Weekend Update 4/9/17

[arbomambo]

[wcfn100]

Oh yeah, the Belushi theme.  Awesome movie.


Jason

[Hornwrecker]

See? Reveals just how much of a moviegoer I am. The only thing I recall from seeing Stripes on TV is the pancake spatula scene.

EDIT: I was shot down. Elmer Bernstein allowed relatively little of his movie work to be published for general consumption by performing ensembles. The Magnificent Seven theme is available, naturally, but Stripes is only published in a piano score. Cool piece in the march genre, nonetheless. Similar to the theme from Patton, but that's by Jerry Goldsmith and readily available.

1941 music was done by John Williams, and I'm taking an educated guess that the arrangement was done by Paul Lavender, who's done every JW arrangement that I've ever played for concert band.  Paul used to be the arranger for the marching band at Central MI U, when he was a grad student.  We had some really kickass charts to play back then.

[C855B]

Yeah, that it was John Williams is quite promising...

..and you are right, I just found the Paul Lavender arrangement at J.W. Pepper. Not cheap ($195!), but I'll get it for the band anyway.

[Roger Holmes]

I also thought it was "Stripes" when I heard it but what do I know--I'm "only" a drummer

University of Illinois Marching Illini Drumline 1969-1972--Drumline Captain 1972

"So many drummers--so little time." (Anon)

[Wardie]

I have no record of which one, but I have played an arrangement of 1941 for concert band before. It was fun, so is John Williams march from Midway.

[Dksw]

Karl,

I just noticed your keyed turnout controls, love the concept, but need to know what's behind them...how do they work?
I have assembled a bunch of FastTracks Bullfrogs to actually throw the points, think they could work in concert with locksets like yours with a linkage of some type?
David

[robert3985]

Bob, man alive, I love your workmanship as usual, but.....Masonite?     I assume you live in a rather humidity-free climate.    Here in PA I have to admit that making my backdrops from tempered Masonite ranks up with the top five design mistakes I've ever made - over 4' modules the stuff expands and contracts a good 3/32 min to max from dry heating season to mid summer, even with a dehumidifier fighting it every step of the way,  I've never used it again since.... even for backdrops.    I'll get a little expansion/contraction just on pine that will show up in rail joints at the module ends but the Masonite is on an annual migration path now.

I live in Utah, and it is really dry here.  However, I don't experience any noticeable expansion or shrinkage on my tempered Masonite splined subroadbed.  Could be because I seal the top and bottom with a coat of yellow carpenter's glue, or my maximum length generally speaking is just over 6' long.  This is not a new technique for me, but several model railroaders here use this spline technique for their portable and permanent layouts.  Lee Nicholas and his Utah Colorado Western is probably the best known, with large, long lengths of yellow hot glued 1/4" splines of tempered Masonite used for his entire HO scale empire.  Another prominent Nn3 model railroader, Greg Cudworth, is filling his entire basement full of double-decked Code30-tracked RGW, all laid on tempered Masonite splines with zero expansion/shrinkage problems, which would have been extremely noticeable with his Code30 Nn3 ribbon rails...Nada...in over 15 years.  Lee Nicholas's layout has been around for much longer, with zero expansion/shrinkage problems.  Ted York's beautiful HO scale Cajon Pass layout is also laid on tempered Masonite splined subroadbed, also with zero expansion/shrinkage problems.

Significant portions of Nate Goodman's ( nato ) model railroad which I work on several times a month, is laid on tempered Masonite splined subroadbed also without any expansion/shrinkage problems.

Truth is, this isn't a new technique, but it could be that due to your high humidity, you should seal the spline assemblies after the yellow carpenter's  glue has dried.

Several advantages to using tempered Masonite splines cut from a sheet, one of which is the cost.  It's really cheap compared to plywood or wooden splines.  Another reason is that it's really efficient, since you use essentially the whole sheet of material, minus the saw kerf.

Several of us, who decided to use this for our portable Ntrak modules way back in the '80's, did a series of tests as to the strength and stability of tempered Masonite splines and the positive results got us completely away from the traditional "plywood plains" Ntrak module construction, and we started making our portable modules using L-girder benchwork, and risers supporting our splined subroadbed, and incorporating integral folding legs to make setup time much shorter and more precise.

So, the decades-long experiences of over a dozen model railroaders I know of (and myself) who use the splined tempered Masonite subroadbed leads me to conclude that your negative experience is the exception, rather than the rule.

As for your tempered Masonite backdrop problems, the first question I would ask is "Did you paint or seal both the front and back?"  Usually, as with any sheet material, if you don't paint or seal both sides, you're gonna exacerbate expansion/shrinkage problems.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[randgust]

Yep, painted and sealed.  In a basement room, with a dehumidifier running, but in the winter the furnace is really drying things out.  I also paint all my plywood, subroadbed, framework, pretty much anything wood.

Hey, if you're in Utah, it would work.   With that beautiful track, just keep it there!

On my 48" max length modules; (maybe 6' max backdrop sections), I've made tongue-and-groove joints on the backdrop so the modules could still be moved and even put steel strapping screwed across the top to try to prevent the movement and tie everything solid, and that tends to bind things together better, but at those joints, this time of year (April) it's at full dryness and there are still visible cracks.    Come September, it will be actually a stress 'push' bulge the opposite way.  Really annoying.  I've tried flexible paintable caulk, too, and it failed.  What can I say.  I hate Masonite, I'll never use it again.

[chessie system fan]

I have the book "West of Cumberland: The Old Main Line" by Terry E. Arbogast. It's about the B&O in West Virginia. There are a three images in that book that look to be green coaches and are dated between 1944 and 1953. Two of them seem to be green but are in black and white. The other one however is in black and white too but I am pretty certain that the coaches are green.

Over on Dan Robie's site there is quite a bit of information about the B&O in WV. On the link I am providing, there are two pictures dated to the 1950's with green B&O coaches. The pictures are in the section entitled "Evans" and "Wesley Church". I do not model the B&O but I do think that these are pictures of green coaches. However I could be wrong and will stand corrected if so.

http://wvncrails.weebly.com/bo-ripley-branch-millwood-to-ripley.html

I've done some digging in my library.  The "West of Cumberland" is one of the few B&O books I don't own so I'll take your word for it.  In the Morning Sun B&O Passenger Service book is a color photo of a green coach in 1941.  That's the only non head end photo I've found.  The link you posted has a picture from 1951 and the coach has a stripe, so that is almost assuredly a blue car.  Either way, keep us updated on your progress.