Sugarwood Blog

Sorry I didn’t get a blog posted last week.

The events of the week before, a lose neutral on the electric company side of the meter to our house, caused a lot of stress. We lost several surge protector power bars, a transformer on the furnace and a transformer to our alarm system. With the resolution of the power issue, life returned to the new normal and with the stress relieved my diverticulitis acted up and as a result I spent Friday before last and that weekend with a fever and pain in my gut. Not to worry, my wife insisted that I get tested for COVID and as expected the test came back negative.

That week, I did manage to install all five turnouts frog switches and their point pulls. I chose to go with crank type throw. This allowed me to have all the turnouts aligned to the straight route with the nobs pushed in and the diverging route when the nobs are pulled out.

Here are the parts that make up the switch and pulls. The green parts are 3D printed by a friend of mine.

This is a DPDT slide switch that flush mounts. Another friend of mine directed me too.

The assembled switch.

Under the layout the assembly looks like this.

A crank and sleeve ready to be installed. Once the sleeve is installed the crank in installed then bent and connected to the slide switch.

Installing the sleeve. A drop of Superglue as the sleeve is pushed in to hold the sleeve in place.

Installed Top

And Bottom all wired and installed.

So that was the end of last week.

This past week I completed the main line and installed east Sugarwood Siding turnout.

Trains Roll

Next step is to complete Sugarwood Siding and added Olie’s Cold Storage and McFoods sidings, then finish the yard track and on to scenery.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

This week has been full of interesting things.

From power issues in the house to actually getting trains running, oh yea, there was Canada Day On July 1st.

I have the turnout to the Service/RIP track in and functioning as it should. I am now working on the yard ladder. Then the entrance to the yard then the sidings west turnout. With those working in can turn my attention to building the two turnouts for McFoods and Olie’s Cold Storage and then laying the rest of the track for this area.

Here are a few pictures, I hope to have a video and an explanation of installing the turnouts next week.

Join the Service/RIP turnout to the yard ladder

Facia Control Nob

Slide switch that routes power to the frog

The trowbar

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

I have finished the backdrop prep and it is painted!

Prep complete

Backdrop done

And the earth coat

My plan? My track plan is on my website Sugarwood.Info and I am happy with my track plan. There is a small yard, seven industries, staging and a town scene. I have added the track plan to JMRI Operations and run many virtual trains, I think it will work.

The Sugarwood is a regional privately owned railroad. I originally planned on running 2 trains.
• The Transfer – This train runs from a nearby Union Pacific yard (Storage Yard) to the Sugarwood yard and back to the Union Pacific yard, bring in cars for the local industries and returning with outbound cars. In practice I would build the train on the staging track and the train would run from staging to Sugarwood yard and back to staging. This train is usually 4 to 6 cars.

• The Local - Starts from the Sugarwood yard and builds a train the switch the industries on the layout. This train’s size depends on the industries to be switched but no more than 5 cars.

Using JMRI Operations I noticed some things with the way cars flow on and off the layout.
1. I notice cars going from Storage yard to Sugarwood yard and back to Storage yard with out going to an industry.

2. Cars that do not have any business coming to Sugarwood

3. Several car types I have and would like to see on the layout.
I will read up on JMRI Operations and report on items 1 and 2 when I start operating.

Item 3 however I have figured how to handle. I created a virtual city with virtual industries and virtual train, The Greenville Turn.

Greenville is a city east from Sugarwood. I currently have three industries there that handle the cars I want to see on the layout. Part of the “Locals” job is the assemble the Greenville Turn on Sugarwood Yard 1 track. Also break down the Greenville Turn. So in a way the Yard 1 track is like a visible staging track. I will give more details in a later post.

So now, on to track and my technique.

In my second post Bright sunny days then rain! I showed some hand laid track section I started in preparation for this weekend, even though I did not know the actual I would be installing them on the layout. Well here are the first two pieces fixed to the layout. Next step is to tie them together.

Sugarwood siding and Yard entry.

Sugarwood Yard.

The rest of the siding and the two industries, McFoods and Olie’s Cold Storage.

I hand lay the code 70 rail on 1/8 inch sub-roadbed (basswood or birch plywood the yard piece can be seen in the above photo) this way in can work at the work bench and not standing against the layout.

Once I get this section’s track installed and tested, I can move on to the other three modules. That will be a little while, for now I have several things to do and see if this technique works or if I have to start over.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

As I mentioned last week, I got the third module built and hung on the wall late Sunday afternoon. As can be seen below, the third module is just hanging on the French cleat. When the photo was taken I had not leveled it or attached it to the other modules.

Now I have the third module properly leveled and attached to the other modules.

So why haven’t I started laying track? I have learned, at least I think I have after thirty plus years of being an arm chair modeler, get the prep work done first. So, that is what I am doing. I have the lighting in place, I am prepping the backdrop next will come painting the backdrop. Once the backdrop has been painted I can then add a one inch layer of foam insulation and paint the foam with a earth color THEN I can start laying track.

Room lights off and lighting set to daylight.

Now I am going to tease something here that I will detail in a later post but it is a big reason for the style of benchwork. Here is a four-minute video “24 hours in 4 minutes”.

So, I slacked off on model railroading and played with programming a bit more this week. The video is a proof of concept Lighting test that is supposed to replicate the lighting in Vancouver, BC on June 16, 2020 from 00:00 to 23:59. This functionality will work with my Fast Clock (to be discussed in a future post) coordinating lighting with time.

In theory this could be any place in the world, all you need to know is the nautical twilight begin, nautical twilight end, sunrise, sunset and solar noon times. These times are available from timeanddate.com. While this is a manual process right now WHEN I get to the point of actually operating I hope to have this somewhat automated.

As the video shows there is a flutter that will have to be resolved but for now, I know the concept will work and I can get on with railroading.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

This week proved to be a bit better than I expected when I saw the weather report for the past week.

On Monday, I was able to complete the second of the three modules I need to start laying track. Then on Tuesday I was able to attach the two modules together. The rest of the week was less productive with many commitments so, I was unable to get the third module built and with the weather reports it looked like the third module would have to wait until next week. However, I was smiled upon on Sunday afternoon and I was able to build the third module. It is now hanging in place waiting to be joined to the second module. A project for next week.

I also started on the lighting for the modules. I probably should explain the reason I chose this design for my benchwork. Modular, because I am renting, French cleat, because a significant portion will be above my desk and the ‘C’ shape because I want to have the lighting built in to layout. My plan is to have the lighting controlled by my fast clock (see post to come later). I have mounted two 3/8” square dowel length wise 4” from the front and 4” from the back. To the Square dowel I attached RGBW (Red, Green, Blue and White) LED strips that will be controlled by an Arduino (also described in later post). These LED strips have an adhesive backing so press and stick. In the past I have found this adhesive does not stay stuck to wood so, I coated the side I would be attaching the LEDs to with a fifty-fifty water glue mixture to provide a better surface to stick to. It has only been a few days but so far so good.

Sorry, no pics this week but there will be some next week.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.