Model Railroading > The 2019 Penn Central - A Few Updates

I've been buried at work for many weeks now but still found time to work on the layout and fix some thorny issues.

Thorny issue #1 - The nine (9) diamonds at CP 173.

I had tried every kind of HO Scale diamond at this location. Everything from Atlas Code 83, to Roco Code 83, to Peco Code 100, to Tillig Code 83....all about 25 degree and none of them would pass a train through without hesitation. Sound units sputtered, non-sound units stalled..ad I had no desire to equip hundreds of diesels with stay-alive boards. All of the diamonds used had continuous circuits through them yet all stalled passing trains. The Europen designs were the worst...designed to be used in single crossovers they caused all manner of shorts in trains passing over them.... so we instrumented the diamonds to see if it was shorts or power interruptions causing the problems and it was, both.

I was on the verge of giving up on the idea and reconnecting the junction as just two sets of mainlines, feeding a long peninsular loop. Then the LHS got in some "new" Atlas Code 83 25 degree diamonds. They are definitielty different from the ones I originally bought. Longer in both directions. Better flangeways and some of the wheel lifting I saw in the first ones was not happening. So I placed three of them in the mainline just to let trains run over them on one side ...no issues with all 3 laid directly end to end. So far, so good.

So I purchased a further six (6) of these and began to assemble a new 9-diamond structure. I placed short spacer sections of track between the diamonds and laid it in place.....ran all the main lines into it - and - stalling all over again.

So we instrumented them and found it was only stalling - no shorting - so half the issues had gone away. Tracking through them was ok as to how wheels an through, so I found with my track meter that the intermediate sections were not always getting power. Then we found that a few of the diamonds were not passing power through them. So I bit the bullet. I had two choices - either solder bridge wiring under every diamond or - run power feeders to both rails of every short spacer track. In so doing I would be powering both ends of every diamond too....so I attached 48 feeder wires to the diamonds including to the spacer sections between. I used Atlas Code 83 terminal joiners and went with short Code 83 Atlas straight sections to space things out.

I will go back and solder all now....but the result was perfect. ZERO stalls....ZERO shorts....

Here is a view of the revised area ......

So while using the joiners solved the whole soldering-under-the-track issue, I now had 48 wires to pass down through the foam subroadbed. Passing wired through foam is not easy at any time ...and having already run hundreds of them through I needed a better solution for this one. I had found the solution a few weeks ago at a local walMart....an upholstery needle.

See Picture #2

This needle is about 8" long and has an eye in it large enough to pass a block feeder wire through....

So all I did was to pass a feewer through the eye, push the needle don through the foam and bingo - perfectly placed wire. I passed all the red main feeder wires through first, thenn the green so I did not create any shorts....worked perfectly.

See Picture 3

Videos to follow....

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/19 08:08 by navarch2.

---

---

---

Here are a few videos of a short wheelbase unit passing through the mains...it worked equally well on all tracks and all directions.

Finally now able to move on.....

Yes the layout looks crowded - I emptied the helix so we could install the full staging yard under the railroad.

Bob

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Blast Furnace #3

I decided to have three blast furnaces at the Adirondack Specialty Steel Integrated Mill - but already part way through building and redetailing two of the later Walthers kits I wanted to pick one up on an auction site that was already built. I have looked for over a year. My sole criteria was that I wanted one that had been neatly assembled so I could detail it. I saw a number of them over the past year but all were below what I wanted to work with quality-wise.

Then a bit over a week ago, one surfaced locally on an auction site - along with a built-up, detailable electric furnace ( I wanted another one of those too) and a blooming mill model. So I bid on them all and won them all....and was able to pick all of them up in a nearby town last Friday night. Turned out that this fellow also had a partially completed ore dock not listed on the auction site and give a good price on it so it came home with me as well. I doubt they would have survived shipping very well...and all are easily disassembled as they are in modular builds.

The tracks that feeds this furnace were already in place (hot metal tracks, slag track and dust reclaiming track. (for all 3 furnaces) as I had designed them into the layout long ago after measuring the first Walthers furnace I had purchased. Glad to report that the track spacing and orientation was spot-on and this first furnace dropped right into place with all tracks working as required.

Here are some pictures of the blast furnace.

Will post more iangery of the beginnings of the mill as the days go on...

Bob

---

---

Are the rumors of 2019 PC buying Norfork Southern true??

Amazing work....

I just can't help thinking about what Gomez Adams could do with that 6 way crossover.

As usual, a great update. Love the 2019 PC concept.

DRGW5502 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are the rumors of 2019 PC buying Norfork Southern
> true??

Don't laugh....there is a unit on the railroad right now with the words "Penn Central" inside of an NS stripes  logo...lol....
It was nothing serious but it fit quite nicely......Penn Southern? 

Bob

.

DLM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amazing work....
>
> I just can't help thinking about what Gomez Adams
> could do with that 6 way crossover.

Maybe I should get a set of four of my Proto 2000 SD60's run up to top speed with a 50 car train behind them and t-bone a Rapido TurboTrain...? ...right between the coaches? 

Nah.......there are more parts in the underside of a mid train dome car... :)

Bob

PS.....will NEVER happen :)

King_Coal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As usual, a great update. Love the 2019 PC
> concept.

Thank you for that :)

Bob

I still have work to do on the approaches to the junction. 
I have to realign the inbound tracks all around to get a nicer line on them....then go in and do some roadbed sculpting and additions to get all to line up well. 
I have to complete all the wiring on the mains.
I have to figure out the lay of the land and roadways and topography.
I have to wire two reversing sections in the area.
I have to complete adding the under-layout staging trackage.
Then there are two more peninsulas to build before serious scenery work can begin - not to mention gradually completing a 60 ft+ long integrated steel mill and trackwork therein..

At least I will never be bored :)

Bob


 

> Don't laugh....there is a unit on the railroad
> right now with the words "Penn Central" inside of
> an NS stripes  logo...lol....
> It was nothing serious but it fit quite
> nicely......Penn Southern? 
>
> Bob

Keep Penn Central and do more patch jobs. Those Genesis SD60Es!

Nicely done Bob !!! Lots and lots of feeders under that diamond !! -------  Ken

This is an amazing undertaking Bob.You have displayed great perseverance with your multiple diamond project.As always,updates most welcome.
Regards ,DK

Great progress.  It seems like overkill, but stalls (and regular derailments) take a disproportionate amount of fun OUT of the hobby.  The only solid solution is a feeder to each and every separate piece of rail, or to solder rails together on the layout - which is its own mess.

I think you'll never look back and say "Boy I wish I had less feeders."  No way - worth every minute to get it right!

Well done I say.   Thanks for sharing!
~RGDave
https://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/

navarch2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DRGW5502 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Are the rumors of 2019 PC buying Norfork
> Southern
> > true??
>
> Don't laugh....there is a unit on the railroad
> right now with the words "Penn Central" inside of
> an NS stripes  logo...lol....
> It was nothing serious but it fit quite
> nicely......Penn Southern? 
>
> Bob
>
> .

Nice looking layout. Let's hope the PC of 2019 does not end up like the PC of 1968! 

DRGW5502 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Don't laugh....there is a unit on the railroad
> > right now with the words "Penn Central" inside
> of
> > an NS stripes  logo...lol....
> > It was nothing serious but it fit quite
> > nicely......Penn Southern? 
> >
> > Bob
>
> Keep Penn Central and do more patch jobs. Those
> Genesis SD60Es!

I'll post some images later of former NS and IC  units in PC colors now...it is simpler than repainting them completely. Valejo black will brush smoothly right over any paint....looks pretty nice - hard to see the brush marks at all...

Bob

Kemacprr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nicely done Bob !!! Lots and lots of feeders under
> that diamond !! -------  Ken

Indeed...but it was the only way to have any hope of making it work...total wiring time was about 1.5 hours....not so bad to do....now I have to go and solder all the joints but I have a resitance soldering unit and paste solder so so it will go fast. 

How is your re-do going?

Bob

DKay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is an amazing undertaking Bob.You have
> displayed great perseverance with your multiple
> diamond project.As always,updates most welcome.
> Regards ,DK

Thank you...my role model is Wile E. Coyote.....matters not how mank cliffs and boulders are dropped on me....I always crawl out from under my own messes and carry on :)

Bob

RGDave Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great progress.  It seems like overkill, but
> stalls (and regular derailments) take a
> disproportionate amount of fun OUT of the hobby. 
> The only solid solution is a feeder to each and
> every separate piece of rail, or to solder rails
> together on the layout - which is its own mess.
>
> I think you'll never look back and say "Boy I wish
> I had less feeders."  No way - worth every minute
> to get it right!
>
> Well done I say.   Thanks for sharing!
> ~RGDave
> https://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/

Thank you Dave....if I can make this look anywhere NEAR as good as your  OC....then I'll be truly happy :)
It just drove me nuts to not have that junction work properly...I became...obsessed....I have MANY 25 degree (or thereabouts) diamonds now all over the place looking for a home...most will end up going on the white elephant table :)

Bob

>
> Nice looking layout. Let's hope the PC of 2019
> does not end up like the PC of 1968! 


I try not to think of what this layout has cost me thus far...lol....lest I end up seeking government funding...)

Bob