1st Op session debrief

After my first ops session, we all sat down outside with boerworse rolls, snacks and drinks for a chin wag and a debrief. Most of the issues were discussed in the previous article. Below however is Items I need to sort out before the next operations session as highlighted by my operators or found to be wanting by myself.

• Time Table to be drawn up. Not just the string diagram.
• Train Names to be put on the string diagram.
• Fit Digitrax Throttle panel in Essex.
• Place Infra red receivers better in the room.
• Fit Stryker panel together with push-buttons for servo motors.

My First Operating Session

Yesterday the 8th November, I finally hosted my first operating session. It is absolutely unbelievable how well it went! I had a buzz for the remainder of the day and spent a sleepless night thinking of everything I wanted to tackle today to make it even better.

Including myself, there were 5 of us that operated the layout. Kevin (my brother), Peter, Niel and his father Mike.

Niel and myself handled the yard and used coloured tags to place on the cars as they arrived to help classification better. It worked an absolute charm. As a rake of cars arrived, we would place the coloured tags on the roof and then proceed to shunt them into their required blocks. Once finished, we put the car cards together matching the block of cars and then removed the tags ready for the local engines to pick up the block and head out to start shunting.

Mike and Peter, together with Kevin on occasions, ran the mainline trains from staging through to staging. What was really enjoyable was watching everyone run at prototypical speeds. Also there were very few if any derailments. Those derailments that did happen were normally as a result of switches not aligned properly.

Niel took the Essex / East Glacier Park local and shunted both towns like a star. Kevin took the Columbia Falls and West Glacier Park local and I gave him a hand as Break-man. Kevin drove the loco and I told him what to do, as well as throwing switches, uncoupling cars and the like. Kevin actually commented how much better it was as a 2 man crew, which it was. It took a lot of the pressure off having to not only run the train, but also do all the pick ups and set-outs, change switches etc etc.

We all ran off a string diagram schedule I had drawn up. I did not actually convert it into a timetable as I wanted to see if there were any issues before doing additional hard work. I was quite amazed how everyone picked up on it and how easily they were able to read it. However, a proper timetable would have been a great help. That WILL be in place by the next session.

The fast clock was also fantastic. I purchase a 20m VGA monitor extention and ran it from the one area where my laptop was to a second monitor in a strategic position in the room. I ran JMRI's analogue clock and everyone commented how well it worked

The one Fast Clock monitor over East Glacier Park

The 2nd Fast Clock monitor over the helix from Columbia Falls to West Glacier Park

Above is one last photo of the staging yard (Stryker / Browning) during the op session: -

The day chosen, Sunday, turned out to be perfect. Everyone was relaxed and in jovial spirits. The guys arrived at about 09h30 for some coffee and a chat. 09h45 we started with a briefing and started at 10h00. The session was planned to end at 12h30 and we were actually about 5 min behind in the end.

To end off with, we all sat outside with boerworse rolls and cool drinks and had a good chat. Next session is booked for the 20th Dec and so far, everyone has said they will be attending again.

Till next time, and hopefully this time some proper photos of the opp session, keep well and best regards.

1st Operations session "Prep"

I really must write more often :-(

During the last club visit to my layout, and also a couple of months ago from my brother and a friend, the guys kept saying I must hurry up and get an operations session going. After a couple of false starts, I finally decided on a date being this coming Sunday the 8th November 2015.

If I new what I was letting myself in for, I may have kept quiet and not done it. I have been slowly working towards getting the layout operational, but as the date has approached, so have all the final jobs to be done grown and grown.

In particular is the cleaning. I must say, living where I do, dust is a big problem. However, I am slowly working at reducing that, in particular by insulating the ceiling as funds permit. Not only will it help in reducing dust falling through the suspended ceiling, but at the same time insulating the room.

Anyway, part of the preparation has been vacuuming, dusting and vacuuming! Wow, what a job! It has taken two solid evenings and still needs at least one more.

Some of the last minute projects done are as follows: -

• Fitted Microtrain couplers to the two outside couplers on a new 3 diesel lash up I purchased about 6 months ago. 2 off BNSF and 1 off GE ES44AC. Unfortunately I did not have enough to do all 3 locos.
• Repaired wiring to push buttons for the Tamvalley servo boards. I am using a wire that when hot gets brittle. I have another wire I will use, but no time to do the change now.
• Re programmed one loco to run in reverse. In a 3 unit lash up, the single loco facing one way is the lead loco and that number must be used. In this case, the loco behind the lead loco was running in the same direction and would definitely cause confusion.
• Re-programmed one of the switch motor CV's as it was not throwing fully.
• The switches to Stryker all have servos now, but the control panel still needs to go in. No time for that, so I marked with a pen on the bench work nest to each switch the number needed to throw it.
• Vacuumed to layout like it has never been cleaned as well as run the vacuum brush over wagons and diesels.
• Cleaned, cleaned and cleaned track some more
• Cleaned loco wheels using a paper kitchen towel over the rails and putting alcohol on.

And that was just some of the work.

Cross fingers for Sunday. Hopefully all goes well :-)

Scenery work

Over the Easter weekend, I decided to tackle some of my scenery. In particular, the covered helix between East Glacier Park and Browning. T put the hard shell down quite some time ago, possibly a year or two, however, no greenery or anything :-(.

Before starting, I needed to complete the colouring of the rock-work that I have put there, as well as in other areas of the layout. This involved the leopard spotting technique show on the Woodland Scenic's web site. I used "Yellow Ochre", "Burnt Umber" and plain old "India Ink". I am very happy with the outcome which can be seen below.

It was then over to adding some greenery. As per a YouTube video from Model Railroader, I bought some cheap brown paint, putting it down on the shell, then a coating of white glue and then Woodland scenic's fine "Burnt Grass". I also added some medium grass of various colours. Our local store currently does not have various clump foliage or foliage clusters, so I can not put down any bushes yet, so the scene is not complete yet. However, below are some photos.

The end of a very productive weekend!

Track plan alterations

I had a dilemma at the tunnel where trains heading West from Browning enter or trains heading east exit a tunnel from one of my helix's. As a train was exiting the tunnel, there is a set of cross over switches which will one day be signalled. The problem is firstly, the signal would be very close to the tunnel entrance, making it difficult for operators to see the indication, and more prototypically, if I have a 2 or more lash up of diesels and the lead unit stopped short of the signal, almost all the locos, including the lead would be sitting in the tunnel. I.e. choking themselves and overheating. Not very prototypical at all.

Looking at the very right track as it exits the tunnel, it can be
seen that there is no room for the train to stop without most
of the locos sitting in the tunnel.

My solution was to move the crossovers down the line, giving enough room for a 3 unit loco lash-up to exit the tunnel before stopping short of the signal.

Below, the crossover can be seen now moved further down the line with sufficient space for at least 3 locomotives to be out the tunnel. What can also be seen now compared to the photo above is a cutting I have added to the left. This will now be my new Eurika branch line. Looking down the bottom at the visible staging, Stryker will be on the left side with trains entering from the other side and terminating there. The branch-line to Eureka is at the end of that visible staging on the same side. Before, it used to be on the other side and can be seen in the above photo where there are 3 wagons parked. There were two issues for me. Firstly I did not like it crossing the staging of the other end of the layout (Browning) and secondly, it occupied my return loop, which I want to use for a future operations scenario I will talk about in a future post. So, I ended up with a win win situation.

Below is the track work complete. Just needs scenery now.