Video Break

I did some more running with the train club last weekend.

I got the two Mikes matched back up and ran them all day, this time they ran beautifully together and got a lot of attention. The PRR didn't ever have any USRA heavy Mikados like the Kato that leads in the video, but they had 38 USRA light Mikados (designated the L2) like the Model Power in the trailing position, and even kept five of them after the USRA relinquished control of the railroads. Look carefully and you will see that the MP light Mike is even painted Brunswick Green.

N&W 611 also did a couple of laps around the layout, but unfortunately 601 was sidelined with the same shorting problems it had experienced before. Parts are on order to repair it once more, it seems like that's all I've done with that loco since I've owned it. That is a real shame, too, because I really like having a J class that is not 611.

I also ran the PRR K4 with a full compliment of passenger cars and the Southern doodlebug made an outing with it's trailer. Fortunately I had no exploding couplers this time, although I did still have a number of 6 wheel passenger trucks that didn't want to keep all of their wheels. I have about a half dozen of them that only carry two of the three axles in one or both trucks. Fortunately they are all the outside axles, the middle ones are the ones that tend to drop out.

Any day you can play trains is a good one.

Weekend Report

Raleigh has a new train station.

Raleigh's Union Station has been serving passengers since it's grand opening in April 2018 but the retail spaces are not yet complete.With Christmas coming up the station wanted to draw in some crowds, so they asked my model railroad club to set up a layout in the second floor.

Of course we were happy do do so. We take any chance we can to play trains after all. The layout was set up the weekend before Thanksgiving and we have been running it on the weekends since then. This weekend I got a chance to join in the fun.

Saturday started with disaster as I packed up my trains to take to the show. I stacked up some train boxes and picked them up to put them in the wagon and the bottom of the bottom box fell out, and J class 601 hit the floor.

The only apparent damage was where the drawbar attaches to the locomotive, it's on a plastic peg and the peg broke off. I was able to re-attach it to what was left of the stub, so I packed it in its box and away we went. Unfortunately when I put it on the layout I immediately got shorts.

I put it back in the box and ran 611 instead. Sunday morning I took it apart and found one of the power wires had frayed at the solder point, and it was touching one of the other wires. I wrapped it with tape and this took care of the problem. With the short taken care of I ran it around the layout a few times and had problems with the front tender truck derailing.

I found the drawbar, being higher on the loco than it was previously due to it being attached to just the stub of it's previous mounting peg, was lifting the front of the tender up enough to unload the front truck, causing it to derail occasionally. I bent the drawbar until it no longer lifted the tender and then attached a train to it and had it steaming happily around for a couple of hours.

Next I tried to run some Mikados together. I had speed matched a Model Power Mikado with a Kato Mikado on my home layout with my NCE PowerCab, but when I tried to run it on the Digitrax powered club layout they were no longer matched. I was told that the differences between the two systems track voltages will cause this issue. I will have to try matching them up again, I will have to either speed the Kato up or slow the Model Power down.

I then tried running them separately and found that along with it's pickup woes the Kato is also a poor puller, even with the traction tires installed. Loosening the tender truck screws seemed to help the tender wheels maintain contact so the locomotive now runs reliably, even over rough trackwork and plastic frogs, but it wouldn't pull a very long train. The Model Power pulls more, mostly due to its all metal boiler which makes it heavier and therefore gives it more tractive effort. I'll have to see what I can do with the Model Power's headlight since it comes on only when it wants to.

I also have another Kato Mikado that has a GHQ Pennsylvania L1 conversion kit on it. With the white metal boiler it is a real puller, so I'll have to see about getting another kit for the poorly performing one. I have to do something with the drawbar since the tender is a Bachmann not a Kato, it attaches to the rear truck instead of to the frame where it should. I have some 3D printed Kato drawbars that are badly warped, but I may be able to combine one with the Bachmann drawbar and make something that works. It will need a decoder to be able to run with the rest of them.

I also ran the Erie Hudson around Sunday morning with the track cleaning car, but for some reason it was jumping the rails so I didn't put it on the track to run it during the day. The chuff start was also off, no doubt due once more to the difference between the NCE and Digitrax DCC systems, so I'll have to reprogram the start voltage for it. I'm really not extremely happy with the MRC decoder in this locomotive so I'll probably get a SoundTraxx for it like I have in the J class locos.

The Bachmann K4 got quite a bit of track time, first pulling the freight that the Mikados wouldn't pull on Saturday and then pulling a passenger train on Sunday. The three Bachmann GP7's also saw quite a bit of freight duty on Saturday with a long train of boxcars and hoppers.

Outside of some exploding Micro Trains couplers it was a pretty good weekend. I'm going to have to order some more couplers before the next session.

I have to work next weekend, but I'm hoping to get in some train time the weekend after...providing I get the work that She Who Must Be Obeyed dictates done around the house.

Kudos

I have mentioned the Woodland Scenics Just Plug system before in previous posts, and I have mentioned that I have bought three of the lighting hubs with broken knobs. I ordered some potentiometers through Mouser and when they got here I replaced the broken ones on one of the three hubs. The replacement pots work great, but unfortunately the knobs are a bit short.

On the other two hubs I elected to contact Woodland Scenics to see if I could get them repaired. They sent me a mailing label and I shipped them off. Today the two repaired hubs returned to me with brand new functioning knobs. The total cost of repair to myself, including shipping, was nothing. I probably should have just sent all three in instead of replacing the pots on the one myself. I'll be sending them all in now.

The  new hubs are now installed on the layout ready to be used to light up the last of the recycled DPM buildings. I have one new turret building to complete and two recycled ones and then the downtown buildings will be done and ready to have their gravel parking lots installed.

Anyway, kudos on Woodland Scenics for standing behind their products.

On a totally unrelated note, I have two Kato Mikado 3D printed drawbars on their way, hopefully this will cure the issues with the one I have.

Truckin'

I have to work tonight so I had to stay up all night last night. So to keep myself amused I played with my trains.

Yesterday a package arrived in the mail from Bachmann containing the replacement pieces to N&W J class 601's tender. I only got one truck although I had ordered two, so I ended up cleaning the solder off of the old trucks and reused them. I've sent an email to check on the last tender truck, but if it doesn't show it's no big deal now. Anyway, with the new tender frame and PCB board the locomotive runs like a champ and does not exhibit any of the shorting problems that were coming up on the old tender, and the sound is still just as good as it was before.

Something else that came in the order was a pair of K4 tender trucks, which is a different design than the Bettendorf type trucks on the rest of their tenders. I usually get the replacement tender trucks for their 2-8-0 when I want to put tender pickups on anything, and that's what I had on the Minitrix. However, with the correct trucks available it seemed a shame not to put them on. I had to trim the tender ladders a bit to clear the truck swing since they are a bit longer than the Bettendorfs, but they went on beautifully and look great. That loco also made a few test laps around the layout (the first time in a while that it has been out since being relegated to backup power for the Bachmann K4) and still runs good.

Now since I had an extra set of Bettendorfs with four wheel pick up, I decided to put them on that formerly great running now poorly running Model Power Pacific in the N&W livery. I drilled out the tender truck bolsters for the bigger screws and cut some holes for the pickups, then wired them in. I also cut out the problematic center wheel pickup on the locomotive that was regularly coming out of place and touching the track, shorting out at the switch frogs. I then carefully adjusted the driver quartering and ran it around the layout with a string of streamlined cars. I am happy to say that locomotive now runs as good as it used to. The only problem with it now is there is no headlight, a victim of the multiple disassemblies (it came out of place and got crushed). I think I have one from another junk Model Power, but I'm not really worried enough about it to risk taking the damned thing apart again.

Last but not least I put a decoder in the second of my Kato Mikados. The first one has a GHQ L1 kit on it with a Bachmann tender, I picked the chassis up during a sale that Kato was having and it never did have the correct tender. The second one I picked up on the auction site, it hasn't ever run as good as the first one. I later found out it has the typical first-run problems with the pickup on the loco itself, and the multimeter shows that the tender pickup isn't all that great either. It's a shame because when this locomotive is on straight tracks with no turnouts to deal with it runs just as beautifully as it is advertised to do, but as soon as the first turnout comes up it stalls unless it's at light speed. I'll probably end up having to hard-wire the tender trucks together to get the pickup to be reliable.

During the decoder installation I also managed to break the drawbar in half (for the second time), so I had to splice it back together again. This time I added some styrene on the sides and bottom in an attempt to strengthen it. During the repairs I managed to cut the tab off that connects to the trailing truck as well, so the connection to the loco is now strictly via the split ring to the trailing truck mounting post. It's difficult to remove so hopefully it will stay put; if not I'll have to figure out a way to either add another mounting post for the trailing truck or close the split to keep it in place. Since these items are made of unobtanium it will have to do, one way or another.

Everything has been put away from the train show as well, and all my prizes have been sorted and examined. I bought three wooden kits for structures as well as a couple of N and Z scale cars; no locomotives this time although there were a pair of Erie FA and FB units that was tempting. I also got some light posts that I was hoping to use on the police station but it looks like they are going to be oversized.

This is a work weekend so that's all I will be able to do with trains for a while. It's a heck of a way to have to make a living, but I've got to support my train habit somehow.

Showtime

The train show was a lot of fun. We had both T-TRAK and N-TRAK set up and running, but I only ran on the T-TRAK on Sunday. The Hudson got a workout pulling its train of green and cream cars and the painter got to see his handiwork in action. That is a good looking locomotive even if it never existed, it's one of those things that should have been but wasn't.

I also ran the J class locos, the 611 for some reason had its headlight on all the time and 601 kept shorting out. When I got them home I took the tender off of 611 and found the yellow decoder wire had a strand that was reaching over and touching the black, once it was trimmed away the headlight stayed off until it was commanded to come on. With 611 quickly fixed I moved on to 601, hoping to find something quick on it as well.

When I first acquired 601 the tender pickups were broken off so I just soldered the leads from the circuit board to the truck tabs. I thought maybe the wire from the tabs was touching the bottom of the circuit board. I took the tender shell off of 601 but really didn't see anything. I trimmed some of the solder joints, taped up the wires at the solder points, and moved the wires around a bit. Then I ran it without the tender shell (I did not know this, but the decoder has a blue light on it) and it ran fine. When the shell was put back on it still ran fine, so apparently whatever it was is fixed now. Hopefully it will stay fixed until the next show, but I think I will go ahead and order a new PC board for it.

I also ran some Nn3. Friday night I glued some Woodland Scenics ReadyGrass grass matting to a 2'x4' piece of extruded foam and when I got to the show I just set the MicroTrains track up on it with a few farm buildings scattered around. I ended up having to buy a new power connector track because mine had lost it's connectivity; fortunately there was one single vendor selling MicroTrains Z scale track. When the power connector track was replaced the trains ran most of the afternoon.

When I got home I worked a little on the K5A project. I had found a Rivarossi Heavy Pacific on the auction site, and I paid too much for it considering I was just going to take it apart and use the pieces. I figured I could just throw one of my spare light Pacific shells on the frame so it wouldn't go to waste. When I put it on the track I found the drivers did not all sit on the track, and when I put power to it there was a blue spark between the trailing truck and the frame. That's not good.

I pulled the shell from the frame and found extensive Zamecitis. It was so bad that the frame just fell apart when I got the shell off, basically the shell was the only thing holding it together. To add insult to injury when I started looking at it and the Kato frame I found it wasn't going to work very well anyway without extensive modification. So, I just put it on an Atlas frame that I had a light Pacific shell on, and I got my heavy Pacific anyway. Since all of the prototypes went to the Erie I'll probably end up decaling it for that road, but not for the loco I had planned to build because it has the wrong type of drivers. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I had previously bought a collection of Kato Mikado shells but I didn't think they were going to work. I took another look at them and realized they were going to be at least as good a candidate as the Rivarossi shell ever was, maybe better. So, I gathered the pieces together for a complete Mikado shell and glued them together.

Then I flipped it over and started cutting. I cut away the middle of the shell sides where they come together just in front of the smoke box, I widened the gap in the smoke box, and then I removed the back wall of the cab.

I then test fitted it to the Kato chassis, and much to my delight it went on pretty well. The Mikado weight even fits up into the boiler, so I will be able to use it as long as I put some insulation in between it and the chassis frame.

The firebox sheets will take some trimming and the cylinders will have to be reshaped, but it looks pretty good!

Unfortunately I'm going to lose the tender pickups. The K5A had a long haul six axle tender, which the Rivarossi came with, but it doesn't have all-wheel pickups.

If I do end up changing the Bachmann J class tender PC board I might just go ahead and order the entire frame, that way I can use the trucks off of the old tender for this project and keep the all-wheel pickups. I will have to do something else with the drawbar, but I was going to have to change out the trailing truck anyway.

The running boards and piping details will also have to be changed, but it's a good start. Maybe I'll be able to get this project done in time to show Grammy when we go up there for Thanksgiving.

Weekend Report

The Shapeways order has been put to good use and the bookshop is now open for business. I also put some lights in the police station and fire house. I have two of the reclaimed buildings to finish and one more corner turret building to do and then all of the DPM buildings will be complete. A little back-alley work will get those two blocks done and then it's on to the manufactory.

I also ordered a pair of Soundtraxx Tsunami 2 decoders for heavy steam along with some 15mm speakers. They fit perfectly into the Bachmann J class tenders and now I have a pair of them chuffing merrily through the countryside. Unfortunately my layout has curves that are too tight for them to pull any cars with their body mounted couplers, so they are chuffing on alone.

In a happy set of circumstances they also run exactly the same speed at all throttle settings, so if I ever want to go crazy and double-head them they will run perfectly together. I don't know if the Norfolk and Western ever did that, but refer to rule number one (it's my railroad and I'll do what I want).

The MRC sound decoder (which does not use BEMF, unlike the Soundtraxx) that was previously installed in J class 601 is now installed in the Erie Hudson and basically set up, it doesn't work any better than it did before but at least the Hudson now has a whistle and a bell. It does not have a body mounted coupler, so it happily pulls its set of streamlined cars around with no problems.

I also put another decoder into the semi-streamlined Pacific that was a good runner while in Lackawanna paint but doesn't run well at all since it has been disassembled for paint. It still does not run well. I have a plan to take all the wipers out of the engine and put some Bachmann all wheel pickup trucks in the tender, picking up power only from the tender trucks. Perhaps this will finally solve the running ills on that locomotive.

The Neuse River Valley Model RR Show is this weekend at the NC fairgrounds in Raleigh. The club I belong to has a layout there, so I took my newly-decodered locomotives there to run some laps. Unfortunately I couldn't get my phone to connect as a throttle, so no laps for me. I also brought my Nn3 but didn't get a chance to set it up today. Maybe I'll have better luck with it tomorrow.

Finally, I found a Rivarossi heavy pacific that I hope to be able to use the shell off of for my K5A project. I have all of the pieces, now I have to figure out how to put them together. I also got a casting kit, I'm going to try to see if I can make some castings and use them for my experiments rather than damage a good shell. Perhaps I can cast the Arnold shell as well and see which one works better.

And that's about all that is going on for now.

Lately

I ordered some stuff from Republic Locomotive Works last week because time is running out, Marshall Thompson has announced his intention to retire at the end of the year. Hopefully someone will buy the business and keep it going, but just in case no one does I am going to load up on the East Broad Top kits while I can.

I found out about NCE's Snap-It switch machine decoders for twin coil switch machines a couple of weeks ago quite by accident when my local crack dealer hobby shop had one on the shelf. They ordered a few more for me and so now both of the turnouts at the back of the layout are powered. Unfortunately there is no way to indicate which positions the turnouts are in without looking at them, but at least now I don't have to reach over the layout to change them.

While I was installing the switch machine decoder today I also took a bit of time to tape up the wiring underneath the layout. While I was doing that I put in some terminal strips for the switch machine decoder power and also for the DC power needed to run the incandescent lamps in some of the non LED lights I have put on the layout in the form of light posts. I also put some Woodland Scenics Just Plug gooseneck lamps on my passenger station. I can't light the interior for that station because it is a solid resin casting with no openings for the windows, but with the gooseneck lamps at least there is some lighting there. I also put in the parking lot for the passenger station, so all that is left to do there is the ground cover and that block will be done.

I have an order from Shapeways on the way that will finish off at least one of the corner turret buildings. I had a bid in on some interiors, one for a model train store and one for a gun shop, but I didn't win either one. I did get the furniture store done and mounted, when I get some pictures taken I will post them. When the second corner turret building is done I will have two of the reclaimed buildings left to do and then I can get started on the factory. I'm also trying to put some lights into the fire and police stations, but since I've already built them it will take some work to paint the interiors so the light doesn't bleed through.

This weekend I have to work, but next weekend is the Neuse River Valley Model Railroad Show. It will be the first time in a while that I will be able to participate in a model railroad related activity and I am really looking forward to it.

Pictures of that, too, will be posted when available.

The Sawmill

My Shapeways order got here last week, so I finally got a chance to do some building.

I started with the saloon which I have named the Sawmill because that is the name of my aunt's bar and grille in New Market, Iowa. Stop in there for the best tenderloin in Southwest Iowa!

Just like the rest of the layout the model does not resemble the prototype in any meaningful way, but I like it anyway. It takes its place on the layout next to the Yarn Vault.

 This is a preliminary picture I took while I was getting everything in place, just to make sure it was all going to fit like I wanted it to.

 On the prototype there is a walk-in cooler in the left front corner where the video game is and the bar is right next to that. There really wasn't enough room to duplicate the actual floor layout so I put the bar on the back wall instead. It looks good there I think. Of course most of this detail is lost when the building is in place since you won't really be able to get down to street level to see it. But the cellphone camera can!

Once I finish the furniture store the DPM buildings from the reclaimed layout will be complete on the main street. There are still two more reclaimed buildings on a side street left to do, and then I have two corner turret buildings to do and last but not least the manufactory. Once those are done the main street buildings will be done and I can turn my attentions to the parking lots and sidewalks in and around them can be done. After that the train stations need to be finished, and then maybe I can be done with it.

Maybe.

Construction

My Shapeways order should be here soon, so I will be able to finish off the last of the DPM buildings for the main street. The larger one is going to be a furniture store and the smaller will be a saloon.

I did get the grocery store finished, though.

 Since the front of the building is visible it got the full interior treatment, shoppers mill about the shelves while one patron checks out the magazine rack. Produce fills the bins at the front right while the cashiers check the shoppers purchases out to the left. The sign that came with the building was re-used, it disguises the fact that the building is the same as the Dunkin' Donut down the street.

It takes its place on the main street right next to the bank. It wasn't done when I took the following pictures, but the main street is shaping up nicely.

I may put interiors into the last two buildings on the main street but at this point I'm thinking there isn't much point. The backs of the buildings are the only parts of them visible so detailing of that level will be lost anyway. They did all get exterior and interior lights, so they won't look out of place.

After that I have two additional salvaged DPM buildings and two corner turret buildings to finish off. One of the corner stores will be a drugstore and the second will be a bookstore. One of the last salvaged buildings will be an ice cream parlor and I don't know yet what I will do with the second one. They will be on the side street across from the park.

With all that lighting downtown the lack of lighting on the rest of the structures on the layout is quite evident, but there actually isn't much I can do for some of them since they are solid castings. I will probably pull the rest of them up one at a time and fit lights to them eventually. The solid castings will get exterior lighting to make up for not being able to get interior lights.

On a side note, I picked up another Just Plug light hub. It had a broken knob, too. Good thing I have some replacement potentiometers with knobs on order, hopefully they will show up soon.

The plywood plains are disappearing as work progresses. At this point there is more of the layout with scenery than without, which is closer than I've ever been to finishing one (not that any of them are ever finished). After that I guess I'll have to get to work on those T-TRAK modules I've been planning. That will give my narrow gauge collection something to do other than collect dust.

And then maybe I'll build some Z scale...

Let There Be Sound

I found a MRC sound decoder for a good price, so I picked it up for my Bachmann J class. I really wanted to put sound in at least one of them because I really liked the sound in my K4.

I am underwhelmed.

First, the MRC doesn't have the right bell or whistle for the J class, which turned out to be a relatively minor thing overall.

Second, getting the chuffs to start when the locomotive does instead of having it sound like it's moving when it isn't was not an easy thing to do, compounded by the fact that the motor control for MRC isn't the same as the Digitrax, or so you are led to believe from the MRC instructions. MRC uses 32 steps from 0-32 instead of 0-255 like the Digitrax. I managed to get it right though, by using the 0-255 settings instead of 0-32, but then that led to the next problem.

Synching the chuffs up with the wheel movement is not going to be possible because they really need to have one more chuff rate past what is programmable. Not only that, but when the loco slows down due to hills or curves the chuffs do not. On the K4 the decoder uses motor BEMF (back electro-motive force) to control the chuff rate, but the MRC does not. That means the MRC decoder has no way of knowing when the locomotives electric motor is being bogged down, so it has no way of controlling the chuff rate.

Next, the noise control keys are different between the MRC and the Soundtraxx in the K4, so the key that is used to turn the steam release petcocks on for the K4, for instance, is different from the J class. Fortunately the headlight control, whistle and bells are still the same so the hard keys on my NCE PowerCab for these functions still work like they should. I suppose if I was more DCC savvy I could re-map those functions.

Last but not least, getting the decoder itself to fit into the tender required that parts of the tender be cut out. I got it to fit, but as a result one of the screws that hold the tender shell in place had to be eliminated. It does fit and it is staying in place, but I really don't like the fact that there is only one screw holding it on now.

It's not all bad, there are some sounds in the MRC that are not available on the K4 (at least not that I've found). I don't know that I will use couplers clanking or a conductor saying "All Aboard!" but it is there if I want to.

Eventually I think this decoder will find its way into another locomotive (perhaps a Minitrix K4) and I will end up getting some Soundtraxx decoders for the J class since that is what Bachmann uses for them. Hopefully they will use the motor BEMF to control the chuff rate. Fortunately for me (not that I planned it that way but this is the way it worked) I did not cut the wires off short, so it can be used elsewhere.

It would really be nice if I could buy the J class tender with a sound decoder already installed, but unfortunately that is not an option, at least not yet.

Catching Up

Several things in the hopper today:

The rebuilding of the DPM kits goes well, so far I have four of them rebuilt, plus a new one, plus an old Bachmann (I think) kit and a Woodland Scenics building. I have already shown the theater, the next three are a bank, a donut shop and a yarn store. The new building is a hotel and the Bachmann building is a cafe.

 The lastest of the rebuilds to be completed is the First National Bank of Midland, which is not really the name of the town but of the region. It comes complete with a guard and two glass enclosed offices. It's a busy day today, the workers in the offices are both tending to clients at the moment.

 Next door to the bank is the Dunkin' Donuts, its appearance is mostly due to my wifes addiction to their coffee.

 As with the bank it is lighted with a full interior, although when I looked again at the placement on the layout I wondered if it was worth all the work. More on that later.

The knitting club meets at Sahady's tonight (see below), in fact they are there right now. And of course the knitting group must have a place to buy their supplies, although the store's owner behind the register is a knitter, too, and just hates to give up all that yarn. The room upstairs is a classroom where you can go to learn to knit, the stairs are to the left. This is my best paint job so far.



The theater was the first of the DPM buildings to be redone and I have written about it before. Since then it has also gotten a lighted interior. I put some moviegoers inside after I took this picture, but it has been installed on the layout behind the hotel so it is kind of difficult to get good pictures of the interior now. For some reason the lighting in the theater is more blue than any of the other lights.
 

The Bachmann building is on the other side of the Dunkin' from the bank. Those familiar with the kit can see that it has been removed from its base, this was necessary to make it fit on the layout since the large corner on the kits base didn't fit in at all. It has been decorated as Sahady's Mediterranean Cafe, once again with a lighted interior. The windows are a bit fogged so you can't really see the knitting group meeting in the far back corner, nor can you see the chef in the kitchen, but they are all there. The lighting in here is kind of blue also, but not as bad as the theater.

 The new DPM kit was originally a department store, but when I saw it I knew just what it had to be.

The building was the second one (the theater was the first) that really insisted on it's identity. The original Coachman Hotel was on the northwest corner of the square in Clarinda, nowhere near the train station. The original is long gone, torn down over forty years ago, but on my layout it lives again. As a side note, it is right in front of the theater; on the prototype the theater was a couple of buildings down but they were on the same block until the theater caught fire one night.

Weary travelers can find a place to lay their heads and the hotel bar caters to the upscale crowd. One suited man is looking into the fireplace while another junior exec has removed his coat on his way in the door. The bartender is trying to take the confused patrons order while another waves on her way in.

Check in time has commenced, one tired guest rounds the corner on his way to the elevator while another takes his place at the desk. Some earlier check-ins have decided to relax in front of the fireplace in the lobby. I meant to put a TV on the wall for the folks in the corner to watch, but I forgot it. I don't think it would be visible on the layout anyway.

Speaking of, its placement on the layout is on the corner with the theater across the alley behind it and the Yarn Vault across the alley to the left; across the street to the right is the Greyhound bus terminal and the passenger station is cross-cornered. The fourth corner of the intersection is taken up by a large manufacturing facility, on the prototype (which has no hotel or bus station but is in fact next to the old passenger station) it is Lisle Corporation's main manufactory but since the building looks nothing like the prototype, and since by now the only thing the layout has in common with its prototype inspiration is the track arrangement, I haven't decided what is manufactured there yet. I will, give me time.

And speaking of placement, this horrible picture shows the bank, the Dunkin' and Sahady's as they sit on the layout. The buildings at the bottom of the page are not yet finished but are in their respective positions. With everything situated in the final arrangement it is somewhat impossible to see the interior of the donut shop with the awning although if you look around either side of the foreground buildings you can sort of see inside.

The last building to be completed was a Woodland Scenics kit of Davenport's Department Store. The top of this building is actually visible in the above picture to the far right in the foreground although the pictures below (taken on the construction table) have it next to the hotel.

After I put all the work into the building I realized that the only thing you are really going to see of it is the back, so the man looking out of the turret window won't be seen.

This is the only building so far to get outside lighting, but the only two lights you will really be able to see are the gooseneck lights on the long side and over the back door. That's a shame because the carriage lamp beside the apartment stair door is really neat.

All of the lighted buildings have been put in place on the layout with their light cords dangling underneath to be connected. I have decided to go with Woodland Scenics Just Plug lighting system because it really is just that easy, just plug them in and adjust the intensities and there you go.

A word about Just Plug, I first saw them in action when one of the club members was showing off the interiors he makes for his buildings. He uses the same Just Plug lights, as do several of the other club members (although one of our number builds his own lights).

The club has a diorama they built several years ago for the town of Apex NC, and they have decided to turn it into a T-TRAK module. This meant an interchange had to be built to incorporate it into the T-TRAK layouts. Thus Apex Junction was born.

Apex Junction was nothing but a blank board, which just will not do. Therefore plans were made for several of the club members to scenic the junction. Among the structures to be included on the junction was a train station, which I volunteered to do. Inspired by what I had seen so far I decided to do the station up right with an interior and full lighting (I'll have to get pictures of it when I can).

The station I built was an Atlas kit and it got lighting underneath the canopy (Just Play nano lights) plus gooseneck lights at each end over the station ID boards and one over each of the entrance doors. It also got a printed picture of the Selma NC passenger station ticket counter as its interior along with an interior light. I was surprised by how easy the lights went in, so I decided to use them on my layout.

The components are a bit expensive and I must say I am somewhat disappointed in the light hubs. I have three of those and so far only one of them was not broken out of the box. I have some trim pots on their way that should solve the issues, I could send them back to Woodland Scenics I suppose but I can fix them myself so it just isn't worth it to me. The gooseneck lights and the carriage lights are wonderful things, and since it is beyond my modeling capabilities at present to make such things they are welcome additions. There are also street lights available although I probably won't use any of them.

Moving right along then, the scenery is coming along nicely but it is taking far too long and I have had the layout apart all this time. I finally got to the point where I just couldn't stand it any longer, so I put it back together so I could just run some trains. I'm happy to say that operations on the Path Valley Railroad re-commenced last night. The tracks needed a thorough cleaning of course, but within an hour of squeezing the halves back together the Burlington SD9 redbird was once again making deliveries on its scheduled route.

Passenger service took a bit longer however, the Minitrix suffered a terminal drawbar failure and had to be sidelined to the RIP track. Its duties were taken over by the new Bachmann K4, but it, too, had issues while traversing turnouts. A new brass drawbar was made for the Minitrix and it resumed its role while the Bachmann took its place on the RIP track. Fortunately the issues with the Bachmann were quickly tracked to a bent contact on the tender trailing truck and just as quickly corrected. The Minitrix has once again been placed on the backup motive roster and the Bachmann is now heading up the passenger trains.

But wait, you say, Bachmann K4? When did this come about? I see that I am remiss. Allow me to correct this failure.

As I have previously stated I have wanted one of the new K4 locos since they were introduced but didn't want to pay the price. A member of one of the online groups I belong to had one at a great price so I snapped it up. I wanted one with the pre-war pilot and the one I got was post-war, but it was a minor thing that I was more than willing to overlook. And besides, it looks great so no complaints.

So how does it stack up to the Minitrix?

 First the tender is more closely coupled and the cab is smaller, so closer to the prototype. The drivers are also more correctly sized and as can be expected the details are much better.

 What is particularly noticeable though is the Minitrix is a really really well done locomotive for its age, especially given that it is put on a European chassis. The firebox is squared off a bit more but all the details are correctly positioned.

 The Bachmann comes complete with a functioning front coupler so the locomotive can be double-headed if there are two of them. However, as can be expected the running characteristics of these two are so wildly different that they can't be run together. The Bachmann also has better details, including the Keystone number plate, but this too is to be expected given the age differences of the locomotives.

 

 The Bachmann has nicely detailed steps leading from its solid post-war pilot to the running boards while the Minitrix had to have its steps carved out from the solid block of plastic that it came with.

The cylinder detail is also much better,  once again understandably so given that the Minitrix uses a European prototype chassis.

The valve and steam pipe detail is also much better for the same reasons. Once again, though, much credit has to be given to Ted Branson who designed the Minitrix shell. It still looks very good given the design constraints and the materials he had to work with forty years ago when the shell was designed. The Bachmann has the post-war arrangement of the steam generator and smokebox step to go along with its post-war pilot.

The tender is likewise more detailed with its underframe water scoop. The Bachmann locomotive has been slightly weathered, and due to the improvements of materials and techniques the detail is again much better, but once again the Minitrix has aged pretty darn well. I would like to be able to get some of the trucks to put under the Minitrix shell, they should be easy to swap out with the Bachmann trucks that are already installed on it but so far they haven't showed up as available spares on the Bachmann website. Until they do I am still pretty pleased with the Minitrix.

One thing that the Bachmann does that the Minitrix does not, however, is sound. The K4 is my very first locomotive with sound, and now I am just crazy to get some sound decoders for my J class locomotives. Although Bachmann will be happy to sell me some sound READY tender frames for those locomotives they are not sound EQUIPPED, so either way I'll have to install my own decoders and speakers. But until then the K4 merrily huffs and chuffs its way around the layout, blowing its whistle and ringing its bell.

Last but not least, I wrote before about building an Nn3 East Broad Top locomotive number 11 in a previous post, and to that end I had acquired a Marklin 4-6-4 chassis. There were some significant hurdles to overcome with that chassis however, and one day as I was skimming the popular online auction site I came upon another possible donor in the form of a brand-new Marklin BR64 series of Z scale locomotives. They are pricy, about twice what I pay for the Mikado chassis when I can find them, but I did locate one at a price I was willing to pay.

 The box is much different these days than the vintage Marklin boxes of old, it consists of a sleeve and insert rather than an attached lid.

 The detail is much better on these new runs, as can be expected. Since AZL entered the Z scale market, followed quickly by Rokuhan, Marklin has had to up their game to stay current with the scale that they pioneered.

 The most impressive feature of this chassis was the working valve gear. This presents its own problems for modeling EBT 11, however, since the steam chests, cylinders and valve gear are way different from the prototype.

 The first thing that is immediately obvious during the comparison is the main drive rod on the prototype is attached to the last driver and the model is on the middle driver. I have some brass etchings from RLW that was designed for converting the Marklin 0-6-0 chassis to a Consolidation so they might have something that works, but the valve gear is going to be another story.

The valve gear on the prototype had all its fiddly bits behind the first driver instead of in front of it. I would love to have the operating valve gear on this loco but I'm not quite sure if I will be able to pull it off. I will have to re-arrange what is on the model to match it, and even though I'm sure some other modelers would be able to do it without breaking a sweat I am not one of them. I may end up taking all of it off and faking it, but at least I'll be able to used the spoked wheels from the lead and trailing trucks.

 With the lid removed more changes are glaringly obvious. The 4-6-4 chassis also had directional LED lighting, but the motor on this new chassis is extremely different.

Lo and behold, instead of the open frame motors that tend to cog there is a brand-new enclosed can motor that I believe is coreless. When it was put on the track the locomotive ran extremely smoothly, especially at lower speeds, and started at a lower voltage (and ran slower than both the 4-6-4 and the Mikado).

The best thing about this new motor is that, unlike the 4-6-4 chassis, I shouldn't have any problems getting it to fit under the cab in the RLW kit. Some of the details of the bottom cover will have to be sacrificed (the brake detail between the wheels, for instance) but I think this chassis is going to be a much better starting place. The drivers are the right size and the wheel arrangement is correct, although the trailing truck wheels will have to be brought in closer to match the prototype.

So the 4-6-4 chassis has been reassembled except for the front light lense that has gotten lost somewhere. The bad thing is I remember finding it but I can't remember what I did with it. Lucky for me they are still available through the Marklin website. I don't know what I will do with it now, but it is complete (once I get the light lense) and runs well so maybe I can sell it to fund other projects. Or maybe I'll keep it and run it as a curiosity...but if I do that I'll have to get some cars for it...German passenger cars maybe...

 And I think that catches us up.

Movie Night

The first building on the layout that has been rebuilt from the reclaimed DPM kits is actually 100% complete.

The kit is DPM 51400, Eric's Emporium. I downloaded and shrunk some movie posters for the front windows and built the marquee and awning from styrene. Some signs created in Paint finished the marquee off.

I chose some railroad-appropriate movies, although they would probably not appear on the same marquee due to their release dates.

I finished this one off first because it was really the first building that "spoke" to me and told me what it was. I really like the way it ended up.

Now I need to get cracking on the rest of them.

Resurrection

You may recall that I had this locomotive painted.

You may also recall that when I put it back together it ran horribly, and then not at all.

Well today I got it running again, although it is once again a DC only locomotive.

First I checked the locomotive with the decoder installed on DC power. It didn't work. Then I took the decoder out and wired it back up as a straight DC locomotive, and the motor did run but the gears slipped badly. So then I took the locomotive apart and carefully inspected each and every gear.

It turns out that any grit at all in the gears will cause them to decouple, and anything that keeps the frame from firmly contacting the boiler only exacerbates the problem. Additionally, when the grit causes the gears to push the frame outwards the cast on brakes that are there purely for show actually start to work, further binding the drivers and throwing them out of quarter.

Once the gears were cleaned of all debris, the wires were tucked firmly into their channels to keep them from interfering in the frame to boiler fit, the brakes disengaged and the drivers requartered the locomotive ran smoothly again. I have hooked up a train full of cars to it and had it running laps on a temporary track setup on the kitchen table all afternoon.

The next step will be to install another decoder and program it for the new number, but for now I am just enjoying seeing it run.

Work Progresses

on the layout.

After several false starts I've finally nailed down where I want all of the downtown buildings to go. I had to buy a couple more corner buildings but now it looks like everything is in place as it should be.

Now I'm cleaning and painting the buildings before detailing their interiors and finally placing them on the layout. I'm also looking at interior lights for them, but that is a project that may have to wait for a while.

I also have to get some of the DPM Modular Building System walls to finish out the tool making factory (although in the final take it's probably going to be some other kind of manufactory). I have the DPM planning package that I've used to mock it up and I like the way it looks like it's going to turn out.

I also have to scratch-build a scrap metal baler and some sort of loading system to take the place of the scrap yard. The plan is for the manufactory to wrap around the "scrapyard" with the scrap from the manufacturing processes being fed into the baler and then the bales loaded into the waiting gondolas. I'm thinking about some sort of chute, something like you find on the coal mine kits to load the boney (rock that has had the ore processed out of it). It's going to have to be on an angle, which makes things interesting.

Pics when complete.

More Projects

I finally ordered a PowerMAX unit for use on my Shapeways East Broad Top M1, and it arrived yesterday, so this is finally on my build list.

I also received several Kato Mikado boiler shells to see if they can be used on the Erie K5A project. Perhaps with some modifications (and a lot of cutting) it would be possible, but they look kind of small so I'm not so sure they will work.

What I really need to do is learn to cast so I can reproduce that Arnold Pacific shell. I did get a book from BHI Publications about white metal casting, so maybe I'll educate myself enough to try it.

Another Locomotive Project

One of the problems in modeling Nn3 is the lack of RTR equipment. There are a few mostly Colorado prototype locomotives but for the East Broad Top everything has to be built.

Building an Nn3 locomotive usually involves starting with a Marklin chassis. In the case of the surviving EBT Mikados the 8827 Class 41 Marklin Mikado is a good starting spot, the drivers are a touch too small but with the oversize flanges the dimensions are about right. The same chassis is used for all the Mikados, and a kit is available for them through Republic Locomotive Works.

Since some of their earlier 2-8-0 locomotives were standard designs also shared by the western roads there are kits available to build them as well, and with the new PowerMax chassis you can find kits for Brill Motorcar M1 and the dinky locomotives also owned by the road. Some of the existing Marklin chassis can also be used to create the road's Mogul and ten-wheeler locomotives as well. There is one, however, that is a bit more difficult.

This is East Broad Top locomotive 11. It is a Prairie 2-6-2 locomotive and was the road's first wide firebox loco. The design was so successful that the railroad used it as the pattern for their six existing Mikado locomotives, essentially just adding another set of drivers and extending the trailing truck a bit. I have long wanted to build this locomotive but have been unable to decide how to go about it. The choices seemed to be shortening a Mikado chassis, something that I didn't feel my modeling skills to be equal to, or modifying a Marklin 8803 Mogul chassis to accept a different motor, also beyond my skills. However, there did seem to be an alternative...

This is the Marklin 8806 chassis. I first saw this locomotive on the popular online auction site but didn't have any dimensional information for it. At first glance it looked to be a promising start, the drivers appeared to be the same as the 8827 chassis and the motor is horizontal rather than vertical as it is on the 8803 chassis. However, I had problems finding one that was in a price range I felt comfortable about taking apart for a donor chassis.

And then...one came up. No box so collectors weren't interested in it, so it was had for a bit over a C note, which is about what an 8827 chassis goes for. A few clicks of the mouse and it was on its way.

When it arrived the disassembly began apace:

Once the lid was off the mechanism looked even more promising. The motor is a bit long, but the large cab of the EBT prototype should cover it adequately. There was a light board at the back of the locomotive and the frame extended back to support it, but it looks as if the chassis can be cut off aft of the rear motor mount without too many problems. The solid bottom of the motor mount platform can be filed flat as well to get rid of the arches, and the whole thing should be covered by the bottom of the cab.

With the light boards and leading and trailing trucks removed the chassis looks even more promising. The front of the locomotive is actually going to be more problematic than the back. The cylinders are going to have to go right in front of the drivers and they are mounted on a solid bar. The two options are to cut the top of the chassis flush with the front driver edge or file the bottom of the chassis in front of the drivers up to mount the bar underneath. Either way the front of the chassis is going to have to be cut away more than the rear.

The only other issue I can see is the front motor mount. It stretches the width of the locomotive and it looks like its going to hit the bottom of the boiler just forward of the cab. I am hopeful that it can be disguised behind air piping and whatnot under the running boards. At any rate I don't think it will be an insurmountable obstacle.

So all in all it looks like my prospects of having this locomotive on my roster one day is promising.