Reinforcements from New England

Randy as brakeman is dealing with the link and pin couplers, while engineer Jim seems to be enjoying the show.

This evening Jim Dufour and Randy Laframboise visited the layout. They are two New Englanders on a tour of layouts in Northern Virginia and Maryland. Both Jim and Randy have fine HO scale layouts. Jim models the B&M Chersire Branch, Randy models the Rutland.  You can find some videos of Jim's layout here.

and Randy's here 

This afternoon they visited Paul Dolkos's Baltimore Harbor. After  steak and beers at Hops, they toured the USMRR Aquia Line. They got a chance to run the RR and do some switching. They were also the first outsiders to get a view of the upcoming HO harbor layout. It was a fun visit especially since the Aquia line ran without mishap.

More layout mock-ups

After having dinner with my mom, I stopped by Home Depot on the way home to pick up some materials to continue testing benchwork designs. I got a couple sheets of 1 inch foam and some premium pine 1x2s.

Various models from my collection used to mock-up the benchwork.

I used the 1x2s as stringers supporting  the 1 inch styrofoam base. I clamped some scrap 1x2s to the legs of the Ivar shelves. The resulting benchwork was very stiff, especially the long span across the top of the TV where there will be 4 feet without any legs.


As I examined the benchwork and its interaction with the TV and shelves, I realized that I could drop it by the thickness of the 1x2 stringers. I was concerned with  the benchwork interfering with the TV screen, but when viewing the TV from the chairs, the slight lines are not blocked. In fact, the lower benchwork makes the underside of the layout harder to see.   The lower benchwork is desirable as it means I can more easily add a track under the stairs to make a fiddle yard.

In looking over the rest of the space, I ruled out the optional location of the staging track along the stairs. That was just not going to work. If I want to use off layout staging, it will have to be in the closet.

A Geared Bulk ship dwarfs the BNSF locos

One objective of this harbor layout is to show how the ships dominate the trains, To that end, I would like to have larger ship models, or at least one large ship on the layout.

I revised the drawing slightly to allow for a larger (wider or beamier) ship at the pier. However, some on-line research found some multipurpose cargo ships that are longer than the Anna Marie, but with the same beam. Adding a nine inch extension to the Anna Marie would be easy. That brings Anna Marie up to 106m in prototype length.

Example of a half hull merchant steam ship model

I also drew a half hull 140m ship to see how it would look.  This would be a scratch build model, but being only a half hull, and waterline model would be much easier to make. It  might be just as effective as a full hull in this location. It is worth investigating. I plan to do a more detailed mock up of a half hull to see how it looks.   Half hulls are very common in ship modeling to show hull features. They usually don't have deck fixtures or rigging detail, but this model in the photo below shows how one such model would look.

Mocking Up the Harbor Layout

I  moved the books and toys from the old shelves to the new shelves, and then took down the old shelves. Next  I installed some grid benchwork sections from McCook's Landing to mock up the new layout.  To continue the mockup, I put some kits on the benchwork to better visualize the major elements of the layout plan.

The hull is from Dean's Marine Anna Marie kit. The crane is a HO scale die cast model of the Liebherr 500 mobile harbor crane. I also put one of my O scale building mockups on the layout to simulate the transit shed. The foam piece on the right is my Ft Hood diorama, which I will disassemble and recycle to this layout.

A couple things pop out from this test mock up. First, my wife was surprised at how well it worked out. She was worried that I was cramming too much stuff down there. Well, yes, I am, but lets move on.

Second, the Deans Marine kit, at 39 inches long, looks a bit small in that space. I may have to rethink which and where I put the ships. The ships do not need to be fixed in place, it is is conceivable that I can build different kinds of ships that vary between op sessions. For example, a heavy lift ship for wind mill parts, then a Ro-Ro for vehicles, barges for bulk materials etc.  Adding a few inches of depth to the wharf area benchwork will not be a problem.

Third, there is space on the far left to add a small peninsula extending along the stairs. If I put the fiddle track there, I can avoid having to cut holes under the stairs into closet. Since this is not intended to be a permanent layout, that might be a better idea. This would also allow a more accurate rendition of the actual track plan as the track can angle out to the fiddle track as in the prototype.

Here are some Google and Bing maps views of Beaumont.

Port of Beaumont switchers move M1 Abrams tanks on the dock tracks at Harbor island. Note the complex track
work between the sheds. The connection to the interchange yard extends to the bottom left corner. Also
note the DODX 41000 cars parked on the wharf tracks. The mobile harbor crane appears to be lifting the
tanks off the flat cars. I need to verify that.

Overview of the area to be modeled. This photo shows the area before the new storage yard was constructed. 

Ivar - Instant Benchwork

I have used Ivar shelves from Ikea as model railroad benchwork under the part of Aquia Landing  of my O Scale layout that is in my workshop. It is the perfect height for my benchwork. I decided continue to use it for the benchwork under the new modern harbor layout. I want  the track level no higher than 51 inches, as this will allow me to run a track under the stair landing to staging, if I decide to do that. It is also the height of Aquia Landing track, leaving me the option to extend Aquia Landing in the future. The trick here is that the new smaller TV is 48 inches high at the top edge. So any layout fascia can be no wider than 3 inches, at least as it crosses the TV area to avoid interfering with the image on the TV. Note this is assuming I continue to use the TV stand seen in the image. I would prefer not replacing that as it in good shape and works well.

Instant Ivar benchwork. The picture frames will be removed and the walls painted sky blue. I will probably go with a black fascia for this project.

 Why use Ivar? I compared the price of the Ivar shelves with home made plywood shelving. The Ivar was much less expensive and easier to build.

For use in this part of the room, which houses a TV, stereo and several display shelves, I decided to stain the vertical members black. I will leave the shelves natural wood.  The Ivar pieces are somewhat raw when they come from the store and need some finishing for use in a finished room.  The new shelves will be expand the amount of shelf storage in the TV room by about 250 percent. This will allow me room to display some of my dioramas and small collection of Porsche race car 1/43rd scale models.

I used Miniwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner (water based) on the uprights. Then I applied Miniwax Polyshades Black Stain. This later product is not water soluble and needs about 6-8 hours to dry.
Once I have the shelves completed, I will add  a  layer of 1x2 grid benchwork screwed to the Ivar legs. On top of that will be 1 inch of foam and a layer of 1/8 inch plywood under the track. The 1/8th inch plywood is soft and can be spiked.

So far the most time consuming aspect of this job has been waiting for the stain to dry, and fighting the crowds at Ikea (where my mom and I spotted Marty and Chris on Saturday.)

Implications of Keep Alive Circuits on Layout Design-Having Cake and Eating it.

I have been a big proponent of simplification in model railroading. My own home layout while a daunting project due to the scratch building involved, is a rather simple track design mostly because I wanted to avoid electrical complexity.  Technology is finally coming around to address some of these concerns and it has an effect on layout design.  Lets trace the history of frog power and electronics using my layouts as an example.

To me the absolute least pleasurable task in model railroading was connecting switch motors to turnouts to actuate the points and electrically power the frogs.  Because I use relatively small 4-4-0 engines, powered frogs were a must.  Clean track is also required to allow uninterrupted power pickup.

First generation switch stand and frog power routing

At Falmouth,  the first section I built on my O scale layout, I used home made mechanical devices to electrically power the frogs. To actuate the turnouts, I made scale sized switch stands. The separation of mechanical actuation and electrical power was a step in the right direction, but still required a lot of uncomfortable under table work. As a bi-focal wearer, this is problematic as the normal angles of view in this work are not where the close vision lenses lines of sight are.

Before wiring the next section of the layout I discovered Tam Valley Depot's Frog Juicers. I blogged about them earlier. They are an elegant solution that uses complex circuitry to make a very user friendly and easy to install way to power frogs. They worked perfectly right out of the box and I was able to quickly wire the remaining turnouts on my layout. The prices was also pretty reasonable, about $16-$17 per turnout. 

While these solved the frog power issue for my O Scale layout, I still had intermittent electrical pick up issues to deal with on the locos. The Stanton Battery Power system came along and addressed that problem.  The Stanton system is perfect for a simple layout like mine. The main problem was finding space in my locos to house the decoder, speaker, batter and battery power supply. I had so far successfully converted two of my locos and they have been giving good service now for about three years.

At this point, my O scale layout has a mix of DCC power via the rails and battery power, also recharged through the rails. As I finish the layout at Aquia Landing, I plan to continue to follow this approach.

I also planned to use that same approach on the HO layout I am building for my next book. To keep the HO project manageable I decided to go with a plan that included 10 turnouts with frog juicers and a fiddle yard to do staging. I mentioned this new layout with Paul Dolkos as I was seeking his advice on what HO scale track he recommended. He  suggested Micro-engineering track as it looks the best, and their turnouts have integral point mechanisms. He also shocked me when he said that he does not power his frogs. Now, I have operated his layout many times and it runs nearly flawlessly.  I had no idea. All my previous experience in N and O scale indicated that powered frogs were a prerequisite. 

How can this be? He usually runs single or multiple diesels with all wheel pick up. Since he keeps his rail and wheels clean, the engines can usually bridge the dead frogs. As our discussion continued, Paul brought up the fact that DCC engines now have keep alive circuits that can bridge short sections of dead or dirty track. I had heard about these, but had not previously thought about them much. A light bulb went off.

I realized that if a layout can built without worry about powered frog and mechanical switch actuation, my two least favorite activities in model railroading were eliminated.  Then it occurred to me that the design of the layout can change too. Without all the electrical constraints, more complex track plans can be more easily attained both in terms of dollar cost and effort. Instead of powering every frog, one just needs to install keep alive circuits in each locomotive. The keep alive circuits cost about as much as a single frog juicer, so there is a trade off one needs to examine. If you have a big collection of engines, but not so much track, it may be less expensive to power the frogs. 

In the case of my HO project layout, I will have a small number of engines, so adding the keep alive circuits will be less costly. Furthermore, installing the keep alive can be deferred until actual testing shows that it is needed. Remember Paul's layout runs fine without them. 

Under this new approach, but still with the same philosophy of simplicity,  I redesigned the HO layout to have about 20 turnouts. Instead of a fiddle yard, where cars would have to be man handled during an op session, I added a visible staging yard. This opened up increased operational possibilities too.  Now the grain elevator could be a working switch job on the layout.

Without the need to purchase frog juicers, there was not much cost increase for the expanded plan. Using flex track and Micro-engineering turnouts, while not as simple as a building a Brio layout, will be much faster than hand laying track. This is looking like a win-win (except for Tam Valley, sorry Duncan).

Now the next step is to try installing some keep alive circuits on the engines. I would be happy to learn of my reader's experience in this regard. Have you done any of these? How tricky was it? I see that some DCC decoder manufacturers are building keep alive in their decoders. Can anyone share their experience with those?