Cascade Summit changes

 20 years ago I started to built the layout for 3 DC throttles (and a yard master)... not thinking much about operations in the long run.  I liked the idea of trains running at eye level on the highest sections of the layout... but not everyone stands at over 6' like I do.  So now we operate with a regular crew of 10 people running the railroad (not all as tall as me).  I never really got it, when some of the guys said they couldn't "see" the layout...
Lately I was painting the last of the blue sky sections to complete the basic backdrops (finally), so I had to tear out some old scenery left behind from before the peninsula expansion project went in (a lumber mill for the Klamath Northern short line will be going in where a hill used to stand).  It suddenly dawned on me that there was a problem at the west end of Cascade Summit siding, as its view was blocked by a hill rising up from the fascia... 

Wow, how do some of these guys know where the fouling point is when they come to the end of the siding? 
Sorry guys! 
So I continued tearing out more plaster and got a tool out that I thought I would never need for the layout again... the jigsaw!  I cut down about a two foot section of fascia closer to near roadbed level.

This has opened up the view of that end of the siding from a couple angles, and I hope it makes life a little easier on the crews.  Not to worry, I will still put some more pine trees in to help obscure the view of that fouling point!  LOL  ...but it will sure be a lot better than it was.
A work in progress...

Amtrak Coast Starlight progress

   For modelers of the Coast Starlight, each year Amtrak made subtle roster changes to its Heritage fleet of cars that are notable to specific time frames.  Since mid '78 is the target era for my layout (with some minor deviations), I have tried to research the correct power and car consists to do these trains some justice.  By mid '78 it was still a mixed bag of what you would see the Starlight equipped with out on the road, but by then it was common to see it with a fairly consistent 12 car consist of mostly x-ATSF cars.  Typically behind the head end was the bag, followed by a bag dorm, 6 coaches (the third was usually a slab side x-NP/GN dome), followed by the PS dome lounge, a diner, and a couple Budd 10-6 sleepers.

I am modeling both a northbound and southbound train (direction contrary to SP nomenclature), but they are close in consist for the most part, with minor car substitutions from time to time.  I have acquired a couple nice baggage cars from Kato.  I pulled the first baggage car (Pullman Standard) from their Sunset Limited set, the other (Budd) was pulled from their earlier 4 car set that I de-skirted.  The car looks better less the skirts as long as it still has the stirrups intact.  For some reason Kato left the stirrups off on their latest PS baggage model, even though they have included them on other cars... 

To do the skirt removal on various cars, I used a pair of end nippers that were ground down on the ends, then filed the sills to clean up the rest.

The bag dorm in this era was an x-SCL car, but I am forced to use old Con-Cor cars from the 5 car-sets as a stand in for now (only one of which has been de-skirted so far).

The most common coach was a 44 seat leg rest coach from PS, but unfortunately there are no current manufacturers that make the correct PS coaches to fill this train out.  It is a sad state of affairs until either that changes, or the more unlikely, that I decide to kitbash a large quantity of them.  Brass car sides are available, but the layout is consuming most of that kind of labor hours for now. 

The next most common coach was a twin window 48 seat Budd coach that was made by Walthers, but Im still hunting for a few more (Found!). 

Intermountain made a Shasta 44 seat coach that was not as common, but another correct model.  Unfortunately coming up dry on these also over the last six months of searching, so let me know if you see either car in Amtk colors out there (also Found!) 

I took the slab side Coach Domes from the Con-Cor sets, and painted the window mullions silver, along with spraying flat black over the stock silver trucks... which make these cars look better overall.

The rest of my coach cars for now are rough renditions from the Con-Cor sets (that I cant wait to exchange for the proper models - half have been de-skirted with trucks painted black, which helps a little), or excess Kato sleepers (ugh).  The Pullman Standard Dome Lounges I acquired from both the Kato Sunset Limited set, and also one from Con-Cor, the later is not a bad model (other than its list price).  The diners are each different from the two Kato sets (one x-CBQ, the other ATSF).  Regarding the sleeper cars, I de-skirted both the Budd and PS 10-6 versions from the four car set for one train (which was not as common as 2 Budd sleepers), and am using 2 of the Budd 10-6 cars with an Indian (from the Sunset Limited set) for the other train.  Typically summer and Holiday trains were longer and got the extra bedroom car on the rear, hence my addition of the Indian on one of the trains for now.  Here is a rear end shot of the "Indian Pony" taken by George Hamlin. 

I found it intriguing that many of the doors were sporting red paint at the time (but dont know why), with a marker hanging on the end gate, so I just had to try to duplicate this look for the end of my trains also. 
I have opted for both trains to have a Pullman Standard car on the rear of the train due to the lack of availability for Budd style end gates.  To reproduce this look on the end of my trains, I have got as far as painting the doors red, and getting most of the parts cobbled together:

 The end gates are from Rapido Trains (thanks Jason!).  Not currently satisfied with the size of the end marker as it is a bit large, but it might just have to do until better comes along...  Ray has donated a couple of his HO keep-alive circuits to light the end markers (they fit without trimming any interior).

I cut the brass contact strips on my trusty paper cutter that provide power to the circuit, as well as for a few other cars to get current sensing with the signal detection.

Most of the other Kato cars got the standard wheel treatment, with surface mount resistors and conductive paint.
One other thing on the to-do list is to put the pointless arrows on some of the cars that came in Ph II paint, but most of those cars are stand-ins at this point anyhow...
Still getting a bit of a kick out of this whole project...

Kato Amtrak SDP40F's arrive

 After years of  Lima shells and Atlas SD60 underframes haunting me, and calling me to build my Coast Starlight train(s), Kato has finally come along with the right stuff to motivate me to get it done.  I'll post more on this Starlight project, but first wanted to cover these new locos.

My era being modeled was the transition from the Ph I paint shimmy to the Ph II, so I was even more excited when they announced both were being offered.  My first two SDP40F's arrived and I finally got around to putting the TCS K7D4 decoders in them.  I had a hard time getting the shell off the first one to install the decoder.  Not much help from TCS or on-line, but I finally figured out the trick to getting them apart.  I started with the rear first by removing the handrails from the pilot.  The ears on the underframe that hold the shell on, snap into the window glass rather than the body shell itself.  There is only one tab used on the engineer's side to release the glass / shell at the rear end, so once you get that loose, the shell will start to lift up. You can see the notch in the glass that lines up with the frame ear in the pic below:

  When prying the shell away from the frame, make sure the window sections are not separated from the shell (I stuck an x-acto blade between the window glass and the frame).  The hard part is the front.  Release the front tabs simultaneously (one on each side, on-center of the cab windows).  When the frame ears release from the window / shell, the body will easily pull straight up... without any twisting or bending as some have recommended. 

 You can see it is not impossible to add the Mars feature with an 0603 LED, by separating the upper lens from the number board section, but I will revisit that some other day. 

I'm still waiting for my Kabo sound versions to arrive, as they have been delayed for a couple months now... but these first two are nothing less than I would expect from Kato.  Ready to run out of the box except you might want to add the trip pins that come separate in the box.
A preliminary shot of the first train slowly coming together...

Looking forward to integrating these new trains into the operations... but unfortunately, some key features (to me), will be a work in progress for some time to come.