May Recap

Sometimes even the best intentions of publishing a blog post monthly does not go as planned. The month of May was by far the busiest for me in terms of traveling in 2017 for both work and pleasure. June is well underway and with that will come great content on the layout and MAC Rail but this post we are going to recap the on-goings during the month of May. 

Grays Lake Update
One goal I had for the layout was taking my time and really building character into each scene. My current focus is the Town of Grays Lake. The middle of May ended up being the largest push to "Pave" the scene and "Bring Light" to things.... Sorry for the puns, could not resist. Well the answer is in the words, as I ended up getting the pavement, pavement markings, and lighting added into the scene.

 Looking east down First Ave. 

 Overhead view of First's parking spots, sidewalks, lights, and weathering

Looking north on Main St.

So far in downtown Grays Lake I have installed 9 street lights with an additional 5 of this ornate design required. Additionally a few wooden lamp posts will be installed at the fertilizer plant, track access road, and side street. The Woodland Scenics Just Plug system makes this process very easy to install and just takes minute to connect and lighting. I believe you would agree with the following photos that the finished result is amazing.

 Overview of entire modeled downtown

 Corner of Main and First. 

View north on Main St. 

Additional work on Grays Lake included the addition of Railroad St. which runs between First and Second Avenues. The road runs parallel to the Michigan Interstate St. Clair Sub mainline. Along Railroad St. is Dean's Garage which is a small town auto repair shop. Pretty sure the scene will have the owner Dean sitting out front with cold suds watching trains versus fixing autos...

Deans Garage located beside Railroad St. The shop will actually be located on Second Ave.(Cork).

In the month of June you can expect to see further progress on Second Avenue and getting scenery such as shrubs and trees more permanently in place. Additional lighting will be added as purchased. I will cover the entire install and wiring process for these lights in a future summer post.

Quick word on the streets and sidewalks - they are styrene and created following Lance Mindheim's Road How To on his blog. Basically rustoleum gray for the aged asphalt and india ink / alcohol airbrushed following his technique. Prior to weathering I did use Summit Custom Cuts road marking decals which I must say were easy to use and turned out great. Lastly the sidewalks are laser cut wood from Minuteman Scale Models. They offer different angles and the detail is perfect for further detailing and weathering. 

Travels - East

Early in the month of May our family traveled to Walt Disney World. Anyone who has followed my blog for sometime knows I try to provide a few pictures and recap on the love of railroading that Walt Disney had. To this day trains play a large part in the parks. Here are a few photos. 

 Main Street Station at The Magic Kingdom

 Garden Railroad at Epcot's Germany Pavilion - versus the past they had trains running with mutliple car consists. This is a nice change to just seeing a engine running light. 

Great view of creek, tunnels, and multiple loops on setup. There are four loops with two in the foreground, one in the upper right background, and another in upper left corner beyond the bridges. 

Travels - West

The back end of May require me to be in Southern California for a work conference so while traveling on my off time I did have a chance to stop in a Railmaster Hobbies in Bellflower, CA. and Arnie's Model Trains in Westminster, CA. My first reaction to both of these stores is wow what great staff, great customer service, and great selection to the modeler. Both stores had items that we do not always see in Texas. Lets take a look at both stores and run by what I picked up. 

Railmaster Hobbies - Bellflower, California

I prefer using Railmaster Speakers for my DCC sound installs and no better place to get them then the source! I picked up 2 of the DS1240-Box speakers, 4 DS1425-8 speakers, the American Model Builders Wind Blade 3 Pack, BLMA detail parts, and Athearn Genesis 89' flat. Funny story I actually bought everything and I got to talking with Dave at the store so i accidently left my detail parts behind. A week later after tearing apart my suitcase thinking I had misplaced them I gave em a call and they had set the 2 parts aside. Soon enough the parts were in the mail heading to Texas. 

Arnie's Model Trains - Westminster, CA

I had been to California back in 2012 and visited Milepost 38 ToyTrains when they were still in Anaheim Hills. Since then Milepost 38 and Arnie's have co-located side by side in the same shopping center. If you are looking for HO and N then you go into Arnie's. Looking for O and G scale step next door to Milepost 38. 

Great store, great staff, great selection. The modelers in Southern California are very fortunate to have two great stores that support the hobby and if one doesnt have the item you are looking for they suggest to check the other. Nothing against ordering from Walthers or OEM direct, but it is always nice to support local model train stores. Beings I spent quite a bit at Railmaster Hobbies, I opted to keep this trip light and picked up one of the new Athearn R-T-R 60' Gunderson TTX repaints in the TOBX marks. Additionally this car comes faded with patchwork. Thanks to James working that day for pointing this out. I saw the re-stenciled reporting marks but was unaware of the factory pre-fade. 

If you are in the Southern California area make time on your trip to stop by both of these shops, you will not be disappointed. Make sure to make room to bring home items in your checked bag as well. 

Wrapping up the trip was a quick trip to Disneyland. I couldn't miss out on having both Main Street Stations in the same post. 

Main Street Station at Disneyland Park

That wraps up my May recap. Pretty busy month of traveling but as you saw I got a little more done on the Grays Lake scene. Stayed tuned in June for two updates once showcasing the purchases from my California trip and MAC Rail projects. Later in the month we will head back to the layout to see progress at Grays Lake.

Have a great week.

GM 

Early January Update

It is amazing at how fast the Holiday Season goes by. Seems like yesterday was Thanksgiving and now are here in 2017! Since my last post the St. Clair Sub has seen different types of activity. One great point of our hobby is variety. For example I do not feeling like working on scenery, so I can instead install a decoder, assemble a building, or just run trains. Lets take a look at happenings from the back end of December.

Christmas Acquisitions
I have to give my family credit, they do a great job staying in tune to what I like. It also helps when online retailers like Walthers and Mountain Subdivision Hobbies have wishlists that you can create and folks then reference. At any rate I was very fortunate to receive great model train gifts for Christmas

 From the wife and kids: Blair Line Fertilizer Supply Kit, 2017 Walthers Catalog, and resale DPM buildings from Ebay. 

From parents and grandparents - 30ga wire, Soundtraxx Tsunami2s, Currentkeepers, and Railmaster 28mm speakers.

Very grateful and blessed for fantastic model train items. If your family or significant other doesn't know what you want and especially if it is model train items, use those wishlists to help them find the right gift. Not to mention an easy way to help them dial into what you model.

Both the DPM buildings and Blair Line Kit will be located in Grays Lake, Michigan. The sound decoder items were installed into Athearn Genesis SD45-2s that have been de-rated into SD40M-2s.

New buildings on the corner of Main and Harrison Streets in downtown Grays Lake. 

CEMENT TERMINAL STORAGE DOME

As I begin to "rough in" the Graystone Cement Terminal at Bay City I wanted to find a way to give the facility a modern expansion look to an existing facility that had been there for some time. Searching Google for Cement storage silos led to alot of different types of facilities. But this one below in Arkansas caught my eye as a great opportunity to model. 

Photo courtesy of Penta Industrial 

Finding my prototype I then setout to find commercially available items to help scratchbuild this storage dome. An quick visit to Hobby Lobby provided discovery of 12" smoothfoam halves. 


 This foam halve should fit the bill nicely. 

Using a bendable straight edge and pencil I traced the center where I would cut the halve. Once traced a sharp foam knife made quick work of the cut. 

 Mocking up the storage dome adjacent to the primary silos of the Graystone Cement terminal.

Planning my next move on the dome will require the top cap of a Kroger Whipped Cream canister, Walthers conveyors, and Pikestuff Walls to build the drive in access noted in the prototype picture. This entire cement terminal should make for a fun scratch-bash. It has been some time since I worked on buildings in detail, looking forward to the work.

In addition to the dome I will be purchasing a Walthers Medusa Cement kit as the base with additional silos added from what I have on hand. A two track load out shed put together from Pikestuff components and a set of those new Alkem Scale Models security fence kits will wrap up the industry nicely. 

MT. PLEASANT "MAC" SHOP UPDATE

Like prototype railroads, the business, mechanical, and regulatiory necessity need requires locomotives to be maintained, rebuilt, upgraded, or retired. In the case of the Michigan Interstate our locomotive and car shop are co-located at Mount Pleasant, Michigan. MAC stands for "Motivepower And Car". Our team there was quite busier than Santa's helpers releasing three locomotives back into service before the end of 2017. 

MCIS 4570 and 4571 (EMD SD45-2) derating to (EMD SD40M-2)

Wanting to align fleet similarity for parts and maintenance the mechanical team took the opportunity to de-rate the only two 20-645 units to 16-645s. Both of the units had issues with their original motors and had been sidelined at Mt. Pleasant. With 16-645 motors installed the locomotives have been re-classified as SD40M-2s. At current time the locomotives we keep their original numbers 4570 and 4571, in the future they will be renumbered into the 4050-4069 series. 

Components Installed

Soundtraxx Tsunami2 PNP EMD Diesel (EMD 645 Turbo)

Soundtraxx Currentkeeper

Railmaster Hobbies 28mm round speaker

Soundtraxx Sunny White 3mm LEDs

3825, 4570, and 4571 in "High Bay" at MAC Shop

MCIS 3825 (EMD GP38-2) Electronic Upgrade

With completion of this motor there are now eight modelled GP38-2s of the total twenty five in the fleet. This unit was painted early in 2016 by Fogelsinger Rail into special paint honoring University of Mary Hardin Baylor. The CEO must know someone who graduated from UMHB... 

Components installed:

Soundtraxx TSU-1000 (EMD 645 non-turbo)

Soundtraxx Currentkeeper

Railmaster Hobbies DS1425-8 speaker

TCS Sunny White SME LEDs 

MKT 175 (EMD GP40) Sound Install

In addition to work for Michigan Interstate and its subsidiaries, MAC shops also does contract work. Earlier in December we installed a TCS Wowsound decoder with motherboard discussed in my last post. 

Prior to return customer delivery, locomotive was tested and calibrated in rock train service. This photo could be somewhere in Texas during the "Katy" days.

L.H.T. - Layout How To (Railcar Deck Rebuild & Base Weather)

During a visit to the train store last week I came upon the Laserkit wook deck replacement kits for various railcars. . Selecting kit #325 for Model Die Casting / Athearn RTR 60' Flatcar I knew that the only 60' HTTX flat on my layout could really use this upgrade.

Kit and Athearn RTR HTTX flatcar in need of a better deck...... 

 Chisel blade made quick work of removing the plastic tractor holders. These had been glued on a factory.

Plastic holders removed, use the chisel blade to ensure the clean is clean. 

 Before installing the self adhesive wood deck, I wiped down the plastic deck with alcohol.

Following the kits instructions, use the stake pockets to line up the wood deck and car. Looks great but too new.  

Wash of india ink / alcohol helped tone down the car and deck. 

The india ink wash helped give the car a nice base weathering. Using other techniques I will continue to weather to represent a 30 year old car operating in machinery service out of Midwest factories. This car will allow me to test out the Smokebox Graphics FRA224 reflective stripes. The deck replacement kit from American Model Builders is a great value, simple to install, and helps transform a plastic kit into a flatcar model. 

Quick update for a Quick holiday season. Now that we are in the new year its time to see where we are going in 2017 and where we went in 2016. My next post we will look at the goals I had at the beginning of 2016 and see where I landed in actually completing them. We will also discuss "State Of The Railroad" and how I plan to manage scenery on the layout. 

Thank you for stopping by to read my Early January Update. 

Happy New Year!

GM 

Layout How To #02 - Sound Decoder Install

The weekend is coming to a close and with it one of my summer projects Idiscussed in my early June update. This project was the sound installation into a pair of Proto 2000 GP38-2s. The work took sometime to complete over a few days, but the time and effort put forth were well worth it.

As in most learned skills it takes practice to get better and this is my fifth Soundtraxx install so I am getting there, as each install is unique in its own way. Lets walk step by step on how I brought these two second generation EMDs to life.

Preparation & Tools
For this How To we will be installing the following in each motor:
  - LED lighting
  - Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU-1000 (EMD 645 non-turbo)
  - Soundtraxx Currentkeeper
  - Railmaster DS1425-8 Speaker

When it comes to the tools list, the Soundtraxx installation guide and their online resources provide a list of needed tools to make the install go smoothly.
  - Soldering Iron / Rosin Core Solder
  - Sharp Hobby Knife
  - Jewelers Screwdriver set
  - Electrical tape (3M)
  - Heat Shrink Tubing
  - Tweezers
  - Silicone Caulk (GE brand that comes with a nozzle - easy to handle)

As you can see from shell removal to make a TSU-1000, Currentkeeper, and speaker fit we are going to need to make cuts to the frame.

Once you have your workspace and parts all setup I then move on to the dis-assembly process.

Frame Dis-assembly & Cutting
Following the manufacturers guidelines I dis-assemble the engine and layout all of the major components. It is also important to mark the wires for the left truck, right truck, (+) motor, (-) motor for decoder connection. For small parts such as light bars, screws, and detail parts I put them in a small Ziploc so they don't "disappear" during the project.

Neat and Orderly is the key.

Part bags, extra weights, wiring diagram for the harness that was not used. It helps me to sketch out my wiring for the LEDs ensuring I dont wire them in backwards...

The TSU-1000 is setup to allow the use of a JST to NMRA 8 pin harness to make installing in DCC ready engines easier. In the case of 3833 the socket that the harness could install into is no good and 3827s socket was tossed in favor of hardwiring a NCE decoder many many years ago. That is ok with plenty of wire to work with coming off the new decoder the hardwire will be a snap.

Marking on the frame where the cuts will be made with a Dremel rotary disc and hacksaw.. This part can become labor intensive and the metal from the cutting will become hot - dont forget PPE - safety glasses, gloves!!!!

From the photo the area to remove was planned for, marked, and removed. Once the cuts were complete, I used a bench grinder to smooth down any rough surfaces on the frame. 

Frame Re-Assembly & Decoder Install

Once frame modifications were complete it was time to re-install back on the locomotive chassis and feed all of the existing wires through their respective channels before beginning the decoder install.

SPEAKER

From this point forward I followed the Soundtraxx instructions step by step through the decoder installation process. On these models the radiator fans are open which allows for the perfect spot to get the sound out of the engine. The Railmaster speaker being used (DS1425-8) is setup with its own baffle enclosure so all that was needed to help provide the best sound quality was a good seal between the front side of the enclosure and the open radiator fans. This was accomplished using the GE silicon caulk a day before so keep this in mind when planning your install to seal the speaker in the day before if you go the silicon way.... Remember alot goes a long way. 

Photo above shows the speaker installed with silicon between the front of speaker edges and radiator fan. Additionally I added the silicon on the bottom of the enclosure visible to provide a dampening effect in case the enclosure vibrated against the shell and extra securement. 

LIGHTING
For the LED lighting Soundtraxx Sunny White LEDs were utilized in conjunction with the light bar that is used with the proto 2000 setup. Following Soundtraxx instructions to properly wire in a 680 ohm resistor I think used heat shrink to attach the cut down light tube and led lighting assembly as one piece. This helped to minimize any light leakage as well. Photo above shows the rear headlight and photo below shows the front headlight.

Additionally on the front headlight I used black electrical tape to minimize any light leakage that could occur around the numberboards or cab windows.


TSU-1000 DECODER & CURRENTKEEPER
Once the decoder was hooked up to the rail pickups, motor, and currentkeeper and test was performed to ensure everything was in working order. The Currentkeeper comes with instructions for installation into the numerous different Soundtraxx decoders, be sure to read these directions to know where and when you need to install this item.

As you work through the decoder installation process try to keep your wiring in order and not let it get to tangled or jumbled up. You will be happy you did this when you are wrapping up and putting the shell back on. Depending on how the wire was orientated some of the solder joints were end to end while with a piece of shrink tube slide over or the ends paired side by side, twisted, soldered together, and covered with shink tube. Note: Just like in the instructions - tinning your wires makes the process work much more efficient. I would say "faster" but this is not a race and quality is key for a successful install.

Bundling & Shell Re-install
Once all of you connections are complete its time to make a final test to ensure the motor is still working but also the lighting and sound operate. If all of these items test out fine, then its time to bundle your wires together and tape down to avoid anything getting into the gear tower or drive train. This part can be tricky making sure all of the wires get up in the shell and not stuck on the sides so take your time.

Enjoy
You just spent upwards of 2-3 hours completing this quality - now it is time to enjoy your work. Ring up the power desk and advise another motor is back in the pool awaiting assignment.

 MCIS 3833 idling at Bay Yard after being setout off the M-MCBA-27 which picked the unit up at Mt. Pleasant last night. 

Soundtraxx and Railmaster Hobbies both have great products and when combined together as done with these two EMD GP38-2 installs it is a win for the modeler!

Thanks for stopping by - stay tuned as we go into July..... videos as promised in my Early June Update hopefully should begin to materialize.

GM