Operational!

After a great push starting in mid March, the railroad became operational in early July.  Two local operators, Lance Lassen and Blair Kooistra, and a guest from Australia, John Gillies, attended the first operating session on July 5th.

After arriving at Forebay, NP 661 "the Highball", doubled its 26 car train into the Forebay yard, then pulled down the power down the main to clear the way for the switcher to retrieve the cars.

The wheel report for NP 661, inbound to Lewiston on July 5, 1965. (The list says 662, which is incorrect).  In the future, I will add a more involved paperwork system, using a miniature waybill system, developed by Dan Holbrook.  For now,  switch lists, and traffic generated in my head, is the system in place.  The list above includes what railroad (NP or UP) the cars came from and if they are loaded or empty.  The list also includes the contents of a loaded car and the "TIBS" blocking code.  

Switch crew Engineer Blair Kooistra and Foreman John Gillies plan their work at the mill.  The work for the day, required the switcher to pull cars from the paper and plywood mill, then handle off spot cars from the storage tracks to the various locations to load.  After these moves, the outbound traffic was to taken to Forebay, and blocked for either UP or NP, for the trip to Spokane.  Then cars from the inbound NP 661 taken to the mill to be spotted or left off spot in the storage tracks.  Since this was the first time, the plan took a little while to develop!

With only Spokane/East staging, Forebay and the PFI mill operational, the theme for the session was that line from Riparia to Lewiston was out of service account the Army Corps of Engineers doing dam construction on the Snake River, requiring all traffic into Lewiston to arrive on NP train 662 "the Highball".

The session consisted of train NP 661, delivering all of the traffic, both UP and NP to the yard at Forebay (a contraction of Potlatch Forest Mill Bay) and the switch job switching out the cars at the PFI mill, then delivering the out bound UP and NP traffic to Forebay for NP 662 to take to Spokane.

For the first session, I created a hand drawn  "TIBS" map of the mill and Forebay.  TIBS stands for Train and Industry Blocking System.  Its a alpha-numeric system similar to the real Burlington Northern's SPINS system from the 1970's.  Dan Holbrook wrote an article that appeared in the July 1987 issue of  Model Railroader magazine that outlined its use.  A complete TIBS book of the Lewiston Terminal area drawn using a computed graphics program  is in the works.

SW7, NP 114, was utilized for the mill switcher.  The cab on the 114 had a mishap and the Lewiston shops put on a replacement.  Unfortunately, the shops didn't have sufficient time to get the cab painted before pressing the venerable switcher back into service.  More on the replacement cab in a future post!

The switch crew is done pulling the cars from the mill and is taking them to Forebay for the outbound Highball, train NP 662.

Engineer Lance Lassen switching the inbound 661 train at the east end of Forebay.  Without a Lewiston yard switcher available, the road crew was pushed into switching service, blocking some of the inbound and outbound traffic.  A time slip for performing switching service was undoubtedly filed upon the crew's return to Spokane!

The session took about about two-and-a-half real hours, and there was still cars to spot to the mill at the conclusion.  My plan was for the mill job to be a real three to four hour job for a two person crew, which appears to be right on target. Seeing the  railroad finally operate was a rewarding experience and I'm looking forward to more sessions in the near future.  I suddenly need a lot more freight cars!  

Special thanks to my dad Perry, brother Jon, John Bauer, Dave Lehlbach and Lance Lassen, for helping me get it running!  

Lastly, a very special thank you to my wife Lisa, who has put up with my desire for an operating railroad model over the past 17 years, in one form or another.    

Mill-ing About

Its been a few weeks since my last post, but, at long last is an update to the blog and the railroad model of  the Lewiston Terminal.  I've been working rather steadily since February to get Forebay and the PFI mill complex to the point where limited operations could occur.  Limited operations (switching of the mill and using Forebay to yard an inbound/outbound train) will hopefully commence within the next six weeks or so.  

Deadlines are also a great motivator!  A friend from half a world away, visiting the Dallas-Fort Worth has certainly inspired progress.


Below are some progress pictures...

February.  The East end of Forebay Yard and the end of the modeled part of the railroad.  Switches and track placed for fitting.  Track and roadbed had only been installed just beyond the staging yard at this point.

March. My friend John Bauer visited late in the month to give a tutorial on hand laying switches.  Using Micro Engineering Rail, Kappler wood ties and Fast Tracks frog point and stock rail making tools, he is hand laying the Potlatch lead switch.

*Of note...For anyone who plans to hand lay and spike the rail, the Tightbond glue seen in the right of the photo is not so great for the process.  The glue is exceptionally hard, making it good for wood working, but quite difficult to push spikes through! I have switched back good ole' Elmers wood glue, which is no problem.  DAP adhesive caulk is another alternative.

Dave Lehlbach, of Tangent Scale Models, joined our work party toward the end of the week for a day.  He's sanding the luan plywood roadbed for the mill trackage.  

June.  PFI mill trackage.  All but three switches in the mill are built and installed.  A couple of the switches are rebuilt Shinohara switches I had left over from a previous project.  The remainder are hand built.

Another view of mill trackage.  Part of the reason for hand laying switches was to accommodate the curved switch geometry necessary to fit in the necessary tracks. The two switches in the foreground are the first hand built curved switches on the layout. I anticipate the next ones to be easier to build and a little better looking.

Operations are right around the corner...

Back...In Black

A return to the blogosphere and modeling the NP 114

Hey, it’s been a REALLY long time since I posted anything!  Though I have been an inactive blogger, I have not been an inactive modeler.  In the past two years (ahem) since I last posted anything, I've actually been working on the railroad and equipment to operate the railroad when it is up and running.  So, I thought I would share some the things I have been working on over the past several months and get back into this whole blogging thing!

Switch Engines on the Camas Prairie Railroad

While venerable Union Pacific and Northern Pacific GP9’s held down the road assignments on the Camas Prairie Railroad, switching duties in the Lewiston Terminal were handled by four switch engine types, two from each of the parent railroads.  The Union Pacific supplied an NW2 and SW7, while the NP provided an SW7 and SW1200.

It’s been a long time since I built a model of a locomotive, at least 10 years!  I believe the last model I built was a BN painted GP9 for when I was modeling a later era on the Camas Prairie RR. 

The first one I chose to build was an SW7, the NP 114.  

NP 114, and EMD SW7 pictured in the engine terminal in East Lewiston, Idaho.  This is the only picture of this loco I have ever found in NP paint.  Picture taken presumably about 1967 or 68 based on no ACI plate, but with a rotating beacon.  Date and photographer unknown.

(If anyone out there has the slide and or knows the photographer and date, it would be greatly appreciated!)

The engine was built by EMD for the Northern Pacific Railway in 1949 and subsequently leased to the Camas Prairie Railroad.  The 114 survived well into the BN era and was retired in 1981.

The 114 at East Lewiston after the BN merger.  A few changes were made, including spark arrestors and handrails the entire length of the long hood.  Dan Holbrook photo, May 5, 1974.

To create the HO scale model, I started with a Kato NW2 and reworked it into an SW7.  Changes to the car body included:

• An SW7 cab, from Cannon and Company;
• A change from a stepped long hood section on the NW2, to a sloped long hood section, harvested from a Life Like SW1200;
• The sill sections below the step wells straightened;
• A new radiator grille from Detail Associates, and;
• A welded fuel tank, a separate part available from Kato.

A Cannon cab as well as the sloped hood section from a Like Like SW1200 to change the NW2 into an SW7.  Also, the portion of the sill next to the step well has been removed, as an SW7 sill is straight across, from step well to step well.

This overall fireman's side view shows the full sized. square front radiator grille, the wire handrails,  the more detailed wire hood rail, wire grab irons and the Farr Grille "louvers" unique to the NP 114.

The NP 114 also has some unique grilles on the long hood instead of the usual louvers of most SW type switch engines.  This is the only NP/BN switch engine I have seen with this arrangement and the reasons for it are unknown to me.  I cut up an old Detail Associates F-unit Farr type grille to create the unique “louvers”.

While the Kato NW2 model is one the nicest switch engines on the market, the supplied handrails are rather oversize.  They are also made of acetal plastic and hard to paint.  No manufactures that I am aware of make an aftermarket switcher handrail stanchion either, so there is no option for replacing them. 

Many years ago, I ran into this problem while building several NW2’s for Dan Holbrook’s railroad.  My solution was to cut the handrail segments from the stanchions and bend new handrails from steel piano wire.  I then drilled holes through the acetal stanchions and ran the steel wire through the holes.  I used the same process on the NP 114.  I chose steel wire over brass for its strength and structure.  Steel wire is a little harder to work with, but I prefer the end result. 

I also replaced the acetal plastic provided long hood handrails and grab irons with brass wire. 

After all this detailing, came painting it…black!  All that detail work, just to paint it black?  Well, yeah.  I used Scalecoat Detail Black, which is more like a really dark grey. 

All that work just to paint the whole thing black!

After painting, but before decaling, I did some "pre-weathering", with an artist oil paint wash.  I covered the model with a flat coat, then go to town with a grimy wash of raw umber mixed with white. 

Not so black now!  To get the grimy look, I used raw umber and white oil paints mixed together, and created a wash using mineral spirits as the vehicle.  Surface rust along the hinges and rivets was created by dabbing on a touch of yellow ocher and burnt sienna, then flowing a small amount of mineral spirits over the top of the oil paint.

I like to do this “pre-weathering” to bring out the detail of the door panels, louvers, hinges, etc without darkening the lettering.  Lettering in this era was usually applied with a stencil and a roller.  The lettering was rather robust, standing up to grime and paint failure quite well.  By applying the wash before hand, covering the lettering is not an issue.  After the weathering wash was dry, I coated the car body with a gloss coat to create a nice surface for the decals.

I used a decal set provided by the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association.  This a very nice and comprehensive set.  The lettering is on Dulux Gold, with striping in bright yellow, to replicate Scotchlite.  The decals were printed by Microscale and San Jaun, and apply very nicely, especially on Scalecoat paint!

The NPRHA decal set for NP locomotives has virtually everything needed to complete several models.  Notice the Yellow stripes and the Dulux Gold lettering.

Kato NW2’s are also a challenge to add DCC and sound to.  They have a two piece metal frame, that surrounds the motor and fills the entire inside of the car body.  DCC installation is not one my strengths, and while I can install a DCC decoder into a model locomotive such as a Stewart F unit, milling out the Kato frame for a decoder, speaker, lights and all the wires seemed a bit daunting. 

TVW Miniatures offers the service of doing all of these things to the Kato NW2, with very nice results!

The final details included some additional weathering, couplers, air hoses, window “glass” and headlight lenses.

NP 114 ready for the layout!

***You’ll notice that there is no all-weather window on the model of the NP 114.  The frame needs to be fabricated and I am investigating having the part cast or 3D printed as I need them for other loco’s as well.  Worst case will be scratchbuilding the window frame, in which case it will be added the 114 when it is completed.***  

...its been too long, but I'm glad to be back...
More to come, and in less time than another two years!

Spring Update

A short progress report...

A good friend from Chicago, John Bauer, visited in early April.  In addition to being a long time friend, he's also been railroad modeler for many years, modeling the RGS in Sn3.  

John is also quite the hockey fan (Blackhawks too!) and burger connoisseur, so his visit consisted of railroad construction, watching the 'Hawks and trying out the various burger joints in the Fort Worth area.

The main goals of John's visit were to finish the backdrop, install the switch motors in the staging yard ladders and for me to learn about hand laying switches.  John has a lot of experience with layout construction and especially hand laying switches He fabricated all the point and stub switches on his RGS as well as the switches on a mutual friends HO railroad.

A removable opening had to be constructed to access the chandelier in the foyer.  We constructed a frame and used four pins to hold it in place.  You'll also notice John's cup from In-N-Out burger, one of our many burger joint stops.

The removable piece completed and ready for paint, along with the rest of the backdrop in the main room.

John installs one of the 10 Tortoise motors needed for the staging yard ladders.  Fortunately, I planned the turnout placement well enough to not encounter any joists under the switch point throw bars! 

Motors attached...Now come the wiring and toggle controls.

We decided to build two "ganged", curved switches.  I intend to build my switches in place to take advantage of the natural flow and curve of the track work.  With this in mind, I wanted to observe the process of building multiple switches at a time with some curve in them.

We used Fast Tracks point/frog fixtures to fabricate the frog points and switch points as well their Stock-aid, to remove the rail web of the stock rail. spiking one of the closure rails down.  We used Minwax ebony stain, to color the cross ties previous to laying the switch, with mixed results. Chris Vanko, who is also hand laying switches on hiss HO railroad, suggested using Polyscale Railroad Tie Brown... 

...Tried Polyscale Railroad Tie Brown on some of the other ties and the results are quite nice.  I also liked the look of Polyscale Oily Black, so I will use one or both of these colors for the wood ties and the plastic ties of the flex track.   

I had been a bit stalled on construction and hadn't accomplished much since Thanksgiving.  John's visit was great timing to help me get back on track building the railroad.  Most of my work on the layout is alone, late at night, so it was nice to have someone to work with for a few days. 

Making the Grade

Happy New Year everyone!  2013 promises to be a great year...the year operations will begin on Idaho's Panhandle Railroad.  I'm currently building the transition grade from the staging loop to the visible part of the railroad at Forebay.

One concern I have is how many cars a single GP9 can handle up the grade from the staging tracks to Forebay.  

Trains 881 & 882, the local running between Lewiston to Kooskia,  regularly ran with a single unit due to a swing bridge with a light axle loading near Kamiah. 

Additionally, the line from Lewiston to Kooskia is along the Clearwater River with very little grade, so a single unit could handle a sizable.  The prototype often had close to 25 cars hauled by a single GP9.  

I need my model Kooskia to Lewiston train to be able to handle 15 cars from staging to the modeled portion of the railroad.

A single GP9 with 2oz of weight added pulls 20 cars and a caboose up the grade from staging.  My GP9's are repowered with Stewart F unit motors and trucks in a modified Proto 2000 frame.  The result is a smoother running unit but at the the expense of much of the weight in the original model.

A little extra weight makes 20 cars no problem. The BN GP9 pictured above is a model I did when my era was 1974.

I compared my GP9 with an Atlas RS3.  The RS3 weighs 

11 3/4 oz and easily handled 20 cars up the grade.  The GP9 with no weight added is 8 1/4 oz and struggles with 20 cars, but handled 17 cars with no trouble.  

I added 2 oz of weight (currently on the walkways) and 20 cars was no longer an issue.  2 oz of weight will need to be added to each GP9, which should be no issue as there is sufficient room even with a decoder and speaker.  

Success!

Modeling Downtown Lewiston, part 2: Using aerial photographs

Fellow railroad modeler Dave Lehlbach and I recently acquired some aerial images of our respective modeling subjects from the Washington State DOT.  Dave has been advocating the use of aerial images in modeling research for many years because of their definitive evidence...A snapshot in time so to speak.  The aerial below is from Lewiston in September of 1966. 


Previous to this, my data consisted of a birds eye post card picture from 1959, a track map from the 1940's and some hand drawn maps the late Jim Morefield, Chief engineer for the Camas Prairie Railroad, drew up in the 1980's.

Until now, I hadn't found any pictures of this area from my era or close to my era.  This photo reveals some things, and of course, creates new questions.



Portion of Lewiston, ID aerial photo, Sep 1966.  WDOT photo.



Following are some of the learning points that may alter how I model this portion of the railroad:

• I finally know there was only one spur into the Twin City Foods plant on the south side of the building.  The track map I have shows two spurs and the 1959 aerial is cropped at this location.

• I now understand the arrangement of the Smith, White and Dike spurs.  These are the spurs farthest north, with the spur ending at on the north side of the Twin City Foods plant. 
• The Smith spur actually continues straight and runs alongside the building just to the east of TC Foods and is Smith Frozen Foods storage warehouse. 
• The White spur, serving Producers Association, a fruit warehouse,  is across from the Home Lumber warehouse, just to the west of 5th street.
• There also appears to be a loading dock on the north side where the White spur diverges from the Dike spur.  Anyone know what business this is?

• Look at the number of cars laying around in the downtown area! 
• In addition to cars spotted at TC Foods, there are also several cars "off spot", two on the M&E spur and several more on House track 1. 
• There appears to be five 40' boxcars parked next to the freight house.  Are these LCL cars for the freight house or cars stored awaiting assignment?
• A hopper or gon spotted at the Home Lumber coal shed
• All three team tracks are full of 40' and 50' cars
• A car is spotted at the Mason-Ehrman grocery warehouse

• House 2 has been stub ended and an end ramp added.  I had the impression this was done in the 1980's. In the 1959 photo, as well as the track map for the 1940's, this track is double ended.

• Notice the ramp located to the south of House track 3, west of the Erb cable warehouse.  Across B Street is an implement dealer.  Presumably, this ramp was for them to unload at.  Anyone know what company this is?

• Also on House 3, further to the west in the curve, is another industry with an angled side and loading ramp.  Not sure what business this is either.

The aerial photo also gives an impression of how many vehicles were on the streets, as well as parked at the various factories, plants and businesses within the modeled area. 

This aerial snapshot in time provides a lot of definitive information for my era.  For anyone trying to model a specific time, aerial photos from the modeled era are a must.   

Benchwork baby...benchwork!

The last few weeks have been fairly eventful.  In spite of planning, planning some more and ultimately planning just a little more, I finally decided it was just time to stop with the excuses and get going! 


Rather that start construction during the winter, when the weather here in Texas is temperate, I decided to start in the summer, when Texas is at its hottest (It was 107 degrees yesterday)!  Why do things easily? 


Benchwork construction seems to follow Newton's law of motion.  I've been on a roll with plenty of momentum since late June.  Framework for the staging loop, PFI Mill, the East Lewiston yard and east approach to the depot are built. Below are some pictures of the progress so far...

Building a layout in a living room presents some interesting situations.  Here I have an L girder spanning three large windows.

I'm using an L girder on the under side with triangular bracing to support the benchwork.

Here in Texas, home builders aren't particularly concerned with minor details such straight or square walls!  Shims were needed at several locations to attach the L girder to the wall.

Two shims were required to screw the L girder into the wall at this location!

Plywood for the staging loop on the peninsula.  The PFI mill will be about 6 inches above it.

The myriad of legs supporting the peninsula for the staging loop and PFI Mill.

I used stamped metal brackets screwed into the legs and floor boards to anchor the peninsula and keeping it from getting bumped out of place.

There is still about 25% of the framing to do in the main layout room, including an interesting engineering project spanning the room's balcony overlooking the front foyer of the house.

The opening in the room, with a balcony, overlooking the foyer.  This presents some interesting engineering for supporting the framework and backdrop.  Its important to leave some of it open for air circulation and the banister needs to stay in good condition as well.

Another view of the opening to the foyer.  There is a single L girder spanning the opening, with a 2x4 leg support underneath.  You'll notice in the foreground that the framework has no back to it where it buts up to the wall, but does at the opening.  I built this piece separately, then dropped it in.

My goal is to have the staging loop and main line in to the yard, as well as the trackage for the paper mill in and running by Thanksgiving of 2012.  Boy, putting it out there in cyberspace makes the goal much more real!  More later...I have plywood to cut!