Mark, your benchwork is beautiful. Too bad it will be hidden by scenery!
Ray
Thanks for the compliments Dave and Don!
Good observation on the driver wobble, Dave. When I take the loco back out of the box again (assuming I ever do) I'll look at that first thing. You know, I get out of bed to avoid aches and pains. I figure I need to put in the time I can now, because in five or ten years it'll be a lot more difficult to do.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
As usual, superb video Mark! As previously stated, your videos are definitely not too long and very entertaining and helpful. I always look forward each month to see your updates.
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
Hi Mark,
I think you are far too worried about the length of your videos. They move along at a very entertaining pace, which is not something that can be said about a lot of modelling videos. Everything in the video was interesting IMHO (although I don't like it when you talk about tossing a defective locomotive in the trash bin!). At no point did I feel the need to skip forward. In fact, I replayed the part where you were servicing the Mike in the cradle because I noticed that the front drivers were wobbling a bit and I wanted to confirm what I was seeing (I suspect the rods do not have enough play where they attach to the wheels).
You also do an excellent job of creating interest in your next layout progress video. I look forward to them every month. I'm sure others do too.
Quite frankly I wish I had your drive and devotion. Unfortunately in my case I have to push myself to ignore all my aches and pains so I can just get out of bed. If I spent two days working at your pace I'd have to take a week off to recover. Getting in 1/2 hr on the layout is a major accomplishment.
Oh well, enough of my whining. Keep up the good work!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
3 April 2022
I just posted my latest layout update video. This is a long one - there was a lot to cover!
Thanks Dave!
30 March 2022
I got the Pacific reassembled and tested it out. It seems to run smoothly enough, but it's very stiff (years in sa box without ever having been run at all might cause that) and there's a lot of gear noise, especially in reverse.
Here's the repaired loco sitting on the layout:
You might have noticed the handrail stanchion holes in the boiler. All the purchaser-installed parts, including the handrails, whistle, and tender coupler are in the box, still in their sealed packaging. I don't think this loco was ever run at all. Certainly it never pulled anything. I'll add the handrails when I do a few other things (described below) to the loco.
Here's a short video of it in operation.
I didn't replace the idler gears in the unit when I did everything else. Since I have to try to make some adjustments to reduce the gear noise anyway, I'll replace those gears at the same time (I already have them on hand).
The other problem I see is something someone mentioned in an old thread in these forums - the wiring harness that runs from the loco to the tender is so stiff it tends to lift the front tender truck off the rails, meaning the tender derails very easily. Both the Pacific and the Mikado that Athearn released at the same time were apparently very problematic with the gears cracking and the wiring harness problem. Some serious design and manufacturing issues with these locos.
I'm a real bear about smoothly operating equipment, and at this point the Pacific doesn't measure up - by a long shot. If I can't significantly reduce the gear noise and get the mechanism "loosened up," (plus correct the wiring harness problem) it will not stay on the layout. I checked ebay - these things, in running condition, are fetching nearly what they cost new! So maybe I'll take it to a train show and sell it for $50-60 (with full disclosure, of course).
Anyway, as I said before, a moral victory if nothing else.
PruittThe repair on the Athearn Pacific drive train was successful
Congratulations!
28 March 2022
The repair on the Athearn Pacific drive train was successful - provisionally.
The motor / flywheel and worm shafts are 2 mm diameter. I bought a couple feet (smallest quantity I could get) of 1 1/2 mm ID flexible tubing from Amazon. It arrived today.
I pulled the coupling end off the worm shaft and pressed the tubing on. It expanded and gripped the shaft decently (though not as tightly as I would have liked), so I went ahead with the repair. When I went to remove the coupling end from the flywheel shaft (it's recessed into the flywheel), I saw that that coupling end had broken into two pieces. No wonder the thing wouldn't move!
I fished out the broken coupler pieces with a tweezers and checked the length of the shaft. I cut a piece of tubing long enough to fit over both shafts but short enough not to jam against the worm shaft bearing and pushed the tubing onto the flywheel shaft and the worm shaft onto the tubing. I reassembled the mechanism (after searching a couple hours for screws that were right in front of my face ) and set the unit on the track.
Holding my breath, I dialed up the cab number on my throttle and gave it some juice. It moved! Forwards and backwards, it moved!! It never did that before! No pilot truck, no tender, no boiler and the decoder just hanging off the back of the loco, but it actually ran.
I don't have any pictures of it yet. I'll take some tomorrow then finish reassembling the entire locomotive. Then I'll give the rods, pistons and valve gear a proper lubing and test it out with a dozen or so cars.
Even if it doesn't haul enough to be a useful addition to the stable, at this point it's something of a moral victory.
More to follow.
Thanks for the comments Rich and Dave.
27 March 2022
Over the last week or so I've been busy preparing the backdrop behind Powder River and Shobon. I was about to start installing it when I realized I still had to paint the track. Don't want to be doing that once the backdrop's in!
First I had to do my least favorite thing in all of Model Railroading - install missing ties at rail joints.
While I was at it I just did everything that's been installed over the past few months, right up to but not including Thermopolis (I'll do it over the next week or two). What a pain! Even using a Dremel with a grinding wheel and a disc sander it was an onerous task! I prepped and installed what seemed like a thousand times but was probably only 50 or 60.
Here's the progression at the the Shobon Turnout.
Before installing ties:
After installing ties:
After painting and initial railhead cleaning:
I did the Riverton area and the rest of the line back to where it will disappear behind the scenes, plus all of Wind River Canyon right up to Thermopolis.
Now I can install the bckdrop behind Powder River and Shobon and start scenery right up to the canyon.
An update on the Athearn Pacific - I replaced the cracked gear successfully and then discovered that a piece of the flexible coupling between the worm shaft and the flywheel suffers the same problem of the gear did - cracked where it was press-fit onto the shaft. That Athearn Pacific (and from what I understand, the Mikado that was sold at the same time) was, mechanically, a real pile of garbage from a reliability point of view. And no one has any parts for the coupling, unlike the gear!
I've come up with a repair, I think. Parts arrive tomorrow. Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to post a successful resolution. But if it doesn't work, I'll probably just chuck the whole locomotive into the trash. In any case, I'll have to think long and hard before I buy another Athearn product made since Horizon Hobbies took over.
Thanks for the update, Mark. You certainly have been busy.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Pruitt 22 March 2022 "It's been a few weeks - how about a layout update?" I'm glad I asked.
22 March 2022
"It's been a few weeks - how about a layout update?"
I'm glad I asked.
Another informative update. Well done. When can we expect another?
Rich
Alton Junction
I'm glad I asked. Here's what's been happening.
Shortly after my last layout update video, I finally embedded Rocky Mountain Drilling into the ground, rahter than leaving it sit all cattywampus on top. Still have to add dirt around the foundation, but it looks a lot better than it did.
I did that now because I'm getting ready to extend the mainline east out of Casper, and this will be a longer reach after the extension.
I did some preventive maintenance on all but two of my steamers. They'll be done over the next few weeks. Here I am hard at work:
Since I was doing a lot of loco work anyway (PM, plus fixing issues with a couple of older BLI Mikados), I dug out an old (ca. 2010) Athearn Genesis Pacific I picked up slightly used at a train show a couple years ago. When I put it on the track after buying it, the motor spun but the unit didn't move. Cracked gear syndrome. I orded a gear from NWSL, then put both the gear and the loco away. Now it's time to get it running.
I took off the bottom cover plate, and sure enough the driver gear is cracked.
I disconnected the side frames and valve gear from the driver to remove it, then realized I have no way to pull the driver off to replace the gear! I ordered a Puller from NWSL (those guys are great! They have very useful things no one else does) and sat the loco aside to wait. Here's the driver all ready to be lifted out of the frame:
I took a photo at each step of the disassembly so I'll know where everything goes when I'm ready to reinstall the driver. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have another loco ready for the layout.
In between the loco work I continued layout construction. I installed and painted the skyboards for the Douglas area:
I also started (barely) on scenery between Powder River and Shobon west of Casper (Douglas is to the east). Impressive, yes?
That was March 8th. I worked slowly on the area in between other things, and by the 20th it looked like this:
Still not much to look at, I know, but at least the foreground has some contours!
I can't do much more until I get the backdrop onto the skyboard, since the ground will rise up in some gentle hills behind the track. I also can't go farther west (to the right) until then. I have the backdrop finished and will be getting a test print today, to make sure it fits well with the end of the Casper backdrop.
Yesterday I built a bump out onto the Wind River Canyon benchwork.
It protrudes into a wide open space, and doesn't impede people flow into the area at all. The idea is to allow me to model both sides of the canyon for a short distance. The entire width of the Wind River will be seen on the bump out, with a bit of the opposite canyon wall and highway 20 there as well. This is what I'm going for:
The postcard view is looking the opposite direction from the benchwork photo, but it conveys the idea.
Nice use of available materials Mark!
I just threw out my homemade engine cradle. I had built it out of foam packing material many years ago, and I hadn't used it for quite some time. Then, when I did try to use it, I realized that the foam was deteriorating rather badly, thus rendering the cradle useless. I have all the parts required to build your cradle. I'll have to get to it soon. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks, Dave!
9 March 2022
Well, it's past time to do some maintenance on my locomotives. All need lubrication, and a couple of the Mikes need some repair. On one, the trailing truck derails when running in reverse around a curve, and on the other the left side valve gear jams when running in reverse.
The problem is I have no cradle to hold the equipment while I work on it. I looked into buying one, and found prices ranging from about $9 for a simple bit of foam rubber from Micro Mark to $14.00 for a slightly fancier Walthers one to substantially more. That didn't include shipping, which doubled the cost of the Micro Mark cradle, and nearly doubled the cost of the Walthers one. Plus I would have to wait a week or so for it to arrive.
So I built my own, out of scrap materials I already had on hand. Took about 45 minutes, and I didn't have to spend a dime. Here's how I did it:
Lot's of progress on the layout! Well done.
I look forward to hearing about your first official operating session. You have certainly waited long enough for it.
You're certainly welcome to drop by, Bear! I'm just a short(!) plane ride and then a few hours' drive away!
3 March 2022
I posted my latest layout update video today:
I followed that a few hours later with a short video of a train through Douglas, Wyoming:
PruittI am really looking forward to starting the canyon scenery!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks, Crandell and Dave!
Unfortunately the ops session didn't happen as planned. My buddy caught a cold, so we've had to delay for a couple weeks. Instead I did a solo session, running the same trains we would have if he'd made it over. It's still going on actually - the CNW run to Hudson isn't complete yet, and I also have to break down two trains when they get back to Casper.
25 February 2022
It worked out okay, though - I used the manifests and switchlists generated for the session to test out Casper yard in a "real world" situation. I videoed the Casper work, and finally put together the Building Casper video episode about testing the yard. That was posted to YouTube last night:
A few days before the scheduled operations "shakedown," I added onto the skyboard at Riverton and Powder River. Those now extend all the way around the corner at the end of the wall, and end where the canyon scenery will climb to the ceiling. I've applied the first layer of plastic putty to the seams, but still have to sand that and then add the finish layer.
Since most of the industrial structures haven't been built yet, I added placeholder labels at their locations. Here's one example - Riverton (top) and Powder River below.
Thermopolis now looks like this:
A couple days ago, after I cleaned up the train room, I took this picture of the view down the Wind River Canyon aisleway. I am really looking forward to starting the canyon scenery! That will be the big "signature" (I hate that usage) scene on the layout. I'm torn between extended trackage east from Casper, west from Thermopolis onto the second peninsula, or starting canyon scenery. What a great quandry to have!
selectorThe fascia looks great, Mark. I hope your op session is as good as you hope. Nice gift of the hoop
I'll second all of selector's comments!
Actually, I have to embellish selector's first comment - the fascia looks fantastic! It really focuses the eye on the track areas themselves and it makes the layout look so professional.
I'm wrong - your layout doesn't 'look' professional, it IS professional!!
The fascia looks great, Mark. I hope your op session is as good as you hope. Nice gift of the hoop.
Dave, ask and ye shall receive! Here's a few shots of the canyon:
In the 1940's. Rail tunnel to the far left...
December 1995, near the north end of the canyon...
One of the tunnel portals near the south end, ca. 1995...
Bear, you're right. Chicken wire with plaster of paris would be messy! But that may well be the best way to go.
17 February 2022
Most of the fascia is painted and installed in this shot. One section, out of sight behind the engine terminal, is painted but not installed until it has another day to dry.
I spent a couple hours mounting the turntable control in the fascia. This was a bit of a pain since Walthers really didn't make any provision for mounting the thing. There are a couple holes in the back of the housing, but those are pretty useless. I wound up cutting a rectangular hole in the fascia that the circuit board would fit in, then deepening the screw holes in the controller back cover so that the screws would protrude far enough through the 3/16" hardboard to screw into the faceplate.
I finished building a code 55 turnout using my code 83 Fast Tracks jig. It was surprisingly easy! That code 55 rail files down very quickly. This is the first code 55 turnout I've built, and I was almost surprised it worked. I installed it and the secondary tracks at Riverton. The two left tracks are code 55, and the main track to the right is code 70.
Then I created space holder labels for the industries in Riverton and placed them along the industrial siding.
I did that last bit because, after over 20 years of building and then tearing down and rebuilding - in short, waiting, I'm finally ready to host my first operating session! Sort of. Next Tuesday a friend will be coming over for an inaugural operating session on the finished parts of the railroad (well, none of it is finished. But a few locations are ready to roll, if you ignore the lack of structures and scenery). We'll be making up some local trains in Casper and taking them out to Thermopolis, and out to Riverton and Hudson, switching the industries then returning.
Lastly, when I was in Basin a month or so ago, the guy I met who used to work for the BNSF gave me a train orders hoop that had been used at the Lovell, WY station. What a cool gift! I mounted it on the wall at the bottom of the basement stairs. This view greets visitors as they head down into the train room:
So wish me luck on the operating session / test! If successful I'm going to try to do more as the layout expands further.
PruittNow that the plan for the ceiling height canyon walls is out there, all that's left is to figure out how to do it, and then actually execute it. Right now I'm just looking and going "Hmmm...."
Do you have any pictures of the actual canyon? I'd be curious to see them.
PruittToday, with my wife's help, I got the curved fascia around the Casper engine facility temporarily installed. Over the next few days all the Casper fascia will be removed and painted, then reinstalled permanently.
All the fascia looks great, painted or not. The layout looks so much more attractive and professional with it in place (not that it wasn't good looking before!).
Thanks Rich, Dave and Bear!
Rich, the videos only show what I want them to. What they don't show is the aggravation and frustration involved with doing some of this stuff. I've managed to not throw any rolling stock against the wall recently, but it has been close. I'm sure your work is nothing to be ashamed of!
Dave, we're pretty much over the Covid stuff now, but I still have a little bit of a cough. But I get a lingering cough every time I get a cold anyway!
Now that the plan for the ceiling height canyon walls is out there, all that's left is to figure out how to do it, and then actually execute it. Right now I'm just looking and going "Hmmm...."
Bear, I'm glad both you and the missus enjoy the videos. Even my wife doesn't watch them!
12 February 2022
I started re-installing ground throws in Casper and removing the too-troublesome over-center springs from all the turnouts. I finally got back to that and finished Casper early this month. Using panel nails (ring-shank small nails designed for wood paneling) secures the throws solidly to the foam.
On the 6th I finished up the north end of Thermopolis. In this shot all trackwork is complete and all wiring has been done, too (even better- it actually works!). The only thing left when I took this picture was to install the north end ground throws. I did that after I took this shot, which completely depleted my supply of ground throws.
I was going to build the code 55 turnout for Riverton's industry spur, but after building seven turnouts for Thermopolis in January, the thought of building another one just wasn't at all exciting. So instead I started on the fascia for the Riverton area. Here two of the last three sections of fascia for the CNW line are temporarily installed. The third section, a shorter piece, goes at the far end. I removed all of them and began painting them yesterday.
Today, with my wife's help, I got the curved fascia around the Casper engine facility temporarily installed. Over the next few days all the Casper fascia will be removed and painted, then reinstalled permanently.
Over the last few days I started messing around with JMRI's Operations package. I inventoies all my rolling stock and entered it into the database, then added all the tracks and industries in Casper, Powder River, and Thermopolis, plus the ones that will be in place soon in Riverton. I ran a few test cycles with the software, and it seems to be building trains properly!
One thing I haven't figured out yet - Casper has a classification yard and a bunch of industries as well. How do I get the program to take available cars from the yard and switch the local industries? Right now that isn't happening, but cars coming back from Thermopolis do get switched to the industries...
Another great video Mark!
I didn't realize that you were planning on having the canyon scenery going all the way to the ceiling. That will be awesome!
I also got a good look at how you do your superelevation and grade changes with 1/4" masking tape. I understood the process but it is nice to see it in application.
Glad you are over the Covid stuff. I hope your wife recovers fully very soon (tell her I like her hat).
Keep up the good work!
Mark, your latest video, like all the ones before it, is excellent. Not only do you do excellent work on your layout, but the quality of your videos is also outstanding.
I have one complaint. You put my layout and me to shame.
Thanks, Dave! Seems a bit over-involved, but next time I want to add a link, I'll try it!
And David, thanks for your earlier comment.
3 February 2022
PruittThanks for the link, Dave. BTW, how do you do that?
MRR has not made posting a link particularly easy, but okay, you asked for it! Here is how I do it:
First, highlight the link and right click it. That should bring up a menu that offers a "Go To.....(the link)" option. Left click on that and it should take you to the desired thread or post. Copy the post address.
Now things get strange! (What else were you expecting?). Go back to your post and finish it. Next, place the curser where you want to add the link, and click the 'Submit' icon. (I find it easier to place the link in a new paragraph instead at the end of a sentence). When the link shows up in your new post it will still not work! (Are we surprised?). Click on the 'Edit' icon to go back to your post. Then add the following to the beginning of the post link:
"[" followed by "url" followed by"]" without the quotation marks, no spaces.
Then go to the end of the link and add "[" followed by "/url" followed by "]", again without the quotation marks.
The reason that I can't just post the 'url' entries without splitting them up is that they are not seen as simple text. The computer reads them as commands so they will mess up the whole text if I don't separate the brackets from the letters.
Then hit the 'Update Reply' button.
When the post comes up again the link should be highlighted in blue.
I hope that works.
Thanks for the link, Dave.
BTW, how do you do that? When I'm writing a post links appear to be clickable, but they don't work when clicking on them after the post is finished.