A real short update this time - it's summer so not a lot going on in the basement - but mostly because of a project that I thought would be a piece of cake turned out to be a real menace.
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CV 4007, East New London, Conn. (Bob's Photos). |
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CV 4013, one of the home built "long" cabooses, shows off her original lettering scheme. |
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By 1939 the Central Vermont was still Railroad Roman but had gotten smaller and moved to the lower portion of the side. Some cabooses, like this one, got the flashy "Rocket" lettering. |
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CV 4006 shows off her then-new paint scheme of Red underframe and orange body. (Also note how dirty these cabooses got in service!) |
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CV 4019 at Essex Junction shows how the cars weathered, but you can see tell the underframe and trucks were painted a different color than the car body. |
In case you wanted to justify adding one (or more) of the new Rapido Canadian National F-Ms to your CV layout - here's an assortment of H16-44s of various types on the Central Vermont that I dug out of my slide collection. NOTE: Not all of these are the exact prototypes for the Rapido model, which is based on the phase of the H16-44 that was introduced in early 1957.
As always, thanks to the photographers (most of whom have left us) for having the foresight to point their lenses at these machines and for their willingness to share the images with the rest of us.
If you want to learn more about H16-44s, and get a close up look at the Rapido model, I suggest checking out Hunter Hughson's Hindsight RPM clinic, which you can find on YouTube at:
https://youtu.be/k-Wz4YXf8pc?si=9O3f2QgWTqFAk9Hy
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CN 2211 is the same group as the new Rapido model. R. Decker photo, 4-1957. |
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An interesting trio of CN diesels on the Central Vermont. D. Nelson photo. St. Albans, Vt. area. Date unknown. |
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A pair of CN H16-44s, led by no. 1851, cross the Connecticut River near Brattleboro, Vt. Dave Sweetland photo, August 1955. |
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In case you thought the H16-44s didn't make it to the Southern Division, here CN 1851 leads a train out of East New London, Conn. Bob Decker photo, 5/22/1955 |
I just posted the second of three videos in my Track and Wiring Tweaks series to my CVSNE YouTube channel.
In this video I take a closer look at a turnout in Richford yard - what looked "in the heat of battle" (ie., during the operating session!) to be a tight gauge in the turnout that was causing the S-4 switcher to get "pinched" and stuck on the turnout.
Checking the turnout and the locomotive with a gauge confirmed the gauge was not the issue. That particular locomotive needs it's decoder tuned a bit the track issue was easily corrected.
You can find the video at THIS LINK.
I've uploaded a new video to my "CVSNE" YouTube channel detailing the process I went through troubleshooting and ultimately replacing a cantankerous turnout in my town of Berkshire.
This is hardly in danger of winning any Academy Awards, but you might find something useful.
You can find the video HERE.
This is the first video showing how I'm going about correcting the issues we identified on the layout during Operating Session #1.
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The Richford Turn leaves Enosburg enroute for Richford during Session #1. |
The occasion was operating session 1.0 on the Richford Branch.
I invited three good friends over to put the layout through its paces. I was concerned there wouldn't be enough to do to keep them entertained and occupied, but was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn't the case. In the end the layout supported an enjoyable, low key session for three operators and could have handled a fourth operator if only there had been another throttle available.
Operating the layout solo over the last couple of years revealed that working the town of Richford itself can easily consume an hour or so - the paper mill another hour or so - meaning it might take the branchline local 4 hours+ to finish its run over the entire layout. Bernie ponders his next move with the mill job.
My original intention for this session was to have two trains, each with a two-person crew - one working the paper mill job, the other running the branchline local around the rest of the layout. But that would still require the branchline local to work Richford yard.
So we tried something different and created a Richford yard job that spotted and sorted the cars for the local when it pulled into town. Not entirely prototypical for my era, (it was done that way in earlier eras) but it worked out really well. Todd brings the Richford Turn into Richford as Bill looks on.
It worked out so well I think we'll stick with this lineup for the foreseeable future:
1. Richford Turn (the branchline local)
2. The Mill Job - works the paper mill
3. Richford Yard Job
4. The Charlton Turn - works the "northern SNE" section of the railroad.
We also discussed the possibility of breaking the milk cars into a separate train. Depending on how many people we have I might try doing that next time. The Richford Turn has a lot of do as it is, and shifting the milk traffic to its own train may prove an ideal solution.
There were no issues with anyone feeling cramped or crowded - a function of mostly 3+ foot aisles in many places. That also means I can accommodate more operators by going to two-person crews in case, for example, a group of people come from out of town to operate.
That covers number of trains and operators - but did the layout offer sufficient play value? I was somewhat concerned people would find it boring to operate, they would be done in 15 minutes and wondering what they were supposed to do the rest of the day.
In the end I didn't need to worry - the layout kept us busy for the better part of 2.5 hours. And everyone finished about the same time.
How did the layout perform?
In short, there were a couple of little glitches, but nothing overwhelming. Likely since I’ve been running the layout on and off for a few years.
A few gremlins did raise their heads - nothing horrible but enough to need some attention.
For example, I'm going to fix (ie, replace!) a turnout in Berkshire that just doesn’t want to cooperate. And Todd managed to find the one spur where the feeders were loose (or not there!) so I need to deal with that. And the track in Charlton needs a good cleaning.
The only other “issues” were one or two cars with coupler issues. I put them aside and will deal with them before they go back on the railroad.
The only other thing I need to deal with is upgrading some of the operator aides - apparently my handwriting hasn’t improved since grade school!
All in all a great time was had by all - thanks to Stic for all his help getting us to this point (unfortunately he was out of town so he missed this one) and to Bernie, Bill, and Todd for bringing the Richford Branch to life!
And I posted a new video update on the layout, that shows some of the progress on a couple of structures and provides a hot wash of the operating session #1. You can find that on You Tube at:
The building is Evergreen styrene, built using my normal method of a plain styrene subshell covered with styrene clapboard and novelty siding to capture the look of the prototype building. The awnings were interesting - I made a styrene shell for them and then glued tissue paper in place to give some semblence of cloth texture. A base coat of blue paint, with some drybrushed highlights of lighter blue, hopefully gives the illusion of minor folds in the "fabric."
The sign was prepared by Bernie Kempinski - and really helps make the building. He thought that he'd gotten away with doing signs with the passing of our mutual friend Paul Dolkos. No such luck.