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BurleyJim
Fireman
Premium Member
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 Posted - 02/23/2018 : 8:57:04 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by jbvb
Section gangs and track cars vanished from most US railroads pretty quickly as Hy-Rail equipment became practical in the 1950s. I expect the track gang was how many railfans older than me got introduced to the subject. Employees living locally, most walking to work at the same section house every day and then putting away to noisy manual labor jobs up and down the line - summer entertainment before TV. But by 1965 they were gone from Newburyport, so my introduction to railroaders was via train crews.
My dad was a Gandy Dancer at age 8 for the B&O during the Depression. He went on to retire from EMD after 43 years as a Master Machinist. One of the original plankowners at the Lagrange plant. Lot of stories and memories of that place.
Jim
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4556 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/06/2018 : 7:55:44 PM
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Mostly structure work the past few days:
The B&M had a standard smokejack for smaller buildings - galvanized square 'chimney' through the roof, then a capped pipe extending a couple more feet.
I've built them for the Newburyport and West Lynn (Ipswich prototype) section houses. I'm getting closer to requesting a Structures AP evaluation.
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Country: USA
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LynnB
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/16/2018 : 11:44:19 AM
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Coming along nicely, I still have more catching up to do.
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Country: Canada
| Posts: 2365 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/16/2018 : 12:05:28 PM
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Looks good, James. Keep going!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6696 |
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Grubes
Crew Chief
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Posted - 03/18/2018 : 09:26:43 AM
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Nice touch James, little details add a lot of personality to a build.
Dave
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Country: USA
| Posts: 596 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/20/2018 : 11:13:37 PM
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Thanks, Lynn, Pete and Dave. I'm away in a much warmer clime with meter-gauge RRs; Eastern Route work is unlikely to resume till after Tax Day.
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Country: USA
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Tyson Rayles
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/21/2018 : 08:29:52 AM
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 04/26/2018 : 3:30:47 PM
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After a busy couple of weeks catching up and turning the debris from March storms into next winter's firewood, I had some time for the RR last night. Those of you who've operated here know the Draw staging's diode matrix didn't always throw turnouts completely on the first button press. I went after that.
The first problem was some 'tinned' bus wire I'd used, resulting in many cold solder joints:
Using magnification as I tried to re-do the bad ones, I realized the tinning was solder with a higher than normal melting point. But the diodes survived re-soldering with my 100W gun on the three old wires that remain on this side.
I replaced all four 'tinned' wires that had been on the diode side.
It works much better, but still takes multiple pushes for some turnouts. Next I'll look at my Miniatronics PDC-1 capacitive discharge unit - its 10,000 mFd capacitor should be plenty, but it could have been on the hobby shop's shelf long enough to date back to Nichicon's 2001-04 era of unreliable capacitors.
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Country: USA
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deemery
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 04/26/2018 : 3:50:12 PM
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I had a computer that suffered from unreliable capacitors. (either HP or Dell. After that, I decided cheap Windows boxes weren't worth the hassle :-)
dave
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| Modeling 1890s (because the voices in my head told me to) |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7748 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/01/2018 : 12:26:32 PM
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It appears that capacitor purchasers tightened up their specs and improved their testing in the fallout. At any rate, I had a 10,000 uFd cap, bought for this purpose, and I just piggybacked it onto the non-component side of the PDC-1. That gave considerably more oomph, but not enough to make all buttons '1-push' reliable. Next time I feel like crawling under the layout, I'll look closely at the mechanisms. It probably doesn't help that Draw's west throat uses three kinds of twin-coil switch machines.
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/12/2018 : 10:40:41 PM
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Bump: Searching for details of how I'd built something, found some typos. Progress continues on 5 Strong St., more pictures Sunday.
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Country: USA
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BlairM
Section Hand
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Posted - 05/13/2018 : 5:30:07 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by jbvb
This trackwork is really a nice junction, I like the look of the stained ties and dark ballast, it really does have the new england look. This particular photo really gets me witht the process and I am impressed how you move boldy forward through and beyond the turnout with the rail and then fill in the rest later; I know this is a traditional method, but it is still something to actually see it in progress.
This is really ancient stuff, goes back to the beginings of the hobby when you had to know how to do all of the handlaying if you wanted to be a modeler.
I really like seeing how the ties precede the rails just as in old prototype. The warm color of the stained wood really sparks a feeling for me that is a mix of pure nostalgia from prototypes, old-fashioned modeling and memories of some of my early wood modeling in scale.
I love your photo of the turnout in the woods, that is the sort of railfanning I did as a kid, I grew up in Northeast PA where a lot of the duplicate routes were abandoned and you had to use imaginiation to see the railroad back in time past the trees.
Nice work.
Blair
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/20/2018 : 9:49:06 PM
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Thank you very much, Blair. I have a little feeling for your native corner of PA: I've seen a lot of old roadbeds off in the woods around Scranton and Reading, though I've never taken a hike on any.
Things have been busy with outdoor work, Hub Div. events, Seashore track work & operations etc. My modeling time last week was a break from structures: building and installing more Rapido switch stands for Newburyport.
Each sprue will build a Ramapo #17 (high, pre-1960), a Racor #17B (high, post-1960) and a Racor #20 (low) stand. I can use all of them, but I have to make B&M-pattern targets from brass. Also, the sprue only includes one lamp molding (I'm not complaining, these were manufactured incorrectly so Rapido gave them away at the BigE this year).
I'd painted the lamp's roundels on an earlier sprue, but this time I looked through my stock of MV reflective lenses; the LS 220 (red) & 221 (green) were about the right size. I drilled a dimple in each roundel out to #50 and Goo'ed four MV lenses in place. Then I spent a while playing with pictures.
Verdict: The reflected light can be seen, but you have to look (left side, just past the signal), but not conspicuous more than a foot from the audience. I will move this to a more visible location and glue it in place so it doesn't get vacuumed away. And I will build future switch stands like this batch, with a spike for a lamp.
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Edited by - jbvb on 05/20/2018 9:51:29 PM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 5907 |
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Michael Hohn
Fireman
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Posted - 05/20/2018 : 10:57:47 PM
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James,
That’s a great scene in every way. Details like the switch stand really complement your excellent track.
Mike
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Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway -- Woody Guthrie |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 5260 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/21/2018 : 10:31:26 AM
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Nicely done, James! Nicely done.
I need to get things to this point! <sigh>
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6696 |
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