What's going on with the logging layout; an amazing tour of the Richmond Pacific; and a friend joins the blogging world

Hi.

It is good to be sitting at the keyboard, again. Since the December post life has been a whirlwind. The Bay Area Layout Design and Ops SIG meet is now in the rear view mirror. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. A couple of things to catch up on. The latest with the logging layout, a very cool tour of the Richmond Pacific Railroad and a good friend joins the blogosphere.

Let's start with an update on the logging layout. I dusted off the layout with the expectation that I'd have it ready for ops or at least an open house during the SIG meet. As I mentioned before, I'm not giving up N Scale. 

All of my N Scale projects -- the B&OCT and Takadanobaba -- were halted by some kind of speed bump or another. The solutions were beyond me.

I needed a win. I got that with this project. The track was in good shape. I have two Shays, but the layout can only handle one. 

The time spent working in a different scale was not wasted. It was an opportunity to dust off old modeling skills or work on new ones. This included: scratchbuilding rolling stock,

Scratchbuilt flatcar carrying an AHM Barnhardt loader

kitbashing structures and throwing together small detail projects.

Scratchbuilt loading dock at Monroe Bros. Milling & Lumber

Coal and sand house with rack of spare wheels adjacent to the engine terminal 

Penstock on scratchbuilt platform (a re-used flatcar that didn't turn out quite right)

All of this has proven that I have the skills needed in other modeling projects. I also learned that I don't have to be afraid to jump into the unknown.

A fundamental premise of the logging layout is that it will be "good enough". It has to look good, but doesn't have to be perfect -- except for the track. This layout has to work. The locomotive and rolling stock need to stay on the tracks -- unless yours truly goes against a switch. Hmmph!!

Here are a few pictures of the layout in its current state (some have been previously posted on Facebook):

Testing the Shay. It came back from the repair shop with a hitch in its git along. Seemed to work fine on the loop of Atlas Snap Track. 

Here's the Shay crossing Humberson Lane. 

The Shay has crossed Humberson Lane and is creeping onto Bizjak Bridge, which crosses Zadroga Creek. Need to glue the abutments and add rocks to the creek bed. Also need to add a couple of guys fishing in the creek.

Here's the Shay and bobber caboose approaching Bizjak Bridge. Note the bridge planking. Boy, do the Shay and bobber need weathering!

Trees flanking Humberson Lane. More scenery to be added. 

Here we are at the right end of the layout. The shell of Monroe Brothers Lumber looks forlorn. A roof and more structure are still to come.

Wow, Humberson Lane really looks like it curves behind the trees on the left.

On the Saturday night of the SIG meet, the layout was open for visitors. The weather was kind of crappy and only three people showed. It was a good opportunity to get a few projects done. 

Speaking of the SIG meet . . .

It ran from Friday, Feb. 3 to Sunday, Feb. 5. Friday's events included an ops session, a tour of the Richmond Pacific Railroad (RP) and a dinner in Richmond. 

The Richmond Pacific tour was amazing. It was the first time that the railroad had been open for a public tour. They rolled out the red carpet. Our host gave us a 45-minute overview of the railroad in the Headquarters' conference room. 

The Richmond Pacific system map in the Headquarters conference room

They then took all 19 of us on tour of the railroad via caboose hop. 

The train awaits

As we approached the train we were told that there was one space (one open seat) in the locomotive cab and everyone else had to cram into the caboose. Who should go? I was pleasantly surprised to be nominated by the group to take the locomotive spot. I didn't waste any time climbing aboard. 

The view from the front porch of Richmond Pacific GP-15 #424.

Manny, the engineer. A very cool dude, who was willing to tolerate a model railroader and railfan in his cab. I was not allowed to blow the whistle.

The view looking forward from the cab. Very cool.

Were I not interested in Chicago and the B&OCT, I'd be a Richmond Pacific modeler. That is left to my friend, Steven Cox. He's been interested in the RP for a long time. Its got a lot of appeal: busy industrial switching, connections to two class 1 railroads (Union Pacific [UP] and BNSF -- if you backdate its the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe) and lots of Amtrak and Amtrak California traffic on the UP tracks.

Steven's inspiration is Stege Interlocking and Stege Wye. This is the interchange point between the RP and UP.  Stege Wye is elevated and two of the legs cross Interstate 580. The interlocking is compass south of the Wye.

Here's a photo from the cab of our train on the north leg of the wye. 

A big thanks to our train crew and host, Jeff. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And finally, welcome to the blogosphere -- Ken Koren. Ken is a friend from when I lived in Chicago in the 1990s. He build a series of layouts first in his house in Berwyn, Ill., and later in LaGrange Park, Ill.

 Last year he and his wife left Chicago for Rockville, Ind. He's starting a new layout The Rockville Western and blogging about his experience. The Rockville Western is a division of his previous layout the Chicago & Western Illinois. Good luck Ken. So far, you've been far more prolific than me. 

Testing the servos and replacing two more switches

I'm doing things differently. 

The old way was ready, fire, aim. Hope I got close to the mark. Or I didn't know what I was doing. 

Today, I'm trying it the traditional way -- ready, aim, fire. And I'm working more on process in an effort to get a satisfactory final product. The old way was to try to be careful and hope that I get a good result. That worked a number of times, but when it didn't I'd get frustrated. The new approach reduces the pressure I put on myself to do it right and perfectly the first time. The goal is to improve my skills and reduce the luck involved in the process. 

The projects that are the subject of today's blog: testing the servo installation and replacing two more reclaimed switches. First testing the servo -- A success! To be clear -- Steven Cox is a great coach. He suggested that I set up a test bed to ensure that my servo installation and linkage to the switches work. When the Barr staging is properly installed it will be difficult to maintain -- not impossible -- just difficult. The idea was to ensure that the servos and linkages are robust enough to handle the load. How would we know? I built a testbed that was designed to see if the system would break.

Steven whipped up some arduino software code that would throw the turnout normal and reverse every 1.2 seconds. I set it up and left it alone for 3 hours. What would the result be?

When I came back -- the servo and linkage were still doing their thing -- after more than 9,000 switch throws. I doubt I'll ever throw the track switches in Barr yard that much in the life of the layout. Check out the results. 

Testing the servo and linkage to switches 

This video shows the testbed in action. 

the servo test results - three hours, more than 9,000 switch throws. 

That's the first part of this tale. The second part is that I need to replace two more track switches -- on the Barr exit throat. This is my fault - twice over. The first switch I cut the throwbar short so it would not interfere with a nearby switch. I had a spare switch in the track bin. A quick fix -- just unsolder and pull off the rail joiners on the surrounding track. 

That's when things went awry. The soldering iron was nice and hot, the first three rail joiners came off easily. The last was on one of the frog rails of an existing Peco insulfrog medium LH turnout. Insulfrog = plastic frog -- susceptible to heat. A tight spot, I put too much heat on for too long and the frog melted. ARGHH!!! Thank goodness for the internet. I found an online retailer with supply -- ordered four replacements (I might need an extra or two). Now, I'm waiting for the merchandise to arrive and can finish the staging yard. 

 One other development, the data file has been updated for the Barr exit throat. The switches now throw the correct way. Yea!! So, two big steps forward -- two minor steps back. I'm ahead. See you next time.

Working on Servos - on the Barr Yard staging (Lower Level)

Barr Yard -- on the B&OCT prototype is a major classification yard on Chicago's south side. Interestingly, it was a flat yard. B&O long-distance freight trains originated at Robey Yard -- a modest yard on Chicago's Near West Side. Almost all eastbound B&O freight trains stopped at Barr to drop off inbound cars. The exception was the New York Trailer Jet (NYTJ)-- a priority train that carried piggyback and reefer traffic. The NYTJ picked up reefer traffic at Robey and piggyback flats at Forest Hill -- a piggyback yard immediately south of 75th St. Tower. On the inbound side -- every freight stopped at Barr except the Chicagoan and Chicago Trailer Jet. 

The 75th St. Tower is the end of the modeled portion of the B&OCT in N Scale, anything railroad east of that point is represented by staging -- called Barr Yard. A more detailed discussion of the prototype will be the topic of a future post or two.

This much introduction was needed to give context to today's post -- which is about installing the servos which will control the routing of trains in and out of Barr staging. 

This project required outside help, provided by Steven Cox. Thanks Steven.

In addition to helping with the track plan design, he volunteered to write the software that drives the servos. There may have been an expectation that I would learn how to write code to operate an arduino nano. That never happened -- the job quickly exceeded my rudimentary grasp of the concepts of computer programming. I took one class in computer programming (Fortran) in the early 1980s when I was at the University of Maryland. At that time, the coding was put on to punch cards and passed over the counter to the students working at the computer center. My takeaway was learning how to operate a key-punch machine. That was a memory best forgotten.

I spent many Zoom meeting hours helping (watching) Steven develop the code. The software is ready for a real world test. 

And now things have moved into a realm where I'm much more comfortable -- setting up the hardware. For the past two weeks, I have been installing servo holders and servos at the exit to Barr staging.

Servos installed at Barr exit 

At the turnback end -- entrance to the staging -- the servos are already in. But, the servos need to be connected to the track.

Those connectors are mostly fabricated from paper clips 

and some servos need to be re-positioned because the holders are either too close to or too far from the track. 

screwing in a re-positioned servo holder

The two photos above show the servos, a wiring bridge and servo connections to a PCA-9685, which distributes commands to the motors. Next up -- testing the routes. So far, I've found a couple of servos are throwing backward and one servo is not responding at all. All these issues will be tracked down -- and will have to be documented. 

It will take a session or two with Steven to de-bug. The layout will have four staging yards that will use this prototype to control train routing.

Modeling the Model -- Thanks Vicki and Steve

The B&OCT in N Scale has been in the benchwork stage for as much as three years. That seems like a long time. To be fair, the project has dragged because of a design re-set. 

Steven Cox (collaborating from the Toronto, Ontario area) and I have worked on this layout design for maybe half a decade. I had started to build some of the benchwork for what had been the lower level. Before I got too far down the road, I asked for help from those who were likely to build this layout and eventually operate it. What did they see? What did they like? What did they not like? Any other suggestions?

Thanks to those who came over and gave thoughtful input. The main takeaways: the mainline could be longer, make sure there’s enough on-line switching and one staging yard occupied valuable real estate that could be repurposed as active layout. Steven and I created a “new” lower level to hold this staging yard — representing Barr Yard and the rest of the Baltimore & Ohio RR operating system. Moving the Barr staging yard opened up several opportunities. I got more mainline running length on what now became the middle level. The Brighton Park industrial area was moved from being under the active throat on Robey Yard on the upper level, the 49th St. interlocking tower was added (this one fully active on all legs). 75th St. tower was moved and has a better track arrangement. Last was the addition of a prototypical third main between 75th St. tower and 49th St. tower.

View of entering the layout area

According to Steve's track plan it looked good. But, I wanted a more three-dimensional view (rather than two-dimensional computer views of each level). A model would give me a better perspective on the space.

A view around the corner

I asked (conscripted) the Tuesday crew to help. In 2019, I decided to hold mid-day work sessions, rather than in the evening. Regular attendees included: John Sutkus, Ray Freeman, Steve Van Meter and Vicki Newcomer. I got a bunch of foamcore board and work started in November 2019.

Steve uses tomatoes as stand ins for operators 

The model showed me ways to build the triple-level section underneath the Belt Railway of Chicago’s 16th Street yard. It revealed in context the location of electric outlets, cabinets and windows. The model gave a chance to visualize operating crew placement and management. That’s what Steve Van Meter is doing in the nearby photo. He and Vicki were the primary contributors to this project.  

Not to understate anyone else’s contribution (thanks), but Vicki came over every time. 

Vicki Newcomer

She is a late convert to model trains. Originally a dollhouse builder, Vicki joined our model railroad build- and operating-group a number of years ago. She had a real talent for building structures. She built a small N-scale layout representing her hometown, Alameda, California. (The layout was sadly destroyed in a garage fire in 2019.) It was a fantastic showcase for her work. She shared her talents by taking on structure and scenery projects on other layouts. She was not single-minded. She had interest in all aspects of the hobby -- including operations. 

I got to know Vicki as we carpooled to work sessions hosted by other Tuesday crew layout owners. She decided to return to college to get an art degree. (Completed) She was building a glass (Crystal — as she called it) cottage in her backyard. (Completed) She rebuilt her garage after the fire, including a custom painted garage floor and pegboard wall. I helped with the wall. (Completed)

And she came over to help me build a model of a model. I had my ideas of how this would go, but I didn’t have the skills to pull it off. Vicki and Steve showed me the way. They deftly cut the foamcore boards, track plans that were glued onto the foamcore and we started to assemble the garage and each layout level. 

Vicki was more than a match to the task. Her artistic skills were barely challenged. She came up with an easy, inexpensive and creative solution to represent the layout's helixes. The layout will have four of them. The model only shows three, however. She got a couple of deli containers and cardboard coffee cups. We cut them to height, pulled out the hot glue gun and put them in place. 

Vicki and the completed model

I just reviewed some of the pictures of this project and found some that included Vicki. As I looked at them, her contribution became apparent. The whole project was more enjoyable because of the good conversation, patient teaching and a successful outcome. (See nearby pictures.)

Vicki died in January 2021 of a brain tumor. Because of the pandemic, the last time I saw her was in early 2020. 

Vicki, you really touched my life. You were a great friend. You demonstrated a great attitude. It was fun to spend time with you. Everytime I saw you, I smiled. Thanks for being a part of my life. I will miss you a lot.