Rainier Great Western Const Update

RGW Feb 19, 2007

  1. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Question for my guys. I want to invest in a two-way radio system for operating sessions. I would welcome any thoughts about systems you use and the advantages/disadvantages. Thanks, M

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
  2. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Quick update from last evening. The team spent the entire evening working on three projects. Scott and Doug continue to troubleshoot our conversation of the Lenz din plug system to the new NCE system. We were hoping this would go quickly and easily. Yeah right. Nothing ever does in this hobby. We did get the handheld throttles to power up, but they are not communicating with the command bus. So more experimenting will be necessary next week.

    Meanwhile Rey and I worked on track gremlins. We found a section of track that over time had developed a slight kink and reverse superelevation. Shims fixed the SE issue. The kink took a lot of effort to pull up track spikes, relay the track angle and respike. All in about as cramped a section as we have on the layout. My knees are killing me today. But the locos now run over the section flawlessly.

    Another issue was wiring to and from one of our 6 reversers. Rey was able to rewire it and by evening's end it too was working perfectly. We literally have one item left to address and, of course, it's inside a tunnel. I'm serious, is anything ever easy in the hobby? Until next time, thanks for checking in.

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
  3. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Tonight we welcomed Ed back after a lengthy absence. He looked great and is recovering nicely.

    We continued to work on small, but irritable track glitches. Rey put the finishing touches on the transition from Renton Yard to Renton industrial.

    [​IMG]

    An alignment issue was fixed so even our longest cars would transition smoothly. Meanwhile I found a wiring glitch. A suitcase connector had literally split the bus wire. Once we jumpered that, everything worked perfectly.

    Scott and Doug continued to work on the wiring for our conversion from Lenz din to NCE din. We got power to the handheld, but no response from the cab bus. We'll swap two wires next Tuesday and we should be good to go.

    [​IMG]

    Ed and I worked on a switch issue. The points were in need of a very small adjustment and our subsequent run through proceeded without anything ending up on the ground. Yay!

    Until next time, thanks for checking in.

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
  4. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I cannot recall where it was in this thread, but those inserts used in fascia for toggle switches have me thinking about an idea I might attempt. What was the item name or source? :)
     
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  5. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    I think you are referring to these, if not let me know.

    [​IMG]

    Home Depot, search furniture grommet.

    M

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
  6. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hi Mike- I believe that is the item. I grabbed a view of your photo above, and zoomed in closer:

    Panel Inset.jpg
     
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  7. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Got it. Yeah I just remove the cover. Then paint them the fascia color.

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
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  8. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    This will be a short update for Tuesday, June 28th. Doug, Rey, Scott and yours truly spent the entire evening working on a reverse loop snafu in South Seattle Yard. Turns out a very old solder joint had come loose. By my recollection, it had to be over 12 years old.

    [​IMG]

    In this shot, Scott is taking his turn trying to solder the feeder wire back in place. As you can see, Rey gave up. Doug is holding a flashlight to assist being able to even see the wire. You see, it's literally under the top deck of track. Just getting the wire in it's position was hard enough, let alone get the iron in there.

    I'm sure there's a "how many modelers" joke in there somewhere. Any way, it's all back together and the reverse loop is working as intended.

    Thanks for checking in.

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
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  9. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Short update from tonight's work session. Ed is back to full strength and we are very happy for that. He spent tonight tweaking our track detector. Stubborn axle counter for sure.

    [​IMG]

    Doug, Rey and I worked on replacing all of our MRC reversers with the Digitrax variety. I sure wish I could understand what the heck we were thinking when we buried two of them up under the Franklin wye and Franklin proper. Moronic decision according to the way my back feels right now. None-the-less, they're in and here is Scott running a centipede back and forth through the Seattle reverse loop.

    [​IMG]

    That about wraps it up for tonight. I need some ibuprofen. Thanks for checking in.

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
  10. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    I always enjoy your RGW updates Mike!
     
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  11. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Much appreciated Tom!

    The Rainier Great Western HO Scale Railroad
     
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  12. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    I've said this before, but every railroad has red letter days. That includes last night on the RGW. Hard to believe I'm actually saying this, but for the first time ever, we ran a train through the Franklin loop.

    The evening started with Rey and I installing a second Digitrax AR1 in Franklin, this one for the loop. The other controls the wye. Once that was in we tested the results and gave a thumbs up for the maiden voyage.

    Here's Rey getting ready to make the run. He's creating a consist while Scott looks on.

    [​IMG]

    Moments later we all crossed our fingers as he fired up the consist. Enjoy, we sure did.





    I've asked myself many times why we had never even tried to run a train in Franklin. That peninsula was one of the earliest built. I've come to the conclusion that our attention was always spent elsewhere because so much work had to be done. It was so easy to set the wye to the mainline and just keep a train moving. Lame excuse, but I'm sticking with it for now. Well, never more! Tonight's results now mean that the entire RGW, all 3400 lineal feet of it are operational. If that isn't a red letter day, I'm not sure what else would qualify.

    Thanks for checking in.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2022
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  13. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Congratulations RGW Crew! Excellent!
     
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  14. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    Great stuff Mike and RGW crew!
     
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  15. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Tom, Ken, there is yet another update needed by trainboard (TB) in order for it's interface to work with Tapatalk. When using the app all we get is a "loading" message and the insufferable circle of death.

    This happened about a year ago and it took someone inside TB to update the interface. Could you pass this along please. The app is useless without it. Thx, M
     
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  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have passed this along.
     
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  17. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you Sir!
     
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  18. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    That is for sure a huge Red Letter Day! Excellent to hear. Really enjoy seeing the updates and the progress on such a fantastic layout!
     
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  19. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    It worked!
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2022
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  20. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Quick update from last night. Scott, Doug and I ran trains most of the evening. Getting them staged for a future operating session.

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    We also wanted to test the track for any issues with catching points, or ballast being to high against the rails; you know, the things that drive you crazy when you're operating. It was a fun evening.

    I also finished adding a 1/4" plywood base to my transfer station scene.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    By adding this base, it protects the foam by giving it a rigid base. It also lets me take it to the workbench, where I can begin adding the buildings and all the other items needed for this scene to work. One last task before the evening ended was weighing it down.

    [​IMG]

    Hopefully next week it will retain the shape of the foam underneath. That's all there is, thanks for checking in. M

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
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