Winter Additions

Welcome back for more ferroequinological fun! No advancements were made this week in the Train Room per se, but great progress was made in the downstairs hall. Once the southern part of the downstairs hall is complete, the majority of the hallway items in the Train Room can move back to their rightful place, and then work can progress in the Train Room again. In the hall, I painted the ceiling white, and painted the walls brown (using more free paint from the Restore!) I also place boxcar wood baseboards along the southern walls and into the stairway. My wife helped us come up with some really nifty decor ideas for the north wall of the hallway - it will take a bit, but it will look really cool. (Of course, pictures will come when completed.) While working on the hallway, I got to watch/listen to some really neat steam locomotive DVDs playing from the Train Room. Also this week, arrangements for the visiting HO train collection were finalized - I'll have more on that in the next update, but I think it is a great scenario that will help promote the fun of model railroading to a new generation! 

So, this week I'll talk about 6 new additions to the O-Scale fleet in January 2014. These were all purchased through on-line auctions via eBay or Trainz. 

American View

For some time, I've been looking for an O-Scale Union Pacific vista dome passenger car from the City of Los Angeles passenger train. Now, why would such a pro-C&NW anti-UP fellow like me want to do that? Well, in 1956, my mother and my uncle took a trip with my grandfather on the City of Los Angeles from California to Illinois. My Mom recalled the fun she had on the train, especially in the vista dome car. My Mom has been very encouraging to my railroading hobby, and her help was a great boon to the first scenic'd train set I developed in Illinois. (She was the Scenery Engineer of the SDCR&GC RR.) She also enjoys the wonders of the rails, although probably not to the same extent as me! My uncle is a fellow O-Scale model railroader, gifting my first Lionel train when I was 3, nominating me to join the TCA later on, and continually inspiring me with the massive layout he built in Illinois. (My father has always, and continues to enjoy the railroading hobby as well - he just wasn't on the City of Los Angeles, so I'll have to find something else to commemorate him with in a future entry!) ANYway... this model is a fancy aluminum 20" car made by Weaver Models. It is in like-new condition, but is boxless. Now in real-life, American View was never part of the City of Los Angeles. Actually, it never was a vista dome either. It was actually a sleeper car on the Union Pacific Butte Special, which ran between Denver, CO and Butte, MT (pictured at the top of today's blog entry.) So, this car also gets to commemorate the home city of our friends Darren and Patti: Butte, MT. Darren enjoys railroading as well, and we've even gone on a ferroequinological-archeological adventure in Forsyth, MT, but that is a tale for another time... Anyway, back to the American View - I also acquired it because it has a nifty patriotic name, and although I am not a fan of the UP, I really look forward to running this car on the layout. Since it is a bit of a conglomeration, the car could technically be based out of Chicago, Denver, Butte, AND Los Angeles, which opens up a variety of fun match-ups. It would be right at home amongst the C&NW passenger cars on The Challenger, since that train was a joint operation between the C&NW and UP. It would also work on the NP North Coast Vista Dome Limited, which connected with Butte. It would be a fun guest on the RI Rocky Mountain Rocket too, which connected Chicago and Denver. So, lots of fun is ahead for the American View, not just because of new opportunities, but also because of the journey it memorializes. On another happy note, a real-life "American View" car still survives today. There are some conflicting reports as to it's original heritage, but there is an "American View" dining car on display at the museum in little ole' Mendota, IL. 

Another new addition this month is a boxless Dubuque Packing Company reefer made by Canadian Model Trains (CMT). This is the only CMT car in the collection thus far. This past Fall, my sister got married and now lives in Dubuque, IA. There are not many O-Scale cars dealing with Iowa, let alone Dubuque! Another neat connection is that my sister's husband works for a meat processing/preparation company, so this car has some fun meaning to me! 

The rest of the entries are great new members of the fleet, but most likely lack the commemorative-ness of the first two! Next is a sleekly painted boxless Weaver Models Great Northern storage mail express car. This car will proudly ride behind the head-end of the yet-to-be acquired Empire Builder passenger train. Also joining the collection is an MTH/Railking Milwaukee Road gondola. This is from MTH's early days, when the Railking logo was purple with yellow accents. Although Railking is not necessarily O-Scale, I've found from experience that this particular gondola is (or really really close).A red O-Scale Texaco two-dome tank car from K-line joined the roster, and a smaller K-line single-dome Milwaukee Road tank joined as well. I'm not quite sure about the scale-ness of this one, but the detailing looks very good, and I recently acquired another O-Scale tank car that was smaller, but authentic. Tank cars seem to have been built in a range of sizes in real-life, so I'm hoping this one fits right in on the O-Scale layout of the future!

Until next time, enjoy the food, commercials, and football on Sunday (but mostly the food), and keep your rails shiny ~ 

UP "American View" Vista Dome

Great Northern storage mail express car

Dubuque Packing Company reefer

Milwaukee Road tank car, Texaco tank car, and Milwaukee Road gondola

Populated Shelves

Hello all! This week involved a bit of resetting. I took the Christmas trainsets down, and took down the Christmas decor in the Train Room. I placed the rest of the non-paper railroad artifacts on the new shelves, and cleaned the floor of all the construction debris.

I then started the next project, which is the refit of the downstairs hallway. I moved in all of the material from the hallway for temporary storage in the Train Room.

I also placed some of box-less trains in my collection up on the new shelves.

West wall artifacts

 

South wall railroadiana

East wall railroad items

View of the Train Room with the hallway items moved in

Lumber Quest

Hello - hey we've made it halfway through January! Last week I completed staining all sides of the shelf pieces. Over the weekend I headed to the lumber store with the Gamsby's cargo van, and acquired wood for train and various other house projects. The lumber associate was kind enough to cut all of my 4x8 boards to the desired sizes while I loaded up 49 2x4s, 5 2x2s, and an assortment of screws and mounting brackets. It took a while to load them, as 1 out of 3 boards didn't meet my quality standards. The 2x2s were all bowed horribly, so I went with the best of what was available (fortunately these will be used in rather short sections.) I was treated to a nice workout, as I had to load or unload all of these items 3 times. Everything (myself included) made it home safely. Thank you to the Gamsbys for the use of the van, and to the Rockford Poynters for the Home Depot gift card! Over the next few days, I got all of the shelves mounted on the walls. Each shelf had different challenges and blessings to deal with, and I found (as expected) that the studs behind the walls are not in standard positions. So the mounts are not evenly spaced, and a lot of them are using dry wall anchors for added stability. I started displaying a few of my railroad artifacts on the shelves, and everything has held together so far! This week's Train Room guest included Michelle, whose real reason for visiting was to hang out with my wife and work on a jigsaw puzzle, but she liked the new shelves nonetheless.

Lumber purchase

Shelves on the east wall

Entryway and western wall shelves

 Now for the tenth discussion about future passenger trains: The Empire Builder. The Empire Builder was the flagship of the Great Northern Railroad, and began service between Chicago and Seattle in 1929. It was named after James Hill, who created the Great Northern Railroad from several smaller railroads, thus building himself an "empire." The Great Northern ran the train until 1971, when Amtrak took over. The train still runs today, traversing the "Hi Line" of Montana, including the southern edge of Glacier National Park. Unlike most of the other passenger trains I have discussed, this is one we've actually ridden on. I've taken the Empire Builder from Malta, MT to Columbus, WI (and other points East) on three occasions thus far. The seats are very spacious compared to airplane travel, and it is fun to walk about the train while the scenery zooms by. The train is very smooth running over most of the line, although there is some older track that is a bit rocky. The passenger cars are bi-level, and we've always had a seat upstairs. Downstairs is some additional seating, and a spot for all of the non-checked baggage. You can bring some big bags on-board for no extra charge. Also downstairs are the restrooms and lots of fun lights and buttons on various panels. At night I like to hang out near the doors, which are sometimes open and you can smell and feel the night air zipping by, to the tune of the train's ever-repeating clickity clacks. It is very therapeutic - at least for me! When not in our seats, we like to spend time in the vista dome lounge car, which has a snack bar downstairs. It's a fun spot to play cards! And dining on the train can't be beat - it is an experience like no other. Meeting folks from all across the country or world and sharing a fancy tasty meal with them at 50mph is special in a way I can't fully describe. It is part of the romance of riding the rails. I'm well aware that the Amtrak version of rail travel is very different from what it was in the 1950's, but it is always a lot of fun! This entry is also unique in that it describes a model train that I do not own yet, in any degree. My Empire Builder will sport the Great Northern's Omaha Orange, Pullman Green and gold stripe color scheme, and will be hauled by a set of F3 diesel locomotives. Lionel, K-Line, Weaver, and MTH have all offered this train set at various times. It is very sharp looking, and my railroad's passengers will be thrilled to take it past the fields, lakes, mountains, and towns of the train layout of the future! Keep your rails shiny ~

The original Builder

Saint Paul station, from my first ride on the Empire Builder in November 2008

The train continues west after I disembarked in Malta, MT

A snowy day as my future wife and I catch the Empire Builder in Malta in November 2010

Amber gets back on the train after taking a stretch at the Saint Paul station

Me and the Builder

Newlyweds await the train in Malta in September 2011

We arrive in Columbus, WI

We are ready to step off

My bride and the Empire Builder's interior

An artist's rendering of the streamlined Great Northern Empire Builder

DIY Shelving

A snowy day for interurbans - photo taken by Tim Vermande from rrpicturearchives.net

Happy winter to my blog readers ~

This week's Train Room guests included our friends Paul and Annie, who came over for supper last week. Over the weekend, I worked on several wood-related projects for the home, including some shelves for the Train Room. Several months ago, my bride helped me salvage several 1/2" thick boards which had been part of a large shipping crate. These were being thrown out, so we decided to adopt them. Now they are being given new life in the form of display shelves for the Train Room! I cut them to length, and over the past few evenings I've been treating them with some cherry wood stain the previous home owner left. So far the shelves have cost $0! I'll just need to pick up some mounting brackets/hardware. I went ahead and scanned for studs in the walls and marked them appropriately, so this little project should be finished up shortly. The shelves will be used to display not only model trains, but also a mighty miscellany of railroad-related artifacts I have collected thus far. Also over the weekend, I acquired a nasty cold thanks in part to various snow-clearing activities. I am still dealing with it, and my long-suffering wife is doing her best to help me rest and recover.

The ninth in this series of future passenger trains will discuss interurbans. The term "interurban" may refer to a piece of physical train equipment, or to the electric railway that runs said equipment. When I use the term, I am most likely referring to a type of passenger train that ferries passengers between cities or suburbs. Interurbans are usually capable of high speed travel, and may consist of one or more self-powered passenger train cars. You may think of an interurban as a cross between an electric streecar and a pleasantly upolstered heavyweight passenger car. I've had the pleasure of riding many preserved interurbans at the Illinois Railway Museum, and at several other points across the United States. The Electoliner, disucssed eariler, is a type of interurban, but warranted a discussion entry of its own. The other interurban currently in my roster is the K-Line produced Chicago South Shore & South Bend two-unit set. A picture of a real-life set is at the top of today's posting. This is a very fun train to run, with good sound effects and good dependability. As the name implies, this railroad connects South Bend, Indiana with downtown Chicago. A form of this electric line still runs today. I would gladly add more interubans to the collection if presented with the opportunity, but affordable O-Scale options are rather limited. While manufacturers like K-Line, Lionel, and MTH have produced samples of interubans, the more prevelent means of acquiring O-Scale models is to build them yourself. There are thousands of stunning 2-rail options available, and properly built kits are very valuable. While I've become comfortable building structures from scratch for the train layout, I don't feel a desire to build any sort of rolling stock from a kit. The Chicago area had dozens of different interurban lines, and this seems to be an untapped market in the realm of O-Scale trains. At present, there are two models on my "some day" list: the fancy 3rd Rail-produced CNSM Silverliners, and the more affordable CNSM set from K-Line, which is from the same family as the CSS&SB set I have. Maybe someday there will be more options available for the many O-Scalers across the country that want to add more interurbans to their fleets. There are not any local examples of interubans to model, as Billings was not served by any electric railroads. In the first part of the 20th century, the Billings Traction Company ran battery-powered trolleys to transport citizens, but we'll have to touch on that in a later discussion! Until next time - keep your rails shiny ~

Free boards cut

Free stain being applied

New Year, Renewed Locomotion

Happy New Year to all ~
In the past week, I removed all of the left-over painter's tape from the painting project, and hung up some current and previous train calendars. We entertained the Mize's on Friday, and they got to see the two train setups in action. I placed a second (and final) tub's worth of train literature in an antique trunk for display, and put away my various Christmas train goodies.

Over the weekend, I used the ProtoSounds reset chip my wife got me for Christmas to perform some surgery on my MTH Chicago and Northwestern E4 Hudson. If a ProtoSounds 1.0 locomotive sits for too long without being run, the sound system may need to be reset. When powering up the engine, it will sound 3 "clanks", signifying that a reset is required. The engine will not run at all when a reset is required. Well, that has been the case for several years for the E4, and thanks to my wife, I've finally been able to do something about it! To start the process, I placed the engine on a powered track for 2 hours to charge the on-board battery. Then, I removed the cover on the tender. I placed the tender and its various components on an authentic Pullman towel to protect them (and prevent them from rolling away.) Using a special tool, I removed the ProtoSounds computer chip and replaced it with the reset chip. I put the cover-less tender back on the track, and re-tethered it to the locomotive, and applied power. It played the appropriate sound file, advising that the system was successfully reset. I then removed the reset chip and placed the ProtoSounds chip back. I then re-tethered the tender to the engine, and tested it - it successfully cycled from forward to neutral to reverse and back to neutral! I also discovered that the on-board battery required replacement, so I addressed that issue as well. After reassembling the tender, I found that the cable tie that holds the tether in place was outside of the tender rather than inside, so I had to disassemble the tender again, and placed the cable tie at the right spot. After putting it back together (the entire surgery was performed with my Swiss Army CyberTool 34), I hooked the locomotive up to the waiting freight (using the ProtoCoupler gimmick), and the unequaled flagship of my O-Scale fleet flew down the track once again . I reactivated the smoke unit (it had been turned off while charging the engine for 2 hours), and it performed well with a full head of steam! I noted that the "chuffing" sound of the locomotive was not working, so I performed a reset using option 18. That fixed the "chuffing" issue, and now it provides a more authentic sound. The whole procedure took about 35 minutes. Thank you again to my bride for helping to bring about the triumphant return of the mighty E4 Hudson.

On Monday night I gathered several tubs of office supplies into the Train Room and began sorting them. Amber helped finish up this quick project on New Years Day. Our office supplies are now easily accessible and sorted (and labeled), and the Train Room is now ready to be visited again!

The E4 Hudson was charged on the tracks for about 2 hours before surgery

The tender cover has been removed, exposing the internal electronics

Now the ProtoSounds chip has been removed. The reset chip was installed and run successfully, and then all of the components were reattached

The C&NW Hudson pulls a freight for the first time in years

I tested the engine's functionality and refreshed my understanding of its various sound tricks