do the job. I need about four or more for the rest of the rolling stock.

That's it so far.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[wm3798]

Good luck with the move, Frank.

[Dave V]

Frank,

As a veteran of many layout moves, I salute you and I wish you the best.  The reduction in maintenance required on a layout in a finished, temperature-controlled space will more than make up for whatever setbacks you might have in reassembly!