They appear to be wired the same way as the Peco ST-5 and 6s maybe but with a 2nd look probably not. However the Jouefs have a larger plastic frog area than the Pecos. 100_5349-2 by John Moore posted Mar 15, 2018 at 3:36 PM 100_5348-1 by John Moore posted Mar 15, 2018 at 3:36 PM Photos of both side by side.The Pecos wiring is in the center of the frog and since it is silver doesn't show up too well. Also the wiring is different material than the Pecos which looks like stainless steel while the Jouefs look to be copper which has not held up well over time.
Finished reworking the Macie Moly Mine trackage. I ripped it all out up to the tunnel, then replaced the Atlas #6 with a Peco short Wye that seemed to get better alignment off the flex coming from the tunnel. Then I re-engineered the track all the way back replacing the turnouts there at the crossover there with two Peco ST-6s. The angles of departure coming off the legs of the wye was handled by several short half sections of 11 inch radius. Coming out of the tunnel the track veers around the outcropping of rock before taking a straight run to the mine. Now I have working turnouts again and a nice smooth flowing track that should be able to hold my twenty plus ore cars. 100_5350-8 by John Moore posted Mar 15, 2018 at 8:34 PM
With the turnouts replaced at the mine and the track restored I am pretty much at a standstill waiting on orders to get here. The outfit west of Baltimore is getting slower on the order filling. Then the USPS seems to have a heck of a time getting it down the 200 miles or so to me. And order that was supposed to arrive yesterday has finally left Richmond Virginia and is supposed to finally get delivered today. So hopefully I will be able to pour water again tomorrow and the incoming scenic material will allow me to finish the mine area. The new Peco turnouts I ordered most likely won't get here until sometime next week and I really want to get that area done before I start on the canyon line in front of that.
Well finally the post arrived with my scenic supplies. Whohoo can get back to work. 100_5352-1 by John Moore posted Mar 16, 2018 at 5:07 PM The small containers are my mix of talus and cinders that if shaken up good give me a talus close to the rocks in color rather than white. 100_5353-2 by John Moore posted Mar 16, 2018 at 5:07 PM The other containers on the right are my red rocks for scorio ballast and my own blended turf that is a mix of yellow and greens for late summer/fall grass. Have enough materials now to handle the part two and if I finally get my turnouts in I will finally be set. Now If I can just get the pharmacy and the doctor's office to communicate in a timely manner maybe by tomorrow I can have my meds.
John, I enjoy reading your posts because they come really close to home...happily. However, there are times, this evening's being one, where you sound just like a Gov't Program Mgr. bemoaning his private industry subs. Please take no offense, I was a "Sub" for nearly 50 years and loved every minute of it. My Gov't PM and I went back before Pontius was a Pilate, and loved to harass each other.
Maybe it is a sign of the times or the new normal I don't know. But my orders used to get processed in 24 hours and consigned to shipping. Then I would get the order within two days. I have ordered direct from Japan before and pretty much could again and the order from Japan would get here in the same time it is taking now. I just had to drag my butt down to the post office to pick it up for whatever strange reason. The Japanese order would hit LA and go into our postal system from Japan Post, and then go to New York and finally to my local post office in less time than it is taking to get the parcel from Maryland to here today. Not sure but maybe the order processor is just a part timer now, and I have no explanation on the postal routing or delay. Maybe they need to seriously consider putting RPOs back and on Amtrac. It pretty much would be in the Tidewater area in less than 24 hours, and a postal truck would have it across the Coleman Bridge and here in an hour. New and improved isn't necessarily improved just new like the lousy E-mail system that Cox Cable just went to. Either that or I am rapidly turning into a grumpy old man.
This morning freshly stocked with supplies I made another pour in the big Beaver pond and the big stream. About 30 minute ago I looked at it and found a new hole opened up by the heat of the curing. However this time I did not lose any water, YET. And as I suspected the problem is around the culvert under the tracks. So in about three more hours, or whenever it is set solid enough I will use the water effects as a plug since it has been effective as cofferdams on the stream. About two hours after that I will make another small pour or two and see if I can bring it up to where I want the level. I found my windmill kit on the first try last night, amazing. It is a Doktor D's Kit, which from my research on the web is no longer in business. However Woodland Scenic's make both an assembled and un-assembled kit if I mess this assembly up, and I am already fighting with it. Resin cast with a lot of flash around the delicate areas. Going to locate it by the Brewery as their water source. 100_5355-1 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 11:30 AM
Well over four hours later I am still trying to take this pig's ear of a kit and make a silk purse. Extremely fragile in fact resin casting is probably not the desirable material for this kit. I am having to reverse engineer the entire thing almost dipping into my stock of styrene. 100_5357-4 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 3:08 PM On the other hand my stock of Water Effects is curing nicely for the falls and rapids. 100_5356-3 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 3:08 PM For whatever reason, maybe humidity, my water pour should have been set up enough for a 2nd pour an hour ago and isn't set enough yet. 100_5358-5 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 3:19 PM One more pour in each pond should bring me to the levels I want. The white on the left of the culvert is the water effects plug of an area where I will have a leak when I do the last pour. It is set up enough to hold the water just waiting for the slow curing water to get set enough to do the pour which should take it up to the top of the dam..
Did my 2nd pours in the ponds this afternoon and then about 2 hrs later I set the Beaver lodges in place. Another small pour will be done in the large pond tomorrow and another pour in the streams and that will have it except for putting in the falls. The Beavers get installed with either some Water Effects or gloss Modge Podge along with a few branches. Then when all the water is fully dried I will apply another layer of scenic material. 100_5359-6 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 9:30 PM Fought with that windmill kit all day and have come to the conclusion that I would have been better off buying a Woodland Scenics windmill already assembled. Still far from done but here is where I have got to. 100_5361-7 by John Moore posted Mar 17, 2018 at 9:30 PM It is going in between the ponds and the brewery.
Incomplete or defective resin castings, no rhyme or reason to how the windmill blades attach, or something was missing. And extreme fragility of some parts due to their thinness. Thin resin can be unforgiving when it is so brittle. Was a kit I got out of a consignment box at a Greenberg's show many years ago and they are no longer in business or still around. There are a few of the resin kits by the same guy still out there for sale and my advice would be to stay away from buying one. The Woodland Scenic's, either built up or in kit form, would be a better buy. I only got it together because of a good supply of styrene shapes and an extensive parts box that has something of everything in it. Here it is on the layout but not sure if it is going here or back by the grain silos. 100_5364-6 by John Moore posted Mar 18, 2018 at 1:46 PM I did my last water pours late this morning and am test fitting one of the mini bridges back where the stream comes under the mainline in a culvert. One can just see where the road is coming from near the sheep herders camp up to it. Now that I have the material for my dirt roads I can get busy putting them in and then do a final coat of coarse and fine grass and the white specks will be gone. My turnout order still hasn't been processed yet and it could be caught in a backlog caused by the Noreaster, so the mainline on the plateau still is tore up awaiting a new turnout.
Since this version of the Turtle Creek is going to have far more grade crossings on it I got to wondering if I could make my own. I still have some Blair Line wood crossings left over and their sharpest curvature is not sharp enough for me since they only make a 9.75 as the sharpest and I need 8.0. I know from the Blair Line product that I need to be at or slightly under 3/64 ths of an inch thick. So I went digging in the parts boxes for some wood I knew I had and got lucky to have found a thin piece I can get three strips of ten inches long by 14/64 th inch wide for inside the tracks. And I have enough scale lumber stripwood to do outside the tracks. So tonight I have been setting at the workbench cutting my strips and sanding to make sure the measurements are right. I have scribed boardlines into one piece using an Exacto saw blade and then applied a wash of India Ink in alcohol to it. 100_5367-8 by John Moore posted Mar 18, 2018 at 7:20 PM Next is to figure out how to get some 8 inch radius sections out of the remaining wood. A late add on/edit. Solved my problem when I found my new compass which opens 8 inches and used it to scribe my curvature in the wood.
Today I manged to get some of the roads in and then turned my attention to the combo rail/auto bridge and five grade crossings. I have about 4 more to install and finish some I have already installed. 100_5368-2 by John Moore posted Mar 19, 2018 at 5:11 PM 100_5372-1 by John Moore posted Mar 19, 2018 at 5:11 PM Once the glue is set by tomorrow I will sand a little and then feather the scenic earth material up to the edges. Hope to get the rest of what I installed earlier. Once I have sanded those that might need it then I will apply India Ink in an alcohol solution to it. So far I have used a lot of my custom cut and sanded wood strips and a lot of the Blair Line crossings.
A "combo rail/auto" bridge is something rarely modeled. Especially with all of the "modern" era done today....
Something never found on a well used mainline but a old branch line with light traffic use saw use back in the 1900s. There were two bridges One at Fairview and one at Snowden Montana and both were lift bridges. The one at Fairview also had the tunnel at the North Dakota end used by cars and trains. And I have driven across that bridge when it was in rail and auto traffic. See the link below and one can google the Fairview bridge and see the tunnel at the end that was also shared with cars. Somewhere there is a prototype for everything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowden_Bridge
I couldn't find a picture, but Wisconsin Dells had a Milwaukee Road bridge with rails on top and road through the truss at least through the 60's. Very narrow and tight turns at the ends slowed vehicle traffic to a crawl!
Today I am working again with some Silflor pads, taking the brown ones and applying both fine and clump foliage with spray adhesive to it. I used some of the green pads with strips cut from them around the ponds to one side previously. 100_5376-1 by John Moore posted Mar 20, 2018 at 10:02 AM They are going to be used in strips around the back area. Last night I applied some clump foliage around the pond area. The white specks are from the camera flash off the tree stumps that are supposed to be showing grays and browns. 100_5378-2 by John Moore posted Mar 20, 2018 at 10:02 AM So as this next Noreaster gets wound up over me today I am inside dry, and warm, and retired, feeling for the folks who have to go to work in this mess.
