Update...has it been that long?

Greetings from the Los Angeles Division!

According to Google, my last blog post was July. Wow! I guess I've been procrastinating a blog update for way too long. 

With that being said, I've had a number of diversions, none of which kept me from blogging. I guess I didn't feel I had the best content to share. So, I'll get everyone caught up now that I have too much content.

After the Golden Spike, there was a both a big relief and a new pressure to get the first operating session kicked off. Wiring was the bulk of the work required to get the railroad ready for operating session #1.  Little of which can be seen, but was essential. 

With the wiring complete, I was looking forward to the next milestone of getting cars put onto the railroad. Lots of cars. Before I could start that, I needed to clean the railroad. That began with vacuuming EVERYTHING! I started by wiping down every horizontal piece of steel. These surfaces collected a lot of dust and some debris. Next was to vacuum. 

A friend of mine recommended that I exhaust my vacuum to the outside from the room. He had done that successfully in his restoration business and reduced the PPM (parts per million) below required  minimums. I had a new vacuum, still in the box, sitting in my garage. That became the vacuum to be used for cleaning. Jason also loaned me his Cyclone Dust Collector which filtered all of the big pieces away from the vacuum filter. 

I had recently bought a TopSide Creeper at an estate sale. That became a great platform I used to direct the vacuum exhaust connection thru the window. 

I used zip-ties to hold the rigid vacuum tubes above the railroad. The last thing I needed was to damage the track with a vacuum hose. 

Everything is connected and vacuuming is in progress. 

Between my supply of vacuum hoses, adapters, and some from Jason, I was able to exhaust the vacuum from a single place in the room . The windows are becoming harder to open and close due to the railroad being in front of all of them. Some structural settling hasn't helped either. 

As it was summer in Arizona, the temperatures outside were well over 100 degrees. I needed to create a buffer at the window to keep the hot air out and the cold air in.

I grabbed a stack of car towels to do the job. 'Car towels' are those I use to dry the cars after washing them. They are now multi-use tools!

Vacuuming took a VERY long time. I vacuumed the railroad from top down. All three levels. 

Next was to clean the floors. To do so, I removed every box from under the railroad and vacuumed them as well as wiping clean the bottoms of the boxes. A lot of cardboard boxes I use to store equipment under the railroad have accumulated debris on the bottoms over the years of construction. I wanted to eliminate the debris on the bottom of the boxes.

It took a number of days to get the floor Swiffered and mopped. It was all a lot of work and took much longer than I had expected. Clearly, I was too optomistic.

With the floor cleaned, it was time to thin out the tools in the room. Clamps, wood, drills, caulk, spools of wire, etc. all were removed from the room. I was relieved to see the welder finally leave the room too! The TopSide Creeper stayed, and is now stored under the railroad. I'll likely need it in the future.

Now that the cleaning was complete, it was time to start putting cars on the railroad. Well, not quite. 

Since I'm using Peco Insul-frog turnouts, I needed to put an insulating top coat on the frog rails. Peco Insul-frog turnouts have a problem with shorting as the two rails approach the frog. If a wheelset tread is too wide, or too flat, it can cause a short. From my testing, the older Proto 2000 wheelsets (blue blister pack) seem to have a wider/flatter tread. Well, that's a problem as I bought a boatload of those wheelsets a number of years ago, when they were stupid cheap at MB Klein. They have been deployed across my freight car fleet. I certainly wasn't going to replace wheelsets. 

After reading about methods to correct the shorting Peco frog rails, I was going to use the recommended solution of nail polish painted on the frog rails to provide extended insulation. The downside of the nail polish solution is that it has to be reapplied over time. I mentioned this to my helper Tim, who worked in the epoxies industry. Tim found a high performance clear coat that can be applied directly onto metal. I ordered a 4oz container and painted the frog rails on each turnout. Disposable micro brushes worked great applying this clear coat.

Finally, with everything ready, it was time to begin populating the railroad with rolling stock.  We started pulling out cars from boxes and placing them in Taylor Yard.

In the picture to the right, Jason is unboxing cars while I'm logging each one in my inventory spreadsheet, which indicates that the car is put into service. Fortunately, as I have been applying my quality control process to the fleet, I log the cars in the inventory spreadsheet. 

There are a lot of cars on the railroad. The unboxing process starts by locating cars in their storage boxes, pulling out cars out of their manufacturer boxes, and placing them in Taylor Yard. Pictured right is Taylor. In the foreground at the bottom of the picture is the Bullring Yard. 

A picture of the Bullring.

After putting out hundreds of cars, I needed to get cars out of the yard to make room for more cars. We blocked the SP and SSW boxcars together and pulled them onto other parts of the railroad for storage.

We began running trains and moving the cars out of Taylor and onto other parts of the railroad. This was a great way to test the railroad too.

I made sure to unbox plenty of cabooses as well. They are stored on the caboose track in the distance and the service tracks (temporarily) near the turntable pit.

The adding of cars continued. And continued.

Moving the cars also provided an opportunity to do some helix testing. The results were good!

I continue to add cars today. The process has slowed as I'm now pulling out cars that have yet to be quality controlled. With an estimated car volume of over 2000 cars, it will take a while to get the railroad populate complete. I'm about 1600 cars thus far and more cars are needed. 

Next was to begin prepping for the first operating session. 

Originally, I had planned to use car cards and waybills. And still plan to. However, I have yet to install the fascia. There wasn't a place to mount the car card boxes. In order to get the first session going sooner versus waiting to get the fascia installed, I opted to go with switch lists as an interim solution. 

I created a switch list for each jobs and the industries served. In the switch lists, I pre-wrote the car types that are serving the industries. By doing so, I only have to fill out the reporting marks and car number on the switch list. While this isn't the most flexible system, it does allow me to get the railroad operating sooner. I'll dive more into my switch lists in my next blog update, whenever that happens.

First was to get cars set out to all the industries. I'm sorry to say, that most of this happened by hand. Here is a series of the cars in place for the first session.

Right is the LA Times on the peninsula. The rest of the area is Alameda Street. The Los Angeles Transportation Center (LATC) is in the background under the upper staging, which is Coast Staging.

In the view Alameda St. is on the right side of the aisle. Cars are sitting in LATC as well. On the right side is Tweedy on the main level and Ventura on the upper level. The 6 track part of Coast Staging is on the centerline of the peninsula. The other 4 track part of Coast Staging is along the wall at the end of the aisle. On the right side of the peninsula is Taylor Yard. And, on the other side of the the aisle from Taylor is Gemco on the main level and Camarillo on the upper level. 

Twenty steps closer than the above picture, Alameda Street is both on the right and left. In the foreground on the left is the Tweedy piggyback ramp. The close 'small' peninsula is the LA Times. The far small peninsula is an interchange and other industries. This is also the 'Egress Peninsula' where we can exit the room through the window, and on to the roof. Hopefully, never to be tested! Above that is Ventura to the left and Coast Staging along the wall and down the peninsula centerline.

More industries on Alameda on the right side of the aisle. You can see both tracks leading to the helix and East Staging. The Bullring is visible on the right side of the peninsula. On the left of the aisle is Dolores Yard on the main level and Oxnard on the upper level. 

In the foreground is the helix and main track at the end of the Taylor peninsula. The main heads to Alameda Street and eventually Harbor Staging. The helix heads to the two East Staging yards. Against the wall is Watson Center in Carson, CA. The GATX Tank Train tracks are along the wall in front of the two windows. Following the main to the left will take you to Harbor Staging. On the upper level is Oxnard and the Ventura County Railway. 

In this view, you can see the TV at the end of the peninsula. The TV displays video cameras for each of the lower level staging yards. The operators can watch their train enter or depart the yard via the TV. 

On the main level is Van Nuys to the left. Anheuser- Busch is at the end of the aisle. Following the main through Van Nuys will take you to the helix to the upper level. To the right side of the aisle is Pacific Scrap, the end of the main level and the main headed to Harbor Staging. On the upper level is Camarillo on the left, the Ventura County Railway at the end of the peninsula and to the right. 

 

On the main level is Van Nays. There are a number of local industries. Following the main will take you to Anheuser-Busch and the helix to the upper level. 

Another view of Van Nuys on the left of the aisle and the Bullring Yard to the right.

On the right side of the aisle on the main level is Taylor Yard. Gemco Yard on the left. Camarillo is on the upper level above Gemco. 

On the left of the aisle on the main level is the General Motors plant in Van Nuys. This plant made Camaros and Firebirds Gemco is in the distance. Camarillo is on the upper level. And, as you can see, the end of the peninsula is serving as a staging area for crews. The switch lists with clipboards, throttles, coupler picks, and pencils are ready for the first session crew. 

On the main level is the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) at the end of peninsula. To the left of that is the Schlitz brewery. To the left of that is Burbank. On the upper level is Somis.

On the main level is more Burbank industries and Somis on the upper level. 

Wrapping around the corner benchwork, the main level is Burbank and the upper level is Moorpark. At the front edge of the main level is the spline transitioning to Valley Staging from Burbank Junction.

The main level is at the end of Burbank. Burbank Junction is in the foreground. The helix connects the main and upper levels. The panel found in the foreground is for routing to Valley Staging. This panel is temporary until the fascia is installed and the card boxes are mounted for staging. Note, the TV is providing a view of each lower level staging yard throat. To the left of the area pictured above is the 2 track 6" wide section of benchwork that goes across the stairwell connecting to Glendale. 

In the picture to the right, Glendale is in the distance and Burbank Junction is in the foreground. 

Pictured is the west end of Taylor Yard and the engine facility. The turntable is included which was active in my era. There are multiple service and ready tracks for locos. To the right on the main level is the approach to Glendale.

On the left side of the aisle on the upper level is the west end of Somis and the approach to Camarillo. Below that is the DWP. In the distance, where the windows are, is the 4 track part of Coast Staging. The Ventura Branch is in front of staging and continues to the right and the end of the upper level. Below that is Glendale. To the right is the connection across the stairwell to Burbank Junction.

I the mean time while I was preparing the railroad, I achieved the designation of Operations Ninja as part of the Achievement Program from the Operations Special Interest Group or OpSIG.

For those not aware, I am the OpSIG President. As such, I felt it important that I complete enough of the individual achieve-ments to become a Ninja. This is an operations related achievement program. We kicked off the program in July and it has been a great success thus far. 

If you'd like more information on the Achievement Program, please visit the program website: www.opsig-ap.org. Alternatively, you can contact me with questions. 

After weeks of preparation, I was ready for the first session. Neither staging or Taylor Yard would be active. My goal was to run a shakedown session, find issues, and ensure everything works. 

I set the expectation with my crew that the first sessions will be to shakedown the railroad. And, to expect and report issues. Some issues that occurred, but everyone had a good time. 

The train is descending the helix after working on the upper level. This is the single track helix. To the left is Port Hueneme staging. This was the shipping destination for Mazda imports. 

Pictured to the right, on the left side of the aisle, is Camarillo on the upper level and Gemco on the main level below. The right side of the aisle is Taylor Yard and Coast Staging above. For this session, staging wasn't active.

You can see the Taylor engine facility as pictured. In the background is work on the upper level and the other side of the peninsula is the LA Times job. 

Another view of Camarillo, Gemco, and the DWP on the left side of the main level peninsula.

We wrapped up Session 1 with everybody railfanning the 32 car train which ran from Coast Staging (upper level) to Valley Staging (lower level). I must say, it looked awesome. The super elevated curves are really cool. The run time was 33 minutes. 

Next is a photo dump of pix from the other  operating sessions. 

Before the first session in October, I went on a driving trip to attend operating sessions in Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, and Okahoma. I first drove to Denver to attend Front Range Rail. I operated during four scheduled sessions and was invited to attend an extra session on a fifth railroad. I had a great time and met new folks. 

From Denver I drove to North Platte, Nebraska. The next day, I went to Bailey Yard. That was a bucket list item. The yard is massive. I went up in the observation tower, took some pictures, and observed a lot of yard! 

I then headed to Kansas City to attend live steam ops for the week. Of course, I stayed near my favorite BBQ restaurant, Joe's Kansas City. I actually had dinner there 4 nights in a row. Yes, I like Joe's!

Live steam operations were scheduled daytime Tuesday thru Thursday. 

So, my nights were free. I had two friends organize operating sessions for me to attend. I operated on Mike Porter's CGW and Mark Steenwyk's Milwaukee Road Beer Line. I had a great time at both sessions. Thanks to Mike and Mark for hosting me!

On Friday morning I headed to Tulsa. I had reached out to my friend Dale Baker to see if he would set up a session on his Port of Catoosa railroad. Dale was more than willing to do so. Beyond that, Dale was able to set me up with two more operating sessions. One on Steve Whiteside's Hollywood and Claymore and the other on Steve Davis' Kansas City Southern. I had a great time operating on all three railroads. Everyone was so great. 

Not only did Dale arrange the sessions, drive me around, he gave me a very nice place that he had made. Thanks Dale, it is so cool!

Since I was going to be in Tulsa, I was asked to present on the OpSIG Achievement Program at the NMRA Indian Nations Division Meet. I was glad to. The feedback from attendees was very positive. I took the opportunity to show off my Ninja badge and lanyard.

From Tulsa I drove straight through to Tempe. I did make a stop in Amarillo for fuel and food. You cannot go through Texas and without a visit to Buc-ee's. The BBQ sandwich was good!

The drive home was 17 hours of seat time. I was glad to finally make it home and was worn out! My trip odometer turned 3315.0 miles as I pulled into the driveway. 3315 miles in 10 days!

While the railroad construction is complete, there was and is still a lot of work to do. The big priority was to get staging active. I have five staging yards, four of which are under the main level. If you've read the past blog updates, you noted that I was going to have a timer board for each staging track. That would ensure that power to the staging track is shut off after a designated period of time. While that was a good idea, the timer boards I ordered on Ebay were more problematic than expected. When a short would occur, the timers would reset. That wasn't desirable. I needed another solutions.

I decided to replace the timer boards with relays activated by Arduino. Note, I hadn't planned to use Arduino at all, but it has become the best solution for many of my needs for the railroad. Another set of relays needed to be installed to control the track power for each staging track. I created new code to make the functions work correctly. ChatGPT has become a great resource for code development. I'm not a C or C++ programmer by trade. I can read the code though. But, code construction was more of a challenge. So, I have spend quality time with ChatGPT to generate the code to function as I needed. 

Of course, converting the staging tracks took some time. All of the timer boards per each staging track (46) were removed and the new relay boards needed to be installed. 

Last was to get the servos working for Coast Staging turnout control. We tried and tried to get the servos to work and were never successful. I had originally opted to use servos as they would have a low profile versus Tortoise switch machines. I had one last option, and that was to try Model Railroad Control Systems (MRCS) switch motors. I spent a lot of time reviewing their offerings and selected a model to use. I placed an order and eagerly awaited their arrival. They were shipped promptly and I received them quickly. 

It was time to get them installed. As you can see, the MRCS motors are small and have a small footprint. 

The first test was choosing and adjusting the throw. I opted to install the motors on top of the benchwork as they have a very low profile. 

I use a 'Z' bend in my throw wire which connects to the throwbar. This gives me some buffer in the throw tension. I determined that I needed to move the pin in the MRCS turnout motor to a location with a shorter throw. They have a very simple system which involved moving a pin on the gear managing the throw. An ingenious design. It worked perfectly and I began the installation of the 9 motors. Of course, I bought 10, so I would have a spare if any issue occurred.

Lastly, it was time to start the process of making backdrops. A trip to Home Depot to pick up 22 sheets of 1/8" Masonite. We went over to Jason's where he has a much better set up for ripping 4x8' sheets than I do. Unfortunately, I neglected to take pictures before we started. 

At the end of the work session, I had 66 sheets of backdrop material. As a bonus, I have 22 pieces of 6" Masonite that will be used for fascia.

Again, these are in progress pictures.

This is an incredibly long update. If you've read it thus far, thank you! There is much more to share, but this post is pretty long, so I'm going to wrap it up. My next post will include some videos and dive into my switch lists. 

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable Christmas, Hannaukah, or your choice to celebrate, this time of year. I wish everyone a Happy New Year and a safe and prosperous 2026!

Now, it's time add more cars to the railroad!