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.

A New Business Enters Clearwater

 

Future Home of Williams Bros Metal Recycling

    The Clearwater town council woke to two surprises this morning. A foot of snow and a request for a scrap yard to the west of town. Well neither was really a surprise as it IS December and the Williams Brothers have been looking for a place to stash their "vintage" vehicle fleet for awhile. 

    It took only six months of notices for the request to appear. It was requested that ~70' of track be constructed between the end of the team track and MT 20 for the purposes of a metal recycling concern. The fact half a dozen rusted automobile hulks will provide one fence of the place is neither here nor there. In the proposal was also that the petitioner would provide the track work and ensure it is "suitable for purpose". The council agreed in a 4 to 1 vote over coffee at Melba's Diner and an email was sent to Roger Williams, the elder brother. 

    Within hours the Williams' cousin Vinny from Helena showed up with a flatbed dually Ford 250 piled high with track building material and a dream . The next day the extension was finished. Sure the curve is the sharpest we've seen yet and the grading is suspect but it might work. That is until the state man shows up and checks how it works in proximity to the state highway right there.  

    In the proposal as well was projected service as "A car maybe every two weeks possibly" and when asked if they could provide that level of service the Clearwater Pacific superintendent responded with a laconic "We can. Maybe, possibly" Time will tell if the scrap-pardon recycling yard will become a going concern but it's provided no end of speculation at Melba's. And maybe that's the best outcome we can hope for. 

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

Testing Testing

Working the Blue Star Switch Job

     Operations means testing for everything. And this means that every job should go off without a hitch due to infrastructure. So with the Blue Star Rail Park and Edmonds Landing complete I decided to work the first job of an Op and see if it would work. Blue Star Rail Park was inspired by Blue Star Freight, a freight house located on Rod Vance's Willow Creek. It has three industries with six spots and rates it's own switch job. It's the first job of any day and it can help set a tone for how the rest of the work is going to go.  So I set some cars up, drew up a switch order, figured out the switch list and went to town. I'm pleased to say it went well. Refining the paperwork will take time but I think I'm on the the right track.  

C&O 400455 is the newest car on the layout. So modern!

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.

Vibes and Audacity!

 

Test Fitting a curved wood crossing.

    I joke that most of my layout work is "Vibes and Audacity" and it's actually quite true. While I'm a decent planner of things railroad I'm not great at planning when the work on the railroad happens. Generally it's a whim that gets me up for twenty minutes and after throwing caution to the wind and with only a hint of an idea what I'm doing some new part of the layout comes to be. So far that's covered laying track and wiring. Today was no different. Once I got Marvin's Curve in I knew I could finish out to the Produce Spur in short order. And that's just what I did. It took twenty minutes and of all the track I've laid it may well be the easiest. 

    Once wiring is complete I'll be able to run refers and LCL freight to this spur from the yard. Granted we're missing about a third of the layout but The Clearwater Pacific will become a functioning railroad. What with two industries to serve and a yard. One thing that I'm keeping in mind is to ensure the track and wiring is as  bulletproof as it can be before we begin on major scenic work. This is an layout for operations and poor operating hurts no matter how pretty it is.  

Produce Spur

 What's cool about the above photo is that Daylight baggage car is signed by Doyle McCormick and the 50' boxcar is much like a car I had back in the Salmon Bay Terminal days. Seems the more things change the more they stay the same. 

One Step at a Time

 

Edmonds Landing Yard

    We've got the yard laid and wire drops in. With help from The Typesetter we're getting prepared for a afternoon of soldering. The main bus will be run along the front of the layout so it took two tries to the get the wire length right. But it's worth it and I'm glad I did.  I watched a video on Model Railroad Academy and the double L bend helped a lot. 

Marvin's Curve

Yard Work

 

Edmonds Landing Yard

    Today was the day I wanted to get the Edmonds Yard down. I had watched a YouTube video and I liked how the creator did it so how hard could it be? A trip to the hardware store gave me all the materials I needed for this project. Liquid Nails for Projects, a caulking gun, drywall roller, caulk saver cap and a few other odds and ends. I was ready.

    Fifteen minutes after I started the project the first phase was one. You'll see where a spur is "Missing". Well that's the caboose track and won't be installed until we know how the engine house will sit. The hole above the engine house track is for the BLI water tower. The blue tape you see is marking the spot for the dedicated programing track. Once the layout is ready we'll move from the NCE Power Cab to a smart booster and the power cab will be used to power that track for dedicated programing. 

Incline Anchor installed

    Edmonds yards is built on a slight grade. With the upgrade to metal wheels cars roll far easier. A huge inspiration to me is the Willow Creek Railroad. In one of the videos the owner mentions using the bristles of a small broom to create hold backs in a a yard. If a Master Model Railroader can do it I figured so can I. Right now the Incline Anchors, what I'm calling them,  are simply a proof of concept. They will most likely need to be replaced once ballasting is done. But it makes the yard usable once I can play with my trains again. 

    

Milwaukee Road RSC-2 #940

    It was a train show weekend with plans to attend two. Well I made it to one, spent all my money and saved three hours of driving. The big haul was a Kato RSC-2 with DCC and sound installed for under $100.  Couldn't pass it up as such a locomotive is perfect for this railroad. I did a video of it you can see below. 

    Few other things were accomplished today. In addition to the the installation of the Incline Anchors, holes were drilled for the installation of the yard feeder wires. The Superintendent has decided that the railroad will go the keep alive route instead of frog juicing. The juice is an option but having capacitors as standard on all motive power will go a long way in making the railroad operation friendly. 

    The next project will be the installation of Marvin's Curve, an 18" curve leading to Clearwater proper, and soldering joints and keepers. The railroad should be ready for full operations no later then the 1st of December of this year.  

    On the prototype front here are some shots of ACM #7 and the Library car a few weekends ago. Things are looking good. 

Headlight Illuminated. 

Bethlehem Steel

Wooden Bits Looking Good

The 70-ton Bonner Movie STar

Little Library Car in front of the Library Car

Could this be McNamara Landing?

I've been racking my brain to come up with an idea as to what McNamara Landing looks like. And I've found it! It has all the elements I was hoping for in the landing. And it's only 9" x 48"!










Image courtesy of The Micro Design Gallery

The main difference would be that the mill would not be modeled. This helps immensely! I'll try and get the McNamara article up within the next few days.