Apr10 Written by:Tom Farin
4/10/2008 6:49 PM
Here's what I worked on today.
A new fangled articulated locomotive? No.
The air compressor off a Baldwin 4-4-0? Wrong again?
Does it have anything to do with prototype railroading? No emhatically!!
Is Shad about to boot me off the site for going 'off subject'?
So Farin, why is this being posted in the Model Making Forum?
Because you can't run until you walk. You can't fly until you flap your wings. And you can't build a garden rairoad until you've built the infrastructure NO MATTER HOW BAD YOU WANT TO !!!!
So what is it, Farin?
The grey device is an Irritol Automatic Valve with backflow protection. Immediately below it, dressed in black, is a Rain Bird backflush filter. And below that is a Rain Bird pressure regulator. I'll be putting four of these together on a manifold (not a steam engine manifold, not an automotive manifold, but an irrigation manifold). Sprinkle in an electronic control and you have the control side of a four zone drip irrigation system.
Want to watch this project as it develops?
http://www.ironhorse129.com/New_NPC/Infrastructure/Plumbing.htm
Poke on the other links in this section and you'll see where I'm going with electrical. There's also a more complete discussion of the railroad viewing area project. And once I've built the manifold and buried some pipes, I can start working on the tracks. Yipeeeee !
Pop into the Research section and you'll now find research information on 5 communities along the NPC route. The list grows. Three more communities are in the construction phase.
But what about modeling the railroad Farin?
I'm as anxious to get there as you are as the pieces are really coming together in my mind.
Hmmmmmmmmm - Let's meditate together.
Chant ...
North Pacific Coast ..., Occidental ..., steam donkeys ..., Howe Truss Bridges ..., Baldwin 4-4-0s ..., gravity cars ..., paddle wheel steamer docks ..., Muir Woods..., saw mills ..., old hotels ..., Camp Meeker ..., Mason Bogies ..., trestles ..., Austin Creek ..., boxcars full of potatoes ..., picnic cars ..., Shays pushing tourist cars backwards ..., redwoods ..., cab forward oil burners ...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - Can you see it too ???
Maybe if we chant together long enough and hard enough, we can levitate this ghost railroad right out of the ground.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!
While I was in San Francisco, my daughter and I went on a Ghost Tour in the Nob Hill area. What a hoot.
When we were done I told our guide I had spent the last three days looking for a ghost. He said, "You did?", with an excited gleam in his eye. I replied, "Yes, and my ghost is a railroad, the North Pacific Coast." I didn't tell him that a human ghost is associated with the NPC. One of the fatalities from the Austin Creek Disaster was never found. Don't you go strolling down Austin Creek late at night. His ghost may still be floating, waiting to be fished out of the creek.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update on August 27, 2007
Gosh,
In the last two weeks we set a record for rainfall in a single month. In Wisconsin, we're used to flooding in the spring after a winter of heavy snow. But in August? 16-17" of rain. And the month isn't over.
Needless to say progress has slowed a bit in the last few weeks. But last weekend was all sunny.
The infrastructure work is far enough along that I can lay track.
You are looking at two lines that will serve my lower drip irrigation circuits and another that will allow me to add water to my pond, accompanying my electrical conduit containing 3 20A circuits headed toward the bottom of the staircase. They will be capped and buried till spring.
Here's the manifold for the four district drip irrigation system that will be attached to the two drip lines in the previous photo and two others that serve the upper part of the rairoad. It should be punched through the wall and attached in the next two weeks.
That means tonight I was able to begin excavation on my road bed. I used my trusty kick sod cutter (left in photo) to shave off 12" wide by 1" thick strips of dirt.
I decided to go with Marty Codaz's concrete roadbed techniques. The biggest challenge I face is a 10' drop in elevation over 75' as the railroad moves down the hill. To keep the ruling grade at 5% or less that means lots of curves. So I needed a long flexible ruler.
Fortunately my garden hose agreed to learn a new trick. Here it is marked off in 10' sections with electrical tape. I can use the 10' board in the photo, my level, and a ruler to measure the drop across any 10' section. No more than 6" allowed!
I'm five weeks away from my golden spike party. Will I have trains running? Rain, rain go away ... come again some other month than September.
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