Weekend Update 9/27/20

[learmoia]

I spent my weekend working with our local O scale club to setup JMRI Operations!!

The guy who is leading the transition from car cards to switch lists has done a very basic operations setup on another small railroad that had never done operations.
But the O scale club is larger, with previous operations experience (and expectations)

They had the stations/tracks entered, and they were just finishing entering the cars on the layout when I caught wind of what they were doing..

Oddly enough my real job is managing various computer systems (mainly a car management system) for a real short line railroad. 
Needless to say, I was quite interested in seeing what they were doing, and they were quite interested in picking my brain on what to do next.

After about 10 minutes of observation, and 5 minutes of instruction.. I jumped in the hot seat and my 14 years experience of 'learn by trial and error' kicked in..

So we spent the next 9 hours fine tuning the first 2 local jobs and working out various bugs and issues..
... I think the computer was over thinking limited track space at the transfer yard, and they were too scared to turn on 'Aggressive routing'
-- We didn't put in any 'schedule' times, so the computer was calculating capacity based on pre-operation setup, without factoring a sequence of events that would open up space before the move happened..
Or.. P/U 3 and S/O 3 requires 6 cars of room on the track.. (which was not available)..
although I changed the track length to 99999' and that didn't help...
They set the move limit to 5 per station, but Pickup 3 and Setout 3 is 6 moves, so I upped it to 10 for the turn location, but that didn't help either.

We also ran into an issue that we couldn't get cars routed from the local industry to Chicago/Omaha interchange (staging).. which would require 2 trains... everything seemed like it was setup with routing and planned trains to cover the routes, but we couldn't get past that error either.. (maybe it goes back to the track space/move limit issue)..

We elected to leave it alone for now.. and got 2 usable switch lists that were relatively correct..
Gave them to the member who loves to do switching to get the moves done before this coming week..

So looking forward to do more next week..

~Ian

[fcnrwy23]

3177 is right, 5786 needs the turbo hatch gone. This is the first thing you pull when you're pulling the prime mover.

You are CORRECT! SIR!!
That didn't occur to me, until after I had progressed past the painted stage. This unit has been sitting, waiting to be finished for about a year.
Most would have missed that.   BUT, since there are "Prototyper's" here! ( I Think I just made that up) 
I WILL have to correct the errors of my ways...    Just hope not to screw up the WHOLE thing... 

Jerry G.

[fcnrwy23]

The  MR&T on the FCN...

With the recent release of a N-Scale decal set by Kalmbach.  I have acquired a small train of MR&T equipment...



The Loco is an Atlas GE Dash 8-40B, released a few years ago.  The boxcars are FVM and were one body-type of three offered by FVM.  The Atlas ACF 2-Bay hopper and Roundhouse 50" Mill Gondolas are from my parts stock and were created with the Kalmbach decal set.  The set is actually for "Locomotives and Cabooses".


Jerry G.

[peteski]

Fantastic!!  I remember the two that were on Grandfather's' farm, which was just north of Wautoma WI.  Back in the middle and late 1960's.

Peteski -  Is it possible to get (1) set of decals for the "Gunderson Family" farm on the FCN?? 

Jerry G.

Sure Jerry!
As the luck would have, I have one set left from the last batch I printed.  Here is a link to the decal thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34966.msg679960#msg679960 .
PM me your address and we can work out the details.
You wouldn't happen to have a spare tractor kit?  While I did the decals, I have not had one of those kits in hand - I did it all using info from other members.  I would like to build one of those tractors, but they seem to be hard to find.

[fcnrwy23]

Sure Jerry!
As the luck would have, I have one set left from the last batch I printed.  Here is a link to the decal thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34966.msg679960#msg679960 .
PM me your address and we can work out the details.
You wouldn't happen to have a spare tractor kit?  Wile I did the decals, I have not had one of those kits in hand - I did it all using info from other members.  I would like to build one of those tractors, but they seem to be hard to find.

Just looked at the previous thread (linked above).   I didn't know what kit was used.
Price is fair for the decals.  I will have to start looking for said kit.
I will PM you shortly on the decals...

Jerry G.

[Blazeman]

Road trip with a friend to Main Line Hobbies and stopped at Adam's (mu26aeh) on the way home.  Thanks again for the hospitality, Adam.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My workbench has been on loan to a friend quarantining with us after vacation, but I DID get out today.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Frank Amato]

Picked up the decoder that finally arrived at my LHS, and got my GP15 project onto the workbench:



  Frank

[Mark W]

Mark W:  I've wondered before about how practical it would be to 3D-print N scale truss bridges.  You've proven it CAN be done, and they look good.  Would you consider it commercially viable?

Thanks.  I believe @rodsup9000 pioneered 3D printed bridges long before I started printing at home. 

Commercially viable?  On a mass scale, probably not.  For custom work, maybe, depending on the level of detail desired, and how deep pockets are.  I'm sacrificing quite a bit of detail on this one, and already the design work alone would be in the thousands if it were billed at a modest competitive rate for 3D design.   

And DEFINITELY don't hire an astronaut to do this aboard the ISS!  NASA charges $17,500 per hour for astronaut time aboard the ISS. 
Nothing to do with this whatsoever, but I just learned this and thought it was interesting.   

[nickelplate759]

Painted a bouquet of Golden State E7s and some cars  (still more to do).

[dougnelson]

You wouldn't happen to have a spare tractor kit?  While I did the decals, I have not had one of those kits in hand - I did it all using info from other members.  I would like to build one of those tractors, but they seem to be hard to find.

Peteski: I ordered mine direct from GHQ.

[dnhouston]

Got started on the Distillation tower for the refinery.  Still a ways to go though.

[nkalanaga]

Mark W:  Thank you.  Looks like I'll stick with my 40 year old bridges!

I was thinking along the lines of a company with a few "standard" designs, in a modular system, that could make truss bridges in a few lengths, with customizable deck and end options.  For example, some trusses have the track stringers flush with the top of the trusses, while others have them supported on top of the trusses.  The MILW loved that style!

For the ends, they could come plain, or with a cross beam for supporting a deck girder span, at whatever height is desired.

Basically, a cut-and-paste bridge, rather than a true custom design, where every customer gets their unique bridge, which has to be individually designed.  Make them in common N scale lengths, based on sectional track, maybe, and one could have a variety from 9 to 12 inches, or whatever fits the market best.

[peteski]

Peteski: I ordered mine direct from GHQ.

Thanks Doug!  I thought they were long discontinued, so I didn't even bother looking there.  I looked on eBay and fond none.  Jerry and I have a barter thing going, so I'm all set.

[TimF]

Jerry, I still have one unbuilt kit of those GHQ Farmall/IH tractors

Tim