The Pennsylvania Railroad
Northern Division
Miscellaneous Modeling Tricks and
Tips
Over
the years, every modeler stumbles onto some neat tricks and tips of his
or her own. Some are unique, while others may be common. As people
visit my layout, many comment on various things that I have done and
asked how I did them. I created this page so that I may share some of
these 'tricks' with you.
You can either scan down this page or click on the
topic you are interested in.
Track Cleaning
There seems to
have been as many discussions on different methods of track cleaning as
there are politcal points of view! The bottom line is that there is not
any right way, but rather the best way, and that is the way that works
best for you. I certainly do not profess to knowing the 'right'
answers, but rather would like to share with you my experiences. You
can take it from there.
I've used the
common abrasive type track cleaners. Sometimes called 'Bright Boys' or
'track erasers', these small abrasive blocks literally scrape dirt and
residue off the rail. These will clean the rail and are excellent for
heavy built up dirt. For example, I've used these after painting track.
However, I have found that after continued use, these may do more harm
than good. These abrasive cleaners tend to scratch the rail head,
leaving small areas where dirt can and will accumulate. This
accumulating dirt causes the wheels of locos to spark, causing pitting
of both the rail head and loco wheels. They also tend to damage the
points on finer turnouts. So while these abrasive track cleaners work,
I would only recommend them for limited use.
I have also used
several different types of liquid cleaners such as Rail-Zip. These
appear to be some type of petrolium based liquid and will loosen dirt,
allowing the locos to make better contact with the railhead. These
liquids don't actually 'clean' the rail as much as they loosen the dirt
and move it out of the way. I noticed a build-up of a tar type of dirt
on the outside of the railhead on curves after using Rail-Zip for about
a year or two. This became difficult to remove, requiring me to get the
'Bright Boys' out for a heavier cleaning, which I don't like to do (see
above).
Then I broke
down and purchased a Centerline Track Cleaning car, and as per their
instructions, used Goo-Gone as the cleaner. This is some type of citrus
house hold cleaner that is applied to the pad on the car, and then the
car is pulled or pushed around the layout. The car is designed so that
as the car rolls, the cleaning wheel, which is a heavy brass roller,
rolls with a limited amount of friction. A Handy Wipe type of towelette
which is soaked with the Goo-Gone is wrapped around the roller. The
result is that the Goo-Gone is wiped, not applied, over the railhead.
The weight of the roller, combined with the limited amount of friction,
creates this 'wiping' affect.' While I really like the Centerline track
cleaning cars, I do not recommend the Goo-Gone product for continued
track cleaning. Like the other liquid track cleaning products, this
product also seems to leave some sort of residue on the rail that in
time dries up and interferes with the conductivity properties of the
railhead.
Finally, a
friend recommended using plain alcohol, like rubbing alcohol. I must
confess that at the time I was still using Goo-Gone, thinking that my
rail was clean, but I was also experiencing problems with certain
locomotives, particularly sound equipped engines which I usually have
set with momentum effect. One night, while at a friends house, I ran
one of my sound equipped engines on his layout and it ran more smoothly
than I ever remember! It turns out he cleans his layout with alcohol. I
came home that night, switched out the cleaning pads on my Centerline
car, applied alcohol to the car and ran it around the layout. I then
ran the same locomotive and it ran better than ever before! I was born
again!
My current track
cleaning train, which I fondly refer to as 'MLCMX' (or Mean Lean
Cleaning Machine Extra), is comprised of two Centerline track cleaning
cars and a third home made car which drags a bright boy type abrasive
cleaner. The first car is a Centerline car, which is run wet with the
alcohol. The second car is the bright boy car. The third car is the
second Centerline car, but the pad is left dry. When run, the first car
applies the alcohol for the initial cleaning. The bright boy car drags
the bright boy underneath it which 'scrapes' stubborn dirt from the
rail head. The third car then wipes the rail head clean. I run this
train only occasionally for routine maintenance.
Since using
alcohol, I have experienced absolutely NO problems with dirty track. If
I run my finger over the rail head, I notice very little dirt coming
off the rail onto my finger, and locos run smoother now than ever.
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Working Cabin Car Marker Lights
One
of the things I really enjoy on a layout is a little bit of realistic
animation. Working lights on motive power, cars and cabooses adds a lot
to a layout. In addition, I've always considered the locomotives AND
cabooses to be the 'stars' of a train, and therefore should get a
little more attention with regard to detailing. With this in mind, I
went back to all my cabin cars (PRR terminology for cabooses) and
detailed and weathered them. I also decided to add working marker
lights to all these cars as well.
In
the mid to late sixties, most of the PRR cabins were outfitted with
blinking marker light fixtures, similar in appearance to what we know
as the highway construction flashers. These flashers have a red lens on
the top and a yellow battery box attached to it on the bottom. The
entire unit measures approximately 10" tall. The ones used by the PRR
hung on the rear of the cabin on the outside of the crash bar.
I
have both brass and the Bowser plastic N-5's, N-5c's and N-8's on my
layout. The plastic cars were a rather straight forward installation,
but the brass cars required a little more effort. The most difficult
part of the project was installing some form of electrical pickup for
the circuit. For all the cars, I used Jay Bee #103 Athearn Caboose
Wheel sets for lighting an Athearn caboose. This kit comes with
insulated wheel sets, brass wipers, and a long threaded bolster pin
which easily extends through the floor into the cabin for connection to
the circuit. While the installation of the wheel sets was rather easy
on the Bowser cabins, the brass cabins required that I remove the brass
bolster and replace it with a plastic one in order to completely
insulate the circuit. I also replaced the brass side frames on the
brass models with the Bowser side frames.
For
the flasher circuit, I used the 'two light alternating strobe flasher'
circuit by Miniatronics. This kit includes the assembled circuit board
along with two red bulbs. The wires for the bulbs were run through the
rear wall and under the roof of the cabin near where the roof curls
down along the sides. This sufficiently hides the wires from view. The
bulb is then placed in such a fashion so as the end of the bulb is
sticking out alongside the crash bar of the cabin. I painted the sides
of the bulb black so that it blended in with the roof edge. I also
placed a wash of flat black paint carefully over the end of the bulb so
as to dull down the 'flash' of the bulb. I then cemented a small square
piece of plastic, approximately 3" square to the underside of the bulb
and painted it yellow. This piece of plastic represents the battery box
of the flasher.
The
end result is a very convincing set of flashers on the rear of the
cabin. Since I use DCC, there is always current on the rails and hence,
the flashers are always flashing. This small addition to the cabin cars
makes for an interesting amount of animation and interest to the end of
the train.
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Sound and Momentum
I
have always been intrigued with the use of sound to add to the
operating realism on a model railroad. We have been very fortunate over
the past few years to see more and more available sound units, and the
quality of those units continues to improve. But there was always one
thing about these units that bothered me; the sound didn't seem to in
sync with the motion of the locomotive. With steam, this is easily
resolved using a 'cam' to sync the exhaust sounds with the motion of
the locomotive, but diesel sounds are a different story.
I
finally broke down one day and bought a sound system for one of my
Life-Like GP-9's. It was surprisingly easy to install, and I was even
able to manage to squeeze a 3/4" speaker into the cab! Finally, it was
time for the test run. I put the engine on the track and throttled it
up and away she went. It sounded great, except for one little thing
that really bugged me. Then engine was halfway down the track by the
time the engine revved up. It wasn't right! We all know that,
especially under load, we hear the diesel throttle up and then it moves
a minute later.
I
than began to tinker with the momentum. I've never been big on momentum
before, but figured I would see if it made a difference. Much to my
surprise, it worked. I set the starting and stopping momentum (CV3
& CV4) to a value of 20, just enough to get the effect. Now, when
you throttle up the engine, the sound responds immediately, revving the
engine up, then it slowly starts to move. Likewise, when you go to
stop, it slowly comes to a stop, as if you were applying the air brakes
on the prototype.
The
next surprise came when I took that engine out on a local switch job.
What used to take me maybe 10 minutes now took me 20 minutes. This was
great as it suddenly became much more realistic. Not only did the sound
of the locomotive add to the enjoyment, but the momentum effect made me
concentrate on my moves a lot more as well. I had to slow the engine
down enough to properly couple or spot cars. This added realism added
so much to my operating enjoyment.
While
I was never a big fan of momentum before, I am now a believer and
strongly recommend everyone try it. Just a little momentum effect can
go a long way!
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Paint
it Black?
Early on when I began construction on the
layout, I followed the long standing tradition of painting the
scenery base an earth tone color. When I began to apply textures,
I kept finding these light colored spots where the textures didn't
cover well. I would go back time after time, adding more texture
until the light spots disappeared. Then I visited a friends
layout and I noticed he was painting all of his scenery hardshell black.
I asked him why and he explained to me how it hides those annoying
'light spots'. He went on to explain that there is actually a very logical reason for
this.
Black is not a color. It is
actually the absence of all color. It is also the least noticed 'color' to the human
eye. Logically, if there is something you don't want people to see, you would paint it black. For example, in the theater world, when building sets or props, black is used as a base color. Items
that are supposed to 'pop out' or seem larger are usually painted a
brighter color so they stand out against objects around them. Bringing
this philosophy to the model railroading world, we highlight
rock outcroppings with lighter colors to make them standout, so
wouldn't it stand to logic that we paint things black that we do not
want noticed?
So I returned to my layout and
experimented by painting my hardshell black and then applying the
textures as normal. I was extremely surprised at how well the
textures seem to cover the hardshell. If I were to examine the
scenery closely, I could see the 'bare spots', but they were not nearly
as noticable as the areas painted with earth tones. Then I stood
back and compared the original area I had started by painting the earth
tone color to the area right next to it continued by painting the
hardshell black. On the first section, even from a
distance, I could clearly see the spots where the texture left bare
spots, whereas in the second area, no spots could be seen. In addition,
I noticed that those areas painted black seem to have more 'depth' to
them. The scenic colors seemed to be more brilliant. I was
sold!
Now I paint everthing on the layout
black before I do anything else. Everything from roadbed to
scenery hardshell.
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Modeling Track Joints
These two photos show the fish plates. The turnout below shows how fish plates are placed on turnouts.
At a recent open house, I was surprised at how many people noticed my track joints! Many people asked how I modeled these 'prototype track joints' and they were surprised how easy it was, but more importantly, how it improved the appearance of the track.
I've always felt that the trackwork is as much as part of the scenery as trees, bushes, etc. After all, when people visit your layout, they will focus on the track and areas surrounding your trackwork, so doesn't it make sense that give as much attention to the trackwork detail as anything else?
On the mainline portion of my layout between Northumberland and Sunbury, I modeled the track by representing 39' rail sections with fish plates. To do this, I measured out 39' scale feet with a scale ruler, offsetting the 'joints' as I went along. Every 39', I made a very small notch in the railhead to represent a joint.
For the fishplates, I used Grandt Line Code 70 fish plates. These are labled as 'Code 70 Dummy Fish Plates', part number 9003. They are listed as an O Scale (1/4") part, but are specifically for use with Code 70 rail. You could probably use these on any size rail and they would look fine.
I glued them to the rail side using ACC Glue. Make sure that the glue is applied to the full length of the fish plate so that they lay flat against the side of the rail. I only glued these to the side of the rail that would be visable. You could apply them to both sides of the rail, but my philosophy is why apply details to where no one would see them! While this is a tedious process, it goes fairly quickly.
Turnouts require a little more attention, as there are fish plates of various sizes, depending on the turnout size. These are located on the point rails, as well as on either side of the frog.
Once weathered, the fish plates become a very subtle detail, but surprisingly show up nicely under the scrutiny of a photograph and will add a lot of detail to your track.
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