RGS thoughts and mutterings

Great layout progress, Goose #3 anniversary, Edna repainted

2011-12-30T22:16:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post tonight... I've been off a few days for Christmas and had a chance to make great progress on the layout - all 6 new Tortoise installs are completed, the new panel at Telluride is complete, DCC LocoNet troubleshooting at Ridgway is complete, and a new optical sensor installed near the Ridgeway yard crossover (so I can 'see' when a train is clear during switching moves; key because that crossover is mostly hidden).

On the real RGS side of things, Knotts Berry Farm reported that Goose #3 just celebrated her 80th birthday (in fine, operating shape) and business car Edna has a new exterior paint job. Details about both at on my Remaining Equipment page, which I finally got around to updating.

That page also has some further details about the RGS #20 rebuild, which continues but needs more funds.

Tortoises again

2011-12-04T09:36:00.000-06:00

Wow, the fall is a busy time for our household... I thought I posted my last update here about 2 weeks ago... actually it's been 6!

So, just a brief update... on the layout side I'm back to installing Tortoise turnout motors, which involves a lot of time twisted under various parts of the layout, working upside down to align rather touchy angles on the underside of the layout. I'm adding 3 new turnout motors at Telluride as well as a completely new panel, so operators there can switch more efficiently in the narrow aisle. Here's the panel graphics (which was trimmed somewhat after printing; click if the full image isn't showing):

Panels go to Kinko's and are printed in color on cardstock, then laminated, then glued to the fascia. Holes are drilled for toggles & LEDs then.

During some test op sessions, I discovered that constantly walking to the far end of the penisula to manually throw the turnouts on the run-around tracks got old pretty quickly. Also, I figured once the depot is built, it'd be hard (and potentially dangerous to the depot model) to reach over it to manually throw a turnout which will be behind it. So - another motor there.

I suppose an interesting note my aisle design. Here's the layout design (click if the full image isn't showing):

The layout was designed so you could follow your train in the same aisle as much as possible. Wider aisle areas were designed in front of Ridgway, Durango, Rico and Dolores - primary switching areas. For Telluride, I didn't want to clog up the Dolores, so the wye at Vance and switching at Telluride are intended to be done from the left side - in the Telluride-Ophir aisle. Thus, my turnout motor additions are being done to allow operators to stay in that aisle, and stay out of other ops' way while switching. It sounds good on paper... eventually I have more test op sessions w/ multiple people and we'll see if my idea works.

Then in Ridgway, also as the result of some test operating, it was suggested I add motors to all the turnouts in the yard ladder, since when you're using the caboose / runaround track, it's hard to physically see the turnout positions behind those cars... especially given the 51" height of the benchwork there. So, even for those yard turnouts that can be reached, I'm adding turnout motors and indicators on the panel. So - another 3 Tortorti will be going in there. The toggles and wiring are complete, and the linkages on the turnouts complete... just need to add the motors now.

In Which Steven Discovers Capacitance

2011-10-26T21:31:00.001-05:00

So, weather's colder now, and I've still got issues with the newly-installed Digitrax DCC system.

The issue at hand is that my BD8 block detectors (from The Signaling Solution), which I love and which worked flawlessly with the old Keller OnBoard command control system, were now working oddly. A train would move into a block, the detector LED goes on, and all seems well. But when the train left the block, the LEDs were stuck 'on'.

Well, after checking for the usual stuff - ground loops, or other sources to cause current to flow through the one of the side of the feeders being used with the detectors, I did the unmanly thing and asked for help. In this case, the designer of the BD8s.

I received a very quick and thorough return email, which suggested the problem was the DCC signal in one feeder causing a small current to flow, through capacitance, in the other feeder. The solution was to put some distance between the feeders, physically, as much as possible.

This was a bit discouraging, as only the blocks with the longest wiring runs were experiencing problems, and those were (inevitably) the hidden and least-accessible sections. You know, the part that runs thru the bathroom walls, thru the basement stairs, behind the furnace, and so on. To keep wiring neat in these locations, the wiring had been neatly bundled together and carefully routed. But the bundling was causing the problems - the alternating DCC signal in one wire was inducing a charge in the other wire.

I did color code everything rather religiously, so I crawled under the layout and started tracing the white and gray wires, which is the Rail B side (for me) and being used for detection.

Very long story short, I was able to pull all those wires out and re-route them (still neatly) along new paths that (mostly) kept them a couple inches or so away from the Rail A sides. After finishing half of the first block (a hidden track beneath Durango), I ran a test train, but no change. I continued working, got the entire run separated, tentatively ran another test train... and WaaLaa! Properly functioning signals again!

After much crawling and re-wiring, I've now completed about 5 of the 10 or so affected blocks, and these changes have fixed all of them. It seems almost crazy that just moving a wire run a little would makde a difference, but with DCC it certainly does!

RGS #20 restoration continues

2011-10-14T08:35:00.000-05:00

Linn Moedinger posted here that work on the restoration of RGS #20 is continuing, with lots of tender issues being addressed. The bottom portion of the tank has been replaced by stainless steel, and will be riveted to the repaired top section. The tender frame has been repaired, as well as the trucks, wheels, bearings, etc. Bearing work is also ongoing with the locomotive, and its wheels still need cracks repaired. The firebox is installed and stay bolts are being put in place; the smokebox is also being installed. The boiler will be installed after the smokebox. In a neat move, the main air reservoir wasn't usable so a new one was fabricated, and placed INSIDE the old one (to maintain the original appearance). Linn also notes that donations continue to be needed to fund the work; those are being handled through the CRRM.

And in other news, I've finally updated my Links page, and the got the Events section current. I've only got four shows listed there at the moment, and only 1 is directly-narrow-gauge related. If you know of other events, let me know and I'll add them.

Weathering continues while the weather holds

2011-10-10T06:49:00.000-05:00

When I'm not fixing things around the house, or trying to keep up w/ life, I've been working on updating the website (STILL replacing links from the Denver Public Library) - it's amazing how many Otto Perry shots I've added to my Rolling Stock page... lots of images of many of the K-27s traversing the railroad in the 40s. I'm about 1/3 thru the 564 photos of the RGS that Otto has on that site.

I'm also trying to finish up the weathering of my stable of Bachmann steamers, with decals, and then layers of dullcote and weathering powders. I live in IL, and it's about to get cold, wet, and nasty here for the next (cough) months. Since I don't have a spray booth, spraying happens only in good weather. That said, it's been amazing here lately - sunny and low 80s - for over a week!

I've also just pulled out an older Sunset brass steamer, and disassembled and starting the weathering process on him. This is a gloriously-detailed brass model, but i've never really finished the work to make it operational. It needs weathering, but also electrical work, more weight, a headlight, and other stuff.

And finally, as the cold sets in, I'll havae to work on DCC conversions for all of these, including working on or adjusting the phosper wipers on all the Bachmann locos, which (mostly) seem to be slightly out-of-place. This is kinda scary for me... I've never managed to establish a good working relationship with brass axle or driver wipers. But, I gotta try - these are great runners but need great pickup as well.

More weathering!

2011-09-03T12:12:00.000-05:00

Well, with the basement FINALLY mopped up and reassembled, and the DCC system finally up and running, it was time to get some weathering and painting done while the weather holds.

That coal load in the tender is actual RGS coal, from the Rico yards. You can purchase your own from Mike Conder. I won't post his email here (save the guy some spam!), but his coal-selling information is available under 'Other Resources' on my modeling page, w/ a safe link to his email there.

So - here's a crop of hoppers recently weathered, and my first-ever steam-loco weathering job.

Goose 4 lives!

2011-08-24T21:03:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note... Goose #4, the last Goose which isn't operating, started her motor today for the first time in 58 years. There's a short video commerating the event on the Ridgway Railroad Museum's site, where the restoration is happening.

Lots more photo references!

2011-08-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

I've spent part of the weekend digging through Otto Perry's photos, online at the Denver Public Library, and updating links.

The link additions to my Rolling Stock page alone resulted in many more photos of RGS locomotives #20, #25, #40, #41 and #42. There were numerous additions to the route listing pages as well, including a couple of bridges I had no photo links for previously (18-A, 68-A).

A great resource lost

2011-08-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

My website had quite a large number of links to photos and drawings from the John Maxwell Collection, which for a long time was available for purchase from colong.com. But the site was run by John's son (I believe) Bruce, who recently passed away.

The website is gone now, and I don't know of whether these fine resources are available any longer. I just finished updating my pages to remove all those links. In many cases, his were the only photo references I had.

It's sad, because a lot of manufacturers, as well as modelers and historians, depended on this material for their research. Perhaps whoever inhertied the estate will donate or sell them to someone who can continue to make them available.

New photos! And more cleanup -

2011-08-14T09:28:00.000-05:00

I've found some time to get back to updating the photo links from the Denver Public Library on my site, and actually finished the 1000+ links to Bob Richardson photos, and started digging through about 500 Otto Perry photos. In doing that, I discovered a number of locomotive photos that were new to me... all linked now on the Rolling Stock page.

These include a whole series of wonderful shots of #20, and a few photos of #3, #6, #17 and the 2nd #22.

On the home front, we're still cleaning mud from under various cabinets, nooks, and assorted crannies, but the end is finally in sight. And hopefully huge storms are not.

Since I can't easily troubleshoot the remaining DCC conversion issues on the layout, I've also tried to be productive by continuing to convert locos from Keller to DCC, finishing another 3 locomotives in the last week or two.

Cleanup continues

2011-08-07T07:45:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd post an update... the flood from a couple weeks ago made a muddy mess of the basement floor, and after much work... it's not done yet. You'd be surprised how many moppings it takes to really get a floor clean! And, how many little nooks there are under the layout, behind & under cabinets, etc.

I can say I now know how to replace a sump (extractor) pump. And my wife discovered how you can pull the padding out from under carpeting, w/o completely removing said carpeting.

Anyway, in the meantime I've continued some DCC work, installing a decoder in a second locomotive, and starting work on a third. And, working through some older (pending) updates to the website.

I could start some weathering projects, but it's been too humid to attempt any spraying work outside.

Flood!

2011-07-23T12:32:00.002-05:00

Chicago had terrible rain last night, 7" in just 4 hours or so in our area, and 8.2" in the last 24 hrs.

For the layout, it meant flooding the basement, to 2-3" deep mostly. Our main sump failed while we bailed through the night, and then the backup also failed, but after the rain stopped (for now). And this after finally tracking down the last of the DCC shorts I've been working on lately! Oh well.

The layout is ok, but it'll be a huge mess to clean. I _think_ the drywall (elevated a bit on treated footers) is OK; not sure.

Could be worse, but this is bad enough.

Struggling with the DCC install

2011-07-16T09:23:00.000-05:00

So - we're back from vacation, and the DCC install on the layout is nearly complete, but the PSX breakers are detecting a short - in ALL power districts! - whenever I have both boosters powered up.

It's become very frustrating trying to find the problem. Each booster feeds 2-4 PSXs, which in turn feed the power districts. Given the way I've wired each town w/ independent panels, it was pretty easy to rewire such that the towns are now powered by a PSX.

There was some re-wiring to break the old buss which feed all the towns, but that's done. The problem is that there's a connectio between the old common (rail B now) of two towns, each on different booster. I'm guessing that's what is causing the 'short' - the boosters are talking to each other. I already know there's no short in the trackwork itself, so there's a back-door connection between these somehow.

But, it's so frustrating to spend hours trying checking odd connections to try to isolate this. And in the meantime, no trains of course.

Sigh.

A new soldering hazard

2011-06-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

So - we had really bad storms in the Chicago area last night. Shortly before they hit, I was under the layout, holding a soldering iron in a kinda tricky position, finishing up a DCC system connection. The power flickered several times just then, leaving me in the dark, twisted under the layout, w/ a hot iron delicately positioned between other wiring, etc. It was, er, an interesting moment.

Thankfully, the flickers stabilized long enough for me to finish the connection and shut everything down. The whole family was back in the basement soon after, while 80+ gusts and bright green lightning flashed outside. Lots of huge branches / tree parts down afterward.

A new photo resource, and cutting umbilical cords

2011-06-19T07:44:00.000-05:00

So, a friend has introduced me to yet another wonderful photo resource - Telluride Historical Museum's new photo collection. Of particular interest is about 1500 RGS photos, all available for viewing (w/ some searching, mind you), and all available for sale.

And - there's a second resource that's coming online (literally) - which is Richard Dorman's massive photo collection. There were some initial birth pains with bringing this online, but it's a well-cataloged index to hundreds - maybe thousands - of RGS photos. All of these are also for sale.

I haven't really had time to explore either of these collections deeply yet; I'm very far behind on misc. updates to the website, and still haven't even finished the URL updates for the Denver Public Library's photo collection - but there seems to be a rich treasure-trove of history here.

On another front, I have been making progress on the layout's conversion to DCC, and finally - just this weekend - finished all the detection circuit and other wiring changes I needed to make, and yesterday finally cut the umbilical cord, as it were (ie, the old Keller Onboard power buss). So now I'm committed, eh? The layout no longer runs until I finish the new connections. It shouldn't take that long, as all this prep work has made the old buss ready to switch to the new power districts, etc. Should be fun!

Cedar Point steamers

2011-05-31T07:10:00.000-05:00

No RGS news today, except that I've been completely swamped by end-of-school year and work busyness - so updates to the RGS site are lagging. And the basement suffered more water - but it was less than an inch and did no damage, to the layout or the rest of the basement. It's been raining a LOT here in the Midwest!

I did, however, just return from a very fun weekend chaperoning our high school's music dept trip to Cedar Point amusement park, in Sandusky OH. I - and the kids - went mostly to ride the many awesome roller coasters in the park, but there is a narrow-gauge connection there.

If you weren't aware, the park has a wonderful narrow gauge steam railroad, with no less than FIVE steamers running on it. All are very small industrial loocos, mostly rebuilt from 0-4-0Ts, but it's still nice to smell the coal smoke and hear steam whistles while waiting in lines.

RGS Goose 4 rebuild progress

2011-05-24T08:11:00.000-05:00

If you haven't been aware, Telluride's Galloping Goose - the last of the remaining original 6 that's not yet been restored - is being restored. There details and photos about the rebuild effort on the Ridgway Museum's site.

There's some photos and discussion of the engine in this goose on the NG Disc List lately, which is a GMC 361 from WWII vintage (surplus, and delivered new to the RGS). Some thought these were built for WWII half-tracks, but that's not true.

DigiTrax install coming along

2011-05-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

I've been slowly finding time to continue w/ the DigiTrax DCC installation on the layout. I know have all the UP5 panels wired - each with a feed to a 12v power supply, and the track indicator LED wired into the track for that town.

Each town is supplied by a DCC Specialities PSX or (for Telluride) a PSX-AR unit. There's just a little bit of work left to finish the PSX wiring, break the Keller system, and tie the PSX's into the wiring for each town. Soon... in the meantime I'm still running a train w/ the Keller system, just to the track sorta clean.

And, both command station and aux booster are wired into transformers left over from the Keller OnBoard system. The transformers are putting out 20v AC, which is at the top of the range for the DigiTrax boosters, but hopefully they'll work ok. They're in spec per the manuals.

And - I've FINALLY programmed my first loco. I installed a DH123 in a Bachmann 2-8-0, and connected the PR3 to my Mac, and programmed it w/ JMRI's Decoder Pro. A little bit of a learning curve on both the software (free) and the decoder settings, but it seemed to go well.

But, because the Keller system isn't completely disconnected yet, I haven't actually powered up the DCC system yet, and also haven't tested yonder newly-programmed steamer. I think I can run a throttle w/ JRMI and test it on the workbench that way - haven't tried that yet.

It's a fun time - learning lots of new stuff.

Ridgway dry at last; 4-wire Loconet?

2011-04-26T07:59:00.000-05:00

Well, the last repair to the water supply line about Ridgway seemed to have worked, when I replaced the entire hose on the dishwasher input line. This had been leaking at the connection in the basement, and no amount of tightening, thread sealant, or washers was working. So - the new hose worked fine.

Except - the attachment at the other end (behind the dishwasher, upstairs) then stared leaking a day after I finished the work. So that came off, more sealant, much tighter fastening, and it seems ok now. I even replaced the drop ceiling tile that's about the yard.

So, on to other things, perhaps? I haven't had a chance to return to updating Denver library photo links on the website (soon, probably), but I did start wiring the LocoNet for the new Digitrax system. After a bit of research, I think I can use some of the thru-the-ceiling runs of my old control network for the LocoNet. The old cabling is a 4-wire 2-twisted-pair cable, w/ the pairs individually shielded and then the overall cable wrapped in another mesh shield. And LocoNet can be dropped to only 4-wires I guess (combining pins 2-5 and 3-4), so I'm going to try that for most of the control runs.

The run between the two boosters I'll keep to a normal 6-wire flat cable, just to be sure.

Another thought, is whether to tie the grounds on the booster together w/ the ground terminal, and drop pins 2-5 in the LocoNet cable. I'm not sure if I need to do that - anybody know?

Take four on the plumbing

2011-04-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

Well, hopefully 4th time's the charm... I ended up replacing the entire dishwasher hose of Ridgway this afternoon. It's time for the season to return!

I got a little more work done on the Digitrax DCC install. The track wiring won't be a big change, as I designed that for DCC from the start. But, the control network is different, and requires it's own power supply to run out to each of the UP5 panels, in addition to the control signal. Sigh. I'm sure I will love DCC, but after so many months of working on wiring (mostly detection and hidden-track signalling of late, and Tortisi), I'm kinda tired of it.

Raining in Ridgway

2011-04-11T19:43:00.000-05:00

OK, so the Lionel trains have all been sold, and the new Digitrax DCC is in place. You know - the place were I put things, like, um, sitting in a box where Durango will hopefully exist one day.

And, in a feat of amazing productivity (for me), I finished the 18 new hoppers I've been working on over the winter. These are all custom-lettered for the RGS or a few other Colorado roads, and all have unique numbers. But you know... finding, cutting out, and applying unique numbers (4 per car, mind you) is time consuming. But, all 18 are done and running on the layout now, new 'chess pieces' for eventual operations.

Actually, they're also waiting for weathering, but that'll have to wait for warm weather for outdoor spraying.

Anyway, I was then able to start a little work on adjusting the wiring for the DCC system, when I noticed some discoloration on the ceiling tile over the (fully occupied) Ridgway yard. This is the ceilng tile that's right below the dishwasher hook-up for the kitchen. Turns out the supply hose was leaking a little. I thought it'd be a quick fix, but after several tries involving washers, thread tape, and pliers, it refuses to stay completely dry. So, now there's a completely new hose hanging on the bannister into the basement, waiting for my next attempt.

And in the meantime, I'm working on taxes and still updating links on the website. I've got 677 of the 1011 Bob Richardson photo links updated so far, which is probably 1200 actual individual links. And of course they're many more photo links besides Bob's.

And btw, I also was laid off - AGAIN! My new position has been an ideal fit in many ways, but corporate decided it's profits were threatened for this year and chopped the headcount. And being one of the newest employees, in a newly-created position that's remote from the corporate office... well, it didn't go so well. I'm interviewing now, hopefully this will be over soon. It's not fun.

Links gettin' done

2011-02-21T22:05:00.000-06:00

OK, I've gotten thru the first 80 links, and updated them (of, oh, at least a thousand or two!). This just might take a while....

Check out my site at Rio Grande Southern info.

Updating links

2011-02-21T07:09:00.000-06:00

If you haven't noticed by now, MANY of my photo links at to the PhotosWest collection at the Denver Public Library, which is a wonderful collection. In the last couple of weeks, they've updated their digital collection and added some great new features.

However, they've also changed the way public URLs are created, in a way that I can't easiliy convert. So, I've started the process of working thru the several thousand links I have, find the new photos, and updating the URLs. This will not be a short project, but I will get it done eventually.

Thanks for your patience.

On to fund-raising for DigiTrax

2011-01-25T07:26:00.000-06:00

OK, after a lot of research and hearing from numerous friends, I've made my decision to go w/
DigiTrax for my DCC system. Yes, I know all about the benefits of NCE, and at the end of the day they're both excellent systems. For my particular situation, I decided DigiTrax's architecture and design was a slightly better fit.

Next step - raising some funds to pay for it! I've decided to sell most of my old Lionel trains - they're all on eBay now. Hopefully they'll raise enough to at least get started. It's a little bittersweet, as there's a lot of memories here, but - as we usually say when we're cleaning - we'll hang on the memories but get rid of (most of) the stuff.

On to DCC!

In a decaling mood -

2011-01-09T21:12:00.000-06:00

So, after lots of research, I sort of decide DigiTrax is probably the way to go for a DCC system, but then a bunch of other friends weigh in for NCE. I'm going to have to dig out all my O-27 Lionel stuff and put them up on eBay to raise funds, so there's no rush I suppose. More researching...

In the meantime, I decided to work on decaling a number of hoppers I've had sitting around. I managed to get them all painted before the cold weather set in, and this week found myself in a mood to start decaling them. Modeling a freelance (proto-lance?) version of the RGS is fun, but it does lead to lots of custom decaling of std-gauge equipment. But it'll be a nice hopper fleet when I'm done.

This week - a set of 10 Accurail 55-ton composite hoppers lettered for the RGS, another 4 34' steel hoppers lettered for the D&RGW, and 4 more 34' steel lettered for the SP. They'll join a couple steel RGS hoppers, and some C&S steel hoppers I finished earlier.

I also got some minor updates posted on the website; there's more updates waiting than I have time for, and w/ my new job I don't have the ability to work on that during breaks in the early morning anymore. And at home... somehow spending time on the computer usually doesn't appeal so much. But, the updates are coming, just more slowly these days.

Bummed. The end of Keller OnBoard for me? And on to DCC?

2010-12-28T20:56:00.000-06:00

Well, perhaps the day has come. When I started my layout about 2004, I designed the wiring to easily be upgraded from my old Keller OnBoard control system, to a DCC system. I've withheld actually doing that because I've already got (and paid for!) the Keller system, and (until now) it's done everything I needed.

However, that has changed. To date, I've actually only installed decoders (Keller called them throttles, but in this DCC-age I just call them decoders) in diesel locomotives, mostly Athearn's I've remotored w/ Sagami can motors. The Keller decoders work well w/ these motors, albeit with a very slight buzzing at low speeds (due to the pulse-modulation used by Keller to help start older / cheaper motors).

But now came time to install decoders into my Spectrum 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive. The wiring was simple enough - removed the built-in circuit board, hard-wired the connections between tender and loco w/ super-flex wire (pulled from old computer mice, btw), and added the decoder in the tender. Then came testing - and a very loud buzz in the lower 1/3 of the speed range. That pulse-modulation doesn't work well w/ these much newer, and much smaller motors.

I tried everything I could think of - different versions of the Keller decoders, adding the Bachmann circuit board back in, etc, but nothing fixed it. I guess this is a limitation of these old decoders, and one of many reasons the system isn't used much today.

SO - where does that leave me? Time to upgrade to DCC, I suppose. I like the idea of more control, more features, current technology, all that stuff, but I'm not happy about the re-wiring needed to locos and control panels, nor the cost.

Any suggestions on which brand, folks? I'm probably leaning toward either DigiTrax or NCE, and it seems at a least a couple of radio cabs make the most sense.

Loving these weathering powders!

2010-11-18T07:01:00.000-06:00

As I said, I've been working on finishing up some rolling stock; here's a bunch of cars (photographed very quickly this morning). I'm loving these weathering powders!

Outhouses and cabeese complete at last!

2010-11-14T18:08:00.000-06:00

Here's one of Banta Modelworks' set of 5 outhouses; I built all five, and used them to experiement w/ a number of painting and weathering techniques. I'm pretty satisified w/ the results!

Here's another view of the larger building, and also a one-holer that I modeled after a still-remaining outhouse near the Rico station grounds.

Here's the smaller of the two large buildings, w/ the other two small ones in the background.

You can't see it here, and I couldn't get a good photo, but all three smaller outhouses are complete w/ open doors, toilet-paper rolls, newspapers nearby to pass the time while occupied, and a couple of posters on the interior walls.

Here's the first of 5 cabooses - I had some trouble finding something that resembled the center-cupola RGS cabooses. This is a std-gauge freelance, w/ an alternate history, so I have some freedom, but I still wanted to capture the flavor of the prototype. You'll notice the numbering on all these cabeese is close to, but not exactly, the numbers used on the prototype fleet.

Here's one of the three larger cabooses... these are all Walter's Gold Line models, which include the handrails and other details and add-ons for the modeler. I had a heck of a time filing the insides after brushing my skills w/ the #80 drill, but they eventually came together quite nicely. The weathering on all of these models is Dr. Ben's weathering powders, applied dry and worked in. I really like working w/ them.

Couple updates to the website

2010-10-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I've been far behind in updating the web site... I have a quite a backlog of updates and just haven't had the computer time at home to work on it.

But - I did update a couple pages tonight: Some great new photos by Jim K, linked from the Exploring the ROW page, and updates to the Model Listing page for Campbell models, who finally have their own web presence.

At home, I'm still working on cabooses, this time having progressed to adding grab irons. Boy, that's tricky work! I've done grabs before, but not for some time, so this is a bit of re-learning for me.

Quick update

2010-09-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

I know it's been forever since I've updated this, but we've been very busy w/ getting our oldest off to college, finding and starting a new job, and other beginning-of-school-year fun. Oh yeah, and my studying for an ASQ exam for work.

But, I did nearly finish the outhouses, and have been busy (when I could) painting and decaling rolling stock, trying to get in the spraying work while the weather holds. I've completed the decals and most of hte painting on 5 new cabooses, all lettered for the RGS, a couple of reefers, a couple of boxcars, and a couple of flat cars. I will post photos if (when?) I finish all of those up w/ weathering powders.

I know it's crazy, but I'm still a little hesitant about attacking all of these new cars w/ the powders (and the outhouses too, actually), but I want to move on it so I can add any oversprays while it's still warm enough outside. But life intervenes, so we'll see.

Enterprise is done! On to... er... outhouses. :-)

2010-07-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

I've completed the Enterprise (see pics below), and I've moved on to what is actually my first laser-cut kits, a series of small outhouses from Banta. I've built Campbell kits before (love 'em), but these are a slightly new variation and I'm having fun w/ them.

I'm following one of Darryl Huffman's weathering DVDs and staining wood for these kits using several variations of shoe dye in alcohol, and I really like the results. And it's very simple and cheap.

So - I ended up painting a lot of the detail on the Enterprise's hull - great practice to get back into very fine painting. I also used paint markers for the first time - an ultra-fine white for the lit windows. And an ultra-fine Sharpie for the dark windows - both worked great. I also used weathering powders for the first time, to add some battle damage, which also worked great and was really fun.

This model also has the fiber optic 'lighting', which was surprisingly challenging, but it turned out ok. Here's a few 'night' shots. The nacelles are also lit.

Still playing w/ the Enterprise

2010-06-29T14:30:00.000-05:00

I've really gotta post some pictures... painting of all the detail on the ship is complete, and I'm finishing up w/ decals and then a final coat of dullcote or something similar. The detail painint isn't perfect, but given the number of tiny details, it's been great practice. There must be hundreds of the escape pods, and hundreds of windows as well. I used an ultra fine point white paint marker for the 'lit' windows, which worked well, although even it was a little large. I used an ultra fine point Sharpie marker for the 'dark' windows, which was really easy and worked great.

I will probably (at the urging of one of my teenagers), try a little weathering powders (I've got a set from Micro Mark) to simulate some battle damage. Can't have this ship too clean, I guess. But what does a phaser hit look like, exactly? Dust, I can do. Mud, yep. But phaser hits? Hmmmm.

On an RGS note, I've also dug out a set of 5 outhouses from Banta I received a while ago, and getting ready to start on those. My preference for staining the wood is to create several variations of stain with 70% alcohol and brown and black shoe die. Those are all purchased... more details to follow!

Not much layout work

2010-06-22T11:35:00.000-05:00

I haven't been working directly on the layout lately; it's summer and we got busy w/ graduation season around our house (one from high school, one from middle, one from grade school, and a birthday - all within two weeks!).

However, I have been finishing up a model of the USS Enterprise-D, which my oldest son gave me a gift quite a few years ago, and which I thought I should probably finish up before he leaves for college (alarmingly soon, now...). It's got fiber-optic lighting, and to properly paint it has hundreds of tiny windows, panels, etc.

It's not my greatest achievement, but it's been great to re-discover some painting skills long dormant, and learn new skills I haven't used in building the layout. Perhaps I'll post a picture if it turns out ok.

Rico is complete - now for some ops stuff

2010-05-22T08:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since that last posting; looking for work and doing all the search-prep classes and whatnon burns thru the days at a surprising rate.

Anyway, I did get some time on the weekends and completed the trackwork in Rico; it's completely done now, including the Enterprise branch, turnout controls, the whole deal.

Next up is adding boxes for car-cards and waybills, and alongside that is finally figuring out my operating scheme (at least a 1st draft), adding at least markers for each of the buildings, etc. I've decided to take a somewhat non-typical approach; if you're reading this feel free to comment on the validity of the idea.

Here it is:
I want to make operations a bit more flexible, so operators feel a little more like they're responding to the current situation on the layout, rather than following a tight script of events. Perhaps this won't work, but my idea is to use only 2-cycle waybills, and to mostly keep the waybills stored seperately from the car cards.

We play a good number of board games around here - Rail Baron, Empire Express, Silverton, etc, and most of those function w/ some type of random demand request, which is then fulfilled as efficiently as possible to make money. Of course, ops on a model railroad have a different focus, but I've been wondering if I could borrow some of those game concepts, and see how that might work.

The sequence would be something like this:

At the spur (factory, mine, stockyard, etc) there are a bunch of waybills in a pocket, available for use. Each lists the type of car needed, and a destination. So, a mine shipping lead has a card saying it needs to ship a load of lead to Grand Jct (which is a staging location).
The operator grabs the waybill, walks to a yard where empties have been returned, finds an appropriate car, and loads the waybill, empty-side up. This becomes a waybill to move the empty to the mine.
The car is routed to the mine w/ this waybill, sits for a while, and is magically loaded.
The waybill is flipped to reveal the destination (Grand Jct staging in this example).
The car is then routed to that location, via a scheduled or extra local, or whatever else.
Once arriving in staging, the waybill is removed.
The empty car-card has instructions for where to return the car, and it's returned. Alternatively, another waybill could be inserted before it gets back to its home yard.

Trains would be routed via schedules, and supported with 'train cards' laying out their runs for each operator. For passenger runs, those would be set schedules. For freights, scheduled locals would simply take all available loads from point A, and pick up what's needed along their route. Extras would be handled by the dispatcher.

So - what da ya think?

Pushing forward in Rico

2010-04-28T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still out of work, and spending most of my time in job-search related activities.

But, there has been some time for layout work in the evenings, and I've been working on finishing the trackwork in Rico, and on the Enterprise branch. Nearly all of that trackwork is complete now, and I've been adding track feeders.

All of the turnouts of Peco code-75, and all of the spurs, branch, and siding track in this area is ME code-55. I'm using ME transition rail joiners (c55 to c70) which are plastic, and this means there's a lot of insulated track, and a lot of feedeers to install. But wow, does that code 55 look great!

Feeling pretty blue today

2010-04-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

This isn't about the RGS or my layout today... no, it's me feeling gloomy. I lost my job yesterday, along w/ 80% of our office, which is being closed. Piles of work, trips booked, meetings planned - then suddenly nearly all of us are gone.

There is severance and other benefits, but the loss is pretty painful right now. I was there 22 years, and this change will take some getting used to, to say the least.

And no, the economy has nothing to do w/ this - corporate acquired one of our competitors, then decided to move the software headquarters, management, quality (my area), tesing, and more to their location, and to discontinue a number of our products. Corporate greed? Saavy business? I don't know... seems there should've been better ways to use a staff w/ the decades of experience and very industry-specific expertise that can't be replaced easily.

Making tracks in Rico... again

2010-04-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

After a long pause for wiring, I'm back to laying track. I managed to save up enough to purchase the rest of the track for Rico and the Enterprise branch, and have completed about 1/2 of the town's industrial trackage already.

Once Rico is complete, that'll leave only Dolores and Durango for major track-laying work. Ridgway is done, except for the engine terminal, which is waiting on the turntable, which is waiting on funds that - um - aren't available yet!

HUGE milestone - operations can begin!

2010-03-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

A friend and I wired the last Tortoise turnout motor (of the initial set of these, anyway), spent some time cleaning tools and whatnot from the tracks, and then started some simple operations. The Ridgway and Telluride yards worked wonderfully, and we had a blast doing some switching and routing trains back and forth. Although we mostly used only these two towns (and Rico a little), there was plenty of space, and it's encouraging that the layout can probably support a good number of operators easily, even now.

Next up, hopefully - completion of the Rico trackage, and the Enterprise branch, which should add significantly the operating possibilties.

I've started playing with David Hussman's car-card / waybill software, and eventually will start moving toward some more formalized operating schemes. If you're looking for his software, btw, it's in the files section Yahoo's Car Cards group. It's great, and it's free, but does require Microsoft Excel and Access, on a Windows platform (since Access isn't available for the Mac at the moment).

Ridgway Tortoises done

2010-03-23T08:11:00.002-05:00

I finally was able to finish all the wiring, LED indicators, and other stuff for the 6 Tortoise motors installed in the Ridgway yard area. This means the hidden and hard-to-reach turnouts for this yard are now all automated.

I will probably pull the springs from the Peco code-75 turnouts I've motorized, although so far I haven't actually removed any of the springs from these turnouts. The Tortoises (with .039" wire) are strong enough to overcome the springs, but I suppose it's silly to make the motors work harder; there seems to be no reason to leave the springs in place.

Three more toroise installs

2010-03-01T09:18:00.004-06:00

I finished up the mechanical portion of three more difficult Tortoise installs, under the yard lead at Ridgway. The fun part is that the control rods for these turnouts actually pass thru the edge of the hidden track below Ridgway, which is nearly directly under the yard lead.

Here's the innocent-looking yard lead from the top; the machines were installed on the three-way, and the next switch down (leading to the 3rd yard track).

Here's an overall view from below; that benchwork is only about 12" deep here; very tight working conditions.

Here's the control rods and how they just miss the hidden track below the yard lead. I love small digital cameras; I can't see this otherwise.

And here's a closeup of the machines for the 3-way turnout:

And a closeup of the machine for the track 3:

Photo time, at last...

2010-01-30T10:01:00.006-06:00

OK, so here's a series of photos, showing the recent Tortoise installs, and a (very messy) overview of the layout as it exists at the moment. I'll be very glad to start working on scenery, but I'm forcing myself to finish wiring, track, and turnouts first.

First up is a tour of the layout - here's Vance Junction, with Lizard Head curving above it. On the right you can see the wye from Vance heading toward Telluride's penisula.

And here's a couple shots of Telluride:

And here's Ridgway's yard:

This is Rico, with just the main line and sidings laid so far.

Here's Hesperus, with the area for Durango unfinished above it. Lots of scenery will hopefully hide most of the yard lead directly above Hesperus behind a ridge.

And here's Dolores. Again, scenery is intended to nearly hide the line climbing above it on the way to Lizard Head.

Here's the staging tracks cutting thru the bathroom. There's a main line between Dolores and Mancos hidden under those staging tracks, too.

And this is the crossover into the Ridgway yard lead, which is hidden in a closet in the bathroom, before the Tortoises were added.

And finally, one of the two Tortoises above ground in the closet; the one that's installed is part of the crossover, and there's linkages prepared for another, handling the first switch in the yard lead for Ridgway. My method here was to carefully drill a #70 hold in the Peco linkage (after snipping off the nub), then running that thru some aluminum tubing drilled into a bit of scrap masonite. The tubing keeps the throw wire from popping up or moving around too much.

And here's the turnouts at Vance, handling a 3-way Peco, with one motor above (hidden in a tunnel eventually, I hope), and the other below.

And a closeup of the upper machine at Vance - using a slightly different method to grab hold of the Peco. I like the method used at Ridgway better, but this seems to be working fine.

Tortoise installs

2010-01-20T08:10:00.002-06:00

Wow... has it really been a month and a half since that last post?

Anyway, I've managed to get another 4 Tortoise installs done, along w/ the related control-panel wiring. The turnouts for both ends of the Ophir siding are done now, as is the hidden crossover in the bathroom closet, just outside of Ridgway's yard. That was difficult; I will (promise!) post photos soon of that one.

Next up is trying to find a way to install Tortoises on the 3-way at the start of Ridgway's yard, which is a difficult reach from the aisle. Another Tortoise is about finished on the first turnout of the Ridgway yard ladder - that one also being in the closet.

A good weekend!

2009-11-30T08:01:00.002-06:00

This Thanksgiving break was really nice - very relaxed at home. I had good time w/ the family, and also some time for layout work. And on that front, I was able to complete all of the electrical work at the Vance Jct wye - turnout motors are all in, panel and LEDs are wired and functioning, the reverser relay for the wye (actually, for all of Telluride) is in and operational - it's all good!

My first tortoise install

2009-11-11T21:21:00.002-06:00

I've FINALLY finished wiring all the detector and force-red circuits, and panel LEDs for them, all that stuff. My dwarf signals are complete and ready to install, but aren't in yet.

But - one of the panels also needs to control some of the turnouts for a wye remotely, and since I wired all the LEDs and switches for that, I thought it was finally time to tackle a Tortoise install - for a code 75 small-radius Peco wye turnout.

I used a method from Rich's methods, using some metal tubing and spring wire. I like this because I got to lay track w/o worrying about drilling large holes under each turnout as I went.

So - I've got the first one done now, but not wired; it seemed to go pretty well. I underestimated how difficult it'd be to actually get it screwed into place upside down - and this was the probably the easiest of the places I need these!

Oh well - challenges are good, right? I'll try and get a photo posted eventually.

Wiring signals now

2009-10-25T21:27:00.002-05:00

I've been slowly working my way through wiring detectors and LED indicators in my panels, for the various hidden-track sections of the layout.

Tonight, I started working in earnest on wiring a number of 2-light dwarf signals (Oregon Rail Supply), which will be installed at the entrance to all the hidden track sections. These are a bit more work to wire than I expected - as you have to figure out where to physically locate the resistors for the LEDs (I opted for below the layout - meaning I had to wire the LEDs with a short length of wire, then the resistor(s), then more wire which would attach to the 'real' wiring below the layout somewhere).

Anyway - it's going smoothly now. I debated for a long time between normal block signals, and the much smaller dwarfs, because the RGS never had any signals (of course). I settled on the dwarfs because I don't want to 'model' block signalling, but just want to give my operators some indicator of whether they can proceed into the hidden blocks or not. So I kinda have block signals, and kinda don't, if that makes any sense.

Hopefully I'll post some photos once they're built & installed.

Goose 4 to operate?

2009-10-05T08:21:00.002-05:00

According to this posting, apparently the restoration of Goose 4, currently underway at the Ridgway Museum, will be a restoration to operating condition. And, Telluride has apparently made an agreement with the museum to let them run the Goose once a year. This is different that the original posting on the museum site, which was only for a cosmetic restoration. Hopefully the posting referenced above is true!

This is big news - Goose 4 was the last of the remaining Geese to be restored, and was thought to never operate again. When this restoration is complete in 2011, all 6 remaining geese will be operating, and the original Goose 1 recreated and also operating. And then there's RGS #20, undergoing a very extensive rebuild in Pennsylvania, and when done will operate again, and in better condition than she probably ever was on the RGS.

Most of the Ridgway panel wiring done...

2009-09-21T07:27:00.003-05:00

Here's a couple shots of the inside of the Ridgway panel, showing the wiring for the block-detection LEDs and force-red circuits for the remote signals protecting those blocks.

A friendly alien is keeping careful watch.

Still slowly wiring

2009-09-17T12:35:00.002-05:00

I'm still slowly working thru the wiring of various panels, LEDs, and all the inter-connections to the detectors. Having a detector board in one town, but wiring LEDs and sometimes force-red circuits in other towns, requires a bunch of wiring between the towns, and that just takes time.

I did take a break over Labor Day weekend (which was really beautiful here in the midwest) to gather up a pile of unbuilt kits and get them sprayed w/ base coats and a little weathering - just so I can work on lettering and finishing them over the winter, if I want. With no spray booth, it occurred to me that if I wanted to finish up these rolling stock kits in the winter, I'd better get the spraying part of the work done now! Which I did.

So - back to wiring during my layout work times.

Forcing others to see red

2009-08-17T08:42:00.003-05:00

So, I continued working on wiring between trips to local pool this weekend. The RGS was not signaled, of course, but my layout has a number of hidden track segments and I've added detection for those sections.

There's a couple of long hidden segments that exit directly into towns (Dolores, Ridgway, and Vance Jct). In those areas, if you are switching and blocking the main, I think it'd be helpful - and probably required for sanity's sake - to be able to block trains from unexpectedly jumping out of those hidden tracks. So - I'm adding signals (on the panels at least) for those blocks, and allowing the operator in - say - Dolores to force the signal red to prevent trains from entering blocks leading to Dolores.

So - I've got blue LEDs on the track segments, to show if a train is actually in those hidden blocks, and red/green signal LEDs (on the panels) to indicate the signal status at each end of the block - repeated on panels at both ends of the blocks. When the track is empty, the signals are green, when occupied they are red.

What I've added is a 'force red' switch in Dolores, so that if you are switching in Dolores and want to stop trains from entering, you can set the block signal at the far end to red, even though the block occupancy LED (blue) will still show the track as empty.

The wiring for this proved a little trickier than I expected, and it's not done so I'm not completely sure it'll work. In terms of physical wiring, I'm bringing all the panel LEDs from both locations to one panel (Dolores in this first case), then bringing the detectors ouputs there as well, and making all the logic connections in one place. I'll spare you further details, but it's been a fun exercise so far!

And fascia photos, plus a little wiring

2009-08-12T08:24:00.007-05:00

And, at long last, here's some photos of the painted fascia. The layout still in major construction stage, so it's messy! The paint was done using Behr paints, primed with a tinted good-quality primer, and then 2-3 coats of semi-gloss interior latex, in Windsor Moor, which is a dark green. I picked it because it's dark enough to not call attention to itself, but isn't black, and seems to blend well w/ planned scenery colors. Behr is available from Home Depot.

I was pretty pleased w/ the results. I picked the semi-gloss because I wanted something tough, that wouldn't easily scratch, scuff, or get marked up.

I plan to add car-card holders, in the same color, but that's on hold until wiring is further along.

Here's a kinda poor picture of the current wiring for Durango. You can see the BD8 from The Signaling Solution installed here. This is one of a number of wiring panels, one per town. This is hinged at the top, and swings up and out of the way when I'm not working on it.

Each panel has bus feeds for track and other power (upper left corner), then feeds those circuits out to blocks and other circuits for that area of the layout.

Signs & control panel grahics

2009-08-12T08:19:00.004-05:00

Well - time for a few photos. Here's some shots of the signs and control panel graphics I've added. I finally got one of my BD8 detector boards wired as well, and you can see a couple of the blue LEDs I'm using in the panels, for detection of trains on hidden track.

Back to wiring

2009-07-26T19:19:00.001-05:00

With signage complete now, I'm back to wiring. I've added some LED lights about the track-power kill switches scattered around the layout, for operators to more easily know where they're located (hidden below the fascia edge). With my control system, having kill switches has always been helpful to me.

I'm also beginning to wiring by BD8 detector cards, now that I've got panel graphics and can start installing the occupancy LEDs and perhaps signals (both of which are needed if guest operators are going to start running trains).

Scenery is still a ways off... oh well. But, I'm also building freight cars when I need a break from wiring, and I've added two more Accurail hoppers this week - custom-lettered for my version of the RGS.

Signs and panels installed!

2009-07-19T22:38:00.003-05:00

I worked on-and-off the last several weeks drafting signage and control panel graphics, and today finished installing them.

After searching around and trying a number of freeware graphics programs, I finally settled on using PowerPoint. Eventually, I'll dig out the camera and post some photos.

To finish them, I went ti Kinko's and had them create color printouts on cardstock (black background with mostly white graphics, and color highlights), then laminated onto this stuff that's laminate on one side, but adhesive on the other; Kinko's used it themselves for some of their keyboard and phone notes. Works great, so far anyway.

The wiring is progressing

2009-06-08T07:49:00.002-05:00

Wiring wiring wiring... sometimes it seems it'll never end! But, I completed all the control jacks, so trains can be locally controlled from any of the towns now. I suppose wiring in block detectors will be the next task, since it would be hard for multiple operators to use the layout w/o knowing if the hidden tracks are occupied or now.

Actually creating the bloc indicators, though, means I will really have to get to work on drafting the control panels. I have done lots of CAD work in the past, but for some reason I haven't yet come up with a good graphic design or layout for controls panels. It should be easy, right? I suppose part of the issue is that I'm not sure how much information to include, whether to create a full track diagram at each town (which I figure would be helpful for other operators), or what.

Stay tuned, I guess!

Still wiring

2009-05-11T08:27:00.002-05:00

I've been slowly continuing wiring efforts on the layout, as I've found time for it (only a few hours per week, in this current season of life). I've got a Keller Onboard control system, and current work is wiring the remote jacks for the controls - running a bus around the layout, and wiring the jacks.

Keller's system comes with 3-circuit 1/4" stereo jacks on their keypads, but I don't like these for a number of reasons - they're hard to pull out, cause a momentary short when plugged in, and the stress from pulling seems like a bad idea for long-term durability. So, I replaced them with - borrowing from my theatre experiences - 3-pin metal XLR jacks, commonly use for microphones. The receptacles are male, while the plugs on the keypads are all female. If you're not familar w/ this type of connector, it's got a spring-loaded locking tab on it - so when you insert the plug it locks into place, and to remove you depress the tab and them pull out - not much stress at all because of this, but very durable.

Because I might someday upgrade to DCC, I researched the control bus requirements for a number of vendors, and decided to use a shielded network cable for my Keller control bus - the idea being that if I upgrade to DCC, I won't want to have to replace the bus wiring. I found - are you ready for this - 1100 feet of just the right cable on eBay a couple years ago, for maybe $60. It's #20 wire, with 2 sets of individually shielded pairs, plus a mesh metal shield around the whole thing.

Probably the only downside is that this wire is solid, and because my control panels drop down, I'm running this wire to terminal blocks near the panels, then switching to stranded wire into the panels themselves. I don't want the wire breaking because of the panel movement.

My usual comment... yes, I should get around to posting pictures, and I will try.

Power supply work done at last!

2009-04-13T09:51:00.002-05:00

Had a little more time this weekend, and finally I've gotten all the wiring, circuit breakers, monitor LEDs, and other work related to the new power supplies completed!

Power supplies

2009-04-06T13:25:00.002-05:00

I got a bit more work on the layout done this weekend - still wiring up power supplies for electronics and switch motors. I ended up getting three 3A DC supplies. Two will be wired to together to give me a +12v / com / -12v set for Tortise motors. The third will be used for detector power and other electronics needs. All three are identical 12v DC regulated supplies.

I'm also using an old Racal modem / computer power supply, which has a 1A supply of 5v DC, mostly for lighting LEDs around the layout.

I've run all four supplies thru 1A or 3A circuit breakers (from Tyco Electronics), w/ monitor LEDs in the fasica. This way, I can tell at a glance if they're all running, and I feel a little better having circuit breaker protection. They probably have internal protection as well, but... oh well.

Fascia paint, and paper updates

2009-03-09T08:25:00.002-05:00

If you've been following the updated pages on my RGS site, you may have noticed that the RGS Paper page has been vastly updated - thanks to Ted Klaveren and his son's scanning abilities, that page now sports a large assortment of paperwork from the RGS.

At home, I found time to prime and get the first couple of coats of paint on the fascia. I'm using a Behr semi-gloss in 'Windsor Moor', which is a dark green. I haven't done a lot of house painting, and I've especially not used semi-gloss much. The primer went on easily, but the first and second coat of the main color were more work, and even w/ the second coat it's not completely covering. I'll try to get a third coat on this week. Also, why hasn't anyone invented disposable rollers yet? Man, I hate trying to clean those buggers!

Fascia sanding, more wiring

2009-03-02T08:33:00.003-06:00

After spending some time working on replacing wheelsets and selling off some unneeded parts on eBay, I've moved back into the basement and have been prepping the fascia for painting - at last. Because it's very smooth-surfaced masonite, I gave all of it a light sanding, so the primer will have be able to adhere properly.

I've also been continuing to work on wiring, and now have all of the Ridgway yard wired (and have gained some skills in upside-down soldering!).

Once the fascia is painted, I'll post some new pictures. I know it's been a while, but wiring just isn't very photogenic, and that's all I've been doing lately.

The fascia is done !!!

2009-02-08T07:58:00.001-06:00

A great day yesterday - the garage was warm enough for some wood working, and with most of the existing track wiring complete now, I was able to finish off the last bit of fascia. Time to paint it!

Wiring wiring wiring...

2009-01-08T13:26:00.002-06:00

Wow - I guess it's been a while since I updated this blog, eh?

What time I've had for trains has been spent in the basement, crawling around under the layout, running wiring. Lots and lots of wiring... not the most exciting work in the world, but it's needed infrastructure for everything else.

Lots of soldering - there's been a pile of feeders to drop from all the added track. Then, running block wiring for from all of the new track that I laid in the fall - the Ridgway yard, all of Telluride, a number of spurs, and all of the passing sidings. I've also been working on 5v and 12v power supply busses, for block detection and turnout-motor power.

Telluride, Vance Jct, Rico, Hesperus, Dolores, and Ophir have their wiring complete, at for the track that exists in each (Rico and Dolores have a bunch of track to add yet - the others are done). The large yard at Ridgway is still looming.

Some new pictures at last

2008-10-06T08:17:00.012-05:00

First up in photos is the fascia work at Wildcat canyon, just below Ophir. Rico is on the right, and the end of the Telluride peninsula is near the tissue box.

Here's a couple shots of the Durango yard, and engine terminal. Eli has found the turntable pit, as you can see!

Here's the siding at Dolores. This area is also serving at tool storage at the moment, so it's kinda messy. The peninsula with Telluride is on the left, and the line descending from Lizard Head on its way to Rico is on the right, above Dolores. As you can see, Eli has been busy with his toy cars, while the layout is out-of-operation during this phase of construction.

Here's the new wye at Vance Junction; Telluride is up a steep 4% grade beginning at the bottom of the photo. Vance proper is to the left, and the tunnels on the right lead to Ridgway. That's a little of Dolores on the far right, and the staging tracks at McPhee sneaking under the wye. The Christmas-tree lights are hanging from the line to Lizard Head (out-of-view in the upper right-hand corner). The lights are to help me see the McPhee staging once the scenery is in place, in case of derailments or whatever.

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Here's the yard at Telluride, looking back toward Vance Jct. The high-line to Ophir is on the far left.

Here's a couple shots of the Ridgway yard. The wide tunnel in the first show leads to the staging tracks in the bathroom, and the mainline punches thru here on its way to Vance Jct. You can also see the beginnings of the engine termal at Ridgway tucked off on the left side.

In other news, I've run out of track (and money!), so further tracklaying will be on hold for a while. I've just started to work on the fascia at Durango, which is more difficult than the others because of tight clearances at the bottom. At locations like Rico, the bottom edge of the fascia pivots as it drops, because the hinge is a good ways above the bottom edge. This works because the benchwork framing is several inches back here. But at Durango, the benchwork is only about 1" back from the fascia, and there's no room at all for the bottom to pivot in. So, the hinge point needs to be at the very bottom of the fasica. I'm building extra bracing there to support the hinges at the right locations there, and know that I've figured out what to do, the work should be straight-forward (but we'll see!).

Two towns complete; back to wiring

2008-09-14T09:32:00.002-05:00

I've continued to find time to lay track, and have laid all of the code 55 ME flex that I have. Ridgway yard is now complete (except for the engine terminal), and the wye at Vance Jct and all of Telluride is completed as well. All of the passing sidings are laid, and spurs are completed in Hesperus, Mancos, Ophir, and Vance Jct.

In the course of this, I changed the track plan of the Ridgway yard slightly (see updated drawings), moving the runaround track alongside the yard ladder, and adding two more classification tracks.

In laying Telluride, and 'test operating' it my head, I also realized that track plan needed changes. On paper, or in my Trainplayer design, I could switch the town by leaving parts of a train on the line coming into town, toward the wye. But in reality, I realized that stretch of track is on a steep 4% grade, so it can't be used for switching, and would make switching the town very challenging. So - I've added another runaround track, behind the depot (which is what the prototype did at most towns anyway). I lose a little real estate for buildings, but I thought this was really needed for (again) operational sanity.

And now that I'm out of track, it's back to wiring (since none of this new track is wired yet). A friend at work also convinced me it's time to get my block detectors installed. This isn't a signaled railroad by any means (the poor RGS hardly had the money for track, let alone signals). But, I'm designing this layout for operation, and with the hidden track I have I, some type of detection is necessary for operator sanity.

After a fairly long search, I've settled on BD8 detectors from The Signaling Solution. I plan to install one at Ridgway's panel (to handle hidden and staging tracks in that area) and another in Durango's wiring panel (to handle Durango staging, hidden tracks, and the hidden track under Rico).

Makin' more tracks

2008-08-18T09:38:00.002-05:00

I've finally figured out (or think I have) how to lay ME's code 55 track. I've been going great guns the last couple weekends, and have laid all of the passing sidings (Rico, Hesperus, Ophir, Vance and Dolores), and have nearly completed the staging area and main yard at Ridgway.

None of this is wired yet, but it feels great to be making progress on track laying like this.

Off to Iowa this weekend

2008-07-28T09:15:00.003-05:00

Well, this posting has nothing to do with trains. I didn't work on the layout at all, but instead spent Saturday with Vineyard's mercy response team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, helping w/ flood-damaged houses there. I was really not expecting the level of damage this town has suffered - block after block of empty homes and deserted streets (except for the Salvation Army truck distributing food & water to folks gutting houses).

It was a good experience. Our national arm of our church - Vineyard USA - has set up a full-time operation in Cedar Rapids (modeled on it's continuing program in New Orleans), managing volunteer teams that go out and help families with flood-damaged homes. The water rose to 10' in many neighborhoods, and many of the homes being worked on were flooded to the top of the first floor.

We sent about 40 people out, but stayed only for Friday night and Saturday. My group of 6 gutted a house that hadn't been touched since the floods in mid-June, and it was RIPE! It was low-income rental managed by a Four Square church (whose building is also trashed). It was great old frame home, built around 1900, very large. It had been coverted into two apartments, and the lower one's family apparently just ran and left most of their stuff. It was pretty heart-breaking to drag out piles of clothes, toys, electronics, school backpacks still full of books, etc - a whole family's life of belongings, nearly. We pulled the belongings, appliances, and other stuff out, then ripped out the carpet, then started demoing the interior of the first floor down to the studs.

They tell me houses like this can be saved, and it would be nice - it's a great old place. But the damage was pretty bad.

Anyway - perhaps back to trains next week!

Still in fascia land...

2008-07-21T09:08:00.001-05:00

I must admit I've been outdoors more these last few weeks, given the great weather, so the layout is languishing a bit. I did get some more work done this weekend - still working on fascia. I installed three more drop-down panels - two at Dolores, and one at Hesperus - although these will be secured with screws instead of magnets, as I don't intend to open them unless I'm working under the layout in those areas.

With these three completed, there's a only a couple small areas left now.

Fascia time

2008-06-09T07:44:00.003-05:00

Shoot... has it really been three months since I posted here?

I (mostly) finished the 4 diesels I've been remotoring... decals are done, headlights are done, decoders are installed, and they are reassembled and operating. There's a few final delicate details (air brake hoses, cut levels, etc) that aren't added yet, and weathering isn't done, but other than that they're ready for the layout.

The layout, on the other hand, is back in the land of carpentry, as I've been adding fascia boards to most of the layout. I'm using untempered 1/8" masonite, and so far I've got about half of the layout done. There's a few sections that will have to wait, since wiring in the area isn't done yet (mostly around towns), but other areas are coming along.

Here's Ridgway - this is one of the areas where I've hinged the fascia, to allow access to the hidden track behind, and to make it easier to install controls into the fascia later:

And here's the area near the Enterprise branch:

And finally, a shot of the area near Ophir's bridge 45-A (to the right of this photo), showing the prep work for another piece being added. I'm using 1x2s on edge where I can, as something to either screw or glue the fascia to:

Still working on decoders!

2008-04-15T08:44:00.002-05:00

I'm still working on those diesel rebuilds, but they're nearly done now. After figuring out that the headlight LEDs could be wired back-to-back, I'm on to the next phase. The LEDs look great; I've got one each for the upper / lower headlights, and only one comes on depending on which direction the loco is facing on the track. I ended up using 1.2k resistors, and the brightness looks about right to me. Track voltage w/ my Keller Onboard system is 14.5v DC. I mounted the LEDs by soldering a pair back-to-back w/ the right spacing (to match the headlights on the shell), filing the end of each LED flat, and super-gluing them to the rear of the headlight lens.

With the headlights done at last, I moved on to connecting the A- and B-units, installing the Keller decoders (called throttles actually) in the B-units, and routing some small stranded wires between the two units. On the F units, I mounted Kadee #47s (I think - short shank, underset, metal) couplers, and was able to run a wire thru each of the ear holes on the Kadee boxes. I used shrink-tubing to attach a second wire to each of these, and thus got four wires routed alongside the coupler boxes, looking almost like MU cables. Two wires carry motor power from the decoder in the B-unit, and two carry track power to the decoder.

What's left? Final details on the shells, and (probably later on ) weathering. Air brushing is another long-dormant skill, so I'll have to get back up to speed there as well. But with 4 new Keller-equipped locos, I'll probably focus next on getting Keller installed on the layout, so I can use these new guys.

I've also finally posted a newer version of the layout trackplan. I had created a design in Empire Express for another friend, and a fringe benefit of that is that I really learned how to dress up the drawing within that software package. What do you think?

Keller OnBoard and headlights

2008-03-31T08:25:00.002-05:00

So, here I am, sitting at home and quietly finishing up super-detailing my 7 locomotive shells that I've been working on the past few weeks. Yesterday I finished up the last of the tiny decals I like to add - fuel & water labels, warnings, other little tidbits. I'm been using using diesel decals sets from Rail Graphics, purchased quite a few years ago - the last time I did this work, about 1991 believe it or not.

I also re-numbered one of the Athearn PA units (why must all PA-1 units out there be numbered 6009 !?), and finished up add numbers to the number boards of my Athearn PA and a pair of F7As. Not fun, but I did enjoy learning how to do it.

I suppose I should photograph these models when they're complete so you can see what I've been doing.

Anyway, back to Keller Onboard... I switch my focus to electronics, starting with the Lifelike Proto2000 PA / PB pair, which I thought would be the easiest. I had purchased a number of the 8-pin 2x4 NMRA plugs a while back, and soldered up just the track & motor connections on one of them, and plugged it into the NMRA plug on the PA to test it. The motor ran nicely w/ Keller, but no lights.

Of course - I hadn't jumpered the headlight connections. But, after some more experimenting, I found that the two headlight circuits are both polarity-sensitive (pins 6-7 for the oscillating headlight, and 3-7 for the lower headlight & numberboards). The oscillating headlight varies two circuits, to light two filaments inside one bulb to get the oscillating effect - about +/- 5v going to the bulb, but working on with pin 7 positive and 6 negative (I think - I might have it backwards). The lower headlight is just 1.5v, and again works w/ only one polarity.

With DCC, the decoder would provide the correct voltage and power to control these separately, and with normal DC both work but only when the locomotive's moving forward. The problem for me is that the rails will have a set DC polarity, regardless of which way the locomotive is moving. Thus, if the locomotive is on the rails facing west the headlights would work, but facing east they'd be off, regardless of whether it was moving or not.

I could replace both with my golden-white LEDs from NCE, and probably will I guess. I like the oscillating effect, but it uses the locomotives electronics and needs that certain polarity. I could light that bulb directly from track power (skip the electronics), and use a resistor to get down to 5v or so. No oscillating, but easier wiring. Or, I could replace both bulbs with the LEDs wired back-to-back, so that one LED would work for each direction the loco's facing.

I did finally figure out how to address the reverse-voltage problem... those LEDs don't like reverse voltage, and the Keller Onboard system puts 14.5v on the tracks. Turns out that with the LEDs back-to-back, one will light and the other won't, and the dark LED is protected from the reverse voltage by the current running thru the LED that does light. Assuming a current of 30 mA, I'll use a 3660 ohm resistor on one side of the two wires running to the LEDs. This is what I plan to use w/ the other locos.

What to do w/ the LifeLike unit? Not sure yet... I'm leaning now toward just lighting the two bulbs directly with appropriate resistors, if I can guess what their current draw is.

In a detailing mood...

2008-03-11T09:05:00.002-05:00

I've been staying out of the basement lately, and have gotten into a super-detailing mood with some of my diesel locos. It started because I'd reached a point in layout construction where I wanted to install my command-control system (an old Keller OnBoard system). I've started working on that, but got to the point where I needed to install decoders (Keller calls them throttles) in some locos.

Not wanting to tackle the steamers yet, I figured I'd ease back into this by starting with some diesels (remember - my RGS is set in the late 1950s, and the SP has purchased rights or perhaps the entire road, so SP diesels will be showing up sometimes).

Keller likes low-amperage motors, and needs really great pickup in order to work smoothly. On my old layout, I'd converted a pair of GP35s and a pair of SW1200s, remotoring with Sagami can motors (I like the 2032 best), and wiring the units together in pairs, using all 4 trucks for pickups. I also replaced all the old Athearn wheels with NWSL wheels, again, for better pickup (the NWSL wheels are nickel-silver, and much better than the old style Athearn sintered iron or steel wheels).

Those engines will run great, and I next remotored my first Athearn loco, an F7 I received in the late 1970s I suppose. Then, I started on converting a pair of Athearn SP Daylight PA-1s. That project was put on hold about 14 years ago when kids came along, and have sat (in pieces) since then.

Fast-forward to today. I pulled out the ancient F7, and (for practice mostly) got that running again, It also has a Sagami 2032 can motor, hard wiring to both sides of the trucks, new wheels, etc. It needed a drive shaft repaired, and now runs like a top. With a little confidence now, I finished remotoring both PA-1s and two more F7-As, and installed new wheels and trucks on a pair of F7-Bs as well.

So now I'm ready to install the Keller throttles, right? Well, I also have a Proto2k PA-1 that's gorgeous, and really those Athearn shells could use some details. I'm going to use LEDs for the headlights, which means the shells will be hard-wired to the frames, which means any shell detailing is best done now.

Off I went to the hobby shop, and returned with MV lens, handrails, etc. I can't tell you how much fun it was to sit at the workbench installing lift rings, grab irons, and what not. It's been YEARS since I'd done anything like that, and it was very fun to return to. Plus, the basement is still cold and the workbench is upstairs in the comfy warm study. I'm sick of winter, and the warm study is inviting.

I'm still finishing up the super-detailing, and even added a backup light and cab room grabs to the Proto2k unit. I've got the LEDs ready, and will someday get the Keller throttles installed. That's gotta be last, because as soon as they're ready, I'll probably jump back down to the basement so I can get the Keller system installed, and then I might never return to the workbench and finish the detailing work!

Photos are here, and an update

2008-02-11T08:35:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted many photos of late, but all the existing layout photos are still online - they're here in the blog. Just scroll down, and go to the older posts when you reach the end.

In other news, I've been monkeying around with the Keller OnBoard system, deciding exactly how to implement it. I have found that Keller produced a number of different versions of the throttles (decoders to you DCC folk), and mixers (power boosters). Here's some details of what I've discovered, in case anyone is interested:

The most recent mixer seems to have one huge heat sink, uses a red circuit board, and has options for digital components. Keller was one of a couple proposals for creating a digital command-control system (which eventually became DCC), but his design wasn't accepted. However, he did do a bunch of work creating a digital version of the OnBoard system, one that would work with both the analog and digital throttles at the same time. I'm not sure if he ever got that working, but looking at the extra space and layouts on the mixer, it was certainly in the planning stages.

Early mixers used blue circuit boards, the earliest having one heat sink, then versions with two heat sinks (still blue).

As to throttles (decoders), the T1 was eventually shrunken down to 0.7" long. The most recent version of it has an IC in a socket (as opposed to direct-solder), so between the size and the IC, I think I can now identify the most recent versions of the T1s. All of the smaller T1 versions also seemed to have better protection against overloads and overheating, and some type of H-bridge power output section. I have a number of T1s labeled both A and H, so I've been trying to figure out what the H meant; I think it referred to this newer output stage.

And finally, all of the newer T1s have a double row of solder points in the middle, so you could cut the unit in two (for tight fits), and run jumper wires between the 5 sets of solder points.

There was also a smaller T 1/2 throttle, but once Keller was able to shrink the T1, he discontinued the T 1/2 design.

Keller used 1/4" stereo jacks for his keypad plug-ins. I don't like those much, as they are kinda hard to remove and the strain is tough on the fascia and on the jack itself. I replaced all mine (on an older layout) with all-metal jacks, but the pulling is still not that great. Also, they short briefly when being inserted or removed, causing a warning beep from the mixer. I thought about using RJ45 connectors, as some DCC systems use, but those are kinda fragile.

I've settled on using 3-pin XLR jacks on this layout, the same as used for microphones (I do a bunch of theatre and concert lighting on the side, and we use a lot of XLRs). I haven't installed these yet, the jacks themselves are metal, they have a locking pin, and in genenral seem very robust. For the keypad, I'm using female black jacks, and for the layout / fascia I'm using male jacks.

I'll let you know how it works out.

1156 done at last

2008-01-28T09:24:00.000-06:00

This weekend I finally finished installing the last of the 1156 lamps, covering all the blocks and other track sections on the layout. It's always a bit fussy soldering these lamps in place, so I'm glad to move on to something else now.

I've been running the layout's mainline a lot, now that it's complete. I've had the test train running forwards and backwards around the entire layout, at speed, and so far all looks good. I even reversed the loco / caboose so the engine was pushing the train from the other end, then ran that both forwards and backwards... still running ok.

Probably the next step is to begin working on the 'real' control system - my old Keller OnBoard. I've decided that I really need two 'mixers' (like DCC boosters), so I'll have to modify the main power bus a little to split it, and then build transition track sections (some gaps and a couple more 1156 lamps), as using multiple Keller mixers is a little different than using multiple DCC boosters.

More wiring at Ophir, and two accidents

2008-01-14T09:40:00.000-06:00

A friend came over to see the layout this weekend, and ended up spending the entire day helping me wire the Ophir loop area. He spent most of his time working on a pair of 4-wire disconnects for the removable section, and wiring by safety rocker switch (which cuts power to both lines about 10' either side of the removable section). All that went very well, and most of the loop wiring is now complete. The panels at Vance Jct and Ophir still need the 1156 lamps installed, but then the basic wiring should be complete.

However, the weekend was marred by a minor derailment that dumped my two Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0s on their sides. No damage - it was trivial derailment - but because I foolishly re-railed the double-header w/o turning off the power, the locos took off before I had the drawbar connected, and this stretched the loco / tender connector wiring. Now, one of those connectors is loose, and won't lock into position securely. It looks ok, but the loco stalls on turnouts where it never did before. I'm not sure how to fix it - perhaps just permanently wire the cab / tender together and bypass the little connectors?

And then - far worse - one of these same locos got knocked clean off the layout the following day; it landed on its side about 2' down on top of a plastic storage bin, which I guess cushioned the fall somewhat (certainly better than hitting the floor!). The tender's drawbar post snapped off, and the fitting on the drawbar screw under the cab also broke, let the cab / boiler pop up easily. I'm guessing I can install a new drawbar post on the tender, but I'm not sure what to do w/ the cab screw. It looks ok, but if you touch the cab it lifts off very easily.

Surprisingly, this appears to be the only damage! All the delicate pipes, steps, etc all seem fine.

Mainline is complete!

2008-01-07T08:22:00.001-06:00

I reached a milestone yesterday - the mainline is now complete (well, except for the cutoff into Durango). It's not operational yet, as I've got some fine-tuning to do I suspect, and the wiring. But basically the rails over the entire Ophir loop, and both high-line and low-line, are complete.

I ended up using a #7.5 curved turnout for the Ophir spur, and the only one available was code 83. But, I found that using code 100 rail joiners worked very nicely to join the code 75 and code 83 rails. The oversize joiners are just sloppy enough to let the rails float a bit vertically, and it was trival to hold them in vertical position and solder them. I was actually kinda worried about this junction, but it turned out to be really simple and easy.

Progress over Christmas break

2008-01-03T08:57:00.000-06:00

I had a few days off, and was able to (finally) push ahead with laying track up the Ophir high- and low-lines. That section is the last remaining portion of the mainline to lay, and it's now about half completed. Part of the delay was a lack of funds when I ran out of track, but I finally gathered up and sold a bunch of other stuff on eBay, and freed up some funds to continue.

I ran into another problem though, as I planned the spur at Ophir. The spur comes off the curving mainline just after the high bridge 45-A. I was planning to use a Peco code 75 turnout (as all my other turnouts are), but their only curved turnout has a very side outside radius (60" !!), and I just couldn't make that fit. So, plans now are to use a Walthers #7.5 curved turnout, which has radii of 32" and 28", and should be much more workable. It is code 83, so I'll have to figure out a conversion between the code 75 and 83 at this point; hopefully it won't be too bad.

For the code 75 to 55 transition (I want to use code 55 for sidings and spurs), I discovered that Micro Engineering actually makes a code 70 to 55 transition rail joiner, and I picked up a few. I haven't used them yet, but it looks like they'll work well.

Finally, a friend from an operating group south of Chicago dropped by for a visit, and we chatted about the operational possibilities fo the layout, once the trackwork is further along. I planned for operation from the beginning, but it was great to have someone else look at the layout and confirm that group operations would probably work well. I'm looking forward to that day!

Cork, and that wonderful code 55 rail

2007-12-11T09:06:00.001-06:00

I finished laying the last of the cork roadbed on the mainline around Ophir. The only cork roadbed still needed now is Durango and Telluride... and I'm out of cork again! So, I'll continue when I get another order placed.

In other news, I finally decided to attempt - or at least explore - what it would take to join code 55 rail to my existing Peco code 75. I found that the code 75 rail joiners will work for horizontal alignment, but of course the code 55 rail height will be too low. I'm trying now to figure out how to hold the two rails in alignment until I can solder them.

I don't have a solution yet, but have been thinking of using a cutoff tool to remove the upper part of a rail joiner in the middle (so that portion has only the metal plate on the bottom). Then, I'd insert both size rails, and bend the joiner at the point where it's just the bottom part - should bend easily right? Get the height right w/some fiddling and bending, then solder it. Perhaps I'll be able to try that in a few days.

Once more, with feeling

2007-12-05T11:13:00.000-06:00

There's hasn't been much progress on the layout over the last couple of weeks, but what time I had was focused on (again) getting the movable section of benchwork near Ophir to correctly latch.

A short recap - I had created this section to pull out, using drawer slides. The first attempt, when I laid the roadbed, shows that the drawer slides were somewhat sloppy, and also that if you pulled too far, the entire module dropped out (on my wife's foot - thus the requirement to redesign it!).

So - I replaced the slides with heavy-duty extending slides rated for 100 lbs; the module now slides out much further, and won't fall out w/o releasing latches on each slide. Plus, the module pulls out so far that it should (usually) not be necessary to remove the module.

So last week I laid track over one section, cut the rails, and realized a very tight locking mechanism was needed. I installed a couple of sliding dead-bolt type thingies (that's a technical term, you know - thingies). But, even with those there was a little bit of play that caused track alignment problems.

Finally, just last night, I reworked the benchwork and found a way to attach a suitcase latch (the kind where a tab flips up, then a ring of metal loops around a catch, then the tab is pushed back down). With a bit of fiddling, I now have this attached such that the latch actually squeezes the benchwork slightly, and makes a very solid lock, with no movement at all.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem. It's winter here, and the humidity has been dropping and benchwork wood is starting its seasonally drying and shrinking. During the spring, this process reverses, and it's then I'll find out if the wood changes enough to affect this or not.

Now let's see - with that task finished, what should I tackle next?

2007-11-26T11:29:00.000-06:00

It's been crazy busy again, but this weekend I had some time for the layout again, and have been working on the 3-track staging yard at Durango (it actually sits under what will someday - hopefully - be the Ophir loop).

Making tracks at Vance

2007-11-05T08:08:00.000-06:00

It was a pretty busy weekend, but I did find time on Sunday for a bit of layout work. I was able to lay both of the 3-way turnouts at Vance Jct, and laid the main from the laundry-room exit tunnel all the way past bridge 44-A on the Ophir low line.

There' s a pull-out section of benchwork just past 44-A, and I laid the first bit of track onto the pull-out and make the rail cuts. No testing yet, so I'm not sure how good it is yet. I've always been nervous about the junction of the rails across those joints, but so far it has seemed easy enough.

My kids were able to back the test train into Vance for the first time Sunday night, and that was a pretty nice milestone to meet.

More photos, and progress at Vance

2007-10-29T08:26:00.001-05:00

So, I thought I'd start with a few photos of my wiring panels. Here's a photo of the 1156 lamps above the Durango panel. For my wiring, I've been putting an automotive 1156 lamp on every block, and wiring the panels so the main feed (from the command-control system) goes to a terminal block, gets distributed to a bank of 1156 lamps, then (from each lamp) goes to the block feeder on the terminal block.

Here's a shot of the entire Durango panel. It's mostly empty, since all that's wired so far are the power busses and some of the blocks. Each area of the layout has its own panel, feeding blocks in that area. Each panel is feed from a 4-circuit power bus that runs around the layout. One of those circuits is the main feed from the command-control system, the others (yet to be used) are for 12v and maybe 5v power.

I use the area under the layout for household storage (and cave-exploration by my younger kids!). So, to keep that space accessible all of the panels are hinged, and fold up when I'm not working on them. Here's the Durango panel in its UP position.

And the last show - here's the end of the Ridgway staging tracks, where they terminate in the laundry / furnace room. There's a laundry sorting table (and old counter top) along the wall, and both the lower main and upper main / staging tracks run right along the edge of this sorting table. Because it's often filled with clothes (we do have 3 kids!), I enclosed the tracks. There's plexiglass on the sides, and the top of the staging level is a lift-off piece of bookcase shelving. So - trains are protected, and the shelf is handy for more clothes sorting. Eventually I'll paint and finish this, but for now it's at least protected and the tracks are functional.

I had a good weekend, thanks to my wife who wouldn't let me work around the house and made me just relax. I finished cork roadbed for Vance Jct and the beginning of the wye into Telluride, extended cork roadbed about halfway to Ophir, and rebuilt a moveable section of layout where bridge 46-E will (hopefully) one day reside. This is a pull-out section I needed for access, and getting the drawer slides and alignment issues worked out was a highlight of the weekend's work.

Vance Jct work

2007-10-22T08:34:00.000-05:00

I've finally completed (I think!) the work on the McPhee staging tracks. I've unpacked a couple of long-stored Bachmann 2-8-0s and I'm using those on the test train, forwards and backwards. They seem to handle the staging tracks and sharp entrance radius ok. And - it's really great to have steam running on the layout for the first time.

The test train is pretty long - 9 or 10 cars - with a variety of car types (72' Athearn heavyweight passenger cars, 40' and 50' frieght cars, etc). The grade to Lizard Head is 3%, and this train does need double-heading to make the hill. The grade coming into Rico from the north is also pretty steep (2.5%). Both need the pair of 2-8-0s on this train, but that's pretty much as intended; after all the real RGS needed to double-head as well with longer trains.

So - I've begun installing the base for Vance Jct (which sits above the McPhee staging). It's going well, but there are several transitions to other modules (my benchwork is built in sections that can be disassembled if we have to move). Getting exact height matches between these modules is always a bit of a problem, and the Vance module has three - the line to Butterfly trestle and the Ophir low line, and the two legs of the wye leading to Telluride. All three need work at the moment, so that's the next focus.

I think wiring never ends

2007-10-14T14:30:00.000-05:00

I was working on the turnouts to the McPhee staging area, and finally did get them completed, but with a really sharp turn into the staging. It won't be visible, but I'm kinda bummed it ended up that tight.

But - with that done I realized I had to finish wiring and testing the staging track before starting any work on Vance Jct (which will be above it). So - a bunch of work yesterday on wiring this area. At least the wiring is getting done!

Work moves to Dolores

2007-10-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

With the yard throat completed at Ridgway, I've moved over to Dolores, and worked on the staging tracks (McPhee) this weekend. These depart the mainline at the south end of Dolores, and duck into what will be a tunnel under the Vance Jct / Lizard Head area. I've had the staging track laid for some time, but it was connected to the main.

So - I spent a good deal of my day off on Monday laying more turnouts and tying those tracks into the main. It ended up being rather frustrating and messy, as the turn into the staging tracks is sharper than probably anything else on the layout, and I really wanted to avoid that. Yes, it'll be hidden mostly, but I like to maintain the 30" minimum radius, and I'm sure I'm under that here. Oh well - there's just not enough room there to fit everything in. If it's really bad, I suppose I could replace one of the turnouts with a sharper turnout, or even a curved turnout. I'll try some test trains on it later and see.

Once this is done and reliable, I can continue working on the mainline into Vance Jct, which will involve covering this staging track.

New throat at Ridgway! And a real blog at last

2007-10-05T07:54:00.000-05:00

A little more work on Ridgway... I installed most of the yard throat this weekend, and finished the crossover in the closet. These turnouts aren't too bad to reach manually, but installing turnout machines (if I go that route) will be difficult, as access in this area from below is, er, problematic shall we say.

So... I've been thinking about how I format the construction journal, and have decided that a real blog might be easier, and more fun, especially if folks want to comment on the layout. Also, I want to publish pictures more easily, so hopefully this will help there as well.

Oh yeah - I got the 1156 bulbs that were giving me trouble replaced, and everything's fine now. I think the order I received actually had some bulbs that were similar, but not exactly, 1156s. Oh well - one more 'lesson' learned. And more soldering practice, which can't ever hurt (well, unless one drops hot solder on one's self, but let's not talk about that. Actually, I avoided that this time).

2007-09-30T00:07:00.000-05:00

So, probably no one's noticed yet, but I've begun (finally) to post pictures from the RGS exploration trip I made with some other guys back in June. I've created a Picasa Album and have been having a ball adding captions, mapping all the photos, etc. The work is going slowly, as I need to dig thru a number of my RGS books while I'm trying to identify just what we photographed. I've got maybe a third of the photos posted so far.

2007-09-24T07:50:00.000-05:00

OK, where did it go? I KNOW it was August just last week! I was able to spend some more time on the layout this weekend, and worked on wiring in the closet and Ridgway yard area. There's not much different visually (the nature of wiring work!), but the main line is now operational through the Ridgway yard area and all the way into the laundry room - nearly to Vance Jct (where the line ends in a cliff, since Vance doesn't even have sub-roadbed just yet). The staging yard at Ridgway is nearly complete - the area in the laundry room is covered and protected from laundry now, and everything is wired. I still need to add a bit of code-55 track, connecting the code-100 track in the hidden area to the visible turnouts in the Ridgway yard. I haven't tackled the prospect of connecting code-55 to either the code-75 main or the code-100 staging tracks. It can't be that hard, right? Please?

2007-08-27T07:57:00.000-05:00

More wiring was completed in the last week, and the line is now operational up to Lizard Head. However, I discovered that the 1156 bulbs I've been using aren't all the same resistance, so it looks like I'll need to replace a bunch of them. The bulbs that work correctly measure about 1.1 ohms (cold) on my meter; some of the newer ones I purchased in bulk are measuring 2.1 ohms. That is too high, and the bulbs are turning on, which also changes their resistance and drops the track voltage considerably. SO - they will need to come out. More soldering - what joy!

In other news, we had a really bad storm here in the Midwest, and we lost power for 4 days. The basement had some minor flooding, and we spent most of the last week cleaning and mopping. No layout work this past week as a result! Thankfully, there was no damage to the layout or drywall, and our backup sump worked long enough to protect us from the worst of it. Some of our neighbors, w/o backup battery-powered sumps, didn't do so well.

Tracking laying in Rico

2007-08-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

Having completed another piece of a layout design for a friend, I had more time this weekend for my own layout, and have been laying track in Rico and beyond. About half of the turnouts and mainline thru Rico are complete now, and the line out of Rico is complete to just past Lizard Head!

The climb to Lizard Head begins

2007-07-30T07:51:00.000-05:00

A little more track laying over the weekend - a bit of track laid on the north end of Rico, starting up the steep 3% to Lizard Head. Also, a little of the main laid in the Ridgway yard.

Lower trackwork complete!

2007-07-25T07:47:00.000-05:00

The lower-level hidden track is complete, on the entire layout (except McPhee staging, near Dolores). The Rico and Ridgway upper level plywood is complete, corked, and ready for track. I've extended the continous-run link from Durango's cutoff thru the stairs (on the upper level) and into Ridgway, and have begun laying track in Ridgway itself. Also, the 5 staging tracks coming out of Ridgway (thru the bathroom and laundry room) are complete, though not wired yet. I spent a good part of June in Colorado, and 3 days of that was spent exploring the RGS right-of-way. I have a PILE of photos from that trip, still being organized. But - one thing that stands out from the trip is how evident the old roadbed is where fills were used. I now plan to take a look of my layout, and see if there are some places where modest fills would fit, and plan the scenery according. Of course the dramatic scenery stole the show, and it was even more spectactular in person, than in the many photos I've seen.

Lower trackwork complete!

2007-05-21T07:42:00.000-05:00

A little more work, after several weeks of busyness kept me away... I've finished the roadbed, cork and most of the masonite guard rails for the entire section from under the stairs, thru the Ridgway yard, thru the closet & bathroom, thru the laundry area, and behind the furnace to Vance Jct. It took longer than I expected (doesn't everything?), but it's done now. This past weekend I worked on wiring in the 1156 lamps for all of the Ridgway track circuits, and tied in the feeders from the new track laid behind the furnance (near Vance Jct). The cork sheeting at Rico is also complete!

Progress report...

2007-04-29T08:17:00.001-05:00

I have been slowly working on completing the upper-level roadbed thru the laundry room and behind the furnace. That area is now nearly complete, and the cork sheeting was installed this weekend over the entire Ridgway yard and staging areas. The upper level around Rico is also complete now, and cork sheeting is being installed there. So - track laying in both Ridgway and Rico can begin next! With only a little more benchwork to be completed near Vance Jct, another huge section of the mainline has been readied for laying track.

Currently, the mainline is operating from the Durango cutoff (approx) to just below Rico. There's no sidings yet, so I just have a test train that runs forwards and backwards over the line. This section includes nearly all of the hidden track, and I've wanted to make sure that was operating well before covering it. I had a little trouble over the winter with wood contracting, and despite my expansion joints the track did pop out in a couple of areas. Those were reworked (more gaps were cut), and they seem to be ok now.

Here's a few pictures of the real use of the Durango yard area (the upper level is raised while I complete work on the lower level). Sometimes I think the layout just provides a roof for all the forts and tunnels being created below it!

Turntable at Ridgway

2007-04-02T08:12:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the Ridgway yard area, and realized that before I add the cork sheeting I really need to complete the roadbed all the way thru the laundry room (the lumber sizes and tight clearances mean I need to install the benchwork behind the furnance first, then work back thru the bathroom to Ridgway. This weekend I was able to start prepping that behind-the-furnance benchwork piece. I also built another small section of benchwork to cover the Ridgway turntable. I decided on a 105' CMR turntable and cut the appropriate 15" circle. Of course 105' is far larger than Ridgway's actual 50' turntable, but my focus is operation, and since this is both std-gauge and an alternate-history version of the RGS, I selected a turntable large enough to handle any type of power I might someday want to use, or that guests might want to run. There's no space here for a track running straight over the turntable to the roundhouse, so the turntable needs to handle anything that wants to get into the roundhouse.

I used 3/4" plywood here, instead of the usual 1/2", to ensure everything is solid. I don't know how long it'll be until I actually purchase and build the turntable, but I needed to cut the opening now, which forced the decision. I plan an identical 105' table at Durango (also very different than the prototype 65' table that's really there, but oh well).

The benchwork for the roundhouse itself should prove very, er, interesting. It's going to have to a hinged section of benchwork that can swing into place over the basement sink. My wife is VERY gracious with the basement, but she rightly insisted that the sink be fully accessible, and actually I agree. The benchwork will sit about 2' above the sink, but when you have to wash paint brushes or fill large 5 gal buckets, we'll need more than 2' of space. So - the plan is to hinge the roundhouse section itself and let it swing off the sink area, folding back along the Ridgway yard's edge when not in use. This is going to be rather trick, what w/all the alignment issues and mechanical stuff. But - I don't need to build that until I actually want a roundhouse, probably a year or two into the future, at least.

Guardrails, underground lights, hidden track, stairs & more

2007-03-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

This weekend I've started focusing a little on the fascia... went out and purchased a pile of 1/8" tempered masonite. A huge boon was a really nice guy at Home Depot being willing to cut 6 sheets of the stuff into various widths; saved me a lot of cutting & dust!

I've also been installing guardrails on the hidden mainline portions. For some of this, I'm using the plastic cloth-like stuff used for weaving yard furniture chairs and such; it's bright yellow and pretty easy & cheap to run. I used this mainly along the back sides of the hidden runs. The front sides need to be accessible from below for cleaning and rerailing, so I needed something just high enough to catch derailed rolling stock, but not so high it'd block my hand coming up from below to clean the track.

Under Rico, I experimented with more of the chair stuff, screwed into the 1/2" plywood subroadbed - it actually seems to work ok. It's flexible, but should be plenty strong to prevent derailed stock from hitting the floor. In other areas, I ended up using very thin strips of masonite, again just screwed into the plywood subroaded. I found that as a little as 1/2" edge above the top of the plywood seems enough to prevent crashes - it just has to catch the trucks of derailed stock. At this low height, it's pretty easy to reach over it (from below) to clean the track.

I also realized that before installing the upper level plywood, I needed to add some lighting, so I could see the lower levels for cleaning and other access. I purchased a bunch of ropelight from Mernards, and installed this along most of the hidden track. I'm not permanently connecting this lighting - if I need the service lighting, I'll just plug in the strings with extension cords or to nearby outlets, as needed. Below are some photos showing both guardrails and lighting under Ridgway, where the lower track sneaks thru the stairs and then tunnels under what will be the Ridgway yard (someday!).

Here's a view of the rope-lighting along the hidden mainline under the Enterprise branch, and the ones below show the line under Rico and (lastly) under Durango.

And then, finally, I've started on the areas above the hidden track. The first is the upper-level connection between Ridgway and Durango, going thru the stairs. I got part of the subroadbed for this stretch installed. Below are some photos of the lower and upper tracks going thru the stairs, during install of the upper track. I created the upper track roadbed and laid cork on that, then installed it.

These two photos so the upper level track emerging from the stairs and entering Ridgway. Anchoring the upper level roadbed as it emerged proved a little tricky, as the lower-level track is right below it.

Wiring and the 1156 lamps

2007-03-04T09:39:00.000-06:00

More wiring... I'm installing 1156 lamps these days, to provide some short-circuit protection. There's a lot of discussion on this method in various places - see this entry from Wiring For DCC for some background. So far, the Dolores panel is done (7 lamps), and the Durango panel is 2/3rds done (9 out of 13 done). A good deal left to go.

Anyway, the issue is how exactly to install these buggers. I'm just soldering directly to the lamps since they should last pretty much indefinitely, but that's a little tricky. The final plan I came up with was to feed one side of the main track feed to a terminal block, then to a wire soldered across the tips of a line of 1156 lamps anchored to the benchwork. Then, wires soldered to each brass base of the lamps is fed back down to the terminal blocks feeding each section of track. Yeah, I know - I really need a picture of this... eventually I'll try to add one.

There's one lamp for each section of track, basically each block, or each group of service or yard tracks; I'm trying to minimize the number of these lamps I need to solder and install. Actually, I'm trying to arrange it so each locomotive would always be protected by its own lamp, so tracks are divided based on how many locos I think will be active at any one moment. BTW, I've been buying these lamps at Walmart - they're only about 98 cents each there, in the automotive section.

2007-02-06T09:40:00.000-06:00

A bit more of the mainline is laid now - it's extended from the laundry room, through Dolores, under Rico and Enterprise, and nearly into the south end of Rico. I finished up soldering feeders this weekend, and working on the wiring for those sections right now.

2007-01-22T09:41:00.000-06:00

A couple more weeks have passed, and the power supply bus wiring is done! I've now got the main track bus and three other bus-pairs wired to each of 7 barrier-strip panels scattered around the layout. I've been running trains forwards and backwards along the existing track, checking for problems, but haven't found any yet. And, w/the wiring done for the moment, I'm back to laying track: the hidden staging tracks for McPhee are completed, and I'm working on laying out the turnouts and other track at the southern end of Dolores.

2007-01-03T09:41:00.000-06:00

After fighting the flu most of Christmas break, I was able to do some more wiring. I've now gotten the main track bus (#10 wire) plus other power supply busses (another 3 pairs of #12 and #14 wire) all the way around the layout. These will provide track and aux power to each of (now) 7 local panels. I've gotten three of those built and installed - Rico, Ridgway and Durango. Each of the panels is a 18" x 24" hunk of 1/2" plywood covered with terminal (or barrier) strips. The panels are hanging below the benchwork, but are hinged so they can fold up under the layout when I'm not working on them. Of course, all the runs to these panels are using stranded wire, so the panel movement won't break the wiring.

I also wired the existing track from Durango to Mancos, so trains can now run between the laundry-room hidden track all the way thru to Durango! There's nothing visible to see after all this work, but it's critical infrastructure and it's good to have gotten the main bus runs completed. Although it feels a little like I'm using too much wire, I've decided to run the main track bus to each local panel, then individual wiring to each block. Although I'm running command-control, I want to wire each block individually so that I can add block detection later if I want, and also so I can run of sections (say, staging tracks or enginehouse spurs) if they're just storing trains. I've got a good deal of hidden track, so all that will need detection, at least.

From each local panel, I'm running #14 or #12 to each block. The track is being laid with every other length of flex track soldered, so I'm running short #20 jumpers to every other section of track - thus feeders approx every 6' and every rail is either soldered to a jumper or to another piece of track. I'm using mostly electro-frog Peco turnouts, and with these newer ones you can easily wiring the frogs directly, which is what I'm doing. This does mean that each turnout will need it's frog powered, and I'm still trying to decide how to best accomplish that. At the moment, I'm leaning toward manual push-pull knobs connected to slide switches for local turnouts, and Tortise moters for turnouts further away.

The first wiring panel

2006-11-13T09:42:00.000-06:00

A few sore muscles and scrapes later, the first wiring panel is installed, under Ridgway. I spent a good portion of this weekend planning and working on wiring, mostly trying to figure out how to organize things. I finally decided on 6 sub-busses, Ridgway, Durango, Ophir loop, Telluride, Dolores and Rico. Wiring for all those areas will terminate at panels in those 6 locations. All 6 panels will initially be powered from power supplies under Rico, but I could add booster supplies for any of the 6 panels at some later date.

Even though I'm using an older form of command-control, I'm still dividing each area into blocks, and wiring each block individually from the area's panel. This way, if I want to add detection or control-panel signalling later, it (should) be easier. I've decided to protect groups of blocks with 1156 automotive lamps, as several have suggested, so the panels and blocks let me lay that wiring out as well.

The panels themselves are sheets of plywood hanging under the benchwork, but hinged so that when I'm not working on wiring they can fold up under the layout. I really need the storage area under the layout, and this will keep the area under the panels more open, so I can get at stuff stored there w/o having to reach around behind the panels.

RGS thoughts and mutterings

Great layout progress, Goose #3 anniversary, Edna repainted

Tortoises again

In Which Steven Discovers Capacitance

RGS #20 restoration continues

Weathering continues while the weather holds

More weathering!

Goose 4 lives!

Lots more photo references!

A great resource lost

New photos! And more cleanup -

Cleanup continues

Flood!

Struggling with the DCC install

A new soldering hazard

A new photo resource, and cutting umbilical cords

Cedar Point steamers

RGS Goose 4 rebuild progress

DigiTrax install coming along

Ridgway dry at last; 4-wire Loconet?

Take four on the plumbing

Raining in Ridgway

More link updates, and DCC purchase

Links gettin' done

Updating links

On to fund-raising for DigiTrax

In a decaling mood -

Bummed. The end of Keller OnBoard for me? And on to DCC?

Loving these weathering powders!

Outhouses and cabeese complete at last!

Couple updates to the website

Quick update

Enterprise is done! On to... er... outhouses. :-)

Still playing w/ the Enterprise

Not much layout work

Rico is complete - now for some ops stuff

Pushing forward in Rico

Feeling pretty blue today

Making tracks in Rico... again

HUGE milestone - operations can begin!

Ridgway Tortoises done

Three more toroise installs

Photo time, at last...

Tortoise installs

A good weekend!

My first tortoise install

Wiring signals now

Goose 4 to operate?

Most of the Ridgway panel wiring done...

Still slowly wiring

Forcing others to see red

And fascia photos, plus a little wiring

Signs & control panel grahics

Back to wiring

Signs and panels installed!

The wiring is progressing

Still wiring

Power supply work done at last!

Power supplies

Fascia paint, and paper updates

Fascia sanding, more wiring

The fascia is done !!!

Wiring wiring wiring...

Some new pictures at last

Two towns complete; back to wiring

Makin' more tracks

Off to Iowa this weekend

Still in fascia land...

Fascia time

Still working on decoders!

Keller OnBoard and headlights

In a detailing mood...

Photos are here, and an update

1156 done at last

More wiring at Ophir, and two accidents

Mainline is complete!

Progress over Christmas break

Cork, and that wonderful code 55 rail

Once more, with feeling

Making tracks at Vance