LVT&R Progress report: Father's Day 2011

In order to maximize my layout space, I've decided to work with hidden tracks. By putting downtown Allentown on a separate level, I can run trolleys through town, over the 8th Street Bridge and continue south. I can hide 3 staging tracks for CNJ, LNE, and Reading trains underneath Allentown, while having the double main line for the LVT&R on the main level, pass under the 8th Street Bridge and reappear on the other side of Alfundo Park. There are a few challenges with this plan:

• Hidden tracks can be a maintenance headache
• If I'm going to loop the trolley, I'll have to do as narrow a radius as possible.
• Keeping the curves smooth as I do the end loop around Alfundo Park

Meanwhile, I've forged ahead with laying roadbed and track. I'm using thinned white glue to adhere both the roadbed and the track. It's strong enough to hold until the ballast is put into place yet easy to remove and realign. (I was going to do this the old fashioned way with nails/spikes, but I've become a big fan of adhesive!)

I've added an industrial spur for the Coplay/Cementon area which will double as my programming track. Rather than spend $25 on a circuit board to control the programming track, I'm using a simple toggle switch. By routing power from the Power Cab Panel to the programming track first, the programming track is always on. The DPDT toggle allows me to cut power to the rest of the layout.

However, yesterday, I failed my saving throw versus Klutz three times.

1. Although I checked the fit of the turnout to the programming track multiple times, when I soldered the lead track, the angle was wrong. I had to cut the track off and add a segment of flex track to avoid wasting the turnout.
2. While waiting for some roadbed and track to dry, I was working on coupler conversions. While removing an old housing, my knife slipped and I cut the truck instead, resulting in a trip to the hobby shop for replacement trucks.
3. After installing my programming toggle on my simple panel, I discovered I had it placed in reverse (as far as the labels on the panel were concerned). (On a slide switch, the connected poles are the ones on the same side as the slide. On a toggle switch I bought, the connected poles are on the opposite side of the direction of the toggle.) So I removed the switch, turned it around and reattached it to the panel--only to tighten so hard that I broke the switch.

So tonight, I spent a bit of time fixing yesterday's klutz failures. Most of the track now laid is attached to the bus and I've tested the controls again. Tomorrow, I'll clear up some of the work area and fit the return curves into place. Hopefully next month I'll be able to either extend to the north or start adding Allentown.

Phase 1 photos are up...

https://picasaweb.google.com/ld.barthel/LVTRPlanningAndProgress

LVT&R: First trip between Allentown & Lehigh Water Gap

Yesterday afternoon, Lehigh Valley EMD F7A #572 made the first trips between Allentown and the Lehigh Water Gap on a test track.

It turned out to take far longer than I expected to get to this point. All my previous layouts had been basic DC wiring, but for this version of the LVT&R, Christine got me an NCE Power Cab. (I had been thinking about DCC this time around, but I was going to postpone the transition for financial reasons. I think she caught me drooling over the InterMountain DCC F7A at the train show. Well, OK, I *did* point it out to her.  But I really started drooling when the the woman put it on the the test track and I heard the built-in sound.) I had done some research on DCC systems and had already read some positive reviews of the NCE Power Cab. But the fact that I could get an expandable entry-level DCC system for only $100 more than a good DC power pack put to rest any thoughts of wiring a new layout for DC first.

Anyway, I had read lots of advice on DCC wiring on the net, including the page at Gateway NMRA. Based on those recommendations, I had purchased 12 AWG wire for the DCC bus. As it turns out, that was too large for the connection to the NCE Power Cab. Plus, somehow I had picked up one spool of stranded and one spool of solid 22 AWG for the feeders. So back out to the stores I went again. At Home Depot I was able to get 16 AWG wire as well as 20 AWG bell wire. I flirted with the idea of using splice taps, but at over $0.70 each, that was going to be too expensive. Instead, I picked up a box of wire nuts to minimize soldering under the layout.

Because I couldn't find clear markings for which bus wire connection was to be red, I decided to do a quick test first. I made a pair of jumpers with a spade connector (which I soldered & crimped) and soldered a pair of feeder wires to a section of flex track. I made the connection to the NCE panel and the terminal block, plugged in the AC adapter and nothing. Sigh. After a bit of checking the continuity with a VOM, I discovered that I had made the black wire wasn't firmly connected at the NCE panel. So I stripped a little bit more off the ends and made sure I had a firm connection at the NCE panel. Not only did my EMD F7A come to life, but I was able to run it the entire length of my test track: over 10 feet of flex and sectional track with only 1 pair of feeders.

By the time Chris came home, I had relocated the feeder wires to beneath the layout, mounted the terminal blocks, reconnected the main bus jumpers and added the first bus section to connect to the feeders via wire nuts. She came downstairs just as #572 was making its first trips between Allentown and the Lehigh Water Gap.

I need to eliminate some bumps where the plywood sections butt against each other before I can begin laying the final sets of track in this section of the layout. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for us to finish relocating some of Chris's things that she doesn't want covered in sawdust.

In the meantime, I can start working on rolling stock. There are a few boxcars to assemble and some Kadee couplers to install. We'll probably make some paper buildings to get a better feel for scenicking. (Allentown is the biggest city in the area I modeling with the LVT&R--it would be a shame for it to not have any buildings because I located the track poorly...

Groundbreaking on the LVT&R!

Yesterday and today I spent some time on the initial "benchwork" for the LVT&R.

Since half of the railroad area is along walls, I'm opting to do shelf benchwork for that portion. Using Rubbermaid's twin track shelving brackets will give me more than enough support, plus it will make adding additional levels or lighting a breeze.

The tracks are now installed for the Allentown-Lehigh Water Gap section of the pike. It turns out that opting for extra support was a good idea: either the studs supporting the drywall in the basement aren't plumb or they don't extend all the way. About 5 of the upper or lower screws are using plastic wall anchors instead of screwing directly into the studs.

Also, in one case, the stud runs too close to the electrical outlet--the outlet cover was directly beneath the track. Since Rubbermaid doesn't make a 60" section of track, I cut one of the 72" sections to fit. (I could have used a 48" section, but that would have interfered with additional shelving (or a fiddle yard below.

I've been taking picture of the work in progress so I have documentation for the NMRA Achievement Program. I'm going to check measurements against my plans and cut the plywood shelving next. Once that's done, I'll get the pictures uploaded to Picasa.

In the future, I may replace this with cookie cutter roadbed to more realistically model the grades of the Lehigh Valley, but for now, simple flat top benchwork will get things moving--namely trains!

The next phase of the benchwork will be to mount twin track on the walls of the Lehigh Water Gap - Mauch Chunk segment of the pike. This will include a lift-out section across the Water Gap (which is literal in this case, since it's the location of the water main for our house.

Time to go back to work!

The National Jukebox

Work on the layout has been delayed while I deal with computer issues. Sigh.

But here's something you'll *really* like. (10 points if you know the source of that line!) I just found out about the Library of Congress' National Jukebox http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/. They have obtained the rights to stream historical recordings from their collection of Victor discs. Best of all, you can create playlists from this collection and share them.

My father was a big fan of John Philip Sousa's marches. You might think that would be enough, but there's far more to my "Sousa heritage". For many years, the Allentown Band was directed by Alburtis Meyers, who had played cornet in Sousa's band. My father insisted that because of that connection, the Allentown Band played Sousa as Sousa intended. Given the musical influence of Meyers in the greater Lehigh Valley (both my dad and my high school musical director studied under Meyers), you could say that Sousa is my musical great-grandfather.

So naturally, when I found that the Library of Congress' collection included recording by Sousa's band, my first playlist simply had to be "Sousa's Band plays Sousa". (Although one of the first tracks I played was a version of Tom Turpin's St. Louis Rag....) I wanted to include the classics (Washington Post, Liberty Bell aka Monty Python, Thunderer and Stars and Stripes Forever) as well as some lesser known works. The first 2 tracks are conducted by Sousa.

This is a wonderful resource that illustrates the true power of the Internet to enrich all our lives.

Although some of these recordings are over a century old, the constant extensions to the copyright period (which only benefit corporations) mean that these treasures are not yet in the public domain. And that makes me a sad panda.

The Great Train Expo

I spent most of this weekend (and a bit of money) at the Great Train Expo. I started rebuilding my collection of rolling stock and motive power--and came to a few decisions regarding the layout.

While I might want a more prototypical layout, the fact that I have only 6 feet in width pretty much limits me to a basic loop. Even in N scale, the blobs required for reversing loops simply take up too much room. But if I take my cues from the modular movement, I can have 3 mainlines running around the perimeter of my layout area. I've also decided to break my prototype completely by putting a tunnel under the Cetronia/Dorneyville area. This will let my have continuous runs without completely cramping Alfundo Park. It also gives me the opportunity to model the 8th Street (now the Alburtis Meyers) Bridge. This bridge allowed Lehigh Valley Transit to access its Fairview car barns on the south side of Allentown.

One of my new toys is a DCC Lehigh Valley F7. I also got the NCE ProCab for my DCC solution. So now, it's just a matter of getting lumber and starting to lay the first mainline so we can begin operating as soon as possible. However, since it may be a few weeks before we afford a major lumber & tool purchase, I may settle for a spot where I can have a basic test track.

I've posted 2 new layout designs to my Picasa album.

The Railroad Project begins...

When we were house hunting, one of the desirable traits was a location for a train room. Christine has been fairly adamant about having a layout in the house. She claims it's for purely selfish purposes: if I have a layout, then she knows exactly what to get me for Christmas and birthdays, etc. are taken care of for the rest of our lives.

While the space we can allocate isn't large, it's larger by far than any space I've ever been able to dedicate to model railroading. So for the past few weeks, I've been doing some imagineering.

I realize I hadn't blogged anything in months, but I thought this would be an ideal tool to track my progress into the ranks of rail barony.

So let's start with the "wish list":

• I want to work in HO scale. I'm getting older and N is a bit tiny for my eyes and fingers. (My dad went back to O exclusively as he got older.)
• The model will be a freelance prototype. I want to base the layout in reality, but not be bound by it. I love steam and trolleys (I am my father's son, after all...) but I don't want to be stuck strictly modeling the 1940s. So we're going to pretend that the Conrail merger never happened and that trolleys are still a essential part of transportation.
• Point-to-point operation is prototypical and cool, but sometimes I just want to run trains, so at least one (and maybe 2) continuous loops will be desirable.
• My prototype roads are the Lehigh Valley and Lehigh Valley Transit. (It will be difficult to find equipment here in the Midwest. The local shop caters to Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific.)
• I want to include a model of Dorney Park as it was in the 60's and 70's. This would include the Zephyr (as an N scale model). I'd also like to include the Coaster and Skooters, Zoorama, the Show Boat, the Whip, the Merry-Go-Round and the traffic cop on Dorney Park Road. My model will be called "Alfundo Park" after the clown mascot of Dorney Park.
• I'd love to have a model of the Lehigh Valley's streamliner, the John Wilkes.
• I want to include several landmarks like Air Products and Yocco's. I'd also like to include scenes that have personal significance (even if I have to relocate them a bit to fit them in the model). For example, the church I served in Mertztown was next to the Reading right of way. Every Sunday, the train would come through in the middle of the sermon. Also, the church still had outdoor "plumbing" at the time. (Whit Towers would be so proud!)

Now for the good, the bad, and the ugly...

The Good:

•  I can include rolling stock and interchanges with several other lines:
• Reading
• Lehigh and New England
• Central Railroad of New Jersey
• Lehigh and Lackawana
• Ironton
• Bethlehem Steel (if I extend that far to the east)
• The Pennsylvania doesn't come directly into the area I want to model, but it won't be too far-fetched to see some Pennsy equipment.
• Although Lehigh Valley Transit didn't go to Cetronia and Dorney Park, the Allentown-Kutztown Traction company did. In fact, at one point, this trolley line owned and operated Dorney Park!

The Bad:

• This will be the most complex layout I've ever built. There are many things I've seen and understand in theory that I've never done myself. There will be a steep learning curve.
• I want to install live overhead wiring for the trolley lines.
• The Alfundo Park Zephyr will have to be scratch built. My prototype is an amusement park train which was an inexact copy of the Burlington Zephyr. (Besides, I have no intention of buying an expensive Burlington Zephyr model only to reduce its value by cutting and repainting it.
• This will be an expensive, long-term project. I'm starting practically from ground 0 in terms of tools and equipment.
• I'm really liking the idea of DCC control to simplify wiring and provide all the bells and whistles (literally). But that will add to the expense. It's also a major change from the type of wiring I'm accustomed to doing.

The Ugly:

• I have to leave clearance for all of the entries on the west wall of the basement: storage, laundry, and workshop (as well as the craft room on the west end of the north wall.
• I lose a chunk of real estate to the games closet in the southeast corner of the basement, directly across from the stairs.
• I have to provide access to the water main on the east wall--which is covered by a ceiling-to-floor door. (An access hatch, although less aesthetic, would be easier to accommodate.
• I also have to provide extra clearance to get between the layout and the network shelf on the way to the laundry room.

So where do things stand today?

First of all, I've (finally) joined the NMRA. (For years, I sort of piggy-backed on my dad's membership, reading every issue of the Bulletin.)

Secondly, I've measured the available space and provided clearance for all the obstacles noted above.

Using a map of the basement, I've begun playing with basic layout ideas to maximize the available space. I'm currently leaning toward a "3" shaped layout which will model the area from Trexlertown east to Allentown, then north to Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe).

I've also grabbed a 30' topographical map from the USGS and overlaid the approximate routes of most of the railroads in the area. This will help me to make reasonable decisions regarding the track plan and the industries along it. (One problem that's already neatly solved: a lift out bridge at Lehigh Gap will provide access to the water main. Kind of poetic actually--the source of water for our house models the Lehigh River... )

I've just posted both of these maps to a new Picasa album. If nothing else, this will increase my blogging activity and help provide documentation for the NMRA achievement program.