Let The Fun Begin

 I have finally completed renovations on the train room. Mostly. Except for some trim work that isn't really important right now.

At any rate, that meant that trains must run in the new train room!

I am kicking around several plans, but one of the things that I have decided will absolutely happen is dual scales. Maybe even triple scales. I will have an HO layout, an N scale with Nn3, and for the third, the Nn3 may get the option of removable buildings so that it can become Z as well.

The only question is where to put the HO. I have debated putting it above the N, but I think I have decided to put it below. The HO will be at 30 inches (basically tabletop height) and the N will be at 54 inches. The HO will be tucked under a portion of the N that has very little operational requirements, so reaching over the HO to get to the N won't be a huge problem.

I decided on these heights so that I can operate the HO from a chair and the N will have enough room under it for the 48" high racks I have built to put my equipment cases in. The N was only going to be a foot deep at this point, but it will now be two. The tracks will be at the front and more space for scenery will be towards the back. This also gives me more room for the interchange for the narrow gauge branch.

Anyway, I needed to plan the benchwork, so the first trains to run in the new train room was HO. I set the track up and wired up the Empire Builder Digitrax DCC system that Mrs Hades got for me. As you may recall, I attempted to go wireless with that one and failed miserably. It worked with wired throttles, though, so I built some buss cables to run to the track, plugged in the throttle... and nothing. Everything SEEMED to work, the throttle showed the locomotive was selected, there was power on the tracks, but the trains did not respond to the throttle. They all made their normal background sounds, but none of them moved, and none of the throttle commanded sounds or lights worked.

To say the least, I was extremely discombobulated. I knew it wasn't going to work with the wireless throttles, but I decided rather than mess with it I would just swap out the DB150 from the Empire Builder with the DSC210 from the Evolution Express system that I just bought. To save some time hooking more things up, I just used the plug in throttle again instead of plugging in the UR93 duplex transceiver and putting batteries in the DT602D... and this time it worked perfectly.

This makes me question the problems I had with my previous DT402D wireless throttle. Since it worked when plugged in, and occasionally when unplugged, perhaps the problems weren't with the throttle, but with a failing, but not quite gone yet, DB150? Maybe there was nothing wrong with it after all, and I didn't waste my money on it, and it will work with the DSC210? (Or with the Zephyr, which can be used as a command station with other throttles/wireless devices connected by LocoNet, which is another thing I should have tried.)

I haven't had the time to mess with it yet, but the next thing I will do is hook up the UR93 and see if the DT402D will work with it.

The Fitzgerald Locomotives

Once again the Cotton Brute is in my possession. This time it requires no repairs. Instead, it is being operated, possibly for the last time (at least for a while), at the Danville Rail Days event in honor of late NRail President John Wallis. John had decided to retire the locomotive due to its age and relative fragility to prevent it being damaged or lost. It was destined to be put on display at a place yet to be determined.

As you may recall, Cotton Brute was restored for the NRail 50^th Anniversary celebration that occurred in 2023. The refurbishment was done at the direction of President Wallis in late 2022 and the restored and updated locomotive was run for the first time at the Danville Old 97 Rail Days (Danville has since dropped the “Old 97” designation) event in 2022. It seemed only proper that she should make her last appearance there before being retired.

But this story is not about that locomotive.

Along with the Cotton Brute, Jim Fitzgerald also built two other locomotives; Cotton Boss and Cotton Beast. The current whereabouts and disposition of Cotton Beast is unknown, but Cotton Boss is now also in my possession.

When I asked current NRail President Andy Zimmerman about the possibility of featuring Cotton Brute at Danville, I also recalled that John had mentioned having Cotton Boss for possible restoration. I asked him about this project and he replied that he did not know what the condition of the locomotive was yet, since both Beast and Boss were in possession of one of the club members helping the family sort and process all of John’s extensive collection.

Contacts were made, appointments were set, and both locomotives ended up in my hands. Cotton Brute was briefly tested to ensure its operability, and I finally set my eyes on Cotton Boss for the first time. The intent was to evaluate the condition of the locomotive for restoration and repair.

What we found was promising. The construction of the Boss is radically different from the Brute. Just like the Brute, the center section of the locomotive has been custom-built, but as far as I know there isn’t any depleted uranium in its construction. 

The ends of the locomotive are from a donor chassis, tapped and drilled to accept a series of screws holding it into the custom built center section. The trucks on this chassis are 4 wheel, not 6, so unlike the Brute the donor was not a U30CG. I suspect they, and the chassis ends, are from a Minitrix F9; the construction of the trucks, complete with the finger wipers at the truck ends, certainly suggests they are, but the rest of the mechanism does not exactly match photos I have found online. The Minitrix F9 is the closest I have been able to find, and it would only make sense that the trucks are from the same donor as the chassis ends.

The top of the locomotive consists of a series of three plates; two short ones on each end for spacers and one long one across the top that holds everything together and also holds the Sagami can motor in place. The locomotive ends slip over the center section that includes the tank in its construction. The inner two screws fasten the top plate to the center section. The two short plates are fastened to the end pieces and the long plate is fastened to the short plates with the two outer screws. The Sagami can motor hangs from the top plate with two screws, but in an interesting arrangement there are three set screws in a triangular formation that are used to adjust the motor orientation. This is necessary because there are no drive shafts; the ends of the motor shafts are fitted with one coupler end that fits into the other coupler end attached to the end pieces. There is no play to this arrangement, either it is right or it is wrong. I suspect this rigid requirement is the cause of what I found next.

The ends of the locomotive were loose and had quite a bit of movement. It was a quick job to remove the outer screws from the top plate, and the ends with the shorter plates attached slid out of the assembly. The short plate screws were then tightened down and the now solid ends were reattached to the center plate, making the entire chassis solid once more. It is my belief that if the motor is even slightly out of alignment, it will cause a vibration that will loosen these screws over time.

The wheels were cleaned and the mechanism lubricated, and then the locomotive was placed upon the rails of my humble 2x8 foot oval layout. Power was fed to the rails (DC only) and for the first time in who knows how long, the mechanism moved. I ran it several times around in each direction and it performed flawlessly. I did note a bit of vibration, indicating that perhaps the motor alignment could use some adjustment, but this was beyond the scope of my investigation so I left it alone.

I searched through the N Scale Locomotive Encyclopedia (I am ever grateful for this fantastic resource) and determined the shell is from a Lima FP45. This model did not have porches molded to the shell, they were instead a part of the chassis. The sides of the shell do not completely cover the chassis so about an eighth of an inch of the chassis shows beneath the bottom sill of the shell. There was the remains of one porch, without a doubt from a Minitrix U30/U28 due to the similar appearance to the Cotton Brute porches, that looks as if it was attached to the bottom of the shell. Glue remnants on each end of the shell indicates there was a porch on each end. The porch pieces were reassembled and re-attached to the front of the shell.

Amusingly, in the same box, were the missing air tank end pieces to Cotton Brute’s tank. As you may recall, those air tank ends were replaced with solid ends because donor air tank ends could not be found for the one end that was missing them. They are un-needed now, but it was interesting to find them in the box nonetheless.

President Zimmerman was apprised of the condition of the Cotton Boss, and I received the clear signal to complete the cosmetic restoration. I have the parts to replace the missing porch and end railings and refresh the paint on the tank, but since the Boss will likely not see any operational service she will not receive any of the mechanical upgrades that her more famous sister did. It will instead be restored cosmetically while her mechanical components remain operational on analog power only.

The restoration will, of course, be documented here. 

Gutted

 Of all the things I had on my mental bingo card today, this was not one of them.

 I just opened the following email about ten minutes ago from the President of the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club:

"I am very sorry to have to share the news that we have lost a good friend, mentor, leader, and a pillar of our club with the passing of John Wallis last night.  We only have limited information so far from John's son, but by all appearances he passed peacefully in his sleep last night.  

I have known John for 22 years and some of you for much longer than that.  I will miss his kind nature, quick wit, our Hurricanes hockey conversations, his encyclopedic knowledge of railroading and everything related to model railroading, and his eagerness to share all of that knowledge with anyone who was interested.  

Our club will absolutely miss the person who was a constant leader since 1980.  Whether he happened to be serving the club as an officer or not he was always the person who stepped up when something was needed and kept the club moving and growing.  

When we have more information to share about any arrangements, I will pass that along to the club."

John was also the President of NRail, and he was the one that arranged for the restoration of the Cotton Brute for the 50th anniversary of the founding of that organization. He was a mainstay in the model railroading community, and N scale in particular owes a great deal of its popularity to him.

We have a show this weekend. I just saw John on Friday as I was helping to set everything up. I didn't go today because I was doing things around the house. It won't be the same to not see him tomorrow.

Rest in peace John. Thanks for everything. 

The Trouble with Digitrax, PT III

 In two of my previous posts, I detailed some issues I had with Digitrax DCC systems.

To sum up, I prefer my NCE PowerCab for daily operations due to its simplicity and intuitive ease of operations. The problems I run into with my NCE are that it doesn't play nice with TCS decoders (which I use exclusively in my older Atlas locomotives) and when I program on the programming track I lose some cab parameters and have to set the cab back up. These issues are annoying, but minor, so I've decided to live with them, although one of these days I will likely send it in to have the cab parameter problem looked at.

The Digitrax Zephyr starter system is likewise easy to operate, especially for someone just transitioning from DC. I own the oldest of the sets, the DCS50, which has since been replaced by first the DCS51 and then the DCS52. They all have a single knob that you turn for engine speed, and a lever for forward and reverse, just like a DC throttle pack would have. The only difference is the keypad, which is used to enter the locomotive address and operate the functions as well as programming locomotives.

The problem is that the DCS50 doesn't show throttle settings in steps or percentages, so it's nearly impossible to set two locomotives to the exact same speed setting for speed matching. Also, the Digitrax systems as a whole don't seem to be as user friendly when programming locomotives as the NCE system is. The Zephyr is somewhat easier, but it's not easy to program advanced features since it is, after all, a basic starter set, as well as being very old. I'm sure that the newer versions are better; the DCS52, for example, has a larger liquid crystal display screen that shows much more information than the DCS50's sectional LED display.

However, since my club runs Digitrax, I have to program my show locomotives on that system due to the difference in track voltages between the two systems. Locomotives speed matched on NCE aren't necessarily going to be speed matched on Digitrax, which causes operational difficulties on show layouts. Therefore, I needed a more capable Digitrax system for programming, and to that end I purchased a Super Empire Builder Xtra, or rather had one purchased for me.

I had been using it successfully to program my locomotives, but one day I decided I wanted to run cordless operations. To that end I purchased some used throttles and interface panels, none of which have worked the way I wanted them to. To further complicate things, I hooked the Digitrax up to a loop of track to program my newest locomotives and, due probably to operator errors on an unfamiliar system, failed miserably, and had to program them with the NCE system (which, for reasons I have already extensively detailed, won't work so well on the club layout).

That brings me to this; a set of locomotives I couldn't program properly, a set of throttles that are virtually useless, and no way to run wireless if the cell phone setup doesn't work for whatever reason. So, finally, in desperation, I have made a purchase of a complete new Evolution Express Duplex Radio Starter Set, which should include all that I need for wireless operations as well as providing the proper throttle to run at the club shows.

I have almost decided that my new layout, which will be about 3 times bigger than my existing one, will use the Digitrax system because I now own so much Digitrax equipment. Digitrax did do one thing right in that all of their systems will work together with Loconet, so I can set both the original Zephyr and the DB150 from my Super Empire Builder starter sets to be boosters. 

I can use the Zephyr exclusively in the yard as the hostler's throttle and put the DB150 over on the mountain turn-around loop, sprinkling the various control panels around the layout and installing the LNWI module for cell phone ops. That should give me plenty of operational flexibility, and I should be able to use all of my throttles on IR if nothing else (I would have to purchase a UR91 interface panel to use the radio function on the 401R throttle).

I will then keep the NCE system for the Christmas layout and for various smaller projects that I may decide to get into. I have also almost convinced myself to build an HO layout on a shelf above the N, so that would be a perfect use for the NCE system. I would have to use a stepladder to get to the rear of the HO scale layout if I decide to build it, but that's a minor concern. It would also give me a nice place to mount some lighting for the N scale.

But first, I have to get the train room ready to build benchwork, so I'm off to do that now. 

Scheduled Delivery

Three more modern locomotives, an AC4400CW, an SD70Ace, and an SD90/45MAC, all in Union Pacific paint, are scheduled to arrive today.

I don't know why I'm doing this to myself. At this rate my modern diesel roster will soon outnumber my steam roster. 

Observation

 Drywall finishing work is a lot like modeling. You spend a lot of time waiting for things to dry.

Where the closet wall came out there is a lot of variation at the joints where the old closet wall meets the old room wall. On one side the door frame occupies much of that joint, so the variation is not as pronounced. Just above the door is worse, but not really so bad.

On the other side of the room, however, the surface of the room wall stands about a quarter inch proud of the surface of the closet wall. To make things worse, the drywall on the room side is crumbling along that edge, so it isn't firm against the wall studs in that joint area.

To remedy (but not really correct) it I am sanding the room wall down into the plaster about an eighth of an inch at the edge, feathering out six inches or so. I will then build the closet wall out about an eighth with drywall mud to match the sanded surface, feathering that out six inches or so as well. When I am done I should have a 12 inch surface, six inches on each side of the seam, that gently transitions from one surface to the other. 

The wall will never be straight all the way from corner to corner, so my goal is to simply smooth the transition and then I can disguise it with benchwork and scenery. In order to get it done, however, I am having to drive or pull nails and sand about 2 vertical feet of the wall at a time along the seam and then fill with drywall mud. Because the mud is so thick it takes a long time to dry. I will then have to sand that down, fill in the low spots, let that dry, sand it smooth again, and repeat as necessary to get that smooth transition. 

I expect this will take a few weeks on the days that I am not working. Fortunately there is still much to do while the wall dries, so that time is not lost completely. Perhaps by this fall I will have the room walls finished enough to paint, then I can start building the layout.

If it was easy everyone would do it. 

How It Begins

So far I have torn down the closet wall and expanded the room. I have decided not to close in the door between the rooms because it really isn't necessary. The door is in a wide wall, so it won't be in the way. I'll just build my new benchwork over the opening.

Today I got the last of the demo materials removed and pulled up the tack strips. I got the hole in the ceiling patched, and then made a dump run to empty the trailer. This is what I have so far. 

This is the view from the door looking to the left. Along this wall will run my staging yard. I'm still finalizing plans on this yard, but it will contain engine and car repair facilities, including a 12 stall roundhouse and turntable.

This is the view to the right. Along this wall will be the main part of the layout. My current plans, subject to change, is to have an expanded version of my current layout in this area.

Let's take a look inside, shall we? 

This is the door coming in, the one we were just looking through. The staging yard will start in the gray area to the right of the door as we are looking at it now and extend along the wall to our right. To the left of this door will likely be the narrow gauge portion of the layout, built on the Woodland Scenics Scenic Ridge layout with some slight modifications. I have right at 8 feet of wall from the corner to the door.

This is the wall to the right, which as you can see contains the old closet door for the room next door. My initial plans were to close this door in on both sides, but Mrs Hades has convinced me it's more trouble than it's worth. I'll just build the benchwork over the top of it, and as a bonus if I ever want to expand into that room all I have to do is open the door.

This wall is 10 feet 10 inches long. The yard will extend almost 8 feet along this wall from the left side, and there will be a 15' radius turnaround loop in the corner on the right for the main part of the layout, extending along the wall to the right. I haven't yet made a final determination how that yard will tie into the main part of the layout, but there will likely be a Y involved, so there will be some fancy wiring needed.

This wall is 13 feet in length. The main part of the layout will be along this wall. So far as current plans go, it will be an extended version of my current switching layout. There will be a 15' radius turning loop on the left, and then the mainline will extend along the wall to the right. (Note the patch in the ceiling right above the ladder. When the room was used for storage a critter of undetermined nature got in there. I think it was a squirrel looking for building materials.)

This is another 10' 10" wall. The mainline will extend along this wall to another turnaround loop in the corner by the window. This turnaround loop will be almost totally disguised by a tunnel mimicking the CSX mainline at Point of Rocks, MD. A branch line will come out from the main here going to an interchange to the narrow gauge portion of the layout, which will be located on the wall to the right.

This is the tunnel at Point of Rocks. It originally contained a dual main line when the B&O built it, but since then trains have gotten taller with longer cars. The C&O Canal ran along the side of the cliff between it and the Potomac River. Eventually the canal closed, and sometime later the railroad center-lined one track in the tunnel and filled in the canal to build a bypass around the river side for the other main. I first saw this tunnel from the Highway 15 bridge above, and thought it was the perfect disguise for a turnaround loop. The link takes you to the page where I found the photo. But I digress.

 I have two options for positioning the narrow gauge layout. As I said before, there is right at 8 feet from the corner to the door. If I butt the roadbed of the lower narrow gauge track loop on the Scenic Ridge layout right up to the roadbed of the standard gauge track on the turnaround loop, I will be able to build a single mountain for the two and run the narrow gauge 6 feet lengthwise along the wall. However, that leaves a problem with accessing the tunnel when the inevitable stall or train wreck occurs.

I can cut an access in the bottom, along with the access that will be needed for the turnaround loop, but that means climbing under the layout to get to it. Alternately, I can cut access holes in the top for both standard and narrow gauge loops, but since both will be on a 3 foot wide bench that is probably going to be too long a stretch to reach from the top. The advantage to this arrangement is there would be a single mountain in the corner which ties the standard and narrow gauge portions of the layout together and gives it some continuity.

Another option is to put the turnaround loop in the corner, extend 2 feet along the wall, and finish off with the 3 foot mountain end of the Scenic Ridge narrow gauge against the wall with the 6 foot portion sticking out into the room. I can then cut my access holes in the back, beside the entry door, for the narrow gauge and I won't have to crawl underneath to get to the track. I would still have to have a hole under the standard gauge loop because 3 feet into the corner is still a long stretch. The advantage here is two more feet of branch line, which gives some separation between the mainline and the narrow gauge, suggesting more distance between the two. 

Mrs Hades asked me if I was going to build a 2 level layout, and I replied in the negative because it's really too much for a single modeler to deal with. However, I have since considered building an HO shelf layout above the N scale. I would lower the N scale a bit, perhaps making it comfortable to operate while seated, and put the HO scale at a comfortable level to operate while standing.

I have also considered moving the switching portion of the layout to the front of the yard extension, pushing the yard to the back side of that extension, and putting the dual mainline ending in Point of Rocks along the long wall. This would allow me to put the narrow gauge on the wall with the window and put the HO on the wall by the entry door.

That's the thing about an empty room. It's not really empty at all, it's filled with possibilities.