Model Railroad Blog

Hand Brakes

In talking about switching operations with my friends that are professional  railroaders, one recurring topic that keeps coming up is the importance of setting hand brakes.  When a locomotive cuts away from its train to handle a switching move, the hand brakes on one or more cars on the now engineless train need to be set.  Wouldn’t there still be enough pressure in the line to hold the cut I  asked?  Maybe, they responded, the rules are that you set the hand brakes regardless.   When spotting a car or cut of cars at an industry the hand brakes on the car(s) must be secured before leaving.  Obviously when pulling cars from an industry the brakes need to be released first. 

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Here’s a video showing a conductor securing the hand brakes on a car.

Brake Tests

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For some time I’ve been trying to come up with a way to simulate brake tests above and beyond just “waiting a bit”.  I wanted some form of interactive device that wasn’t too gimmicky.  Enter the iPad and a free app called Timer +.  Timer + allows you to input an infinite number of tasks and set the time to do them down to the second.  I talked to my friend, and professional railroader Barry K., for a refresher on the tests, the two most likely to be used in my setting being a Class 3 application and release test and the slightly more involved transfer train test.  The next decision was how to modify this for model railroad use.  Do I use the actual times for each task in the test or speed it up?  It comes down to individual preference but for now I decided to speed things up a bit.

The most common test is an application and release test, to be performed whenever a new car is cut into a train.   The conductor puts a gauge in the air hose of the last car and asks to the engineer to pump the train line air above 75 pounds.  When  the line is charged,  the conductor  radios the engineer and requests a 20lb reduction (set the brakes).  The conductor then checks the shoes on the last car of the train to make sure they’ve applied.  If so, he radios the engineer to release the brakes and the conductor verifies that the brakes on the last car have released.  This concludes a successful test at which point the conductor walks back to the cab of the loco.  Keep in mind that even with a short, ten car train, the basic act of walking back to the locomotive will take time.  You don’t just say “test done and fly on to the next industry”.

A transfer test is similar and would typically be performed in a situation where the train is at the end of a branch and the loco. runs around the train on the siding in preparation for heading back to the yard.  The test would be the same as a Class 3 test with the exception that EVERY brake on one side of the train is checked to make sure it has applied.  Instead of the small hand held gauge an EOT device (which among other things has a gauge on it) would be placed on the last car in preparation for the trip home which also adds time.  An actual transfer train test for a ten car train would likely take fifteen to twenty minutes, longer than I would probably chose to model.

 I simply input these tasks in Timer + and somewhat arbitrarily set a time for them proportionate to the time they would take in the field.  For each task of the test I hit start and when the time runs out a buzzer goes off.  I then start the timer for the next task.

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A One Turnout Layout

A layout with only one turnout?  One that offers diverse, hour long operating sessions without ‘make work’ complexity?   A layout that could be built in two weekends and then morph into something that provides several years worth of craftsman projects?   A gimmick?  Absolutely not.  It’s all a matter of selecting the right theme, understanding prototype operations, and understanding the fact that car spots, not turnouts drive a layout’s operating potential.  The plan below is an almost full scale rendition of a bakery in Miami serviced by the FEC.  Depending on the day,  you’ll see two to five boxcars, two to four vegetable oil tank cars, and a grain hopper spotted at the plant.

The layout lends itself to numerous twenty to sixty minute solo operating sessions, perhaps several times per week as a means of winding down after a long day.  On a complex day of operations, a session would likely stretch longer than an hour.    An hour not long enough or sophisticated enough for you?  My guess is that 90% of model railroaders don’t operate an hour a YEAR so let’s be put things in perspective.  Thirty to sixty minutes a night several nights a week would be very rewarding.  Although I haven’t seen them work this plant I’d imagine an inbound train of loads would first pull the entire cut of cars currently spotted, empty or not, and then put them on the sorting track. At that point a protracted series of push/pull moves to ‘sort the deck’ would be employed to re-spot everything.  The fact that the crew would have to keep the surrounding streets clear adds another twist.  (Note that all railcars are incoming loads/outgoing empties.  Outbound product leaves via truck).  Things are probably tricky most days in that when an inbound train of loads arrives some of the cars are empty and need to be pulled and some are still being unloaded.  This means spotted cars that haven’t been unload yet will need to be pulled and re-spotted.  I would imagine if they run out of space for incoming loads that they are temporarily placed ‘off spot’ on the sorting track until room clears up.  Although I doubt it would be necessary, if you want more diversity you could always backdate and activate some of the abandoned track.

If it were me I would approach construction this way.  The first weekend paint the drywall behind the layout sky blue and get the shelf brackets up.  The next weekend, mount the hollow core doors and glue 1inch thick extruded foam on top of them.  After that, tack down some temporary Atlas code 83 track, hook up a power pack or DCC system, lay down 3×5 cards for the car spots, and start operating.  The cost at this point would be minimal.  Once up and running you could then go back and embark on a full blown, all out detail assault picking projects as the mood strikes you.  The beauty of a layout such is this is that it lends itself to a very focused effort without feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of completing fast swaths of real estate. Gradually replace the Atlas track with Micro Engineering a few feet at a time.  Scratch build the structures.  Super detail your rolling stock.  Don’t laugh, it’s a way to have a total blast, a ‘grown up’ layout, and at virtually no cost.  These simple layouts serve the broadest spectrum of modelers from entry level to those with decades of experience looking for a highly focused detail effort that will provide ongoing ops. while construction is taking place.

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The long leg of the “L” is composed of two, 18 inch wide by 80 inch long hollow core door blanks for a total length of 160 inches.  The short leg is a single 18 inch by 80 inch door blank.  You could use narrower doors if you chose to.  Less common, narrower widths can be custom ordered from Lowes at nominal cost if you’re willing to wait a few weeks for delivery. An incoming train would likely start by pulling the entire cut of spotted cars first.  That being the case, you need enough track below the turnout to hold the length of the cut plus the length of your incoming train.

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Two aerial views facing due South.

 

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Left photo: Vegetable oil tanks.  Right photo: Boxcar spots.  Note the locked gate which should be modeled.

 

Walthers Crossing Flasher Upgrade

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Cantilever crossing signals are such a common feature of the modern rail scene that they are likely to be needed on any layout based in the present era.  At the current time the only model of these signals is the Walthers product.  Although not terrible, there was always something that seemed a bit off with the Walthers model.  I couldn’t quite place my finger on it.  My original thought was the mast diameter was too large and the signal faces way off.  Not the case.  The prototype mast is quite large.  The Walthers signal faces aren’t perfect but aren’t bad either.  Looking closely at the model and comparing it to the prototype photos, the culprit is the walkway (specifically the handrails) on the Walthers model.  It is really distracting, not located correctly, and too tall.   This isn’t too hard to fix.  The cantilever is also too short but given that the mag wire is embedded in the model you really can’t do much hacking to correct this issue.

I decided to play around with the model to see what could be done.  Going in the one thing I didn’t want was a major project.  I had no desire for rivet by rivet perfection.  Instead I just wanted to see if I could make it look better to the casual observer with a few hours work.

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Here’s the Walthers starting point.  I’ve highlighted the offending walkway and handrails.

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I began by stripping all of the walkways and handrails off.  Next a Kadee boxcar roof walk was installed. The prototype has X bracing which was easily modeled with .020″  wire.  One face of the original handrails was then trimmed off and placed behind the walkway and signal faces. A BLMA ladder was run up the mast.  The entire structure was airbrushed with Model Master light gray to represent oxidized metal.  I may experiment with the Alclad metalizer line at future locations.  The signal faces were painted grimy black.  Original crossbucks were replaced by thinner ones from Tichy.  That’s it.  All and all about three hours work for one mast.

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Here’s another angle. (Yes, I did find out after I shot these photos that the Xbuck is upside down 🙁  It’s been fixed.)

Crossing Flashers Explained

I’ve never understood crossing flasher behavior in industrial settings.  Regardless of location when a train approaches a crossing at speed, industrial or main line, the behavior is simple enough.  A predetermined time/distance away the lights activate and the gates drop.  After the train passes a few moments later everything resets to normal.  Not so during industrial switching.  I’ve seen numerous occasion where the train is a few feet from a busy intersection and the lights are off and gates are up.  As soon as the train crawls a few feet the circuit activates, the lights flash and then the gates do drop.  I never understood how this happened.  Did the crew have a switch to turn things on and off?

To the rescue comes Paul S., a professional signal maintainer by trade, who was gracious enough to explain it all.  He writes:

Hello Lance, I just viewed the video you ‘d linked to (skip to the 3:30 mark) of the Downtown Spur Switcher.  The crossing activation system was functioning as intended. This crossing is equipped with either a predictor  or a motion detector for activation. A predictor activates a crossing when a train is a pre-set time from the island — that’s the part of the crossing that intersects with the street. FRA minimum warning time is 20 seconds. We typically use 30 seconds on the (deleted). Regardless of a train’s speed, up to the timetable maximum mph (which determines another parameter we input into the predictor’s CPU), the predictor will always activate the crossing when the train is 30 seconds outside the island. However, if a train stops in the crossing approach outside the island, as the Downtown Spur switcher did while the switch was being lined from main to the spur, the crossing will recover after a pre-set interval as shown in the video. After this recovery, however, the predictor switches to motion-detect mode. As soon as it senses “motion” the predictor re-activates the crossing immediately.  Whenever a locomotive or railcar is occupying the island, the crossing will always activate. The island is a separate circuit of the crossing. “Positive island ring” is an FRA requirement.A motion-detector is basically a complicated on-off switch that activates the crossing regardless of a train’s speed. Once the train is in the approach and the MD senses its presence, the crossing activates. Usually MDs are used today only where speeds are slower and approaches shorter, such as on a branch. If a train stops in the approach to the island, the MD also recovers, and then reactivates upon a decrease in AC voltage on the rails.I’m a signal electronics technician for (deleted)