Caming progress

#31 shown below has had its cam installed on the bottom left driver (you can't see it in this picture) and the soldering pad for the control wire (brown which you also can not see in this picture) and the cam wiper.
I found some conductive glue that I ordered that I will use to make the electrical contract between the cam and the driver. It was less than half the price of conductive epoxy and it is supposed to have glue properties that the Circuit Writer pen doesn't. We will see how it works. If it does what I hope it will do this engine could be back in service and cam equipped by the next session.

Caming around

I like the way steam sound decoders sound when the chuff is controlled by a cam. But the process of installing one is more than trivial and I have avoided it. That is until now.

In the picture below #31 is upside down getting its cam attached to the rear driver.
Next I need to get the cam foil connected electrically to the wheel. There are two ways to do this; solder or conductive epoxy. I am leaning towards the latter even though I don't have any on hand. The other option may be to have this wheel's wiper provide the electrical connection.

I also have the control wire wiper to construct and attach to the bottom of the loco and adjust to rest against the side of this driver/cam.

I suspect this engine will be running during the next session using the auto chuff feature that it was using before it went in the shop.

#21 progress, or not

The front end shop got #21 (the 0-4-0 that was to be assigned to Thorny Point) assembled and fired up on Monday. However it would not move.

After several attempts they finally managed to get the running gear aligned to the point that the engine would move. But it was very jerky and because of the friction in the running gear the resistors (which are way too small wattage wise) got too hot.

So #21 has been pushed out of the roundhouse and will not see service anytime soon. For it to see service it will need to be re-powered and re-geared. Not cost effective for a $18 loco.

Management, frustrated with the attempts on #21, has purchased a Manuta 0-6-0 goat (pictured below) and will attempt to place that into service in Thorny Point.

I think I'm beginning to like scenery?!

Today was another day in the roundhouse.

This time it was with #21 the 0-4-0 switcher from Life-Like that draws 1.75 stall amps.

If I was going to be able to use this engine I needed to drop this stall current below 1 amp. I tried adding a 10 ohm in line resistor which dropped the stall amps to just under 1 amp. But here comes the problem. This resistor must dissipate 13 watts of energy and a resistor that large will not fit in the loco! The only other size resistors Radio Shack had were 1/2 watt. The 10 ohm 1 watt variety was out of stock, of course. The 10 ohm 1/2 watt resistor I did the test with got pretty hot when I held the motor to do the test but ran cool during normal operation.

However still not being satisfied with the stall current I went back to Radio Shack and purchased 22 ohm, 33 ohm and 47 ohm 1/2 watt (of course) resistors so I could try different combinations in parallel. The combination 22 ohm and 47 ohm in parallel gives a total resistance of 15 ohms {RT=(R1xR2)/(R1+R2)} and reduced the stall current to just over 1/2 amp and they didn't get as hot during the stall test.

They are now installed in #21 and the engine wiring harness plug has been soldered. The wiring harness plug for the decoder has been soldered to mate up with the engine plug. I still have the speaker harness, tender power pickup harness and the backup light harness to solder and then we are ready for a test!

I noticed an interesting thing during this process. At the time I purchased the Life-Like 0-4-0 I also purchased a Model Power 0-4-0. I tore down the Model Power unit to see if its motor stall current was less but found the same style motor. A different manufacturer but the same basic unit. As a matter of fact the two engines are almost identical with the exception of the motor manufacturer name and the style of the weight. The boiler is identical. The cab is identical. The frame is identical. And the cylinder block and value train are identical. These two units are made by the same manufacturer using the same dies!

As I'm working on #21 #31 is in the process of getting a cam to control the chuff rate. The decoder in #31 is a DSD-090LC which according to the documentation supports a cam. However I could not get it to work so I emailed Soundtraxx. Seems the CV value I need to use is not the one listed in the DSD manual and the DSD-LC manual does not discuss cams. So once #21 is running I will go back to #31 and hopefully get the cam working.

If #21 comes online then #31 will be assigned to mail service and #21 will replace #43 at Thorny Point.

And if all of this comes to pass then I will move over to the replacement for #40 which is a DCC ready Manuta 4-6-2 with a Vanderbilt tender.

If all three of these are operational for the next session we should not have any motive power shortages and we should be able to assign the primary engine to each job.

All of this engine work is beginning to make scenery work look like fun!

#31 rejoins the fleet!

Since I had been thrown a curve with the Life-Like 0-4-0 yesterday and since I discovered I had another DSD090 decoder I decided to replace the decoder in #31 the 4-6-0 assigned to Thorny Point yard.

Two hours later and the new decoder was installed and ready for testing. So I got out my test track and my NCE system and placed #31 on the test track. The sound decoder sprang to life. Go so far! I addressed the loco and gave it some throttle. The chuff rate started but the loco did NOT move! It wasn't the decoder! Great!

Out came the volt meters and I started tracing the wiring. Now the plugs on these things are TINY and getting probes into them is NOT easy. I did determine that one of the pickup wires from the engine was not conducting to the tender but that should not be causing my problem. I found a bad solder connection in the tender and fixed it. This problem went away but NOT the original one.

Off comes the boiler. (I also mistakenly removed the cab and that took about an hour to get back on.) I traced all of the wires and everything seemed OK? So I reconnected the tender and gave it a try. The loco MOVED! Fixed! Back on goes the boiler and another try. NOTHING!?

Back off comes the boiler. It must be the plug but I don't see anything. I try placing some insulation tape on top of the plug and try again. Again the engine works fine without the boiler but NOT with it.

Off comes the boiler again. (I don't know how many times I took it off during this process.) But this time the engine did NOT run with the boiler off. We are making progress, though it doesn't seem so.

While I was playing around with the boilerless engine it started to move. What did I do? I finally noticed than when I moved the motor a certain way it would start to move. It was then I noticed one of the motor leads had broken at the connection to the brushes. (The lead is taped in place so it was not apparent it had broken since it still looked connected to the motor.) A quick re-solder and now everything is working fine without and WITH the boiler, over five hours after starting this process!

It seems the boiler was putting enough pressure on the motor to cause the broken connection to separate.

I have now programmed the new decoder to the old decoder settings and #31 is ready for service. I am planning on installing a cam so I still have that to do but hopefully that will not take five hours!

#21 in the shop

What will soon be engine #21 assigned to Thorny Point yard service is in the shop. Among the many modifications being made are installation of a working front coupler, removal of some cast on details, removing the current lettering, painting, rewiring the engine for DCC operation, installing an exhaust cam, replacement of the sloped back tender with a tender from a Bachmann decapod, modification of this tender to house a speaker and installation of a DSD-090 sound decoder.


I do have some concerns about this engine the primary one being the depth of the flanges. But it does have traction tires on the rear drivers so if the flanges are not an issue it should perform well in Thorny Point.


This picture shows the progress so far. The engine has had its factory installed wiring removed and DCC compatible wiring installed. The tender base is from Bachmann with electrical pickups and a backup light.


I need to get an exhaust cam set and get that installed then everything will be ready for the installation of the sound decoder. But I still need to do a stall current test to make sure it is not higher than .9 amps. If it is then a different decoder will need to be used.

Update: This engine draws 2 amps when stalled. Back to the drawing board!

Making pine trees

Not too long ago I said I would post the process I use for making pine trees when I got back to that process. Well today was the day I started back to making pine trees. The series of pictures below show the major steps to this process. I must give credit to Fugate for this process which I learned from his scenery DVDs. While it does have quite a few steps and only makes trees acceptable for use as background trees it is simpler than any other process I am aware of.


The first step is to cut some 17 gauge electrical fence wire three times the length of the desired tree. I cut all of mine around 18 to 21 inches and adjust the size of the tree during trimming. I find the longer lengths are easier to work with.

After cutting 25 pieces to length I then folded them in half and bent an "L" in the open end.

Next comes the branches. These are made from whisk broom straw which is cut around 1/3 the length of the tree and less in this case about 6 inches. I find making all of them the same length and then cutting them later works just as well. This time I made two bunches one 6 inches and one about 3 inches.

After you have a supply of branches you need to lay them out and tape them together. The final length should be about an inch longer than the tree length. The tape is applied to both sides with one side longer than the other to expose some of the glue to hold this assembly to the wire assembly. This assembly goes inside the fold of the wire assembly.

Now it is time to turn the two pieces into a tree armature by twisting the electric fence wire. The "L" goes in the jig clamped to the work surface and the drill with an "L" bit goes in the loop.

After twisting the pieces into a tree armature you cut off the "L" and the loop.

I now have 13 things that are starting to look like trees.

Here is a closer look at the tree to this point.

From here we will apply some sisal twine. Then paint the armature and apply flocking. A little more painting and we will be done.

Model railroads, the key to a GUT?

Could model railroad physics be the key to a Grand Unified Theory of physics?

After every operating session there follows a maintenance session and the 83rd session was no exception.

So today I went to work on the track to correct the few electrical issues and a couple of derailment issues that manifested themselves during the last session.

During the session I observed engine #30 routinely derail its lead tender truck on the Hood east switch. But could I get it to happen? NO!

The assistant White Hall yardmaster reported several issues with electrical conductivity through the crossovers. Could I replicate them? NO! (And I saw the yard engine stop more than once during the session on these crossovers.)

I was able to routinely recreate the observation car derailing while being pushed into the station. It appeared the switch needed to be elevated more on the outside rail. Once that was done the problem went away. At least until the next session.

Here is where model railroad physics could be the key to a GUT.

If we can get some physicists (I think it will take more than one) to study model railroading physics and explain why routine problems that are present during an operating session disappear after the session is over they might be able to develop a GUT since it should be MUCH simpler to explain a GUT than model railroad physics.

Until then I guess I will have to take a different approach to layout maintenance. The only approach that I think will work is to do the maintenance while everyone is present so all of the problems are corrected in presence of whatever force is causing the issues.

What then happens after everyone leaves could be interesting!

83rd OPS session

The 83rd OPS session was held today and it was a busy one! Four extras were run in addition to all of the normal traffic. The crew did an excellent job keeping things moving. We had a few electrical issues with some switches and one area where the track buckled and caused derailments.

Photos are on www.easton-and-potomac.com.

Still more earthquake damage

Reports came in today from very rural Hopkins Spring that one coal car fell on its side and one derailed during the earthquake. The mine hopes to have both cars back on the track before the arrival of the next local.

It looks like my powers of observation are not too good. No telling what else we may find during the OPS session tomorrow!

More earthquake damage discovered

I had reported earlier that the only damage I found from the earthquake was the movement of one car on the Easton Transfer Company spur in Brooke where this car rolled and fouled the mainline as can be seen in the picture below.



However when the yard crew in White Hall was working today to split the Hood turn in the 1st Hood Turn consisting only of stock cars and the 2nd Hood Turn consisting of all other cars they discovered more damaged from the earthquake. When they coupled onto the cut of cars on ladder track three and started pulling them the cars on ladder track two also started moving. A quick inspection located a shifted load on a flat car that was fouling cars on the adjacent ladder track as seen in the picture below.

Soon after locating this damage the yard crew also noticed, as seen below, the ash loader had fallen over.

So I guess there was more damage from the earthquake than initially thought.

The crews on September 18th will have to be alert!

Which way?

Take a look at the two pictures of Furnace below and let me know which arrangement you prefer.

The difference between the two pictures is the placement of the general store/post office building. (The general store/post office building is the cardboard structure between the water tower and the station in both pictures.)

Picture 1 - building back to tracks.

In this picture the general store/post office building is back to the tracks. This will cause the dirt road to pass between it and the backdrop as it will do at the station. In this configuration the building will be a full size building and result in less flexibility in its placement. However this arrangement gives me more flexibility with the team track vehicle approach and platform.

Picture 2 - building facing tracks.

In this picture the general store/post office is facing the tracks as a backdrop building. This will cause the dirt road to pass between it and the tracks before curving to pass between the backdrop and the station. This arrangement will show more detail and give more flexibility with the final placement of the general store/post office building but give less flexibility with the team track vehicle approach and platform.

Which arrangement do you think looks best?

Sep 18th Call & Extra Boards

The Call and Extra Boards for the September 18th session have been posted at www.easton-and-potomac.com. If you would like to attend this session and have not signed up there may still be opportunities if someone drops out so let me know and I will put you on the Extra Board.

Tree planting process

Marlene took this picture during my tree planting process yesterday and I forgot to include it in yesterday's posting so here it is.

The white bottle and the tan wedge are holding trees in place until the glue sets. The black handled tool is an awl used to punch holes for the trunks.

In this picture I am about ready to turn the corner and head for Furnace.

Expanding Forest

As you can see from the picture below the forest has expanded from Stanley to Furnace. And as you can see from the picture below scenery work is messy! And requires a LOT of material!
Today I planted another forty trees making over seventy trees between Furnace and Stanley and I really haven't reach Furnace yet or forested the other side of the mainline. It is looking like about 150 trees in the forest between Furnace and Stanley.

This is all of the forest that will be in place before the next OPS session scheduled for September 18th. I may do some contour work and some road work in Furnace so after the session I can complete the forest on the back side of the tracks.

Since this is my first attempt at any kind of scenery I am pleased with the results.

Another cab view picture, this one coming out of Furnace, is on www.easton-and-potomac.com.

Furnace

Today I was back at work on the scenery between Stanley and Furnace. In the picture below I have just added the static grass to the ditch along side the mainline just west of Furnace.
With the scenery (and therefore the forest) approaching Furnace it is time to start building the road into Furnace which has been outlined in the picture below.

And it is time to start deciding on buildings and their placement in Furnace. In the picture below I have secured the water tower to its final location and built mock ups for a general store/post office and the team track platform.

Workshop

Today was mostly a clean up and straighten up day. As you can see in the picture below I moved all of my books to the bookcases in the workshop. I also started the process of loading the drawers and cabinets.
I am now headed outside to make some bushes.