Sunday Photo Fun 9-3-2023

[Funnelfan]

Been working on improving a pair of Athearn RTR SD45's this weekend. The first was a MPI leaser SD45M that had a bad vibration and whine that I traced to a rear worm gear. I didn't see the issuing causing it, but replacing it solved the issues. I fixed a few details and added a capacitor pack to that non-sound loco. Now I've been working on this SP SD45R #7556 that I've photographed on both the SP and the MRL that later became MRL #327.

1. Cutting down part of a Athearn RTR SD45 frame to make room for a capacitor pack. Second one of these that I've done in the past 24 hours. I use a 2" fiberglass reinforced cut-off disk in a Dremel tool. My 3 decade old Dremel is getting awfully tired though. It rattles a lot and there is noticeable movement in the shaft.

2. Each time I make one of these keep alive packs, I try to make them more compact. The one on the right is my latest one. It measures 1"x0.6"x0.5". Should be getting some ultra capacitors soon that come in a smaller package. I think I might be able to shrink the overall size to 0.8"x0.5"x0.4" with the new capacitors. There is a lot of life in 5 farads worth of capacitance.

3. Gluing the capacitor pack at a angle so that it stays away from the driveline and behind the cab. Need to order a scale sound systems speaker to replace this factory one.Funny thing about trying to figure out where to make the connections on the Tsunami decoder Athearn RTR Rev B. Based on my recent experience with a factory Tsunami in a Athearn Genesis GP9 where you have to make connections on the board itself, not the tabs on the side. I spent over an hour online searching for where to make the connections on this particular board but got nowhere. Then I was comparing the traces on the two similar but quite different decoders, trying to figure out where to make the ground connection for my home made Current Keeper. All along I was missing the two tabs clearly marked "CK" and "GND". Probably should have gone to bed before wasting all that time.

[hudsonyard]

After a couple months of no "away games" it was time to get off the island for a bit and take a ride on the Reading:

[packer]

I finished this caboose. Perhaps just for now




Also learned some lessons on this one:

1: I should just airbrush for most of it. The part under the eaves of the roofwalk are fragile and tend to fly off to Narnia if the end cages are removed.
2: Also taco sauce and enamel thinner tend to mess with my masking tape. Got some gunk around the windows.
3: Replace the light pipes with SMDs with an LED behind the lens (requires removing end cages)
4: Maybe pop out the windows instead of masking? They pop out from the inside at the ends and pop in on the sides. Also might wanna remove the sliding coupla windows and adjust them so they aren't soo tight.

[csxt8400]

Gathered some of my in progress SBD cars for a late evening photo shoot last week. Chicago Link Decals for the patch lettering, including the furthest from lens hopper with the solid lettering style. The stand in 4600 is helped along by Kohlberg COTS and ACI plates.

[dti406]

Here is what I got done this week.

First is another Stewart G39 kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Middle Division decals. The PRR built these cars to replace using their coal hoppers in iron ore service and with the sealed bottoms less loss of product through the hopper doors.



Next a Proto 2000 50' Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II ATSF Mineral Brown paint and lettered with Microscale decals. Here is both sides of the car as they were different, used in general service.





Finally, a modified 40' Trailer, painted with Scalecoat II White and Silver Paints and lettered with Highball Graphics Decals, I was trying to do more trailers in other than railroad lettering.



Finally, a pair of Scaletrains C39-8 engines hauling a general freight, notice the two new Scaletrains PS 5820CF Covered Hoppers among a couple of Rapido Procor Covered Hoppers all in plastic pellet service. While in front one of my club members RS-1's is switching industries in Thurd on the Strongsville club layout.



Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

[tom]

Here is a photo of my Tangent Penn Central H51 covered hopper. Only modification I did was to replace the normal wheelsets with Tangent near scale wheels and added consolidated lube plates. The shade of gray was too dark for me especially for a car that was in service for a couple of years. I faded it with a very dilute white that I sprayed on. After lightening the car to my liking I then then wiped of the fade on the black lettering since this did not fade much. I did this by cleaning off the fade using isopropyl alcohol and microbrushed.

[Funnelfan]

Literally have spent all day and night unboxing and prepping for service a huge fleet of SP/Golden West/ DRGW freightcars, and this isn't all of it. A lot of this is newer better detailed equipment meant to replace a bunch of older cars from MDC, Athearn, E&C Shops. Some of this has ran before, most of it has not. Prepping is fairly involved work, marking cars, painting wheels, checking gauge, truck rotation and wobble (A-end tight but free to swing, B-end loose), checking weight, and for any leaning of carbody, replacing non-kadee couplers with kadee coupler. Checking couple operation and centering, and checking coupler and trip pin height as the last step after everything else.
But I always find other issues to fix like loose weights, broken or loose details, or coupler height issues requiring a structural fix. For instance, these Intermountain FMC-Gunderson double door boxcars in the front row had a truck-bolster interface issue that I hadn't caught before. The truck won't fit around the collar on the bolster making the coupler height too high. The first car I shaved the collar off, then used kadee washers to get the coupler height dialed in. On the other 7 cars of that type, I drilled out the bolster hole with a 1/8th inch bit and then reemed the hole by spinning an xacto knife in it. Once the hole was big enough the truck would sit down around the collar. Each car had to be checked on each end to dial in the coupler height.
Lots more work to do. Really need to get a weathering system figured out for these SP cars that is easy to do so I can do something like a production line and get this fleet weathered. Many of the cars they are replacing have been weathered.
Been meaning to get this done since after I moved to Oregon so I can start running some decent SP freights.

[nstophat]

And so, it begins... I am standing in what will be the helix coming up from west staging (Yuma, VA) into Appalachia, VA at St. Charles, Jct. The St. Charles Branch will cut off to the left of the near column, while the mainline continues east along the wall, which is where the Westmoreland Coal Prep plant will be. The mainline will take a 30 degree turn to the left of the far column run through downtown Appalachia and then a 60 degree left turn and follow the grade up the old Interstate RR (Track Warrant) to Norton, VA where it will turn into the N&W (CTC) and continue east to Coeburn and down grade to St. Paul, VA, which will be immediately to my right and directly into east end of staging (Boody, VA -> Bluefield, VA). Track grades will follow prototype grade, just not as long, per NS Track Charts. There will be ~150 of scenic mainline, plus ~125 lf of mainline through staging, for ~275 lf of continuous mainline running. The St. Charles Branch will be double decked and will have ~135 lf of trackage between the two levels. Benchwork is from Sevier's in Wisc. In this area the benchwork for both levels will be 30" deep, with a minimum of 26" deep throughout staging as each sub yard will have 8 tracks plus the east and west bound mainlines.


20230905_221728 by Russ Goodwin, on Flickr

[riogrande]

Sievers benchwork? (all the predrilled holes)

[nstophat]

Sept 6, 2023 10:55:59 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Sievers benchwork? (all the predrilled holes)

Yes, I have been trying to insert images properly and then lost text, URGGGHHH!

[nstophat]

20230716_174737 by Russ Goodwin, on Flickr
link20230716_161346 by Russ Goodwin, on Flickr


PGNX #1180 is a Rapido JA/FCA AutoFlood III for Progress Energy. These were numbered in 120 car sets, with 10 sets be originally purchased by Progress Energy for the old CP&L plants. While the NS #850895 is a Prairie Shadows Trenton Works 5250, which was originally built for UMP / Pool. NS leased 5 different classes of Trenton 5250's the rest of which were leased from FURX during the early 2010's. These cars have been returned from their lease at this point in time.

[riogrande]

Sept 6, 2023 11:16:32 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Sept 6, 2023 10:55:59 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Sievers benchwork? (all the predrilled holes)

Yes, I have been trying to insert images properly and then lost text, URGGGHHH!

Ah so it is. You went with prefab benchwork and I went with a prefab helix - 34" radius.

Tangent HO PS-1 40' Mini Hy Cube Box Car 18015-04 CB&Q Chinese Red 11-67 #19869





What radius is your helix planned to be?

Judging by the linear distance for you lines, you must have a pretty generous space!

[nstophat]

Sept 6, 2023 13:07:36 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Sept 6, 2023 11:16:32 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Yes, I have been trying to insert images properly and then lost text, URGGGHHH!

Ah so it is. You went with prefab benchwork and I went with a prefab helix - 34" radius.

Tangent HO PS-1 40' Mini Hy Cube Box Car 18015-04 CB&Q Chinese Red 11-67 #19869





What radius is your helix planned to be?

Judging by the linear distance for you lines, you must have a pretty generous space!

The helix will be double track. Targeting 34" & 36" radius respectively. Is your helix foam core with the interlocking sides? I've seen someone who makes it, maybe same company as to where you got yours. Do you like it? It seems easy to assemble.

[hudsonyard]

Sept 6, 2023 10:34:55 GMT -8 nstophat said:

And so, it begins... I am standing in what will be the helix coming up from west staging (Yuma, VA) into Appalachia, VA at St. Charles, Jct. The St. Charles Branch will cut off to the left of the near column, while the mainline continues east along the wall, which is where the Westmoreland Coal Prep plant will be. The mainline will take a 30 degree turn to the left of the far column run through downtown Appalachia and then a 60 degree left turn and follow the grade up the old Interstate RR (Track Warrant) to Norton, VA where it will turn into the N&W (CTC) and continue east to Coeburn and down grade to St. Paul, VA, which will be immediately to my right and directly into east end of staging (Boody, VA -> Bluefield, VA). Track grades will follow prototype grade, just not as long, per NS Track Charts. There will be ~150 of scenic mainline, plus ~125 lf of mainline through staging, for ~275 lf of continuous mainline running. The St. Charles Branch will be double decked and will have ~135 lf of trackage between the two levels. Benchwork is from Sevier's in Wisc. In this area the benchwork for both levels will be 30" deep, with a minimum of 26" deep throughout staging as each sub yard will have 8 tracks plus the east and west bound mainlines.

that's gonna be one neat railroad! I stayed at a hotel in downtown st. paul back in july, looking down on both the CRR and NW mains. NS was surprisingly busy.

[sd40dash2]

Sept 3, 2023 13:17:13 GMT -8 csxt8400 said:

...in progress SBD cars....

The weathering on the trucks and couplers looks great. Thanks for sharing.

[riogrande]

Sept 6, 2023 14:17:18 GMT -8 nstophat said:

The helix will be double track. Targeting 34" & 36" radius respectively. Is your helix foam core with the interlocking sides? I've seen someone who makes it, maybe same company as to where you got yours. Do you like it? It seems easy to assemble.

Yes, the vender at Trackside Scenery calls it Gator Board - guessing its similar or same. I decided to go with this prefab helix due to time constraints (limited hobby time) but another advantage is the thinness allows for a more gentle grade at a given radius. I went with the extended risers which have a little more head room but still maintains a relatively gentle grade of 1.73%. My max grade on the layout is 1.8% on the section coming out of staging and the mainline is a nolix going up grade 10.5 inches over the staging yard.

I first built it with risers at each deck section joint but felt it needed a second set to make it more stable and rigid. Here it is with only 12 sets of risers:



Now that I've got it built with 24 sets, it seems pretty stable and rigid now. The largest Joey offers is 36" radius, I drafted up my track plan with 34". He offers both single and double track versions.

I saw these helixes demonstrated at the Timonium show but it was mainly demonstrating how small radius helixes could operate reliably - he also has the video's showing it passenger trains with long cars operating on a sharp radius helix. I wanted a larger radius helix and in the larger sizes it benefits from more risers. Probably the smaller radius helixes are fine with 12 sets of risers.

[nstophat]

Sept 7, 2023 7:54:54 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Sept 6, 2023 14:17:18 GMT -8 nstophat said:

The helix will be double track. Targeting 34" & 36" radius respectively. Is your helix foam core with the interlocking sides? I've seen someone who makes it, maybe same company as to where you got yours. Do you like it? It seems easy to assemble.

Yes, the vender at Trackside Scenery calls it Gator Board - guessing its similar or same. I decided to go with this prefab helix due to time constraints (limited hobby time) but another advantage is the thinness allows for a more gentle grade at a given radius. I went with the extended risers which have a little more head room but still maintains a relatively gentle grade of 1.73%. My max grade on the layout is 1.8% on the section coming out of staging and the mainline is a nolix going up grade 10.5 inches over the staging yard.

I first built it with risers at each deck section joint but felt it needed a second set to make it more stable and rigid. Here it is with only 12 sets of risers:



Now that I've got it built with 24 sets, it seems pretty stable and rigid now. The largest Joey offers is 36" radius, I drafted up my track plan with 34". He offers both single and double track versions.

I saw these helixes demonstrated at the Timonium show but it was mainly demonstrating how small radius helixes could operate reliably - he also has the video's showing it passenger trains with long cars operating on a sharp radius helix. I wanted a larger radius helix and in the larger sizes it benefits from more risers. Probably the smaller radius helixes are fine with 12 sets of risers.

Excellent, upon looking at it on my desktop last night as opposed to my cell, that is the same system I saw online and am probably going to use. The longest cars that I will be running are 54', so a 34" outside radius should work for me, plus the 1.8% grade is right at what I was figuring to begin with on the helix, and I have ~12" of separation at the top of the railhead. Did you use 4 - 2'x4' module frames as the base?

[riogrande]

Sept 7, 2023 15:24:44 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Excellent, upon looking at it on my desktop last night as opposed to my cell, that is the same system I saw online and am probably going to use. The longest cars that I will be running are 54', so a 34" outside radius should work for me, plus the 1.8% grade is right at what I was figuring to begin with on the helix, and I have ~12" of separation at the top of the railhead. Did you use 4 - 2'x4' module frames as the base?

Joey ran 85' passenger cars on a 22" radius helix as demonstrated in his video so 34"R should handle 54" cars with ease. Checking Trackside Scenery's website, the largest double track decks give 32" inside radius and 35" outside radius, with a 3" track spacing centerline to centerline. Joey used sectional track with a base but I chose to use Atlas code 100 flex track. Track can be glued down but I chose to use tiny screws and they just fit the molded in holes in the ties.

In order to fix the track I used a PIN vise to drill a tiny pilot hole in which the tiny screws could be screwed in easily, or removed easily if needed. I ordered a couple packages of the screws from a seller in the UK (Model railway track screws for oo / h0 track 12mm 00 gauge free P+P track pins) - perfect fit.



I soldered all joints but added feeders to every other joint.



I used solid doorbell wire sold at Lowes labeled in 100' rolls for feeders.

[nstophat]

Sept 8, 2023 2:54:45 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Sept 7, 2023 15:24:44 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Excellent, upon looking at it on my desktop last night as opposed to my cell, that is the same system I saw online and am probably going to use. The longest cars that I will be running are 54', so a 34" outside radius should work for me, plus the 1.8% grade is right at what I was figuring to begin with on the helix, and I have ~12" of separation at the top of the railhead. Did you use 4 - 2'x4' module frames as the base?

Joey ran 85' passenger cars on a 22" radius helix as demonstrated in his video so 34"R should handle 54" cars with ease. Checking Trackside Scenery's website, the largest double track decks give 32" inside radius and 35" outside radius, with a 3" track spacing centerline to centerline. Joey used sectional track with a base but I chose to use Atlas code 100 flex track. Track can be glued down but I chose to use tiny screws and they just fit the molded in holes in the ties.

In order to fix the track I used a PIN vise to drill a tiny pilot hole in which the tiny screws could be screwed in easily, or removed easily if needed. I ordered a couple packages of the screws from a seller in the UK (Model railway track screws for oo / h0 track 12mm 00 gauge free P+P track pins) - perfect fit.



I soldered all joints but added feeders to every other joint.



I used solid doorbell wire sold at Lowes labeled in 100' rolls for feeders.

Jim:

Thanks for the info. That looks like the way I am going to go. The track spacing and radii will work for me.

Russ

[riogrande]

Sept 8, 2023 7:12:41 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Jim:

Thanks for the info. That looks like the way I am going to go. The track spacing and radii will work for me.

Russ

Glad to help.

I would recommend getting two pairs of risers for each joint of deck section. (each pack that can be ordered has 12 pieces, so minimum 24 are needed so you have a pair of risers for each joint. But on the larger helixes, I found an extra set of 24 made for a more rigid and stable structure; in that case you would need to order four packs of 12. And that is for a maximum of 4 levels up. If you need a helix that goes more than four levels, additional risers would be needed, probably double that.

He also offers two types of risers, standard and extended. The extended have a wider spacing between level at the cost of a slightly steeper grade. I think the difference for my 34"R helix was 1.67% grade for standard risers and 1.73% grade for the extended risers. One reason for the extended risers is so you can lay track what has a roadbed, if so desired. But it also gives a bit more headroom. I felt the small sacrifice in grade was worth the extra head room. And, it also increases the amount of rise in elevation there is with each turn of the helix. Joey's information table show how much rise you can get with each 360 degree turn so you can decide how many turns are needed. And you can get as many turns as needed right up to the ceiling, at an increasing cost of course! All of the data and tables are a great aid to planning and Joey really feeds us everything with a spoon!

The only "trick" there was in getting this helix up correctly was that you have to level it. You have to provide supports under each riser and each riser gets a different support with a different thickness. For that I had to come to the conclusion that the supports had to increase in thickness at the same grade rate as the actual grade of the helix. That means I had to put on paper the the amount of rise there would be for each support using the old Slope=rise/run. Then I had to fabricate supports at the needed thickness for all 24 supports. The below was my first round for the first 12. Then I went back and figure the thickness for the additional 12 which went in-between the original 12. By going with evenly spaced risers, that made it a bit easier to calculate the thickness of each support. If you go with Joey's spacing of 4 risers per joint, it would be a bit different.



If you look carefully you will see stacked blocks of wood with blue masking tape on them under each support:



I did need to make a slight offset so that the bottom entry would match up with the track coming out of staging, which is why there is a double line on the physical measurements for the support thickness. I used blocks of wood in combinations along with cardboard etc. to match the thickness needed for each support.



Of course these helix kits can cost considerably more than a DIY helix made out of wood etc. but lacking the time and it can be a daunting project, I felt it was worth it and after tweaking the kit adding the additional risers, I'm pretty satisfied with the end product.

When Joey did this, he actually placed one set of risers at each extreme edge of the connector pieces that are used to hold the deck sections together. The riser spaces are cut as to slot onto a double thickness of the gator board, the deck section and the connector. In my case, I noticed a significant amount of downward flex in the middle of the deck sections when pressing down when I only had one pair of risers at each joint as seen in one of the pictures. So I decided to place the extra set of risers in the center of the space rather than one set at each end of the connector pieces. I figured this would provide the maximum rigidity along all the deck pieces. Because I did this, I had to add extra pieces of gator board on each edge of the middle of each deck piece so it would the proper thickness for the risers I placed there. Since I had a bunch of left over connection pieces since I had ordered transition of curved to straight deck pieces, I simply cut them up and glued them in place. That's one option if going with 24 sets of risers. The other option is to follow what Joey did and can be seen in some of his demonstration video's or helix photos.

[nstophat]

Jim, got my helix ordered today. Thanks for all of the insight.

[kpack]

Thanks Jim for the info on the helix. I'm in planning stages right now and will likely need two. I like this solution. Simple and effective.

-Kevin

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Good info Jim.

[riogrande]

Sept 7, 2023 15:24:44 GMT -8 nstophat said:

Did you use 4 - 2'x4' module frames as the base?

I just realized I didn't answer the module frames question.

I didn't go with a even 2x4' module, but simply built them to fit the space based on a scale drawing I used. There is a scale rule on the drawing - from memory each square is 6x6 inches.

Scale Drawing:



I built all my benchwork from scratch by sizing it in manageable sections from the scale drawing (no section longer than 8 feet). The red lines represent the major modules that were being built part way through.

basic framing for helix section.