2017!

Man, what a year 2016 turned out to be huh?  So many things happened nationally, internationally, and personally.  There was a lot of great stuff, good stuff, bad stuff, and pass-the-bourbon stuff.  So much came, and so much went.  But that this is the essence of time; it is always moving.  And so must we!  Literally.

First, here is to 2017 being a better year than those before it!

Second, this is going to be an information update only post.  No pictures this time, but prepare for an onslaught in the coming posts!

The reasons for my lack of updates have been plentiful.  July was spent getting the bikes worked on and rode.  At the end of July, the wife and I went on vacation to beautiful Denmark for two weeks.  That was a great trip that even included train rides and model train visits.  Anyways.  After the vacation there was a ton of random stuff going on including insane work loads and family activities.

Then around the end of September my wife got the call.  She was offered the job she had applied for in California!  That has caused a huge flurry of activity that has kept me away from model trains almost entirely until recently.  We spent the time between September and mid-November getting our house ready to sell.

This did unfortunately include the removal of my layout...  I saved what I could and got it safely boxed away in storage.  The rest, aside from the yard module, has been scrapped.  Thankfully, my realtor agreed one module makes the room look better than removing it entirely.

Modeling will be picking up though now!  In addition to having the house officially listed and being viewed, my wife has already ventured to Cali.  She starts work on Monday but I can't move out there with here until the house is sold.  Her new job pays well but not two mortgages well.  So until the house sells, I am making the best of it by getting back into the modelling habit.  Now if only my job would give me more time off...

I cannot do much for running trains, but I have been getting things done.

A friend on a Facebook buy/sell group for model trains put me in touch with a modeler here in Houston who was getting out of the hobby.  He wanted to sell his entire collection which was truly vast.  I would estimate well over a thousand cars.  He also had several structures, locomotives, details, and other items he was off loading.  And it is all modern!  So now I have my rolling stock collection has more than doubled.  I also picked up a complete Sunset Limited consist of coaches in the new Walthers Plated Phase IVb scheme, several structures, a lot of details, and made a new friend.

Hopefully I can go get more stuff soon.  In addition, I picked up a Kato Amtrak Phase IV heritage P42 with Loksound!  Talk about a beast!

I also got out and took a ton of pictures of stuff.  I have a list of things to see and do train-wise in the great state of Texas before I leave her so I hope to be posting that stuff soon too.  My next post will have pictures from my trip to a long abandoned bridge that is actually going to be a major focal point of the SRR and my next layout.

So much more has been going on and I hope to get to all of it while I get ready to transition to California.  In the mean time, here is to hoping 2017 is a great year full of good things and good times.

Until next time!

Update on July 4th

Happy Independence Day to y'all in the USA!  

Life has been good lately, just not for trains!  I have picked up two new hobbies that have been consuming most of my time.  I expect them to continue to do so also…  

First is welding.  I grabbed a cheap little 70amp setup and have been abusing it.  Even made a frame for my dad for one of his projects!  My next goal is to make a pull up bar.  All I need is some metal pipe.

Second is my wife and I got motorcycles.  I don’t know how many of y’all have one or have driven one, but there are no words.  The best I can say is it is glorious.  I never cared to get or ride one, but my wife was interested so we took the class.  I sat on that little practice bike and suddenly I was hooked.  Now we spend most nights getting some wind therapy.  Below is a picture of Peggy, my Suzuki VL1500.  She weighs in at about 900 lbs with a 1500CC motor.  She has some awesome custom pipes that make her loud enough to be heard on the highway and she handles like a dream.  On a related note I have a new belief: you never see a motorcycle outside a therapist’s office for a reason.

 As far as trains and model railroading goes, there have been some good developments over the past several months.  

First is a Digitrax Zephyr Extra system.  It replaced my old MRC Prodigy express which quit programming locomotives randomly.  It is simple and direct and a great starter system that I will be expanding soon.  I am looking at JMRI with a phone app to control the trains through wifi.

Next, is the layout has buildings!  Unfortunately, the train club down in Galveston has been forced to close.  If you have never had the chance to see it in person (I have not seen it operating, only being disassembled) then I will only say it is incredible what was done. I saw bridges that were over 15 feet in length and 6 feet tall. It was well built and a beautiful example of a club layout. However, they are giving other modelers a chance to enhance their layout or find a memento. For around $250 I picked up all of these buildings and trees.  I will post on these in detail later.  If they have another sale, I will be getting more trees and maybe some of the train stuff.   I would love to pick up the 15 named passenger trains they had but let’s be honest: I ain’t got that kind of money.

Two new engines and the excursion train are on the layout and almost complete!

Anyways, I am going to get back to work on life!

For the random picture of the day:

This is an interesting generator load on a super flat car.  It was at the front end of a autorack train that the BNSF genset is setting out.  I was able to grab a quick shot of it while waiting at a red light.  I would love to build one of these one day.  It is a great subject since it would not require a special move but would add a twist to operations.

Back up and running!

Man life is crazy.  So much has been going on, but fortunately some of it has been the trains.  Most importantly, the trains are back up and running again!

1989 pulls the official first train around the layout.  It is all tank cars, the most common car hauled on the SRR, part of how we got our name!

I will have more posts coming soon.  Lots to talk about!

Random picture of the day:

This the Southern Railway heritage engine by Norfolk Southern.  I caught this one outside of the Port of Houston grain terminal.  It was hidden behind an arriving grain train that sat for about ten minutes and then finally moved to reveal the prize! 

Random Workings and Real Trains

Howdy again internet!

While the layout is dismantled and stored for the time being, I kept a module out for photo shoots and practicing different things.

Specifically, I kept the yard track module.  M reasons are simple.  It doesn't have any structures on it, so I am working on the scenery portion.  Scenery is the area I have the least experience in with layouts.  My previous layout endeavors only received minimal scenery, and it was all of the super cheap, super simple variety.  This layout has received new techniques, new products, new everything!

I am also working on adding in an overhead lighting system.  Once I get some fascia in and clean it up, I will post a how to.

In other news, my job has been secured for the immediate future.  Thankfully I have avoided the layoffs that are affecting so many in the oil and gas industry.  The best part of all of this?  I get to remain somewhat financially stable.  The second best part?  Trains.  Lots of them.  Seriously.  I spend most lunch hours cruising along the two biggest yards in Houston, possibly even this part of the state.  They are Englewood and Settegast Yards.  Englewood was once Southern Pacific and Settegast was Missouri Pacific.  Both are now absorbed by the UP...  However, they still provide the opportunity for some great finds.  I could almost do a daily post on the neat things I see out there.  Below are some of the better items!

A few weeks back we have a quintet of random 4 axle power roll through.  If I remember right, they were being sent from Canada to sell to short lines, or maybe Mexico.  I has been a while since they came through, sorry for the poor memory.

I watched this ridiculous load of something bundled get humped over one of the two hills in Englewood.  Thankfully none of the securing lines snapped!

Earlier this week, I was surprised by the Mopac heritage unit!  She was leading a through freight and I caught her while on a late lunch.  Perfect timing!  Also, UP needs to get her into a paint booth.  She is rusting out the battery boxes, the handrails are all beaten up, and that fuel tank is almost shameful. 

I caught this beauty on Friday.  She is a CSX SD40-2 but she was rebuilt with the strange cab that you see here.  It also includes an odd nose.  Still, a fun one to see in person!

Lastly, we have the catch of the month!  I could not believe my luck with this one.  Here is FEC 800.  She is in Texas trying to get to San Antonio to be converted to LNG at one of the loco facilities there.  This catch was entirely luck as I did not know this loco would be in town until I had already gotten to work, and then the yard was nice enough to leave her out with no trains in the way!  Truly a beautiful locomotive and a true joy to catch.

 

Anyways, that is all from me for now!

 

Changes and New Life

Well the past couple weeks have been busy.  The last time I was this busy I was graduating college...  The last week of April I got a new job!  It is a fun job with a lot of potential and near the big train yards but it is on the other side of town.  In most cities, that doesn't mean much.  However, I live in the Houston metroplex.  My commute is an hour each way.  With traffic it can be much worse.  My better half is also getting a new job in about the same area.

Sooooo we will be moving soon. 

I haven't even gotten a chance to work on the layout in over a month we have been so busy.  And now, it is dismantled for a while.  Fortunately it is in modules for this exact situation.  I have gotten most of it packed away but I am leaving the yard module out so I can experiment on the scenery.  Hopefully soon we will have a new place for the layout.  Now to move across the 4th largest city in the country.  Wish me luck!

Also, the CFO (again, better half) has finally caved.  That's right.  A backyard railroad has been begrudgingly approved!  So in a few months, I will have an HO layout and a small 1/8th scale railroad I can ride!  If you want to learn more about these types of models, check out Discover Live Steam and explore around.  They have a lot of good information and links.

Anyways, that is life for the time being.  I hope to be back on here soon with a new home for the SRR.  Maybe I can use this time to really flesh it out, get some things set, figure out what I am doing with it long-term. 

Random pic of the day!

These two are of the local run near my house.  Business must be picking up because I have never seen such a long train or three engines on it.  The locos are in the UP Y21XX series and are MPI MP20GP re-builds of old GP50s.  They have Cat 3516C motors that generate 2000 HP and meet Tier II EPA regulations.  They are used down here to service several industries, but I love seeing the big gondolas, bulkheads, and tankers.  Very modern and very cool!

Progress Update

Howdy everyone!

I have had a LOT of free time lately.  Turns out getting laid off can do that to you.  So while this means trains funds are essentially nothing (read: actually nothing) it also means that I can do what I can with what I have.  Which is a lot actually!  There is seriously a huge list of things to do.

Right now I am working on the scenery.  I added some hills of extruded foam and coated about half of the layout in brown paint.  I am most of the way done covering everything in a layer of Woodland Scenics Green Blend fine turf as a base layer.  There will be several more layers of scenery to come.  I also will be adding the ballast to the yard while I do the rest of the scenery.  The basics can be seen in the below picture.  Hopefully I can get some better pictures and process explanations up later this week.

In addition to all of this, I used what was left of the train budget (and some begging of the CFO) on a new engine at the local train show.  I like supporting the vendors at the Greater Houston Area Train Show as they are typically small time guys and they have great prices and even better customer service.  I bought the below engine for only $50.  They are going for over double that on eBay...  Anyways, this Athearn SD45 is a great runner.  I have some extra details laying around that I can spruce it up with.  It is also pretty close to the base black color I want the railroad to have.

I will have to cover up the PRR logos, but I will hopefully be able to do that soon.  I downloaded a free Vector file program called Inkscape.  It will be used to design some custom decals that several fellow modelers on the internet will print for a nominal fee.  That will be so much simpler than putting on individual letters...  

Until next time!

Last Post of the Year!

One last post everyone!  I have actually gotten a good deal done lately (by my standards, of course :) ).  I hope this means that 2015 will be just as productive!

First off is all of the replacement ties are complete and installed!  All over the layout there are no more gaps so I have begun putting in the masking tape for painting the track.  Once the taping is done, the modules will be removed one at a time and the track sprayed.  This will also give me a chance to put in new legs and get the remaining wall supports out of the way.  All of this will have pictures in a future post!

Now the only reason I got all of the ties finished is because of this beautiful device:

This is the Dremel Workstation.  More info is available here, but it works like your typical drill press.  The difference is the various things a Dremel can do and be, versus drill bits.  I put in the tungsten carbide cutting tool and went to town on those plastic ties!  I removed a small channel on either end where the rails will go and then flipped the piece over and removed a small bit from the bottom to allow it to slide in easier.  This Workstation is a wonderful accessory and I highly recommend it to anyone with a mating Dremel!

The third major completion is my first detailed locomotive!

I have been working on this particular locomotive sporadically over the past three years.  It started life as an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 in CSX YN3 paint.  I stripped that off and made it the first locomotive for the Spindletop Rail Lines, the previous name of the SRR.  At the time I had the idea of doing a green and orange paint scheme as you can see.  This one is not getting sound as it has all of the weights in tact and can pull like a six-axle engine.  Along the way I added Cannon & Co radiator and dynamic fans, grab irons, lift rings, pilot details, windshield wipers, sun shades, and other details.  But I am now calling this one finished as the ditchlights are lit!  This was my first experience with SMDs and magnet wires.  I got these pre-wired as I cannot hold my hands still enough to solder my own. 

I won't lie, I had a lot of fears about using these.  They are delicate, there is only an enamel coating on the wires, and they are pricey (or so I say).  However, that does not mean they do not work perfectly!  In fact, I kick myself for being such a wuss about getting these installed.  All future engines will most likely use these over bulbs.  They look great, were much simpler to use and install, and put out a great amount of light!

Anyways, thanks for reading this year and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and good luck in your 2015 endeavors!



Main Line is Done!

Well I finally finished off the main line a few days ago!  I am happy to be done with it as this allows me to get back to the rest of the train room.  In addition I also laid the passing siding and the fifth yard track.

Below are some pictures of the progress.

Here you can see the fifth yard track on the left of the shot as SRR GP39-2 #1989 idles with a short local on the main.

Here is a better view of the yard side.  To the conductor's side of SRR 1989 is where the lead to the plastic pellet plant will be. 

 

The new yard track on the left is blocked off electrically from the rest of the layout.  I plan on having this become a programming track in the future once I learn the electronics behind using three way switches.  That way it can also be a regular track if needed. 

 

Here is the other leg of the layout.  This is where the loco facility and local SRR field office will be located.  Coming from the left of the shot, the first turnout is to the siding then the second is the lead into the yard.  Back on the main are two #6s that will lead to as of yet undecided industries.

Lastly is a shot back towards the room entry of the yard.  The run-a-round track that is pictured can hold four 50' cars or three 60' cars as long as they are spotted correctly.

 

From here I am going to begin setting up temporary supports around the walls again so that I can get trains going in a loop.  I haven't decided whether or not to build more actual layout or not.  Too many variables in life right now.  Fortunately there are plenty of other things to do to this current part of the plan.  Starting with the supports and (unfortunately) cleaning up the train room.  It is a downright mess!

 

Finally, the random picture of the day: some fancy loads on bulkhead flats waiting to go South out of the BNSF Pearland yard.



Some Pictures for the Last Post

Alright y'all, are some pictures as I promised.

First is a shot of the layout construction progress. 

Aside from the messiness of the room, you can see how it is coming along.  About half of the decking of 15/32" plywood is attached and about 75% of the support frames are built.  I only have one more to go!

Due to space constraints I have scaled back the layout some.  It will now have three walls of layout and the fourth wall will be a connector for continuous running and where the work table will go.  However I do have a decent plan still.  The yard ladder has been built (it can be seen about halfway down the right side decking) and should be installed tonight if I can stay awake.

This is the re-motor project I am working on for the tunnel motor.  She didn't play well with my Genesis SD45-2 so I decided to put a Genesis motor in here.  The internet says that the Genesis motor fits RTR locos.  What they didn't say was that it takes some work...  More on that in a separate post.

And lastly, I randomly caught the Illinois Terminal heritage locomotive.  She unexpectedly passed me leading a train from the Texas City Terminal and by the time I caught up to her for a picture, this was the best I could do.  But I swear it is her!  Zoom in on the cab numbers!

And lastly, a shiny new BNSF Gevo near my work.

Now I am off to recover for an op session tomorrow on the Almeda Terminal & Gulf layout!

Stuff from Christmas

Howdy again!

It is a bit late, yeah but I did want to show off some of the stuff I got this past Christmas.  My wife went out of her way to find me some awesome train related items.  She found a dealer on that Etsy site, which is actually entertaining and does have trains for sale, that had good train items. 

One is a lantern from 1901 that used by the Southern Railway.  It is a bit beat up but clearly used and has traceablity on it to authenticate it!  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it yet...

The second item is this Southern Pacific logo in brass.  The dealer had bought it from someone who had found it while walking an abandoned/torn up old SP right-of-way out in California.  Unfortunately we cannot determine what it came from or it's use...  But it still looks really cool!

And the third item is an SP engineer's guidebook from the 60s!  It is well worn and not exactly a collectible item of value but I certainly love it.  To give you an idea of the age of the item, it shows pictures of where to place marker lights on steam locomotives.  Yeah, steam.

 

 

Anyways, that is all for now.  Back to the layout construction!

Wow...

It has been an absolutly crazy few months... 

Last time I was here was August, oh so very long ago, and I gotta tell ya boys and girls, I see why model railroaders do not blog very often.  We as a group tend to have a one track mind.  However, we never know what track it will be on that day.  I personally think "oh I will have so much time to write about my experiences and communicate with the world!"  Then suddenly my train is on a completly different track, one that takes me far away from my intended destination.  In the case of the past several months, I have been on the work late track, paint the house track, go to relative's homes track, just a whole interchange of tracks.  Finally one has led me back here.

August and September I was met with a huge deadline at work, one that actually could determine not only my continuance but also the ability for the company to make money this year.  Fortunately my company pulled together and we got through it (and even made some money!).  Then at the end of September, a friend from my old train club while I was in college invited me to come run at their open house in October.  I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw that!  But, I was in the middle of working on all of my locomotives, so I had to focus on getting something done to be able to run.  That was the most concentrated month of modeling I have ever experienced.  I even brought little figures to work to paint on my lunch break.  November was fraught with family visits and fun back pain due to a pulled ligament.  So that turned into a "decompress from everything" month.  Now I am working on getting my house ready for family to stay for Christmas.  Nothing says fun like weekends spent painting and walls and rearranging furniture...

But I digress.

I will be back as soon as the dispatcher of life grants me the warrant to do so, and hopefully soon.  I have a lot I want to talk about, pictures to share, and experiences to convey.  Like you've read, a lot has happened.  For now, take care and enjoy life everyone! 

New Home

Howdy again!

Well, after over a month of absolute crazy we have finally made it in to a house!  When my wife and I started on this journey, we thought to ourselves "why wouldn't any one want to buy a house?  Apartments are never yours, can cost as much, and always have downsides you cannot fix (i.e. only a wall separating you from others, tons of cars, etc, etc)."  Personally, I hated not having a lawn to mow and being told I cannot change the crappy landscaping...  Anyways, now we know.  It isn't the down payment, closing costs, fees, or anything having to do with money surprisingly.  It is the process in general.  Jeez, we had to find a house put in an offer, begin negotiations and then deal with some of the most ridiculous events and that was only the beginning!  We had planned on closing (the official purchase and paper signing for those not familiar with house buying) no later than the 25th of May as our apartment lease ended on the 31st.  We began the paper work in mid-April.  Then the shenanigans began.  We did everything we could to keep the process moving but the sellers were slow, their realtor only worked part-time, and the title company (Stewart Title Co.) I would swear was trying to screw us over.  I have no problem giving their name, and if you want to know why and how much they screwed contact me privately.  There are horror stories.  And this was after being one step away from buying another house when the sellers went crazy...  Goodness house buying is as crazy as anything anyone can imagine.

Okay, now that the venting is over I can move on to the good stuff.  Having a house is a wonderful blessing in today's America (or so I hear on the news).  We absolutely love our new home as do our dogs.  They really love going outside without a leash.  Our new digs is a two-story recent build in the same subdivision as our apartment.  We have fully moved in and are settling stuff out.  Between moving furniture and working on minor honey-do-list items, I have begun work on the new train room!  I do not have any pictures as it is still a mess, but it is an extra bedroom that is about 11'x13' with a 5'x5' closet.  While I am sorting things out in the room, I am also working on a plan to fill the room.  Back in the apartment I had some 1by boards up around the walls with Bachmann NS track just so that I could run something, anything to keep me from going crazy.  Now that I have a permanent location I am looking at something more substantial.  The current thought is a double deck, around-the-walls type layout with lots of switching as well as constant running.  There is a lot to consider in this situation so as I go I will be posting my most recent thoughts.  The only thing I know for sure is that the layout will be occupied by my Spindletop Rail Road.  For now the trains will be running on the B-mann track on the floor.

The other nice thing about the new place is that if I look over the back wall (we back up to the end of the subdivision so there is one of those brick walls instead of wooden fence) I can see the local industrial sub operated by the UP (about a half mile away).  Every now and then a lone GP40-2 with a yard number (Y-xxx) will saunter  down and switch out the refineries and other industries.  They run slow on the low-traffic line but that is right up my alley.  Even better is I can hear the long-long-short-long grade crossing horn blasts as it goes back and forth between locales.  I always smile when I hear it and run like a little kid to jump on the wall to watch.

So all in all, I am very happy right now.  I am working on several different project that I will get to talking about eventually.  Unfortunately I am one of those people who prefers doing things versus talking about them :)  and even then, moving tends to push a lot to the back burner.  Until then, take care and be safe out there!  And for those in the great state of Texas, the Museum of the American Railroad in Dallas is moving their Big Boy steam engine to their new location on Sunday (6/16) so try to get up there and witness the history!

Getting on Track

As is usual with life, things have gotten busy.  With this being a side project, I do not expect to update as much as I would like to.  I always wonder how some people have spare time to update their blogs as often as once a week. 

Anyways, I have been working on a few projects for the railroad.  My wife and I recently began the process of buying a house and as such I have begun planning the layout for the train room.  Currently the idea is a scenicked  upper deck, with half of the deck being a large industrial complex with multiple industries and challenges and the other half being scenery reminiscent of Southeast Texas, and a lower deck with a staging yard and little to no scenery.  To connect the two, I am thinking about using an around the walls one way only transition track. 

Another project has been converting a Cotton Belt SD45T-2 into a speed-lettered Southern Pacific.  I have always loved the friendly SP and so I am trying to find ways to incorporate their locos into my world.  My plan is to modernize the loco and use it as some of the other shortlines do.  Most simply leave the paint scheme as is and add their own logo somewhere discreet.  I think this may be the best way to go as the current story line involves the SP being absorbed like it was in real life. 

The other current priority project is adding working ditch lights to my locos.  I only have one that is really of use right now, but it served as a good test bed for my self-made ditch lights.  I will cover these and other projects in later posts.

Anyways, it is back to work for me. 

Welcome!

Howdy and welcome to the home of the Spindletop Railroad!

I have set up this blog as a place to document the development of my freelance HO scale railroad and eventual layout as well as a place to leave the various other railroading and modeling items I decide to ramble on about.

A bit of background on me:  I am and always have been a foamer.  My parents swear the third word I ever learned was "choo-choo".  For newer than me people, a foamer is the term used to describe railfans who going a bit above and beyond the normal, whatever that may be. I received my first HO train set around the time I was 7 years old as a Christmas gift.  My parents stayed up all night to assemble an F3, 4 cars, a caboose, and a loop of track.  They were all Athearn Blue Box and I still have all of them to this day.  I even plan on updating the loco to DCC and detailing it.  I converted to N scale in high school due to the convenient size and built my first layouts while in college.  A year and a half before I graduated, I converted back to HO when I joined the local club.  Those were some of the best guys I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  Today, I live near Houston, TX and work as a Manufacturing Engineer at an oil and gas pipeline facility and am happily married.  I am looking at joining a local club but have yet to get around to going and visit any of them.  But enough of the boring stuff.

Currently the SRR is only an amorphous idea I have rattling around in the 'ol noggin but I am working on getting the back story written and set.  The basis for the SRR is a modern day regional/shortline that is headquartered out of my hometown of Beaumont, TX, and extends out to other areas in the state.  My current train of thought (pardon the puns.  There will be more though, just a friendly heads-up) is having the line run primarily in the Southeast Texas area, from the coastal waters up into the Piney Woods.  That is likely to be modified as time goes on and I develop the idea though.  I will be posting updates to the story as I come up with them so be sure to check for updates!  Hopefully I can get the first draft up by the week's end.

My current layout is a simple loop and passing siding of Bachmann EZ Track that travels around the walls of my apartment's train room on 1-by wood planks.  There is not much to realism (heck, not even any scenery yet) but it does give me a place to let the trains run.  Which is what is most important in my opinion!  This is only a temporary layout as the wife and I are planning a move into a more permanent location in a few months.  Once we move, I will begin planning the new layout.  I am hoping for enough room to do decent amounts of switching work as well as continuous running.  For now though, I am happy painting some boards green and calling it grass hahaha!

So welcome to the blog and feel free to comment or ask questions!