Category Archives: Model RR

Things to do with my model railroad.

Layout Progress Update: May 2023

A quick update to share a few snapshots of some progress and talk about what has been going on since the Winter. Well, first up, between December and January I took on a massive project; replacing the transmission in my 2006 Honda Odyssey. The task was no small feat and I did nearly all of the work myself. As a result, I have a functioning car again, and have likely permanently damaged an already questionable right shoulder. (A recent MRI revealed the reality that surgery is likely in my future.)

Out with the old, in with the old. I purchased a replacement JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) transmission on eBay from a local vendor. The job took me a couple weeks of evenings/weekends to complete and was an absolute bear.

But I digress. I showed you the Rock Creek trestle mocked up in place. Now let’s take a look at how I got there. I made the decision that building the trestle would be my priority. First up was to start mocking up the terrain to be sure it would work with the existing design. So I used some masking tape to outline the land forms.

Red highlights indicate where the benchwork interferes with gentle slope on each side of the approaches to the trestle.

What became apparent was that the angle required for the long fill the trestle approaches sat on would not work with the existing benchwork. I also had the idea that it would be nice to be able to remove the trestle should I want to transport/save it from the layout room in the future. This required completely rebuilding this section of the layout, by essentially widening this dropdown area.

After removing some benchwork on the right and left side, widening the gap for the new dropdown section. Thankfully there was enough slack in the wiring to simply slide the new pieces in.

I then needed to install the trestle and shim it to sit flush and level with the track, so I could measure the height of each riser.

Bridge is in the new, wider dropdown benchwork and shimmed to be flush up against the level which is gently clamped to the railhead.

I measured the height from the base to the lowest pile in each bent. I subtracted about 1/16″ and fashioned risers from 1×4’s and other boards.

Risers, laid out in order.

I installed the risers so the bent sits just on the edge. I will shim up to the height of each pile, since they are uneven. Risers were glued in place with wood glue.

Risers installed, bridge in place. Need to shim up to each piling.
The risers all installed. Note the new, wider dropdown for the bridge. This allows for the approaches to be nicely contoured similar to the prototype.

Now that the risers are in place, I can begin building the landforms, including the creek itself. I’ve still got a bit of work to be done on the bridge; namely the stringers on the top deck and some other details, but otherwise I’m nearly done. The same day I worked on the new benchwork, Kelly came over and helped me figure out and install the new benchwork as well as some foam at Chevy Chase and at Georgetown Jct. Progress!

Making sure the edge is flush. This is Chevy Chase. That area will have the golf course, part of the swimming pool and some other terrain.

A few other command system and lighting improvements: I deaccessioned myself from the old Digitrax Empire Builder II system and picked up a new TCS CS-105 unit.

After a weekend of setup, it is functioning beautifully.

With the addition of my trusty RasPi/JMRI, the ProtoThrottle is working well, too.

I also installed LED strip lights beneath the upper deck on half of the layout.

This is very much a work in progress as I attempt to best engineer how to get the most out of them, but I am really pleased with the initial setup. More to come on this later.

This is with the room lights off.

I’ve also been giving some thought to completing my model of the Bethesda Freight House. If you recall, a few years back I designed and laser-cut parts for my model of the station, but hadn’t assembled it. I spoke with Greg C. who is a master at building structures, about how to proceed and he gave me some great tips. I need to figure out the inserts for some of the moulding around various windows and engineer how I will install the garage doors, and get building.

Well, that’s all for now. Life is quite busy at the moment; my kids are wrapping up the school year, lots of sports activities, road trips, and other commitments. I’m taking a week off to host my cousin and we are planning on hitting several regional railfan spots, hobby shops and working on my layout. Hopefully more progress reports soon!

Scale Wheel Stops Video Short

Recently friend of the blog, Greg Cassidy, did a YouTube Short on Kelly’s magnificent 3D printed HO scale wheel stops based on the prototype. Have a watch:

https://youtube.com/shorts/hurWsa3R4_Y?feature=share

A few years ago I was lamenting to Kelly how there were no good HO scale wheel stops on the market. Nearly all of them look chunky and oversized. (because they are.) We visited a stretch of abandoned Georgetown Branch right of way in Bethesda where a siding still exists that includes original wheel stops. Kelly was inspired to draw up a model in Fusion360 and printed a few test items before developing a final design. Here are a couple in place on his layout:

They are simply the finest wheel stops on the market, full stop. (pun intended.) They are 3D printed in resin, are quite durable, easy to install and if they break, you can simply glue another one on. Kelly sells them over on his site, FineScale360. Get a few for your own layout!

Upcoming Project: TCS CS-105 and LED Lighting for the Lower Level

I took the plunge and decided to rid myself of my twenty-some year old hand-me-down Digitrax Empire Builder II starter set for something a bit more cutting edge. I really like what TCS is doing these days with their new systems and was able to finally see one in action at Springfield last winter. A new CS-105 is on hand and will be installed soon.

I also picked up a handful of LED light strips and a power supply. These will be used to illuminate the lower deck. Hope to do a full write up on this once installed. Need so cut some 1/8″ strips to mount the lights to.

Remotoring a Proto 2000 GP7/GP9 With a Kato Drive

My friend, Tom Matty, who models the Thomas Sub of the Western Maryland Ry, a very skilled and talented modeler, offered to do a writeup of how he re-motors an old Proto2000 GP7/GP9 with a much higher quality Kato drive. It involves milling the frame, fitting the motor, linkages and worm gears and then installing your favorite flavor of DCC/sound. (we won’t cover the DCC installation here today). Tom gave me permission to post his process on the blog so I figured I’d share it with everyone who may be interested in this fantastic upgrade.

Parts needed:

How-To Guide

Download the PDF here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dg7dcwgmj3447rk/Remotoring%20a%20Proto2000%20GP7-GP9%20-%20Tom%20Matty.pdf?dl=0

Adding Guard Rails to the Helix

Photo from 2018. Not much has changed with it since then.

As you may or may not know, I have a helix to connect the upper and lower decks of my Georgetown Branch layout. I built the helix ages ago, back in 2003 for my previous layout. It was designed to fit below a set of stairs and as such is relatively tight, with 19.5″ radius curves and a 2.9% grade. (yikes!) Thankfully I mostly run small B+B locomotives! One thing that is lacking is any sort of protection for the trains as they traverse the helix from falling off the edge and cascading to the floor. I thought about cardboard or mat board strips but decided against them as I didn’t like the idea that they would crease or break if I had to reach in to re-rail a train. I have been kicking this idea around for ages and recently had the idea of using polypropylene folders. These are the flexible-yet-stiff plastic folders you find in a lot of school binders. When I was cleaning out a supply cabinet, I found a stash of old folders from my son’s grade school days. Perfect. So I got around to testing this out.

A nice stash of folders to slice up. I’ve got the entire outside and inside of the helix to wrap, so I will need several.

I first remove the inner folder piece (seen in the photo above as a lighter green) and then set the edge of the folder against a sheet of glass and lay my steel ruler down atop it. I then score until the sheet is cut through.

Next, lay the strips on the side of the roadbed, keeping it parallel to the bottom, and use a staple gun to fasten to the plywood.

Some of the staples will not go in all the way and I tapped them in with a hammer. Occasionally I would miss and have to remove the staple with a screwdriver and try again. I really like the way this is turning out.

Constructing a Paint Rack from MDF

Had picked up some 1/4″ MDF a year or so ago, and this 3/4″ MDF was gifted to us. Ripping everything took a few hours to complete.

I was gifted some shelving my Grandfather had built for his house on Cape Cod many years ago. It once sat in the laundry room and held baby food jars full of nuts and bolts as well as small jars of oil and other knick-knacks. When the house was being closed up, I had asked for it since I knew it would make a wonderful paint storage rack and currently I was just using a few odd cardboard boxes. Well, over the years I have outgrown that little set of shelves and finally decided to construct some new ones, this time using MDF.

My new shelves on the left, my Grandfather’s shelves to the right.

This project took about a half day, as it took a good bit of ripping and fitting to get everything right. The back and shelves themselves are 1/4″ MDF and the sides are 3/4″ MDF. I used a dado blade set to cut grooves in the sides for shelves and to recess the back panel. In retrospect, I could have recessed it a bit more and could have fit the shelves a bit tighter, but it all worked out just fine in the end. The back was glued and tacked on with nails. Shelves are glued in place. I hand painted it two coats of semi-gloss white, some paint I had leftover in the garage. The fact that the paint is a bit “tacky” means the paint jars don’t slide around on the shelves. The whole thing sits on a rail that’s screwed to the wall, with L-brackets up top screwed into the studs. I modeled it after the shelves my Grandfather built with shelves set to accommodate the various paint bottles I have collected. Overall, I think it’s just right for what I need and it turned out well.

Workbench Update: 9/4/22 Rock Creek Trestle

The last several weeks proved to be some of the busiest for me at work and as such progress has slowed. Today, however, I tackled another milestone – completing all of the assembly for the trestle structure itself. I tacked on the final bracing, stringers and girts to complete the lower section. Here’s a few photos of what it’s looking like:

This means that the to-do list is getting shorter and shorter. Here are a few highlights of what’s left:

  • NBW castings on the side-facing stringers and beams. This will take a good amount of time as I will have to drill and install each one. Much like what I did on the bents, but a bit fewer. I’m not going to install NBW castings on the inner facing beams due to the difficulty in placing them in such tight spaces.
  • Attach a brace to the bottom of the middle two bents. This will serve as support when the model is turned upright.
  • Build a sort of cradle to hold the bridge when upright.
  • Remove bridge from base and flip upright onto cradle/steps.
  • Build two emergency platforms on the top side.
  • Install the two beams that run atop the deck parallel to the track, install NBW castings.
  • Install bracing/walkways that run along top of bents.
  • Weather and install on layout.
  • Build and install bracing around lower center bents and cribbing for the ends.
  • Drink a cold beer.

Workbench Update: 7/17/22 Rock Creek Trestle

Exactly one month since my last update and I’ve made some great progress on the Rock Creek trestle model that I’d like to share.

All bents are installed and the model is ready for bracing and stringers to be installed.

On Friday I built a sled/jig thing to facilitate installing the bents perpendicular and square. More on this in a moment. First up, I needed to flip the top of the bridge over, as it was mounted with track side up. I then took the opportunity to extend the lines that indicated where the bents would be installed, as this would guide my sled/jig later. I also measured where I wanted the straight edge to be and installed it with double-sided tape.

I placed small rectangles of double-sided tape where the rails would lay. Aligned the rails to the plans and pressed gently to set in place over the plans.

Next it was time to install the center deck girder section (which I had previously built, painted, weathered and installed ties and tie plates). I prepared some 5-min epoxy and lightly brushed it to the back side of the rails. I carefully positioned the bridge in place and weighed it down while the glue dried.

Getting ready to fasten deck girder to rails with epoxy.
Weights holding deck girder center section down on the rails while glue dries.

I then completed the blocking around the deck girder.

Close up of the blocking around the deck girder bridge section.

The sled/jig allowed for me to install the bents perpendicular and square to the base. This took a bit of finagling to get set up properly but made the job go fast once the system was in place.

Sled for aligning bents. Rides along straight edge.
Overall view of sled and plans.
Sled in action, installing bents.

Halfway there!

Nearly done with the East end. When I reached the center, I flipped the sled around and faced the center section to install the two bents at the end.

And here we are with the completed bents. It’s looking pretty good!

If you flip over the photo you can sort of get a feel for what the completed model will look like.

Ok – that’s all for now. I’m very pleased with how this is coming along and up next I’ll be installing all of the stringers and girts to get this over the finish line! Stay tuned…

E.C. Keys Coal & Fuel Oil Trestle Model Project

April 2, 1956. Heading west down the Branch from the Junction. On the right is the long E.C. Keys warehouse atop the retaining wall. To the left of the train is the coal trestle lead track. The old B&O MOW X-358? M-15 boxcar is sitting on a storage track.
Photo by R. Mumford. B&ORRHS Collection.

(NOTE: UPDATED DRAWING TO v2 BELOW 7/3/2022) Just about a hundred yards west of Georgetown Junction was the Enos C. Keys & Sons company that sold building materials, aggregates, merchandise, coal and fuel oil from 1889 until 1978 when it finally went out of business. On the North side of the Georgetown Branch track, a turnout branched off and climbed up a steep embankment and sat atop a high retaining wall where it served a warehouse for building materials. Aggregates would be unloaded over the side of the retaining wall via chutes, down into large sorting bins below. On the south side of the GB tracks, a turnout diverged, rose slightly, and then out on a coal trestle that was approximately 227′ long (based on aerial images). This trestle also served as an unloading platform for fuel oil. In the very far northwest corner of the property, at the intersection of Brookville Rd & Stewart Av was the scale house, which was torn down recently. In a strange twist of fate, a fellow GB-served industry, T.W. Perry, is now occupying the E.C. Keys space atop the retaining wall. The lower area where the coal dock was is now a long warehouse building. Much of this will likely (or already has) change once the Purple Line construction is completed.

Feb 22, 1958. Heading to Georgetown. Another view of the trestle lead and warehouse/retaining wall. This is the BEST photo I have of the coal trestle… and it’s not even in the photo! yep!
Photo by R. Mumford. B&ORRHS Collection.

For my model railroad, I am modeling the coal trestle, retaining wall and siding, and the long lumber warehouse.

The area around Georgetown Junction
This view of the layout should give you an idea of where things will go. The coal trestle is going where the small trestle is in this photo, the retaining wall will be along the high siding.

I decided to spend some time studying the site and develop a plan for my model of the trestle.

A snip of the 1957 aerial view from Historic Aerials. Note the fuel storage tanks to the southeast. The scale house was up in the upper left hand corner. Also note the boxcar sitting on the end of the retaining wall siding next to the lumber shed.

Using the scale tools available on the Historic Aerials site I was able to get basic measurements of the trestle. Approximately 227′ long, 15′ wide, bents (bins) about 15′ apart. This was enough to get me going, along with other details in the coal yard that I could observe. I now needed to figure out what sort of prototype to go after. Of course, without a photo I have no idea what the design of this trestle was derived from, but a good starting place was with the B&O Standard Plans book. I happened to have one that covers such things:

B&O Railroad, Roadway and Track Standards, 1945 (rev 1948); Commercial Coal Dump, Timber Construction. Book available from B&ORRHS, item 72047.

This fantastic reference book is available through the B&ORRHS Company Store, now in digital format. I highly recommend it! After some mocking up on my model railroad I realized that I wouldn’t be able to model a whole 227′ trestle and needed to reduce the size. I settled on a nice 135′ which will allow three 40′ cars, two less than the prototype would have held. This would work nicely for my small layout and even at this small size would still be a formidable structure. (I sure am building a lot of trestles on this layout… sheesh. I’ve got about four more to go, but that’s for another day!)

So, using Adobe Illustrator, the B&O plans and some photos I found online of similar structures & models, here is what I came up with:

So the image is quite wide – click for a larger view. I hope this gives you an idea of the design I’m after. I tried to stick as close as possible to the B&O design, but added a few modifications that I felt were necessary. One was the inclusion of additional supports for the walkway, a wider walkway, along with a railing. I also made some slight height adjustments but stayed within the requirements laid out in the B&O plan. All in all, I think it’s a good representation of the trestle and will make a very nice model. If you’d like a copy of the vector file, it’s below as a PDF for your own personal use. (NOTE: UPDATED to V2 7/3/2022)

The E.C. Keys facility will be a key scene on my layout. It’s a fascinating area to switch and this coal trestle will be a centerpiece of the small industrial area. Now to finish the Rock Creek trestle so I can get on with building this!