Rebuilding Clermont - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

How can't we think about that old country song chorus when reflecting on what happened yesterday... But contrary to the song, it seems we will get farther that way.

Quite a patchwork!

I mentioned two days ago we found a lot of irregularity on track geometry in both axis. It was bad enough that cars wobbled badly and noticeably. It was unrealistic and unreliable. When investing so much time on a layout, you expect good results. Rushing bad trackwork wasn't a solution.

No wonder cars wobbled...

Reluctantly, we pulled up the tracks and cork roadbed, obliterating one full day of work. Under it laid a patchwork of irregular fiberboard shapes. A real shame honestly. I shouldn't post that kind of pictures, but I feel we learn much more from our mistakes and this is a perfect case study of sloppiness.

Instead of getting the benchwork level, we groove fiberboard!?!?

In many case, the fiberboard was sanded down to cancel the uneven nature of the benchwork. In the case of Clermont's team track, the cork was buried more than 1/8" into the board!

A stratigraphy of mismatched wood bits that should have ended in the dumpster...

Under the fiberboard was an even worst substructure made of various bits of particle boards cemented with hot glue! Ashaming...

Back to the plywood... still some particle board shims to remove

Plywood surface was sanded down to get it as smooth as possible

Then we reached the plywood... at least. But some adjustment had to be done before we could start building up again the roadbed. The peninsula legs were lowered of 3/8" to get the benchwork level again. For some reason we jackep up the structure about 3/4" a few years ago, inducing quite a grade (almost 1%) which made some train stall... Now we know why! Also, we found out the peninsula circular end wasn't sufficiently braced and new structural members were added. Once done, we had a perfectly level and sturdy base to rebuild the layout.

The new roadbed use the same principles as the first one, however, it has been improved to provide a stable and regular foundation. Arc segments of fiberboard of correct radius were prepared and track centerlines were traced prior to any assembly. This way, we have a perfect circle and laying track will be easier that way than trying to draw a circle on the peninsula. Particle board pieces we cut using the fiberboard as a template. This way, 100% of the roadbed will be firmly supported to eliminate all wobbles.

Joints that match perfectly!

So another day and another lesson learned. Once again, cutting corners isn't an option. We almost rebuilt this section a week ago but deemed we could do with the actual situation... only to find out it was unacceptable. Rebuilding the roadbed took about 6 hours but trying to shim the uneven track would have taken much more time with no guarantee for good results. I'm glad it is now done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rebuilding Clermont - Track Laying

Last Friday was spent installing the cork roadbed and laying track. While these things are relatively straightforward process, we had to give it some thought, particularly in Wieland where space is premium and operation must be smooth.

The wye west leg dedicated to lumber transloading

Finding a solution to Reynold's (General Cable) spur took a good hour if not more. Various iterations were tried until we reached a track geometry that was both reliable and good looking. Fortunately, we were able fullfil our goal of having one car spot long enough for a 65ft gondola while keeping the chain-link fence gate and derail. However, we came to the conclusion the new alcove is kind of dark due to shadows and will have to be enlarged a little bit to look better.

General Cable (Reynolds) in the shadow. Better lighting will have to be provided.

We also managed to install all the cork roadbed including the sidings. In the case of Clermont Yard, it was decided the exterior siding would be sitting directly on fiberboard, making this track obviously lower that the main line. On the prototype, it is the case and there is a good feet if not 18" of difference. In HO scale, this translate to almost 5mm, which is shy of a 1/4". We agreed this difference in roadbed height have several advantages. First, you can see a train moving on the mainline even if the siding is full of cars. Visually, it makes the scene more dynamic. Ans finally, it helps to break the impression of a large web of track out of nowhere on the peninsula.

And that's all for the positive things that happened that evening. Next step will be to complete track laying on the siding (the mainline is completed now) and start rewiring everything.

On the negative sides, we had to remove ballast and some tracks that we

re kept until now in Clermont. It means all tracks will be new starting at the grade crossing. The final decision was reached because the ballast and track paint job weren't on par with our better work. Also, we found out it was required to realign the small siding that used to serve as a team track because it didn't look good with the yard alignment.

Virtually all tracks up to the grade crossing are replaced or cleaned.

We also discovered while making operation simulations the team track will have to be used to store excess cars. Our yard will be busy and this piece of track will be quite useful during operation. on the prototype, this track was indeed an extra storage siding and thus, we end up having to follow it up. A team track with MoW cars would have been cool, but it makes very little sense if this goes against layout operations. Also, from a scenery perspective, it will be easier to blend things together and I have already a few ideas. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that where we went proto-freelance it wasn't optimal and we have to come back to ideas that are already used in real life.

The interior siding will have to be redone...

The final negative point is much more annoying. The interior siding in the yard isn't level. It was to be expected since we kept the old fiberboard there. Well, it just doesn't work and shimming every piece of track here and there will be both time consuming and won,t guaranty a goal result. Quite frustrating to remove track that had been relaid, but I see no point compromising on track reliability. Less is more also means you must have better quality and standard. If not, it's just cheap.

And now we can talk about something interesting. Jérôme started to sift through old paperwork, timetables and official documents in his archives. He discovered CFC timetables fitting our era, but also official paperwork, instructions to switching crews and car blocking in Limoilou. Very neat stuff that will certainly bring more life into operation.

I also started to work improving Trevor Marshall's turnout manual control made from FastTrack's bullfrogs control and Sunset Valley brass switch stand. Mechanically, it is the same principle, but I decided to had another layer of realism in this neat design. I hope to be able to share it within a few weeks.

MLW RS18 Madness - Part 18

Today this project finally reached a significant step. Can't go back anymore, the locomotive shell is now completely painted in CP Rail Multimark scheme and additional details and handrails in place.

Talking of decalling a CP Rail locomotive, getting the stripes right is always quite challenging. To make my life easier with stripe decals, I cut paper templates that fitted the RS18u curved geometry then cut the decal to size making sure the stripes aligned as shown on the prototype. Not only it eliminated the guess work, but it also made application speedy, easy and accurate.

Back numberboards are 3D printed from Shapeways. I designed them in SketchUp and I'm pleased how they turned out. However, I made some mistakes and their location isn't 100% accurate. This is the kind of detail that won't be really noticeable, but to be honest finishing touches really makes me realize this model is full of shortcomings. Starting with a Life-Like shell wasn't exactly the greatest idea on Earth and I would probably never do it again.

A set of Rapido ditch lights was also added on the front pilot. They aren't exactly the correct prototype for this particular model, but I decided it was better to compromise a little bit on that and have a working model in a decent amount of time. However, I did paint them as can be seen on pictures, with the red brackets and silver rings.

You will also notice I added a triangular shaped handrail on each ends that projects over the drop steps. I didn't initially plan to do it, however, since I've taken additional steps elsewhere to make this model as close as I could to the prototype, I thought a little bit extra work would pay off. A little chain was also hanged at the same time.

Now, the only remaining steps are installing DCC, a sound baffle and, of course, patching and weathering the hell out of that shell. I'm really looking forward to it!

Rebuilding Clermont - A Quick Update

A quick update about some progress  yesterday. Missing benchwork was rebuilt and the fiberboard underlay in Wieland was completely replaced with a new board, eliminating a lot of uneven seams and thickness issues.

It was also decided to raise the electrical panel door a few inches so it could open without hitting cars on the wye leg. This will also great a larger area to apply the photo backdrop. I wouldn't have been really happy with a big gap in the middle of the photo.

Next working sessions are planned on Thursday and Friday. This is Thanksgiving weeked in Canada, better take advantage of it.

Rebuilding Clermont - There's No Easy Way Out

We could have expected the rebuilding program to have been relatively straightforward... almost a piece of cake... But the walk in the park kind of turned into a substantial carpentry project as more bumps, dinks and other annoying problems started to surface when cork laying was in progress.

It quickly appeared that many structural elements had suffered deterioration over the year and this caused serious vertical variation that were far beyond tolerable. Near the electric panel, the benchwork was in really bad shape and warped. This was caused because it used to be a lifting section that was lightly built and warped. It was later altered to include a small river, which further weaken the parts. Adding extra material later didn't help the situation either.

A steep grade where none was expected nor desired

Where we planned to model the wood transloading terminal, the benchwork had a grade of 1/8" per 2 feet toward the electrical panel. It meant any car set on this track would roll back on the mainline, which is far to be the intended result! Rebuilding in this case isn't a luxury.

Starting from scratch...

On the other side of Wieland, where the track goes through the furnace room, it was evident the transition between the benchwork and hidden shelf supporting the track was far to be stable and sturdy. Back then, access there was quite limited and we did what we could. After a quick deliberation, it was decided to simply open up the wall and redo our job better. During the process, we found out the partition wall was built in the most haphazard way by the previous owner... Fortunately, it was sturdy enough to be kept.

Extra space was secured by removing an obsolete relay box on the furnace plenum.

On the positive side, we discovered several obsolete apparatus on the furnace weren't removed when it was recently refurbished due to access limitation. Having a hole in the wall was a good occasion to take them away, which gave us additional space to better align our tracks. At this point, I'm contemplation the idea to enlarge the hole a little bit and make it an alcove. This way, I hope, it will be possible to create a better transition between hidden track and Wieland, and more room to create a more fonctional Reynolds's siding.

As you can guess, the next working sessions will deal with carpentry and rebuilding the benchwork to better standard. Meanwhile, Jérôme has proposed to narrow a little bit more the benchwork in the between the yard west end throat and Wieland to improve access to rolling stock during switching. At first I had my doubt, but his argument is perfectly sound and it will make for more balanced scenes.

Meannwhile, I also started to prepare tracks, replacing missing ties on salvaged Peco flex tracks and prepping them for installation. We also completed DCC sound installation in my Atlas GP40-2W, which means this project can now be completed. I also got my airbrush nozzle replacement, so basically, my locomotive reworking program won't suffer delay.

Finally, I also did some work on a functional switch stand to manually control a turnout. This idea isn't new and has been (succesfully) advocated by Trevor Marshall for many years. I recall buying a Sunset Valley brass switch stand about 4 or 5 years ago but not doing anything with it. Now is time to put this neat idea in action. I'll probably go a little bit further and replace the round target with an oval one as CN uses and paint it yellow with it's intended spur number. Given the switchlist in JMRI are programmed using the sidings numbers, it will be a visual key to know where you are when operating. If you are interested in the mechanical aspect of this system, Trevor has put together a nice How To article for Model Railroad Hobbyist in August 2014. It can be consulted online and provides instructions and a bill of materials.

Now it's time to go back to locomotive building and weathering!