blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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 | | 05/31/2008 10:59 AM |
| When I first started assembling my new Llagas track for my Phase II railroad two seasons ago, I laid out an entire line with a loop on one end and a wye on the other. The track is flexible, so it is difficult to determine with any certainty the radius of the curves when they are seven feet in the air. This year I concluded that many of those original curves were too sharp. I am now going back along the entire loop end--the part east of the NX-Cicely model--and widening almost every curve. This requires adding additional roadbed. I am also rechecking the grades as I go. There were problems with grades at the curves which have had to be resolved. Once I have completed the east loop section , which includes painting almost all of the railbed, the line should finally be ready to run.
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kormsen
in the middle of the westparaguayan semi desert
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Posts:431
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| | 05/31/2008 4:47 PM |
| I am now going back along the entire loop end...and widening almost every curve.
how many hours of daylight have you got up there?
about 20? all your projects sound like taking a lot of time. | |
LGB RR = Low Going Budget RailRoad | |
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ThinkerT
Alaska
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Posts:176
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| | 05/31/2008 5:38 PM |
| how many hours of daylight have you got up there?
about 20? all your projects sound like taking a lot of time.
This time of year...it is still light out at 11 pm....and the sun is up very early. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/01/2008 11:46 AM |
| Posted By kormsen on 05/31/2008 4:47 PM I am now going back along the entire loop end...and widening almost every curve. how many hours of daylight have you got up there? about 20? all your projects sound like taking a lot of time.
The daylight lasts a long time here in Copper Center this time of year:
Yes, these projects are very time-consuming. They also consume a large amount of raw material. I am using up almost all the scrap wood and hardware as well trying to finish up this Phase II project.
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/01/2008 11:50 AM |
| | It took all day yesterday to work my way through the east loop, widening almost all the railbed and curves. I still have another day to complete that part of the line. Then it will be ready for testing. Then I have to go back, unscrew the track section by section and paint the entire east end of the railbed. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/01/2008 12:16 PM |
| | Of course, a large part of the problem is that this outdoor railway cannot be extensively worked for all except roughly five months of the year due to the nature of the climate. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not getting warmer up here, folks. If anything, the trend has been in the other direction. By the time summer finally arrives there are always repairs to be made to the railway substructure as well as to some of the scale model structures. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/01/2008 11:05 PM |
| All of the remaining rail bed is now completed. I have almost completely rebuilt the east loop. All but one section of guard rail has been re-installed. It has been too gusty here in the last few days to run trains, but I can hardly wait to try out the reworked Phase II line.
While I was working on the loop an older guy walked up from the nearby Copper Center Lodge. He was visiting from Portland, Oregon. He, too, is a large-scale model railroader. I took the time to show him most of the set-up. He said he had never seen anything like it and would like to see it in Model Railroader Magazine. What a compliment. | | | |
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kormsen
in the middle of the westparaguayan semi desert
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| | 06/02/2008 2:04 AM |
| | are you going to make some videos to put in youtube? | |
LGB RR = Low Going Budget RailRoad | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/02/2008 11:04 AM |
| Posted By kormsen on 06/02/2008 2:04 AM
are you going to make some videos to put in youtube?
Possibly later in the season. | | | |
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ThinkerT
Alaska
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Posts:176
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| | 06/02/2008 2:54 PM |
| It does sound like business is picking up for you anyhow...
...as to the wind, maybe you should look into a windmill. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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Posts:1673
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| | 06/02/2008 4:00 PM |
| Posted By ThinkerT on 06/02/2008 2:54 PM
It does sound like business is picking up for you anyhow... ...as to the wind, maybe you should look into a windmill.
Business has picked up somewhat but it is hardly impressive.
The track bed is ready and the guard rails are all up. Unfortunately, we are still experiencing some heavy gusts. It is not worth it to place the trains out there until it is somewhat safer. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/04/2008 1:30 PM |
| | Looks like today is finally the day I will be able to test the old section of the Phase II line now that I have re-aligned and widened most of it. The weather has not been conducive to running model trains lately due to an ongoing series of storms that seem to keep moving in. Keep your fingers crossed. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/05/2008 2:11 AM |
| | Today was not the day. Regrettably, during the mid-afternoon when the weather was at its best, I had to perform some unplanned maintenance. Then it began raining. So much for running trains on Wednesday. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/05/2008 6:06 PM |
| I conducted my first successful run-around of the entire track with a USA Great Northern passenger consist. Unfortunately, although I have an F3a-b hookup, only the a unit is powered. That turned out to be insufficient for the long return grade. With the two SD70 Macs that operate in tandem, I was able to complete the run up the grade to the midpoint at NX-Cicely where that consist now rests. The F3 b will be refitted with motor blocks so that I can obtain power from the b-unit before using the GN F3a-b again. No problem. The Macs and a Dash 9 will fill in fine for now. I also have a 40-2 which also operated satisfactorily.
I had the 40-2 pulling some Aristo heavyweights, but they have so much drag that I am taking them out of service for now (and probably for the season) until I can work on the individual trucks. These are now back in storage.
The USA corrugated aluminum passenger cars are the smoothest working. The Aristocraft streamliners were not quite up to the performance of their USA counterparts, but they still worked adequately on my greatly-improved Phase II track.
No pictures yet. I found other problems that have to be resolved before I pull out the camera. | | | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/05/2008 7:01 PM |
| These coaches are represented in two of the consists in use on the Phase II line. Both are USA Ultimate Series coaches. Anyone ever notice the marked difference in the two dome cars? I had never even given it a thought until early this summer when it finally hit me that these are not the same cars.
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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| | 06/06/2008 12:47 PM |
| View of the eastern end of the Phase II line taken from the end of the NX-Cicely model structure (looking downhill):
This is an 80-foot slope. It turns out that a single USA engine has insufficient power to pull my heavy passenger consists up this grade in this direction. About the time the engine reaches the ladder, it comes to a complete stop.
The curves are wide, but the grade it long.
At the switches seen in the foreground I send the consists to the left into the NX-Cicely model structure. This also serves as a good place to quickly move these long consists when the wind suddenly picks up. Lately that has been happening all too frequently.
Here you see my Aristocraft streamliner passenger consist where I parked it last night, entering the model town from the second of the two switches you see above. I had to pull out this Aristocraft Mikado to rescue the passenger consist because the 40-2 stalled out on the grade. The Mikado, as it turned out, was more than adequate for that task. In the future I will have to double-head any USA diesel units I use to pull passenger consists.
This particular one includes just six coaches: two Alaska RR and four Milwaukee Road coaches--all customized from Aristo streamliners. This is my only Aristo streamliner train in the system. The train is parked in the center track. There is one to the north and to the south (window side) that parallels this track.
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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Posts:1673
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| | 06/06/2008 12:56 PM |
| View of the north track: USA GN streamliner consist headed by two AKRR Mac SD70s:
I estimate that the GN consist weighs something in excess of 100 pounds. It is no wonder that a single USA engine cannot pull it up the grade shown in the previous post. But two USAs working in tandem are up to the task. These Mac 70s are excellent, smooth-operating units. As with most all of my images, you may click onto the picture to get a much-larger one.
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flatracker
1st Class Member
Dunlap, TN
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| | 06/06/2008 1:00 PM |
| Looking good Ron! Sorry about the wind. We are having quite a bit here too, though no tornados thank god!
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Bob Martin | |
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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Posts:1673
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| | 06/06/2008 1:05 PM |
| Facing the forward Mac SD70 is my GN mallet. I pulled it out for testing but have not yet determined what its role will be on this model this year. So far it seems to like my new and improved trackage.
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blackburn49
1st Class Member
Copper Center, south central Alaska
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Posts:1673
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| | 06/06/2008 1:16 PM |
| Posted By flatracker on 06/06/2008 1:00 PM
Looking good Ron! Sorry about the wind. We are having quite a bit here too, though no tornadoes thank god!
Thanks, Bob. We have had an unusually gusty month. Normally by now there is almost no wind. In the above picture, the reason that mallet is parked inside facing the Mac was to get it out of harm's way from heavy winds that were blasting around it. As it turned out the location of this large NX-Cicely structure works out quite conveniently for purposes of getting these long train consists out of the wind and rain. | | | |
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