Looks like a great Thanksgiving!
"HONGZ" stands for HO scale, N scale, G scale, and Z scale.
Post your non-O scale stuff here!
SP AC-1 2-8-8-2 (CONT):
Decoder install:
Soldered the other side of the connectors for the wires that route through the boiler.
Soldered the tender light and sugar cube speaker in the tender.
Stuffed all the wires in the tender and 'closed it up'.
Marker and headlight glued in.
Two of the four running board lights glued in the boiler.
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Two items:
SP AC-1 2-8-8-2 (cont)
Wires routed through front of boiler. Being a cab forward, a little different in routing the wire at the opposite end.
Two supplied weights added and decoder wires routed to front of boiler.
LED's installed in cab. Two for marker lights, one for headlight and two cab lights on the roof. Used some 1/16" diameter heat shrink tubing to route the wires. Supplied 'glass' windows installed.
Worked on the Bachmann tree branches (bushes).
Four different colors of 'leaves' and hair spray.
Leaf flake used.
Put some in foam to process and did the others individually. Had to spread out the limbs as they get pressed flat in the package.
Planting:
Before.
After.
Tools used to 'plant' the shrubs, trees.
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BLI PRR K-4 streamlined 4-6-2 repair.
After about an hour of run time, the engine stopped running. In the past I had my BLI UP 2-tone challenger 4-6-6-4 stop running. The challenger would, immediately, go into full throttle when the engine number was addressed. I figured the decoder was bad. I emailed BLI and they sent me an RA# and they replaced the motor and decoder free but it took 12 weeks.
The sound and smoke was working on the K-4 so I turned off the smoke and sound so I could hear if the motor was running.
The motor was running so I figured it has to be in the linkage so I dismantled the engine. I've never dismantled a BLI steam engine but figured it should be similar to brass steam.
I found that the universal was loose that attaches to the motor shaft.
The universal is housed in a circular piece of plastic.
I'm guessing the circular piece of plastic is suppose to force fit (saw no glue residue) into the female end of the brass fly wheel but it only fit loosely.
I took some thin CA and put some on a toothpick to control the amount of glue being applied and let the CA wick between the circular part and the fly wheel. The motor is mounted on a sturdy metal frame (aluminum color).
Easy access to secure the motor frame to the engine's frame with two holes (last driver) for the screws.
The worm drive is in the background. Initially, I thought the worm was loose on the shaft but that turned out to be untrue.
Also, I took the driver retaining plate off (two phillip screws) and checked the main gear on the driver and no movement on the shaft so that was OK.
The worm gear sets in a metal enclosure and a piece of U shaped plastic snaps onto the metal enclosure to secure it.
Initial test to see if my 'fix' was good.
I plugged in the connector (far right) that leads to the boiler shell.
The boiler shell has the smoke unit and the LED's for headlight, marker lights and number boards. That center shaft secures the front of the engine.
One phillips to hold the front together.
Two screws holds the back together (far left set). Of course I started at the right and then the middle before finding the correct ones to remove.
Lead and trailing trucks reattached.
There is a connector that can be removed to remove the tender but I did not remove it. BLI has been sending engines with engine and tender attached in the shipping box: I'm guessing some people can't attach them correctly and have bent the pins so BLI has eliminated that step!
It runs again. Of course a 'road trip' will be needed to insure my fix is good. At the worse, I'll need to do a better job of 'gluing'!
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You Know Sam, its amazing what you can do to fix these engines! But I guess with what is spent on them its better to know how to fix them or at least know someone who can!
Wonderful work!
This is a great thread for a lot of reasons. Beautiful layout, plus you are showing many different aspects/projects. Not just loco repair/upgrade, but electrical and scenery...stuff we all have to do, but don't often share.
It's partially responsible for my current itch to do some HO modeling again. It's the scale I first had when I got into the hobby, so going back to it seems strangely familiar...and fun.
Please keep posting.
Mark in Oregon
Thanks for the kind words Mike and Mark. Half the fun of the hobby is sharing.
@samparfitt posted:Thanks for the kind words Mike and Mark. Half the fun of the hobby is sharing.
Yes it is. I was in the hobby for decades with no one to share it with.
I've been lucky.
Growing up in Cleveland, there was a big modeling community there.
In 1979, I got transferred to Cincinnati, Ohio and, again, a big railroad community. Our NMRA div 5 is very large at around 250 members with excellent monthly meetings and around 70 registered layouts in the division.
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A very nice N&W flick from the 40's/50's.
WOW and they're all articulateds 
@samparfitt posted:New delivery. I did manage to find some Weston figures on ebay getting the whole lot for only about 30 bucks. Weston has none in stock and most sellers want an 'arm and leg' for them. I like the Weston figures.
Re: Weston figures: you and me both.
So YOU got that lot; good on ya. Interesting how sometimes the old standbys are still the "best"... 
Mark in Oregon
Several items:
1) UP 4-6-6-4 challenger by Tenshodo with TCS 1517 decoder and lots of LED's.
Chumstick Canyon trestle.
Whitefish.
Seattle's freight/passenger yard throat.
2) This car was shorting. The intermountain all metal wheels sides were contacting the metal trucks so replaced with brass axle with plastic wheels.
3) The PRR K-4 4-6-2 by BLI seems fixed that had the bad universal joint between the motor and gear box. Ran a 15 car train both east and west on the mainline (850' should 'do it').
Skykomish. This picture shows off my new shrubs that I 'planted' along the 'right of way'!
Waverly.
Chumwater Canyon trestle.
Nice connecting hose detail on the engine and nomenclature.
4) This Miller sign went bad on me. Emailed Miller Signs and they said to just put the sign in an envelope and they sent me a new one. Nice service.
5) PRR S-2 6-8-6 turbine. Model is by Alco models.
Wanted to get some resemblance of a turbine sound for this engine. From what I've read and videos of BLI's S-2 and Lionel's S-2, it makes a 'swishing' sound versus what I have on the scaletrains UP 8500 turbine and the C&O M-1 turbine. Another modeler suggested using 'blowdown' function.
videos:
Skykomish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4sOrtT2Jq8
Leaving Hillyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Zu4GwQPG8
View of driver mechanism (no pistons).
Went into decoderpro via SPROG and screen 'volume groups'.
'Blow down' had a setting of 6 and it was very loud. I had to, first, change it to zero to turn it off and then set it to 20 to get a respectable volume ( at least for me). Not sure why I had to turn it off, first, to get the volume to change!
Then I clicked on 'throttle', clicked on the asterisk to get next set of functions (ie 11-19) and clicked on 'blow down' to check how the volume sounded. I had to try several different volumes until I found one I liked. The videos will show that.
For Digitrax, getting to the next set of functions is easy. Hold down the 'FUNC' key while pressing 1 and then I pressed F8 for F18 function (for TCS 1517 decoder). One negative is, if the engine is put in reverse, F18 has to be reset again when in forward. The 'chuffing' sound volume was reduced to zero.
Cab interior. I had to paint the throttles!
6) The LCC signal system by RR-Cirkits is pretty sophisticated. Besides giving the correct color signals for the next 4 blocks, when the train passes the opposite direction signal changes to green in case the engineer wants to back up.
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BEAUTIFUL WORK! :-)
Thanks Art,
Once in awhile I get things right!
PRR steam video:
MR (model railroader) has a new guy on DCC info and he has a web site that may be useful to a lot of questions:
Another nice video;
Steam giants across America:
Again, articulateds on different railroads.
Very nice club layout:
When you paint your GN steam engines, what do you use for the green on the boiler???
I know there wasn’t an official paint scheme for that so there isn’t and “paint chips”
@samparfitt posted:Very nice club layout:
Very impressive club layout and impressive train!! Thank you, Sam!
More shrubs added:
These are by Bachmann. Come about 60 per package.
Extra different colored foliage was added. Need to spread out the limbs. Wire is used in Bachmann's process.
Track leading to the ore dock.
Main throat track leading to Seattle.
Seattle's roundhouse.
Glasgow.
Swan lake logging railroad.
St. Paul's roundhouse. There's always something that can be added to any layout.
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Railroader stopped by to diagnose some engines.
He had a nice carrying case.
PRR F-7: Downloaded new address but couldn't get the horn to be louder. Not familiar with this decoder and SPROG didn't show any horn variable. Probably a CV but didn't know which one was for the horn. At least the engine runs.
Also, we down loaded the new address for a PRR H-'something': a diesel so I don't remember what it was.
PRR S-2 6-8-6.
Front pilot needed some resistance soldering.
Nice engine. Has sprung trailing and leading trucks.
No decoder so we did a short test run using address zero.
Being PRR, Alan ran the PRR K-4 streamlined steamer from BLI.
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Railroader visit.
We resistance soldered the motor mount to the engine frame on his Tenshodo SF 4-6-4.
His 2009 BLI SF 4-8-4 only came with a sound decoder and it has an address of 03. Via decoderpro, we tried to change the address to the engine's address but nada. He added a motor decoder and no problem on doing an address update for the motor decoder.
Decoderpro screen for address.
When the previous screen update said OK, indicating the address took but it didn't accept the new address. Next we went into the CV's and changed CV 17, 18 and 29 to what the 'conversion' APP (program) said for engine number 3587 but that didn't work either. We tried resetting but, finally, 'gave up'.
The result is two engine addresses are inputted into the throttle: left throttle controls the motor and the right throttle controls the sound. He did a 'road test'
I ran the BLI PRR K-4 streamline while he ran the SF 4-8-4.
Next I ran my PFM (united) SF 4-8-4 while he ran his UP challenger 4-6-6-4.
His challenger was by Lionel.
He needed to double head as the challenger had no 'traction' tires whereas the BLI SF 4-8-4 did.
It had around 35 cars.
PFM (upper) and Lionel/BLI lower.
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Just running trains.
Figure, with an operating session this coming Saturday, might as well test the mainline. A UP 4-12-2 with 21 cars seemed like a good engine to test for any track problems. The company photographer 'tagged' along. The engine is by KEY that I painted and installed LED's and a TCS 1517 decoder. The cars are vintage metal Athearn/Varney and wood Silver Streak/Ambroid freight cars.
Skykomish.
Tye.
Marias pass.
Hillyard.
Small tender with a 12 wheeler needs lots of water.
Havre.
Whitefish.
Chumstick canyon trestle.
Glacier.
Basin tunnel.
Wilmar.
Waverly.
Bypassing St. Paul to interchange.
Interchange/staging.
Good place to get water!
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UP 4-12-2 video at Skykomish.
I like the freight wheel noise.
NMRA MCR DIV 7 December meeting pictures:
Still under covid restrictions, we have our monthly meetings via Zoom. It works very well and we had 65 join for the meeting.
First the Agenda is presented.
Monthly schedule for the year.
Members present pictures of their models and prototype for the 'subject of the month' for member voting.
Main subject matter presented.
This month Tony Koester presented his Nickel Plate RR.
NOTE: All pictures deleted due to proprietary material.
Zoom works well as Div 7 didn't have to bring him to Cincinnati as Tony could present his subject matter from the east coast.
Tony did an outstanding job on the presentation as he explained the 'why and how' he built his layout.
Layout plan. For the most part, he kept his isles wide as most of us aren't getting any thinner! Notice in the plan that he 'walled off' part of the garage to get a longer mainline run (top of picture). He made the layout multi deck but no helixes.
Kept turntable relatively close to the isle. Make your yards large. Can never have too big of a yard.
He's big on duplicating scenes along the full size railroad. Full size (top picture) and model (bottom picture).
He found large pipe cleaners (brown stick in picture) and added foliage to make them look like bean crops. In the 40's and 50's beans were planted in rows.
Control panel boxed in with a building.
Shelves don't need to be wide. 8"-16", except where towns are, are sufficient.
Another way to make tall grass.
Photoshop (and other soft wares) to merge prototype pictures into back drops.
Two pictures merged. Side view of lumber building 'straight on' while street pictures gets 'perspective'.
Full size and model version.
Again, full size and model version. He duplicated a picture of his dad and siblings.
This is cool. An interchange: A 4" width backdrop that is about 4" high to hide the interchange track yet easy to access, if need be. Can see the line along the blue backdrop indicating the location. Some trees used to hide the entrance to the interchange.
Model of the full size.
Merging roads to back drop roads. Match the road to the back drop and not vise versa.
Making fall leaves on the ground.
Top shelf is narrow and no turnouts to reduce access to a minimum.
Stands to reach top levels.
We have layout tours after the meeting but, for now, they are virtual. These two are located north of Dayton.
Pictures were cut out and glued to foam board for the 'buildings' for giving 'depth' to the scene.
First time I've seen a golf course on an HO layout.
Ditto on the transfer table.
Nice to see 'full view' pictures to see how the layout is presented.
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More train running:
Video of Milwaukee functioning pantographs:
Love this kind of stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB4ZmaMnnwo
Erie Triplex 2-8-8-8-2 by MTH.
Videos:
MTH makes great 'smokers'.
Skykomish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMUnFQJQpdE
Tye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...Vc&pbjreload=101
Leaving Hillyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w07e95NSuxc
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Testing the passenger trains.
An SP AC-5 4-8-8-2 and passenger cars. The engine is by KEY that I painted, added LED's and installed a TCS 1517 decoder.
Eight of the passenger cars are by MTH and the rest are Broadway Limited.
Videos:
Leaving Seattle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...i8&pbjreload=101
Tye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DP92R5hfIQ
Leaving Hillyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...Fo&pbjreload=101
Leaving the recently built passenger yard (3rd from left).
Engine was shorting on the commercial turnouts. Several weeks ago, I rolled some solder on the axles of the lead truck and the ends were touching the insulated wheels. Used pliers to squeeze the solder coil on the axle so no side movement.
Chumwater canyon trestle.
Waverly.
Glasgow.
Chumwater canyon trestle.
Very nicely detailed BLI cars.
Nice scale diaphragms.
Havre.
Entering Seattle's main yard throat.
The right passenger track bypasses the freight yard on the left.
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I'm trying to wrap my head around this layout. It's astounding!
Bill,
Thanks for the kind comments.
The GNRW was started in 1979 in a 33'X47' basement. It's point to point with two very large yards at each end with car capacity of around 500 cars for each yard. The mainline is single track with passing sidings and goes around the basement walls 2.5 times starting at 36" at Seattle and ending at 58" at St. Paul, Minn. Mainline is 400' long. Minimum radius is 48" with all #10 turnouts, including the yards. There's about 1500' of track, all hand laid on wood ties, including the turnouts. The exception is the recently installed passenger yard where I used all commercial track (getting lazing in my old age!).
The ore dock is 12' long and holds about 120 ore cars.
The laundry room (right center blank area in picture below) has a 3 track 8' diameter interchange/return loop in it.
The upper right room has the new 12 track passenger yard in it.
Below the steps is the logging railroad and has one track interfacing with the GNRW. The Swan River logging railroad has a 4 track yard, 'john Allens' time saver and two 'switch backs' to go into the valley where there is a small town with a 'run around' plus a 2 track yard where logs are loaded on the log cars.
Much has been done to the layout in the last several years. Besides more engines and freight and passenger cars, conversion was done to DCC with about 50 engines converted, so far. Each engine gets painted(if not already done), LED's installed and TCS 1517 decoders used. A complete signaling system via LCC has been installed. The signaling system interfaces with the PC where the dispatcher can monitor and see where all trains are on the layout and shows the condition of each signal. The dispatcher can control all turnouts on the mainline. The turnouts in the yards are controlled by old 'car vent' chokes. Several hundred new trees and vegetation has, also, been done in the last few years. Being 41 years old, the scenery needed to be 'refreshed', although the 41 years has done a nice job of weathering the track!
Mission Statement: Main theme of my railroad (besides modeling the Great Northern Railway): when building the railroad, I wanted to model mainline running with big time steam and 'scale like' trains of 25-45 cars on single track mainline with passing sidings.
One thing I'm glad I did was leave lots of isle space with the area right of the ore dock being where chairs are located for the 'crew' to rest and eat. Operating sessions are on the 3rd Saturday of the month.
The 'basic' track plan.
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I have been lurking on your thread now and then. It's a great chronicle of an unbelievable layout, skills and adventure. Thanks for the nice photos!
Sam, Thank you for posting the track pln!! It certainly helps visualize the layout better! It is an absolutely wonderful layout!
Thanks, Mark. It keeps me busy.
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Didn't know such an engine existed.
PA&NR Canal RR Co. Inspection steam locomotive. 4-2-4 Tank.
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Been awhile since I've seen these!
TruScale turnouts that had the closing frogs.
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@samparfitt posted:Bill,
Thanks for the kind comments....
...with the area right of the ore dock being where chairs are located for the 'crew' to rest and eat. Operating sessions are on the 3rd Saturday of the month.
Thanks for the reply! That's really impressive! I don't actually know much about the Great Northern besides their logo. Did you start with this much track at the beginning? Or did you complete one line from point to point and then add from there?
I would love to see an operating session! I bet they're exciting with such a large space and so much rolling stock to get on the move.
'Stump pullers'
Been testing the mainline with just 20+ freight cars so I got out two big set of engines to test the 40+ freight cars. The amount of stress seems to go up exponentially with 40+ cars so it's needed to insure track and cars are functioning properly.
UP 8500 HP turbine by Scaletrains.
videos:
Waverly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMQ7Mk-a6SY
Skykomish:
I always like video recording from this area as lots of wheel noise from the freight cars.
Some of the cars are vintage metal Athearn/Varney and wood Silver Streak/Ambroid freight cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA_F0RGgX00
Leaving Hillyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...us&pbjreload=101
Tye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7IhtxSdrGc
This is the museum quality production so it has a 'ton' of details.
Twin beam headlight, lighted number boards, clear/green/red marker lights. Hand applied steps, pin release, etc.
See through side screens.
Sliding side doors with interiors.
Functioning doors and lighted steps (night lights).
See through walk ways.
Rubber hoses between units and light over doors.
Each unit has its own decoder including the tender so no decoder wires between units.
Contact sensors to make wheel noises when traveling over turnouts.
Tons of weight. Both units powered. The blades in the turbine well are powered.
No trouble pulling 40+ cars uphill.
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SF PA set A-B-B-A. By Walthers.
An older video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y416H_ykArM
All units are powered with sound. Another 'stump puller'.
These have just the basic details but for only 150 bucks each, I purchased them. Heck, it cost me around $115 just to install a decoder in my steam engines. I've only got 3 sets of diesels but they are good for testing the mainline.
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@BillYo414 posted:Thanks for the reply! That's really impressive! I don't actually know much about the Great Northern besides their logo. Did you start with this much track at the beginning? Or did you complete one line from point to point and then add from there?
I would love to see an operating session! I bet they're exciting with such a large space and so much rolling stock to get on the move.
Bill,
I had everything planned out from the beginning for building the layout. If I remember correctly, I had the bulk of the track done within a couple of years. If you page back you will see some of the operating sessions posted in this thread. Anyone visiting the Cincinnati, Ohio area is always welcome to visit.
The one exception to the planning was the recently install passenger yard. The original passenger yard was only 2 tracks. I 'branched off' the 2 tracks to the next room and built a 12 track yard that is about 18'-20' long.
@samparfitt posted:Bill,
I had everything planned out....
..er yard was only 2 tracks. I 'branched off' the 2 tracks to the next room and built a 12 track yard that is about 18'-20' long.
That's really impressive. I'm working on a significantly smaller layout with much less track and I'm on my second redesign. I think I'll change it again once I start laying track. I saw where you said you had recent additions.
I will go back and see what I can see. And we'll see about a Saturday!
@BillYo414 posted:That's really impressive. I'm working on a significantly smaller layout with much less track and I'm on my second redesign. I think I'll change it again once I start laying track. I saw where you said you had recent additions.
I will go back and see what I can see. And we'll see about a Saturday!
This was my 4th basement layout so that helps a lot in my decision making.
C&O H-8 2-6-6-6 freight drag.
Engine is by MTH with smoke and some cars are vintage metal Athearn/Varney and wood Silver Streak/Ambroid freight cars.
I like the MTH engines (besides the smoke) as the boiler and tender are cast metal and the drivers are sprung.
Videos:
Skykomish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfJ9hULLTM
Havre (East):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TavTLZA6Z4
Havre (West):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...qc&pbjreload=101
Seattle's turntable.
Chumstick canyon trestle.
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