video of a northbound loaded unit coal train

Here's a hypnotic video of a unit coal train traversing selected spots on the Burrlington Northern in HO in 1973. The video was taken by my son-in-law Eric Gladstone while visiting us in Seattle. It was nice that he got the shots down at eye level, especially since we're both 6'5" tall in real life. You can see that I haven't gotten around to weathering either the locos or the cars, other than painting some of the wheels and trucks with rust, but there have been higher priorities so far, as documented in my previous blog posts.

video of the finished dual gage crossing in operation

It took about 20 hours to build this dual gage crossing in the Delta yard, which now opens up some new areas for both narrow and standard gage service. To power the frogs I used a "Dual frog juicer", which simply reverses the polarity of the crossing frogs whenever needed by an approaching train from any direction. The crossing is built using code 83 rail because that matches the curved mainline running through it, although the dual gage route is code 70 outside of the crossing itself.

Here's what it looks like:

And here's a video showing it in use...

replacing an old turnout

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and replace an old turnout that has failed beyond repair. In this case, it was the lead #6 turnout in the throat of the north end of my Stacy St. yard in Seattle, an old Shinohara turnout from the mid 1980's. Arguably one of the most critical turnouts on the whole layout, and we had been having a variety of shorts and derailments there, because one of the point rails had separated from the hinged tie rod. We tried to repair it by re-soldering it, several times, but it would fail again after a few dozen cycles. All 6 of its rail joiners were soldered on, so I dreaded and procrastinated on this job for several years.

But then it hit me - if the turnout is bad, that means I could cut all six rails right inside the rail joiners, lift out the turnout, and then use pliers and a soldering iron to remove the rail joiners. Plus, it turned out, my accident, that I happened to have a stock shinohara #6 turnout that would have all the same dimensions and fit right back in where the old one was. So, on Friday, I took several deep breaths and did the surgery. Here's a picture with the turnout removed:

And the new one in place:

All that's left is glueing it down:

and final testing!

So far so good. Now on to painting and weathering...

operating session #21

16 people attended the operating session held here on Nov. 16, 2019, 10am-4pm, and we completed the afternoon and evening of the 1973 "day" that had been started on the previous op session #20. Robin Peel served as the dispatcher, and all of the "regular" merchandise trains were operated, along with most of the rest of the locals on the schedule. Even with all those operators, we still didn't get the passenger trains run. This perhaps proves that there is more railroad in the basement than there is space for operators. Although it didn't seem too crowded to me. I did manage to shoot one video of the action during the session, of the last southbound merchandise train on its way from Vancouver BC into the Interbay yard in Seattle, which can be viewed here.

Here are a few pictures of the action:

Aiden Murray running a unit coal train north to Point Roberts:

Lots of action and congestion in the aisle between Seattle's Stacy St. yard on the left and Everett's Bayside yard on the right:

Norm Bruce being witty as usual:

Anita Taylor guiding a long freight past Seaview Ave. NW at Golden Gardens, while the Von Stup family try to get a train past the Everett/Delta yardmaster Brian Kaehler:

Meanwhile, Aiden and his dad Ian are working in Everett/Bayside with its yardmaster Ry Bates

 And Anita moves her train into Delta yard with Brian looking on:

Chuck Lee and me having a chat at Stacy, with Jenny happily admiring scenery on the Bayside side.

I believe this is the largest op session we have had here so far, and the consensus seemed to be "so far, so good!"

operating session #20

13 operators attended the operating session here on Nov. 15, 2019, between 10am and 4pm. Dave Enger served as the dispatcher, and the group operated most of the trains that would have run in the morning of a typical day in 1973. At one point in the session, there was a meet between two sets of locomotives that were running light in opposite directions between Everett and Seattle. This unusual move was captured briefly on this video. Here is a shot of one of the engine sets enroute, passing the spur at Golden Gardens leading down to the "Fremont Branch":

Also noteworthy was an all-time record broken by the Stacy yardmaster Don Trettel, who actually used the electronic track scale (on track 8) in Stacy St. Yd to weigh two loaded cars whose waybills indicated that they needed to be weighed. The previous record was zero. Here is a photo of Don proudly displaying his accomplishment, with the scale track and the two cars he just weighed visible in the lower left of the photo.

cutting the mainline for a dual gage crossing

Cutting the mainline track three weeks before an operating session could be a mistake, but it's done now. On the left is the siding at Delta Yard, with a new dual gage turnout to provide both a narrow gage lead on the siding and a crossing of the main over to the Weyerhaeuser Mill B and other industries. But now I have to build a dual gage crossing! The good news is, if it's not working by the op sessions, we'll have a real live special instruction to use the siding for all mainline moves to Skykomish.

So far, all we have is some long ties glued down,

and some happy, if risk-prone, campers.