Trains @ Station Studios

The first completed piece of rolling stock on the Lost Hollow Railway is a Twin Mountains Model Works plantation coach. It is a very well-thought out kit; nice work on the laser cutting. Colour scheme:

• siding: Polly-S coach green
• trim: Polly-S SCL covered hopper beige
• wood: Floquil maple stain
• metal: Blacken-It

It definitely requires a “rooster” to hook it up to “Konrad”. A “rooster” was logging slang for a a piece of metal (3′ to 6′) used instead of a link in a link and pin coupler system. Here’s a picture of No. 2 behind Konrad.

I was really intrigued when I read Chris Walas’ articles on figure building  (chapters one, two and three) on MyLargeScale.com.  Here is an index into the key sections of Chris’s Chapter One: A Simple Figure:

• Material List for Sculpting a Simple Figure
• Building the Armature
• Roughing in the Body
• Pants
• Shirt
• Fingers
• Feet
• Head
• Hair
• Painting

Armed with all this good information, I started sculpting a figure: Engineer Bill.

He’s based on a photograph from the book "The Fossmill Story" and is designed to stand in the cab of my live steam Konrad engine. I found it much easier to get the proportions right working from a photograph. Here he is after painting:

The first engine for our garden empire is a Regner Konrad. It is a very simple engine that uses a single oscillating steam cylinder to drive the wheels through a gear system. Reviews for the engine have been very positive and I bit the bullet and purchased one. Here’s what it looked like right out of the box:

The Konrad looks like it could easily be kitbashed into a small turn-of-the-century logging locomotive. Here’s a list of things I’m considering to change:

• Install new wooden bumpers at both the front and rear.
• Install link and pins couplers back and front.
• Paint: red and green colors need to be repainted black.
• Add a new more-to-scale engineer figure.
• Add a roof.

Well, here’s everything done but the new roof:

And one with “Engineer Bill”, my scratchbuilt engineer figure:

Compiled by the General Manager, Mr. B.J. Cott.

October 19: Placed my order for a Konrad engine with the Train Department.

October 26: UPS delivered the engine today and I’ve been pouring over the documentation. Finding butane cans with the right adapter looks to be the biggest hurdle.

October 29: Went to Papa Ben’s and got a bunch of supplies including some Aristocraft track (5 ft diameter circle plus 12 feet of straight track). This should be enough to get something started in the back yard.

October 30: The first run for my Konrad engine. Ran it around the circle of track on the patio for 10 minutes.

November 12: I attended a steamup at John Frank’s house with the Houston live steamers. Had a great time and ran LHR Engine no. 1 for several loops around John’s beautifully landscaped garden railway. Here are some photographs: Katy Fall Steamup. It’s clear to me now that I need to get some rolling stock.

November 19: Steamed up at Zube Park, home of the Houston Area Live Steamers. It was their last public run day of the year and we had a lot of interested kids and parents stop by to watch the fun on the #1 gauge track. Engine no. 1 got about six runs in around the big loop. Photos here: Thanksgiving Steamup at Zube Park.

November 20: Robin and I surveyed the east part of the garden in our backyard for the new layout. We plan on putting a small layout within the footprint of the existing bed. It will require us move or remove several existing plants but nothing too important. I plan on using Aristo-Craft sectional track for simplicity and because I know there is a good supply near by at Papa Ben’s. Roadbed will be based on a “harditrim” system used by others in the Houston area.

November 24: On a lovely Thanksgiving Day, Robin and I started working in the back garden to clear a space for the garden railway. I’ve put together a Flickr set “Clearing the Old Garden” to document our progress.

November 25: We continued to clean up the garden, this time at the west end. We lifted up the flagstone patio we put in a couple of years ago; it really didn’t turn out as well as we expected.

November 26: A heavy rain is falling in Lost Hollow today, holding up construction. I did join a large number of track sections together in preparation of laying track soon.

November 27: I ordered the remaining track I needed today off the Internet. Robin and I also visited John Frank to talk about building his techniques of building harditrim roadbed.

November 30: I spray-painted all of the track I had on hand using the techniques outlined in this thread. Still waiting for the remainder of the track to arrive.

December 3: Picked up 5 pieces each of 1″x4″x12′ and 1″x6″x12′ harditrim from the local Home Depot. Proceeded to cut out the roadbed for all of the curved sections of the layout. I’ve put together a Flickr set Track and Roadbed to document this part of the project.

December 10: The remaining track has shipped so it looks like I’ll be doing some work on the garden railway over the holidays.

December 11: We cleaned up the remaining section of the garden today, so we’re all ready for track. New photos here: “Clearing the Old Garden”

December 17: The track finally arrived so I spray-painted it all first thing today. Then I started laying roadbed and track in the garden. Thank goodness for the 3rd Plan-it diagram of the layout as everything fit where it was supposed to. New photos in the “Track and Roadbed” photo set.

December 18: Up early today and back out working in the garden. I completed the west loop and the steamup area. Even took the opportunity to run my engine around the partially completed loop. New photos in the “Track and Roadbed” photo set.

December 23: Finished laying track today. A big job completed and now we can run trains whenever we want. New photos in the “Track and Roadbed” photo set.

December 27: Attended a steamup at Steve Speck’s place today. Steve was the perfect host and we had a great day of weather and steaming. Engine No. 1 pulled a 22-car train around Steve’s layout; I was pretty impressed.

December 29: Back in the garden today, rebuilding the retaining wall around the front edge of the layout. I’ve put together a Flickr set “Rebuilding the Garden” to document this part of the project.

We have only a small area in the back yard for a garden railroad: basically about 8′ by 32′. Robin and I did a detailed survey of the space so we would have an accurate idea where things were: sprinkler heads, fences, trees and other unmovable objects.

I then used 3rd PlanIt to design the layout. It was very easy to recreate the Aristocraft sectional track in 3rd PlanIt and duplicate as many times as needed. I played around with a lot of different ideas before settling on the following. It’s very simple but scenic at the east (”top”) end. The ruling diameter with the curves is 5 feet (2.5 foot radius) so the layout is for small engines and rolling stock only.

The other big feature was building elevation changes into the design. This appears to be a no-no for live steam engines, but my preliminary tests indicate that the 1.2% grade I planned should cause no major problems. And the layout definitely looks better with the vertical separation between the front and back.

While building the layout, I decided to add a bridge at each end to drain the loops. They add visual interest as well.

I attended my first steamup yesterday with a group of Texas small-scale live steam fans. It was a great day of running trains outside on a beautiful garden railroad. I got the chance to run my new Regner Konrad locomotive with the big boys. The full photo set in available here on Flickr.

Thanks to John Frank for hosting us all at his place.

I’m keenly interested in recreating prototypical operations on my Pakesley Mill & Timber Company. As such, I have been developing a comprehensive primer introducing operations appropriate for a 1920’s era short line railroad like the Key Valley Railway, on which I have based the PM&TCo. There has been much written recently about realistic operations. However, very little of this information has been compiled into a single document for model railroads of this era.

From my research, the following operational characteristics would apply to the prototype Key
Valley:

• All freight trains would be run as extras.
• Some level of passenger service would be appropriate (one or two return runs per day),
  with train times typically coordinated with the arrival of a CPR passenger train at
  Pakesley and with the steamship at Lost Channel.
• Only a small number of trains would be active at any one moment (typically the
  maximum would be two to three).
• Communications with the dispatcher would be via a telephone system strung alongside
  the mainline.
• Dispatching would be done via verbal/written train orders using manual block stations.
• Train crews would line their own turnouts.
• Train crews would makeup their own consists.

These same characteristics would apply to many narrow gauge and short line railroads from the late 1800’s to the 1940’s. My goal is to use these characteristics as guideline to develop an operations scheme for the PM&TCo that is close to the prototype in feel but still enjoyable to operate. I must stress that the choices I have made are not the only way of doing things, and others may prefer a different car forwarding or dispatching scheme. However, I am trying to strike a number of balances, the most important being the alance in work across the various operating positions.

The operating schemes I’ve developed place specific requirements on layout design. They are:

• The layout design should permit an operator to follow his or her train around the layout in a straightforward manner. This encourages a linear design methodology.
• The use of walkaround throttles is almost mandatory.
• The use of Digital Command Control (DCC) is encouraged to eliminate the need for throwing unprototypical block switches.
• Turnout controls are located on the layout fascia right in front of the desired turnout.
• A telephone system to communicate between the dispatcher and the train crew is preferred.

None of these assumptions are very restrictive to today’s layout designers and most members of the Layout Design Special Interest Group (LDSIG) would say they are all necessary on a state-of-the-art layout design.

My basic plan is to have two-person train crews plus a combined dispatcher/freight agent role. The dispatcher will be responsible for determining what trains will be run and what switching activities each train will perform. This will hopefully keep the dispatcher busy, since the number of meets and passes on such a small railroad will be few.

I’ve broken the primer down into several sections for readability; however, most sections are highly interrelated and it would do the interested reader well to look at all sections at least once.

• Roles (the operating roles on the PM&TCo)
• Systems (the physical systems that are in place to support operations)
• Operation Cycle (the steps in performing one shift of operations)
• The Dispatcher (the activities of the dispatcher)
• The Train Crew (the activities of the train crew)

I’ve prepared a PDF document that you can download here. Please be aware that several section remain incomplete.

I received my author’s copy of Model Railroad Planning 2003 today. I’m really pleased at the way the article turned out. Thanks to Tony Koester and Andy Sperandeo, the editors of Model Railroad Planning, for the opportunity to publish the PM&TCo story.

On the PM&TCo, the yard module will contain the only runaround track on the layout and will be connected to staging at its west end and the dock module on its east end. As much as I would have liked to have included the wye, I was forced to move the wye into staging. The yard module will also contain a small spur for car storage.

Here are two photos early in construction. I’m using the same methods as before: 3/8″ plywood grid benchwork on Lee Valley shelving units:

The paper sitting on the benchwork is a full size printout from 3rd PlanIt of the trackwork on the yard module. I used it as a guide to cut the roadbed out.

I also followed Iain Rice’s suggestions on lighting. I tried a three-light halogen setup but found the coverage was poor. I then started looking for compact fluorescents. The local Home Depot equivalent had a nice set of 16″ long fluorescents which could be connected end to end. The cost was a little expensive: $35 Cdn per pair (about $20 US; the exchange rate is just killing us these days). I bought a total of four fixtures and set them up in a V formation about 2″ back from the front edge of the upper fascia.

The results were very impressive; nice even light and everything was well illuminated.

Here’s a photo of module with the lights on:

And one more of the dock area: