Progress on my new NKP Layout

jdcolombo Jan 3, 2012

  1. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    Hi folks.

    Last June I began a new layout in a basement room that is 25' long X 14' wide, give or take. The layout is an "E" design, that will operate as a point-to-point with staging yards at each end and the main yard in the middle, but also has a connection to allow continuous running if I just want to watch 'em roll. It represents the area of the Nickel Plate Road from Fostoria, OH to Rocky River OH, with Bellevue as the main yard (as it was in reality for the NKP).

    Over the holidays, I finally completed the main trackwork, which now allows me to run trains all the way around the layout. So, I pulled out my iPhone and took a 4-minute video of NKP Berkshire 776 (a Walthers/LifeLike model that I have modified with a medium-steam Tsunami in the tender for sound) pulling a train around the entire layout. The video starts with the train pulling out of the westbound staging yard, running over the plywood that eventually will be replaced by the Rocky River Viaduct (which you can see resting upside-down on the back of the layout), then past the USS Lorain Works (formerly National Tube) at South Lorain, past Lorain itself, into the yard at Bellevue, down the mainline track in the yard past the engine terminal, then past what will be the National Carbon Fostoria Works, where the video fades out (at this point, in actual operations, the train would head into the eastbound staging yard and parked there. I would then back it into its original spot in the westbound yard for future ops). The video is here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b9ggJ6G_RDM

    For those of you who would like to see some more detail of the construction, I've posted a number of photos at my Picasa site, available here:

    https://picasaweb.google.com/jdcolombo/NewNKPConstruction

    Here are a couple:

    First, a shot of some power sitting at the engine terminal, early in the construction phase:

    [​IMG]

    Next is a shot looking down the Bellevue Yard area:

    [​IMG]

    Next, the Lorain area:

    [​IMG]

    The steel mill area:

    [​IMG]


    Still a lot of work to do, but reaching the "can run a train all the way around the layout" stage was a milestone!

    John Colombo
     
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  2. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    What a wonderful prototype !! Looks like you are certainly doing it justice !!!

    Randy
     
  3. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    Congratulations on reaching your milestone. Some really excellent work so far!
     
  4. EMD F7A

    EMD F7A TrainBoard Member

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    That coaling tower shot (pic #1) is absolutely stunning!! With some photoshopped background and foreground, I'd believe it was the real thing. I imagine you'll have a good number of those steamers in coming progress pics, NKP always caught my eye with their big iron! Looking forward to more pics!

    (post some more pics of that coaling tower if you want to make my day!)
     
  5. Cajonpassfan

    Cajonpassfan TrainBoard Supporter

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    John, congratulations, makings of a truly spectacular layout/ railroad! And, you did all this since June? Wow!
    Please keep us updated, at the rate you're moving you should be done by Christmas...:)
    All the best in 2012 to you and yours!
    Regards, Otto
     
  6. Cajonpassfan

    Cajonpassfan TrainBoard Supporter

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    John, congratulations, makings of a truly spectacular layout/ railroad! And, you did all this since June? Wow!
    Please keep us updated, at the rate you're moving you should be done by Christmas...:)
    All the best in 2012 to you and yours!
    Regards, Otto
     
  7. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    The coaling tower is a Walthers kit that my wife bought me a few years ago. It's nothing like the NKP prototype at Bellevue (which was a large cylinder with a cone top), but I've gotten kind of attached to this one and plan to keep it in place for a while.

    Here's another shot of it, with my one and only brass loco (a Key Berkshire) sitting waiting for coal:

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. norco44

    norco44 TrainBoard Member

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    John,
    How long has this construction taken you?
    You seem to have an impressive collection of NKP equipment. The locomotive in your video clip, is this another brass loco or LifeLike 2-8-4?
    Gary
     
  9. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    I started this particular layout in June of 2011. But this is my third major effort. I had a fairly large basement layout in the 1990's that I dismantled to turn the basement into a home theater and kids playroom. Then I built a layout in a spare bedroom that was featured in the NKPHTS Modelers' Notebook. Now the kids are gone (one is a software engineer at Microsoft, the other is at the University of Illinois) so I dismantled the bedroom layout and reclaimed the basement for my current effort. You learn a lot after building two - I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with this layout and how to do it, so construction went fairly quickly.

    Berk #776 in the video is a LifeLike model that I've made some modifications to (sound and a home-made "traction tire" solution to allow the Berk to pull 25-car trains). I've accumulated a lot of NKP equipment over the 20 years I've been in N scale, including 9 LifeLike Berks, the one Key brass Berk in the picture above, and many others.

    Here's a shot of the roundhouse that I took for the NKPHTS story, which shows all my steam power lined up for a "publicity photo"

    [​IMG]

    In addition to the Berks, I have two Walthers 0-8-0's, two Bachmann 2-8-0's, four Kato Mikes, and two ConCor Hudsons.

    Plus a gaggle of GP9's, RS11's, SD9's, LifeLike PA-1's, LifeLike SW9 switchers (which are being retired because of their incompatibility with Atlas Code55 track), and a couple of Arnold S2's.

    Here are a couple more shots from my old bedroom layout showing some of my engines:

    PA 190 (numberboards and Mars light added)

    [​IMG]

    Bachmann 2-8-0:

    [​IMG]

    A trio of Geeps:

    [​IMG]

    John C.
     
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  10. EMD F7A

    EMD F7A TrainBoard Member

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    Fantastic shot! I should look into one of those coaling towers, it would fit my roundhouse/yard well. Not proto for me, but I like what I like! The detail on your brass Berk looks very..... detailed! haha.... Quite a collection you have!
     
  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wow. This is magazine article material! Please keep the pictures coming!
     
  12. W Neal

    W Neal TrainBoard Member

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    Fantastic sir!! Great to see another modeler with such focus! Looking forward to seeing your progress!
     
  13. dexterdog62

    dexterdog62 TrainBoard Member

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    Why does a thread on an outstanding layout like this just come to an abrupt end...?:question:
     
  14. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    Well, I didn't really follow up much after posting the original thread (and thanks for the "outstanding" adjective, though there's a long way to go still). But here are some shots of the progress made since the original posting.

    Here's a pretty complete view of the engine terminal. This photo was taken by one of my regular operations crew, Bruce Bird, using a Nikon digital SLR with a program called Helicon Focus that takes several different shots at different focus points and then stitches them together for essentially unlimited depth of field.

    [​IMG]



    And here's a similar shot (using Helicon Focus) of Bellevue Yard

    [​IMG]

    And here are some of my engines, sitting in the engine terminal (also done with Helicon Focus):

    [​IMG]

    Here are a couple of photos from the Lorain area of the layout:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And here's a video showing some of the layout scenes (no trains running, just panning the layout):

    [video=youtube_share;R8R1x0D1Jvk]http://youtu.be/R8R1x0D1Jvk[/video]

    I need to take some more photos of some other areas that I've done some scenery work on, but I'll finish with a video of one of my sound-equipped Berks taking a train around the layout (the scenery at the Lorain area wasn't done yet):

    [video=youtube_share;CtrO8NB8bRE]http://youtu.be/CtrO8NB8bRE[/video]

    John C.
     
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  15. dexterdog62

    dexterdog62 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the update! Hope we don't have to wait another couple of years for the next one!
     
  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A lot more scenery. Looking really good. :)
     
  17. Backshop

    Backshop TrainBoard Member

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    Do you still call the Vermillion-Lorain turn the "Vermin local"?
     
  18. norco44

    norco44 TrainBoard Member

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    John,
    Thanks for the update on your layout. Really impressive work.
    What was the "home made traction tire" that you have on your Life Like Berkshires? Have one that needs some improvement to the pulling power. Is it an easy modification? I am curious.
    Gary
     
  19. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Gary.

    The technique is pretty easy, though you might need to do some additional tuning to the electrical pickup afterward. First, I don't recommend this unless you have a Berk from the second or third runs; the reason for this is that the first run tenders only had electrical pickup from the rear truck. Because the mod makes the engine itself pretty useless for electrical pickup, you are relying on the tender to deliver power, so you need all 12 tender wheels working for this.

    The modification itself is simple. I buy the thin Scotch double-sided tape (not the foam stuff, but the thin stuff that comes in a yellow & black dispenser). Then you'll need a large plate, or something very smooth that you can stick a piece of the tape to in order to cut strips from it. I use a large Corelle dinner plate for this. You'll also need a steel or aluminum straightedge and a hobby knife with a new #11 blade in it. A pair of tweezers also comes in handy. And you'll need a way to apply power to the Berk with it inverted in an engine cradle or something similar.

    OK. Here's what you do. Invert the Berk and set it up so that you can apply power and have the drivers run VERY slowly. Tear off a 2" section of the tape and press it lightly on the plate. Now take your straightedge and slice off a strip from the long side that is a hair over 1mm wide. What you are aiming for is a strip of tape that is about the width of the driver tire on the Berk. Take your tweezers and pull up the strip you just cut. Apply one end of the strip to one side of the #4 driver set and let the rest hang straight ahead. Now apply power so that the driver wheels turn as slowly as possible, and "feed" the rest of the strip around the driver until it overlaps. Cut power. Take the very tip of your new #11 blade, and cut the strip exactly at the overlap point (if there is a slight gap, no problem, but get it as close as humanly possible, and make sure when you are done there is NO overlap). Now repeat the process for the driver on the other side.

    You're done. Turn the Berk back over, and run it slowly forward and reverse to "set" the tape.

    Now, what if the Berk now stalls because it's not getting good electrical contact? The usual problem here is that the drawbar wires aren't making good contact with the "nubs" on the bottom of the tender that transfer power from the tender trucks, or that the wires that wipe against the post on the engine aren't making good contact. Remove the drawbar (tiny screw on the tender), and bend the wires that wipe up against the nubs on the bottom of the tender outward so that they will apply more pressure. Similarly, bend the wires that go around the post on the tender inward a bit. Things should now be better. And if worse comes to worse, you can remove the tape and no harm done.

    John C.
     
  20. jdcolombo

    jdcolombo TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Al (I hope this is you).

    Vermillion Ohio isn't a town on this layout. Lorain is still there, but I replaced Vermillion with Rocky River between the steel mill scene and the Rocky River viaduct. So the "Vermin" local is history. The towns on this layout are Fostoria and Maple Grove to the west of Bellevue (the main classification yard) and Lorain/Rocky River to the east. The steel mill is also east of Bellevue, but that's a separate operating job. We now have the Fostoria local (WB) and the Lorain local (EB), which serves Lorain and Rocky River. It's not all that much different from the old basement layout you operated on back in the 90's, but I've got wider aisles now (learned that lesson) and I'm using Atlas Code 55 track instead of Peco.

    John C.
     

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