SP Exeter Branch Pictures

I'll have an update on the LA Division before the end of the year. I've been working on the railroad and plan to have track installed on the main level before the end of the year. Stay tuned.

I've had some requests for pictures of the Exeter Branch so I snapped some photos after the last operating session. Pictures are end of the session.

First up is a view of the track plan. Most of the Exeter Branch occupies one room. However, an extension was added to a second room which included Saco, Oil Junction, and Bakersfield staging.












Sanger


Reedley


Dinuba (Fresno staging in background)


Exeter (east Dinuba in foreground)


Exeter

Lindsay (Vance in the background, Exeter to the left)


Richgrove


Jovita
 

Saco

Oil Junction (Bakersfield staging in background)

Cab Saver for NCE Cab06 and Cab 04 - New Product

When I received my new Cab06PR wireless throttles from NCE, I had one potentiometer (pot) failure during the first session and another failed soon after that. The failure was due to the fact that the throttle knob was too high making a gap between the cab surface and the bottom of the knob. The allowed the shaft of the pot to move laterally (rocking) causing failure. 

I tried lowering the knobs with little success. The problem is that the pot housing sits too high above the surface of the cab. 

I sought out a solution and had little success online. I ended up creating a prototype disc that would fit on the cab surface. It was keyed to fit around the pot. An adhesive backing was added to ensure it stayed in place. I was then able to put the knob on and the rocking was eliminated. As a bonus, I could control the resistance for turning the throttle knob by adjusting the pressure applied by the knob onto the disc. 

In talking with a friend of mine, we decided to make some and make them available to other NCE users. We call it the Cab Saver. 

Below are a number of images and the sequence of installing one. 

Pricing:
    $3.75 each, US shipping included. 
    3 for $11.00, US shipping included
   
    If you live outside of the use, please inquire about shipping costs. 

Payment can be made via Paypal or contacting me directly at TheCabSaver@gmail.com

Our Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/cabsaver1/   You don't have to be a Facebook member to view it.

They are available in multiple colors. You can use specific colors to designate throttles or use all the same color. They are made from translucent acrylic and are a snap to install. 

Installation is easy. 

Step 1) Remove the throttle knob using and Allen wrench to loosen the 2 screws. Remove the foam disc from NCE if applicable.

Step 2) Peel the backing off the adhesive back and place it on the Cab pressing lightly to secure. Ensure that the Cab Saver is aligned correctly with the potentiometer housing. It is designed to fit snugly around the housing.

Step 3) Optionally add the NCE foam disc.

Step 4) Place the throttle knob onto the cab.

Step 5) Tighten the 2 Allen screws. 

Cab Savers come in multiple colors

Cab Savers are adhesive backed

It's been a while

I realized today that it's been two months since my last blog update. That's way too long and really emphasizes that I need to get back to working on the railroad. 

In the mean time, I have been working on other projects. 

SP Exeter Branch - I completed the back dating of the railroad. The timeframe is effectively early 1966. 

On the prototype, Southern Pacific began a locomotive renumbering program in October of 1965. Thus on the Exeter Branch the loco renumbering program is in place and some locos carry their old number and some carry the new number as is what happened on the prototype. 

I have added almost all new equipment. Some new from the box and others were purchased used. All equipment has gone thru my maintenance / quality control regime. For the rolling stock, it has been interesting. I tended to forget that all of the rolling stock on the railroad previously had all the bugs worked out over the 169 sessions conducted. Now with newly added equipment I am working out a new set of bugs. Even though I've quality controlled them, things pop up during an operating session. I make corrections and put everything back in service. 

For the locos, I've converted most to LEDs. I am now a BIG fan of surface mount LEDs. They are a tremendous time saver and allow me to be more creative in my lighting solutions. I've seen the light! :)

I added one new train. For those who haven't seen the railroad, I have a large tank car loading facility. Originally this was serviced as part of a local job. As the dynamics of the railroad changed with the backdating, it became obvious that servicing the tank car facility was no longer going to be part of the local. So I created the 'Oil Can'. It is a dedicated train that services the facility in Saco and then runs to Fresno (staging) at the opposite end of the railroad. It intentionally disrupts the other jobs along the way by causing the main to be cleared for the Oil Can to pass thru. It is also an optional job and if it does not run, it will not disrupt the flow of the car forwarding.

I'm now looking to bring back a train called the PITA (Pain in the a$$). I ran a PITA in the past, but ended up shelving it. The PITA will be a rerouted TOFC train that will run from Fresno to Bakersfield. Again causing the locals to clear the main to let the PITA run thru. It will be optional as well based on how the session is progressing. If the session is moving too fast then it's time for the PITA.

I have now run three sessions with the new format and the bugs are being worked thru. I'm not satisfied with the balance of the car forwarding system thus far. I don't want a fully balanced system, but I also don't want large bubbles of traffic. Meaning I do want empty car spots around the railroad and some off spots as well. So far it looks as thought I'll be changing the waybills and reprinting them in order to achieve my desired result. However I'm going to complete a few more sessions before I do so to ensure it is needed. 

Lastly, I have increased the train length to 15 cars from the previous 13. Now that I'm running 40' and 50' cars (heavier on the 40'), I have more available space. Thus the layout seems less dense. And I have more room on staging tracks. The previous version was set in 1980 with all 57' reefers and nearly everything else was 50'-60'. I have already had operators comment that it railroad seems more spacious.

Rail Fair - Every year in the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ hosts a weekend event called Rail Fair. Our modular club displays there every year as well. We have a layout that occupies a 36'x36' space. We set up in about 4 hours and tear down in about 45 minutes. Because we set up on grass under a tent, we spend a lot of time leveling the modules. It's a bit tedious but we are always running a test train after about 3.5 hours. This year's show went well. Trains ran well over both days. We did have some issues running our NCE wireless as there was another club running NCE wireless about 50 yards away. We did not have line of sight between the antennas but did have issues. We worked it out and had a good show. 

I worked on my modules for a few days prior to the show adding some scenery, changing some track, and resolving some other small issues. 

Locos and rolling stock - With my new found happiness with surface mount LEDs, I have been working on locomotives. Most of which will run on the new railroad. I've been quality controlling rolling stock as well. Many are additions to the Exeter Branch as I'm still running short of reefers. Hopefully Intermountain will be delivering more soon. 

I had a computer failure that ended my ability to use JMRI. I found an older laptop running Windows XP that turns out to work very well as a dedicated Decoder Pro computer. I added shelf brackets to my work area to house my two program tracks. One is portable: 3' long with a single track and Kadee coupler height gauges on each end. The other is 6' long and double tracked. This is excellent for speed matching of locos. I'm back to decoder installs and loco programming. Of course one of the cool things about Decoder Pro is that I can add more of the same loco by duplicating the configuration. As an example, I have a number of SD45T-2s from the same production run. I nail down all the settings for one SD45T-2 and then copy them for the others. It's a time saver and they are pretty closely matched on speed. 

Many of my locos have snow plows as per the SP prototype. I've decided that for all locos with a plow, I will use the Kadee long shank couplers. I keep all my trip pins on the couplers and thus the best compromise is to use the long shanks. Aesthetically I do not think they look as good, but my focus is on operational reliability so I need to make the appropriate adjustments. The other rub is that I'm primarily using Kadee #5s and the long shank bulk packs have #58 sized couplers. I'll have to see how that all works out. I haven't always had the best experience coupling the two different sizes together. 

Why not convert all to #58s you ask? Because I have a very large investment in #5s from my days before I had a railroad and was only in a modular club. I decided that it would be too cost prohibitive to change over, so I'm staying with #5s. The #5 long shanks are available, but only in 4 packs. So, I'll see how this all works out. I am a big fan of the whisker couplers as they are an installation time saver. 

So there is the update. Next month's post will be exclusively on the LA Division construction with my usual photos included. 

Another goal missed....

I keep running into folks who ask when I'm going to update my blog. Well here goes...

I had hoped to have an update on the Los Angeles Division for this blog update, but that fell short. And, I missed the goal. 

In the mean time, I have been busy over the summer. Jennifer and I are trying to attend a game at all the major league baseball parks. In June we went to Texas to catch an Astros game and a Rangers game. We visited family and friends as well. 

In July, we went to the Bay Area and caught A's and Giants games. Ironically both games were versus the Indians. 

In addition I finished the long remodeling project of the laundry room. It's all done except for the countertops which should be done in the next two weeks. 

So what work have I done on the railroad? Well, the Exeter Branch back dating has consumed most of my railroad time. Not only running a lot of equipment through my quality control process, but assembling rolling stock, printing, cutting, folding and taping Car Cards and printing and cutting all new Waybills. 

I have most of the equipment on the railroad. Here are some pix of the progress: 

I'm using the 'other room' where Oil Junction, Saco, and Bakersfield are for setting out the equipment while the main room is under construction. 

I decided to replace the fluorescent lights due to the fact that I was experiencing a lot of fading. That was especially noticeable on my buildings where the construction paper roofs were fading. I wasn't as concerned about the rolling stock and motive power as it's just "weathering". I decided to switch over to LED lights. Not just replacing the fluorescent bulbs, but installing LED based fixtures. 

The first problem is that the fixtures don't have knockouts to connect conduit. Second is that the design of the fixtures doesn't easily enable the use of knock outs. I was in a quandary as the ceiling joists run perpendicular to the lights and I really don't want to put holes in the ceiling just to run wires. This issue had me stumped. 

In the mean time I pulled down all the old fluorescent lighting which left the room in relative darkness. I have some window lighting, but that's not adequate. 

In order to put the lights up without putting holes in the ceiling, I came up with a solution that will work. I'm using 1x8s to provide a mounting plate for all the lights. I route a channel in the top surface to run the wires which will connect the lights. The 1x8s are then mounted to the ceiling. The lights are then mounted to the 1x8. And all is connected electrically without any wires being visible.

As the length of the surface needs to be 13', I used biscuit joints to connect the material to make a single 13' 1x8. Everything was pre-installed prior to attaching the 1x8s to the ceiling. I didn't mount the lights, but did install the mounting screws for the lights trying to make the installation easier. 

You'll notice that boxes make very good spacers for raising the board up. And Athearn Blue Boxes and MDC boxes are great fine spacers!

When I originally installed the lights, there wasn't a railroad in place. This time around I have to try to install lights down the middle of each peninsula. It's a good thing I'm tall and have long arms! By doing all the pre-installation work, I was able to make my job easier above the railroad. 

Below is the lighting being installed over the other peninsula.

I pre-installed the screws to hang the lights. Used string to suspend each light while I connected the wires. Then used screws to attach to the boards.

As you can see, light is good. Up next is the vacuum the railroad and start moving equipment into place for the first ops session. 


Finally, last weekend I went to San Diego to operate TT&TO on the La Mesa Model Railroad Club layout. I introduced a local Phoenix guy to the railroad as well. I didn't run as many trains a I had hoped. Here is my final run. I was the second section of a west bound passenger. The RDC is nice, but not much of a challenge to operate. Especially as a second section. 

More distractions - April 2017 version

It's been a while since I posted an update. Here is what has been happening in addition to my continued home remodeling (which is nearing completion). 

The Exeter Branch is being reset. I'm backdating the railroad to 1965. That has required me to dig up a lot of equipment from storage. In the mean time I have been removing all of the existing 1980-ish equipment and boxing it up for use the new railroad. All of the waybills have been printed for the 1965 reset.

I'm knee deep in running equipment thru the car shop to ensure all is up to snuff. Not all of the equipment had been thru my quality control process. If the car is RTR or kit, it goes thru the process. We all have heard about RTR being 'ready to repair'. Kits have to be built and quality controlled during construction. The process entails below:

• Installing Kadee couplers. I modify the centering springs to provide reliable centering. For traditional Athearn, I modify the draft gear to reliably accept the coupler cover and stay in place. 
• All wheelsets are upgraded to metal wheels and the gauge is checked and adjusted as needed. Intermountain wheels are very accurate. I find about 10% of the P2K wheelsets need adjustment to be in gauge. I don't use Kadee wheels as I don't like how the black coating wears off. And Jaybee wheels are used sparingly as I've found most to be out of gauge. I have a mix of Branchline and Atlas 36" narrow tread wheel sets I use on tank cars and many covered hoppers. Most are really good, but I've had a few where the wheels aren't mounted correctly and wobble. Lastly, I find factory installed metal wheels vary with regard to being in gauge. Most are pretty good, but some require resetting the gauge.
• I validate that all wheelsets are free rolling in the trucks. If they do not spin freely in the truck, I use a reamer to hone the journals and make them free spinning. 
• I validate that the coupler height is correct. If it is not I inspect the frame to make sure it is true. I correct and warping first. If the height is still incorrect, I shim with washers between the truck and the frame. I no longer use Kadee washers exclusively. I found the equivalent metal washers on Amazon and prefer to use those as they provide less resistance to the movement of the trucks. 
• I ensure trucks swing freely. And make sure that one truck (usually the B end) is a bit looser to allow the car to compensate for changes in the horizontal plane. 
• Last, before final assembly, I add weight to match the NMRA standard. I use grams as I feel it's a bit more precise. For enclosed cars, I use pennies or other metal weights and affix them with latex caulk. I've never had a failure and the weights can be removed if needed. For open cars or cars I cannot get inside of, I use lead shot down the centerline of the car. I use Elmers white glue to hold it in place. For hoppers and covered hoppers, I will fill the valleys of the slope sheets from the bottom with show and Elmers. I'm careful to ensure that the shot stays above the body line so it is not visible. 
• Once the car has passed thru the shop, I log it into my inventory spreadsheet including the weight and shop date as well as any other relevant comments. The inventory spreadsheet is also used to generate car cards.

I'm nearly complete with the rolling stock and will be printing car cars for those that don't already have them. 

The other project I'm doing is converting the lighting on the Exeter Branch from fluorescent lighting to LEDs. I opted to buy new fixtures which are specifically designed for LEDs rather than convert the old fixtures. I hope to complete the cut over by the end of May.

The other distraction was this past week. I was in Priddy, Texas operating on the Comanche & Indian Gap Railroad. It's a live steam railroad on a ranch in Texas. I've been going there annually for the last 8 years. Live steam ops is a blast and much different than indoor railroading. Safety is also an important aspect that we don't consider indoors. Fingers can get crushed if you don't pay attention. And, cornfield meets can be bad. We almost had one on Friday night, but both trains were able to stop in time. YES, I laid on the horn when I saw the opposing headlight!

Below are some pix from the meet. You can find more on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/615098575296944/?multi_permalinks=1010352255771572&notif_t=like&notif_id=1493645246543228 

The first two are pulling into Comanche Yard on Thursday with a cut of cars. I was conductor and my engineer is in the picture to the right.

Below are pictures from West Yard which is on the other end of the railroad from Comanche Yard. I was Yard Master in West Yard on Friday. I had a yard crew of one and we kept the yard hopping and clean all day. 

And you can't be a Yard Master without a stogie right?

I hope to have the next update include actual work on the Los Angeles Division!