Operating Scheme Maintenance

I've been running what amounts to a JMRI operations maintenance job, adding newly acquired items over the pastr year or so to the layout and updating their locations to JMRI.

At rear, both of the new Central Vermont GP9s have been added to a consist with the Grand Trunk blue one. They really sound greatr with all engines running at once. Next to that is the Walthers Mainline NW2 on another service track. The Walthers Mainline SCL SW7 is running the update train. I really like the Walthers EMD switchers; the sound has really nice random thuds and clicks.

The tank car isn't new; it's a Bachmann track cleaning car cleaning out the yard tracks as part of the job. It has a neat paint job for D&RGW work service.

In front of the SW7 is one of my recent Accurail Wellsville, Addison, & Galeton boxcars. In the foreground is one of my new Ertl gons with a Chooch load.

Japan Vignette

In my last post, I mentioned that of the limited number of N locos that will negotiate Kato Compact Line curves, many are Japanese prototype. (The Kato N NW2 will take them, but the Broadway limited locos will not.) That doesn't bother me, I had a chance to visit Japan many years ago, and I've always liked Japanese trains. So I decided that if I was going to run some Japanese prototype on this layout, I could justify making some of the scenery Japanese.

Tomix buildings are good basic models of very typical Japanese structures. There are several American railfans who live in Japan and make YouTube videos in US English about their travels, like Jeremy below:

There are also many, many Japanese railfans who post on YouTube, many of whose videos are cab rides on an entire line. You can turn on English sutitles that will translate their Japanese. All these are great tools for getting a feel for how buildings are positioned -- for instance, the ones in my photo back up against the rail line in very typical fashion.

For now, I'm just experimenting with where to place things, and everything is subject to change. But this is an example of the flexibilty possible if you use T-TRAK modular architecture for a home layout; scenes can always be swapped out.

Kato N Japanese ED19 Electric Loco

One of a fairly limited number of locos that can operatre on Kato Compact Line 150 mm curves is their ED19 electric loco:

The prototypes were six locomotives built for the Japanese National Railways by Baldwin-Westinghouse in 1926.

They were built for the Japanese 3'6" gauge, but the proportions aren't far off for US standard gauge electric locos. With a 1-B+B-1 wheel arrangement, they seem to be fairly close to the New Haven EF-2.

The biggest difficulty I had with the loco was installing the number plates. Kato number plates and number boards are tricky and liable to shoot off into space in installation. On their US models, Kato provides extras in case this happens. On this model, though, you just get four boards per number, with no spares. You'd probably have to send to Japan for replacements and maybe try to explain things in Japanese.

What I've done with Kato number boards and number plates is use a small piece of Scotch Magic Tape, laid sticky side up. I press the number board or number plate onto the tape, number side down, into the sticky side of the tape.

Then I pick up the tape and use it to maneuver the number board or number plate into the recess in the body where it belongs. It's good to double check and make sure the numbers are right side up. It may take some jiggering around to get things exactly in line to go in, but the tape will keep things from flying off into space. When the board or plate is firmly installed, you can just gently pull the tape away.

With no spares, I was nevertheless able to get all four number plates installed in this loco.

Overdue Project Update

As far as I can tell, it's been about 18 months since I posted about a trolley-interurban-light rail style micro project I've been working on. At the time, I was just scoping out the possibilties for mounting Kato Compact Line N scale track with 4-5/8" radius on standard T-TRAK modules. My post just had some curves temporarily set up on books and corrugated cardboard sheets and connected to a standard T-TRAK module.

Since then the project has grown:

The layout as it stands is set up on two standard double-wide T-TRAK modules that can be separated in the center. Either can be connected to other standard T-TRAK modules at one end, or one or more standard T-TRAK modules can be added to the center. Provision is made for the left hand module to serve as part of a reverse loop if needed.

The basic ground cover is JTT scenic mats. I got the trees in bulk, I think from Hobby Lobby. I still have more to add. The interurban shelter at left is Milwaukee Elecric prototype from Depots by John. The LRT style platform is from Kato. More buildings and scenery are to come.

Walthers Mainline SP-T&NO GP9

Diesels of Southern Pacific subsidiary Texas & New Orleans, although they were lettered for SP in SP-style paint, had two key differences. One was that they had three-digit road numbers. Another was that they didn't necessarily have the full packages of warning lights of the parent units. However, T&NO units routinely got to California mixed with SP units. Walthers Mainline has produced GP9s with T&NO headlight style and numbers. I ordered 408:

You can see SP-T&NO 408 in the photo above with 5607, a full SP GP9 from an earlier Walthers Proto run, behind it. 5607 has the full light package plus Proto factory details not present on 408. However, I think 408 is a satisfactory layout-qualiry model. Below is a Roger Lalonde photo of siaster loco 434:

The SP placed train numbers in loco numberboards until 1967. Before that, unless the loco was a lead unit on a train, the number boards were empty, as shown in the prototype photo. The Proto model of 5607 has empty numberboards, but the model of 408 has the unit number, which is incorrect. I may change this.

T&NO 408 was built in May 1954. In the 1965 SP renumbering, T&NO units were renumbered into SP number series, and 408 became 3408. In the 1970s, it was renumbered 3301.

HOn30 Layout Pulled Out Of Mothballs

I pulled a small HOn30 layo0ut out of storage after about 27 years. I first became interested in what RMC called HOn2-1/2 in the 1960s, when it first introduced the scale, and I had a small Minirains layout in my dorm. Then I discovered that while 2+ foot gauge was rare in the US, there was a lot of it in Europe, and I started a layout based on Austro-German prototype. I startted it in 1989 in a different home.

I eventually got the scenery to about 50% but put it on the back burner. Not lonmg ago I pulled it out again to try out some of the new OO9-HOn30 UK prototype items. The loco is a Bachmann Talyllynn Ry No 1. The UK modelers are a little lulewarm about this, since it's just a cleaned-up Thomas series loco, but I like it. The brickworks is an old Pola kit with some tweaks.

A Second Central Vermont GP9

As I said I would, I ordered a second Walthers Mainline Central Vermont GP9, this one 4445. The CV was the last railroad I grew up with, turning 21 in the White River Jct area.

As mentioned, both units will get winterization hatches and CN style spark arresters like GT 4448 in the photo. I'm still puzzled why the factory added snowplows to the short hood end, which is the rear on these locos, when they assembled the figures in the cab facing the long hood front -- and the decoder is also factory programmed for long hood front.

I don't have a photo of 4445 from the front, but here's a photo from an unknown photographer off the web of 4447 with its plow on the long hood end:

My first project on both these locos will be to figure out how to pry the plow off the short hood end and reattach it to the long hood end.