Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[steinjr]

Good grief - I haven't worked on my layout since the end of May!

But a very nice month long summer vacation in Minnesota is now officially over. I and my family are now back in Norway. My internal clock still runs on Minnesota time, though - it is 4 am Sunday morning over here, and I still do not feel the least sleepy. Where the heck did we stash that bottle of Melatonin pills?

For the first time in quite a few years, I returned from vacation without a changed track plan or new purchases of model railroading related stuff - must mean that I am still reasonably satisfied with my plan, and that I don't want to make any significant changes. I'll try to get in a little work on the layout tomorrow.

Anyways - here's looking forward to a MR late summer/fall session.

Smile,
Stein

[Gary S]

Good to have you back at the layout, Stein. Looking forward to photos of your work.

[steinjr]

Good to have you back at the layout, Stein. Looking forward to photos of your work.

Gary - I am sorry to not have responded to your post. For some reason I didn't see you had responded.

Not an awful lot of progress to show, I am afraid. I have been pretty busy with other projects around the house.

But I got the clutter in the room cleaned up, so I can find things. Laid some extra track, made a few changes to the way the tracks aisle side run.

Pre vacation plan:


Current plan:


Main change is that I replaced the aisleside River Avenue Yard with a low freight house and a team track:


And I decided to change the second track on the right side - opening up the landscape there instead of having one building on each side of the spur there.



I am also thinking about whether to redesignate this area (currently the Security Warehouse and the MPP) the Minneapolis GERN plant - replace the two stand in buildings with something bigger and adding a walkway across the three tracks by the wall, maybe with a mirror under it:



I'll try to get a little more work done this weekend.

Smile,
Stein

[Gary S]

Stein, layout construction photos are always interesting. The track plan looks good, alot of action packed in there.

[steinjr]

Sorry about the slow updates - just been doing wiring lately. But I figured I would show off this new addition to my engine roster, with thanks to Reinhard who lured me out on the slippery slope that leads to steam engines on a previously all diesel layout :-)



Smile,
Stein

[doctorwayne]

to the dark (and sooty ) side, Stein. In my opinion, you couldn't have picked a better loco - I have seven of them, the "geep" of their day.

Wayne

[P5se Camelback]

Consolidations rule!

... I have five of them, four Camelback, all Wooten!

... the one pictured is a "shining " example, Stein, I like it!

[steinjr]

LOL - thanks for the welcome to the dark (and sooty side)

Grin,
Stein

[tetters]

Good grief - I haven't worked on my layout since the end of May!

I know what you mean. I looked at the time gap between posts and noticed the same thing in my own thread.

[steinjr]

And another month has passed since my last update on the layout. Finally finished (before the weekend) a project at work that has taken a lot of time and a lot of effort - I've mostly been too dang tired to do any model railroading in the evenings and on the weekends for the last month.

Finally got around to wiring up some more track in the warehouse district and test ran some trains. Still more wiring (my least favorite activity) to do, but it is becoming possible to do some light switching:

Consolidation 724 arriving with a boxcar:


Great Northern RS3 no 270 passing Consolidation 724 while pulling a couple of boxcars from the Minneapolis Gern facility:


That Consolidation is pretty finicky about power pickup and track work - my heavy Athearn RS3 has no trouble switching the warehouse district, but the consolidation stalls out here and there, and also has an annoying tendency to derail. I need to find my NMRA gauge and check both the Consolidation and the track work.

Grin,
Stein

[mountaingoatgreg]

Stein,

Welcome back to Model Railroading I understand about being busy at work, wew are heading into our slower season which means more time to get stuff done on the layout.

I agree with you about wiring, it is my least favorite part too. I have three tortoises I need to wire up...eventually.

I will say it sure is nice to be able to run trains on a layout after you do get the electrical stuff done.

[doctorwayne]

Stein, check that the plugs between the loco and tender are fully seated - both the loco and tender pick up current, with the current from the loco going to the circuit board in the tender, then back to the loco. Tender pick-up is from one rail on one truck and from the opposite rail on the other.
If the wires between the tender and loco are not positioned properly, they can be a source of derailments, especially involving the lead tender truck. Since I run DC, I was able to replace the plugs entirely with a pair of wires running from the tender and the loco will now run even when the tender is not in place.

Wayne

[steinjr]

Stein, check that the plugs between the loco and tender are fully seated - both the loco and tender pick up current, with the current from the loco going to the circuit board in the tender, then back to the loco. Tender pick-up is from one rail on one truck and from the opposite rail on the other.
If the wires between the tender and loco are not positioned properly, they can be a source of derailments, especially involving the lead tender truck. Since I run DC, I was able to replace the plugs entirely with a pair of wires running from the tender and the loco will now run even when the tender is not in place.

Good point - checked the plugs. They seem to be firmly seated. But the tender seems light - I just tried putting some lead on top of it (over the lead truck of the tender) as an experiment, and both electrical pickup and tracking seems to improve.

The RS-3 is pretty heavy - and that might be the secret to it's excellent electrical pickup and not being bothered by a little rough track work in spots.

I'll experiment a little more with it tomorrow - need to go to bed now - have to be up at 0500 hrs, and as Robin Williams put it in some movie : The Oh in Oh-five-hundred hours stands for "Oh my God - it's early" :-)

Grin,
Stein

[faraway]

...That Consolidation is pretty finicky about power pickup and track work - my heavy Athearn RS3 has no trouble switching the warehouse district, but the consolidation stalls out here and there, and also has an annoying tendency to derail. I need to find my NMRA gauge and check both the Consolidation and the track work...

The cable between engine and tender can easy lift the front truck of the tender. I suggest to open the tender and put some weight in the front. That might also improve power pickup. You can do an easy test with some weight on top of the coal of the tender.
Otherwise a common solution is to use all wheels of the tender to pickup power. This On30 page shows a simple method to add the pickup ( http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/mogul_tsunami/ ) and a similar solution from a German fellow http://www.westportterminal.de/tender080.html.

[Steamtrains]

I suffered the same thing with my Connie....So I hardwired the tender to the loco. Problem solved...