Updates Finally!!! August 2016

Well, like I always say, it's been a while since I last posted.  But then again, I'm not the only one who says that.  Guess we all get behind.

Since the last post in February, not much has happened.  But then again, lots has happened in the last 48 hours!  The op session in March was cancelled due to not enough bodies and then I got busy with work and now it's August!  Crazy how time flies and I haven't done a darn thing!

The end of July 2016 brought railroad guests.  Duncan Cabassi from Australia, Dave Waterstreet from Portland, and Phil Klein from Tuscon (ex Portland) as well as locals Joel Morse, Mark Lestico, Wayne Lawson, Lloyd Leher and Cyrus Nelson.  Together we worked on the railroad and held an op session.  Things went well after the wifi giving out to the dispatcher panel was dealt with.  I was happy with the session.  One of the reasons for having a session, other than Dunan's visit, was to test the new changes to JMRI ops.  Things went well there too and of course there are more changes and I now have a list of things to do on the railroad, including things in JMRI.  Just what I need...another list of things to do!  But that's all good.

A couple days after the guests left, I was off to Atlanta where Mark Bridgwater has moved from Seattle.  With a few other friends, we began to rebuild his layout.  In a week's time we got the whole lower level attached to walls so now Mark can begin to lay track and rebuild many of the modules.  Honestly, I expected we would get both levels up, but things just take a lot longer to do than what I expect.  Mark was happy though!  Keep in mind, this is a railroad that is about the size of two 50' boxcars side by side!  I can't imagine taking on that project.  My railroad is barely a measly 500sqft!

I just returned from Atlanta this past Saturday and promptly started work on my layout!  Below are some pictures and descriptions of what I've been working on.  Everything I'm doing is simply to make things better for the operators.

One of the things that was suggested is to get the turnouts all on the same type of control.  I've been testing with various control systems, so I get it that it's a pain in the ass with multiple options.  Working on it!  The next two photos below show the south end of Bakersfield yard and the north end of the yard, respectively.  The four tracks to the left in the photo below are main tracks, the next three are the A/D tracks.  As you can see, the connect to the main and not the yard lead.  Originally, when the layout was designed, these were to be intermodal tracks.  After installation, I decided to make them A/D tracks.  So, to make things better on both ends of the yard, I am going to redesign the A/D tracks to connect to the yard lead.  In the photo below, that new turnout would need to be just to the left of the second car.  I'll need to redesign the yard control system too and that's the next project.  More on that at the end of this post.

In the photo below, with the exception of the track the box car is on, the next three tracks are mains, and the next three are the A/D tracks that need to be tied into the yard lead on this end.  Same issues as above.

One more project...these two locos were purchased somewhere a while back and had oddball decoders.  So I swapped those out for Digitrax decoders, programmed them, and speed matched the locos.  This is the second set of yard job switchers.  Done!

Thanks to Mike Stoner from Sedona, AZ, I have several hand-made turnouts on the layout.  This one decided to become unsoldered at the points DURING the op session.  So after the session, I slapped it around, soldered the points, and fixed a gauge issue too.  Done!

As mentioned above, the wifi was causing problems.  So to fix it, I purchased new equipment only to find out that with FIOS service, whatever I buy won't solve the problem.  I also found out I need to switch to a different company if I want to use wifi effectively!  Seriously!!!  Ok fine...Time Warner is coming on Friday to install their internet service and I'll dump FIOS.  I am told, with the following 4 pieces of equipment (two photos), my wifi will be killer and no more issues.  I'll believe it when I see it so giving it a try.  This will set me back about 6 discounted locomotives worth!

I need one of these above, and three of these below.

Yet another project...Once upon a time, before the California drought and global warming, I replaced my wood shake roof with a composition roof.  I never considered that once I did that, the temperature in the train room would jump to 90-100 degrees on our sunny California days!  After several years of hotter and hotter weather, I'm doing something about it by installing fans to ventilate the heat and insulation to block the heat.  This will truly be a pain in the ass project!  Primarily for several reasons.  1. The railroad take up the whole room.  2. There is a drop ceiling attached to the roof.  3. The roof itself varies in height, from garage door level to a max height of 16'!  4. I hate heights!!!  So, I need to find a couple guys that will somehow manage to maneuver around the drop ceiling up the the 16' height and install the insulation.  We'll see how this goes!!

Back to railroad operations.  In Atlanta I operated on Diamond River Valley Railroad.  Owner Neil Thomas used some awesome track warrants, below, and I got some ideas from them.

Along the lines of track warrants, I was reading an article in the Ops Sig Dispatcher's Office magazine about track warrants.  Basically, the author said that once a crew has the warrant, there really wasn't any need for the crew to contact the dispatcher until the end of authority.  Yes, I know there may be times there needs to be contact, but ignore that fact for a moment.

So always considering improvements, it got me to thinking, why bother with each crew member having a radio?  Why not install a phone system, perhaps one (or two) phones in each isle that crews could use to contact the dispatcher?  This concept could be tested by just having a radio in each isle for now to see how that works out.  And if it works well, I could install a phone system.

The benefits of this would be, no more fussing with batteries, no more "How do I work this radio?", or "Am I on the right channel?", and no more "How do I carry everything?", and no more headset issues, among other things.

And honestly, I don't think the RR room is big enough to warrant everyone having a headset.

Am I missing a benefit of everyone having a radio and headset?

This leads me to my question for you.  What do you think of this idea?  Eliminate radios and go with a phone system contact method, one in each isle, that would allow crews to contact the dispatcher.  Please let me know your thoughts.

Lastly, I think, in the redesign of Bakersfield yard mentioned at the beginning of the post, I will need to redesign and re-build the control system for the yard.  Well, Dave Waterstreet has an idea with some electronic equipment.  This will make the yard easier to operate and so he's working on that as we speak, thus my fabulous drawings of the yard ends.  More on that redesign in another post.

Ok, well I think that pretty much wraps up this post.  I think I have enough to do for a few days.  LOL.  There was more input and more projects, but I'll save those for future posts just so you guys don't get bored!  Uh...maybe you already are.  Well happy railroading!

Frank Kenny, Central Pacific Railway, CPRX

First Official Op Session since 2014! Session 02-20-16

Well it came and went. The first operating session since 2014. I can't believe it's been two years. Everything went great with the usual little Murphy things going on. But other than that it was awesome. Here are some photos.  Next session March 19. I plan to operate monthly to keep the momentum.

2 Years Later!

OK so you may or may not know that I have not operated the layout in two years. The last session was I think February 6 of 2014! Without going into boring details, I'm back!

Since this past Thanksgiving I've been working on the railroad, specifically the JMRI operating system. I have spent a considerable amount of time refining how this railroad operates with JMRI and fortunately with the help of one of the designers, Dan. His assistance has been invaluable!

And during this time I have done three shakedown sessions to make sure that things work properly. Yes there are still gremlins, but there is not much that I can do about that until they pop up and I can squash them. That's just part of model railroading.

In addition to working on the operating system, I have had to repair a number of turnouts and replace one more so far. Additionally a few electrical connections have decided to come apart for some strange reason, and I have fixed those.

The next step is to have another shakedown/qualification session on February 6. During this time I will have several of the operators come over and we will run the layout so that they can get used to the new operating system as well as get more familiar with the railroad.

All of this is leading to a more formal operating session on February 20. Even still, during that session I am going to have operators train and rotate on the various jobs on the railroad. I would like everyone to learn and know as much as possible about operating the railroad. I think that makes it more fun for everyone. And it certainly makes it less stressful for me having to train everybody every single time.

Some other things I'll be working on before the operating session is making sure all the track is clean, and that's usually not a problem because the room is very sealed. I also want to get a number of other locomotive speed-matched so that things run a little better together.  I have also cleaned up certain "work spaces" to clear up some of the clutter. And I still need to add about 300 cars to the layout! That's a bigger challenge because they all need to be weighed, have the proper trucks and couplers installed, and have metal wheels and resistors applied to the cars. That is a big project.

Oh I'm sure there's other projects I want to accomplish before the operating session but I'll save that for another post. Enjoy the photos below.

Frank Kenny

Progress at Monolith!

See my previous post about my Monolith thoughts.

This afternoon I figured I would layout some track and see how I could lay this out and still have it be operational.  This is not the final plan, but just something to start with for ideas.  Photo below.

Monolith on the CPRX 1-25-15

I thought I had a Walthers Medusa Cement plant kit but guess I don't.  I have everything else in N scale though...that I don't need!  OMG!  I need to get a cement plant kit so I can test fit structures and then figure out what I want to have and what I want to omit.

Here are some pix from the internet of Monolith and the plant, now called Lehigh Southwest Cement.

Photo by Ron Lehmer

Photo from CaptureKernCounty.com

Photo from CaptureKernCounty.com

Photographer unknown

Photographer unknown

Photo from GoldenStateRailfan.com

Photographer unknown

Photo from us.geoview.info

Frank Kenny, CPRX Railway

Progress finally???

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it progress just yet.  It's been almost a year since I have done anything on the RR...literally anything!

I received the latest LDJ, #54 and was reading it when I came across Byron Henderson's article about cement plants.  Included in it was the Monolith plant.  This got me thinking about what I could do in Monolith on my own layout.

I'm sure I have a cement plant kit in all the RR crap I have and it's just a matter of finding it.  But first, I need to make a track arrangement.  There is no track in Monolith (on my RR) yet.  So I went into the RR room last night to take some measurements and to plan what I wanted to have there.

The space available is an odd shaped space due to the fact is that Monolith sits on the outside of a curve, between the track and the backdrop.  Roughly the dimensions I have to work with are about 67" by 12", with a little extra on the right and left ends due to the curvature of the track and backdrop.

The biggest challenge to having track here is that my Monolith sits between Tehachapi and Mojave and that track is on a 2% grade.  So any track I lay at Monolith will be on a grade.  Obviously I don't want to do that because cars will roll, I will need to build-up the scenery level to be even across the length.  This should be easy with sculptamold, however, the real Monolith plant area is totally flat and level with the mainline.  Gotta have give and takes somewhere!

Ok, so that's what I will do then but first I need to figure out the track and building arrangement, which I will work on.

So the photo below is of Monolith currently (blank space!) and it shows what I am working with.  On the far right is the turnout that comes off the main railroad tracks for the plant.  My idea is to have the track curve to the left with 2 or 3 turnouts for the service tracks at Monolith.  The coal delivery track will be the rear track and extend to the far right at the backdrop.

The photo below are some notes and drawings that I made last night.

Cars for Monolith will need to be dropped off and right now I plan to drop them off (and pick-up) on the front service track.  A switcher will sort the cars and deliver to the appropriate areas of the plant.  The track you see in the photo are the main lines and the third rear track is what I call the Monolith Siding.  This track allows a train switching Monolith to get out of the way!  No, it's not prototypical but I didn't want to cause a bottleneck either.

Oh, and I tried doing research online for info and photos of the Monolith plant but there is very little. I couldn't even find any model RR info on Monolith.  I you have any photos or info, or can direct me to some good info I would appreciate the help.

Any thoughts or ideas, please feel free to email me at CPRXmodelRR@gmail.com.

Frank Kenny, CPRX Railway

Absolutely no progress!

If you have wondered why I haven't updated you or invited you to operate its because there is absolutely nothing going on on the railroad!  Nothing!!  The last operating session was back in February. And in May I held a client party and had a few friends operate trains. Since then I have not really even been in the train room. One reason is it's been so darn hot this year and I don't have air conditioning. I attribute that to the global warming issue. The train room can get upwards of 90-100°. Not very exciting and there's no windows to open and again no AC. The other issue is I just haven't been interested in doing anything on the railroad. Which is really odd for me. Perhaps when the weather cools down, which it should already have, I will get back into it. Until then don't feel bad as no one has been herE and I haven't had any operating sessions at all. Heck I would be surprised if I even remember how to operate the railroad and the JMRI system!  Frank Kenny

Layout Prep for Client Appreciation Party

I haven't posted for a while now and that's because of two things.  First, I am still burnt out from the Portland guys visit in Feburary.  LOL.  Nothing negative, just a lot of layout stuff before, during and after.  Second, work has fortunately been busy and unfortunately that keeps me from the railroad.

Every year I host a Client Appreciation Party at my house and have the railroad open to guests.  They always love seeing the layout and the kids like it too.  I have a few of my crew over to run trains and they always let the kids (and adults) run the trains.  And therefore, I must get things cleaned up and running.  It's funny how one day things run fine and then the next time the system goes on, some things don't work fine.  Murphy....Get the heck outta here!

With that in mind, I put together a track cleaning train and ran it around the railroad about a dozen times.  I found two places where the track is dead!  I fixed one spot and the other will take a bit more time to repair.

My layout room is very sealed.  However, the cleaning train picked up quite a bit of "stuff" from the rails.  And it's amazing how much metal the magnet picks up from the track too.  Where did all this junk come from?  No one has been in here in 2.5 months!

Due to our recent earthquake in March, I had one 4' ceiling light panel fall to the floor and break.  Fortunately it missed all the cars in Bakersfield Yard and I don't know how it missed the yard because it's right under the panel.  Anyway, I replaced that.  No damage to anything else on the layout fortunately.

A while back I created maps for the railroad so operators would know where they were on the railroad.  This weekend I took one more step and used post-it arrows pointing to their location on the railroad.  Hopefully that will help people a little more.  See the photo below.  The top arrow is for the upper level and the bottom arrow is for the lower level.  Hopefully that is clear enough.

I was going to prepare several trains in JMRI Ops for the guys to operate during the party, however, I'm thinking they will be occupied with guests so I scrapped that idea.  I did add a few more cars to the layout however.  I ordered more wheels to replace the plastic on a number of new cars I'd like to add to the layout so hopefully they will arrive this week and I can bang that out.

I've been pondering a paint scheme for the CPRX but no concrete designs yet.  I'm going to send some shells out to get painted and see how it looks.  More on that in a future post.

And finally, I added a photo of the "temporary" engine facility that is becoming more and more permanent as I haven't posted that in the past.  See below.

I think that is about it for this post.  Thanks for reading along.

Frank Kenny, CPRX Railway

Route map with arrows added to identify the locations a little better.  Top arrow is for upper level and bottom arrow is for lower level.

Track cleaning train at work.

Bakersfield "temporary" locomotive facility.