Dixon Robertson's Blog

Ballast, ballast everywhere

2010-04-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

OK, so I found something I like even less than laying track. Ballasting track. One of my workmates observed that real railroaders probably don't like it much either.

The Brookwood prototype has two three-block-long spurs flanked by two sidings in every block. That means lots of ballast. I have walked all of the spur south of Brookwood drive except for the far eastern end that is fenced off. Also most of the spur between Brookwood and Rosewood. All three tracks are ballasted without any "gaps" between. So, I have a fifty-foot "field" of gravel between the industries on either side of the spur(s). Elevation-wise, this area is essentially flat. In the field there is a visual illusion that the southern sidings are lower than the spurs, which are lower than the northern sidings. In fact there is virtually no difference in elevation. So I modelled the area flat. Naturally the illusion isn't present on the model.

I thought of carving shallow ditches between the tracks. By that time I had spent four evenings getting about half the ballast down. I abandoned any thought of removing ballast. I hope that weeds, trash, structures and other details will either establish the illusion present on the prototype or distract the viewer from my gravel prairie.

Here's where things stand right now (yes, the ground throws are on the wrong side):

Brookwood Promontory Point!

2010-04-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, despite battling a pinched nerve for the last three months, I drove the last spike for the trackwork. Fixed a minor derail problem on the Atlas crossing (man, what a POS). EVERYTHING WORKS! I know Allen Gartner is right on about all things DCC-especially that every piece of track must be soldered to something. I ran out of suitcase connectors about halfway through, but the rail joiners are conducting current to all parts of the layout. I will visit Lowes again this afternoon and buy more IDC's.

More progress

2010-04-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Foam is down and about a third of the trackwork is in place. I forgot how much fun it is to solder all those feeders.

I have to confess that tracklaying is not my favorite part of the hobby. For this layout I am using Atlas code 83 flextrack, Walthers/Shinohara code 83 "DCC Ready" turnouts (two #6, one #6 three-way, and one 20"/24" curved), and a 12.5 degree crossing and two Customline turnouts (one #4, one #6), all Atlas code 83. I bought most of the track from Trainmaster Models in Buford, Georgia. (Man, what a store! If you ever are in the North Atlanta area you owe it to yourself to visit. Bonus: there is a Fry's Electronics about ten miles south.) The rest I got from my LHS, New Brookland Railroad in West Columbia, South Carolina. They don't have a website.

When trimming the ties for the last few pieces of flextrack I thought my hobby knife had broken. It was the webbing between the ties. The ten pieces of flex I bought first had thinner webbing; the last four or five pieces had webbing as thick as the ties themselves. Made for a lot more work, and I can't see where the thicker webbing adds anything to the quality. Seems like the second batch was easier to "break" after it was painted, but I don't know for sure.

I weathered the track using the method Mr. Mindheim describes here, except I used roof brown instead of rail brown on the rails. Gives more contrast. (Actually, I opened the wrong paint bottle and didn't catch my mistake until I had shot thirty feet of flex and hand painted five turnouts and a crossing. I wasn't about to do it all over again.)

New benchwork

2010-04-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a more (less?) minimalist approach to benchwork. I screwed a 1" x 2" ledger board to the walls. The longer leg of the layout is made from two bi-fold door panels. The shorter leg (mainline?) is 3/4" birch plywood. The back edges of both legs are screwed onto the top (narrow) edges of the ledger. The short leg is only 6" wide until it flares into the longer leg in the corner. The ledger provides plenty of support, especially since it gets both sides of the corner piece. Supplemental support for the door slabs comes from wall brackets by Lowe's. The doors are joined with a 1" x 4". Thanks again to Lance Mindheim for that inspiration.

Even my lovely and long-suffering wife is impressed with the new look.

For sale-Bulletproof benchwork and work area

2010-04-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Demolition is finished. I think the old benchwork could support a large car. Here is a photo:

The hinged board is a programming track. I have 2" x 4" legs with braces. After I finished the benchwork I added two vertical drawers and a worktable that slides out. The workspace is about 24" x 48". Believe me, the assembly doesn't move. Anyone in central South Carolina who is looking for a quick and easy benchwork/storage/workdesk solution should contact me. The "table" itself is 2' x 10'. The legs bring the height to about 45", and any stringers, foam, structures or other scenery would add to that height. Unfortunately, you can't lower the height and still use the desk. The crosspieces are drilled for wiring. I wish I had taken a picture of the entire assembly before I took it apart. The year or so I spent working in a cabinet shop didn't go to waste.

I probably have $150 in materials-including three pairs of heavy-duty drawer slides-and a couple of weekends of labor in this. Make me an offer and come to Columbia to pick it up. My wife will thank you.

My wife married an axe murderer

2010-03-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

My dad is retired from the US Navy. He was a sailor for more than thirty years. When I was six he brought me a train set from Germany by a company named Fleischmann. For Christmas he set it up on a sheet of plywood. I was mesmerized.

Over the next ten or twelve years I built several "pikes." Every month I waited eagerly for Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines. I assembled a library of books from Kalmbach Publishing when they cost a buck or two and people like Linn Westcott and Bill McClanahan were writing them. And of course, my ideal was John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid Railroad. Then I discovered, well, other distractions.

Fifteen years later I had a job, money, a little spare time. I started another layout, this time in "N." Oh yeah, when I was thirty I could still see and my hands didn't shake.

Two years ago I found the sheet of plywood with that tiny track nailed to it. Too lazy to drag it from the attic, I nevertheless felt inspired to recapture this scrap of my childhood. So I decided to go with something I could actually see (HO). Hey, what else was I gonna do? Buy a Mustang GT? Marry a beautiful woman ten years my junior? OK, well maybe I did those things too.

Boy, did I have a have a lot to learn. About model railroading, I mean. And driving. And beautiful women. But that's a different post.

Forget cab control. Now there's DCC. But holy crap. I gotta learn to solder again. And what on earth is a stall turnout motor? And foam? I live in South Carolina. It's hard enough to find batt insulation. Despite all these challenges I build a new, HO, layout.

It was so cool. I could run three locomotives on the same track at the same time. One of them even made noises. I learned all kinds of things. (Like, electronic things don't work if you let the smoke out of them.)

Tonight I took an axe to it. OK, a taping knife. But I am demo'ing my existing layout and building a new one. Inspired by Lance Mindheim (lancemindheim.com, shelflayouts.com), I decided to model a small piece of a warehouse district near Williams-Bryce Stadium in Columbia, SC. No mountain overpasses like John Allen built. No elaborate taxonomy of bridges and structures like Linn Westcott catalogued. But, I hope when I'm finished all three of them will be impressed. Or at least understand. Stay tuned.

Kenny Dorham!

2010-02-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

I hope we all have friends like this. He seldom raises his voice. He never interrupts, even when you break into his conversation. He always says something interesting, and usually profound. He’s smarter than you are, but he never lets you know it. And without condescending he speaks your language, even if that means no words over two syllables.
I just listened to my first Kenny Dorham CD (I would say album but that dates me even more). Dorham has joined my morbid collection of dead trumpet players, and may have walked quickly and quietly to the head of the line.
He doesn’t dazzle with technique, but I would put him up against anyone but Clifford Brown and Clark Terry. His range will never garner attention from fans of Jon Faddis and Arturo Sandoval. Like my friend, though, he speaks to me in a language I can understand.
I put my horn away in, oh, 1976 or so. Picked it up again two years ago to learn that I have no chops. Even when I was good enough to play the occasional church gig, my range extended to high C at best. And that was from pressing the horn to my lips, not forcing air like I was taught.
So here comes Kenny Dorham. He says as much to me between C below the staff an G above as anyone ever has done. I get him. He doesn’t shout at me. He doesn’t quote dead Latin scholars. I don’t need to wonder what it would be like to play the “high C’s” like Severinsen or Sandoval or even Jon Birks.
So thanks, Mr. Dorham. Enjoy that gig in the sky with the giants you played with while you were here. You encourage me. I will pick that horn up again.