Entrance Gate is Installed

Last time here, I had posted about a simple (manually operated) gate that I had put together and weathered for the rail entrance to my Tri-State Paper industry.  Well, I got that installed this week, so here's a few photos from that accomplishment.

It is going to be so much easier to install the gate if I just bring the industry over to the workbench.  Just slide the rail joiners back a bit, and I can then lift the whole thing out of place for maintenance such as this.That's the gap left in the layout when the industry has been lifted out.

And here is the entrance gate installed at the workbench.  Just had to drill a small hole into the MDF base and slip the gate post into that.  The fence to the left of the gate was a bit of a lucky find in my parts bin and happened to fit quite nicely into place.

Not a great picture, I know.  Anyway, the whole industry module is back in place, and the rail joiners have it connected it to the layout.  Not sure how I managed to get make the gate a foot taller than the fencing but it's really not so noticeable from the aisle.

And the gate is swung into the open position.

Gate open, and CN 5931 shoving a GTW boxcar into the industry spur.

The 5931 has got the boxcar into place now.  The new gate worked out just fine ('cept for that height issue), the power is connected to the spur (see, the headlight is on) and it looks like  all's well at Tri-State Paper.

That'll be it for now. Have a good week out there.

Some This and That in September

I had posted last week a picture or two of this engine, but failed to mention what type of engine it is, so...With just a single boxcar in tow,  here is BSTX 5859, a B36-7 locomotive, from Rapido.

Passing beneath the Gratiot Avenue overpass.

And speaking of locomotives, I had this one out of it's box and onto the layout for only the 2nd or 3rd time a week ago.  It was running just fine around the layout at a nice low speed.  Until it wasn't. 

It just stopped.  Right about here.

Pretty sharp looking SD40-2 from Bowser. Not sure what made it stop, but I carried it over to the programming track.

Here's what happened when I tried to re-program it.

Can Not Read Configuration Variable.  It will not respond at all. I think I'm going to have to replace the decoder.  Rats.

On a happier note, I've made up this gate for the rail entrance to my Tri-State Paper industry.  This was a little bit of a kitbash from a Walthers kit.

And after some weathering

The fencing that runs along the rail spur at Tri-State is pretty worn looking, so the gate might as well show pretty much the same appearance.  I haven't got it actually installed yet because the paint, er rust, is still wet.

So that'll be all for now.  Have a nice week.

Replaced a Switch at the JSSX Yard

Had leaser engine BSTX (Brian Smith Transportation) 5859 out on the layout for some work this week, and almost immediately ran into some track trouble.  Kept hitting a spot at the track switch at the JSSX yard entrance where the engine would either: a) stop cold, or b) derail.

So that was annoying.

I've had trouble at that same spot before, and this time was enough that I decided to lift the offending (Atlas) switch out and replace it, this time with one from Peco which I happened to have had on-hand.

Here's an older "file photo" of that leaser engine, although it is in a location at the other end of the yard from where the trouble is/was.I had weathered this engine for Brian (he's the CEO at BSTX), and then ended up buying it from him, breaking my moratorium on buying new engines.

Anyway, here's some boring pictures of that trouble-causing switch (middle of the picture)If you look closely, you can see that there's a small piece of rail, probably an insulated section, missing just to the left of the frog.  I don't know why it's not there, but I kind of think it must have been this way for quite some time.

I soaked the ballast with water and isopropyl alcohol, let it sit for a few minutes, slid the rail joiners back, and was able to lift the switch right out.  Snipped a couple of feeder wires too, and then scraped out the ballast.

There's the Peco replacement switch in place.  I soldered in the feeder wires, and put the ground throw in place.  That's actually moved over about an inch from where it had been.  (I've since filled in the ballast at that other switch at the bottom of the pictures too).

After a few successful test passes with the engine and a few freight cars, I replaced the ballast and applied the glue to hold it all in place.  Maybe paint some ties tomorrow, and add a little bit of ground cover here and there as well.

And I'll close out now with this view of that 5859 waiting for the ballast glue to dry overnight before being cleared to run through the new switch.  The whole process was over and done with in about two hours.  Could have been worse.

Have a real good Labour Day holiday weekend everybody !