Demolishing a workbench to make three work stations

Sometimes you have to demolish before you can construct. When we moved into this house I needed to tear down three walls in the basement to clear the way for the model railroad to come. But I neglected to tear down an old bulky solid-as-a rock workbench/shelf unit that the previous owner had built there. After thirty years of thinking about it, last week we got out the hammers and other deconstruction tools and tore the thing apart. There was no way to imagine hauling it up the basement stairs, even though some other homeowner might have found it useful.

What I realized in the intervening thirty years is that model railroading is both an art and a manufacturing plant. We need a work station for electronics like DCC decoders, servos and LCC setups. We need a work station for building kits for cars, bridges and structures. And we need a paint shop next to the spray booth for managing the various finishes for all of the above. Not to mention applying decals and building open loads. So we took the plunge and demolished the old workbench. 

Here it is in pieces,

And here is the space it left behind:

To the right and left of the space are old surplus kitchen cabinets from previous remodel jobs, that also are sub-optimal storage solutions at best, and will probably go too. And I don't know what to do with the pile of scraps on the floor. A lot of brainstorming is going on right now. But with nine to twelve or even fifteen linear feet to work with, and a depth of just over two feet, we should be able to come up with some specialized workstations to make the railroad a lot easier to build and maintain. We'll keep you posted, and let us know if you have any good ideas for how juggle work space, tools and supplies for specialized tasks like we model railroaders engage in....

Paperwork for activating the new staging yard BRJ

 "BRJ" stands for Black River Junction, the name I'm giving to the new staging yard we just installed in the space between Interbay yard and Harbor Island/Legotown. It's main role is to store the UP & MILW transfer freights and BN passenger trains off the layout to allow the Argo yard to be more useful to operators. The yard is physically complete, but for it to truly be in operation, it needed a diagram showing which tracks are where and called what, and some car card boxes conveniently located for storing the car and loco cards accompanying the stored trains.

Here's the track diagram I came up with. Its somewhat antiquated layout style is based on the BN SPINS diagrams of the era, so it will fit in to the SPINS booklet that operators can use to navigate the layout. I also will post the map next to the car card boxes to allow quick reference.

You can see at the top of the diagram a short spur labeled "MILW LOCOS", which will be a small engine servicing facility for MILW and UP loco storage to also get those locos off the active part of the layout. This will free up space at both Stacy and Argo yards, and it is under construction.

The other "accessory" the yard needed was some car card boxes labeled for the various tracks. Here's what I came up with for that:

Here's a cropped version of the map, rotated so you can compare the box labels to the maps. As you can see, we already have some of the tracks filled with their intended subjects.

I'll post a picture of the new MILW engine terminal as soon as we get it built. All in good time...

Mocking up another narrow gauge extention

There's a ravine in the scenery above Mukilteo on my Burrlington Northern HO/HOn3 layout just the right size for a small mine, and at just the right height for being reached by an extension of the narrow gauge line to the existing "Cascade Copper Company" mine. The only thing better than one mine is two mines, right? I've been thinking about installing this line for some time now, but Robin Peel brought over a piece of foam-core and is determined to make it happen. Here is an overall photo of his mock-up of where the line could go:

As you can see, a lot of bridges and trestles are going to be needed, and we're already committed to the project, as you can see by the bare pink foam where there used to be rocks. The existing Cascade Copper Co. mine is in the very lower right corner, and the new mine site is off the photo to the upper right. Here's a photo of the right side where the ravine is that will be excavated for the new mine (after we get the track in, which could be a while...):

It's going to be fun designing and building all those bridges and trestle. I'm looking forward to it, and glad that Robin got the project started with this template made of foam-core from an old poster.

What? Another staging yard??

It's just that we've been running into problems operating the Argo Yard, south of Stacy St., because it does triple duty as the Amtrak Coach yard, UP interchange and MILW interchange. So it tends to be all plugged up, almost all the time. I got to thinking (never a good thing!), what about the unused space behind the angle braces holding up Interbay yard, which could be accessed by a switch off the downhill grade to Harbor Island (formerly Legotown) below it? Here's a picture of the target area:

And here's the view of all that wasted space underneath Interbay yard behind the angle support beams. There's room in there for at least three tracks - enough to offload Argo just fine:

It just so happens that when I was helping Al Frasch dismantle his huge N scale layout on Whidbey Island a few years ago (before he moved to Tucson and built another one) I salvaged a plywood shelf 6" wide and about 18' long - perfect to slap into this space. So, after months of dithering on this and that (like hosting the National Narrow Gauge Convention over Labor Day weekend), I got started on the project. Here are two shots of the first (of 3) six foot long sections of the new staging yard. Since it's pretty hard to reach in there, I'm finishing it on the workbench as far as I possibly can, so all I'll have to do in that confined space is screw in the three sections to the wall studs and slide the rail joiners to connect the sections.

In the second photo, you can see I've glued the track down and put weights on it while it dries overnight. I like to glue my track down with liquid latex diluted about 3:1 with water, so if I ever need to make changes it's not too hard to pull up the track. I'm afraid to use more permanent bonds like caulks or white glue, although it's true that you can just wet down the white glue if you want to make a change. I'm just used to using liquid latex, so I keep using it.

Anyway, that's one of the current projects going on around here. Soon I'll report on another - an extension of the narrow gauge mine branch to a secondary mine shaft. The fun never stops!

Developing the "South Seattle Intermodal Terminal"

As you know if you're a model railroader, it takes a lot of space to model just a small portion of any sort of intermodal terminal. In my case, modeling the BN in 1973, I am fortunate that the intermodal line of business was in its early stages, so I can get by with less space for this than modelers of later eras. But there is no doubt that most manifest trains carried at least a car or two of "trailer on flat car (TOFC)" by 1973, and in the BN's case, they started a dedicated intermodal service between Seattle and Chicago, called the "Pacific Zip" (train #3) in the westbound direction and the return trip named "Train #4", both at passenger train speeds or better. It was a very overpowered and short train at first, while the business grew, which is very fortunate for me, since (1) I have an awfully lot of locomotives, and (2) it takes less space to credibly build a shorter train.

So, what I did was to install a six-foot long section of track in between the South Seattle mainlines and the Lonestar Cement complex at the end of the aisle to the right of the Argo Yard, with just enough space between them to park a row of trailers or containers next to the track. Not enough space for the lifting equipment, but at least enough to call it the "South Seattle Intermodal Terminal" and to park 4 long TOFC flatcars on it, enough to make a short, but convincing, Pacific Zip #3 or #4.

It goes without saying that just staging the Pacific Zip #3 or #4 in "Tacoma Staging" just off the layout from there would work too, without taking any real estate at all (other than taking up a staging track). But, the prototype trains were broken down and made up in Stacy St. Yard, not in the Intermodal Terminal, and this was done by a special switch job called "Crew 6". What fun to terminate the westbound Zip in Stacy St and have a switch crew quickly remove the express boxcars off the back end and then shove the intermodal cars down to the Intermodal Terminal, as the prototype did. Also, since my south staging yard is hidden beyond the ladder (don't do this if you have a choice!), it is easier to change out the trailers and containers if I have the cars parked on a track I can see and reach.

All of this is to say that Magnus Christerson has recently been adding some "craft foam" pavement and a guard shack to the scene approaching the South Seattle Intermodal Terminal. Here's what it looks like so far. We plan to apply striping and grey pan pastels to the black surface to match the sanded grout paving behind that area, so we're not finished. But it's progress, and that's what this blog is all about! Enjoy!

Re-numbering the new Bowser SP&S RS-3's

 

Is there such a thing as "too much of a good thing?" In this case, I ended up with three of the new Bowser SP&S RS-3's, but then I found out that the number of one of them already belonged to a BN green RS-3 that is active on my roster, which I had previously re-numbered from 4082 to 4072. And I had two copies of the new Bowser 4077. What to do? Having watched Tim Taylor successfully renumber a few of my other locos, I decided to take the plunge and see if I could do it.

The first thing was to decide what new numbers to use. We are fortunate to have online photo archives now, so you can just search the web for a particular loco number and see photos of it. I also consulted my 1973 BN Annual to find out which loco numbers were still on the roster in 1973. The decision was to renumber the extra 4077 to 4067, and the redundant 4072 to 4075.

Having decided that, the project involves two steps - the numbering on the side, and the numbers in the numberboards. For the first step, I used some "Micro-sol" and a toothpick to gently wipe off the one number that I planned to change on each side of each loco. I didn't have any decals of numbers the right size or dark color of the numbers I was removing, but I did find I had a dry transfer set with black numbers approximately the right size. So I rubbed the dry transfers on, as you can see in the photo above.

For the second step, I also didn't have numberboard number decals the correct size, but the standard BN numberboard numbers, while slightly bigger, are close enough to do the job. So I carefully cut out the 5's and 6's that I needed, dipped them in water to remove the backing, and placed them on top of the existing number to be changed, wetting the area with micro sol before and after. Standard decal procedure. It was painstaking, but eventually finished. Now I plan to go back and apply micro set if needed to smooth the decals down, after the initial application dries in a few hours. Then later I can consider a layer of dullcote to seal the deal. And some pan pastels after that. You can count on seeing these beautiful looking and sounding locos in action in future videos on my YouTube channel. In the meantime, you can see a quick "Short" video of the three RS-3's on YouTube here.

The bottom line - don't be afraid to purchase more than one copy of a loco that you really "need" for your roster, and renumbering one or more of them. If I can do it, you can do it...

Push Buttons for Delta Wye and Vail Jct.

Without going into detail about how difficult it is to stoop down underneath a model train layout and connect up wires between push buttons and circuit boards, let's just say that significant improvements have now been made to make it easier for operators to control the three powered turnouts at Delta Wye and the very difficult-to-reach powered turnout on the narrow gauge line at what I fondly call "Vail Jct.", named of course after the legendary HOn3 modeler Jim Vail.

The reason I procrastinated on this job for so long (do I need a reason?) is that the wye needs to be operable from either side of the peninsula, meaning double push buttons and their associated wiring. Here is an overview of the wye area from each aisle, followed by a detailed view of the push buttons themselves.

This wye has been in operation for at least 20 years, with powered switch machines which I controlled with the "macros" on the NCE DCC throttles, and the single pair of push buttons to the very right of the lowest photo and a corresponding pair on the left of the photo above it. I was very proud of how well this worked, and as you can see I mounted a complex diagram on the fascia explaining which macro controlled which route. My operators, however, had a different experience. They would be trying to run a train through the area, and would not be the slightest bit interested in learning how to use the macros on the NCE throttles. In some cases it may have been their first experience even using an NCE throttle, let alone selecting a macro on it. So, prodded by a recent quip from operator Jim Betz, I spent about 6 hours setting all the needed pushbuttons up. So, having done that, I hereby apologize to all the operators here for the last 25 operating sessions for not having installed these in the first place! Argh!

It probably goes without saying that, once again, I have cut corners here significantly by not setting the push buttons in from the outside edge of the fascia. This means that operators will accidentally bump up against some of the pushbuttons at the wrong time and cause random derailments. Rather than spending the time to do it right in the first place, I seem to have chosen to wait and see how much of a problem it causes before investing any more time in it. Also, I probably should draw the track plan of the wye to connect the pairs of push buttons to make them easier to understand. Chalk pencils to the rescue, at a minimum!

The other thing that goes without saying is that the whole complex would benefit significantly from some red and green LED lights to indicate which way each switch is currently thrown. I hear you. That would be another 6 hours or more, not to mention the study and design time. I started looking at LCC and have all the equipment needed to advance this wye area to a much higher level of user-friendliness, but then put it all away in a box until other things with a higher "priority" get finished. One day I'll get back to that and you will be the first to read about it here. In the meantime, it's great to get these pushbuttons in, and many thanks to Jim Betz for spurring me on!

Adding a second deck - Part 3

With the completion of a working reversing loop, the famed (and arguably dubious) suspended second deck on the narrow gauge branch is officially in service. Here's how it looks today:

It looks a lot more finished than it really is. After painting the surface of the 1" Gatorboard base with brown latex paint and sprinkling it with Woodland Scenics turf blends, we grabbed four chunks of previously used extruded foam scenery, trimmed the corners to fit the turnback curve, touched up the exposed edges with more paint and turf, added some smaller trees for a "forced perspective" effect, and dropped the scenery pieces on top of the flat shelf. Magic! Here's a photo of the foam scenery pieces during paint touch-up, before putting them back on the layout:

In the distant background is one of the footstools that are pretty necessary to see and operate on the upper deck, which is too bad, but on the other hand it's great to have a place to run narrow gauge trains to, and have them be able to turn around and come back from. We decided to name the town "Opportunity" - partly because that's a real town near a famous smelter in Montana vaguely on the way between Washington State and Colorado, and partly because it fits in with the feeling of the other narrow gauge towns on this fictitious line - Paradise and Hope. 

"Track is scenery" means that I also took the time, after forming the flextrack pieces to the right curvature and length, to remove them to the spray booth and coat them with flat weathered-wood shade spray paint. Here's a picture of the peices drying on a bright yellow dropcloth afterwards, and the spray booth afterwards, before the final tracklaying:

Not shown are the ten switches, which I also spray painted in the booth before tracklaying. To lay the track on the Gatorboard, I drilled out small holes in some of the ties, the size of MicroEngineering medium spikes, and pushed the spikes through the ties into the top surface of the Gatorboard. I plan to go back and glue down the track more permanently with liquid latex after we've operated enough trains up there, and designed enough scenery and buildings, that we can commit to the track layout.

Speaking of operations, I also (somehow) found room on the front fascia of the deck below to install ten more car card boxes and labeled them appropriately. The town of Opportunity is officially open for business!

Adding a second deck - Part 2

 The second deck for the end of the narrow gage branch is coming along fine. In the previous post on this subject I was using a piece of 1x1 board to support the gatorboard pieces, but it seemed to me that it deflected too much under load, and I didn't want anything thicker to minimize the thickness of the deck. So I thought of using a steel beam, and consulted my neighbor who is a blacksmith, and while she had appropriate pieces of steel in stock, she advised that steel would be awfully heavy and suggested aluminum C channel would be good enough and much easier to drill holes in. So I bought some aluminum channel and mounted and leveled it. Also, I replaced those ugly steel straps with a couple of threaded rods, which seemed much easier to accurately level and adjust over time if needed. Then, since all of it would be underneath the upper deck, I primed and painted it all sky blue, as shown in the following photo:

After a few weeks of examining the gatorboard resting on the aluminum channels, I couldn't see any evidence of sagging or any other reason not to go ahead with the project, so I removed the three gatorboard panels and painted the bottoms sky blue and the tops with earth brown sprinkled with ground foam. It's so much easier to do painting like this at the workbench instead of up in the air! I also painted the fender washers I'll be using to hold the panels to each other with brown paint so they'll fit in with the scenery. All that's left is to paint the edges of the panels with my dark green fascia color, and I can put them back up on the girders. Here are a couple more progress photos of painting the panels:

In preparation for painting the edges, I applied lightweight spackle to the edges with a putty knife, to cover up the bare foam texture that might be too rough. Here's a photo of one of the fender washers painted with brown + foam:

So far, so good...

Covering up a hideous wire run

If you finally get around to doing something that's been on your do list for at least 20 years, is that something to feel good about, or ashamed? I can't decide - I feel both. I guess it depends on how important the thing was. In this case, almost all of the layout track power wires were fed up to the ceiling joists and out to the rest of the layout from my centrally located DCC layout control system, next to a post, out in the open. They always needed some kind of a cover to hide them from view, but I never seemed to get around to devising one. Here's a picture of what it looked like, over on the right hand side of the photo:

It started bothering me more when I started publishing YouTube videos of the layout and the vertical column of tangled wires really disrupted the views of the otherwise nice (or at least acceptable) scenery. Then, as discussed in my previous post, we started installing an upper deck in the same area. This meant that the mess of wires would be an eyesore on both decks. Somehow, I couldn't live with it anymore. So, the fix is now designed and in progress. Help is on the way. We devised a plan to attach two inward-facing "C" aluminum channels at the corners of the post, and slide pieces of styrene between them, covering up the wires. Here's what it looks like now (with the upper deck temporarily removed):

Such an improvement! The next step will be to paint the whole thing with white primer and then sky blue, followed by scenic treatment such as trees and bushes. Then you'll never even know all those wires are in there. And if I need to add wires, it is easy to slide out the two styrene panels if needed for access (assuming I keep from sticking them together with paint). Progress!

Incidentally, the small maroon red box dangling to the left of the column is the transceiver for the BLI "Rolling Thunder" subwoofer system which needed relocating to accomplish this project. But the cable (in yellow) they provided literally fell apart when I went to relocate it, it was so cheaply made. So now I'm now hunting for a better cable, and hoping the system will work again. I don't use it very often though, because the low-frequency rumble that it generates makes the entire house shake, not just the train room. Probably an example of "too much of a good thing." Also, did I mention that the (exclusively) BLI decoders that work with it don't follow NMRA standards and are difficult to understand how to program? Don't get me started. I have only two BLI locomotives that work with it, and have no intention of ever acquiring any more. But at least BLI got me to mention them four times in one paragraph! I'll give them that.