An Intense Day of Ferroequinology!

Happy First Day Of Autumn to all ~ this past Sunday I crammed a lot of train fun into a few hours. 

I headed out at 5:30AM traveling west. I met with friend and fellow modeler Darren in Butte, MT, and had a great conversation regarding the world of trains. After some breakfast, I headed northwest and viewed a static outdoor railroad equipment display in Deer Lodge, MT. The equipment has been cosmetically restored, and consists of all Milwaukee Road equipment: a bay window caboose, an E-9 diesel locomotive, and a Little Joe electric locomotive. The electrified Milwaukee Road line used to travel through Deer Lodge, beginning further east in Harlowton.  

Leaving Deer Lodge, I continued northwest. I attended a train show in Missoula, MT. I sold the 5 pieces of equipment that I brought, and purchased a Lionel PW 6464-125 NYC boxcar from Jim Caras, and a K-Line K742-8025 Kingan's ham/bacon reefer from Bob Peterson. About 60 tables were set up, 5 of which included O gauge trains. There were lots of kids, HO trains, and railroad artifacts. There were also two or three small, functional layouts. 

After the train show I visited the restored Northern Pacific depot in Missoula and photographed NP 4-6-0 steam locomotive #1356 on static display. Then I viewed the "City of Spokane" passenger train parked in the Missoula MRL yard. The train was made up of 18 or so historic, road-worthy passenger cars from throughout the country, generally traveling from Denver to Spokane. I've seen several of these cars parked in Billings at various times, but it was neat to see them all together. 

On my return trip I photographed the ruins of a Milwaukee Road electrical substation along I-90 east of Missoula. Then I explored the abandoned BNSF tracks in Homestake, MT right along the Continental Divide east of Butte, MT. I found a loose piece of a switch mechanism to add to my railroadania collection. 

All in all a great day of trains and 10 hours of driving in Montana! Keep those rails shiny ~

Deer Lodge MT: Little Joe E70, my Yukon, and E9 36A

Sunlight through the E9's cab

Missoula train show

NP Ten-wheeler 1356 in Missoula

The City of Spokane parked in Missoula

Abandoned Milwaukee Road substation along I-90

Forgotten rails atop the Continental Divide

Unused rails at Homestake at the end of summer

Switch equipment with a loose part

MPC Diesels and Front Range Curves

Welcome back to rail-land ~

This was a fruitful week in the Train Room. I also did some more planning for future expansion. And, I’ve detailed some more of my train adventures from our trip to Denver last month.

In the Train Room, I used the voltmeter to measure the ohm resistance in the speaker on the NP 0-6-0. The measurement showed approximately 16 ohms, which is exactly what a healthy speaker should show. According to MTH’s ProtoSounds 2.0 troubleshooting guide, either the chip needs to be reprogrammed, or the board needs to be replaced! Bleh! I emailed the MTH Customer Service team to see if they could provide any other insight.

To begin prepping for the Christmas season, I’ve put away the current projects, and will take them out again next year. So, the NP 0-6-0 and Electroliner were reassembled and stored safely in their boxes, and the rest of the roster was stored as well (The Bozeman Zephyr, CSS Interurbans, the NP freight train, and the UP Postwar train). While storing the Postwar searchlight car, the light housing fell and cracked. Thankfully, this was already a replacement housing, and more replacements are readily available. I’ve added this to the Engine House spreadsheet. As I put these trains away, I also inventoried them in the spreadsheet.

On Sunday, I got out all of the trains for the Nov/Dec roster. I also did some general straightening of the room, and changed all of the calendars to November. On Monday, I set up Track 1 with the MKT NW2 leading 4 CNW ore (grain) cars and an MKT caboose. The MKT engine is the first diesel locomotive we had on our train set when I was a kid. My father bought it at the Brass Whistle train store in Rockford, IL. For many years, this was the "ol' reliable" engine for moving freight. I also moved the portable fireplace, and in its place stacked 3 tubs of trains. On Tuesday I did some rearranging under the train table, to place frequently accessed tubs on top of infrequently accessed ones. I also set up Track 2 with the CNW Trainmaster pulling 5 reefers (MRR, GN, CNW, Dairy Men’s, NP) and a CNW caboose. I also lubricated the MKT NW2 and CNW Trainmaster. Both of these diesels were manufactured by “Lionel” during the 1970-1986 “MPC” era. MPC (Model Products Corporation) was a subsidiary of General Mills, and owned the Lionel rights during this time. These engines are 35-40 years old, and after some lubricating, they are running very well! As I set up these trains, I also inventoried them in the spreadsheet.

I also had fun planning out some options for the train building of the future. After dealing with a lot of boxing and unboxing trains recently, I’d like to one day have all of the trains on display or running on the layout. This means that I have to plan for sufficient wall/shelving space in the new building, so I did some preliminary calculating and wall-layout planning.

So, back to my Denver train-doings… On the Thursday of our trip, after dropping my bride off at training for the day, I drove north of Golden on Highway 93, and turned left towards the mountains on Highway 72. After two miles, I turned into a residential area on Blue Mountain Drive. This road took me to the top of a foothill, and I had views facing east towards Denver. I parked along the side of the road, and walked over to the edge of the hill. I was able to tracks below me, which traveled through a variety of curves. I arrived just in time to photograph and film a BNSF EB mixed freight coming down the mountains and entering the curves. Like the BNSF trains that travel through Billings, this one had engines on the front end and a few more at the back. It took it about 10 minutes to navigate the wandering track path, and I was able to view it the whole time. A few moments after the BNSF cleared, a waiting UP WB mixed freight powered up and began climbing the hill. The UP was headed by 5 locomotives, and had 1 helper locomotive located in the middle of the train. I watched the train wrap around itself as it continued up the hill. While watching the trains, a local resident came by as she was walking her dogs. She didn’t seem too surprised to see a railfan here, and she provided some interesting information about the curve the trains were traveling through below. Along the eastern side of the curve, on the west side of the track, a string of hopper cars were buried in the ground and filled with dirt. Trees were planted behind them. The trees and buried cars create a type of snow/wind fence, as this curve is in the direct path of any inclement weather coming off the mountains. The buried cars are somewhat visible from Highway 72. After the UP train went out of sight, I drove down the mountain road and met the train at the crossing. It continued through another curve around Coal Creek Peak while I headed back east. After another hour or two of climbing and curving, the train would arrive at the Moffat Tunnel and traverse the Continental Divide.

Meanwhile, I went back to Golden and drove through the Coors Brewery/Manufacturing plant. I drove through the entire facility and saw many interesting rail operations and equipment used at the beer-producing plant. Coors has their own fleet of locomotives, and a lot of freight cars get shuffled about all day long. There are also semi-frequent BNSF trains making deliveries to the plant. After returning to Lakewood, I visited Jenny’s Junk Emporium, which is a consignment shop that specializes in railroad and model railroad items. They had a lot of railroad artifacts and media, and trains of all scales, including quite a few G-Scale items. The prices were rather restrictive, so I just enjoyed looking. So, this was another fun morning of train-related activities! Next week I’ll conclude with a review of my visit to the Colorado Model Railroad Museum.

My Train goals for the coming week are: setup/inventory/lubricate trains on Tracks 3 & 4, finish reorganizing the tubs under the table, repack the “Train Boxes”, and make sure ALL of the tubs are labeled.

Until then, enjoy some more photos, and keep those rails shiny ~

BNSF train headed down the hill through the S curve

UP train headed up the hill towards the curves

UP train approaching the buried hopper cars

The mid-train helper engine

The UP WB train continues past Coal Creek Peak

Coors locomotive C997 awaiting orders

Another Coors engine parked in a siding

An intricate layout of tracks supporting the Coors plant

Testing the NP 0-6-0 speaker with a voltmeter

The MKT NW2 and the CNW Trainmaster pull their consists around Tracks 1 and 2

The first diesel train I ever operated (back in the 1980's)

Maintenance Shop

Happy June to all ~

This week I snapped some photos in the Laurel Yard, and did some maintenance-type work in the Train Room.

On Sunday, while returning from picking up some top soil at a greenhouse, I checked out the happenings near the turntable in the Laurel Yard. I saw some MRL and BNSF locomotives, and one out-of-place UP engine. Nearby, the railroad-tie train was parked, which I wrote in detail about in a previous posting. Also standing by was a Loram track-testing train.

In the world of Model Trains, I did some office work. We store our important papers in a filing cabinet in the Train Room, and some sorting was long overdue. So, I put away a lot of papers and shredded the ones we didn't want to keep. After that, I got out the Lionel Service Manual and the Lionel Maintenance Kit. I familiarized myself with what parts of the locomotives required lubricant or oil, and serviced the following engines: MRL SD6, CNW GP7 1518, PRR GG1, CNW E4, Handcar, CNW 0-8-0, and the Trolley. I tested everything well, and let the lubricant settle in. I only serviced the visible parts - I did not perform maintenance on the motors this time around.

I hope you enjoy your week, and keep your rails shiny ~

Lionel Maintenance Kit and Service Manual

Applying lubricant to the gears on this truck

Rail Tests

Happy Titanic Launch Day to all~

This week involved testing and adjustments to the track. The four loops are now numbered, with the inmost loop called #1, and the outer loop as #4. Testing involves placing the longest available piece of rolling stock that can handle the loop's turning radius on the track. I similar piece of rolling stock (usually a long passenger car) is placed on the adjacent loop. These two cars are then run around both loops in tandem to see if they come into contact with each other where the tracks curve. If they hit each other, one or both loops need to be adjusted (moving the entire loop, or making the loop larger or smaller by adding/removing straight tracks), or a "length limit" must be imposed on the loop to insure cars do not bump while in service.

Loops 1 and 2 have a maximum curve of O31. Loop 3 is O42, and loop 4 is O72.  The outer two loops can handle 18" cars at the same time, but that is the limit. 15" cars on loop 2 will bump cars on loop 3, so 13.5" is going to be the limit for this one.  All of the loops can physically handle the longest cars possible for their radius, but this may mean that a train cannot run on the adjacent loop. For example, the 21" C&NW bi-level cars can run on loop 4, but that would mean a train cannot be running on loop 3 at the same time.

This is somewhat limiting, but I'm okay with it - there are lots of tracks crammed into a relatively small space, so limits are inevitable. For the tests, I used cars from the Northern Pacific Vista Dome North Coast Limited set, the Union Pacific American View coach, a variety of recently-arrived freight cars (mostly tank cars), and the Montana Rail Link and Chicago & North Western Geeps for motive power.

Despite all of the tests, trains will need to be tested on a per-run basis before going into service. I'm sure real railroads do that too.

Train Room guests this week included Andrew, Edgar, and Darren

Edgar sees model trains for the first time

I made a few stops to Central Hobbies to pick up half tracks to make needed adjustments during the testing phase. I was able to spend some time speaking with the owner and train-master Al, and it was great to talk about O-gauge railroading with someone who knew what I was talking about! I may be able to help out with model train repair work in the future - I may not be an expert, but some experience is better than none.

I continued work on the train collection assessment project for Cal. This week was spent mostly on the computer, filling in record details and speculating on potential buyers for all, or for pieces of, the collection.

On Monday night, a real-train collision occurred a few blocks east of my office. Four hopper cars filled with barley rolled away from a switch crew and collided with a westbound locomotive. The lead barley car derailed after hitting the locomotive. The main line was closed from 9 p.m. Monday to 4 a.m. Tuesday, while mechanical engineers and operating officials from Montana Rail Link responded to the scene. Investigations are continuing. (details retrived from the Billings Gazette)

I took a look at the scene on Wednesday, which was mostly cleared up. The MRL crane unit was onsite, along with the impacted hopper car and the grain recovery equipment. There were just a few small piles of barley scattered near the track. Based on the impressions in the damaged hopper, it looks like the set of 4 cars snuck onto the main line, and the WB train hit the last hopper head-on. It looks like the "face" of the front locomotive is imprinted into the end of the hopper. The above information from the newspaper makes it sound like the hopper car hit the engine, but most likely the engine hit the hopper!

Keep your rails shiny~

Couplers aren't supposed to be pointed in that direction...

Emptied and Refilled

Hello all - during this rather snowy week, I managed to clear the Train Room, and vacuumed and mopped the floor. Unfortunately my mop had TSP residue on it left over from the major floor project a few months back, so the floor will require additional scrubbing (with different equipment). Regardless, between battles with the snow, I measured, cut, and moved all of the pieces for a home-made shelving unit into the Train Room for prep work. This shelving will be stained and then assembled in the Craft Room upstairs, which is undergoing its own refit (my wife had to deal with similar blue-colored walls in that room too). Continuing on the hallway project, I cut more discs of silver poplar wood for a decoration. Today I purchased some paint at the Restore, which will be used on the train table tops. While walking to the store on my lunch-break, I snapped the above snowy Santa Fe photo.

Also this week, I received and displayed a Railroad Crossing sign my bride got me for my birthday. It is a non-traditional crossing sign, but it provides a great picture of the type of iron horses that will be frequently roaming about the Train Room! :) It now graces the door to the room.

This coming weekend looks like it will involve a lot more snow, and hopefully some railroading progress too! Until next time, keep your rails shiny ~

Cleared out and mopped clean

Filled with the next projects

Stop, look, listen