POWER TO THE MOUNTAIN TRACK

Inevitably for me, following the visible progress of roadbed construction and track laying, the next necessary step—wiring—always seems to be a “downer.”  Nonetheless, wiring is essential to making the magic of trains run.  My prior post on wiring my railroad ( http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2015/05/wiring-mountain-grade.html) discussed why it seems to take longer for me to get track into operation.  I am happy to report basic track wiring has been accomplished on the mountain grade!

I distribute my DCC boosters around the layout to minimize power and DCC signal losses.  This results in a “station panel” associated with each of the boosters.  The panel for Wicopee and Cruzatte is about as basic as such panels get for my railroad.  The detection block wiring for a station is gathered into a pair of terminal strips.  These are fed by a circuit breaker, which receives power from the DCC booster.   Space is left on the station panel for subsequent installation of block detection circuit boards and power switch machine control boards.  For now, all the blocks get jumpered together.

Station panel for Wicopee and Cruzatte.

One issue addressed in locating the DCC boosters around the layout has been the installation of the NCE Control Bus between boosters.  This is a four-conductor cable that uses RJ-H connectors at each end.  NCE supplies a short cable with each booster, but longer cable runs are up to the end-user.  Unfortunately, four-conductor flat cable and RJ-H connectors have vanished from regular consumer supply houses.  My solution has been to run Cat5e cable between booster locations, splicing half of the NCE-supplied cable onto each end. 

Cable connections to the DCC booster for Wicopee and Cruzatte.  The green wire is a ground needed among the boosters.  The gray wire laying on top of the booster is the Cat5e cabled that has the NCE-supplied short cable spliced onto the end. 

NCE specifies a “daisy chain” set of connections from one booster to the next.  My chain begins with the command station under Springfield, passes through the boosters for Eugene Depot and Oakridge and now connects to the large booster for the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard—the staging loop in the “back room.”  From this large booster, the command bus snakes back to a corner, up the wall and out on the upper level to the booster for Crescent Lake (upper level staging).  The command bus then has to back track to begin working it’s way out to the booster for Cascade summit and McCredie Springs.  Finally, the last leg extends around to the booster for Wicopee and Cruzatte.  A look at my track plan will give you an idea of where these locations are in my basement space.

With all of the cables run through the layout and end connections made, it was time to see if I got it together right.  My pair of Athearn GP35s that seem so handy for these check out tasks, got called upon once again.  They are seen in the photo below.  Look closely, you will see the headlight is on! 

Locomotive check out of wiring to the track at Wicopee.  The headlight is on and it runs!

I am getting very close to actually running over the full mainline!

ESPEE IN OREGON 2015

The Espee in Oregon Meet was held in Toledo, Oregon, May 15 & 16.  The major draw of this meet was the Georgia Pacific paper mill that serves as the motivation for the continuation of the railroad Toledo Branch.  This is the same branch that runs through the lower campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis—my home town.

The meet began on Friday with a tour through the Georgia Pacific paper mill.  Sadly, GP policy forbade cameras, so the only photos I have are from the public area outside the security gate.  The tour briefing was informative, filling in a couple of gaps in my knowledge base.  The paper mill was built in 1956-57 as an adjunct to the former C.D. Johnson sawmill purchased by GP.  The sawmill is no more, but paper production continues.

Georgia Pacific paper mill in Toledo, Oregon.

The GP paper mill in Toledo produces corrugated box paper—both the outer faces and the interior liner that is corrugated.  That is a business that continues with the changing marketplace for paper products.  GP uses 50 percent recycled material (mostly cardboard) in their current process.  The remainder of the fiber for the paper comes from the Kraft process (chemicals and heat) applied to wood chip fiber.  This contrasts to the thermal-mechanical process used by SP Fiber Technology (newsprint is the product) seen during last year’s tour at Newberg, OR.  http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2014/05/espee-in-oregon-2014.html

The rest of the paper process looked familiar.  Indeed, last year’s tour was good background for this year’s tour.  The tour completed with a demonstration of rol-dumping RR chip gondolas.  GP’s chip dump is across the Yaquina River in the former loading shed of the CD Johnson sawmill.  A conveyor system transports the chips over to the paper mill site.  The old industrial switcher, used at the mill since 1951, was present but is no longer used. 

Friday afternoon provided time for layout tours and a tour of the Toledo Railroad Museum.  My first stop was with the museum.  I have visited here before, getting a copy of one of the few photos of the SP “Beanery” at Cascade Summit.  The museum’s highlight is their restored baggage-RPO car.  It is a great example of a working Railway Post Office. 

SP Baggage-RPO at the Toledo Railroad Museum.

My second stop also was in Toledo at the home and layout of a former charter member of my former model railroad club in California.  Both of us escaped to Oregon.  Jim uses mostly DC-analog for control using his PFM Sound unit.  I also toured a club layout in Newport.  The evening’s activities centered around an “open” slide projector.

Jim W.’s layout.

Saturday’s agenda had a number of presentations.  The important “local interest” presentation was by Lloyd Palmer and Mike Y. on the bridges on the Toledo Branch.  The SP upgraded the line in 1958 to handle the heavier traffic for the then-new paper mill.  The SP used a number of former turntable bridges, repurposed as railroad bridges, for the many crossings of the Mary’s and Yaquina Rivers. 

The evening’s presentations included a video shot on the Cascade Line featuring snow removal service.  The concluding presentation was by Bob Morris (aka “Photo Bob”) with a lot of his photography around Dunsmuir, CA, at the south end of the Cascade-Shasta Line (and the original main line).  Bob claimed this was the first time he had done a projected photo show (he works with photo prints).  He had us in stitches with laughter.

The Espee in Oregon Meets give me an opportunity to catch up with friends with a common interest and to add to my knowledge of railroading—particularly the SP—in Oregon.

WIRING THE MOUNTAIN GRADE

Now that the benchwork has been built, subroadbed and roadbed installed, and track laid on the mountain grade, it has been time to wire the new track.  I began with a pair of stations that have been sitting dormant for some time—Cascade Summit and McCredie Springs.  Cascade Summit actually has a fair bit of track that demands more wiring and switch machines.  I spent two weeks installing switch machines and wiring and have yet to complete Cascade Summit.

As I operated on another large, under-construction, nearby layout this weekend, I had an opportunity to reflect on differences in wiring philosophies of the two layouts.  The other layout is “dark territory”—no signals, so the wiring is fairly simple.  It really does approach the old (disproven) saying that with DCC one only needs to connect two wires and go.  My layout is not so fortunate.  It has a wiring plan that rivals a complex DC-analog layout with many separate blocks.  Contrasting the relatively simple wiring of the other layout to my own monster led me to reflect on design and construction choices I have made.

One big design difference already alluded to is that my railroad is designed to have a full signaling and Centralized Traffic Control (CTC).  The prototype SP Cascade Line had CTC installed in 1955.  Prior to that, the line was signaled using Absolute Permissive Block (APB) signals.  During the design process for my layout, I recognized that CTC would be a significant labor saving control system, just as the real railroad found.  The earlier system used Timetable and Train Order (TT&TO) control, which depends upon multiple trackside train order operators.  I have observed that model railroad TT&TO operations run “best” when multiple train order operators are used and most train crews use two persons (engineer and conductor).  That certainly is true of the other layout I operated on this weekend.  CTC allows me to eliminate the train order operator position and staff road crews with just an engineer.  This would be critical for operations with a modest number of crew members present, hence my design decision to prepare for CTC installation.

Wiring for full signaling, especially using CTC, greatly increases the number of separately wired track blocks.  A simple mountain siding on my railroad—the basic building block—has seven separate track blocks:  main, siding, “OS blocks” at each end (basically the switches), the mainline east and west of the siding, and a house track—the company spur for maintenance of way and other railroad uses.  By way of contrast, that simple “dark” railroad could include all of that trackage as part of a single power block.  A simple automatic block signal system would still need four blocks.  The result for me is a lot of separate wires running underneath my roadbed.

Underside of a piece of McCredie Springs.  Separate track block lines are for (front to rear) house, main, siding, OS-West and mainline west.  Powered frog and switch machine control wires still need to be connected to the switch motor terminal block. 

Another design and construction choice I have made is to power the switch frogs.  This is the area of a track switch where one side’s rail crosses over the other rail as the route diverges.  Left un-insulated, this would cause a short circuit.  Some modelers choose to leave the area unpowered, relying on multiple wheels of a locomotive for power pick-up on either side of the “dead” frog section.  Instead, I choose to power the frog, but this requires switching the polarity of the frog with the switch position.  I use a set of contacts on the switch machine for this function.  It is a simple wiring step, but it takes a little bit of time that adds up.  My experience with a variety of small locomotives, especially small steam locos with small tenders, convinced me of the need to power the frogs.

In a somewhat related vein, I chose to build my railroad with a feeder to every piece of rail on the layout.  Actually, a few two-inch sections are connected to another rail through soldered rail joiners, but the basic rule remains.  The reason for this is that nickel silver rail has a higher resistance per foot (more voltage drop) than copper wire.  One needs to minimize the voltage drops on the railroad to get the best performance and to ensure the circuit breakers protecting the electronics can operate correctly and quickly when a short is detected.

I have found as I build, wire, trouble-shoot, and operate this railroad that I need to break up yard tracks into several logical electrical blocks.  I have found it best to wire yard switch ladders as separate blocks, perhaps as two separate blocks for many tracks.  The other end of the yard needs the same treatment.  The body tracks can be one big electrical block, but I have found I need to wire no more than four tracks across to a single wire bus line.  Having separate blocks helps with trouble-shooting.

Taking the many separate electrical block construction philosophy another step, I have found the logical groupings of blocks also helps with “short management.”  DCC is much less tolerant of shorts than DC-analog.  The circuit breakers we use for DCC short protection nearly instantly shut down the track they feed when they detect a short.  I find myself thinking somewhat the way I did with DC-analog by providing a separate circuit-breaker-protected set of tracks for each switch crew in a yard.  Yes, there are times when two crew will share such a power district, but having switch ladders at opposite ends of a yard separately protected keeps one crew working while another deals with the short they just created.  I have yet to feed the two ends of my Eugene classification yard through separate circuit breakers, but the basic track wiring will make that a simple change.

Eugene Yard Panel.  Currently, the depot tracks are fed from one circuit breaker and the classification yard has one other circuit breaker.  I plan to add two more circuit breakers for the yard ladders at each end, leaving the body tracks on a third circuit.

DCC signal conditioning can be an issue, particularly for long wire runs.  A rule of thumb is that DCC signal condition becomes an issue for wire runs greater than thirty feet from a booster.  I addressed some of this concern by distributing boosters around the layout.  This reduces the length of wire running from any given booster to the track it feeds.  It also means I have to walk around the layout turning on the boosters when I turn on the railroad.  This also means I must run booster command bus wires to the distributed boosters and run a grounding wire among all of the boosters.  More wire. 

Even with my distributed boosters, I still have some long wire runs.  An answer to some of this length is a “snubber”—a simple resistor-capacitor circuit across the rails.  This is fine for “dark” territory, but the snubber defeats track occupancy detection.  A partial answer for me is to install the snubber for a long wire run just before the pair of track wires needs to separate for detection.  The snubber is on the booster side of a track detector.  This means I need to distribute a number of track block detectors—close to the detected track—rather than collecting them all at a central station panel. 

All of this adds up to a lot of wiring work.  This most definitely is NOT “run two wires and you are done” connection!  I could have simplified a lot of wiring just to get trains rolling, but I still would need to wire the way I am to support signaling.  Since signals are an important part the prototype railroad I am modeling, I just need to get on with it.  Wiring for signaling now will save a lot of effort and heartache later.

BRIDGES IN THE MOUNTAINS

A signature element of the climb up into the Cascades are several steel trestles and other bridges.  All three of the major steel trestles on the line are represented on my layout:  Salt Creek, Noisy Creek and Shady Creek.  These were among the final roadbed construction on my mountain grade as I built toward mainline completion and the Golden Spike. http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2015/04/golden-spike.html  I needed to at least prepare for the trestles and bridges even with temporary construction. 

First up was a pair of bridges in the midst of Cruzatte that span Cascade Creek.  These are deck girder bridges and employ the basic construction method I use for most such girders.  I create a central spine that continues the subroadbed through the bridge.  This is sheathed with Central Valley girders.  I used this technique previously for the mainline bridge over Salmon Creek on the RR-West end of Oakridge. http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2014/04/salmon-creek-mainline-bridge-1.html   http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2014/06/salmon-creek-mainline-bridge-2.html That bridge has a deck.  The pair spanning Cascade Creek at Cruzatte needed to represent open deck construction. 

Though the actual bridges are “open,” one does not see much down through the ties or up from the bottom.  I chose to cut out the plywood subroadbed at Cruzatte to create a ½ inch wide spine for each bridge.  I then painted these spines a dull black.  The actual bridges at Cascade Creek are still painted black, just as my models are, so a dull black interior works well. 

Spines for Cascade Creek bridges cut out of plywood subroadbed for Cruzatte.

The Central Valley girders were shortened from the 72 foot through plate girder kit.  Separate girders are packaged as Central Valley 1903-1.  I added “angle iron” to the bridge ends and decal rivets to the visible side of those angles.  Top and bottom plates were added.  The two girders were then joined by three short sections of 0.125x0.156 styrene.  All of this was painted black and then weathered.  These bridges sections fit neatly over the plywood spines.  Bridge track was laid on top and joined to the regular flex track on either side of the bridge.

Cascade Creek bridge girders.  Correct side is up for the one on the left.

Cascade Creek bridges installed.  Abutments will come later.

I will use a variation on this theme for the three large steel trestles.  All are built on curves, so they are composed of many sections of straight bridge girders.  I previously noted the use of aluminum strap as the spine for these trestles. http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2015/03/connecting-ends.html   I will use the same technique of sheathing this spine with Central Valley bridges girders.  I needed to temporarily install the track over these spans, though.  Even basic girder bridge construction takes a bit of time for me.  These trestles will take longer with their need for the tower construction.  Meanwhile, I need to get this railroad into operation for the fast-approaching NMRA National Convention in Portland this August! 

I found that the hardboard spline material I used for much of the mountain grade made a perfect pattern and substitute for the eventual Central Valley bridge girders.  That happy discovery was made as I built and installed the Cascade Creek girders.  I cut sections of hardboard to the individual girder lengths making up the trestle.  These varied between 30 scale feet for the sections over the towers up to 70 scale feet long for sections of Salt Creek Trestle.  I then trimmed the ends of the non-tower sections to an angle to fit the curve each trestle is aligned on.  I found it easy to make an initial guess as to the angle—after all, these are “temporary—and found those guesses to be very good.  Most are 7 or 8 degrees at each end.  I then affixed the temporary bridge girder patterns to the top of the aluminum spines using Dap 230 adhesive caulk, following up with a level for cross-ways alignment.  Once the caulk set, I could lay the bridge track on top, temporarily affixing it with modest spots of the Dap 230 caulk.  When I go back to build the permanent bridge-trestles, I will replace the hardboard patterns with the Central Valley bridge girders, just as I did at Cascade Creek.  Then I can build and install the trestle towers.  The inspiration photo for this blog taken at Salt Creek Trestle will give you an idea of the effect I am striving for.  I will paint my trestles black, as they were until the early 1960’s.

Temporary bridge girder pattern installation at Salt Creek Trestle.

Bridge track installed on top of temporary bridge girder patterns at Salt Creek Trestle.

GOLDEN SPIKE!

The mainline has been pushed through for a complete circuit including one of the reverse loop staging tracks in the Eugene Arrival/Departure yard.  It was time to celebrate a major milestone!  I held a Golden Spike ceremony and gathering of folk April 12, 2015.  About forty folk gathered to help me celebrate this milestone.

Gold Spike Ceremony at Salt Creek Trestle.  Left to right: Larry V., me, my wife Janet, Mike Y., and Rodney L.

In true railroad fashion, there is much remaining, including more track and a lot of wiring.  Still, track now runs continuously from the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard, through Eugene, Springfield and Oakridge.  There, it starts the 1.8 percent climb up through McCredie Springs, Wicopee and Cruzatte to Cascade Summit.  Track extends  from Cascade Summit into Crescent Lake.

Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard Track 4 (one of five to be laid with code 83 rail) complete one full reverse loop.

Throat trackwork leading to Track 4 of the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard.  The actual final gap was closed here.

Mainline track on the mountain grade.  Cruzatte is on the upper line on the left.  Wicopee is in the distance curving to the right.

Wicopee and Salt Creek Trestle (temporary).  The pictures hanging from the layout are the historic scenes I am trying to model.

The “Gold Spike” at the end of Salt Creek trestle.  The spike actually is a tie date nail that my wife surprised me with today.  I am a lucky man.

ROADBED COMPLETE

Cork roadbed has been installed on all the new construction, clearing the way for track laying.  I used Midwest Products cork roadbed strips for the mountain grade.  Nominal ¼ inch thick cork sheet was used for the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard area.  Following installation with carpenters glue, the cork was smoothed by sanding and then painted a neutral gray.  The gray is similar to the final ballast color and will serve that way for some time.  Ballasting will come very much later in the process.

Mountain grade cork roadbed installed and painted gray.  Cruzatte siding is on the plywood on the upper level.  The lower level snakes along the benchwork edge and under the Cruzatte mid-point  (where the station company structures will be).  This will be Tunnel 20 on the lower line.  Curving to the right in the distance is Wicopee siding on the lower line.  The lines meet just beyond Wicopee on Salt Creek Trestle.

Wicopee siding roadbed.  View is from atop Salt Creek Trestle.  Part of Wicopee was built on plywood.  Most was built with hardboard splines.

RR-West end of Salt Creek Trestle.  The trestle has a spine made of two 1/8  by ¾ inch aluminum straps (painted black).  This is pinned within the hardboard spline at the ends of the trestle.

Pins for trestle spine inserted through the spine into the surrounding hardboard spline. 

Bridge spine cut-outs for Cascade Creek near the RR-East end of Cruzatte.  These spines will be encased in a pair of deck truss girders for Cascade Creek.

Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard roadbed. 

Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard roadbed seen from the yard throat area.  Operator access hole will provide access to the yard tracks and engine facilities that will be contained within the reverse loop yard.  

BUILDING THE BASE

Shifting benchwork construction from the mountain grade to the other major remaining area, I built the base benchwork for the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard.  The A/D Yard serves as the lower level staging.  Engine facilities for both steam and diesel will be contained within the reverse loop.  An industrial branch will sweep around the outside of the twelve yard tracks.  In front of the yard tracks will be a switch lead, a caboose track, the Oregon Electric (SP&S or BN) Interchange and a modest track for a PFE ice ramp and rack. 

I began by laying out the remaining full size track plan on the floor.  I then filled in fresh newsprint and re-plotted the yard throat.  The original full-sized plan had been destroyed by me walking on it and our dog deciding it might make a comfortable “nest.”  I laid out built-up turnouts for most of the yard throat and now have a short  list of “immediate” turnout needs. 

Benchwork construction is a combination of L-girder and stringer, open grid, and a couple of wall braces.  I prefer L-girder for most areas as the stringers can be adjusted to account for switch machine locations.  Open grid is useful for a reduced support structure thickness.  I need a roll-under passageway to the operator hole for the engine facility in the middle of the A/D Yard area.  Finally, I had a couple of spots where a single stringer supported by a wall bracket neatly filled a gap that was not easily spanned with an L-girder. 

Herewith some pictures of the completed base benchwork:

Base benchwork for the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard.  Track plan is shown on the floor.  Plywood for this area has been lifted onto the benchwork in the back corner.

Benchwork connecting to the existing Eugene Yard in the pass-through.

Benchwork extending to our Exercise Room wall.  A hole has been broken through the wall for the limited trackage rights into this space.  The blocking I had installed during house construction for this hole is perfectly placed in height. 

Benchwork framing the operator hole.   A wall bracket support for the middle stringer can be seen against the back wall.  A larger opening in the stringer framing can be seen to the left of the operator hole.  This is where the turntable will go.

Another perspective on the operator hole.  Benchwork legs on either side of the passage way to the hole are 2x4s.  These legs will have handrails installed to aid the roll-through passageway use.