Tools of the trade

Today I was following up on a small list of issues that were found during last weekend's ops session.  One of the Bad Order forms was a boxcar that derailed on a switch in the Weyerhaeuser mill.  I used to be able to stick my face right down on a turnout and see what was going on, but the eyeballs are slowly fading, so I use the headset magnifiers a lot more now.  I was unable to get my head under the upper deck with the Optivisor on, and at the correct angle to inspect the turnout.  So I pulled out one of my newer tools as of late (Iphone 6S), and turned on the video mode with flash to get a closer look.  The latest version now has zoom capability in the video mode, so it is a sweet tool for being able to quickly get a real close look (and without storing any data).  Below are a couple still images that portray what is seen, and how helpful it is to make use of this tool when the work angle is not user friendly.  Many of you probably do this without thinking much about it, but I know a lot of guys that have phones that dont utilize them, still have not moved to a smart phone, or are just stuck in their old ways (like me).
Here is a shot of the work area I was trying to get my head under (it didnt seem so bad 15 years ago!):

Here is a "before" image where the flange was getting caught on a handlaid switch point, because the gauge was a bit narrow:

I moved the point over slightly and took an "after" shot which reveals plenty of extra clearance now:

Sometimes we overlook the obvious, so just wanted to share with the rest of you all.
Happy RRing!

SouCalOps - 2016 recap

SouCalOps is a group of layout owners in the greater Los Angeles area that have been contributing to layout operating sessions on a bi-annual schedule... well, this is only the second of hopefully more to come.  Many thanks goes to Al D. for coordinating the event. Invited guests are pulled from other operating groups across the country, many configured in a similar fashion.  This last weekend was the first that I have participated, and had a great time hosting my layout.  It was three days of operations on 13 different layouts, with two addition bonus days for those that just couldn't get enough.  There were also clinics at the main hotel, a feature dinner, and layout tours.  We had guests operate the layouts coming from Van Rails, Bay Rails, Arizona, Colorado, San Diego, and more. Guests spent most of the day here Saturday operating the layout, and I kept the layout open for layout tours, which ended up extending our operations well past the dinner hour.  Special thanks to my local helpers for working all that overtime (also our guest dispatcher from BC Canada), and making it an enjoyable day for all.  It is a pleasure to get responses from my crews post-ops, on how much they enjoyed themselves.  Thanks to all who participated in making this an event to remember!

More pulling power for that yard goat

I have a Life Like SW1200 that has been working the layout all by itself for years.  It wasn't until I bought a Micro Trains SW1500, that I realized what a masterpiece that SW1200 really was.  They both use virtually the same mechanism, but with some added weight on the SW1200, it could pull like crazy as compared to its sibling SW1500.
Ray Eiser installed a decoder and added some Tungsten putty to the SW1200 (including front and rear headlights, and hardwired pick-up), before it ever went into service on the layout, so I never thought much about its pulling power.  Once my new SW1500 arrived, I was really amazed at what a difference there was between the two.  It has been on the to-do list to have a tug-o-war between the two and see just how much difference there was between them.  I finally slapped together a couple vids and posted them on You Tube.
Check out the video links to see just what a little bit of extra weight can really do for your locomotive fleet!

You Tube- SW1500 vs SW1200 Tug-O-War

You Tube- SW1200 vs SD9 Tug-O-War

Cascade Sub Layout Milestone:

Well, for those of you who feel like you are not making enough progress on your layout... you are not alone.
This April marks the 20th anniversary of layout construction here.  Family comes first, but I sure enjoy this hobby.  I told my wife way back when, that I would be done with the layout by 2016, and it is apparent there is still a lot of work ahead.  A conventional single level linear layout would have been my first choice for ease of construction and walk-around design, but I am grateful to have been able to cram this multi-deck spaghetti bowl into our garage at all.  For the most part it still retains mostly walk-around design features (with a few hiccups), but its configuration has swallowed significant labor hours as opposed to a more traditional linear design.  Adding the peninsula to the layout was not part of the original plan (started back in 2011), so I tell myself I would still be on schedule otherwise (lol).  At least now things are finally moving more to the scenery stages, so I am glad to have put the saws and drills away for the most part.  Slow but steady progress has been, and still remains the norm.

Looking forward to sharing my progress as a layout host for SoCalOps 2016 in June.

Crew Call Board

After seeing what Bill was using for a call board on his Southern Pacific Cascade Line, I realized what a good fit a magnet board was for operations here also.  So I stole his idea and tweaked things a bit to conform how operations are handled on this end (Thanks Bill!).  Hopefully this also makes life easier for the Crew Dispatcher.  There are six columns configured in an attempt to help crews get a general overview of their next job.  Typically trains are run by just an Engineer, but adding an option for a Conductor allows for unfamiliar operators to mark up with an engineer on mainline trains, and also for operators that like working as a two man crew for switch jobs.  Train ID and lead Engine number columns help crews find their paperwork and consist at the corresponding yard office.  The call-out Time is to work with the recently installed clocks on the wall (which are also for coordinating Work and Time with the dispatcher).  I have incorporated the latter to spread out the sudden start-up of operations at the beginning of sessions (which has been neglected for so long).  The departing station refers to the specific yard office where the orders and throttle are to be picked up by crew members.

Foam Base Scenery Progress

I  have been slowly adding more pink Styrofoam around the layout to get a feel for the basic concepts and how it is all going to fit together.  Static foam waste is entertaining stuff, so I am trying to get all the major pieces installed across the whole layout before moving forward on any other level of scenery.  Still need to configure the foam closer to natural curvatures, but at least now I can see how this is all coming together.  For some reason I don't' mind white plaster unfinished sections laying dormant for years at a time, but I think the pink foam will be a good motivator to hurry up and get er' done.  I am already eager to get all this painted a brown earth color asap, but will have to revisit each section for final shaping before that ever happens.  Maybe that can be the next phase of the project...

I am using mostly 2" foam board, but thanks again to Chip for helping to acquire some 1" foam, which has helped to speed up installation in many areas.  Some foam sections have still been too thick to lay flush with the needed finish height due to framework, so slots have been carved out in the foam.  This maintains a sturdy sub base for planting of vegetation, with significantly less carving on the topside.  I just cut along each side of the groove with a big disposable knife, and rock a chisel bit through to clean out the cross-member grooves:

 

One example of where I needed the foam to lay down low:

I am running a highway along the backdrop here with a couple of highway overpasses to conceal the tracks where they dive into the backdrop.  Tree foliage is my friend all over the layout to hide all these transitions.  It has been time consuming fitting all the irregular shapes in, but still have more trimming and shaping to get it right.  I take cardboard and make templates so that I can overlay it on the foam board, then trace around them to make best use of each sheet.  A number of labor hours still needed here to get the contours right, but its nice to see the basic idea finally taking shape:

I need to cut in the truss bridges here so I can envision better on how the riverbank is going to take shape:

Hoping to get all the sections pre-shaped before gluing into place, as I'm not too excited about trying to reshape in confined ares after the fact.  Most of the foam is cut and carved with a 3" knife that uses disposable blades.  I will follow up with more carving to get as close as possible adjacent to track sections and multiple layering, then follow up with rasps to blend the overall contours.  Just shooting from the hip on it all, as this foam stuff  is a new concept for me.  One thing for others to note, make sure you build your layout with a bunch of right angles to work with instead of abstract....    :)
 

Back to work!

May / October Status Report

   I've been keeping up to date on all my Blogspot Follower's latest layout progress, and I appreciate you guys posting even if I dont respond very well....  It has been a good motivator to keep me pushing forward instead of sitting on the couch with a cold one in hand.   :(

   Been tough finding much spare time, but still have a bit of forward progress to report:
Art visited a few times to help work on the layout, and made more progress on the base foam layers for the peninsula scenery.  Thanks Art!

   Meanwhile Eugene Yard trackage has been painted / weathered (airbrushed) from both sides of the layout with good old Floquil Rail Brown and Railroad Tie Brown colors.  What a difference that makes.  I wanted to leave the opportunity to photograph the layout from any angle, so this needed to be done from both sides of the layout before I could install any of the lower deck skyboards.  Before I could start any weathering / painting, it was necessary to install mass quantities of Micro Engineering wood sleeper ties on all the yard turnouts, but once on a roll, I ended up pushing through to complete all the layout's missing sleeper ties in numerous locations.  A fairly large scale project (think - bags o' stained ties), but not too overwhelming since I could just work on it as I had small time slots to keep moving forward with.  Going from switch stands to ground throws was a last minute observation for Eugene Yard after photo study (not much available on the internet back when I started handlaying turnouts, and friendships with data have helped immensely), so converting them for proper tie placement has been stretching things a bit for me...

   Large sections of the layout's trackage had already received painting, so additional locations that received painting after sleeper tie installs, included virtually any trackage left that I could get access to, which did not have rolling stock stored on it....  Remaining track sections still needing to get painted will be done once I complete the current phase of the skyboard install project, as this will allow me to relocate rolling stock to the completed areas. 

   Lower deck skyboards have been put off extensively in hopes of being able to match detailing to the represented locations on an actual workbench, but I have finally given up on the idea, as it should not be too difficult to complete backdrops in place before pushing ahead too far with adjacent scenery.  I cut all sheets of masonite for the skyboards to approx dimensions ahead of time, and painted the lower level's blue shade before install.  All sections were furred out with 2x2s to hide upper deck shelf brackets:

    A different approach to mounting the backdrop sections:

   Overall it looks a lot better than the open benchwork and white drywall we have all looked at for so many years.  I lost count of how many times I tried to sand and patch the screw holes and joints.  I have been holding a light up at various angles against the patching to make it as seamless as possible, but has been an exercise in meeting my satisfaction levels...  A bit of touch up painting with the roller and things are looking pretty good.
Eugene Yard played nice for being able to utilize sweeping radius of the masonite for the backdrop corners:

   Springfield - disarray of structure placement due to backdrop project:

   That big hole on the last image gets a highway overpass to mask the opening.  Not sure what to stick in the corner to hide that 90 deg angle... but typically the layout is making use of dense clusters of Conifers to hide most of these backdrop joints.
   Once the remainder of trackage is painted, the remaining sections for lower deck skyboards (that have also been prefabbed), will go in at the entrances to Staging, the Return adjacent to Springfield, and Hampton.

   Upper deck skyboards have also received multiple attempts of patching screw holes and repainting since their first appearance, and have been rehung again sporting their same high altitude shade of blue.  I have styrene backdrop sheets pre-cut for mounting directly on the remaining two wall sections for the upper deck eventually, but they still need some degree of painting and detailing (due to pine trees already in place) before then.  Once I am ready to revisit for detailed painting on backdrops, I anticipate a production run effort to complete all similar sections in phases to the overall project.   yya...

   The layout endured some minor damage to the mainline at W. Natron during the backdrop install project, so repairs on that are nearly complete except for running a test train or two, and matching adjacent track weathering.

   If I dont lapse too bad, the layout has a chance of seeing some good scenery progress before the bi-annual SoCalOps meet here next June.

   Since we missed the last ops due to this ongoing skyboard project, I am anticipating we will be back on schedule for the Oct Ops Sess at the end of the month, but moving trains around have found a few minor repairs needed (a wire splice that never got soldered and is now intermittent at Irving, completion of the repairs at Natron, and another dead spot that needs to be looked into at Portland yard).  Unfortunately no time for further implementation of the revisions to the SP's CS-1306 and CS-1307 forms (conductors work / industry reports) paperwork, but that is on the priority list to get us closer to Espee style Ops...

   Cant sign off without a departing shot of the current state of E. Eugene Yard, sporting a string of the new Wheels O' Time Espee bulkhead flats!