The Evolution of the Plywood Empire Route

                   this is awesome LEW  

           You always have great stories in all your posts, on both real trains, 

                  and trains running on your layout, and I really love reading them all !!

           You are very fortunate to of been around so much train activity,

                   experiencing more things than I will probably ever read about.

            You have a "gold mine" of train photos, please keep them coming !!

                   looking forward to see, more of the, "Evolution of the Plywood Empire Route"...

                                                    Thank you...             

Thanks, Brian. We'll see how it goes, won't we. 

Lew, Thank you for putting the story together.  I do remember you moving those sidings around.

Meanwhile the East End evolved as well, the product of experience gained.

It started like this:

And then with the first track-plan change room was made for an industry:

Then two more industries were added:

And then this tweak was tested:

Then a big change came to the PER: a Lionel 282 Gantry Crane! Real Estate was developed so this wonderful Post War operating accessory would have a home front&center:

This mock-up shows where a stub siding was added for the Gantry Crane:

The Crane worked beautifully in this spot but after testing with operating sessions I decided to re-design the East End so that everything would fit and all East End traffic would come off the Mainline on a branch track. After moving Oil Creek Northward I added the necessary decking and laid track:

Thus the East End became an Operator's delight with switching there taking up to 40 minutes.

Another significant track-plan change was made between the East End and the West End: the elimination of the short run-around siding, going from this:

To this:

As well as being a simpler track-plan with no loss of operation interest, this change eliminated two track switches.

Those were all good changes!  In the midst of that, it looks like you painted the walls as well.  That must have been interesting with the layout in place.   

Yes, I can attest to the importance of doing all room prep work BEFORE constructing a foot of Benchwork but like so many others I was in a hurry to see trains run. I managed to not get paint on any of the beautiful trains though. 

Looks great Lew. A testament to "a layout is never done"

Like you, I'm making a change on my layout that has improved the operations of my RR.

Bob

geysergazer posted:

Yes, I can attest to the importance of doing all room prep work BEFORE constructing a foot of Benchwork but like so many others I was in a hurry to see trains run. I managed to not get paint on any of the beautiful trains though. 

I think your track work looks good very straight 

steve t

That is an interesting layout in a nice room with windows through which to view the outdoors. Much better than a layout like mine in a finished basement. Is your layout point-to-point or does it loop all the way around the room?

MELGAR

The most recent track-plan change was the elimination of the passing-siding/engine escape/runaround and the consequent necessary changing of  West End track switches such that all points face in the direction of travel from interchange to town.

First was the ripping up of track:

Gotta' break eggs to make an omelette!

Emperor Joseph II said of Mozart's newest opera that it had "too many notes!" and that is how I've been feeling: "too many tracks!" The Emperor suggested that Mozart should just "take some notes out" and I decided to take out some track....a passing siding, to be precise.

That is to say, I was not finding engine-escape moves to be operationally satisfying but rather just distraction from the real work of pick-ups and set-outs. So out it came. Track was re-laid in it's new configuration and everything put back in place.

The West End:

Studying the area I realized I could change things around a bit and gain a bit of open center space. This is supposed to be a spare bedroom and the Pike has been encroaching a little too much. The next small tweak pushed the front of the layout back 6"-8" while actually improving operation:

One more small tweak improved operation by creating another car spot for the Paint Factory on the Fuel Wholesaler's siding (covered hoppers of Titanium Dioxide pigment which are offloaded and stored in that tall white silo). The Paint Factory has the gray lighted storage tank and the yellow tank while the Fuel Wholesaler has two storage tanks (seen in the background): The West End as it is now:

The Paint Factory has (4) car-spots and the Fuel Wholesaler has (3) while the Paint Factory has a fifth spot on that siding as well.

The East End is now an Inglenook:

Four industries, (5) car-spots and room for switching maneuvers.

An overall view of the South wall showing the connection between the East End and the West End. My Atlas station finally found a perfectly suited spot with the Mainline in front and the East End Branch passing behind:

MELGAR posted:

That is an interesting layout in a nice room with windows through which to view the outdoors. Much better than a layout like mine in a finished basement. Is your layout point-to-point or does it loop all the way around the room?

MELGAR

It does continue around the room in a simple loop. The North wall and the return loop in the next room:

Trains usually make two loops before reaching their destination (unless I feel like watching it roll ). Most operating time is spent switching though. There has even been an evolution in Interchange operations. I started as many do by simply assembling trains on the off-wall (North wall) but I soon tunneled into the adjacent [sewing] room and installed a return loop there. Today (6) consists are in play on the PER, 4 of which are stored around the return loop:

Let me ask you something. Forgive me if you have mentioned this as I may have overlooked it. My layout is very similar to yours including the use of fastrack. Is yours noisy? My train is very noisy almost to the point of drowning out the train engine sounds. I’m thinking about spraying underneath the plywood with flex seal to see if it will dampen the sound echo. Thanks for posting your progress. I really like the plan.

I have no noise issues wrt Fastrack but the top speed on the PER is maybe 20smph. I know people do complain about Fastrack telegraphing noise. There  are threads here about it. IIRC one fix is to fill the hollow underside with silicone seal (a bit expensive for my taste).

I may try the silicone route if the flex seal underneath the plywood doesn’t work. Keep up the postings. I look forward to it.

Lew - you have a wonderful switching layout!  It looks like lots of fun to operate. Thanks for sharing the layout's story and photos.

Lew,

  Very nice. Hope you continue to make progress and post updated pictures.

Tom 

Very nice Lew.

An important driver of evolution on the Plywood Empire route has been the car-stoppers I invented and deployed at remote uncoupler locations. I put up a Topic laying out the whole story here:

https://ogrforum.com/...85#90547142152123785

so I'll just summarize here. After running Lionel PWC NW2s the Plywood Empire Route recently acquired three MTH PS3 SW1500s and a new era has begun. With speed control these engines make switching moves at a [scale] walking speed possible. Unfortunately Lionel “claw” couplers require a lot of force to couple so they need more like an Olympic sprinter’s speed and that defeats the realism of slow-speed switching. A switch to Kadee couplers would solve the problem BUT the only space available for a return loop/interchange track/fiddle yard requires an O31 circle so truck-mounted couplers must be used and no one yet offers a way to mount Kadees on MTH freight trucks. So I’m stuck with crash-coupling claws. What was needed was "brakes" for standing cars so I assembled and installed several such devices.

The basic bit is a Circuitron Tortoise slow-motion switch machine. It actuates a 5/32" brass tube which is fitted inside a larger 3/16" piece of tubing.  The 3/16" tube is friction-fitted and hot glued and the whole assembly is attached to the underside of the plywood decking:

Installed in the roadbed adjacent to an electromagnetic uncoupler, it looks like this:

In the raised position:

This is how it works:

The train approaching from the left is able to couple slowly because the tank car's truck-frame is securely stopped against the raised brass plunger.

Anyway, the thing is that because coupling became suddenly so easy and reliable switching became so much more satisfying and entertaining and this in turn drove Operations to evolve in the direction of more and more switching. While I am also a Looper with no intension of doing so, by now I could do away with the traditional train-watching and still have a satisfying pastime of operating an exclusively switching pike.

Very nice Lew. Interesting layout with a view too. Thanks for posting the step by step.    

Hawkshaw posted:

I may try the silicone route if the flex seal underneath the plywood doesn’t work. Keep up the postings. I look forward to it.

You could try cork road bed.Or buy a roll of cork from lows.And cut it and place it on the lay out.You will need to use some type of glue to hold the cork in place.Then place your track on top of the cork.It won,t stop noise but it will reduce it.I do not know if your going to use the track in place.Some use small nail or thumb tacks or even even glue.

And now a word about control(s). As my interest in Operation grew and the track-plan evolved so did controls. The PER started out with a variant of the familiar central control panel.

Mine looked like this:

An MTH Z-1000 Throttle, track switch remote controls and uncoupler remote controls. The first move away from centralized control was a walk-around throttle:

Then a big change came to the PER. Motive power had been a Lionel PWC NW2:

But then the PER tested an MTH PS3 SW1500 and I was smitten by Speed Control:

Slow speed switching moves suddenly became a reality! Then I discovered DCS. My original interest was because using DCS gives access to the 100-step throttle which provides even better slow-speed control. But as well, DCS provides a walk-around throttle. I chose to use the Remote Commander, a simple inexpensive throttle consisting of a hand-held IR Remote (like a TV) :                         

and a Receiver which picks up the IR commands and produces the necessary DCS signal to the tracks:

Here is the hybrid control panel that resulted with both DCS and Conventional Walk-around. Also seen in this pic are car-stopper controls which by then I had invented:

The next iteration usied all miniature toggle switches and dropped Conventional control:

Putting it all together; with slow-speed switching, uncoupling and coupling I found that I really wanted to get right up close to the action so I went total walk-around with de-CTC (no central control panel at all). And that is where we are today:

A few details wrt wiring now. 

First, a pic of the underside of the PER illustrating a benefit of using DCS and of de-centralized control:

Layout wiring consists pretty much of three buss wires, a 12ga common, a 12ga track power buss and a doubled 18ga accessory buss. Short wire runs connect mini-panels to the track switches, remote uncouplers and car-stoppers they control. And that is it.

Since the PER runs equipment with lots of electronics (PS3 under DCS) TVS Diodes are a must to provide Transient Voltage Suppression. A TVS is installed across the transformer output terminals:

Also in this pic is a 22uH toroid-wound inductor in series with track power. This is necessary when using a DCS Remote Commander in passive mode.

Most important though is a TVS Diode inside each locomotive wired directly across the track power and ground inputs to the PS3 board:

DCS changes everything!!  

Other stuff I've learned through experience.

On a whim I picked up a Lionel PW 282 Portal Gantry Crane and found a home for it on the PER. A real-live operating accessory:

It migrated across Oil Creek to the East End as that industrial area evolved and grew:

But every time I operated it I was struck by a deficiency: when you reach into that miniature world and give the Crane a shove (several times to load that Gondola) the illusion/caricature is destroyed. I set out to give the Crane remote traverse (along it's rails) movement. Having another 282 on hand that was in pretty rough shape I determined to use it's guts for a traverse winch.

The first step was to reduce the crane cabin base to the essential bit. From this:

To this:

Then remove the unwanted bits from the base:

Reassembled, we have a power winch:

Installed under the deck:

With the business-end above the deck:

The cable strung and attached to the Crane legs (that is part of a wiring terminal-block hot glued to the leg):

A pulley redirects the cable to hang vertically and under the deck a weight is suspended which applies tension to the cable in counterposition to the winch take-up drum:

The winch-house:

In this pic you can see the whole setup with the winch house to the right, the redirect pulley at the left and the cable strung between. It works well and surpasses expectation by adding a whole dimension to the operation of the Crane. With all functions remotely controlled the operator has the ability to move any scrap anywhere.

There are three 70ft K Line aluminum passenger cars in service on the PER:

Of the three, two have a case of the wobbles. That is, they don't sit stable on their trucks but rather wobble from side-to-side disconcertingly when in motion. I quickly changed out a pair of good trucks and put the business car on the line but I wanted to see if I could do a repair. If I have two cars doing it there are probably a thousand out there with the same issue. So I dissected the trucks completely including driving out the center pins.

And there is the problem:

The hole for the swivel-pin is punched (poorly) rather than drilled (saves pennies) leaving a bulged surface as a swivel-bearing plate. Hence the rocking back-and-forth. So I punched that dimple back flat and dressed it with a nice flat file:

Nice flat mating surface.

BTW, any truck with a coupler must have the coupler-centering bracket bent up to allow access to the truck mounting pin and then bent back flat when the pin is driven home again:

A nice fit with no wobbling or rocking:

Ready for final assembly:

And there you have it.

Well designed and executed, Scrap Iron!  Reminded me of Phil Garner. LOL

Time to implement another track-plan tweak I'd been thinking about. The lack of a passing siding/engine-escape/runaround is (prototypically speaking) a bit of a stretch. Yes, a shortline could work in the scenario I've been using (one direction of travel being a shove-move) but I don't think I could find a real world example. So the track gang was called in to lay a passing siding.

First was tearing it up! When Dad cooked for a BR&P work-train they would sometimes be involved with tearing up track in one place and laying it back down somewhere else as coal mines closed/opened.

Buffy helped:

Re-laying track and here is the other part of this tweak; the rearrangement of the West End. The Paint Factory stub siding is now entered from the East. One joist showing where decking needs added for the passing siding:

The new West End track switch in place, showing where a deck extension is needed:

The new East End track switch:

Trackage in place, including the new passing siding:

The East End switch looking West:

The West End switch looking East:

And now, a control panel revisited. West End switching action is centered at the Paint Factory switch, which is now front-and-center on the South wall. The run-around track switches are used when changing from East End action to West End action so controlling all these operations logically fits together front-center. So, a control panel was put together:

And there we have it. From left to right, East End passing siding switch, Paint Factory switch, Branch uncoupler+car-stopper, car-stopper-uncoupler-car-stopper (between the two switches), Paint Factory uncoupler+car-stopper, East End Branch switch, West End passing siding switch. The DCS Remote is no longer tethered because all operations are now performed while facing the South wall so the original Receiver location is retained:

Mighty fine reconfiguration, Lew!  Dad would be proud!!

I just did another tweak that adds significantly to switching operation at the West End. The installation of one track switch and a short stub siding with remote uncoupler led to the rearrangement of the Paint Factory elements.

From this:

To this:

There are now (5) car-spots with separate spots for the Titanium Dioxide silo and the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) tank. The resin tank (the large gray tank) now has it's own siding.

Water base paint is an emulsion of water, acrylic resins, PVA (substituted for some of the resin to cut costs) and pigments. Resin and PVA arrive in tank cars. The main pigment (titanium oxide) arrives in PS2 covered hoppers. Water comes from Oil Creek , which actually is good water these days. Pallets of paint in cans leave as boxcar loads. Some paint leaves via truck.

Looking good!!

Thanks, Mark.

These tweaks at the West End have made it as much fun to switch as the East End. One of those better-the-you-expected deals.

Looking forward to updates on your layout. 

geysergazer posted:

 

Looking forward to updates on your layout. 

I'm looking forward to updates on my layout too!  

The subject of lift-out bridges or track sections comes up frequently on these forums so since I have one I'll post about it here and be able to link to it in future.

The Plywood Empire Route is a small around-the-room Pike so a lift-out track section spans the one doorway. It is pretty simple, being a piece of 1X6 pine board. To ensure the best possible electrical connection the lift-out is simply tethered to the layout track power buss.

Being a small Cape Cod the doorway is only 24" wide. The telltales are there because the opening is only 67" tall and I am 69" tall. 

Nothing could be simpler than a piece of 1X6:

No elaborate indexing pins are used. The bridge is kept in alignment by the door frame behind and 1X2 blocks in front.

That Maytag dryer door switch interrupts 120VAC power to the layout when the bridge is removed, thus preventing any disasters.

That's all there is to it: simple, quick, cheap.

Evolution of the Fallen Flags theme on the PER.

The Plywood Empire Route is themed on the present-day Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._Titusville_Railroad

and has two pieces of equipment in contemporary livery, this SW1500 because I used to walk at Boyce Park and watched P&OC trains roll past:

 and this B&P boxcar:

because many years ago my Dad worked for the BR&P (now B&P):

as the Cook on a Work Train.

All other equipment on the PER is Fallen Flag. I am working on having one car from every railroad I rode as a kid plus a couple I never rode on but would like to have.

Rode more than a few PRR trains and watched many, many more:

Santa Fe, UP and Espee:

Santa Fe Super Dome:

City of Portland Dome Diner:

Espee articulated Diner:

B&O and Burlington:

Christmas Dinner, 1964 aboard the Westbound Capitol Limited:

California Zephyr FUN started here:

Rio Grande, UP and Western Maryland:

D&RGW Royal Gorge IN Royal Gorge:

The "riding" I've done on the Western Maryland has been on a bicycle  :

Gulf Oil (I toured the Gulf Lab as a kid) and Wabash:

We rode the Banner Blue:

Never rode the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific:

Rode the NYC just once, from NYC to Albany:

I still need Western Pacific (rode the CZ end-to-end), Shawmut (excursion), Mopac (Colorado eagle) and Milwaukee Road (all UP Streamliners out of Chicago).

Whether the photos on the train-room walls or the models in 3D, looking at these Fallen Flags on the PER always takes me right back.

Lew, You sure have gotten around!!  

Mark, it was all my Dad. Our next-door neighbor would kid him about having $$ because all those vacation trips. Dad would respond saying we don't have $$ BECAUSE of those vacation train trips. 

This is a great thread Lew!! your layout evolution is great but your stories are awesome! The mention of Boyce Park brings back fond memories!

I was at Boyce Park once.  Great name! Wink!

A bit of background. Boyce Park is situated on land donated by the State of Pa and was the site of Mayview State [Mental] Hospital. The park is bounded on one side by Chartiers Creek. The Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad follows the creek for several miles so walking in the park often provides an opportunity to see the morning switching-job roll down the creek. This was the Chartiers Branch of the PRR:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartiers_Branch

Carsten Lundsten has an excellent webpage with photos and a map of the P&OC:

http://www.lundsten.dk/railfan_pa/poc/index.html

Had to do a little mountain building on the PER. A recent track-plan tweak increased the size of the East End industrial area which required Oil Creek be moved North a bit, which in turn required the front slope of Mt Crumpet to be truncated. I was in a hurry to get back to switching operation so after erecting the usual skeleton of hot-glued cardboard strips I covered it with Joanne fleece (ground-cover on the PER) and carried on. Now.....we seem to have Time on our hands so I thought to do a little mountain-building.

The pretty face:

The grim secret under the pretty face:

So yesterday I got out the plaster cloth and set to work:

And today I got out the Sculptamold:

Just mix with water:

Apply, and here is the result:

That's it. This stuff takes paint well.