Coal shipments begin on the layout

In my original plan for the layout I was going to include the Sierra Pacific coal burning power plant at Valmy, Nevada which would have been where Battle Mountain is on the layout.  The reasons for this change were explained in the July 2017 post Decisions about industries.

I still thought it would be nice to have some coal cars running as through traffic on the layout and started to think about what industries beyond my modeled area to the west would use coal.  The coal would have come from the Powder River Basin east of my modeled area.
 

I know of no coal fired power plants west of the Sierra Nevada and during my modeled era there was no coal being exported from any California ports.  However are some coal fired cement kilns in California and one near my home is shown in this photo.

Up to now I have not had any appropriate coal hoppers to use in this service but recently I was able to acquire 8 Micro-Trains, 3 bay, 100 ton hoppers in both Burlington Northern and Rio Grande.





In photos and videos I have seen hoppers identical to these being pulled up to the local cement plant.  The build dates on these models are in the late 1960's so they fit great into my 2 earlier (76-82 & 83-88) eras.  In more recent years I see mostly 4 bay hoppers on the line to the cement plant but do still see a few of these 3 bay models in the mix.   Maybe later I can add a few 4 bay hoppers for my later (89-96) era.
  

With smaller customers like cement plants it could make sense that a shipment of a few cars would be in a manifest train between Ogden, UT and Roseville or Oakland.  Here is a west bound SP train near Golanda with a few coal loads.

Starting a scenery window box

The path of my around the room layout passes across the middle of a window and that's where I am working right now.  I want to still be able to use this window sometimes for ventilation but still have some background scenery behind the tracks.

So what I decided to do was to build a sort of window box that will hold a continuing of the background scenery and can be lifted up and out to access the upper part of the window.  The window can still be opened from under the layout even when the box is in place.

Here is the window box a little further along with a coat of primer and almost ready to start adding some scenery.

To be continued.

A New Year and another Layout Party

Happy 2020 !

Once again this year I am participating in the annual Trainboard winter layout party.  This is a forum thread that goes from about mid December to the beginning of March.  Anyone can participate by posting recent progress on their layout projects.  I have found that I seem to get a lot done when these are going on.  So what have I been doing so far ?

Still working in the Palisade Canyon area of the layout.  Added about 6 feet of profile fascia board.  This time instead of gluing and nailing with my nail gun I held it with welders clamps until the glue dried. 

The terrain around the front edge was filled in with a combination of insulation board and cardboard strips covered with plaster cloth.  This then gets a coat of dry wall joint compound spread with a wet paint brush.

Also been working with the sky board and am liking the look better as I work with it.  Trying to blend in the white to lighten the and have been getting the effect of having some clouds.  This view is from the Harney section of the layout.



My goal for this year is to get the bridges and track in so I can put a temporary loop on the end and have the main line open again by March 1st.

Working my way around the corner

As the title of this post says, I am working my way around this corner of the layout setting and staining rock castings, building bridge abutments, and building all the hillsides.  This is the deepest part of the layout and that hill is at the limits of my reach.

To make this scenery work just a bit easier, I am not going to install the diagonal brace in the corner until that hillside is done so I can lean in just a bit further.  This photo shows this brace temporarily held in place with clamps.

New additions to the locomotive roster

Lately I have been adding some additional motive power to the layout, filling in some gaps in the 3 different layout eras that I use.  In most cases I already had the locomotives but as this layout is DCC only I don't consider them on the active roster until they get a DCC decoder installed.

It all started when I found SP MP15DC 2696 on a sale table at a club open house for $40.00.  I already had the correct decoder for it so installed it right away.  It will join 2690 and will work in any of the 3 layout eras.

UP 910 and 912 are GP40-2's that came from WP in 1983 and were overhauled and repainted in UP colors.  They got TCS Z2 decoders installed in them and will work in the 83-88 and 89-96 eras.  910 still needs it's hand rails painted.

SP 7514 is an SD45 that came out of SP's GRIP program in 1984 as a SD45-2.  It got a TCS M4 decoder and will work in the 83-88 and 89-96 eras.

U30C SP 7912 got a Zimo decoder and will work in the 75-82 era.


GRIP (General Rehabilitation and Improvement Program) was a major locomotive rebuilding program undertaken by Southern Pacific at their Sacramento Shops during the late 1970's and through the 1980's.

Keeping the track clean

Anyone who has had a layout knows keeping the track clean is important and it is an ongoing process.  Here are the methods I use to maintain the tracks on my layout.

I have a number of Aztec Manufacturing track cleaning cars and have found that when used regularly, hand cleaning of main lines can be avoided altogether.  Spur lines may still need some hand cleaning.

This type of motorized track cleaning car is made by Tomix and sold under both the Tomix and Atlas brands.  It can be configured to be a vacuum car or rotary wiper.  It does not move on its own and needs locomotives to pull or push it.

These work best running at a faster speed then being moved slowly over the tracks so they are great on DCC layouts as the speeds can be controlled separately.  These will even get into those spur tracks.

When I do have to clean the track by hand I have been using the Woodland Scenics Tidy Tracks products.  The long handle can reach into my longest thru truss bridges.

Most of the track on this layout is reasonably accessible.  For those times when it would be necessary to hand clean the track I have been making an effort to have any structures or bridges over the tracks removable.




One example is the loader at the Barite crushing facility in Battle Mountain.

Slow progress through the canyon

After some quick progress the past couple months on bench work and bridge building things have slowed down a bit on the land forms and rock castings.  The canyon walls all the way around to the window have now been covered with plaster cloth and rock castings are beginning to appear along the top of the ridge.

Molds are crumpled up aluminum foil.  Rocks are set in place while the Hydrocal is still a bit soft.  A sheet of styrene is placed behind the hill to protect the sky board.  As each one hardens I try to blend it in with the previous one by filling any seams with Hydrocal and some carving.

In between rock castings I made bridge abutments from wood for the 200 ft BLMA bridge.  More 3D printed bridge feet have been ordered from Shapeways for the 4 additional Central Valley bridges including the skewed bridge.

Building a curved steel trestle - Part 1

Some time ago I had picked up a copy of the Model Railroader Bridges & Trestles book as a reference.  More recently I picked up a Micro Engineering steel trestle set which should have more than enough parts for this particular project.

While the prototype bridge that this model will represent is in a straight alignment, it will be necessary for it to be curved to fit in where it will be on my layout.  From the book and some photos on the web I studied how these type of steel trestles were curved.

Micro Engineering track holds it shape very well so after getting a section of track aligned over the path of the bridge I used that to make a cardboard template matching the needed curve of the bridge.

Using the template as a guide I assembled the basic bridge structure with some of the girder sections from the kit.

The bents in this kit were much taller than needed for this project.   I cut them to the length needed to reach the edge of the shore on each side of the river and made some concrete footings from styrene tube and glued these on the bottoms of the legs.  For added strength I filed notches on the outer sides of the top on each side of the bents so they would lock into the under side of the small sections instead of the girders just resting on them.

This is the stage that the project is at right now.  The cardboard template is seen sitting on the top of the bridge.  Quite a bit of fitting and testing to get everything the way I want it but it's getting there.  The scenery in the back will need to get done before this bridge is permanently installed so I'll save that for a future post.

5 years of working on the railroad

Yup, it's been 5 years since I started building the N scale Palisade Canyon Lines layout.  All of the goals set one year ago were completed.

During the next 12 months I plan to finish the Palisade Canyon section all the way around the end of the room to the door way.   This is about 15 linear feet and will include adding 7 more bridges and two tunnel portals.  The photo below shows the area I am working on now.  This view shows several of the steps of the canyon walls being created.  Hopefully this will eventually blend in with the finished part on the left which is on the Harney section.