Neat work.

I really enjoy seeing how people build their layouts.  Your's is really impressive.  I was wondering if you could tell me about your turntable, who made it, and how you are planing on controlling it.

Thanks.

Turntable

Thanks for your kind words DC.

Three turntables currently reside in the basement in varying states of completion 

• A circular piece of plywood with track on it acts as a full "armstrong" unit at the end of the temporary Salem staging. This one is extremely primitive and first appeared on my old layout. This one will meet the dumpster when the layout gets completed. Although this one is functional I almost never use it. It's visible in figure 13.
• A CMR "plexiglass" kit turntable. This one still lives (mostly) in it's box but is scheduled for installation in South Jackson yard, probably in a couple of months. This one will will hold an SP AC4/5 but is too small for an AC12. It'll get used "mostly" for turning helper power at the bottom of the South Jackson to Oakhill helper grade, and turning the occaisional business or other one-ended passenger car. Not much room in South Jackson so it will only have a couple of radial tracks. If there's a roundhouse it will be very short in depth and non-functional.
• A Diamond Scale 18" turntable. This is the one sitting on the main staging level benchwork waiting for it's home on the deck above to appear. I got this one from my buddy (and some times a MRH contributor) Terry Roberts in partially assembled state. I'll need to finish assembly of this one before installing it at the Bear Creek yard's engine service facility (the main engine facility on the layout).

I'm not sure yet how I'll power the South Jackson and the Bear Creek turntables. If I continue to stay gainfully employed I may splurge and get NYRS controllers. Otherwise I may resort to a large plywood disk underneath with either a belt or a friction wheel connect to a loco motor from my scrap box with a few transistors and potentiometer to control the rotation. Or I might do something completely different - I won't know until I actually do it.

Cheers,

Charlie

Marking wires.

Charlie, I enjoyed the article but noticed on page 25 figure 5 that while you labeled each of the terminals on each terminal strip, there is no marking on the wires.  Before retiring, I was a transport refrigeration mechanic.  The job required a lot of electrical working with both 12 volt dc power circuits as well as 110volt-440volt ac higher voltage circuits.  I found that most manufacturer's method of marking the wires so that I could tell at a glance where they came from or went was not really adequate when I went to trouble shoot an electrical problem 5 or 10 years or more after a machine had been put into service.  If someone else got to the machine and rewired something before I got there with nonstandard wires with no markings whatever, the trouble shooting problems got even worse. 

I found a simple method of marking wires once I found out where they came from and went that was fool proof, easy, and impervious to weather.  I bought alpha-numeric tape strips in pad form from the local electrical supply house.  They may be available at the local big box home improvement center in the electrical dept., I'm not sure.  I also bought suitably sized clear heat shrink tubing.  I then would mark the wire with the correct alpha numeric code for where the wire came from and where it terminated at each end of the wire, and at any intermediate terminal connections.  Finally to protect the markings, I cut a piece of the clear shrink tubing a bit longer than the length of the markings on my wire, and shrunk it over the top of the markings to seal out weather, grease, oil, dirt, etc.  If I or anyone else needed to go back to trouble shoot or repair any subsequent problems, I quick wipe with a paper towel or rag cleaned off the clear shrink tubing and the markings were plain and easy to read.

ops

Charlie,

Have you described what the operations will be like once the layout is completed?  Has that been in one of the articles that you have written?  I don't recall reading it any where.  What year are you modeling? 

Thanks,

Doug

bc&sj ops

I think the nearest I've come to describing BC&SJ operations (for the final trackplan) was in the Feb 2011 MRH Up the Creek where I talked about yard design.

I'm modeling 1952. But there are a few anomalies.

Charlie

Sounds so familiar

staging areas +++

The staging areas are only a small part of the. The area above them and the helix will become part of the mainline extension from 2 miles to 5 miles and a huge yard (Feb 2011 MRH). I'm figuring ops will never be the same when the golden spike goes in that mainline...

However, my current and more modest target is to get back to running in point-2-point mode by january 2013, that will require finishing the new (and hopefully final) version of South Jackson yard.

It's amazing how long it takes to get anything done on the layout. It seems like I should estimate time using the software project method where you make your best guess at how long a project will take then double the number of units and move the units up to the next size.

For example: if you think something should take 2 hours, it may in reality take 4 days.  If you think it'll take 1 week, it'll probably take 2 months. Yikes!

One thing I've learned now that I'm wiring the lower deck staging area -- those TGI (engineered) joists that hold up the peninsula with only 3 sets of legs extend down far enough to completely obscure the view under the lower deck. The lower (staging) deck is 36" off the floor. But with the TGI joists and and roadbed underpinnings extending another 16" inches or so below that, it's rather difficult to get access to the underside of the staging level between those TGI joists. They also grossly reduce how much space is usable down there for storing "stuff".

Were I to do it over again, I might just build a stud wall down the center of the peninsula (which would also solve the backdrop problem I'm going to be faced with in another 6 months to a year)

Charlie

What about?

Several carloads of useful operations information for the Bear Creek & South Jackson are up on Horace's web pages.

Don't everyone crash the server at once.

ops of the yard

Charlie,

How do you decide which trains terminate and are subsequently broken down in the yard versus which trains simply drop off and then pick up some cars as they pass through the yard?

Just trying to pick your brain.

Keep Plugging - Looks Great!

Having built a couple of big layouts (and currently waiting for a move to start my next... and last) I know it can seem to go slow, but your work is excellent!  I am following with interest.  Scott

Cooling and noise..

Charlie, I think at some point you might want to go back and add cooling to that booster station. A computer fan will help alot with air flow. 

And the buzzing might be cut down with cork under the power supplies. Or good rubber feet on them. 

But good work on a big project! 

Art

Cooling

You may be right about air supply to the boosters. But previously they sat on a shelf with about zero air flow behind them so I'm hoping this will be an improvement. If they get too hot then a fan will magically appear - time will tell once the layout is in operation again.

Charlie

Where's Mr. Fithers?

I always look forward to reading his perspective on the expansion! Hope it's included in next month's issue!

Ken L

I don't know..

" But previously they sat on a shelf with about zero air flow behind them so I'm hoping this will be an improvement."

If they sat in the open, on a shelf, that's not half the problem that being enclosed in wood will. Wood will insulate really well. And I'll bet the booster station will be nice and snug come winter.  

Maybe a thermometer in the right place may be worth while to check. Check the top and bottom after an hour sitting and during a run.

I've got a friend that mounted fans onto the boosters to avoid thermal issues in his space cause of heat. He's running N scale, but it was an issue for him. 

its alotta work

I really enjoying reading over the progress of the Bear Creek and S. Jackson. Its come along way and keeps growing. I've been a fan I think before MRH was born. Model RRing is a fantastic hobby, but you really have to have a commitment to get a project of this size in shape. My own SP Placerville Branch is on its 3rd year of construction and even though I am retired - meaning you would think I have lotsa of free time on my hands, I have to remind myself to spend some portion of my day in the railroad room. Some days its easy because I am working on a project that interests me, other days are more difficult when I work on something that I am just getting into. Having friends come over and help is huge. Its difficult to build in a vacuum for a bunch of different reasons. 

I enjoy these construction journal articles. Thanks for publishing them

Tom Ebert

Auburn, Ca

I loved seeing the turntable

I loved seeing the turntable plopped in the middle of the staging yard.   I thought my layout was the only one that ended up as a giant shelf.  

The hobby press needs a lot more articles like this one - showing how a layout is built - not just the finished product.  Its amazing how much work goes into just getting that train to run down the yard throat as a test.

Keep it coming!