December Update - End of 2020

As 2020 draws to a close, I would like to post another update.

Progress on the LA Division is slowly picking up. I finished adding the small peninsulas. These stick out 3-4 feet. They add more switching as designed and fill a dead space. 

Here is space with blue tape outlining the footprint and the welding blanket protecting the floor.

Up next is the installation of the peninsula closest to the window. This was build extra strong as this is an egress point in the event of a fire. The roof is just outside of the window. The peninsula and the benchwork under the window will have solid plywood over the entire area to provide strength in the event of an evacuation. 

Following the completion of the window peninsula, I added the small peninsula to the right. 

 

Here is a look from the window side. Below is the opposite view.

The view below is the completed view with the blue tape pulled up. 

Up next is the installation of risers. First I have to fabricate them. I ripped a mix of plywood and osb that I had on hand. I have all the riser legs cut and its time to start gluing. I hope that will be completed in a day or two. 

Once all is installed, I will be able to begin laying track on the main level. That is exciting!

On December 15th, I celebrated 11 years of operating and hosted session 250. Below are a couple of pictures from the session. 

During our normal mid session break, we celebrated with homemade cupcakes from my wife. It was national cupcake day. And, a celebratory glass of Jack Daniels. Thanks Bruce for bringing it!

And a look back in time to the original shakedown session on the Exeter Branch.

Lastly, I decided to paint some roads onto the Exeter Branch. Too often do sessions end with roads blocked by spotted cars. I decided to experiment with painting some roads. At Walmart I found Apple Barrel paint called 'Pavement Black'. I thought I'd give is a whirl and like the color once applied. 

Apparently I'm not a civil engineer as the curve in the road below is a bit sharp. I'll have to adjust that. 

I think the addition of the roads gives a decent look. Certainly better than the pencil lines drawn on the benchwork. 

Up next will be to add more roads and break out the brown paint to cover the gray patches. Originally the top of the benchwork was painted gray and subsequently painted brown. 

Still more to do. I don't know if I'll ever get to scenery. I do need to make more buildings and I would like to eventually build some building silhouettes to be installed on aisle side on some of the spurs. 

I'd like wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, and of course Happy New Year!

 

November Update

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We certainly did.

Progress has restarted. I've been working on miscellaneous projects both model railroad and non-model railroad related. 

Non-railroad: Bathroom progress continues. We are now ready to install the granite. Granite was finally selected! In the way the bathroom is being finished, granite is now the item on the critical path. I guess what I'll want for Christmas is a finished bathroom! Jennifer too!! Among other projects was going deer hunting for a week. You would think we would have at least seen a deer. Nope! I have more items, but I won't bore you with that. 

I got back to welding more benchwork. Much of the mail peninsula is complete now. I have two small peninsulas to install. They are only 3-5 feet in length. This breaks up the flow of the benchwork and allows for additional switching opportunities. I have one built, but cannot install it as it will be in my want for the other. So, after test fitting, it is now resting on the ground. The other peninsula is designed to be extra structurally sound as it will support an egress point in the event of a fire. 

Here is a picture of the main peninsula progress. 

In the picture below, you can see the small peninsula on the floor to the bottom left. To the right of it you see the outline of the peninsula. The welding blankets are in place for the installation of the other peninsula. 

Lastly, I did a virtual presentation for the Operations SIG about the 11 years of running the Exeter Branch. It seemed to have been well received. The recorded the session, so if you are interested, you can view my presentation here: https://youtu.be/JW1rZ9pUYn0  It's about 50 minutes. We had some good questions and folks were very interested in my points system for job selections. 

I'll get another update posted in a few weeks. 

Atlas HH660 - illuminated number boards?

I purchased an Atlas Silver Series HH660 when they first came out. That appears to be March of 2009. Of course I bought it without a decoder because I thought "Oh, no big deal, I can put a decoder in anytime." Here we are 11 years later and is it now being removed from the box! 

I put it on the test track using DC to see how it will run. Of course it ran well, as expected with an Atlas locomotive. Cool. Now it's time to remove the shell and pop in a decoder. Shell removal was quick and easy. 

The factory Atlas board has an 8 pin socket for DCC. Great. I selected a NCE D13SRP decoder and installed it. Gave it another test run and everything worked perfectly. Everything looked like it would fit, so I carefully used Kapton tape to snug the decoder into position. I put on the shell. Nope! Too tall. I went back to the decoder inventory and pulled out a D15SRP. Nope, too tall again. 

Change of plans. I will pull out the factory board. I found a TCS M1 decoder in my box of decoders and opted to use that for the install. Of course I now need to plan on squeezing resistors into the package as well. That shouldn't be an issue. 

Once I pulled the light board and reviewed how I would do the install, I noticed something about the number boards They look as though they were made to be illuminated. Hmmm. I grabbed an LED key chain light and sure enough, they are designed to be illuminated. 

However, that means my two function decoder isn't going to work out well. And more importantly, while the number boards have the capability of being lit, it will require milling of the weight so I can get SMD LEDs installed. Atlas put a notch in the weight, but only enough to accommodate the thickness of the number board plastic.

So now my project has stalled. Waiting for me to determine whether I want lit number boards or not. It may be possible to squeeze a small SMD above the number board and light it from the top. I'll have to think on that one. Given the fact that it will not be operating in a low light situation, I will most likely take the easy way out and not light them. ...of course the easiest would have been to have a plug and play decoder work. 

Another quick and easy project screeching to a halt. If any more issues come up as a result of the installation, I will post an update. 

An Update and Progress

I guess I'm improving as this update is only 4 months since my last one in May...

In this blog update, I'll provide updates on the new railroad. I also have some project updates and a status on the bathroom remodel. I'll address them in separate posts.

Semi political statement: Since the NFL has decided to be divisive and political, I made the personal decision to not watch football this season. This was not an easy decision. I run a football pool, and that meant canceling the pool this year and disappointing 75+ participants. I also truly enjoy playing fantasy football. A lot! I started playing 5 years ago and had a blast. Plus I was successful which certainly helped. However, I cannot support the NFL this year due to their political stances. Thus, and important for the railroads, I now have Monday and Thursday nights free as well as Sunday after church.

SP Los Angeles Division update:
Since my last update, i spent the majority of the summer not working on the railroad. But, working on other projects: kit builds, decoder installs, rolling stock quality control, etc. Now I have resumed progress.

Once of the things that was a pain in the butt, was having to lug the gas cylinder for the welder up and down to the train room. Quite frankly: it is heavy! I mentioned to my wife that I was considering buying another cylinder to keep upstairs to save myself so time, effort, and procrastination. She suggested that I not only do that, but buy another cart as well. The end result is only moving the welder, gloves, and helmet. It's is much nicer!

Construction has resumed. I am building out the main peninsula as that is the key reference point for me to begin to lay track.

After welding the first horizontal section that was placed in the last update, I marked off the locations of the cross members and set them in place. Not attached yet. 

After welding the next section together and bringing it up through the window, it was put into place for alignment and leveling.

I use fiberglass welding blankets to protect the floors and most importantly the lower staging from welding sparks and slag.

And the section is in place. Welded and secure.

Up next will be cutting 27 more cross-members and then attaching them to the peninsula. After that, I'll make the next turn headed toward the helix with more main level benchwork.

I also changed my method for building the helices. I have two locations that will house helices. The end of the main peninsula will be a double track helix down to east staging which is in the pictures above. The other helix is near the stairs which will be double track from the main level down to harbor/valley staging. Above that will be a single track helix from the main to the upper level. 

I'll go into the new helix construction in a further post. However this decision required me to break down and dispose of the existing helices. Since the outside diameter is 7', it cannot be moved easily. The only option was to break them up. 

Lastly, the Blogger tool has been updated. The 'new' features make it a bit more difficult to use. I'll have to do some more research to determine why the features I'd like to use aren't available or I don't know how to use them. 

I hope everyone is safe and healthy.

Rick

Has it really been a year?

Apparently so... 

The building of the Los Angeles Division railroad hasn't been a priority in the last year. I've realized that since I already have an existing railroad, my motivation isn't as strong. I have done some work, but mostly around organizing and inventorying equipment. 

So what has happened?

First off: the Exeter Branch continues to host op sessions twice a month. I've had to cancel the last five session due the virus and shelter in place. 

In the 10+ years of operating the Exeter Branch, we have hosted 232 sessions. Reflecting on it, that's a lot of sessions hosted!

Recently, I changed the balance of the waybills and generated new ones. Why? I thought some of the layout could have a better traffic flow. In the pictures you can see the process of car and waybill assignments. Next will be to move the cars to staged trains and the industries.

For the Los Angeles Division, I have not been productive. I stalled out on the main level. I've previously posted on the welder failure. In the mean time, I've been mulling through changes to the layout construction. I did get past a nagging design issue regarding Burbank Junction. 

In my original design, I had the Valley Line diverging to the left, not the right as the prototype. Nor was I  comfortable with the rate of descent to get to the helix for Valley Staging. In a moment of design innovation, I realize that I can flip Burbank Junction to have the lines diverge correctly with the Coast Line to the left and the Valley Line to the right (well really straight), and have the line descend gradually by going around the outside of the peninsula. This will provide a preferred grade and allow the operator some additional run time. I've worked the logistics and think I have a good plan. And, I don't have the issue bothering me. 

Next is a change in helix design. I was never completely satisfied with the results of the helix construction. I wasn't happy with the materials used as they didn't turn out a level and true as I'd hoped. I was concerned that this would result in helices that would not have the level of operational reliability that I strive to achieve. So I've destroyed the ones I built and will now pursue a laser cut option. I have a design I feel will work successfully and will provide thin sub-roadbed so I can keep my helix grade to 1.4% or less. Access to a production laser is my next challenge.

One of the things I do on the side is buy railroad collections. Because I need another hobby! LOL. An interesting item I picked up from a collection purchased is a steam locomotive 'firing pin'. It is used to stop the firing valve from going to far and over firing the engine. It did come from a third generation SP head. Kind of cool. I picked up a lot of other memorabilia as well. For me this was something unusual and I learned something new! 

I have been working on rolling stock for the new railroad as well. A lot of quality control work to do. I'll make another blog post about my process for modifying the Kadee centering springs. I know this is a bit outdated with the advent of whisker couplers, but I have a boat load of #5s in inventory and I plan to use them up. 

Currently I'm in the process of remodeling the master bath. The last room in the house yet to be remodeled. It was 1970s style with a harvest gold tub, formica counters, and walnut cabinets. Not to mention the linoleum flooring and wall paper. That's been gutted. The cast iron tub removed (with a sledge hammer), the shower and toilet relocated. The ceiling is being raised from the drop soffit that was there. I had to sister the floor joists after removing the poured (over plywood) cement floor. New plywood sub-flooring installed (glued and screwed) and walls are going up. The rough out will be completed in the next week or so and then build the shower pan and tile it.

 

Last summer we did our annual baseball trip. This time was the mid-west doing what I like to call the planes, trains, and automobile trip. We started by flying to Kansas City. I took Jennifer to my favorite BBQ restaurant: Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que. She'd heard me raving about it for years. Fortunately, she thought it was excellent! We then caught a Royals game.

 The next day we drove to St. Louis to watch a Cardinals game.

Very early the next morning, we took the Amtrak to Chicago. Let's just say the St. Louis station area is a bit dicey. I'm glad we Uber'd rather than walk. 

We arrived in Chicago and took public transit (train and bus) to get to our hotel new Wrigley. That night we went to a Cubs game. Interestingly enough, I'd heard that Cubs games are a 'party with a baseball game going on'. That was a true statement! I've never seen so many people moving to and from concessions during a game.

The next morning, we headed to the airport and flew to Minneapolis and saw a Twins game that evening. Walking to and from the stadium was interesting as the area was under construction.

The following day, we headed to the airport and flew back to Chicago. We picked up a rental car and drove to Milwaukee. Why didn't we fly? Well, any flight to Milwaukee from Minneapolis would: 1) go thru Chicago and 2) we could get a car and enjoy the scenery. So we drove. We had cheese curds at a local bar...yum! The Brewers game was that evening. Online reviews recommended the hotel shuttle versus walking, so we did that. In Wisconsin there seems to be a bar on almost every corner!

Then it was back to Chicago. We arrived at our hotel near the lake and headed out for local pizza. Which was excellent. Jennifer said "let's walk to the Navy Pier". Well, that turned out to be 2 miles each way. 

The next day we headed to the Museum of Science and Technology. The museum was excellent. I wasn't impressed by the museum railroad as I had expected. That night we took the train to South Chicago for a White Sox game. 

We flew home from Chicago the next morning. So how long was the trip? We flew to KC on a Saturday and flew home from Chicago on Saturday. It was a bit of a grind, but we had a great time!

There are many other things going on as well including another job change. I'm now in IT at Wells Fargo. I loved Republic Services, but the commute was bad and going to get worse with site consolidation which would be further from my house. In January, I moved to Wells Fargo in Chandler. It's a 15 minute commute. However, since late March, my commute is from the kitchen to my home office. Ughhh.

That's it for now. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy!