A Most Productive Work Day!

Yesterday was the best work day in a long time!  Among other things accomplished by others, Wayne Lawson and I were able to fix what I call a few "soft shorts".  It took the better part of the day but was well worth it!

One area was at the south Bakersfield throat.  There were a couple of turnouts there that when the loco went over them, they sung and hindered train movement.  Turns out that the connector for the Tortoise was slightly askew, soft-shorting the power from the Tortoise and the rail.  Simple fix!

The second area was at the lower staging throat.  Similar situation with the soft-short, however this one was caused by not enough rail power around the staging loop to throw the auto reverser.  Therefore, a soft-short occurred and in one instance melted a loco truck!  The solution was to run additional bus wire around to the oposite side of the loop where there are feeders to the tracks.  Problem solved!

Everything runs as advertised now and I am so grateful to Wayne for helping me with these!  They certainly tested our brain cells!

On the 17th I'm hosting a client appreciation party and will have trains up and running for the guests.

Next up on "The List", getting the UR92 software updated and adding power to a couple dead spots that cropped up with I cut track for the BDL's.  I gave up on the DT402D and sent it to Digitrax!  This stuff should be easy huh.

Test Ops Sessions and a Trip to Op Sig Event in San Jose

I did another test op session a couple weeks ago and flushed out some additional trouble spots.  Those I am working on now.  More on that later and some pix.

Mark Lestico and I went to the Op Sig event in San Jose this past weekend and we had a great time.  Got to operate on Seth Neumans' UP Niles Canyon layout and that was a blast.  I worked a job I have never worked before, the Clerk.  This position handles all the car cards (these are not given to the crew) and creates switch lists from the cards.  Very interesting job and I loved it!  More on that and photos too.

Got my dining room back! This is where we'll eat!

Good and bad.  Got the dining room back but all the train stuff in here went back into the train room...organized of course.  Now it's time for a big sale!  Already posted things on e-bay and have TONS more to post.  See the link below.  Geez...if there is anything you are looking for, let me know! 

This is a picture before I re-arranged the table and chairs.  I spent over 9 hours moving everything.  Afterward, there was so much light in the house I felt like I moved into a new home...complete with a model railroad!  LOL.  I wish I had a before picture.  Back when I moved everything out from under the layout, it was to install lower level lighting, BDL's, DS64, and do some re-wiring.  I expected that to take 3 months.  Well, it's been 3 years!  Several months ago I set a deadline to get my dining room back.  The deadline was by then end of the year (2011)...I made it!.  Happy New Year!

Check out what I am selling on ebay... http://shop.ebay.com/frankkenny/m.html

Layout Testing Successful!

This is a pic of the gang that visited on 12/27/11.  From Rear Left, Mark Bridgwater (visiting from Seattle), Wayne Lawson, Jerry Rogers, Front Row, me and Larry Lane.  I spent 27 hours over 2 days doing a number of things to be ready for the gang.  Installed 11 tortoises (One of them from a ladder!  See 2nd photo), 3 DS64's, cleaned and vaccumed the layout rooms, fixed little annoying problems, etc.  We ran lots of trains around the layout and had a great time.  A on-again-off-again short decided to be on again and melted a loco truck...of course on one of my favorite locos.  We had a few turnout power issues but nothing a bright boy couldn't solve.  All in all we had a great time and it was pleasing to see it all run so well.  Next test session is set for January 14th.


This is a pic of what I had to do to get just one of the Tortoises installed.  I couldn't move the benchwork that bows out and I couldn't get up inside due to the supports so had to use a ladder and install it from above.  It was for the upper level turnout just as the track came in from the layout.  This one and the one on the lower level took a total of 3 hours!  Really!

Wayne Lawson - Dispatching...er...reading a Digitrax manual!

Mark Bridgwater...while not a great track cleaner...he's the only one I had at the time.  Check out that face!

Jerry Rogers posing...I mean running a train through the loop above.

Couple of trains going around the loop.

Mark Bridgwater coming soon!

My good friend Mark Bridgwater is coming from Seattle on Tuesday.  I'm excited because we'll get lots of work done on the layout, right Mark ;-) and then we're going to run trains.  Hopefully a few other friends will be able to stop by so we can put the layout to the test, identifying problem areas and setting up a (Oh no, not another) PROJECT LIST...Argh!

Ok...all I gotta do is make more money so I can pay someone to do all this work!  The journey is getting old...I just want the destination!

More on Mark's visit later in the week.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Turnout motors installed and operating!

I was finally able to get more turnout motors installed and operating with the DS64's.  Still several more to go.  Was talking to Mary Barstow last week and I estimated about another 20 hours to complete this project.  Uh...I should add 100 more hours to that too!

Time has been short lately...not so much because of the holidays, but because work has been sooooo busy...but then that's a good thing!  On top of that, I've started a new business rehabbing houses.  I already worked 12-15 hours a day so now I have to decide what business am I working in for that 12-15 hours a day.  Good or bad, the days fly by!  Now if I could just get this third "job" going on a regular basis...oh wait, model railroading is not supposed to be a job...it's supposed to be fun!

Phil Klein visits from Portland

Unfortunately, I remembered to take a photo AFTER he left!  Sorry Phil!  Phil was amazing at figuring out a few little electrical glitches.  Thanks again Phil!