Track is Down

Well I've got all the 30" gauge (HO) track down.  Now it's a matter of getting it all wired up.  There are a few "dead spots" in the track which I need to either run more feeds or whatnot, but I can start to feel the layout taking shape now.

I took a break from track and wiring (and to be honest wiring is probably one of the more dull parts of putting this together) to carve out a rough river bed for the miners.  I just need to pickup some primer and I'll give these guys a paint job too.

Bachmann On30 0-4-2 Porter on 8% Grade?

Yeah... it can do it.  With no cars it can do it fine with just a slight bit of slip.  With one car there's noticeable slip.  With two cars it barely makes it.  And with three cars it stalls half way up.

I know this because I have an 8% grade on my micro layout (around a 7" radius curve no less).

This evening I anxiously picked up my package from theFavoriteSpot which contained a 3-pack of Bachmann's Wood Side dump cars.  As with most of the On30 Spectrum line, these are cooler in person than they look in pictures.  The cars are mostly cast metal, have real chains, and actually dump side to side.  I think with a few passes over with Bragdon Ent's weathering powders they will look amazing.

Back to the micro -- The porter can't pull 3 up the grade.  So here's what I have to decide:  Do I rip up the grade and most of the 2nd level and make it 4% so 3 cars can be pulled up -OR- do I say "operational interest!" and simply make it a rule that on this particular small railroad the grade is so steep that cars must be taken up 1 at a time?  I'm leaning towards the latter.  It's amusing to drop cars as the bottom then go back to pickup more.

And with that, here's some layout pictures...

I used Woodland Scenics foam risers.  Waaaaay recommend these things.  You get 4 per pack for $5.

I then put a layer of cardstock over the risers, soaked in glue.  It dried reasonably hard.

Layed out something what the top industry area will look like.

Engineer stands by 2 wood side dump cars next to a cab-less Porter.

Layout Revision

Based on the things I learned yesterday I made some revisions to the layout plan...

Paper Prototype

I was feeling quite motivated, so I printed out a full-size version of the micro layout and assembled it together.  Made some really good discoveries doing this...

• Need to re-think the clearance around the turnout throws when buildings are near (don't want the giant hand to knock over any buildings)
   
• The footprint I had allotted for buildings was waaaay off
   
• O-scale might be too big (HOn30 is the fallback, which oddly I actually own more equipment in)

Full-size Paper Version

Paper Version w/ "Buildings" and rolling stock

Micro Layout On18

After a couple months of simmering on it, I'm back at it again -- designing another micro layout, this time apartment sized and using lessons I learned from the previous layout.  Inspiration came from two places:

1. I recently drove cross country with my wife, and the scenes of Union Pacific pulling long consists through northern california, nevada, and utah have given me some good ideas for scenery.
   
2. I found an already existing track design that fit the space size I had allotted.  It was designed by "russn20" and uploaded to the On18 Yahoo Group.  I've pretty much based the entire design off of his/her original plan.

Overhead Layout

Concept Sketch

PLAN STATS

• Size:  36" x 20"
• Scale:  O-scale
• Gauge:  9mm
• Electrical:  All 1 circuit
• Control:  DC, Varpulse
• Track:  Peco HOn30 "Narrow Gauge" Turnouts + Flextrack
• Benchwork:  Homemade foamcore and matteboard ply
• Scenery Base:  Plaster over "pink foam"
• Location:  Somewhere in eastern Utah or western Colorado
• Era:  Mid-1900's

As you can see the track plan offers a basic loop with a passing siding on the "main line", along with three industry areas:

• Boulder Lode Mine (central)
• Gold Hill City (upper middle)
• [Un-named] dock area (lower left)

Servicing the industry areas will be the Boulder Lode Mining RR (BLM RR) carrying a fleet of ore cars, boxcars, flatcars, and perhaps a water tank or two.  BLMRR will start only owning a single engine: an 18" gauge diesel center cab.  The majority of the company's rolling stock will be in ore cars.  I had originally planned to use Railway Recollections' products, however the not-yet-available center cab may pose a 

problem.

Center Cab Diesel

Ore Cars

Porter Update

Small update on the porter:

• Sound is a no-go. Sound/motor decoders are more than the cost of the engine.
• So with that I picked up a Digitrax DH123D decoder

On30 After All

After all the hooplah with odd sizes, I've decided to give it a rest and to go with something standard. Part of that is because a certain category of "standard" is ridiculously cool: On30. It might be popular, but it's popular for a reason.

I was recently gifted a Bachmann 0-4-2T Porter On30. It's the first steam On30 engine I've owned, also making it the largest engine I've owned. Without a doubt it's very cool. It's worth building an entire layout just for it.

This little Porter has now become my project engine. Here are some items I'm thinking about for it...

• Electronics
• Motor Control -- The porter comes from Bachmann setup for DC operation. I tested the engine initially with my "Ken Stapleton" Model 581 PWM DC throttle. While the engine ran smoothly under PWM, I'd like to convert it to digital control, especially now that I own an NCE PowerCab. It's a small engine but several posts on RR forums have shown it can be successfully done. This has the added bonus of giving independent control of the front light.
• Sound -- Sound can really make a loco come alive, especially under DCC. However in inspecting the engine I'm not sure where a speaker could possible fit (except maybe hidden in the fuel bunker). Further research will be required. It might be possible to make a permanent trailing car for it, though I don't care for those as much.
• Details
• Figure -- It needs a driver.  Really!  I need to find a period/locale appropriate O scale figure.  It think it would really add to the engine.
• Accessories -- The detailing of the engine as it comes from Bachmann is really fabulous, but this is model railroading after all, and so a little modelling never hurt. I'd like to do some more research on Porters used in the rocky mountain region and add some small details to match (and it's sort of a right of initiation for On30 that you stick a toolbox and chain on an engine somewhere). Perhaps I might look into building the buffer beams out of real wood too.
• Painting
• Bachmann ships the unit in flat black which a scatter of metal parts of a nickel color. While this looks great out of the box, I think I'd like to find some references photos to see which parts are more of a darker gray and silvery color and paint those accordingly. I don't plan to overhaul the cab color.
• Weathering
• Ok I'll admit it -- I'm a sucker for the dilapidated look. If it looks like it just got dropped off by the manufacturer: boo! If it looks like it's about to be taken out of service next month: win! I'd like to look into adding decay where steam blows out of the engine and where common parts rust. Again reference photos will be a must here. I'll probably be looking into a set of Bragdon Powders for this operation as well as they seem to come highly recommended and if you don't like what you've done you can brush it off and start over.

All in all I'm very pleased with this little loco and look forward to "modelling" it up.

Well, after dabbling with the thought of trying an obscure scale, I've decided instead to go with something mainstream for ease of availability -- specifically On30. With the change of scale might come a change of railroad, we'll have to see. At the moment I'm entertaining one of these two ideas:

• A mining line serviced by a shay locomotive
• A general freight or passenger line serviced by a forney

(I know, good choice on the 2nd one, right). But you're probably wondering, how did you go from a small scale to On30 and where will this all fit? Good question; glad you asked. I talked to the wife about this empty corner...

And the idea is to turn it into something like this (not drawn to scale):

First Thoughts

Arapahoe & Sheridan Railroad

Theme:    Fledgling railroad under pressure from larger roads
Setting:  Colorado, "Front Range"
Time Period:  1915 - 1925
Scale:  1/72
Gauge:  2ft

I'm intending A&S to be a micro layout, suited for standing on top of an end table in a 1 bedroom apartment.   My initial thoughts towards the track plan lean towards continuous operation, with perhaps a turnout or two thrown in.  I'd like something where I can set the trains in motion, and leave them working for guests or family to see.  My goals for the layout are two fold:  1.) create the micro on a very limited budget, making use of already available materials as much as possible, 2.) create a reasonably detailed 2-ft gauge line which fits in the available space.

Because the layout won't have a lot of locomotive power, because space is limited, and because a budget will be enforced, I've made up a new scale/gauge combination:  72n2, or 1/72 scale, 2ft narrow gauge.  There aren't any manufactures producing products for this size, and I can't find anywhere on the internet where someone has tried it, thought I'm sure many have.

So why make a new scale/gauge combination?  Easy:  I want to model a 2ft gauge line, and I want to do so inexpensively, which means I need access to affordable locomotive mechanisms, trucks, wheels, and couplers.  It turns out in 1/72 scale, N scale track is really close to 2ft gauge (it's about 1.5 scale inches off, but oh well).  That means I can use Kato 11-105 or 11-106 mechanisms to power the rail critters.

Even though there aren't any rail manufacturers producing 1/72 products, 1/72 is a scale that's used by plastic model manufacturers, meaning I can still have access to some selection of commercially available products.  As a side bonus, 1/72 seems to be the scale of choice for many manufacturers of "plastic men" meaning there is a ready supply of figures.

The downside of course is that anything I want outside of that I'll have to scratch build.  Oh well, perhaps I'll save some money doing that?

Arapahoe & Sheridan Railroad Back History

(The following is a fictitious history of two non-existent railroads which serves to give setting and period to a model railroad layout)

In 1872 James Orman began seeking funding to build a railroad that connected the then progressing Denver city with settlers in Arapahoe county. Though he had difficulty gaining momentum, the first rail on the Arapahoe Short Line (ASL) was laid several years later in 1878. After a few bad winters, the line's construction was behind schedule and it was beginning to look like the company would go under when some last minute investors saved the project. In the summer of 1883 the line opened with service between Denver and Bow Mar settlement, bringing with it a small increase in population to the Bow Mar area.

Orman sought to make the short line profitable by transporting whatever freight he could, which at the time primarily consisted of mining supplies for the gold-hungry of the day.

Meanwhile in southern Colorado, John Marston had been working on rail plans of his own. He opened the Sheridan & Durango line in 1879, connecting many important mining and destination towns. As the Arapahoe Short Line began to loose traffic to the dominating Denver & Rio Grande railroad, it was bought out by Marston who then connected the two lines in 1889 under the name Arapahoe & Sheridan RR.

By 1899 the A&S was feeling the pressure from the competing Denver & Rio Grande an Durango & Silverton lines and began to take measures to keep themselves alive. John Marston's son Jospeh Marston by that time had taken management of a large portion of the A&S and proposed the introduction of smaller vehicles which carried less freight and passengers but were more economical to operate.

In 1907 the A&S sold the majority of their 0-6-0 and 0-4-4 engines to competitors and had the shop build a handful of rail busses, rail trucks, and rail vans, primarily focusing the line on delivery of mail, rural passenger traffic, and whatever freight it could sell transportation for.

The planned layout will pickup the story of the A&S in 1921, several years after the downsize, when the budget for improvements is slim, and any day could be the day the line closes.