Layout height

The past few days, I was able to finish a couple of small projects including completing the sky fascia covering the lights and organizing some of my storage bins. Bruce also dropped by and we talked about some  minor enhancements to the latest track plan (Loop Layout with Peninsula). I am pretty sure this is the plan we will build and it will fill the space. While Bruce is updating his sketches, I am devising the operating scheme to make sure it provides the challenge and entertainment I am looking for in a model railroad.

In the meantime, the next question to ponder and solve is track height. The last layout had the rails about 52" (about 132 cm) off the floor which puts the running tracks at my chest height - very nice for realistic viewing from the side and not top down. Reaching across the deepest section of the layout, about 30", was nearly impossible without the step stool but I really enjoyed the perspective.

Unfortunately, in the new train room this puts the layout at exactly the halfway point on the three electrical outlets and the one light switch. So I have 3 options:

1. The height I prefer with notches to access the outlets and buildings or scenery to hide the wires, 
2. Lower height to clear the outlets but still rely on buildings and scenery to hide them, or
3. Pay an electrician to lower the 3 outlets and possibly wire them to a new 2 light switch so I can separately turn off lights and the track power from one convenient location.

Left is preferred rail height of 52". You can see one of the outlets 1/2 covered behind it

Of course, the smart thing is to do the right thing and don't compromise, which means option 3. No idea how expensive this would be nor how much work it would entail but it's the right thing to do. In the meantime, I seem to have a couple of pieces of track lying around, time to push some boxcars! 

Mystery Solved

I figured out what happened with the shelf. Apparently, someone had come along after I mounted it and move all the studs left 1-1/2"! Can you believe it?

OK, so I measured 16" from the corner and thought the drill was biting into the stud. Apparently, it's just thick drywall. On the second attempt, I used a stud finder and that puppy is really anchored now.

The newly secured shelf

I was able to remount the shelf Tuesday evening and even get the light fixtures in and wired, just in time to clean out the room Wednesday evening for the Thanksgiving party we were hosting. Next, I hope to get the sky fascia up while Joey is home from UC this weekend.

Major Setback

I spent a couple of days mounting lights under the shelves. I wired the left side and center which provides fantastic lighting over the work desk (for now) and I was really pleased at how everything was coming together. Collections of stuff were neatly stacked on the shelves opening the space below to work and the lighting was so good, you could turn off the room light and not notice a difference.

Last night I mounted the right side lights. Didn't fit. I had to take everything down, finagle a few things, and c-clamp the 3 light fixtures back in place. It fit ... barely. I drilled and screwed the first fixture and went to the bathroom.

This is what I found when I came back. It was actually worse than it looks. Very frustrating. The entire shelf pulled out of the wall and collapsed. Of course, all the stuff on top fell including a bucket of used CFLs. Nice. One of the light fixtures got pretty bent up, but it's still serviceable and I have 4 or 5 extra from the old layout.

I was only gone a few minutes....!

The other shelves are strong and stable, so I am not sure what the problem was here. I'll need to verify that I had mounted it into the studs (every 16" right??) and then I guess I will try again with longer lag screws and bolt the shelf into the adjacent one.

So close...

Shelves, Part 1

Well, technically, part 2. I previously posted my attempts on the support bracket for a shelf around the layout room that would provide both a storage space above the layout and a mounting spot for the lighting. I completed the bracket last week over a couple evenings and this past weekend, I added the shelf, and painted the bracket white so it will reflect the light down on the layout.

Completed shelf, ready for lights

If you look at older photos of the train room, you'll see  that I have been able to move a lot of the smaller boxes and containers to this shelf and once I get things a little more situated, I plan to have my scenery and supplies over the work desk, much like the photo above, while on the other side I'll have completed buildings and storage for freight cars that I don't use but don't want to get rid of.

Left side of the room, door to back yard just out of the scene to the right

If you look closely, I've placed the fluorescent lights around the left and center shelves to get an idea of how they will fit. Looks like either side will have 2 4' lights with a single 2' in between while the center will fit 2 4' fixtures with a small 3-4" gap between them. On the plus side, it seems I will be able to get some really good illumination with minimal gaps and only needing a one more 2' fixture.

The down side? Anyone need 4 or 5 four foot, single bulb fixtures? Seems like I have a few left over from the old layout.

Loop Layout with Penisula

Give him 24 hours, and Bruce will work miracles! He took the ideas we toss back and forth Sunday and last night sent me the first draft of a loop layout with a small peninsula for the coal mine in Herminie.

Loop Layout v.3

The basic idea is instead of having two offline staging yards to feed trains, use a section of track to hand stage the trains that will come on and off the layout - this is at the bottom of the image where the duckunder entrance is to the room. Next, simulate the train traveling from town to town by covering the loop 2-3 times before stopping. There are several spurs in both Irwin and East McKeesport for servicing industries and I still have a nice passing siding/yard lead in East McKeesport but I wonder if we could fit one or two more tracks in the yard.

This is looking good.

More Track Plan Ideas

Bruce and I got together this afternoon and discussed some of the ideas we've been mulling lately. His latest plan ... nothing short of amazing ... tucks both an east and west yard in the room, keeps the Herminie mine and has a narrow duckunder/lift out. There is plenty of switching opportunity but I expressed some concern about the elevations in this small an area. We did a couple of quick calculations and we might have 3-3.5% grades. Ouch! This is a great plan for running tracks point to point, and Bruce kept an option for continuous run, but I was not sure I would be happy once we started operating.

Point-to-point with option for continuous run

I have been thinking that I was trying to do too much in the small space I have. What if I eliminate the staging yards and have the train traverse the mainline 2 or 3 loops to get from point A to point B? For that matter, what about a terminating yard where all the traffic coming in was destined for local industries and all the outbound freight went in a single direction to the division yard for sorting? Basically, I was beginning to focus on an industrial yard servicing a small city ... say, East McKeesport. As an example, I showed Bruce the Big Island Railroad plan from the Model Railroading layout database which is very close to the size room we have to work with.

Model Railroader's Big Island Rail track plan

Now a peninsula in this plan does create two rather narrow aisle but we could put 2 or 3 spurs here, even the Herminie coal mine. There is a small workable yard online and several spurs off the mainline as it makes the loop. We even discussed making an outside track or two where the duckunder would be and have a "mole" make up and break down the trains that move on and off the layout - sort of a manual staging yard.

Possibilities....

Squeezing the design

When I first realized that extending the layout plans outside of the train room would not work, I was a little hesitant to tell Bruce because he had already created a half dozen trackplans based on my original idea. Fortunately, he accepted the news in good humor and said it was a learning exercise. I vaguely described what I was now thinking and figured we would get together later and maybe create a new, shorter list of Givens and Druthers. Bruce had a different idea.

Fitting the track into a 10 x 10 space

Bruce took the last trackplan that had the east and west staging yards and moved them into the train room. I am still amazing, looking at the diagram for the 4th or 5th time, that he managed to fit it in so well. Obviously, he made some compromises but he still provided a lot of the features I was looking for.

We hope to meet at the NMRA Division 3 Train Show this weekend and maybe we'll be a little closer to a final trackplan. Anyway, I just wanted to share what an awesome concept Bruce had.

A Shelf

Having a track plan and then realizing it won't work certainly does set things back a little, but I press on. I started building the shelf over the layout to store kits, 1/2 built structures and some of the more bulky items like bottles of scenic cement ... I think I have a half dozen! I need to keep under the layout relatively clear to store some things from the garage like wood, paint cans, etc.

This 6" wide bracket will be around the 3 walls with either a 10" board or the commercial 11" white shelf, depending on price when I get to the store. In front of this bracket, attached to the shelf will be the 4' florescent light fixtures (with 2 or so 2 footers filling the gaps) and then there will be a 8" tall sky blue valence to hide the lights.

Back to the drawing board

This weekend, the weather was great and I had an opportunity to do some work in the train room. I think I finally figured out a strategy to create the shelving above the layout that will be strong enough to support books, allow me to attach a sky fascia to the front, and provide the mount for lighting all around the layout. I even found some 1" x 4" boards from the old layout lighting valence that I could re-use as the shelf support frame. I started to build the first shelf over the staging yard in the garage. As I moved things around the garage so I could get to the work area, I came to realize something.
This is not going to work.

Twice around point-to-point track plan (v1.5)

I've mentioned a couple times before (here and here), that Bruce has done an exception job creating a trackplan that meets or exceeds all my givens and druthers. I came to some stark realizations this weekend on the negatives on my plan to use both the train room and an area in the garage:

• Tunnels from the garage to the train room will be cold air vents in the winter, since the train room is insulated and the garage is not.
• The garage will be pretty cool, if not down right cold, for the staging yard operator (mole). 
• Engineers will always have to duck under the layout as the bring a train from staging into the train room, and the westbound (coming out of East Staging) will have to hustle to see his engine appear opposite the duck-under. 
• There is no way to operate the staging yard without moving the car out of the garage, and there is no direct path from the staging yard to the train room (have to walk around a lot of stuff!)

So in short, I think the trackplan has everything I wanted, but I think I wanted too much. I am rethinking my givens and druthers list but within new boundaries that I think will allow me to do one of the following:

• U-shaped layout with a yard that provides essentially an out and back, or even a point-to-loop.
• U-shape with a small yard in the middle and make the whole layout an urban depiction of East McKeesport for lots of industrial switching, maybe incorporate an interchange or two.
• O-shaped for continuous run for display but point-to-point for operating.

I am working through these ideas and as I narrow them down, maybe something will grab me. In the meantime, I can still build the shelves above the layout and get the lighting over the layout ... while I figure out what is the layout.

Test Fitting Staging

The track plan is pretty much finalized now and the next step is putting up some shelving. I think I will only have one shelf instead of two so I have more vertical height. Also, I am pretty sure I am going back to the track height of the previous layout which puts "level" track at about 52" off the floor or about chest high to me. This way I can look at the trains, rather than down, and still reach anything 24" deep easily, 30" deep with a step stool. 

Last night I set up one of the 2' x 4' modules in the garage to make sure I had enough space for the car, remaining storage I need and still maneuver at least a little.

In the photo you can see the height of the benchwork and use your imagination to stretch it from the left wall all the way to the door way on the right that goes into the train room. In this photo you can also see I still need to do some work to find storage for the snow shovels and a couple odds and ends. I think once I have the benchwork up, I can store the crates with the boy scout camping gear underneath. The only other problem I have to address is how far down the wall I can place the two step ladders for the single track P&LE staging that is "supposed" to be part of the wall. 

Train Room Shelving

Sometimes, just stepping away from a problem for a while presents a solution. OK  sometimes I have to step away for a couple of weeks!

I want to put some shelves over the layout so I can hang the fluorescent lights and attach the fascia - basically frame the layout space - before I build the benchwork. Part of the reason is a need for storage above where I am working so that I can actually BUILD the benchwork. I have a high enough ceiling for 2 shelves and I was planning on using commercial shelves and brackets but realized that I could not mount the 4' lights under the bottom shelf. I was stumped until I thought about the grid tables I created for the old layout and realized if I create an 8" deep, 10 foot long grid of 1"x 2" or 3" lumber, I can secured that directly into the studs and lay the  bottom shelf on that, leaving about 4"-6" along the front underside of the shelf for the layout lighting. This could work ...

Book shelf over the layout that is strong but leaves room for  the florescent lights strips.

Keeping busy

I am keeping busy in the train room as I continue to mull over the latest ... and I think final ... track plan. While I was traveling for work last week, Lisa did some clean up in the garage and moved a lot of the gardening equipment off the wall that will be the offline staging yard, freeing up a good portion of that space. I still have a lot of tools and things hanging there that I need to find a new storage spot but it's looking hopeful that I can really use the space for the trains ... or most of the space!

I spent last weekend and the beginning of this week unsoldering sections of track from the old layout. All the benchwork has been disassembled, although I have the 2'x4' and 2'x30" modules stacked against the walls. All the old scenery and even the pink insulation subroadbed are gone. Two of the 2'x'4' modules will go into the garage for the staging yards (unless I can squeeze the 30" deep module.... doubt it!) and likely the rest will be scrapped as I switch to L-girder for the benchwork. I may be able to reuse one or two of the modules, or maybe just the frames ... who knows.

First, I want to put up some shelving above the layout for supplies, books, and memorabilia. I have a high enough ceiling I could put in 2 shelves tall enough for magazines or large books and attach the train lighting and sky fascia to the lower shelf. I was all set to pick up the parts from Lowe's to build something like the photo below...but it won't work.

I realized that to have this hold the weight I expected, I would need the vertical supports in every stud, meaning every 16". But my lights are 48" so they won't fit under the bottom shelf.

Back to the drawing board!!

Final track plan ... Look, a squirrel!

I always laugh at how easily we can be distracted and the old joke, "I don't have ADD, I...look a squirrel!" No offense intended, since I think we all suffer from the distractions like this at times. Case in point ... this week I settled on the final design of the new PRR Irwin District as conceived by my friend Bruce.

The new PRR Irwin District track plan .... maybe

Bruce was very patient with me, listening and incorporating nearly every single Given & Druther I had. Key points in this version of the track plan:

• Both east and west bound staging yards outside the train room in the garage
• Staging track for P&LE 
• Interchange with P&LE
• Irwin yard
• Coal mine on a hill in Herminie
• Several sidings for operations

I have complete disassembled the old layout except for E. McKeesport which probably won't survive today. I can reuse some of the benchwork for the staging yard but most will likely be used in the firepit! With the elevations on this track plan, Bruce and I decide that L-girder would be best for seamless rises. 

Well, I can start with the staging yards in the garage and work my way into the train room, except...

There is still not very much room in the garage. We don't have a shed (yet) so the table saw, 4 bikes, shredder/chipper, power mitre saw, camping gear, 4 step ladders cover every spare inch that is not set aside for parking the car. Plus the garden tools are hanging from the peg boards right where the staging yard will be. 

So, maybe I should just have an L-shaped switching layout in the train room and keep it simple. Ah, distractions! 

NMRA Division 3

I used to be a pretty active member of the NMRA Mid Central Region Division 3 group back in the 90s but work and family took a lot of free time and Sunday afternoons were just too busy to stay involved. I still keep up with what the group is doing, mostly following the website and Facebook pages. This past Sunday, they were having Allen McClelland talk about the V&O Railroad. Allen wrote a series of articles for Railmodel Craftsman that later became the book, The V&O Story, that set the standard for creating a model railroad with a purpose. He, along with John Armstrong, Bruce Chubb and Tony Koester, were strong influences on how I developed my operating scheme.

I was able to attend the meeting and the presentation was very enjoyable. Allen talked about the original V&O (I did get a chance to tour this amazing layout once during an open house!!!) which had a last run a few years ago and he showed the new layout in progress. Excellent presentation. I also ran into several guys I knew from my past involvement with the group - Dave Reid, Teri M., Wil Davis, Merv and a few others - many of whom remembered me.

I think I will have to get involved again!

Twice Around Trackplan

Bruce has come up with some really good ideas and I think I am narrowing down to a basic loop that goers twice around the room. By moving the staging yards outside the room an in the garage side I get a little more space and can keep those scenically bare but functional and while the train room will be completely sceniced without any need to pure functionality. I think this is an excellent compromise. The staging yard will require a mole to set the trains in motion for the engineers in the other room, although they may be able to follow their trains into the room and then duck under into the center space for operations. I could do remoting switches and sensors but I'll cross that bridge much later.

Twice Around provides staging, continuous run, yard and all my desired elements

Bruce has done an amazing job fitting all my Givens and I think all the Druthers too in this track plan. Traffic flow is still East-West from Greensburg staging through Irwin, East McKeesport and then on west to Pittsburgh. The Herminie mine and interchange with P&LE are still there and of course, the Irwin Yard. I attempted to create a schematic diagram of the trackage but not sure if I got everything accurate.

Schematic of the Twice Around layout plan

I need to spend some more time considering this and identifying any problem areas for the operations. Who knows, maybe I'll be building some benchwork soon!

Back to single deck?

Bruce came up with a couple of good sketches for a two level track plan with a helix connecting the decks. I feel that they fit the maximum amount of both mainline and sidings possible. Although they both had merits, I think I preferred one over the other and here it is:

Bruce's multi-deck track plan

As I pointed out to Bruce, there are a couple of potential issues I would need to consider:

• While I like the double-ended offline staging, are the tracks long enough?
• Are the yard tracks in Irwin long enough? (On the old layout, most trains were 4-6 cars plus engine and caboose.)
• I am a little hesitant to tackle a reverse loop - requires an extra booster, special reverse loop circuit and an automated turnout control.
• And then there is the challenge of constructing the helix!

I just finished reading Tony Koester's Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads with the plan to optimize some of the design variables - deck height, spacing between decks, benchwork construction, etc. I had planned on the book convincing me that multi-deck was the right approach. After finishing the book, I have some doubts:

• Neither deck would be the right height. Likely I would have to use a step stool for some action on the upper deck and lean over to view some of the switching on the lower deck. 
• Likely the lower deck would be too low for my modeling desk to be under the layout. I have something temporary now at 48” and there is not enough room – and I think this is higher than the bottom deck would be.
• Helix - what can I say, this intimidates me!
• Double the layout construction - meaning more time commitment before I can get trains running. I could complete the benchwork and trackwork on the lower level and then proceed to the upper but not sure what problems that creates.
• Not convinced the gain is worth the pain - double the mainline doubles but 20% of it will be hidden in the helix. There are a few more spurs for freight operations but is this worth the compromise on layout height and loss of “East is right, west is left” operating scheme?

So, I went back to the drawing board - crude as my designs are - and essentially did a John Armstrong approach. I did not design by squares but I sketched some basic concepts on an XtrakCAD printout of the basic room shape and benchwork placement. Interestingly, when this printed it was almost exactly the scale of my old Pacific Rail Products Track Planning template! I finally came up with a straightforward, single level design that might address my wants without too much compromise. I also revised my Givens (really, really want) & Druthers (nice to have), reducing my list to these key points:

• Freight operations
• An online yard 
• East <-> West traffic with East is right flow
• Both an East and a West offline staging yard
• Continuous run
• Mine operations with a mine shifter shuttling back & forth a couple times during an operating session

So what did I get rid of? Well, I can sacrifice an urban scene (East McKeesport) and the  interchange with a second railroad (P&LE) if I can't fit it.

What I came up with was a simple design when there are staging tracks in the garage which represent the West (Pittsburgh) and the train appears on the layout, travels through Irwin, past Herminie coal mine, across the duck under/lift out bridge and disappears behind a view block into the East staging yard (Greensburg). Of course, traffic would alternate flowing the other direction. This meets all my minimum requirements and could possible add a couple of the Druthers but here are the disadvantages or limitations as I see them:

• Hard for engineer to follow his train from staging in garage into the layout area - could be solved by moving the entrance to yard to other end (near door) and this may optimize the "waste space" note I have but not sure what other impacts (It would flip the direction so this would be the East yard but no concerns there.)
• Irwin yard tracks would probably have to be shortened (although I might be able to curve them a little around the bottom) and the mainline/passing siding would have to be shortened to fit the curves (24" radius in this diagram and I am willing to go 22" for mainline, 18" for yard and sidings)
• Although I was able to add East McKeesport, the mainline does not pass through it.
• Likewise, I have 2 P&LE staging tracks behind a scenery block which cross over the Pennsy mainline to service some tracks in East McKeesport but this may be optimistic on paper and impossible in reality.
• Herminie coal tracks are very short - maybe 3 cars each. Would like 4 tracks but would settle for 3 longer tracks if necessary. 
• Duckunder is probably too narrow to be realistic.

 I still have a couple of ideas I am mulling over, be this is where I am at the moment. 

Rough Sketch Trackplan

Here is a current sketch of some ideas for the train room. It includes:

• 2 level offline staging yards that would be the same size.
• Continuous loop on the upper level
• Upper level major attraction is the small city East McKeesport switching
• Lower level has the Irwin Yard and Herminie Mine attractions
  

I don't have any sort of interchange which I am willing to sacrifice if it does not work.I liked having an active P&LE line that provided some switching as well as the interchange but I could do a static interchange where the cars are positioned for pick up at the beginning of the operating session and drop offs "leave" the layout between the sessions.

Lower Level

Upper Level

Options and Options

Bruce sent me a draft of a two level track plan that had some great ideas but a few limitations as well. I am afraid I will dither over the track plan for ages while I try and find the optimal arrangement for the dedicated space I have. I got two books for my birthday: Basic Model Railroad Benchwork and Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads that I hope will help with the planning but there are so many decisions:

• Do I tackle 2 level layout with the challenges of bench height and a helix for a mainline run or settle for a simple, and short, point-to-point or continuous loop.
• What givens do I need to sacrifice - operations, switching, continuous run, an interchange with P&LE, operating a P&LE train, east and west staging yards, etc. 
• Since running trains is how I best stay interested in the hobby, what can I do to get something running quickly and reliably.

The new issue of Model Railroader has a track plan for Coloma Junction which is a 9' x 13' continuous loop that had a couple of interesting compromises especially on how to address the interchange - make it non operational. Instead of having a P&LE train come onto the visible layout, drop off/pick up cars from the interchange and service some sidings, just have an interchange track with the drop off cars waiting for the PRR to exchange. Sort of like another siding. I sort of wanted to be able to run a P&LE engine (Bachman has a nice Alco S-4 that even has sound!) but I can live without it if makes things too difficult. 

Trying to work all these ideas and THEN I have to try and actually draft it in a track plan which is NOT working out. So, I gave in and instead added some shelves in the room for my books and magazines.

Well, at least that worked out well! 

Friends and Trackplans

September 1985 the United States Air Force moved me to Dayton OH where I was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Just a few months later, another newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant reported to the Airlift & Trainers Program Control office and I was assigned to show him the ropes. Turns out, both Bruce Johnson and I had an interest in trains. That started a collaborative friendship that has lasted nearly 27 years.

Bruce and I built a small shelf layout in my apartment at the time. I forget if it was a published trackplan or something we came up with. It was only my second layout - after the under bed one my Dad built - and we never got beyond the benchwork and track laying because Lisa and I got engaged and I moved to a bigger apartment. I left the Air Force and Bruce went on to make it a career, retiring a few years ago. He and his family were stationed at several different bases but always came back to Wright Patt.

Bruce heard I had a new layout space and we emailed back and forth a few times. Yesterday he stopped over so he could get a feel for the space available and we spent over 3 hours tossing around ideas to optimize the 10' x 10' space. Bruce is very good at drawing track plans and I knew his help here would be invaluable. We came up with the following design elements:

• Point-to-point, operationally similar to the last layout at Restway
• Multi-level, 2 decks with a helix in the corner by the exterior door
• Keep the Irwin yard track arrangement as much as possible
• Two offline staging yards in the main garage, one on each level of the layout, representing East and West staging
• A loop for continuous running on the upper level via a nod-under bridge over the entrance

Bruce said he would noddle on these and sketch some ideas over the next couple of weeks so after my vacation plans, we may have something to discuss. It would be great if we can get some benchwork in place before fall and do some serious trackwork over the winter. 

Now I need to figure out what to do with the cut up pieces from the old layout! Stay tuned.

New trackplan approach

As Lisa and I are moving into the new house, we discovered as most couples do, that we still have more stuff that space. In general, this is a good thing as it forces us to let go of the things we hold onto way past their usefulness. For example, I donated about 70 books to our church festival flea market because I realized my plan to re-read them when I retire means I hold on to the durn things for another 12-15 years! Forget it!

So we started to organize the garage and I quickly realized that once we put the tools on the wall pegboard and store the ladders, shelves for chemicals and small items, there would be no way we could have the offline staging yard shelves I had envisioned. Since I can't have these outside the train room, I have to consider how I will put them in the room and there is little option except for a multi-level layout.

In the past, I have not been a huge fan of multi-level layouts because of the complexity of a helix (to get from one level to another), the compromise in the layout height (lower level is too low and upper level is too high) and the amount of modeling space lost to the helix (essentially a 4' x 4' square area that is nothing but a corkscrew of track between the levels). However, it does provide additional space by maximizing the vertical space in the layout room, there are many fans and authors creating multi-level layouts including Tony Koester, and I have never actually visited a multi-level layout so ...

...I am going to have to give this some thought!

Finally, we are moved into the new house. In fact, we closed on selling the old house today so all the transactions are complete. We have been moving boxes and small furniture for the past several weeks into the garage because the flooring in the house was not complete. I have the two main sections of the layout standing up - East McKeesport and Irwin Yard - but the rest of the room is whatever I could not fit in the main garage! I did get the modeling desk set up under East McKeesport but not so I could get back to the train ... I needed to replace the desk drawers and stack some stuff on the desk top. Once that was full, I started putting stuff under the desk where the chair goes.

Funny story there. We have been donating things to our church flea market and one of the items was a desk chair on wheels. Lisa said she did not want it anymore and it was not until I was dropping it off that I realized ... it was the chair to my modeling desk! Oh, well, it was too big for the desk and would seriously take up too much space in the new train room. I think I might have to use a folding chair and put it away when I am not working at the desk.

Now to start putting things away where they belong!

A New Era

Well, the entire train is now at Helenwood except for my modeling desk (even the drawers have been moved!) and the twins N-scale 2'x4' module. Eric and I were able to set up E. McKeesport and the Irwin yard against opposite walls and at the new height - 3" lower than before - so I can get a feel for how things will work out. The new height does seem to make a difference reaching across the 30" wide E. McKeesport section while still high enough not to feel like you are looking down at the trains. The lower height may be an issue when I move the modeling desk under this section, where it was for a long time, and I may have to narrow the fascia so I don't bang my head!

Now the next step is to design the new layout. I would like to build on what I learned, liked and did not like on the last layout. Not counting the N-scale module, this will be my 5th layout - my original under-the-bed set Dad built, my first apartment shelf layout, my 4'x8' folded loop at Kenosha, and the last district which lasted long enough to have a name - Irwin District! The new layout will still be called Irwin District and this is what I liked:

• Linear east-west running trains that only went through a scene once. 
• Lots of sidings for operations and switching activities.
• A decent sized online yard for build and breaking down the trains.
• Interchange with P&LE to provide more interesting  operations.

But what I would like to change:

• A loop so I can run a continuous train in the background (operational challenge as the PITT-35 roars through the scene!) or to break in new locomotives. This will also help Lisa who could not understand why my point-to-point layout did not have a loop of track.
• Longer offline staging yards with the shortest track long enough for the longest train that will travel end to end.
•  At least two tracks for the P&LE staging, again long enough for the trains. 
• All Atlas #4 switches. I reused a couple of Shinohara (now Walthers) switches that I could not seem to wire/isolate correctly, creating dead tracks.
• Gray painted roadbed, glue track (no permanent nails).

There are probably more things I want to change, but that is a start. With a 10' x 10' space (actually, I have about 4" inches in both directions but I am reserving that), and moving the staging yards outside the room into the garage, I have two basic configurations that I am trying to figure out which one is better.

Trackplan 1 - Dogbone

The first plan shows the benchwork for a dogbone, where the lobes at each end would be a loop providing a continuous run. The advantage of this plan is that the center is completely open so you want into the layout area. The main disadvantage is that to the trains passing through each scene only once, I have to place the back track behind mountains or buildings - so half of the travel time, the train would be out of sight.

Trackplan 2 - Loop

The other option is a loop, completely enclosing the center area which creates either a duck under (with the current track height, this would be more than a nod under!) or a lift out section like a bridge. The right side track could pass through the garage so you would not see the trains actually running around the track. I am leaning more towards this plan at the moment and if I do this, ask me about the lift out when I am 60!

Of course, I could give up the continuous run and go back to the point to point layout design like the last Irwin District. In a way, it's fun to imagine all the possibilities but I tend to fall into analysis-paralysis at this stage of layout building and after operating trains with my friends, I want to get something back up and moving soon.

Then again, Eric and Jack may help be my motivation!

Disassembled

Well, the layout is officially disassembled! After disconnecting the bus wires that ran the layout from end to end, I cut the track and base (pink insulation) with an old serrated kitchen knife and unbolt the sections in 6 sections. The 4' west staging and 4' Herminie pennisula where no brainers. The 30" wide section of the layout that was East McKeesport from the Rt 30 overpass to the curve into downtown Irwin was easily removed. I wanted to preserve as much of the Irwin yard as I could since I plan to reuse this and possibly East McKeesport, so I removed the 4' module between the two (representing basically downtown Irwin). The remaining section was the track out of Irwin into the east staging yard.

As I write this, 2 of the sections are at the new house and I cut 3" off the legs for Irwin yard and East McKeesport. Hopefully, Eric D and I can move the remaining modules tomorrow (except for Herminie, each one is 8' long!!) and set up Irwin and E McKeesport to test the new height (hoping for a better reach over the 30" wide East McKeesport) and begin to visualize the new layout!

Except ... stacked all the under layout components in the train room so tonight I think I need to go over and make sure nothing is higher than 48". On to the next phase!

Last run on Irwin District

The last official run on the PRR Irwin District was PITT-35, a transfer from Greensburg to Pittsburgh that stops in Irwin for any west bound cars. After this run, I used the engines to pull all the cars into the Irwin yard and pack them away in boxes. All the buildings were removed and safely stored along with trees and other loose items. As I write this, all the fascia is off and the sky & light valence over the Herminie mine have been removed. All DCC equipment has been packed and I am disconnecting the bus wires to cut the module into pieces. One challenge I still have to figure out is how I will remove the 14' light bar I mounted over west staging and East McKeesport - its two separate light bars wired together. I may just cut the wire and be done with it since I won't have a 14' section at the new house to mount it.

Enjoy this video of PITT-35 pulling into the west staging yard.

GRN-24 Arriving in East McKeesport

I took some video shots of the current layout just before I begin to disassemble it. Here is the first segment with the first train of the day, GRN-24 leaving Pittsburgh and passing under the Route 30 overpass. The engine passes West Penn Power and Stetson Convention Service in the background, with the P&LE serviced sidings in the foreground including Dailey Coal & Fuel. The video ends with GRN-24 rounding the bend in front of the May Stern furniture factory and passing the P&LE crossing bound for downtown Irwin.

Note that I do not have sound equipped locomotives and what you are hearing is actually just the motor noise of the engine. It actual sounds pretty realistic!

I Can See For Miles and Miles

I did get the walls painted in the new layout room and tonight will hopefully be able to paint the cement floor. All of a sudden, we went from crawling along to moving at warp speed. I am still working on videoing the last run of the Irwin District but I have already started marking the light valences, fascia, and legs so that a could reassemble the layout if necessary.

Onward!

This wall will likely be the Irwin Yard - note the door to the backyard is just to the right of the photo.

Left is door to backyard, right is door to garage.

Sun setting on PRR Irwin District

I decided that I need to take disassembling the layout this week. Tonight I hope to paint the drywall in the new train room sky blue and later this week paint the concrete floor. I want to get the layout pieces to the new room to arrange them to begin to visualize how they will fit.

Just before I start disconnecting the electrical and removing the light valences, I will try to record some video on the trains making a final run across the district. Stay tuned and I'll let you know how it turns out.

New track plan update

I have not been able to do much on the room preparation this week other than the initial spackling of the nail holes. An hour or two to sand those smooth and apply a second patch for some of the deeper creases and I can paint the room. One of the items I have been debating back and forth on is what to do with the electrical outlets. They are higher on the wall than a typical bedroom and Lisa suggested mounting the layout right above the outlets with a hole cut out in the 1" x 4" to access the outlet. Turns out I would have to install the layout an inch higher than it currently stands and lately I have been considering lowering the layout a couple of inches. I like the perspective of it sitting at 52" off the floor but E. McKeesport is 30" deep and you really have to stretch to reach the switch to access Stetson Convention Service. I am thinking of 48" - still high enough for a good perspective but more workable.

Anyway, I was talked to Eric D about lowering all 3 outlets and covering the existing outlets with a blank plate that I would paint sky blue. With his background as an electrician, he pointed out my idea would create 3 new junctions which increases the potential for a problem. He suggested adding a new junction before the 3 outlets split off the line and then run my own line where I need it but I told him the outlets are on 3 separate walls and may not share the same source. We were sitting on Eric's patio, using a kid's chalk board to sketch our ideas when Lisa says, "Can't you just leave the outlets where they are and cover them with trees or something?" Bing, the light came on. She was dead on to a great idea. Mount the layout on the wall at whatever height I want (in fact, may try a couple to see what works best), cut a 2"x 2" hole in the layout surface to run up power cords and place a 1/2 building or removable hillside in front of it. Perfect!

Damn, she's good!

Back to the track plan, I am getting better at manipulating XtrkCAD and the plan for the new layout is starting to take shape. I've measured and remeasured the room space and it is definitely 10' 4" square. I am trying to keep the extra 4" as a margin since I know things will shift a little from the plan to the actual implementation. I really like using offline staging to simulate traffic going beyond the layout, so I am planning two narrow shelves in the garage to provide this. In addition, I want to move the P&LE staging to make it more accessible and expand to 2 tracks if possible. Finally, I would like to reuse as much of the current layout that I can. I like the east-west flow (Greensburg offline east staging, Herminie-Irwin-East McKeesport online, and Pittsburgh offline west staging). Below is the current plan with some placeholder curves to give me an idea of where the 4 corners will fit to make the loop.

Preparing the train room

One of the comments that I have read in the magazine articles and How To books is preparing the room BEFORE you begin to build the layout. The current layout is an unfinished basement, which I did not want to spend the time or money to finish before I started building the layout. It still looks very nice and is more function over form, but it did put some constraints on the railroad. For example, the L-shaped layout is a series of 2'x4' or 30" x 4' modules bolted together with L-shaped, height adjustable legs. The sky backdrop is masonite attached to the back of the layout (see my either blog post on the fun I had attaching this!) Finally, the lighting is mounted on supports behind the backdrop across the entire length of the layout.

But live and learn. This week, I have been spending the evenings preparing the new train space in the house on Helenwood. This room behind the garage has a poured cement floor and drywall so once I detached the old workbench and (with Lisa's help) dragged it out into the main garage, I washed the walls and spackled them. Today, I stopped at Lowe's for another gallon of sky blue paint for the walls and a special cement paint for the floor. I plan to mount the layout right to the studs behind the drywall with either angle braces or at least recessed legs so I don't trip on them. The drywall will be the sky board and I plan to mount the light valences again directly to the wall about 18" above the layout which is the same distance as the current layout.

Above the lights will be an around the room shelf  for books, memorabilia, a TV for watching train DVDs and speakers for my train sounds - none of my locomotives are sound equipped and since the room is so small, train sounds coming from above should sound good.

I will be busy over the next several days with other commitments but I hope to begin painting the room sometime next week.

Next generation

I mentioned that in my last operating session with Eric, we did not complete all the trains that were on the timetable. I was getting ready to run the last couple of trains when I asked the twins if they wanted to help me move them. They both like to run the trains and Nicholas has been asking a lot of questions on how to create and use switchlists.

 Nicholas (yellow shirt) runs the P&LE trick from Erie (staging) to work the tracks in East McKeesport. Adam in the background will align the switches and uncouple the cars.

After exchanging cars in the Irwin yard, Adam takes train GRN-70 into Greensburg. Nicholas, playing my typical role of Irwin yardmaster, is waiting in the background to shift the inbound cars onto the yard tracks. I enjoyed just directing the traffic, fixing any maintenance issues, and of course training the next generation model railroaders!

Good operating session and Kadee magnets

The session last night with Eric went very well. We took our time so that both of us were on the same page with the current train and next step in the sequence. We also started defining some rules of operation, like stopping at the yard limit for clearance to work the Irwin yard lead track and exchange cars. In two instances, Eric waiting at the yard entrance allowed me to push just one more car on the train for him to deliver on down the line.

That worked until I put 3 Pittsburgh bound cars on the local trick that was going out to East McKeesport and coming back. In other words, it was not proceeding to Pittsburgh! Ugh. I caught the mistake before he assembled the train so I just had him leave the 3 cars and we were back on track.

The time table (sequence of trains) worked very well except where I listed the P&LE work, which was printed black characters on dark blue background and Eric skipped over it. OK, maybe make that row white characters on blue! I wanted to distinguish the P&LE work as separate (someday, this could be a dedicated operator) and by using the blue background it hopefully provides the trigger of the Erie bound waybills being blue.

Traffic was busier than usual in the Irwin yard which was good and I was able to try the 4 Kadee delayed uncouplers I added to the yard tracks that I had laying around from previous layouts. These worked very well on 3 of the tracks but one was too high and derailing some cars so I quickly removed it and used the Rix tool on that track.

Overall, the new paperwork was a success and at the end of the evening, Eric pointed to the clipboard with the timetable and asked, "How did you come up with all of this?" Lots of reading, a little experience from Dave Holl's operating sessions in the late 90s and some help from virtual friends on TrainLife and the CarCards group. Oh, and a flash of inspiration yesterday!

New paperwork

Based on the last few operating sessions with Eric and Jack, I've rounded out the paperwork for running the trains. In the past, I would point to a track in one of the offline staging yards or had them a packed of cars and provide verbal instructions what to do. This was because I was making it up as I went! Once we worked through some of the kinks, a sequence of trains and switching tasks began to develop and I feel I can finally create a documented process.

First, from the beginning I color coded the waybills to indicate where the car is headed. Plain waybills are set for one of the sidings on the PRR tracks:

• West Penn, Stetson Convention Service or May Stern Furniture in East McKeesport
• Irwin Industrials, Heinz, or LAS Fabrics in Irwin
• WCC Mine 4 in Herminie

Waybills colored blue are routed to the P&LE interchange track either for one of the industries (Keystone Sand & Supply, Pittsburgh Brewery, A&J Tool & Die Co. or Dailey Coal & Fuel) or to head north to Erie PA (P&LE staging track). Green colored waybills go east to Greensburg and pink waybills go west to Pittsburgh.

Color coded waybills show where the cars are headed

Today, I added two new forms to the operating session. First, I created train slips (not sure what else to call them yet) which provide the train number, description, and sequence of tasks. This is paper-clipped to the packet of car cards and tells the operating what to do with the train. The other form is a pseuo-time table that provides the sequence of trains and duplicates the tasks each performs to keep track of the flow and help the Irwin yard operator determine when to set out cars for east and west bound trains.

In the past, I have worked the Heinz and LAS Fabrics sidings from the Irwin yard which is pretty unrealistic so the next session will have these and possibly the Herminie mine run trains operated by the road crews (Eric or Jack).

Train slip (left) and timetable

Now the verbal instructions should be reduced to coordinate when a train comes onto the layout rather than what to do with the train. Tune in and we'll see how well this works!

Improving Operations

Jack came over last week and we ran the trains using the scheme Eric and I have perfecting. Basically, I have eliminated all through freights and focus on local trains servicing Irwin as they head west from Greensburg to Pittsburgh or east from Pittsburgh to Greensburg. It starts with a westbound freight and more or less alternates back and forth.

• Westbound freight stops in Irwin to pick up cars bound for Pittsburgh and leaves anything for the local work (cars routed to Irwin, E. McKeesport including traffic for P&LE there, and Herminie)
• Eastbound collects cars from the P&LE interchange in E. McKeesport, stops in Irwin for drop offs (d/o) and pick ups (p/u). Continues to Greensburg.
• P&LE comes from Erie (staging) and shuffles cars placing PRR bound traffic on the interchange before heading back to Erie.
• Eastbound collects interchange traffic and exchanges at Irwin yard before continuing to Greensburg.
• Eastbound p/u from West Penn Power and Irwin Industrials, exchanges in Irwin.
• Westbound exchanges cars in Irwin.

One of the westbound trains should have serviced the Stetson Convention/May Stern siding and placed the cars pulled from the siding on the interchange track to head back to Irwin. The yard in Irwin had two full westbound trains at one point - about 5 cars for P&LE and another 5 for Pittsburgh - so I called for an extra, getting a engine/cabin car to run light from Greensburg, get the Pittsburgh bound and pull them off the layout to west staging.

I ran the Irwin yard including servicing Heinz, LAS Fabrics and runs to the Westmoreland Coal Company in Herminie. Jack ran all the other trains including the extra and the P&LE trick.

What I am learning is that I need to keep a sequence of numbered trains and I am researching what would work best:  TR-49, TR-51, TR-52 where even numbers are East or something like PGH-53, GRN-12, PHILA-22 as better mnemonics. Also, traffic in E. McKeesport is too dense for the P&LE trick if I leave a car on every siding. Finally, I can do a lot with the car cards if I keep just the color coding and worry about specific industries sometime down the road. More on this later.

Now I just need to make a few adjustments and re-staging for an operating session this week!

Rounding out East McKeesport

My last post was about creating the 2D buildings along the sky board in East McKeesport, along with a three-quarters version of Stetson Convention Service. Last night I completed two 3D buildings to finish East McKeesport - at least for now.

East McKeesport with tent card industries

Prior to finishing the mock-ups, I had a extra piece of an old factory as a stand-in, but index card tents indicating where the industries were on the siding. The track closest to the front represents A&J Tool & Die Co. with the factory imagined in front of the track. The rear siding has 2 buildings: Keystone Sand & Supply Co. and Pittsburgh Brewery.

New building mock-ups and a shipping sign make the scene a bit more realistic

Well, the tent cards worked so that my engineers knew where to place the cars they were delivering, but hardly realistic. Since I don't want to do too much scenery work until I know for sure how I will relocate the layout to the new house, I decided just to build a couple of quick 3D mock-ups for the back 2 industries, and a simple Shipping -> sign for A&J. Turned out pretty good!

Building a city in a day

Since we decided to move - and I can't fit the 14'x24' layout through the basement door - I decided I would not work on any improvements, especially scenery. This week, however, I came up with the insane idea that I could cut up the layout, rearrange the modules and assemble a new layout with a similar operating scheme. Hoping to schedule a train session with my buddies Eric and Jack, I began to rethink things.

East McKeesport with signs for industries

Last Christmas, Lisa and the kids gave me Model Builder software. I was playing with it this week and it is really easy to use. Basically, you pick from a pallet of materials - brick, stone, cement, corrugated siding, etc. - and create a building. You print this, glue it to some cardboard or foam board and you can build 2D or 3D structures. I wanted this software once I built the sample from their website which is Vic's Bait & Tackle shop. Today, I built up the backdrop for the city of East McKeesport, including a faux 3D building for Stetson Convention Service which receives rail traffic from the PRR on the siding it shares with the May Stern furniture factory. Sweet!

The new and improve East McKeesport

DCC Projects

The switcher for the Irwin yard has a little idiosyncrasy that has been bugging me. The front light comes on when the engine is running backwards. I have tried reprogramming it but nothing seemed to work - not even using JMRI. I posted my problem on the Digitrax board and I received two quick replies. One person suggested a couple of software changes but the other suggested that I had plugged the 8-pin connector backwards.

I opened the shell on my SW-1 PRR 9238 and examined the tiny wiring very carefully. Yup, it was backwards. I carefully pulled it off, flipped it 180 degrees and plugged it back together. Placed it on the track and it ran the direction I wanted it ... but no light, no matter what I did. I reprogrammed the decoder, reset it to the factory defaults, checked all the wiring, nada. Spent about 2 hours and no headlight. Must have burned out the bulb.

Next time, try the software suggestion first, even if it's a hardware problem!

On the plus side, since I was fixing DCC issues, I took my old Athearn SW1500 that I have had for about 30 years, off the shelf. I am pretty sure this ran on my 3'x6' under bed layout when I lived at my parents house and survived the shelf layout in the apartment (definitely have a photo of that) and the 4' x 8' in the basement of the first house Lisa and I bought. I had started to convert this to DCC but could never get it to work. I fixed some of the wiring based on what I found on the S-1, cleaned it up and put it on the track. I set just a couple CV parameters using JMRI (this program is really cool!), cranked the throttle - bam! It took off and was whizzing down the track. It ran surprisingly well but sounds like a 55 gal barrel rolling down a hill with steel ball bearings inside. I may have to keep this on in reserve on the engine track.

Next I need to paint those white mile posts to help Eric with the switch aligned. A few adjustments and maybe I can get Eric and Jack back over here for another operating session.

JMRI arrives at PRR Irwin District

One of the things that fascinated about Digital Command Control (DCC), besides running multiple trains simultaneously, simplied no-electrical-blocks wiring, stationary decoders that could be used for building lighting ... OK, so there are a lot of reasons why I like DCC! Anyway, I have been enthusiastic but slowly embraced it. It took me a couple of years to finish the layout wiring beyond 2 alligator clips on the track. My locomotive roster has 2 engines with connectors for plug-in decoders, so I was quickly up to 2 DCC locomotives but I am still only halfway through converting my first Athearn SW-1200 (I have two!) and I have built up my roster with 3 Bachmann ready-to-run DCC locomotives.

Last fall, I decided to move to the next step in DCC - computer control. I purchased the RR-CirKits LocoBuffer-USB from Alex of DCCTrain at the Cincinatti NMRA Div 7 train show. The LocoBuffer-USB allows me to connect a computer to the Digitrax LocoNet - the wiring that connects all the throttle panels and the command station/booster which is the DB-150. I brought it home, read the simple 6 page manual and put it in a drawer. I was not quite ready to tackle this.

In the meantime, I downloaded JMRI: Java Model Railroad Interface open source software which has DecoderPro and PanelPro. The first application allows you to program the DCC decoders in the locomotives (as well as other decoders if I had them) and PanelPro enables you to create a simulated Dispatcher's panel which is really cool if you have blobk occupany detectors and motorized switches - I don't!

Anyway, I read through some of the documentation and experimented with it but it was not clicking how exactly it worked.

This week, I was able to take Lisa's old laptop computer and connect it to the LocoNet with the LocoBuffer-USB. I installed JMRI and tried programming one of the locomotives. One disappointment is that I can't read the current configuration from the decoder but that is a limitation of the DB-150 and not the software or connection. I would need to upgrade to the DCS-100 Command Station and that is not cheap! But, I can program the decoders a whole lot easier with the computer interface than through the UT-402 throttles. I was expecting some sort of ... boom ... moment but nothing.

Curious, I opened the DecoderPro throttle panel. Hmmnm. Looks like a software version of the handheld throttle. I increased the throttle from 0 to 10%. Is that the motor I hear? The locomotive was not moving. I moved it to 15%. Still not moving. I know I can hear the motor. Ok let's try ... oops! Engine 7046 definitely moved when I slipped and pegged the throttle at 100%. As it pushed the train through the switch that was thrown against it, derailing the cabin car and all 5 freight cars, I discovered that controlling the soft throttle with a mouse is a whole lot harder than the UT-402.

But this is going to be fun!!!

Engine 7046 throttle panel from JMRI - notice the LocoBuffer-USB on the shelf to the right