The Golden Spike Ceremony
My goal for the layout this holiday break was to get the mainline loop completed so that I could run trains out of staging, do a complete loop around the layout and then back into staging. I am happy to report that yesterday, under the watchful eye of fellow model railroaders Sheldon Frankel and Marek Karwowski, we held a golden spike ceremony to celebrate the completion of that goal.
The good news is that I can now run continuously and had a 16 car manifest freight running trouble-free for a couple of hours today. That feels like progress.
The bad news is that by running the mainline I have found a few areas that need a little bit more work, and one area that will probably get a rebuild in the next few weeks. As always for every three steps forward there is a step or two back, but that too feels like progress.
Happy New Year and wishing your 2017 be filled with health, happiness, model trains and trouble-free running.
2016 in Review
In retrospect, I will remember 2016 as the year that I discovered operations.
I knew early on that I wanted to build the layout so that it would be more than a railfanning concept and could eventually grow (with me) into full operations. But I had no idea what that practically meant. Like most things, reading about it theoretically wasn’t doing it for me – I really needed to see it and experience it.
This year I got to operate on four very different layouts, each of which was a complete joy and all of them have informed my thinking and have contributed to the evolution of my trackplan.
First up, was the N scale Grand Trunk Southern layout of John Johnson (CARM founder and Canadian editor, above) in Hamilton, ON. You can read all about it at the blog post here.
Then in June, I was invited to operate on Sheldon Frankel’s fantastic Quebec & New England layout. I first discovered the Q&NE on Sheldon’s YouTube channel and was amazed to learn that this was a local layout. I have since become a regular monthly operator on the Q&NE and very much enjoy being part of an operating group.
Trevor Marshall, who I met at the Copetown Show this year, invited me over to operate on his S scale Port Rowan in 1:64 and blogged about it here. I had listened to Trevor on his podcast, The Model Railway Show, watched him on trainmasters.tv and was an avid follower of his blog. This was another layout that I was on my ‘TOP 10 to visit’ list!
Finally, I had the pleasure to be a guest operator on the Waterloo Region Model Railroad Club. I was invited by Chris van der Heide because he knew of my interest in learning more about OCS operations.
In addition to being a ton of fun, I learned something from each of these experiences. A little bit of each of these layouts will make it into my trackplan and operating concept.
Which beings me to the second theme of 2016… the year that I ‘finalized’ my trackplan. I was really struggling with the trackplan and had actually thought about soliciting some professional help and purchasing some design services. Like most things, a number of people/factors came together to break the logjam.
After watching Bill Beranek, The Track Planner’s excellent Operations presentation on the YouTube Model Builders channel, I became very interested in the AnyRail track planning software. It was fun, easy and finally I was able to try out ideas and really see what would work!
This got me to a trackplan – good but not great. Many thanks to Sheldon Frankel, who in addition to being the owner of the Q&NE is a professional civil engineer and happens to have worked for the railways. No better person to take my previous mess and clean it up with some good, practical, prototypical track design. You can view the revised track plan as a more detailed PDF here.
The final theme of 2016 is friendships. None of the above would have been possible without the friendship of some pretty incredible people.
Being located in Toronto, ON means that I am lucky to be surrounded by hundreds of fantastic modellers and their layouts. I’ve said it before, but I am constantly amazed how generous this community is with their time and encouragement and I have had the good fortune of learning from some of the best. Thank you.
Have you ever smashed a model?
I mean really trashed it.
And not to recreate a prototype photo or to model an effect. Have you ever been soooo FRUSTRATED that something wasn’t working out the way that you wanted it to, that you just said ‘F*%K-IT‘ and smash…you destroyed it? I admit it, I have.
If by some super-human feat of self-control you have not, I bet you’ve been close and wanted to.
But here’s the thing. I don’t feel that way anymore. And I have the hobby of model railroading, in part, to thank for that.
This is a hobby for patient people. I’ve learned that projects can’t be rushed, steps need to be followed in logical and methodical, well thought out order, or mistakes happen. First fill, then wait, then sand and wait, then prime and let dry, then paint one thin coat and let dry, then repeat… dear God can’t I get this done TONIGHT? And when I inevitably do try to shortcut the process, and the model gets ruined, I have a choice. Trash it or fit it.
Funny thing is that it can almost always be fixed. And fixing the mistake is sooo satisfying. I really enjoy the feeling of working through the fix and coming out the backend with something, that in some cases, is even better than the original.
And for those unlucky models that don’t quite work out, as the pic above shows, there is always a creative and prototypical way to use those rejects on the layout.
This might just be the beginning of a series of blog posts titled, ‘Lessons I’ve Learned from the Hobby‘.
Operating the QGRY… and a revised track plan!
First, the revised track plan. Many thanks to Sheldon Frankel, the owner of the Q&NE, and a professional civil engineer who happens to have worked for the railways. No better person to take my previous mess and clean it up with some good, practical, prototypical track design.
You can view the revised track plan as a more detailed PDF here.
Now for some thoughts on Operations…
Thanks to the wonder of Facebook I was able to connect with some kind (and very knowledgable) folks on the Genesee & Wyoming RR Fan Page who shared the current QGRY schedule with me. This has led me to the beginning thoughts for a proto-freelance operations plan:
Eastbound mains
Train 1. Train 726: Ste-Therese (Montreal staging) to Trois-Rivieres Yard
Train 2. Train 728: Trois-Rivières Yard to Triage Henri IV (Quebec staging)
Westbound mains
Train 3. Train 729: Triage Henri IV (Quebec staging) to Trois-Rivières Yard
Train 4. Train 727: Trois-Rivieres Yard to Ste-Therese (Montreal staging)
Locals (turns)
Train 5. Train 28: Trois-Rivières – Joliette and back to switch Bell-Gaz
Train 6. Train 33: Trois-Rivières – Shawinigan and back (to Quebec staging to simulate CN interchange)
Train 7. NOT a prototypical train BUT I will create a local that runs Trois-Rivières – Paper Mill and back to switch the Paper Mill and other industries
Train 8. NOT a prototypical train BUT I will create a local that runs Trois-Rivières – Ciment Quebec and back to switch Ciment Quebec and Marmen
While this train list makes sense to me, I have NO IDEA what order to run the trains. For example, should the local trains run before or after the east/westbound mains? Not even sure how to determine this… any thoughts are very welcome!
Still pondering JMRI computer ops vs. car cards and waybills, but think that I will try JMRI first and then move to CC & WBs if I don’t like the computer-generated switchlists.
One of the things that I’m targeting is more frequent but less time consuming operating sessions. I want to be able to pop down to the basement and run a couple of trains either by myself or with a couple of people. Partly this is because I have two young boys who want to ‘play’ and partly because I just enjoy frequent sessions that last no longer than two – three hours.
That’s my current thinking for now and no doubt that it will change/evolve as I learn more about the real QGRY, meet new people, ask more questions and continue this fun and fascinating journey!
September 10th, 1976
Yesterday I had the pleasure to be a guest operator on the Waterloo Region Model Railroad Club. I was invited by Chris van der Heide because he kindly replied to my last post regarding my interest in learning more about OCS operations. The club uses this method in its operations and he thought that it would be of interest to me to learn how they approach this. Thanks Chris!
The Waterloo Region Model Railway Club (WRMRC) is a 2000 square foot, HO-scale (1:87) recreation of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Sudbury Division, as it appeared and operated during the 1970s. The layout features include:
- a multi-level (mushroom) design over 2 floors with tracks interconnected by helices
- track arrangements of the modelled towns are duplicated closely to the prototype locations
- locomotives and rolling stock match real equipment that operated in northern Ontario during the ’70s
- long freight trains rolling smoothly over handlaid trackage powered by NCE Digital Command Control
The session started at Noon and first task was to sign in and get on a crew. I joined Crew 4 and my partner was a 20-year club veteran Peter Korschefsky. Trains are operated with 2-man crews and we communicated with the isolated dispatchers via Motorola radios. Real freight and passenger schedules were followed, along with proper blocking of freight traffic between trains. Freight delivery was governed by a car-card and waybill system mimicing the prototypical generation of traffic by railway customers. In short, we were operating the Sudbury Division prototypically – as a miniature transportation system.
Peter at home in his dispatcher’s chair.
Peter is usually a dispatcher on the WRMRC, however yesterday he and I were Conductor and Engineer on three Manifest trains. Peter and I quickly started scheming about how to model CN 1501 using Rapido’s upcoming RDC-1 Phase 2 and I fear that I might have pulled him over to the dark side. Sorry about that Peter.
Over the course of a 6 hour session, a group of around 14 guys ran 21 trains – all simulating the traffic found around Sudbury on September 10th, 1976. And man was it FUN!
Peter and Phil are trying to figure out where we are – or more specifically -where we are supposed to be.
This was my fifth time operating (each time a different layout) and I have to say that I am hooked. Every session has been very unique; whether its been N-scale or HO-scale, big club layout or small basement layout; fully sceniced or ‘plywood pacific’; mainline freight operations or switching layouts – it doesn’t matter. Each experience is fun and teaches me a little bit more. The more I operate on other layouts the closer I feel to knowing what I want for my QGRY in HO scale.
‘Hunter Hughson‘ working the Sudbury Yard Switcher.
Bob Fallowfield looks to be up to no good in the Sudbury Yard.
I really enjoyed my time on the WRMRC and hope to be back for another visit. Special thanks to Chis for inviting me, Peter and Ted who showed me the ropes, and everyone else that made me feel welcome.
If you are interested in a club with great prototype operations check out the WRMRC at their upcoming 2016 Annual Fall Open House on October 15th.
Rules, rules, rules!
So I finally went out and bought myself a copy of the 2016 Canadian Trackside Guide. The book by the Bytown Railway Society is “the comprehensive listing of Canadian railways including their US-based operations. The 2016 edition features the latest updates (to end of February) to all the sections including motive power, industrial locomotives, preserved equipment, passenger equipment, work train equipment, subdivision details, radio frequencies and more.”
The reason I wanted The Guide was to gain insight on how trains operate on my prototype (the QGRY). I had hoped to find a timetable of trains and gain insights into operations, and while I was unsuccessful in this regard, I did learn something new.
Beside the listing of subs and milemakers I found the initials OCS which I learned stood for OCCUPANCY CONTROL SYSTEM. The QGRY operates in what is known as “dark territory” and no signals are used to govern train movements. All movements must be authorized by the dispatcher, who verbally instructs the train to proceed, usually by radio. The dispatcher selects the stations or mileposts between which the train may move – a segment of track known as the authority limit. In the US this is called Track Warrant Control.
Googling ‘Occupancy Control System (OCS)’ lead me to Transport Canada’s Canadian Rail Operating Rules – an amazing resource that I will attempt to digest and understand. You can download the entire PDF doc here:
https://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/railsafety/CROR_English_July_27_2015_F.pdf
Not sure yet how this will inform my plan for operations, but at least I have learned that I don’t have to worry about installing signals on the QGRY.
HO/NOT TO SCALE
Spent yesterday in Cobourg, and caught a very interesting show at the Art Gallery of Northumberland on the 3rd Floor of Victoria Hall. MICRO MACRO features the amazing photographs of Toni Hafkenscheild.
Thought this would be of interest to all of the prototype modelers out there. We spend so much of our time trying to make 1/87 scale look as real as possible; and here is a photographer whose works go the other way and capture reality in a way that makes it look toy-like.
Toni Hafkenscheid is a Toronto-based photographer originally from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 1989, he graduated from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and shortly thereafter moved to Toronto. He has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Canada, the US and Europe, and he has taught photography at York University, OCADU, Ryerson University and Sheridan College.
Using traditional Tilt Shift analog photographic techniques, Hafkenscheid manipulates his camera to narrow the depth of field in his images, resulting in a visual sleight-of-hand that suggests model train sets, toy buildings and miniatures of all kinds.
This idea occurred to him on a summer trip to British Columbia a few years ago. How bizarre and almost fake the landscape looked. Train tracks were set in an artificial plain of faux cotton trees, plastic buildings, and cardboard mountains, with suggested men and women walking, shopping, etc.
Check out this GlobeandMail article for more on this amazing photographer.
Major New Rail Infrastructure Project Completed
So I realize that its been quite a while (embarrassingly too many months) since I posted on the progress of my layout. The last post was The Staging Level is complete! back in January. This hiatus has been due to a number of factors; a recent trip to Europe, work, enjoying the nicerailfanning weather, etc. etc. While all this is true, the lack of layout progress has been chiefly due to the fact that I decided to add on to the staging tracks, and a lot of the work has been relatively unglamorous.
Today I hit a milestone. The Government of Me and my basement HO Scale Layout is pleased to announce the realization of a major new rail infrastructure project. Construction spanned many months and cost millions (well hundreds) of dollars, and while this project came in over budget and behind schedule, the QGRY hidden staging reversing loop has been completed.
Full automated with a DCC Specialties PSX-AR, the reverse loop allows Westbound trains from Montreal (staging) enroute Quebec City to then seamlessly make the return trip from Quebec City back to Montreal (staging). My thinking was that this would allow for passenger service or a RDC tourist train. The long return loop will also allow for turning trains in my hidden staging tracks between operating sessions. One other plus is that the track leading up to the return loop can be used for staging longer trains than will fit on my 10 hidden staging tracks.
The DCC Specialties PSX-AR is pretty cool piece of tech! I have a Digitrax AR1 Automatic Reverse Controller, that I have used in the past, but I never really liked it. (Anyone wanna buy it from me?)
The PSX-AR is a different beast. What attracted me to it is that (1) it is solid state; (2) it has a circuit breaker built in; and most importantly (3) it automates reverse loop turnouts and integrates the control of the Tortoise stall motor so that the turnout is automatically thrown and the points lines up as the train enters and exits the loop!!! WOW!!!
Not a cheap solution, mind you; however, worth it to have completely automated, hands off running – as you can see by the results of the video below.
Railfanning Cobourg ON
Spent this past weekend in Cobourg, Ontario; an hour-and-a-half east of Toronto. We went out to celebrate Father’s Day with my wife’s parents who have a condo on the Beach. While the kids went swimming and out for a puddle on their uncle’s sailboat, I ‘excused’ myself to do some railfanning.
I had never been to the Cobourg train station before. It is located just off Division Street about 5 minutes north of the downtown strip. A couple of things make this an excellent railfanning spot. First off, the CN Kingston Subdivision, the major railway line connecting Toronto with Montreal that carries the majority of CN traffic between these points runs just north of the Station. VIA passenger trains also travel this route.
Just to the south of the station, and not more 4o meters on the other side of the parking lot is the CP Belleville Subdivision, Canadian Pacific Railway’s similar mainline route. The CP line is a bit overgrown, but there is a crossing where you can get some good pics. It is possible to stand in one place and literally be surrounded by CN and CP traffic – which is pretty thrilling!
Two other features make this an ideal spot. VIA has built the oddest passageway up and over the tracks. One only knows what the architect was thinking because the structure is so mammoth and over-engineered (see image above) for a simple pedestrian bridge. No matter, for the Railfan it is a godsend providing an incredible vantage point to overlook the mainline action. This is especially interesting as I have found it difficult to get good top down image of freight trains (typically the way that modellers view our HO scale trains). The last feature at this location is a nicely placed signal bridge that conveniently would ‘announce’ upcoming trains.
I didn’t get to spend more than a couple of hours here on Saturday, but in the short time managed to capture a couple of VIA trains, a pretty cool CP work train and a CN intermodal heading westbound. Enjoy the clips below for a sense of the action in this location.
Managed to get back for an hour on Sunday with #1 son who wanted to join me for some Father’s Day trainspotting and he was my videographer for the VIA clip below. I definitely plan to return to Cobourg soon and hope to spend a day by the tracks. Hope to see some nice CP action and some mixed freight.
Operating on the Q&NE
Last week I was invited to operate on Sheldon Frankel’s fantastic Quebec & New England layout. The Q&NE layout is 19′ x 29′ HO layout based on the southern end of a regional railroad that runs between Montreal and Boston circa 1990. The focus of the layout is the interchange with Conrail and the many industries served by the QNE.
I had originally discovered the Q&NE on its youtube channel and have been enjoying the 50+ videos over the years. Recently I met Sheldon at a train show and was thrilled when he emailed with the news that he was celebrating one of his regular operator’s retirement and relocation. Bill’s punishment for abandoning his post was that he had to train a replacement operator. Did I want to apply for the job? I warned the gang that my operations experienced was limited, but was welcomed to ‘apprentice’ with Bill.
Operating sessions began in 2012 with a crew of four. Car and train movements are governed by a home-made XL program that assigns and tracks all car locations and train consists. A daily QNE train arrives from staging with local traffic as well as cars for interchange with eastbound and westbound Conrail trains. The QNE crew and power lay over and return northbound during the following operating session. There are two separate staging loops so that westbound departures are automatically turned to become eastbound arrivals (and vice versa) in a later operating session. The same trains do not show up on the layout more often than every third operating session.
The OPS session lasted around four hours and was HARD WORK. We were moving freight! This was a very realistic working session and I felt an appreciation for the very hard work done every day by real railroaders.
I was honoured to be a part of the gang, and as you can see by the photo at the top of the post, I passed the initiation. Not sure it was my skill or my thick skin but I got to take the T-Shirt home. Looking forward to the next session, and a big thank you to Sheldon and his crew for showing me the rails to and for making the evening so much fun!
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