Guard Rail! Why didn't I think of that?

Bill Uffelman, an experienced O Scale modeler from Nevada, visited the layout this weekend. He is currently doing an On30 scale project.  After a brief introduction to the railroad, I handed him a throttle and asked him to take a train from staging in Aquia Landing to Falmouth. Then turn the engine on the turntable and bring the train back, while dropping a boxcar at Potomac Creek siding.  Having a background in  operational testing, I figured that having an experienced operator run the layout could would be a good way to find glitches. And find them we did.

I had mentioned earlier that humidity changes were causing some track problems resulting in intermittent derailments. One spot where this was happening was in the curve just before the first turnout at Falmouth. This track had been problem free up to now. A gauge check showed some tightness in the gauge. I respiked some of the rail back to gauge standards.

I also had a known issue with the Whiton locomotive at the north end of Potomac Creek bridge. The other locos and cars did not have a problem here. The Whiton's lead truck derailed about half of the time as the train moved north. We went through possible causes, first checking the wheel gauge, which seemed a tad tight on one axle. Then I checked the track gauge, which was OK, but there appeared to be a very slight kink in the curve. There also was a dip in the outside rail. I shimmed the rail and smoothed out the easement. A couple more tests showed that the problem was better, but still was there. At that point Bill suggested a guard rail. That was a great suggestion. I installed a guard rail and ran more tests. The derailments are gone. I made a video showing how it works.

His work done, Bill left. But, using the same logic, I added a guard rail to the problem curve at Falmouth after also checking and adjusting the gauge. This seems to help. Lest you accuse me of using a unrealistic crutch, my ridiculously tight curves would probably require a guard rail in the prototype too. For example. look at the guard rails in the USMRR Alexandria yard. File that in "there's a prototype for everything."

Guard rails used to keep wheels from derailing on a curve at the USMRR Alexandria yard. Note
 the three way turnouts at the lower and upper right.

Immortal Bonsai

My brother Rob visited this week. Since we were snowbound, he decided to improve the dead bonsai tree he sent to me last year.

First he pruned and tapered the dead branches to improve their scale appearance.

Then he built up the base of the tree using wood putty and a block of wood so that the root structure was realistic. The bonsai folks call this nebari.

Next he drilled  about 50 holes in the branches to accept springs of Supertree. The Supertrees is a trade name for  a natural weed from the Arctic area of Lapland. Scenic Express imports and markets them as "Supertrees."

Once the Supertrees were glued in place, I painted the tree with woodland camoflague brown, medium grey and flat back. Rob says the tree resembles a sycamore in this configuration. It started out as an azalea bonsai.  The whole tree s quite delicate as the dried out azalea and the Supertrees are very brittle.

The tree is secured to the block of wood. When it comes time to install it, the whole block will have to be integrated into the scenery as the tree is too delicate to remove from the block of wood.  I 'll have to cut the foam scenery to accept the block. So it's not a big deal.

Rob and his  creation at Stoneman's Station

Since it is such a big tree, I plan to place it near Stonemans station where the scenery is deep.

While he was working on the tree, I made some smaller understory trees for the Clairborne Creek Scene and finished the two latest boxcars.

Finished Product - The Immortal Bonsai at Stoneman's Station

Modelcrafters Civil War Dioramas

A photo of Rameesh's diorama with a

sky and smoke added via Photoshop

Rameesh Bishop has been building nice military and civil war railroad dioramas for quite some time. I recently came across his Flickr page with 31 images showing some of his ACW RR dioramas. The link is here and is well work a look.  Some of his work is for sale. He also does a nice job in weathering his models.

This beautiful shot makes me think, "I really need to add a covered bridge to my RR even though it is not prototypical."

Brakemen Needed - Apply Within

During the civil war railroad freight cars had manual hand brakes. There were no air brakes. Nor did the locomotives have air pumps to supply the needed compressed air.  On a freight car, only one truck was equipped with brakes. 

In comparison to modern times, the brakes were much simpler and totally manually operated. The wooden brake shoes were mounted on wooden beams that hung from the exterior ends of a truck. Gravity kept the brake beams and shoes away from the wheels. To engage the brakes, a crew man had to turn the brake wheel located either on the top or end of the car.  This wheel took up a chain on a ratchet that was connected to a linkage in the truck. As the hand wheel turned the linkage caused the brake beams to retract towards the wheels. The shoes rubbed the wheels and the cars slowed down.  To release the brakes, the operator turned the wheel in the opposite direction. The weight of the brake beams caused the beams to swing away from the wheels and released the brakes.

Being a brakeman was a dangerous job. Brakemen were advised not to sit on the brake wheel
because the slightest bump or jolt could toss you off.

Turning the brake wheel  was the job of the brakeman. To set the brakes on train, the engineer would give a whistle signal, in the case of the USMRR, one short blast. The brakemen in the cab, or already riding on the tops of the cars would scurry along the tops of the cars turning each hand wheel until the train came to a stop. This had to be done at all time of day, in all weather and conditions.


The brakeman also handled car couplings and track switches. Link and pin couplers were especially hazardous as the brakeman had to stand between two cars to couple them up. Between the hazards of coupling, falling off and collisions, it is was a dangerous job in terms of life and limb.  


Fortunately, the job won't be so dangerous for my operators, but the working handbrakes should make it more realistic and interesting.

Two More House Cars

My objective for the weekend was to finish building two more house cars , also known as box cars. I had worked on the trucks for these cars earlier in the week. Thus, I just needed to build the chassis and bodies this weekend. But, I hadn't built a car in a few months, so the first thing I did was review the drawings for the laser cut parts. I made a few adjustments to the drawings after checking several prototype photos for detailing ideas. With the revised drawings, I fired up the laser and cut the parts for the first one. I assembled it and had some additional ideas for the second car. By Sunday evening I had both cars assembled. The photos show the cars in the process of getting decals.

The car in the rear has a roof walk. In looking at various prototype photos of the USMRR, I noticed slightly more than half the cars have roof walks. So far, none of my cars have roof walks, so I decided to start adding them. Both of these cars will have working brakes. The second car will have movable doors. I even made the door latch operable (the latch is part of the etched detail parts fret), but that was just for fun. I don't expect to use them during operations. This car will have open doors, with the interior showing some details.

After I took these photos I realized I forgot to add the stirrups and grab iron by the ladders. I'll add them ASAP.

One thing is for sure, you have to like NBWs if you are going to do O scale early steam era modelling. Each truck has 20 NBWs, while the car body has about 50.