Working on the railroad, again.

During the past week I've spent some time restaging trains and preparing the layout for my next operating session (to be held on a date which has still to be decided.)  In the process I added four more Intermountain ice refrigerator cars (because I love them) and removed about ten other cars from the operating system. I feel that I still have too many cars on the layout, and I'm thinking of ways to address that.

The cars that are not in use are still on the layout, and form a train that sits on a hidden staging yard track that is not used during ops sessions.  About half of those cars are ones that I should probably sell off or give away as I no longer want to run them on the layout (for one reason or another).  The rest get swapped out from time to time with other cars, just to change things up a bit.

This train has now grown to 27 cars, and is the longest train on the layout. I can, and have, run longer trains, but for ops sessions my freight trains are limited to 2 locos, 21 cars and a caboose, as that's all that can fit on my arrival/departure tracks without interfering with other tracks.

Here's a video of this train running southbound through Davis:

 

While I was at it, I also filmed my track-cleaning train as it ran laps around the layout:

Regards,

Ron

I've been working on the railroad ....

Between my part-time job and working in the yard I've been pretty busy lately, but I've still managed to get some jobs done on the layout.

Added new freight cars:

Last week I prepared car-cards and waybills for a bunch of new freight cars that I acquired over the past 18 months or so, so we can use them for future operating sessions.

ATSF Bx-57 40' box-cars (Atlas PS1)

By 1960 (the year I model) the Santa Fe was no longer painting cars in the "map/slogan" scheme, but box cars in that scheme were still quite common. These PS1 "Bx-57" cars from Atlas are (in my opinion) even nicer than the various models of AAR "map/slogan" cars that I have from Intermountain. I bought all 4 road numbers recently released by Atlas:

George Hollwedel told me that Atlas is intending to do another Bx-57 run with 4 more car numbers. Bring them on, I say.

ATSF Ft-V 53'6" flat cars (Intermountain)

I think that Intermountain has released these flat cars under their own label, but the six road numbers that I bought came from George Hollwedel.

These cars are also very nice, and I'm now looking for suitable loads for them. They make me want to also buy a few of the BLMA 60' Ft-7 flat cars for a little variety.

ATSF Tk-L fuel service tank cars (Micro-Trains)

I've wanted some diesel-fuel tank cars to fuel my locos at Pauls Valley and Ardmore, for some time. I bought the decals to produce some myself, but when George Hollwedel commissioned a 3-pack set from MTL I grabbed a set from him instead:

Unlike the models of the Bx-57 and Ft-V cars, which are pretty accurate models of ATSF prototypes, these tank cars are just good stand-ins. But they capture the look very nicely, and will do until something better comes along.

Planning for a timetable revision

The current operating timetable uses a 6:1 fast-time clock, and represents an "18-hour day". A complete operating session requires 3 hours of train running, split into two ("morning" and "afternoon") 90 minute segments each representing 9 real hours. However, when we add in extra time for 'show-and-tell' at the start of the evening, and a break for beans, a session can take over 4 hours if we run the full schedule. Needless to say, we usually end the session before all the trains are run, leaving me to sort out the mess the next day.

I'm planning to slow down the clock a little to either a 5:1 or 4:1 ratio, and only run one "9-hour" segment per operating session. We'll alternate between the "morning" and "afternoon" segments from one session to the next. A 5:1 ratio fast-time clock will require 1hr 48m of train running, and a 4:1 fast-time clock will require 2hr 15m of train running. Either one will probably be fine, and we can decide on the evening which way to go.

In addition to slowing the clock, I also want to add in two more trains. I already have the rolling stock to allow that, and the staging yard tracks will be available. I just have to make some small changes to the timetable.

BLI PA/PB

As mentioned in my last post, my sound-equipped BLI PA/PB locos couldn't make it around my layout without stalling on some of the turnouts.  My main concern was with my Peco C80 points in my hidden staging yards, but I also found that they had problems with some of the (visible) turnouts at Wynnewood and Dougherty. I can't use these beautiful locos for an operating session until these problems are resolved.

Re-gauging the wheelsets (all of which were just a tad too tight) seems to have solved the problem with the Peco C80 points in hidden staging, but I will continue to conduct tests until I'm certain that I have 100% reliability.

At Dougherty I had yet another problem with my old friend arch nemesis, the southern-most ME turnout in the yard. It seems like every time I add a new loco, it has problems with that turnout. An hour or so of work has fixed the problem (but for how long, I wonder.)  I am so-o-o tempted to replace the turnout with one of the newer DCC-friendly turnouts from ME.

Over at Wynnewood I found a totally different problem with an Atlas C55 turnout - one of the built-in jumpers connecting the stock rail to the closure rail had failed. I've experienced this problem before, with a turnout at Davis, and this afternoon I corrected it the same way. In the process I replaced half a dozen insulated rail joiners (left over from when that part of the layout was originally wired for DC/cab-control) with metal ones.

Just two days ago, John C and I were discussing that very problem with Atlas C55 turnouts. I think he jinxed me.

During all this testing I observed that the back end of the rear truck on the PB unit bobs up and down ever so slightly when the loco is creeping along. My guess is that one or both of the traction tyres on that axle are not quite seated properly. When I bought the locos I also bought a couple of extra axles without traction tyres so I could get rid of the tyres. Unfortunately, I've forgotten where I put them "for safe keeping".

If you're still with me, then thanks for reading.

Regards,
Ron

Car-card sorting shelves

I'm a big fan of car-card and waybill systems, but one of its weaknesses is the need for the operators to manage/juggle a bunch of cards in addition to running the train. It helps greatly to have 2-person crews, so one can drive the train and the other can handle the paperwork as would a real conductor. Then there's the question of where can the conductor place the cards so he can sort out what work has to be done. If the layout has no scenery then they might be tempted to place the cards right on the layout itself, but that's not acceptable if the layout has scenery.

To help my crews, I've installed shelves (for want of a better name) like this around my layout:

I stole this idea from Rob McM's "Pacifico" layout.

My shelves were made by gluing a 10mm strip of 3mm MDF board along the bottom edge of a 35mm strip of 3mm MDF. They were then painted and attached to the fascia using double-sided tape. You can get a better idea of how they're made from this next photo:

I contemplate that when a train arrives at a town to do some switching, the crew will place the car-cards for the cars to be switched out, or perhaps those to be collected, in the shelf nearest to the industry. Whatever works for the individual operators is fine with me.

My shelves haven't been tested in an operating session yet, but John F. has made some as well, and says that they worked out very well, and he received favourable comments from the operators at his last session (which I was unable to attend).

Thanks for looking.

Regards,
Ron

Town maps

Located in the fascia directly in front of each town on the GC&SF is a map which shows the names of each track and industry, as well as showing North and South. A few operators have asked me to include a map of the entire layout, showing where the towns are in relation to each other.

Here is an example of the revised town maps, which include the GC&SF 'route map':

And here it is, after I've laminated it and installed it behind the fascia:

The small route map also indicates the territory that is managed by each local freight.

2008 - Ardmore reconstruction

In mid-2008 I modified the tracks at Ardmore, adding a new track to handle passenger trains, a small yard for the SL-SF to interchange with the GC&SF, and industry trackage to support Bluebonnet.

Rod built the brick depot from a Walthers kit.

On the fascia you can see the card trays used with the CC&WB system, and the control panel for Ardmore. You can also where the mainline and Lindsay District tracks curve around behind Bluebonnet, and then drop down to the hidden north-end staging yard.