February Update

February is in full gear and Valentines is just around the corner so lets see whats happening on the MCIS St. Clair Sub. Towards the end of 2018 I started getting off track with my monthly update posts and quite frankly there was a fair amount of content to discuss in my last consolidated post. Back on track we are going to discuss my next scenic area project that I have started and recap a great operating session I participated in over the weekend. 

CASS RIVER SCENE
Anyone that has spent time in Michigan knows there's alot of water whether its lakes, rivers, or creeks. While one of my major scenes on the lower level portrays a crossing of the navigable Saginaw River, I also wanted to model a river or creek on the layout that would be a little more relaxed.

Prototype crossing of Cass River at North Hurds Corner Road, Michigan

- Setting The Scene
Growing up I spent alot of time around the AuSable River in the northern lower peninsula and I wanted to capture that in this scene so early on in the development of the layout the portion that folks ducked under as they entered the room made for the perfect setup. When its all said and done the banks of this scene will be covered in a think canopy of deciduous trees creating a natural scene break between Upper Huron and Grays Lake. The river will portray a slow but steady flow and of course there will be a pair of canoes following the current. Mike McNamara has done a great job with a similar scene on his Woodsville Terminal fremo that really has provided great inspiration. Go back one post and you will see what I mean. 

- Just Add... Plaster
Around this part of Michigan where the railroad operates between Upper Huron and Grays Lake would be a crossing of the Cass River. Originally I had wanted to use a fictional name of Quincassee Creek but the more it crossed my mind the more I realized establishing this as the Cass only better sets my location. This part of the layout was just extruded foam so in short order a combination of floral foam, extruded foam, and Woodland Scenics plaster gauze got me to the spot depicted in the photos below. 

View west towards Upper Huron (Pardon the angled photo) 

 East Approach going into Grays Lake

 Once the plaster had dried it was painting time with simple flat latex and craft paints

Basic ground painting complete - as you can see i used the craft paint to color the riverbed lighter to signify a sandy bottom. Additionally while the cedar brown was wet i feathered it up the slopes so its not just one color.

- Next Steps

With the basic terrain and color in place I can really get a sense if I need to add any more terrain forming before moving to ground cover. Since I will be using "Magic Water" i do plan on using clear caulk to create a sort of riverbed channel and backfilling slightly with Sculptamold to help channel the resin product. Once the channel is in it will be a matter of adding real dirt, talus, and riverbed sand/rock to continue making progress. 

MIKE ARMSTRONG'S OPS SESSION

I had the opportunity over the weekend to attend a session at a local modelers house here in the DFW Metroplex. Mike models the Rock Island from Kansas City (Armourdale Yard) to St. Paul (Inver Grove Yard) in the late 60s with many great scenes and towns in between including Des Moines, Clear Lake Jct., and Albert Lea to name a few. This layout is a stunning double deck around the room with two double track helix's and a double ended staging yards. 

I had the opportunity to operate a two manifests with my first train being #68 from KC to St. Paul and my second being a return southbound back to KC. Average trains ran with 3 to 4 locomotives and 30 to 40 cars. My first train was led by a foursome of Rock Island F7A/Bs and my second train was a Candy Red pair of CB&Q U25Cs. 

Pictures really do not do it justice, but they do show the size and scope of the layout, enjoy!

Train order in hand, I had sometime before the DS let me out so I roamed the room to checkout everything. Mike uses Digitrax radio throttles, which made my life easy being familiar with the throttles. 

St. Paul (Inver Grove Yard) on top - KC (Armourdale Yard) on bottom

 Upper level (L - Mason City / R - Cedar Lake Jct)

Lower Level (Des Moines)

 Cedar Lake Jct. where the Rock crossed the Iowa Traction. This has to be one of my favorite scenes. 

C.King attempting to look busy in the staging room... yes i said room.

Diesel tracks at Inver Grove.... Is that a Missabe SD9... Yes it is! 

Armstrong Yard in KC includes a turntable to turn equipment. 

 Looking inside one of two double track helix's that allowed the operation to "re-stage" the layout. 

A real gaggle at Cedar Lake Jct. with D.Ferris, J. Aust, C. King, and M. Thidemann all looking "busy".

Thanks again to Mike for hosting a great session. The layout is absolutely top notch from the benchwork to the scenic details, truly look forward to returning in the future. 

That wraps up my February update, there is alot to get done before my March post which should come out just in time for school spring break (Mid March). So if you are traveling and need good content to read, there should be a post waiting for you. As an added bonus between this update and March, I do plan to post about the total railcar fleet mix and what it means for the railroad. Giving you guys something to chew on, the layout removed no less than 10 cars in 2017 from active inventory of 204 but now sits in 2018 sits at 237 cars. What is going on.... stay tuned for the answer at the end of February.

GM 

Mid October Update

October is well in progress, with Halloween just around the corner. So what modeling have I been up to? Layout time has been limited to working on my Sugar Beet Plant kitbash project.  Wordless Wednesday #35 showcases the main power plant / Cogen boiler structure. I have been planning this industry for sometime and collected eight Walthers kits to use as part sources. I hope to have photos for end of month update showing the progress complete so far. Along with kitbashing, I also visited  a local show and layout so let's get into the pictures shall we.

Texas Western Model Railroad Club Show

     TWMRC banner at entry table.

The second year for this show which I absolutely love attending because it has reasonable admission ($6), free parking, vendors of all sorts, they improved from last year, and it's in Fort Worth!!

I picked up some great bargains for $100 

  - 6 Norscot Heavy Equipment Pieces

  - Built / weathered building for Gerhard malt or cereal plant.

    Building roughed in for Malt or Cereal Plant @ Gerhard. A lot of neat kitbashed character in shape, paint, weathering, and covered track area.

  Lower level was all vendors, I liked this change over last year.

                         On3

                 O gauge - Tinplate

                        N scale

           NTGRC - G scale setup

Additionally there were layout open houses and clinics that you could attend.

Don Murphey's St. Louis, Atlantic, and Pacific

Last week I had the opportunity to visit I Don's layout to discuss future operating strategies and see the great work he already had in place. This was my first opportunity to see the RailOp car forwarding systerm in use. The layout is 26x40 with a 450' double track mainline run. Provided is a synopsis of the layout (courtesy of the DFW Interchange Website):

East meets west and north meets south on the St. Louis, Atlantic, and Pacific. This railroad recalls Don's experience with St. Louis Union Station and its passenger trains. Over 30 railroads operated passenger and freight trains through this area in the steam to diesel transition era. Focal point of this 26' x 40' foot railroad is a 15 track Union Station. Complicated throat trackage utilizing single and double slip switches to route the trains to their assigned tracks. Don has carefully engineered his track and cars to allow long trains to back into the depot. Visitors will be able to return to the days when exotic train names such as Zephyr, Eagle, Rocket, Firefly, and Chief were common in railroading, In addition to Union Station, a 450 foot double track main line winds around the room. A suburban depot reminiscent of Tower Grove, Missouri is another feature, along with extensive steam and diesel facilities. Freight operations center around several on line towns. Don’s wife helps with scenery work and 60% of the scenery is complete, including several well detailed scenes. Era is elastic, including both steam and modern diesel power. This is an opportunity to see a railroad where passenger trains and terminal operations are king.

  Overall room view from entrance.

       St. Louis yard and loco servicing

            St. Louis Union Terminal 

              Kansas City Industries

                Jefferson City, MO

                   Kirkwood, MO 

This layout was a lot of fun to railfan and operate on. Beings I do not model steam, early diesel, or passenger ops this gave me a great opportunity to experience and understand more of this side of the hobby. Definitely a great side effect of making friends in the hobby is getting to experience a model railroad that is not your own. Personally I feel it that it adds a greater depth of knowledge which can be translated and used to further my own model railroad.

Have a great month.

GM

Dean Ferris' Oregon Joint Line

Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in an operating session with ten others on Dean Ferris' N Scale Oregon Joint Line. The layout is north of Fort Worth and located in a large room above his garage which gives him the ability to have a 28' x 25' setup along with a dispatcher office. One thing I enjoy when visiting another layout is seeing first hand how the layout owner makes use of their available space to create their model railroad. Dean has done a fantastic job on the layout with the room providing a very comfortable atmosphere to operate in, which in this case was a little over 3.5 hours.

Lets run through some quick stats on the layout and then get into my assignments and some pictures from along the right of way.

Railroad: Oregon Joint Line (Proto-Freelance)
Size: 28' x 25'
Scale: N Scale
Era: 1969
Locale: Oregon Trunk Theme
Control: NCE Radio Throttles
Train Management: Track Warrant Control
Car Forwarding: Cartabs

Timetable to help with photos below - Ukiah is northern end and Humboldt Jct. is southern end

So being this was my first time to visit Dean's layout I marked up on the road pool board and began my tour of duty on the Oregon Joint Line northend and awaited my first assignment. Being this was a high priority train and one of the first out this session my first trip over the line was pretty straight forward having mainline the entire route.

1st Assignment - Hotshot Pig / Reefer Train
NP #611 Seattle to Los Angeles Super P
Power: 2 ATSF GP30s

Train Card with consist #, Lead Unit, Work Description

Southbound out of Lonerock along the river heading towards Fossil - the motors were getting their workout working up out of the river valley.

After cresting the summit at Snowline my train heads downgrade towards the town of Emigrant.

My two GP30s with a Boeing Skybox in tow ahead of the Pigs just north of Emigrant.

Good handling was required on this trip with officers and customers in tow on the rear end of #611 at Harney (Humboldt Jct.).

2nd Assignment - Coal Drag

DRGW to Centralia, WA Coal Train

Power: 2 DRGW GP30s with 1 WP GP9 sandwiched in the middle

I hadn't been off duty too long when the crew caller gave the next assignment to take a coal drag northbound from Humboldt Jct. to GN Jct. This train was pretty long with 24 loads and getting north out of Silvies would require helper assistance getting up and over the summit at Snowline. 

NP Coal Drag heading north into Silvies. Once on the north end of the yard a helper would cut in 5 cars from the rear to help make it over the summit at Snowline. With our helper, caboose, 24 cars, and 3 motors we barely fit into the siding at Snowline.

 Close up of DRGW 3006 - EMD GP30 leading the coal drag.

Nearing the end of our journey we see the coal drag along the river valley dwarfed by canyons on either side.

Third Assignment - Heavy Manifest Drag

NP #655 Pasco to WP Stockton 

Power: 2 WP GP40s and 1 NP SD45

Call came in to take this heavy manifest drag southbound from Pasco. Along the way this train made a block swap at Monument Yard and a pickup only at Silvis before continuing on to Humboldt Jct. 

Alot of work to complete with this train - 2 pickups, 1 setout, and helper assistance getting to Snowline.

Grinding southbound up the river valley grade from Lonerock towards my first setout / pickup location at Monument Yard. Nothing like 2 EMD GP40s and 1 EMD SD45 giving solid tractive effort to keep this heavy manifest drag moving.

 Passing through the north end of Monument towards the yard past the large chip mill.

We are now coasting downgrade just shy of Emigrant.

River crossing just north of Emigrant showcasing my lead motor on this trip WP #3508.

Cant forget the EMD SD45 sandwiched in between - what a classy scheme. Crazy to think this being 1969 and even in 2015 the venerable EMD SD45 is still soldiering on as its original self or in countless rebuilds.

The operating session was fantastic on all accounts, and even provided some opportunities to benchmark best practices to utilize on my St. Clair Subdivision. I look forward to my next opportunity to operate here and while the yard would be a new challenge the scenery is immersive making the end to end assignments on the road pool very rewarding.

GM

Joe Atkinson's IAIS 4th Sub Tour

Work travels this week took me up to Omaha and while I had some freetime, decided to drop by and see Joe Atkinson and his IAIS layout over in Council Bluffs. I lasted visited in the fall of 2011 and since then Joe has done alot with the scenery and backdrops.

Following along as we tour from Atlantic to Council Bluffs with plenty of photos.

Atlantic, IA 

Walnut Creek, IA

Hancock / Hancock Jct.

McClelland, IA

Council Bluffs Yard

Council Bluffs, IA

UP Pool Yard

Staging (Continuous Run)

The layout has come a long way and is alot of fun to view and operate on with the numerous sound equipped motors that have great momentum settings built in.

For more info please check out the IAIS railfan site that Joe puts updates on:

http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/Sub4WestEnd