John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout V2.0

January 3, 2019

All areas of the railroad operate correctly except the transition from TwentyMile to the Anchorage yard. In an effort to isolate the problem the electrical breaks are moved to new locations. LJ installs jumpers on the segment breaks on the reverse loop.	Mike uses his Dremel to cut the rails on all tracks to the west (right) of the double crossover.	Even with the new segments defined the locomotive still causes a short circuit. The evening was spent trouble shooting the problem without success. Where to from here? Continue hunting the problem? Eliminate the reverse loop or double crossover? Hmm.

January 10, 2019

When new carpet was installed in the family room the CFO asked the workers to take a good section of the old carpet and relocate it to the steps leading up into the train room. This "new" carpet was greatly appreciated as holes in the old carpet had become a trip hazard. It is amazing this carpet held up for 41 years!	Discussion took place regarding the locomotive stopping at the transition from TwentyMile to the Anchorage yard. Several suggestions were made and John was asked to contacted RailPro to explore at possible solutions. [Note: John made the contact and RailPro engineers confirm the problem. A design solution is in the works.]	John purchased one Tortoise switch machine to ensure it met our requirements before buying thirty-nine more. Tom creates a cardboard template for use in drilling holes to mount the switch machine. The test site for the Tortoise is the Anchorage depot's west switch. Tom mounts the switch machine itself using two screws.

Tom then solders the wires to the base of the Tortoise switch machine.	A view of the mounted switch machine.	Mike crawls under the table and plugs the Tortoise switch machine wires in the RailPro AM-1 accessory module.

A very happy engineer uses the handheld throttle to take Alaska Railroad GP39 #2803 straight through the switch and then backs it into the siding. John will order thirty-nine more of these in the morning. [Note: John found the Tortoises for $14.17 each at Model Train Stuff and placed the order.]	The throttle wirelessly controls both the locomotive and throwing of the switch. Amazing!	For dinner Terry and John provided a wonderful brat/hot dog bar as well as pretzels, baked beans and fresh fruit cups. Dessert options included hot peach cobbler, ice cream and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. At least three folks chose to eat unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough.

January 14, 2019

Tom is doing some "behind the scenes" work at his home. He takes the donated AML Hydro-Train barge off the mounted display board and then removes the associated hardware.	Using various cutting tools Tom removes the bottom of the barge so a flat piece of wood can be installed. This will facilitate easily movement along a mechanical transfer table.	John used a Dremel to remove all screw points protruding through wooden surfaces. In some cases this heats up the wood enough to cause wisps of smoke. John used the remote cam to keep an eye on things after he left home for the evening.

January 17, 2019

By removing jumpers and reconnecting cut rails, LJ returns the reverse loop/double crossover area back to the original design. Next, we take RailPro's suggestion of switching the reverse loop's AR-1 with TwentyMile's CB-1 to see if this fixes the stalling/resetting bug. It does not. [Later conversations with Tim at RailPro suggestions the problem is not a polarity problem, but a short circuit caused by the double crossover. John will follow up with this analysis.]	Thirty-nine Tortoise switch machines arrive on our doorstep a mere six hours before the work session. After switching the CB-1 and AR-1 Mike spends his evening mounting Tortoise switch machines. The control wire is bent according to the guide sheet and put into place. It is then cut to length of bent perpendicular over the switch. Finally, the switch machine is mounted to the plywood road bed. Six more machines were added bringing our total to eight.	John cut and stripped the wires running from the AM-1 to the Tortoise switch machine. LJ solders the wires to the switch machine and then plugs them into the AM-1. Next, John uses the handheld controller to "discover" and name each switch. All switches are found to operate properly. Seven switch machines down and thirty-three to go! The session ran about an hour later than usual as the crew enjoyed running the trains and playing with the switches. Excitement! Excitement! Excitement!

January 24, 2019

Terry is a teacher at one of the local elementary schools and wouldn't you know it, one of its students is a foamer. As the younger generation is turning to video games and internet wanderings it is refreshing to ignite the hobby of model railroading. We here at Alaska Railroad, Clayton, Ohio are only to happy do everything we can to prevent the hobby from dying.	Adrian used the RailPro Controller to fire up GP49 #2801 and run an empty coal train consist over the entire 258-foot mainline. Tom took the opportunity to observe the locomotive along the route and work out a few of the bugs. A few track nails were hammered deeper in place, some solder was filed down and sand paper applied to some of the rails.	Terry made Adrian a T-shirt with John's favorite photo of GP40 #3015 on the front, his name on the sleeve and the ARR logo on the back. With a whirlwind of foamer energy, Adrian moved cars in the yard, placed freight in many of the sidings and looked through boxes of unfielded freight. A return visit is in order for spring when the layout will be fully operational.

Tortoise switch machines were the main business of the evening. Mike mounts a Tortoise at the Portage depot siding.	Tom cuts the spring wire to the desired length and then bends the end at a 90-degree angle.	Soldering master Tom connects the 22-gauge wire to the holes in the printed circuit board.

Performing the necessary contortions, Mike runs the Tortoise control wires back to the AM-1 unit. LJ is absent due to a work call and his "under the table" energy was greatly missed tonight!	Tom and Mike install a fours switch machines at the double crossover. The pair installed a total of eight Tortoises tonight and wired two of them into AM-1s. To date 15 Tortoise have been installed with 25 more to go.	Terry baked fresh chocolate chip cookies and brought them up to the train room for the dedicated workers to enjoy.

Video: The controller is used to open and close the switch at Portage. Please forgive the foamer drooling on the controls!	Video from 1/22/19: John uses Scotch tape to mask unused rails for the locomotive's travel from outside reverse loop to TwentyMile division. The locomotive passes without issue showing our previous problems are caused by a short circuit issue and not RailPro. The final solution is to use a Dremel and slightly shorten these inside rails.	Video from 1/22/19: John is pretty darn excited to have a train up and running after fourteen years of starvation. Here the empty coal consist climbs the grade while passing Alaska Marine Lines on its way to the Anchorage depot.

Video from 1/22/19: A view along the double track near Rabbit Creek.	Video from 1/22/19: GP49 #2801 heading up the coal consist as it passes the APU division.

January 31, 2019

Our train night always begins with a fabulous dinner prepared by Terry. Tonight the group celebrates John's birthday with salad, lasagna, garlic bread and applesauce. The whole entourage sang "Happy Birthday" including grandsons Liam and Lincoln via Face Time from Indiana while Terry brought out the candle lit carrot cake. The carrot cake is a birthday favorite for John stemming back from his mother's recipe as far back as he can remember.	In true birthday spirit Leigh made train sugar cookies. How thoughtful!	LJ is solder tipping wires for the electrical runs to the AM-1s under the Anchorage yard. Sweat is seen on his brow as there are plenty of strenuous contortions to run wires beneath the long plywood runs. By the end of the evening all CB-1s, AR-1 and AM-1s are in place except one remaining AR-1.

LJ mounts a terminal block next to a CB-1. This will be used to run power to an AM-1 which controls a set of four switches.	Mike analyzes the communication system between the Tortoise switch machine and AM-1. By running an additional three wires from the Tortoise to the AM-1, the handheld controller now knows the position of the switch in the event of a power outage. Additionally, the handheld controller will know if a Tortoise goes bad or a switch is not completely thrown. John will order three different colors of wire to be used for all 40 "Tortoise to AM-1" communication runs.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 1/4/19 and last updated 2/8/19