Ophir General Merchandise

I recently completed my model of the Ophir General Merchandise kit by Banta Modelworks (https://www.bantamodelworks.com/).  This kit was a challenge to bring to completion owing to a lack of information in the kit regarding the arrangement of the railings, stairways, and ladders on the decks and catwalks.  However, I made use of Mike Blazek's plans (http://blazeksplan.com/) for the structure, photos from the Rio Grande Southern Story, and parts from my scrap box to complete it.  I also found an adhesive which makes installation of the non-peel-and-stick shingles included in the kit much easier.

The Ophir General Merchandise store in HO scale.  This front view shows the gas pump from my scrap box, and the 3/4" thick pine block glued to the underside of the front porch to eliminate a warp.  The building is located adjacent to the track, with a road to the left climbing a steep grade.  The ladder, catwalk, and stairway shown in front of the building will be installed after the building is installed on the layout.

The left side of the Ophir General Merchandise.  The catwalk will be located between the second story doorway and the roadway.  The stairway leads down from the road to the front porch.

The right side of the Ophir General Merchandise, showing the tarpaper siding and basement wall.  The building is located on a sloped site, so the block in front will be hidden,

The rear of the Ophir General Merchandise.  The platform on the right will be accessed by the ladder (on the left).

Scatter Grip, the adhesive I used to attach the non-peel-and-stick shingles.  The material is painted onto the surface and allowed to dry.  It remains tacky for hours, so there is ample time to complete installation of the strips of shingles.  I found this to be much less frustrating and annoying than attempting to use spray glue to attach the shingles.  The product is available from Amazon.  Search for Deluxe Materials Scatter Grip.

Rio Grande Southern T-19 Number 20

I recently added an additional Rio Grande Southern locomotive to the roster.  I purchased this locomotive a Precision Scale T-19, back in 2014 at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Overland Park, Kansas.  I added a Soundtraxx Tsunami-2 Steam Decoder, the TSU-1100, a Soundtraxx Currentkeeper, and a Mini Cube speaker.  All of this equipment fit into the small tender!  The headlight is illuminated with an LED made by Evan Designs (www.ModelTrainSoftware.com).  This LED operates on 7-19 volts AC, DC, or DCC.  It includes a tiny bridge rectifier, which I was able to install in the smokebox.  The leads are simply soldered to the F0 function leads from the decoder, which are the white and blue wires.  There was no need to calculate the size of resistor necessary, as it is included with the LED.  I added window glass, painted the tires, axle ends, and journal boxes a weathered white, and installed a coal load made from real crushed and sized narrow gauge coal.

The Rio Grande Southern T-19 Number 20.  

Electrical Plan for the Rio Grande Southern

Attached is the electrical plan for the Rio Grande Southern railroad.  This diagram shows each of the power districts, reversing sections, and the programming track.  The railroad uses the main NCE Power Pro command station, two NCE Boosters, eight PSX circuit breakers, three PSX-AR auto-reversers, and three OG-AR auto-reversers.  The Ridgway, Telluride, and Pandora portions of the layout have not yet been constructed, so the electrical components for these towns are not in place.

Booster for the Rio Grande Southern

I recently added a booster to the layout to provide additional power, and resiliency during operating sessions.  I added an NCE Power Pro PB5 booster, and two additional PSX-1 circuit breakers.  The result of this enhancement is that the long power district supplying power to Dolores, Rico, Ophir, Vance Junction, Vanadium, and Placerville is now three separate districts.  Dolores is on the original district, while Rico and Ophir are within their own district.  Vance Junction, Vanadium, and Placerville are also a separate district.  The advantage of providing the additional districts is that, for example. a derailment/short circuit in Dolores will not cause the operators in Rico to lose functionality.

A note on the installation of the PB5 booster would be appropriate.  This booster is located beneath Ophir, about 40 feet from the Power Pro Command Station located under Durango.  This necessitated adding a control bus between the Command Station and the Booster.  I confirmed with NCE that the control bus can be up to 300 feet long, so 40 feet is not a problem.  Additionally, I confirmed with NCE that a floating ground should be connected between the Command Station and the Booster.  I used 16 gauge wire, and ran it from a case screw on the Command Station to a case screw on the Booster.

An interesting note on the effectiveness on the floating ground:  When I first installed the Booster, I tested the installation without the floating ground between the Command Station and the Booster.  All worked well, with a smooth transition of the locomotive from the Rico power district to the Dolores power district.  I thought, "Great!  I had a 50% chance of connecting the track wires in proper phase, and I got it right!"  I immediately completed the installation of the floating ground, test ran the locomotive from the Rico district into the Dolores district, and had a short circuit, indicating that the polarity of the rails was reversed.  I reversed the track feed from the Booster to the PSX circuit breakers, and now the polarity is correct, with a smooth transition from the Rico district to the Dolores district.

My recommendation is to be sure to install the floating ground between the Command Station and the Booster.  Incidentally, no mention is made of the need for a floating ground in the instructions that came with the Booster.

NCE Booster installed under Ophir.  The track power goes to the PSX Circuit Breakers, the control bus connects the Command Station to the Booster, and the floating ground at the rear of the Booster connects to the case of the Command Station.

PSX Circuit breakers installed under Ophir.

Final Track Plan

I have completed the final track plan for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in HOn3!  Note that Ridgway has been moved into the adjacent room, and that the Enterprise Branch and Telluride Branch are now included for additional operating interest.

The Enterprise Branch is physically located above the town of Dolores, with a connection to the town of Rico.  This branch will be operated by a Shay locomotive, and has several mines, which have been relocated from my previous layout.  The Enterprise Branch is freelanced, although it is based upon the prototype Enterprise Branch.

Ridgway, Telluride, and Pandora follow the prototype track plans, although they are compressed, as always seems to be required!  We never have all the space we want for our railroads!

Trains are currently operating through Placerville, with the end-of-track at the far end of Placerville.  I anticipate beginning benchwork construction of the new portion of the layout within the next week.

The Rio Grande Southern Railroad, as modeled in HOn3.  This is the final version of the trackplan.

Telluride Coal for Rico

I recently completed the Telluride Coal facility for my town of Rico, CO.  This is one of the buildings included in Banta Modelworks new kit, Rico Outbuildings.  This kit was a very easy build!  I prestained all parts using Hunterline Creosote, which has become my "go-to" stain for aged timbers.

Telluride Coal at its location in Rico., near the Pro Patria Mill.  The building needs to be "dirted in".  The vehicle is a Classic Model Works Chevrolet pickup

A front view of the Telluride Coal facility in Rico.

A side view of the Telluride Coal facility.  The Pro Patria Mill is in the background.

Dedicated Programming Track

This is my first post in quite a while.  The past several months have been quite busy!  I was recently married to a lovely woman, Patty, that I have been seeing over the past year, and model railroading, particularly updating my blog, has not been high on my priority list!

Patty and I dancing the Waltz at our favorite local winery, South Creek Vineyards.

Having said that, my wife Patty is supportive of my hobby/passion, and will be going to the upcoming Narrow Gauge Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September!

One of the items that I accomplished recently was installing a dedicated programming track on my layout.  This is the first dedicated programming track that I have had, and it was well worth figuring out how to incorporate such an item into my layout.  This track is an existing track servicing the turntable, and was particularly suited because it had already been isolated from adjacent tracks, as they were part of the reversing loop on the layout.  The following electrical diagram of the Durango Yard portion of my railroad will illustrate the location of the programming track.

Figure 1.  Electrical diagram of the Durango Yard.  The green tracks are District 1; the blue tracks are District 2; and the red tracks are the reversing section, controlled by a DCC Specialties OG-AR circuit board.  The Purple track is the programming track.

Figure 2.  Detailed view of the Durango Yard showing the location of the Programming Track (in purple), the reversing section (in red), and District 1 (in green).  

The programming track is electrically isolated from the rest of the layout by gaps in both rails where it joins the turnout in the reversing section.  Obviously, the track is gapped at the turntable!  The track is fed trough a DPDT electrical switch mounted on the layout fascia,  In one position, the track acts simply as a normal section of trackage; in the "Programming" position, the track is a dedicated programming track.  I chose this track as it is near the location of my NCE DCC system, and that simplified wiring.  Also, because I use JMRI Decoder Pro to program my decoders, I wanted the Program track to be near the DCC system and my laptop computer.