Quick reminder about the website

While blogs are a great way to get content posted quickly and easily, actual websites tend to provide a much more permanent record - though they are a bit more difficult to keep up to date.  Those of you that access my blog directly (through http://blog.thevalleylocal.net) may not know that I have a website dedicated to the Valley Line as well at http://www.thevalleylocal.net .  That's where I "archive" the information that I've distilled and want to be sure and keep, posts that require more permanence, etc.



Perhaps most importantly, the website makes it easy to access this more permanent material - and it's also where you'll find a (rough) trackplan and layout tour.



So if you haven't already, be sure to browse around the website.  The "About" link is much more detailed than what Blogger provides and - better than that - you can get ready access to the most important info about the railroad as it evolves from blog postings to archived articles.

On the Valley Line Today (literally, this morning)

I've mentioned before that I come by my interest in the Valley Line honestly - I worked on the line as a steam locomotive fireman in the late '80s/early '90s and, after being away for almost 20 years, I'm back - not only firing, but I live only a stone's throw from the line.

Occasionally, the train makes it down to Old Saybrook.  When it does, it crosses right over my street.  This morning was just such an occasion - so I thought it'd be fun to get down to the crossing and get a video to share with you.

As you'll see, I'm a pretty lucky guy to have this almost literally in my backyard...

More Progress

My recent productivity spurt and manic motivation continue to accrue benefits to the Valley Line!  Here are some pics of the progress...

With some encouragement/goading, I finally decided to push forward on the Goff Brook road bridge.  Here's the foamcore base in place - and cardboard strips starting to encroach...

A better view of how the road will hit the backdrop.  There will be a timber grade crossing here.

Here's a closer-to-eye-level shot, showing how the road goes uphill . . .

. . . hopefully, just like the prototype.  This is how Old Main Street (nee Middlesex Turnpike) looks today (looking south).  Grade crossing in foreground, Goff Brook road bridge in middle background.

After doing that, I decided to fill in another area.  This section just "east" of Valley Coal looked just too deep.  While it's not supposed to be flat, the mainline certainly shouldn't be on the high fill it was on.  Thankfully, you can use more than one method of terrain construction.  I just added wadded up newspapers, secured with tape, right over the cardboard webbing.  Once the plastercloth is applied, you'll never know the difference.

While I was working at the Wethersfield/Rocky Hill town line, Roman was further south in Dividend finishing up some webbing.

Back in Rocky Hill, adding a few more strips.

Rocky Hill/Dividend aisle side of the peninsula ("east" of the RR) all ready for plastercloth.

With Roman and I both working together, we were able to complete the "cloth-ing" in just a few hours.

We even got right up to Goff Brook...

Other than installing terrain, we also focused some attention on the rolling stock.  During the last ops session it became obvious that many of the couplers had "airhoses"/trip pins which were just too low - and they had a very annoying tendency to get caught on frogs & such, stopping the train and risking a serious derailment (as in - car falls 480 scale feet to concrete floor!).

So, I had two choices: adjust/bend the pins to the proper height, or remove them entirely.  Since we use skewers for uncoupling rather than magnets, I chose a full pin-dectomy.

Problem is, some coupler manufacturers must use titanium for their pins - I'm looking at you, BLI.  What a wreck they made of my pliers.  KDs didn't do that - so I promptly swapped the BLI couplers for KD #58s.

A good start

It's amazing what a difference motivation makes.  I've gone from just staring at the layout, on those rare occasions when I'd get into the basement at all, to seeing potential projects just about everywhere - projects that can be Done Right Now.  I don't know what to attribute this latest spurt to, or what exactly eliminated the roadblocks to progress I'd perceived for so long, but I'm going to ride this wave as long as possible.

Next up: finishing plastercloth wherever we have webbing, then perhaps attack East Berlin and maybe even East Haddam.  Oh, and there are more switches to add to Middletown yard, and speaking of Middletown, I want to get to that tower project, and I need to build more boxcars, and...and....

Well, you get the idea.

Hope you're able to get down in the cool basement or air-conditioned spare room this summer and, if you do, be sure to share your progress so we can all get an added dose of modeling energy!

Wordless Wednesday #25

Photo by Kent Cochrane

Tool Tip Tuesday - Bond, Insta-Bond

While making repairs on my bad order (BO) cars earlier this evening, I was confronted with having to (try and) reattach a stirrup step on the side of a reefer.  That's a pretty delicate job, especially considering they're styrene (or maybe even engineering plastic) with a very tiny surface area for gluing.

Most folks would probably just drill a couple holes and replace the stirrup with wire, and I would have done that had I lost it (which would have been very easy to do).  But since I had it on-hand, I figured I'd try and use it.

But how do you glue it and expect it to hold?

For a while now, I've been using a method I use for attaching delicate parts on resin kits.  I use a medium viscosity CA, liquid Zip Kicker, a micro-brush, and another old micro-brush that's had the brush removed and the point split.  See above (I put a white piece of plastic behind the stirrup so it'd show up in the pic). Here's how I do it:

• Drip a few drops of CA on the bottom of an old shot glass (another tip, btw - an upside-down shot glass won't tip over, and it raises the glue above the work surface)
• Then use the split-point tool to gather up a tiny drop.
• Apply that to where you want to stick the part, in this case the stirrup.
• Then use the microbrush to apply a small amount of Zip Kicker to the joint(s).  Since the part is probably just barely holding on at this point, try and flow the kicker into the joint rather than touching the joint itself.

This will make an instant, and surprisingly strong, bond.

I've used this method for stirrup steps, airhoses, just about anything where you need it to set up instantly and strongly.  The only downside is that the bond may be a bit brittle - there's not much give, and if I were to bang the stirrup step now and it were to break, it'd probably fly off where I couldn't find it. Thankfully, I think I'd have to bang it pretty hard - which (hopefully) isn't likely.

Then and only then would I bother replacing it with wire.  In the meantime, I'll use this method whenever I have a chance of salvaging the original part.

Ops Session - 6/27/2014

With a few more work sessions under my belt and some resulting progress (and due to the fact that my supremely-supportive-spouse was out with a friend), I decided to have a quick operating session last Friday. I already mentioned it here, but thought you'd enjoy some additional pics - especially since I tried a new paperwork system and debuted my new Agent/Operator's Desk!

I plan to get into the details of the new ops paperwork in a future post, so for now I'll just do a quick walkthrough...

Long-time readers will recognize the "snacks" table from previous sessions - the snacks aren't out yet, but the operators' tools are: clipboards (for holding switchlists), skewers (for uncoupling), and aprons (for holding clipboards, skewers, etc)

You also may recognize the Bulletin Board from previous posts - with the addition of track maps for the entire railroad, all the better to aid the Agent/Operator

My new paperwork required the addition of a new position - Agent/Operator.  Well, it didn't require it per se - but it's certainly more fun with it, especially with this cool desk (what turned out to be a very useful hand-me-down from my downsizing parents).  Railroad ops paperwork and requisite green shade lamp in evidence.

New operator William (left) was paired with now-veteran operator Joseph on the Air Line Local.  They're switching Mill Hollow prior to heading to Middletown.

Veteran operators (and oft-helpers) Roman and Pete operate a VERY long Valley Local southbound through Rocky Hill on the way to the Middletown meet with the Air Line Local.

It all converges in Middletown where the two lines cross and the two locals meet to exchange cars.  Looks like William is getting a little stressed.

But despite the stress, there are smiles all around.  Except for Pete, apparently, who is still trying to figure out how to stuff 10 pounds of cars in a 5 pound bucket.

Nice (and repeated) view of the Valley Local in Middletown with the rear of the Air Line Local in the yard.

Not-so-great shot of the Air Line Local's engine (NH R-1 #3304) just south of the Middletown diamond.  The Air Line comes in from the west (through the wall).  Prototype photo of the scene attached to the wall.

Despite some of the car repairs I had to do (mostly due to faulty couplers), I was very happy with how well everything worked, from the trains themselves to the new paperwork.  I especially liked my new role as Agent/Operator and the fun of doing "official" railroad paperwork at an actual desk.  Very railroady!

Already looking forward to the next session which, as motivated as I've been lately to work on the layout, should only be a matter of weeks (rather than months) away!

Middletown Tower - Q&D

Operating sessions are good for so many reasons - one of the most cited of which is the motivation you get to make progress on your layout in time for the session.  But that's not the only time ops sessions can give you motivation.  Sure, they can give you BO - and that motivates you to get to the workbench, but that's only getting your layout to staus quo ante.  It's not progress.  Other times - I would argue many other times - an ops session motivates you to make a change, either to trackwork, paperwork, etc.

This time - my session this past Friday - I got inspired to tackle a structure project.  Here's one of the scenes I saw during that session:

Middletown Yard, looking northwest. Valley local in foreground; tail of Airline local in background.

Specifically this:

A random tower building of unknown origins, I'm embarrassed to admit.

Picking it up, it reminded me very much of this:

Tower SS F-279 at Middletown diamond. Eastbound Airline local approaching, Valley line in foreground.

And so last night, after I finished taking care of my BO, I ended up with this:

This'll be Middletown Tower - Quick & Dirty.  Re-kit the building, cut it down to prototype size, add a new styrene front wall, rebuild.  The first step is done.  Next is to find some clapboard siding. . .

It'll be interesting how close I can come to finally finishing a signature structure on my layout - and how quickly.