jeff train

þriðjudagur, 27. nóvember 2012

Before and After - Cleaning House Part III

As I mentioned we had family visiting for an extended time over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was great to see everyone, but the fact that half of the basement was doubling as my son's temporary "bedroom" while he surrendered his usual room to the grandparents meant not a lot got done on the layout. But my mom was looking for some way to help last weekend, so she volunteered to sort out my modeling desk and the set of shelves that I use to hold various layout-building materials.Here's the before shot of the top of my modeling desk. Wonder if my lack of productivity over the last few months had something to do with the fact that I couldn't find anything. Naah!! That couldn't be it.

After a LONG Sunday afternoon of sorting all the tools, paint, parts, models, etc . . . here's how my modeling desk looked:

What doesn't show is the inside of the drawers - they're just as neat and orderly as the top. I can't wait to build my next model since I can actually find things!

Thanks mom!

sunnudagur, 18. nóvember 2012

House Cleaning - Part 2

We have out of town family visiting for Thanksgiving, which means I haven't had a chance to work on modeling projects. But I did take advantage of my dad's visit to get the "back room" cleaned up - I need to add the south end staging to make the railroad operational and with the amount of stuff shoved in the back room that was never going to happen. So Dad and I spent some time this weekend getting the storage/utility room reorganized. I still need to re-sort my "messy modeling bench," but it looks like when it comes time add the south end staging loops we'll be able to maneuver in the utility room!
Only other update I have is we need to have a session to finish the fluorescent light project. Hurricane Sandy caused me to cancel the planned session to finish up the lighting.

þriðjudagur, 30. október 2012

House cleaning

We spent some time cleaning up a bunch of branches from the yard and driveway - reminders of the severe weather we've had here in Northern Virginia for the past couple of days. I also took a few minutes this morning to do some housecleaning around the blog as well. You'll notice a new, cleaner look that I hope will be easier to read. I've also adjusted some of the topic links and increased the font size.
Sandy spared us from any bad destruction - we had the power flicker a few times but it never went out, and although our backyard is full of water the basement remains bone dry. Unfortunately not everyone is as lucky. Reports are that New Jersey and New York City took the worst of it. And my extended family in Connecticut is still without power. All those folks are in our thoughts and prayers.

mánudagur, 29. október 2012

CV 40000-series Howe Truss Boxcars

I was in Lancaster, Penn., for the Fine Scale Modeler Expo a few weeks ago. As I reported then, I took a trip to the nearby Strasburg Railroad, which is home to a number of nicely restored steam era freight cars, including a Central Vermont 40,000-series car.

It wasn�t in the best place for photography, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures in the late-afternoon light that show off the details of the car.

History

The Central Vermont received 200 of these single-sheathed 40-foot boxcars from American Car & Foundry in late 1924. These cars, numbered 40000-40199, represent some of the earliest examples of what are commonly referred to as �alternate� standard ARA boxcars. Although never proposed as a standard by the ARA�s Committee on Car Construction, more cars were constructed to this Howe truss design with two diagonals on either side of the door, than were built to the ARA standard single sheath design.

The underframe was wood, with six stringers in place of the typical single pair of steel, Z-section stringers.

Closeup of the end of the restored car shows the ladders,
the top end plate, and the Carmer uncoupling lever.

The CV�s cars were delivered with wood six-foot doors, Andrews trucks, and Hutchins roofs. They had an inside height of 8 feet, 6 inches. As built, they were equipped with vertical brake staffs, but all would eventually be retrofitted with geared handbrakes and Ajax brakewheels. they also came equipped with Carmer uncoupling levers. The sides had seven grab irons, while the ends were equipped with six rung ladders with the stiles mounted far enough from the end to clear the diagonal brace on the end.

AC&F Builder's Photo shows the vertical brake
and end components.

The ends of these cars were perhaps their most unusual feature. They were composite ends (wood with two vertical and two diagonal braces). Spanning these braces across the top was a pressed steel component referred to as a top end plate. The Car Builder�s Cyclopedia, defines an End Plate as:

�A member across the end and connecting the tops of the end posts of a car body and fastened at the ends to the two side plates. It is usually made of the proper form to serve as an end carline.�*

Other single sheathed cars with composite ends used end plates of course, but what seems to make the ones of the CV�s 40000-series cars somewhat unusual is the fact that it was a pressed steel component, not fabricated from standard structural steel components.

The cars remained in service, pretty much as built, through the late 1950s and early 1960s when many of them were retired or placed in some form of company service.

Approximately 25 of these cars were modified with the addition of grain hatches to the roof and hopper bottoms for grain service.

Painting and Lettering

As delivered the cars featured the CV�s then-standard Roman lettering, with �Central Vermont� spelled out across all three �panels� to the left of the doors, and no "CV" initials, with the car numbers centered underneath.

During the Second World War (January 1942), the CV changed to the stacked Gothic lettering, with the road name spelled out in two lines, with the addition of "CV" reporting marks above the car number, like that shown on the restored car at Strasburg, and on this car:

Initially, there was a white line above the �CV and below the car numbers. In later repaintings through the 1950s these lines tended to be removed, like in this view of 40050:

The final paint scheme on these cars was in the early 1960s with the addition of the intertwined CV logo on the door.

Models

A �layout quality� representation of these cars can be made using the old Train Miniature single-sheathed (incorrectly called by modelers �outside braced�) cars. John Nehrich described such a conversion in an old issue of Mainline Modeler, later reprinted in a book by Hundman Publications. Both are long out of print, but you can find old issues of Mainline Modeler at swap meets or on eBay.

About 15-20 years ago Steam Shack produced a series of resin freight car models for a number of CV boxcars, including the 40000-series cars. These models were made for Steam Shack by Funaro & Camerlengo, who still offers these as their Kit 7060 (as built cars) or Kit 7061(cars equipped with roof hatches and hopper bottoms).

There are some issues with the F&C kit - the sides are rendered as heavily weathered - which some feel is a little on the heavy side (I tend to agree), making the model look like the prototype did late in life and not as these cars would have looked in service. There's also some issues with the ends - primarily the height of the end sill - on the resin cars it's much taller than on the prototype. But the Steam Shack/F&C kits do represent a good starting place for an accurate model.

*Thanks to Dennis Storzek for his help in determining the most accurate description for the components of these cars.

miðvikudagur, 17. október 2012

Peninsula Campaign - How it looks today

It's been a couple of months shy of two years since I basically tore down most of my layout and started rebuilding it in its current configuration. I had the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the peninsula this evening.
I wanted to create the impression in the viewer's mind that they were seeing some New England countryside with an occasional glance of the railroad in its surroundings. Instead, I thought the "Front Door" looked more like some sort of giant modern art sculpture. It was all about the infrastructure and not about aesthetics. And it really grated on me. Here's a look at how the layout entrance looked the day before I tore the upper deck off:

And here's what the same viewpoint looks like today (pardon the leaning buildings - most of them are simple mockups propped in place):

Comparing these two shots has convinced me all the work and effort have certainly been worthwhile.
It's been a long journey, and it's not over yet, but I feel pretty good about how things are looking.

HO Scale Steam Era Freight Car Trucks

Well known freight car modeler and historian Richard Hendrickson has recently updated his summary of HO scale steam era freight car trucks, available online HERE. If you ever needed to know how a "Bettendorf T Section" differs from an "ARA Cast Steel with Spring Plank" - well, here's your chance to find out!

þriðjudagur, 16. október 2012

To-Do List - Mid October Progress Report

A few weeks back I blogged about my current layout To-Do list. So, in the interest of keeping things honest, here's my progress to date:

1. Improve the layout lighting throughout the room. Investigating several options. There may be an article here.
Not sure there's an article here, but we have installed 4 four-foot fluorescent fixtures - and have four more (at least) to install. This is a group project, and I'm working on scheduling a second work session with some local modelers to wrap this one up.

2. Realign mainline track on one side of peninsula (there's a strange track alignment that the guys suggested looked odd enough to be reworked. Of course, this will require some modification to the foamboard surface of the layout, but shouldn't be too bad) - (Estimate 2 evenings)
Modifying the mainline was easy, but this project got a little out of control, and I ended up moving a hillside, extensively reworking the scenery behind Waterbury, adding two new rivers, and several hundred trees. All in all, this task has taken considerably longer than the estimate, but it's been far more involved than simply realigning some track.

3. Add coal trestle siding to Everett. Again this will require some modification to the terrain, and some track modification. To fit the coal trestle siding in place may require lengthening the passing siding slightly and handlaying a turnout on the south end. - (Estimate 4 evenings)
Haven't started this yet.

4. Essex Junction trackwork - Three more turnouts to handlay - then the remaining spurs need to be installed. - (Estimate 4 evenings)
One turnout remains, along with some siding track.

5. Drop feeders in WRJ yard - (Estimate 1 evening)
All the track in place in White River Junction has feeders installed.

6. Feeders in Everett, Essex Junction, and north-end staging - (Estimate 3 evenings) (Note: includes running a new length of buss wire).
About half complete

7. Bridge street overpass (abutments, bridge, and track needs to be complete so I can get to the WRJ passenger station area - (Estimate 2 evenings)
No additional progress.

8. Install yardmasters desk in WRJ (John Paganoni is building this for me, but it will need some time to install - (Estimate 1 evening)
Desk complete, needs to be installed.

It's going to be a busy fall as I also have to prepare for the clinic I'm giving at the Fine-Scale Expo in Strasburg in October and the MER Convention the following week!

Clinic preparation requires building up some foreground trees to various levels of completion and a small diorama to display them. Luckily, all the stuff for this will eventually wind up on the layout - but trees and such aren't going to fix the lighting in the room nor will they get the layout operational.
This took A LOT longer than I anticipated. Although I enjoyed doing the clinic, I think it's fairly safe to say I would have completed all the other items on my To-Do list if clinic preps hadn't taken all my free time for almost three weeks. With them out of the way, I can resume progress.