Model Railroad Blog

Offboard Sound For the LAJ

Here’s the offboard sound setup for the LAJ. I took the photo prior to tucking the wires under the layout so you can see what’s going on. We have: an O scale speaker, a handmade speaker enclosure, a separate decoder programmed to the same address as the locomotive, and some quick disconnect plugs.

As I circle back to the LAJ layout, the next order of business was offboard sound. In this instance I didn’t want to go all out with computer speakers. In a conversation last year with Christian Javiar, he suggested just going with large scale speakers which I ultimately did. The concept is simple. I have a second decoder tucked under the layout which is programmed to the same address as the loco. I’m using at the time. I then just plug that “under layout” decoder into a large scale DCC speaker. If you go this route using disconnect plugs in your harness will make your life much easier in the likely event you want to unplug the decoder for whatever reason.

Here’s the harness which is simple enough. We have the decoder, the speaker, and disconnect plugs.

Here’s the speaker I used.

The sound with this arrangement is far, far superior to onboard sound. The fact that the speaker and loco. are in different spots, is slightly obvious but not objectionable for a small layout. Implementation is easier than using a computer speaker system, although the sound, while still very good, isn’t quite as impressive as using the much larger home audio speakers.

I continue to be frustrated that the decoder manufacturers don’t give us anything to work with regarding offboard sound. It’s simple acoustics. An onboard loco. speaker will always face insurmountable obstacles and, excuse the french, sound fairly shitty regardless of speaker quality. Think of it this way. Imagine listening to music on your smartphone with top of the line earbuds…plugged into your ears. The sound will be amazing. The speakers aren’t the issue. Now, take the earbuds out, place them on your lap, and notice the precipitous drop in audio quality. It’s the same issue we face with onboard loco. sound.

Dialing in Session Length

Having just left “A Yard”, an LAJ switcher shoves its cut across District Blvd. and down The Horn Lead to begin work. The cars have already been blocked in car spot order. Even so, it took me about thirty minutes to run through everything.

Today I tested the LAJ layout in its new 1960’s operational format. What I wanted to determine was how long a session would run. Last weekend I was talking to my buddy Kelly Regan about car blocking on a local. We were discussing whether we should block the cars in the train in car spot order when staging the session. Doing so would make the job out in the field easier for the crew. In the past we’ve both had concerns about having guests over and fearing the session would be over too quickly or be too boring. To compensate we’d set the train up so the cars were out of order and would need to be organized out on the road prior to spotting. Our goal being to make things “interesting” both for our guests and ourselves when running solo.

I’m beginning to change my mind on that. While having cars totally out of order does occasionally happen on the prototype, I don’t think it’s the norm. (Any professional rails reading this feel free to weigh in). While I never felt that way in the past, I’m now getting to the point of feeling that intentionally having the train being a blocking nightmare seems a little too contrived for me. Moving forward I’m going to do that less.

On the session I just ran, I assumed the cars were blocked in the correct order in A Yard ahead of time which made things easier and, frankly, less frustrating. Even so, the session ran a full thirty minutes at the end of which I’d “had enough”.

Another ops question presented itself regarding grade crossing protection. I’ve noticed that most of the crossings in the LAJ industrial parks are just protected by crossbucks. There are no flashers. How do they go about their work without impaling passing motorists? I was watching one of Matthew V’s recent videos of the exact area and it seemed to provide the answer. They just run super slowly when working around streets. (Again, I’d love to hear what the pros say about this).

Summer of ’62

It’s the summer of 1962 in LA as a motorist idles patiently at the Corona Avenue grade crossing. The vehicle is a 1958 Impala Sport Coupe powered by a 348-cubic-inch, Tri-Power engine with a Powerglide transmission and dual exhaust. Mileage? 9 mpg!

That year the Rams drafted Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen. Chubby Checker hit the charts with “The Twist”.

More On Plastics

Another one of my readers, Sawyer B, sent me a detailed account of working a plastics facility. Since it may be helpful to many I’m posting it here. Sawyer wrote:

I was reading your blog tonight and got to the post on plastics industries and thought you might enjoy hearing my experiences with a rail served industry that receives plastic pellets as a process and quality engineer in the plant.

The plant is Prysmian Group’s plant in Abbeville, SC, where underground power cables are made. The Google maps link is 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/TdhXn7vA2EGF22Y49?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy but googling Prysmian Cable Abbeville SC will take you there. The original plant dates to the 1960’s with several expansions, the most recently completed one adding the high voltage cable plant on the front of it with the unique VCV (Vertical Continuous Vulcanization) tower in the front. I will check if I took photos of the photos, but at one point they shipped cable by rail and also received in chemicals in tank cars (even had their own switcher at one point to move the flat cars around), but the only rail a to its now is bringing in various Polyethylene compounds to use for the various insulation layers and shields that go into keeping the electricity in the metals instead of in the ground.

The spur curves into the plant, with a second spur off the lead outside of the plant fence where the of spots are held. When I was there, I saw anywhere from no off spots to probably 4 or 5; we would request to get switched when needed, typically a few times a week. Frequently all 4 hoppers would get pulled but sometimes the rear one would stay in place. As Blake pointed out, the hoppers are really treated exactly as corn syrup tankers are, with each loaded with a specific compound and needing to get placed back in the correct spot so that it can be hooked up to go to the specific silo for that compound, for example LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene), HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), etc. The shuffling of cars would happen between the mainline, the off spot spur, and the burnt the curved lead outside of the fence. They wouldn’t block the concrete and would only shove back in once everything was shuffled. My one regret was not taking a break on CV9 platform to watch the local switch from up on the platform behind the head house!

Of specific note is that the plastic pellets received would be either clear and cure to an slightly translucent to opaque milky white or had carbon black in it and would be black (I think we typically got those in boxes off trucks instead of in covered hoppers but I wouldn’t swear one way or the other). Any colors we ran would have color chips mixed in; we used yellow chips a lot in my department and would occasionally also use blue and red. I think it’s likely some other plants that use enough of one color could justify buying plastic premixed, but it doesn’t take a lot of color chips to change colors so most would likely be clear pellets with the chips added in. 

If you want to see the other end of the industry, I also interned one semester at Teknor Apex in Fountain Inn. Their main business is mixing plastic compounds to supply to businesses which use it, and they’re a pretty large customer of the Carolina Piedmont. They receive plasticizer in tank cars and ship bulk compounds out in covered hoppers they load, as well as lined Gaylord boxes. The link to the plant in Google Maps is below, but you can also look up Teknor Apex in Fountain Inn, SC.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/2HPHVucVvs6aQmEP8?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

I hope you find this run down interesting and have a bit more background on plastics industries as well! I find the covered hoppers super interesting and varied too in weathering/graffiti/the story with patchouts, different colors painted over graffiti etc. They’re really a great cornerstone industry for a modern shortline or a really fun addition for a Class 1 or Regional local crew.

Subtle Weathering

It’s February in 1961 as the local hauls a UP PS-1 down The Horn Lead. Effectively weathering rolling stock for this era is totally different than more modern times and, in a way, harder.

One of the hardest weathering skills to master is that of the light touch…of not overdoing the effect. As you work, you are on a spectrum that starts with “not enough” to “just right” to…..you’ve done too much and are “totally screwed”. Underdoing weathering is desired because all you have to do is add another pass to bring the effect up to “just right”. Once you go too far it’s virtually impossible to correct and, in most cases, the model is ruined. Ask me how I know.

This is particularly an issue with earlier-era rolling stock where you didn’t see the same visual weathering effects as you do today. You didn’t have the same fades, rust bleeds, patch-outs, and graffiti. The look was much more subtle and typified by dead flat surfaces with just a hint of a uniform grimy haze. In a way, it’s much hard to replicate and the risk of screwing it up is much higher. Let’s go through how I approached weathering a Kadee UP PS-1

It helps to have a goal going in as to the look you’re after and the strategy you’ll employ to get there. Unfortunately, it also helps to have made enough expensive mistakes in the past to know where the land mines are. My goals with this car were: to knock the shine down, apply the most subtle layers of grime, add contrast to the panel lines, add highlights to the roof, and weather the trucks. While I use a rattle can for most projects, with rolling stock you really need an airbrush to create the smoother finishes necessary.

-Apply several layers of Dullcote with an airbrush to the entire model. Dullcote comes in bottle form and you’ll need to thin it 50/50 with Testors enamel thinner.

-For the grime layer I applied an ultra-thin mix of Tamiya Dark Iron XF-84 thinned with X20A thinner. This is the riskiest step in terms of going too far. Prepare a thin mix and spray it on a white sheet of paper to make sure it’s not too dark. If you’re ok, move to the model. You want just a hint of hazy grime.

-The panel lines need contrast and the traditional wash method isn’t the best fit. You want the look of a subtle haze and the wash won’t do that. Take a black artists pencil, and give it the sharpest of points. Using a straight edge as a guide, draw over the panel lines with the pencil. This is another step where it’s easy to go too far by making the lines too wide. They should be the thickness of a human hair.

-Using a small brush, apply a hint of earth brown weathering powders around the latches. Keep the weathering footprint small.

-For the trucks I airbrushed them with Model Master earth brown. Any flat tan will work. Once the paint dried, I ground in a layer of black weathering powder.

The roof was too uniformly black. I took a flat-tipped brush and lightly painted on a layer of straight rubbing alcohol. Alcohol over Dullcote creates a frosting effect. At this point, the effect was too stark. I dialed it back by applying a layer of black weathering powders.

The key to weathering these earlier era cars is to go in from the start with the mindset of using the lightest of light touches. You can alway bring the color up but once you cross the line into “too much” you’re screwed.