Catering to the Temperamental Iron Beast

I finished wiring the sidings at Brook tonight. I ran some test trains through the siding and things looked good. I can now run trains from the Aquia Landing entrance to Potomac Siding. I had to wire temporary feeders to the frogs. The locos benefit from the powered frogs. With dead frogs the locos tend to stall.  As I stated in an earlier post,  once I get DCC installed in the locos I'll be able to connect the Frog Juicers to power the frogs.

My problem is not this obvious!

The Continuing Saga of the Engine McCallum 

I fixed the front pick up on the pilot truck of the McCallum by bending the wiper so that it rubs in a non-interfering spot.  But as I tested it more problems have surfaced. It runs fine on straight track. The problem now is on curves. It appears that the engine part of the loco is experiencing a high resistance short when it enters a curve. Just about any curve will cause the problem.

The McCallum tender has a new design that picks up from both sides.  The tender by itself will run just like a "diesel" (note the earlier Mason locos don't have this extra pick up on the tender. They must have the engine attached to pick up on both sides. I can fix this as I add DCC by adding additional wipers to tender axles on those locomotives.) Without the engine attached, the McCallum tender runs fine.  But hook up the engine and it stalls on curves and shorts the track.

I tested every other engine and all four run fine, so it is something wrong in the McCallum's engine. I looked over the engine, but could not find the issue. I'll have to work on this later. For now my objective is to get the wiring done to Falmouth so that we can run the completed sections of track.

P48 Trucks - So this is what the fuss is about!

Paul Dobbs, one of the ACWRRHS members, is building an O Scale ACW layout in P48. For motive power he plans to kit-bash an old Rivarossi plastic model 4-4-0 into a P48 operating locomotive.

Where did this kit come from? Rivarossi was an Italian company founded in 1945. Lionel briefly distributed their models in the United States until Athearn and then Associated Hobby Manufactures (AHM) took over. AHM closed operations in 1985. It is common to find older packaging marked AHM Rivarossi.

Box art from an AHM Rivrossi 4-4-0 Genoa

During their heyday, AHM Rivarossi released at least five American prototype O scale kits including:  0-8-0 Indiana Harbor Belt heavy switcher, 4-6-0 Illinois Central "Casey Jones", V&T 4-4-0's  #12,  "Genoa", and "Reno"
In the 1990s Rivarossi acquired Lima (1992), Jouef and Arnold (1997). In 2003 Rivarossi went into receivership, the last of many times. In 2002 the US importer folded leaving debts greater than the capital value of Rivarossi. In 2004 Hornby Railways PLC acquired assets from Rivarossi, in particular the brands Arnold, Jouef, Rivarossi and Lima. Since 2006 products are sold again under these brand names. To my knowledge the O Scale locomotive kits have not been rereleased. The plastic kits can sometimes be found on Ebay.

I am not sure what powering kit Paul plans to use, but he mentioned that he needed P48 trucks for his freight cars.

I offered to convert some of my Alkem Scale Models trucks to P48 for use on his freight cars. (note these trucks are not yet available for sale, but they are coming soon)

What the heck is P48 anyway? Due to a historical quirk, standard gauge O scale locomotives in the US are made with wheels set to a 1.25 inch (a scale 5 feet) gauge. P48 standard gauge modelers use a correct scale track gauge of 4' 8.5 inches, though it should be noted that some American Civil War era railroads were 5 feet gauge. While they are at it, they also adopt fine scale wheels with realistic tread and flanges. For more information about P48 see http://www.proto48.org/

I modified the design of my O Scale my trucks to accept a p48 wheel set that Paul provided. The photos the P48 trucks compared to my standard gauge O Scale trucks.

The wheel sets in this test have a significant extension of the axle to the outside of the wheel face. As a result, I was unable to make journal covers for the P48 trucks since the axle shafts extended past the journal boxes. Otherwise, the truck uses the same design as my standard gauge trucks, including the working brake mechanism.

The P48 wheels will just barely rest on the standard O gauge track, but they will not operate on it. They require track built to those specs.

So you be the judge, is the difference worth converting all those SMR locomotives to P48? I know what my answer is.

In looking at these photos it occurs to me that I may be able to make the O Std truck narrower by using the same idea I used in the P48 truck. That is, make the axle hole in both the frame and the journal. That would allow the frame sides to lie closer to the wheel faces.  The main problem with these wheel sets in the amount of axle that protrudes from the wheel face. The O Std wheel sets have a pointed axle to reduce friction. But if you don't rely on that point to hold the axles, and use the flat part of the axle as a bearing surface, you could make the overall truck narrower.

ACWRR Historical Society 2010 Annual Meeting

Left to Right Ron Beavers, Paul Dobbs, William Shirey,
Stephen Borona, DC Cebula visiting the layout.

This weekend saw the ACWRRHS Annual meeting in Alexandria, VA. The meeting kicked off with an introduction by Jon Vrana and Reene Linder. Then I and Ron Beavers presented talks. My talk was a variation of my Introduction to Railroads of the Civil War presentation while Ron discussed the sites they group would visit on Saturday.



Marty Guirk and Thom Radice look for a photo of
Chattanooga on  the Library of Congress website using a
computer  at the Alkem Scale  Models World Headquarters

 On Saturday Ron lead the group around sites in Alexandria including the Lyceum, where my car float model is on display, and  Fort Ward, one of my favorite spots in Alexandria.  Mitch Oldham could not hook up with the group, but stopped by the layout for an early tour. Mitch is a "local" from Warrenton, VA and is planning an O Scale layout in his 1400 sq ft basement. He used to have a model RR business selling DCC components, He expressed an interest in attending future work session. We can always use a wiring guru.

After Ft Ward, the group visited my layout. Marty McGuirk came by early to help out and answer questions. Over 22 people visited the layout. While at the house, we had a pizza and salad  dinner capped off with Alicia's  double chocolate brownies.

 Later that night Dave Schneider of SMR Trains presented a fascinating talk about some research he did on General Lee's armored rail gun. He also gave a copy of a Ron Hatch poster print depicting a scene from the Great Locomotive Chase to all attendees.  DC gave a talk about his collection of railroad research.


On Sunday the group will headed out on the O&A RR (now Norfolk Southern) to see historic sites along that famous line.  It has been a great time. Thanks to everyone for coming.

McCallum Photos

I got the McCallum set up and test run. I had to the drill out the coupler box to clean some flash to allow my pins to fit and she was ready to go.

The loco ran well in the quick test I did, but then a problem developed. The electrical pick-up wiper on the front truck caught on something when the loco rans forward. It bent out of place and got caught on a turnout frog. It will take some fiddling to get it bent back in position. While I am at it, I may try to add a set of wipers on the other side of the truck too. Here are two shots at Falmouth.

Here is a shot of the prototype tender taken in 1864.

Legoland visitors and a new resident

There was no work on the layout this week but we did have the pleasure of two visitors and the arrival of a new resident.

On Sunday Bob Luzenski and his business Partner Paul Treib from Michigan stopped by to see the layout after Brickfair , the largest LEGO Fan Festival in the US,  held  at Chantilly, VA. Bob and Paul are electrical engineers that make electronic parts for the auto industry as their main jobs, but also run a small business, called BrickCircuits, that makes electronic lighting circuits for LEGO. Bob is also an N Scale model railroad enthusiast and likes the C&O. It was fun to get together and talk trains. I have always enjoyed my visits to Michigan over the years to visit and operate model railroads. They really are a fine group of folks up there.

On Tuesday the FEDEX truck brought a new resident for the layout. This is the latest SMR Trains Mason 4-4-0 decorated as the McCallum. It is a fine looking locomotive. Dave tells me this model has improved pickup and hopefully will be a good runner. I haven't had a chance to test or photograph it yet, but it did look nice in the box. I like the color of the boiler. It is not as sky blue as some of Dave's earlier locomotives. This darker shade is more pleasing to my eye.