Arroyo Tram gets a Porter

 I recently finished my third 18 ton GrandtLine 0-4-0 porter. This time, I used an On30 conversion kit to make the locomotive On3. The kit basically includes two frame spacers, two helical gears (needed due to the narrower frame) and a new rear frame/ashpan front (the frame inserts into this piece). These gauge conversion kits were also made for On2 and I hope to have another conversion done by 2022 for the On2 module. We'll see. 

GrandtLine porter kits are an amazing box of parts and wonderful kits to build. Once in a while, its good to read ahead in the instructions to know why you are doing something and how important it might be to do at that particular step. They can be really difficult if you don't know what all those pieces are for. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself a bit with what small steam locomotive parts actually do. Cliff Grandt did an amazing job of designing a scale model. Sometimes a little too to scale and you might wish that clearances were a little greater or certain parts a little oversize for strength.

I prefer the look of the saddle tank cut back behind the smokebox, so that was my only modification from the kit. I filled the saddle tank with lead shot for weight, leaving the boiler for a speaker, stay alive capacitor and a soundtrasxx economi. I  picked up two of the economi's before they went out of production. Great sound decoders at a reasonable price. Why not use a TCS WOW decoder? Well, they don't work well with the Faulhaber geared cordless motors. I can't use them in any of my PSC shays with the Faulhaber motor, nor any of my GrandtLine porters. Soundtraxx and ESU decoders do work well with these motors.

Biggest Headache

The porters do not use a gearbox. The motor fits snuggly in the ashpan/firebox but the alignment of  the motor relative to the axle is critical. How do I know? I could NOT get this engine to run well backwards. There always seemed to be a bind in the mechanism. Note: In every GrandtLine porter I have built, there has been a bind. Usually I associate this with the side rods being slightly too short from center hole to center hole. Maybe shrinkage in the plastic? Not sure but I've struggled with binds in all three locomotives. To avoid this, I ovaled out the holes a bit in the rods during construction to assure a bind-free locomotive. You can see the "slop" in the rod in the video. Worked great. After painting and assembly, major issues. Huh?!

So, after disassembly, messing around, I determined that the bind was in the drive and by moving the motor up and down slightly, I could eliminate the issue. So, I glued the motor in and reassembled it. Still a little bind in reverse but great moving forward. A gearbox would definitely eliminate this issue. If someone out there could develop a gearbox for a different motor, I bet San Juan (new owners of the GrandtLine moulds) might be willing to produce these again.....otherwise, I doubt it.

Regardless, a great looking and sounding engine that is fun to build and a pain to get running well. Maybe the next one will go easier?

Boxcar 312 and Shadow Box for the Arroyo

WW&F On2

I recently finished my version of WW&F boxcar 312. The car was one that had it's roof raised and there were lateral side boards on the top of the car on one side and the other had them only on one side of the door. Interesting kitbash. I started with a TrainTroll WW&F 309 boxcar kit and modified it a little. Why? Well, I thought the kit was great and would make a great Christmas gift. I think it came out quite well.

Arroyo Tram On30

I have also been working on getting the much needed backdrop up on the Arroyo Tram. I've added LED lights and and a "Shadow Box" style valence. Lesson I learned the hard way: I tried to get the same LED's as used on my WW&F module. Oops! I got ALMOST the same thing. Turns out these are 60 LED per meter not 120 per meter! Makes a big difference in the brightness. Too many variables with these things. Type of LED, color, dimming, and how many per meter. Regardless, having something blue in the background really looks much better than cinder block wall and the painted valence makes it look for finished. More backdrop painting to come. Mountains and stuff. Maybe I'll procrastinate a while...........

Arroyo Tank Car Revisted and More

I recently finished up, i.e. painted, a couple of On30 projects that have been ongoing.

First is the new Arroyo Tram tank car. The model is my version of the Gilpin Tram tank car that was built in the C&S shops. The tank car was used to haul water to mines that had "bad" water for their boilers.

I also finished up and painted a Chivers Finelines flatcar, freelanced but based on the Gilpin cars. My last such kit. Sorry to see them go out of business.

Modern Cars........

Here are two all steel ore cars based on the old Roundhouse or Model Die Casting ballast cars. Years ago, I had seen a kit-bashed version similar to these. I have no idea where I found the picture but I liked it and picked up a kit to bash.

Long time later........I bashed this up so quickly that I bought a second one on ebay, super cheap. The only difference between the two is how I did the ends and where I located the chain turning mechanism to open the drop bottom doors.

I wanted to use trucks that have brakes that hang from the trucks, as per Gilpin style but SlimRails or the "new" Chivers Finelines closed down a few years back. So, while looking at Tichey archbar trucks, I wondered if they could be modified? Yes! A fairly easy and quick conversion though I had to wait between steps for the adhesive to dry completely. I think they came out very nicely and plan to modify a few more. I was even able to use the brake shoes that come with the truck kits.

The Chivers Finelines trucks are on the left and my modified Tichey's are on the right. Yes, I used smaller wheels to get the right coupler height but one could easily use larger Kadee wheelsets. The picture is mid production, so only one set of brakes is shown. The finished and painted trucks are in the picture of the completed car above.

Time Warp!

IC on the Arroyo?! Well....it IS On30, right? 

Bill's comment in one of my previous posts is the motivation behind today's. While attending a very interesting (zzzzzz) Zoom meeting today, I pulled out my old Backwoods Miniatures On30 diesel conversion. It's never run very well, and I've been stumped by why not. Each wheel supposedly picks up current. The basis is an old Athearn SW-1500, something like that.  It has a WOW sound decoder (darn thing talks to you when programming - doesn't really help make things clearer....) So, I messed around a little and used some contact cleaner on the the trucks and voila! Well, as voila as this loco is going to get. Runs fairly smooth while switching at really slow speeds. So, a little more weathering and some windows and I'm gonna call her done (oh, yeah a number). I originally picked this up for my On3 layout to use in staging but I'm not going to convert it. So, in the end, thanks Bill.

Proof of What You Already Know but Don't Want to Know

I've been running trains again on the Arroyo Tram. A nice relaxing way to end the day. Operations run from 20-40 minutes. While I use computer generated switch lists on the DC&L and have used them on the Arroyo, I wanted something simpler for such a small layout. I didn't want to use the computer (I'm on that for work all day it seems) and I wanted something quick that I could just walk up to the layout and use on demand. So, I pulled out my old box of Micro Mark car cards and waybills. I re-read an old MR article by Malcom Farlow on using car cards for his San Juan Central, looked quickly at Tony Keoster's Operations book and sat down to come up with something.

What a quick way to come up with something! In less than an hour, I had the cards and waybills written and the boxes installed. Started operating. Quickly learned that I need more cards. I then used an Excel program written by a German narrow gauger that I found on line about 10-years ago to generate 4-sided waybills. Still works! I worked up some better waybills and off we go!

 The system is working great. I can just walk up without any planning an start operating a train. I can walk away and come back when I want to. Easy, simple and quick, which is what I wanted for this particular layout. Operations have identified three things that I knew but didn't really want to be reminded of:

1. I need to build something to put the cards on! I always put the cards on the layout, on the scenery. Bad! I need to build something on the fascia to hold cards. On the to-do list, maybe you'll see it posted...NEXT YEAR!

2. I need to install a Tam Valley frog juicer. One single frog juicer hooked up to all my turnouts will work great since I only run one locomotive on each module at a time. I just need to do it as I'm getting stalls on the frogs. No, none of these loco's have stay alive's.

3. I have too many cars. I've known this. I just can't help building cars. If you've followed my blog for any period of time, you'll realize that what I really like about the hobby is building things. There are so many opportunities to scratch build or kitbash cool cars for this On30 layout! However, I need less than half to run the layout effectively. With less than 1/2 the cars, I still have plenty of switching, it looks better and I have enough sidings to handle traffic. With all my cars, well, everything is full and operations are, well, not that realistic. Heck, it's a small layout, what did I expect! Basically, it is an L-shaped layout with one 2 x 8 section and a 2 x 6 section.

What to do with all those cars...... and I'm building more. Oops! I'll have to find somewhere to store them, maybe make a drawer under the layout - you'll see that posted in.......2-years!

So, I'll get that Tam Valley frog juicer installed this weekend, get over 1/2 the cars off the layout and someday build that little sloped table to hold car cards but in the meantime, I'll be building more stuff and running the occasional train on the Arroyo Tram.

Weekend Projects

My son was working on some tank models on my workbench this weekend, so I brought out some projects that I've had on the back-burner for a while. That way we could share some model building time.

Here is a new hopper for the Arroyo Tram. It started out as a old HO Roundhouse Sand and Gravel Car. I saw something similar but a little different on a website years ago, I thought I would give it a go.

Then I put a Wisemann Model Serivces (V&T Shops) donkey engine kit together. A quick but delicate build.

Grand Central Gold Mining, On30 Action

April is almost over and I haven't posted! Lots of projects ongoing but few finished. I did get my Grand Central Gold Mine interior completed enough to share. The interior is a kit by Wiseman Model Services and includes all the equipment. I've added a few details. I would like to add some figures and interior lighting. Outside needs two rail sections, one to load cars and the other to a small tailing pile.

I also finished ballasting the Arroyo Extension and added a little scenery. Hoping to get the rails cleaned up and running again soon. 

Arroyo Tram Engine House

The Arroyo Tram received a new engine house. I scratch built the engine house based on plans for the Gilpin Tram's engine house that appeared in the NG&SLG. I modified the length to two stalls and left of the shop facilities off the rear. No doors at this point, I think they might cause problems with the location of the tracks on this module. I think it came out nicely, now to get some scenery on this portion of the modules!

The prototype from Keith Pashia's Freerails blog on the Gilpin Tram: http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=4599&forum_id=17&jump_to=84368

Arroyo Update, Running Trains, Weeks Mills On2 Extension/Staging

July Update 

 Arroyo Extension (On30) 

Deer Creek and Laurel Operations (On3) 

Albion Module -Weeks Mills? (On2)

Arroyo Tram

I've had a little time to work on the layout this month, so  Arroyo Tram  (On30) extension has been progressing along. Getting land forms up and preparing for some scenery. I've also been working on a Gilpin Tram style engine house, two stall instead of three. Running trains to make sure my two home built curved switches work ok. They seem to. My three cylinder kit-bash of the Backmann shay is in the paintshop and should be revealed soon, although with the start of the semester looming, it could be a while.

 End view of the 24-inch wide by six foot extension. Man, I wish it was eight feet long.......

 Scratchbuilt Gilpin Style engine house behind a Wild West Kit.

One of the mines on the Arroyo Tram. Man, I really need to work on a backdrop! I just don't enjoy them. Maybe a printed backdrop for something different?

 Deer Creek and Laurel Ry

Ran some trains last night on the Deer Creek and Laurel (On3). My son has very recently begun to enjoy the "puzzle" of switching cars to selected spots. So long as I keep it simple and only help when asked, he really likes it. He's always enjoyed running trains around but this is an interesting twist.

 Albion Module II Weeks Mills (0n2)

I've been wanting somewhere to send trains and make up trains for my On2 Albion module for quite some time. Getting track down on the Arroyo Extension really increased my interest in operations and I wanted something similar. Switching Albion is really neat as the yard is basically set up just like the prototype, just more compact and contains a runaround since I don't think gravity will work to drop cars in On2. 

There is actually a fair amount of variety of freight handled there for a narrow gauge. During my last visit home, my father let me take a peak at an actual W&Q, WW&F bill of lading book. You can see the handwritten freight handled to and from Albion on a daily basis from 1897 to 1902. Cool, a lot more bark was handled than I expected. So, I decided to build some kind of staging, staging turntable to selector plate staging yard. Gave up when I figured out I could make a "fake"version of Weeks Mills, which I have always wanted to model. So, the only prototype arrangement I'm following is the station, freight house and run around track. An engine house and turntable (gone by the time period I'm modeling) will be freelance. However, it fill fit the flavor and give me somewhere to run trains and more switching to get back to Albion! Benchwork is underway!

I'm trying yet another method of building lightweight modules. Quick to assemble but I'm not convinced this is any better than my previous approach.  See you next month!

Arroyo Update

First post of the new year! and it is March....oh, well.
Over the holidays, I gave myself a birthday/Christmas present of three WildWest building kits for the Arroyo Tram. The extension is progressing nicely and I felt the need for some "townish" structures. I've completed two of them, though I might re-do the shingles on the fire house, they don't look quite right to me, not enough overlap. Live and learn!

I recently had a comment on how small the GrandtLine Gilpin cars look (see #24 in the background above). Below is the progression from the original ore car to the original with extension, to the larger car. They still look small next to a wood gondola! Still having fun as time permits.

Water to the Mines

After a long spell of no modeling, due to work and life, I finished up a kit that I started back in early August or late July. It is a Foothills Models On30 tank car. The kit is resin and comes complete with trucks and couplers. I very nice build with high quality resin castings (Foothills always has high quality resin castings).

I picked up the kit on eBay a while back. I wanted to have a way to haul water to some of the mines on the Arroyo Tram just as the Gilpin did for some mines on the Gilpin Tram. Once painted, this will be my water tanker till I get the time and energy to compete the Gilpin protype water tank car.

Great fun to be back at the workbench. Now off to the paint shop.........

A Look Back: Arroyo II

June was a very busy month and I wasn't able to get too much modeling done. Now that it is July, I realized that I failed to make a posting in June. I recently had a request to post the track plan for the "new" Arroyo On30 module, so I decided to provide a pictorial review over time. Enjoy!

July 2014 Beginnings - I dismantled my Mexicano Yucatan 30-inch prototype module and laid  the new Gilpin style Arroyo.

 

December 2015 -Tack and land forms are down.

February 2016 - Bridges are in and a shay has been modified using a Wisemann Models kit

March 2016 - My version of the St Louis mine gets a body.

February 2018 - Scenery is in, the St. Louis mine exterior is done, my version of the Whiting mine is well along and the portable staging/run around is completed.

 

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Some Boulder Valley Model 4 Wheel Cars

This weekend I finished up painting two Boulder Valley On30 4 wheel flat cars. I bought these a while back before they folded up shop. Thought they looked interesting. They were fun and fast to put together. Took me longer to paint them than to build them. I added a short strip of lead weight underneath the deck and body. They roll great. Nice little cars.

Arroyo Tram Gets a Staging Track

This weekend I manged to complete the long awaited staging track for On30 Arroyo Tram module.
I originally built the extension a bit too short to accommodate  a run-around track, which made it less than ideal. Also, it had to propped up with something on one end, which made it impractical. So, I extended it 12-inches, and added foldable legs and wires to power the track.

 

Wow, does it make operations more enjoyable! The layout/module is now a layout and not a switching puzzle. Before, you had to really watch train length and were limited in moves by the two tail tracks. Now you can use all the length needed, which makes operation much more prototypical and more enjoyable, plus there is somewhere to come from and go to complete the operation session. I should have done this a long time ago. 

The removable staging area will now be used until the layout gets completed and I start Phase II which will have a model of the Gilpin's enginehouse. A "someday" project.

Also, work continues on the On2 WW&F Albion module with slow but continued progress on the Albion station. Till next time........