The ROCK 3.0: Motive Power Update

This afternoon after work, I decided to wander over to South Ottawa to see what was shaking on the ROCK.  What do my eyes see through the trees?

I spy a U30C on the property!  They haven't had one of these around for quite some time.  Word on the street was the last one was a horrible runner and management sold it.

This unit looks like it has some mileage on it, but it sounds pretty darn good throttling up through town!  I need to get a better look at this unit.

Looking good!!  I should be able to get a couple different views of this loco as it works a cut of sand hoppers at Ottawa Silica.

I drove over to the Ottawa Silica yard office.  They have some nice guys working there.  They let me walk out in the yard to snap some more photos of the U30C.  The Sand Job crew stated this loco may look rough, but runs like a Cadillac!  Management must be very pleased with their acquisition.

Look at all that RI power floating around!

On my way out of town, I stopped in at the yard to chat with some of the crews.  To my surprise, I found management on the property.  No worries though.  I know the CEO.  He showed me some aerial photos of some farming development that is planned on the other side of Ottawa Yard.  From what I understand, the Franklin Farm is expanding their crops right up to the RI right-of-way.

I drove west over to Utica.  I noticed there was some new trucks over at Philadelphia Quartz.  I hear they will be painted soon.

As I headed out of town to finally go home, I stopped one last time to snap some photos of some rolling stock that caught my eye.  I'm a sucker for a nicely weathered freight car.

One of my favorites that I see on the RI often.  Two reasons:

One it makes me think of my father-in-law that grew up along the GM&O in Pike County, IL.

Second, my friend Allen weathered this up for me.  

It is a special car for sure.

A Note from Management:
Today, I was pondering trees on the layout.  Man, I need a lot! (and I have a small layout).  Wait a minute!  I have an idea!  Do I smell smoke?  Tonight, I asked my daughters.  "Who would like to help daddy make some trees on Saturday?"  "Me! Me!"  Oh heck yeah!  Now, I can triple my output!  Weeeeell?  Yeah, I may need to figure on a higher error rate, but overall, I should be more productive.

The ROCK 3.0: Next Op Session Scheduled

I'm happy to report the next Op Session has been scheduled for February 28th.  For readers of the blog, I'm sure they will happy to see regular progress reports start flowing again.  I seem to be the most productive leading up to an op session.

Friday night, I tested JMRI with a USB-Serial cable connection to my NCE system.  I was able to get it working with my laptop with minimal effort.  I was able to read in loco settings using Decoder Pro 3.  I need to play around with it some more and then work at speed matching my locos.  I also played around with the scale speedometer.  On my best set of Bachmann GP7s, I was able to get those locos to creep at 1.1 MPH.  Pretty impressive!

Friday, I also worked on adding some weathered cars I had purchased on eBay lately to the layout.  All of them needed weight and some needed low profile wheels added.

Now, time to figure out what work needs/should be done on the layout.  I know there is probably five turnout points that need to be repaired.  That will be the first thing to complete.  I'm thinking of working on the farm land behind Ottawa Yard and trees.  I need lots and lots of trees made!  If I get going well with that, I will work on structures.

The ROCK 3.0: Remembering the Wabash Railroad

While in Illinois visiting my wife's family, I took the kids over to the park along the Illinois River.  Due to the Highway 104 road realignment due to the new bridge project, the park has been relocated to the site of the former Wabash Railroad before it crossed the Illinois River to travel up to Mt. Sterling and eventually up to Keokuk, IA

Here are some photos of the old Meredosia station.

The old Wabash line extended from Bluffs, IL to Meredosia, crossed the Illinois River and traveled up to Keokuk, IA crossing the old Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad near Camp Point, IL.

Hannibal Scratchbuilt Bridge Project

In other news, I would like to work on the HO scale scratchbuilt replica of the Hannibal, Missouri Railroad bridge.  My wife's Grandpa (the one that I mentioned is terminally ill) worked as a bridge painter and painted that bridge back in the Norfolk & Western Railway days.  I had the bridge installed up along the ceiling of his old farm house.  When they moved to town, the tore down the layout and it had been in storage for a couple of years.  I brought it home over the summer and now more than ever want to get it repaired and back up on display.  I have found a site for a static display in the house, but want to see if it is possible to construct an around the room shelf layout for continuous running.  I need to survey the room to see if it is possible.  

The ROCK 3.0: Railfanning the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad

Hello?  Anyone still there?  I apologize for the lack of reports.  First, I was just plain lazy after the last op session.  Then, I got tied up with projects around the house.  Thanksgiving Day brought sadness as we had to travel up to Illinois for an emergency trip due to my wife's Grandma passing.  Not a week after our return from Illinois, my wife's beloved Grandpa went to the hospital.  He is considered terminal and has been released to home under hospice care.  We were already planning on going to Illinois for the holidays, but ended up going for an extended period.  So, as you can see, we have been quite busy.

Today, we returned to North Carolina.  We pulled off in Canton, NC after traversing the 30 miles of curves down at the TN/NC line on I-40.  After grabbing some lunch, I decided to investigate the operations at the Evergreen paper mill.  It was quite evident there were in full work mode today as smoke billowed over the horizon a mile down the road.

This is the first time I have checked out the area.  I knew about it due to my friend Marcus exploring the area recently and posting photos of Norfolk Southern's last operations there earlier in 2014. 

The area is now worked by the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad.  The railroad is Class III shortline that operates in Western North Carolina.  I really like the color paint scheme as it reminds me of the old Clinchfield locomotives.

You can read more about the railroad on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Southern_Railroad

Here are some photos I took today 12/31/14.

The ROCK 3.0: Capital Rebuild Program

Lately, I have been working with my buddy Allen in Nebraska regarding speed matching my locomotives to make the fleet run flawlessly.  Mainly, I want to run any brand loco with any other brand loco to mix up the fleet some.  This article by Allen is what really sparked my interest.
http://thelittlerockline.blogspot.com/2012/04/speed-matching-locomotives.html

The problem we faced in our discussions back and forth was the large number of Bachmann GP7s I own.  We feared that we wouldn't be able to modify the speed tables as the factory decoder installed has only the basic of features.  I picked the GP7s up cheap quite a few years ago.  They run well, a little loud, but pretty awesome slow speed runners.  I manually matched up the locos with other Bachmann GP7s that run at a similar rate.  I would like to mix up my fleet some and match the GP7s with other locos (like an Atlas GP38-2 for example).  There isn't a good drop-in decoder replacement. for these units.  Some have replaced with a Digitrax DZ class decoder, but it took quite a bit of work to get it done.

So, I shipped my locos off to Allen at the Little Rock to test further.  He was able to read in the decoders using his JMRI Decoder Pro software.  Unfortunately, it was confirmed what we thought that we can't modify the speed tables on the locos.

So, then we looked at re-powering the locos with an Atlas chassis.  Allen asked about just replacing with an Atlas chassis and shell.  I'm ok with replacing the chassis, but not the shell.  The shells were custom painted by my friend Larry Keller of the Lehigh & Hudson River layout.  They have tremendous sentimental value and I would not want to get rid of them.  Allen found if you look hard enough, you can score an Atlas replacement chassis for around $40-50 each on eBay.  I listed one of my spare Bachmann chassis with decoder to test the waters and managed to sell it for $38 plus shipping.  I believe I have a total of six more that I can sell.

Allen was kind enough to procure some Atlas chassis and decoders for me.  He re-powered my locos and speed matched them per his procedures outlined in the linked article above.  I have received reports back from the shops on the Little Rock that the locos run flawlessly.  You can read more about the process of rebuilding the GP7s on Allen's blog.  http://thelittlerockline.blogspot.com/2014/11/crp-capital-rebuilding-program-work-at.html

Here are some photos of two of the rebuilt Bachmann GP7s with the Atlas re-power roaming the rails of the Little Rock Division.

A special thanks to Allen for helping me with this project!  I will continue seeking out replacement Atlas chassis to rebuild the rest of the fleet.

A side note about Allen and myself.  We have never met in person, but found each other through the blogs and our common interest in the Rock Island.  We have become really good friends learning from each other and discussing ideas for both of our layouts.  I'm truly fortunate to find a good friend like Allen.  Our friendship makes the hobby even more enjoyable.  Thanks Allen.

In other news, nothing has been done on the layout.  And, I do mean nothing.  I had considered operating in December, but the the number of available weekends in December are very few.  It appears I will operate next in January or February after the dust settles from the holiday activities.  My intent in rebuilding the layout smaller was to share the room with family.  

Less layout equals less stress and allows me to spend more time with my family.  I have been doing just that.  My daughter 's interest in Legos has really grown recently.  Instead of working on the layout, I have been spending time with my daughter building this mega Lego Technic kit.  There is some debate who this kit actually is for....me or my daughter.  You know, I'm a big kid too.  Anywho, we have been working on it just about every night for over a week now.  Here is a pic of our project so far.

While not productive on the layout currently, I wouldn't trade this time spent with my daughter for anything.  We really enjoy building the kit together.  

The ROCK 3.0: Speed Matching Progress

Well, I got as far as creating a test track for my locomotives.  I have a bunch of the old Bachmann locos which are cheap and run good.  We have found through testing that you are unable to speed match them though.  I'm pondering what to do about the situation.  I may look at replacing the chassis for some of the locos.

I would like to get my locos running as well as possible.

Here is my test track.