Gulf, Atlanta & Eastern - into the second decade

[DanielB]

Perhaps just use it as an off spot? If you mark the bridge with some signs that suggest it cannot take the weight of a heavy locomotive, you could argue that a branch line switcher - a GE 44T or the like - comes and picks up the cars you leave there and takes them further down the branch to the industries there?

 

That way, you could just swap cars by hand and it'd add to operational interest?

[Barry Ten]

Perhaps just use it as an off spot? If you mark the bridge with some signs that suggest it cannot take the weight of a heavy locomotive, you could argue that a branch line switcher - a GE 44T or the like - comes and picks up the cars you leave there and takes them further down the branch to the industries there?

 

That way, you could just swap cars by hand and it'd add to operational interest?

 

That's basically what I had in mind, it's just a question of how to implement it. The obvious thing is to use one of the destinations in the 4-cycle car card as that siding, so that a car ends up being swapped off the layout after the car's been to three other destinations. That would ensure the same cars don't keep shuttling around the layout with no variety. But with a 100-odd cars in the system, that would overwhelm the capacity of that spur very quickly, as it can only take about 4 at a time. I'd need a system that lets the car cycle through its waybill a few times before getting moved off the layout (and a new one swapped in to replace it). There's got to be a way, I'm sure!

[DanielB]

How about sticking a few cards into the system for a "white flag" extra?

 

Have it randomly come up that the destination requires a car - if the destination is full, spot it at the nearest yard or off spot spur and then take it up there whenever there is an empty spot?

[Barry Ten]

As always in Barry Ten land, especially where matters DCC are concerned, things seem to go two steps forward then one step back.

 

Let's start with the good news. The first two locos I bought were my Lifelike SD7s, which aren't remotely DCC-friendly. Eventually I sent them

to the States to have the frames milled out to make room for a hardwired decoder. The locos came back and ran well ... but occasionally, one

or other would lose their DCC settings. It was especially annoying if I'd consisted them. I'd end up resetting the decoders, reprogramming the

addresses, re-consisting them - all the bloody time. This week I decided to try "locking" the decoder settings, to see if that made a difference.

At least in Digitrax decoders, there's a pair of CVs which function as a lock, enabling you to prevent the decoder reprogramming itself. I

tried this, then forced as many short circuit incidents as I could, and - so far - the SD7s seem to be holding their settings. Probably a bit too

soon to claim victory, but we'll see.

 

The other good bit of news was with my BLI Alco PA1 units, one of which runs flawlessly - like, never stalling, even over rough or dirty

track - but the other one of which is much more finnicky. Why? They're identical in design, so if one runs perfectly, you'd expect the other

one to do so as well. Examining the dodgy unit, though, I convinced myself that the axle-bearing pickup strips on the rear bogie weren't

seated as tightly as the others, so I stripped the bogie and readjusted the pickup. No difference. I then noticed that there was a lot of black

gunk in the bearing recesses, so that was cleaned out, which seemed to make a definite improvement. Now at least there's no tendency

to stall when running in reverse. So, I reprogrammed the PA1s so that the good unit was running in forward mode, and the dodgy one in

reverse, and they've been flawless ever since. I ought to clean the front bogie as well, but I'd need to do a bit more dismantling for that,

so I've left it for the time being.

 

Surfing a wave of enthusiasm, I also tried adjusting one of the CVs in the second unit to shift the sound output in frequency compared to

the first, so that there's a bit of difference between the two units. The effect is really great, especially with the horn, which

now sounds so real it has the hairs on the back of my head going up. It reminds me of lying in bed, late at night in Burbank, hearing

freight trains tooting their horns a mile away. Fantastic. The only thing I'm stuck with is how to turn off the flashing light on the

rear unit. F7 is supposed to turn off the MARS light but it doesn't have any effect.

 

So two positives, now a negative. My ever-reliable FT ABBA set has developed a glitch, especially when reversing direction. There's

what appears to be a short or power surge and the DCC system trips. I can operate the units individually, but all four seem to be too much.

Optimistically, I'm hoping that it's just a bit of stiffness in the units due to a lack of lubrication (they haven't been lubricated for years)

so perhaps a minor strip down and service will help. I don't think it's due to the headlights in the A units, as the fault seems to be there

even if they're not illuminated. But as always, there are some doubts in my mind.

 

Incidentally, a lot of this investigation and playing around with CVs - has been done using my SPROG and laptop on a separate

test track. I thoroughly recommend it if you're going to be digging deeply into decoder settings, as it's much quicker and easier

than using the Powercab.

 

Anyway, mood: positive, while being cheerfully resigned to these DCC-related gremlins.

[Barry Ten]

Here's a link to a clip showing the BLI PA units:

 

http://youtu.be/dt1ADehN3io

Edited June 28, 2017 by Barry Ten

[Barry Ten]

At least the aforementioned problem with the FT units turned out to be a simple one to fix. I did strip and clean them but there wasn't much gunk in the gears, although they probably benefited from a little extra lubrication. I used some dry graphite on the trucks, and fine lubricant on the worm gears, just a small amount to avoid over-doing it. That made a bit of difference, but didn't cure the issue. I then realised that I'd rarely run the FT units and the PA units at the same time, and when operating together, the combined current draw could easily get up to 1.5 Amps. However, when I put a PSX power shield board in, I'd set the maximum current to be 1.27 Amps. Obviously that was a bit low (I wasn't running as many sound locos then) so I set the board back to its default (by snipping one of the jumper cables I'd earlier soldered onto the board) and bingo, no more problems with the FT units, and now they've had their ten yearly service!

[Barry Ten]

I made another clip, this time trying to follow the E8 passenger unit all the way around the scenic part of the layout. Shaky-cam ahoy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZA7LsEnPvc&feature=youtu.be

[Barry Ten]

Shockingly, it's now coming up to ten years (March 2008) since I started laying track on the GA&E. I thought I'd celebrate with an exciting picture

of a new siding:

 

 

Previously on the GA&E, there was just one spur between Interstate Fuel and the main lines (the one on which the red 44 tonner is parked), but

now I've squeezed in a second, which was achieved by slightly realigning and compressing the industry and its associated siding, opening up a bit

more space to permit a second track to be added. The purpose of this new one is to act as a set-out for cars coming and going from the nearby branch,

rather than serving Interstate Fuel itself - although it could also be used to store tank cars, in the unlikely event that there was a squeeze on space. It also

adds a bit more switching interest to an area of the layout that always felt a bit "meh" in terms of its operating scope, and didn't really make

the best use of the available space, being a bit too spread out.

 

In in the process I had to wire in a new Peco turnout, for which I used the same combination of solenoid and micro-switch as on the first ones, which are getting on

for ten years in-situ. Since the motors and switches can't be accessed one they're embedded in the foam sub-roadbed, I was initially a bit cautious

about their longevity, but none have failed or given trouble in the intervening decade so I reckon they'll all be good for the life of the layout.

 

This is just one of a small number of relatively minor changes I'll be doing to the trackwork over the coming months, before pushing on with the final

section of the branchline.

 

Cheers, and thanks all who have read, commented and visited (including in person) over the last ten years.

[Supaned]

Nice to see an update from the G, A &E , congratulations on the 10 years and looking forward to seeing more developments

[Mikkel]

Congratulations on the anniversary, Al.

 

I always get a bit disoriented when entering this thread as I'm used to see you modelling the GWR etc. And they are certainly different worlds - but looking more closely, the landscaping and vegetation does have the same signature style 

[Barry Ten]

Here are a couple of Intermountain SD40-2s, which Daniel B kindly helped me procure. They are great models (even if the cab in both needs re-seating on the frame a bit) with very impressive sound. I'm delighted with them, particularly letting them just crawl around the layout while I get on with something else.

 

 

 

I'm getting a bit greedy with sound now. It started off as a nice novelty with one or two locos but I now want more sound and I want it now! I've had some sound-fitted FT units on order

since September 2015, so who knows if they'll ever arrive, but it would certainly be nice.

[DanielB]

I've still got my last one and a pack of Silversides that I have no use for, if you are interested Al?

 

Nice to see those beasts running on your layout.

[Barry Ten]

I've still got my last one and a pack of Silversides that I have no use for, if you are interested Al?

 

Nice to see those beasts running on your layout.

 

 

Enough for me, thanks, Dan! Have you traded up from N completely now, or are you keeping a few things back? I must admit I've had my wobbles where I think it's too small/fiddly (especially with decoders) but I'm always brought back when I see a long train moving slowly around the layout, something I could never achieve in the larger scales. By and large I'm glad I got into N and I've never regretted going Southern!

[Tove]

10 years...wow,i`m lucky if i can stay interested in something for 10 month`s..!!

 

Good to see your still enjoying the layout,and making little improvments as you see fit.

 

Nice one Barry...

 

Brian.

[DanielB]

Enough for me, thanks, Dan! Have you traded up from N completely now, or are you keeping a few things back? I must admit I've had my wobbles where I think it's too small/fiddly (especially with decoders) but I'm always brought back when I see a long train moving slowly around the layout, something I could never achieve in the larger scales. By and large I'm glad I got into N and I've never regretted going Southern!

 

With the exception of the already mentioned train, yup, I've upscaled to O scale and started collecting HO bits and pieces to start a layout in my new home, once we finally get moved in. Though that is proving to be easier said than done, at the moment!

[Barry Ten]

Here are a few longer items of rolling stock which have been undergoing extensive test running over the last week or so.

 

These 89 foot auto carriers are from Micro-Trains (the green one) and Red Caboose (the brown one). I've got quite a few of each

and they all run very reliably, taking 11" radius curves in their stride and not showing any tendency to derail even at the head

of a very long train of similar vehicles. Notice that the Red Caboose model sits a bit lower on its trucks than the MTL one.

 

 

Slightly more problematic were these two 89 foot auto parts box cars from Trainworx. They're beautifully detailed and painted

models, but both were very troublesome initially. Both had their coupler trip pins drooping a bit low, causing them to catch

on points and derail, and I managed to break almost all the couplers in the process of fixing them. Fortunately, the couplers

themselves are a standard Micro-Trains item, so I was able to order and assemble some replacements, making sure the trip

pins were well adjusted in the process. One of the cars also had a buckled underframe, causing the ends to bow down and

make the coupler problem worse, but this was cured by dismantling and then gently re-forming the underframe. Now both 

vehicles behave themselves.

 

 

These 89 foot box cars are from Bluford Shops and presented a different but related issue. The couplers in this case are

body mounted, but despite the length of the cars, they'll whizz around 11" curves without any difficulty. Again, though, I

had problems with trip pins and managed to damage most of the four models of that I own. These are Accumate couplers,

rather than Micro-Trains, and I struggled to find a source of spares. Fortunately, Bluford Shops were extremely helpful in

this regard and deserve a special thanks for sending me some replacement parts, entirely free of charge - typical of

US customer service, in my view, but welcome all the same.

 

 

The new couplers were assembled and then I spent some time adding Peco fibre washers to get the vehicles running at a

consistent ride height. Oddly, I needed to add an extra washer to one end of each car. Now they perform much more

reliably and look great, being such imposing models. They'll look even better with some weathering!

 

What I've learned from this exercise is that radius isn't the problem even with these long vehicles - they're all very happy

on 11" curves. The trouble has all been down to coupler height, leading to trip pins snagging on track, or unwanted

uncoupling incidents. I suppose the length of the vehicles tends to exarcerbate issues that would not cause problems with

shorter vehicles, such as dips and rises in the track. However, once these gremlins have been tackled, they can be run

in long trains very happily.

[Barry Ten]

It's that time of the year again when I pop up with some modest progress on the layout.

 

A few years ago I developed the peninsula, with its passenger depot and associated freight facilities and yard:

 

 

I quite liked the overall effect but I was always a bit sorry that the depot only had one access road, being at a bit of a dead-end,

as I wanted to make the area behind the depot look a bit more bustling and small-townish. To that end, I decided to make

some relatively minor changes to this end of the peninsula to enable a through-road with a grade crossing.

 

The main job was removing the last couple of feet or so of three of the yard tracks, and re-aligning them ton slew away from the main

line, rather than hugging close to it. With some small alterations to the scenery that was already in place, this then created room 

for a continuation of the main street across the tracks, and off to the edge of the baseboard:

 

 

The road was created using card and plastikard, then blended into the existing surfaces using filler. I've not matched the shades very well so will need to go back

over it with some lighter gray, followed by some weathering, cracks etc.

 

The buildings have been temporarily transplanted from elsewhere on the layout to get a feel for how they look; they're a bit wasted in the original setting as you can't get too close to them, whereas I can now go to town on the detailing, if so needed, so I think they (or some others) may end up staying here.

 

 

Would a road cross some tracks so close to a tunnel? Probably not and it'd be a scary proposition if a train popped out without warning, but it's my train-set etc, and I'll be adding some proper warning lights to protect the road, rather than just crossbucks as elsewhere. In the meantime, the yard tracks need to be reballasted and weathered, and a lot of fiddly but enjoyable work lies ahead with regard to bedding in the buildings, adding sidewalks and so on.

 

 

That's it for now, set your watches for another installment sometime in 2020!

Edited February 25, 2019 by Barry Ten

[PaulRhB]

I don't see an issue with the crossing so close if it has gates, anyway as the sign is there can they rely on divine protection?

Edited February 25, 2019 by PaulRhB

[Talltim]

This tunnel as slightly further from the road, but the visibility is far more limited and it doesn’t have barriers (for some reason the link takes you to a view of the sky, just rotate down a bit) https://goo.gl/maps/qgLT9x1p94Q2

Edited February 25, 2019 by Talltim

[JAMO]

Nice job Barry!

[pH]

5 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

Would a road cross some tracks so close to a tunnel? Probably not and it'd be a scary proposition if a train popped out without warning, but it's my train-set etc, and I'll be adding some proper warning lights to protect the road, rather than just crossbucks as elsewhere.

 

OK, it's not a metalled road, but it is a road, and the crossing is only protected by crossbucks:

 

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/187262/

 

And while we're in the area, how about this:

 

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/577694/

 

They're the two ends of the same tunnel.

Edited February 25, 2019 by pH

[Barry Ten]

Those are cracking pictures, pH and Tim - many thanks.

 

Also a reminder that BN livery looks great!

[Barry Ten]

Apropos of nothing, other than an excuse for keeping the thread slightly more active, here are a few shots of my E6 A/B combination, which I don't think I've featured too much before. This is an old Lifelike release which was very much not DCC-ready, but I had it converted for me by Streamlined Backshop in the States. It was a bit of a faff to

have the send the model (and a similar Lifelike diesel) back over the pond but they arrived back safely and I can't fault the service.

 

These EMD passenger units date from 1939 onwards and have a slightly sharper rake to the nose than the later E8s, giving them a rather sporty look. Only the A unit

is powered in this model, but it easily copes with the B-unit and 9 other cars, up and down 2 % grades. I've given both models a light weathering treatment with

acrylics and enamel washes, applied with a brush and then swabbed off with cotton buds, which is increasingly becoming my default weathering method in any

scale, not just N. The trick is to go through a lot of cotton buds, discarding them as soon as they pick up pigment and start smearing it around rather than removing

it. I must have used about about eight or nine buds just doing these two units.

 

 

Cheers for now!

[Barry Ten]

I've ballasted the realigned yard tracks and begun weathering and weed treatment to get them looking suitably grotty and neglected:

 

 

I know there's always a tendency to be initially convinced that a change is the right thing, before the inevitable cooling off period, but at the moment I'm very happy with this realignment as I think it creates a more spacious flow to the yard. A long-term plan is to extend the fascia out a little in this corner by a few inches, so the outermost yard track won't be quite so close to the edge.

 

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the layout:

 

 

Last year I made some changes to the sidings here, adding an extra spur to the Interstate fuel facility (the switch for which is just under the FT units), and I've finally finished ballasting and weathering the new or altered track. 

 

This area of the layout is is well over ten years old now but other than this tweak to the sidings, I've felt very little inclination to do much to it. There are some areas of track where I've had to do some remedial wiring to fix current drops, but other than that, it's all pretty much as it went down. The only real work has been to gradually add additional scenic textures and small details. I do occasionally get itchy fingers but I can't really see any scope for doing much in this area, other than a wholesale reworking of the entire scene. It would be nice to have a few more sidings and perhaps an extra passing loop, so that the main doesn't have to be tied-up during switching, but at the moment I think it's hitting the sweet spot between interesting and not overly cluttered, so best left well alone. More importantly, it works!

 

 

 

 

Finally, I'm in the process of adding some light weathering to this Bachmann Consolidation. Again it's all done with washes, fine brushes and cotton buds. I'm really fond of these Consolidations!

 

 

That's it for now; cheers all!

[F-UnitMad]

On 04/03/2019 at 21:56, Barry Ten said:

...at the moment I think it's hitting the sweet spot between interesting and not overly cluttered, so best left well alone.

Very well put, Sir! It does look a very convincing scene, and as I think I've said rather earlier in this Thread, it looks like how an American would build this layout. From a UK viewpoint, it's easy to overlook the fact that everything tends to be much more spaced apart than we're used to here, as they have so much more space available! Capturing that look isn't easy and possibly doesn't come too naturally to us, either.

Yes, leave well alone! I like the new peninsular scene as well - most impressed that you've not shied away from running the grade crossing through the middle of a switch - in N Scale!!