Sunday was a Public Run Day

I got to the track about 10AM and after saying hello all around got to photographing the various trains and cars still there from the meet. I was asked to work in the station as Station Master, a job that I had done for several years before I moved away. What is involved is to be sort of an ambassador for the club and be the person that lets the public know what the rules are involving safety and conduct. I find that the people who come are generally unfamiliar with the structure of the "park" and I try to explain the differences of scale and gauge. I also make the point that these are scale models and they are a labor of love for the operators as well as the fact that we are all volunteers. I also tell them that the rides are different for the two waiting lines as well as the fact that the one inch line has smaller seats and is better suited to kids that are fairly content.

A common question is how many trains do we have and how many trains are running. Of course these are difficult questions to answer as they vary depending on who shows up. I can tell them that the inch and a half line moves much faster than the inch waiting line. Another problem is that I may have a train - engine, engineer and riding cars available but it cannot be used because there is no conductor available. I have asked engineers to park their train and act as conductor for the time being if I have two trains, passengers and no conductors.

After a few hours, we needed more conductors so I volunteered to be a conductor as the traffic was winding down and Walt said he could handle the crowd.

The day was hot and the sun was merciless. But, several hundred people showed up and a good time was had by all.

Saturday F7 repair and trackwork

When we got to the track Rich told me that the Club one-inch F7s were having a problem and we needed to get them repaired ASAP. What was happening was the "A" unit's front chain drive was rubbing on the chassis and the front unit seemed tippy. It turned out that the battery's weight was compressing the suspension springs. Our first inclination was to tighten the bolts that flank the suspension springs to decrease the tippyness but this decreases the "springyness" of the suspension. It also would not cure the problem of the drive chain from the motor to the gearbox rubbing on the frame crossbar. Then it became apparent that the solution was to raise the frame. This turned out to be relatively easy as all we had to do was unscrew the bolster attaching screw then insert a few washers under the frame lug that sits on the front truck. This gave us a about a 3/8" clearance between the chain and the frame. With the spacers the weight shifted a little and the rear springs seem to stabilize the tippy inclination. So the cover went back on and after testing it out we brought the F7s back out of the roundhouse for use during the weekend.

I had noticed the crossing lights were not going off after a train passed, they just stayed on continuously so I decided to check it out. What I found was that the heat (several days of high 80s and low 90s) was causing the rail to expand (positive temperature coefficient) and close the gaps between the isolated section and the rest of the track which apparently caused a ground loop through the connected track and turnouts. Tommy Cebulla had given me some track insulators made from fiberglass for isolating track sections so they act as fishplates and they hold the rail in alignment. I got an angle grinder with a 1/16" disk made for cutting metals and ran an extension cord to the location. After I cut the slot, I installed the new insulators and put a small piece of nylon between the ends of the rail as Tommy suggested. I wound up cutting two notches in the two locations at either end of the crossing block. It went pretty well except it was all in the bright sun and the temperature was close to 90 degrees. This seemes to have fixed the problem.

Next it was reported the semaphore at the roundhouse lead heading into Glacier was staying red all of the time. I checked and it was not a circuit board problem as the bias resistor was toasty meaning the track or the is wire from the track is shorted to ground. I removed the wire from the track and the signal bounced to green. Next I went from one end of the block to the other to see if there was some fault like a wire connecting from side to side and disconnected the opposing signal that feeds from the far end on the block. This did not fix the problem at the roundhouse lead end and the semaphore at Glacier car barn end then bounced green so the problem lies within the track. After considering that the block had worked properly for some time most likely the problem was thermal but the signal had acted up from time to time too. I started looking at the rail itself considering where the notch's were cut in the rails and suddenly it struck me the wrong rail was notched - the ground rail not the hot rail. I got going with Bill Schimmelman cutting more notches and installing insulated fishplates. Because the rail was butted up tight we had to drill new mount holes for the plates which slows the process. Finally after another hour in the sun we finished. The semaphores seem to be operating as they should and the first green in several hours was displayed. Sometimes problems can be knotty and you just have to work through them until you find the answer.

First Day of Meet - Friday

We (Rich, Jack and I) started the day working on rechecking the one-inch line. We got out two trains and went around the track being certain the signals were correctly sending back to the last semaphore so it displays a yellow when the block ahead is open and the next block is a red. Then we got around to installing a new semaphore near Wellington and installing one in a head that was dead on the reverse direction. The new style semaphore is better looking and easier to see in the sun.

We got 4180 out to check out the signals on the inch and a half line as well. Just to be sure. All signals are working and we feel the rail road is working just as it should.

We looked at Doug Ebert's locos again as they seemed sluggish. All batteries seemed to be charged fully as we read 24 to 26 Volts at the charging terminal so perhaps the locos are simply geared down and seem sluggish compared to the F7s that the club has.

At One PM I gave a seminar on Internet Applications for Railroad Clubs. I discussed Blogs, Web sites, Waves and Wikis. The purpose is to familiarize clubs with the Internet tools that are available and what it takes to use them.

Thursday a run day, projects and repairs

Today we had a group of disabled people coming from a school in Minneapolis. We got going a little after nine and worked on several projects. Today Rich and Jack worked on Dougs locos and the club one-inch diesel F7A&B units. They installed new batteries and refilled the gear boxes with oil.

I worked with the tunnel lighting project preparing the metal jar lids for the light sockets. I wound up having to make a jig to hold the jar lids so I could clamp them in a vise. I bored the holes to clear the bushings that fit into the conduit for the light sockets.

Then I went up to the station to help the guys with the students. It turned out that we had many of the people needed and I was mainly a backup for whatever was needed. Finally lunch time and a chance for a break. After lunch back to help in the station until we got down to the last train and since they needed a conductor, I offered to help out and got a ride along on John Hamre's train. When we got back to the station we were done running.

Back to the tunnel light project and more holes. I was starting to get good good at making them in baby food jar lids. Next I started gluing them to the bushings and when that was done, then cleaning the adhesive from the labels off the bottle glass. Now it is all done I feel this is a good place to stop.

Wednesday Meet Week

Got started at 9:30 AM with Rich and Jack. We got out Doug's locos and assembled a work train. Did a recheck of the one-inch line and we did find three more problems. After those were found and repaired, we went back to the Lawson Building area.

We started looking at the pieces Rich assembled for the Tunnel Lighting Project. We then got the sockets for the lamps and fitted them to the conduit boxes and worked out exactly how we would connect everything electrically and mechanically. Rich said tonight he is getting the bottles for the fixtures.

We had lunch and then Rich and Jack went off getting a train together and then surveying the semiphores on the onch and a half track. We believe the track is in good shape but they did find three signal problems.

I went out on the inch and repaired the targets on the semiphores by glueing shades on the fittings where they had come off. I got as far as the tunnel and just before it on the downhill side, I came off the track at the turnout just East of the tunnel portal. At the turnout, in the uphill direction it is OK because of the spring action and a train's wheels pushes the points into the correct position but in the opposite direction the points do not hold tight to the rail and you come derailed. Rich and Jack came to get it back on the track and I continued with the rest of the run.

Barry Solomon continued to work on the AC electric problems by the steaming bay and stayed busy for a couple of days now.

Tuesday on the one-inch line

Rich picked me up about 9AM and we got going. When we arrived we first went to the roundhouse and got Doug Ebert's Rock Island units working. All three are now working like they should. We got a work train together and loaded up the tools and supplies and headed up to Summit and back down to the work area. Just after the long curved tressel we started working on the bond wires Rich started drilling new holes at each fishplate and I started removing the old hardware that was not working at each location. I then bent the bonding wire and screwed it down using the #6 sheet metal screws. After finishing the locations out in the sun (about 8) we moved into the shady area. The temperature was in the high 80s and the sun seemed brutal out there. The shaded areas were much nicer to work on the track. Rich must have drilled 60 or so holes in the track and I was glad I was able to skip that step - especially on the tressels because there is a board at the outside of the tie ends that blocks your access to the web. I was able to reuse some of the existing screws and holes but the tie-end board was a real nusiance.

I was able to finish about 40 bond wire repairs today and the signals on the one-inch should be working completely. I moved the work train back to the depot and unloaded my tools and supplies and went back to the Lawson Building.

ChooChoo Bob's Run Day

Sunday started off with a warm, humid day that hinted of rain showers in the offing. I got to the track and went up to see what was needed. Everything was going fairly well so I grabbed a can of black paint and went up to the first curved long bridge and painted over the marks we made when we marked flaws in the electrical connections (bond wires) on Saturday that had been repaired.

Since nobody was around to man the station, I slipped back into my role of Stationmaster after about a year and a half hiatus. When the first inch-and-a-half train showed up the problem was that we had no conductors. I asked the engineer, Doug Wilkin, to see if he could find any and I went recruiting as well. People were showing up and I started welcoming them and telling them what I could about the club and trains in general. One person then another showed up to be conductors and we were able to start running the trains. More trains showed up and we had the same conductor problem. I asked one engineer to park his train in the yard and act as conductor for another train even.

Finally, Stewart showed up with a one-inch train. The people in the line were patient and were rewarded by the trip to Summit.

A fair number of riders did show up for the ChooChoo Bob's Run Day. I do not have an accurate count but I would estimate about 200.

Everyone was very nice and interested in trains. It was easy to find people who wanted to talk about the trains and they would have easily soaked up any information and exhibits that were available. Some of the families were there because a young child was into trains but there were many adults interested in  trains personally.

Signal Crew Work

Today we got started about 9AM. Jack, Rich and I started by surveying the one-inch line. The weather was warm and humid with rain showers forcast. We got Doug Ebert's Rock Island Line locomotives working as well as we could. Still a problem with the second "A" unit of the F7s. It would not respond to the controller at all. We finally took the locos out with that A unit running dead. Our work train started up the track to Summit and we began marking bad bond wire connections. It started up raining off and on then finally lightning and thunder so we gave up at Summit and after covering the train with a tarp, walked down to the Lawson building. Someone started a fire in the potbelly stove and we all appreciated the heat. The rain drowned out the sound of our talking from time to time but we just piped up a little louder to compensate.

Saturday was a scheduled President's Lunch so Jack Anderson was cooking away in the kitchen building and we got a preview of the club's season menu. Swiss and mushrooms on a burger, cheese burgers, hamburgers and Coney Islands (Chili dogs). We all had our fill and we felt the quality of food was really good.

After lunch, the signal crew got back out to the track at Summit and started our descent. We started to find a ton of broken or missing bond wires. there were about eight on the second curved tressel and 26 on the third curved tressel! Several more bad locations on the ballasted track were found as well.

Although repairing bond wires on a tressel is really a bummer because it can only be done readily when trains are not running, repairing tunnel bond wires is the worst job.

One inch track is harder to work on as the #6 screws do not have a lot of strength and the heads twist off half the time as they are going in so it makes the job harder. The amount of space on the web of the rail (the vertical part) is limited so the hold for the bonding wire screw has to be fairly precise as the heads of the screws are close to the size of the web on  the one-inch rail.

Turnout Mechanical Adjustments

Tommy took some time out from building the new ladder track to go over with me some of the mechanical adjustments to get the turnout working flawlessly. He showed me the various adjustments and gave me a spring cylinder to take apart so I would understand just how it all works.

I had noticed that after changing the motor module, it seemed that the turnout control did not pull the switch track firmly up against the rail in both positions so a train could derail if a wheel missed the moving rail. This is when Tommy showed me where and how to adjust the mechanism to make it work exactly correctly.

Turnout Control Repair

For some reason we found that the roundhouse lead low-boy turnout indicator was showing both aspects when the turnout was in the divergent track mode. This should be impossible as a switch selects which output is active at the moment. The controller had an LED that did not work on the control panel in the box which we speculated might be shorted and feeding backwards causing the problem. We decided to replace the motor module that also contains the switch that controls which LED is lit and while we were at it replace the control panel module to fix the LED problem. After replacing the working parts of the turnout control we flipped the switch and now the LED worked but the low-boy still showed both of the aspects! Since it was the early design control box Tommy decided that maybe there was some wiring error in the box so he checked all wires and they were correct but one white wire which only involved the cutout circuit. I realized the low-boy had its B+ fed from the wrong place and we corrected that with a wire nut. We found we still had the low-boy problem. Next I suggested that maybe the LED was "leaking" in the box because if we disconnected the control panel LED the low-boy problem disappeared so I suggested adding a series diode to block the "leakage" through the LED and that worked! Apparently the Yellow LEDs used on the control panel have a peak inverse (breakdown) voltage (PIV) that we are exceeding. The supply B+ is about 16V and that apparently bumps the LED into its peak inverse voltage range!

Recent Work

Yesterday and today I spent learning more about DoubleCAD as well as editing and improving the drawings that I did for Tommy. The drawings of the turnout control box were extensively edited and after correcting a few goofs, I added more detail and clarified some of the text, mechanical layout and wiring. Tommy sent some feedback and things are looking up. Now I will try my hand at publishing a handbook incorporating Tommy's instructions and my drawings for a service manual for the SCRR on the turnout control.

Recent work by the signals crew

Saturday 5/15 Rich picked me up and we went out to the track. We turned out to be the second and third person there at just after 9AM. We opened up and got to surveying the inch and a half track for signal problems. What we do is take out a work train and starting at a semaphore drop off a person and then using radios have the train proceed forward in the block and if the signal turns green while in the block we mark its location and then pickup the person and go to the next block and do it again. When a bond wire is missing that is the symptom. When we finished the entire loop of track then Rich worked on replacing a double semaphore at twin bridges doing the pre-wiring at the site and I prewired the base box back at the picnic tables. We then connected up the signal and went on to repair the semaphore at the long curved bridge. I worked on bonding wires for a while and came back on Sunday to repair more bond wires as well as look at the roundhouse turnout controller that was displaying both aspect lights. I coordinated with Tommy the repair of the controller.


Monday I got a new CAD (Computer aided drawing) program called DoubleCad XT (like AutoCAD lt) so I could draw Tommy's turnout control guts and make a how to fix it sheet. I made up a drawing and sent it to Tommy for comment.