Recent Layout Visits

I recently made some visits to two of my friends layouts. Of course I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos to share.

First is Tyler's layout. I've talked about his layout before, the White River Southern. He recently tore that layout down due to track headaches and other reasons, and he is now building a new layout. The Central Massachusetts Railway is a point to point representation of a branch line a little closer to home for him. I do not know what the line is called, but it operates between Fitchburg and Ayer, MA. His model represents the Pan Am interchange at Clinton, as well as the towns of West Berlin and Northboro. There are a handful of industries scattered along the old branch line, including a scrapyard in Clinton, a lumber yard in West Berlin, a chocolate factory at one end of Northboro, and a propane distribution center and a salad dressing plant on the other side of Northboro. An early drawing of his track plan can be found here, but keep in mind a few changes have been made since this was drawn.

Tyler lives about an hour from me, so visiting his layout is somewhat of a rarity. I went down there about a week ago to start laying track. We started with the 90 degree curve in Northboro, using 22 inch radius sectional track as a template for the absolute tightest curve we wanted. We ended up laying a curve that was probably closer to 30 inch radius. After putting the curve down, I worked my way towards the chocolate factory while Tyler worked on the industrial area in Northboro. I finished the passing siding when Tyler finished the industrial area, so we laid the broad curve around West Berlin and put in the switch for the lumber yard. The road salt transload area in West Berlin and the team track in Northboro have been removed from the track plan. The line in Clinton crosses the Pan Am line on a bridge, so the area between Clinton and West Berlin are going to be on a grade. We did not have the grading material yet, so we quit at West Berlin. We then hooked up power to the track and started running trains on what we had laid.

My other visit was to Chris's layout. Chris lives quite a bit closer to me than Tyler does, so I get to visit his layout more often. His is quite a bit smaller than Tyler's but is also under construction. It is roughly 7 feet by 7 feet, so space is limited. There is an access hole in the layout to one side, leaving three narrow sections and one big area of the layout. The big area of the layout has a small stub end yard, a passing siding, and a roundhouse. Going counter-clockwise from there, the railroad goes around the corner, a spur splits off for a furniture factory, the main goes over a bridge, around the other corner, and into a town which has another passing siding, a team track, and a sawmill. After the town, the track leaves the layout. Chris plans on adding a hinged section the lifts up to allow continuous running around the layout. Track had been laid as far is the bridge before, we continued it today into the town. The track in the yard has already been weathered.

As I said before, I forgot my camera when I went to both of these layouts, so I do not have any photos to share. Since I don't have much of a layout of my own, it is fun to help other people while they build their layouts. It lets me practice different techniques while also helping out others. It can be boring to build a layout all by yourself without anyone to help or even talk to!

A visit to the White River Southern

(Steven)

Last Monday I had the opportunity to visit my friend Tyler, who models MSRR's partner railroad, the White River Southern. The plan was to finish a project on his layout to make his lift bridge operational again, and then hold an operating session, so of course that is not at all how the day went.

I arrived at Tyler's house with my almost brand new Atlas GP40 decked out as Pan Am Railways 352 and complete with a Quantum sound decoder. Being a $260 toy, it goes without saying that it is my only sound equipped diesel, which Tyler has only dreamed of owning. As soon as I showed up, 352 came out of the box, and all thought of working on the lift bridge was abandoned.

I grabbed a throttle before Tyler could, and quickly had the locomotive coupled to a train and heading east out of Lebanon Yard. I reached the Mascoma grade and had a little difficulty pulling my ten car train up the 4% grade, but the 352 made it up the grade and showed off its dynamic brake sounds on the way down the other side. After going around the curve at the bottom of the grade, the horn and

bell sounds made their debut as the train stormed its way through Enfield and West Canaan. After leaving West Canaan, it was time to cross the lift bridge into the staging yard, and when all the sounds went quiet our thoughts turned back to the electrical project I went down there for.

Tyler's layout was originally a loop, but he decided he wanted staging. To do this, he built a two track staging yard across the aisle from Lebanon Yard and accessed it via a lift bridge that also acts as a wye. Eastbound, a train leaves the staging yard posing as White River Junction, enters Lebanon Yard, runs around the layout, and goes back into the staging yard now posing as Concord. There is also a track that keeps the layout set up as a loop. This creates some electrical challenges. Tyler solved the first, and obvious, one by putting in a momentary hold, normally open pushbutton where the lift bridge lands, meaning power only goes to the wye and the staging yard when the bridge is down.

The second problem is a little less obvious. Because of the wye, the two polarities on the rails can meet in the staging yard, causing a short circuit. To get around this, Tyler isolated the wye and put it on a double pole, double throw toggle switch to change polarity to the wye. It worked, but it had its flaws. It was confusing to the operator which way the toggle had to be switched when, and it did not compensate for the position of the switch at the end of the wye leading into the staging yard. To solve this, we got an Atlas switch machine and snap relay. We mounted the switch machine to the switch and wired it together with the snap relay. We wired the snap relay the same way as the DPDT switch was, so when the staging switch is aligned to go east, the polarity is also for going east, and when it is aligned to go west, the polarity changes too. Finally, we un-isolated the staging yard from the wye, so the wye and the staging yard both change polarity at the same time. This prevents having to stop the train on the wye to change polarity again to match the staging yard, and other confusing moves like that. However, after wiring it together, we couldn't test the functionality of the switch motor and relay, because we did not have a power pack to power them. Instead, we switched both manually during the operating session, and when Tyler gets a power pack he can simply hook up the two leads to the new setup.

With the lift bridge once again functional, albeit not quite as well as we intended, I resumed running my train around the layout. I pulled the train back into Lebanon Yard, as those cars were needed there for the ops session we planned on having. Once the ops session was set up again, we got out the car cards and waybills and some WRS power. I picked out a couple cars I needed for Lebanon local LE2, while Tyler brought a train into Lebanon from White River Junction staging with his brand new GP15s in WRS colors. Once his train was in the yard, I pulled a couple more cars out and headed east. I was to run through Lebanon and Mascoma and switch the industries in Enfield and West Canaan. Tyler followed with LE1, which serves Lebanon and Mascoma. I had a heavier train than before, and didn't make it up the Mascoma grade. Tyler uncoupled from his train and shoved me up the grade, then went back to Lebanon to do his work. With only two industries to switch and his cars conveniently blocked together, Tyler was done long before I was. I was still scratching my head on how to block my cars together on the main while also switching industries, when I heard "I got a westbound coming through, you gotta clear the main!" I abandoned what I was doing and hurriedly got my whole train back on one track and let him through. A couple more confusing switching moves and another through train later, I was done and ready to head back to Lebanon with my empties. However, I had an even bigger train now. I got around the curve and waited for Tyler to bring a pair of geeps to act as helper service up the hill again. As I eased the train down the Mascoma side of the hill (with the dynamic brakes on, of course), Tyler uncoupled from my train and waited for me to take the siding and go into Lebanon Yard. He followed and put his locomotives in the servicing area as I pulled my train into the yard and uncoupled.

Overall, the visit was a success. We got the lift bridge done enough for Tyler to finish it on his own, we held a successful operating session, and Tyler has been convinced to buy a new fleet of sound equipped locomotives and a booster to handle the extra current. I packed up the 352 and headed back to Nashua. Next on the list of projects for Tyler's layout: Working signals.