Layout progress, the loco shop.

Hi all, here's a little progress on the layout. 
This time it's the CFNR locomotive servicing building located at American Canyon/Napa Junction , CA, an old SP location, and I'm modelling the first years of the CFNR, when SP equipment was still abound.
My model is slightly compressed 'length wise' to fit in the scene. The track at the foreground doesn't exist in real life either, it leads to a scrap dealer, that in reality is located on the other (southwest) side of the yard, but I put it here for added interest and space constraints (you can see that my backdrop is my roof and slopes, leaving little roon towards the rear). I also have to admit that to my knowledge the actual locoshop didn't exist in the first few years, I'm not actually sure when it did get constructed, but I like it, so that's why I model it, and bend reality a bit more. :-)
Also visible is a tiny bit of 'bleed' on the green accent stripe, but I will patch that up soon.

The shop still needs detailing, roof lighters and exhausts vent pipes, drain pipes, spot lights on outside walls, elec meter boxes etc.
I've also just assembled a Walthers kit of an EMD 567 engine, which is just visible outside of the shop. I thought it's a nice detail. I am not sure if I leave it there, or that I will open up an old engine and put it inside that, with plenty of oil leaking , and other weathering. We'll see. Plenty other things to do first.

Tuning your locomotive decoders

You might have read in an earlier post that I have been tuning some sound equiped locomotive decoders as I wasn't satisfied with some of their performance.

The decoder in question was a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder. This decoder is one of the better sounding on the market (keep in mind that good quality sound is greatly influenced by correct use of speakers, positioning inside the loco etc, issues that often have some form of compromise involved). It also is one of the harder ones to set up, particularly in the low speed areas (In my experience the decoders made by ESU (Loksound) are far superior), but can be tamed when given some time.

Rather than repeating everything I've done to get it to run better, I'd like to provide a link here to a PDF document on the Australian NMRA website, clicking on http://www.nmra.org.au/gndu/EasyDCC/Decoders.pdf will start a download of this document, that goes in great depth for setting up a Tsunami decoder (and also other brands) for both steam and diesel locomotives. I hope this is useful for some of you. It largely describes it by using the free software 'decoder pro', but individual CV numbers are also given which will enable you to do the same from any other DCC system.

Update

Hi all, on this first day of 2012, I've added a few more model railroad related links in the 'useful link' section on the right.
I've added:
- Graphicair, a supplier of airbrushes and accessories
- Canyoncreekscenics, a supplier of arguably the best (foreground) trees you're likely to see, specialising in conifer trees.
- Loco Weathering, if you want a realistic weathered loco, but don't trust yourself, this could be an option.

Feel free to suggest others, and please report broken links when you find one.

As always, I do not endorse any of these, don't receive any money for adding their links etc.
I do this as a service to give you a list of possible companies to find everything you might need building a North American model railroad. I therefore take no responsibilities, and will have no part in any disputes between you and any of these. (I do have to write this unfortunately, it's common sense to me, but there are people out there that conveniently like to forget that if there's a dispute..)

The picture is a scene on Charlie Comstock's Bear Creek and South Jackson HO scale layout, taken by Charlie Comstock, and showing some examples of the trees supplied by Canyon Creek Scenics.

Happy New year!

This year has almost 'flown' by. It seemed to go really fast.
Looking back I haven't progressed with any of my modeling projects as far as I wanted. Nevermind, there's always next year I guess. It was never meant to be a speed contest.
A couple things train related I've done over the past week or two:
- I bought a couple of books, two titles by Brian Solomon ( 'Southern Pacific Railroad', and 'Railroad Signaling'), and one by Lance Mindheim, who has just released his newest book (and which I ordered) 'How to operate a modern switching layout'.
- I've fine tuned a few DCC parameters on my sound equiped locomotives (and brought their volumes down, at home it get's a little too loud, in a club setting it can be 'crancked up' to max).
- Did a little bit of scenery work, and I do mean a little bit. :-)
- I've finally masked of my SD9, and have sprayed on the first layer of green paint. Another small step towards transforming this loco into CFNR no 203.
- I have also designed a set of module boards to use from time to time on our modular layout. These boards will be build to the newly published recommended specs by the NMRA-BR . (see: http://www.nmrabr.org.uk/member-news/139-nmra-modules-draft-approved)

so all in all I still managed to do a little more in the past weeks than I anticipated. I hope to keep the momentum going to a certain extend. I really want to get going with my SP woodchip gondolas, that hasn't progressed since I made the sides.

A happy and healthy New Year to all!

Seasons Greetings

I'd like to wish all visitors and followers of my blog a very merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.
Thanks for your visits and comments,  and I hope you will return to my little space on the world wide web often!
To stay in 'sync' with this message , here's a picture I found on the web. I found out just now, that  December's main picture on the Diesel Detailer forum is an edited version of the same (no I didn't copy them) , where I'm a member too and find lots of advice and inspiration on detailing diesel locomotives. Be sure to pay them a visit if that's what you like too. (link in the list on the right).

CFNR SD9

What seems like a lifetime ago, I started a project on an SD9E, which was one of the first locos in service with the CFNR. they had 4, of which two ex SP units. I'm modeling one of them, CFNR 203.
I've been at a standstill with this project for a while, sometimes you just need to put things aside for a while. Today I decided I didn't like the remnants of the ladders on the hood, which i tried to remove as best as I could, and replace with new ladders from Details Associates. I tried removing them before, but bits of casting remained. I think I managed to clear the rest of them away today, and I now need to touch up the cream/white paint, before I proceed with masking the loco to be able to airbrush on the green.
Here's a picture of it's (SP) sister, no 202, back in the '90's.

Happily biting of more than I can chew?

It had to happen, yet another project on my list of never getting finished ones so it seems. I'm sure I'm not the only one who get's him/her self into such situations, call it enthusiasm. :-)

So what's next? By now, you've probably guessed that I've got a weak spot for the Southern Pacific. Mostly it's Scarlet and Grey diesel years, and I'm focusing on their last years of service. Purely because this ties in with the subject of my layout, the California Northern. I'm not taking that time constraint too seriously, and allow myself a bit of 'modelers license'. In those final years, GP9's were getting thinner on the roster, perhaps even completely phased out, I still have to find some documentation about that to make sure.(UPDATED: I've found several survived, although quite a few got retired between 1994 and 1996, some were still active until the UP merged with SP)  But yes, you've guessed it my next project is to model a Southern Pacific GP9, initially a phase III version. So attached a photo of the real thing, and my chosen road number 3841.  Mainly because it has the full SP 'light show' on the nose :-) I found it was still active in 1994 at least...
...............................
Or should I try and finish off another project first (my wood chip gondola's perhaps?....)