Coke Ovens

I recently installed a set of Coke Ovens near the wye at Dolores.  The Coke Ovens were made many years ago by Trains of Texas, and were located near Durango on my old layout.  I was able to salvage this industry from the old railroad when I dismantled it, and now I have another switching location on the new RGS layout.

I installed the Coke Ovens with two sidings, with a total capacity of 14 cars.  Both turnouts are powered using Tortoise switch machines, controlled by Touch Toggles.

Coke Ovens installed on the Rio Grande Southern.  Two No. 6 turnouts lead from the RGS mainline in the lower right corner to the Coke Ovens.

A closer view of the Coke Ovens.  Note that no scenery has been put in place yet.  The scenery is from the old layout.

Three Clear Creek Models Hi-Side Gondolas spotted at the Coke Ovens.  The dump truck is a Jordan Highway Miniatures Mack dump truck.

An overall view of the Coke Ovens.

Turntable control using DCC

Recently, the turntable controller for the Durango turntable failed.  I purchased the New York Railway Supply PTC III about 25 years ago.  Unfortunately, after 25 years of flawless service, the controller failed.   Because parts are not available, I needed a new way to control the turntable.

I decided to try controlling the turntable using a Switchmaster slow motion turnout machine and a spare Lenz DCC motor-only controller.  The photos below show how I adapted the existing motor mount for use with the Switchmaster motor.  I did turn an adapter using my Unimat lathe to connect the 1/8" motor shaft to the 1/4" turntable shaft.

I am pleased with the results of my adaptation.  I do miss the automatic indexing, but have found that aligning the turntable to the lead tracks is not as difficult as I anticipated.  One advantage is that I can reverse the table at any time, and I can adjust the speed of the table.

Overall view of the Switchmaster slow motion motor.  The slotted aluminum angle is part of the original PTC III mounting kit.  I drilled two holes to mount the Switchmaster motor.  The motor is mounted to the aluminum angle with #6-32 x 1" machine screws and nuts.  The entire assembly is mounted to the layout with lengths of all-thread and knurled thumb nuts.  The height of the bridge can be fine-tuned by adjusting the knurled nuts on the all-thread which secure the mount to the layout.

A closer view showing the Lenz decoder installation.  The gray and orange decoder wires are soldered to the motor leads, and the black and red decoder wires are connected to the track bus wires.  The decoder is secured to the motor using Kapton tape.  Mounting the motor to the aluminum angle required two screws and six nuts.

A closer view of the adapter used to connect the 1/8" motor shaft to the 1/4" turntable shaft.  The adapter was turned from aluminum rod.  It has a 1/8' hole in the bottom, and a 1/4" shaft at the top, which enters the existing coupling.

Placerville Depot completed

I have finished the Placerville Depot, as described two posts ago.  As I mentioned previously, this is a laser-cut kit by Narrow Gauge Colorado.

Front view of the completed Placerville Depot.  The roofing material is laser-cut.  I applied a light, uneven application of D&RGW Trim Brown, Engine Black, Mud, and Platinum Mist to the sheets of shingles prior to installation.  This gives a weathered appearance to the shingles.

View of the Placerville Depot roof showing the weathered effect achieved by lightly spraying the shingles with four colors of paint prior to installation.