Quick Progress Update

After all the flurry over the past couple of months working on/finishing the SW1, then trying to get as much done as possible on the layout - culminating in a big op session and Springfield Weekend, the Valley Line took a back seat for a while as I tried to catch up on everything else I'd been able to let slide in the meantime.

But like crocuses poking up through the snow, the Valley Line has started to wriggle back to life a bit. Here's a quick sampling of what I've been up to lately on the layout. . .

After vacillating for, literally, years and having them languish on my Christmas lists, I finally purchased the rest of the throttle holders I needed. They've obviously never been a high priority - my operators have never complained there's no place to put the throttle (probably cuz they're usually 2-man crews), but I noticed their absence every time I operated the layout solo. And now that I'm getting more scenery done, I'm less and less willing to lay the throttle on the layout.

I also found this PSX-AR (combo circuit breaker/auto reversing unit). Long time readers may remember the troubles I had with shorting at the ends of the reversing section between Middletown and Wethersfield (click here for the background). Well, way back in Sept. 2021, I'd borrowed a PSX-AR which seemed to fix the problem. So I purchased one of my own, but then was able to get my old PSX-AR units working. So the new unit sat in a box. That is until recently when the old unit decided to start acting up. Out came the new unit, on went a piezo speaker, and here it is semi-permanently installed on the layout. I want to get a bunch of op sessions into it before I mount it more permanently, but so far so good . . .

Speaking of op sessions, I noticed that my radios were starting to show evidence of, um, being dropped. I know at least one of them got totally trashed when *I* dropped it, but it's a bit of a mystery how the others have fared so poorly. No worries though - I've been wanting to upgrade them for a while anyway and now I had an excuse, and found a 4-pack on sale!

Even better, these come with headsets which I'd been wanting for a while (and which may reduce the amount of handling and the risk of droppage). Also, these are rechargeable (no more blowing through packages of AA batteries). I'd initially just plugged all the chargers into a power strip on the floor. But FB friend Ces Ses suggested a more elegant solution. I love building things, so I created the nice shelf and cord routing you see in the pics above. Looking forward to the next session to try them out!

As for actual layout progress, there's a bit o' activity happening down at Saybrook Junction. DickO was over recently to remove some of the fascia to accommodate a plexiglass barrier which will eventually protect the end of the Route 1 overpass he's building for the east end of the Saybrook Scene. Looks like I'm going to have to finally bite the bullet and decide on a ballast for the track in this area...

Before track can be ballasted though, it needs first to be painted and weathered. Fortunately, the track in Saybrook already has a base coat, but the track between Essex and Deep River doesn't. Well, it didn't. And since I'm hoping to get some tie weathering done in Essex tomorrow, I figured it'd be a good idea to continue the base coat from Essex "north" around the end of the peninsula. I used to swear by using Krylon camo paint for the base coat ("Earth Brown"), but during the winter especially - when you can't open a window or put a fan in - the rattlecan fumes are especially noxious, if not downright dangerous. Thankfully, RalphR suggested I leverage my new-found enthusiasm for the airbrush and use it to paint my track with an IPA-based acrylic rather than a rattlecan lacquer. The setup is pictured above: portable compressor, hose with in-line moisture trap, Patriot 105 'brush, stand, and Tamiya Linoleum Deck Brown paint, thinned 1:1 with 90% IPA. From setup to cleanup took about 40 minutes and no (or at least fewer) brain cells killed.

The weathering step is even safer since I just drybrush water-based craft paints onto the ties. The paints I use are above (and staged for work tomorrow), and the technique I use is outlined here (just scroll down a bit).

Oh! One last thing I did was to finally finish affixing the track in Middletown yard . . .

The yard has been in the same configuration - and operated successfully - for probably close to 10 years now. And the only thing I've changed at all is the length of one of the stub-end sidings. So, since I now have a winter/indoor friendly track painting technique, I figure I'll soon be painting & weathering the tracks here, in preparation for scenicking the yard itself. But before all that, I had to install some filler ties and glue down the track.

Typically, this would entail my laying a bead of white glue down the side of the track, lifting the track up, then pushing the glue underneath the track with a business card or putty knife. But Boomer Diorama (via the Mudfather) suggests dribbling Matte Medium down the center of the track, letting it wick underneath the ties to fix it in place. It'll dry dead flat and, best of all, no need to move or disturb the track at all.

So I tried that - I'll let you know how it worked out.

So that's where things currently stand. JimD is visiting tomorrow to help with some more scenery, so hopefully I'll have even more layout progress to share soon!

Replacing a Turnout

One of the hobby's lessons I keep having to learn - over and over again - is that it's ok to have to redo something, and it's often necessary to have to redo something no matter how well you thought you did it the first time. So, instead of waiting until you think you can do something "perfectly" go ahead and jump in and do it! Waiting just wastes time - and who wants to do that?!

Here's a case in point: Trackwork. Specifically, turnouts. Now, unlike scenery (just to think of a random example), I have NO problem jumping right into trackwork and trying all sorts of crazy things. I don't know if it's because I think of trackwork as a "left brained" type of thing - or if it's because most of my experience gets up to (and tends to stop) at the trackwork level, so I've got lots of practice doing it. I dunno - but the point is, I haven't any problem trying new things - and (here's the important point) redoing them if necessary.

The point of the case in point is... POINTS. Namely, that one of them came desoldered recently...

I noticed this as I was backing a cut of cars into this staging track (during one of my recent "solo ops" sessions). In a long ago (and ill-advised) attempt to save some money on turnouts in staging ("it's 'only' staging"), I tried to make some old Micro-Engineering turnouts "DCC-friendly" by isolating the frog and cutting through the metal throwbar, reinforcing the points by soldering on a new/additional pc strip throwbar - as you can see above.

But moving the points manually (as in, with fingers) apparently, over time, will tend to work the solder joint loose. And that's what happened here - one of the points came unsoldered.

Now, I could have "just" resoldered the point - but the more I looked at it the more I figured that would be hard to do and may not have worked anyway. I'd probably end up unsoldering the OTHER point in the process. It's one thing to solder all this together at the bench - it's a different story to try and do it in place.

And, of course, there's no guarantee that the failure wouldn't just happen again sometime later.

So, since I happened to have a right-hand #6 turnout on-hand (albeit, an Atlas rather than M-E), I decided to just replace it instead.

Thankfully, I hadn't soldered the rail joints and - being in staging - hadn't even added "filler ties." So, for the most part, I was able to just slide the rail joiners along the rail enough to get past the rail joints and lift up the turnout (and, in this case, some surrounding track as well).

The geometry of the Atlas turnout is slightly different than the M-E turnout, but the length is very different. So I had to trim some of the surrounding flex track to fit.

Also, since - unlike the M-E turnout - the Atlas turnout doesn't have a "center-over spring" that locks the points in place, I had to fabricate my own from a piece of scrap piano wire.

Thankfully, since this is staging, I only need it to work - I don't need it to look that great (though, admittedly, this is how *all* the turnouts on the "Airline" modules are thrown).

For the "on-stage" portions of the layout, I prefer the look of the Micro-Engineering turnouts. But the Atlas turnouts a pretty bulletproof, IMO, so are a perfectly suitable replacement in staging. And - as you can see here - pretty easy to change out if you find it necessary.

Reworking Trackwork at Dividend

As I mentioned at the end of Tuesday's post, I've skipped a couple of my usual morning bike rides this week to make some progress on the layout before heading into the office (admittedly, a "home" office - but I suspect I'm not the only one to discover that teleworking often results in longer workdays rather than shorter ones!).

Sometimes in this hobby, you have to take a couple steps back before you can move forward - and that's proving true in the Dividend section of Rocky Hill on my layout. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd initially based the trackplan there on a combination of a(n admittedly pre-era) Sanborn map and John Wallace's personal recollections. The track arrangement in Dividend has worked well and realistically for the 6 or so years I've been operating it, but more-recent research (a combination of aerial views and additional memory jogging) has confirmed that the curved track south of the Hartford Rayon factory complex (and which was used to unload chemical tank cars) actually came directly off the main rather than off the end of the switchback track as I initially thought.

Mockup of a new mainline turnout (one of the new ME #5s, as it happens) and 18"r curve which will become  the new tank track. Current tank track is at the end of the siding that goes alongside the factory.

The new turnout, and the fact that I didn't want it located too far south (and impinging on Cromwell), meant that I'd need to move the switchback about 12" north (to the right). The switchback's mainline turnout is mocked up here for comparison.

And the other turnout in the switchback gets pushed north too - into the current  grade crossing.

I want to be sure this relocation doesn't reduce the length of the tail track. I need about 28" to accommodate a K-1 mogul and three 40' cars.

Now, nobody wants to fix what ain't broken. The trackage at the rayon plant has worked well and we know that the switchback (the existence of which has never been in dispute) makes for some interesting switching - just like on the prototype. But the more I considered redoing the track to follow the prototype more closely, the more I liked it and the more the benefits outweighed the work involved.

And bonus! Yet more information has come in that suggests that there was likely a coal dump somewhere on the property as well - either for power or maybe cars of coke for smelting engine castings (when the plant converted to building Pratt & Whitney engines later). Either way, the track changes will allow me to use a little "proto-imagineering" to add a spot for a different car type.

Once the benefits of changing the track arrangement far outweigh the work of doing so, it's time to get to work! So that's what I've been up to the past few mornings. Follow along in the pics . . .

First step is to remove all the buildings.

 

Next, I unsoldered the feeders and (yikes!) had to unsolder the rail joints to remove the track. PRO TIP: do not solder your rail joints ever! Except on curves, but otherwise never! Not only does it make any future adjustments like this more difficult, but it also makes it more likely you'll have a kink in the track when the benchwork expands or contracts. Ask me how I know.

Once the track was removed, it was time to install the new turnout. With Micro-Engineering turnouts, I like to remove the frog rails (they're just short bits anyway) and fashion the adjoining flextrack so that a long bit of "excess" rail slides into there instead. The result is that you have 2 less rail joints per turnout and the joints you do have are staggered. Randy showed me this technique and now I try to remember to do it with all my ME turnouts.

Once I knew precisely where the new turnout was going to go, I wanted to mock everything up again to make sure that it was all going to fit and look how I wanted. First up is the factory building (above). Note how much tighter/closer the tank track is compared to before (and, if you compare to the aerial photos here you'll see that it looks a bit more like the prototype).

Next was the warehouse building. Note the cardboard mockup of where Belamose Ave. will have to be. And it's at an angle - again, closer to the prototype. The tape measure is a stand-in for the K-1-plus-3-cars tail track length I want to retain. The end is going out over the scenery base, so I'll have to address that later.

"Aerial" view of the factory siding. Recall that this siding used to go further and around the end of the building, but you can see now that it'll have to stop short of the new tank track - again, just like the prototype.

Speaking of the tank track, I started to mock up some "storage tanks" & a "power plant" as well (note the stack). The hopper car of coal is where I thought I might put a coal dump/trestle - but then I couldn't figure how how to make that look plausible soooo far away from the power plant - how would the coal get there?

So I moved the power plant to the trackside of the factory and will put the coal dump at the end of the factory siding. Much more realistic (at least for "proto-imagineering" purposes)

Here's what I mean: coal dump at the end (left) and still room for a few freight cars at the docks. Turns out though, I can't quite fit three 40 footers as well as a hopper (they'd foul the crossover). But it'll make for some interesting switching nevertheless.

The addition of a Tichy water tank (courtesy Bill Maguire) really makes this end of the complex, I think, and provides a nice balance to the tall smoke stack. And, frankly, it won't really fit anywhere else.

After marking the final locations of the structures & road, off they went again while I put in all the final track - all while enjoying hanging out "virtually" with the AML gang on Zoom (note ipad in background - I think that's Martyn Jenkins?).

Thumb tacks and water bottles hold everything down while the Aleene's Tacky Glue dries.

Remember me mentioning the end of the tail track above? Turns out, I barely had enough plywood subroadbed under the plaster cloth to support it. It was just a matter of making a cut in the cloth so I could push it down past the edge of the plywood - and scraping up what scenery material was still under where the track would go.

And here's where things stand as of this morning... The switchback is all glued and weighted down. . .

. . .as is the new tank track (now that the cork is dry and the tacks removed)

Even though I've done a lot of trackwork on this layout, it's been a while and I'm surprised that there were a few things I needed to remind myself of (especially Randy's turnout trick). And, fortunately, as I was perusing the blog for links for this post, I came across a post I'd forgotten about what to do before you paint your track. Good thing I saw it in time - since I'm pretty sure painting the track is next on the list for Dividend (and then weathering the ties I after that, I suspect...)

Nice to be down in the basement again making progress - hope you're enjoying following along!

A Couple Quick Bluepoint Tips

My layout focuses on operating four local freight trains and most of the turnouts over which they operate are thrown manually, just like the prototype (well, if by "prototype" you're ok with moving the switchpoints with your finger - click here for all the different ways I manually operate turnouts). By contrast, down on the Shoreline (the big mainline through Saybrook), all those turnouts are thrown by the guy in the tower manning a control board which controls a bank of Tortoise switch machines (though I'd started out with Micro-Mark's machines).

But when one of my operators suggested after a recent ops session that I provide some sort of remote control for a turnout under the Rt. 1 overpass in Saybrook, I wasn't quite sure what to do. The turnout was already installed and had been thrown using the included center-over spring (I use Micro-Engineering turnouts). I didn't want to install a Tortoise machine there, since that would be inconsistent with their use elsewhere (i.e. just on mainline turnouts), and the turnout's points would get increasingly difficult to reach as the overpass actually gets installed the scenery develops in the area.

So I decided to go back to the solution I used for the turnout at the north end of the Saybrook wye and installed a Bluepoint switch machine. But of course, given the turnout's location and the fact that it was already thoroughly installed (and ballasted!), adding a new switch machine was a bit complicated. Here's a few tips on how I did it:

The completed installation - you can just make out the turnout/points where the "#25" sign is. Yup - this turnout is in a wall, behind the backdrop, and a bridge will be going over it. No wonder somebody suggested I do something about that!

As I mentioned, I installed a Bluepoint. Fortunately, I had the foresight to have drilled a 1/4" hole under the throwbar before installing the turnout (in anticipation of powering it sometime in the future). Unfortunately, the hole wasn't quite big enough (since the throwbar actually ended up a little off-center) and I had to drill it out a bit. BE CAREFUL if you do that - otherwise you risk the drill bit going right up through your turnout! Yeah, that almost happened to me. Fortunately, all it did was rip out the center-over spring I no longer needed!

I used a regular coat hanger through a slightly-reamed-out hole in the machine for control. Note the four holes - yup, I'd mounted the machine there at first (turned 180) and then realized that the coat hanger/actuating rod would be going right through the adjacent Tortoise machine! Don't be like me. Check first.

This view shows how the actuating rod cleared - once I'd turned the machine around!

The Bluepoint installation instructions are pretty straight-forward. As I mentioned above (and in my previous install), I used a wire coathanger as an actuating rod. It was threaded through a hole drilled through the fascia and then bent into the machine. And I used a yellow wire nut for a knob.

Thankfully, it works like a charm. Now crews switching Saybrook don't have to worry about reaching this turnout - or knocking a bridge, or scenery, over in the process!

Some more SOMEthing: Painting Fence & Track

First of all, I wanted to do a big shout out to my friend Bill Gill for redoing the banner photo. As I think I've mentioned before, I'm a bit color blind (which is why I'm so afraid of doing scenery....) but even I realized that the banner photo had a greenish cast - especially after I saw how great it looked after Bill fixed it! So THANK YOU Bill! You've made the blog as well as the Valley Local website just a little bit better.

Bill hasn't been the only one working on the Valley Line though. Taking some of my own advice, I decided to do some more quick painting with the little bit of time I had after work tonight. . .

First, a little "writer's license".... I actually painted the fence a little while back. But it was certainly another one of those quick, high-impact-for-the-time projects. Just take a little "rust pen" (courtesy Woodland Scenics) and rub it on the barbed wire <ahem> fishing line . . .

BillS did the fence (and ground work, and bushes... but I digress) but I painted the line at least. And it looks pretty good. Certainly better than plain fishing line!

So now for tonight's project . . .

The Missus wanted to be up in the train room/den, so - after consulting an old blog post for what paints to use - I collected my paints and tools and brought my ballast/track test bed up to paint the ties. . .

The plan is to treat the track on this test bed as I would on the layout. That way I can see the effect not only of weathering the ties (individually!) and whether the weathering will hold up under ballast and adhesive, but also how different ballasts themselves will look with and without weathered ties and with different applications of adhesive and stains.

So you hopefully see above three distinct levels of weathering: 1) none (only spraybombed with brown paint), 2) relatively uniform. light weathering, drybrushing primarily two different colors, and 3) heavier, much more varied and heavier weathering using 3-5 different colors. Having these three options will hopefully give me a much better idea of whether the weathering is worth it after I ballast, apply adhesive, and (probably) stain with either India ink/alcohol and/or a Minwax brown stain wash.

Not bad progress for a little time this evening - and as I mentioned before, I'm a little further along....

Now - as always - I hope you'll weigh in with your thoughts on my work. And if any of you have any tips, suggestions, or warnings about what I'm doing here, please let me know! Bonus if you share your own experience and what's worked for you. As you can see, I'm trying hard to dial in a good, repeatable, and effective process for finishing my trackwork. I have a LOT of track to ballast in Saybrook and I'd sure rather not mess it up & have to redo it! %^)

Prototype-Based Ballast Choices

I think yesterday's Wordless Wednesday got more comments than any other WW before - and not just because there were some actual words in the title. I subtly solicited opinions and was very glad to see them start coming in.

So now, "here's the rest of the story."

Actually, I guess it's pretty obvious: I'm approaching the point where I need to make some decisions on what ballast to use and, being a "prototype modeler" I'd like it to be as close to the prototype as possible. While the list of considerations is short - availability, size, and color - it gets a little complicated, as you'll see.

Availability

One of the most important considerations for a layout this size is that the ballast product continues to be available for a while. I'd rather buy as I go, willing to accept minor color variations (what the Missus - a knitter - calls "dye lot") and don't want to have to buy a 50 gallon drum of the stuff all at once. Unfortunately, one of my early choices - Highball Products - is no longer in business (anybody have an alternative?). So I plan to check out additional options at the Big Springfield Show this weekend.

Size

This should be relatively straightforward, but . . .

The photo above is Woodland Scenics "Medium" ballast, supposedly for HO scale.

And above is WS "Fine" ballast. Offhand, it looks a little too small to me - but that may be because most of the HO model railroads I've seen use the larger "HO" ballast. Comparing this size to prototype photos, though, tends to show that smaller is better.

Color
Speaking of prototype photos, let's segue to the toughest consideration - and not just for someone who's a bit colorblind. Here's what I mean . . .

circa 1947-1948

circa 1949-1952

Above shots are at Wethersfield, showing the Valley Line. But only the north end of the Valley Line. The Hartford-Middletown portion of the line was reballasted with white gravel (not traprock) during the summer of 1945. But the remainder of the line south of Middletown to Old Saybrook was a mix of sand and cinders . . .

The shots above are at Chester during the filming of It Happened to Jane c. 1957. Looks like I'm going to have to develop some sort of custom superfine brown/black mix . . .

So at least 2-3 different colors (and 2 sizes) for the Valley Line. What about the Air Line?

According to John Wallace (the source of most of these photos, including the ones above), the Air Line had traprock ballast due to heavier traffic on the line (including documented use of the New Haven's big 3500s - likely wending their way back from Readville Shops, not in revenue service). This ballast appears to be a dark grey.

And what of the Shore Line? One of the commenters on the previous post were asking about my use of brown ballast - not what you'd expect on a New England railroad, right?

Well, behold...

Ok - I admit my colorblindness, and it could be that that's actually a dark grey - and an almost-70-year-old photo is bound to have some color shift, but that looks brown(ish) to me. And is consistent with the color of traprock mined in Branford and Wallingford, CT - major sources of ballast for the New Haven.

But consider this . . .

Also on the Shore Line, and a much-more-typical gray traprock ballast we're all familiar with.

But modeling the New Haven is often, um, complicated . . .

I don't know about you, but I count THREE colors here - gray traprock, on top of brown traprock, on top of cinders (heh - presumably on top of dirt/sand....)

So that's a little sampling of the prototype photos I'm looking to for guidance in choosing which size and color ballast to use on my layout (which, remember, depicts the Valley Line north AND south of Middletown, the Airline, and the Shore Line).

However, just as important as the photos are all of YOU that can lend a little guidance on color/size and advice for what products to use. So please weigh in!