Download - O scale trains

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Scrap metal litters Debski's yard, and illustrates why the most common nickname around here is "Rusty". The scrap operation provides a steady source of revenue for the railroad. Gondolas loaded with scrap metal are taken to the docks for export overseas. (Photo location #13) The SD9 is a Max Gray brass model, which I re-motored with one of Jerry Snow’s slow-speed geared motors. This unit now runs like a Swiss watch, and can be throttled down to a crawl even under heavy load. It’s a joy to run her up or down that long ramp with a heavy load. Eventually, every engine on the Ironbound will receive slow-speed gearing, since they are restricted to maximum speed of 25 mph. If there is one thing I really miss from my HO days, it is the old Hobbytown ”Centri-clutch” drives. These were basically centrifugal transmissions, which had many advantages over transistor-throttle ”electronically manufactured” coasting and other effects. I installed them in all my HO engines. Even when lashing-up engines with different gearing, the clutches would automatically compensate so they all ran in perfect synch. At high speed you could cut the power completely and, with their heavy flywheels, these girls would coast for five to ten engine-lengths. You could also have the engines remain stationary with the motors running, idling just like the real thing. Then you’d rev them up and they’d start a train at a snail’s pace. What a kick they were. Hey, O Scale after-market manufacturers, take note! Drop-in upgrade mechanical clutch transmissions are where it’s at! If you haven’t ever tried one, readers, I guarantee your eyes will go wide and you’ll grin like a ten-year-old the first time you do. I feel we have squeezed an awful lot of O Scale into our relatively small space, and we are still squeezing! I have a number of unopened structure kits and such, just waiting to be built. There is no more space available for them to fit as is, so I will use my ”squeezing” and weathering techniques to shoehorn them into the layout. Manufacturers won’t recognize their own models by the time I’m done, but there they’ll be in all their compressed and grimy glory! So, that’s the story of the Ironbound so far. There’s still a lot of detailing and developing to do. I guess you could say (next to my wife, Jeanne of course) the Ironbound is my ”main squeeze.” u $21.99 $21.99 $21.99 $21.99 175 Sheffield Dr. #100 Delmont, PA 15626-1723 Tel: (724)468-3106 Fax: (724)468-3879 www.scenicexpress.com Request FREE 216 page catalog with order or send $4.00 to cover postage. Add $7.79 shipping & handling - PA residents add 6% State Sales Tax. 10 • O Scale Trains - July/August ’07
Ahhhh, civility. I’m sitting here in the library, a snifter on the end-table, pipe in hand, and cat in lap, comfortably reflecting back on the track and benchwork exercise now completed (The scars are pretty well healed now, thank you.) Sure, there are some tweaks here and there, but I have a good handle on the locations and purpose for each feature, and they are actually in place, wired, and under wheel. I’m also thinking of all the less-than-stellar features I had incorporated in railroads-past, and decided not to incorporate in railroad-present. Here are a few, in case you want to think about them, too. Before you ignore this sage commentary, I fully support the idea that you’re free to add them if you wish. Of course, I will now feel free to tell you, ”I told you so!” because I wrote this all down. Turnout Location I was very careful about turnout placement on this iteration. In several previous railroads, I let prototype scenes dictate the turnout and track locations as a priority. That was fine, except where a turnout ended up in a constrained location. Switches are the primary trouble source in trackwork maintenance, so this version has them out in front of God and everyone. I thought about turnouts within the context of this rule of thumb. If you can’t reach it to work the points with a groundthrow, you can’t reach it to fix it, either. You might want to consider moving the fool thing someplace more accessible, just so you can fix it when it breaks. The turnout you can’t reach is the one that will cause trouble first and most often (Scace’s Third Law). For us hand-thrown-switch types, remember to put the groundthrow on the near side of all the trackage if at all possible, so you don’t knock that Pacific Limited 1920 steel boxcar on the concrete with your shirtsleeve when you’re bending the iron. I didn’t do that religiously on the current railroad, and I intend to revisit ground-throw placement. Lots of Power On my previous railroad, I had added a separate 15-amp circuit to power three extra outlets around the room. I thought I was being smart, but it was nowhere near enough. On this railroad, I dropped in a couple separate 15-amp circuits and brought power out to the fascia with about five power strips. I’m probably going to add more power strips. You can’t have too many. The railroad has three Controlmaster 20 tethered cab-control power supplies and three Powerstation 8 DCC boosters. (How I’d love to see MRC marry the eightamp guts of the Powerstation with the Controlmaster front end and make a stronger version, especially when folks are running three unit Diesels with China drives in cab control nowadays. That’s six loaded motors summed up real quick-like!) Add to the list some power supplies for scenic lighting, ”button” supplies for stationary sound and some Miller Engineering neon signs, soldering irons, hot glue guns, the rechargers for my DeWalt and a Dremel, and it doesn’t take long before there’s no place to plug in the coffee pot. I still didn’t plan on enough outlets. Insulated Joints Don’t merely leave gaps in the rail when you’re gapping the rail. Take the time to physically insulate them with something, whether it’s a commercial rail insulator, a piece of styrene or business card CA’d into the gap, or whatever your preferred method might be. Put this magazine down right now and go do this, if you haven’t already. Fill the space with something, because the most invisible gap in the most inaccessible place will close first (Eschbach’s Corollary to Scace’s Third Law). You’re back You’re done Good. Reverse Curves They look so cool, and cause so much trouble. Two abodes ago, I had this absolutely lovely three-track super-elevated reverse curve, reminiscent of the B&A trackage climbing out of Pittsfield up to Washington Summit. I designed it in and it certainly looked, well, curvaceous. It also caused me the most pain of any feature on that railroad. If you have to have a reverse curve, make sure you allow enough room between the curves for a tangent (straight piece) equal to the length of your longest car. I didn’t, and I ended up having to increase the lateral of the draftgear boxes so passenger cars would go through the fool thing. They looked ridiculous, even in success, so the magic was lost. Remember that a crossover on a double-tracked main, or a switch between single-track and parallel double-track, constitutes a reverse curve. Here, because you are constrained to the standard spacing between track centers (usually 4-1/4” or so) for the width of the form, salvation comes in the form of looooong turnouts. Use the highest number you can; double-digit if it fits, such as #12 or #14. Nifty as it may look in an interlocking, don’t put crossovers back-to-back without that straight section equal to the length of the longest car in between them. By the way, this interim tangent concept is especially important for all you sectionaltrack users, because you don’t have access to the other good tool in the arsenal, the easement. Here is also where I send you flex-track users and hand-layers off in search of a book that explains how to shoot easements for entering curves. Combined with our interim tangents (not only in this case, but in the next two as well), easements help. We tend to think of this issue only with relation to curved track (the ”yaw” case), but the same thing applies for reverse gradient changes in the vertical (”pitch”) direction, too. Short violent ones are rare (Lucky us!) in the standard-gauge mainline world, but can be something to think about for the roller-coaster/hill-and-dale environment of the backwoods narrow-gauger or the Southern shortline peanut-hauler. The sneakiest trap, however, is lying in wait for those of us who love superelevated trackage. Here, the twisty (”roll”) case is common and insidious. Back-toback reversal in super-elevation (as in a traditional reverse curve) without a length of ”normal” in between will send rigidwheelbased locomotives and six-wheel passenger car trucks skittering off the main as ”sure as a gun’s iron”. If you want superelevated mainlines, learn to think in threedimensional terms (and learn to leave one bolster screw loose on your rolling stock to create something close to a three-point suspension). Hidden Trackage I’ve come to loathe hidden trackage, but for most of us it’s a necessary evil. I’m sure I’ll catch the most flak from these snippets of questionable wisdom, but here they are, anyway. If you don’t need hidden trackage, don’t build it. If you want the now traditional off-scene staging areas, go ahead and call ’em advance yards and build them on-scene, just so you can get to them to fix them, if nothing else. If you really have to hide trackage, at least keep the throats and ladders out in the sunshine, so you can maintain the turnouts. If you absolutely have to have completely hidden staging trackage, have a twenty-year-old friend with a hard head on hand to weave his/her way into the benchwork to fix that turnout we talked about in Scace’s Third Law. That’s where you’ll find it. Let’s go Exploring! u July/August ’07- O Scale Trains • 11
Page 1: O Scale Trains July/August 2007 u I
Page 4 and 5: Introducing Transfer Tables from Ro
Page 6 and 7: THE IRONBOUND RAILROAD by Andy Roma
Page 8 and 9: Vito Piancone takes a break from th
Page 12 and 13: The Art of Finescale Michael Cougil
Page 14 and 15: 14 • O Scale Trains - July/August
Page 16 and 17: 3 3 /16 1 9 /16 .060 X .080 POSTS S
Page 18 and 19: Bill of Materials 40’ - 53’ Fla
Page 20 and 21: P&D 31280 Hobby Shop P&D Hobby F Un
Page 22 and 23: M ullet River odel Works 118 Huson
Page 24 and 25: Heavy Lifting As mentioned in the p
Page 26 and 27: Building a Small O Scale Layout Par
Page 28 and 29: 10 15 11 16 12 13 17 with liquid pl
Page 30 and 31: Custom Building, Repair & Painting
Page 32 and 33: 32 • O Scale Trains - July/August
Page 34 and 35: Joe Giannovario I am planning to bu
Page 38 and 39: East Gary Car Co. Dept OST 3828 St.
Page 40 and 41: Hill’s Hobby & Collectors’ Shop
Page 42 and 43: Nos. 16001-18500 O SCALE/PROTO 48
Page 44 and 45: sides are facing each other towards
Page 46 and 47: View of the deck from underneath sh
Page 48 and 49: More on Realistic Passenger Car Lig
Page 50 and 51: PULLMAN 12-1 SLEEPERS IN ABS Golden
Page 52 and 53: 2007 O Scale National Convention Ca
Page 54 and 55: 2007 O Scale National Convention Sp
Page 56 and 57: 3 6 4 7 5 8 motor and the bottom of
Page 58 and 59: *Shipping:$6.95 for 1 car; $7.95 fo
Page 60 and 61:
NEWS: O Scale Grade Crossing, MSRP:
Page 62 and 63:
Review: M.T.H. N&W Class A 2-6-6-4;
Page 64 and 65:
Special Report: Atlas O Factory Ins
Page 66 and 67:
Just Trains TM Free Shipping over $
Page 68 and 69:
Buy-Sell-Trade Events Buy-Sell-Trad
Page 70 and 71:
2007 Convention News I goofed! I ne
Page 72:
THE MIGHTY GREENBRIERS INCREDIBLE D
show all

Download - O scale trains

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?