LOTS OF PROGRESS! And a step backward.

Over the past week there has been lots of progress that I'd like to tell you about and one setback.

Joel Morse has come by a few times to build building mock-ups.  This has kind of brought the layout into 3-D.  It's amazing what a difference a few mock-ups can make.  I've included a few photos in this post below, and I'll do a separate post showing Joel's work.


Mike Stoner of Sedona, AZ and I made plans for him to come out and replace all 10 of the Peco curved turnouts left.  When I originally planned the railroad it was designed to use Peco curved turnouts to save space.  As I was building it, Atlas came out with their code 55 track.  At first I simply started laying the Atlas track, leaving the Peco track in place.  However, the difference between the two was so dramatic, that I just had to replace the Peco with Atlas.  I replaced all of it except these 10 curved turnouts because there was nothing to replace them.  Years later Atlas finally came out with curved turnouts and to my disappointment, the radius was way too sharp.  So there the Peco's stay!  They have always caused me problems for various reasons.  Don't get me wrong.  They are great turnouts.  They just don't look great next to the Atlas track work.

So, Mike was able to come out to replace all 10 of them.  He arrived on April 26th and left on the 28th and we still only were able to replace 8 of them!  Poor mike was stuck bent over the lower level railroad for three days!  I fed him only cheese crackers and peanut butter and a little bit of water to wash it down and wouldn't let him leave until it was done!  He was replacing the north throat of Bakersfield yard, an important stretch of railroad!  And of course, all turnouts are curved so that made it a much more difficult job.  Thanks Mike!

We just barely go the last Tortoise installed when we had to leave for the airport!  They are not wired up yet but I'll get that done soon.  Honestly, I'm a bit nervous that I might ruin the turnouts.  The look amazing!!!  Below are some photos of the process.

Ah, he's smilin' now!  Mike Stoner starting the process of replacing the throat turnouts by first installing thin strips of homasote.

I spent countless hours getting all the Tortoises installed and then wired in this not-so-accessable area just to tear them all out again when Mike replaced the turnouts!

Mike explaining the project.  Notice the bandage on his thumb.  The day before he flew out he slipped on his skateboard and fell on his thumb, tearing off the nail.  He powered through though.

Tearing out the old Peco turnouts.

This is Ron distracting Mike from doing the job.  Mike needed a break and was happy to engage.

Peco's gone!!!

Homasote installed.

Track lines drawn.

Tie installation.

Hmmm...one of those Atlas curved turnouts came in handy after all...just not in this location.

Spiking the rail.

Lining up the ties.

This is Mike's work area for three days!  Good thing we can't hear Mike!  ;-)

Continuing to slave away.

The angles were terrible for laying track.  Mike thought he was going to draw some lines on homasote and do this on a work bench.  That idea quickly disappeared.

Spiking rail.

Success!  First turnout done and tested!

Mike's tie jig.

Lots of detail to doing this.  Mike is a perfectionist.

More spike detail.

Laying another one.

See that determination!

Are ya done yet?

The master at work.

Move your thumb...I can't see.

A lot of mess for just replacing some turnouts.

Electrical testing to make sure there are no shorts.

All done.  This and the next several shots are of the completed turnouts from left to right.  The darker ties are Atlas track.

I can't thank Mike Stoner enough for taking 3 days of his life and spending them replacing all these turnouts for me.  Thank you Mikey!

That same weekend I had some of the other guys from the crew over and we accomplished a number of  those time consuming projects.

Mark Lestico installed MT couplers on 15 locos.  Joel has been installing resistors on wheels and for some reason about 40% of them have been shorting.  Mark claims it is very easy so Joel and I called his bluff and had him show us how it's done.  Lucky for Mark, Mike was working on the turnouts with tools all over the layout, we couldn't turn the layout on to test the wheels, so we saved that project for another day.

Mark got all the parts together and lined up in order for an assembly line construction and installation.  Can you tell this guy works for a Japanese car company?

Ron Sipkovich, David Sheehan and Rodney Zeibol installed small pieces of styrene in all the little electrical gaps around the railroad to keep them from accidentally closing, causing electrical issues.  (I've got enough of those gremlins!)

Another master hard at work!  Ron is famous for lots of things, including his Cajon Pass layout with amazingly beautiful scenery.

Ron was going to take a shot at installing resistors to wheels, but then we discovered the silver paint was dried up in the tube...brand new $45 tube too!

David, looking like he is enjoying his work just a little too much.

Joel Morse built more mock-ups.  I'll do a separate post on Joel's buildings because he has done so many and they look great.

Getting started.

A finished building!

After a hard day's work on Saturday, Ken Chan and I cooked up a BBQ chicken dinner for the hungry crew complete with corn on the cob, BBQ beans, cole slaw and potato salad and washed it all down with beer.  Mmm, mmm, good!

That left Sunday for me and Mike to finish all those darn turnouts.  You'd think that it would go quickly but it just didn't.

This past week I've been completing various projects.  Finishing installing the styrene in the gaps, relocating and/or replacing spurs, re-wiring spurs, planning additional track laying on the north end of Bakersfield yard, and various other things.  It's been really enjoyable to get these things completed.

I had one set back.  When I was able to finally turn on the layout, there seems to be a gremlin in the Loconet.  After lots of de-installing and testing, I believe it boiled down to the UR92.  And after trying numerous times to update the firmware, no luck.  It turns out that the PR3 may be bad too!  I packed up the UR92, PR3, and both DT402's and sent them to Digitrax to have them update all and make sure all are working fine.  I've got better things to spend my time on!

That brings you up to date.  We've pretty much improved the whole lower level of the railroad!  I'm sure there are things that I forgot to tell you and I'll put those in a future post.

Unfortunately I won't be ready for the layout tour May 18th as we still need to finish the turnouts and install the electrical, not to mention all my equipment is at Digitrax.

Visiting Rob Caves' Layout, Joel's Cabinet, Train Store, Fullerton, Seattle Dreamin'

Yesterday Joel Morse, Mark Lestico and I did a fun train day together.  The day started out at 8am with tearing out a large wall of cabinets at Joel's to make way for a railroad expansion...er...I mean new cabinets for the honey.  She's gonna love 'em too because they are going to be an NYO&W gray color.  Well, white gets dirty ya know so these will not show dirt or dust, thus less cleaning...right honey!  Unfortunately I was so busy doing demo I forgot to take pix!

From there we drove up to Rob Cave's layout, about 25 miles away, to visit his layout for the first time. Nice layout that is built in an old 2-car garage.  The layout is floor to ceiling with 5 levels...that I recall. My favorite part of the layout is the LAUPT model and track arrangement.  Here is a link to a video of traffic in and out of LAUPT.  I like how it is time-lapsed.

Rob Caves' LAUPT Video - Time-lapse

Here are some photos of Rob's layout.

Jim on the left and Rob Caves on the right in teal.

The three trouble makers, from left to right, Joel, Mark, and me.

Rob likes to run lots of modern passenger trains.  He has several versions of the new (thinking positively) trains that will eventually be running between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas.

With the Los Angeles "River" in the background, this is the throat to LAUPT, featured on the above mentioned video.

LAUPT itself.  Beautiful model of the station and tracks.

A model of the San Diego Depot on Rob's layout.

How could I not take a pic of the Kenny RR Supply company!

A shot of a UP freight crossing one of the bridges on the upper level.

Thank you for the hospitality Rob!

At Rob's we ran a few trains and then we were off to lunch.  Since we were so close to Pasadena, we stopped at the Whistle Stop.  Unfortunately for them, we were just browsers.

We left the train store and drove about another 25 miles to the Fullerton Depot where we sat and watched trains.  Well, we were supposed to watch trains.  In the hour+ that we were there we only saw two Metrolink trains!  What's going on BNSF???  I'm sure you've seen your share of Metrolink trains so I didn't even turn the camera one.  I'm sure one day I'll wish I took those photos!

We talked about operating on other model RR's.  Of course I had to bring up Jim Younkins and this Mud Bay and Southern:
Jim Younkins MB&S pix & info

Jim Younkins MB&S Video

And then there is Al Frasch and his BNSF railroad:
Al's layout pix & info
Al's BNSF video

If we took a weekend trip up to Seattle, we could operate on two of the very best model railroads in the country...and of course visit some good Seattle model RR buddies too!  We talked about a trip in May or September.  Hmmmm...  Anyone else interested?

Back to reality, by about 3:30 we all were wishing we had somewhere to nap so we decided to call it a day.

A fun day it was!
Frank

Major changes to the yard throat

Major changes are coming soon to the north end of Bakersfield!

The layout was designed for use with Peco track and curved turnouts and much of the current layout was from a previous layout using Peco track.  About a year after this layout was started, Atlas came out with their track.  All Peco track laid was removed and replaced with Atlas, with one exception.  That exception has always annoyed me and plagued the layout with trouble.  Those were the10 curved Peco turnouts that could not be removed due to the track arrangement.  There is always an issue with the turnouts or one caused by the turnouts.  I've threatened for years that I was going to remove those, and they still remain.  When Atlas announced curved turnouts I was thrilled.  In disappointment, the radii on them was way too tight to be a fit for what I needed to have.

My friend Mike Stoner from Sedona, AZ, master track hand-layer, will be coming at the end of April to remove and replace all Peco turnouts with his own hand-laid turnouts!  Mike is an excellent modeler and an amazing track layer.  He laid all of the track on his railroad and the last time he was here he replaced on of the Peco curved turnouts with an awesome hand-laid turnout, which you will see in the last photo.  The first photo shows the area to be changed and the following photos show details, with some notes included for Mike so he can prepare for this major job.

This is the overall area that will be changed, from the steam loco, moving to the right about 2 feet or so.

Two of the curved turnouts that need to be replaced.  These photos were taken from left to right.  All numbers on the blue tape show the turnout number to use when throwing the crossover in that location.  (Mike...the plywood in this area is 1/4" thick, however about where the crack is on the right, the plywood is 1/2".  There is cork roadbed over the plywood.  The red dot is where the next turnout starts.)

3 more Peco's to replace.  The white labels are the BDL detection number for that section of track for detection to JMRI purposes.  (Mike, the previous photo is to the left of the red dot.  The bottom right turnout is in the bottom left of the photo below.)

Three more Peco's to replace.

Add caption

This photo is in Goshen Jct. and are two more Peco's that need to be replaced.  (Mike, these are on 3/8" plywood and cork roadbed.)

This is a photo of the turnout Mike made about 2 years ago that works flawlessly!

I can't wait until this project is finally done!  Thanks in advance Mike!

Building Mock-ups and Signage

This evening I added additional building foot prints in addition to adding signage to some of the building mock-ups Joel built.  Here are some photos.  They are crude but they are better than open space on the layout!

I've also been working on the JMRI ops program adding information to the Locations, etc.  It's actually quite fun working on that too.

San Joaquin Valley RR shop in Fresno - This is a kit building and I just added the SJVRR sign.

Recognize the name and product?

Valley Organics sign added to a structure Joel made.

Named after a friend that is a house painter and has helped with doing backdrop painting.

No structure yet but made a sign anyway.

Nutrius Vitamin Company in Fresno

The large Railex facility.  This is about 2/3 of the building.

Named after a friend named Chan and he is certainly nut.  Fits with the central valley produce theme.  LOL

No structure yet but got the sign down.  Named after Mark Lestico who has helped quite a bit with the RR.

That's all folks!

Work Bench Updates

Well, I didn't get as much done on the railroad today, as I would have liked.  However, I did complete the update to the work bench.  The work bench is located in the Traffic Center (staging) area.  The bench was already there.  I added the two sections of peg board to the right of the bench and added hooks and a parts box.  I had installed peg board in front of the work area a while ago but just recently added hooks and hung all the Micro-Trains/Kadee coupler stuff on the board.  Well that eliminates some boxes and makes things easier to find.  I donated all the coupler stuff I didn't need anymore to a friend.

In the photo it looks darker than it really is.  Lower level lighting will go in soon for the lower level and this will light the peg board on the right.  I'm using a type of rope light that I found at my local electronics store.  It's very bright and will work great for the lower level.

Here are two photos of the work area.  The upper level staging is above the bench and the lower level staging is bench height.  The programming track is just in front of the bench and the work surface is glass.  Under the lower level are roll-outs with drawers.  The left two have tools and misc and the other 5 hold trains.  (only 2 of the other 5 are shown in the photo on the right)

   

All Locos in JMRI

Last night I was able to get all the locos into JMRI Ops.  It was a time challenge as I had to do one by one.  Today I need to check to see if all the speed table info transferred over...fingers crossed!

I also added and updated a few layout Locations in JMRI to facilitate running.  When Joel ran the first train, a few "glitches" popped up and I will spend some time on those this week.  Nothing major, just things like "only switch this industry from this track going that direction" type stuff.  It's kind of fun tweaking the system.

Ok, more later!