Model Railroading
Because of the holiday, My brother was unable to come over this week and I really did not get to do much of anything in the train room.
Sunday, we talked trains while we were working wood.
Our discussion was on how the railroad should be operated. We explored nearly a couple dozen ways to move the cars around the layout, and even where on the map the different sidings should be, which would effect the operations of the layout.
WE came to one big conclusion. We have one well designed track plan (layout). It fit every operation option we explored and there are more we could come up with if we put our minds to it, or were willing to go more complicated.
Our track plan is based on moving and placing cars, switching, and not just seeing trains run around the track in circles. We can do that, but that is not what our layout was really designed for.
Watching or listening to trains run laps is soothing and calming, but it does not keep you interacting with the railroad. The trick to keep a model railroad layout alive is to get you constantly interacting with it when you are around it. That is where switching comes in handy. You are not watching trains run, you are actually part of the action, making decisions, dealing with simple problems. It becomes challenging.
One can look at a model railroad like a game, where you design and build the game board (the track plan) and you then make up the rules at which the game can be played.
What we found to make things minimum interesting, was to choose a start point on your railroad, and make up your train. Write on a piece of paper where each car will be dropped off on the layout. Then look over the layout and write down which cars will be picked up. then run your train, swapping the cars as you go. You make sure other cars you are not taking, go back to the spot they were at.
You will find yourself with a challenging game. Cars will not be where you want them to be, and you might have to stop and figure out which car is going where.
One can get complicated on the switching, where you have trains running by, following clock time, having trains meet to exchange passengers and cars, have cards made that tell each car a destination and then where to go from there. We could change the order that our sidings are visited, how many laps one does between stops, Whether we run one train with one of us as the engineer and the other as the conductor making the decisions on the moves or each running separate trains.
A well designed track plan allows one to explore every one of these decisions as they come to you.
I have explored many hobbies over the years. Except for Woodworking, in which sales pays for the tools, model railroading is the cheapest hobby when one divides the costs over the pleasurable hours and years the materials will last.
I have a saying for every other hobby I have been involved in. "I need to get into something cheaper like diamond or gold collecting.”
Showing posts with label Model Railroading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Model Railroading. Show all posts
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Model Railroading
It has been a while since I wrote about the model railroad project. I can say I have made progress.
My brother has been busy and has not been able to stop by since the first visit. I have been working in the train room though.
My brother and I each created our own railroads, with colors of the engines. My brother had the PUGET SOUND RAILROAD which is painted in orange and red. My TILLICUM RAILROAD is purple with a silver or white stripe. I chose that because I found an eastern railroad that had those colors and the engines were readily available at my local hobby shop. I just had to change the lettering.
We each had a second railroad, I had the KLAPATCHE BARGE company that was mainly working ports. My brother had the SKADGET RIVER RAILROAD which was a logging and mining railroad that operated steam.
Last week, I brought in from another part of the house a second two drawer unit, sorted through the railroad cars and put all the broken cars into the drawers I also sorted through my engines. Those that don't work are in the drawers also.
I found I have two GP-9 road switcher engines that run really good. Not at the same speed, but they can run slow, which is key to placing and picking up cars and making the day of running trains longer. They also pull a lot of railroad cars. One is painted for NORFOLK AND SOUTHERN and the other I stripped the paint off it.
I have three SW-9 yard switcher diesels, Two are Athern engines, a middle priced engine. My brother tried to improve how they run and slow them down and used re-gearing kits. These things run slow, but boy do they growl.
I have a 44 ton center cab yard switcher diesel made by quality engine maker. I once had it lettered, but weathering and other things caused the loss of any lettering on it. It was lettered for the Klapatche barge company.
I also have two F-units, painted for each railroad, that are made by Tyco. Tyco makes two different levels of engines. they make expensive engines, about a hundred dollars each, that run like watches. The other are what you get in the toy train sets. They either run full speed or stop, very little speed control. It happens that these F-units are the cheap type of engine.
The cheap engines likely will not be used, put into storage. Fighting engines that don't run perfectly is not worth our short time to model railroad.
With the cars taken off the layout, we still have way too many railroad cars on the layout. I should figure out how to put them on display. Of course, I really need to take everything out of the house and start over, either with a bigger house, or less stuff.
*******
Talking about less stuff, I spent this week cleaning the floor. The floor is almost completely clear. I have a little bit more to go. I mainly stopped when I filled the big box with the junk on the floor. I vacuumed the cleared section of the floor too which makes a big difference.
Since then, I picked through half the box, filling two kitchen garbage bags, one with stuff being tossed, and one with stuff being saved for now.
I need to do the rest of the box. The stuff that I will keep will likely go back into the box for now. I also need to finish the floor, which is mainly near the closet.
I will have to empty the vacuum cleaner, but when I do, I need to sort through the stuff sucked up as model railroad keepers can be small pieces and vacuum cleaners love them. Think of it as a archeological dig where they sift the sand in case they missed something.
*****
A few weeks ago, I picked up at a yard sale, crate like shelving. I had not decided where they would go. I finally decided to fit them into the blind corner of the closet, where I was storing the computer monitors. I then removed the "barges" my brother made and stuck them in the bottom two sections of the unit. This frees up room for storage bins on the shelving beneath the extension.
Our plan was to have interchangeable barges as part of our railroad operation. We would have sets of cars on them. Railroad cars would be taken from the trains and loaded on the barges as an actual operation. We would then lift the barge out and put it on a shelf, then slide in a new barge filled with cars and the engines would take the cars off them.
One problem all railroad layouts have, is that one only has room for a small amount of rolling stock. Every model railroad owner has more rolling stock than they have track space for. They end up with cars that get worn out from constant use, and cars that never get used because they are in storage. We had figured out years ago that having a barge operation is very intense, and enjoyable. One person could load and unload barges all day long. Our plan for a barge port on our railroad was intended to allow us to use all the railroad cars in our collection.
Handling the cars causes damage. added on details like hand rails and steps, along with couplers, end up getting broken. Also your carefully weathered finish and lettering gets rubbed off over time. The less handling a railroad car gets, the better.
We figured out that if we were to come up with a system where the cars are not handled at all, or at least very seldom, we would gain. The barges was a plan to solve that problem. The cars would be put onto the barge, a coupler on the rear end would keep the cars in place, along with a lid is slid down to keep them from jumping falling off if the barge is tipped.
The barge system would give us intense operating activities, which I will explain in detail in a future note, and would swap out our railroad cars so they all get the same amount of use. We would even be able to have special trains using cars that would only show up once in a long time, a circus train, a maintenance train, a train moving big equipment, and so on that one does not want to see on the railroad often.
Our problem with the barges we were making was that we never had the time, money, and at least back then, technology to complete the barges to be workable. This is one reason they are now being stored out of the way.
My brother has been busy and has not been able to stop by since the first visit. I have been working in the train room though.
My brother and I each created our own railroads, with colors of the engines. My brother had the PUGET SOUND RAILROAD which is painted in orange and red. My TILLICUM RAILROAD is purple with a silver or white stripe. I chose that because I found an eastern railroad that had those colors and the engines were readily available at my local hobby shop. I just had to change the lettering.
We each had a second railroad, I had the KLAPATCHE BARGE company that was mainly working ports. My brother had the SKADGET RIVER RAILROAD which was a logging and mining railroad that operated steam.
Last week, I brought in from another part of the house a second two drawer unit, sorted through the railroad cars and put all the broken cars into the drawers I also sorted through my engines. Those that don't work are in the drawers also.
I found I have two GP-9 road switcher engines that run really good. Not at the same speed, but they can run slow, which is key to placing and picking up cars and making the day of running trains longer. They also pull a lot of railroad cars. One is painted for NORFOLK AND SOUTHERN and the other I stripped the paint off it.
I have three SW-9 yard switcher diesels, Two are Athern engines, a middle priced engine. My brother tried to improve how they run and slow them down and used re-gearing kits. These things run slow, but boy do they growl.
I have a 44 ton center cab yard switcher diesel made by quality engine maker. I once had it lettered, but weathering and other things caused the loss of any lettering on it. It was lettered for the Klapatche barge company.
I also have two F-units, painted for each railroad, that are made by Tyco. Tyco makes two different levels of engines. they make expensive engines, about a hundred dollars each, that run like watches. The other are what you get in the toy train sets. They either run full speed or stop, very little speed control. It happens that these F-units are the cheap type of engine.
The cheap engines likely will not be used, put into storage. Fighting engines that don't run perfectly is not worth our short time to model railroad.
With the cars taken off the layout, we still have way too many railroad cars on the layout. I should figure out how to put them on display. Of course, I really need to take everything out of the house and start over, either with a bigger house, or less stuff.
*******
Talking about less stuff, I spent this week cleaning the floor. The floor is almost completely clear. I have a little bit more to go. I mainly stopped when I filled the big box with the junk on the floor. I vacuumed the cleared section of the floor too which makes a big difference.
Since then, I picked through half the box, filling two kitchen garbage bags, one with stuff being tossed, and one with stuff being saved for now.
I need to do the rest of the box. The stuff that I will keep will likely go back into the box for now. I also need to finish the floor, which is mainly near the closet.
I will have to empty the vacuum cleaner, but when I do, I need to sort through the stuff sucked up as model railroad keepers can be small pieces and vacuum cleaners love them. Think of it as a archeological dig where they sift the sand in case they missed something.
*****
A few weeks ago, I picked up at a yard sale, crate like shelving. I had not decided where they would go. I finally decided to fit them into the blind corner of the closet, where I was storing the computer monitors. I then removed the "barges" my brother made and stuck them in the bottom two sections of the unit. This frees up room for storage bins on the shelving beneath the extension.
Our plan was to have interchangeable barges as part of our railroad operation. We would have sets of cars on them. Railroad cars would be taken from the trains and loaded on the barges as an actual operation. We would then lift the barge out and put it on a shelf, then slide in a new barge filled with cars and the engines would take the cars off them.
One problem all railroad layouts have, is that one only has room for a small amount of rolling stock. Every model railroad owner has more rolling stock than they have track space for. They end up with cars that get worn out from constant use, and cars that never get used because they are in storage. We had figured out years ago that having a barge operation is very intense, and enjoyable. One person could load and unload barges all day long. Our plan for a barge port on our railroad was intended to allow us to use all the railroad cars in our collection.
Handling the cars causes damage. added on details like hand rails and steps, along with couplers, end up getting broken. Also your carefully weathered finish and lettering gets rubbed off over time. The less handling a railroad car gets, the better.
We figured out that if we were to come up with a system where the cars are not handled at all, or at least very seldom, we would gain. The barges was a plan to solve that problem. The cars would be put onto the barge, a coupler on the rear end would keep the cars in place, along with a lid is slid down to keep them from jumping falling off if the barge is tipped.
The barge system would give us intense operating activities, which I will explain in detail in a future note, and would swap out our railroad cars so they all get the same amount of use. We would even be able to have special trains using cars that would only show up once in a long time, a circus train, a maintenance train, a train moving big equipment, and so on that one does not want to see on the railroad often.
Our problem with the barges we were making was that we never had the time, money, and at least back then, technology to complete the barges to be workable. This is one reason they are now being stored out of the way.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Model Railroading
Railroading
Over the week, I got nearly everything, except for some debris, out of the train room. My brother came over today for the first time in years. Our main thing was to get a feel for what we had, what we needed, and what we should do next.
One project between now and next week, is to locate tools we are going to need to do the work at hand. I have to locate the soldering iron and the palm sander first thing. We can lay some track with those on hand.
The soldering iron is to solder the rails of the track sections together, and to solder wires to the tracks. The palm sander is for the cork road bed. We glue down the cork first, then we use the sander to even it out, to make it smooth. Then we glue the tracks down to the cork. Our last act is to use a track gauge and super glue the rails into gauge so they are not going to move out of gauge. It is not uncommon for rails to lean in or out or get loose. That can cause derailments. No one wants that. Super-gluing the rails into gauge solves that problem. This is a PERMANENT railroad layout.
My layout is built with ATLAS SNAP TRACK SWITCHES. These are thought of as really cheap switches. We found that once fixed in gauge, they are excellent switches. We also like the snap motors that go with them. They look nothing like anything in the real world, but they are nearly idiot resistant and very easy to get working.
Years ago, my brother installed slow motion under table switch motors. It took a couple hours to install each one and he never could get them working right.
I found I need to look at the contents of the bins beneath the switch yard and also empty a couple shelves there. I have no idea what all that stuff is.
My brother will aim for coming over every Wednesday, but there will be days it won't happen. He is an independent contractor and many times works real late at night. If that happens, he won't be coming over.
My brother pointed out that I left off a crossing switch in my drawing from the inner loop of the layout and the outer loop.
In the accompanying picture, show how my railroad layout developed.
I saw a model railroad layout in a hobby shop, using MARKLIN products, which is made in Germany. I loved the railroad layout. I drew it up, making a few changes, and purchased the track. My brother built the layout for me. For those not into trains, a Run-a-round is a way for an engine to get to the other end of a car, or string of cars. They run around them.
The second picture is what I came up with for my design with the modifications. I considered this to be the perfect model railroad layout, better than anything I had ever seen in a magazine. We had one track coming off the outer oval to leave the 4x8.
The third picture shows modifications we made to the layout just before we stopped model railroading. We added a switch to the outside of the outer oval to create a run-a-round. WE can now turn our trains around so they can push or pull off the layout as needed. This made the best railroad layout I have ever seen, even better.
That is what happened this week. Will see what happens over the coming week.
Over the week, I got nearly everything, except for some debris, out of the train room. My brother came over today for the first time in years. Our main thing was to get a feel for what we had, what we needed, and what we should do next.
One project between now and next week, is to locate tools we are going to need to do the work at hand. I have to locate the soldering iron and the palm sander first thing. We can lay some track with those on hand.
The soldering iron is to solder the rails of the track sections together, and to solder wires to the tracks. The palm sander is for the cork road bed. We glue down the cork first, then we use the sander to even it out, to make it smooth. Then we glue the tracks down to the cork. Our last act is to use a track gauge and super glue the rails into gauge so they are not going to move out of gauge. It is not uncommon for rails to lean in or out or get loose. That can cause derailments. No one wants that. Super-gluing the rails into gauge solves that problem. This is a PERMANENT railroad layout.
My layout is built with ATLAS SNAP TRACK SWITCHES. These are thought of as really cheap switches. We found that once fixed in gauge, they are excellent switches. We also like the snap motors that go with them. They look nothing like anything in the real world, but they are nearly idiot resistant and very easy to get working.
Years ago, my brother installed slow motion under table switch motors. It took a couple hours to install each one and he never could get them working right.
I found I need to look at the contents of the bins beneath the switch yard and also empty a couple shelves there. I have no idea what all that stuff is.
My brother will aim for coming over every Wednesday, but there will be days it won't happen. He is an independent contractor and many times works real late at night. If that happens, he won't be coming over.
My brother pointed out that I left off a crossing switch in my drawing from the inner loop of the layout and the outer loop.
In the accompanying picture, show how my railroad layout developed.
I saw a model railroad layout in a hobby shop, using MARKLIN products, which is made in Germany. I loved the railroad layout. I drew it up, making a few changes, and purchased the track. My brother built the layout for me. For those not into trains, a Run-a-round is a way for an engine to get to the other end of a car, or string of cars. They run around them.
The second picture is what I came up with for my design with the modifications. I considered this to be the perfect model railroad layout, better than anything I had ever seen in a magazine. We had one track coming off the outer oval to leave the 4x8.
The third picture shows modifications we made to the layout just before we stopped model railroading. We added a switch to the outside of the outer oval to create a run-a-round. WE can now turn our trains around so they can push or pull off the layout as needed. This made the best railroad layout I have ever seen, even better.
That is what happened this week. Will see what happens over the coming week.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Model Railroad 10-09-09
I dug into my train room a few times this week, moving the stored stuff elsewhere. I still have a mess against the wall, and the floor is still a mess, but I have made headway. I will be doing more this week.
Because the closet was almost completely empty, I took all the structures off the railroad and put them on the closet shelf.
This got them out the way. Also, handling them showed me what can be used again as soon as I am ready to "redecorate" the layout, and what needs to be rebuilt. Most of the buildings I personally built, were tiny and I used a lot of glue. Several of the buildings I got at yard sales or were given to me started coming apart with walls separating. I have no idea when I will ever get time to the structures that need repairs or rebuilding.
With the railroad layout surface clear, I took my battery powered circular saw and tried to cut a slot. that little saw had very little power. I had not yet cut all the way through the three quarter inch plywood when it ran out of energy. It is second- hand, small, and not really powerful I will keep trying to cut the wood over time, but this one time was enough for the moment. It tells me that I should bring in an electric circular saw or be patient, or even accept the 4x8 as one big sheet as it is.
I need to vacuum and scrub the entire railroad surface. I have screws, bits of wires, and lots of dirt on top, along with plaster from previous scenery and other projects. I will do so later, but after I give up on,,, I mean finish cutting the slot in the railroad. I want to wait until the worst of the mess is done before I do serious cleaning on the railroad surfaces.
The brick on the corner there, is an important track laying tool. You need the track held in place while the glue dries. It also can be used to hold pieces of projects in place till glue dries as it does not move easily.
Because the closet was almost completely empty, I took all the structures off the railroad and put them on the closet shelf.
This got them out the way. Also, handling them showed me what can be used again as soon as I am ready to "redecorate" the layout, and what needs to be rebuilt. Most of the buildings I personally built, were tiny and I used a lot of glue. Several of the buildings I got at yard sales or were given to me started coming apart with walls separating. I have no idea when I will ever get time to the structures that need repairs or rebuilding.
With the railroad layout surface clear, I took my battery powered circular saw and tried to cut a slot. that little saw had very little power. I had not yet cut all the way through the three quarter inch plywood when it ran out of energy. It is second- hand, small, and not really powerful I will keep trying to cut the wood over time, but this one time was enough for the moment. It tells me that I should bring in an electric circular saw or be patient, or even accept the 4x8 as one big sheet as it is.
I need to vacuum and scrub the entire railroad surface. I have screws, bits of wires, and lots of dirt on top, along with plaster from previous scenery and other projects. I will do so later, but after I give up on,,, I mean finish cutting the slot in the railroad. I want to wait until the worst of the mess is done before I do serious cleaning on the railroad surfaces.
The brick on the corner there, is an important track laying tool. You need the track held in place while the glue dries. It also can be used to hold pieces of projects in place till glue dries as it does not move easily.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
09-30-09 Train Room
My brother and I have been involved in model railroading since the 80s. My brother was the driving force for years, and still does most of the technical and electrical work around the layout.
Years ago, My brother used to drop by each week on Wednesday. He would be between jobs and stop by before heading home. Some years ago, my nephew then started working with him. My nephew worked three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, about twelve hours a day. That killed the chances of my brother coming to visit. Since my nephew was living with him. My brother would have to go home, then come back out. That is always a pain. I tend to plan to never stop at home while I am out and about. It is hard to get out of the house again.
The model railroad became a shelf, rather than a model railroad. The last time I ran it was three years ago. The cars derailed when I was not looking.
My nephew is finally moving into his own place, which happens to be his Mother In Law's old place, which happens to be about a block away. My brother, in about a month, will be coming to visit to do model railroading again.
I now have a project. I have to clean out the train room, get the railroad layout cleaned up, and ready for work.
This picture is how it looks after I pulled about half the stuff out of the room. AS you can see, I have more to do. I will empty the closet clear the floor. I will remove the junk from the tops of the railroad.
Finally, I will remove the structures (which are just setting in place, not permanent, and move the cars if necessary, from the layout so I can do a little work. I will vacuum the layout clean, clean the tracks with a track eraser, after I cut a slit down the center of the railroad layout.
This is a four foot by eight foot railroad layout was really difficult to get up into my fourth floor apartment. I want to cut a slit down the center so that when it has to be moved, It will be easy to separate the two sections so that I will be moving two eight by two foot wide sections, rather than one big four by eight piece. Just separating two pieces of track and a few wires, and then removing them from the frame it is on, is all that is needed.
I will also use that slit to put a low view block, designed to aid in the belief that there are two different cities there.
This drawing is what my model rail road layout and room looks like The section along the upper wall of the drawing is on a shelf of an metal industrial shelving unit. After that work is done, I will locate my structures, the industries of the layouts which are just setting on the layout, so that we have places for our trains to visit. I will cover more on this railroad layout and my model railroading later, along with news of my cleaning project.
Years ago, My brother used to drop by each week on Wednesday. He would be between jobs and stop by before heading home. Some years ago, my nephew then started working with him. My nephew worked three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, about twelve hours a day. That killed the chances of my brother coming to visit. Since my nephew was living with him. My brother would have to go home, then come back out. That is always a pain. I tend to plan to never stop at home while I am out and about. It is hard to get out of the house again.
The model railroad became a shelf, rather than a model railroad. The last time I ran it was three years ago. The cars derailed when I was not looking.
My nephew is finally moving into his own place, which happens to be his Mother In Law's old place, which happens to be about a block away. My brother, in about a month, will be coming to visit to do model railroading again.
I now have a project. I have to clean out the train room, get the railroad layout cleaned up, and ready for work.
This picture is how it looks after I pulled about half the stuff out of the room. AS you can see, I have more to do. I will empty the closet clear the floor. I will remove the junk from the tops of the railroad.
Finally, I will remove the structures (which are just setting in place, not permanent, and move the cars if necessary, from the layout so I can do a little work. I will vacuum the layout clean, clean the tracks with a track eraser, after I cut a slit down the center of the railroad layout.
This is a four foot by eight foot railroad layout was really difficult to get up into my fourth floor apartment. I want to cut a slit down the center so that when it has to be moved, It will be easy to separate the two sections so that I will be moving two eight by two foot wide sections, rather than one big four by eight piece. Just separating two pieces of track and a few wires, and then removing them from the frame it is on, is all that is needed.
I will also use that slit to put a low view block, designed to aid in the belief that there are two different cities there.
This drawing is what my model rail road layout and room looks like The section along the upper wall of the drawing is on a shelf of an metal industrial shelving unit. After that work is done, I will locate my structures, the industries of the layouts which are just setting on the layout, so that we have places for our trains to visit. I will cover more on this railroad layout and my model railroading later, along with news of my cleaning project.
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