STEVE - If my opinion counts at all -- I like the switchers nose-to-nose better! Awesome looking work, TOM -- QA&P is getting to be quite a Railroad! Bill - You have a great humor - love your stories!
Happy Wednesday, Sorry to have neglected my Frisco Friends, but I have been on the road most of the past two weeks. It is great that Amazon and other mail order work well from anywhere, and the re-supply vans for model railroading keep coming in. In the brief few evenings that I have been home, and did not have grass to mow, a little progress has been made on getting the wiring finished up on the Crawford and Cherokee switch machines. Here you can see a few of the shorter modules for the E-W section between Cherokee and Weir. You might be able to see in the picture that I am recycling tortoise switch machines, wiring harnesses, and DS-64s from Digitrax from the old Crawford and Cherokee. They both had about the same number of turnouts, so I might only have to purchase 4-5 additional switch machines. I also found some four-pin trailer plugs on Amazon, which are only about $2.50 as an "add-on" item. These work well for sharing a DS-64 across a couple of modules. Installing-SM-Wiring-2 by rjthomas909 posted May 15, 2019 at 8:17 PM The picture above is from the weekend before last, and tonight I was able to hoist the Cherokee yard up on the workbench to get the seven or so machines wired there: Installing-SM-Wiring by rjthomas909 posted May 15, 2019 at 8:18 PM Once finished, we will test out the sections up to Weir, and be able to have a nice operating session with the Cherokee corner. I saw on the MRH web site an advertisement for these Berrett hill terminals for the Tortoise switch machines: BH-SM-Terminal by rjthomas909 posted May 15, 2019 at 8:17 PM These have a screw terminal and tighter/better aligned plug for the Tortoise machines. BH-SM-Terminal-3 by rjthomas909 posted May 15, 2019 at 8:16 PM They also re-organize the pin order to make a bit more sense to the user. You can see the re-routing on the circuit board if you look closely: BH-SM-Terminal-2 by rjthomas909 posted May 15, 2019 at 8:16 PM Going to give these a try, as they reduce the time for soldering of the wiring harnesses, and hopefully won't rely on scooching the plugs back and forth until there is no short! Well, I hope everyone is doing well out in Frisco Land.....maybe some more photogenic layout progress in the coming days (if I can manage to stay home). -Bob T.
Welcome back Bob!!! Your layout is coming along nicely, you have made a lot of progress. If my legs would quit hurting I would like to start working on my layout. Seeing your progress makes me want to do some work on the layout. Keep up the good work. Joe
Mine for the week. I had posted the QA&P project last week in the decal discussion. so I tried to find a relevant photo in the archives. (reverse "where is it" ?) So I found this one and here is a few of mine. YES, the sill stripes got reversed in my decaling. I noticed with one already on so I can live with it. OOOOPs!
Yeah Sherrel once one was the other was too. Pretty sure only the Frisco die hards will call me out at least. Ha Thanks
WELL-- You could have "slapped" another number on the opposite side - or vise-versa - and done it correctly? Reminds me of the Southwest Airlines want- to- get- away "Chefs" commercial.
I have thought lots of time about freight cars that dont match side to side. Who'd know? Maybe I already do that and none of you notice? LOL
I have read articles in MR magazine where cars where painted and lettered and numbered completely different on one side of the car. Whereas you saw the car going one way and the train turned on a return loop staging on the next session and the opposite side would be exposed.
Wouldn't work for my Ozark Sub layout I'm building: Both sides will be visible during its travels. Besides, for operational purposes, keeping things straight on switch lists, car cards, or in the software program, would be a nightmare, me thinks. Andre
Watch out for the experts, couple of guy's been burned lately. Ouch Keith ! Flammed a guy ! He deserved it ! You could double your roster.
A day late but my chainsaw AWARE tagged car is done at last. Here is the prototype and a couple pics: Here is the backside:
Not exactly Wednesday, but was out of town this week. With the longer evenings, was able to get out the saws after work yesterday and began the assembly of one of two remaining modules to be built for the Crawford and Cherokee sectional layout. This module allows the connection of the Cherokee yard section to the long-suffering and disconnected Lightning Creek Mine section. The mine section is the surviving piece of the original Crawford and Cherokee. This module is a bit odd-shaped, but is coming along this weekend. I have the frame mostly glued up and after laying out the locations of the switch machines, will put in the webbing and bottom "waffle" mesh. Edit: How many clamps does a man need? Will post a few photos in the layout progress thread when further along.... Hope all are weathering the storms up in the heart of Frisco Land! Take care. -Bob T.
It makes me wonder whether the shop has hosted a home-built airplane in its past. EAA folks know firsthand "You can never have too many clamps."
True. True. My family has the same reaction when they walk out in the garage and see 2-dozen clamps on the piece. The truth is that I got tired of waiting on glue to dry on one part, when several things could be glued up at once. I can now whip together an 18 x 48" module (or similar) in a weekend. -Bob T.
Ideas are welcome, Good ideas get extra credit. The thought here is a Beer joint or cafe on top of a hill. One end will have a bridge over a ditch or maybe a road. I would like some thoughts from you, on what I might add or install in this scene. Thanks in advance.
Frisco Friends, Wednesday came fast with the long weekend. Managed a few minutes tonight to work on the roadbed for the new South Cherokee module on the layout. Cork-S-Cherokee-1 by rjthomas909 posted May 29, 2019 at 9:29 PM Cork-S-Cherokee-2 by rjthomas909 posted May 29, 2019 at 9:28 PM The curve to reach the angle on the mine branch is a bit too sharp for the curved Peco turnout that I have. For now, will model the track that is an interchange on the switching version of the layout as a removed turnout and abandoned spur. -Bob T.