Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML nw pen pln.jpg peninsula design finalized

I have a re worked peninsula design finalized that allows space for the toll top dispatcher's desk. this is drawn out on graph paper but the lies did not pick up on this scan, although they came out clear on the copies I made on the same machine, for reference the skinny aisle is two and a half feet wide. that is too tight, but it allows for a four and a half foot wide peninsula, and a three and a half foot aisle on the other side of the peninsula. the nine inch wide shelf on the east wall will have only single track main lines on it so the action there will be mainly one sided. the top level shelf will be hung on the 45 degree sloped ceiling and may be as narrow as 4 inches the metal cabinet, next to the roll top desk supports a narrow gauge return loop above it about six feet three inches above the floor. On this planning diagram, I left off the existing RR, as all of the interesting stuff for the rebuild will happen on the center peninsula or the closet nook.


the round thing next to the desk is a exhaust pipe for the gas fireplace in the family room below, it gets warm, but not hot enough to cause problems. I'm tempted to build a fake pot bellied stove around it, but I really will need that space to get crawling access to the interior of the helix. I think I will make a lift out section on the lowest levels return loop to make the helix interior more accessible. at the top level, the closet nook disappears, due to the slope of the roof, so the helix will intrude into the room, getting very close to the pipe and the desk


Designed as a computer desk, it has a roll out keyboard shelf where the main drawer would be . I'm going to measure it , and see if I can set up a cork board on it, painted with the railroad's schematic on it, so that train locations could be marked with push pins.

One thing I have not figured out, is a location for a block control board, as the old location will disappear, and I don't have an obvious location for a replacement. When I first built this railroad, I did not have a centralized control panel, each block had it's own rotary switch nearby. It worked flawlessly for me, but no one else could figure it out. One possibility would be to but the block control panel in the roll top desk. If a dispatcher was in use, they could dictate block control from the desk.


Bill Nelson
 
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hi Bill,

Nice clean and simple design. I like it. Could the end of the peninsula sticking out in the room have curved corners???

You are moving forward with this really nice redo.

Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Bill,

I agree with Doc Tom, you could save a little bit of real estate by shaving the corners off of the peninsula. Other than that I like the plan so far!

I think a farewell op session should take place prior to the reconstruction, like how John Allen did before he dismantled his G&D #2. It'd also be great to take a bunch of pics.

Army and wife permitting, if you need assistance feel free to either call or shoot a email.

Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I am also available if you need extra hands for grunt work. I go to Haiti early March but otherwise weekends and some week nights free. Glad to help on this very interesting project.

Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
the aisles on the front and side of this peninsula will be three and a half feet wide, so only the rear aisle will be excessively cramped, and I'm going to make an effort to keep the action back there as simple as possible.

If I round the corners, it will be only slightly, as this design will have a lot more track, and less room for my beautiful mountains, and every square inch of scenery will be at a premium.

On the lowest level ( and we are talking low here) the track level will be close to 18 1/2 inches high. at the end there will be a creek, and possibly a passing siding at the end, but ideally there will be some scenery dividing a log camp on the back side, and Montgomery furnace ; coke ovens, iron furnaces on the front side. the mid level will be supported by a stud wall in the backdrop /divider, and all thread near the corners hidden by trees sticking out of tall rock outcroppings.

On the second main level , ( not counting the southern staging loop directly below it) Harlow, the River (as of yet not named possibly the Tomawillie) will be at the end of the peninsula. I want to have the river a much more scenic theme in this version of Harlow, with a dock with a rail spur, and facilities to handle coal and logs from barges and my beautiful steamboat the Daisy (which might become the Daisy Mae which would provide yet another Grateful Dead reference). If I round the corners It would drastically reduce the river area. The ends of the top level of the peninsula will be supported by all thread also, one hidden in the smokestack of the Harlow water works building, and the other from a odd rock formation sticking out of an improbable Snag Island, which will conveniently have a massive tree growing out of the odd rock pillar, both of which will hide most of the length of all thread.

On the top level, the end of the peninsula may be higher than most of the peninsula, supporting the narrow gauge as it winds down from the top shelf, at a much longer, gentler circuitous grade. that would make that end of the peninsula reminicent of my current Gizzard, where the sharp corners are not that much of a distraction.


As for a full throttle operating session, that would take more clean up, and repair effort than I am currently willing to put into something I'm trying to find the time to tear down. I do defiantly need to get the mountain operable and clean; if only to get Bob over there to demonstrate the aesthetic advantages of high bench work in advance of his new project. My railroad as it currently exists is a great tool for evaluating benchwork heights, as I have some way too high, and way to low, and at several levels in between.

The biggest obstacle to a operating session, would be the effort needed to clean out the aisles, but I will probably need to clean them in advance of destruction. I will study the problem, and get back with Y'all
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hi Bill,

A lot of interesting changes are in store. I love all the names you give locations and things. Very creative!!!

Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
more input

I have heard from Mack Montgomery. I consider Mack Tom and I to be the executive planning committee, as they have more operating experience than anyone else on my RR, and understand the historical theme as well as possible. Mack supports the rebuild plan as well, so as soon as I have a design of the top deck that I am comfortable with, I will begin planing the actual dissassembly of the current center aisle, allong with Montgomery Furnace, Ridgemont, and my southern staging .
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I have heard from Mack Montgomery. I consider Mack Tom and I to be the executive planning committee, as they have more operating experience than anyone else on my RR, and understand the historical theme as well as possible. Mack supports the rebuild plan as well, so as soon as I have a design of the top deck that I am comfortable with, I will begin planing the actual dissassembly of the current center aisle, allong with Montgomery Furnace, Ridgemont, and my southern staging .

Hi Bill,

I am glad you heard from Mack and he concurs with your upgrade plans. I know this helped make your mind up to follow this new direction.

I think you will enjoy this new undertaking and it will allow for you to use all of your great steam locomotives. I think you will also have a superb RR for operations which can be so much fun.

I am looking forward to seeing more of your plans and think you will have a very nice new RR in the near future.

Your buddies from the Little River RR up in the hollers of the Smokies.

Doc Tom and the boys.
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Bill,

While watching American Restoration I noticed one of the projects he took on was a mobile gas pump, and on it was a parrot with Polly Gas markings. It looked a whole lot like your Parrot Gas tankcars and other stuff that you have. When you get a chance you should Google it, it's pretty interesting.

Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Bill,

While watching American Restoration I noticed one of the projects he took on was a mobile gas pump, and on it was a parrot with Polly Gas markings. It looked a whole lot like your Parrot Gas tankcars and other stuff that you have. When you get a chance you should Google it, it's pretty interesting.

Tyler

WOW. It does look like Parrot Oil......amazing. Here are some Google Images.

Doc Tom
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SMLA-1 PO dist  H TN.jpg SWMLA1-a PO dis CC.jpg That does look a lot like the Parrot oil logo, dang I'm good!

I added photos of the parrot oil distributor in Harlow (above), and Crooked Creek (below).


Parrot oil was named for Paul the parrot, who lived with us for about 25 years.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SMLA-1MM  Fau 1016 in  Ma & Pa 2-8-0 .jpg I got my mini motors

I got my 1016 Falbauer micro motors with the 4:1 gear boxes yesterday. In between working on by back enrtyway floor, installing a teak floor in place of the tile one my kids destroyed, I got the first one installed in a PFM Ma & Pa 2-8-0




the motor is much smaller and with the gearing, slower than the can motor I had in there.

the video is much louder than the locomotive is, note how loud the click when the test bench throttle's direction is changed is
 
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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Bill,

Was that full bore on the throttle or just a little? Looks like she ran pretty good, good work.

Tyler
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tyler I'm thinking it got to about half throttle in the video.


all in all excellent for switching, possibly slightly slow fro freight, but I'd rather have a slow locomotive, having fought with too fast locomotives all my life. slower trains make your mainline feel longer.


I remember one time Dave was switching Crooked creek with #15 which is as slow as Molasses in the wintertime; and he said " A switch engine should be slow, I'm not sure anything should be that slow." I took that as a complement, as may dad said you could walk along side a log train with a Shay in front, and have no trouble keeping up. while Shays are capable of 12 mph, Dad said that on the operations he was around they never ran that fast.


Bill
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SMLA-1 riv heisle nw mtr #1.jpg SMLA-1 riv heisle nw mtr #2.jpg SMLA-1 riv heisle nw mtr #3.jpg SMLA-1 riv heisle nw mtr #4.jpg I got one of the Motorman's (micro-locomotion.com) Faulbauer 1016 motors with a 4:1 gear ratio installed in a Riverossi Heisler.

I removed the factory motor, and pressed the gear off of it, the hole in the gear was slightly large for the shaft on the gearbox end of the micromotor, so I stripped some very small multistrand wire of it's insulation, folded the multitrand wire over the shaft and pressed the gear onto the shaft and the wire, the multstrands got spread out enough so the gear is not off center, and the shaft and the wire add up to enough to make the gear tight on the shaft.


The end of motor fit a round indention in the frame perfectly, and that put the motor at just the right height over the driven gear. the other end of the motor was in the hole for the original motor in the frame. to support the motor I put it in a brass tube. I filed off a notch in both ends of the tube, and pressed the motor into the tube, and then glued the motor/ tube in place


it runs very well and very slow I will edit it to add the you tube link as soon as it hits so check again if it is not there when you look at it.



 
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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Looks good Bill, is that one of the ones from Doc Tom's old empire or one of your relics? I think I'm about to follow suit and also add some pickups. I found some pc board at the Radio Shack in the mall surprisingly so I'm about to give it a whirl. I don't have any bronze phosporus wire though, but instead I'm going to use some spare Kadee centering springs.

You'd also like this link as it deals with old timey stuff: http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/bachmann_4-4-0/wipers/

Tyler
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SMLA-1 prt oil mg#1.jpg Tyler,


I acquired one 3 truck Heisler on my own, and acquired a second later in an equipment trade from the C & S, perhaps eight or nine years ago.


Both locomotives got the same cosmetic rebuild, the unit I just rebuilt is #17, and it is almost identical to the other unit #16. the only difference is with the workmanship used in converting these from truck mounted coupler to body mounted couplers The C&S shops just remved the couplers from the tabs on the truck cover plates, while the DG CC & W RR shops cut the tabs off the truck cover plates with a dremil rotary tool.

#17 still has the tabs on it's trucks, and that identifies it as an Ex C & S locomotive. It was selected to get the remotor job first because it has less cosmetic damage than # 16, which I believe has had a longer and probably harder life.

I have been getting the wiring redone in # 17, and I'm thinking of taking the Digitrax decoder out of the Southern Rwy 622 after I study what wire goes where for the soundtrax instalation, and sticking it in old #17, So we could have a DG CC & W RR 3 truck Heisler on lease to the J. E. Patterson Coal and Lumber Co. at the club. that would leave a two and a three truck Heisler on the home laout, along with 3 Climaxes (one of them a dead Bachman unit), as well as five standard gauge, and two narrow gauge Shays , which should be sufficient.


here is my best parrot oil emblem, which I painted on an insulated coffee mug. unfortunately one of my progeny ran it through the dishwasher. the slogan used to read "The Bird is Preferred" originally I just saced it as a reference for painting the Parrot oil emblem, but now the kids are out of the hose, it may be safe to attempt a restoration.


The rain has knocked out my satellite internet Zealot is going to time me out the evil ******; I will have to copy this, and try to paste it in later. as i suspected I got timed out (they don't set up the system for folks who write as much as I do, with a slow connection and slow brain ware.


I got the Bachman 2-8-0 dissasembled to see what wire goes where, these are not made to be taken apart, a wonderful mechanism, but a nightmare to work on. this is my second time in one, the first one i was in scarred me for life. this one wasn't that bad, but since it is set up with dcc, I' can't easily test it at home


now I can start installing the tsunami and plop this digitrax decoder in the Heisler.


Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SMLa-1 motr dest #1.jpg SMLa-1 motr dest #2.jpg SMLa-1 motr dest #3.jpg SMLa-1 motr dest #5.jpg I have been destructing the motor on my #6, a NWSL Sierra # 18, a ridiculously small drivered 2-8-0. by dissasembling the original motor in place on the locomotive, I can use the bottom and front plate of the motor, I's front bearing and shaft to keep the factory worm and shaft, and keep them at the original angle and orientation.

if the replacement motor is small enough, you can set it directly on the lower plate of the original motor.

Bill Nelson
 
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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Holy metal shavings Batman! Good thing you have the courage to do that, I sure as hell wouldn't attempt that... yet.

Tyler
 
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