Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Ordered all three: new Micro-Trains anniversary cars

 On the first of the month, per normal practice, Micro-Trains announced three new pre-orders for their new "anniversary series".  I ordered all three from wig-wag trains, a New Mexico N Scale store whom I have used since before I left California in 2005.  

I rarely order train cars any more.  As I've noted, I have so freaking many, which I love.  It has to be special for me to make an exception.   But these were special.  First, I run all three railroads: BNSF (my main railroad), CP (one of the most common "other lines" on my railroad) and Amtrak (it makes daily appearances - this will be a nice car to add to the consist).  Second, they did a good job on them.  Third, the Wig-Wag price is not bad considering the massive inflation in the last 15 years in N-Scale.

I like supporting Micro-Trains, they are so important to N Scalers.  Sadly, in the past few years they've produced relatively little that people with modern-themed layouts who don't run a lot of cutsey-poo trains (like their current "Solar System" line) will actually buy.  But they build good stuff and are a big part of N Scale.  

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Top Posts

 No tl;dr summary for this post.   Just that I was using Google tools to see which of my posts from 10 years ago got the most views.  "Most" here being a relative term.   None of my posts are aimed at a wide audience, but nevertheless a few posts got far more views than any of the others.

Tier 1:

  1. A Degree in Curves.   (1/2010) Admit that this was my personal favorite.  Okay model railroading is a niche hobby.  Yes, it made the top 10 US hobbies list in the 1940s, but, well, 80 years ago, you know?   Amongst model railroaders a dissertation on curve radii is would appeal to only a small niche within that small niche.  But there's a lot to this topic, it's not covered well anywhere else, and I liked researching and writing this one.
  2. Choosing N scale track: Flex Track and Switches.   (2/2010) I can see this being "popular" simply because it's one of the most common questions that keeps coming up amongst N scalers.  Amazingly most of this post is still accurate, despite it being from 2009.  But the prices - Peco is no longer crazy expensive.  I've added an update to the post explaining that.
  3. Design influences 3rd layout.  (4/2009) I do NOT get why this was so high on the list.  None of the other "design influences" posts came close.  I did a search on web sites referencing my blog and came up with very few, so that didn't explain it.  My guess is that the fact that the layout was Märklin caused it to come up in a lot of searches.

Tier 2:

  1. Switch Machine Standards.  (4/2010) The top post in this group received about 1/3 of the views of the posts in Tier 1, so consider that when comparing the two groups.  To me this post being "popular" makes sense - a lot of good detail in how to install a switch machine vertically.  Yes, a niche interest, but there is nothing else on-line that covers it.  The article I referenced in this post is no longer available on the internet.
  2. Choosing N Scale Track: Overview.  (4/2009) This is the companion post, the prequel if you will, to #2 in Tier 1.  If that one attracted that many people then it's not a surprise that about one third of those people would click over to this one.
  3. Frogs: Dead or Alive.  (4/2009) I actually thought this one might have been higher on the list.  At some point most N scale railroaders have to tackle this question (the exceptions being those N scalers who stick with Kato Unitrack or similar - which honestly is not a bad choice but is still the minority of N scale).  And so I thought this might come up a lot in searches.  But there are many web pages that hit this topic, so this post didn't come up that often.
Interestingly in the Blogspot history all of these posts in both tiers have shown interest in them steadily throughout the 10 years with occasional bursts of extra traffic.

None of these posts are about my outdoor layout.  But if I was to add a 3rd tier of posts to this list most of the 3rd tier posts would be about the outdoor layout.  However, the average views for the 3rd tier is about 1/5th the average view for Tier 2.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Track Cleaning Cars, Patience: Atlas (Tomix) Track cleaning car working with decoder

 This is a follow-on to this post from 2009.  tl;dr:

  1. Patience is a virtue.  I tried installing an obsure Japanese decoder in an Atlas Track Cleaning Car (rebadged Tomix) in 2009 and failed so gave up.  I recently went through the entire process, including proving it worked on DC, and the decoder works great.  I clearly skipped steps when I first tried.
  2. In the comments to that 2009 post ACT6006 track cleaner was recommended.  I never tried it but just ordered it.  ACT6006 may substitute for my current preferred cleaner, Mineral Spirits.
  3. Got the CMX Track Cleaning car (mentioned in that 2009 post) working just fine with Mineral Spirits, and now with the Atlas Track Cleaning car working will be running short trains with the two cars over all tracks I'm supporting on a daily basis. 

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Digitrax Frustrations: Known bugs in DS64 and DCS100

 tl;dr:

  1. It's a good practice to read all Digitrax tech notes on their website for a given component before doing anything with it.  Tons of "this bug is feature" notes.
  2. There is a known intermittent DS64 bug which on startup randomly switches some turnouts.  This has been known since it came out circa 15 years ago and no solution.  The configuration options to prevent this don't actually work.  (Later edit: possible solution found, see start of main text)
  3. The only workaround is to create a "super route" that resets all turnouts to what you want their defaults to be.
  4. You can't do the "super route" with a DCS100 or 2000 command station route because of an undocumented feature that they don't pass the routes via Loconet.
  5. You can waste days messing around with crap like this.

Thursday, February 18, 2021

The miracle of JMRI

tl;dr version:
  1. JMRI = Java Model Railroad Interface (jmri.org)
  2. It's open source, free, software that runs on any operating system and talks to your DCC system.  Programming decoders (mobile and stationary) and running your layout.  Active user group will answer your questions.
  3. You'll need to pay for hardware to connect between the computer running JMRI and your DCC system.  Many options exist - you need to research.
  4. I use it for all decoder programming.  I'll never go back to using a Digitrax throttle.  It's a lot of work, but, damn, once you get it all working it's so freaking smooth and easy.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

WiFi control! Digitrax LNWI & WiThrottle

Short summary:

  1. Using WiFi for train control is new in the last 11 years, works great and is the way to go.
  2. Digitrax LNWI module is inexpensive and provides a dedicated WiFi network for 4 devices (phones, tablets) to control trains and the layout.  It's actually very easy to install and run.
  3. You can buy a WiFi throttle device, but easier is an app for your phone or tablet.  
  4. Digitrax biggest weak point - the user interface - becomes a non-issue for layout running with a WiFi throttle.  Also makes moot the problems with Digitrax radio throttles.
  5. Cons: WiFi interference possible, phones can't be on cell network when being used as throttles.  See main text for solutions.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Track cleaning revisited

 The tl;dr version is this:

  1. Mineral Spirits is the best bet for track cleaning fluid
  2. An abrasive like a Bright Boy is said to be bad due to creating micro-abrasions, which can hurt conductivity as it causes gunk to build up.  But if you've neglected your track for 10+ years there may be zones where you need an abrasive material to get rid of rust or similar just to get it to work.
Starting up again I knew I was in for a major cleaning job.  I'd neglected the layout for 10 years, often it was used for storage so stuff got spilled.  It was all kinds of dirty.  I tested 3 types of cleaning fluid on 3 parallel tracks for a 12 foot distance.  I used several locomotives, all which had been opened out of the case for the first time and had newly installed decoders (and which had been confirmed to run well using a separate, fully clean, test track).

Mineral Spirits is recommended by many prominent model railroaders.   Denatured Alcohol is the main cleaning fluid that the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley, CO, uses.  (A great place - a future post about it is warranted.)  Isopropyl Alcohol was my mainstay since the 1970s - both 70% and 91% versions.

Well, the Isopropyl Alcohol lost the test badly.   Probably fine for a frequent light clean of an already clean track.  The other two both did great.  So, I started with the Denatured Alcohol because the CMRM has very smart people.  But they also have great ventilation.  I don't in winter.  The next day in that room my eyes watered badly and I had to air the place out despite the freezing temps.  So Denatured Alcohol was disqualified, leaving Mineral Spirits.  I may do Denatured Alcohol again in the summer when the windows are open.

Even after my first cleaning there were bad spots on the track and some track areas showed visible rust and just would not clean no matter how much scrubbing was done. The Bright Boy tool, something I bought decades ago but used rarely, followed by more cleaning with mineral spirits, solved most of the remaining cleaning problems.  But even then a new unexpected behavior occurred: Locomotives would run just fine over track but in some spots wouldn't notice DCC commands to, for example, stop moving or turn off lights.  More repeat cleaning would solve that, but I then had to retest all of the track I thought was clean to detect those DCC-fuzzy spots.

Restart #2

Very sadly, a few short weeks after my last post a major family tragedy occurred.  Our, sweet, wonderful 22-year old daughter passed away suddenly and unexpectedly of an undiagnosed heart condition.  There are no words.  A kinder person has never walked on earth.



Last year was very difficult for us, but youngest daughter and her boyfriend encouraged me to get back into the model train hobby as a mental health tool, and I've made good progress.



Things have changed.  We'll be moving from this house in the next couple of years - we'd planned to retire here.  I'm going to rebuild the N scale layout to be modular for movement to a new house.  



As I worked to re-gain familiarity with my N scale stuff after what was a 10 year break I found my old technical blog posts incredibly helpful.  I'll keep future posts short and on technical topics, with the primary audience being my future self.



Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Rip van Model Railroader

Back. Getting ready to start the railroading after many years off. Finding the old blog very useful in understanding the things I did all of those years ago and how my old railroad works.

Have redesigned the indoor layout entirely, keeping most of the staging but nothing else. Simplified it - one deck, not two, so no helix, but there will be a second shelf for the branch line. The second "joint line" won't happen. I'm pleased with the new layout as it solves some design problems that kept bothering me about the old one and is something I will realistically be able to complete.

Funds are a big issue now, but happily finding that I bought all of the track needed in advance - in fact will probably resell some of unused the Peco switches and flex track in order to pay for more stationary decoders. Also happily, in the ensuing years I kept buying new rolling stock and locomotives as they came out, then stored them unopened after noting them in my Roster spreadsheet. Eventually it accumulated into quite a large collection. Haven't bought any for a while now, and don't think I'll need any more ever - in fact may resell some of the unopened items once I take full stock of it all. I will need decoders for the new locos.

I see Digitrax has released a component to allow smart phones to be used as throttles via WiFi - will be getting that, saving the costs of any additional throttles (and may also resell some of my Digitrax throttles as a result).

The outdoor layout did see another couple years of construction that I didn't post about, including a version 2.0 and 3.0 of the pond and some actual roadbed - will document that next spring.

Monday, November 8, 2010

More pathways and stairs

Work outdoors has been slow. On the plus side weather has been unusually warm. On the minus side, I've been able to make progress only on weekends. On Saturday, October 23rd, I put in some more stone steps and also installed another conduit for future electrical lines, as shown in this picture:


The conduit is 30' long. Work continued outside, including several trips to the landscape materials yard for sand, stones, and the "red breeze" clay/gravel mixture. By Sunday morning, November 7th much progress had been made on the paths. On Saturday I hauled 1.4 tons of red breeze and 1.4 tons of sand, and moved all of that via many, many wheelbarrow loads. This picture shows the red breeze in place:


This next picture shows the sand in place in what will someday be the patio in front of the main porch. You can also see that the stone steps are set and almost ready (I will be adding mortar to them, probably next spring, to add stability:


I'm still not sure exactly what type of masonry I'll use for that patio. Meanwhile, I've started placing the "Colorado rose" flagstones in place on the patio by the pond.

Between the stone steps and the porch will be a short foot bridge that will go over part of the train line. This area has been dug out extensively this past summer to reduce the grade needed for the train line, but now I need to finish the stone steps and design the footbridge so that it is easily removable -- as occasionally I'll need to perform maintenance on the tracks underneath. This picture shows that area as it is now:


Stones on the left, a mini-deck on the right, and some landscape timbers and spikes in the middle where the tracks will ultimately be located. I'm going to use the landscape timbers to frame the short line segment where the tracks will go (this section will be double tracked as it will include a siding) and those timbers will also serve as the base for the bridge. I've bought the materials and cut the landscape timbers to size -- if the weather cooperates I might be able to get them all in place before it gets too cold.

Finally, on Sunday I spent the day prepping for winter, performing numerous necessary pre-winter tasks, which are - alas - a prerequisite of this area. Winterization work has been going on for a few weeks now -- I moved the pond goldfish to an inside tank about 2 weeks ago. Today I did one other winter thing, this time related to the garden railway. In a few spots the planned rail line markings have worn thin, or they were marked by metal tent stakes that were falling over. I replaced all track markings with wooden stakes that will survive the winter, so that I won't need to remeasure their locations in the spring.

At this point the best I can hope for is to complete the footbridge footings before winter gets too intense. From this point forward I expect most work will be focused on the N scale layout.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Update on shopping locations

As an update to this post I'll add the following:

First, the CharlestonDigitalTrains web site is now showing very low inventory, missing most of the items they used to carry. I'm now using Wig-Wag Trains for DCC stuff.

Second, note that Wholesaletrains.com also has great prices on Atlas flex track.

And, yes this means I'm thinking ahead for the winter and getting back to work on the iNdoor layout. First order of business: extending the line from the middle-tier staging onto the main layout.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Towards Stairways

The last post covered work through the morning of September 5th. With the digging done and dirt tamped down the next steps were to put the edgings in place and the fabric cloth down to cover the dirt pathways. These next two pictures taken the morning of September 18th show that work has been complete and, in addition, the first ton of sand has been added on the ground of the pond patio:


That picture is from the driveway side of the pond patio. The edge of the pond is to the right, reflecting the morning light. The patio is straight ahead, with green edging on the sides, and a bit of white fabric cloth is showing underneath the sand. The construction of this patio will be standard flagstone-on-sand.

At the bottom of that photo you can see the newly-added dirt is sloped away from the patio edging. Erosion is a definite concern. I made sure that the slope is no steeper than 1-in-2 (about 33%) and tamped it extensively. However, I will be adding in embedded stakes and something to cover this during the winter to prevent erosion. You can also see a black-painted stake in front of the edging - the track will be running along this side of the patio and then along the driveway side of the pond.

One thing you can see in this photo and the next are a lot pine needles on the ground -- a reality of this time of year. This next picture is from the front of the house and shows the edged pathway extending from the pond patio:


The next three pictures were taken yesterday. This first one was taken from the pond patio looking south toward the front patio:


You can see flagstones on the ground. Actually we won't have any flagstones on the pathway -- that will be "red breeze" like the bridge approaches -- but these are staged for use on the pond patio. I started to place those then I realized it would be better to have the rest of the sand first.

This next one is from the south side of the front patio looking north towards the pond:



The rock walls and the fabric cloth for the pond patio are complete in this photo. You can also see the first two steps on the stairway to the front porch. I decided to use something that looked "natural" but was somewhat varied from what we have elsewhere in the garden. These are "siloam" rock steps -- basically slabs of siloam rock that have a flat surface to be used as stones. I am trying for 7" risers and 11" steps, but of course it is approximate. A ton of this type of rock is about $100, which is enough for 3 steps. Getting these into position involves a lot of trial and error, and the time involved depends on your experience and what compromises you'll accept. I focused more on safety than on looks, but I think it is okay.

Here is the last photo for this post, which is just in front of the front stairs:


That photo was taken late yesterday afternoon. After much consideration of possible building materials for the stairway from the front porch I decided to start with a deck extension, shown in this photo, and then transition to stone steps.

Last weekend I put in the concrete piers for this structure -- basically just pre-molded piers, placed in dug holes and leveled, then surrounded by poured concrete (one 60 pound bag per two piers). This weekend I built the substructure using pressure-treated fir and strong tie connectors.

There is still a little work to be done at the transition areas on the porch side and the left side, and I worked on some of that today. I actually rebuilt the bottom two porch stairs. It turns out the second porch stair was misconstructed and was shorter than the other two, which made the stairway somewhat awkward to use. I took the stairs off and added wood extenders to make the stair normal width. This also will serve to extend the bottom stair over this new deck, so the transition will look natural.

My next step is to finish off this structure, then work on finishing the stairs connecting the front patio to the front porch. Will it be done by Hallowe'en?

More outdoor paths

Following up on the last post, construction began with the patio area on the south side of the pond. I wanted to have a gathering spot near the pond and that place made sense due to proximity to the footbridge staircase and also being a logical connecting point for a stairway to the driveway and a path to the front of the house. The patio will be made of "Colorado Rose" flagstone, which not only fits nicely but is also mostly free as a neighbor gave me their leftover flagstones.

The first challenge was that the patio area needed a lot of dirt fill to raise it up. Partly this was because I wanted the patio higher than the existing ground anyway, but also in part because I want to raise the sides of the pond early next year, as noted in the last post. I created walls to hold the dirt in using the old pieces of ground-contact 4x6 beams, held in place with 12" rebar pounded into the ground. Now, where to get dirt to use as fill?

Well, part of the rest of the plan was to build a flat patio in front of the house, roughly 8x10, and to have stairs down to the patio from the front porch. The front patio would connected to the pond patio via a 3.5' wide path. Since the ground in front of the house was fairly steeply sloped I would need to dig quite a bit to create a flat spot for the front patio and the pathway. So, I started digging the dirt for the front patio and using it to fill in the pond patio.

By September 5th progress had been made. This first picture shows the pond patio area, taken from the footbridge:


Compared to the pictures of the same area in the last post much has changed. You can see the dirt fill-in, varying in depth from 6" to over 2' at the far end of the picture near the driveway. The dirt has been tamped down several times, watering between each iteration, to make it solid. You can see the start of building green metal edgings -- these edgers are 4" tall and will add that much height to the patio. (They were in place by the end of the day on the 5th.)

If you look closely you'll also see evidence of an electrical conduit Near the top of the photo is a black-topped skimmer box for the pond, which houses the pump. Just to the right of that is a grey pipe, curved, that is sticking out of the ground. I used 1/5" schedule 80 pipe and ran 20' of it under the patio. This will all me to later add an electrical box at that location, both for powering the pond pump (and future lights) but also for general outdoor electrical outlets. The pipe opening is covered and will be this winter to keep it clean and dry inside.

Finally, note the colored stakes gathered on the ground at the bottom of the photo. As planned elements are built the stakes are removed and sometimes reused.

This next photo, taken at the same time, shows the view from the pond patio area looking south:


This shows that the front patio has been dug out as has the pathway between the two patios. The ground near the bottom of the photo has been tamped down as that is where the dirt fill began. The most prominent feature is the new rock wall along the new pathway. We inherited quite a few walls in the front yard built of these types of rocks, and the same rocks were used as edging in various places. I had to remove quite a few of the rock edgings during construction of the pond and stream, and even more during construction of the foot bridge where the bridge ends at a rock wall. As part of this project I re-stacked the rock wall near the footbridge and used the leftover rocks for this wall.

The overall effect from a distance works well, giving the front yard a tiered effect, but flowing rather than rigid, uniform tiers. Plus the added advantage of reusing materials, thus saving money.

At this point the cost of the patios had been remarkably low. The conduit and rebar together were under $75 and everything else was reused. For the next section I'd need to buy more edging, as the leftover edging from the bridge project ran out, adding about $100, plus a couple of tons of sand at under $15 each (the savings of picking up sand yourself rather than buying the bagged stuff or having it delivered is stunning). Costs would go up just a bit with the stairs, but I'll cover that and the last month's work of construction in the next post.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Outdoor paths

So my last post was 2 1/2 months ago. Just like last summer, I have again failed to keep the blog up-to-date while garden railway work was in progress.

So, it's safe to say that this summer wasn't as productive as last summer. OTOH, last fall at this time I had broken my rib and had to stop work early, whereas this year I should have at least 3 more productive weeks ahead of me, helped by the warm October we are having.

My last words from the last post on June 28 were: "If things go well I hope to have the roadbed for the main line roughly in place by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend." If only. Two things really impacted progress this summer. First, I was talked into volunteering for a local community organization, right about the time of that last post, and it has taken a ton of time. Second, I had a serious design problem to solve regarding track locations and, as has happened before, this caused me to stop progress until I found a satisfactory solution.

What I eventually figured out was that I needed to plot out in detail the locations of track, garden pathways, and underground electrical conduit in advance before starting any actual work. Otherwise if I started any one of those three without determining the other two in advance I could cause myself all sorts of trouble later on. Furthermore, the track locations in particular had to be very exact regarding grades.

The net is that I've now made a lot of progress on pathways and even electrical conduit. I also have a clear pathway for the main tracks, and even have bought a cool bridge for crossing the stream. But, alas, there will be no trains running in the garden this year. But we are now SO CLOSE -- next spring is a near certainty.

For reference, here is what the front garden, just south of the pond, looked like on June 13th. You see a lot of overgrown grass and two boxes that will be raised planters:


The month of July was spent contemplating, measuring, and some digging. In August I had a local stump removal guy get rid of the stump near the top of the porch stairs that I mentioned in the last post was causing some problems. Finally, on the weekend of August 21-22, I started seriously plotting out the locations of the track (using black paint and stakes, very carefully setting out 12' radii, often in difficult-to-reach locations), followed by locations of walls (green), pathways (orange), and electrical conduit (blue). The next several pictures show how it all looked after locations were all diagramed. This first is in the area near the bottom of the bridge stairs, and shows the future patio bordered in orange, plus some blue (electrical) and black (train) lines:


This next photo shows the north side of the pond and the lines for three train tracks in black. The two on the right are the passenger station in Leadville, while the on the left is the track to the freight depot. Yes, this matches, schematically, the actual tracks in Leadville in 1882:


The next photos shows the ground on the west side of the footbridge, and if you look closely you can see the black-painted path for the single-track line that will go over the stream using that cool bridge I mentioned earlier. As with all other painted lines, I included stakes to mark the spot in case the rain washes away the paint:


Here is another view of the pond and the south side of the pond, this time taken from the footbridge. Emma, now 10 (we no longer have any children in the single digits!), is posing alongside the pond. You can see various black, green, blue, and orange lines. Note the green walls near the south side of the pond. After maintaining goldfish and pond plants for a summer in the pond one regret I have is that the pond is only 11" deep. Next year I intend to raise the sides of the pond by as much as 1' to allow for a deeper pond, one that supports a greater variety of fish and plants. The adjacent patio will thus be elevated to match the higher height of the pond:


This next picture shows the raised planters. You'll see the smaller planter has been moved to be higher and next to the larger one ... something that became obvious to me after planning everything out. You call also see lines of various colors all over and, if you look closely at the top of the photo, you can see how the ground near the porch is now several feet lower (due to digging), and there is evidence of the pile of leftover tailings from a stump:


This final photo shows the area in front of the porch. The orange lines show the boundaries of the stairs down from the porch, and a patio in the middle of the yard. The plan is to provide for several "gathering areas" for people to view the garden and the trains. It's not possible to really see in the photo, but in addition a two-track siding is planned (using black lines) that will go underneath the stairs from the porch. There also is a blue line for an electrical conduit underneath the stairs:


Now, here's the thing: the plan shown in these photos has happened, with only a few adjustments. No, the tracks aren't in place yet (dammit), but everything else is well on it's way, and that means that everything will be ready for the track in those exact locations early next year.

The next post will show progress on constructing the pathways, patios, and electrical conduits.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Dig It

Since the last post I've been doing a lot of digging. While planning out the track locations I realized that there is one 12' radius semi-circle that simply wasn't going to work because the grade would be over 15%. I started digging a little bit at the top to try to get the grade down to 4% (the maximum grade for the real Rio Grande narrow gauge, thus the maximum for this layout). But it turned out that "a little bit" wasn't going to be nearly enough -- I was going to have to reduce the differential between top and bottom by 3.5 feet. So, I've been steadily removing dirt from the top of the grade and moving it to the bottom.

Most of the really heavy work is now done. The main remaining problem is a large tree stump which used to be cut flat with the ground but now is two feet higher than the surrounding ground. I am out of town for my job right now, but when I get back I'll try removing the top of the stump with either a chain saw or a rental stump grinder. If things go well I hope to have the roadbed for the main line roughly in place by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Better Waterfall

Since last year the waterfall has been unfinished. The top of the waterfall is in place, but the only thing between that and the streambed 3 feet below has been a bit of rubber liner. Here is how it looked the day we restarted the waterfall in May:


My intent has always been to take care of this "someday", and in fact my focus the last couple weeks has been planning out the location of the footpaths, track, and rest of the garden. However, the water feature has been losing a lot of water due to evaporation. I checked that it wasn't due to leaks, at least leaks in the pond area itself, by stopping the waterfall for a couple hours and verifying that the water level remained constant. I also adjusted the lining around the water fall to shift the flow, and found that doing so could reduce the splashing and thus the rate of evaporation. But the rate of evaporation was still worrisome enough that something had to be done.

I figured, correctly as it turned out, that the problem was the 3 foot drop caused the water to splash several feet away after it hit the rocks, and that the solution was to find a way to reduce the distance the water fell before hitting the rocks, thus reducing the velocity when the water hit the rocks.

After some experimenting around and buying of various materials, I decided the solution was to replace the rubber liner with a larger one, as shown here:


Once in place, this allowed me to assemble a pile of rocks in a somewhat likely shape to make the new waterfall. Here it is in action:


Visually, it is better but not complete. I will be adding pea gravel around the area and a few smaller rocks, strategically placed, to hide as much of the black liner as possible. I'll also be dressing up the sides of the stream/waterfall so the transition looks more natural. However, even now it is an improvement over the simple rubber liner.

The other advantage we found is that the sound is quieter and, to us, better. The water still babbles and gurgles, but it seems smoother and more soothing now. I'll know tomorrow morning whether this has solved the evaporation problem without introducing new leaks, but early results look good.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and my goal is to have as much of the subroadbed for the main oval sited and pre-dug as I can.

    Wednesday, June 16, 2010

    Outdoor Track

    I've mentioned that the outdoor layout will be set in early 1880s Leadville (front yard) and Salida (back yard). Currently my target date is 1882, but I've wavered a bit on that. I'll comment more on that (someday) in a post on the outdoor layout design, but for this post let's focus on the track.

    I've mentioned before that most outdoor track is "gauge 1" but the track style varies depending on whether we are modeling narrow or standard gauge. Because I am modeling 3 foot narrow gauge, my official scale is Fn3 -- "F" (1:20.3 scale), "n" = narrow, 3 = 3 feet. There is a lot of track available for Fn3 modelers, including Llagas Creek and Sunset Valley (I'd link to Sunset Valley's site, but they are having apparent site problems right now.) There are other manufacturers, but those tend to be the most respected in terms of "authenticity" of appearance.

    Alas, I have two problems with their track. First, is cost. Over $3/foot for a normal section of track from the former, over $5/foot for the latter. Ok, maybe I could live with that, given that I spent over $1k on the Aquascapes stuff for the pond. But the second problem is that their appearance matches NG (narrow gauge) track in the 1900s, which granted is the era most people model. But in the 1870s and early 1880s this was what the track looked like:



    That's Palmer Lake not long after the Rio Grande RR first came through. Look at those ties -- not a nice rectangular one in the lot. Tie plates? Not even sure they were invented then. And given the HUGE drive to make NG track as low cost as possible to appease the northeast financiers, tie plates would have been avoided as an unnecessary luxury. And ballast? We don't need no stinking ballast!

    The truth was the NG movement in the U.S. from 1870-1883 was based largely on a myth of cost savings, and those constructing the railways were determined to ring out the cost savings even it it meant sacrificing long-term high maintenance costs in exchange for short term construction costs.

    By 1882 in Leadville things probably weren't so extreme, but alas I can't find any pictures of the track at that time. I can find some of Salida in 1880 (when the railroad first came to Salida and Leadville) and 1882 and it appears that in 1882 they were still using 7-foot wide NG ties, but they were somewhat more rectangular in shape. Of course new ties would have been swapped out for the original ones -- put straight into the dirt the original ties would have needed replacement very early.

    By 1882 the Rio Grande was already coming to terms with the need to put standard gauge rails to any city where there was competition from other standard gauge lines. In 1880 they added a 3rd rail to the front range line, and by 1890 they would do the same to Leadville, in response to the arrival of the standard gauge Colorado Midland.

    But having said that, in 1882 the Rio Grande would also have been counting on having to replace the ties several times before they needed to add standard gauge to Salida/Leadville, so I figure 7' ties are just about right. Also, when the railroad first came through ties were built from local wood. The local wood was quickly exhausted however (in Palmer Lake the foresters talk about the 1870s as a time when everything was clear cut, and the oldest trees today date from that decade), so ties had to be bought from external sources -- and usually those were more conforming to a rectangular shape than the ones that were hastily cut when the line was first laid.

    So, for my track I want: 7-foot scale, very rough ties; light rail (to match the rail then used), and more of a sand-dirt roadbed than anything resembling ballast.

    I am considering fashioning my ties from old bits of pressure-treated (p.t.) fir from the bridge project, with some kind of additional sealant to make them last longer. For rail, looking at the table of rail sizes (see third table from the bottom) and recognizing that early Rio Grande rail was 30 lbs, later to 40 lbs, I will probably go with the smallest rail I can find that can support standard flanges -- maybe code 205.

    For the roadbed I am considering stained concrete, with sand put on to make it look like the dirt/sand roadbed at the time. I'm now working on marking out and leveling the subroadbed area for the first loop of track that I will lay. Once that is in place I can experiment with handlaying roadbed and track using these materials.

    If that is successful I can start working on handlaying a stub switch (scroll to bottom of page) -- which was the cheaper form of switch that was common on NG railroads back then.

      Sunday, June 13, 2010

      A Beginning of Fish and Plants

      I knew nothing about pond maintenance when we started -- now I know only a little bit. But the only way to really learn is experience, so after reading the books and talking to the nice lady at the pond store, we took the plunge and got 3 gold fish. That worked so well the next day my wife got 8 more. I also added pond salt and have been adding the dry bacteria recommended for the biofilter.

      Alas, I'm pretty sure now that I overestimated the size of the pond (I thought it was around 800 gallons -- now I've recalculated and estimate 450), and I'm pretty sure I overdid the salt and the bacteria. At least that's my guess for why the fish started looking very lethargic. 5 ended up in the skimmer the next day (not harmful, but it shows they were just floating with the current).

      Eventually I got the water stabilized and 9 of the 11 fish survived and now thrive. At the pond store lady's recommendation we added a shelf in the middle of the pond to give the fish a hiding place and as a place for hosting some water plants, as you can see in the picture below:


      This was taken just after the rain storm (two days long, but rarely more than a drizzle) ended. Some of the other things you see in the pond are actually fake aquarium plants and logs that we tried first. The fish seem to like all of these. After the sun comes out you'll often see a school of all nine swim around the pond, but if you come close they will feel the vibrations and move -- either to the other side or under the rock.

      The reason the black pipe in the back is in the pond is that a pipe leak was found. I have the repair stuff -- was waiting only for the rain to end to repair it. However, this event suggests that I probably don't want to bury the pipe where I can't inspect it should another leak occur.

      The plan is to use stones to make some "shelves" for marginal plans on one of the sides, and to add more plants to the center. Also, of course, we have to scenic the area around the pond, but that is a topic for another post.

      I won't go full bore with the pond plants until we've gotten through this summer and next winter to see how things go with 4 seasons. In the meantime, the main focus now is the rest of the front garden.

        Saturday, June 12, 2010

        Restarting the Water Feature and Finishing the Foot Path

        In this post last year I talked about how I decided to use Aquascape's Microskimmer box to house the submergible pump. I also explained that the pond was too shallow (about 11" deep) to have the box sit in the pond itself, so I planned to create a permanent place for it just off the edge of the south side of the pond. Here is how the pond looked last summer shortly after the Microskimmer was in place:


        So before restarting the water feature this year I wanted to get the MicroSkimmer box in place. The first step was to dig a hole for the skimmer box and level it at the right depth. My main concern was that digging close to the mortar walls of the water feature might weaken them or even make them break, so I starte about a foot away. This process was not hard, just a lot of trial and error to get the box at the right depth and level in both directions.

        The MicroSkimmer box -- as with everything from Aquascape -- is pricey but very well designed. You need to attach the pond liner to it using their procedures. I couldn't readily find the 60 mil rubber I'd used for the main pond, but I found decent quality 40 mil material and folded it over -- effectively doubling the lining to 80 mil.

        That was the easy part. The next part was to cut out enough of the mortar wall so that I could create a "mini-canyon" to connect the pond to the skimmer box. I found a concrete-cutting blade for the circular saw at Lowe's -- less than $3 per blade -- so took two and tried it out. I was cautious at first to not dig too deep for fear of cutting the underlying rubber lining, but as it turned out the concrete blade cuts concrete but didn't bother the rubber. Here is how it looked after that step:


        You can see the cutout in the pond wall with the skimmer box in place behind it. There is a pile of rubber lining in front of the skimmer box because the lining has already been attached to the box so it has to sit there. The rubber lining on the pond had held up very well but was, of course, dirty and needed cleaning with mineral spirits -- which I had left over from the pond project last summer.

        The next step was to dig the canyon to connect the skimmer box. Easy enough, but once done I realized the walls were too step to expect that they would stay in place by themselves, even with mortar on them. So I used left-over pressure-treated (p.t.) fir and two leftover metal stakes to give the walls some strength. This picture is after the first one was in place:


        You can see the top of the p.t. fir along the "mini-canyon" wall that is not covered by the rubber lining. This block of p.t. fir doesn't need to cover the whole gap -- just enough of it to give the wall strength.

        The next step was to cut the rubber linings (both the original and the new ones) so they overlapped nicely but not too much (about 3") and splice them. Cutting was easy with a box knife (new blade). But splicing liners is always a tricky business due to the potential of leaks. I started out intending to use some of the lining tape left over from the project last summer, but decided that wouldn't work the because the liners did not meet up nice and evenly -- in fact the two liners were coming at very different angles and there would have to be folds and compromises at the splice.

        So, back to the home supply store. After looking at various adhesives intended for repairing holes in pools and on boats under the water line, I found something in the caulk section intended for showers with a 1 hour dry time. Reading the label they pointed out that if a product said "can clean up with water" then it isn't really water proof -- and they claimed their's was water proof. So I bought two caulk-gun-sized tubes to try it out.

        I used one whole tube of the stuff between the original pool liner and the first of the new liners (remember I was doubling two 40 mil liners for this new section). It squished down nicely and did indeed appear promising for covering all gaps. I used a second whole tube between the first and the second of the new liners and again squished together nicely.

        Now my theory was, and is, that if the caulking material is truly waterproof the splice will work because the weight of the mortar will hold the liners close together. I'll spoil the ending of the story and tell you right now that it did work - I tested the pond later for two days without running the waterfall and the water level stayed even the whole time, indicating no leak. Of course, we'd had similar results last summer with the splices using tape and some Polyseamseal, but this splice was more challenging.

        Next step was to mix and stain some mortar, as we'd done last year, and add rocks for strength and decoration. Here is oldest daughter Paige adding the rocks (something she loves to do):


        In the end, but before water was added, the skimmer box connection looked like this:


        But would it work? Well we had to wait some time for everything to dry. In the meantime, there were other projects to do. One was to clean the water feature, washing out the internals of the skimmer box and the Biofalls box at the top of the water fall. We also needed to very carefully rake up pine needles and debris from the stream and pond. I'm happy to say that all four kids helped with some of this. Here is a picture of Laura helping rake the pond:


        AND, it was long past time for me to put down the "red breeze" clay-rock mixture on the paths adjacent to the footbridge. Buying in bulk, and using my trailer, the whole purchase was only $11.30. Here is a picture of the north end of the bridge with the red clay-rock in place:


        The work to do this was mindlessly simple (remember that weed-blocking fabric had been put in underneath the red-clay last year) but labor-intensive. Be sure to tamp-water-tamp a few times to get it solid. We've been very pleased with the appearance and utility of this. The kids are even now using the bridge for riding bikes over.

        The next day was the great re-restarting of the water feature. Unlike last year this did not generate a huge amount of excitement. Kids checked in and looked, but didn't stay long as they'd seen this before. I was, however, very interested in if the skimmer box would work as expected. The answer: Yes, it did. This picture shows the skimmer box with the top open after I'd filled the pond just over the maximum point and the water was starting to run out the overlow pipe in the back:


        Here is a view of the skimmer box within the context of the pond:


        At that point the skimmer/pump had yet to remove all the water debris, but by later that day the water was as clear as glass.

        Since then we have added fish and a few water plants. I've started planning the remaining footpaths and the exact location of the train tracks. I've also started installing raised planters. None of those things are visible in this photo, taken May 31st, of how the front yard looked on that day:


        There still is a lot of work to do, but contrast this to last year on June 23rd:


        So, we're happy with all that has been done in the last year, and looking forward to some real refinement and -- yes -- trains! this year.

          Thursday, June 10, 2010

          Footbridge Railings

          As you may recall, late last year I stopped work on the bridge due to an injured rib. At the time the footbridge looked like this:


          I started work on the railings after the snow thawed and I'd completed the normal spring forest maintenance. I finished the railings on May 23rd. These next four pictures show the bridge as it looked then. Note that at the time of these pictures I still had work to do on the paths leading up to the bridge, and had yet to complete the facial panels on the undersides of the north ramp. Also, the waterfall/stream/pond had not been restarted. All that would be completed by the 31st, which I'll cover in a future post.





          The rest of this post describes the construction methods used on the railings.

          Railing design is subject to local building codes. I am absolutely NOT an expert, so please do not rely on anything written here. I strongly advise you to do your own research for your situation. Having said that, typical building requirements include: 1) minimum railing height (36" in my case), 2) maximum width of any gap in the railing (4" for me locally, but this apparently varies), 3) railing design does not allow youngsters to "climb" the railing using horizontal footholds and the like, and 4) strength guidelines, which are pretty complex. In addition for stairs there is a requirement for a grippable hand railing, which I did not provide. There may be other requirements I missed -- please don't trust this write up for your situation!

          There is also a wide variety of choices in railing material. This includes pre-constructed railing parts made of special materials, which I rejected due to expense, and pre-constructed railing sections of cedar, which I rejected due to appearance and poor strength. I eventually decided to stick to redwood -- the same material as the surface of bridge. Posts would be 4x4s (nominal 3.5" x 3.5"), balusters (those thin vertical pieces of wood between the post) would be 2x2s (nominal 1 3/8" x 1 3/8"), and the top railing would be 2x4s (nominal 3.5" x 1.5"). The total cost for the railing materials was close to $1k.

          For construction all pieces were given a first coat of the same stain as the rest of the bridge BEFORE they were assembled. This serves two purposes. First, after assembly there are always places where the wood is joined that is exposed but can't be reached with staining tools. Pre-staining provides at least some protection for those areas. Second, it's easier to stain the parts of a railing in bunches on their own, as opposed to after they are all assembled.

          This custom footbridge has a lot of unique areas in terms of how it was constructed, so I started the railing at the simplest section -- the part of the bridge over the creek. This is very nearly level and each side of the bridge is comprised of a 2x8 length of redwood attached to two 2x8 pieces of pressure treated (p.t.) fir -- making attachment of the posts relatively easy. I started by cutting 4' lengths of 4x4 post in half, giving me 4' high posts. The posts were to be connected to the bridge sides with 2 screw-end lag bolts = 1/2" x 8" long, with a matching washer. The top of the posts were to be 35 3/4" from the bridge floor -- which meant that with the railing top the railing height would be about 37 1/4". (This just seemed a good height.)

          Note that this means part of the post extends below the bridge bottom. I considered trimming off the excess, but after looking at a number of pictures of railings in books decided I like this look. After doing the same thing with the balusters, this created a visual sense of the bridge gently transitioning from the bottom of the floor of the bridge to the scenic area underneath, rather than a sudden cutoff.

          The assembly method I settled on, after some trial and error, was as follows. I first measured the appropriate locations of the lag bolts on the post. The idea is that you want to keep the lag bolts as far from each other as possible, but also make sure both will be firmly anchored in the wood. I then drilled two holes using a 7/16" bit -- just slightly smaller than the 1/2" lag screw so that it could have some wood to "grab" to. Although I did everything possible to make the drill holes straight, some slight variation is possible, so I measured the location of the exit holes relative to the entry holes, vertically and horizontally. Typically the offset was no greater than 1/16", but on some occasions it could be as much as 3/16". Taking the offset into account, I marked the corresponding location of the top drill hole onto the side of the bridge. I then used a 3/8" drill bit to make a hole in the bridge side (keeping it as level and as perpendicular to the bridge side as possible). This meant that it would be a lot of work to get the 1/2" lag screw into place, but once into place it would hold tightly. (My drill was not strong enough to drive the lag screw -- I had to use a large manual rachet.)

          Holding the post closely in place, I screwed in the lag screw (with washer) through the post then partly through the hole in the bridge -- enough so that the post would stay in place unless I intentionally moved it. Then I verified that the post height was correct (if not, adjust). Then I used a vertical level to set the post straight and used a drill with a long bit, put through the second post hole, to mark the location of that hole on the side of the bridge. Be careful to center the marking as much as possible. Once marked, drill the second hole with a 3/8" bit, then add the second lag screw. As I got close to finishing the tightening of the lag screws I used the vertical level to see if the post was leaning inward or outward from the bridge, and if it was used shims (of p.t. fir or redwood) between the post and the bridge to make it as upright as possible.

          Ok, posts are now in place. The railing was comparatively very simple (assuming top of posts are level and in a straight line). Measure the length, cut, sand, stain, then attached to the tops of the posts using 3" deck screws -- 4 per post. Where the railing piece would share the top of the post with an adjacent railing, use 2 screws.

          Balusters were also 8' lengths which I cut in half -- so each baluster was a 4' length of 2X2. You want baluster spacing to be even and to have each one as vertical as possible. At the same time, because wood pieces tend to warp or bow you need to account for possible warpage and visually adjust the location of each to make sure it all "looks" decent and keeps within the code requirements for maximum spacing.

          My process for attaching balusters evolved, like everything else, through trial and error. The first step was to decide the exact placement of each one. While the code discusses the spacing between each baluster, many of the builders on web sites talk in terms of center-to-center spacing. I decided on a center-to-center standard of 4" -- which is closer than necessary. In part I did this because I wanted some extra room just in case two warped balusters were placed next to each other, creating an extra wide space. But even allowing for an extra "safety space" I think I could have gotten by with 4 7/8" or even 5" center-to-center spacing. But, 4" is the standard I started with, so I stuck with it.

          The next question is the spacing between the post and the first baluster on each side. Because posts are not evenly spaced on this bridge this is something that has to be figured out anew for each section. I eventually came up with this process. First measure the distance between the posts. For example, let's say 50". Then divide by 4" to get the remainder -- in this case 4x12 = 48 so the remainder is 2". Add 4" to the remainder (in this case summing to 6") and divide that number by two (result in this case: 3"). This number is will be the distance between the *edge* of the post and the *center* of the first baluster. If you do this on both sides, then all other balusters will automatically be spaced 4" apart. (Note that in some special cases this might not yield a desired result, and if so you can adjust the center-to-center spacing slightly. It's all subjective.)

          To attach the baluster to the rail I used 10d 3" nails -- the kind with a stub head so they can be easily hidden with putty and stained over. You can nail these in directly, but with redwood doing so every 4" in a line is prone to creating a split in the wood. So I drilled each hole with a 1/8" bit then hammered the nail in until about 1" appeared below the rail.

          At that point I positioned each baluster onto the nail from underneath the railing -- taking care that the center of the baluster matched the center of the rail and the edge of the baluster matched the inside edge of the rail. I then hammered the bottom of the baluster (not the nail, but the bottom of the wood) until the baluster was on the nail and flush with the bottom of the rail.

          The bottom of the baluster now will swing a bit in each direction. Using a measuring tape I found the correct position for the bottom of the baluster, relative to the next baluster or the post, and drilled a pilot hole through the baluster and the side of the bridge with a 1/8" bit. Then used a 3" deck screw to fix it in place. Because wood is not always straight the distance between the posts at the rail level may be slightly differnet than the distance between the posts at the foot level. In addition, some posts or balusters may be slightly warped. Therefore, it is best to stand back a few feet and check appearance every few balusters to make sure that everything *looks* like it is lining up right. Once the baluster is screwed in place at the bottom, hammer in the rest of the nail at the top.

          Although this sounds like a complicated process once you get the hang of it you can do it very quickly if the balusters are already cut and stained. I typically did 6 balusters at a time -- starting at the posts and moving inwards, 3 at a time from each side. I didn't do more at a time because I felt that hammering in nails on the rail board at a distance of more than 3 holes from the previous fixed baluster risked splitting the rail wood.

          After I completed the railing on the main footbridge over the creek I found that the rest of the railings all had a few extra complications. One issue was post anchoring. At the bottom of the stairs there was not a natural anchor place for the post. There were redwood stringers on the outside but no wood on the other side of the stringer for the lag screw to attach to. I had to pull up the stair planks temporarily and add some leftover bits of p.t. fir, cut to size, to fit between the redwood stringers and the inner p.t. stringers. I also found i had to cut the bottoms of the posts at the bottoms of the stairs and at the top of the south ramp where they came close to the ground. This would also be true for the balusters in those locations.

          At the top of the stairs I had to adjust the metal straps that were used to hold parts of the bridge together, in order to create spaces for the lag screws. This required unassembly and reassembly of the straps, at one point a fairly involved mini-project. At the post across from the stairs the edge of the bridge floor was curved, and the edge of the bridge is 2-to-4" from the underlying beam. In order to create an anchor surface for the post that was aligned, vertically, with the edge of the bridge floor I again had to miter some p.t. fir and use 6 4" deck screws to put it in place against the beam. The 8" lag screws were long enough to penetrate this extension and still firmly grip the main beam, and as such that post is as solid as any on the bridge.

          Finally, on the north ramp the sides of the bridge floor fan out as far as a foot from the underlying joist. Since that was just a single 2x8 p.t. fir joist -- not a 4-6" thick beam like on most of the bridge -- and because it was so far from the edge, there was no good option for anchoring the posts to the bridge itself. So, instead I installed two concrete post footings, each fixed in place with half of a bag of concrete installed around the footing. This sounds like a lot of work but actually was one of the quickest tasks of this project -- taking only 40 minutes for the two posts. The posts were then put in place against the bridge facias and used 5" lag screws to the facias -- not for vertical support but only horizontal support. I was prepared to add a horizontal beam underneath the bridge between the two posts for additional horizontal support, but when installed that turned out not to be needed.

          Another challenge was uneven post tops. Where the bridge floor was sloped the railings had to be sloped to match, so the post tops did too. I tried a number of measuring techinques, but in the end the best was to position the post in place and draw a faint line where the floor went against the post. Then add 35 7/8" along the line and cut the top of the post there. In some cases the post had different slope where it would support two railings that came in at different slops. In that case the measurement had to be done twice, once for each slope.

          Railing edges were also more interesting if slopes were involved. In one case I made 12 separate miter cuts to get it exactly right. All I can suggest here is to be patient and expect to make many cuts if there are many angles involved. And be prepared with stainable wood putty if something goes wrong. Also count on sanding the rails afterwards so that transitions from one railing piece to the next will be smoother.

          Baluster tops, like post tops, had to be cut at slopes. The advantage here is that the cutting could be done after the railing was in place. So, using the vertical level, set up a baluster (the straightest one you can find) in place and mark the angle against the railing. Set up the miter saw at that angle and note it (like, 3.5 percent, for example). Cut one baluster and test. Adjust if needed and cut another. Repeat until it's perfect. Given the natural variation the first one is probably usable even if not perfect, but it's worth adjusting until you have the angle right. Then cut all the rest at that angle.

          For baluster spacing you have to make an accomodation for the slope. If you want 4" spacing horizontally that will be slightly longer spacing if you measure at the top of a sloped railing. In this case determine the spacing of the balusters nearest the post as described before. Then measure the spacing along the top of the railing between the two holes that are nearest the post. For example, let's say that horizontally the distance between the two is a multiple of 4" -- say 40". But along the top of the sloped rail it's actually 40 5/8". In that case add 1/16" (1/10 * 5/8") to the distance along the top of the rail between each hole. And make sure to drill the holes vertically -- not along the same slope as the rail.

          One more point is that code has special rules for stair railings, and one issue is height. Because the railing is linear and the steps are not, you can't develop a single measurement for the height of the railing relative to the step, but instead the code uses a height range. I tried to make sure my railing was at the middle of the range.

          Finally, there is the issue of the curved railing. At one part of the bridge -- the side opposite the staircase, the edge of the floor is curved in a quarter circle. I felt that if I used a straight 2x4 railing connection between the posts on this side it would look bad. The balusters would have to be angled in order to connect from the bridge side to the railing, for one, and the connection would just be wrong.

          After considering a number of options I decided to use 2x6 planks for these railings instead of the normal 2x4, and to use the extra width to cut the planks to match the floor edge curvature. The outside edge of the railings was installed along the post edges as normal -- that is the outside edges of the railings lined up with the outside edges of the posts -- thus leaving the inside edges sticking over the bridge floor. Then using a very careful and multi-iteration process, I measured and cut away the extra parts of the railings until they matched the floor edge curve. The railings were given extra sanding and now look natural with the balusters in place.

          Next post: red clay pathway and getting the water feature running.