Sunday Fun

Introduced a young boy to the wonders of model railroading, by the smile on his face it will be hard to keep him away.  Tate picked up on things quite fast and even switched a freight train. We tested out the island branch track through the tunnel and had a lot of problems, we may have to put in code 100 track sometime in the future, just to make it more reliable. Again the idea to adding 2 sidings at the west end of the Elsewhere yard came up. They would hold the Heron's Landing and Wellington passenger trains. This would allow other passenger trains to go to the Wellington station and the siding at Heron's Landing could be changed into another run around track. Both projects will have to wait for discussion and funding.

freight train from Wellington passing through Valleyview

Tate and his Mom discuss switching moves at Springbank

New Quad Unit

Over the past weeks preparations were underway for our third Quad Unit. Wires have been run not only to install it under Lincoln, but also to move 1 of the other Quads down near Warwick. The power supply for the switch on the wye was also moved under the loops, now it is turned off when the main power switch is turned off.  Plans are under way to install a 120 volt switch under the loops that will turn off all power to the layout, so nothing gets left on. On Sunday the third Quad was wired in and tested, only had to switch 2 wires and all was well. This Quad now powers the island part of the branch, Miller, the lower main from just past Jutland to Mount Tom and the upper loop from there to the other side of  Springbank. This effectively cuts both the upper and lower mainlines in half, providing a more consistent power supply. Now a derailment effects a much smaller area. A new feeder was installed on the island and tunnel repair was also completed.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

Well there was a lot of huff'n and Puff'n with 9 or so different trains that ran. We started out with nothing working, but soon found the problem, the memory was over loaded, Jim Long fixed that with a reset sequence. The ideas from the last posting were discussed so now everyone can ponder them. One I did not mention in the blog is to move the Heron's Landing Passenger Train storage track to a new siding at Elsewhere and make that storage track into a third run around at Heron's Landing. Something else to think about is to change the siding to Sunset into the Ore Train destination instead of a staging track. One quirk on the lower loop is that one or two engines speed up there, while others don't, at present we have no solution to this.

all trains meet at Lincoln

switching Springbank

leaving the port

Sunday work group.

A few of us pulled feeder wires for the new quad unit and relocation of one of the others. A low voltage wire was also pulled for the power supply to the island branch. We also can install the new quad unit under Lincoln, and hook it up first, doing the upgrade in 2 parts. The transformer will then be plugged into the main power supply, so everything is turned off with one switch. Glen did some scenery around Northdale and Miller. Trent helped locate missing car cards and/or rolling stock. Seems that we are still on a learning curve with them. One that is often confused is one the rolling stock is delivered, the waybill is turned over to the pickup side, not removed from the card card. If you leave rolling stock at an industry the next person must be able to find it and the only way is if the waybill is left in the car card pocket to tell us where it is. We also discussed future changes to the Elsewhere yard. One idea is to add 2 new sidings off the backside of the run around. Another idea to think about is cutting the yard in half, making it 2 yards. Yet another thought to ponder is to shorten tracks 3 and 4 and turning tracks 1 and 2 to lineup better with the turn table. This will move the 3 storage tracks to the back and the 2 run around tracks to the front, there may be room for a caboose track also. The last idea is to move the turntable under the Wellington one and have it hinge up and down. Lots to think about.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff.

This was our monthly meeting and work night. The turnout at the east end of Wellington was replaced. For some reason it was causing shorts as engines went through it. A new turnout was installed at Lincoln to service the lumber yard. More scenery was added at Northdale. The other problem addressed was a joint on the mainline curve around Lincoln. There had been a an expansion problem there causing the track to go out of gauge. Track nails and glue were used to secure it, hope this works. Jim brought up an interesting idea. He thought we could have switchers stationed at some of the towns like Lincoln. The freight going through this town would just drop off and pickup, the switcher would do all the switching. With the card system we now use, the first freight would leave the deliver and pickup cards for that town and the deliver cars, but would not pickup any cars. After that, the next freight would both pickup and deliver cars. This has the added benefit of putting more operators to work.  All in all a good night, thanks to all.

working on the mainline and new turnout for the lumber yard

ballasting the siding to the lumber yard

ballasting the replacement turnout in Wellington