Lighting and Assorted Miscellania

 

I finished wiring up the lights in the remaining Altoona shop buildings. There were four in total, the coaling tower, sandbox, back shop, and an aircraft warning light in the water tower. Unlike the buildings elsewhere in the layout, which use LEDs, these use old Model Power filament bulbs salvaged from my previous layout. Here's hoping they last, because they'll be damn difficult to replace should they fail.

In other news, a few nights ago I fired up the layout for some much-needed playing of choo choos. When my M1 passed through the Gallitzin Tunnel, every car derailed. As I pushed the train through the tunnel, there was something snagging it. Long story short, the wires running to some building lights ended up hanging down over the tracks. The solution was a few stripes of duct tape. 

Last but not least, I built five more 1940s-era automobiles and scattered them around Johnstown. I'd post a pic, but it's lost somewhere on my phone, which seems to be something of a Bermuda Triangle for photos.

Lighting in Altoona

As you can see, the roundhouse is illuminated and not with a battery. I ran wires from the control panel to a pair of barrier strips. The other buildings in the Altoona shop complex already have lights installed and their wires threaded through the layout. I should get them hooked up in fairly short order.

Roundhouse Detailing

Way back when I first built Cornerstone's (Heljan's) Union City Round House kit [Link], I left the rear section of the roof removable.  I also installed overhead lighting in the hopes I would one day detail the interior. Tonight, I did just that.

I took a Woodland Scenics "Train Mechanics" figurine pack my wife bought me years ago and glued 'em in. I must say the overall effect is very cool.

I also spliced the wires for the overhead lights together, drilled holes, and routed them through the layout. In the above photo, the lights are powered with a 9-volt battery. Tomorow's project will be routing power to the Altoona end of the layout.

Back From the Dead Line

 

You recall a few months ago I was lamenting the large number of locomotives I had out of service with various issues. I am happy to report four of them are repaired and back in action. It's amazing how doing one small thing can get my juices flowing and I'm finding myself excited to work on the layout for the first time in a good long while. 

My Atlas Trainmaster was the first locomotive outshopped. It'd sucked a piece of ballast into its gears. The repair was dead simple. Pull the bad truck, carefully rotate the gears until the bind, then back off till you find the offending piece of ballast. The whole deal took maybe five minutes.

Next up was the Broadway Limited Centipedes. The loco also swallowed some ballast. I was dreading taking the trucks apart and just kind of let them sit for a while. Turns out, the trucks aren't that bad. So again, another five-minute repair. Since one centipede can't run without the other, both units were returned to service.

Last but not least was my Broadway Limited E7. These were out of service for years. Some time ago, the derailed, shorted, and cooked their decoder. But, they were warrantied and I got a free replacement. I put it in, but the locos would barely creep with the throttle wide open. I knew it was a decoder problem, so I plopped the A unit onto the programming track. I started by setting CV8 to 008, a factory reset. That did it! All I had to do was re-address the locomotive and that was, as they say, that. 

Four locomotives still await repair, the I1 needs a new tender truck and decoder, the T1 may need to go back to BLI, my Atlas GP7 has a decoder issue and my Lifelike Alco FB needs a complete rebuild. The A unit is useless without the B.

So that's that. I have some cool ideas for finishing Johnstown but I need to look at some lighting options. Stay tunned.

Knowing when to say when

Wow! It's six months since my last entry! I supposed you're wondering where I've been. Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. For one thing, having a three and five-year-old means when I have the time to work on the layout, I don't have the energy. Conversely, when I have energy, I don't have time.

On top of that, I'm just getting kind of bored model railroading. Most of the layout is done now. and I'm just not motivated to finish the remaining project. Mostly I just find myself running the trains. Throw in my writing and my newly-acquired 1965 Chevy Corvair, there's just not much time for trains anymore.

 

 

 

Go ahead, ask me if I've read Ralph Nader's book. I dare you!

And now, onto the real subject of this blog post. We've all been there, it's late at night and the locomotive you're trying to install a decoder in just won't run. You know the darn thing is hooked up right, so why won't it go. You're tired and part of you knows you should call it a night. But you wonder when you're going to have the time or when the house will be this quiet again. So you keep on fighting, getting nowhere. Then pop! The decoder smokes, you fried it.

Folks, I can't tell you how many small problems I've turned into catastrophes because I didn't know when to say "when." It's easier said than done. When you're frustrated, you want to fix it right then and there. But, more often than not stepping away and coming back to it later can give you a fresh perspective. You may find a solution you couldn't when you were tired and frustrated.

So that's my two cents worth. I'm sure I'll be back to work on the layout at some point. I just don;t know when.

2018-19 Annual Progress Report

I can't believe the layout is six years old now and it's come a long way in that time. So let's get to it.

Track 100% complete to the original plan, plus industrial sidings in Johnstown.

Wiring 99% Complete, no I still haven't done the engine yard at Altoona. Now quit bugging me about it.

DCC Conversion: System install 100% complete, PRR Fleet 100% complete, NS Fleet: 60% complete. (Yeah, I copied and pasted this part from last year).

Scenery: 98% complete. Johnstown is in the detailing phase. After that, Altoona is the final frontier.

Last year, my goal was to get all the scut work like rail painting and ballasting done and over with. I came close. Altoona is the only part of the layout requiring these now.

My other goal was to finish Johnstown. I know, this part of the layout is taking a long time to finish. Frankly, I haven't been very motivated to work on the layout lately, as evidenced by the lack of blog entries. Right now I have a lot of other things competing for what precious little spare time I have.

On top of this, I have quite a few locomotives in need of repair and the list just seems daunting. But I'm not giving up. I guess my goal for this season is to get my fleet back in operation, finish Johnstown and formulate a plan for Altoona.

I am a Lineman for the County

After months of inactivity, I started a project I've been dreading, adding wires to the high-voltage towers. Started at the Johnstown substation and worked my way towards the outer edge of the layout. The procedure is dead simple, wrap some black thread around the insulator, squirt it with some CA, utter a few curse words and presto! High voltage lines.  Now I just need to do a set leading toward the wall.