DFW Portable Layouts -- Mainline and Traction

[E7]

Great stuff Jim!!!

Rich

[Jay Criswell]

Jim,
All kidding aside, thank you for the compliments. It sure helps on days when everything seems to be overwhelming me. Getting ready doe The March Meet is one of main drivers in the stress. I had a year to get ready.....maybe I'll learn someday.

Anyway, Dennis & Kathy Mashburn keep inviting us to come visit them. Maybe we can co-ordinate the dates to match with the DFW Show. Sounds like fun.

One of the things I like to do it pre-stain the ties, glue them down (your suggestion on placement of the glue is a gem), sand them with a long sanding block (maybe 2' long), and then re stain. All of the higher ties will be lighter in color, if not bare wood. If you use a slightly different stain/color it will add the the effect of varied colored ties. Yeah, kinda to late now, huh?

Thanks again,

Jay

[R.K. Maroon]

One of the things I like to do it pre-stain the ties, glue them down (your suggestion on placement of the glue is a gem), sand them with a long sanding block (maybe 2' long), and then re stain. All of the higher ties will be lighter in color, if not bare wood. If you use a slightly different stain/color it will add the the effect of varied colored ties

Jay, there has been an ongoing debate about this technique in our club for sometime -- specifically, the need (or lack thereof) of sanding the ties to the same height before laying rail. We don't do it, as we have found that cork roadbed has enough give in it to absorb any difference in height among the ties. This decision is driven by the fact that it's a club layout and we only have access to it one day a week, at best. So taking a few shortcuts is just the practical thing to do, especially given that at the rate we've been going we are still a couple years away from having all the trackwork complete (this is on the big layout, not this smaller traction layout that I have been showing here).

Dennis & Kathy Mashburn keep inviting us to come visit them. Maybe we can co-ordinate the dates to match with the DFW Show. Sounds like fun

Dennis and Kathy are wonderful people (which I guess you know) and they are fabulous hosts. I plan on a road trip out to see them again sometime later this spring. Timing a visit with the Southwest O-Scale Meet in October would be great -- I hope that works out!

Now -- for an update on the traction layout. This Saturday was Week 6. The east loop is completely spiked down. We jumpered in a power supply and gave it a test run with an Atlas SW:

East End.jpg (912.25 KiB) Viewed 6566 times

East End Test Run.jpg (1.5 MiB) Viewed 6566 times

We don't expect to run such equipment on this layout (can you say "needs radial couplers"?), but it's all we had. For those wanting see what an SW looks like going around 15" radius curves, check out the video at the link below. You will notice the very conservative speed. Those curves are tight and it's a long way to the floor!

https://youtu.be/UDLeDkqA1KQ

The west end loop is almost complete as well -- just a foot or so of rail left to spike:

West End.jpg (1.14 MiB) Viewed 6566 times

One more Saturday work session and then the "Railroad Days" show at the Allen, Texas depot is the next two weekends after that. We won't have the overhead up for this first show but we have a couple of industrial switchers and a few traction models that can be run on two-rail, so we'll limp through the show that way. We then have the rest of the spring and all summer to get the overhead up and running. The goal is to have both this layout and our big mainline layout at the Ft Worth meet in October.

Jim

[ScaleCraft]

Are you going to continue the crossing in the bottom photo by putting another diamond on the left track?

[R.K. Maroon]

Dave -- As you can see by the light-colored area surrounding the left-hand track, we choose to demolish that corner of the legacy module to speed the installation of the mainline. The light colored area looks like the table top (and it is in the new module at bottom) but in the legacy area it's actually a skim-coat of drywall mud to level the foam deck, which got torn up a bit during the demolition.

Crossover.PNG (1007.79 KiB) Viewed 6540 times

In addition to removing the cross track, you can also see that we removed the parallel highway road as well. Scenery is not my department, but I believe the consensus in the club is to restore as much of this as possible. Restoring the track however will be complicated by the use of the circuit card under the mainline rail right at the border of the module. We normally only use a small circuit board, as shown on the right, but the unusually steep angle of crossing on the left required a large circuit board. The circuit cards are not very attractive, but we have had great success with them -- they hold the rail in alignment between the modules without the need for rail joiners. The trick with crossing at an angle is to cut the rail square with the rail. If you cut square with the module then you leave a point to pick.

There has been discussion of making the circuit board area into a grade crossing. That would be great if it worked out. We could also try to carve the circuit card up to look like there are ties there, but we have found doing that to be above the level of tedium we are willing to tolerate.

Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

It's been a while since the last progress report on the DFW club's traction layout. We got the basic trackwork complete in time for a local train show back in March. We didn't have any of the overhead up though so we spent the show running critters and experimenting to see what 2-rail equipment we had that would go around 15" radius curves (not much, as it turned out).



Since that time the wireline crew has made great progress on getting the overhead in place. Here are some shots of progress along the way. Each photo is of a different module (one end loop and three 5'-4" straight modules):









The crew got the line-poles for the other end-loop in place yesterday, so we are getting close to putting the layout together and running the entire mainline under wire. I will report back again when we're there.

Jim

[big bad jim]

I'm curious how you are handling catenary connections from module to module. The technique might be applicable for string wire on line poles.

Jim

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I do like this trolley! Please tell me more about it?

[bob turner]

Me too- I have always loved streetcars. Rode them from my house every single day to Monte Bello Elementary in Baltimore. Peter Witt and PCC. Eight cents one way.

[R.K. Maroon]

I'm curious how you are handling catenary connections from module to module. The technique might be applicable for string wire on line poles.

Hi Jim -- Good to hear from you. Andy Scott is chief of the wireline crew, and he showed up with several bags of these special wire hangers:



As you can see, these have through-holes in them. The regular wire hangers are a combination of crimp and solder -- once they are installed and located correctly, they are soldered in place. The through-hole hangers are used at the end of the modules. The holes allow the connection of the pickup wire across the module joint (what I will call the jumpers). I will provide additional photographs once we start putting modules together and size and fit the jumpers. I am not sure they are what you want for other wires (telegraph, telephone, power, etc), but if you put them at the pole they might be ok. Before Andy showed up with these he had me order a bag of 00 brass washers, with the idea of using those for wire-to-wire connections across the modules. They are tiny. I don't know if they would be better but they'd certainly be cheaper than the special cast hangers. I believe those come from Jason's Poles, but I would have to check.

Martin -- Thanks for calling out the line car. Here is a close-up from the same angle:



This car was scratch-built by club member and one-time trolley operator Richard Moore. The plans for this car appeared in an issue of Trolley Talk. I believe the prototype was a line car for the Lehigh Valley Transit Co. Note the door in the front of the cab under the headlight. There is a door at the rear as well. These doors allow for the loading of a line pole (or maybe two or three?). Note the roller at the bottom of the door for the pole to slide on. It's a nice runner with lots of hours on it. I will make a point of getting better photos at our next work session -- and this time I will make sure the coupler is straight.

Jim

[Rufus T. Firefly]

........ Jason's Poles, but I would have to check.

Probable, or Jim Rivers[/quote]

Martin -- Thanks for calling out the line car. Here is a close-up from the same angle:

This car was scratch-built by club member and one-time trolley operator Richard Moore. The plans for this car appeared in an issue of Trolley Talk. I believe the prototype was a line car for the Lehigh Valley Transit Co. Note the door in the front of the cab under the headlight. There is a door at the rear as well. These doors allow for the loading of a line pole (or maybe two or three?). Note the roller at the bottom of the door for the pole to slide on. It's a nice runner with lots of hours on it. I will make a point of getting better photos at our next work session -- and this time I will make sure the coupler is straight.

It reminds me of another very similar line car that was available as a resin casting kit - might have been Conestoga Valley? I think I actually have one stashed away for assembly in some alternate plane of existence that I will never occupy.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Took a bit but it was a Henry Elsner kit for Valley Traction Line car #100 (in Trolley Talk 156)

[R.K. Maroon]

That's cool, Martin -- Have you got two of these kits or did you cast your own second set?

Jim

[Rufus T. Firefly]

That's cool, Martin -- Have you got two of these kits or did you cast your own second set?

Only have 1 actually - that's a stock photo that I managed to dredge up. These kits do show up every so often, but they are limited to just what you see - sides, ends, roof; you're on your own for the rest.

[R.K. Maroon]

One of our club members dug up a DVD with some old video on it showing the original DFW traction layout in operation. It needs a little editing, but as I couldn't say when I would have time to do that I just posted it as is. The line car makes an appearance early on:

https://youtu.be/710_2wLqvRo

Not sure what happened to the audio. I will investigate as time allows. Then again, it's not really needed, as mostly you just hear the sound of the convention hall.

Jim