Keith Black

Real good that you can operate your layout and sort out any glitches to your operating scheme. I've operated on several layouts that have some terrain and a few foam block structures. They'll get around to doing structures 'one of these days". And I've been enlisted to build up structures or rolling stock to help owners advance their railroads. 

Keith, thanks and you're welcome!
 
Rik, I think I might draw up a conceptual diagram of the operating session described above, to help people see in map view how things got moved around. Hopefully o over the weekend. It definitely is a very new way of thinking if you're not in this world and I want to at least convey the intellectual challenge and stimulation it creates.

Très bien, monsieur!
 
I really have to get me some figures too...

The short 90 degree angle plate arrived by mail this morning, thanks for selling it to me and for a very smooth transaction. It helps to have one for the Sherline Mill and just opens up a new degree of creativity. I already have the other items listed except the Lathe Vertical Milling Column.  Since I own both the mill and the lathe not sure how the vertical column would be needed.  The prices certainly are very fair and the right angle plate appears as if was never used.  Thanks again.

I wish you were too! 

That's pretty dang slick, Eric. Thank you for taking the time to explain the operations side of model railroading. 

That's pretty dang slick, Eric. Thank you for taking the time to explain the operations side of model railroading. 

That's pretty dang slick, Eric. Thank you for taking the time to explain the operations side of model railroading. 

Eric,
 
Not being a model railway enthusiast this is all new to me but nonetheless fascinating and a bit complex. I'll re-read these posts to let it properly sink in. 
 
The diagrams and pink cards add a whole new dimension to it all. 
 
The last pic of the train passing through the bridge is quite picturesque.
 
A very interesting build log....keep it coming 😉
 
Richard
 
 

First I finished that forecastle by adding the bosun store hatch and associated davit. For the davit handling rope I used normal orange sewing thread to replicate the commonly used orange polypropyle rope. 

 
The experience of actually finishing an area was quite addictive, so I decided to move just aft of the forecastle and finish that area first. 
Truly finishing it, also means creating the stairs, a task I'm not looking forward to. There is really a huge amount of stairs on this vessel and all are different. 
I was planning to leave them for last, but I believe this may have resulted in me not making them at all or ending up with a builder's block. 
So now on to the forward part of the deck, where I just installed the catwalk. 
 
First stair steps. I made a new jig for the steps.

I already produced a lot of steps for the future as well. 
 
Then they go in the jig. 
 

 
And once we have a stair, I produce the handrails, also with a jig. This jig has both sides of the rails, but the length is not fixed. So I make the sharp end (upper)first, the check the required length with the stair. Then I mark it and form the blunt (lower) end of the rail.


 
There are 4 long and 2 short stairs on the part in front of the deck house.  Here is the forward most stair. You can also see part of the railing on deck level that goes from that stair to the forecastle stair. This is another part of the "safe acces to tanker bows" as required by regulations. 
 

 
And here is one of my secret weapons: 

 
I use a lot of these free paper measuring tapes from Ikea and other shops. Their flexibility comes in handy, from time to time I also cut them in smaller pieces for easier use. 

That's pretty dang slick, Eric. Thank you for taking the time to explain the operations side of model railroading. 

Thank you to everyone for the comments and likes. 
 
 I'm starting on unknown port side items. 
 
We know the boat had a generator because of the lights. I'm going to make my life easier by electrifying the stocker and the water pump. The single phase generator is enclosed in the port side area of the engine room and will not be seen.  
 
 I was able to find images of a pump and motor for the stoker. The motor for the pump will be generic from the time period. You guys know the drill, it's time to pull out the bit boxes. 
 
 
 This a Leland motor. 

 
This is a heavy duty Myers pump. I really like the looks of this pump, it looks like it fits the time period and the boat. I can't wait to try making this jewel.

 
 The water tank on top of the port side engine will be a three foot high by five foot diameter tank holding 440 gallows and weighing 3,500 pounds. The pump will pump into the tank and the tank will gravity feed the boiler. 
 
 Thank you for your support.
 
    Keith

Thank you to everyone for the comments and likes. 
 
 I'm starting on unknown port side items. 
 
We know the boat had a generator because of the lights. I'm going to make my life easier by electrifying the stocker and the water pump. The single phase generator is enclosed in the port side area of the engine room and will not be seen.  
 
 I was able to find images of a pump and motor for the stoker. The motor for the pump will be generic from the time period. You guys know the drill, it's time to pull out the bit boxes. 
 
 
 This a Leland motor. 

 
This is a heavy duty Myers pump. I really like the looks of this pump, it looks like it fits the time period and the boat. I can't wait to try making this jewel.

 
 The water tank on top of the port side engine will be a three foot high by five foot diameter tank holding 440 gallows and weighing 3,500 pounds. The pump will pump into the tank and the tank will gravity feed the boiler. 
 
 Thank you for your support.
 
    Keith

You're making great progress, Bob. She's coming along nicely.
 
 Good to see you got a cutter, you're going to be amazed how much easier it makes modeling. 

OK, let's get to work. Our locomotive is going to start by sorting all the inbound cars into the right order for shoving into this siding. In some cases this pre-sorting might have been done in the yard to make the road crew's life easier, but that didn't seem to happen today, so they're all jumbled up (more busy work in the real world, more fun work for us). Below, we're using the near end of the siding as an extra place to stash a car while we sort things out. 

Keeping an eye on our MK&T timetable, we know we have to clear the main line for an express passenger train soon. So everything gets shoved out of the way while this passes through. One change I made from the real Rocheport is to designate the track nearest the depot as the passing siding, and have the main line be the track away from the depot (on the real thing the main line was in front of the depot). The actual reason for this is complicated and has to do with how best to arrange turnouts in this condensed scene, but there is real-world precedent for having a depot on a passing track. In my case, I can argue it makes sense because only slower locals stop at Rocheport so this lets faster expresses barrel right through on the outside track.

Once all the inbound cars were sorted, we pulled all the outbound cars and started spotting inbound cars. Here the locomotive is shoving two empty stock cars toward the stockyards. Cars 74 and 49 in the foreground are going to a different town than Rocheport, so will just be left out of the way with the caboose until we're done.

And another angle on that move, shoving the stock cars into the siding. 

And the final placement.

With those cars shoved into the far end of the siding, we can place the other three cars at the western end. Here the locomotive is shoving in a boxcar of small freight for the depot, an empty boxcar for the grain elevator, and a flatcar with a new wagon for one of the local implement dealers. You may recall from an earlier post that all the businesses listed on my waybills are real ones found in the railroad's business directory, adding to the sense of realism.

With all the inbound cars spotted, it's time to reassemble our train. Five outbound cars and two more to take to another town before returning west to Franklin. Let's grab that caboose and those two cars and stick them back on the end of our newly pulled five cars.

Tacking the caboose and two final cars onto the rest.

Our train is reassembled, but we can't leave yet, as there's a local passenger train due. We were smart enough to reassemble our train on the main this time, so the local can pull into the passing siding in front of the depot.

Another view of this meet, with the short local at the depot and the longer freight ready to depart eastbound.

Our freight heads east along the river bluffs...

and our passenger local heads west toward Franklin.

And that's what a simple one-town operating session looks like. The intellectual puzzle of sorting and spotting cars is quite fun, and it can be kept fresh time after time by simply altering the waybills for each card. Maybe next time there's a boxcar of apples to ship out instead of a wagon-loaded flatcar arriving. Maybe there aren't any livestock shipments. Maybe a boxcar has to stay at the elevator, meaning we have to move it out of the way, do our work, then put it back. So many iterations even in a small town. 
 
As the layout expands, operations get even more complex. As towns are added, trains have more places to actually go, and more work to do in those places. It gets more practical to run passenger and freight trains through, actually going places instead of just moving back and forth on a glorified diorama. Add in the larger yard at Franklin and suddenly you have a whole separate job dealing with all the long-distance freights as they stop to drop off and pick up local-destination cars. And so on.
 
Long-term the full layout I have planned will keep 4-6 people happily busy for several hours. As it is, Mrs. Cathead and I (or any other friend) can run a fun little operating session in half an hour or so, a quick break from life to travel back in time to 1900, when steam whistles still echoed off the bluffs here.
 
I hope you followed along on all that, and that it gave you a sense of what makes model railroading distinct from many other hobbies. Feel free to ask further questions, whether you're a model railroader with specific curiosity about something esoteric, or someone who wonders something more general about all this.
 
Thanks so much for reading! There's still a lot of scenery and building to do, but this project is now at the actively fun stage.
 
 

OK, so things have progressed enough that over the last month or so I've run a few test operating sessions in Rocheport. I put a lot of thought into designing the track plan and the operating scheme for this layout, and the early results are that it's paid off as things are really working as I want them to. I could go really deep into the weeds of all sorts of planning details but that's not of primary interest to most of you right now. What I'm going to do here is an illustrated walk-through of a single local freight coming into Rocheport, doing all the switching necessary, and then heading on. This is the basic concept of an operating session, bringing an actual train into town and doing real railroad work in a way that's reasonably similar to how a real railroad would do it. I can't post video so you'll have to make do with the images below, which I took in sequence while Mrs. Cathead and I ran this session together. You'll have to imagine the sound-equipped locomotives as they huff and puff and whistle their way through the work. Also, keep in mind that scenery is nowhere near done and I have a lot of buildings left to complete, so town looks rather emptier than it should.
 
Leading off, an eastbound seven-car local freight arrives through through the tunnel from the yard at Franklin, where its cars were previously dropped off by through freights that don't bother stopping at dinky little towns like Rocheport:

Already in town are five cars waiting to be picked up: an empty gondola that had delivered coal to a local dealer, a boxcar loaded with grain from the elevator, a boxcar  behind the depot that both dropped off and picked up small shipments (the UPS truck of the 1900s), and two stock cars loaded with livestock from local farms and ready to be sent to processors in St. Louis:

Our locomotive starts to break down its train and sort cars for delivery. It's easy to just pick up all the outbound cars and take them back to the yard, but how do we know where each inbound car goes? 

The answer in this scheme is the car card and waybill system, very common in model railroading. What's presented here is a rough version I mocked up for testing purposes; I'll make better ones later when I'm satisfied.

The pink slips are car cards, each of which represents a physical car on the layout. The waybills are little printed slips of paper that slide into a pocket on the car card, with information on where the car originated, what it's carrying, and where it needs to go. Back in Franklin, the yard engine would have switched all these cars onto the same track based on their final destination printed on these cards, and here in Rocheport, other printed lines tell us which cars are destined for Rocheport (vs other towns down the line) and which exact destination they go to.
 
I also drew up a railroad schematic for Rocheport, which shows operators where each track is, what its official name/number is, where different car destinations are, and other relevant geographic features. Using the waybills and this map, you can figure out where any car is or where it needs to go. The numbers in the corners are the actual railroad mileposts. If you go back a few photos, you'll see this hanging on the fascia where it's easy for operators to consult.

There's a little shelf hung from the fascia right in the center of town, where operators can sort and read the car cards and waybills as they do their work. This "desk" is a key featuring in making operations functional. Here you can see how it's laid out. Right now each track just has a cheap label, in front of which the car cards are stacked based on which track the cars are on. Soon those will be converted into little sorting boxes that will better hold the cards separate.

With that explanation out of the way, we'll follow our freight as it switches this surprisingly complex little town. But I'll do that in the next post.
 
 

OK, this is going to be a long post (or maybe series of posts). It's finally time to talk about what makes this project something other than just a big scenic diorama: active railroad operations. The trick here is to make this interest for the model railroad folks, and intelligible to the non-railroad folks, without boring or overwhelming either population. Here goes.
 
A core idea in model railroading is not just that you're creating a realistic static scene or model, but in addition, setting up a stage on which actual railroad operations can be conducted. In other words, you're not just recreating a look or an object, but recreating a full set of actions and operations that bring the feel of railroading back to life. There are decades of writing, theory, discussion, practice, debate, and experience in this realm and I'm not going to conduct a seminar here. But I do want to try and express how this idea and goal plays out in the design and implementation of this Rocheport module, and by extent to the rest of the planned layout if it expands.
 
First, a reminder that Rocheport was a real place along the 1900-era MK&T. I'm reposting this image from earlier in the log, showing the route of the mainline. Coming from the west, it passes through the line's only tunnel, crosses the Moniteau Creek bridge, runs through town, encounters the depot and grain elevator toward the east end of town, then curves out of town to the east along some major bluffs hard up against the big river. What we're doing is recreating a version of how the MK&T might have operated its trains through and in this town. A reminder that the railroad's primary yard in this region was 10 miles west at Franklin, and a series of smaller towns with minor industries/customers stretched east from here along the river.

And here's a contemporary view from the east side of town, showing the dual-track passing siding in front of the depot, and the single spur track behind the depot that serves all the town's possible freight customers, from the grain elevator to the depot itself to the stockyards to any other customer that might want a carload of something delivered or picked up (such as an apple shipper).

MK&T traffic through town in this era would have consisted of (1) three passengers trains each way (some stopping, others expresses that didn't stop), (2) a certain number of through freights between St. Louis and points west and south (these also wouldn't have stopped), (3) livestock trains hauling local cattle and hogs to slaughterhouses in St. Louis, and (4) a local freight operating out of the yard in Franklin (10 miles west) whose job it is to switch small towns along the line like Rocheport. In a larger layout, I'd be focusing on recreating all this traffic when it really has somewhere to go (and the Franklin yard to interact with). Right now, with just Rocheport, the focus is on the single local freight arriving in town to pick up and drop off cars, then proceed on its way, while staying out of the way of any other passenger trains or through freights that might be scheduled to pass through while it's here.
 
Yeah, that's long enough, this is going to be multiple posts. This one sets the stage, and in the next one I'll try and show what actually operating the town looks like.

Today more supplies arrived,  a small tariff was applied what  can you do.

 
I needed eye hooks and ordered lots, and from different  stores  as well, in total, 416 eyehooks, now I can ride out any  traiff .
Rope, yes four more roles of black thread, I have no idea were all my thread goes lol. Rodney's Astrolabe  took it all.


Now that I have replaced my stock of thread, time to turn my attention  to the gun port lids. 

Kit comes with 8 lids, enough  photo etch to make 12 lids, my plan calls for 12, some open, some shut , two sideways lol. Can you belive all this fun. 
T hanks to @Blue Ensign and @Moonbug for posting your logs, all my idea come from looking at those  two logs, everything  you need to know about the Pegasus  is in there just go to find it lol.
 

The lids will take time to make, I have to come up with four sets of hinges and two sets of hinges that are for the sideways  lid., but I have it all in Rodney's stach of trinkets. 
  Many thanks for popping  in , much appreciated  the advice  and likes. 
  .News at 11 as they say. 
 
Knocklouder 😁 

Thank you, Julie. It's a common acrylic craft paint but the photo made it look like the white was going down much better than how my white (basically the same paint) goes down when I'm wielding the brush. I only have problems with white. it just doesn't lay down like all the other colors. Shoot, maybe it's a "me" problem. 

Thanks, Keith!
 
I decided to work a bit on the side seats before planking the hull and blocking a lot of access, although I'll be gluing them in later. I took the photo below as my guide, although I'm modifying it to fit with the bulkhead aft. As you can see, the seats are supported by a framework that rests on columns at the front end and, at the back, is held up by supports that run back to the hull and are attached to a stringer and the frames.

Source: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/items/view/digital-collection/298307/search?resultsMode=search&searchInterfaceId=1&search=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
 
I won't be able to attach the stringer or supports running out to the hull until the hull is planked, but I can fabricate the front of the seats, with the columns, now so that I can make sure they're even. Everything was made from basswood. I stained the framework a darker color than the seat planks. Unfortunately, due to the fragility of the 1/16‐inch square basswood columns, I did not include the decorative elements visible in the photo above.

 
I left the planks long at the aft end, as they will be covered by the seat back, and left the columns a hair oversized so I could carefully trim them to fit properly.

 
And here both seat fronts are dry-fit. The seat planks need a bit more staining. For now, these will be removed so as to not interfere with finishing the floor planking after covering the hull.

US subs used Fairbanks Morse (FM) inline opposed diesel engines. FM also built train loco for a number of years post WWII. Some companies do make sound modules for model locos, but in an RC boat they'd need to be in a waterproof casing.

You might try the PingMaster 5000. 

The bottle says 'Plaid' located in Norcross Ga.  Label says craft paint.  Materials indicate water base acrylic.  The grouping is called Apple barrel colors.  The gloss says it can be heat set in the oven.   They would probably have come from Michael's or Arron Brothers.    They are a bit old so could be a bit passed the best buy date.  I had to add a bit of water to the brush.
 
Here is a shot of the latest progress with the bottle in the photograph.
 

 
I had to use stronger clamping on the starboard side. Since the center deck is in place.  The deck stringer and forecastle beams are just set in place.  There is a bit of a gap as the hull block is a bit wider, or the notches not cut as deep as they should have been.  
 
 This affects the angles where the forecastle beams attach.  Not quite sure how I will compensate for this.  I need to wait for the main glue to fully dry and see if I can steam and clamp the bulwarks rail.   The deck template is in place as I wanted to see how the shadows work.   There probably should be something to represent a locker on the port side.  The winch probably should be suggested.
 
May be some time before I get to the deck house.  I want to plank the outside of the hull first.  Was a bit afraid the bulwarks might be too fragile,  The tabs did chip a bit where the laser scored marking lines.  Once glued things feel surprisingly strong.  Even so there will be no more tossing it into the box with the rest of the sticks.
 
I did glue some of the water ways in place.  Not sure yet what to do with the scuppers.  These are marked with simple laser lines.  The scale and photographs indicate these might be about one meter square.   The 'Commerce' has haws pipes  in these location.  
 
The Ron Cleveland, Rigging of West Coast Barkentines and Schooners,  has some stuff on loading which shows how the milled lumber was stacked and chained so the water could align and run out of these holes.
 
One of these holes can just be made out in the rub rail on one of the ref photos I copied in the museum with my phone.
 

 
As noted the Thayer has a series of slots near the deck level.  This was something seen in person, which is probably not too noticeable in photographs. 
 
These are large ships.  It is hard when working at a small scale to get a feeling for how large some things should be.  Probably why they have people in the photo.  The deck stringers are over 100 feet in length. According to my scale these are nearly 1 and a half feet on each side.
 
-julie
 
 
 

I have an Xacto micro plane, which seems to do the job.

 
Also a wet grinder.  Would be nice sometime to find a new blade, although the existing one still works well.
 
-julie
 

Your Erebus looks right at home, as though snug up against an Ice cliff! 🧊
Lovely work Keith.