To Finish the Shortline's Benchwork...

I have a quick update for you, another 'what happens when you build a permanent model railroad in an old house' post.

To complete the shortline benchwork, I need to build only about 8 linear feet of remaining subroadbed.  We are CLOSE!  It will connect the stair-tunnel, which is already in place, with the bridge for Skaneateles Creek, which is ready to go as well.  However, it is anything but conventional.  This will be a 90-degree, 20" radius turn that needs two 3-foot approaches, and the whole thing is built right along a stone foundation, over the wooden landing from the stairs, and beneath the electrical panel on the wall.

Further, the big turn will be in front of the domestic water supply and meter for my home.  As I was measuring, I noticed some wet drips from the unions around the meter...

See all that nice blue-green color?  Yup.  Corroded copper line.  The water company was called, and came to look only to advise that they do the meter, not the unions, so this is my problem.  This is upstream of my shut-off valve, which complicates things as they need to turn off our supply at the curb for us to even do this work.   I do most of my own plumbing, but this one is just a bit out of my league!

For sure, this needs to be addressed before I bury it with the shortline benchwork.  So, a plumber has been contacted, I am awaiting a quote, and we will see how things go. 

Most things are NOT easy on the Onondaga Cutoff!

Finally, Happy Easter to those that partake, and Happy Passover to the rest!


~RGDave

Cima Hill, and Afton Canyon

It's always a wonderful 'reset' when you can get to the desert for a while :-)

This and other prototype photos from my recent trip to California are viewable here:

http://rgdave.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=66652

I have other albums coming along, too; enjoy!

~RGDave

Euclid Yard - Benchwork Complete!

Hello, all!  I have just returned from a week exploring two California railroad landmarks:  Cajon Pass, and Tehachapi Pass.  It was an amazing trip!  Photos to follow!

As mentioned in the last post, there has been significant progress in short-line construction recently as well.  The Minoa & Euclid Railway will terminate at Euclid Yard, and the benchwork for that yard and for most of the shortline's main route is all now in place. 

First, Euclid Yard.  This is across the aisle from Onondaga Yard on the Cutoff, which is on the left in this photograph.  I made sure to leave plenty of space for operators to walk around each other here, about 40 inches, thanks to some recommendations from you all!

The main route for the M&E will climb the grade in this photo up to the tunnel through the staircase, while the level piece will be an industry - Central Car Repair Shops - which will actually be right at my workbench, and will be a big customer of the M&E. 

If you look below the surface of the yard in the photo above, you can see that this was a non-conventional set up.  The issue is that the sewer main for my home is directly below the studs, necessitating some creative supports for the railroad.  This began with setting a height for the yard, which dictated the length of studs I would need.  Once cut, I used heavy through-bolts for the thinner joists, and lag bolts for bigger joists, both with washers to hang 2X4 studs from the floor joists above.  Here is an installation of 1/4" lag bolts in one of my home's huge 10"x10" main beams.

A special thanks to my wife, Kristen, for help positioning these studs - they are not easy to support before clamping and bolt installation.  Those studs come down to about 3' off the floor, allowing me to use 2X3 longitudinal bracing to set the stud spacing, and more 2X3 diagonal bracing to support the horizontal cross-members.  Gusset plates, cut down from scrap plywood, are used to connect the diagonal bracing and the cross-members.

In all, it seems very solid to me, if unconventional!  If needed, I can always add a few legs to the horizontal members closer to the aisle, but I hope to avoid that with this heavy bracing.

Once the main route of the M&E begins to climb out of Euclid yard, it works through a gentle s-curve on a 2.5% grade over the workbench area and up to the stairs, where it passes through a tunnel to stay along the foundation. 

At the top of this grade will be the start of a tunnel through the stairs.  This will require a bit of creative carpentry, to allow trains to pass without getting stepped on.  As you can see, the entire stairway shifts at this point, so this should work out well, but I will need to cover the track here to ensure rail traffic and foot traffic do not mix. 

All that remains is to connect this subroadbed with the construction on the front wall, only about 6 more feet of benchwork!  However, it will be on a curve in front of the water supply line, which has a small leak from the meter.  The water company will be looking at this during the week, and then it's time to connect everything together.  Good times coming on the M&E and the Onondaga Cutoff!

April's Status

Shortline progress continues, with all major framing in place to support the far south end of the short line at Euclid Yard!  This took some doing, as just before I was about to mount the footer beam to the concrete floor, I realized I was over the gravity sewer main for my house - not a wise spot to permanently place a full-height wall, and an even less wise spot to drill holes for masonry anchor bolts. 

That could have been some bad news.

Having realized the dilemma, I consulted with my friend Rick, who suggested framing the area out with 2X4's through-bolted to the floor joists above, to create a hanging table.  If I then tied together the studs with a horizontal girder and stringer arrangement, it should result in a sturdy table.  He recommended adding legs, too, but instead I used diagonal bracing running from the middle of the table back down to the bottom of the hanging studs.  The result is actually very stable, and so far it seems to be just what we need to support the table. 

Also in progress is the newly-built through-truss kit for Skaneateles Creek.  This is a nice, long through-truss built from a Walthers kit that will be painted and weathered for use on the short line.  This will be one of the first scenes people see when they come down into the basement, so I want it to be impressive - and a big bridge is always impressive!

The last benchwork needed is the odd arrangement required to pass through the basement stairway in a tunnel, and make a 20-inch radius turn along the foundation to connect both halves of the shortline benchwork.  This will require some creativity - stay tuned!

Photos to come soon!

Shortline Progress

Work is well underway now on the shortline component of the layout.  It will be the M&E Railway, which on my layout is the Minoa & Euclid, though the M&E in real life is the Morristown & Erie, a local shortline here in New Jersey that is largely Alco-powered and is a model short line in their operation and classy paint job. 

The M&E leaves the main line at CP282 and immediately climbs a steep 4.5% grade on a horseshoe curve up to a summit (required due to the oil tank location in the basement).  The line then descends on a 2.5% grade to a big through-truss bridge over Skaneateles Creek.  From that point, the line will climb again up a 1% grade along the wall and pass through a tunnel that allows the tracks to continue through the basement steps.  The far portal of the tunnel will be over the workbench, and the tracks come down a 1% grade into Euclid Yard at the end of the line.

Here's a view of the overall progress so far.  CP282 is to the right, with the short line diverging left and climbing the immediate hill across the oil tank and back towards the camera:

With grades like this, operations on the shortline will seem more appropriate with shorter trains and classic power.  The big C424, paired with either an RS-1 or GP7, will be a regular for the run from Euclid Yard down to interchange with Conrail, needed to move the 8-10 car train back up the 4.5% grade to the summit.  Smaller locomotives will call Euclid Yard home, and be used to switch the yard and the customers there:  a big brewery, and a car repair shop (the workbench).

So far, the benchwork is in place for about half the length of the line, from CP282 to Skaneateles Creek.  The final major benchwork construction is required to frame out the wall that will support Euclid Yard.  I laid some of the track from CP282 south, and now need to construct the bridge in order to finish the route.  This will be a very narrow section of railroad:  a total depth, front-to-back, of about 10 inches.  Backdrop and scenery will be key here in 'selling' the look to a viewer or operator.

Back in the 1990's, I kitbashed an Atlas C424 carbody and chassis to model Morristown & Erie 19.  I put a decoder in the locomotive over the weekend.  Here it is at Onondaga Yard: 

Since 19 will be a mainstay for powering my shortline, I needed to have a reason the unit would be in central New York.

This is where the 'modeler's liscense' comes in:  my story is that the fictional shortline was purchased by NJ-based Morristown & Erie, and is using the 19 under agreement with the 'real' M&E.  The line will have other power as well, but lettered and painted for the Minoa & Euclid, not unlike the Maine Eastern, which is a prototype contract operation by Morristown & Erie.

Finally, an action shot of train SEBU (Selkirk to Buffalo) with a wild lashup, including M&E 19, as it comes west through the interlocking at CP277:

The shortline, and the subsequent interchange, will be a key to the long-term fun of operating the Onondaga Cutoff!

Shortline Construction

Thanks to a few hours work today with Rick, the shortline progress has begun!  The first of two walls that will support the future right-of-way is now in place:

Everything ended up plumb, despite my out-of-level home and basement.  Having another person to help (actually Rick really guided this work session today, and so I helped :-)  is really an asset and part of the fun of model railroading.  Rick is in the process of building a large layout of his own, and will be going with NCE DCC, just as I did.  After we worked, I gave him a run-down of the system and he operated a few trains, the first of many times to come when we'll be operating together.

Here, the WAON-10 works the west end of the yard with U23B 2795 and an ex-NYC caboose:

I put a variety of photos and wall hangings on the layout recently to get them out of the way of construction, but I think I may leave them for now - it is a totally different effect to have them blocking the view of the railroad on the far side.  Eventually, that will all be backdrop, but for now it's nice to have anything to break up the scene.

A few mintues later, SESL (Selkirk, NY to Saint Louis, MO) worked past the local on Track 1, with SD40-2 6524, SD50 6789, and SD40-2 6495.  This is becoming a favorite spot of mine to take photos of the railroad - this view is just about how it appears when standing next to the layout, as the top level of the layout is just below eye level:

Tomorrow, I will continue shortline progress.  More to come!

Wreck Repairs

Some mishaps on a layout are unavoidable.  However, some are worse than others, and over the weekend I had my worst wreck to date. 

I am beginning to experiment with new benchwork to support scenery, and that includes scenery that will be above the staging level on the main line.  I have clamped 1X2 lumber to the existing benchwork in order to measure heights and get a visual generalization of how things may come together.  Everything was clear, and seemed to work well.

At the end of some operating later that evening, however, I leaned a bit too hard on a clamped stringer, and the clamp shifted lower, allowing the stringer to block the forward progress of a double-stacked containter on TV14.  With 4 units up front and 12 cars ahead of the contact point, about 9 cars immediately 'string-lined' the curve.  Two of those hit one of my guard rails, but the rest?  Yup.  They hit the floor.

Thankfully, no locomotives left the rails, and the cars that took the fall were older well cars, but they piled up and sustained damage that made the wreck look pretty real!  Containers at odd angles, shattered truck frames, wheelsets everywhere, cars at different angles on the floor.

After 3 hours of work, I was able to repair all the damaged cars, and last night, all of them returned to service.  An upside to this was that I meant to weather all those cars with my airbrush anyway, and this was a perfect opportunity.  A few photos of those cars will come soon.

Lesson learned:  any clamps that will be in place long-term should be TIGHT!  And, don't adjust or lean on anything clamped when trains are close by.  I learn slowly, but I do learn :-)

Exciting news is that I have procured all the lumber necessary to frame out the last two walls in the basement for the layout, which will enable construction of the short line right-of-way to get started.  This coming weekend, Rick and Jack will both be lending a hand to get the framing in place.  I'll get photos of the progress up next week!