3D Printer Arrives

The SeeMeCNC Rostock Max V2 printer kit arrived today, along with three spools of filament.  SeeMeCNC shipped it via USPS 2 Day Priority Mail, but...the Post Office would not deliver it to my door because it is "oversize". I had to go pick it up which is not a problem as the Post Office is just a mile or so down the road; but it is frustrating. SeeMeCNC might do well to skip the premium shipping as long as the Post Office makes you come to get your package.

Now to find the time to assemble it.

Success!

After three attempts, I finally got the suspended part of the Cranberry Grade right! If you have been reading this blog, you'll know about the small section (about 15')  of double deck that I have incorporated into the layout as an afterthought (i.e. it was not in the original plan).  It allows the approach into and out of lower staging to be visible inasmuch as this is a nice sweeping curve that would otherwise be covered (lower staging is itself an afterthought and not in my original plan).

I had made two unsuccessful attempts to support the upper section, which is on Cranberry Grade. The supports obscured too much of the curve below and it looked like peering through a narrow slit at the lower tracks.  The second unsuccessful attempt is recorded here: The Twelve Days of Christmas.  After two tries, I had to stop and really think out what I wanted to do next.

The only support for the upper deck is via the backdrop and/or suspended from the ceiling.  While I did not want suspension wires, I could not see a way around it.  What I decided to do was to build something akin to a through plate girder bridge:

• Thicken the subroadbed by adding a 1/2 inch layer below the existing 3/4 inch subroadbed to stiffen it up.
• Added suspension wires from the outer (aisle) side of the subroadbed up to the floor joists above.  These wires are a single strand of #12 piano wire (240# breaking strength) and only 0.029 inch thick.
• Add 1x2 lumber athwart the underside of the roadbed to act as "beams".
• Screw a metal "L" slotted angle iron to the backdrop to use as a ledger on which the backside of the beams rests.
• Glue and brad nail two thickness of 3" x 1/8" masonite to the outside (aisle) edge of the subroadbed to act like the plate girder to stiffen the upper deck.

The following photos document the construction:

First, I added the additional 1/2 inch of subroadbed along the entire suspended section. 

Then I added the suspension wires. The upper ends of the suspension wires were fitted with small turnbuckles (from Home Depot) that allow me to adjust the subroadbed for level and will allow me to compensate for the weight of scenery in the future. The turnbuckles will eventually be hidden by the valence

Screw eyes were placed on the outside (aisle) side of the subroadbed and the other end of the wire inserted, pulled taught, passed through the eye a few times and then  wrapped securely.

The beams and the angle iron went in next.  Since the subroadbed was already to grade, and I did not want to disturb it, I clamped the beams to the underside of the subroadbed, fitted the angle iron to the ends of the beams, then screwed everything together.  The final product looks like this from the underside.

Here the first strip of Masonite is in place on the edge of the shelf.  

Glue was applied to the edge of the subroadbed and the ends of the beams then the Masonite was held in place while an air nailer drove brads through the Masonite into the subroadbed. The strip was applied with about 1/2 inch above the level of the subroadbed and 2 1/2 inches below.  The 2 1/2 inches hides all of the supports below the upper deck and provides 1/2 inch of space on the backside of the lower edge for mounting LED strip lighting.

When I first applied this with glue and brad nails from a nail gun, the upper deck still flexed more than I would have liked.  However, I had faith in my design and I let it be.  After the glue had time to set up, the shelf flexed a whole lot less.  In fact, the one thickness of 1/8 inch Masonite would have been enough.  But since I applied the Masonite with the rough side facing out, anticipating another layer with the smooth side out, I was compelled to apply the second strip.

Here's the second strip glued and clamped in place.  

Joints between the first and second layer are offset for strength.  I used no brads through the second layer for a nice finish surface.

And here is the final result.

I must admit that I am very pleased with the result.  The thin upper deck gives the lower level a feeling of spaciousness and openness; and there are no supports below to obscure the view.  The Masonite end cap gives this part of the layout a hint of it's finished appearance. There is minimal deflection at the center of the 15' suspended section and none towards the ends where it ties into structure.

On the other hand, the suspension wires, thin as they are, will detract from trains on the upper level.  And I've already discovered that they interfere with track laying up there.

Lessons learned: Increasing the thickness of the subroadbed gained me little; 3/4" would have been enough.  One thickness of Masonite as the flange would have sufficed; maybe going up to 3/16" thickness, just to be sure.  I have 5 suspension wires unevenly spaced along the 15' span (because of overhead obstructions); not all of them are bearing the same load and I believe that 3 would suffice.

I believe that a modification of this structure: 3/4" subroadbed; 1x2 lumber laid edgewise rather than flat and 3" x 1/8" flanges on both sides of the roadbed for stiffening would make an excellent shelf layout and/or upper deck structure that would only need widely spaced support from above or below.

With this major task completed, and all of the turnouts for this stretch of the layout completed, it's a race to the finish line - I think that I'll make it!

I Took The Plunge

Well, I finally overcame indecision and inertia and bought a 3D printer. I ordered a SeeMeCNC Rostock Max V2. This machine is what is called a "delta" 3D printer.

So why this machine and not one that's more popular like the Makerbot or one from 3D Systems?  There are a number of practical considerations.  The size of the build volume is 11" diameter by 14.5 inches high. That should allow me to print a 40 foot O scale car on the build platform. And, due to the delta design, the build platform does not move which results in more accurate prints and better adhesion to the build platform. The Rostock Max has a heated build platform, which allows you to print in different materials not just PLA. The Rostock is an open architecture, as opposed to Makerbot and 3D Systems which try to tie you into their ecosystem. Finally, SeeMeCNC is an actual company with real employees and a physical plant - this is not a garage operation or a Kick Starter.

The only fly in the ointment is that the Rostock Max is a kit, requiring 20 hours of assembly. It will arrive next week, but I will not be able to begin assembly before May. So it' s going to be quite a while before that first print materializes.

Graveyard Curve Takes Shape

I’m working like gangbusters on laying track on Graveyard Curve. Graveyard Curve, on the prototype and on my model, is a 3-track mainline (uphill slow track, uphill fast track and a downhill track). The center track of the three has a 64” radius which, if you calculate the circumference around half of a circle, requires almost 17 feet of track. Sum up all three tracks, and the approach tracks from the west and this part of the layout is gobbling up flextrack like there’s no tomorrow. I’m sure that this situation is familiar to PRR modelers who recreate the PRR’s many 4-track mainlines.

In addition to material (track, roadbed, etc.) this construction is consuming another precious commodity – time. I’m racing to get at least one track of the mainline finished by my next open house, April 25, and time grows short.

To have any hope of making it, I have had to modify the procedures that I have been using since I started building (and it’s about time, too). When I started this layout I, like many, had been reading Model Railroader for many years.  One of the things that they drilled home was that if you wanted to run your railroad, then your track work had to be first rate or trains would be derailing every few minutes.  I took this to heart.  So in the beginning, I would lay half of a strip of roadbed on one side of the centerline; wait for that to dry, at least overnight and often longer; then lay the other half.  All of this so that there was absolutely no chance of anything moving during drying.  I was scrupulous to have everything EXACTLY on the centerlines as I had drawn them out.  

When I moved to two-layer roadbed, that was four half-strips that had to dry before track could be laid.  Needless to say, progress was glacially slow.

Also, I do not like to leave a job half-finished and return to it.  Therefore I tried to dedicate all-day Saturday to working on the railroad to make sure that I had enough time to finish jobs. Surprisingly, I was able to dedicate many, if not most, Saturdays for a period of almost 3 years and regular progress was made.  This has not been the case in the 3 years immediately past.

Finally, my new job (which is, very likely, my best ever) involves a commute that leaves me only 2 hours after dinner each night of free time - so weeknights had been out.

So with a self-imposed deadline approaching, something had to give.  The first concession was that I was going to use any free hour - even if it was just to make a few wire connections - rather than wait for a solid block of time to open up.  

Next, I wasn't going to wait for each half of a roadbed strip to dry before laying it's twin.  I've begun, with some trepidation, to lay great lengths of each layer of the roadbed.  I still have to wait for the lower layer to dry - although not overnight - before laying the top layer.  However, once both layers of my two-layer roadbed are down, I wait overnight for it to dry because the next step - sanding the cork layer - puts the stack-up under strain.

Now admittedly, some of this is possible due to my developing experience and confidence in my track-laying system.

So given all of the above, what does Graveyard Curve look like?  Here's a photo of the roadbed going down.  The first layer of topper (camper top) tape is going down on the track to the left.  Cork roadbed is being held down in place by push pins on the two outer tracks.

Roadbed on Graveyard Curve

This view is at the start of the curve proper and looks uphill (eastbound).  The topper tape has a very aggressive pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) on the back.  However, I still lay it in a bed of adhesive caulk.  The caulk allows me to slide the tape right up to the centerline, whereas the PSA would grab at first contact and pulling it off tears the tape.  The tape will keep it's position until dry with only the caulk holding it down (I used to hold it down with push pins too - not anymore).

The "cork" (actually there's little cork left in it, it's largely ground rubber) is also laid in adhesive caulk, then I hold it in place with pushpins until dry.  Working this fast, I'm not able to make the nearly invisible seams like I used to; but that's the price that I had to pay.

Next, the track goes down.  In this photo, the track has been laid in adhesive caulk and is being held with pushpins and weights until the caulk is dry.

The cans are empty quart paint cans that are filled with compressed wet sand, which is surprising heavy.  The other hold-downs are bars of lead (don't try this at home!).  The tracks below are associated with staging.

Here's how it looks today, and will likely look for the open house.

I'm only 2/3 of the way around the curve and I'll probably not complete the innermost track by the 25th; unless I finish everything else early.  I can run bi-directionally on the two uphill tracks (the prototype did this too and was signaled for operation in both directions on all three tracks).

Both tracks on the helix are just short of the summit.  They are holding there while I finish building some turnouts which are just beyond the summit.  

There's still the question of the hanging section between the summit and the end of Graveyard Curve.  I've bought a job-site (portable) table saw to help me make parts to suspend this section.  Now if the good weather will stick around to let me use it.  

Working with PECO and Micro Engineering Track

During the shortage of Atlas “O” flextrack from a year and more back, I bought some other brands while I was waiting for Atlas to reestablish their source of supply. Although I did not install them at the time, I am using these sections of flextrack now; this is my experience with them.

PECO

PECO is an English brand that is rarely seen in the USA. PECO makes two lines of O scale flextrack. One uses “bullhead” (i.e. English) rail and matching ties; the other has flat-bottomed rail, wooden ties and is supposedly US prototype. I bought some PECO track on sale at Walthers for less than $11 for a 3 foot section; quite a bargain as O scale flextrack goes. I bought the minimum six sections to see what it’s like.

PECO is nice stuff. Code 143 rail of a nicely formed cross-section (unlike Atlas); with larger, more widely spaced ties than Atlas/Micro Engineering/Old Pullman (that's not surprising since European O scale is 1/43.5). 

Tie Spacing: PECO (foreground); Atlas (background)

It’s sturdily built and flexible – a very little stiffer than Atlas – but still very flexible. It forms nicely along curves; and I would not hesitate to use it in “S” curves or other serpentine track work. It would be an option, except that the fasteners for the rail to the ties are not simulated tie plates and spikes but what looks like European and/or modern screw-type clamps, somewhat akin to the old Atlas/Roco track from the 1970s.

Peco Track Fasteners

Unfortunately, this track is not acceptable appearance-wise. Therefore, I installed the PECO track on the lower level, inside track of the helix where the unusual fasteners will be difficult to see. It installed smoothly and runs well.

Micro Engineering

I’ve successfully used Micro Engineering (ME) code 148 flextrack at some locations on the layout before. I was able to curve this very rigid “flex” track to large radius curves by working slowly and carefully. Now I’m installing it on the two outer tracks (64” R and 68”R) on the Graveyard Curve and I have worked out a procedure for bending it that someone else may find useful.

My standard procedure for installing any flextrack on a curve is to solder two straight sections of flextrack together on the bench. The resulting 72” (or 80” with Atlas flex) is just big enough to handle. By soldering the two sections together while they are straight you do not have to try to join these two sections on a curve and risk a kink at the joint; the soldered joint will curve smoothly without kinking.

My latest procedure for bending ME flextrack relies on the fact that the roadbed is in place on the layout and set to the curve’s radius. This procedure will work for constant radius (circular) curves. I use the roadbed as a guide for bending the flex. Now for ME flextrack, drill a hole centered in each tie on either side of the soldered joint. This hole should be a fit for a wire brad.

Holes drilled at joint in Micro Engineering track

Place the track on the roadbed approximately where it will be finally placed. Push brads through the holes into the roadbed on the roadbed’s center line. That fixes the ME track in place at its center point. 

ME flextrack temporarily affixed to the roadbed

 Now using both of your hands, begin bending the track – gently and gradually – simultaneously on each side of the center working from the center of the two sections outward. If you work on only one side of the center, the track on the other side will bend into weird shapes in response. Very slight pressure applied primarily to the outside rail, moving along the track from the center outward works well for me. Continue bending, using the roadbed as a guide to keep the track at the proper radius.

When you have worked about 1 ½ to 2 feet either side of the center, it will become difficult to work both sides simultaneously; unless you have arms as long as a gorilla’s. At that point, work one side only until it is nearly to final radius and sits centered upon your roadbed. This will cause the other side to partially undo; but that can’t be helped. Drill a hole into the last tie at the end of the section and push a brad through it into the centerline of the roadbed to temporarily fix this side of the track in place. Go back and work the opposite side to final radius. When you are satisfied, drill and pin that side of the section to the roadbed’s centerline.

Now put your head down to track level at either end of the newly formed section of track and sight along the rails (not the ties) and look for kinks or places where the radius is not constant or the curve is not smooth. If you cannot get your eye down to track level, due to where the track is placed on the layout, use a mirror to sight down the track to check for these discontinuities. 

Using a mirror to sight along the track

Straighten out any defects with repeated gentle hand pressure until they are worked out. Repeat this procedure, sighting from the other end of the newly curved section.

When you are happy, you can pull all of the brads and move your new curved section to butt against your already installed track. You’ll have to cut at least one rail of the new track as the inside rail will now be significantly longer than the outer rail. Cut and file the ends, attach rail joiners, do a final fit check and final check for radius before soldering the new section to the older track (that is if you solder all rail joints – I do).

Smoothly curved ME flextrack on the layout

This procedure takes more time than using a more supple flextrack like Atlas; but it allows you to use the finer-looking ME flex.

Thoughts on Modeling Coal Operations

The section of the B&O’s “West End” that I am modeling was known for its heavy grades.  The grades mattered because of the primary commodity carried over the line – coal.  The challenging and long Cranberry Grade faced the eastbound tonnage; while the short but equally steep Cheat River Grade impeded westbound trains of empty coal hoppers.  During the steam era on the prototype, eastbound trains of hoppers were limited to 55 cars because of the grades; and then proceeded up Cranberry at less than 10 mph.  Road power in the late steam era was an EM-1 2-8-8-4 up front and pushers on the rear which could be one or more EL class 2-8-8-2s, Q4b 2-8-2s or an A-B-B-A set of F7s.

Superficially, this is all that you need to know to model this section of the line.  Assemble a reasonably long train of loaded hoppers, slap an EM-1 on the point, put some helpers on the rear and you’re good to go.  This was the operational concept of my railroad at its inception, and still is.  However, I’m the type who wants to know more, specifically the why and the how of coal operations, to make my railroad more accurate without going overboard to reproduce the exact operations of the prototype down to the smallest detail.  Collecting the data to enhance my coal operations has been a long, on again, off again effort; but I believe that I now have a better picture of the composition of a late steam era coal train.

Coal Cars

While we model railroaders think of hoppers in connection with transporting coal, the industry referred generically to “coal cars”.  Through the years many car types carried coal, not just hopper-bottomed gondolas (the proper name for what we call hoppers).  Solid bottom gondolas, drop-bottom gondolas, “battleship” (70 & 100 ton) gondolas and, going back to the beginnings of the B&O, the “pot” hopper, all were used at one time or another for the transport of coal.

B&O Pot Hopper

By the early 1950’s the hopper, in its many variations, reigned supreme.  The gondolas, having fallen into disuse because of the cost of unloading, would make a comeback in the future with the proliferation of rotary car dumpers. But what hoppers should be in your trains?

Some modelers would put together a train having hoppers from a number of different railroads and think nothing of it.  However, I got to considering the prototype situation.  Coal was an inexpensive commodity and it could be made uncompetitive if the price of transporting it was too high.  If the originating railroad used any hopper that was available they would have to pay a per diem on foreign road hoppers for each day that they were on its rails.  The per diem would increase the cost of transporting coal and, therefore, its selling price. Some railroads owned mines and sold coal; they would certainly have been sensitive to the cost of producing and transporting said coal.  In addition all railroads had to publish tariffs (rates) for transporting various commodities.  The rates for carrying coal had to be based on some assumption as to the cost of supplying coal cars. For all of these reasons, logic would seem to dictate that most coal would be carried in the company cars of the originating railroad.  I had never heard of this topic discussed in the model press (that does not mean that it wasn’t done, just that I had never read about it). Could I prove my suppositions?

My on line searching eventually turned up this report: From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway.  Although this report is not specifically about the B&O, it deals with the same region, and the time frame is about right.  By this point in time car allocation and tariffs were being overseen by the Federal Government (ICC) and some state governments; so a certain uniformity of practice across the railroads would be expected.

At about page 212, this report goes into a discussion of coal car allocation and, eventually, tariffs.  If you have interest in coal operations you can read the report (beginning about page 212), but for the purposes of this blog post here are the take-aways:

• Coal car shortages occurred from time to time.  At these times the railroads could not supply the mines with all of the cars that they requested.  To assure unbiased allocation of cars during shortages, the railroads had to rate the output of the mines and allocate cars in proportion to each mine's capacity.
• The mine owners, acting as a group, eventually had a say in approving the allocation scheme and its revisions.
• The report identifies three classes of cars: system cars (i.e. originating railroad owned cars); cars for foreign railway fuel (i.e. fuel for other than the originating road); and private cars (owned by a shipper or consignee)
• Cars for railway fuel and private cars are sent to the mines to which the car's owner designates.  Those cars are counted against the mine's request for cars or against its allocation of cars in times of shortage.
• The balance of the mine's request for cars or its allocation in time of shortage is typically filled by the originating road's cars.

The report goes into detail on the various systems that the N&W used, objections by the mine owners, court cases and other details necessary for the historian.  But the bullet points above are what we need to know as modelers.  In fact, it's the last three bullets that tell us what cars should be in our coal trains.

In the late steam/transition era your loaded coal trains should be overwhelmingly company hoppers.  Although I have no empirical justification for the following numbers, I would think that:

• 85-95% of cars would be company hoppers
• 0-10% of cars would be foreign road fuel hoppers
• 0-5% of cars would be private owner hoppers

Cars for foreign road fuel should be from railroads that do not have large on-line coal mines.  Roads that have on-line mines would patronize the local mines for the goodwill and for the shorter haul. Nor would it be likely to see UP, CB&Q or other hoppers from the west taking on coal in West Virginia; there are certainly mines closer than that.  On the other hand a NH hopper would be OK inasmuch as by this time there were no economically competitive coal mines in New England.

This picture of a train on Cranberry grade seems to bear this out.  Most of the cars in this photo are indistinct but there is a P&LE hopper in the foreground and there appear to be N&W H30 hoppers in train.  Otherwise, most of the cars appear to bear the B&O's 13 Great States logo.

The rules outlined in the N&W report raise some interesting possibilities for prototype based car routing and allocation.  In normal times, empty cars delivered to the mines should match my hypothetical 85-10-5 ratio.  But, for instance, you could have a large coal mine on your layout that receives a large number of private cars for a consignee.  In that case your 5% private cars could be more, conceivably a lot more, if the mine is a large source of carloads.  You could also declare a car shortage for some operating sessions and reduce car deliveries to all mines.  Just remember that private cars and foreign road fuel cars are not subject to allocation and should be delivered in numbers similar to a normal operating session.  In fact, figuring this all out could give rise to a new role at your operating sessions for someone who does not care to operate but prefers mental gymnastics.

What about hoppers in through merchandise trains?  Here I think that you have some leeway.  After loading at the mines, loaded hoppers would fan out across the country including for destinations within coal country.  Individual coal dealers could buy from various mines located anywhere because of: cost, the coal type (bituminous vs. anthracite), merchandising features (e.g. "Blue Coal"), or local shortages. So a through train (as opposed to a solid coal train) could have a hopper from anywhere within reason.  For instance, I would not expect to see a UP hopper delivering coal to the east coast; but a hopper from any of the anthracite roads (CNJ, LV, RDG, DL&W, LNE, and LHR) could be found anywhere because of the desirability of anthracite for home heating.  You also would have to watch the direction that a loaded through hopper is travelling.  You would not expect to see a loaded RDG hopper moving east from say, Illinois.

Coal Loads

During coal's heyday as a multi-purpose fuel, the size of the coal nuggets was tailored to the application.  The primary purpose of the coal tipple above the loading tracks was not, in most cases, to store the coal prior to loading; but it was to screen (and sometimes break) the coal into carefully graded sizes.

Coal would be passed by tables where men would pick out shale and other contaminants from the coal flowing by.  Then the flow of coal was passed over "screens", metal plates with circular holes, which would let coal nuggets of a given size fall through.  First over the smaller screens then the larger ones.

Common coal sizes during the steam era were:

Designation	Max	Min
Broken or lump	6	4
Egg	3 1/4	2 7/16
Stove	2 7/16	1 5/8
Nut	1 5/8	13/16
Pea	13/16	9/16

Smaller mines (like truck load-out mines) which could not screen the coal would load "run of mine" coal; that is, coal sized in whatever mixture of lumps that emerged from the mouth of the mine.  Run of mine coal would also have impurities still in it and was considered the lowest grade of coal. Conversely the smallest size of coal was called "slack" coal and it was sometimes stored in a cylindrical storage bin outside of the tipple until loaded into cars for shipment.

The various sizes of coal the mine was producing for that day would be held in bins above each loading track under the tipple.  Only one grade of coal would be loaded on that track.  So to be prototypical, the loaded cars on each track should have the same size coal and different tracks should have different sizes of coal as can be seen in this picture from  the N&W.

Carload lots of coal should be nearly uniform in size - unlike many model coal loads which have lumps of widely varying sizes.  Your assembled trains of loaded hoppers should reflect this too with different cars carrying different sizes of coal, as seen below.

What does this mean for your model hopper fleet?  If you want to look prototypical, I don't think that you can do it with readily available model coal loads - certainly not the injection molded "loads" that come with many model hoppers.  I believe that loads made from loose "coal", of varying scale sizes, made to fit you hoppers, is the way to go.

To see what I mean, here is a picture of a hand-made, scale sized (egg size in O scale, in this case) on the left and an injection molded "coal" load that came with the Atlas O hopper on the right.

Each track at your tipples should have cars with a single size of coal.  And any mine of significant size should be loading several sizes of coal, each on a different track.  

If you swap loads into and out of cars to change them between loaded and empty, you may want two or more loads of different sizes of coal so that each car does not always carry the same size coal.

At the receiving end, any particular consignee could require one or more specific sizes of coal rather than just a "carload". 

Providing cars in the proper numbers, picking loads based on some model of a mine's output and matching carload type to a particular receiver could constitute an accurate model of coal operations.  Thought of in this way, accurately modelling coal operations can be a game within the "game" of model railroading.

Busy, busy, busy...

Boy, this year is off to a flying model railroad start!  Jan 15-17 I was at the recording of Model Rail radio Show 100.  The show was recorded on the 17th; on the 16th I operated on Seth Neuman's layout and that evening on the Silicon Valley Lines.  I enjoy operations, however I don't think that it will displace my preference of seeing big-time mainline railroading in miniature on O scale layouts.

The weekend following the 100th show was the Springfield show.  I had not intended to go, having just completed a cross-country trip; but when a business trip to Massachusetts arose for the following week how could I resist getting a two-fer-one?  I drove up to MA on my own nickel and attended Springfield. On Sunday after the show I drove to the location of my business meeting which was cancelled later that night because of the impending storm.  That left me to drive back on Monday before the storm hit.  I made it in good shape with only some dicey driving conditions in the mountains.

The weekend after Springfield, traditionally, is the show at Timonium, MD.  Again, I had absolutely no intention of going, but the Friday night before I bought a canoe on closeout  at the Bass pro Shop in Baltimore and since I had to drive back with my truck to pick it up anyway...

Here are some pictures from those events:

Here's the yard at one end of the Silicon Valley Lines.

Here's another of their yards along the route.

The other end of this same yard.

One scene near the entrance to the SVL.  The SVL is double decked throughout its entire length; and makes extensive use of new technology.  iPads are located along the layout as control points (there's one visible in the picture above) and they have few conventional throttles.  They were out of throttles when my train was called,  Luckily, I had the JMRI throttle program on my tablet, so I used that to run my train.  Lucky for me that I had it; I've had that program on my tablet for a couple of years and I have yet to try to get it working on my own layout.

New United Motors Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI), the major industry on Seth Newman's layout.  That's Seth in the background.  Seth's layout has a working signal system (which I managed to overrun, but just once) and Seth has a working RFID system to track his car fleet (he also runs the RFID4MRR Yahoo group).

The model Rail Radio crew at Springfield.  From the left, yours truly, Peter Stemple, Bryan Schilling, Ron Klaiss, Clark Kooning.

Three consecutive weekends and three model railroading events; not bad.  So it's not surprising after attending three events with large crowds that the following weekend I was laid low with a cold.  So this weekend is the first in over a month that I have spent significant time on my layout.  The backdrop on Graveyard curve is taped, sanded and painted; and I've been laying track in isolated sections, inching the ends of the mainline ever closer to one another.