Ever closer. About 4 more turnouts to adjust, and clean up one clearance issue and I think we're there. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
Scott has indeed done a great job on it Mike - but I'm afraid that's not an SD70M.... it's an SD70ACe. The real life loco was #1 of UP's intial order and built in Jan 2005. It was looking that bad in 2020, but recent photos show it looking a lot cleaner so someone must've given it a good wash since then.
Lots of work last night, but most of it was tweaking tortoises and staging trains. Rey and Wain worked very hard all night improving 4 turnouts, including all 3 of the shinohara wye turnouts over South Seattle Yard. I wish I had taken a picture of the gerry-rigged set up Rey used to hold the rail in place while the glue dried. Oh well. Meanwhile Doug and Scott staged trains. Here BNSF 5088, an SD40-2, holds the main awaiting clearance to head up the helix. Meanwhile, on Seattle Yard track 2, a cut of Boeing cars awaits power to proceed to Renton. 5088 is waiting for the Maple Valley turn, it just exited the helix and is ferrying a cut of empty oil cars to the Maple Valley transload facility. As for me, I pulled out the three 75ft flats that I have in my backlog. They will be converted to 737 carriers over the next couple of weeks. Well that's it for now. Thanks for checking in. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
Playing a little catch-up on our posts. As most of your know, we've been hard at getting the layout into operating mode. That included tweaking turnouts and areas that might present encroachment issues. Ed was pressed into duty to create more clearance at the track detector, when a plow decided to get stuck. It's all better now, it will just need to get more scenery. Rey completed adjustment of all 3 turnouts at Black River Junction. Wain did some maintenance on the route processor and master control board for South Seattle Yard. Doug added some scenery behind the RGW headquarters. Prior to this work it was just a simple divider of Masonite, painted gray. From lame to good looking. As for me, I've been familiarizing myself with two new products, first JMRI and second DCC++EX. I set up shop on my workbench, loading up numerous locomotives and starting the speed matching process. After completing a loco, it's placed on the mainline. The dcc++ex is run through an arduino uno and a DM motor shield. The combination works fabulous; once you complete the upload and there are several online boards full of designers to help you navigate any issues. For example, they let me know from this picture that my track feeders needed to be moved to "B" or the system wouldn't communicate with the program track. They also told me the current version of the software made the jumpers (black and white wires) irrelevant, so they could be removed. Very helpful! I have 40 locos in the system, many more to go. Better get back to it... Until next time, thanks for checking in. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
After several work sessions performing much the same tasks as our last post, tonight, Rey and I worked together to solve the remaining turnout issues. I can report we returned the final five to excellent working condition. Another project was the decision to do away with the programming track near the Renton turntable. With our move to JMRI, there was no reason to have a duplicate set up. Following on that decision, it was becoming a problem having the laptop on the desk all the time. The solution was to move the computer to the area closest to the Renton turntable and purchase a movable cart to house the laptop, program track and DCC++ Arduino. The table swings open so you can set up and program the locomotives. Once done, you fold it back up and slide it under the layout. It's handy. On a completely different subject, with all the locomotives on the layout and operational; several of them sound equipped, the Lenz LV100 we were using started to overheat and shut off. Our research found that Lenz recommended splitting your layout in half and adding a second LV100 to balance out the power drain. This required a second power supply. After much consideration we decided to scrap the current power set up and purchase two new Meanwell LRS-100-15's. This is a variable output power supply (15-18V). This works perfectly for our set up, as Lenz advises not less than 16V but absolutely no more than 18V to power the LV100. Once we had removed the old program/main switch, we replaced it with the 2 new ps's. As you can see from above, we rearranged the setup with the 2 LV100s sitting side by side under the LZ100 (the dcc brain) and we cut the busbars in half to split the layout in two. Once this was fully active, Rey and I spent time dialing in the voltage to assure we had 13.5V to the rails. Then we ran several locomotives to ensure they operated correctly. That was a rewarding experience. We left the layout on for an hour and a half and none of the components was even warm. A big win. That's it for now. Most of our guys are on trips, so no telling when we will be back to full strength. Thanks for checking in. Here is a data sheet on the power supply we bought. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
@RGW, Been following your layout for more than a year and enjoying tremendously. Just found a photo of Boeing 757 46 section and the switcher used in Tulsa OK. Rockwell International south end of Building 1 around 1979 to 1982. RI became Boeing in December 1996 which changed to Spirit Airo Systems about 2005. The locomotive has been assigned to Building 1 since 1941 when the original occupant was Douglas and in 1963 North American Aviation. City of Tulsa actually owens the property on airport and surrounding area, they leased it to all five companies for one dollar per year. I thought you might find it interesting because we shipped the 43 and 46 sections of 757 to Renton WA. Joe
Great post Joe. Love the photo and the background story behind ìt. Thank you for being a part of our success. M The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
Last night was a short one with family in town, but still managed to get a few things done on the workbench; specifically decoder installs. Here is an SD60M with new ESU sound decoder and apple speaker. Also completed the speaker install for this BNSF Dash 9. Final install of the evening ended when after opening up this KCS SD70ACe and removing the dummy plug, I realized I didn't have a 9-pin replacement. Finished the evening surfing Yankee Dabbler for more dcc parts, especially 9-pin decoders. Rey started the evening working on isolating a frog on a pesky old #4 switch. He was dropping feeders in Maple Valley by night's end. Doug continued work on his burgeoning forest. Funny though, there's no foliage. Must have left his green thumb in Albuquerque. He was also adding deadfall to accentuate our trackside scenery. That's it for now, thanks for checking in. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
All of that downed timber reminds me of Washington wind storms. Columbus Day (1962); Inauguration Day (1993); and many more.......
Spent some time this afternoon building Walthers 75ft flats. These will eventually be part of our 737 carrier fleet. They are an easy build, but they require a substantial amount of modification to work as intended. We take everything above the side frame off and sand the deck as smooth as possible. Later we'll add a styrene deck top. The sill and underframe are modified as well. We remove some of the ribbing at each end and then cut some of the railing short. This will accommodate the swing of the trucks when in motion. I was able to get 3 completed before calling it a night. Tomorrow I will start the painting process by giving the cars a dose of primer. That's all for now, thanks for checking in. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
Our work crew was pretty Spartan last night, with just Wain and me. Wain was putting the finishing touches on the Renton Yard RIP shed. He's going to submit it for NMRA AP points toward his MMR. Unfortunately for all of us, he will be leaving after next week, he's moving to Florida and we wish him well. I worked some more on JMRI, tuning a couple of new locomotives. This was my first use of the new movable desk set up. Once done it folds up and we can push it under the layout. Nice product. Earlier in the evening I put the last coat of primer on the 737 carriers. Next I'll paint the car oxide red and begin to put it all back together. In a little train action from last night, BNSF H-VBTVAW Priority Manifest, Vancouver BC Canada (Thornton Yard) to Vancouver, WA led by CP 8642, makes its way through Black River Junction on its way south. Meanwhile, UP C-WEBD, coal empties from the Schahfer power plant in Wheatfield, IN has just pulled into Black Diamond with UP1995 on the head end. And UP 8309 as distributed power. Well, that was it for last night. Next week we hope to have everyone back as we bid farewell to our friend. Thanks for checking in. The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
In December of 2006 I asked a local model railroad buddy to come by my house and help me place the first section of the new Rainier Great Western. That buddy was Wain Miller. It took us a few hours to orient the first section, salvaged from the original RGW, but once we were done, we were down right impressed with ourselves. Fifteen years later and hundreds of hours hanging out in the train room, it was time to say, until we meet again and bon voyage. I wish my friend a long life and much happiness. As a tribute, we will rename the RGW rip shed the "Wain". That's all I have for now, Merry Christmas everyone. M The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
Thanks to an impromptu day off with the snow, I took advantage to head out to the train room and continue my Boeing 737 cars. Here's where we left off a couple of weeks ago. Cars built and modified, first coat of primer applied. Today I added .015 styrene to simulate the steel plate on the deck. Then weighed it down as the glue set. While that cured, I turned my attention to the idler cars. I start with E&C Shops Boeing cars. These are rare and expensive, but, they have all the profiles needed and they sold this 747 version, which does not fit my prototype. I start by marking out the cut lines. Once done, I proceed to use a Zona hacksaw to cut proud of the lines. Next I use nippers to get as close to the cut lines as possible. Sanding is next, using a stationary sanding block and 120/220/330 sanding sticks. Here you can see the before and after: The last step before adding more .015 styrene to seal up the car, is to add a filler strip to assure the car stays square. It also provides a gluing surface for the front sheet of styrene. After cutting templates for both the upper and lower sections of the car front, I cut out several pieces for these cars and future ones as well. I cut them proud of the lines and then use a #10 blade and sanding sticks to get the fronts to fit the car. Now they're all ready for the paint booth. That's it for now. Thanks for checking in. M The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
