It's Happening

New Team Track Freight Agent Office

        Things continue to progress on the railroad. I'll leave at a bulleted list for now. 

• Brought ChatGPT to a standstill six times trying to automate the layout. It is I fear still a bridge to far for that particular AI. We're in the CC&WB territory now. It just works
• But not all was lost with AI. I have about a thousand waybill options there were generated in a few minutes. That's impressive.
• And we're working on a variety of operating schemes involving dice. More on that as it matures.
• Getting some details in that tell the story of the railroad. The new unpainted office you see is one such example. That's the level of service to the local community the CLSP provides. A one stop shop to ask questions and get your freight delivered or shipped. 
• Scenery continues. One small segment at a time. Every week I try to get ground cover a little further on. Starting to look better.
• Operating sessions continue to dial in our paper work and character of the railroad.  We're a long way from prime time but we do have an operating goal and we are getting there.
• 57' Mechanical reefers are too much. Sadly. But we have 50' mechanical reefers that will sub in for them. It's a minor detail and I think too hard about it it bugs me but what can you do? The freights gotta move!

    I'm really please with how things are going. I hope to start on the Seeley Lake subdivision soon. One rail at a time.

Busy Sunday on the CSLP

CSLP RS-3 #94 and Office Car #1 "Alder Gulch"

     After a quick trip to Seattle it's back to working on the railroad. It's one step at a time and we got a few done this Sunday. So we'll start with the basics and that was getting the Northern Range Packing Works looking a little better. There are two spots on at the works and the building for what is called CC1 came in. I whipped up a logo and applied it then using 2mm foam set up a concrete pad for the buildings. This makes two spots at the factory and one is now covered for all weather use. This means that year round operations can take place. I'm sure the packing workers are finding it nice this cold rainy winter. 

Northern Range Packing Works

    I then turned to ballast. For the mainline of the CSLP I decided that NP Grey from from Arizona Rock & Mineral would be our mainline color. The story is a contractor out of the Spokane area did the rehabilitation work for the railroad and this grey, which can be seen on the BNSF in the region, was what was used. My ballasting technique is still developing and I can't add a shoulder to save my life but it looks far better then it was. Touch ups over the next few weeks will have the yard looking like it should. Speaking of the yard I have a sand tower inbound for the engine barn and I hope to add a pair of yard lights as well. The BNSF interchange takes place in the dark and I'm guessing they'd like to be able to see what they are doing.  I imagine you can use your phone to turn them on. 

Foreman Dan Hernandez is mobile now. 

    One of the YouTube channels I watch SoCal Scale Models adds bases to his figures and moves them around the layout. Well I thought that was brilliant and a few of my figures can now move around the layout as they need to. 

    And the last order of business was to start work on the scrap yard. I've seen that it really doesn't take much so I threw down some yard mix and ordered an excavator. I also have a pile of scrap on the way as well. That should be enough to get the yard started. I need some old car bodies for one of the walls. The lore is that the Williams Brothers, Roger and Dale, had some old car bodies that the county was finally about to throw the book at. So over beers one night they decided they would start a scrap yard and store the rusted out vehicles there. Well it's starting. You can read more about this in an earlier blog. I want to get some solid fence panels up around the sides and it'll look alright I think. 

Now we just need some scrap and can get to work. 

    On the less visual side of things we have motive power changes coming up. The GP-9 "Cedar" should be showing up tomorrow. I ordered it through Ebay from Trainz.com and was sent the wrong version. Their customer service was excellent and the return was no hassle at all. So much so I ordered a NW2 to replace the DCC only 70-Tonner I was prepping to give all the bells and whistles. Literally. This means that #94 can take a much needed back seat for most all jobs. Reliable EMD power means while keeping the Alco afloat has been a labor of love and sometimes hate for CMO Cannon O'Reilly it'll be less stress on keeping it running because it's the only locomotive the road has. The NW2 will be "Scoot" and will wear the #70. Oh I have decals sets on the way to do that as well. 

    And a few other odds and ends like striping for the road and crossing signals for MT-20. Some whistle signals as well to remind us to make noise at crossings. And a few new cars as well. The CSLP is now a 50' car railroad and we're doing more with less. I'm trying to get a lot of shortline cares as well to keep up the visual "texture" of the railroad that can so easily be lost when you make the year 2024.  Longer term plans have me starting the Seeley Lake extension and starting the higher detail work on the Clearwater area.  

    Oh I mentioned Seattle so I'll tell you a bit about that. The day after we arrived I took a train (Link) to a train (Cascades) to a train (T Line) to go look at......model trains. The trip from Seattle to Tacoma was melancholy as it may well be my last ride on Talgo equipment in the US.  I'm sure riding the new Airo trains will get me over it though. I got to see the massive layout at the Washington History Museum as well as a host of modular layouts from Z to Live Steam and even one that modeled Europe. I'll end with some images from the trip.

The 1 Line Arriving

Union Station. Former home of the Hiawatha and UP #457

King Street Station

Talgo Cascades

Cab Car headed south

Tacoma's Union Station, now a federal courthouse

The above but in 1:87 scale

The layout is spectacular

It's 2024. Again.

  

Big Sky Forest Products

    As things happen here on the railroad change has come again. As this is an ever evolving project the desires and needs of the builder change and grow. But I had to drill down on what I was really wanting and what would work for my own mindset as the layout is concerned and this lead to some updates that will act as Matthew Freix would say "guiderails" keeping things on track. Terrible railroad puns intentional or not are free on this blog.

   The railroad is set in the summer of 2024.  Before construction it was the late 1950's and when construction had just begun that slipped to varying time periods but it's settled on 2024. This means that BNSF has taken over the MRL and by extension the Big Blackfoot Branch from Bonner Jct to Clearwater Jct. The Glacier Rail Park has been full and in operation for a few years as well meaning business to the north of the CSLP have had time to mature and gain customers and traffic. One thing I've heard and read repeatedly is when in doubt look to the prototype. So in this case it's the real life Mission Mountain Railroad when it operated the Kalispell branch and the Bitterroot Branch when it was under MRL ownership. What an eye opener a dozen photographs gave me. I could model this withing in the constraints of my layout size and operation. We'll get into the operations in the next installment of this blog but now I have something to work on.

     New power and rolling stock is coming to the railroad too. Currently my car fleet is almost exclusively pre-1960 40' cars. Although I tried to work them into the modern concept I've decided to simply bite the bullet and update the fleet. A few of the current fleet will be saved as we'll need rolling stock for photo work but post 1980 stock is coming. My goal however is keep the texture alive. This means a lot of leased cars and cars from smaller roads that existed in the late 20th century but were not as common as the megamergers consumed the variety and color that once existed on our railroads.  I've purchased my first modern power in the form of a ex-leased GP9 PII that will take over the bulk of assignments for the time being. As we move forward the keyword for motive power is reliability in a tough environment and this locomotive should fit the bill. 

1601 Small Livery (Notional)

    Scenery on the layout also continues. We are learning and while sometimes it's one step forward and one step back it's amazing what you can accomplish by simply watching a YouTube video and winging it.  I look forward in the future to pointing out where I started.  My bar for most of what is happening scenery wise is serviceable and I think I've managed to meet it.

With a little AI help, Happy Holidays to all us from the Clearwater Pacific!

Clearwater is Done!

Clearwater

     My track arrived today and in about three hours I had Clearwater done, that is track laid and wired. I was as usual not expecting to simply check one box after another and before you know it have it complete. But that's something I've learned on building this layout. So I figure I'll go ahead and share some other things I've learned thus far on building a layout. For knowledge level I consider myself an advanced beginner when it comes to model railroading and here is what that can mean.

• Make your layout the right height. My layout height of 42" was based on the shelf that appears on the walls of the basement apartment. But by a happy accident it's a pretty good height to run a single level layout. Also working underneath the layout can be accomplished while sitting in an office chair. Doesn't do anything for the neck cricks but it's far more comfortable then laying on your back. 
• Set some of your expectations lower. Take soldering for instance. I have developed three criteria to gauge my soldering success. Will it derail a train? Does it stay attached? And will ballast cover your major errors? If the answer is yes then congrats you're on your way. At least I am. Just don't look to close.
• IDC Connectors are amazing. I've mentioned before I'm tying to stay up to date with how things are being done. And these suitcase connectors seem to be the current way. From Model Railroader to the DCC Guy this easy and quick way of doing your main bus drops is painless. My advice is go on eBay and find a set of 7" Craftsman Robogrips. Your hands will thank you and you won't need to shell out larger money for a specialty tool. 

    Now comes the fun part before the operating session in fifteen days. Getting the fascia on, scenicing some more, make sure the diagrams match up and get ready to run some trains.  I can't wait.

Clearwater Diagram

It's Starting to Look Railroady in Here!

 

A work in progress

    As the temperature plumets here in the Rocky Mountain West the layout work has really ramped up. We held our first operating session and the next one is scheduled for December 14th. This gives me a date to get some work done. There has been a rework of the entire railroad. From it's name and image to the time period it exists in. Learn more about these changes and updated maps on the website. But the recent work is that on Edmonds Landing and boy has it gone quickly. 

    A shout out to the Milwaukee Road Des Moines Subdivision in HO for his video on how to make foam roads. 2mm Silly Winks foam is in my eyes unmatched as a 1/87th building material. In three hours we have laid more roads, wooden walkways, and concrete foundations then would have bene possible before. Sure it's a bit slap dash at times and we'll need to touch up the shoulder a bit here and there but it's looking like it should. And that's the goal. I want myself and my operators to know what is in the area. I'm not a looking to get it absolutely realistic but if you say "Hey look a road" then I've achieved my scenic goal. And the apple barrel brand paint that was recommended is doing great work as pavement, color "pavement" and wood, color "Burnt Umber". I'm not a scale painter at all but even I'm surprised how easy it can be if you Just Do It. It's learning and that's what important. 

    I need to put the final coat on the roads and head to bed. But we're making progress and here's to more.