Sunset Over the C&O

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Yesterday many friends and I attended what was to be the final operating session on the late Lou Schultz’s Chesapeake and Ohio, Alleghany Subdivision layout.  We had a nice attendance, and the session went pretty well I think, with just about all the trains on the schedule having been run.  I felt comfortable being there running my favorite train, #147 on the Greenbrier Subdivision branch, but at the same time I felt an emptiness, with Lou and our other friends Bill Williams and Shawn Levy, not being present at the session.  A special “funeral” train was run near the end, essentially a World War II troop and military equipment train, with a nice open-end observation car on the rear.

This was the third and final session that we’ve had on Lou’s layout since he passed away.  Lou’s wife, Dee, has been so gracious to allow us these last few opportunities to get together and celebrate the friendship and camaraderie that we shared in Lou’s attic.

Repeating (and paraphrasing) the ending  of our first session:  …back home, Wayne Robichaux and I analyzed the session and stopped to partake of a meal at the Lagniappe Restaurant in Denham Springs.  What a way to spend and end the day . . . a fine day indeed!

-Jack

Who is Professor Klyzlr?

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I’ve had a couple folks drop an email asking who on earth is Professor Klyzlr?

The Prof is an Aussie named John Dimitrievich, from the South Coast of NSW, Australia.  He took the pen name of Professor Klyzlr some years ago; his explanation of the name: “think Climax and Heisler and you’ll get it”.

And for those not familiar with “Climax and Heisler”, these were the two leading types of geared steam locomotives that competed with the Shay geared locomotive.

Professor Klyzlr is quite well known in Australian for his modeling efforts, with diminutive narrow gauge equipment his specialty.  He is a prolific author, and his name is becoming quite common on this side of the world because of his knowledge and willingness to share in detail those skills, his thoughts and suggestions.

-Jack

National Model Railroad Month

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It’s that time of the year.  November just kind of snuck up on me this year.  Art Houston sent out an email announcement the other day with a list of all the model railroad events scheduled for the Southeast Louisiana area during this month.  I was surprised at how much activity is planned.  Just a couple weeks ago we had a nice event with the open house of the club up in Jackson, Louisiana.  There are one or two events scheduled each weekend for the rest of this month.  A couple of the clubs have open houses scheduled, and several private layouts will be open to guests.  The only thing missing is a regional show with both portable layouts and droves of vendors peddling their wares (sorely missing in this neck of the woods).  While I won’t be able to make everything, I plan to attend at least a few events.

Layout progress has slowed a bit over the last two or three weekends as I’ve had a number of diversions.  Aside from the distraction provided by the new Heisler, I attended the open house in Jackson (mentioned above), and last weekend I went down to New Orleans for the fly-in and exposition at the Lakefront Airport.  It was hosted by the WWII Museum in New Orleans, with aircraft provided by the Commemorative Air Force.  Among the aircraft displayed were a B-29 Superfortress (Fifi), a LB30 Liberator (freighter version of a B-24), a B-17 Flying Fortress, and a B-25 Mitchell.  Several P-51 Mustang fighters were in attendance, along with an SB2C Helldiver, a C-45 Expeditor transport, and some trainers: an SNJ and a PT-17 Stearman.  Most of the aircraft were making occasional forays into the sky with passengers (for a tidy sum).  What does this have to do with model railroading?  Perhaps nothing, but if I didn’t have my trains, I’d probably be an airport bum, especially when it comes to chasing old war birds.  I just like ’em.

There has been some progress on the layout though.  I’ve gotten a bit more track down, done some more wiring beneath the layout, and assistant Wayne and I cut out a whole bunch of Masonite hardboard fascia panels.  I’m close to needing fascia installed so that I can start building and installing panels and controls.  And I even hosted a small operating session (with only me in attendance) this past Sunday.  There is just enough track laid at Monterey that I was able to do some switching.

I love this time of year!

-Jack

Spencer Gets a New Heisler

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Recently over on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum someone had posted the topic “Locos you want to see produced?”  I had responded that I’d like to see a nice HO scale Heisler, and had mentioned that I wasn’t interested in the Rivarossi Heisler.  One respondent, Professor Klyzlr, questioned why I wasn’t interested in the Rivarossi model.  Since my opinion of the locomotive had been formed many years ago when the model was initially introduced, I decided to investigate the present state of the model before replying.

What I discovered was much more impressive.  In fact, during my investigation I found an especially good sale on one of the new sound equipped models and wound up purchasing the thing.

Rivarossi HeislerThis past weekend I put the engine through its paces.  Here is a brief summary of my initial reaction to the locomotive.

The good:  the model is much better looking than the original.  It has RP-25 flanges rather than the “pizza-cutter” flanges on the early model I had seen.  The couplers are now body mounted, rather than Talgo style (mounted to the trucks).  Most of the details are individually applied rather than cast on.  The paint looks good (though I’ll be re-painting it and adding decals for the Spencer logging operation on my pike).  It has a more refined, delicate look to it, and I’m pleased with its appearance.

The model now has a flat can motor (the original had the big 3-pole motor as I recall).  And it has the LokSound V4.0 sound decoder in it.  Running qualities are excellent.  It will really creep along at a pretty smooth pace.

The not-so-good:  The gear noise is disappointing.  The decoder’s sound levels have to be higher than I’d like so that they can be heard over the running noise.  I noticed while it was running very slowly that it has a slight bind in the running gear at the cylinders.  I will have to disassemble it when I get time and go over it carefully, cleaning up flash and burrs, and making sure everything is properly aligned and running as true as possible.  I might even put some Pearl Drops on the mechanism and run it a bit to see if that helps wear in the parts.  After cleaning, I will then do a good lube and see if that all helps smooth it out and quiet it down somewhat.

The decoder itself is jammed packed with features, and the overall sound of the engine is decent.  However, it is far and away the most complicated decoder I’ve ever seen to program, even using DecoderPro.  I’ve already invested quite a few hours fine-tuning the sounds and mapping the almost ridiculous number of sound effects to the various function buttons.

It is pulling nine cars up a 2-1/2% grade, and that without installing the (included) wheelset with traction tires.  That’s good because I’m looking for it to haul six (empty) skeleton log cars and a caboose up a 4% grade.

My overall initial impression: satisfactory . . . a nice model, and I’m happy to add it to my fleet.

-Jack

P.S.  Love the whistle on that thing!

Industry and Interchange Come to Monterey

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I’ve taken a break from sub-roadbed work these last couple weeks and turned my attention to trackwork.  I mentioned in the previous post that I had started some trackwork over in Monterey.  I’ve done more in that area these last two weekends.  The mainline enters the area and runs through the yard, terminating a bit beyond.  This is literally the end of the line for the Louisiana Central.  The Texas and Pacific interchange track is connected to the L.C. main now, and a couple industry spurs have been installed.  There is now a track for holding the wrecker and work train equipment, and the wye is partially installed.  I’ve posted several photos in the photo section of the website if you’d like to see what’s going on (when there, click the  ‘Jump down to the latest photos’  button).

The yard itself and the industrial track down at the far end will be laid in code 70.  This signals the onset of my having to start modifications of the Shinohara switches to be DCC compatible (the code 83 switches that I’ve been working with on the mainline are already so).

Next weekend I’ll be crawling beneath the layout to install the wiring for all this track.  I’m trying not to let track get too far along without the associated wiring being completed.

At this point, Monterey is land-locked in that the mainline cannot proceed any further east than where it presently stops, as the bridge section across the entryway to the layout room hasn’t been constructed yet.  Technically a locomotive could sneak out of Monterey via the industry trackage at the far (west) end by using the loads in-empties out trackage, but that would only be used for testing as the other end of that trackage leads into Willis (the opposite end of the layout).

All-in-all, some nice progress has ensued.

-Jack

Whupped Into Submission

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Hallelujah, I finally got the entire high line sub-roadbed of the Spencer logging trackage installed.  Today I sanded out the drywall mud that I used to fill seams and screw holes, then put a coat of light dirt colored paint on top of it all.  Here’s a photo of the installation:

Spencer high line in the woods.The angled braces are temporary and will be removed after I get the rest of the sub-roadbed installed, along with scenery supporting structure.  The double switchback will connect to this level where the branch is coming off next to the clamp.  The switchback will extend about 10 feet, then will switch again to head back toward the camera, going downgrade the whole time.

This initial section along the wall looks quite simple, but it was the most difficult benchwork I’ve installed to date.  The problem was one of access, both for attaching the risers to the joists (less than three inches of working room, and at some risers, even less), and attaching the sub-roadbed to the riser cleats (not enough room to fit a drill motor needed to drill the pilot holes).  I had written about these difficulties earlier here and here.  My friend and assistant, Wayne, helped me get several risers in place, but I had to do the remainder single handed.  Not having those extra hands required me to re-think how to approach the problem.  Generally, I clamped things where they had to be, then removed the assembly from the main benchwork so that I could permanently attach those parts together with screws.  I did this in four sections until I finally got it all screwed together.

After the track switches are laid, I’ll have to remove the sub-roadbed once again (simply unscrewing it from the riser cleats) in order to install the Tortoise turnout motors and do the electrical wiring.  Again, the problem is lack of clearance to fit the drill motor needed to drill the pilot holes for the Tortoise mounting screws, and the (perceived) difficulty in getting everything aligned properly.  While this will be tedious, it will hopefully result in a much better installation of components.

Once the high line trackage is completed, I’ll put in the double switchback and the mainline run heading west back to the mill.  That should be considerably easier as that trackage won’t have anything below it.

I’ve also started laying track over in Monterey.  I figured the most critical place was the crossing located where the north leg of the wye crosses the mainline.  And that is where I started, laying the crossing, the north leg of the wye and the mainline coming in from the east, all as one unit.  Next I’ll install the north switch of the wye, and the curved switch that is at the entrance to the yard.  To see the trackplan, click this Louisiana Central Railroad link to open in another window.

I’m pleased that I’m able to make weekly progress, and with the fall approaching, I should soon garner even more time to put in on the pike.

-Jack

With a Clear Head

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A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a couple snags I’d run into while test fitting some risers for the logging trackage heading up into the woods.  The problems stemmed from a lack of clearance.  I ultimately decided to walk away from the problems for the time being, then to later re-address them with a clear head.

This past weekend I had completed installing the industrial trackage over in Maynard.  I was in the process of doing the wiring below the benchwork when my able-bodied assistant Wayne called and offered some assistance for anything that needed assistance.  Not one to turn down assistance, I accepted the offer, and an hour or so later we were staring at the benchwork over at the logging site.  We floated a couple ideas around as to how to do things, then finally just got in there and started doing.  As it turned out, the problems weren’t insurmountable after all.

There’s a three inch space between the back L-girder and the wall, which my cordless drill won’t fit into.  However, I still have my very first power tool which was given to me by my dad back in the early sixties…a Ram 1/4″ drill motor.  This all metal, piece of machinery art still works just fine, and it just happened to be narrow enough to fit within that three inch space.  Great!   Wayne was able to support each riser at it’s location by pressing it firmly against the wall (sometimes using shims to adjust the alignment) while I got below to attach the riser to the joist.  Wayne was as steady as a clamp while I drilled the holes, then (with difficulty) managed to put in the screws using an old-fashioned screwdriver.  We did about nine risers, and by then my knuckles were raw from rubbing the wall and L-girder while twisting the screwdriver in those tight confines.  I have about six more risers to install, and by next weekend my knuckles should be ready for a little more abuse.  It’s all downhill after that.

The important thing here is that we found the solution, and it wasn’t complicated at all.  The solution comes after having a clear and relaxed mind…always does.  I knew this would happen…always does.

-Jack

A Bit Closer to Revenue Generation

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Back in April I installed the mainline track up to the east end of Maynard.  This is the first town down the line (west) from Willis, where the visible portion of the layout begins.  Shortly after that I completed the roadbed through the town and was ready to lay track.  There are two spurs planned for Maynard, one will serve a ready-mix concrete plant, and the other a retail propane dealer.  I had intended to install the mainline and industrial trackage within a week or so in order to start generating revenue for the railroad.

Well, I got side tracked with other things and the trackwork took a back seat.  Since I had decided last week to back off for a while on my sub-roadbed construction for the Spencer logging operation, I thought this weekend would be perfect to get a little trackwork done.  So off I went to Maynard.  The two mainline switches are installed now, and one of the spurs is complete.  I’ll put a little track down for the other spur during my next work session.  The mainline can’t advance much beyond these switches as the track curves here to the side of the room where the Spencer trackage is headed up into the woods (the area I’m taking a break from).  I don’t plan to construct the mainline through this area until all the Spencer sub-roadbed is installed (my new rule: work from the rear toward the aisle).

But that’s okay as I have a ton of trackwork that needs installing over in Monterey now that the sub-roadbed there is completed and the track plan has been drawn out.

I don’t particularly enjoy doing trackwork as it is so finicky, but it was quite satisfying to see it installed at the end.  After I install those last few feet of spur track, I’ll make all the feeder connections below, and then run the Alco and a few cars over it.

It occurred to me though, if I’m going to complete the mainline sub-roadbed by spring per my 2nd Anniversary prediction, I’d best not take too long of a breather with that Spencer sub-roadbed!

-Jack

Side-stepping Burn Out

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I was reading a blog post yesterday “Stalled” written by Trevor Marshall in which he was lamenting the lack of progress on his layout over the past month or so.  His posts of late have been largely philosophical in nature, and that was mostly because of his lack of new work to write about.  He even went so far as to include links to other posts where others had written about being in a similar circumstance.

Now it’s very common for layout activity to slow during the summer months.  Trevor explained that several other commitments were draining his time, plus the previous winter had been quite brutal, and the spring long and chilly, therefore he was really enjoying spending much of his (summer) spare time relaxing on the patio reading books and enjoying adult beverages.  Others responded, mentioning similar activities.

Yard work takes up much of my time during Southern hot, humid summers and occasionally I’ll partake of a railroad related activity that will take me out of town for the day.  But I’m generally working on the layout during the majority of my free time.  Even when there’s not much apparent work going on with the layout, it isn’t out of my mind.  I’m constantly reviewing, refining and planning both the immediate work and the long term tasks that will be required.  While I’ve made some pretty good progress this summer on the Louisiana Central, I’ve been feeling a bit burnt-out lately.  Much of the work has been boring, tedious and/or repetitive, and sometimes quite aggravating.

I’ve started work on the sub-roadbed for the Spencer Lumber Company’s line up to their reload point in the woods.  There’s a 20 foot stretch of roadbed that will span almost two thirds the length of the longest wall in the room.  I’ve cut out the plywood and Homasote, pre-installed the splice plates for the sections, and fabricated most of the risers that will be required.  I started test fitting the risers Sunday and ran into a nasty surprise.  The risers will attach to the very end of the joists butted up to the wall.  The existing risers supporting the lower staging yard are attached to these same joists.  Unfortunately, the attachment point for many of them is also at the end of the joists.  While I can simply put the high line risers on the other side of the joists, the problem is not having room to clamp the risers to the joists.  I generally clamp the risers temporarily so I can adjust them for both elevation and level, then permanently attach them with a couple screws.  And that leads to a second complication: I don’t think I’ll have enough room to get a drill motor in position to drill the pilot holes for the screws.

If I had been more forward thinking, I would have installed the high line benchwork first, then unscrewed the sub-roadbed from the risers, placing it aside while I then installed the staging yard below.  As it is now, it isn’t reasonable to uninstall the staging yard to move it out of the way as it is complete with track, wiring and all those optical detectors.

That was when I decided that I needed a little down time to clear my head from the aggravations that sometime occur during layout construction.  When I read Trevor’s column, I realized that one mustn’t let the hobby devolve into something that becomes a chore rather than a pleasure.  While I fully intend to continue construction of the railroad, I realize that I probably should add some other activities into the mix in order to keep my sanity and enjoyment of the hobby intact.  In a few days, I’ll begin pondering the sub-roadbed situation and I’ll figure out a solution.  But the solution will come after having a clear and relaxed mind….always does.

So forgive this somewhat lengthy ramble; I’m just clearing my head.

-Jack

Do You Smell That?

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There was a brief discussion recently over on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum about scents and their use on model railroads (read the discussion here).  The topic roamed around a bit, with discussion ranging from what people had experienced, some product that had been available, and some ideas about what could be done today.

One person mentioned the defunct line of scents that was marketed under the name of Olfactory Airs, which I remembered.  There were a dozen or so different scents offered in the form of bottles of oil.  I remember a couple of the scents: creosote, diesel oil, pine trees, and coal smoke.  You were supposed to put a few drops onto something like a cotton ball or similar, then stick it some place on the layout for it to release its aroma to the surroundings.  Unfortunately, it never lived up to its promise in my opinion.  The odors didn’t linger very long and it was hard to relate the odors to what they were supposed to be.  Apparently others thought so too, as the company eventually disappeared.

But I think the idea was really cool.  Imagine running a train down the mainline on a hot summer day and detecting a faint odor of creosote as you’re moving down the line.  Or the smells of steam, hot oil and coal smoke down by the roundhouse?  Maybe the aroma of a pine forest by the logging operation, or even the smell of flowers when passing a meadow.  It can go on and on.  And no, I’m NOT interested in introducing the aromas of a stock yard or a fish processing plant.

As hobbyists, we’re really caught up in the sounds of locomotives now, and I even plan to experiment with stationary sounds in a few strategic locations some day in the future (gotta get some trains running first!).  But I suspect that smells are something that not many of us have experienced on a model railroad.  One of the posters on the forum (using the handle of Professor Klyzlr) even offered a few ideas as to how the concept might be implemented.  Maybe I’ll have to bookmark that column for later reference.

-Jack

Optical Detection Explained

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Well, there I go again.  Earlier I posted a column celebrating the completion of all the hardware and wiring for my optical detection system (well, it’s not really complete….I still have to build the panels that will display the occupancy indicator LEDs).

Problem is, I just assumed all readers would know what I was talking about.  Not!  I’ve been informed that I should quit assuming.

So, I’ll try to explain in 3000 words or less, just what an optical detection system is.  Now keep in mind that my explanation here is strictly in the context in which I am employing said detection system.  And I will avoid getting into the directions that the electrons are traveling and the gory details of the circuitry that makes this all happen.

I have six staging tracks, all of which are hidden from normal viewing.  In order to ascertain where a train is while running on this track, I decided to employ a detection system.  There are several ways to detect a train, and I chose to employ optical detection.  The system utilizes photo-transistors (PTs) which can sense whether or not they are seeing light.  When they do, they will turn on, that is, they act as a switch and will close a circuit.  I have installed my PTs centered in the track between a pair of ties, with their tops just above the roadbed.  The PTs are wired to a circuit board located under the layout.

As a light source, I’m using infrared LEDs (IR-LEDs).  To avoid seeing light beneath the layout, and to make the circuit less susceptible to ambient lighting, I chose to use components that are sensitive to light in the infrared range.  This isn’t visible to the naked eye, and in fact, that’s what most TV remote controls use.  The PTs and the IR-LEDs selected are matched to their light spectrum and work in harmony together.  The IR-LEDs are mounted on the “towers” I spoke of in the last post, and are pointed down at the PTs.  They are simply wired to a 12 volt DC bus (a pair of wires).

The circuit board I mentioned above is the “brain” of the system.  The inputs to the board are the PTs.  The outputs are to plain old red LEDs which are used as indicators, installed on a simple panel with a track diagram.  Each indicator LED is placed on the track diagram at the location where a PT sensor is located on the actual track.

With the power on and the IR-LEDs shining brightly, the PTs see the light and the circuit board determines there is nothing out there as no PT is “closed”.  Therefore, no power is supplied to the indicator LEDs on the panel.  But when a train comes along, it blocks the light of an IR-LED shining on a PT below, and that PT turns on, which in turn lets the circuit board know that something is at that location.  It in turn lights up the appropriate panel indicator LED and you now have a visual indication of where the train is.

Simple, huh?

Actually, it really is.  I purchased the circuit boards already built up from a fellow hobbyist up in Canada.  All I had to do was install the PTs and IR-LEDs, and wire them up.

Your test will arrive in the mail later in the week.

-Jack

Optical Detectors Installed

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I can hardly believe it myself.  I’ve completed the installation of all 24 of the photo-transistors (herein known as PTs) and their accompanying infrared LEDs (IR-LEDs) as used in my optical detection system.  Whew, what a job!  Nothing about the project was particularly difficult…at least not on paper.  The premise was simple, the wiring was simple, the hardware was simple.  But the effort to do each task wasn’t trivial, and the collective effort expended was nothing short of colossal.

Installing the PTs was by far the fastest and easiest thing to do.  Simply drill a 3/16″ hole and stick the PT into it.  Didn’t even have to secure them…they are held by friction.  I then ran a 26 pair phone cable around the layout and tapped into it with the PT leads, each PT on it’s own circuit.  The cable ends at a backboard beneath the layout where the circuit cards are located.  I made the tie-ins and the detection circuit was complete.

The IR-LEDs required much more effort.  The IR-LEDs are used as the illumination for the PTs.  I chose to install these up over the track, with the LEDs pointed down over the PTs.  I ended up fabricating a “tower” for each IR-LED.  In fact, I actually fabricated three types of towers as required by different installation requirements.  Using flat metal framing straps procured from Home Depot, the fabrication involved was drilling a couple holes, making some bends in the metal, then installing the towers onto the benchwork.  Later I made up some assemblies, each consisting of an IR-LED, a current limiting resistor, and some wire leads.  I installed these on the towers, ran the leads down below the sub-roadbed, and attached them to the 12 volt DC bus.

Today I applied the power, checked that each IR-LED was in fact illuminated (had to use my digital camera for that since you can’t see light emitted from them with the naked eye), then rolled a boxcar through all the “traps”.  All worked perfectly with no adjustments required!

Here’s a photo of a couple of the towers.  The one in the foreground is a double tower, in that it supports two IR-LEDs (one over each track).  If you go over to the main website, I have photos of all three types.

IR-LED Support TowerThere is one final task to do before the system is operational, and that is to build three small panels which will contain track diagrams with red LEDs located at appropriate locations.  This will be the visual indication to the engineer as to where his train is on the hidden staging track, and most importantly, when to stop.  I  need to install the fascia before building and installing the panels, so that task will be a ways down the road.

But having the hardware installed over the staging tracks clears the way for me to start the sub-roadbed and trackwork for the upper level above.

Progress is surely sweet!

-Jack