Bill and Tom's EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in Logging and Mining

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML  tst trn..jpg SML  Ct flgwys.jpg SML Flfwy cttg tl.jpg SML FLdd frg #1.jpg SML tstfittg thrwbr.jpg SML  tst trn..jpg SML  Ct flgwys.jpg SML Flfwy cttg tl.jpg SML FLdd frg #1.jpg SML tstfittg thrwbr.jpg I finally remembered to take the camera to the club. so there are more photos.


once again the photos loaded backward to the way I wanted them, so from the bottom up.

I'm test fitting a piece of PC board that will be the throw bar

I filled in the frog of the three existing switches with solder, I used tinning flux and lead free plumbing solder . which makes solid and hard joint.

after the frog is filled up with solder I use a mill file across the top to level up the top, and then use the special tool shown, a piece of hacksaw blade in a vice grip to file out the flangeway through the frog.

then there is the frog with the flange ways cut out being tested with a test truck.

and on the top is the test train, which after some extra filing and tweaking. was rolling through two of the switches without a problem ( I have to get some support under the bridge before I can test that switch with the long train.

note there are no guard rails yet. a well built switch will work without them, so they go on last, after the switch works well, cause the gaurdrails can mask some flaws it the switch geometry, so you get the whole thing working before they go in and then you know you have a good switch.


I brought home some of the blue point, under the roadbed manual switch controllers for me to study and pre-wire @ home so I can play with them to see how they will work. those , the trowbars , and some gaps to make them DCC friendly will be the next projects.


Bill Nelson
 
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Some ideas for the JE Patterson Sawmill Complex

Hi Bill et al.

Here are some photos of an interesting sawmill complex I ran across. The model seems to be situated much like ours will be on the club layout with a main building perpendicular to a close back drop and a log pond in the foreground with the jack slip going over the trackage in the foreground also. I love the vertical elements in the model as they take your eye away from the fact that there is only about a foot and a half distance from the front of the layout to the very vertical backdrop.

For reference I put in a picture of the future sawmill site in its earlier construction phase (before Bill's beautiful track work).

Let me know what you all think???
Doc Tom:cool:
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
that's the ldea!

that is very much like what I'd like to do. Unfortunately our track is much closer to the backdrop, so we won't have anywhere near as much depth to work with, so we won't have as much depth to our buildings.

We may have to angle the main building and the jack slip some, and I think the power house will have to stick out on the right, rather than the left like that one does.


Bill Nelson
 

Sawdust

Member
I like that one a lot especially dealing with a narrow space. The only thought I have that would be nice if you could do it on your layout is to incorporate more of the pond in front of the jackslip feeding the mill. You guys do water very well & the pond feeding the mill would be another eye catcher.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I like that one a lot especially dealing with a narrow space. The only thought I have that would be nice if you could do it on your layout is to incorporate more of the pond in front of the jackslip feeding the mill. You guys do water very well & the pond feeding the mill would be another eye catcher.

You are right Sawdust. We could bring the foreground ahead about 4-6 inches and as Bill mentioned "flatten out" the sawmill by pushing it back a few inches to clear trackage. I agree an interesting foreground model like a the log pond would also take the eye away from the very vertical and nearby backdrop.
Doc Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML  jmpr fd & gps.jpg SML  sw thr  mech.jpg SML swthr n pl.jpg It was a quiet night @ the railroad club, or would have been had I not had the hockey game on the radio.


Bob was the only one to make it, and he sat quietly by the main yard repairing bad ordered cars, and going through the pile of unsatisfactory cars and fixing trucks, installing KD's and other chores to get them functional.


I battled with the track in the sawmill area trying to make some progress. I had pre wired some of those blue point manual switch controllers, and tried to install them. Not a lot of luck, with the 3/4 inch plywood and the 1/2 inch homasote the music wire was to wimpy, and did not result in a hard throw, so I'll need to go by the R/C store and see if they have stouter music wire.

I did tale the dremil and the camera, so I was able to make some gaps to try to make the switches DCC friendly, and get photos of the jumper bars I soldered in last week to make each point unified electrically with it's stock rail.


so here are the pictures

Bill Nelson
 
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
great work Bill

Really good work there Bill. That switch linkage will be a nice touch once it is operational.

Sorry, I missed RR club. I realized Monday AM that I had to attend Hospital medical staff meeting at 6:00PM and they droned on and on and on and on. So I was AWOL to something I would rather have been doing with trains.

Thanks for all your good workmanship, can't wait to run a steam engine to the future sawmill.
Doc Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I had to attend Hospital medical staff meeting at 6:00PM and they droned on and on and on and on. So I was AWOL . . . . . . l.
Doc Tom:thumb:



As unlikely as it may seam, something at that meeting will help save or improve a life, or at least improve the quality of care, and so once again, you have been caught doing good. Leave is granted, and no AOL condition exists.


Those blue point controllers are very nice, but loose their oomph through the thick plywood and homasote. with half inch plywood and cork roadbed ( or homabed, which has the scale roadbed profile, and thus is the same thickness as the cork) I think they would work well. I may end up putting in DPDT ground throws similar to DG CC & W RR practice if a quick workaround isn't discovered, It would be less aesthetically pleasing , but it would get those tracks operable quickly.



Bill
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
annother thread!

I have been working on converting a Ho Bachman GE 70 tonner to HOn3. I put it in a thread in the Narrow gauge section, as a narrow gauger might not think to look in this subsection.


http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167339


there is the link. the locomotive was built for our club. and I think it will be a big success. it runs pretty smoothly right now, and I had washed all of the grease off of the gears, to be sure it hadn't picked up metal of plastic shaving in it, so I suspect it will run beter once it has been re lubed.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I have been working on converting a Ho Bachman GE 70 tonner to HOn3. I put it in a thread in the Narrow gauge section, as a narrow gauger might not think to look in this subsection.


http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167339



Bill Nelson

Bill,

That is very nice model you did. I agree it will be very popular at the RR club and I suspect it will be a strong puller on the extreme grades of the narrow guage part of the layout.

Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
The GE on the hill

the little Ge did ok on the hill. It has a little hitch on it going forward since it ate KD 714 a coupler attachment. bit seems to be getting better since I got it to cough up the screw, so perhaps the slight loap it has now going forward will get better with operation. It can push five hoppers and a caboose up the steepest part of the hill. I was going to add more cars but the power went out, stayed out, and we left after a little while. Man is it dark in that basement when the power goes out. Dave had a flashlight in his truck, so I was able to find my jacket.


I tried double heading with the GE unit with the MDC 2-8-0 and they ran together acceptably I was planning on bringing the MDC home, but it may stay at the club. as I have purchased a C-16.

Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Dave invests heavily in the JEP C & L Co.

Well maybe not heavily, but there is promisehere. Dave had been cleaning up his train stuff, and came up with this project locomotive. He felt it was out of his area of expertise, and so he passed it over to me to see what I can do with it. I don't know what I can do with it yet, but it looks like a logger to me!


It appears to be a Mantua 2-6-2 from the dark Tyco years (judging by the plastic boiler.) It looks to be to have been kit built, by an unpracticed hand. This is the more expensive version of the locomotive (Note the valve gear.) As I worked with the locomotive it had a bad bind, that apeared to come from a loose main rod crank pin. Tightening that up made it worse, rather than fixing it, and it has issues with the valve gear on the fireman's side.

I had forgotten how pesky that valve gear could be, the valve guide doesn't seem to want to lock into place between it's rear hanger and the cylinder. These has a bad design, as the boiler retaining screw is all that holds the cylinder saddle in place, and the saddle in turn holds the valve guides in place, the set up is very difficult to troubleshoot. So the agenda for this locomotive is to 1. find an alternate way to hold that cylinder saddle in place so that the valve train can be worked on with the motor and boiler off, so any binds can be felt by rolling the mechanism with my fingers. 2. fix the mechanism. 3. Find a can motor for it, paint it and detail it, perhaps to double head with #34.

so here is a picture of the critter. I got It running, it just want's to unscrew it's fireman's side crank rod, a touch of glue might solve that, but it would not be the optimal procedure.

there is also a photo of the GE unit with the narrow gauge train, (yes it will easily get this train up the hill).

Bill Nelson
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
there is also a photo of the GE unit with the narrow gauge train, (yes it will easily get this train up the hill).

Bill Nelson

Bill,
The GE unit looks great and I am glad to hear it is a very strong puller. That narrow guage branch at the club has a very stiff grade. Congratulations on a another successful locomotive creation.

I know you will get that steamer decent too.

Doc Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Progress at last!

The Blue point throws on the switches I had built for the saw mill complex were giving me fits. Innumerable attempts at placement and adjustment were frustratingly close, but no cigar. I'd get the point tight against one stock rail, and it wouldn't quite touch the other. reworking it the next week, and I'd be in the same place, but on the opposite stock rail.

I had got some stiffer music wire, which helped, but didn't quit fit the bill. I tried mounting the controller sideways . I drilled a hole, just the size of the music wire about an inch away from the points. I bent the music wire above and below the road bed. Over the point's tie bar It is bent straight back down into the hole in the point tie bar. Under the subroadbed the Music wire bends the other way . and hooks into the throw mechanism underneath. I'll try to take my camera next week and document it. While I was setting it up I had Dr. Tom up above ground, and Tom said that it was working. Next week I'll try to add a control rod and hook up the wires and see what happens.

Down at the front of the #1 peninsula. Dave rebuilt the problematic curve on the main line. I did some work to the subroadbed, which will allow me to pour in a arched viaduct in hydrocal, which after the forms are torn off, I will carve stonework into .


I got my train order Today! I got three 6 packs of Atherin hopper cars 2 N&W and 1 B&O, so I got lots of hoppers, and I got a BLI Paragon 2 N & W Y6b, with sound and DCC. I saw some videos of this locomotive on you tube, and was sold by the sound. this monster weighs 2 pounds!, so at the club I am branching out into main line power. It is aimed at the coal drag, so it is related to the J. E. Patterson Coal and Lumber company. I have had some operating differences with Dave, on the way that the coal operations were set up, so I figured if I bought into the equipment in a big way, I might have a little more influence on main line operations.


My next goals are to add two more blue point controllers to the existing switches , and get them wired up; build the long siding for storing empty log cars at the mill, and get those switches wired up, and then there will be just one more switch to build, and the two hidden lumber loading sidings, and then the track at the sawmill complex will be done and Dr. Tom and I can start to build the sawmill buildings!



Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
atherin Hoppers

These Atheren hoppers in the 6 packs exceed my expectations. they are not just factory built examples of the old shake the box kits ( miss the shake the box kits by the way) but have better handrail and other details, and have metal wheel sets. whilr they are not cheap, when I built the shake the box kits, I budgeted for Jaybee wheel sets and KD couplers, so these in the 6 packs, if you get them on sale are not far off what I would spend for the old style, but are better cars.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I got my train order Today! I got three 6 packs of Atherin hopper cars 2 N&W and 1 B&O, so I got lots of hoppers, and I got a BLI Paragon 2 N & W Y6b, with sound and DCC. I saw some videos of this locomotive on you tube, and was sold by the sound. this monster weighs 2 pounds!, so at the club I am branching out into main line power. It is aimed at the coal drag, so it is related to the J. E. Patterson Coal and Lumber company. I have had some operating differences with Dave, on the way that the coal operations were set up, so I figured if I bought into the equipment in a big way, I might have a little more influence on main line operations.


Bill Nelson

Hey Bill
Congrats on getting your new steam locomotive. Here is a picture of it getting delivered from the shops.

Maybe you could put it on your lower mainline trackage and fire up your video camera and let us see and HEAR that beast with its compound exhaust note.

Doc Tom:thumb:
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
progress at the Sawmill!

After months of struggling truing to mount the blue point switch controllers as designed. I gave up and put one in sideways. after some tweaking I got the first switch hooked up and working with a push pull rod (made from a piece of coat hanger) through the fascia.

I have the throw all lined up for the second switch, and the location of the blue point controller marked, so all I have to do is screw it in place, and hook up a control rod. At this rate I should be able to get the three existing switches in the saw mill area fully functional and wired up before someone can clean up the yard enough to get it to where we can turn on the DCC. I have one more switch and three hidden tracks to build, but those will go in quick, as since they are hidden, flex track will be allowed.


In the next couple days I'll try to draw a diagram showing how the switch linkage is done, and get it posted; and next Monday I'll try to get photos of the set up.

Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
diagram

I drew up a diagram, and photographed it, some of it got washed out by the flash, but I'm too lazy to do it over.


I have been working on narrow gauge cars mostly, but have run out of narrow gauge trucks. Next I might go for some cars for the club. I have a 6-pack of Tichy hoppers, which I will probalby build up and letter for the J. E. Patterson Coal and Lumber Co. That would get me up to 10 J E P C & Lmbr Co hoppers, 12 N&W hopper, and 6 B&0 hoppers, a respectable start on a coal drag for my Y6b.


I also have some old AHM truss rod flat cars, enough to make a respectable log train, which I may finish modifying for log service for use @ home and at the train club.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML diagram.jpg Oopps the diagram didn't make it.

I've been busy. I got off of work at eight in the morning on Saturday, and went off to hobby lobby to get some plastic modeler's glue, as I was almost out, and have a six pack of Tichy Train group USRA hoppers to build. (owning a Y6B makes one want to own too many hoppers). After I got home I did some work with tax ipaper work, and then got a couple hours of a nap in before going to Nashville for the last regular season game of my Nashville Predators Hockey team.

We had a great game against St. Louis, tied 1-1 at the end of overtime, and we won in the shootout. Great hockey, and soon we will see who we line up against in the first round od the playoffs.

I slept last night, and have been doing some cooking and cleaning this morning/ I'm about to go out in the yard and do some yard work to try to get tired enough to take a big enough nap to get back on my work at night schedule tonight, where besides some housework, and more accounting, I hope to work on those hoppers, and perhaps start planning a return loop for the narrow gauge on the fourth level to complement the one on the fifth level.


Bill Nelson
 
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