A Visit from St Nick

While I was away on vacation the following items arrived at the PVRR Corporate Office:

The DCC system will be installed on the Clarinda layout and one of the three long haul tenders will be used for an Erie K5A project. The other two will likely find themselves behind Atlas locomotives, most likely Pacifics as well. But first, more on the Erie K5A.

Photo from http://lists.railfan.net/erielackphoto.cgi?erielack-02-24-07/Erie_2943_Marion_9-26-49_Ron_Dukarm.jpg

This is Erie K5A number 2943. Her last engineer was a fellow named Jones, who just happens to be my wife's maternal great-grandfather. She was replaced by an Alco PA1 and Mr. Jones was the first engineer on that locomotive. I gathered this information from a couple of pictures that my wife's grandmother had and thought it might be a nice build.

The next step in the K5A project will be the procurement of a suitable JNR C57 chassis for the boxpox driver sets. I have a spare Atlas Pacific shell and various bits and pieces off of both Atlas and Model Power Pacific locomotives for what I hope will be the proper cylinders and trailing truck. The rest will be Details Associates pieces and polystyrene.

The DCC system is a new venture for me. As far as I know only two of my locomotives have decoders, a matched Bachmann GP7 set, so I am going to be learning all about DCC with them. Time will tell if I decide to stick with DCC, but since the model railroad club I am joining next month is all DCC it is likely I will be converting at least one or two steamers, too...including the K5A most likely.

I hope Santa was good to you as well.

Projects

My wife's grandfather was an engineer for the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, and since I am known to be a train nut my mother in law asked me to make a little something for her to commemorate his service to that road.

My wife ventured the idea to put a boxcar in a display case, which I thought was a good one, and to that end I ordered off of Ebay the boxcar pictured below and a 4"x2" display case.

As you can see the boxcar is a 60 foot unit that scales out (60x12/160) to be about four and a half inches long, not counting the couplers. What that means is it is never going to fit in that 4 inch box.

So, back online I went to find a larger box, which I did, and at the same time I found this Bachmann SD50 locomotive for a pretty attractive price. So, I thought I would put both the locomotive and the boxcar in the new larger display case since there is going to be room for it.

Of course I did have to test-run the locomotive. It ran well with my SD7 but after one lap you could smell the motor...which is pretty typical for the old white-box Bachmann train set locomotives and kind of what I was expecting out of it anyway. So my plan is to pull the motor out of it and wire it up to a 9v battery and switch so that it can sit on the display track with the headlights on.


The new display case should be here in the next day or so and after that construction can commence. The new case has a detachable pedestal that runs the length of the box that I hope is hollow so that the battery can fit into it. If it is I will drill some holes into the locomotive frame and attach it with screws that can also be used to run the juice to it for the lights. The loco will sit on the pedestal and the boxcar will be on the base below and in front of the pedestal. The switch for the lights will be on the backside where it is not seen when the case is on a shelf.

My wife tells me I'm going way overboard for this simple project, but if it works it's going to look really cool.

UPDATE: It came out really well, and Grammy loved it.

She sent me a pic (that I didn't have saved to this computer) of it flanked by pictures of her father, one standing with his crew in front of his new PA1 and one of him in the cab of his K5A Pacific steamer. If I had seen them first I would have gotten a PA1 instead of the GP50 to put in the box, but it did give me the idea to start a new project building his Erie K5A.

I've Been Remiss

This came in a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't yet had the time to look at it, much less build it.

I did, of course, open the box for a quick peek and it looks like it's going to be a fun build. There is enough interior to detail it if I want to and metal castings for benches and such.

Now I just need a good place on a layout to put it.

Incoming

I just got word today that my reserved Nn3 model of Orbisonia Station has shipped. It should be here sometime next week. This has been a long-awaited project and it is likely to be a single-shot due to the general lack of interest, which is sad, but at least it did get done.

When it arrives, work schedule and personal life permitting, I will document the build.

I just hope I can do it justice.

K4

Remember when I said I wished Bachmann would do a 4-6-2? Well, they did, and not only did they do a 4-6-2, they did a Pennsylvania RR K4 in several different varieties.

Bachmann stock photo, pre-war K4 in Brunswick Green with red and gold striping

It's a bit pricy with an MSRP of $399.00, but most of the retail outlets I've seen have them for $299 or less. It comes equipped with DCC and sound, two things that I really don't need that undoubtedly run up the cost, but that's the wave of the future and one day I'm sure I will upgrade to DCC myself.

Bachmann stock photo, post-war K4 with modern pilot

These look to be very nice locomotives, and I certainly hope Bachmann takes this opportunity to put the chassis under other road names as well. There is, after all, a large hole in the market to be filled with a decent running Pacific in N scale.

I'm saving my nickels and dimes for one now.

SCARM

SCARM is the acronym for Simple Computer Aided Railroad Modeling, free track planning software that encompasses most every scale (including TT and FastTracks turnouts). I use it because it is simple and easy to learn, and best of all, FREE.

I'm happy to announce there is a new version available here. I've also added a link to the SCARM blog where you can learn more about the software and find some tips and tricks for using it. All of the layouts that you see here were created in SCARM. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for track planning software.

(I was not compensated in any way for this article, I am just a satisfied user.)

Real Estate Disputes and Other Matters

My train room is being taken over by closet space.

Ever since the charming and lovely Mrs Hades agreed to take up space with me we've been moving things around. What was big enough for one person (me) has proven insufficient for two, so along one wall of the "train room" there is now shelving and clothing.

Everything that was along that wall has been moved to the opposite wall, where I'm pleased and somewhat surprised to report it all fits...tightly, to be sure, but it fits.  The large 4x8 N standard layout has been disassembled and all that is left in the center of the room is the uncompleted Nn3 layout.

Unfortunately it looks like that may have to find another place to live as well, or be disassembled and the parts used for something else. (Maybe I can finally do the long-planned Saltillo modules, complete with the NARCO quarry branch.) Also on the block is the proposed Z scale layout, I just don't have the room for it as things stand now.

Two things I am looking at is double decking and reducing by one the number of standard gauge N scale layouts. If I reduce the number of N standard I will be finding somewhere to put the rock quarry. I could then put the Z scale in the corner and put the Nn3 on a shelf over the top of the standard N.

Losing the quarry wouldn't be a huge blow. It has given me some experience in working with foam at least, and the performance of the Bachmann set that prompted the layout has, as is typical with Bachmann 4-4-0's, been disappointing to say the least. I can at least use the benchwork for one part of the Z scale, so that isn't a total loss either. Finding civil war era buildings for the rock quarry has been problematic as well, and the effort would be better served finishing the scenery on the other standard N scale layout.

But enough about that. Moving has been completed enough to take a little break at least, so I've been spending time in the train room tuning engines. I've finally gotten all of my Pacifics to work reliably and I've even been able to get my two Atlas 4-4-0's to run decently again (the unpainted one threw a tire after being painted and the undec didn't run well out of the box).

I've been working on the 2-8-0's as well, they don't like tight corners. The problem is some Bachmann engineer in a fit of brilliance decided that metal would be a good material to cast the cylinder fronts out of, so when the pony wheels touch it they short out. I've had to carve and cut them away to clear the pony truck wheels, they look terrible up close but after they were painted they are hardly noticeable from operating distance, and now they will actually run on the 11" radius curves like they are supposed to.

Last but not least I added a siding to the backside of the Clarinda modules.  I've been thinking of doing that for a while because it adds some operational flexibility. Now I can have a passenger train laying in wait to take a few laps while the freight train is on a siding, either in the front or in the back. I've tried it both ways and it is working as planned.

Next week I hope to get some of the scenery done on them. We'll see how that goes.

Shapeways Model Trains

I have purchased several things through Shapeways such as 2 bay East Broad Top hoppers, the EBT M-1 (I actually bought two of those because the design was updated and is much better), and passenger cars in both Nn3 and Z scale. The upside to Shapeways is you can get designs that are not available elsewhere, the downside is the process makes a somewhat grainy textured product that is quite fragile in some cases. There are some tricks to reduce the fragility, and in my opinion the bonus of being able to get what you want overshadows the drawbacks.

One of the complaints I had about the Shapeways site was having to perform several searches to find the products I wanted. Apparently Shapeways became aware of the problem, and I'm happy to say they solved it by making a dedicated model train page.

I think model railroading has a bright future in 3D printing, and I'm excited to see Shapeways leading the charge.

(Note to the FTC, I write this post as a satisfied consumer and did not get paid for it in any way, so bugger off.)

Orbisonia Station

Republic Locomotive Works finally has enough orders to produce Orbisonia Station, circa 1935. This is good news for the EBT fans who want a model of the station and don't quite have the modeling skills to scratch build.

Check it out at the Republic Locomotive Works webpage.

I've Been Working On The Railroad(s)

For the past couple of weeks I've been laying Fast Tracks turnouts on the narrow gauge, wiring them up and hooking them to Caboose Industries ground throws. I've found that the 224S, designed for Atlas code 55, is perfect for Nn3.

So far all the turnouts needed for the yard are back in. They were originally Marklin turnouts and it took a bit of fitting for the Fast Tracks turnouts to fit, but all has been arranged to work. Some of them still need a bit of tweaking but so far they work pretty good.

I brought a new plastic drawer set home today and cleared off both the 4x8 table layout and the narrow gauge that sits on top of it. The control panel has been removed from the 4x8 and the wiring has been all cut from underneath. It is now a collection of track on a piece of plywood, nothing more.

The only thing I will save is the turntable. I have no plans for it, but it will go in a box with the roundhouse and perhaps get used on something later. Tonight when Eldest Son gets home I'll have him help me take the narrow gauge off the top of the 4x8 and then deconstruction of the table will commence.

I'm also going to start clearing some of the things out of the room that I have never used and have no plans for, there is quite a bit of that hanging around. I'll probably end up with a bunch of cabinets lining the outside of the room with the layout(s) on top of them.

The clearing of this first permanent layout that was never quite finished will give room for the other projects that I have in the works, and maybe I'll get one of them done before I'm all through. I have three in the works at present; the Clarinda module pair, the rock quarry, and the narrow gauge.

On another note, the track has been ordered for the Z scale layout. I haven't figured out where it will live, but I'll make room for it. I'm using Micro-Trains Micro-Track so that I won't have to hand lay any turnouts (the AZL Mikado is very finicky about its track work, it won't run on the narrow gauge but the GP7 will) and it will be a city scape.

The tentative track plan is below.

And that's what I've been up to lately.