The Detour Through Germany

I started what became the core of my "lifetime" layout when I was over 40, and I was 46 when we moved to our current place and I reassembled it in the basement and began its expansion. On one hand, my interests as far as modeling was concerned were mature, and I had a good idea of what they were and what they could become. That was the good news. The bad news was that I liked everything -- diesel, steam, electric, narrow gauge, foreign prototype, the gamut, including all regions of the US.

This meant that I already knew I ran a big risk -- you see how some guys will model the Santa Fe in the 1950s, for instance, and one day they decide to rip out a whole basement layout and start over because they've decided they like On30. I decided I wasn't going to be that guy. I didn't have the time to waste ripping out and rebuilding, and I didn't like surrendering to lack of focus. So I designed a layout that would allow me to follow different interests. In part, that meant setting things up so that sometimes Germany was cheek-by-jowl with the US.

Here's an example, a DM&IR RSD-15 being waved through a junction by a couple of German guys:

I began to realize, though, that if I was going to expand ore operations, I was going to have to route them through Germany.

The German part of the layout has had its ups and downs as I've pursued one or another interest over the years -- progress has been slower than in other areas, but I've kept up the interest. It dawned on me while I was thinking about how the ore operation was going to expand, that this would, among other things, be a good opportunity to address some of the scenery issues in Germany. This part of the layout is pretty intricate, tracks are on three and four levels, with the idea that I was going to scenic things so you didn't quite notice that.

(I used to participate in open houses once a year or whatever, but it wound up being such a chore to explain to visitors what I was trying to do while they patiently explained to me that I was doing it all wrong that I simply gave up having visitors.) Anyhow, one feature I built into the layout 25 years ago was the option of punching through one basement wall into an adjoining storage room. The option branches off the German main line, which you can see here:

It's the switch leading to nowhere in the upper center of the photo. But I realized that if I was going that far, I might as well make some real progress on Germany. Here are a few shots from when I started the project a couple of weeks ago:

I got up on a stool to make this shot on my cell phone this morning:

Atlas Yellowbox FP7

The Atlas Yellowbpx FP7 dates from 1975. The locos, made by Roco in Austria, were a big improvement in running over what had been available in the low-end HO market up to that time. The F unit body was also a step above the Athearn-Globe tooling from about 25 years earlier. I wound up getting a large number of these over a couple of decades, mostly from swap meets and secondhand tables at hobby shops.

One of my lesser prototypes is the Soo Line, but my interest has been somewhat steady over the years, especially since the MR Red Wing project layout in the December 1994 issue. I built an Athearn bluebox GP38-2 inspired by that layout.

I have some DVDs that cover the Soo Line in the 1960s and 1970s, and I'd begun to notice that the old Atlas Soo Line FP7 didn't look all that bad in comparison with the prototype. Soo red-and-white was a road name from the original 1975 run, but in comparison to the other paint jobs in the early runs, it had some good possibilities. I found one on eBay with DCC installed at not too bad a price, considering it included the install and the decoder. Here's how it looked from the box, mint, in like-new condition, except of course for the decoder install.

One aspect of the paint job that maybe was what made me discount it in earlier times was that the prototype had black pilots and side steps. I fixed this, and I also painted the Farr-Air filters silver. I'll do more work by adding a winterization hatch, number board decals, builders plates, and ACI labels.

By current standards, it's a little crude, in fact, the Bachmann F7 wouild be a better option if they offered it for the Soo Line, but they don't. But this project has reminded me to pull out some of the yellowbox FP7 backlog in my purgatory box:

I'm still thinking through what I can do with this one. Conrail? Katy? C&NW? Lots of options! The 1975 chassis is an easy DCC conversion.

However, things get more complicated. This site gives a pretty good history of the Atlas yellowbox FP7 through its evolution. In 1990-91, Atlas-Roco released an upgraded version with a heavier frame, some improvement in body details, and a different motor, which was the same as used on the Atlas-Roco yellowbox Alco switchers. This included a revised wiring system identical to the Alco switchers, which in turn makes the 1990-91 locos pretty advanced DCC installs. The motor must be removed and insulated from the frame, with the motor mount screw replaced with a plastic one. Then the drive train must be reassembled and gaps cut in the PC board for a decoder hardwire. Whew!

Atlas itself phaased this model out after the 1990-91 runs and never transferred it to Japan or China. In 1998, E-R Models released a revised Roco version, this one using another revised frame, a new PC board, and yet another motor. Here's a shot of the revised frame:

This E-R PC board now has an 8-pin NMRA DCC socket. However, there are cryptic signs on the PC board suggesting that traces need to be cut for DCC, so I will need to see if I can find out what's up here.

But clearly I need to reduce the purgatory box backlog I have with these locos!

More AHM Ore Cars

More or less as an experiment, I found an AHM LS&I ore car on eBay, which claimed to have Kadees and metal wheels. I was wondering if the guy who worked on it had done anything like what I've been doing on these cars. Here's how it arrived:

It wasn't quite what I was hoping for. The "Kadees" turned out to be something like McHenry, the earliest version with the plastic spring fingers that wear out very quickly. And the coupler boxes had been CAed into the original AHM truck-mounted coupler pockets. The original builder did in fact paint the truck frames -- an enormous plus -- and also painted the black plastic underframe pieces, and the metal weights. A very good start. There were also the metal wheels.

So it was back to the LF&NW shops to bring things up to snuff. I tossed the plastic plugs that held the trucks in -- screws are really needed to adjust the play in the trucks for decent operation. I inserted sprue material into the mounting holes for drilling #50 and tapping 2-56. Also, I didn't mention this in my last post, but to mount Kadee boxes on the underframe, you need to shim beneath the end sill with .020 styrene to keep the coupler boxes level. The AHM trucks broke as soon as I tried to remove the metal wheels.

I touched up the paint and painted the sideframes of new trucks, as well as the metal wheels. Neal M asked in a comment on my last post what kind of trucks I use. In general, I use whatever AAR cast steel trucks are in the junk box. On this car, I used one old Roundhouse plastic sideframe and one even older metal truck with real springs. You really can't tell the difference once they're painted.

Here's the upgraded underframe. It's had a few test runs, but I haven't started weathering it yet.

My conclusion is that AHM ore cars turn out remarkably well with an evening's work and can be made to run reliably on a modern layout. I recognize that the LS&I didn't have cars exactly like these, but on the other hand, this is an example of how much fun vintage cars can be on a layout. Some weathering on this car will help blend things in, too. So I sent for another AHM ore car on eBay. Here's the box, which is in remarkably good shape for something maybe 50 years old:

The end of the box shows the price as of the 1960s, $2.49. It also shows what road names were available in the early runs. I think AHM added some other road names later. (The B&LE car I found and talked about in my last post must have been a later addition, for instance.) A scan of an ad I found on the web shows that these early cars were being advertised at least as of 1970.

I'm actually quite pleased with how these cars have turned out. Bachmann has been bringing back some old Tyco and AHM cars, but so far they haven't done these. With upgraded trucks and coupler mounts, plus more prototypical paint, they'd be a good addition to their line, except they'd probably want $30 per car.

Ore Cars

Back in 2015, I posted on an AHM B&LE ore car I found at a swap meet. I talked then about the cars' background as I knew it at the time, saying that I thought they ran mainly in Pennsylvania and Ohio, though they did wander onto the EL and PRR.

Just lately, because my interest in ore railroads continues to simmer, I got a DVD, C Vision's Vintage Ore Railroads. The second half covers C&NW and Milwaukee Road joint ore operations on Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the early and mid 1970s, when they were still using FM H16-66 "Baby Train Masters". In just a couple of scenes, the video showed some of these same B&LE ore cars re-stenciled with C&NW reporting marks but otherwise carrying the old B&LE paint and lettering.

This prompted me to pull out the car I'd gotten at a 2015 swap meet, which had since migrated to the purgatory box.

I did my usual thing that I do with AHM cars, tossed the trucks with the pizza cutter wheels and truck-mounted horn-hooks, installed body-mounted Kadee boxes with mounting holes drilled and tapped for 2-56 screws, and also plugged the bolster holes with plastic sprue material in order to drill them out #50 and tap 2-56 for mounting screws.

I masked off the sides, sprayed the ends and underbody with a more or less close match to the factory paint, and installed short-shank Kadee #153 couplers. I scrounged new trucks from the junk box.

I gave the sides a light respray with the body paint mixed with flat finish to blend things in.

The new car is on the left, an older one that I did with Champ decals 35 years ago is on the right.

The car will get metal wheels with my next trip to the train store. If I can find some CNW reporting marks in my decal files, I'll restencil them on this car, too. Based on the info in the C Vision video, here's an old Roundhouse ribbed ore car with taconite side extensions and Herald King CNW decals posed next to a B&LE hopper.

The B&LE cars continue to puzzle me. I have an ORER from 1984 that lists B&LE ore cars in series 20000-20982 with an overall length of 24 feet, which is the number series of cars I see in photos and on which the AHM cars seem to be patterned. A 24 foot length would make them capable of unloading on Lake Superior ore docks. However, the DVD shows them on CNW-MILW all rail trains, which makes me think the ORER entry is somehow in error, and these cars are in fact slightly larger.

Poking around YouTube, I found a channel by a guy who is having our brand of fun with the hobby and intermingling Roundhouse and AHM ore cars:

I keep building ore cars, but I haven't fully figured out how to work them into my operation. But I'm thinking about it. Focus on the piece of plywood just above the center of the photo and stay tuned.

My Seven-Unit Consist

Neal M and I both responded to John R's challenge to set up a 7-unit consist. However, John had some difficulties posting the photos Neal and I sent. Neal went ahead and ran his on his blog, so I decided I'd run the ones I took.

It looks like all three of us found that a 7-engine consist is pushing things. I’d had my hands on N&W units, so I used those. However, my layout doesn’t have many places where I can show 7 units all at once. Normally I have a hard time shooting 4 together, so it is what it is! The locos are two Atlas/Kato RS-11s, one Atlas Classic RS-11, One Proto 1990s GP9, One Walthers Proto GP30, one Atlas Trainman RS-32, and one Athearn dummy Train Master.

Like Neal, I decided not to try to speed match all seven, but I did put them in a single consist. Because they weren't speed matched, and a couple had dirty wheels, the consist crawled along for only a short distance. I found, as John did, that seven locos are hard to accommodate in yards and engine terminals.

DCC Consisting And Speed Matching

Fellow blogger John R has challenged several of us to come up with 7-unit loco consists. He knew I'd been thinking about putting together a post on this, so he encouraged me to make that post as part of the project. I've been converting to DCC for about five years, and one of the big reasons I chose to go that route was the ability to speed match locos and run them in consists. So here's my current take based on the experience I've had.

On the other hand, I don't want to get into the technical weeds -- in fact, my whole approach is not to do this, and I think a lot of writers and YouTubers make things much too complicated, including Model Railroader and MR Video Plus -- over the past year, I've ended my subs with both in part due to what I think is poor coverage of DCC. I will be writing this from the perspective of an NCE PowerCab user.

There are some gotchas to start with. The first is that Digitrax handles consisting differently from other manufacturers. The newest form of consisting is "Advanced", which I use, but I'm not going to go into detail over it. Just follow the PowerCab prompts if you use one. While NCE will set up a consist in Advanced using Digitrax decoders, you must change a CV on any Digitrax decoder to avoid "unpredictable results". If you are not using a Digitrax system, you must set CV 57=102 on all Digitrax decoders if you want to use Advanced consisting with them. Not a biggie, just remember to do it.

The second big gotcha is that Bachmann factory decoders do not support all NMRA DCC CVs, including those that support speed matching. (The Soundtraxx decoders that come with the Sound Value Bachmann range do support all speed matching CVs, although some sound-related CVs aren't supported.) However, many of the Bachmann factory decoders are also noisy, and some have a compulsory speed and acceleration curve, so it's best to replace them if you're upgrading your DCC game no matter what. The NCE BACH-DSL decoder is a drop-in replacement for Bachmann factory decoders and is reasonably priced.

The next issue is how you run your layout. I like switching operations, and my layout has mountain grades, so my average train speed is pretty low -- in general, I'm not modeling the BNSF Transcon with 70 mph intermodals or 90 mph Amtrak. More typical freight train speeds in the 20-40 mph range come off as quite low on a model layout. As a result, I match speeds only at the lower end of the model loco's speed range -- and many model locos, especially in N scale but still in other scales as well, have unrealistically fast speeds in the top half of throttle voltage settings anyhow.

As a result, while the DCC standard allows elaborate speed curves, I find these unnecessary and too much work. I got frustrated with the MR Video Plus discussion of speed matching, which involved using a scale speedometer to mach loco speeds across a whole speed curve. Some guys may well like to do this, it's a hobby after all, but it's not my thing.

Instead, I have a very simple approach, which works for me. In general, so far, I run two- or three-unit consists, and this works. I use a small number of CVs. CV 6, the mid-range speed, is the most important for me. The range is 0 to 255. 0 is the default, while values between 1 and 255 regulate the mid-range speed (which for my purposes may as well be the maximum for normal operation.) What I do is take two locos that I want to speed match. I set up a consist for the two locos on the NCE PowerCab and run them uncoupled on the same track with no modification to the CVs. I simply observe which loco is faster, and all I do is adjust CV 6 on the faster loco to slow the faster one down to the speed of the slow one. Typically a value between 30 and 60 works. If, after resetting the CV on the fast loco, the two locos run visibly at the same speed in the slow range, I'm satisfied.

The next question is the starting voltage. The two locos need to start at the same speed step to avoid one pushing the other at the very lowest speeds. What I normally do is when I install a decoder on a new loco, or get one with DCC already installed, I adjust the starting voltage CV, CV 2, so that the loco will start at speed step 1. A really good loco, like a Kato, will start at speed step 1 with no adjustment. Others will need values between 10 and 40. If I'm consisting locos, and after adjusting CV 2, both or all start at the same voltage and they have the same mid-range speed, I'm pretty close to satisfied.

The one additional factor is CV 3 and CV 4, acceleration and deceleration momentum. Here the gold standard is Kato, whose flywheels have good dwell time, along with very smooth running motors. The problem with consisting is that a loco with better flywheel dwell time will be pushed by a loco with less momentum when accelerating and will push a loco with less momentum when decelerating. So, for instance, if you're consisting an Athearn RTR with a Kato, CV 3 and CV 4 should be set to 1 on the Athearn, with the Kato left to 0.

But there are no solid rules, each consist will be unique, and locos can vary widely even from the same manufacturer. It will also depend on how you run your layout, and your preferences can well change over time on your own layout.

It's a good idea to keep a file with notes on what values you've set on every loco. JMRI Decoder Pro can be used for this, but I don't completely trust it, and I would rather have my own comments and my own format for this kind of thing. If you keep the file on a computer, be sure it's backed up!