Sugarwood Blog

The first part of August saw the completion of the final module of benchwork and tying it into the layout.





Then it was on to connecting the Bakery tracks, which I have completed along with the industrial tracks in that area. I decided to go with Walthers Branchline Code 70 with wood ties. At $50 for 5, 36” pieces versus Micro Engineering Code 70 Nickel Silver Rail at $8 per 36” rail plus ties. That’s $80 plus ties for the same 15 feet of track. Cost and laziness won out.





I have three of the four curved turnouts connected to the slide switch mounts under the layout and rods through the fascia for control (The green knobs in the video above). The fourth one has been a bit of a pickle, as the throwbar sits atop a module joyce, so I have been trying to figure out a different way to connect the throwbar to the slide switch. I haven’t quite got it straight in my mind yet, but I think I will have to go back to Cs & Zs for this one. I’ll explain once I figure it out.


I installed the two left turnouts of the center runaround and connected them. Once I got to this point, procrastination set in, and one of my projects caught my attention. I’m also waiting on rail joiners, so Ozzy’s spur didn’t get laid, and no power connection.


As for the project, I bought one of these Treadmills off eBay, and I want to use it for speed matching my locomotives.





I drilled a hole in one of the wheel bogey ilders and used an IR detector to count pulses. Now, using a little math, I have a speedometer.





The foreground wheel on the left is the one with the hole. I have had an issue with erroneous pulses. I’m still working on that. An issue with traction as the locomotive doesn’t spin the wheel bogey ilder reliably. I found a product called “Bullfrog Snot”. It’s a liquid rubber product used for traction tires. It looks like it will work if I can get a thin enough layer on the idler.


I will be buying one box of track a month. I have my September box, so I should be
able to finish the center section and start on the right side, with the hope of having all
the track down by the end of October. I need to build three left-hand turnouts for the
center section, and have four quick strips printed. Once my order for rail joiners
comes in, I can complete the center section. In the meantime, Wiring is the name of
the game.


Until next month.


Victor

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.

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.