Pulpwood Crane Makes It to Layout

Wanted to check out possibilities for the pulpwood crane on the layout.  Won't be permanent, yet, since much scenicking is needed, first.  But, the crane looks like it's found a home:

A Sling of Pulpwood

Just happened to have a few sticks of pulpwood left from the bobtail truck project.  Used the cap from a pill jar to line up sticks and collected with rubber band.  First tried Woodland Scenics cement but either didn't wait long enough to dry or cement just wasn't strong enough to hold pulpwood together.  Went with full strength white glue!  Made a loop out of chain by gluing with CA cement.

In the back of my mind, I remember a sling rounding off the bottom of a pile of pulpwood, but a few sticks were left a bit more "out-of-round" on top, so a few extra sticks were added that didn't fit the pill jar cap.  Just doubled the chain for sling.  Oops, looks like black thread -- cable -- is too long.

Finished product looks pretty good, but will need to glue tracks to layout to get rid of knife counterbalance!

Woodyard Crane

Received a kit for a 30 ton Erie crane with clamshell bucket this past week.  Not cheap, but would seem to be a good fit for loading pulpwood from truck to rail, as I vaguely remember it being done in the woodyards of the 1950's.  Will not need clamshell, but will use cable or chain to sling ordered pile of pulpwood and transfer from bobtailed truck to pulpwood rack.

The kit, from Model Tech Studios, was satisfactory, but not the cleanest castings I've seen.

Instructions suggested to paint after assembly. That would seem to be difficult unless spraying -- how would you get inside the boom?  So, parts were laid out and painted:

The metal wire provided in the kit didn't seem to be a good fit for the red disc seen in photo, above, so a plastic rod was pulled out of inventory to use.

Just about assembled.  Installing black sewing thread, I mean, cables was one of toughest tasks!

 

Detail parts came from LASER cut cardboard or something similar.  Now will have to find small chain and some pulpwood.  Have misplaced forklift previously positioned to load railcar so timing is right to add crane.

Closest picture to concept I could find, albeit rubber tired:

Lumberjack Finds His Tree

I couldn't help myself, I had to find those lumberjack tools and paint the handles to look a bit wooden....  Then, the repainted lumberjack and his double bit ax found a resting spot under a tall, Southern yellow pine.  I even included a two man saw -- guess maybe that's why he's relaxing, waiting for the number two man!

Relaxing with two man saw.

Note small chip out of tree and double bit ax!

Somehow I'm reminded that if you have to explain the punchline to a joke, your joke isn't very successful.  Maybe I shouldn't have pointed out the missing chip.

Relaxing Lumberjack Take 2

OK, so I couldn't live with the jockey racing silks look, so I tried again.  Repainted shirt with red, but had to do it twice to come close to covering prior black paint job.  Used Sharpie to add black plaid.  Looks better, though not perfect -- but the whole layout is a "representation" anyway, right?

Original

Take 2

Should I try hair, eyebrows, and eyes. . . ?  Do they make paint brushes with only two bristles?

Relaxing Lumberjack

As a student (a few years back) of NC State's Pulp and Paper Department that was in the Forest Resources College, I saw a logo that I really liked:  a lumberjack relaxing under a tall pine tree, a double bit ax leaning against the tree where one chip had been removed, smelling a flower.  Well, even Woodland Scenics didn't have that figure, so I figured I'd improvise.  I did find a guy relaxing at a Backyard Barbecue that came close.  Only, he had on shorts, loafers, and a T-shirt.  So what, just a little repaint and he could be wearing boots, jeans, and a buffalo plaid shirt, aka:

Buffalo Plaid

Barbecue -- Before

Lumberjack -- After

OK, so the plaid is a "bit" big and he looks more like a jockey than a lumberjack, but just wait until he's leaning against the tree.  From 20 feet or so, it will almost be obvious.  I'll also have the double bit ax. . . .  Notice that he now has a yellow "Cat Hat" as in Caterpillar Tractors -- you can almost read the C A T!  And to heck with the flower.

Pleasantly Plump

So, I've about lost participation from the grandsons what with football and things.  Both are playing offensive line on there respective age group teams.  With a visit from a couple of granddaughters over Halloween, I was instructed as to placement of some figures on the layout.  They had given them to me in September for my birthday.  Woodlands Scenic calls them "full figured", but the girls like pleasantly plump.  They thought too many of the current figures looked too healthy!

I probably should have removed some of the cobwebs before photographing, but, after all, it WAS Halloween!!  And, while I was blowing the dust off of another package of figures, I blew a few of them onto the floor.  There may still be one down there somewhere. . . .

Waiting at the station. . .

as the train pulls in . . .

trying not to let hat blow off.

Having a hot dog outside at Ebenezer Grill.

Farmer admiring his cotton field.

We decided to leave out the guy with the beer belly and a can in his hand!?!?!

Railroading on the West Coast

Well, not much happening at Blacktop Crossing, due in part to a two week vacation in Alaska and British Columbia, plus the week before getting ready. . . .

But, some great experiences.  Rode the White Pass and Yukon out of Skagway up the mountain.  Great views and "period" passenger cars.

Just had to pick up a baseball cap and passenger car.  Don't know how to incorporate EITHER in the layout. . . .

Then, by chance, bumped into Canada's second largest railway museum in Squamish, BC.  We really only stopped at Squamish because The Wife liked the name!  Nice museum, but I couldn't talk The Wife into a full tour.

A Crack in the Cosmic. . . Diesel

A couple of things have been bothering me since switching the SW1 Switcher to DCC with sound -- the lights stopped working and the speaker in the cab was too big for the cab which kept the cab from meeting the chassis/frame cleanly.  That left a CRACK:

Front of cab doesn't meet chassis

After seeing an article in Model Railroading about DCC written by the DCC Guy, I checked the DCC Guy's blog and found a reference to "sugar cube" speakers (http://www.dccguy.com/?p=509).  Maybe that's the answer!  That led me to Streamlined Backshop website (www.sbs4dcc.com) and the purchase of the small 8X12mm speaker.

The next step was installation, and that meant removing the cab and hood.  What the heck, might as well check on the lighting while we're under the hood.  Using a 9V battery, a couple of patch cords, and about a 470 ohm resistor, I touched the connectors for the back light -- bingo, it worked.  So, now I was pretty sure I had wired the LED's incorrectly.

With the instructions for the Soundtraxx TSU-750 and a folder of DCC tips in hand, I cross-checked the wiring diagram with my wiring job:

I was pretty sure I used red wire on the positive side of the LED's, and the wiring tips say positive is blue from the decoder.  Oops, I have white connected to the red (supposedly positive) lead for the front and yellow connected to red for the rear.  Looks like they need to be reversed.  Plus, I need to replace the speaker.  So, some de-soldering is in order:

OK, everything pulled apart.  Note the size of the original speaker; not very big, but just big enough to overfill the cab; and there is NO space under the hood for a speaker.

Carefully (!! these wires sure are small) soldering things back together we get another jumble of wires:

I glued the sugar cube speaker to the top of the cab (you can almost imagine that you see it at the end of the purple leads) with white glue.  Hope it sticks!  Having a rounded cab top and a rectangular speaker didn't help the situation.  Lots more room this time.

Did that help with the CRACK?  I think so:

How about the lights?

Now they are even working correctly!  Amazing what correct wiring for an LED will do.  Seems I replaced the original front light with a "softer" light when I thought maybe the original had burned out.  Don't know when we'll be under the hood again so let's just leave it for right now.

I did note that the volume was significantly lower than with the larger speaker.  I turned up the volume CV's to almost maximum and the little Switcher sounds OK.  I read somewhere that most model railroaders run the volumes a bit too loud anyway.  Certainly on a small, 4X6' layout, you don't need much volume.  However, I'll have to turn the volume down considerably on the F2 loco to keep from drowning out the sugar cube speaker.  No problem.  Just a minor adjustment.

Bottom line, pretty pleased with results -- no crack, working lights, good sound.

Turnouts are WORKING!!

OK, NObody told me that the red sheaths/covers for the control rods were supposed to be stuck through the hole in the Bullfrog turnout control!  While looking at some other Bullfrog control installations on the Internet, there seemed to be a secret that I had missed and that was why I was having a problem with so much slack -- I needed to have the control rod cover anchored at or near the controller.  Now I do:

Poor Focus, but Red Cover Poking through Controller is Evident!

In fact, I used a little wood glue around the cover in hopes that would help the anchor point.  I must admit, this was a little bit of "Duh, huh" -- seems obvious now.

Of course, that wasn't the last of my problems.  The third Bullfrog installed was for a single turnout for a siding.  When I tried to replace the turnout, I found that I had run the paper clip through the wrong hole/wrong tie.  Note the large hole from first try (with the switch control wire sticking through it) and the mark just below, where the hole SHOULD have been.  Don't know what I was thinking. . . .

Fixed that, although I'm still not sure why the center of the two holes don't line up on the roadbed.  I know I centered the "throw bar".

I had seen on the Internet -- as I searched for the secret of anchoring the cover at the controller -- that someone didn't like that once the knob was glued together, it was a pretty much permanent situation.  The knob would have to be broken apart to remove the attaching screw.  If I were making furniture for The Wife, I'd worry more, but this is a train layout and a little modification of the knob seemed in order.  Why not drill a hole in the outside layer of the knob to access the attaching screw?!  So I did:

Used inner circular layer to align for drilling 1/8" hole in outer layer.

Drilled 1/8" out to 11/64", I think -- same as center layer hole, shown.

Glued together "offline" -- front and back shown

Time to route cables out to fascia, but I was short one joiner sleeve for the red cover tubes.  Hmm, seems I ran across a length of tubing yesterday looking for screws.  Sure hope what's left is long enough to reach the container next time I bleed my brakes:

Got the rods to the edge, drilled 3/16" holes for the red covers to fit in,  Stuck the two control rods and red covers through the fascia, marked red covers, pulled out of fascia and off of inner control rods to cut red covers to length.  Re-installed red covers on inner rods and ran back out of fascia.  I've learned my lesson:  it's good to have red covers anchored; so I installed the little black clips provided with the control rods.

Making sure the turnouts were thrown to "normal" position (control rods fully in), I cut the control rods just past the red covers.  I'm thinking that the cutting of the control rods is going to distort the hollow core AND it's going to be tough to hold the control rods while the knob attaching screw is inserted.  So, I "threaded" the control rod by screwing in the attaching screw:

Don't know where the iPhone was focusing, but the idea is clear.

As I was removing the screw, I must have put some tension on the control rod and it moved to the "switched" position, showing an extra inch or two of rod outside the fascia!?!?!  Not so hard to hold onto the control rod after all.  Anyway, both knobs in place:

Closer is thrown to open crossover; distant is in normal
position -- siding not used.

Notice the small hole in the center of knob to access attaching screw.  Looks OK to me -- and I ALWAYS need to redo things.  I like the flexibility of removing the knobs if needed.

Although working under the layout, with most activities overhead, and dealing with small items is the pits, the final results are rewarding.

Nearer controller for siding; far controller for one crossover turnout.

The red cover on the far left curves around (behind the nearer controller) to the second crossover turnout, entering controller from the other side.  Then there's a clevis attached to a control rod that comes on around (and thus making a loop) and then goes to the far controller in photo.  Shoot, should have taken picture of clevis; it works pretty well although the added friction or resistance is noticeable at the control knot.  The circuitous path was needed to have the turnouts synchronized for the one-knob crossover control. 

Clipped the switch control wires with diag cutters -- now there are three 4-inch pieces of wire somewhere in the workshop (safety glasses recommended).   Only a slight adjustment in the placement of one turnout (tried to get adjustment at Bullfrog controller, but no help there) and the job was finished.  Ran the little switcher all around the layout with no trouble at the turnouts -- as long as the Engineer remembered which way the switches were thrown.

Trying to Install Turnout Controls!?!?!

Some progress was made, maybe, in getting the Bullfrog remote, mechanical turnout controls installed.  Plans are to control these two turnouts for the crossover plus the siding turnout on the right with two "knobs" -- that is, controlling the two crossover turnouts together.  But, they will be controlled from the OTHER side of the layout. That's where most of the sidings are as seen on the yellow control board for DC hook-up.

First, I traced the turnouts with a black flare and pushed a straightened paper clip through the hole in the turnout "throw".  When the turnouts are removed, the small hole from the paper clip is visible in the cork roadbed and marked for even better visibility with the black flare.

Next, a small pilot hole was drilled through cork roadbed and plywood, followed by 1/8", and then 1/4" drills.  Then a countersink was used to smooth out the top and bottom of the hole.  As luck would have it, one hole is really close to the side of the layout, within an inch or so of a 1X4" support.  The other hole for the crossover is almost exactly on top of a 1X4" brace -- how's that for lucky?!

Test-fitting the Bullfrogs showed that maybe I WAS lucky; they will just fit in these locations.  Not necessarily in this order, but the three controllers were installed along with two joiner/supports.  The set-up was left in this condition 

due to a few technical challenges.

Seems a 3-foot control rod is pretty flexible -- maybe that's why it's the longest they sell!?  On the other hand, the thought would be that anything much closer than 3 feet could be handled manually so why install a remote controller?  So, why not 4-foot or longer rods.  Of course, they CAN be extended by various means -- mostly, using a 2 56 threaded rod for the inner rod and a plastic tube and the joiner/hanger for the outer cover.  Both "knobs" will need extended rods.  But, the rod and cover going to the first crossover turnout flex enough when pushed that it seems there's too much slack to actuate the turnout.  Phooey.  As a matter of fact, the controller for the siding turnout may do the same thing even though it's pretty much a straight shot.  Will need to fix this before completing the installation.  Plan is to put clamps, holders, positioners along the cable to keep it from moving.  Just need to find something that will hold the cover in place without collapsing it onto the inner rod.

The double switch for the crossover just might be too much for one cable to handle, but that's yet to be determined.  A clevis for a radio control airplane model was used to connect from the controller on the right in the photo to the one on the far left.  Since the local hobby shop had these parts, two more 3-foot control rods were also obtained.

One other challenge was the angle of the "z-bend connector".  With these small devices (and thank goodness they ARE small or they would not have fit), it's hard to get "manly" fingers around them to attach to the layout or attach the other hardware.  When the z-bend did not line up easily with the incoming rod, a couple of pairs of pliers were called into action.  A little force to make the z angle tighter did the trick.

Before Pliers

After Pliers -- OK, not mirror image; different controller.

Turnout Controls

Having spent a little time running trains on the layout with the wireless and handheld "cabs", I've found the "far" side of the layout to be a better location than the original DC control panel side!  And, there are only three turnouts that cannot be reached easily for throwing them manually -- just like the prototypes of 1956 or so, maual operation, that is.  Rather than mess with electrical connections, I decided to try out some of the mechanical devices called Bullfrogs.  The plan is to use only one "knob" to activate the two controls that create the single crossover.  After ordering the parts from Fast Tracks and assembling the devices, I find that Fast Tracks actually offers single crossover devices as a kit.  Oh well. . . .

These are really nicely designed kits using laser cut wood.  The controls and support come something like this:

Partway through assembly, they look like this:

Some of the controller parts -- including SPDT switch if needed

Parts for Support

The completed devices look like this:

These are right-hand controllers and I made one more support and a left-hand controller.  Or, these are left-hand controllers and I made one more right-hand controller.  The devices assemble fairly easily with white glue.  The only downside is that you keep smelling scorched wood!?!?!

The control rods are long (18 or 36") tubes within a tube.  I'll wait until I can install these on the layout to cut the tubes to length