Boston & Maine Eastern Route Progress

[jbvb]

29-Nov-2012: Non-photogenic progress:
1. Wired a new outlet box with a switch to control layout power.
2. Mounted a power strip where I could plug all 5 power supplies into it (8A booster, Prodigy, 28VDC, 18VAC/16VDC, 10VDC) and organized the cords.
3. Installed LED light strips E of the chimney and in the N end of the room.
4. Fixed my modified 90' Walthers turntable - Goo had dried out, so the bull gear had dropped down the shaft (can't happen if you build it according to the instructions). Fixed by applying electrical tape below the gear on the shaft.
5. Designed how I'll wire the in-plant track at River Works. This is consistent with my overall goal of making block power as easy to use/transparent to the operator as possible, and may be worth an article some day.
6. Ran trains till I found a few problems, fixed the problems, ran trains some more...
7. Started reading about C/MRI, JMRI etc. - many features I wouldn't need, but the Hub Division has chosen that as the signaling standard for the modular layout.
8. Figured out how to add my own objects in XTrkCAD, so I'll be starting a "Signals" layer in my plan. I think I'd need 23 to properly follow B&M practice.

The GP-9s a couple of posts ago are Genesis, with DCC/sound. It makes me feel lazy, a bit, as I have a couple of Cary shells and Hobbytown power for them on the shelf. They still haven't gotten their day a decade after I retired. These were my 3rd and 4th sound units, and the first freight units. I've always had mixed feelings about the sound - I spent more time around 1st generation Geeps than
most people who haven't worked as engine crew. It sounds right when I throttle up, but as soon as I start switching, it's wrong. John Armstrong didn't like sound-as-a-function-of-voltage either, and I recently re-read his ?1969? MR article on how he fixed it, analog, in an 0-scale 4-8-4. Given that decoders have sensed back-EMF for a while, with the right tools I could probably re-program one to do what I want, but that's another thing I haven't gotten to.

09-Dec-2012: I had joined RR-Line five years earlier, and this thread was to be five at the end of January. I wanted to do a photo fan trip (which may double as NMRA AP prep), but lacked time
.
Recent progress hasn't been photogenic. Getting away from trackwork Thursday night, I set up my 1996 Digitrax PR-1 with a computer old enough to run the software, wanting to get the two GP-9s set up the same to simplify consisting. Alas, while it works fine on non-sound decoders, it screwed up both sound locos pretty much completely. One took a Reset command OK, the other didn't. So I had a $250 engine which rang the bell once when I asked it to turn on the headlight. I still wish DCC vendors were paying more attention to how interoperability and conformance to open standards made the Internet successful. I was thinking of getting a PR-3 to use with JMRI, but the web tells me they don't reliably program Soundtraxx. A Sprog eventually solved the problem.

I  worked on the switch controls in Newburyport instead - One knob had come loose, and I'd been moving fast on completing the loop when I did that panel. Some of the switches don't throw very well, and with the way I'd done the knobs to minimize risk of catching on clothes, several others required finger strength to grip that not everybody has. I got it partly fixed.

12-Dec-2012: I'd been doing more operational tuning - running trains and fixing things that get in the way of enjoying it, either for me alone or for a group. This is the Newburyport West panel after some time with the Triton resistance soldering tool (which required fixing itself):



I'd originally turned the acorn nuts point-out, but some of the mechanisms took a lot of finger strength. So I turned them around. While I was at it, I filled the openings with solder to improve the bond with the brass rods and steel wires. They're all in 'normal' except for the lower left.

The next operational problem was how to tell when trains in Saugus staging were at, or too close to the easterly switch. There will be a building in front of the backdrop to disguise where the track comes through, but it can have windows & doors in the critical area. The backdrop is lauan plywood, so I made 1.125" holes with an expansion bit and squared them at the bottom with a utility knife:



You can just see the cylinders of a Mountain in the left window. The gaps are at the red line. I'm thinking about ways of using colored LEDs to make the position easier to see. I know some people use IRDOT sensors and others CCTV, but they seem complicated and likely to take longer to get into service (Took me about 8 years).

[jbvb]

20-Dec-2012:



This is a 3-diode section of "Warm White" LED strip (wrong color for RR lighting, and my ex didn't like it for room lighting either). They plywood block is yellow-glued to the back of the backdrop above the windows I cut. It draws 20 mA at 12 VDC, so I tried feeding it off my 18 VAC buss with a diode bridge and one of Micro Lumina's 20 mA "Current Limiting Devices". No smoke!



This is what the operator sees (if their vision is a bit blurry, sorry). I had a Walthers background building on order to replace the cardboard mockery - er, mockup.

[jbvb]

30-Dec-2012: I took last week as vacation, but there were lots of family goings on, so not too much to report. Most of the time spent was sitting next to the wood stove and wiring up another extension for my Prodigy Advance control buss:



Now I could use the tethered throttle at West Lynn and Draw. More details in my yet-to-be-posted thread on the MRC DCC buss.

I also took up the "PSX DCC circuit breakers vs. old MCR booster" battle again. To my surprise, both halves of a PSX-2 worked, where the PSX-1 I bought at the same time didn't.  They were in service with red short indicator LEDs. And I eventually got it so the MRC booster trips before the PSX.

10-Jan-2013: The good news: as the 5-year anniversary of this thread approached (and people asked me about availability for tours in Fall 2013), I started shooting a railfan-style layout tour. I've posted room shots and a trackplan earlier in the thread; they haven't changed significantly. I'd done the southern half, starting at Draw (staging), proceeding through West Lynn to Bexley. Alas, Google took away PicasaWeb. If there's interest in a 12-year old layout tour, I could load them into a Gallery, but shrinking 39 photos will take time.

The bad news: something I did to the DCC decoder in 3821 bricked the loco - headlight on but didn't respond to any commands, or operate in DC mode. I eventually fixed it, but it got dragged the length of the mainline for the photo shoot before I got into the mood to touch another piece of DCC %#$%.

11-Jan-2013:



I shot the north half using +2 exposure compensation because the first shots all needed about +1.3 gamma correction. I eventually learned more about the camera's metering options. But there turned out to be a couple of nice angles on the N (railroad E) side of the Rt. 1A overpass. Alas, the other was blurred; I also needed a sandbag. So far a delayed shutter option has saved me from buying a remote release.

[jbvb]

13-Feb-2013: An RR-Line Challenge inspired me to work on my Little River scene; it was too big for the challenge rules, but I had almost everything needed handy. My very busy January and a large snow storm kept me from actually starting until a couple of nights earler:



Earlier photos show how I built the marsh and river bed. I cut brown fake fur out for the marsh grass. I used the cut-out bits of hardboard riverbed as a pattern. Next was the stone work for the bridge, first looking for a slide of it before it was demolished in 1997. I needed to know if there was a center pier like the still-extant road bridge has.

The anvil came to me when Joe Singerling, born Newark, NJ 1902, passed on. It came with a few other more-or-less makeshift shop items, but I don't know whether he made it himself or picked it up from somebody else who'd made it. It looks like about 60 lb. rail but measuring it and consulting a rail section chart would confirm.

If Kodak had left enough white space on slide boxes so I could have written all the places on every one, it would have taken me 5 min. to find this, but as it was, about 2.5 hours of memories:



The Eastern RR stone slab bridge at Forerock (Boston St., Newbury MA) in 1995. The rebuilding between Ipswich and Newburyport was just starting, you can see the erosion control. The intermediate piers are about 18" wide, so I can model one of them. I also built my track a good deal higher above the marsh than the prototype. Later I found a prototype still exists about a mile West in a higher fill between Hay St. and Kent's Island.

[jbvb]

15-Mar-2013: Last weekend, I did a Scratchbuilding in Styrene clinic for the Hub Division's Spring Training show. The subject was Mike D's house on Winter St. in Newburyport when we first became friends in the late 1960s:



It's a modest house, built about 1850 as the nearby depot changed the demographics of the area. I paced off the frontage as about 25 feet and figured the rest of the dimensions by counting clapboards etc. Here's where I got to last night:



I used plain .040" styrene because at the time I'm modeling, it had asbestos cement shingles. I will use one of the peel-and-stick products and apply the windows, doors and trim over them.

Other parts are Micro-Engineering 80-067 windows (25x50 4 over 4, but I'll cut out the horizontal mullions), Campbell 903 "6 Windows" for the attic (which hadn't been converted to living space yet) and Northeastern D100NEB 30x80 4 Lite Door.

[jbvb]

03-Apr-2013:
I hadn't made any photogenic progress since my last post, but I had been working on the railroad. The Hub Division organized an
operating session at Keith Shoneman's (since passed on) layout, and during it a couple of members remarked they were looking forward to trying out the Eastern Route. My track and control system are complete enough, but aside from a timetable and 100 car cards/waybills, I also need more equipment:
1. Convert or buy a DCC switcher (I have 7 DC switchers ranging between "undecorated in the box" and "needs weathering")
2. One more DCC roadswitcher (I bought a Bachmann RS-3 yesterday, but I may not have the willpower to put off fixing the details)
3. Several more DCC RDCs (I have 3 in-progress, having finally worked out how to get the right trucks on a P1K)

I made a start at organizing the layout space for company, moving a lateral file full of papers and structure kits to a semi-permanent home under Newburyport, but there were also several in-progress projects which will be better completed than boxed up and put away. Which is why I typed this while decals dried on a Branchline 6-3 becoming the B&M's Gounod. And also why I was thinking about more/better tool, parts and material storage.

I also need to run the various jobs, with the multiple goals of a) checking feasibility and fun value, b) shaking down infrequently-used track and c) shaking down the freight car fleet. I did a little of that trying out 1536 last night, but much remains. The routine "op setup" stuff I'll talk about here, but if I have any ideas that seem new, I'll start a thread in the right forum.

Structure and scenery work continued, with a potential deadline of November if I was asked to join Tour de Chooch.

04-Apr-2013: Equipment progress is also clean-up progress, and working on Hobbytown RS-3 B&M 1538 has a sentimental element: Given clean wheels and clean track, it's been a joy to operate for more than 25 years (then, 50 now).



08-Apr-2013: More work detailing 1538, my old Hobbytown RS-3:



Here the photographer catches the 'glint' as an eastbound Portsmouth local stops in Rowley. 1538 shows off her new Pyle dual sealed-beam headlight, Nathan M-3 horn bracket-mounted to the front of the cab and ATS equipment on the running board.

[jbvb]

09-Apr-2013: Yesterday my Atlas HH-660 arrived. Nice engine, decent sound, programs OK on my Prodigy Advance's programming track just like the Bachmann RS-3 (are you listening, Athearn?). Much better printed documentation than Bachmann's, but a significant omission: the exploded parts diagram doesn't show the user-installed end handrails. Not too hard to figure out, but I did have to drill the holes in the cab out to #74 (0.0225) and both end platforms/steps to #72 (0.025). I had a moment's worry before I realized it arrived in "full shutdown" mode, needing either the magnetic wand or an F6 DCC operation before it would do anything.

Running it, I found it could handle about 12 cars on my layout's grades. Since one of the ruling grades is pulling west from the Bexley yard into the tunnel, and that's only 2/3 of a track, the HH-660 is now in last place for Bexley switcher. I tried some of my others:
P2K Alco S-3: 16 cars
P2K USRA 0-8-0: 14 cars
Kato NW-2: 20 cars (the clear choice for the Bexley Switcher, if I can get DCC into it without removing too much weight)
P2K EMD SW-900: 16 cars

By comparison, my R-1b 4-8-2 handles 29 freight cars - once you get to that length, the yard exit and a couple of other locations become momentum grades. This has me thinking about the Tonnage Ratings page for my Employee Timetable - it would be easier on operators if I assumed 100 ton cars, or maybe I should just skip the realism and give train lengths. Another variance from the standard format will be the difference between Hobbytown 1538 and Bachmann 1536, RS-3s from the same order, but the former is likely to haul 50% more than the latter.

The set of cars I was testing with included empty hoppers & gons, plus a Tru-Line-Trains 8-hatch reefer that arrived with all 4 axles out of gauge and is still picky enough that it's going back to the bench after it's done its job finding glitches: One bad solder joint, a bunch of spikes I'd skipped in the rush to finish track, some gauge and point issues, closed gaps; West Lynn yard is much better now.

12-Apr-2013: Wednesday night was more track and equipment tinkering, last night I got back to the Hobbytown RS-3 project:



I haven't seen zinc alloy casting taken to this level by any other manufacturer. Using mostly needle files, I removed the draft angle and thinned and rounded sections that needed it. A little blackener worked like a charm; both castings were back on the loco in an hour.

17-Apr-2013: I haven't put DCC in anything by Hobbytown. One obstacle is the motor - it draws about 0.3A and 'cogs' in a way that works with slack in the universals to contribute a lot to the unit's noise level. The other is that all pickup comes through four brass wheels. Bear Locomotive Works had vanished by then, but NWSL had a nickel-silver wheels of the right size. That's another story.

I spent about half my personal day yesterday working on the RR. Here are the most photogenic results:



Decaling residue washed off and Scalecoat Flat Glaze applied to 1538's cab and 6-3 Gounod, but I lost the 6-3's bag of toilet windows (it was built as a traveling project) so I need to get some from AMB.

Weathered & Grimy Black applied to the new 'high window' coach. Alas, the blue masking tape did a little damage to the Maroon, so I'll be coming back to it in a few days.

Bethlehem Car Works underframe applied to it and the older coach (NPP/KMT left the floors flat, partly because they'd put a battery box where one of the crossbearers was supposed to go).

Foundation interior color applied to two P1K RDC-1 shells.

Air-brush weathered the REA express reefer.

Started to put better couplers on the Atlas HH-660, but ran out of couplers.

All of this took longer than I expected, because my Passche H airbrush had been getting more and more balky. Finally, I took it apart and found thinner wouldn't flow through the needle. So I cleaned it out with a piece of .020 piano wire - lots of gunk had solidified in the neck above the needle opening. The stuff was mostly gray, which could have been pigment from 'aluminum' paint, or possibly ground glass from Scalecoat Flat. At any rate, I knew where to look when I see that symptom again.

!! And that's 20 pages from RR-Line fitted into less than 6 on Modelers Forum.  So this thread will take about 24 more pages !!

[ACL1504]

James,

I just finished going through the thread. Thanks for taking the time to move and post it here.

I like your rural country scenes, especially the little river scene - well done.

Looking forward to more updates.

Tom

[jbvb]

Thanks, Tom.  I'm done working outdoors today, so I'll update for a while while my pants dry out.
------------
19-Apr-2013:  At the old TMRC (MIT) club layout, I would sometimes run unrealistic 75-car freights led by a Cary/Hobbytown E-7 with 1538 midtrain at the 60 car point. Went right up the 2% grade with 36" radius curve at the bottom. I could pick up a milk car in 15 fast-clock minutes, without banging it around either. But the other members still said "grind me up a pound".

I rewired my block busses to all 5 control panels. I had originally put the DC mainline cab in the leftmost position on the rotary block switches, with Local straight up (next position) and DCC 45 deg. right. I did this because the DC metering was to the left of the DCC master. But when I started playing around with operations, I didn't like moving through the DCC position every time I turned a block off, or switched it to Remote (all the way right). So I put the DCC at 45 deg. left and the DC Train Engineer at 45 deg. right. Then I ran a few trains, shaking down equipment and just for fun.

I needed to do some bartering with someone who could debug analog solid state stuff better than me - I'd always wanted a DC throttle with a brake lever. I'd picked up two over the years, an MRC handheld and an old Heathkit TAT-V clone console unit. Neither worked. A little later I made a deal with a modeler who also collected old Heathkit equipment.

30-Apr-2013: I'd done very little modeling in the previous week; work, protecting my orchard from Cedar Apple Rust, comforting my GF Jane and her poor cancer victim cat, who's departing tomorrow. At least the weather was nice, and I had parts on order or on hand for several projects.

This picture arose from someone on RR-Line's Nantahala Midland thread, asking "where were the cow flops" in Tyson Rayles' pasture.



Having had cattle off and on for decades, I thought a bit and decided a simple blob of Raw Umber artist's acrylic paint might meet the need. Two are visible in the cow pasture on the right - they take a day or so to dry completely.  They've proved (2025) tough enough to stand up to all the hands (one cow recently lost a leg).

I was thinking about how to model one of those rings of rank green grass around a bare spot which you also see in cow pastures. Possibly that will be my excuse to buy/build a static grass applicator.

1706 is an Athearn Genesis lightly airbrush weathered. I didn't want to post a picture which was just model cow pies, lest it show up later when someone wants to embarrass me.

03-May-2013: An RR-Line member asked for advice on fitting a pilot coupler to an Overland B&M G-11 0-6-0. Mine had never been run, so I got it out:



I did the pilot fairly simply - use the hole on the top of the pocket as a guide for drilling through #65, cut down a McHenry, mark & drill the shank #75 and pin it in place with a Perfect "#8 modeling pin". A shirt pin would have worked, just more excess length to cut off.



The tender was more work: First, Cheyenne hadn't included screws for the mounting pad. Experimentation showed it was 1.4mm metric thread, and NWSL 6mm screws would hold a Kadee box. But then it was low. I didn't want to make pickup worse by using a fiber washer, so I made metal washers from .015 nickel silver sheet using a Micro-Mark punch/die set (left, above the spring, washer & screw). The 3/32" die made a hole that fit the kingpin screw. I also cut one kingpin spring in half and stretched it a bit for more flexibility.

Then there were a couple of hitches in the mechanism. One was the left crosshead/piston assembly hanging up on something inside the cylinder bore. I tightened up the crosshead guides with gentle application of pliers, then ran a #51 drill into the cylinder and finished by rounding the ends of both piston rods.

The next was the connecting rod screw on the front driver catching the crosshead. This was cured by carefully adjusting the position of the
cylinder/crosshead assembly relative to the frame.

I only ran it around the layout for a bit - it was late. Appears to be rated for about 12 cars (same as the Atlas HH-660 I just got). The boiler has a weight installed, there isn't room for a lot more.

[jbvb]

9-May-2013: I'd  done a partial dry run of an operating session: I ran the 'Casco', a Providence - Portland time freight, the Newburyport Local (until I get more track built, there isn't room to get a Portsmouth Local entirely in the clear at Newburyport) and three local passenger trains. This turned up some problems, but generally it went smoothly and I had fun switching. It was too late to slow it down with picture taking, though.

12-May-2013: I don't expect this is common in other layouts, but the corners of mine must leave clearance for me to get at the attic windows. West Lynn is the lowest part of the layout, so I've got about 30 inches of flying plywood with no fascia. Vehicles needed access to the West Lynn public delivery tracks, thus Bennett St.:



Micro-Engineering 30' girders, with the middle one cut in half so it fits in a slot I sawed in the Homasote.



I undercut the plywood with a coping saw and painted it black. The girders were taped in place till I airbrushed them.

In other progress, I replaced a broken axle gear in P1K RS-2 1501 and it ran nicely again. Non-progress was finding out that modern 'lacquer thinner' will only make the coating on a 20 year old brass tender bubble, though it worked on the boiler/cab. I have commercial stripper on hand, but I'm going to research things I can get by the gallon locally.

As I don't find it in a simple web search, let it be known that the old Anderson (or Eshleman) "Turnout Link" has an 0-80 thread in the top arm (the one that screws into the throwbar). Flathead screws improve the clearance relative to the supplied hex-heads.

[jbvb]

19-May-2013: This weekend's work was mostly on the High St. overpass:



I'd made the roadway 30 scale feet wide, but that wasn't going to look right after allowing for sidewalks. So I shimmed the abutments out 6' with foam core.  I got a pretty good start on the bridge and retaining walls too - I hot-glued fiberglass screen to support a coat of wood putty which I planned to paint & carve like the retaining walls around Merrimack St.



Finally, I made a try at coloring the brown fake fur for the Little River marshes:



This is mostly Pthalo Green artist's acrylic, with a little Green Gold. When I wrung out the water most of the color went with it. I reapplied and it was air drying (slowly, it got cloudy & cool after I took the picture).

[jbvb]

21-May-2013: The High St. overpass dates to the 1910s, when an earlier gauntlet-track 'arch' was widened to 3 tracks and made strong enough to carry a trolley line.



I have tree-free pictures (which I could have taken in the '70s, but didn't), but they're copyright the Walker Transportation Collection.



I had to compress both the width and the depth, so there's space for longitudinal girders but no room for water lines etc. I used half a package of .015 x .100 getting to this point last night.

My first try at marsh grass didn't have enough green, though I liked the texture and color variation. I got back to it on the next good drying day.

This is how the ~80 year old concrete has looked for most of my life:



I've been thinking about the Rustoleum "American Stone" that Elliot Moore (ETinBH on RR-Line) showed, with a light overcoat or wash of a more sandy color. Assuming I can find it, and I'm not otherwise too annoyed at RPM/Rustoleum, and that the assembled wisdom doesn't advise me against using it on a styrene base?

I need a little surface roughness, but maybe about 200 grit, not 60 grit. I wondered if I could get the effect by simply airbrushing it from too far away, with too much air pressure, but that's chancy.

[jbvb]

02-Jun-2013: Another "so a search will find it" post: My Overland 3899 HO brass model of the B&M's C-100 - C-137 cabooses came with wheels that intermittently shorted against the sideframes - not bad enough to bother my DC locos, but unhappy-making for DCC. The problem was the axles were too short (or the holes in the sideframes too big). Reboxx 33-1-0.995 replacement wheels cured the short and made it roll beautifully. My trackwork is OK for .088 width wheels.

5-Jun-2013: Last night's progress included re-cutting rail gaps (not photogenic), a try to improve the color of my fake fur marsh grass for Little River (not dry yet) and adding concrete sidewalks to the High St. overpass:



I scribed joint lines in .040 styrene and glued it to the parapets. I used a pencil to make a guideline so the sidewalk curves to match the road. The west (longer) side doesn't have its curb yet.



This test shot is for comparison with a prototype photo from 1949. Close enough to be recognizable, but not exact..

07-Jun-2013: Here's last night's progress:



Apropos of my question about Elliot Moore's use of rattle-can texture paint for concrete, what I found at Amesbury Industrial Supply (an excellent reason not to drive to the big box stores in Seabrook) was Rustoleum Multicolor Textured 223524 Desert Bisque. I like the color, it doesn't attack .040 styrene, but boy is it thick: I completely lost the rather deep scribed joints in the sidewalk.

This is my first experiment with rattle-cans for model work, and I'm not a convert - no control over how much paint, not sure exactly where the nozzle is pointing till you push the button. Still, I managed to mask/paint three wood-putty concrete retaining walls & abutments this morning, in situ.

Here Dave Emery suggested I try dabbing on Folk Art texture paint.  But I still have part of the can of Desert Bisque.

[jbvb]

11-Jun-2013: A good deal of progress on the High St. scene, working both in the evening and before I left for work:



I wanted the stone rougher than I can get by scribing styrene, and proud of the concrete/steel above, so I wrapped aluminum screen wire around the lower abutments.



Here's wood putty applied to one side of the cut, and partly painted/scribed at the right (East) end.



Here's the finished carving from the west side.

[jbvb]

And the east side. Still needs some touch up and a weathering wash.

If anyone tries this, DO NOT USE semi-gloss latex paint. The film is too strong, so it is prone to peeling when you scribe it. Working on the Merrimack St. retaining walls, I got the same amount of carving to this stage in half the time using flat black latex.

13-Jun-2013: The last couple of days' hobby time has been focused on the south side of the High St. cut:



I couldn't recall seeing this style of 'no loitering' done commercially, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was to be found somewhere in a German or UK catalog. If I'd had more than 15" to do, it might have been worth making a mold. But I decided I could probably manage it in wood putty.