DFW Portable Layouts -- Mainline and Traction

[R.K. Maroon]

Great looking modular layout Jim. Now time for scenery. Enjoy.

I meant to respond to this earlier. I wish it was indeed time for scenery. In fact, I am hoping some of my club colleagues will take some interest in this. For me, however, I have pledged to myself not to get distracted by starting any other aspect of the project until the track work is actually complete. It is true that most of the track is in place, but there is a turnout left to install plus all the stub tracks in the switching area. There are at least 50 more Gapmasters to install, as the plan calls for replacing all the home-made circuit-board plates (seen on left in photo below) on the legacy modules.


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wqww7p0veeypc0hp808ut/Gapmaster-and-Circuit-Board-Tie.jpg?rlkey=ocag4do7djuh8p3r7gitj8rxi

Replacing those then requires rewiring the module, as new track feeds are required when a Gapmaster is installed (We used the home-made circuit-board plate as the rail feed). We also have two control panels to design and fabricate. And switch throws to install. I wish this was a matter of weeks to get all this done but it's many months and perhaps more than a year. I could devote all my modeling time to the effort but won't -- My models are calling me.

Jim

[up148]

Whoa! Yeah you've got a lot of work ahead of you. Those "gap masters" are a really great idea.

Where the modules bolt together is/was always a magnet for damage. Like most module groups, we screwed wooden protective covers on the ends, but rails still got damaged and relying on rail joiners to hold them plumb only worked sometimes.

[Erik C Lindgren]

Beautiful

[DaveJfr0]

I like the idea of the PCB board being used to help stabilize the alignment of the track at the ends. I am seeing some issue on my home layout at a joint that swings open to let people walk into the layout. I've been trying to get away with using the Atlas ties. I did not attempt to glue them into place as I don't personally think the plastic spikes are enough to deter lateral play.

I may look to use the same idea, but I'll try to blend it in by reshaping the PCB to the shape of the existing ties. I'd have some overhang on the outside edges to screw into the plywood. Then either sand the top or dress it up with a very thin layer of sculptamold to try to add in wood grain. Then paint to match the other ties.

[E7]

Dave, If you have a collection of the late "O Scale News 48/ft", there was an issue with the "Smokey Mountain Lines" on the cover. That layout had a hinged section that allowed access that might have some helpful information. Just shooting from the hip as it's been a while since I read it.

Rich

[R.K. Maroon]

For many months, I have been posting updates on the DFW O-scale club's project to upgrade our mainline portable layout. There were three goals: 1) replace the last four of the legacy modules so that all modules are built to the same standards, 2) bring the second mainline to full operational status, and 3) widen the layout so to make room for the mega-roundhouse that was recently acquired. The motivating deadline was an open house layout tour on August 28th, part of the NMRA National. We made the deadline and had three trains in continuous operation during the tour (plus action on our traction layout). I didn't get a lot of photos, as we had a steady stream of visitors for most of the day, but here are a few shots of the layout that day:


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zizq45a7fz792uinxgsl0/NMRA-National-Layout-Tour-05.jpg?rlkey=fbck37f3a0l9cqdhgblw6obzz&dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pkav2u974e7t5n452twij/NMRA-National-Layout-Tour-08.JPG?rlkey=qn6gtwss8inagr8lwccrobpqx&dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rddf0mceevzlo24wchibu/NMRA-National-Layout-Tour-07.jpg?rlkey=ophd6ymbwd488g3ybqb56jlbj&dl=0

On the Saturday before the open house we painted all the new and modified modules and spread a little ground foam. It's just a start on scenery but it sure made a lot of difference in the way the layout looked. Here is a video of trip around the layout. We have a long way to go on scenery and operations, but we're very happy to have gotten to this point.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1zac60fl6lcinip29ce1b/Open-House-NMRA-National-Layout-Tour.mp4?rlkey=1avcfccyihkwhwlio5n7og15m&dl=0

[E7]

Jim, Layout looks great and that roundhouse is a killer! I'm jelly!

Rich

[bob turner]

Truly impressive - you are an over-achiever. Is that in your new train room, or at the meet?

How many of those coaches came from Allan? I cannot remember how many there were in the original collection.

[R.K. Maroon]

Thanks for the kind words, Rich and Bob. Please note that my fellow club members contributed greatly to getting this layout built and running. If we are indeed overachievers, which I don't think any of us would claim to be, we overachieve collectively.

Is that in your new train room, or at the meet?

The layout is shown in my shop, which was built two years ago. I sized this room to house the two layouts shown as well as my machine tools, a few storage shelves, and a couple of work benches. I had to widen the room five feet from my original plan to accommodate the roundhouse, which became available after I had my plans drawn but before the request-for-quote went out to the contractors. It worked out well, as the extra five feet made everything better.

How many of those coaches came from Allan? I cannot remember how many there were in the original collection.

The SP heavyweight consist, when at full strength, has six Pomona Valley cars (RPO, lounge, diner, two sleepers, and observation), two Lobaugh chair cars, and one Joe Fischer baggage. The PVs came from Allan Wehrle, who got them from Bob. One Lobaugh came from a friend and another from eBay. The Fischer is a gift from my brother, who found it for sale on eBay, listed by a buyer who didn't know what it was. The train as running in the video is missing the RPO, one sleeper, and one chair car. All three of these cars would occasionally derail -- not often but often enough to be sidelined on a day when they trains needed to run all day without a hitch (which they did). The new track needs some alignment work -- I will get that done and try the cars again before doing any inquiry on the cars themselves.

That roundhouse is a killer!

I will discuss the roundhouse in a separate post, but, yes, it's a monster.
Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

Lorell Joiner was a well-known O-scaler with a monstrous and wildly impressive layout in San Antonio, Texas. The layout appeared at least twice in Model Railroader. Several friends were given the opportunity to salvage what they could from Lorell's layout after his death in the early 2000s. The many (many) buildings from the city scene -- including skyscrapers -- wound up on the Jakl layout, and no doubt some here have seen these in person or in the online videos of that layout.

One item that was salvaged but had not reappeared until recently was this roundhouse:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2yhjhhtkduy676x06t2op/Lorell-Joiner-Roundhouse.jpg?rlkey=cwtls1x5iyrxk4a29ysh03rv6

Steve Neill wound up with this after it was salvaged, and he had it in storage until his death a few years ago. It was on its way to the dump, so the club decided to rescue it, with the intent of incorporating as a non-portable piece of our mainline layout. The photo above was taken after the turntable arrived at our shop after its trip from central Texas.

The walls of the roundhouse are made of cast plaster. It sits on a plywood-homosote-grout base and is mounted to a rat's nest of 2x6s (Lorell was proud of his over-built benchwork -- we're not so impressed with this particular feature). We estimate that the thing weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-300 pounds. We hired a crew of off-duty firefighters to haul the it down a staircase from Steve's second-floor train room. It wasn't just the weight -- it measures nine feet by six feet and is very awkward to lift and handle (especially knowing how fragile the plaster is).

The turntable was saved as well when the layout came down. Here it is being held in place to emphasize the size of the thing:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/26jyre7y0zfeozpr9lg4z/Lorell-Joiner-Roundhouse-and-Turntable.jpg?rlkey=rfna5hwolq2rmbp36cp401xlt

These photos were taken two years ago. After a lot of talking and planning, the club has now settled on a plan to get the roundhouse restored, operating, and integrated into our layout. More on that next.

Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

Here is a little background on the Lorell Joiner roundhouse and turntable. Joiner had an article in the December 1975 issue of O Scale Railroading in which he described his plans for his Great Southern empire. The photos show the benchwork in progress. Four and a half years later (Jun 1980), an article on the Great Southern appears in Model Railroader showing the layout well along, with the main line operational and a lot of scenery in place. This photo of the roundhouse is shown:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rfgx9a2xxeuyc7sq9kdnu/MR-1980-06-Lorell-Joiner-Roundhouse.JPG?rlkey=7eeglkwvywcyspc3qwghok78r

Lorell had quite obviously been very busy and very productive. Another article on the Great Southern appears in the January 1989 issue of Model Railroader, but the turntable does not appear. The turntable does appear in the last known article on the Great Southern, which appears in the April 2008 issue of the NMRA magazine Scale Rails:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/06dqdvaikn9seejjy2qhe/2008-Scale-Rails-Lorell-Joiner-Turntable.jpg?rlkey=cxhy8pwrnro4aq3ayjtgvzp5v

Note the SP 0-6-0T in the foreground. I was unfamiliar with this model but two of them are on eBay this week.

A couple of brief clips of the turntable in operation can be seen in this video, starting at time 3:50:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IixLbCITVVk&t=266s
Sadly, the turntable controller shown in the video was not with the turntable when we found it. Reproducing it will be a chore but not, hopefully, the Bataan Death March.

Finally, here is a photo of Dennis Mashburn separating the turntable deck from the roundhouse deck during layout demolition:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r7x0ydhl6skr5cyv0jegl/Turntable-Roundhouse-Demo-01.jpg?rlkey=hq6z3yj0plypusn1sjswi51x8

Others known to have been involved in the teardown and salvage of Lorell's layout were Kathy Mashburn, Frank Schmidt and his wife, Bob and Elizabeth Jakl and their sons Ed and Perry. Salvaging the roundhouse and turntable was probably no small chore. Hats off to the salvage team for making the effort!

Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

We had an all-hands work session last Saturday to transfer the roundhouse to its new benchwork. The original 2x6 underframe was removed board-by-board while sliding the roundhouse on its plywood deck to the new benchwork. The idea was to not stress the plaster structure by bending the plywood. All went well. The next step is to build new matching benchwork for the turntable. We need to keep the roundhouse and turntable separate for now to make rebuilding both items easier. We'll mate them when ready, but we couldn't resist doing a temp-support for the turntable so we could see where we're going:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/06tlg3659y0qg47ignp0x/2024-06-29-Roundhouse-on-Stand-with-Turntable.jpg?rlkey=v2k8pycsxb9b4q4wo5gcbvny1

The roundhouse has a nicely detailed interior, and has a substantial amount of lighting built it. Very small 12-volt screw-in bulbs are used. A few are burned out but enough still work to make for a neat photo:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d0juroow2vuz5x44rbzok/2024-06-29-Roundhouse-at-Night.jpg?rlkey=dr1jyq4b2eij2hdunsj94h1uz

I'll post more photos of the interior once we get it cleaned up.
Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

The next step in the restoration of the Lorell Joiner roundhouse was to build a new support stand for the turntable. Mission accomplished:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q4pkkn4xdv5h8nvcpgdgc/Turntable-on-Stand.jpg?rlkey=iarc5swe74lktlemzl01vtlqs

We usually use 2x2s or 2x4s for benchwork legs, but for this stand we used "L" shaped legs, made from a 1x4 and a 1x3, glued and screwed together:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kmn03dlorr7j2ybkx0wad/Turntable-Leg-01.jpg?rlkey=dibt74xvozvjg35jrneqs6zzd


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fv6ircp98f20ety7bvh0r/Turntable-Leg-02.jpg?rlkey=8fysqfscf3conpzm2w24h73v6

The next step is to inspect and service the turntable mechanism. This may take a while, as the wiring harness was cut when the turntable was removed from the original layout, and the turntable controller was not salvaged. Hmm...too bad.

Jim

[up148]

That looks really stout Jim and very clean and well built. Nothing like really clean and well built carpentry. Kinda like coping the perfect corner molding piece............a work of art!

[R.K. Maroon]

I never acknowledged Butch's kind words. Many thanks -- the encouragement is always appreciated.

Brian "Sarge" Scace has been casually working his way through an old stack of O Scale Railroading magazines. He found an product review of one "Milarke Turntable" in issue #58, written by none other than Lorrell Joiner.


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cb5fr90gie7mqbe9dj4dn/O-Scale-Railroading-58-Milarke-Turntable-001.jpg?rlkey=sfxbg5wykbxqond2okispwp7a

https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tlmip38krz1g311tfrxo3/O-Scale-Railroading-58-Milarke-Turntable-002.jpg?rlkey=00z3havd7qlm7k8v2m466mnqc

That was extremely serendipitous, and I am very grateful that Brian found the article, realized it was the very same turntable now in club possession, and gave me a heads-up (Thank you, Brian!). This led to the location of a documentation package for the turntable. More on that in the next post.

Two things worth noting: First, the article was from 1979, and the photo in the article shows the turntable without the roundhouse. A magazine article a year later shows it with the roundhouse, so that tells us that the roundhouse and turntable are more-or-less forty-five years old. Second, the controller shown in the article is not the same one shown in a video on the Great Southern that can be found on YouTube:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jdsvovudwg3gyilzd2vlz/Turntable-Operation-01.png?rlkey=zr8s09dk89b89qnowsonbwmud

This is not what one would expect, but it can possibly be explained by the description in the article of an updated controller that will be available in a "later run", and the presence of this controller in the turntable (complete with spliced wires). It may be that the updated controller warranted an updated control panel.

Jim