Model Railroading > Community service call

There is a train show this weekend in Jefferson Tex. and the main bloke behind the train museum
there called me last night.  It seems the T&P layout that is housed in a depot-like building had shut down and
no one there could help get it running, and could I come today and see if I could get it going again
before the crowds come on Saturday-Sunday.

Trainorders.com member TomSTP took me to the layout's previous location in Fort Worth, probably 15 years
ago and I haven't seen it since then.  The original builder passed and the layout was moved to its new home 150 miles east
of Fort Worth to Jefferson.

Someone converted it from DC to DCC after the move, with Digitrax equipment.  It's been running well until last night,
and though not familiar with Digitrax, I felt up to the challenge into the unknown, so today I made a service call.

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After speed reading the manual and checking all the settings, I found nothing obvious.

Long story short, I finally found that one rail at one of the gaps dividing power districts was touching
the corresponding rail of the adjacent power district, and when a lokie crossed the gap things went
south quickly.  The gap was enlarged, everything reset, and the mighty T&P was back serving the 
customers of the One Star State.  Jefferson is 1.5 hours from my home in Tyler Tx and sure don't
want to be making service calls on a regular basis, though I did learn about the Digitrax products,
so there is that.

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The original control panels are still displayed, though disconnected from the layout.

The band is still playing 15 years later, and the cattle are stalling on their one way trip to the loading pens.

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Not related to the layout, I did spot this filling station down the street.

Jefferson is a neat little town, T&P (UP) is busy north-south and KCS east-west,
there is a small 3 ft gauge tourist line there, and shopping for the "others" while
trainspotting make it a nice destination.

I also take care of a automated display layout behind glass in the Mineola, Tex T&P depot
and Amtrak stop, a big layout at Palestine (Tx) Railroad Heritage Center, and our Tyler
layout at the Cotton Belt Depot Museum, and help others with private layouts including my own
Texas & Gulf.  Its a tough job but someone has to do it.

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WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> After speed reading the manual and checking all
> the settings, I found nothing obvious.
>
> Long story short, I finally found that one rail at
> one of the gaps dividing power districts was
> touching
> the corresponding rail of the adjacent power
> district, and when a lokie crossed the gap things
> went
> south quickly.  The gap was enlarged, everything
> reset, and the mighty T&P was back serving the 
> customers of the One Star State.  

Good work! Thanks for sharing.

That is a quite attractive, old school layout.

There is a lot of hard work in that layout and it was nice of you to salvage that for others to still enjoy.   Congratulations on the success you had bringing it back to life. 

That service station is a real gem as well.   Hopefull there will be people like you that step up over time to keep it well maintained and around for others to appreciate.   

And they didn't even pay you mileage? Ah, yes, our hero.

Victor Baird

Funny, last time I ran a layout that control panel would have been "state of the art"...

Cheers, Dave

I will probably never see this layout in person but I really enjoyed all the pics and your helping them,Thank you!

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Nice job finding the problem.  Not easy to do on a layout that is "new" to you, with a system you are not familiar with.  I am impressed!

Plus, neat gas station!

Jeff N
Olathe, KS
Long time Digitrax user

Fun fact about he last photo.  Texas' first governor born on Texas soil was James Hogg.  

Hogg was one of the founders of Texaco ( then called The Texas Company) and although
he was a really good governor and a champion of the farmer and small businessman, and
fought tooth and nail against railroad monopolies, he is mostly known for one thing and one thing only.

He named his only daughter Ima.

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> He named his only daughter Ima.

Legendary move.  There was rumor of a sister named Ura.  Not so. 
Big Jim was quite the guy.

Cliff Rutherford
Grain Valley, MO

Very attractive layout. Good that you were able to help.

Thanks WWM, for a job well done.

You done good Shane. Smart looking layout and beautiful scenery.
Regards,DK

Some history of this layout.    It was begun by R D Moses (owner of the property) and Jack Lucks was hired by R D and  taught R D everything he knew about modeling which was considerable. He was especially helpful in giving R D the confidence to tackle building  kits and scenery. Mike Paul developed a lot of the hills and mountains and the entire painted back drop.  .Mike was quite a artist having painted back drops for several layouts.    David Traylor painted the brass engines (no longer on the layout) and I did some wiring work with Jack Lucks guiding me to follow his strict diagram.  Jack was a retired Gen. Dynamics engineer whose job included wiring development and building all kinds of avaiton, rocket  items.

The layout was built in two seperate sections which was not the original intention.  But with R D seeing what had been accompolished he was ready for more and the 2nd half was built.  R D followed my suggestions that a Texas type scenery just had to have mesquite trees and he made a bunch of them after we all agreed on how to build them, what they should look like..   R D  welcomed visitors.

I helped maintain locomotives (brass) that ran for years but were sold before the layout was moved.  His son donated the money to charity.  I still marvel at the people from Jefferson who pulled off getting the layout out of the back yard, over the house, into a truck transporting it and getting it set up in Jefferson.without  damaging it .  And what they have done with it since then.  

A tip of the ole hat to them.

Nice job helping to get a beautiful layout operational again.  I'm envious of the wiring job, hopefully mine will look half as good.  The "Cochina PU" water tank cracked me up!  Spanish for "Pig PU".

Nathan

Great job. Maybe super glue in some plastic in the gap to prevent a repeat.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Very interesting. Never knew there was a club there. Been there many times to visit the KCS MP now UP crossing. Nice little town to spend some time in.
JB