Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
right again

It looks really unnatural for that big steamer to go through such a tight area, but then again how often will that switcher go on the track closest to the station? I'm sure not much. . . . . . . .

Tyler

Right you are, that inside track is reserved for passenger trains, and this monster is the freight interchange locomotive. I had never even tried to get it down that track, but was inspired to try by getting the 2-8-0 onto that inside track, something that I had long thought to be impossible. The standard practice is for this locomotive to push a cut of freight cars up the helix. and for the cut of cars to go down the center (preferred) or the outside track, and for the locomotive to drop them without getting on to the stub switch at all. When it comes to make a pick up, again preferably on the center route, it might actually get onto the 3 way stub switch in order to couple to the string of cars before pulling it down the helix to the southern staging.

I'm sure the Southern doesn't like to come on to my track, they just don't want my woodburners on their track , ever since that unfortunate brush fire. I still maintain that their valuation of their depot, t freight house , and engine facilities was grossly inflated.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML  SS sclnr ndd #1.jpg SML  SS sclnr ndd #2.jpg SML wrkng flgwys in SS #1.jpg SML FX Flgwys in SS #2.jpg flangeway police in Southside

I have worked my way over to Southside. I'm sure I haven't cured all of my flangeway problems up to there yet, but I'm going after the most egregious ones first.


Over in southside I have a picture of a switch that needs some attention, and then a close up of the same switch.


I also have two photographs up by the back drop where a mouse has disgraced itself in the road. Time for a glue trap!
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML sou stging  swcs.jpg Southern staging

After getting some of the problems corrected in Harlow, I moved down to the Southern staging yard and tried to make some improvements there.

The track down to Southern staging has two switches, so it splits into three tracks, and then merges back to one making a three track double ended yard. the tail track then also has a switch with two more tracks.


where the two back tracks joined together on the back side of the tree track yard, I had a curved switch, that the Southern 0-8-0 did not like so I cut it out and spliced in a Peco switch (approximately a #6- Peco labels their switches by radius not #). The 0-8-0 likes the new switch, but it took a sudden dislike to a Walther's switch leading to the tail track. that switch has been trouble free for years but about half of the rolling stock in the staging yard, and the 0-8-0 suddenly don't like it. careful study shows it has some sloppiness in it's points, so I will need to replace that switch as well.


I'll have to study my stuff and see if I have any switches on hand. This is one reason I hate commercial switches, often they can't be fixed.


once I get the yard working I'll need to make some Harlow/ southern staging tabs, I already have some Crooked Creek/ Southern staging tabs, but not enough.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML SOUstgng #9.jpg SML Sou stgs #8.jpg More Southern staging work

I figured that the three track double ended yard was much more useful to my Southern staging than the two track stub yard at the end of the tail track, so I robbed the switch, a Peco switch salvaged from a module I build in the early years of our club. I spliced in a piece of flex track so as not to shorten the tail track. when I get another Peco switch I can splice it in. this piece of roadbed is salvaged from my first totally inadequate Southern staging, and has Homabed roadbed, so If I get ambitious it would be easy to hand lay a switch in this location. I need to do some careful track alignment and glue the track down. Much of the track is on woodlands scenics foam roadbed, which is something I would not repeat. I like something more firm under my track that will hold a nail or a spike.

I will need to make two gaps on the rails of the center route through the staging yard before it gets put to use. I like the geometry of the tail end of this yard better than it's previous two incarnations.

On my to do list now is to make some white car delivery location markers for Harlow, to try to get Harlow closer to ready for tab on car locations.

so far I'm thinking it will go like this (but the markers are movable, allowing experimentation. #1 the hidden dog hole (made to stash a switcher behind a cut of cars off the southern, but big enough to hold some cars too, so why not use it for operation. #2 the outside track at the 3 way stub switches opposite the passenger terminal in Harlow. it works reliably now, so why not use it as a team track. #3 the Harlow water works (coal and chemicals), #4 and the Harlow coal and Ice company (coal cars and refers to be iced at the icing platform #5 Runyon & Runyon hardware & lumber (box cars and flats) #6 Parrot Oil co ( oil distributor tank cars and box cars) #7 engine facilities - coal and sand) # 8 Freight house #9 another team track ,and last but not least #9 and # 10 the yet to be built tannery.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML cntrl pnl dtl.jpg SML cntrl pnl.jpg SML Hrlw dlvrmrkr #2.jpg SML Hrlw mrkrs #10.jpg Harlow delivery locations

I have glue drying around strategic locations in the Southern staging yard, so when I cut the gaps hopefully it won't kink up too bad.

Ok the top picture is a detail of my centralized block control panel. Note: the blocks are color coded. white for Harlow, Brown for Murray, in loving memory of Father David Murray, longtime train budy and later my parish Priest. David claimed God is a model railroader, and backed it up with scripture from Issiah ". . . and his train filled the whole temple." also green for the Southern Staging. These colors correspond with the delivery tabs, so if an neophyte operator is unsure of what town a car should go to, he she or it can consult the control panel . The second photo shows the complete control panel, which is unfinished, Georgia staging, at the far right, needs to be assigned a color other than white, so it is not confused with Harlow, 150 miles to the Northeast and 1,500 feet below .

the third photo shows the #2 Harlow (white) delivery marker, a car with a white tab, with the number 2 on it would be delivered to this location.

The last photo shows the back side of Harlow, Southside. a car with a white tab and the number 10 would be delivered next to the sand house, and one with the number 11 would go to the freight house.

each tab is two sided, in each of the previous examples the other side could show Green for Southern staging, or blue for Georgia staging on the other end of the RR. If you get tired of the same car showing up in the same place every other operating session you change the tab.


The beauty of this system is if you want to run trains, and ignore the tabs you can. the cars might end up in odd places, but the next time you do operations, they will go somewhere that makes sense, as long as you don't have a log car tab on a coal car or visa versa.

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML B C&I dtl.jpg SML Bmpss I & C.jpg and now for something completely different!

While fighting through track work down in the Southern staging, I ran out of track nails long enough to reach down through the worthless Woodlands scenics foam roadbed; and went hunting through boxes of stuff looking for some more. I didn't find any, but I did find a box with remnants of my old Bumpass Module. there was a kitbashed flat for an ore bin that was part of the Montgomery furnace complex.

I took it out, and made some cuts so it would fit up against the slopped ceiling in Gegokayoosa North Carolina, where I had been working on an iron mine. with the addition of this piece, that structure got much larger and more complex, becoming the Bumpass Coal and Iron Co. The ore transfer @ Ridgemont is complex enough I should be able to transfer some coal there as well; which would give me a source for coal on layout, to help fill out operations. I'm considering adding some interchange log trains from Dr. Tom's old C&S. doing that would help me feed the mill more from the Valley division, which would free up some room on the too busy Mountain division for some coal traffic.

The track down in the Southern staging has been frustrating, I have rebuilt it twice, but the back track on the three track double ended yard want's to derail the 0-8-0 no mater what I do. the foam roadbed (I'll never use that stuff again) doesn't support any of the track tweaks I want to make. The Southern passenger train goes through it without a problem, so if worse comes to worse I can make that track the passenger trains, but I'm going to see if I can add a guard rail some kind if way, even if I have to cut out some plastic ties and solder in some PC board ties


Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Operator error

I got the Southern 0-8-0 working on the inside track. It turns out the tender wasn't aligned with the locomotive right There is a little apron, a floor extension on the back of the cab that rides on top of the tender floor so the fireman can walk back and fourth from the cab to the tender without fear of falling through the crack. This isn't modeled on most locomotives, but it is on this Proto 2000 unit. that apron had got stuck under the tender floor somehow lifting the front of the tender slightly and lifting the front driver very slightly.


I got it set up right now, and it can go through the back yard track at full throttle with no problem. the locomotive was loping some, but I cave it a shot of CNC 2-26 on it's axles, and that fixed it up with much improved electrical pick up (I could tell that's what the issue was due to headlight flicker I squirded some CNC 2-26 on the Centerline track cleaning car, and treated all the rails in Southern Staging, and it is working beautifully now. time to tru to find some of those KD uncoupling magnets, and get this area set up for operations!

Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SNL Tannery #1.jpg Back to kit bashing

With the Southern staging operational, and the Harlow track much more reliable , I'm looking at Harlow with an Idea of establishing operations.

Up on the hill above the engine facilities in Harlow I have been planning on adding a tannery. In the east , in may locations they peeled the bark off of logs before they got sent to the mill, the bark was sent to a Tannery where they were soaked in water, which released tannic acid into the water, later raw hydes were but into the tannic acid solution to tan the hide. Tanneries were not uncommon near big logging operations, so I though adding one to my operations would be an interesting diversion, much more unusual in the modeling world than it was in the real logging universe.


I had this IHC freight house. I had originally planned on using this as the freight house for Harlow, but changed my mind as it is just too ubiquitous. I have modified it to make a two sided two story flat , that will be the beginning of the Tannery.

BTS makes some kits for Civil war era cars, their open roof stock cars look just like cars used to transport bark, so I plan to get some.


Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
untitled.jpg Test fitting the tannery

This two walled flat from the ubiquitous IHC freight house kit forms the first element of the sprawling Tannery complex in Southside. The walls for the next section are some scraps leftover from when Dr. Tom built his Railcamp building. the cuts on the end wall with a door for a railcar to enter the building will be very tricky, so I will recreate that wall in foam core to practice with, and when I know i have it right I'll cit the plastic wall. The next section of building will be complicated, as much of it will be on trestling, as will the loading docks that will be built around wooden vats that will hold the bark while water leaches out the tannic acid.


I figure this building will get two to three cars of bark a day, perhaps two cars of hides a day ( in dedicaded cars, once you haul hided in a car you can't use it for anything else) and provide two car of leather a day, which should make it the busiest location in Harlow
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
GA loop #2.jpg GA loop #3.jpg SML Geo loop #1.jpg Progress on insane narrow gauge expansion.

Those of you who are unfortunate enough to know me personally know that model railroading has taken a back seat into what has turned into my most time consuming hobby, living in a 130 year old farmhouse on 21 acres. My farm house project was to install oak flooring in a nook of my guest bedroom that had once been converted into a closet for the master bedroom, utilizing a door between the two rooms. we removed the closet, and while the guest bedroom's floor has had oak flooring installed on top of it, the closet still had ugly linoleum added on top of the original poplar, which unfortunately is too cupped to allow restoration. Yesterday I was in there getting ready to add the oak flooring, a relatively easy job, when I realized the wire for the thermostat in the master bedroom was hanging out in the open area that sed to be the closet. I now had to rebuild a wall, and I figured I had best do that messy job before I installed new hardwood flooring. so to do that I had all of my powertools up in the house.

Having the power tools available, it made it a lot easier to do the long planned work to add a return loop to the narrow gauge @ Georgia Staging, and so I went for it, as I had allready breathed enough plaster dust to suit me for this or any other weekend.


So here it is the beginning of the Georgia loop on the narrow gauge which will give my narrow gauge operations a loop to loop capability. with the other loop (North Carolina Loop) just above it and to the right. This will allow narrow gauge trains to enter and leave State line GA. in both directions easily.

When I designed my RR I had minimum 3 foot wide aisles. when I added the log camp at Terrapin, that reduced the aisle there to 2.5 feet. this will give me my tightest choke point, as it is only 2 feet one inch from the outer point of Georgia loop to the corner of the Gizzard.

This will be fun though as there will be room for some removable foam mountain scenery that will fill up the space between the Georgia loop, and the Bumpass Coal and Iron Co. just above it on the fifth level. It is a shame I'm so close to the ceiling , or I could keep on going.

The football game is on so I may work on the tannery some if the spectacle of watching Tennessee's 3rd string quarterback in his first start isn't too painful.


Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML mck up wll  #1.jpg SNK mckup wll #2.jpg back to the tannery

The next wall of the tannery will be tricky, as there is a door where the track goes into the building. the track is allready there. and since the building is a flat, one end is up against the backdrop, so the cut will have to be just right to get the door in the right place.


I cut a piece of foamcore to the shape of the wall, and used that to rest the fit, so I have an idea about where it needs to get cut before I start and it is less likely that I will mess up.

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML tnrry #4.jpg I got the second piece of wall sections in place. it looks like it will fit, and make a building that is big enough to be a serious industry. between the trestle and the building there will be a loading dock with vats. that area may be under a roof. I can paint some smokestacks and water towers onto the backdrop to make it look even bigger.


Thanks for the engine house pieces Tom, much faster than scratchbuilding.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML  tnry overhd..jpg SML pnttd tnnry.jpg here are some pictures after the basic spray painting of the walls , flat black inside and out to kill any transparency, dark gray on the outside, and some white on top of that, while the gray is still when, and then a dusting on light gray on top of that to give we the optimum faded white look.


I took one photo from above to show how the flats are set up against the backdrop. probably more than 3/4 of the buildings in Harlow are flats, which helps make a cramped area look much bigger than it really is.

Looking at my photos of the tannery in Walland TN, and it has a big brick smoke stack, perhaps I can add Add a powerhouse in front of the trestle, and outfit a portion of the trestle as a coal dump, and get coal deliverys at the Tannery as well as hides and bark.


That cut off the turntable is necessary to feed the as of yer unbuilt coaling trestle. the hopper cars will have to take a ride on the turntable, the track in the cut will allow me to stash one switcher in the cut. another locomotive can then put a cpoal car on the turn table which can then be turned into position, and the the switcher in the cur can push the hopper up on top of the coaling trestle.


Bill Nelson

Bill Nelson
 
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S class

Member
I say, I say, that there tannery is lookin' mighty fine there and I do declare that this here boy Bill Nelson is one modeler of high quality.







(or is Tennessee too far north for the foghorn leghorn accent?)
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
(or is Tennessee too far north for the foghorn leghorn accent?)


Why yes it it, and the good Doctor and I are up on the Northern end, smack up agin Kainteckey.

However I'm from Mississippi, so all is forgiven " Hey boy! look at me while I'm talking to you."

The appearance of quality comes from persistence. My railroad has been the same conceptually since 1972, and it has gone through about five major changes. If I live long enough, I'll get it right. my current RR room forced me into some very bad compromises, but it looks good, and is intersting to operate.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Why yes it it, and the good Doctor and I are up on the Northern end, smack up agin Kainteckey.

However I'm from Mississippi, so all is forgiven " Hey boy! look at me while I'm talking to you."


Bill Nelson

Or another Mississippi favorite "BOY! Ya dun good." Keep up the good work Bill and make us "Tennessee Proud."
Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
cars for the tannery.

Thinking ahead toward tannery operations I figured I'd need Bark cars and Hide cars. regular boxcars could handle the outgoing leather goods. Once a car was used for raw hides , it was pretty much unsuitable for other use, so old heavily used equipment would be most reasonable for that service.

BTS's Civil war (War to prevent Yankee Aggression) series provided the needed kits. They sell an open roof cattle car that looks very much like photos I have seen of cars used in bark service; so I ordered a four pack, which will allow two cars a day to be delivered to the Tannery. the biggest question is how to model the bark.


I have also ordered a 5 pack of USMRR House cars (box cars). These will be painted for the DG CC & W RR, and heavily weathered, and put into service as hide cars. If I add one MDC truss rod box car to that fleet, then I could get three small bay cars a day of hides, which would support one or two normal box cars loads of finished leather goods.


I have got them ordered! , along with two flat cars, to evaluate for use else where.


I like the short equipment, I started my modeling career with Mantua civil war era equipment, so adding some examples of that equipment in wood rather than plastic will be a welcome addition to my rolling stock collection.

Bill Nelson
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Hey Bill,

I went to go check out what BTS has to offer. Although the car kits are all too old for the WRRy I think I may have room for that Dictator... And I like their building kits, like their City Point car shops. That may find a home someday on the WRRy as well.

So far Afghanistan has been treating me well. The only thing that stinks is I don't have enough room for my wife to send me my train stuff. I'm in a room the size of a tuna can with a roommate and all his gear. So I have 11 more months with no train playing... sigh.

Tyler
 
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