Bill and Tom's EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in Logging and Mining

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
It is together and happy on DC . It will spin both sets of drivers at full slip, which is when it would mess up on DC.

Very impressive engineering , I have had some Bachman and Proto 2000 locos apart and working on this one was much easier.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Fixed!

The Y-6-b made the trip to the club last night , and was tested on DCC, and all who witnessed it concluded it was fixed. My thanks to Broadway limited's warranty department, who sent me the parts and let me fix it myself . I'd have hated to be parted from my toy, and have someone else s fingerprints on it.


It ran very well and sounded great. time soon to clean track and to find it a coal drag!


Bill Nelson
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Good to hear the Y6b is up and running again, it'd be great to see it roam freely on the club layout with a long string of hoppers behind her.

Also as upon Bill's guidance, all I asked for Christmas was a book of graph paper, a compass and a french curve to start designing my modules in a more scale environment than Microsoft Paint. We'll see what I come up with, hopefully my ideas will actually work out relatively well. The next modules I want to build are my Badger Imperial quarry and my main yard, the quarry shouldn't (in theory) take up too much real estate but the yard on the other hand... we'll see how big she'll turn out to be.

Tyler
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
graph paper. yards ect.

When I work with the graph paper I traditionally start out with one square representing a 3x3 inch square, so a four by four square square is a square foot., when I have a plan I like, I re draw it doubled, so a four by four square square = a six inch by six inch. at that larger scale I can represent both rails, check clearances, and avoid some of the things we can do to cheat when we draw a plan , allowing us to draw in stuff that would never fit.


The tight space in my RR room made planning a challenge, but what I built works. I have evolved my RR toward longer trains, though, and this has caused problems.

With a modular yard you can cheat, you can put a yard throat on one module, or have two for a double ended yard. Later, if you need a bigger yard, it is easy to splice in longer tracks in be tween them.


One bit of philosophy. Harry Brunk, in his series Up Clear Creek on the Narrow Gauge, in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette, says he builds his yards last. He says he used to build his yards first, but then he would spend a lot of time playing with his trains in the yard, and it would take him a lot longer to build his layout.


Bill Nelson


Bi
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
A plan example

I scanned the original plan for Harlow on my DG CC & W RR. this plan is so old the grid on the graph paper has faded so much it doesn't show up well; but this is the best example I have, as Harlow was built very close to this plan, except for the lower right, where I added to the benchwork, about where that stray line is, and added the engine facilities.

with graphic converter I was able to manipulate the image enough to make the grid visible, although it fuzzed some other things up some it was worth it

The tracks are shown by two lines. these do not represent the rails, but rather the clearance limits, which is why the tracks seem so fat in this drawing.

Bill Nelson
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
progress

last Monday I got some jumper wires soldered between the stock rails and the points on the switch leading to the lumber loading tracks in the Sawmill area. With those jumpers in place, the last switch is operable.

I also did some tweaking and filing on some of the other switches to get them operating more reliably. I am getting close.



I also did some serious track cleaning in the tunnel between Paterson and Cumberland Furnace, where some very obnoxious unknown black stuff that was resistant to a bright boy had colonized the rail. Next week I'll be working on cleaning rail in the far helix, as well as continuing work on the sub road bed for the hidden sidding in the sawmill area.


Bill Nelson
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
When I work with the graph paper I traditionally start out with one square representing a 3x3 inch square, so a four by four square square is a square foot., when I have a plan I like, I re draw it doubled, so a four by four square square = a six inch by six inch. at that larger scale I can represent both rails, check clearances, and avoid some of the things we can do to cheat when we draw a plan , allowing us to draw in stuff that would never fit.

If 3x3 = 9 sq inches, then 4x4 = 16 sq inches, and 6x6 = 36 sq inches, not 144 sq inches which is the area of your "sq foot" squares. :confused:

I use 1/4 inch graph paper, one square initially equals 3 inches with four squares to the foot, enabling me to scale up or down as I see fit.

Doesn't make me a better layout planner, but it does keep me from losing my mind! :cool:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
You are thinking multiplication. think addition, 3 inches plus 3 inches = 6 inches. six plus six + 12 , so a four by four block of squares makes a square foot.


at the next level each square = 1.5 inches, and it takes an eight by eight block to get a sq ft.



Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Repairs to a bachman 2-8-0

at the club we have a Southern railway green and gold 2-8-0.

I have one of these on my home RR which serves as the Southern railway passenger interchange locomotive. this is a very well detailed model, and Bachman has done well with the Southern Green and Gold passenger livery. The odd thing is the 2-8-0 is properly a freight locomotive. The paint scheme is correct, however, as a consolidation with this number was used in the Southern's steam excursion program in the 70's and sported the fabled green and gold.


There is a design flaw with this locomotive, there are six wires from the locomotive to the tender; and two plugs the tender is attached to the locomotive with a drawbar which sets on a pin. The problem is when there is a derailment, or an error putting the locomotive on the rails, the pin can miss the drawbar, and the tender will be pulled by the tiny wires. this causes the wires to break at the plugs.

My locomotive had one wire break, this one has four broken wires. on my locomotive I backed the terminal out of the connector, a skill I learned in my former life as an automotive service technician. soldered the wire onto the terminal, and reinstalled it in the terminal. this job was a ****, and with four wires broken on this locomotive I'm thinking it will get hard wired.


On my locomotive I got a piece of insulation stripped off a wire pushed onto the pin and glued, so the drawbar cannot come off the tender. I will probably do something similar to this one.


I'm glad we have this locomotive at the club , for some reason mine won't work on the 00 address on DCC. when the club's locomotive works I can run my five car Southern Green open platform coach train behind it at the club.

Bill Nelson
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
first step

I got some very fine wire extensions soldered on to the broken locomotive wires, Next I have to find a drill to drill a hole through the floor of the tender, so I can pass the wire through the floor to bypass the plugs.


I founf a small piece of medical tubing that is a press fit on the tender's drawbar post so I can attach the drawbar to the tender, press a short section of tube on the end of the post and tack it with glue, and it will be unlikely that the drawbar will come off acidentally.
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
It got worse anyway I got the wires fixed and the train runs on DCC. it just wont stop! tied 22 which is the address club practice would have it cary. also trie o3, the factory setting, and neither worked I may try swapping the decoder from Thomas the tank engine , which is 10, as digitrax would not let us use 01, the evil **********.

possible I got some wires wrong, but I had my locomotive look at the wires.


Bill
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
next step

I found in my equipment box, a bypass plug that replaces the decoder, and allows DC operation, so I guess the next step is to swap out the decoder for the plug, and test it on DC. if it works on DC, then I need to try to a different decoder.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Daylighting the tunnel

while running track cleaning trains we had a big problem with one tunnel, and after the track cleaning train was derailed inside it we found there was almost no access, and removing the train involved some risky maneuvers.


I started to daylight the tunnel last week (sadly I did not have my camera for a before picture


I removed scenery to get access to parts of the tunnel, and then cut chunks of styrafoam to layer into a removable block of scenery that will allow access to the tunnel.

To keep the styrafoam snow to a minimum, I worked directly over a trash can with a very sharp knife, and a thin kerf Japanese style Pull saw.


As I stacked up the layers, I fastened them together with bamboo shish-Kabob skewers


I will need to build some foam rocks under this outcropping, so it will fit into the scenery, and I will need to carve on them like these syrafoam rocks in the last picture.


Bill Nelson
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
THe Southern 2-8-0 works!

At the Cub tonight I tried to run the green and cold consolidation. This time it didn't take off uncontrollably. instead it shorted out. I found that it did not short out if I lifted the tender truck off the track. when I picked up the locomotive for repair the front tender truck was off the tender. since they both were hooked up to red wires I set up the insulated wheels to the same side as the back truck. I removed the front two axles, and the locomotive tan on address #22. I put the axles back in the opposite way , and #722 is back in service.


It doesn't have traction tires (I am wary of exposing traction tires to the Goo gone I use on the center line track cleaning car), so I used it on the track cleaning train that I ran on the upper deck of the far peninsula. Next week I can put in the top bridge, and start cleaning on the upper deck against the far wall.

Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I removed the front two axles, and the locomotive tan on address #22. I put the axles back in the opposite way , and #722 is back in service.


Next week I can put in the top bridge, and start cleaning on the upper deck against the far wall.

Bill Nelson

Way to go! That is such a good looking locomotive. I am happy it is now running.

Good move on daylighting the tunnel also. I am back from Haiti and hope to get by the choo choo club this Monday PM 3-28-11.
Doc Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Welcome back, Kit sent us pictures of your latest mission trip; once again thank you for your service to the poor and the sick.

With the Clubs Southern #22 in service, I will check out your full size Southern passenger cars to see how well they do at the club, once we have the track cleaning a little farther on. I'm using the Southern 2-8-0 with the track cleaning trains, as it has no traction tires to get messed up by the cleaning fluid, nor does it trip the circuit breaker when close to the DCC base station like the Heislers do.

On my home RR I am working on track maintenance and cleaning, and on the Crooked Creek engine house's roof.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
We have gotten a lot done at the club recently, and the big yard is clean and operable, as is the near helix and the lower level staging yard and loop. We have cleaned the track in the tunnels.


track cleaning on the far wall on the lower level found some track defects that resisted repair. the track in that area was laid out on blue foam, which offered all of the structural support that might otherwise be found by laying track on marshmallows. I was trying to fix one kink, and consulted with Eric. We also were having discussions with Bob, who is planning a home layout, and we were advising him against his plan to lay track on blue foam. several of us took part in those discussions, including Eric, and the next thing we knew, Eric had totally removed all of the track on the lower section on the far wall. He is planning on rebuilding using Central Valley tie strips and rail, a modern alternative to traditional hand laying. Central valley sells tie strips (think flex track without the rails) the ties have indentions specifically sized for the size of the rail, so rail glued or spiked in place is held in gauge. They also sell switch kits that have incredible detail. It will be fun to get to look at this stuff in person, it should build up into very well detailed track.


Running track cleaning trains on the far helix, I had derailment problems from vertical curves that resulted from the helix having been built with sub roadbed made by sandwiching 3 sheets of thin plywood together. it has little rigidity, and not enough support, so the grade varies, and locomotive and rolling stock with . While we were discussing the prospects or rebuilding the far helix, we came up with the option of replacing it with two return loops one on each level. This would cut one of the layout's two loops into two separate lines. This is an intriguing posibility with lots of operational implications, big loops of track are not prototypical, and make realistic operations difficult or at least weird.


here is a draft of a dispatchers schematic. If the helix remains the top line and the bottom line would be hooked together, the alternate plan would have a return loop with two storage tracks added on the end of the top and bottom tracks

Bill Nelson
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
At the train club the last couple of weeks I have been working on scenery shapes with what I call glue shell.

years ago Tom and I were able to get a product called fab-u-drape at a local craft store. it was cloth that had a water soluble glue on it. you could get it wet and drape it over your cardboard land shapes, and it would dry hard, making a good base for plaster, or other scenic materials, but it was a lot neater than traditional hard shell.


when it was no longer available, I tried other methods to try to get the same results and neatness. now I make the shapes with cardboard, paint the cardboard with undiluted elmers white glue, add paper shop towels (tougher than most paper towels); and then paint the shop towels with undiluted Elmers.


this gets me a hard surface, that I cad add plaster too where I want rock, or paint it and add ground cover where I do not. with this method I can work up close to my track and not make a big plaster mess.

I'll try to get my camera there to document it before it all gets covered up


Bill Nelson
 
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