Got Spine? I thought pix of these beauties would be all over tonight. Here's a closer shot: Major kudos to Craig Martyn for a spectacular car. Can the new reefers equal them?
Holly smokes Jim. Two things: 1. How on earth did you assemble and install all of those 5th wheels and not go insane. (after my measly 5 I was pulling my hair out) 2. Now we know where the bulk of the orders went… ;~) Looks awesome. Thanks for posting.
Ah! Remember, grasshopper, I have built many MLE hitches. These were nothing in comparison...I dunno, took maybe an hour. They go pretty quickly once you get into the swing. The post from Mike Fifer over on Atlas was a help so I could at least see HOW they were to go...although by that time I had them done my way! And I got only four - the rest are NSKs that I've had for some time (with MLE hitches). If you want to be humbled, build some MLEs...
No way! You can’t sucker in this grasshopper. Just seeing pictures of those MLE ones with the several 90 degree bent pins and multiple folds for an item that is barely 1.5 cm long is enough!
Prepping For The Spines I've had a nagging problem in the outbound switches of the staging area. A switch was very slightly misgauged - there was never a problem with any of the plastic wheelsets, but when I began the switch to metal using the excellent FVM wheels, I noted a problem wherein every so often a truck would drop between the rails. I isolated this to the aforementioned switch, but since there was scenery close overhead I elected to go with the FVM wide tread wheels instead. These posed no issues with the switch. Knowing the new spine cars would have wheels if anything even tighter than the FVMs, I figured it was time to do something. I purchased a couple pair of BLMA's excellent 70 ton RB trucks for testing purposes. Sure enough, they dropped between the rails. The trauma of cutting an access hole through my scenery was short lived when it took about a half minute with a hot soldering iron to fix the problem. Now the trucks and the cars on which they were mounted glided through the problem area. I decided to run the train with the modified cars around the layout to see what else might lie in wait - and sure enough, there was a spot on a curve (hidden, of course) where they'd derail every time. Up close examination showed again, the wheels dropping between the rails. But wait! This wasn't on a custom switch - this was a piece of ME wood tie flex! About the first six inches of the stick was wide in gauge. ME flex! Whoa. I replaced the stick and that took care of the problem. Although hidden, it was fairly easy to do. The cars the went around the layout with no problems whatever. And on the happy day of the arrival of the spine cars, I was very gratified to find they ran over the former problem areas flawlessly. Now, that's not to say there weren't problems - I needed to open up the mounting hole on several trucks on the spine cars so the truck would have the necessary flexing to run properly, and there were two areas I needed to attack with a file to ensure good running. But these were minor issues, and I'm happy to report the spines run as well as they look! Just another day at Oakville! Oh! And that access hole? I hot glued a couple cardboard strips to the underside of the scenery and was able to simply drop the cut portion back in, disguise the crack with foliage (it's pretty heavy in the area anyway) and now have a removable hatch just in case there are future problems.
Always inspired and amazed Jim! Nice talk about hunting down track demons. Far too many times folks want to blame everything but the track, and many time it is really only about a section of track or a turnout. I know I have had a track demon or two. It is always best to continually test your layout because new, finer scale cars will find the problems. And as an FYI to the folks that are relatively new, the car weight can also have an effect on running quality. In many cases box cars and older inter-modal cars are too light to run without containers. Jim is great for bringing out these ideas on running, track cars, wheels and turnouts. Again, well done!
Thanks, David! I figure it never hurts and maybe somebody will be helped. Good point on the weight issue. A couple brands of well cars are so light as to be virtually useless without major weight in the container. And when I run trains, they WILL run flawlessly. Or I will work on it until they do! I still have a couple of sets of couplers with issues. They will stay together for weeks at a time and then separate at random. Sooner or later I'll get them.
When it comes to track demons / issues; I use Atlas code 55 and have for the most part had no issues, however I did find a problem with 2 # 5 turnouts. The point rails were not made correctly and were causing some derailments, I was able to fix one but ended up replacing the other one. These are the only issues I have had in the 6 years that I have been using Atlas code 55 track.
Sure. The issue was on the side away from the points; in the tangent section. The last cross bar was SLIGHTLY wide in gauge. In all previous testing it had not had a problem, but as soon as those narrow tread wheels got involved, that was all she wrote. I probably moved it no more than 1/64" to get it perfect. Now, I can understand this happening with a custom switch. Just one of many soldered spots, and it was so close it probably checked out with a casual gauging. What I DON'T understand was that piece of flex. Why haven't I found more? It's possible this was from ten year old stock; could have come from the original Oakville, I recycled a lot of track. There was absolutely no way to tell that six inch part was different from any other part of the stick. If it was a manufacturing problem I'd for sure have seen it elsewhere. Is a puzzlement!
With all of the heavy traffic on the sub lately, I think you need to have a word with the maintenance foreman... I'm living vicariously through your layout Jim until I can settle in one place after I retire and only hope to achieve the level you have in such a short time... awesome work as usual. Brian
Thanks, Brian! Be safe! The maintenance folks are relaxing now that their work is done for a while...
....but remain on call at all times. I love your layout and the fact that it is in a climate controlled space. With a garage layout my maintenance guys (me, myself, and I) feel like the train master is downright abusive. We have nightmares of the phone sounding off and sometimes wake thinking it is when it isn't. Jim, I am also a big fan and even though I prefer some switching and love those assignments to stretch my legs on the mainline is just golden too.
Signal fun! After many starts and stops due to honeydos, I finally managed to get another four signals installed, this time in the main room: Here's a shot from the other end; we might call this an "over the shoulder" shot: Finally an obligatory spine car shot - I say obligatory because it'd be a real shame not to run these beauties:
Jim, Those signals sure look great! And, I love how your work crews make it into the photos for any installations. It is a good thing they work quicker than the UP crews around here. They've been changing out all the old SP signals for UP ones (like yours). At the signal on the tracks about half mile from our house, first they laid the signals next to the tracks. About 3 weeks later, they came and poured the bases, and put the masts up, 90 degrees off (so signals were not pointing towards the line). Then about 4 weeks later they came and turned the signals to face down the tracks and removed the SP signals.
I figure I'm gonna get them all made and in position and then figure out how to drive them - and then there's the detection angle. I know I'll need detector boards and then signal driver boards. Thinking of the Digitrax BDL 168 for detection, and it's between CML's SIGM20 and Team Digital's SIC24AD....I'm leaning toward the CML because it's programmable with Windows... And of course the detection will require major rewiring but the way I'm set up this will be the easier part. I'll be busy for a while yet. Out of curiosity, what are you using, Daryl?
