SWAP MEET FINDS

 At the end of February, the Willamette Model Railroad Club held their annual swap meet in Portland.  Half of my regular operating crew are members of that club, so I chose to partake of the meet mostly as gesture of support.  I went with very low expectations as my purchases have become very focused on the railroad I have built.  

 I refrain from talking about purchases in this blog other than particular products that have a material impact on my railroad or its operations.  That all changed with this swap meet as I scored not one, but ultimately three significant swap meet finds that directly contribute to the “next chapter” of my railroad.  This was an extremely rare event!

 

The “next chapter” for my railroad involves a long-planned shift of operating era on the railroad from the current 1984 back into the 1950s.  That plan has been sitting in plain sight in a sidebar to this blog since its beginning.  I chose to commence operations in 2015 with “modern” (for me) SP equipment from the 1980s.  That refined to 1984 in short order based on equipment availability.  Ease of conversion to DCC (decoders into all motive power) drove that choice.  

 

I have a significant investment in DC-analog equipment that I used on the club layout I was part of in my working years in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Unfortunately, most of that equipment requires hard-wiring for decoder installation. For some well-loved equipment it might involve motor replacement as well.

 

With a developed and tested railroad (OK, lots of scenery to go plus “usual” electro-mechanical tweaks still needed), I have been longingly looking at backdating to the “rainbow era” of Southern Pacific operations—Daylight, Two-Tone Gray, Tiger Stripes, and Black Widow paint schemes.  I have been working through my motive power fleet of that earlier era, sorting out what needed to be installed and making decoder choices and purchases.

 

With that backdating goal in mind, I approached the WMRRC Swap Meet focused upon the potential of finding equipment that might fill identified holes or weak spots in my equipment roster.  I eventually made two locomotive purchases at the swap meet and then made second-hand caboose purchases at one of the two principal Portland model railroad shops—a trifecta!

 

Swap Meet finds at Cruzatte.  Two brass caboose models, an SP Black Widow F7 ABBA set, and a PrecisionCraft SP Daylight Alco PABA set will all find important places in my operating fleet as I back-date into the 1950s.

 

My first purchase was a PABA set in full Daylight paint.  The PrecisionCraft (affiliated with Broadway Limited) units are heavy and well detailed, well suiting my personal standards.  These should plug a passenger power fleet hole needing a powerful Alco PA set to pull my Shasta Daylight.  My Shasta Daylight is a brass Coach Yard set with car weights in the 11-12 ounce range and the usual blunt axle ends in coined truck frames (lots of friction).  My Overland PABA set needs a machinery repair in addition to fitting decoders, speakers and electrical wipers for DCC operation.  The PrecisionCraft set has the potential of getting me a working PA set for this train more quickly.

 

An added bonus for the PrecsionCraft PABA set purchase was from whom I got it.  Heather Clark is a custom painter here in the Willamette Valley.  She also is a former SP Brake-person.   I have known her since I arrived back in Oregon.  We have chatted at shows about topics we have in common including loco painting.  It turns out a mutual friend had been an early and long-time customer of hers—Ron Plies.  I knew “Rusty Ron” (as labelled in SP History circles) from my Bay Area days.  Ron and I shared a passion for SP passenger trains in addition to model railroad operation.  Ron passed away this past year and Heather has been handling much of his model RR estate, hence the PABA set.  I get a warm feeling knowing Ron’s PA set now sits in my basement preparing to pull my Shasta Daylight.  

 

As the swap meet ground on past noon, I finally was able to get over to Charlie LeCaine’s Whistle Stop table (one of the two major Portland model RR shops).  Sitting on that table was an Athearn Genesis F7 ABBA set at a decent swap meet price.  DCC decoder equipped and in Black Widow paint, this locomotive set will usefully augment my road freight power pool for the 1950s.  I already have the same set in my collection, but decals will take care of the loco numbers.  I now had two significant swap meet purchases.

 

Finally, while I was in Portland, I visited the other major model railroad shop—HobbySmith.  Sitting in the display case there were several Precision Scale brass SP cabooses, appropriate for the 1950s era.  Once again, these will usefully augment existing cabooses in my fleet—a fleet that needs to expand for my much larger layout.  I acquired C-30-2 and a C-40-1 models.  Yes, they need paint, but that is well within my capabilities.

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to leave Portland on WMRRC Swap Meet day with not just one, but three major additions to my operating fleet.  These purchases will move me much closer and much sooner to my planned era swap.

DERAILMENT IN TUNNEL 10

In the latter half of my February 7, operating session we suffered a derailment in Tunnel 10.  Tunnel 10 is the tunnel immediately RR-East (downhill) of Noisy Creek Trestle, the middle one of the three large steel viaducts on the Cascade Line.  This tunnel features rock sheds at both ends with the added complication of Noisy Creek Trestle being built on a curve and in a corner of my layout space.  

 

It has been eight years since I enclosed this area in scenery, fully forming the tunnel.  I recalled making a decision/choice when building the tunnels to provide removable tunnel walls from longer tunnels.  Looking at Tunnel 10, I thought this was one of the shorter tunnels that did not have a removable tunnel wall, so I proceeded on that basis.

 

We pulled the two halves of the train away from the scene of the derailment, but could not easily see into the tunnel.  Using a handy pair of light helper locomotives that were in the area returning to Oakridge, we gently ran them into the tunnel to confirm an obstruction—one that could not be cleared by simply powering up the locos to push it out of the way.  In my rush to clear the derailment, forgot to do some basic investigation, beginning with figuring out from the train consist just which car or cars were involved.  Initially, it appeared it was a single tank car, but in fact four tank cars were in that tunnel!

 

A quick (too quick as it happens!) inspection under the layout suggested the back wall of the tunnel was a slab of pink-foam terrain base.  Again, I was in a rush to clear the derailment, so I did not investigate that further.  More on that later in this blog post.  

 

With an assumed impenetrable tunnel wall (at least in short time), I quickly went to “Plan B”—trying to clear the derailment from the more open end of the tunnel on the downhill side (away from Noisy Creek Trestle).  Carefully climbing up onto the layout, I  investigated using a flashlight.  I could see a derailed tank car.  I grabbed a three-foot dowel and probed into the tunnel.  Nothing moved.

 

Investigating the derailment in Tunnel 10 from the RR-East end.

 

Unable to move anything in the tunnel, I wrapped the end of my dowel with blue painter’s masking tape (modest tack) and was able to fish out the nearest tank car.  A quick check with those handy light helper locos indicated I still had not cleared the obstruction.  Sigh.  Looking up the tunnel with my flashlight, I could see another car stuck in the tunnel, so in I went again with my tape wrapped dowel, extracting another tank car.

 

Using a masking tape wrapped end of a dowel to snare derailed tank cars in the tunnel.

 

Somewhere along in this part of the process, we finally thought to look at the train consist (car cards) and found that four cars were missing from between the ends of the separated train.  I continued to fish out the remaining pair of tank cars using my tape-wrapped dowel.  With four tank cars removed and taken to my RIP (Repair In Place) Track area, we confirmed the (now) unobstructed tunnel.  With that, the two train halves were rejoined and the railroad returned to operation—after a break of at least a half hour.

 

Mark K. wipes off my sweaty forehead after the very physical activity involved in climbing onto the layout and maneuvering the tape-wrapped dowel to snag the four tank cars.

 

Subsequent investigation found two of the four cars remain in decent shape that will put them back on the rails for the next operating session.  The other two may not make it, needing extensive repairs to the tank dome access ladders and handrail structure around that access dome.  Oh yes, for those who might think of such derailments on full-sized railroads, the tank cars were all “empty,” heading to the SF Bay Area for reload.  This was not a Hazardous Materials spill.

 

The four cars from the derailment.  The closest two have extensive damage to the center access ladders and handrails.  The rear two have more modest damage that appears easy to repair.

 

With a much clearer head, I investigated the derailment site and found first that the actual tunnel track was further up and closer to the wall than I thought when I was trying to clear the derailment.  Further, I discovered that I had installed a removable back tunnel wall/liner.  I removed that back wall and felt the track for broken off car pieces, but did not find any in the first pass.  I will run my TCS track cleaner with its vacuum feature through the tunnel before the next operating session.

 

In the future, I need to approach such operating problems by first stepping back and assessing the actual situation.  First figure out how many cars are involved.  Second thoroughly investigate for removable tunnel walls.  I “assumed” too much in my rush to get the railroad back in operation.  This was a tough learning experience….

EUGENE DEPOT PLATFORM – 1

As I work around the railroad bringing up the level of scenic detail, I arrived at the Eugene depot area.  This has long had a depot model plus several other structures such as the scratch-built Eugene Freight depot and several Eugene city businesses with rail access.  With the track painted in this area in the past year, I could at last begin the process of providing a passenger platform.

 

Eugene’s depot trackage had a typical layout for the Southern Pacific.  The mainline was separated from the depot by at least one other track.  In Eugene’s case, the track closest to the depot was the WP Siding, named for the original construction company that laid out the original Eugene depot and yard. 

 

The original Eugene yard was alongside what became the Coos Bay Branch.  That yard remained after the Natron Cutoff was completed (the modern Cascade Line that I model) and a new, much larger yard constructed.  The old yard became the Blair Street Yard, serving local industry in Eugene.  My classification yard is placed between the aisle and the depot tracks and serves much the same function on my railroad—support of the local industry operations.  

 

Meanwhile, I had a gaping blank space between the depot mainline and the WP Siding and then the depot.  SP filled that space with a broad platform, a feature I long have needed to model.

 

I chose black styrene sheet to form the platform.  I cut long strips of the sheet to fit between the mainline and WP Siding.  I used a 0.080-inch base and a 0.040-inch top to first match the tie height (about 0.080-inch high) and then provide a platform top lower than the rails, avoiding a number of model railroad operating issues.  I assembled the long strips into even longer strips with a slight overlap created at the matching ends.  This created three strips a bit more than five feet long with overlapping joints for the center section.  I used a lot of tube styrene glue to weld the top sheets to the bottom bases and then join four strips to create the longer sub-assemblies.  Once the glue set for the three long subassembly strips, I sanded the inner joints and shaped the long edges.  

 

The Eugene platform was paved with asphalt.  The black styrene was way too saturated (black) to represent even slightly weathered asphalt, but should any of the subsequent paint get scraped off, the resulting black undertone will blend with the scene.  I painted the platform strips with Rustoleum gray primer.  

 

Once the platform base coat set, I applied a center stripe for the platform, as seen in photos.  Note the current Eugene depot no longer has the WP siding, so the platform has been reconfigured for current Amtrak use.  I built a jig using styrene strip to guide the striping.  I used an acrylic paint pen from my local art supply store to apply the stripe.  I finished the basic platform treatment by scrubbing the platform strips with Bragdon gray weathering powder.

 

Applying the center stripe to the assembled platform strips.  My striping fixture is along the middle strip.

 

As with track laying, I installed the platform strips using DAP Dynaflex 230 adhesive caulk.  I used this for both the primary mounting to the cork roadbed sheets in the area and for the overlapping joints between the center and end platform sections.

 

Amtrak Number 11 pauses for its station stop at the newly-installed Eugene depot platform.

 

Much work remains in the Eugene depot area.  The Railway Express Agency depot is under construction as I write this, using another Walthers City Station kit.  This is a challenge to adapt the depot kit end hipped roof sections to form a single roof.  Following that will be expanding the depot platforms on the depot side of the WP Siding and then installing pedestrian and baggage cart walk-over platforms to get to the main depot platform between the two tracks.  For now, at least the main platform is present!