Model Generations—SD45s

 Model Generations—SD45s

 

My presentation on “So You Want to Build a Dream Model Railroad?  --One Man’s Journey” will be part of the NMRA National Convention to be conducted virtually, July 6-10.  “NMRA 2021 Rails By the Bay is hosted by my many good friends from my days working in that South SF Bay Area—for me at Moffett Field in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. They have a great program of clinics and other material, all aimed at the on-line format we have all become accustomed to over the past two years.  One can partake of this convention from the comfort of home for a modest registration fee.  Check it out at the official convention website:

 

http://www.pcrnmra.org/NMRA2021/

 

During the buildup to this convention, all presentations were pre-recorded.  This should minimize technical difficulties at the time of presentation, something most of us have experienced sometime over the past couple of years.  My recording session placed me in contact with Heath Hurwitz, who also runs a model railroad modeling podcast.  Talking with Heath and introducing myself, I realized I had a wealth of experience with prototype modeling not directly covered in my presentation.  Indeed, readers of this blog will likely get the impression I am a layout builder, but not necessarily catch that I spent decades before this layout tightly focused on building ever more accurate and detailed railroad models, notably locomotives and rolling stock.  

 

Many of my Bay Area friends know this.  They saw it develop over the years, but more recent acquaintances likely will only know me as that guy building a large operating layout focused on the SP in Oregon.  With that in mind, Heath encouraged me to dust off some of my older models as a springboard for talking about how one develops as a modeler and makes choices along the way.

 

Three generations of SP SD45 modeling.  

 

The photo above shows three generations of my SD45 modeling.  8895 in the rear is an Athearn “blue box” model, ca, 1973, detailed and painted before diesel detail firms like Detail Associates or Details West came on the market.  8924 in the middle is a Kato model detailed in the 1990s.  Scale hood width and “modern” details contribute to a decent layout model.  7474 in front is a relatively current Athearn RTR loco of the past few years.  Athearn has done all the work I formerly spent hours on, allowing me to simply change the coupler, add a decoder coded with the unit number, and place in service.  This allows me to concentrate on building and enhancing the layout.  That has become my reality over the past decade of layout construction, although I still hope to get back to my modeling roots as the layout matures.

 

As I dug around in my storage containers searching for these illustrations of modeling efforts, I ran across several project bins with the base models, detail parts, and photos that I hope to use to create models in the Twenty-First Century.  My models today start from a photo.  The freight house in the background of the photo began from pieces of only two or three photos, but I could fill in the rest of what I needed using my library full of reference materials, acquired over the past half century.  

 

The bin of SD45 parts and photos represents a different tact.  I have a stack of my own photos, augmented by photos (often shot by fellow railfan friends) captured off the internet.  Add to that  the detail parts.  I had the good fortune to meet and know Gordon Cannon who made exquisite detail parts for EMD locomotive models.  After Gordon passed, his part line was purchased by Dave Hussey and is still available:  http://www.cannonandco.net/.  At the very least a good Cannon cab and nose sets a model apart.  

 

I am grateful for the efforts of model manufacturers and detail parts makers that permit ever more detailed models.  Equally important today as I juggle where to focus my time and effort, are the many fine highly detailed prototype-specific models now available straight from the box.  Such “check-book modeling” has allowed me to build and operate a large model railroad while still enjoying finely detailed equipment rolling by.  Still, the urge to go to the modeling bench to sit down with a model, parts, and tools to create something unique flows through my veins.

Boxcar Fleet Fillers

Over the past year, InterMountain Railway Company (IMRC) returned several older models to the market in their Value-Line series.  These models were based on mold dies that have passed through a convoluted history involving LBF and E&C Shops.  The mold dies are basic and feature molded-on detail like grabs and ladders and often missed a distinctive feature of the prototype such as the prominent Hydracushion can located on the center of the center sill underneath the car.  In spite of die work that was old-school when it was first made, InterMountain updated important car features for their current Value-Line—trucks, wheelsets and couplers.

 

Several of the models in the IMRC Value-Line represent Southern Pacific/Cotton Belt prototypes of significance to my Oregon-based model railroad.  The wood chip gondolas have yet to make a reappearance, but already delivered are double plug-door boxcars representing cars from the SSW (Cotton Belt) B-70-42 and SP B-70-43 classes of paper-loading cars.  These are important fleet-fillers for my railroad in spite of the molded-on detail.

 

I needed to apply a couple of improvements to my cars before placing them in service.  First up was to represent the Hydracushion can on the underframe.  This was a prominent feature of Southern Pacific cars throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s.  Hydracushion was developed at Stanford Research Institute using funding largely supplied by the SP.  

 

Simple representation of the Hydracushion can on the boxcar underframe.

 

I found I could simply represent the Hydracushion can with a bit of Evergreeen styrene.  A ¼-inch square by 0.060 inch thick base had a center hole drilled in it for a 3/32-inch styrene tube, plugged with a 0.100-inch rod.  Although the Hydracushion can should be mounted in the center of the center sill, I accepted a slight offset to account for the brake lever molded there.  My simple mounting conveys the desired appearance without adding more work.

 

Evident in the photo of the car underside is that the car comes from IMRC with plain black plastic trucks.  I removed the trucks and then the wheelsets from those trucks.  Both the trucks and simplified Hydracushion can were painted using a rattle can of flat red primer—close to the car color.  

 

While I had the trucks and wheelsets off the car, I chose to do a quick weathering job using my airbrush.  I might have gone a bit heavy for these cars which were rebuilt and repainted in 1984, but they will fit well within the overall railroad scene.  With simple sprays of black, brown and gray weathering mixes (acrylic paint diluted with rubbing alcohol), the cars—especially the trucks and underbody—looked appropriately “grungy” for service.

 

Weathered cars in front of non-weathered cars ready for service.

 

Ground-level view of the new cars barely showing the Hydracushion can underneath the center-sills.

 

The final step was to make up new car cards.  These cars are ready to go to work!

 

This was a simple project, but one I have delayed doing on much of my car fleet as I built my railroad.  As always planned, I am now returning to the car fleet to improve appearances. 

 

RETURN TO OPERATIONS!

May Day was a BIG DAY on my railroad as we returned to “full” operations!  As vaccination opportunities opened up in March, many of my regular crew were successful in getting vaccinated.  With my own first shot in my arm, I surveyed my crew and quickly had the slightly reduced crew I wanted for this first session.  A base requirement was that all had to be vaccine-effective by May 1.  I had to turn down several who did not meet that requirement.  They understood and now are on the list for the next ops session.

 

My railroad is in a large, well-ventilated basement.  My aisles are large—by design.  The care I took to ensure good people flow for operators around my layout pays huge dividends in these trying pandemic times.  

 

Last summer and fall’s small group sessions experimented with eliminating the helper positions.  Road engineers had to handle two throttles from Oakridge to Cascade Summit (often on return, too) as they entrained their helpers at Oakridge and removed them at Cascade Summit.  This resulted in less people in the aisles for what became a full line-up of traffic on the railroad.  Similarly, the locals ran with a single crew-member—a job ordinarily done by two:  engineer and conductor.  The yard crew was kept to just three:  Yardmaster-switcher, Switcher, and Santa Clara Tower Operator (Arrival-Departure Yardmaster).  The crew was about ¾ of a normal “full crew” with all jobs essentially single-man.

 

Follow along with a few photos from the session.

 

Craig L. and Mark K. man the Eugene classification yard as Jeroen G. works a road freight through Springfield in the background.

 

John B. took the Santa Clara Tower job, managing the arrival and departure of the road freights.  Although John had not done this job before, he adapted well to the current yard operating plan.

 

Bill M. worked the Marcola Turn.

 

Joe B. works with a RR-West road freight at Cruzatte.  His train has taken siding as a meet is underway with a RR-East train.

 

Rodger C. works his RR-East road freight downhill on the main past the RR-West on the siding, as Joe B. waits for clear track to continue RR-West.

 

Jim L. brings a helper set down from Cascade Summit on the point of his RR-East train, crossing Salt Creek Trestle.  We tried to return helpers to Oakridge in this way, although we eventually did need to run two helper sets down light, but together.

 

Rick A. dispatched the session.

 

A couple of other crew members did not make it into photos, but definitely were there, running road freights and the Oakridge Turn.

 

After the session, I sought feedback.  A key piece was to bring back the helper engineers for the next session.  Although we did OK with the two-throttle operation last fall and for this session, the crew felt they were ready for the helper engineers.  The Eugene Yard complex also will receive a couple more switchers to help keep up with mainline traffic.

 

A day of friendly chatter doing something we enjoy resulted in lots of sparkling eyes.  Vaccinations and the larger than average aisle space on my railroad make it possible to return to operations.

EAST EUGENE ELECTRICAL WAR -- BATTLE WON!

My re-work of the track at East Eugene finally has reached a workable state.  This project has drawn out far too long with many frustrations and challenges.  At every turn it seems this project found new ways to frustrate me--all the way up to the current state of a working control panel with most of its route indicators illuminated.

 

To recap, this track project added a second main track connecting between the WP Siding in front of the Eugene Depot to the departure side of the Arrival-Departure (A/D) Yard in the "back room."  Five double slip switches were needed to accomplish the desired routing options in a modest distance.  Previous posts in this series are:

1.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/12/eugene-track-throat-rearrangement-1.html

2.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2021/03/east-eugene-track-wiring-electrical-war.html

3.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2021/03/east-eugene-electrical-war-continued.html

This final post deals with the new control panel to control the switches at the RR-East end of the Eugene Depot trackage.  

 

I built a new control panel for the new switch controls.  The current panel is deemed the "interim" panel as it uses toggle switches to control the switch machines and set the routes through this trackage.  The long-term, permanent panel will use push-buttons to control routes in and out of this area (N-X control), but the electronics to support that are a future project.  For now, a tower operator will need to select the routes with the toggle switches which are augmented with LED route indicators.

 

Interim control panel for the revised East Eugene track arrangement.

 

Two of the routes represent cross-overs between the two main tracks.  I was able to economize on switches by controlling the switch machines on either end of the cross-over with the same toggle switch, located in the middle of the track diagram segments.  Other toggles control routes away from one of the two main tracks and are located in the open space between the two panel lines for the routes controlled.  

 

Double slip switches are known as "puzzle switches" for good reason.  One can easily get confused as to which route is selected.  The switch points on one side of the switch control the route on the other side.  Even knowing that, it was easy to get confused as to which switch machine controlled what.  Suffice it to say I am glad this is an "interim panel," as I had to redo one cross-over toggle switch arrangement--with attendant multiple holes for toggle switches drilled and then plugged again.

 

I added LED route indicators to help operators set up a route through the "plant."  I wired up pairs of LEDs with a single resistor to control the electrical current through them.  Helping me with the wiring was a "third hand" fixture which held two wire ends together as I soldered them.  The clips also served as heat sinks, allowing me to protect the heat shrink tubing I eventually slid over the joints while I soldered the connection.  Electronics folk are permitted to laugh at my late tumbling to the utility of this device.

 

Soldering LED connections with the aid of a "third hand" fixture.

 

After making the switch machine control connections to the toggle switches, I turned to the LED indicators.  Yet one more frustrating challenge emerged as I discovered two of my switch machines were not controlling their electrical switching function on one set of secondary contacts.  The first set controls the turnout frog power. The second set is used for the LED indicators.  The secondary set on two machines did not function.  That led to yet another excursion underneath the layout to replace those machines.  I then worked through each of the LED controls and eventually found the right switch machine contact set for each LED pair.  I left a couple of the LED pairs unconnected for now.  In one case the turnout has not been built or installed yet.  In another case I need to add an additional set of connecting wires for the LEDs.  With an operating session coming soon (at last!) I deferred this to a latter day.

 

East Eugene track arrangement and new control panel.

 

I declare this battle won!  The proof will be when operators other than me wrestle with route selection.

TOM DILL

Tom Dill, retired Southern Pacific engineer, SP historian (ten books on the SP), outstanding modeler, friend, passed away Easter Sunday.  His loss hits hard and will be felt until our own demises.  

 

When one has been in a hobby for a while, one recognizes a few individuals who have been major inspirations for their hobby participation.  Tom Dill was such a person for me.  I first knew of Tom through his co-authorship with Ed Austin of the two foundational books on the history of the Southern Pacific in Oregon.  Tom went on to author or co-author ten books on the SP.  He wrote articles on both SP history and modeling the SP.  

 

Tom and Ed's books on the SP in Oregon form the foundation for my tribute to the Cascade Line in HO-scale.  Tom was always ready with his experience on the railroad and advice for modeling of it.  His photo collection continues to provide further inspiration and guidance.

 

I first met Tom at an SPH&TS Meet in Tucson, AZ, and immediately formed a friendship that only strengthened through the years.  Tom was one of the first railroaders and model railroaders who gathered me in and introduced me around the area when I returned to my native Oregon upon retirement.  His introductions led to many great friendships.

 

Tom brought his railroad in his new home into operation a bit ahead of me.  Tom focused his railroad on operations around Ashland, Oregon, a junction between the historic Shasta and Portland Divisions of the SP.  His modeling expertise was on full display in his Ashland scene and the rest of the layout as it developed.  Tom focused on operations during the transition from steam to diesel, with some operations run strictly with steam, ca, 1949, and others with mostly diesel.  The climb to Siskiyou Summit and on to connection with the later-day mainline at Black Butte, California was a territory that received early dieselization due to the steep grade and tight curves.  Still, steam lingered for service off of that steep climb over the Siskiyous, so Tom's roundhouse was always active with steam.  

 

Tom brought a railroader's sense of operation to his miniature empire.  We used switchlists--but had no yard clerks to keep up with the movement of cars within the very tight confines of Ashland.  Another SP "Old Head" introduced paper tabs to help with switching cars, explaining it was "car chalk."  It was unsightly--a shame with his exquisite freight car models--but it got the job done.  I felt privileged to operate with crews that were otherwise composed of SP "old heads."  

 

Tom was an immediate crew member when the time came to begin operations on my railroad.  He was very helpful during the first full mainline operating session in June, 2015.  His and fellow SP "old head" Rick Kang's comments that day led to my current track project at East Eugene.  As Tom put it, "Bill, you need to extend the WP Siding."  In that comment, I immediately understood something I had missed in decades of study of Ed Austin's track diagram for Eugene in their SP Oregon book.  SP had effectively created two main tracks from the RR-West switch at the depot out to Irving on the north end of the yard complex.  My original track plan necked this down to single track between the Eugene depot and the Arrival-Departure Yard.  As I have described in recent blog posts, it has taken this long for me to install and wire the track arrangement that resulted from that very insightful comment.  Sadly, Tom will never see the fruits of his inspiration. 

 

Tom was a regular crewmember for operations on my railroad, taking whatever assignment most needed doing.  He joked about wanting to be a helper engineer--a seemingly easy job on the full-sized railroad that becomes a high skill and attentiveness job on a model railroad.  I awarded him "Seniority Number One," but he never exercised that right.  Tom often took less experienced model railroaders under his wing, guiding them into the joys of the hobby.  He was a great mentor.  All of us benefited.

 

 

Tom Dill serves as engineer with Steve K. working the first Springfield Turn job in December, 2019.  Tom was happy with a throttle in his hand.

 

 

Tom Dill works the Oakridge Turn with John B. in October 2019.

 

Tom Dill takes a turn as a conductor with Doug C. as Tom introduced Doug to my RR.

 

Tom joined me and supported me in my quest for determining the color of the metal shed that covered the sand unloading pit and conveyor for the 1958-built ("modern") sand facilities for diesel servicing at Eugene.  That shed remain a future project, but I appreciated Tom's help in trying to find what has proven an elusive goal.  I have enough good black and white photos to model the shed, but several color schemes could apply.  It has been fun to work this problem with Tom and other SP historians.  

 

I hope the model railroad world understands the deep loss we sustained this weekend as Tom passed off this mortal coil.  Railroader, historian, modeler, FRIEND.

 

Rest In Peace, Tom.

EAST EUGENE ELECTRICAL WAR--CONTINUED

As I continue to work toward a fully functioning new track arrangement at East Eugene, I am glad I scheduled this long-planned effort as a "Covid-19 Project."  This critical part of my railroad has been out of service since I began this effort in October.  The track removal and re-laying went fairly swiftly

 (https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/12/eugene-track-throat-rearrangement-1.html),

but the wiring proved challenging 

(https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2021/03/east-eugene-track-wiring-electrical-war.html).  As previously reported, I finally did sort through my track wiring such that I can run trains through this section.  My attention then turned to control of the nine switch machines and eventual route indication.

 

I fabricated a physical control panel with the same dimensions and construction as the two other panels which control track routing in this overall area. The panel face is 10 x 18 inches and is mounted on a frame built from 1x3 poplar.  The control panel frame is mounted with bottom hinges to the layout fascia and opens for electrical work on the back side of the panel.

 

Control panel frame fabricated and ready to be mounted with hinges to the lower fascia extension.

 

 

A coat of white paint on the hardboard panel face led to marker pen track lines and then toggle switch mounting.

 

A middle of the night inspiration brought into my semi-consciousness the reason for my slow progress on the control panel.  I needed to resolve spacing issues for the toggle switches and route indicator LEDs.  My overnight insight led to my recognizing that three of the routes represented cross-overs that could be route-controlled by single toggle switches.  Those are the toggle switches mounted directly in the track lines.  The left-most toggle actually controls access to an industrial siding.  The turnout for that siding has not been built and installed yet, but the toggle switch is located for that function.

 

The nine switch machines needed multi-strand control wires run for them.  Ugh!  Cable Pulling.  I am glad most of the cable pulling on this railroad is beyond me, but just this bit of it for this reconstruction project reminds me just how tiring and nasty that job is underneath a layout.  I finally routed the control wires and terminated them at the switch machine block on one end and control panel blocks at the other end.  Observing how I wired the LEDs for my first double slip switch last summer, I added wires for the switching pole of the indictor circuits. 

 

Control panel interior.  The switch panel is flopped open below and the fixed layout connections are above on the fascia hidden by the panel.  

 

I am now ready to begin connecting the toggle switches to the wiring blocks for the fixed layout connections out to the switch machines.  I will then tackle the LED route indicators.  Step by step, I am approaching a point where this project can become a contributor to operations on my railroad.

 

The control panel for the revised track at East Eugene is coming together.

EAST EUGENE TRACK WIRING--THE ELECTRICAL WAR

During construction of a model railroad one occasionally (hopefully only that!) encounters a project that refuses to advance in a straight-forward manner in spite of seemingly sound construction practices.  Such has been my winter project--wiring the new track including four double slip switches at RR-East Eugene.  My previous post--now two and a half months ago--described the mechanical aspects of laying track and installing switch machines.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/12/eugene-track-throat-rearrangement-1.html  That post gave a hint of some of the frustrations I have experienced with this project:  tight working quarters, a shift of eyesight (cataract surgery) since original construction, and selecting and obtaining the required double slip switches.  Since then, I have experienced a model railroad "do-loop" (endless repetition of tasks with no progress).  

 

The earlier blog post on track laying described the addition of a second main track extending from the RR-East end of the Eugene depot trackage to the departure side of the arrival-departure yard--the reverse loop staging tracks in the "back" room.  Anticipating that I might want to add signals someday to this complex track plan, I decided I need to create two additional electrical blocks for the OS-block and new main track.  I decided not to run the full block wiring back to the Eugene electrical connection panel.  The new block bus wires extend only over the immediate area of the new track for feeder connections and then connect, for now, to the original block bus wires for these two detection block functions.

 

Track feeders were dropped and connected to the appropriate bus wires.  Similarly, connections were made to the switch machine terminal blocks to provide for electrically hot frogs (switching polarity).  All of this was relatively straight-forward in spite of the tight working conditions under the layout.  

 

I was often challenged to find the right optical help for my post-cataract surgery eyes.  Original construction of my railroad often found me removing my glasses for close work under the layout.  Presbyopia had been kind to my extreme near-sightedness, rendering good vision focus inside my arm-length without glasses.  Post-cataract surgery, with my distant vision now corrected to nearly 20/20, I now found this same viewing range required reading glasses or other magnifying lenses.  This has been a big shift for me and the source of much frustration as I need to change to the right range readers for work under the layout.  I continue to wrestle with this as old habits must be un-learned and new ones developed.

 

Pressing on, I finally got to the stage where I put a test loco on the track, fired up the DCC system, and tried running through the new track work.  No joy.  I had a dead short.  It took me quite a while to work through trouble shooting to locate the source of the short.  All of the wiring underneath looked good, but the short remained.  I finally isolated the new track electrically from the rest of the RR--disconnecting multiple bus wires back at the Eugene connection panel. 

 

I eventually identified the short as being within one of the new double slip switches.  Further investigation pointed to one of the two frogs shorting to one of the rails running through that frog.  I thought I might clear this by cutting new rail gaps.  No Joy.  I finally took the drastic step of removing the offending switch.  

 

Double-slip switch with frog short removed.  DAP adhesive caulk softens and releases when soaked with a pool of rubbing alcohol for 15-20 minutes.

 

Close examination of the underside of the frog revealed the source of the problem.  I am using Peco SL-U8363 code 83 double slip switches.  These feature a good mechanical design.  Peco makes these with their "unifrog" design which features a modest length frog that the user can decide to use as either a "dead" frog (no electrical connection) or a hot frog with a polarity-switching connection.  I use the latter feature.  Peco has done a very good job designing the switch so that it needs only four electrical connections:  the two stock rails and the two frogs.

 

Peco unifrog underside showing pass-through rail connection wires flanking the frog wire.  I have added a small bit of wire insulation to the frog wire as it passes between the other pair of bare wires.  This is a critical user installation requirement!

 

The photo of the underside of the Peco frog illustrates the problem and the solution.  Three bare wires are in close proximity, each potentially having an opposite polarity.  With contact between the frog wire and one of the two run-through rail connection wires, a short will develop when the frog is set to the opposite polarity.  It is very difficult to assure keeping the frog wire clear of the two run-through wires during installation, even if one knows this is a potential problem.  The solution is to add insulation on the frog wire.  I used a 1/4-inch section of insulation removed from a strand of Cat5 cable wire.  I threaded it onto the frog wire, pressed it down to the frog and then added CA glue to affix it.  

 

My earlier work trying to isolate the frog with additional rail gaps led to a loose rail on one end.  While I could fix this with solder and spiking the rail into position, I chose to order yet another new switch.  Once again, Yankee Dabbler (https://yankeedabbler.com/) came to my rescue by having it in stock and promptly shipping it.  Thank you!  When the new switch arrived, I added insulation on the frog wire and removed the throw-bar springs--unneeded with my use of Tortoise switch machines.

 

The new switch with appropriate modifications cleared that first short.  Unfortunately, as I began testing the new track-work again, I found yet another short on a previously untested routing.  This was in the double-slip switch at the other end of the group of four switches.  With experience, I quickly identified which frog was causing the problem.  Out came a second switch. I dinged up the cork roadbed quite a bit with this removal.  That prompted more delay as I had to let the alcohol-laden area dry out and then add spackle, paint and then gluing the switch to the roadbed with adhesive caulk.   Each step took frustratingly more time.  During the course of this removal, I ended up breaking solder joints for two of the feeder wires (one stock rail and one frog), so I had to repair those.  Somehow, I STILL managed to cause a frog short with the installation, so out it came--again!  

 

While I have been frustrated by the Peco electrical design that almost guarantees a short between the frog wire and one of the run-through rail wires, I remain satisfied with the modified product.  It has a sound mechanical design.

 

Just when I thought I had all faults corrected, I found I now had a dead frog for one routing.  Chasing my way back through the wiring underneath, I found I had a cold solder joint for one of the feeder connections to one of the bus wires.  Out came the resistance solder unit to fix that problem and to finally fully connect a couple of additional track feeders needed for short track sections used to connect the relatively short Peco switches in places formerly occupied by long number eight switches.  

 

I still need to create a new control panel for the new track arrangement.  The first panel will use toggle switches to control the switch machines backed up by LED route indicators.  Eventually, a second panel will be created that will use two-button entrance-exit (NX) control.  

 

Time to test the track and demonstrate that I now have two main lines in and now out of the arrival-departure yard!

 

A RR-East meets a RR-West, passing on the pair of tracks now connecting the Eugene depot to the arrival-departure yard.

 

The form of future Eugene operations.  A RR-West train departs the A-D Yard via the connection to the WP Siding in front of the depot while a RR-East enters the A-D yard from the main track at the depot and then curves left to take the arrival side of the A-D Yard.

 

This has been a long, frustrating, and challenging effort to provide a new traffic arrangement into and out of the Eugene Arrival-Departure Yard, aka staging.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out when we finally return to full operations with a full crew.  The track-wiring battle has been won, but the war continues.