Products of Lakeland, FL

Thanksgiving often means a visit to in-laws in Lakeland, FL.  It also means I will take some things to do, like a bike to ride (it's really flat!) or kits to assemble or books to read so when the ladies are chatting or cooking or crafting, I'll have something to keep me busy.  Yep, got in a bicycle ride, ate LOTS of delicious food at in-law's and at Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, AND did some train stuff.

If you're going to have a pulp and paper mill, you gotta have pulpwood racks.  I had been collecting racks at various shows and stores so figured it was time to put some together.  Had THREE Tichy Train kits:

Don't know why I would have waited so long to try one before obtaining another.  These kits are VERY detailed and "fiddlely".  At least on one, the brake system is almost installed properly. 

Hoping to get some insight into assembling these kits, I went online. . . .  Found one guy who had done a similar thing, purchased a couple of kits and let them sit a year or two or three; then decided to assemble.  At one point he comments that assembly of these kits might better be done by paying somebody.  Nevertheless, he forged forward and confirms:  would be better to pay someone to do them.  I might agree!

Made some progress on two and had a third, non-Tichy that needed trucks and couplers:

Not real sure where side panels go and sent email to Tichy.  Still have not heard.  Waiting to figure where to put them before placing decals.

Also had a C&O boxcar kit.  Much simpler although brake system is pretty detailed.  Made an attempt at weathering; needs a little refining. . . .

If you're in Ybor City, it's just a hop, skip, and jump over Old Tampa Bay to HR Trains in Pinellas Park.  Used to be one of the three largest model train shops in USA; now claims to be largest in FL.

Since a friend of a friend was cleaning out her attic, found a 1957 HO scale Lionel train set, and gave it to me but the Rivarossi Loco didn't run, I was in the market for a replacement motor.  HR Trains repair guy pulled out a couple of old motor boxes while Alice and I looked for pulpwood racks and other cars.

Walked away with another Tyco rack (not highly detailed), a tank car, another Tichy Train kit (oops), hopper car, and possible replacement motor -- all for a "steal" Dennis suggested!  Whether or not I got a good price, they were certainly fun to deal with.

Just means more work, I guess.  Tested motor quickly; not confident it's going run :(

Paper Mill Scenicking Begins

Another granddaughter visit; this time a rising 3rd grader, and some interest in the paper mill addition.  Mixed and applied a little "ground goop".  Also installed a few store-bought trees and two hand-made trees; a grape stem by granddaughter and a tomato stem by me.  Both used hair spray for glue and polyfiber plus large, green turf with burnt turf added in.  Ground cover is same as "leaves" on trees.  Looks pretty good from where I'm standing!

From a different view:

Lots more to do. . . .

Granddaughters' Visit

 Well, two granddaughters visited to join us in a banquet but we just HAD to check out possibilities for additional scenicking with the Fathers Day gifts they had gifted!  The older granddaughter, rising senior in college, was most interested in being a train engineer.  Although I KNOW she's a very smart young lady, we had a hard time ensuring the long-long-short-long horn was sounded befor the crossing.  You'd think that with the layout named "Blacktop CROSSING", knowing the proper crossing signal would be important.

The younger granddaughter, rising senior in high school, did seem to approve of earlier work with scenicking from the gifts.  She also thought another dog should be placed in the park near Mill Hill.  She picked out an appropriate canine.  We forgot to name him, but for the time being we'll call him Bernie the St. Benard.

You might note that Mr. Terry has loaned one of his canons to the park -- if Mayberry can have a city canon, so can our Mill Village!

Spoils of a Father's Day

Frankly, I have just about everything a guy could want, but I do get spoiled on Father's Day and other gift-giving occasions.  This year for Father's Day, some of my son's family made a stop or TWO at New Brookland RR & Hobby shop in Columbia, SC.  The spoils of those stops became apparent June 18.  There are plenty of figures and a good bit of bushes inventory yet to be used, but here's a start!

Several garbage cans were picked from the Woodland Scenics "Junk" selection.  This could improve the sanitation on Mill Hill.  The retired couple put a can neatly in the back corner of their neatly trimmed hedge, of course.  The family with kids is trying to be neat but evidently one of the kids used the top of the can as a shield playing knights of the round table.  She didn't do a very good job of putting the top back on.. . .

The Greaser's (maybe I'll do a little searching on this blog to come up with their names, but for the moment they are all forgotten -- later:  someone needs to index these posts, still don't know individual names but the family is the MILLners) have a new junk frame and flathead engine to deal with.  Maybe they should move the chassis out of the walkway/path!  Manana. . . .

Over at The Cotton Factory, a couple of workers at the loading dock are straightening things up for the next rail delivery.

And, it looks like we're about to have a fracas back over at the Greaser's.  OMG.  Uncle Joe Bob (or whatever his name is) looks a bit perturbed with  Allie the alley cat on the white top of his favorite pick 'em up. Rufous the Bassette Hound is hoping he'll hear Joe Bob say, "Sic em, Rufous, you ole hound dog!!"

One of the granddaughters who may have been partially responsible for the excellent Father's Day gifts has suggested that I write a book.  I figure when I retire I can; in the meantime I'll have to refer her to my Blacktop Crossing Blog!

Choosing the "Wye"

With a good bit of help from Erik at Tony's Trains Exchange and input from a DCC forum, I made a choice for placing gaps/insulators in the "reversing wye".  The hope was to allow working the woodyard on the top track while bringing chemicals in and taking paper out on the bottom two/three tracks.  That is, two locos working the 2X8' extension at the same time.

As shown in the earlier post, I think we can claim success.  For clarification, I chose the "green" gaps in this sketch (of colored options!):

It's MAGIC!

OK, so Tony's Trains PSXX and PSXX-AR -- I think you might call them a circuit breaker and an auto-reverse -- are now installed after I got the last Flextrack in place.  And, they work!  First try, got a short notice (red light).  Oh, sure, the new piece of Flextrack is wired different than the siding, color-wise.  Fixed that by changing the siding wires.  Oops, STILL have short according to PSXX.  Well, dang, the wye leg has four OTHER drops.  So, swapped siding wiring back and swapped new Flextrack drops.  BINGO!

Count the number of "suitcase" connectors for TWO drops on the siding. . . .

But, it worked.  Must be magic. . . .

Well, you have to trust me that I never picked up the locomotive, but I had to shorten video to upload.  I did add a little Roy Acuff. . . .

Wiring Expertise

Sometimes you wonder. . . .  I told "The Wife" that I was using black and red wires for the buss and white and red wires for the drops while wiring the new section.  Would have preferred black and red for both, but all I have to do is connect red to red.  So, what did I do:

NOT Red to Black!!

Better:

So far, so good. . . .

More (Slow) Paper Mill Progress

 Making progress on Panama City, FL, paper mill in relatively small steps, it seems.

Roadbed

Track

Small Connector -- upper right

Started a little wiring of buss plus reversing wye electronics.  I hope "green means go".

Red and Black with Suitcase Connectors

The Paper Mill Layout Takes (Some) Shape

Tried a "new" method of planning and laying out track.  Used the free Any Rails application to work out something that might be a compressed Panama City, FL, International Paper Company mill in about 1956.  Since the mill is on a sort of a peninsula, it lent itself to a bit of a "switching" setup.  Maybe something like this:

The addition will connect to the existing double oval.

Since it was printable in 1:1 ratio, I did that and placed 27 sheets of paper on the pink foam:

Used something like a sewing pattern transfer wheel to run down the center of the tracks and mark the path through the paper.

If you look hard enough, you can see the tracks of holes!

Started laying roadbed halves using wood glue and rail nails (temporary):

Looks like it might work out OK.  This part of layout may not be quite so well scenicked -- maybe enough to get the point across.  We'll see. . . 

Switches are not permanently attached since rail nails are sticking up.  Nails will be removed!! 

A Reversing Wye?!

 Now planning a 2' X 8' addition that will focus on a compressed pulp and paper mill site.  Track design is not fixed for the moment, but it looks like there may be an option for a reversing wye, of sorts.  Still working on it. . . . 

A Year Later. . .

Wow, has it really been almost a year since the last post?  Oh, well, a little activity today to place a load of pulpwood on a pulpwood rack.

A buddy in the hobby found a pulpwood load at a local swap meet and picked it up for me.  He said I could have it for an arm and a leg, so I jumped right on it. . . .

One problem was that it was too long for the pulpwood rack I wanted to use.

A little time on the bench sander and we got a fit.

The ends of the pulpwood bolts seemed a bit yellow compared to other sticks of pulpwood I had around so I tried mixing fawn, licorice, and sunny yellow acrylic paint with a little bit of water to get a wash.  

Since each brushful required a little more mixing, the color is not uniform on the pulpwood -- probably a good thing!

For the moment, I'm very satisfied.  Looks good on the layout but now I think all of the pulpwood ends could be lightened up a little.