Postcards from Davis

Building good scenery has never been one of my strong skills. That's partly because I'd rather be running trains than building scenery, and partly because I'm colour blind. The last time that I built any scenery was for my N-trak module, and the work had to be re-done because I had made the grass too bright. Or so I was told, but it looked fine to me :-)

With help from Rod and John F, my layout now has some scenery at Davis. There is still more work to be done, and the buildings need to be weathered, but even I have to admit that the improvement is enormous. So much so in fact that the organisers of the 13th National N Scale Convention have asked me for new photos to include on the Convention's layout tour page.

These are compressed versions of the images I'm offering. I wonder which will be accepted.

Thanks for looking.

November 9th operating session

Wow!  Here it is, November already, and I didn't post anything during October. So much for my plan to have at least one post every month...

Anyway, last Friday was once again operating night on the GC&SF. In contrast to the September session when everything ran about as smoothly as one could ever expect, we seemed to have problems right from the start. As a consequence of resolving one problem after another, I didn't remember to take many photos. Luckily, Bethie's catering was up to its usual high standard. (Thanks Beth.)

So here are the best of the few photos that I remembered to take.

Here, Vic and Rod are running the northbound Ardmore local, and preparing to set out a cut of empty gondolas at Dolese Bros. quarry at Big Canyon.

John F ran a southbound fast freight (train 37). In this photo he is doing his best to stay out of the photo, as his train passes through Davis.

Noel and Dennis ran the Pauls Valley turn. Here's Noel driving the train as it leaves Davis heading towards Wynnewood.

Here Barry is uncoupling cars from a northbound fast freight (train 38) at Ardmore.

I'm sorry I don't have more pics from this session, but thanks for looking anyway.

14 September 2012 - Operating session

Last night we held another ops session on the GC&SF.  Apart from a few very minor glitches, the session  ran very well.  We operated the fast clock (Stan's Fast Clock) at 5:1 ratio, and managed to run all but one train to schedule. I originally planned to operate only the morning session of the timetable, but things ran so well that we started on the afternoon session as well.

Although the GC already has a wireless DCC system, on the night we also trialled the use of WiThrottle coupled with both iPhones and Android phones for throttles. The guys who used smart phones for throttles seemed quite pleased with their performance, but whether they'll use them in preference to their dedicated Digitrax throttles has yet to be seen.

Barry running the local out of Ardmore. Here he is doing some switching at Dougherty:

Dennis is running the morning north-end local, and has just left Pauls Valley on his way to Davis:

Charlie is delivering some propane cars to the refinery at Wynnewood. We're not exactly sure why the rear of the train is in the siding at Martin Fertilizer:

Vic and John C are the yard crew at Pauls Valley. Here's Vic switching some cars at the elevator:

Brendan operating the yard at Ardmore using his iPhone:

Dennis (middle) was switching Davis when a stock extra (driven by Rod on the left) arrived from the south, and a passenger train (driven by John F) arrived from the north. As the stock train was a little too long for the siding, and the passenger train only just fitted, some careful maneuvering was required for the trains to pass. John is using his Android smart phone as a throttle.

John and Rod celebrate a job "well done".

Vic and John C switching cars at Pauls Valley:

Charlie has gone for beans, and Rod has just delivered his stock cars to stock pens at Pauls Valley.  Pauls Valley yard crewmen John and Vic smile for the rail fan with the camera.

John F is building the afternoon local prior to departure from Davis:

Greg switching the afternoon Ardmore local freight at Dougherty:

My thanks go to all who came over last night to run the layout last night, and make it one of our best sessions.

Android throttle

A friend recently gave me an unwanted Android smart phone to play with, and this evening I pulled out my spare WiFi router and set up a network in my trainroom so I can try out the free Android "Engine Driver Throttle" JMRI application.

I'm very impressed with this bit of software, which is easier to install and configure than I had expected. Selecting and releasing locos is very easy - probably easier than on my DT402D. I haven't yet tried any of the advanced functions such as consisting, but I'll give that a go over the coming weekend.  (Edit: As it turns out, the "advanced features" are very limited. Consisting is possible, but only in elephant style.)

The JMRI web page for Engine Driver Throttle is here.

More information and the software can be obtained from here.

Note that Engine Driver throttle is for Android phones.  For devices running iOS, you can use WiThrottle (which is not free) or WiThrottle Lite (which is).

What a great way to extend the life of an unwanted smart phone.

Thanks for looking.

NOVEMBER 2013 UPDATE

The latest version of Engine Driver allows three locos to be selected at once, and offers better consisting capability.  I just tried out this latest version and had three trains running around the layout at once using my smart phone. It's kinda neat being able to run three trains from the one hand-held device.

I also tested out the improved consisting capability. You just keep 'acquiring' the locos on the same throttle, and when you're done the s/w allows you to specify which loco is "lead" loco (it defaults to the first selected), and to specify the direction of travel of each loco. You can add extra locos by 'acquiring' them as you want to.  I didn't think to test how to remove a loco from the consist, or how to change settings such as the direction of travel of individual locos, once you've built the consist. Perhaps the worst negative was that when you release the top loco the consist is lost.

Anyway, this piece of software is certainly evolving in the right direction - and it's FREE!!


Regards,
Ron

Scenery at Davis

Rod came over this afternoon, and we started on the scenery for Davis.  Well, actually, Rod did most of the creative work, while I made the tea, got the biscuits, etc...

Here's Rod taking a brief break to smile for the camera:

Here's how it looked when we knocked off for the day:






















There's still a lot more to be done before those grain-loaded trucks can make their deliveries to the elevator.

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.

Bridges

For the past few days I've been assembling my Central Valley truss bridge kit. When I first opened the package, I thought it looked quite daunting. However, the kit is very well thought out, and assembles quite nicely. There is a bit of flash and extraneous moulding stuff that has to be removed, but the plastic is very easy to work with, and not as brittle as it first looks.

The only real snag that I encountered was in the final step, which required me to thread some string-line (representing cables) through parts of the structure. Well, after trying for some time, I gave up on that. Now that I know how the kit assembles, (next time) I would thread the line as I assembled the parts, rather than leaving it until last. My 'plan B' is to use some fine spring steel to represent the cables, but I don't have any that is suitable at present.

Here's the kit as it now looks:

This is a very nice looking bridge and should look great once I've painted and weathered it.

The smaller deck-girder bridge is from GreenMax, and will be used as one of the approaches to the truss bridge. There should be two girder bridges end-to-end, but I don't have the space for both of them.

Thanks for looking.

Work resumes ....

I haven't done much on the layout lately, but I received a parcel of GreenMax building kits from PlazaJapan today, and it shook me out of my lethargy.  I think I had become a bit bored with working on Davis, and needed to do something else for a while.

Here's an aerial shot of Davis as it now looks, showing the final road arrangement:

Davis is at the point where I can start to add some basic greenery, but as I'm colour-blind, I'm not game to tackle that without help.

The main (and cheapest) item in the package from Japan was a GreenMax deck girder bridge kit, which I want to use (in conjunction with a Central Valley truss bridge) for the crossing of the Washita River.  Although there was once a truss bridge of some sort across the Washita River between Big Canyon and Gene Autry, it was gone by 1960. However, I don't like the bridge that now stands there, so I'm taking some "modellers' licence".

So this afternoon, inspired by the arrival of the GreenMax bridge, I set to work on the river crossing. I had already done some work shaping the Arbuckle mountains further upstream, using blue foam sheets. But I found that job to be more difficult than it looks. Today I went back to the tried-and-true cardboard strip method for the hill and cliff-face on the north side of the river. Here's how it looked after the cardboard webbing was installed:

The clothes pegs are to hold the webbing together while the glue sets. I found that idea on someone's blog, but I forget whose blog it was. To that unknown person go my thanks.

The webbing isn't as close as I have used previously, but that's because my next step was to cover the cardboard web with masking tape:

The Washita River is actually quite wide at the point that I'm modelling, and the slope down to the river on this side should be quite gentle rather than the steep drop that I have built. I'll take another look at that slope tomorrow, but I don't have enough space to do a more accurate representation, and still include the rugged cliff face at Big Canyon. This final picture shows what the area looks like now, although the view is from the opposite side of the tracks (ie the backdrop side).

Too bad I'm not modelling this scene from the opposite side. My representation could be very close.

To see how the area really looked from the aisle side back in the era that I'm modelling, click here.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for looking.