Through-lines coming Through

Here's an update from the train room for March 2017. I'm very happy to report that my son, now 3 months old, really enjoys model trains. When he's upset, I run the trains for him, and he calms down every time. The combination of the train's motion and sounds have a lulling affect, and he's even fallen asleep a couple of times as the trains circle about in front of him.

Since my last post, I celebrated another birthday, and my parents and my parents-in-law all gifted me some nice railroad-related items. I received two nice posters of steam locomotive paintings, for the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads. I was also given several model railroad scenery supplies, including a bag of real coal. I also received an authentic chain for my railroad pocket watch. And, my wife gave me an evening with just the two of us, which meant a lot more to me than a thousand trains. Thank you to everybody for your generosity!

I've been running NP 0-6-0 for my son (well, for me too) and haven't had any problems until recently. I warmed it up one day, and there were no audible sounds from the speaker. This is the same issue I encountered last year, and took it to Caboose Hobbies in Denver to have it repaired. I've contacted The Caboose (new owner and location) to see if they have detailed records of what was specifically repaired last year, in hopes that I can duplicate it.

Over the past week, with help from my father and son, the train layout roster has been changed. We also performed a bit of inventory on the previous and new roster items. As of now, there are 97 items remaining to inventory. The theme of the roster is "through-lines", meaning that these trains are not run by local/regional railroads - they are "passing through". The locomotives in use are the only ones in the collection from their respective railroads. So, here's the new March-April 2017 roster for your review and entertainment:

On Track 1, the Blue Train makes its first-ever run this month. With the majority of its members hailing from the mostly-blue livery of Montana Rail Link, I developed this train simply because my bride likes the color. With last year's acquisition of the Union 76 tank car, this mixed freight now includes three scale-and-time-displaced cars with a locomotive and caboose. As more primarily-blue rolling stock is collected, they will be added to this special freight. This version of the Blue Train consists of the MRL SD9 (Lionel), a Needham Packing reefer (MTH), a Union 76 oil tank (K-Line), an MRL double-door boxcar (Lionel) and an MRL extended vision caboose (Lionel).

Track 2 hosts an all-dairy-related train. The Dairy Express is led by the MPC-era MKT NW2 (Lionel), a GN stock car (Petersen) a Borden milk tank car (Lionel), a Carnation reefer (K-Line), a Dairy Men reefer (Lionel) and an MKT extended vision caboose (Lionel). The NW2 is a single-motor unit and runs very well - it growls like a Postwar locomotive and was the first diesel model I had as a youngster.

On Track 3, reliable and mighty Mikado #4100 pulls mixed freight #408. A variety of goods and materials are in tow behind the Frisco 2-8-2 steam locomotive, built by Lionel in 1993. First, a CP log car (Lionel), followed by two recently acquired Lionel tankers with Philadelphia Quartz and Army liveries, a Midnight-Chief-inspired boxcar (#97191, K-Line), a Peacock reefer (K-Line), an Old Dutch reefer (K-Line), a GN hopper laden with coal (MTH), a CNW flatcar with semi trailer (called a "piggyback") (MTH), a late-80's MRR tank car (Lionel), an IC hopper (Williams) and a Frisco wood-sided caboose.

The ATSF boxcar has a brake-side coupler issue. It's opening at certain spots on the loop, but I haven't determined the cause yet. I thought the magnet was activating, but I've proved that isn't the issue. It only opens when it is coupled to another car, so weight and force, combined with certain sections of track are somehow causing it to malfunction. I'll keep troubleshooting, but for now I've placed the boxcar at the end of the train to prevent uncoupling problems.

Also, as I learned while holding my son, one should not shift the Frisco Mikado into forward from neutral at 25% power. I had gotten used to running the NP Switcher, which has a very gentle shift and can run smoothly at low speeds, but the 2-8-2 experienced extreme acceleration. The log car uncoupled from the tank car and both derailed. Of course, this happened at the inaccessible corner of the layout, so it took some ingenuity, while holding a baby, to pull the cars closer and re-rail them. No harm done, and everything is running again, but it was a small adventure to fix it.

And on Track 4, I've assembled the longest-yet version of the Northern Range heavyweight coach train. This time, its being pulled over Pennsylvania Railroad ROW, so the train is called the "Philly Phoenix" and is pulled by a big GG1 electric locomotive (Williams). The real-life prototype for this locomotive is nicknamed "Blackjack", and can be viewed at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Behind my O-scale version of Blackjack is a troop car converted into an REA head-end car (Weaver), the Van Twiller combine (Lionel, first time on rails ever), the Willow River coach (Lionel), the Willow Valley coach (Lionel), the Willow Range coach (Lionel), the second Willow River coach (Lionel), the Highland Falls sleeper (Lionel), and the Granite Canyon coach (K-Line) takes up the rear.

The GG1 horn sputters frequently while pulling the Philly Phoenix. This can be prevented by holding down the Bell button on the controller. I think this is just a symptom of something fishy going on electronically with Track 4, as I’ve had problems with Whistle/Horn-Bell functionality in the past.

With my son around, the trains are all getting a lot more run time, which means more fun for everybody!

Have a blessed day, and keep those rails shiny!

Bday steam locomotive artwork

The Blue Train

Dairy Express

Frisco 2-8-2

"Chicaqo" piggyback

Santa Fe Blackbonnet paint scheme

Mike and Blackjack

Part of the Philly Phoenix

Light Rail, Caboose Hobbies, and More...

Welcome to November y'all. Here you'll find details about my over-the-rails trip to a hobby shop in Denver, and you'll see what railroad-related adventures I've been having in Billings over the last week.

Continuing on from last week's post...
While staying in Lakewood, CO last month, my wife attended some training classes for work, which freed me up to pursue my own interests (trains) during the day. On the Wednesday of our trip, I dropped my wife off at her class, and proceeded back to our hotel on Union Blvd in Lakewood. I prepped a small backpack for the journey, and walked a few blocks east to the Regional Transportation District (RTD) Federal Center Station. This station allows for transfers between buses and light rail trains. Denver uses overhead catenary wires to power its commuter trains. It was another beautiful day, and I've shared several pictures of the journey at the end of this post. I started by riding the W line east to the Auraria West station. The W line is relatively new, and they are continuing to expand the line west into Golden. The track, bridges, crossings, and stations are all clean and safe and beautifully decorated. Each station along the W line seems to have a different "theme", and local artists were hired for each station to beautify them. The styles varied widely, but one commonality across the whole line was that each signal box had a mural painted on it. For those that aren't familiar with "signal boxes", these are typically located at road crossings or, as the name implies, near signals. They are usually silver in color, and vary in size, but for the most part they have a human-sized door on them, and look like a small, metal hut. On the W line, you won't find silver signal boxes - rather, you'll see very colorful murals, each with a different theme.

After a 30 minute ride, I arrived at the Auraria West station close to downtown Denver. This is a transfer station with access to all of the other lines. This station was clean, but was much more active than the stations on the W line, and it didn't have any art. But, it did have a nice view of Denver landmarks, like the football stadium, the university, the amusement park, and the skyline. For my next destination, either a C or E line train would work, so I took the first available, which was an E line train. After a 10 minute ride, I departed at the Alameda Station. This station is located behind a shopping center. I walked a few blocks east to the Caboose Hobbies store on Broadway street.

Caboose Hobbies is one of the largest train stores in the country, and is most likely the closest large store to Billings. They sell trains of all scales, and also have expansive sections of railroad media, model railroad scenery, and railroad miscellany for sale. I enjoyed seeing new and used trains up close, although they were all priced outside of my budget. Based on our conversation with Alan the previous day, I looked for specific items among the G-scale train section. I had planned to purchase some scale-sized people for my train set, and that is exactly what I did. They have a plethora of people for sale in all scales, and I took my time choosing 6 that would fit in with my 1950's era layout. I think the section of the store that impressed me the most was the scenery area. They have a few scenic'd model railroads on display, and a good selection of Thomas & Friends toys. They also have a large staff of folks to assist, and to top it off, they were having a special sale that I was able to take advantage of. It is a lot of fun to visit a big train store! Impressively, I was in and out in under an hour, and was back on my way to the Alameda Station before lunch.

The Alameda Station is located at the southern end of a large Union Pacific rail yard. South of the station is a very wide curve to the west, and since the end of the yard was devoid of parked trains, I had a great view of approaching and departing trains traversing the curve. I hopped on a C line train headed north, and snapped some photos of the downtown area and UP yard en route to Auraria West. While waiting at the next station, I saw several other trains pass through, dropping off and picking up passengers. Most of the people at this station were university students, headed to various parts of the city. I only saw two people taking advantage of the city's currently lax drug stance. An interesting train that came through was a short, two-car train labeled "Training Train" and was listed as out of service. An experienced conductor was riding with a trainee on their route. After a bit, a west bound W line train came along, and I began my trip back west. I viewed the opposite side of the tracks this time, and photographed some of the interesting art pieces along the way. I de-trained at Federal Center Station and grabbed some lunch on the way back to the hotel. It was a very fun experience and was more than appropriate for a trip to a train store! Check back next week for more tales of railfanning adventures along the Front Range of the Rockies ~

Now for some more local train news! Last Saturday (Halloween), I affixed my DIY cross buck to our backyard shed. It looks pretty neat, along with the existing Whistle sign post. On Sunday, I spied an EB CSX train in the Laurel yard, far from home. It was hauling several coal hoppers, and a variety of mixed freight. It had two engines at the head (the second had been painted recently), and no helper units. Occasionally I'll see CSX locomotives mixed with local liveries (BNSF or MRL), but I haven't seen a solely-CSX train around here, so it was worth noting. During the week, I made some more improvements to my train spreadsheet: based on Alan's advice, I sketched a revised garden railroad track plan, I improved the Abbreviations list, and I created topographic and signal maps for the O Scale layout of the future. Yesterday I (finally) finished repairs to the CBQ E8 A. A few weeks back I thought I had resolved the problem of a wire rubbing against the rear vertical motor while running. However, when I went to pick up the locomotive a few days ago, I discovered that I had neglected to re-fasten the shell to the frame and ended up relapsing the original problem! Yesterday, I caused further problems by accidentally breaking a soldered joint in the shell. So, I transported the engine to my work bench (the washing machine with an old t-shirt draped over it), and re-soldered the broken link. I then used electrical tape to affix the misbehaving wires to the shell. After a few tests on the track, I deemed the problem was finally solved, and I screwed the shell back to the frame. Last night I hung up a framed picture of the New York Central's 20th Century Limited passenger train in our stairwell. Amber had purchased this picture for me at an auction last spring, and now it has a nice spot on the wall. Finally, I finished up the night studying how to use a voltmeter to properly test the speaker on the NP 0-6-0. MTH provides a list of troubleshooting steps for Protosounds 2.0 locomotive issues. In this case, the steamer runs properly, and the lighting and smoke systems function. There are no sounds whatsoever. The first steps are basic - make sure the power is on; make sure the tender is connected to the loco; make sure the volume is turned up... The next step was to "reset" the locomotive to factory defaults. All modern locomotives with sound systems have a method for programming different features. This method differs based on the transformer you are using to operate the locomotive. To reset a Protosounds 2.0 locomotive with a Postwar ZW transformer and separate whistle and bell buttons, the method is this: 1) place the locomotive on the track and supply about 10V of power to it, 2) press the whistle button once, and then press the bell button five times, holding each button for about 1 second. This process is supposed to reset the engine. I have performed this a few times with the 0-6-0, and it hasn't resolved the problem. The next step is to measure the ohms resistance on the internal speaker inside the tender. MTH provides the exact measurements that it should be outputting, but I have never measured an ohm before, so I used wikihow to find out how. I hope to give this a shot over the next week and see what I can find!

Enough talk - how about some pics! Take care, and keep your rails shiny ~

The Federal Center Station. There is currently an EB W Line train in the station. In the foreground is some art, and you can see some of the signal boxes painted with murals as well. In the background you can see the Denver skyline and smog.

The Auraria West Station, with a good view of the catenary wires and their supporting structures. Notice how clean the station is!

Here I am in one of the O Gauge aisles at Caboose Hobbies

The 6 new citizens I purchased for the train layout

Two RTD trains meet along the curve south of the Alameda Station

A few of about 100 UP locomotives parked in the yard

A string of 6 UP engines await clearance to enter the yard, with the Mile High Stadium and the Rocky Mountains in the background

Here's the nifty Training Train at the Auraria West Station

Boats taking a hike at the Oak Station in Lakewood

The DIY cross buck on the shed, with the Whistle sign in the foreground

The 20th Century Limited can now be viewed in our stairwell

Catch Up

Howdy - this post will give some brief details about my railroading exploits over the past year, when this blog was on hiatus. And of course, there are spiffy pics at the bottom!

July 2014
-Took some photos of individual trains while changing out the roster.
-Trains on track included the CNW Doodlebugs, Lionel Lines Columbia-class 2-4-2 Postwar steamer "trying" to pull the Rock Island Denver Rocket, Rock Island Northern 4-8-4 with a reefer freight, and Illinois Central GP9 with a caboose train.
-Repair work on the CNS&M Electroliner. One motor was failing to run, putting a lot of pressure on the second motor. I deemed that either the motor was bad, or that I did not have the tools/skills to repair. I send the Electroliner to Illinois to await repair in Michigan.
-On a hot day I photographed track repair equipment at work near the Billings Depot.
-I won my first game of Ticket to Ride.
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - CBQ GP7 and small freight, Track 2 - CNW F7 and freight, Track 3 - Trackside Construction set headed by MP-15, Track 4 - Frisco Mikado 2-8-2 and freight

August 2014
-Saw a wacky-looking ballast recycling machine near the Depot.
-Also at the Depot, a special MRL train pulling a mix of modern and heavyweight passenger cars was parked for a day.
-Repaired Postwar #2034 to working order

September 2014
-My bride gave me a beautiful piece of artwork - a hand painted historic map of the Montana Railroad
-A string of nine BNSF locomotives came through Billings
-My folks were in town and visited the train layout
-While traveling, saw two enormous new MRL EMD SD70ACe locomotives followed by two little SW switcher locomotives in an EB train

October 2014
-Set up a model logging train at work as part of a "north woods" Halloween theme

November 2014
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - LL 2-4-2 and small freight, Track 2 NP 0-6-0 and logging train, Track 3 - CNW GP7 #1518 and reefer freight, Track 4 - complete Vista Dome North Coast Limited passenger train (chasing its own tail)
-Decided to sell the K-Line Milwaukee Road GP7, as it is not a scale locomotive

December 2014
-Set up Christmas tree on the layout, with train ornaments
-Set up permanent Christmas lights under the layout for storage illumination
-Hosted family on Christmas day in the train room
-Set up CNW 0-8-0 freight around Christmas tree in the library room
-Prepared train tickets for visitors to the train room, and stamped them upon admission

No activity for a few months

April 2015
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - green Brill trolley, Track 2 - CNW 0-8-0 and ore car train, Track 3 - GN 2-8-2 and mixed freight, Track 4 - CNW F7's and bi-level passenger train with the UP American View.
-Took various photos of the roster

May 2015
-Got to see a Lionel Smithsonian-edition NYC 20th Century Limited set at an auction in Lewistown. Only 500 of these were produced.
-At the auction, bought: ZW transformer, mint BA&P freight tag, numerous railroad paperwork items (majority from 1893), several railroad maps, framed painting of an NYC steam train, a heavy box of railroad spikes, and a large 1961 Burlington wall map of its western US tracks

June 2015
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - CNW Doodlebugs, Track 2 - IC GP9 and caboose train, Track 3 - RI GP9 and CNW GP7 #1518 with the CNW Minnesota and Black Hills Express heavyweight passenger train, Track 4 - CNW 4-6-2 with a hopper car train
-Put all of the trains away in preparation for the remainder of railroad items to arrive from IL
-At the end of June, we set out for Illinois, and the rest you know! Now we're caught up, and keeping those rails shiny ~

CNW Doodlebugs take a ride on Track 4

A fast reefer freight heads around Track 4, pulled by the RI Northern

Electroliner under repair

Removing old, and installing new ties on MRL tracks by the Depot

First time playing, first time winning - Ticket to Ride

CBQ GP7, CNW F7, Trackside MP15, and Frisco Mikado all pulling freights

Special MRL passenger train at the Depot

Wacky looking ballast machine in Billings

Postwar 2034 undergoing repairs

Example of O27 vs O steam locomotives in action

Hand painted map of the Montana Railroad

9 locos at once

2 big locos and 2 small ones

Halloween at work

NP 0-6-0 pulls a log train

The Vista Dome North Coast Limited chases its own tail, while the 2034 zips around Track 1

Christmas time in the Train Room

Under-table illumination

Special Christmas tickets for the Train Room

My nephew enjoys the CNW 0-8-0 circling a Christmas tree

A trolley, the CNW 0-8-0, the GN 2-8-2, and the CNW F7's are all featured in Spring 2015

The switcher and the road engine at night

The illuminated 21" CNW Bilevels

The trolley takes a night trip

Busy day on the layout

A steel caboose follows the ore train

One of 500 Lionel Smithsonian NYC 20th Century Limited sets

Hat is a wee bit small for me

CNW Pacific #2903 pulls a long row of hopper cars

RI and CNW geeps team up to pull a heavyweight passenger train

Doodlebugs and cabeese