Working on the Railroad

[xl_target]

Last weekend, the city of St. James, Minnesota had their annual Railroad Days celebration. My train club; The St James Model Railroad Club had an open house for the public. The Mankato Free Press (from a nearby town) did an article on our club. Most of us run and hide when the press show up as many of us are not desirous of the publicity that is engendered by these press visits. Unfortunately, those who have the duty of running the trains when this happens are stuck talking to the press. .

Here is the article:

ST JAMES — Bill Nordgren sits comfortably in the old chair in the historic depot in St. James, surrounded by the photos and memorabilia of a bygone era when rails ruled.

"I'd like to go back to railroading." Then a grin and a pause. "But I don't think they're hiring too many 88-year-olds."

Now he surrounds himself with memories as he volunteers at the old depot, welcoming visitors.

He worked as a railroad clerk for 10 years beginning at age 19, but got bumped out by an employee with more seniority. So he went into newspapering, first in Olivia and then for decades as editor of the St. James Plaindealer.

Despite his love of the railroad, he admits he didn't enjoy the full allure of riding the rails while he worked in depots from Aberdeen to Hopkins. "I never actually got a train ride until after I was done railroading."

Mike Lenzen, of Omaha, stopped in the depot to help Nordgren over the weekend during the busy St. James Railroad Days celebration. His dad, William, was a railroad agent in St. James from 1954 to 1986 and Mike worked as a manager for railroads for 41 years, moving all over the country.

The depot was built in 1894 in Amboy and was moved to St. James in 1973 to serve as a railroad museum. The town's working depot, located downtown, is still a hub of activity as crews switch shifts there for the daily trainloads of ethanol moving from the Lake Crystal ethanol plant to South Dakota.

"St. James was a very big railroad town. They employed a lot of people," Lenzen said. St. James was a division headquarters for trains running between St. Paul and Sioux Falls and points in between. Dozens of sidetracks, a large roundhouse and large depot and offices dominated the downtown.

That rich rail history supports a strong model railroad club — one Nordgren helped found in 1989 — that is based in a former city garage next to the depot museum.

Dan Shaikoski was one of several club members showing wide-eyed kids and adults around the maze of model trains running in the building.

"I got into model railroads when I was eight or nine and then got into it more when I had kids," Shaikoski said.

The club, Nordgren said, has trouble drawing younger members like Shaikoski. "The young ones like to come in and look, but not join," Nordgren said.

The club, Roundhouse Inc., gets donations from various groups and spends it wisely, with members often hand building many of the buildings, bridges and other props on display.

When the group decides to buy some trains, Shaikoski admits there is some diplomacy needed to settle on what to get.

"Each guy has their railroad they like. We have to discuss it when we get something new."

Many of the trains added aren't, in fact, new.

"We have very thrifty members. We get a lot of old and broken stuff off of eBay and fix it up. We have some guys who are very talented."

The link is HERE

Some photos from the event:

Visitors watch model trains run through a town at the St. James Model Railroad Club's display Saturday.


A model train runs past a nighttime scene of a town at the St. James Model Railroad Club's display Saturday.

HERE is the VIDEO <--- CLICK

[TC]

Awesome XL... and this post reminded me of a task that slipped my memory

Thanks for posting



TC

[xl_target]

No urgent rush, TC.
Thanks

[timmy]

XL, this is very cool. I think the publicity is a good idea, as maybe some would bring in their kids, and who knows where something might take root.

It looks like a number of folks have been working on that setup and it looks very nice. BTW, that articulated looked quite interesting. Can you fill us in on it a bit?

How many folks participate in working on this? Tell us a bit more about the layout, XL.

[xl_target]

Tim,
It is very hard to get kids to commit to a hobby that takes time and hard work when video games are so much easier.
The youngest member of our club is about 24 (he has been a member since he was 16) but he's probably the last generation of kids that would think that something like this was cool to do. We have about 20 members and only about five or six of us show up to do work all the time.

The articulated locomotive that you can see at the bottom left of the first photo is a Big Boy. Keep in mind that this is O Scale (1:48) and that big boy is 35 inches long and weighs about 30 lbs. It has sound, smoke and lights. While I do help out on the O Scale layout, my primary interest is in HO scale. I build structures on the O scale (building, bridges, etc). The Roundhouse that you can see was built by kit-bashing two roundhouse kits. The turntable and pit were built from scratch. Many of the buildings in the town area are just kits. The layout is basically devoid of natural scenic elements as of now.

Our main focus is HO Scale (1:87th or Half-O). Our HO layout is set in the transition era of the 1950's when diesels were slowly replacing steam engines. Some of our member have steam locomotives so we're stuck with that. I only have one steamer; one of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad's giant 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives (in HO Scale). The rest of my locomotives are diesels. I concentrate on the Soo Line Railroad from 1989 to 1993 (when they got bought up by the Canadian Pacific).

Here is a video of a part of the HO scale layout:

It shows the Santa Fe's "El Capitan" sliding through a quiet midwestern town at night.

Model Railroading has changed a lot in the last decade or so. We run our layout using a Digital Command Control (DCC) controller. There are microprocessors (decoders) in each locomotive that control the loco. Signals from the controller to the decoder are sent along the rails. This allows you to have multiple locomotives on the same piece of track, even if they are going in different directions. This also allows special effects like sound, lights, smoke, uncoupling, etc. The sound is one dimension that has really changed the hobby. We're not talking crude grunts and noises, we're talking 16 bit and 32 bit sound. Actual recordings of the real thing!

Here is what the controllers look like:

They are radio equipped and don't need to be tethered to the power supply. One has to be careful though, there is 8 Amps at 14 volts available at the rail. An unprotected short will weld steel wheels to the rail.

These are what decoders looks like:



They have pulse width modulation and torque control built in to control the motors. They also give you standard lights or special lights like Mars Lights, ditch lights or beacons. They also have sounds like the motor (specific to the locomotive), horns, bell, coupling, air compressor, dynamic brakes, cooling fans, radio chatter, etc. Some of them will even verbally give you their speed in scale miles per hour. On the steamers you can sync. the chuffs to the wheels rotation so you can get a life-like four chuffs per rotation.

Here is a video of the O Scale Great Northern Railroad's S2 Northern locomotive pausing at a station (pre-programmed chatter).


Under the main layout is the kid's layout where they can run anything, break anything, do anything that they want to. This helps keep them off the main layout and keeps their interest.
Usually really little kids have to be dragged out the door, screaming and kicking, when it's time to leave.

[Mark]

Nice article XL!

I was wondering if there has been any discussions in the modelling community in regards to using 3D printers for building train or car bodies yet?

[ckkalyan]

Many thanks for sharing XL,

Ultimate....toy set - so very cool!

[xl_target]

Nice article XL!

I was wondering if there has been any discussions in the modelling community in regards to using 3D printers for building train or car bodies yet?

Not yet but it's coming. Most of the generic 3D printers don't have the resolution for really fine detail (like those on a locomotive truck). Also the material used is a little brittle (made out of resin of some kind), especially when used to make fine details. We do get printed parts made from our 3D drawings and they have to be handled with care. The ones that are made out of a plastic/nylon type of material don't have really fine detail. As the technology gets better, I'm sure we'll see little specialty shops getting setup. There are already plenty of shops that will make Laser kits to your specifications.

For example, there was a railroad called the Minneapolis & St Louis that ran through St James in the 1950's. It is long gone now but with some research, it is possible to recreate some of the structures on it's right-of-way.



Here is a typical depot on the "Tootin' Louie" (as it was commonly called here).

Here's my rendition of the same depot built out of laser cut wood strips.





Our club possesses the station name-board for the LaSalle depot (La Salle, Minnesota). One of our members "appropriated" it when it was being torn down. We photographed it, reduced it and glued it to a piece of Styrene plastic that was shaped to fit. The biggest challenge was trying to get the paint to look old and weathered like the original. In these photos, it is not finished yet. The corners of the eaves need to be filled in and glass needs to be applied to the windows. Also the freight doors and the interior need to be painted. The structure is about 2 inches wide by 4.5 inches long.



Here it is with the train order signal installed. It does rotate like the original. There are no kerosene lanterns behind it though, .

[Mark]

Wow that is quite an impressive model!

[timmy]

XL, how beautiful!

On the Great Northern video, did I hear the recording say "Williston"? I've been to that area -- it is the source of the world's supply of mud!

I have an old world atlas from 1898, showing all the train stops along what Montanans call "The High Line," US 2, which pretty much follows the Great Northern route. All of those old places, some of which have totally disappeared, are shown on the map. It is a very cool piece of history.

I have to tell you, my Scottish friend has deeply inculcated me with a love of the Gresley Conjugated Valve Gear, and the A4s of the LNER. (do open the links; you won't be sorry!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23158002

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23149181

Hats off to Sir Nigel!

But as a good American, I must meld my love of Sir Nigel's wonderful contraptions with good old American iron, so my favorite to model would be a UP 9000 4-12-2, the largest single frame engine made.



I also, naturally, love the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge stuff, especially the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway of my New Mexico:



The above is pretty near home for me, and is the town closest to my old boss and mentor's ranch.



The midpoint at Osier is right near my old boss's grazing lands, where he runs cattle and sheep. The beauty of the Sangre de Cristos is a sight that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

I am also keen on the narrow gauge line called the Montana Southern. They bought 5 old Baldwin narrow gauge engines form the Florence and Cripple Creek in Colorado, and were the last narrow gauge railway built in the USA. There is a tremendously interesting story of this line, which was built to connect the UPs track in Divide, MT with a mine far up into the mountains. I have been there and spent a lot of time in that area along the Big Hole River.

Thanks for sharing this stuff with us. Just the part about the Great Northern and Williston brings up all kinds of thoughts and memories...

[xl_target]

On the Great Northern video, did I hear the recording say "Williston"? I've been to that area -- it is the source of the world's supply of mud!

The Great Northern's "Empire Builder" passenger train started from Chicago and went through IL, WI, MN, ND and MT to WA. It is still one of Amtrak's premier passenger trains. The route has changed over the years and I don't think they stop at WIlliston anymore but they did in the steam days.

American trains and British trains are generally a little different with American trains being more utilitarian in style and tending to be larger. Though some of the American trains had streamlined locomotives like the Loewy designed GG1 and the Dreyfuss designed 20th Century Limited's Hudson locomotives.

As far as size and tractive effort goes, nothing in the world came close to the Union Pacific's Big Boy and Challenger locomotives. I believe there were some very large Russian locomotives but the were short lived. Isolated Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad's "Yelowstone" locomotives had the most tractive effort (more than the Big Boy) pulling 200 seventy ton cars from the mines of Minnesota's Iron Range to the Lake Superior Ore Docks. Track speed was 40 mph while the Big Boy was designed to haul trains at 80 mph (it had bigger drivers).



My Yellowstone model is an unpainted brass locomotive as of yet. Getting it painted and adding a decoder will cost a substantial amount but what is holding me back is the mixing of the sound to replicate the Yellowstone's sound. Hours and hours of work, I'm afraid.


My brass Yellowstone


The ore cars and the caboose. These are proper "Minnesota" ore cars. Unfortunately, I only have 24 so far. I figure that I need at least 96 to represent an ore train.

[timmy]

Wow, XL, that is lovely! You have gone top flight, I see, and your train will be a wonder to behold. You must have quite the layout planned, given a 96 car train!

[ckkalyan]

Hi XL,

Here's my rendition of the same depot built out of laser cut wood strips

That's something that I would love to see in person..............amazing!

WOW!

[timmy]

Hi XL,

Here's my rendition of the same depot built out of laser cut wood strips

That's something that I would love to see in person..............amazing!

WOW!

Yes, I especially like the way it has a weathered look around the eaves and such. The layout will be a sight to behold!

[bennedose]

What an enchanting thread. Thanks for sharing!