MRN Express

Trainman + A Trifle of Toil = A Treat!

2011-11-15T19:53:00.006-05:00

I received a few Atlas Trainman 40' boxcars recently for review. Now I've reviewed Trainman 40' boxes not long ago, so I wanted to put a different spin on this one. So, we're going to take a basic yet gorgeously-painted model and turn it into something really good-looking, all without breaking the first rule of Trainman: Keep It Inexpensive, Silly!

So, here's the sample I started with:
It's a Fruit Growers Express insulated boxcar, and we can learn a lot about it by reading the extremely crisp paint and lettering on the side. Congrats to Atlas for getting the paint to look just gorgeous on darned near every model they make! So, what can we read? The car is assigned to the Pennsylvania RR (score one for me and my fellow Pennsy modelers!), and is to be returned to Pittsburgh when empty. It was built in February of 1953 and was last serviced or repaired in June 1958. Once you've seen a few freight cars, reading this data and more becomes second nature.

Next, I dropped into www.rr-fallenflags.org for a photo of the real thing, searching the Freight Cars- Misc. list for RBNX-marked freight cars. And bingo! I found this grand reference photo from 1966. Imagine that weathering is reduced to only a couple of years, and I can model the 1953-built car as it might have rolled by on my fictional PRR high-grade shortcut route of the mid-1950's.

So, looking at the photo and the model, what can I do to improve the model?

Replace that chunky roofwalk. It may be a bit thinner than the Atlas roofwalks of the '90s and earlier, but plastic still fails to represent this prominent detail well, and etched metal alternatives are readily available.
Cut down the slight fishbelly effect of the lower side sills. See how they're straight on the real thing, but sag on the model? I don't have a rivet-counter's eye, but I do love finding cheap and simple ways to improve models.
Cut off the thick stirrup steps on the car corners and bend some plain wire to replace them.
Remove the shopping text that dates this car model to 1958. Then its latest date will be 1953, perfect for my target modeling era of around 1956.
Maybe some VERY light weathering. I can see how the cars weather from the photo, and just reduce the effect.

So, with that list in mind, here we go!

First, I disassembled the car , removing the roofwalk and underframe/trucks assembly. With that done, I focused on preparing the roof for the new roofwalk. You can see the holes left in the car roof, which I need to patch and then shave down even with the stamped panel roof details.

A very easy way to patch up the roof is to cut those little pins/tabs/whatchamacallits off the bottom of the roofwalk, and plug the holes with those and a little plastic cement. After the glue dries, you can cut or file them down to shape. With that done, I had the car looking like this:

Well, nearly. You can see I did a little other work to it: the stirrup steps are cut off the bottom of the car, and the dip in the side sill is gone (making the bottom of the boxcar body level from one end to the other.) I did all of these by simply eyeballing it with a fresh blade in my Exacto knife. After giving myself a nice cut nearly two years ago, I always use fresh knife blades (safer than dull ones!) and make every darned cut away from my hand. It's worth the safety-mindedness, because rides to the ER aren't worth a few seconds saved on a project.

So, back to the boxcar. I painted the roof with a brown weathered look, since none of my red paints matched the almost brick-red roof color. While my faded roof paint job dried, scratched off the 1958 servicing date lettering. I then cut a short length of thin solid electrical wire, stripped off the insulation, and bent 4 stirrup steps out of it. I then flattened the tops of the stirrups where they would be glued to the body. You can see all this, and the cut out, painted, and prepared JnJ Trains roofwalk in the photo below.

Now it's time to put it all together. I carefully super-glued one end of the roofwalk in place, then made sure it lined up correctly the rest of the way. I then left tiny dabs of super glue along each molded-on roofwalk support, and pressed the roofwalk down onto them. A little roof brown patch paint, and the new, proper-scale roofwalk was in place and looking great!

I followed almost the exact same procedure for the stirrup steps. Check placement, apply super glue, press part into place, wait, and paint roof brown. As these details dried, I gave the trucks and couplers a quick coat with the roof brown paint pen as well, to achieve that very-slightly-weathered look I wanted.

The Atlas Trainman 40' plug-door boxcar sure has come a long way in one evening, as you can see. For a $12 list price model, a $5 or so detail part, some scrap parts, paint, and labor, this is one fine model! I'd surely do more like this if I wanted to model a train with several of these cars. But as it stands, I'm happy with one. And this model may be complete, but it has a long way to go... because I intend to run this beauty often.

Well, this article is detailed enough that I may as well just expand it into an Express Review with the following quick list of all the good things we've come to expect from Atlas:

This production run includes cars painted for British Columbia Railway, ThermIce, Fruit Growers Express (PC), Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, RBNX Seatrain, and Fruit Growers Express (RBNX/PRR) as shown here.
The car body, trucks, couplers, and detail parts are molded plastic. A metal weight gives the car a little heft, but it still falls short of NMRA recommended weight.
The mold quality is good. Not exceptional, but very clean and with no visible flaws.
The paint quality is excellent. Evenly, crisply, and opaquely applied through the whole car, from the tiniest readable lettering to the divide between yellow and red colors. Atlas deserves extra kudos for getting the stripes, lettering, and even white end lettering to wrap smoothly around the very 3-dimensional molded-on details.
The cars sell individually for a suggested retail price of $11.95, or $8.95 for an undecorated version. These cars arrived at Atlas in mid-August 2011, so there should still be several available at hobby shops and online.
Even if the molded-on details are a bit coarse compared to high-end models, Trainman freight cars are great cost-effective products for building long trains. And you can detail them easily and cheaply, like this project!

I hope you enjoyed this detailing adventure. I sure did!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

P.S. Oh hey, look at that, there's a two-rung ladder step just below and to the side of the boxcar door on the full-size Fruit Growers Express boxcar. Ah well, another detail to add later on!

PicPost: JTCo 311 on the Move!

2011-11-06T22:25:00.004-05:00

What happens when you mix a volunteer trolley operator with a bunch of Norfolk Southern Railway crewmen in the presence of a massive N-scale railroad?

This.

On a visit to Todd Treaster's massive home layout, I added my Johnstown Traction Company car #311 to the busy day of operations, sending it out on the mainline with the generator tow cart. I managed to capture an incredibly clear pacing shot as the car disappeared into the trench-then-tunnel of Pittsburgh, with more haste than any of the fire trucks above the trolley are capable of!

In case you missed the article, you can read in the April 2011 Model Railroad News about how I assembled my replica of the first trolley to operate at a trolley museum in Pennsylvania. 311 caused a decent number of smiles at Todd's house as it chased down the legendary long freight trains of the basement empire. If you haven't made it to one of Todd's open house events (usually announced on the Atlas Forum), do yourself a favor and go. You haven't experienced N-scale until you've seen this railroad and the wall displays that go with it. I hope to add some more pictures and perhaps some video from the visit, so keep watching MRN Express!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: It's A Dirty Job

2011-10-27T18:46:00.005-04:00

Even a casual observer knows that freight trains aren't clean. With most freight cars lasting up to 50 years, they get worn... and just like everything bad in a "Calvin & Hobbes" comic builds character (at least according to Calvin's dad), the wear and filth of daily life gives freight cars a unique persona. Hence why I am washing away stress by distressing (weathering) a pile of moderately modern freight cars that would be showing some serious age by the 2008-ish era I model when I'm on break from the '50s.

Hopefully, I'll have more for you on specific weathering ideas I used in trying to save time but still turn out convincing results. If anyone can slow down the homework load, I could do more writing for you... hint hint... I think I've built enough character lately.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

[Motion] PicPost: Four Axle Fiesta!

2011-10-07T16:13:00.004-04:00

Today I got around to adding the onboard sound computer/controller (usually called a decoder) to two more locomotives. Here the new GP40-2 and B40-8 (both from Atlas) meet my Amtrak train. Enjoy!

Finally a few four-axle locomotives to mix in with the many six-axle beasts I run in the modern era. It's a good day!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

P.S. I spy with my little eye... the "Joe Chandler." Did you spot it too?

[Motion] PicPost: Switcher, Station & Scenery

2011-10-06T18:31:00.003-04:00

I'm so excited to have some scenery up, I just can't stop blogging about it. ...well that's an exaggeration, but while taking pictures for my column, I noticed this very convincing scene, and shot a video of it.

To give credit where it's due, the locomotive is from Atlas, heavily modified with sound from MRC. The hopper and caboose are unmodified models from Intermountain and Athearn, respectively. The treeline was "borrowed" from my Johnstown trolley layout, and the rest of the scenery (finally!) is permanently in place on my Keystone Line modular railroad. Progress at last!!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Why I Hate Ballasting a Little Less Now

2011-10-06T11:38:00.004-04:00

What's my least favorite part of model railroading? That part where you bury your hard work in an ever-expanding mass of particulate matter, then dump glue on it. Your trackwork was perfect until you did that, but afterwards, it never works as well again. If you ever get the mess cleaned up, then you can move on to scenery, but the cleanup can take forever. In other words, I hate ballasting. It's more fun on full-scale railroad tracks than in models, where I always mess it up... until now!

Thanks to both a new track type and a revised ballasting procedure, I've actually enjoyed ballasting the Keystone Line, and I'm getting good results. You can see above my initial efforts to recreate the typical railroad mainline. The track has a wide ballasted area (typical of the central PA mainlines I'm representing), and it's lined with cinders on the edge, left over from the days of steam locomotives.

The track on my layout is Atlas' N-scale True-Track, which has simulated ballast cast right into the plastic base. (Woodland Scenics' Light Gray ballast is a very close match to this color, especially if you mix a tiny pinch of darker ballast, like cinders). This eliminates the need to ballast in between the rails and in switches, which is what always doomed my previous ballasting attempts. That's one of the big improvements in ballasting. The other is the steps I do to place the ballast, which I'll show next.

The first thing I do is ensure that no glue can foul switches. You can see an orange arrow pointing to a superimposed box. That shows where I cut the manual throw tab off the True-Track switch and covered over the hole with sheet plastic. This ensures the switch will work just as well after I ballast around it. Thankfully, my glue mix is not overly runny, so I don't have to do any more waterproofing than that.

Speaking of the mix, it's critical to the process. I took a half-empty bottle of Woodland Scenics' Scenic Glue, added about 3 drops of dish soap, and filled the bottle with water. This gave me a roughly 50:50 water to glue mix, with the dish soap to help the two liquids mix. I shook it for several minutes, then got right into using it. As shown above, I poured the glue first (which most sources don't recommend), then added ballast to it. You can "draw" with this glue mix, since it will not run on most level surfaces unless you encourage it or add too much.

Once the glue is in place, I quickly move to spreading ballast in it. The ballast sinks in the glue, which helps tremendously. If I find I did not spread enough glue, I gently add more on top of the existing ballast layers. If there is dry ballast on top, it may distort and run slightly before the glue soaks in, but mostly the ballast acts like a sponge, letting glue soak into it. You have over an hour's working time with this mix, and after a day, it dries moderately hard, and provided the glue reaches all of your ballast, it will not leave loose grains to get into your trains and foul the mechanisms.

Using this technique and some scrap plastic to hold up structures, I ballasted around my passenger station and freight station, securing the structures in place. The glue mix is harder to work with on slopes, but it still does work! With only ballast, glue, and the structures to work with, I completed the scene you see below. Even as the glue was still drying, I caught a photo of a Norfolk Southern B40-8 waiting to pull a boxcar out from behind the station, once Amtrak gets out of town.

Wow! So, the Keystone Line must be getting close to completed scenery, right?

Fooled you!

Yes, I'm a long way from finishing. But by the time I'm done with my Locomotive Profiles series in MRN's N-Depth column, I should have some real progress to show on this railroad. I'm just a messy and slow worker, but with a new ballast technique and the help of True-Track doing the hard work for me, I'm in much better shape to actually finish this railroad in the not-too-distant future.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Tribute to an Educator: Observation Car Joe Chandler

2011-10-03T15:14:00.006-04:00

Isn't it convenient when Micro-Trains Line knows exactly what you're thinking? Well, perhaps I exaggerate. But their release of a PRR heavyweight observation car named "Joel Chandler Harris" gave me a way to honor a man who had great positive influence on my high school years. It was an easy project, and I'll tell you all about it, including tips on a simple way to remove unwanted lettering with minimal impact to the model.

Joe Chandler served as director (a role similar to principal) at my high school for many years, and recently retired. He's a man rarely seen without a smile, and has always got a kind word to spare for students, former students, and colleagues. He must have been doing one fabulous job in his duties, too, because the school ran very smoothly for all the years my family had something to do with it. Most of all, I remember Mr. Chandler for his amazingly funny Christmas Poems, a yearly lighthearted look at the school population, which started with a hearty but humorous "Ho. *pause* Ho. *pause* Ho." He's pictured above in the act of cracking up the whole auditorium with his hat and poem, in a photo taken by Mr. Terry Decker.

Despite how much I enjoyed those years, I don't have many reminders of the people and activities that made high school a delight. Well, thanks to Micro-Trains and a little careful hobby knife work, I have such a reminder now. I took a "Joel Chandler Harris" car and subtracted the "L" and "HARRIS" from both sides.

My technique for doing so was simple and quick, involving scratching the lettering off with a hobby knife. Remember that a sharp knife is always better than a dull one, so following my own advice, I changed the blade before doing this delicate work. I simply drew the knife tip back and forth across the unwanted letters with a minimal amount of pressure. As the yellow paint flaked off and gave me a better view of my knife tip's precise location, I pressed a bit harder to loosen remaining scraps of paint from around rivet details. I use this technique often when re-lettering models, although depending on the paint style, you may need to patch up the model's background color when you're done. I may do so on this model if I can match the PRR Tuscan Red close enough.

I'm very pleased with the results and am glad to put the "Joe Chandler" on the end of any PRR passenger train, or even in modern times as a privately-owned car on the tail end of an Amtrak train. It's arguably my first model that spans both my railroad's eras and gets used regularly in both. I bet it spreads cheer, holiday humor, and life lessons wherever it roams, much like its namesake.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Tech Troubleshooting Tips from MRC

2011-09-26T13:15:00.002-04:00

I must admit that although it's my favorite model railroading topic, installing sound in N-scale trains is a complicated process. Sometimes, I simply can't figure a problem out, and often that's where fun ends and frustration sets in. Thankfully, most of my decoders are from MRC, and they employ an excellent customer service manager by the name of Frank Verrico. Frank helped me solve a problem I've had with a couple decoders, and put a new locomotive in service.

I love the combination of Kato SD80MACs with MRC 1808 sound decoders. Both are fantastic products that make a simply awesome combination. How awesome?

THAT awesome.

OK, back to topic: Since I like these things so much, I jumped at the opportunity to buy a third one. Installing a new 1808 decoder in my SD80MAC went smoothly until I started adjusting start speed, top speed, and momentum programming. Suddenly, my locomotive wouldn't run at any speed lower than 90 out of 126 speed steps. Even at full blast, it was managing only about 20 scale miles per hour. I had this problem previously with a customized SD70M-2 with an MRC 1806-2 decoder.

So I called Frank today to catch up and ask him about my couple of decoder issues. He led me through a kind of super-reset routine that he does regularly on any decoder that has issues with the motor control. Setting my locomotive on the program track of my Prodigy Advance2 Digital Command Control (DCC) system, I followed Frank's instructions to program CV1 =3, CV2 =0, CV3 =0, CV4 =0, CV5 =32, CV6 =0, CV17 =0, CV18 =0, CV19 =0, CV29 =2, and CV125 =1. This effectively resets all of those values to MRC factory standard, and most of those are NMRA standard also (all except CV5).

I must have ended up with some CV value that the decoder didn't like, and the usual reset (CV125 =1), wasn't finding it and correcting it. As soon as I did this and called up locomotive 3, the '80MAC came to life and ran the way it should with a fresh decoder. With some more exact speed setup programming (rather than the experimentation that messed me up last time), I should have a third SD80MAC ready to go.

So another early-NS paint scheme '80MAC (similar to above but with number 7204) now joins my two detailed units. All I need is for Deluxe Innovations to release those PPLX coal hoppers, and I'm in the black diamonds-hauling business!

I was so thankful to Frank that I thought I should pass his suggestion on. I hope it works out for you and helps solve some of the oddities of small-scale sound computing. Good luck!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Breakthrough: No More Sharp S-Bends!

2011-09-12T18:09:00.012-04:00

The Achiles' Heel of the Keystone Line has always been an underground S-bend that derails many trains and pulls apart many couplers. The odd track arrangement was made necessary by the placement of staging track switches and the curving ramp tracks that connect the two levels, but it's all made worse by the modular nature of Atlas True-Track.

I vowed to fix the problem over the summer, but summer came and went with no progress. In my dorm room now, the Keystone Line has lay unassembled until I find time to fix the bend... which happened last night and into today! And I made sure to take pictures to tell you about it. Oh yeah, and stick around for the epic celebration scene at the end of the project!

So first, I had to disconnect all the wires running to the surface layer of the front module, then remove all the screws holding the bottom layer to the layout's center frame. It took a while...
...and boy, was I glad to have the layers finally separated! I launched right into removing the old curve piece in the S-bend, and preparing a piece of Micro-Engineering Code 55* flextrack to take its place.

* To explain the "Code" bits: it's a model railroad term for the height of the rail. True-Track is Code 65, so I'm splicing in a piece just slightly smaller. It'll work closely enough, especially with soldered rail joints.

Here are some construction pictures, with the track removed and prepped for replacement, then soldering/leveling/hot-glue ballasting in progress. You can see that the idea here was to cut the rails as close to the switches as I dared, and make the curve gentler. [Later note: I found it more effective after completing my first attempt at this to keep the curve as sharp as before, but to maximize the length of straight track in between the two directions of the S-bend.]

I had to do my best to estimate the gentlest curvature, and while I'm not positive I got the best possible track alignment, I know I can unstick the track and adjust it if needed. [And such an adjustment is taking place.]

Below you have the "finished" section, with a test train ready to try it out.

LET'S CELEBRATE!


From MRN Express

With that fun little dedication ceremony done, I got back to work on homework. With more testing and tweaking, hopefully I will be able to reassemble the Keystone Line and get back on track. And, that means more updates here at MRN Express! So, please wish me luck and I'll keep on workin' on the railroad.

Revisions: Just making the curve as gentle as possible didn't make the difference. In testing my largest locomotives, the Kato SD80MACs, I found that their short front couplers were still forced to swing too far, causing the locomotives to pull each other to the side and sometimes derail. So I took out my hair dryer and used it as a low-power heat gun to warm up the hot glue, just enough to shift the track around.

The results: an arrow-straight section, made as long as I could, starting from the right switch frog (point on the diverging side of a switch where the "inner" rails meet). Now there is a long enough straight section that the SD80MACs will navigate the S-bend with no troubles, even with the very short Kato knuckle couplers, as seen below. That's a good thing, because I'm about to put my third SD80MAC in service... I guess I must like these guys!

It's close, but they make it! I'm continuing to level out the flextrack piece and test-run equipment over it. Once I'm confident it's as perfect as I can get it, the layout will be re-assembled and the trains will be back in service. Hey, maybe that will call for another "breakthrough" banner ceremony...

-Steven Goehring

Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Walthers Sound-Equipped 2-8-8-2

2011-08-20T17:37:00.006-04:00

Hi all,

Thanks to N-Scale Supply's pre-owned trains section, I'm now the proud owner of a Walthers Y-3 class steam locomotive, with sound. It's a delight to not have to install and mess with a sound decoder, like I have for nearly every other locomotive in my fleet. Here's a short video I shot of it, showing off QSI's N-scale sound. Please pardon my iffy lighting, I was a bit excited with the new "toy" at the time and didn't think to set up better lamps before recording.

From MRN Express

Here's the video.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of how it sounds. And yes, it's plenty loud to hear across the room. I turned the chuff and whistle down to reduce speaker static at the high end of the volume range.

Another useful fix I did is mentioned briefly in the video. Despite having traction tires on two wheels, the Walthers Y-3 does not pull that many cars, and certainly not as many as a real Y-3 could. Wanting closer-to-scale train lengths, I used the same trick that turned my New Haven R-1 into a powerhouse: I spaced the traction tire driver down. This time, I used incredibly small shims: the size of the top of Bachmann's square axle bearings, and only the thickness of two plastic shopping bags. I know because I made my shims by cutting up a scrap of a grocery bag! I super-glued the shims to the locomotive mechanism, right above where the bearing blocks sit.

Even that tiny difference in axle height made more difference than my previous efforts to add as much extra weight as would fit. N-scale steam locomotives have plenty of weight to pull scale-length trains, but not enough of that weight is concentrated on a high-adhesion rubber-tired axle. By concentrating more weight on the traction tires, your locomotive grips better and transfers more of its motor strength and weight into reliable pulling force. And if this Y-3 can pull 15 cars up the grade on my space-crunched two-deck Keystone Line, then it will handle a huge train on level track!

Hope you find this useful, and happy rails!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Bomber over a Bygone Railroad

2011-07-10T12:27:00.008-04:00

July tenth, a day of thin overcast and a distinctly eerie stillness. A B-24D Liberator bomber takes off fully loaded from an airstrip not far from the Keystone Line high-speed shortcut rail route. The mission: to survey the abandoned and soon-to-be-demolished region that was the Wellsboro, Ansonia & Galeton model railroad. The crew was ordered to fly no higher than treetop height, simply as a precaution against the unknown. Tethered, camera-equipped model rockets were fired up above the bomber to take pictures from higher up, and the crew chatter was saved as a record of the flight. Here is the recording, visual and auditory, from that tense sortie.

Written note from tail gunner: They STILL weren't done fixing that lightpole. Seems like that project has been going on forever.

Pilot: Navigator, confirm we are over the survey area?

Navigator: Affirmative, Cap'n. It's as ugly as I expected down there.

Pilot: Cut the chatter and keep me on course, George. I know how much of a shambles it is down there.

Bombardier: So this is what happens when humans just up an' scram...

Co-pilot: You mean, when they go away to college and simultaneously go through a revolution in modeling skill.

The bomber overflies central Wellsboro. Note the primitive model of the Wellsboro Diner, (colorized in the recon photo), which is characteristic of the developing modeling skills of the young modeler who built this scene.

Nose Gunner: Bingo, boys. Take the Wellsboro Diner down there. It looks nothing like the real thing, but to the youngster who made that model, it was close enough.

Tail Gunner: Darned good thing his skills advanced before he built our home!

Nose Gunner: Well, six years will do that to you.

Pilot: Navigator, we're nearing the junction with the former Wellsville, Addison & Galeton route.

Navigator: Rightio, Cap'n, Bank left and we'll swing down the valley to... My Lord, where'd the forests go?

Top Gunner: Good golly...

Tail Gunner: ♪Miss Mollie♪

Nose Gunner: ♪Was-a even there too!♪

Here the transcript was edited to remove some spontaneous singing by the crew. The mission commander would like to note that any readers who do not get the crew's musical reference need to hear some more real music. Hint: his name is Bobby Darin.

Pilot: Stuff it, boys, we need a photo of this.

Bombardier: My word! Ansonia... it's gone!

Tail Gunner: We came into this expecting no rail equipment and only abandoned autos, but, an entire town, disappeared?!?

Co-Pilot: Cut the chatter, all men heads up! I spot rail equipment ahead, and something looks wrong!

Navigator: Confirm! Presence of obsolete N-scale couplers on an old boxcar CONFIRMED!

Nose Gunner: We can't let that leave the area, it's just plain unsafe!

Pilot: Keep it together, kids! Bombardier, get your bay doors open, I'm swinging around for an attack run.

Co-pilot: Nose gunner, don't give this thing an inch! If it so much as glints at you in this cruddy sunlight, hose it with suppressive fire!

Nose Gunner: $@+^ it, I don't trust this! I'm openin' up on 'er!

Gunfire is heard.

Bombardier: Cap'n, you're comin' in too low! This is serious ordinance we're about to drop!

Pilot: You do your job, I'll worry about mine. Just get your payload on the target!

Bombardier: Yessir, you be ready to gun it an' climb, in three... two... one... BOMBS' AWAY!

Tail Gunner: Pull up, PULL UP! MOVE, MOVE MOVE!

A series of four thunderous explosions are heard.

Pilot: Quiet down, I told you squares there's nothing to worry about! Tail Gunner, is that thing well and truly destroyed?

Tail Gunner: Ancient history, Cap. That was good work, fellas.

Top Gunner: Man, I ain't seen an uglier piece of rolling stock in ma' life. Thank all goodness the brass told us to blow up anything suspicious...

Navigator: And we're almost done here. Galeton yard, straight ahead.

Co-pilot: Gosh, all that white space!

Nose Gunner: Well, we all know he never finished this railroad. We're flying over a bed of unreached potential here.

Bombardier: But think about it. This would have to be completely torn up and redone to reach its full potential.

Pilot: Right. The trackwork is functional, but messy by modern standards.

Top Gunner: Right on, sir, same can be said for the buildings and trees.

Nose Gunner: But remember, boys, we're only seeing the worst that's been left behind. All the good trees and buildings were removed for re-use. It'll save a lot of work, and still live up to the higher standards.

Pilot: Speaking of high, I'm sick of scraping ridges. Navigator, we've flown our course. Permission to cut out for home?

Navigator: Sounds solid to me. Let's fade, boys.

After the B-24 landed safely at home and the crew departed, the mission commander could be seen penning a few lines in his journal. A copy is appended here.

The WA&G was a good effort for me, way back when I was just entering high school. But I've grown since then, and it is time to move on. In fact, I am moving on, with a newer, better railroad. I'll miss modeling the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton, but when/if I do go back to it, I'll be much better equipped to do the unique line justice. For now, I'll clean up the old layout and free up its 9'-by-9' space downstairs. I'll save the lessons, and this unique last look at it, as I go forward in this hobby journey.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Straight Talk on the Bachmann GP7: Still a Winner

2011-05-18T18:09:00.006-04:00

My review of Bachmann's N-scale GP7 (in MRN's March 2011 issue), has attracted the largest reader response to date of any printed article I've submitted. Interestingly, it was just the response I expected, and exactly the sort of comments I'd written the review to address. So, for all the flaws of the model, I stand by my claim that this model is a winner for two distinct modeling groups: beginners and highly skilled experts. I'm writing this article in a very up-front and immediate manner, so much so that both my GP7s are hard at work as I type this. And I also ran my completely unmodified "Geep" over to an analog-controlled switching layout, oh, about 5 minutes ago.

And boy, the Geep was nice on plain, analog DC control. It beat two other four-axle locomotives in the reliable electrical pickup category. Aside from a fraction of a second's pause as the DCC decoder inside powers up, I couldn't tell that this was anything but the simplest of DC-only locomotives. And the small flywheels (or, "flyworms: large worm gears made of brass that double as flywheels) were at no noticeable disadvantage at the switching speeds this little puzzle layout allows; better flywheel-equipped locomotives stalled just as often (if not more so; again with the solid electrical pickup on the GP7). So so I still think the Bachmann Geep is a winner on analog? Yes indeed.

The GP7 and the two controllers I use to run it. The model can operate well on either DC or DCC with no setup work or modification.

Before my detour to the analog switching layout, my stock Geep was pulling 4 commuter coaches and a boxcar around the steep grades of my Keystone Line layout. It handled loads much like any other single locomotive does, doing quite well for its size. I think it looks nice, too, between the paint details like builder's plates & yellow safety rails and the convincing realistic glow of the headlight; not too bright or too dim. Meanwhile, my more detailed GP7 was teaming up with an Atlas H-24-66, working together smoothly (and earning the Geep points for "playing nicely with others").

Bachmann's latest standard-line diesel model is not a winner in every category, and one of those areas is the paint issues... yep, there are a disproportionate number of paint "whoopsies" in the GP7 production run. Two of the six are fully accurate, two have incorrect roadnumbers, and two have the wrong variation of their railroads' iconic color schemes. Again I'll focus on the PRR model: it has the number of an SW1200, and said number is applied in some generic, totally-not-Pennsy typeface. That's worth ranting about, right?

Well, if you're going to rant, be fair and take every other manufacturer to task. How about oft-praised Kato's choice of CSX SD80MAC numbers? They picked the ONE unit that's wrecked and retired, out of 13 choices that went to CSX. Must have been that unlucky number... oh right, there have been similar mistakes in the past, and in fact, all model railroad manufacturers make mistakes. They're run by humans (as far as I know... you readers may be able to provide evidence to prove me wrong on this?). Since I sympathize with my species, I'm not going to rant about everyone's mistakes. And I do wish more model railroaders would think of this before making questionably accurate criticisms on the Internet and elsewhere.

A couple of simplifying design decisions have made the GP7 very easy to detail, repaint, or rebuild. I'll leave the details for my full printed review, but suffice to say there are very specific reasons why this model is easier to detail, repaint, or rebuild than 90% of other N-scale locomotives. Here's the exact results I achieved, shown as before and after.

A stock, straight-from-the-factory Bachmann GP7, showing some dust from use. The numbers and rather large couplers bother me, but both are fixable. And by the way, those couplers aren't just oversized blobs, either; They're no bigger than a Micro-Trains, super-easy to mount on any model, and as reliable as any other.

I knew right away that the Bachmann GP7 would be a great model to detail, and I did. I strongly believe that the ease of customization this model offers makes it a go-to item for advanced modelers to build a great-looking fleet of the ubiquitous early Geep.

What about pricing? I received comments that the models cost just as much as high-end GP7s... and those observations are almost correct. You have to remember to compare Bachmann's DCC-equipped GP7 to other DCC-equipped Geep models, not the cheaper analog-only models. To take a price sample from three popular online hobby shops, you get the following comparisons. Don't take this as an analysis of which shop is cheaper; This may not be comparing the same production run of Atlas GP7, and some shops may have received Bachmann GP7s at an initial lower suggested retail price.

N-Scale Supply: $74.25 for Bachmann GP7, $108.71 for Atlas GP7

Brooklyn Locomotive Works: $68.49 for Bachmann GP7, $94.95-97.95 for Atlas GP7

M.B. Klien: $59.99 for Bachmann GP7, $99.99 for Atlas GP7

An important note here is the quantity in stock. As of when I posted the links to M.B. Klien (the only one who advertises quantity in stock), there were 23 Bachmann B&O GP7s, and from 11 to 14 of all other roadnames except Clinchfield. Atlas models ranged from a whopping 1 to 2 per item, DCC or not! This is why I have been working carefully to restrain my dislike for the Atlas models. I just think that producing a short run of them and letting them go out of stock for decades is simply finking out. Bachmann makes 'em to keep in stock, a much more modeler-friendly policy.

For the remaining model railroaders who think Bachmann can't make a good model, the time has come to wake up and smell the... oh, right, there's nothing to smell. With the better motors in these models, the ozone smell of the old toy trains is nothing but a childhood memory for me. This manufacturer has come a very long way in the quality of their standard-production models, to say nothing of their very fine Spectrum line of high-end trains. I hope this article, combined with the many reviews of Bachmann models printed in MRN, will help you see why I believe Bachmann deserves praise and recognition, not outdated criticism.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Safety Booklets 65 Years Later

2011-04-29T21:02:00.004-04:00

Years... yes, I know, that's what it feels like since poor MRN Express was last updated. And I don't have much for you today, but at the very least an interesting bit of historical contrast.

Today I found a couple of Pennsylvania Railroad booklets at a thrift store, and purchased a few relevant to my modeling work. But I also picked up one just for fun: Safety Rules for Train, Engine, and Other Transportation Employees. I immediately thought of my Rockhill Trolley Museum Rules & Regulations booklet, always in my pocket when I'm working there.

It was interesting to read the rules by which the Pennsy's late-steam-era employees worked, and they all make sense. The two rulebooks from very different rail operations are remarkably similar, despite the 65 years between their effective dates.

After some time working under Rockhill's rules, I came to see that they were a very carefully written booklet. In many cases, rules are crafted such that the worst that can happen from one mistake, infraction, or senior moment is a good scare, a minor injury, or a slight slowdown in operations. It often takes several rule infractions at the same time to cause a significant mishap. So even if your workers are flawed human beings like the rest of us, any diligent and dedicated work crew can perform 99%+ of tasks with near complete safety. I like that time-honored aspect of rail operations, so I find myself occasionally reading ol' RTM Rulebook Number 4 "for the fun of it" to make sure I'm on top of my tasks. The PRR book is very much the same, but with broader scope, more historic interest, a swell old-book smell, and a LOT more rules covering steam locomotives. Frankly, it makes me thankful they're retired from mainline service!

And just as a funny parting shot, never forget PRR safety rule 1146: "Using live steam for the purpose of heating coffee or food is prohibited." Sorry, boys, if your joe gets cold out on the road, that's just hard luck.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Brilliant Webcomic on HO Trains!

2011-03-28T10:29:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid I just woke my roommate up with laughter. I read today's XKCD comic, and nearly fell out of my chair. Finally, model railroaders enter the pantheon of nerdy professions/pastimes joked about on the Internet's single greatest source of geek jokes. Enjoy!

Food for thought: How bad would the phenomenon warned against on XKCD be if you did it in N-scale? What about Z? Or, God forbid, the new T-scale!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: White Elephant in the Room

2011-03-08T23:37:00.005-05:00

A dull, cloudy day in the woods of eastern Pennsylvania is coming to a close. A lone Lehigh Valley C628 is lugging hard to gain speed as a pair of the LVRR's classic PA-1 passenger diesels wing by much faster. The dust raised by the PA's fast pass lights up before the headlights on the big '628. It'll be a long, slow haul back to Bethlehem, but slow and steady wins the race when you're a 2,725-horsepower "white elephant."
Today I treated myself to a just-for-fun purchase, picking up an Atlas C628 from my old employer Trains N' Lanes Hobbies. I've always liked the uniqueness (despite the obvious cleanliness problems), of my home region's old white C628s.

I also learned a trick of a savvy hobby shop customer when I thought that none of the many LV C628s at the shop were running right. Train manager Dave Peters and I managed to narrow the sluggish '628 problem down to the grease. There's a lot in these models' gears, and the temperature had gotten low in the big store the past few nights. After coaxing my loco to run a little, it slowly warmed up and was soon running perfectly. Cleaning out excess grease helped the process along.

So if you ever find a locomotive is slow or even not moving at all during the winter months, think when it may last have been exposed to anything below room temperature. Especially with models being shipped to you or waiting outside for you to pick up their package, you may chill them out. So don't fret if they're slow at first, either at your hobby shop or at home. Give them time to warm up and break in the mechanism, and what might have been mistakenly returned can instead be put to work as a great-running model.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Express Review: MRC #1955 16-bit Sound Decoder

2011-03-03T16:10:00.006-05:00

N-Scale sound brings a whole new level of excitement to small trains. Sure, they may not really make the earth rumble and leave the smell of diesel exhaust lingering. But with realistic sound coming from even a locomotive as small as a GP7, your imagination should easily fill in the rest!

This is a rather long post, so I'll offer a simple Table of Contents here, with links to different sections of the review.

Introduction
Review of MRC #1955 Sound Decoder
Intended Installation in Atlas GP9
Custom Installation in Bachmann GP7
Running a Bachmann-MRC Sound GP7

Video Demonstration
Conclusions

Model Rectifier Corp has delivered a new generation of digital sound decoders to fit in N-scale model trains. These DCC (Digital Command Control) circuit boards use a 16-bit processor to produce sound, rather than MRC's previous 8-bit boards. The decoders support long or short addressing, programming on the main track or program track, and program track readback. They also support adjustable speed tables and advanced consisting. The decoders have a built-in speaker and a variety of adjustable sound files, each with 16 different volume levels.

In this review, we'll look at their #1955 sound decoder, which is custom-built to fit Atlas GP7, GP9, GP30, and GP35 locomotives. In addition to installing this decoder in an Atlas GP9 following MRC's instructions, we'll get adventurous and shoehorn this small sound decoder into a locomotive not designed for it: Bachmann's new GP7.

The Next Step in Widespread N-Scale Sound

Model Rectifier Corp has committed itself to a path of developing sound decoders designed to "drop-in" to as many N-scale locomotives as possible. Their products have evolved greatly since they introduced the first drop-in sound decoder, custom-fitted to Kato's P42 and E8 locomotives. I use many of these decoders every day and am pleased with the steady improvement I see in MRC's product line.

The 1955 decoder represents MRC's latest evolutionary step, with a mix of advantages and drawbacks compared to other N-scale sound decoders.

The 1955 sound decoder is shown installed in an Atlas passenger GP9 mechanism. The board has several electronic parts that are significantly smaller than comparable past decoders, making the 1955 a slimmer, easier-to-fit decoder than the 1811 or 1812.

First of all, I should mention its size and construction. Fitting a sound decoder into Atlas' small-framed diesel locomotives required MRC to change several components on their familiar 1811/1812 decoder to smaller versions of the same electronic part. Combining that with a new, smaller circuit board made this tiny sound chip possible. I think it really lends itself to customized installations in models other than Atlas GP units, and I'll prove that to you later.

In changing from an 8-bit sound processor to a 16-bit system, MRC has a achieved a subtle increase in sound clarity. The whirring chug of an Electro-Motive diesel engine at work feels crisper and better-defined. I spoke with Model Railroad News' resident DCC nut, John Sipple, asking him what difference he expected from an 8-bit to a 16-bit decoder. He suggested that the 16-bit would be clearer and possibly achieve a wider, richer range of sound frequencies (depending on the speaker arrangement). John hadn't heard any of MRC's 16-bit decoders just yet, but his comments and my comparisons to past sound decoders indicate that MRC did achieve the desired increase in sound quality. The decoder has appropriate sound packages to match the GP-series engines it is designed to fit in, and best of all, it offers a wider range of volume adjustment settings. Previous MRC decoders suffered from a restrictive 4-level volume control, while this decoder adds the welcome feature of 16 levels.

The decoder runs well, operating your locomotive similarly to the 1812/1811, but with a welcome improvement allowing the 1955 to operate smoothly at much lower speeds. It has no startup pulse power, so don't expect it to creep an inch a minute, and you will have to put up with some occasional jackrabbit starts. But overall, this decoder lands on the better side of average, considering all of N-scale's DCC decoders and how smoothly they run. MRC can do better, but understandably, their smoothest-running decoders are the ones designed for larger locomotives.

Another concession of the decoder's small size is that it will not run on an analog controller. Once you install the 1955 in a locomotive, you won't be able to run it on the DC (Direct Current) power packs that you use on non-DCC locomotives. Many of MRC's most popular decoders are designed for small or narrow locomotives, and hence lack this feature. I wouldn't miss it much, since analog operation would be boring with no way to activate sound functions. Simply be aware of this operational limitation, and if you want to bring a locomotive to visit a friend's non-DCC railroad, leave your 1955-equipped locos at home.

The biggest downside to this decoder is its sound volume. Compared to the loudest of my MRC sound decoders, both GP model installations gave me a locomotive capable of only half the volume of their stablemates. Now remember: most sound users turn the volume on their locomotives down to half or lower, scaling down the distance that a train's sound you can carry to match the model proportions. In this scheme, the 1955 decoder would be just loud enough and not a problem at all. But for those with limited hearing ability or for modelers desiring more volume, MRC missed the mark here. I was also disappointed in the all-new slate of bell sounds. None of them sound as good as the better 3 from MRC's previous decoders. Thankfully, the horn sounds are largely the same, with a few nice additions.

Installation in an Atlas GP9

Adding the 1955 sound decoder to an Atlas GP7, GP9, GP30, or GP35 is just as easy as installing any other sound decoder in an Atlas "Geep." You lift off the body shell and unscrew the two screws holding the chassis halves together. With the original lighting circuit board removed and the frames separated as shown below, you apply electrical tape (yellow in the image), to the metal areas right beside the motor contact tabs. Make sure you do this correctly on both frame halves, so that there is no chance of a motor contact tab getting bent and touching the frame!

The separated frame halves of an Atlas GP9 show electrical tape applied to prevent short circuits, and the MRC #1955 decoder ready to be installed.

You should now have the same setup shown in the above image: two halves of a mechanism with the motor tab spaces taped, and an uninstalled 1955 decoder. Put the decoder in the holding tabs on the frame half with the motor. Make sure that the two square brass plates on the bottom of the decoder (shown facing up in the photo), are lined up to contact the motor tabs. Once this is seated properly, put the second frame half over it and secure it in place. Once you are sure that both round insulating spacers are properly placed, put the hex nuts and screws back in to hold the whole chassis together. Make sure you replace the trucks (the plastic frames holding the wheelsets) back in place before you tighten the screws any!

And that's all, folks. You now have a sound-equipped Atlas Geep mechanism. One blessing of the smaller components on the 1955 decoder is that you should have no problems fitting the body shell all the way down onto the mechanism. (I had to modify my Atlas SD9 to allow a large component on a 1812 decoder to fit under the body.) The locomotive will be set up with the short hood forward, but you can reverse this by programming CV29 (CV stands for Configuration Variable, the simple computer language with which you reprogram DCC decoders.)

Fitting the 1955 into a Bachmann GP7

Right around the time that MRC delivered the 1955 decoder, Bachmann Trains had just released an all-new model of the GP7. Since I'm committed to fitting sound into every possible model, I wanted to equip my GP7 also. You can do this install too! It requires only basic soldering skills, a simple exacto-knife body modification that is not visible from the outside, and some electrical tape.

First, you'll need to harvest the brass pickup tabs off the bottom of Bachmann's pre-installed DCC decoder. Remove the body shell and unclip the decoder from the body. Leave the motor wires connected for now; we'll unsolder those later and reuse them. You can cut off or remove the plastic clips that hold the decoder down; these are useless to hold a 1955 decoder in place.

Photos describing the re-use of the Bachmann factory DCC decoder's electrical pickup tabs. See the article text below for specific instructions.

Start by unsoldering the motor wires from the original DCC board. Now that the Bachmann decoder is completely free of the chassis, find and unsolder its four pickup tabs. Two are shown in the top-left photo above. You can safely remove these following the method shown at top-right: hold the tab's end with pliers, and hold the decoder in your free hand. Touch the base of the tab to be removed to a soldering iron sitting on a holder or pedestal.

Once you have all four tabs removed, you'll need to solder them to the 1955 decoder. One important note: you will solder the tabs to the TOP of the 1955 decoder, because we are installing the decoder both backwards and upside-down! You can see what to do in the bottom two images above. At bottom-left shows how to re-solder the pickup tabs to the top of the 1955 decoder. Beside either end of the narrow part of the circuit board are four contact pads on both sides of the board. Using a low-watt soldering iron to avoid damage to the decoder, spread a little bit of solder on each top contact pad (the side of the decoder WITHOUT the motor contact pads).

Now hold the tab in place with pliers, and carefully touch the base of the tab and the pickup pad to the soldering iron, with the tab facing up and pointing in to the narrow part of the decoder. Now repeat this, connecting each contact tab to one of the top pickup pads. You'll also want to cover the entire top of the decoder in electrical tape, but allow the pickup tabs you just soldered on to poke through. This will prevent decoder-destroying short circuits while still allowing electrical pickup through the tabs.

Now we'll connect the motor wires. You should have one orange wire and one green one. Solder the orange wire to the motor contact pad in the middle of the decoder's narrow section. You'll solder the green wire to the motor pad that is closer to the long end of the decoder.

The MRC 1955 decoder also fits in Bachmann's N-scale GP7, if you put about an hour's work into attaching motor wires and electrical pickup tabs to the sound decoder. This is a good beginner's DCC hardwiring project for anyone with basic soldering skills.

With the modifications complete, you can place the sound decoder on the drive mechanism. The chassis is symmetrical except for the air tank detail cast into the underside. Put the speaker end of the decoder on the opposite side as the air tanks. Now, holding the shell directly next to the mechanism, adjust the decoder position until the speaker is even with the cab. This is the only place the speaker will fit, unless you detach it from the decoder and solder in longer speaker lead wires.

In order to make the shell fit, you'll need to do one simple and invisible modification to it. First, remove the cab piece from the rest of the shell. Just gently pop the handrails out of the cab corners and push the clips holding the cab to the underside of the hood piece. The cab should lift up and away easily, leaving a square and boxy area that it had previously covered. All you need to do now is use a hobby knife or a motor tool and grinding attachment to remove the top of this boxy area covered by the cab. This opens up enough space for the speaker, and with the cab piece roof intact, you'll never see the difference from the outside.

All that's left to do now is to use a strong electrical tape to tightly tape the decoder to the mechanism. Make sure that each pickup tab is making good contact with the appropriate side of the chassis, and that the motor wires are firmly soldered to the correct motor pad. Now is a good time to test the locomotive on a programming track to make sure the installation works and is free of short circuits.

If the decoder checks out fine, reinstall the body shell and reattach the cab piece (the cab can go back on either way; there is no front or back). You're done and you have a sound-equipped Bachmann GP7!

On the Road with a Bachmann-MRC Sound-Equipped GP7

Once I got the GP7 equipped and programmed with fitting horn and bell settings, I took it for a spin. It proved to be a good switching locomotive, thanks to its steady speed control, so I let it substitute for my usual modern-era switch engine. While a Pennsy Geep might look out of place alongside modern Norfolk Southern equipment, I found that the GP7 has a good trait that other sound decoders sometimes fail at: they feel natural to run, and all the components work together harmoniously.

Sound is useful to create a greater illusion of realism, but what good is that illusion if mistakes or bugs keep popping up to remind you that all you're doing is playing with a model? The GP7 just felt right in all its running characteristics. It wouldn't start moving below Step 8 or 126, probably because of the higher friction in Bachmann's wheel-wiper electrical pickup system. But once I got used to this common shortcoming of basic MRC sound decoders, I could operate the GP7 about as smoothly as I can run full-size rail equipment. All the sound functions were responsive, and none of them had odd traits to the sound files (like background noise or unintended second horn toots), that can wreck that in-the-moment feeling. The locomotive could pull well, but not extremely so. So to tackle the steep grades of my layout, I finally gave my lonely Fairbanks-Morse Trainmaster a buddy to work with. And what's more realistic and immersive than putting two vintage locomotives on a train, getting it all prepared, and taking it out on the road? Sounds like realistic model railroading to me!

It's high praise to say that the 1955-equipped GP7 mixed in seamlessly with my locomotive fleet. The features of the 16-bit processor was not enough to raise the bar on my entire sound fleet, but that would take a lot. The only problems I ran into were with the low volume, and wishing that the headlight LEDs were brighter and had less of a blue tint. But when I thought about it, the GP7 is probably no quieter than the quietest of my other locomotives. So, I suppose it's time for me to standardize my fleet's volume levels, because the GP7 reminded me that I have some noisy outliers in my collection. So it may not have blended in completely seamlessly, but it is still a worthy addition. The volume shortcomings are more annoying than deal-breaking.

Hear for Yourself: Video Demonstration

Click the picture below to watch a video of the GP7 in action. You'll also see a comparison of volume and sound quality to one of my favorite sound decoders: the MRC 1812. Occasional jazzy music interludes are meant to help you keep a realistic volume level, because, well, the 1955 is quiet.

I had a lot of fun making the video, and I hope you enjoy it!

From MRN Express

You can see that the 1955 is not a lot quieter than a middle-of-the-road sound engine, my 1812-equipped SD9m. This video also gives you a hint at how the locomotive operates, the trick of "warming it up" before achieving the smoothest of performance, and a firsthand sample of how the functions work, from headlight to engine shutdown. Oh, and that trolley? Look for a LOT more about that in an upcoming issue of MRN!

Conclusions

I think the 1955 earns itself a good niche in the N-scale sound market. This is the go-to decoder to sound-equip any GP7/9/30/35, or modelers' own Geeps of similar vintage. The low volume really bugs me, and also the lower variety and quality of the bell sounds. On the plus side, though, the decoder is solid, simple to install, and it sounds and runs very nicely. With the volume out of the picture, my GP7 is one of my best sound-equipped locomotives, thanks to the improvements and general quality wrapped into the 1955 decoder.

What about my take on the Bachmann GP7? Well, hopefully you read the full review in the March 2011 Model Railroad News. This new GP7 is a welcome addition, especially if Bachmann keeps the Geeps available, unlike the annoying limited-run manufacturers we modelers have to put up with. It runs well, is simple and flexible to all control systems, and it's a superdetailer's dream. But to throw in one comment I refrained from making in print: I meet and/or hear of many modelers who seem to have their heads in the sand when it comes to Bachmann’s recent rise as a quality N-scale manufacturer. But now, rather than argue against their deep-set Bachmann-bashing habit, I can simply pull out my PRR 8547 and challenge them to find a batter GP7 for the price. I bet they won’t be able to. :-)

So what's the verdict on the GP7-1955 decoder combination? Well, neither product is perfect, but they compliment each other well. The GP7 is quiet, even quieter than some Atlas locomotives, so you can hear the 1955's crisp and clear sound. On the other hand, that's necessary with the 1955's volume, and none of my ideas for easily raising sound levels have worked on it. You may not get the perfect-in-all-categories masterpiece, but by golly, you do get one solid locomotive. And maybe it's not quite a bargain price, but you can get one of these for less than $200 if you know where to shop, and to me, that's a good price for N-scale sound.

I heartily recommend this loco-decoder combination if you don't mind the below-average volume and the few details needing correcting on the GP7s. I run mine a lot and am eagerly awaiting more Pennsy GP7s. You can bet all of them will be getting MRC 1955s, too!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Train Orders Spreadsheet Link

2011-02-24T12:00:00.009-05:00

As referred to in this month's N-Depth column (March 2011), here is a link to a train orders-generating Excel spreadsheet. The document should open in Excel, Open Office, and other spreadsheet programs. The sheet will randomly generate a list of freight cars to deliver and running times for passing trains. It also contains a table for recording the results of past operating "days" to track your improvement as a switching engineer or dispatcher.

Download the spreadsheet here. Just click File > Download Original.

The list has been changed to be more generic, so I encourage you to modify the spreadsheet to your own railroad's appearance and operating scheme. Just be sure to mind the Excel command syntax, and be sure that when cells reference each other, that they are pointing to the correct coordinates. I did leave the freight car reporting marks in, just so you can see the sheet generate a random train immediately after you download it (although the train likely contains railcars you don't own.) I also made the random number generators for traffic train times visible in gray, but you're welcome to make their font color white to hide them (like the number generators for the freight car lists.)

Known limitations include a tendency to generate duplicate car numbers and train running times. This happens maybe once every five times the sheet runs, so when it does, I just randomize it again until I get a better result. On a later sheet, I created a much more complicated running time system to eliminate this bug. A suggested "solution" for repeat car delivery numbers is written in the sheet. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or e-mail me.

The file has been tested and did not harm anyone's computer. If something unforseen happens to it and you think it harmed your PC, I disclaim any blame for it. (There, thank goodness the legalese is over!)

Enjoy and good luck!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Trolleys In Transition [Revision]

2011-02-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

This post is going to be rather personal and philosophical, just putting that out there up front. I hope some of you will find it relevant, and please let me know if you do. This article was originally uploaded on Nov. 3, 2010. As of Feb. 7, 2011, I've added the italicized content, based off further Internet research discoveries. Enjoy!

We all model what we love and we love our modeling work. We hate to see bad things happen to the artwork we produce. We finish something, take pride in it show it off, run it and revel in the joys that this model railroading hobby brings. You'd never turn around and ask yourself if you really, deep down, hate some model you worked so long on?

Well, *sigh*, I had to ask myself that.

To go along with a new trolley layout idea, I made myself a beautiful model of Pittsburgh Railways car 1724, from the simple yet nice Bachmann PCC streetcar model. It's just another of Pittsburgh's interurban-service PCCs, and not a standout like the operational one preserved today in Washington, PA*. In fact, all 1724 had going for it is that it was frozen in time outside a certain Pittsburgh hotel, and then published in "Pennsylvania Trolleys In Color: Volume III." It was the hotel where I'd gone to my sweetheart's prom, so, you could say I made the model for her.

*I was shocked to learn today that 1724 does still exist, in Pittsburgh. It's cosmetically restored and on display inside the Great Hall of the H. John Heinz Regional History Center. If you click the "View Photos" link on the Great Hall page, you can see 1724 in the 4th photo, with a wedding party posed in front of it. How odd that the car is now part of many other couples' more successful relationship stories! Had my own played out better for me, I might have gotten to visit this car... hm. Maybe someday, if I have another good enough reason to navigate the nightmarishly bad street layout of the Steel City.

Fast forward to today (November 2010). That relationship is over, much to my sadness. Schoolwork descended on my life, and leaves me so little time to deal with life's troubles. I've had to turn away from many once-happy memories, or put them away, in my mind or my room.
But 1724 is still out. And I don't want it to go away. I am changing the trolley layout to model Johnstown, PA instead of Pittsburgh, which honestly is a closer fit to my scenery style anyway. But even with work-in-progress Johnstown cars creeping up to take 1724's place, I'm not repainting, selling, or scrapping 1724. I don't want to turn on the work I struggled to perfect, way back in what seems like years ago. It'll run, too, just not as a regularly scheduled car.

I built my 1724 back when life and love were pulling me in a direction I am now moving away from. This doesn't make 1724 bad. It just makes it a sign of different times, different tastes, and a different me. Someday, I think I'll appreciate it for that. But for today, I appreciate it for its good looks and running quality, even if it may make me a little sad sometimes. I suppose I'm trusting that sad note will fade in time.

Even as memories slowly, slowly fade, the trolley layout is growing, preparing to appear in college art class work, and in MRN. Expect to see a lot of this nice little model railroad in the next few months as N scale trolleys jump into the spotlight!

Thanks for reading this little piece that I felt strongly I had to share. It just goes to show that model railroading is more than just a hobby, especially when it grows so close to our hearts. And of course, if you have similar stories you feel you need to share, I'd be glad to hear them, whether by e-mail or by comment here.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: WAG Memories

2011-01-17T22:18:00.006-05:00

I found an interesting old picture today that I thought I'd lost. I've been hoping to find a good-looking picture of my first serious modeling interest: the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton, and finally I found a picture worth sharing.

I completed two decent WAG models as a teenager. Above, F7A no. 2000 is switching an unusually full Galeton yard. This was the picture I just found, of a rather crudely custom-painted Kato F7. The artsy-fartsy use of morning lighting and added touch of the brakeman riding the cab steps hide some of the sloppiness, making this once-lost file my best WAG F7 model picture. I also did smoke effects with a long exposure time and some moving cotton.

My better model was of a Rock Island DE75b, a Whitcomb-rebuilt Canadian Locomotive Company loco leased by the rural WAG for a few months in 1956. The model is a styrene-fabricated body on a Kato shorty chassis, and actually runs fairly well. It's pulling a factory-painted Athearn boxcar, nicely and accurately painted for the WAG's earliest (and brightest) freight car scheme.

I hope someday I return to modeling this rural shortline of northern Pennsylvania. Maybe someday when a stable job, a steady home, and some cash on hand allow for a layout worthy of this picturesque little company. But for now, I have pictures (and the models) left from my teen years' best modeling attempts. I hope you learn something about the WAG from the links, and hope you enjoyed the pictures!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

New Year's Resolutioon: DCC Speed Matching

2011-01-10T15:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome to 2011 and MRN Express' third year! My hope is to write more useful articles for fellow model railroaders, but keep things fun and understandable for all involved. I've adjusted how I check comments and page readership, so hopefully I'll respond quicker and write more about what you most want to read!

To kick things off, I have a New Year's goal that any modeler who operates with DCC (Digital Command Control) should pursue: Matching up your locomotives' speeds. With no speed matching, it's up to chance what locomotives will run together without slipping their wheels, dragging, grinding, or other nasty things. With speeds matched, you can pull any number of locomotives out, couple them together, and put them to work as a harmonious group. Since my model railroad represents a fictional higher-speed, steeper-grade shortcut line, I need multiple locomotives on all but the lightest trains. And those locos need to be able to kick up their heels without kicking each other in the proverbial caboose. Here's how I imposed order on the chaos of my locomotive fleet:

First, you need a standard to compare to. I decided I wanted my locomotives to run at 100 scale miles per hour (sMPH) at speed step 100 (out of 126 on my MRC command control system). I also wanted them to run at 20 sMPH at speed step 20, and hopefully, the speeds between those would sync up reasonably well also. I expected to fit all my locomotives into this, regardless of who made the loco or its decoder (the onboard control computer). Once you have a standard, stick to it strictly.

In order to stick to the standard, you need a way to track which locomotives comply with your expectations. I re-made an Excel spreadsheet that recorded my locomotives' programming; you might also keep records in JMRI or your DCC system's proprietary computer interface.

Now comes the longest step: testing locomotives and programming them to fit your standard. I used a precisely-measured loop of track and my cell phone's stopwatch app. My Excel sheet has cells programmed to do simple division to turn a locomotive lap time into sMPH. From there it's just a lot of monotonous work of reprogramming speed values for each decoder, and diligently recording your changes.
Once in a while, I take a break to remind me why I'm doing all this. If you get tired of speed matching or are unmotivated to continue, take the most diverse locomotives that you have speed-matched so far and run them together. Just set 'em on the track and make a completely batty consist that not even a rail museum would dare run. A Pennsy GG1 leading a Reading SD45 with Norfolk Southern SD80MACs and a New Haven steamer-Amtrak P42 combo on the end? It's all possible when you've matched your locomotive fleet's speeds, and it can remind you why you're doing all this work.

But of course, the real reason to do this is simpler, smoother operations that fit with your railroad's story. I know my model railroad will run better with more flexibility to assign locomotives to the same train, and a smoother, simpler, "funner" hobby sounds like a good plan for a good new year!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Have a Trolley Jolly Christmas

2010-12-27T10:35:00.004-05:00

What train do you put under the Christmas tree in the family that has put just about every train they own under the tree? That was my dilemma on arriving home from college this December. I'd done it all before: classic HO-scale trains, Large-scale, Lego trains, and more. We might have even put my cousin's Lionel train up one year if it didn't spark like a trolley pole on icy overhead wire and scare the Southern Pacific coastal streamliners out of younger me (Get it? Scare the "Daylights" out of me? No? Boo...)

OK, lousy train puns aside, I really wanted something different running under the tree this year. After some thought, I decided to use the Legos again, but to build new trains to run. So, I took apart a bunch of older Lego models and put together some trolleys. If you're interested in Lego trains, you can see Lego's current products here. They've evolved and changed since the electric track-with-a-controller trains I have, but their new infrared-controlled sets look pretty cool.
The first Lego trolley I finished was this single-truck closed-side passenger car. It got most of the running time, and got attention from our two cats. My cat, shown above, just watched the trolleys with mild interest, but my mother's kitten tried to Catzilla the trolleys a few times!
I built a double-truck streamline trolley, much like a PCC streetcar, but never did find doors for it. After finishing that, though, I wanted another little single-truck car, and one with a more Christmasy color scheme, but I was almost completely out of windows! Well, when out of Windows, switch to a Mac... oops, no, I meant to say make a freight motor! I quickly built the little trolley freight mover shown above, and let it lead a train carrying coal, Christmas trees, and a caboose around. Here it's shown passing gifts, a skating pond, and the birth of Jesus. Busy scene!

And you can bet that the so-called "wise men" were actually wise this time: They left their camels at home and instead rode the warmer and faster trolleys to Bethlehem!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season full of cheerful celebrations, safe travels, and creative ideas of how to put a unique train under the tree. Feel free to share your Christmas trains!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

MRN Express Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-23T21:53:00.008-05:00

Happy holidays again! I have a growing holiday tradition, in its fourth year, where I make a Christmas card by editing a model train photograph. Usually I pattern it after an original railroad advertisement, poster, map, etc. This year, of course, I chose to feature my New Haven 4-8-2, which worked overtime through all of December to keep me sane at school. Plus, what railroad can you think of that used the colors red, white, green, and gold in such a classy way?

The locomotive is a detailed Bachmann model, pulling an Atlas caboose. The scene was photographed on Todd Treaster's fantastic model railroad, and heavily edited using functions from four, count 'em, FOUR, image editing programs. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it, and have a great holiday and a wonderful new year!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Changing of the Guard: NS to PRR

2010-12-19T17:26:00.008-05:00

I had quite the dilemma earlier this weekend: I have one more final exam stressing me to extremes, but I have to be packed to go the morning after the test. Big problem is, my model railroad is the hardest thing to pack up, but it's also what keeps me sane. How could I make it easier to pack, but still enjoy it?

Well, I changed the trains. And surprisingly, that worked very well. I had all my modern equipment on the railroad, which made sense: I hear so many NS air horns every day, so I want to run my own little version of what I hear in the distance. But on the downside, I don't have good moving boxes for most of my newly-acquired modern stuff. I have Deluxe Innovations UnitPacks for my '50s equipment, but not only have these super-convenient moving boxes been out of stock, but big, modern freight cars simply don't fit as well.

So, I resolved to pack up the modern trains in a variety of boxes-- a rather long process-- and bring out the '50s equipment. This would not only cut in half the layout pack-up time (it's easy to stow trains when they have designated spots in the boxes!) but it brought a wonderful level of novelty back to the railroad. So sit back and enjoy the view as all my modern trains come off the layout and classic Pennsylvania Railroad trains begin to appear!

First and perhaps best-loved is the Amtrak Pennsylvanian, now returned to pre-summer 2009 configuration with the café car on the rear end instead of the front. That Kato P42 really gets a workout.

Next to depart was the doublestack train, pulled by my always-reliable Kato SD70M duo.
Two more trains ready to be packed away: A custom SD70M-2 with a Roadrailer train, and an Atlas Dash-840CW-Kato ES44AC pair bringing my mixed freight train up from underground storage to be put away.
My detailed remote-control SD9M and its caboose are next up. This little guy's come quite a ways from its roots as an Atlas SD9.
Finally, the stray cats come out to play: a CSX C40-8 and an NS SD60, both by Atlas, and a Fox Valley Models ES40DC, still in need of some work.
At last, a glimpse of keystones! Leading the charge at its own relaxed pace is PRR GS-4 9337, a General Electric 44-ton centercab switcher modeled by Bachmann. This diminutive diesel takes over from the R/C SD9M.
Heads up, here comes an AS-18m pair (called RS-11s anywhere except the Pennsy,) leading a Truc-Train. The Atlas-built diesels sure make the train look more exotic than the doublestack it's replacing.
Ol' reliable. One of Intermountain Railway Company's fantastic FP7s muscles a short commuter and mail train east. No. 9835 is a EFP-15 in PRR jargon.
I bet none of you have an engine quite like this one! Redetailed and with major reworking to add sound, this old Life-Like FA-1 model with its FB-1 booster are in charge of an express-and-refrigerator train, replacing the roadrailers. The PRR AF-16 set has more than enough power for this job, and authentic Alco-diesel personality to spare.

The lone ranger: A Fairbanks-Morse Trainmaster, called a FS-24m on the PRR, lugs the mixed freight up the hills. I suspect this older Atlas model will handle its jobs better than the two modern GE diesels it replaces; both those engines need some work!
Fresh out of the restoration shop is PRR AP-20 5755, with an old-time version of today's Pennsylvanian. This Broadway Limited PA-1 model required some repair and repainting prior to going to work in place of the Amtrak train.

And with that, the time period transition is complete. I've been enjoying the new and different appearance of the railroad, and it's been helpful getting through my last exams. I hope to write more about some of these trains as my winter break allows. Who knows, it's been a while since my last Express Review. Perhaps it's time for another one of those!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

MRN Express Holiday Train

2010-12-08T20:25:00.005-05:00

Warmest holiday greetings from MRN Express! I'd like to share a quick video of my designated holiday train running through the one almost-scenicked area of the Keystone Line.

Pardon the interruption of the freight train, but at least it passed the camera before the holiday special showed up! I put together the holiday train from equipment I already had on hand; nothing was bought new or permanently modified. Conveniently enough, the LokSound digital sound decoders (err, onboard computers,) on my New Haven 4-8-2 and Amtrak P42 work together flawlessly. They are the only two of their kind I have running, but boy are they nice. I essentially modeled the holiday train as an expanded Amtrak Pennsylvanian, using my upgraded Bachmann Amfleet coaches with a couple pieces of red and green-colored historic equipment. Some scrapbooking-quality snowflake stickers round out the train's decorations

And there you have a nice bit of rail-based holiday cheer. So what are you running for the holidays? Anything new or interesting? I know N-scale trains may be a bit tiny for around a full-size Christmas tree, but I think this video shows that they work just fine around a tiny tree. I'd love to hear about your holiday railroading adventures!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

What I'm Thankful For

2010-11-30T22:45:00.006-05:00

With Thanksgiving come and gone already, I thought I should write a short article on two things I'm thankful for. Of course there are a bunch of nice models released in the last year to appreciate, but that's what MRN's printed magazine describes. I'd like to consider two more abstract and, I think, more meaningful things.

Thanks for Appreciating Railroads
For one, I'm thankful for a shift in attitude towards trains and railroading. Today's young generation never had close contact with railroads like generations past; major passenger service was long gone, and freight railroads had long since cut down public relations to a bare minimum. So, trains were a curiosity, whereas for past generations, they were an obsolete thing, replaced by trucks and airplanes.

But the truth is, trains are not obsolete, and I think more and more people are realizing their worth. I experienced this firsthand when inviting several friends to my dorm room for a video game night. My model railroad sits against the far wall of my room, so everyone noticed it right away. And once the few gasps of surprise died down, this mix of college students (both boys and girls,) started talking for a few minutes about how helpful the trains of the real world are. Most of us had ridden Amtrak, and certainly all of us had been in traffic jams before. My friends knew trains provided an alternative to road transportation and congestion, and they appreciated that. I felt so glad to see this, and I'd die contented if I can make it my life's work to spread this acceptance. Maybe we'll live in a nicer, cleaner, and safer world if people embrace trains for the tasks they do best.

Thanks for Kind Hosts
I had been to Todd Treaster's home before for an open house last year, so when I learned of another open house event taking place this year, I made plans to attend. Todd has a fantastic built-to-run model railroad empire capturing the spirit of contemporary west Pennsylvania mainline railroading. Best of all, he and his wife Becky make great hosts to the crowds that come to visit each year.

When the crowds thinned a bit in the early afternoon, Todd gave me the proverbial proceed signal to put a locomotive of my own to work on the layout. After waiting for the modern freight trains to make room, I took two modified Bachmann models for a spin. It made such a difference to run them on broad, sweeping curves amidst truly complete scenery... I'm really thankful for people who have such complete works of model railroad art, and especially those who make the effort to share them!

Nov. 27, 2010: restored New Haven 4-8-2 no. 3303 waits at a vintage PRR position light signal on Norfolk Southern's Pittsburgh Line. The steamer and matching caboose will travel west to Pittsburgh unassisted, as a caboose-hop steam excursion.

Unsuspecting NS workmen (and a stray railfan) all do double-takes as the steamer gingerly steps past.

Paused on a bridge while a Roadrailer train passes, no. 3303 and its caboose reflect nicely in the waters below. The water is about to join the Susquehanna River, just as 3303 is about to pull out and continue its journey.

Coming back the opposite direction that day was an even more unusual excursion: A restored PCC streetcar from Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Railways car 1724 has a "sill car" with a diesel generator in tow. The sill car is coupled to a railroad tank car, hauling fuel to power the trolley in this land of no overhead wires. The idea of powering a trolley by a cart, generator, and extension cord worked for the fledgling Rockhill Trolley Museum in the early 1960s, and the idea works once again.

Another trailer train passes the 1724 as it pauses in Lewistown, PA. The dispatcher radioed the trolley operator to inform him that another train was waiting to use the trolley's track, so the trip from Lewistown to Harrisburg was very fast. A PCC can really move, given the right track and the luck that the light and crude sill car will hold the rail!

As one last note of thanks, I appreciate you taking a look at this fun little photo story of things that are only possible today in models. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for, and may the upcoming December holidays be merry and bright!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: Thunder on the PRR

2010-11-15T20:19:00.007-05:00

This photo has been a longtime favorite of mine. Today, I decided to explore some photo editing tools and see what I could do to make it look more interesting. So, I messed with lighting, headlight glow, exhaust smoke, and heat distortion. That bit of work gave me this:

Somewhere along the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline, two train crews compete to show who is the fastest. One crew has the Broadway Limited up to speed, trying to pass a high-priority Truc-Train. But the trailer train's RS-11s aren't giving an inch; the engineer just threw the throttle all the way back, and his locomotives respond with a titanic rumble and a blast of diesel exhaust. The crew on the E8 follows suit, releasing a wisp of white smoke that belies the massive power their machine is putting to the rail. The ground shakes, as if the very earth below is on the edge of its seat watching this thousand-ton drag race.

In the model world, the scene includes a Kato E8a, modified with some added PRR-specific details. The RS-11s are Atlas models, and are similarly modified. Trailers from Classic Metal Works and Athearn complete the scene, riding on a homebuilt flatcar based around Atlas 50' flats. A variety of Woodland Scenics materials are blurred in the foreground and background.

I'll let you in on the secret to the blur, too. It's not photoshopped; I used Legos to build two push arms to move the trains, connected to a cart on which my camera rested. I could push all three along as one unit, and by taking many shots with a long exposure time, I managed to get the realisticc blur of a thrilling pace shot. Hope you enjoyed it!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: Station Under the Stars

2010-11-11T08:51:00.004-05:00

All of a sudden I have a lot to post here about. Oh well, they say November is National Model Railroad Month, so what the heck, bring on the blogging!
I took another photo I wanted to share. I have been trying to get at least a small part of my model railroad presentable to appear in a Web Design class project. So, I did some minor weathering on a repainted railroad depot building, and built a platform for it. I wanted it ready to install permanently now, so I went ahead and added window glass and an interior light system. The station contains 5 bulbs (counting one that is a Model Power lamppost), a 9-volt battery, and an on-off switch. (I couldn't find a link to the N-scale lamppost, but here's the HO scale one.)

I wanted to take a photo to show off the lighting job, and make it something so vivid that you could practically hear the crickets chirping and the chug of an accelerating Amtrak P42. The station is my modified plastic kit, of unknown manufacture. Track is Atlas True-Track again, and I think its slightly lower-profile rail helps the realism of this scene. The passenger car is a modified Bachmann Amfleet snack car with the interior painted and the light unit masked, both to reduce interior light glare. The starry background is, admittedly, photoshopped in, but if I had a starry night backdrop, I could just as easily have used that instead.

Hope you like it!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PRR Keystone Line: Revisions of Introduction, History, Concepts & Design

2010-11-10T08:12:00.013-05:00

In my N-Depth column for the November 2010 Model Railroad News, I revived a series on the construction of my new modular model railroad, the Keystone Line. I had written a year earlier introducing the idea of a four-module, two-level model railroad providing an extreme test of Atlas Model RR Co.'s new N-scale True-Track product line. Many things have evolved or changed since that original article ran in November 2009, so I have re-written the column to reflect the model railroad as I am actually building it. So here goes!

Welcome to the update to last year’s N-Depth column, home of soul-searching, destiny-deciding, and taking the road less traveled… among other exaggerated, sentimental page clutter that serves no real purpose. So, considering that the above fluff is not my topic, why would I open my article like that? What the heck has happened to MRN’s wandering Pennsylvanian writer?

In many ways, I am still in a state of in-betweenness right now. I’m not a teenager at home any longer, but I’m not out on my own. I’m beginning to reach beyond being just a student, but I’m certainly not in the workforce yet. And most of all, I’ve got an idea of my life plans, but I am still waiting for the time when those plans can really take off. I know that I will be in-between quite a bit longer, for a couple of years yet, and I want to make the most of this time. Just because I’m waiting does not necessarily mean I wish the time away.

In trying to enjoy this transition time, I am working on building a model railroad to fit with this period of change and relative instability. So I have planned and begun work on a model railroad that will fit well in my transition time and also function well during my early adult years. Thankfully, being an N scale model railroader gives me advantages that other scales lack in making a layout to adapt to limited stability, space, and time.

Concepts of the Keystone Line
I started planning my new model railroad during the summer of 2009. I went through the usual long series of track plans, refining the overall size of the layout and combining the best features of many track plans. I had a specific set of goals in mind to push the quality of this railroad beyond my previous efforts. First of all, I decided that I would not use Code 80 rail. I have brought my models and scenery skills up to the point that the oversized rail is the greatest visual drawback of my photographs; I knew it was time to upgrade. The release of Atlas’ Code 65 True-Track in N scale allowed me to consider a smaller code of rail while also conveniently eliminating my least favorite model railroading job of all: ballasting the track. With the gravel roadbed already built in and the rails made closer to scale size, True-Track was the ideal track system for my current wishes.

Secondly, I had continually seen the need for staging space for trains. Mere storage yards for loose freight cars were not good enough anymore; I needed tracks hidden from view that had the length and connections to hold entire trains, and let those trains run out and onto the visible layout with ease. I determined how long of a train I would want to run, and planned sidings to exceed the measured lengths of those trains.

Finally, I needed to build a railroad that allowed photography from many different angles. My past model railroad efforts have often resulted in railroads where only a few scenes are easy to photograph well. I wanted to set up this railroad to run along the outside of a small table, keeping all tracks accessible while having sufficient backdrop behind them all. By running a double-track mainline around the outside of a rectangular table, I gave myself a lot of ground to pose photographs on, and by planning a mountain in the middle of the railroad, I ensured sufficient near-background material that given a good distant-background poster, I could take excellent photos from any angle.The Keystone Line's track plan is split into two parts to more clearly show the two levels. On the surface, there are really two levels: the gray track on the right and top sides leads to a coal mine, which is above the surface-level mainline. the mountain it sits on is shown in a darker shade of green. The blue track is inside a tunnel, and the arrows indicate the point where the surface becomes the staging level.

Railroad History
I didn't give much of a history for the railroad originally, but I have since developed a logical backstory for it. In the early 1950s, the Pennsylvania Railroad saw a need for a more direct shortcut from Harrisburg, PA to Pittsburgh. The original winding, low-grade line worked well for long trains, but the PRR wanted to shave time off its top passenger train schedules and allow higher speeds for express trains and the newly popular Truc-Trains. Grades were no object to the team planning the new line; this route was meant to charge right up the mountainsides, aided by cuts, fills, bridges, and tunnels wherever possible. The line would also pass through almost completely unpopulated and inaccessible territory.

The line opened in 1953, after intense construction efforts. The work paid off, and the route was geographically arrow-straight over more than half of its run. Trains could hold maximum speed over the line, and locomotives could even reach greater-than-designed speeds on the many downhill runs. Engineers would run at full throttle uphill and coast downhill, gaining speed on the downhills and just struggling to maintain speed on the uphills. Trains moving at high speed needed no helpers short of their own momentum. But, in case a train had to make an unplanned stop, the PRR installed helper locomotive bases throughout the line to help stopped trains get up to speed again.

The only exception to the rules of straight, high-speed track was the town of Keystone, PA. The PRR had planned to blast its way through a mountain at this location, but had not counted on discovering a rich coal vein. Their initial tunnel became a single-track access tunnel for a local branch up to the actual town, and the line itself made an uncharacteristically sharp 180-degree turn to go around the mountain and enter a new tunnel, clear of the coal vein. Since the trains had to slow down for this point anyway (and it was already one of the highest points on the railroad,) the PRR made Keystone into a passenger train stop, and developed a town around the coal mine. A helper pocket was installed here too.

The Keystone Line worked very well, and the fast passenger and trailer service it allowed kept the PRR well afloat. The line did eventually pass to Norfolk Southern's ownership, and NS continues to operate the line much like the PRR had. Amtrak inaugurated an express version of the Pennsylvanian, whose only stop between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh was Keystone. Roadrailers and doublestack trains ruled the rails, and the PRR's massive coal vein was still producing. Since long coal drags would not run well on the steep grades of the line, NS elected to run more and shorter coal trains. The line may be unconventional with its steep inclines, but the route still gives NS the fastest freight service in the nation. And the reward for that more than pays the diesel fuel bills for extra locomotives howling at full speed the whole way.

Features and Dedications
I designed the Keystone Line to be distinctly Pennsylvanian in every way, and as such, I named a few of the trackside industries for the parts of Pennsylvania that I most like. The railroad itself is named for the state symbol, also adopted famously in Pennsylvania Railroad paint schemes. I chose this to avoid placing the railroad in any one actual town, since I’m not sure what part of the state I’ll live in after school. I greatly reduced the number of lineside industries on the layout to remove clutter and focus on running a variety of trains, not just local freights.

The largest industry on the layout is the Huntingdon Coal Company. Although the coal vein the PRR was not in the town of Huntingdon, it was a group from that small town on the Juniata river that arranged to build and operate the mine.

Another business that sprang up in the area is Galeton Farm Supply. A mom & pop tractor store in north-central PA saw an opportunity to open a new store in Keystone. Most of the Keystone Line region was inaccessible by roads, and full of farms. So, the store owners had a siding built to deliver anything from tractors to feed, and the innovative, rail-served store is still fueling agriculture in the region today.

Keystone also contains a number of less-than-carload sidings. The town freight station hosts a business called Bluebell Express, which specializes in gathering less-than-carload freight and loading it rapidly onto express trains during their brief pauses in town. This business also handles the shipping business for Nazareth Musician's Depot. The store is similar to Galeton Farm Supply, but instead of supplying farms, this shop sells musical instruments and related books & equipment. A general-service transloading track (often called a team track,) and the railroad locomotive servicing facility round out the on-line industries in Keystone.

The Project
The Keystone Line project has gone beyond merely building a model railroad, and now includes plans to allow easier product testing and magazine photography. The mainline is two tracks, and one of those tracks is built to be completely level and easy to measure its circumference/running length. This will serve as a speed testing ground for reviews. The variety of scenes (town, country, mountain, single-track, double-track, local tracks,) will allow for the Keystone Line to provide MRN with a variety of convincing photographs, possibly even cover shots. The layout itself will be a major test bed for Atlas True-Track, and Atlas has generously provided the track necessary to build the railroad. The track must blend well visually into a scenicked and detailed railroad. It must handle grade changes and must also stand up to being disassembled and split into multiple parts for storage and transport. Most of all, the track must be entirely reliable and derailment-free, as the mainline spends half of its time out of sight.

Considering the importance of the hidden staging tracks in the plan, True-Track is getting a very serious test in this project. Its quality will make or break the railroad. But I’m not worried, not in the least. I trust that the new N scale track products will measure up in every way. It’s Atlas, after all.

I will write frequently about the project both in the printed magazine and on the Internet, either on MRN’s website or here at MRN Express. You can track the progress of the railroad and see how each idea plays out. The space constraints and demand for detail of the Keystone Line make it a railroad only possible in N-scale, so keep watching. We’ll see how N-scale can provide a stable and enjoyable model railroad for someone whose life keeps changing over the years.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

PicPost: Doublestack Train

2010-11-07T15:00:00.003-05:00

I want to do some shorter posts to go with the long, detailed ones, so I'm starting this series called PicPosts. All they'll be is one image, perhaps a "the making of" shot to explain the technique, and a list of the products shown. So here's the first one!

I took this just because I needed a picture to give the feeling of how the double-stack container train moves more freight with less fuel and less highway traffic. Since I never "go railfanning" and have next to no real-train photos, I posed models instead. I added the grass mat and gravel ballast edge to the Atlas True-Track mainline in a half hour before shooting. I delicately propped up a Realistic Backgrounds image on my layout surface to add depth. A Kato SD70M, Athearn Husky Stack, and Kato Maxi-IV round out the train, carrying Kato and Deluxe Innovations containers.

Even in a relatively simple form, model railroading is a wonderful thing!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Minor Modifications to Modern Motive Power

2010-11-05T09:45:00.002-04:00

I've heard calls for more articles on modern-era locomotives, and I can see that articles on simple customization projects are popular reads. So, hopefully you will enjoy this post on how to modify small details and paint features on your N-scale locos. With modern trains, you can almost always find photographs of your exact locomotive or one of the same class of freight car, and simply detail your model to match. I promise to keep the fixes easy and the materials cheap!

Kato SD70M- Detail Painting & New Air Horns
Whenever I get a new locomotive, I have a few standard modifications I make. I paint the handrails and step edges, as most manufacturers save themselves some production complexity by not painting these. I then check if the model's air horn matches the kind on the real locomotive. With Kato's Norfolk Southern SD70M, I had to do both of these fixes. I installed JnJ Trains 5-chime Nathan air horns on both engines. I painted all step edges and the safety railings next to them, and painted the headlight housings silver.
As I continued to look over photos of Norfolk Southern's SD70Ms, I found that Kato's paint job on the 2010 run of SD70M represents an earlier NS paint scheme, not the one they wear today. Thankfully, the differences are minor and easily corrected. You simply need to paint the white area to the sides and below the cab front windows black. There is also a little rim of black along the cab roof on the front of the locomotive (above the numberboards & windows.) Also, in the case of 2599, the solid white stripe on the center of the front "porch" (the anticlimber, to be specific,) is divided by a black area between the center handrail stanchions.

But what date do you want to the paint to represent? Well, 2599 went from white primer to Kato's represented scheme in March 2003. Between March and June of 2004, it received the black around the windows. 2591 went from the Kato represented scheme to the black-windowed appearance sometime between May and December 2004, but I couldn't find a picture to narrow this gap any more. If anybody knows better than me I'd love to hear from you and update this.

Kato SD80MAC Touch-Ups
Interestingly, Kato's Norfolk Southern SD80MAC, also released in 2010, can benefit from the same detail painting, and in the case of no. 7210, a new air horn. In researching SD80MACs, I found that the vast majority of them have Leslie RS3-L air horns. But! There are exceptions to this. I found from photographs that NS 7200 was retrofitted with what looks like a Nathan K5LA (so, the same part I installed on my SD70Ms.) But NS 7210, one of the numbers that Kato produced, has been wearing a Nathan P5R42 horn since the Conrail days.
To model the unusual air horn, I did the simple method of cutting apart the old horns removed from the SD70Ms and building a new one bell by bell. It sounds daunting, but it's not bad at all. Just salvage the horn base (with 2 pins that stick into the locomotive hood roof,) and securely super-glue a small piece of plastic to this. All you need is a surface on which to securely glue 2 horn bells to. Now start gluing on horn bells, looking at the inset images above or going straight to pictures of the real locomotive. I made my horn in an X-pattern, with the 2 largest bells on the bottom, with the one on the locomotive's left side reversed. The bell in the center of the X is the middle-sized one, facing front. On top are the two smallest bells, the right-side one facing backwards.

While doing this, I noticed that 7210 also has a silver rear fan grille, so I painted that. But checking these details on real-life photos of NS 7208, Kato's second number, found the factory air horn and grille paint colors were all correct! So, simply paint your safety rails and step edges, and you have a top-notch model right out of the box! And if you want to tune your MRC sound decoders to sound the correct horn, you can hear audio samples of the S3L, P5, and K5 here.

Suggestion of More Projects
Finally, I'd like to just provide an image of a third modification project that I highly encourage you to try. I wrote in detail about detailing and painting a Norfolk Southern SD70M-2 from Kato's SD70ACe model, but I wanted to provide a better picture of this locomotive. And don't forget freight cars! Since reflective conscpicuity stripes have become a hallmark of modern-day railroading, adding these to your freight cars (like the hopper and gondola from Atlas,) can make a big difference. (I wrote a bit about an easy trick for doing this at the bottom of this post.) Also, weathering makes for a touch of contemporary realism. Or, if you're not the do-it-yourselfer type, keep your eyes peeled for the many fantastic new products hitting the market all painted up in modern schemes. Athearn's latest tank cars are just one of the many fine ready-to-run products out there!

I love to tinker with little details on my models, and I hope nobody perceives my corrections to Kato's locomotives as an insult to the company's accuracy. They do a nice job and I was happy with their products as they were right out of the box. But I'm even happier with them now that I got to add my own unique touch to each model. I hope you all enjoy that too!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Poor Electrical Pickup: A Solution to Stubborn Stalling

2010-10-25T16:27:00.005-04:00

Is your Digital Command Control-equipped locomotive losing electrical contact way too often? Have you tried every track and wheel-cleaning method in the book and still get frequent stalls? Does the sound keep cutting out on your latest model train purchase? Well, I may not know every trick in the book for fixing this, but I did stumble across a surprisingly effective solution for stall-prone N-scale trains.

I was as happy as could be with my new N-scale SD70M-2 model, until I tried to run it with other locomotives. Then I really began to see how it couldn't start moving at low speeds, and it couldn't keep moving without stalling. I had noticed the problems before, but never that clearly. By carefully cleaning and lubricating the still-new locomotive, I got slightly better performance, but the stall issues remained. And the locomotive mechanism was made by Kato, for goodness sakes. If you've been in N scale for more than 2 hours and don't live under a rock, you know one thing: Katos run darned-near perfectly, and they certainly don't stall this much.

Finally, I had an idea.
The problem couldn't be the track, wheels, or electrical pickup scheme, as I had cleaned all three carefully. It wasn't the fault of the MRC 1806-2 decoder (onboard computer chip on top of the locomotive's metal frame), because this is my third one of that exact product and I had tested it thoroughly. I finally realized that my problem was poor connection between the sound decoder and locomotive frame.

To fix this, I simply applied Atlas ConductaLube to the contact points between the decoder and locomotive frame. There are four of these on most decoders, including the MRC 1806 line. That meant dipping my hobby knife tip about an eighth of an inch deep in the conductive oil and gently touching the oily tip to the contact pads. This spreads only a little bit of oil on each one: two on the front, where the blade is pointing in the picture, and two on the back, right behind each motor tab. Speaking of motor tabs, I also put some oil between them and the motor's own brass contact springs/tabs. Again, I dipped only the tip of the blade in the conductive oil and passed it between the two contact tabs, once for the left-side set of contacts and once for the right set. I think this improved slow-speed performance by removing resistance from the motor circuit.

(I should leave an important warning here: if you're using an old bottle of conductive oil, be careful. Some oils turn yellow with age, and at this point, they start to lose their conductivity. At least with ConductaLube, the color change is very obvious, so you don't need to worry if your oil is still clear or very close to clear. If you do use an oil that is too old, it will make your electrical contact worse, not better! Using a conductive grease might be a better option than oil, since that is easier to apply precisely and should last longer.)

So, how did this work? EXTREMELY well, I have to say! If you read my other article on building the SD70M-2, you know it's a model that really matters to me. I went from apathetic and disappointed to newly amazed with this locomotive. Using oil to strengthen the contact between the locomotive frame and decoder made such a difference in smoothness that I began to see a new side to the SD70M-2: the side that could run as smoothly and start as slowly as any top-quality N-scale model train. And I hope you find the same impressive results if you use this idea to fix your stubborn stalling models.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

The Most Immersive RPG EVER!!!

2010-10-06T21:10:00.009-04:00

Role-playing video games have been around since 1974 or earlier, but this game is so epic, it was here long before that, hiding underground in the shadows. Rather than turning your backyard into a fantasy acting stage or your TV screen into a cartoon battle, you turn any spare space you own into AN EMPIRE. For real. Because you play the game in the real world. Its graphics are as good as your eyes are... if you're disappointed, you only have your optometrist to blame. But being real doesn't make it not fun. This game has infinite possibilities, and is easy to pick up and play.

What could this fantastic game be?

MODEL RAILROADING.

That's what.

Model railroading is indeed a role-playing game, and one that transcends all other games of its kind. The game literally bursts forth from the computer into reality, where sight, sound, touch, and even smell pull you into an experience like no other. Yeah, uh, no comment for those of you who wish to involve your fifth sense in this epic experience.

In this game, you play the role of anyone from an empire-building millionaire tycoon to a harried railroad dispatcher on whose efforts rest the safety of a sprawling transportation network-- or, if you're handling Hazmat loads, the entire nation is on the edge of its seat, watching your every move! But how long could a game like this last, with such stunning graphics and huge scope? Well, get your mind out from under that digital rock you call home, because model railroading features unlimited replay value. Tired of slinging doublestack container trains across Arizona at 80 MPH? See if you have what it takes to move Minnesota iron ore to the docks on Lake Superior with aging, failure-prone equipment.

How well can you mod this game? How about expansions? Quit your bellyachin', we've got you covered. And you don't even need to know any complex computer coding languages! If you can do a paint-by-number, you can hack that cheap plastic boxcar into a weatherbeaten slice of reality, and all you need is a few jars of paint and a brush.
Want to lay more track? Buy some and get to work, John Henry. If it's not realistic enough for you, it's not like you have some graphics card and processor limiting you. In this world, the real world, your skills are your only limitation (aside from stuff like gravity, of course.) So goodbye, C++ and Java; Hello, reality.

There is no other gaming experience like model railroading. No blocky, pixelated graphics, no rolling dice to decide everything, and no lag at all, unless you stink at running on time. The sights come from your own eyes, so you don't just have sissy camera controls: you move and directly interact with the environment... your environment! The sounds blast out of the locomotives themselves, and if you want, you can even smell the exhaust off a passing train. Grab a switch lever with your own hand and change your track. And while you're not limited by computer hardware, you can still take advantage of it. Skip dice and let the computer generate your train orders for the day, then see if you're tough enough to carry them out safely, efficiently, and on time!
Do you have what it takes to play the game that is both digital and real? Can you create an actual object to accomplish your missions on your own infrastructure and moving your own loads? Remember, on a model railroad, you don't just play God. You ARE God. This game is not for everyone... only for the truly awesome among us.

May the Horse[power] be with you.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

(I hope you enjoyed this different and over-the-top look at our awesome hobby! The most fun part about this article, though, is it's all true. Feel free to leave comments with your views on this!)

SD70M-2: The Mid-Semester Crisis Locomotive

2010-09-30T23:47:00.001-04:00

It happens many times all across the model railroader subset of North America. "Honey, I need some 'me time,' I'll be in the train room." There are variations on this, but we are often driven to flee the cruel, unfair "real world" and run off to our little rails. I know I've wanted to hide with my model railroad pretty much all semester, except for going to classes (which aren't half bad,) and weekends at the trolley museum. I guess I'll just gloss over the reason and say that it feels near-impossible to find meaningful friendships in this day and age.

But I have found some good things in working on trains, from the joy of solving problems to the pride of creating something unique. My major project has been turning a Kato N-scale Union Pacific SD70ACe locomotive into a Norfolk Southern SD70M-2, and having this work on has been a huge help. Firing up the finished locomotive for the first time tonight gave me a feeling of pride and joy that I really haven't felt since this stressful semester started. Boy, has this project been worth it!
In the real world, an SD70M-2 is a reduced-emissions upgrade of Electro-Motive Diesel's popular SD70M locomotive. Since these new locomotives were introduced to Norfolk Southern Railway's stable starting in 2006, they were all over the place by 2008-- when I entered college and found myself in NS' big, stallion-shaped shadow.

When I very briefly considered producing an informative railroading TV show for my desperate campus TV station, I saw SD70M-2s everywhere, and even filmed a few (as you can see in my video screen capture image above). Looking back, these angular machines are as much a reminder of the adventurous days of Freshman year as all the icebreaker games and new experiences. I like that, and by extension, I like these locomotives. I've always wanted one in model, but nobody produces one.

In a regular review item package, MRN's sweet news editor, Jen Lindsay, had sent me a Union Pacific 4141 SD70ACe locomotive (the George Bush Presidential Library special scheme) which was probably left over from a news bite article. It's a neat engine, but, I don't really like the UP. So, I ordered the SD70M-2 detail part set from Trainworx and the 2002+ Norfolk Southern decal sheet from Microscale. And of course, I'm a sound junkie, so I ordered another 1806-2 sound decoder from MRC.

The package for all these items arrived the very day when everything on my plate became too much, and I picked it up right before heading home mid-week for badly needed rest. The first night home, I sat at my dad's well-worn workbench and worked on converting the locomotive, applying key detail parts and painting things black (like shown below). It was just like I have spent my hobby time since I was, oh gosh, I don't know... now I feel old. :-) But it was nice, even though I lacked the tools to finish the model at my parents' house.
After returning to school, I finished painting and spent a few rather relaxing hours applying countless decals to the model. I got more and more excited the more the locomotive started to look finished. I added some missing details, reassembled the model, touched up the paint, and got the sound decoder installed. One important step is that I took the MRC speaker off the decoder board, leaving its wires connected and letting it sit behind the decoder board. It will be too tall to let the body fit if you don't relocate the speaker. I also changed the LEDs to bright, pure-white LEDs scrapped off a Digitrax decoder, since Kato's yellow-tinted light lenses make the headlights look silly with a yellow-white LED. Finally, with some oil, grease, and decoder programming, my SD70M-2 came to life.
This project has provided much-needed relaxation for me, and has given me one thing to be fully proud of and happy with this week. I achieved a little dream of mine to have my own [little] SD70M-2, and I know how much effort it took. It looks and runs pretty much just as good as all my factory-painted trains, and it stands proud as my most ambitious painting project. It's just been really validating, almost like buying a new car when you start to question everything in life. But you can have your midlife crisis Mustang. I'll take an SD70M-2 any day.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Bedford, PA N-Scale Show & NS Coal Hoppers

2010-08-30T22:05:00.003-04:00

Don't you love it when things just seem to work out well, through no effort of your own?

I enjoyed the benefits of one such coincidence when I moved back to school the day of the N-Scale Weekend in central Pennsylvania. It was this past Saturday, when I left my family home/summer home and hit the highway early to get back to college. A few days earlier, I had found out on the Atlas Forum that the yearly N-Scale Weekend in Bedford was taking place that day, with other events taking place the days before and after. Since I was getting underway very early (and had my parents' great help with moving into school again,) I had time to spare, and got back in the car for a one-hour adventure over hill and dale to the show. It was quite worth the trip!

I went into the show with a mental list of things to find, and I dare say I found them all! I wanted a set of PRR F7s, which I found with a quartet of older Bachmann Plus units that I intend to tweak into a four-in-one, sound-equipped masterpiece. I also wanted modern coal hoppers, differently-painted Roadrailers to diversify my Triple Crown train, and any good PRR 1950s-era freight cars I could come across cheaply. As you can see above, I found something to match each wish! (Here's a good look around at the show floor, for those who weren't there.)

One of my better finds was a group of four Norfolk Southern Coalporter cars from an outfit called E&C Shops. I suspect from referencing the excellent N-Scale Freight Car Encyclopedia that these cars were made by a company called LBF, or at least from the LBF molds. I was glad to find four of them at a good price, since I had already passed up at least five other sets of similar cars from Kato or others because they were out of my price range.

But the less expensive cars came at a different cost: needing some upgrades!

Above you see two out-of-the-box cars, with the coal load removed from the bottom one and the trucks off of the top one. The problems I found were that the braces and weights tend to move around or fall out, and the braces are a nastily contrasting black color instead of the aluminum-silver. The underside of the car shows that the bottom frame bracing on the end, as well as the brake wheel, also suffer from the clashing black color. I removed all five parts, painted them silver, and reinstalled them with super glue. The coal load needs serious help too... It's an angular little slab of plastic that looks far too uniform to be coal. So, I applied a layer of white glue and spread black cinder ballast from Woodland Scenics across it. Once it dried, I hit it with a coat of gloss sealer to hold it in place. It's an easy modification that works miracles on the load's appearance.

My final modifications were to drop the ride height (the car body's height above the rails.) This is almost always exaggerated in models, and this one has it bad. I shaved off the round truck mounting bolster on the bottom (trucks are the wheelset-holding frames under the car, for any new readers.) I also trimmed off the two tabs to either side of the bolsters, shaving all three down even with the plastic below them. You can see these well on the upper car in the above photo.

There you have the results of my modifications. The finished car on the left rides lower and is free of the visual distractions of unpainted detail parts and an unrealistic coal load. I also cut the old, boxy "Rapido" style couplers off the trucks and screwed Micro-Trains #1015 couplers into the car's underframe, bringing it up to date and giving me the running benefits of body-mounted couplers. I'm very pleased and enthusiastic to upgrade my other three cars, and hopefully find more.

As a postscript to the Bedford show, I'd like to put out a thank you and word of encouragement to Dave Ferrari of Deluxe Innovations. Appropriately enough, I got my Roadrailer trailer direct from him, and talked to him about his production schedule. Like many smaller companies, Dave is struggling to find new assembly factories to get his products produced (following changes at Chinese factory Sanda Kan.) Dave is a great guy to talk with and very up-front with his customers, in addition to making fantastic products. He even searched the show building to find me and give me a packet of extra Roadrailer parts missing from my recent purchase.

Smaller model train companies are a lot more pleasant to deal with, and seem to make products with better value than the larger firms that drive model railroading. I hope that the future of model trains lie with the smaller, more personable and interactive companies, from Bluford Shops to Rapido Trains, and from BLMA to Deluxe Innovations.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Modeling Modern Times

2010-08-19T22:08:00.007-04:00

The reasons ranged from "I need a break from the '50s," to "I have so much modern stuff left over from reviews." But whatever the rationales, I have been doing what I never thought I'd do: spending time building up my collection of models for the 2008-to-present era.
The combination of hoping to work in the rail industry and avoiding current railfan culture made me hesitant to focus on modeling today's trains. I had a few, sure: my Amtrak Pennsylvanian, for one. But aside from that and a scattered few locomotives, I still saw modern trains as work machines, not as something to get excited over. I still hold this view, but I think it is narrow-minded of me to think that I cannot enjoy the creative challenge and fun of adding contemporary trains to my model collection. So, after a soon-to-be-published review left me with two more fantastic modern diesels, I dove into a few weeks as a Norfolk Southern modeler.

I'm always a cheapskate with trains, and will try to stretch what I have to give the most enjoyment and accuracy. So, first order of modern modeling business was to find and upgrade existing models. You can see above how I added 5-chime airhorns from JnJ Trains to my Kato SD70Ms, and also painted the railings and step edges. I tuned up my NS SD60 and CSX C40-8, putting four modern units on the roster already.

Next, I dug up an old Atlas SD9, which I had bought nearly 10 years ago from the hobby shop where I now work, Trains N' Lanes, in Easton, PA. It turns out Norfolk Southern still has this and other SD9s sitting around, and if they're not working right now, they were within the last few years. No. 52 was modified as a remote control locomotive, with rooftop beacons and antennae. I cobbled together some parts, including Deluxe Innovations' fine N-scale rotary beacon details, and brought my NS 52 up to date. I even went far enough to remove the footboards and add a remote control operator riding the handrails, complete with a crude little R/C locomotive belt control pack. I still need to rework the airhorn and add white stripes to the side of the frame based on more recent pictures I've found.

There are a few things I require when working on modern models. For one, all locomotives must have ditch lights (except NS no. 52, which doesn't have them in real life.) I talked about adding ditch lights to locomotives in the July MRN's N-Depth column, and the CSX C40-8 above is one engine to which I've added the walkway-mounted warning lights. The second rule I try to follow is that most freight cars must have the reflective "conspicuity stripes" on them, a telltale sign of modern times. I've been having a lot of success using Line O Tape's 1/32-inch pinstripe tape to add conspicuity stripes, like on the two Atlas freight cars above, and the PPLX coal hopper below.

One final adventure in modern modeling was to not only make the ditch lights light up, but to make them flash alternatingly when I blow the airhorn. All my modern locomotives have sound decoders in them, but since most of them are MRC decoders, they do not support special lighting effects. But I had seen a non-sound Atlas Dash 8-40CW with working ditch lights, and I wanted mine to do that.

I rounded up a spare TCS K3D3 decoder from a Kato NW2 locomotive. With a little sanding on both sides of the circuit board, I made it just narrow enough to fit in the Dash-8's dynamic brake housing (just behind the cab.) I filed out some metal from the chassis to let the electronic components on the MRC 1811 decoder sit down flatter, and that left just enough room to tape the K3D3 on top of it.

I wired the K3D3's electrical pickup tabs to the 1811's, and then wired the motor to the K3D3 as well, since TCS has better motor control than MRC. I finally wired the Dash-8's ditch light wires to the front and rear headlight terminals. I corrected one light with the polarity reversed and did some careful reprogramming of the TCS decoder. I recommend you read the TCS Additional Programming Guide extensively before trying this, and make sure you understand the sections on decoder lock, function remapping, and light effects. Once I got some bugs worked out, I had both sound AND ditch lights that flash! See and hear for yourself, it's pretty darn cool.

(Pardon the poor audio quality of the low-bandwidth Internet video. This seriously sounds a LOT better in person.)

So that's my adventure in modeling modern times. I'm glad I decided to get a few contemporary locomotives and mixed freight cars to go with what I already had, and my growing intermodal train fleet. I hope you found some interesting projects, ideas, or solutions here, and I'd love to hear how you go about modeling modernism. But whether it's representing the '50s or the double-zeroes, model railroading is one fun hobby.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Steam Detailing Project: New Haven R-1

2010-07-29T11:50:00.003-04:00

I heard a phrase once, something to the extent of it's good to "leave well-enough alone." I still haven't figured out what that means.

I have been using an N-scale Bachmann 4-8-2 Light Mountain steam locomotive as a test bed for an upcoming review, and have been tinkering with how to make it run better. Its running flaw is mainly the balance of the drive wheels: not enough weight on the third driver or front driver. The third driving wheel has the rubber traction tire, so you need weight there to make the locomotive pull. And the front driver keeps the engine on track going into curves.

I solved these both by spacing the third driver down a bit (gluing extremely thin plastic from a shopping bag to the top of that axle's bearing blocks,) and putting a spring between the trailing truck and chassis, causing upward force on the back of the engine, and thus downward force on the front driver.

But I still wasn't content, especially after I found some information on real-life New Haven 4-8-2s. I decided to give the engine a quick New Haven R-1 style detailing job. I'll tell you what exactly I did in list form, and you can reference the two pictures below for details.

Left side:
Right side:1-Relocate the second left-side air tank (from over the 2nd/3rd driver) to the right side, over the 4th driver.

2- Cut off left-side walkway section over the 2nd/3rd driver. Relocate it above the 3rd driver/the air pumps, level with the walkway above the 1st and 2nd drivers. Fabricate and glue in an extension to join the two pieces (I used .030 inch sheet plastic.)

3- Fabricate and install a second set of air pumps (like the existing ones,) between the 2nd and 3rd drivers on the left side. Remove the piping coils that are in the way.

4- Fabricate and install a feedwater heater on top of the smokebox (front of the boiler,) placing it between the smokestack and bell. Add 3 pipes to the feedwater heater on the left side and two on the right (as shown.)

5- Paint all added details black, to match the existing paint job.

6- Decide for yourself if you would like to change the couplers (or add a working front coupler,) weather the engine, install digital control or sound, and/or perform any modifications to the drive mechanism to improve performance.
7- Have fun! It took me just a day to do the detailing, and it's been so worth it. Even though I know next to nothing about the New Haven, I do know they had 10 Light Mountains similar to Bachmann's model. And I know mine may not be perfect, but it looks very convincing, and it's probably my finest model to date.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Correction to July Issue LVT DVD Review

2010-07-14T22:44:00.004-04:00

The Rockhill Trolley Museum has produced a DVD covering the Philadelphia Division of the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. This DVD, the first in a growing series on the LVT, was reviewed in MRN's July issue. However, due to an editing mistake, only half of the review appeared. The review's full text has been posted on MRN's website, and I encourage you to read it.

This is a very interesting video with a nice personal touch, but perhaps I just say that because I personally know the people who produced it. They're all very knowledgeable and I think anyone will find their presentation informative, and if you want to make a model of the Allentown-Philadelphia interurban line, this is a perfect reference.

Check out the flyer here to order the DVD. You can contact the museum by any of the following means if you have questions:

www.rockhilltrolley.org

call 11-5 weekends Memorial Day-October:
(814) 447-9576

Write for information on the DVD:
Rockhill Trolley Museum
6059 Allentown Boulevard - Box 104
Harrisburg, PA 17112

Feeling unsure about just sending a check to some random mailing address? Well, here's a picture of the museum store where all of these come from. I promise it exists, I've been inside it. ;-) There, not as random and unfamiliar as your other Internet shopping, now is it?

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Here's to CSX

2010-07-13T16:35:00.005-04:00

Kudos to real-world rail transport empire CSX Transportation! Today they made the news as one of two companies whose financial reports are making Americans feel better about our shaky economy. (The article I stumbled across is here). I thought I'd do what little I can to spread the news, and take a celebration picture of my C40-8.

While they certainly deserve some congratulations for making the news, I think CSX and all railroads deserve a bigger thanks for what they do every day. It wasn't any one little thing CSX did to gain this recognition, but it was all the little things, on all the little days.

So, a big thank you to everyone who works for CSX, and all of North America's rail companies, for what you do every day. Keep up the great work!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Pittsburgh Railways & the Laptop Bag Loop

2010-06-14T19:28:00.008-04:00

A new day, a new modeling interest, a new blog look... welcome back to MRN Express! This has been a slow summer for me (hence only one other shorty post since Series on Sound, which was a college final project.) But slow-summer doldrums are occasionally broken by writing work, or increasingly often, working on trolleys. And this time, I don't mean at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. I mean what you see below.Truth is, I've put the PRR and the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton on hold yet again, and focused instead on Pittsburgh Railways. I realized lately that a new portable model railroad would be very useful for me, and I decided to build one. I chose to model Pittsburgh's trolley operations based on some Internet research, extensive reading of Pennsylvania Trolleys in Color, Volume III and a growing appreciation of the western Pennsylvania region. After drawing up three or four other track plan ideas, I finally settled on the following. The plan features a double-track loop modeled after Pittsburgh Railways' interurban operations, which survived to become today's Pittsburgh light rail system. The track in light gray is underground and hidden from view. I had some space left over on the other end of the railroad, so I added a little stub-ended line. The railroad will play host to mostly Pittsburgh Railways PCC streetcars, as pictured here in an earlier teaser posting.

But how is this idea supposed to be different from any other model railroad, and how is it more portable? It's not my smallest layout, since my most heavily used railroad is an expandable 4 inch by 38 inch setup. However, the new plan has one advantage, in that it will be built inside of this:Yep, it's a laptop computer carrying bag. And it will look no different on the outside when it is finished being converted into a model railroad. Heck, I might even be able to get it on an airplane, if Atlas flextrack doesn't set off metal detectors. But all maniacal air-travel schemes aside, I will be likely to take this self-contained, stow-and-go layout with me when I travel, be it by car or by Amtrak. And you may even see it at the Rockhill Trolley Museum once in a while.

Keep checking back, as I'm excited to share some progress pictures. I'll try and put some of the ideas I use into article form, so if you're looking at ways to make model railroads more durable or you need a home-built model train controller, keep checking back here, the articles are already started!

[Later edit: This layout is still slowly under construction, and the modeling focus has changed to Johnstown, PA. Look for more updates in the future!]

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

P.S. Regarding the new look, I'd just like to say thanks to Google and the Blogger team for not only providing more options for the look of the blog, but also to all the other users who made the templates and components I used available. I hope everyone will find the new look clearer and more readable!

Something New Coming

2010-06-06T23:14:00.006-04:00

News Flash:

The following load was photographed en route to an unknown point on an N scale railroad in the Goehring household. According to the crews involved in the load's delivery, it is a St. Louis Car Co. all-electric PCC trolley, outfitted for interurban service. It is unusual in its large ventilator system and the extra headlamp on the rooftop. The markings indicate that it is a Pittsburgh Railways car.

We will continue to cover developments regarding this car's entry to service and possible future deliveries.

News flashes aside, I'm trying out a new and different modeling direction, and can't wait to share it with you once all the plans are finalized. :-)

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor

Series on Sound: Welcome!

2010-05-11T10:59:00.009-04:00

I have exciting news for you: model trains, even tiny N-scale trains, can make realistic train sound! Yes, to some of you, that was obvious. To others, it may seem confusing. But I think regardless of who you are, you will find sound to be an interesting addition to a very visual model-making hobby. And you have come to the best place to nurture your interest in N-scale sound!

Welcome to Series on Sound, the newest and coolest thing on MRN Express. Series on Sound is the most definitive work to date on the ideas surrounding putting digital sound into N-scale model trains. If you don't understand what sound decoders are, or you're not sure if they're right for you, this is the place to look. You won't have to take my word for it either, because Series on Sound includes commentary from a variety of people around the model railroad industry.

You can read the Table of Contents below to jump to an article, or just read page by page. You should read the People section to get to know the other individuals commenting in this series. If you are new to model railroading, be sure to read the Important Concepts section for a quick and very easy read to get you up to speed on vital and recurring model railroad topics and background.

Table of Contents

Welcome!
With sections introducing basic model train concepts, the author, and other commentators

The Growth of Small-Scale Sound
Featuring commentary from Dave Peters, of Trains N' Lanes Hobbies

The Science of Small-Scale Sound
Featuring commentary from Dr. Jamie White, of Juniata College

Sound Decoders for N Scale: MRC's Product Line
Featuring commentary from Frank Verrico, of Model Rectifier Corp

Sound or Silence: the Art of Choosing
A study of model railroading with and without sound

N Scale vs. Prototype: Video Comparisons
Watch N scale models take on trains 160 times their size. You decide if the sound seems real enough to you!

The People
Since I quote from several individuals frequently, I will introduce them all here to save confusion and repetition later.

John Sipple: Model Railroad News magazine's editor emeritus, John recently stepped down from editing but continues to review products. He has years of experience in all scales of model trains and plenty of frank opinions to share.

Dave Peters: Dave is a vital part of the model train department at Trains N' Lanes Hobbies in Easton, PA. I know from working with him that his customer service skill and model train knowledge are second to none.

Dr. Jamie White: Dr. Jamie White is the chair of the physics department at Juniata College. He teaches an Acoustics class, and I have applied some of those lessons to my work with model train sound. Dr. White knows a lot of the science behind sound that many hobbyists would not think of.

Frank Verrico: Frank works for Model Rectifier Corp. (MRC), a hobby electronics company that has diversified into countless different hobby businesses. Frank works in a customer service and support for MRC's model train sound decoder business. He has been the driving force behind most of MRC's growth as a sound decoder maker, and by extension, he is largely to thank for the viability of sound in N scale.

Steven Goehring: Hi-de-ho, folks. This is me, your author. My claims to experience are years of working at Trains N' Lanes Hobbies and reviewing for Model Railroad News. I model in N-scale, although I have worked with most other scales. I also focus heavily on sound, with more than a dozen sound-equipped locomotives, and I made a point to test run pretty much every HO-scale sound locomotive when working at the hobby shop.

Important Concepts
These are the ideas or acronyms you will need to understand these articles. If you think something should be added to this section, please leave a comment and I will put it in.

N-scale: the division of model railroading where everything is scaled to 1/160th of full size. N stands for Nine millimeters between the rails.

MRN: Model Railroad News magazine, my employer and this series' host. MRN is a news and reviews publication covering all scales of model trains.

DCC: Digital Command Control, a system of controlling model trains. Rather than using varying voltage on the track (called analog or DC control,) DCC uses computerized signals much like the Internet. Locomotives must have decoders, or specialized circuit boards, to run on DCC.

Sound decoder: a DCC decoder that generates sound meant to mimic the noise of a real locomotive. A DCC controller's function buttons allow you to do things such as sound the locomotive's whistle/horn, its bell and other functions such as the air brake system or ambient sounds.

Prototype: a catchall term among model railroaders for full-sized/real-life railroading.