WRS Locos at Hartford National

I won't be able to attend the Hartford National show, but a friend will be running several WRS locomotives on the HUB Division modular layout. Keep your eyes peeled if you're there! Here's what you should look for, photographed on my layout.

Lift Bridge - Completed!

I finished my lift bridge and staging yard, and all that's left is to order track so I can lay track for the staging yard and lift bridge. Then the West Formanek Cutoff will be completed, and I can start holding operating sessions again, with a staging yard! NOTE: The safety fences are built from old brass flextrack, worthless in today's market for nickel-silver track. They will eventually be replaced with thin hardboard. (BELOW)



Here's some technical specifications. The bridge is built from 1/2" hardboard, with two door hinges attached to a 2-by-4 screwed into the stud wall at the staging yard end. The end where the bridge drops into place on the layout has two tapered dowels mounted on the bridge that fit into holes in the layout. These keep the bridge perfectly aligned when it's down, so there is no play in the rail alignments, causing derailments. (BELOW)

The staging yard itself will be two tracks, and extends just under 16 feet. There will be a crossover in the middle, allowing for runaround movements when restaging between sessions. (BELOW)

Formanek Cutoff Staging Yard lift bridge full-size mockup

Well, I've finished the full-size mockup for my lift bridge over the aisle to my staging yard along the wall. Here's an overall view. The staging tracks will be about 15 feet long, with a crossover midway. The tracks are purely for demonstrating the rough layout of them. Please ignore the odd tracks hanging out into space!
















Here the bridge is in the up position.

West Canaan Rebuilding

I've been sick of the backdrop seperating West Canaan and Canaan, NH, for a while now. So I took it down and rebuilt the entire surrounding area.

BEFORE:
















AFTER: The track in the foreground is the continuous run connection, while the train near the backdrop is on the mainline, which will terminate at a staging yard on a shelf to the right of the photo. The gondola and centerbeam flatcar in the foreground are at Delery Pulpwood & Lumber Co., and the empty gondola to the left is at a scrap metal transload facility.

Paint for the WRS fleet!

The entire WRS fleet, with the exception of CSX U23B #3243, has been painted into WRS colors by my good friend Alex (GuilfordGuy on most forums). Here's some shots of the fleet on their assigned trains.

Train 403, with GP7 #8569 and U23B #2306.

Train 402, with SDP35 #1402 and GP30 #2752.

The rest of the fleet in the Lebanon engine terminal. From left to right, GP18 #9423, U23B 3243, and GP7 #5817.

May 23, 2009 Operating Session

The first operating session ever on the WRS went very well. There were two minor derailments, but everything else worked great, and fun was had all around. The rebuilding of the yard and mainline was really worth it! Here are some photos from the session.

Alex (foreground) pulls local 41T out of Lebanon Yard, while Jed brings 402 into the yard at the other end.

Greg (right) consults his timetable for 403, while Alex checks the waybills as 41T rolls into Enfield.

As Greg brings 403 into Lebanon Yard, 402 rolls to a stop to await clearance eastbound. With the staging yard unfinished, both through freights make several laps around the layout. This will change once I finish the staging yard.

Goodbye to freelanced towns!

The towns on the WRS are undergoing a name change. What was formerly White River Junction, VT, is now Lebanon, NH (directly across the Connecticut river), New Poland is now Mascoma, NH, Dooley is now Enfield, NH, Stude is now West Canaan, and West Formanek is now Canaan. Looking at the map, the pass now is almost completely prototypical. It curves along the shore of Mascoma Lake, matching the map almost exactly except for the grade!


View Larger Map

New power, new video!

The WRS has recently received several new locomotives, or at least recently repainted ones. I have four more being finished for this weekend, so I'll post photos of all of them once they arrive. For now though, I've got GP18 #9423 and GP7 #8569 here. 9423 is in service, while 8569 is awaiting a chassis swap so the current chassis can undergo electrical work. I managed to get out for the first revenue run of 9423 though, and caught a video of it headed westbound over the pass with local 42T. Enjoy!

Friday 4-24-09 Work Session Results

On Friday the 24th, I had two friends over to help prepare the layout for my operating session in May. One of them put down feeders, and the other laid track in New Poland.

This is the track in New Poland. I still have to reverse the turnout throw bars to install Caboose Hobbies ground throws, and CA the rail on one of the turnouts back into gauge, but then it's done. The station is just loosely placed (the turnout throw bar is in the way of the platform, another reason to flip it around) and there's still a lot of scenery work and cleanup to be done.


Here is one of the feeders. I went from one and a half (the one in the yard had one lead come unsoldered, and the only remaining lead to one rail was at the top of the pass) feeder wires, to seven and a half (I still haven't gotten around to that unsoldered connection) feeders! Once I clean the track and layout surface, I'm really looking foward to running trains!

While they were doing that, I repaired most of the remaining track glitches. There's still a couple I couldn't get to, but those won't take long.

I also broke one non-vital turnout in White River Junction by filing the points too much, so anything on the diverging leg will ride up on the points and derail. Luckily this is only the west end of a track used for switching. It works fine as a single ended track, so I removed the ground throw and spiked the switch into the straight position. I might get around to replacing the points or the entire switch at some point, but right now I can live with a single-ended track...

The WRS Never Sleeps

Last night I took a break from cleaning in preparation for having friends over to help work on the layout, and took some night photos. I mounted my Canon 30D on a tripod and ran a train (P2K GP30 2752, a few cars, and a caboose) back and forth, often illuminated by a small LED booklight. I just played with lighting setups for a while in two different locations. Here are some of the best shots and the information on how I took them.

This is the street running secton in Dooley. The building is lit up by the LED booklight, and the train was moving during the whole shot (that streak of light was created by the headlight.) I used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to get rid of some light on the backdrop as while as the light shining out the bottom of the building. This area is still unfinished, so I underexposed the shot to make it dark enough to not see the lack of scenery.
ISO 800, F/11, at 8 seconds.

For this shot the booklight was next to the tracks leaning up against the lumberyard in Dooley. The train was moving for the whole shot.

ISO 800, F/14 at 6 seconds.




This is the same location with almost exactly the same circumstances, except without the booklight.

ISO 800, F/14, at 13 seconds.