John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

June 1, 2022

Terry was very busy this week! This video shows her cut, hemmed and hung table skirts from Whittier to Eppley's Curve. Additionally she hung skirts from Portage to the APU to the south end of the Anchorage depot. To date she has used an entire bolt and fabric and will still have to purchase more.	John painted the barge fascia during the week. Each side took two coats of black paint.	Our train night dinner was fabulous! It began with Jackie's phenomenal salad bar followed by Terry's chicken Alfredo, homemade bread and peas. The real show stopper was her strawberry shortcake with strawberries picked today and shortcake fresh out of the oven. Mmm!

Rick brought in the laptop to transfer images to the handheld controller. As GP40 #3009 had a new LM3-S new image and sound files needed to be transfer to it.	Here is a video of our fun running trains. An SD70MAC and GP40 team up to pull coal cars around Epply's Curve.	Here is a video of the CMX cleaning car fielded to remove grime from the main line. Cleaning pads were replaced after 3-4 loops and a total of 30 passes were made.

Rick brought in his GP40 #3006 for a fun run. There were difficulties transferring the picture file to the handheld controller. Some research will need to be done to address the error message.	As Rick began installation of the end barge fascia he discovered the motors were binding. Upon further investigation he found the apron rails were striking the barge. Our best guess is either the L-girder framework OR the barge mounting shifted.	Rick spent some time enlarging the barge mounting holes to allow the barge to shift in any direction. After all the mounting screws were put back into place he found the barge moved without binding. Time was up so fascia mounting will be next week.

June 8, 2022

Shortly before train night was scheduled to begin tornado sirens went off. A tornado touched down in nearby Darke County, grew into an EF2 near Tipp City where it destroyed part of a Meijer Distribution Center and continued north of Springfield. Sirens were discontinued ten minutes before our 6:00PM train night gathering.	At the Meijer facility off South County Road 25A in Tipp City, the roof and back wall on the northeast corner of the building collapsed. Fifty or more people were working in the Meijer Distribution building at the time the storm hit, but there were no reported injuries. Here is the path of this tornado as well as two others which appeared in the region.	Terry and Jackie were a whirlwind of activity as well. Dinner began with Jackie's excellent salad bar while Terry cooked a pork roast, fresh mashed potatoes and homemade bread. The pièce de résistance was ice cream covered in hot fudge with whipped cream and a cherry.

Rick ran a locomotive with an idler flat car and passenger car. The passenger car was placed on the barge and later returned to the Anchorage yard. It was discovered the turnout leading into Whittier was sticking. Rick spent a great deal of time cleaning the throw rod and adding graphite. The turnout now functions properly.	Artist Dave is still on sabbatical taking care of personal affairs. John could no longer stand the look of the three open cold air returns on the south wall so he is painting the covers a generic sky blue and then re-hanging them. Here are the vents after receiving their first coat of paint.	One of the dome cars kept derailing so we are ordering a long shank coupler to see if it fixes the issue. Also, Rick was able to transfer his locomotive picture to the second handheld controller. Initially the controller stated it didn't have enough charged power to complete the task, but a reset corrected the issue. Ah, computers!!!

June 16, 2022

The cold air return vent covers got their second coat of paint tonight. Next week we'll be able to screw them into place.	The long shank centerset couplers arrived for the Tour Alaska car and tonight Rick installed them. The car still derailed sporadically. After a great deal of trial and error Rick figured out the center axel was the culprit. After removing both of them the passenger train ran flawlessly.	Rick glued the end barge fascia (see arrow above) in place and it is good to go. John ordered a clear water ripple sheet to experiment with simulating the Prince William Sound Passage Canal which surrounds Whittier.

Gaps exist from the cork road bed to the cork board of the layout. John used saw dusk to shore up the difference. A 50/50 mixture of water and glue hold everything firmly in place.	Rick got into the spirit of things by using sawdust to shore up the cork road bed of the swing gate track. Again a 50/50 mixture was used to hold it in place.	Max believes it takes a great deal of rest to be the best foreman he can be. The workers thought otherwise, but finally decided it is better to leave a sleeping dog lie.

June 22, 2022

I painted the saw dust fill with a dark camouflage color in preparation for ballasting and grass. This is a view looking east along the south side of Whittier.	The saw dust fill was also painted along the swing gate.	Once the paint was completely dry I placed ballast using the methods presented in this very good YouTube tutorial.

Tom Koole created this excellent ballast blend for me and I must admit it looks fantastic on the layout.	My father-in-law was creating an N-scale layout for a glass topped table he built. He didn't finish the layout before passing away. I inherited it and finally got around to working on it. Some of the risers broke loose so I glued them back and used water jugs to hold them in place.	Tonight Rick hooked up a power pack and ran one of my N scale locomotives on it. There was a section of curve track that was bent so he will replace it next week.

Now with two coats of blue paint on the vents Rick proceeded to put them back in place. Several needed new pilot holes drilled before seating correctly.	All three vents are now in place. When David returns he will paint them to match the existing backdrop. Until then the blue vents look better than open holes.	Rick took home my laser cut Nenana depot kit and plans on assembling it as time allows. The depot will ultimately reside in Whittier.

The duct tape holding the backdrops together at Usibelli Mine came loose. Tonight Rick was able to get behind the boards and put new tape in place. Now I need to find an appropriate filler for the gap.	We love to run trains and tonight Rick used his Alaska Railroad locomotive to pull a short passenger train. Additionally, a pair of heritage locomotives pulled a longer passenger car consist.

June 30, 2022

Painter's tape was put down on the cork sheet in preparation for track ballast. This was needed since cork road bed was not used. Liquid nails was used to fill the gaps between the cork sheet and facia in preparation for Woodland Scenics grass.	Ballast and grass are in place on the swing gate. My muscular dystrophy causes my hands to shake so the lines are not perfect, but good enough for me.	Grass is now in place between the main line and Whittier depot spur. Grass is half way in place between the mainline and fascia. The bass wood shown between the main and Whittier depot spur will be cut and painted to look like concrete as it will be the pad underneath the future depot.

During train night Rick continued his work on the N scale coffee table layout. He removed a large section of damaged track.	A turnout was added along with a short section of track. During a test run Rick found two more track locations needing attention. Even so, the locomotive was able to do a complete loop. Next week Rick will fix all trouble spots.	Handheld controller #2 was no longer holding a charge. John bought new rechargeable batteries. Rick carefully open up the handheld controller for a peek inside.

The existing batteries were removed and new ones installed. The handheld controller is now holding the charge. Total replacement cost was $6 versus $45 if sent back to the manufacturer.	Rick began work on the Nenana depot LaserKit. He removed some of the wood pieces from the stock sheets. One of the legs was broken during removal so Rick performed a repair using a glue board and magnets. John was very exciting to see work on the depot had begun. This building will be used as the Whittier depot.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 7/1/22 and last updated 7/1/22