jeff train: Video

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sunnudagur, 19. júlí 2015

Operating Session Jul 18, 2015 - The Motion Picture

An experiment - I shot some video during yesterday's op session and pieced together a short film that's available on YouTube for viewing - CLICK HERE TO VIEW -

Enjoy!

In no danger of winning an academy award but comments are welcome.

þriðjudagur, 9. júní 2015

N&W 611 in action

Steve Daves actually had the foresight to shoot video of N&W 611 last weekend. Very, very brief runby as she passed through Gainesville, Va.
But hey, at least you get to hear the whistle.
Thanks to Steve for giving me permission to share it here.

mánudagur, 27. október 2014

Mudsucker on the Cheshire

Jim DuFour photo

Okay, I'll admit my last post made me sound a little (but not much!) crankier than usual. That post actually came from an email I sent a friend who reported a less than satisfying visit from a model railroad "expert."
A combination of that, and some modeling "blahs" that have set in lately, led to that post.
I find looking at trains running on a beautifully executed layout is a great cure for those model railroading blahs....

Here's a link to a video showing one of my favorite layouts - Jim DuFour's HO scale Cheshire Branch of the Boston & Maine.
The video follows B&M 2-10-2 #2908. The Whyte system of locomotive classification indicates a 2-10-2 is a "Santa Fe" type - on the B&M they were nicknamed "Mudsuckers."
Click on the photo above for the link or click here:
http://youtu.be/LG0WnUKiZ7k
Enjoy!

þriðjudagur, 24. september 2013

Sea Trials #2 - Results

First of all, I had every intention of posting this update sooner but the events on and around the Washington DC Navy Yard dominated the week and frankly made the hobby seem pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things. Please keep the victims and their families in your prayers and thoughts. I for one have grown weary of these types of events. This one hit very, very close to home as I work in that building almost every day.

As far as the �Sea Trials #2� op session last Sunday - I'd give it a C-. <g>

I meant to take some pictures during the session, but frankly got so involved in trouble shooting and responding to questions I didn�t have a chance. I did manage to grab a short video of no. 20, the WASHINGTONIAN, crossing Williams Creek bridge. It's shown above.

Goals for this session were to test the entire schedule, see if the Passenger Terminal Operator position was interesting enough to be a dedicated job, and ensure everything was ready to go for the op session scheduled during the MER convention next month.

We only had three crew members who'd operated before - Bob, Steve and John. The remaining crew members have seen the layout but never operated on it! In addition, last time we ran only the freights. This is we tried running the entire schedule. I knew we weren't going to set any on-time records. We did encounter some performance and electrical issues.

On a good note, as always it was fun to see everyone and catch up.

What I've learned -

I need to get some specifics into the "intro brief" - keep it short and to the point but there still needs to be some very basic information covered. Next time I'll try making myself some notes.....
Need better explanations of things like the waybill routings, the train descriptions, etc... so the YM has some idea what cars go in what trains, etc... oh, and a line up of trains and what engines go on which trains might help the YM as well.
There are a few trackwork/wiring issues to be addressed before the next session. Each session seems to turn up a few of these. Thankfully, the vast majority are straightforward and easily fixed.
I was truly puzzled by the radio throttle issues we started having about halfway through the session, especially since the last session had absolutely zero issues with the throttles. When thinking through what was different from previous sessions to this one, the only thing I could come up with was three engines with QSI sound systems were on the layout. These all ran fine prior to the session, but I never ran them all at the same time. Removing them from the layout and resetting the DCC system immediately cleared up most of the issues. The "why" remains to be determined....
I suspect one or more throttles have mis-set frequency numbers. I need to check ALL the throttles and make sure they're assigned to the right channel.

On the operating scheme my takeaway is:

The Passenger operator position has the potential to be an interesting job and is worth pursuing but we need to figure out the best way to integrate that job into the op scheme. I suspect one issue is I designed the trackwork one way, and it was being operated another. Better job description paperwork would certainly help.
Some of the passenger cars were jumping the rails a lot more than I want to see. Need to isolate the problem - is it a certain car, types of cars, or specific brands. Some of the Rapido cars were fine, others were extremely troublesome for instance. Need to extensively check the passenger cars and see what the issues are. Offending cars will remain off the layout until they can prove themselves in test running. Update � Checking the wheelset gauge on some of the passenger cars shows several have out of gauge wheelsets.
One of the locomotives was displaying some bizarre behavior - the lead set of drivers kept "creeping" up over the rails, even on tangent track. This needs some study as well.
I think the timetable is stabilized enough that we can use it for the next few sessions. Perhaps we flew a little too close to the sun by trying to run a number of extras but I wanted to stress the layout. We succeeded in doing just that.

Considering the locomotive and throttle issues we were dangerously close to running out of locomotives, so getting more decoder equipped power is a very high priority. I'm also getting tired of seeing locomotives lettered for the C&O, Reading, and Western Maryland!
I still need more cars on the railroad - Ben brought by some cars (15 or so) which really helped fill a few trains out. But we still need more, so I need to get building!

Update � Have spent time over the last week getting some �basic� freight cars (Accurail/Bowser and the like) and getting all the cars cleared off the �RIP� track (mostly coupler/wheelset repair/replacement). So I�ve added a total of 22 more freight cars to the fleet in the last few days. They aren�t weathered, but at least they�re on the railroad!

sunnudagur, 6. janúar 2013

"Tweaking" the White River Junction coaling tower

Many of you know my friend Bernie Kempinski�s Alkem Scale Models made a very nice model of the Central Vermont�s coaling tower that once stood at White River Junction. Bernie made kits for the model in both N and HO scales. If you missed the first run, he�s done a very, very limited second run of the HO scale kit. During a big �clear out� of his basement he gave me the display model and diorama to use on my layout. That was great, but one thing bothered me about Bernie�s sample model. Somehow, during the drawing process, he managed to get the Central Vermont�s square logo etched on the acrylic tower as a rectangle. (The production kits do not have this problem). So he ended up with a very nice model of the tower with an incorrect logo.

So, before I took delivery of the model he decided to do a little experiment and see if the rectangular logo could be filled smooth and then replaced with the proper square one. Once the logo was filled with body putty and sanded smooth, we did a test etch by placing masking tape in the approximate position of the herald, and then loading the assembled coaling tower into the laser and lightly etched it to be sure the herald ended up in the correct spot. Once all looked good we removed the tape and cranked the laser up!

I made a video of the laser cutter at work.

This whole process caused some damage to the tower (we had to remove the ladders and platform), but it survived the "procedure" remarkably well, though it needed some repairs and touch up paint (a task Bernie took care of during a work session several months later!). The coaling tower looks pretty good and is now the centerpiece of the under-construction engine servicing area at White River Junction.

While I don't recommend chucking a finished, detailed model into a laser engraver, if you feel you must, well, we know it works!

föstudagur, 20. apríl 2012

White River Progress - Part 2 - Bridge Street Overpass

Bernie came over for a layout progress session after work today (it's not really a "work" session - work is what we do during the day to earn the money to play bad golf and have good fun at model railroading . . . but I digress.) At first I considered having him do some rock carving, but the overall goal is to complete the track on the entire layout - and rock outcroppings don't help with that. But one area that needed to have at least the rough scenery completed is the Bridge Street overpass in White River Junction. In fact, it was holding up progress on track laying in the freight yard and around the passenger depot.

We made the necessary modifications to the benchwork - and then, while I worked on getting the yard lead installed and finishing up some hand laid turnouts in the engine terminal Bernie finished up the basic walls of the overpass. We did some prototype research using Google Street View - noticing there was a raised pedestrian sidewalk on one side of the overpass. This photo shows a low angle view, with the modifications needed to the benchwork:

This view is looking up the overpass. That's the raised pedestrian walk on the left - it will have the wood faced with some "concrete," and I plan to try the Chooch flexible granite walls for the actual abutments. The bridge is a Walthers kit - it's not an exact match for the prototype, but it's pretty close.