Contest room

[PDX 2015 posts]

The contest room is were modelers show their work to the attendees, and the NMRA judges. I took photos of some of the excellent models here. Above is a wooden tank car in 1:20.3 scale, and that little thing in the background ...

... is a snow-plow in Nn3 1:160 narrow-gauge. Yes, there are tiny chains connected to the trucks of the snow plow.

I really enjoyed the various caboose entries, especially since most of them have interior detail, too. It's hard to take photos of the interior and have the details show. This one is HOn3 (1:87 narrow-gauge) if I remember correctly.

I was very impressed by the super-detailing on this Great Northern caboose.

Due to the lack of a background this diorama of a track gang taking a break was very hard to photograph so that the details would show. The photo doesn't quite capture the laid-back ambiance I experienced when standing in front of the diorama. Very well done.

A multi-level diorama of a Colorado mining railroad (several, actually) in O-scale is so full of detail, that taking a photo of the whole thing doesn't do it justice. So I focus on a couple details I really enjoyed.

There were two dioramas of saw mills. One had lights and used them very effectively. The other didn't.

Sawmill with the saw gate visible (bad photo)

The machinery to power the saw gate.

Saw mill office

When I walked into the contest room I wasn't that impressed ("huh? that's it?"). A bunch of tables  with white table cloth and cars or locomotives on them. However, when I started to look closely I was blown away and spent much more time in the room than I had intended.

What else did I do?

So far I focused on clinics that I hoped would inspire me or show approaches for modeling in small spaces like my Welztalbahn layout.

Yesterday I attended sessions on making photo-realistic backdrops, signs, house fronts, etc. and got some good ideas out of that: shop windows, and even factory interiors, which is an idea I was toying with both for Werner & Soehne, as well as the paper warehouse at Silicon Valley Lines.

Today I started off with Lance Mindheim's "Achievable Realism" clinic, which focused a lot on scene composition, colors, and texture, as well as (again) using photos. Next was Kermit Paul's "Adding perspective to layout" clinic where he talked through 3d modeling with forced perspective. This was interesting, but I need to stick to working with photos on the Welztalbahn. Craig Bisgeier's talk about "Truss bridges" was not a revelation for me, but he is a good speaker and I did enjoy his excursion into options for bridge kit-bashing. I wanted to do the clinic on the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal RR by Henry Freeman, and Rob Spangler's scenery clinic, which ran at the same time, but ended up in the SIG room chatting with Andrew about his planned layout and talking through track arrangements in his main station area, which was a lot of fun. Byron Henderson's "Small Layout Design" clinic had a lot of familiar material, since I had seen several of his talks at the LD/Ops Sig meets before, but it was still an enjoyable hour. 

Hanging out in the SIG room

[PDX2015 posts]

Some of the guys behind OpenLCB and LCC have set up a demonstration layout

I was a bit surprised by how many familiar faces I saw today, in particular in the SIG (Special Interest Group) room. Given that I've been to the Bay Area LD/Ops SIG meets the last couple years, I really shouldn't have been that surprised, but it is still nice to say "Hi, nice to see you again. What have YOU done recently?" and chat.

Port Townsend Southern

[PDX 2015 posts] 

Union Mills at the start of the session. The Union Mills turn in the rear arrived at the end of the previous session.

Today's operations session at Brian Ferris' Port Townsend Southern was very enjoyable and time well spent. Brian is an excellent host, and the railroad ran very well. It looked like the other participants had just as much fun as I had. The PTS runs on Timetable&Train Order (TT&TO) which I didn't have much exposure to yet, with a 1:1 clock.

Conductor Jeff prepares for the next move.

My first assignment was to work the Union Mills switcher with Jeff.  Union Mills is a switching exercise with just enough space to not go crazy.

As we were getting ready to leave Union Mills, Brian came by and grabbed the two of us to run two scheduled secondary trains.  ... Uh oh. I was on my own. Grabbed the throttle and took my from Centralia staging to Wabash. ... Ok, now what? Hmmm... My northbound train 680 is scheduled for a meet in Wabash with train 673, but my orders inform me that 673 is running 20 minutes late. ... Ok then. ... ... But I don't think I should sit here for 20 minutes. ... Hmmm... Do I have enough time to make it to the next siding before 673 is scheduled to leave there with time to spare? ... Hmmm ... and I know there is an extra train in the hole at the next siding, because I cheated and looked across the room... Hmmm... that means I need to run for the yard. ... Hmmm .... but I'm a northbound train, so I'm superior on this railroad over the extra, I could pass the extra on the main, while he waits for the scheduled trains to go by. ... Hah! that should work and the timing works out, too. I should be able to get to the yard as far as the schedule times are concerned ... Of course, it took half an eternity to work through all of this in my head. I take off and make a run for the yard at Chambers Prairie, with barely enough time to spare to get in before Jeff's delayed train 673 is set to leave the yard.

Jim checks the paperwork for train 680. Brian, our host, is in the background.

Jim and Cal in the yard quickly swapped inbound and outbound cars on train 680 and thus I was able to leave the yard on-time preparing to meet first class train 407 at Kyro.

Train 680 is in the siding at Kyro waiting for train NP 407 to pass.

This time I get to take the siding, wait for the passenger train to pass and make my way out to the garage to tie down in Tacoma staging. My first solo-run with TT&TO were I really had to think through the motions was complete.

I like that taste. More of that, please?

Train 680 at St. Clair before heading through the tunnel into the garage. In the rear the Union Mills turn on the branch is waiting for 680 to clear the mainline

The Wabash turn working the coal mine in Wabash.

My last assignment of the day was the Wabash turn from Chambers Prairie. The fun part here was that the train wasn't blocked when it came out of the yard. I had work to do in Plumb, Wabash, and the Milwaukee interchange and decided to take the train down to Wabash to sort out the cars there.

I really like how the PTS has enough space and trackwork to allow operators do these things, while maintaining fluid operations. Did I mention that humans have a lot of space here, too?

Inside operator Bob hard at work copying orders from dispatch for me, while Jeff is running a northbound GN passenger train through Wabash. I finished my work in Wabash and am waiting for Bob's orders.

Lots of action today. Time to go to bed.

Kalama

Temco LLC in Kalama

As I was driving north from Portland to Olympia (more on that in another post), I noticed a green signal on the BNSF mainline that runs next to I-5. I pulled off the freeway at Robb Road in Kalama, and without realizing it, stopped at the place that was the starting point of the Northern Pacific railroad into Washington State: The Port of Kalama on the Columbia River, which is still quite busy today.

Amtrak Cascades going-away shot

The reason for the Green signal was a Portland - Seattle Amtrak Cascades train.

Temco yard tracks

All the tracks into the Temco facility are littered with Men at work signs. And by the way, who says you can't put track number signs on your tracks?

Tank car at Emerald Kalama Chemical

The port of Kalama is a maze of railroad tracks and very large industries.
A fun drive along North Hendrickson Rd, with regular stops, and taking photos for inspiration.

The RSG sawmill has huge storage areas with lumber

On the way back from Olympia I took some more photos when I pulled off the freeway again because I saw a green signal going south.

The Steelscape buildings at Kalama River Rd are surrounded by large steel coils.

Hey look, there's the reason for the green signal, a UP train trundling by. 

There are large signs on the north end of N. Henrickson Rd stating that it's "not a through road, because the railroad crossings might be blocked". That served as an invitation for me to take a look whether the crossings were blocked. Indeed they were.
And while I was still amused by the blocked railroad crossing, the Amtrak Coast Starlight to Seattle comes by.

Northbound Coast Starlight

UP and CP locomotives tied down for the weekend at Kalama Export

Fun Gondola load

 Due to the forest fires in Washington state, the air is thick with smoke.

Locomotives at the balloon track at Kalama Export

I turned around, got back on the freeway, and took the next exit south back into the industrial area.

Grain cars on the balloon track at Kalama Export

The blocked railroad crossings are at Kalama Export, which has a huge multi-track balloon track arrangement. Grain cars go into the facility and there is a long track along N. Hendrickson Rd with lined up grain cars. I suspect they arrived loaded during the week, and are now empty, ready for pickup. I was surprised about the size of the facility and the sheer number of cars here. Very impressive.

Grain cars along N. Hendickson Rd

SJC - PDX

[PDX2015 posts]

The plane is here. We're only 30 mins delayed. As we see often with Alaska Airlines in SJC, they board the plane from both ends at the same time. It's so much more fun to not use the jet bridge, and I'm in the rear half of the plane, so of course I could around the wing to the rear door.

Other passengers apparently enjoy that, too. I like the shadows from the low sun. At least there's one benefit from leaving late.

You can't beat the colors of the sunset. Flying over the former salt ponds at the south end of the bay as we navigate the somewhat goofy, spiral departure path out of SJC.

No problems on arrival and getting to the hotel. Time to sleep. I'm signed up for an Ops session tomorrow.

Ready for Portland

[PDX2015 posts]

Hopping on a flight tonight to head up to Portland for the NMRA convention.

Tiger relaxing in Fountain

Outboxed

It's interesting what writing up your thoughts can do. One hour ago I went into the train room and stared at the industry tracks in Talheim.

"I wonder ... what if I just tried this out right now? ..."

I disconnected track pieces, pulled the cables for the curved turnout, dug through my remaining supply of sectional track and a little while later I was well on the way.

Here is the new arrangement, built from sectional track, which turned out not too shabby, though when I'll build this permanently I'll use flextrack in the area where the white tank car sits to get a light easement and reduce some of the kinks in the inner curve, as well as remove that short straight piece.

As expected, the end of the Koef track moved about one inch away from Kopper, and fortunately I could arrange it so that the location of the Koef turnout didn't change much. I should be able to deal with this and still fit in the gardens.

The new track doesn't come out into the aisle as much as I expected. I can handle this with some thin plywood under track and a small filer piece in the fascia. No major surgery needed. The road tunnel portal came off easily and intact.

This is good enough so that I can try switching Talheim with this new arrangement and see if it gets me the improved flow I'm hoping for.

Hot enough to cook eggs?

Let's see if it is hot enough yet to cook an egg on the patio.

The result after 45 minutes: A rather gooey mess. Not yet hot enough

Thinking outside the box

I built the Talheim industrial area around Kopper furniture and the Gregorius saw mill on a shelf early on during layout construction and it remained in limbo with a few adjustments since. Here's what it looks like today.

Pretty much unchanged from 3 years ago.

One thing that has bugged me for a while is the lack of a good sized run-around in the Talheim area that doesn't foul the main track and the turnouts at the entrance to staging. The existing run-around at the team track holds only 2-3 cars, and switching Talheim often involves dealing with 4-5 cars, so it just turns into an annoying puzzle exercise.

Here's the current track plan of around Talheim. I omitted Werner and Soehne on the left hand side of the aisle.

And here's a bird's eye view of the relevant area on the layout:

I thought about a couple approaches to get more space and squeeze in a better runaround:

• Extend the shelf into the garage. Possible, but it blocks a doorway, and could not be scenicked seamlessly. What kills this for me is that between operating sessions I can't keep cars on the section that needs to be moved.
• Widen the shelf into the aisle. The aisle is already quite cramped. Due to the way the track arrangements work out, it would have to be widening quite a bit, which is not an option.
• In either case, I'd create a track far away from Werner & Soehne, in addition to the existing team track, and in most arrangements the additional run-around is not any longer than the existing. It just doesn't flow that well.

Other parts of the layout kept me more than busy, so I left this area alone to wait for an idea what to do.

...

And finally, one evening I realized I need to leave the box and enter the aisle, but not where I was considering it before.

I can move the curved turnout all the way over to the turnout at Kopper, and extend the team track around the curve. Thus, I not only get the runaround space I need, but also make it super-easy for the transfer run from Emsingen to exchange cars in Talheim: Push the incoming cars onto the outer curve track, and pull the prepared outgoing cars from the straight track leading over to Werner & Soehne. That way the transfer run can switch in Talheim without having to block main track 1, which should help with keeping traffic up.

The only drawback is that to accommodate the extended track,  I need to modify the road tunnel under Talheim which has been in place pretty much since the beginning of the layout. And I need to fit a plywood piece into that awkward corner of the aisle to support the new track. All doable and I will likely start moving on this in a couple weeks after I'm back from the NMRA National convention in Portland, OR.

Further work on the Schrebergarten will have to wait until the modified track arrangement is in place, since there will be slight changes to the geometry of the space between the curves where the garden is supposed to go.

Marc Cohn at Villa Montalvo

We went to see Marc Cohn at the Carriage House at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. This concert was a reschedule from early this year. I love this venue because it's really small and you get to see the artists up close. Our seats were in the last row, and look how close to the stage we still are.

This was a small setup with only keyboard and percussion to support Marc on piano and guitar. Great music, and quite entertaining. Somewhat to our surprise the concert was rather short, and we walked out of the theatre barely 90 minutes after the show started. We had a good time nevertheless.

The wide-angle lens on my Nexus 5 smartphone makes the stage appear smaller in the photo than it was in real life. I could have zoomed in a bit to reflect reality. The light situation overwhelmed the image processing in the phone so photo quality is rather sad. :-)

Maerklin Crane 7051 Refurbished

I sat down today and took apart the Maerklin crane from last year's surprise box. After tossing out the original 110V transformer and hooking up real 16V AC, one motor didn't make a beep and the other one sounded just sick.

It turned out that both motors mostly needed outside cleaning and some gear lubricant. Easy. The flat armature commutator on each motor was clean and the brushes in good condition.

With the motors running, I found that the hook cable would not retract and something sounded stuck. When I popped off the cab roof the problem was obvious:

I untied the knot on the cable drum, pulled the string out, and retied the string using tweezers since the space is just to tight for normal fingers.

Soon after I connected the cables to the control box, Pascal came by and tried out the electro-magnet shuffling screws around my work space.

Hmmmm. What could we do next? ...

Load and unload scrap metal from flat cars in a train!

This crane is easily 30 years old and after some light maintenance performs just fine. Fun on a Sunday evening.