Crossing the Rubicon

After lengthy discussion with Dave Goodson, I've decided that Slate Creek #2 will be converted to Battery Power and Radio Control (by RCS) here in the Slate Creek shops. Dave will be chief technical advisor, and will hopefully prevent me from blowing anything up along the way!

Here's what the Davenport looks like with the top off the hood, and the Bachmann circuit board removed. There are three plugs on the circuit board; one for the headlight, one for the power IN from the track, and one for the power OUT to the motor. Removing these, and four screws, and we can see what's underneath.

The large silver object is actually a stack of eleven metal plates that are notched to allow space for the worm gear and the gear it drives on the gearbox, which is attached from underneath as part of the truck. The front of the plates have a roundish bite taken out of them, which corresponds with the round speaker mounting underneath; you could put a small speaker here, and half of it would have a grille to the outside, underneath the engine, between the frames.

Removing the weights we can finally see all the way to the bottom of the hood space. Note the gear oil all over the place, and the channels that the motor wires pass through to get to the motor. This gives you an idea of the space we're going to have to work with to install batteries, radio receiver, throttle, and sound equipment. Needless to say, some creativity is on the horizon ....

To properly arrange everything, though, the rest of the locomotive needs to come apart, so we can see what space there is to work with, and what other obstacles may present themselves. The cab is held on by two screws at the front, and an odd arrangement of two screws that hold tabs in place that mate with locking tabs on the back of the cab... removing the screws, one can remove the plastic "pins" and the locking tabs can slide upward. There are four screws that hold the hood in place. That leaves us with the bare frame of the locomotive. Now you can see the "grey area" that appears as the cab floor and the surrounding black painted area that makes up the rest of the deck. While the sides of the "frame" are screwed on from underneath, the deck itself is a single massive cast piece that includes the "grey area" and the large domed "hump" that would presumably represent a huge transmission on a gas-mechanical loco like this one. The motor is actually accessed from underneath; removing the power truck (from the primary gears down, it comes away in one piece) exposes the plate through which one has access to the two brackets that hold the motor in place. (I haven't removed the truck yet, so while you can see the motor access "hatch" you'll have to wait for the next installment to see inside!)

So the plan is, now, to tackle the following laundry list:

1.) The battery/radio control/sound gear is in transit... when it arrives I will need to find a way to fit it all inside the locomotive.

2.) My new headlights have arrived, and are much more like what I had in mind for this locomotive. I will add the headlight, modify the hood to accomodate them, install one in the rear cab wall, modify and install the horns and locate a bell, and decal the locomotive all while it's apart. Oh, and I plan to move the grabiron standoffs from their unusual placement on the radiator to either side of the radiator as they should be ... and I may make a grille guard for the radiator itself.

3.) The seat in the cab bugs me. It appears to be too small for most of the 1:20 people I've met, though that tiny Sherman Pippin found in some of the earlier Bachmann locos might be comfortable. So, I'm going to rework the controls and seat along the lines of a "Big-n-Tall" accomodation ... anyone who thinks I may have a personal stake in that approach ... I have no comment at all as to whether I'm thinking of a 1:20.myself in that cab when I think this way!

4.) At that point it'll be time to reassemble and test. Stay tuned for that, and everything in between!

New Motive Power

The big brown truck brought what will soon be Slate Creek Railway #2 today. It's a Bachmann 1:20.3 Davenport (Gas-Mechanical) and there are a lot of really great things about it. The frame appears to be made entirely of metal, and it's quite heavy for its size. That said, it's kind of odd that the grabiron supports are located ON the radiator instead of on either side, and the seating in the cab might accomodate a third grader, but any large crew members (like the SCRY founder, for example) are going to require some other arrangement. The headlight is just ... well, huge... so I'll have to find a better one for up front, and fabricate one for the back as well ... and I suspect we'll also need to add a horn and bell so she's legal on the main line, if needed. Otherwise, add some graphics, and we're ready to go. Well, almost. It looks as if this little pint sized locomotive may be about to pose a challenge for the west coast battery guru -- stay tuned for what we learn from THAT!

Been Awhile

It's been awhile since anything happened here, because I've been away from the Slate Creek for over a month. What started out as a short trip to give my Mom a few days off from caring for Dad turned into a month long trip to help her take care of him in his last days, until he passed away on October first. My heartfelt thanks for all the support, prayers, and notes everyone sent during that time.

Look for some fresh railroad material here in the coming weeks as life returns to "normal" around here.

More Historic Photos: The very VERY begining.

Meet Robert E. Brown. "Bob" to friends on the east coast, "Gene" to older friends and family in the midwest, he's "Dad" to me. He took me to see my first train at about age 3 ... and all these years later, I remember it ... a big black E unit with the now infamous "PC" on the nose led a stainless steel passenger consist through what had once been the Clinton, CT station. Dad took me for my first cab ride (Edaville #3, about 1973) and as you see here, introduced me to model trains. The photo was taken on the very first day I took the throttle of a model train ... and the rest, as they say was history. The Slate Creek Railway is named for the small ribbon of water in Hamilton, Kansas where Dad fished as a kid. He took me there, once, and while the layout is set in an entirely different place, the name seemed a good one. Dad and I were always going to build a big layout together, but it was never to be ... though he did like to come over and see the Slate Creek Mark I, and even made it to NC to see the Slate Creek in its current form, which, though unfinished already represents a great deal of work, and he could see where it was headed.

Dad has brain cancer, about the worst type there is. He's been fighting it for a year now, and its a fight not many win. All of the various work necessary to be a model railroader-- part electrician, part carpenter, part plumber, part builder, and the mentality of an inventor -- all of it I learned from Dad, often by watching him fix and engineer different projects in his own shop. I could always call Dad with questions on how to do something that had me stumped, and he often had not only the answer but the tools or the parts to do it. He came over, engineered and built the swing bridge for the Slate Creek Mark One, on about ten minutes notice. Dad's business card once read "R. Brown and Sons -- If We Can't Fix It, It Ain't Broke." I will always be proud to be part of the "And Sons."

Please keep him, and our family, in your prayers and thoughts.

The K-Rex

Since I haven't managed to accomplish much this week (night shift will do that!) I thought it might be interesting to put up a picture or two of Slate Creek #45, a Bachmann K-27. It is the largest locomotive to date on the Slate Creek roster. This locomotive is doubly special in that it received the whole "K-Rex" treatment from Dave Goodson of Northwest RCS ... the suspension is locked at the #1 and #4 drive axle to prevent excessive lateral play, the counterweights are all hand shimmed (this was before Bachmann started providing corrected counterweights) and the electronics are all brand new from pilot to bunker. The locomotive has RCS Radio Control, NiCd batteries, and Phoenix 2K2 sound, with a specially made mechanical chuff timer to replace the optical one. The headlights have been replaced with incandescent bulbs, as have the lamps in the class lights on the smokebox. The tender now has a rear headlight; at the time of these photos it had not yet been installed.



No.45 carries the standard Slate Creek graphics, and eventually will receive a round number plate on the smokebox, and the same graphite treatment that all Slate Creek locomotives are gradually being given, as well as a crew, authentic tender coal, and other details. I'm even considering getting hold of a road pilot to provide a variety of interchangeable "looks" ... though I have to say the plow is one of the reasons I particularly like this locomotive. Of course, I'm cheating: This photo is actually on the locomotive's shakedown run on Dave's Colorado Consolidated after the K-Rex treatment (he took the photos too!) ... I have a couple photos of #45 on my railroad, but his makes it look that much nicer! (We'll do more on mine later with roster shots of everything, and with the eventual scenery!)

Another historic photo

Just because it doesn't appear anywhere else, this was the original "poster" shot from the old railroad. You can tell it's REALLY old because the locomotive that would eventually become Slate Creek #31 is still wearing White Pass and Yukon colors. This photo was taken in the tunnel portal into the living room, behind the couch, approaching the old Summit station .... and shows that while the old Slate Creek had a lot of room for improvement, it still had its photogenic moments!

The Pre-Prehistory of the Slate Creek

The railroad in its current iteration is actually the second railroad to carry the Slate Creek name. The first was my very first try at a railroad, ever, and was a very interesting approach to a layout.

The first version of the Slate Creek was in a basement apartment in Westbrook, CT, and started when a friend asked me if I'd be interested in living in the apartment. As we were looking at the place, which was the basement of his raised ranch, I pointed to the shelf running along the wall at the top of the foundation, and jokingly pointed out where I was going to cut the tunnels so that the train could move from room to room. He said he didn't see a problem with that ... and before he could change his mind, I moved in, and started cutting holes!

Originally, the railroad was going to be HO, or even On30 ... but for Christmas that year, my brother gave me a sidetank porter, and two LGB side dump cars... and the die was cast. From there, though, I made some mistakes that would come back later to haunt me. First, I selected LGB R2 curves and R1 switches not realizing the limitations that that one choice would eventually put on the railroad. While the original porter and the soon after acquired Shays #4 and #5 would take the trackage, there were some obvious problems just in what the train looked like rounding curves. Much of that was excused though by the unique route of the train.
The main line started in the bedroom, crossing over the head of the bed and running along the approximately 6" shelf that ran the length of the walls where the top of the foundation met the frame of the house. The track then passed through a storage room that wasn't mine (but the landlord allowed me "trackage rights" to make the railroad work) and into the living room, passing behind the couch, and over a swinging bridge that allowed folks to enter and leave via the apartment's main entrance door. From there the track passed through another portal into the storage room/kitchen area, and down a 4% grade passing through the bathroom, under the front door landing, and then back up the 4% grade into the bedroom. First time visitors were often shocked at the presence of the track, but even more by the passage of a train as the track crossed the top of the toilet tank and then exited through a portal next to the sink, into a closet, and from there into the bedroom.
In the bedroom, half the room was landscaped into mountains and a yard area, and then back to the main line toward the bed.

Equipment was a hodgepodge at best. Most of my friends at that point used to say "it doesn't really matter... it's all G scale!" when I talked about what to get, and honestly the Shay didn't look bad with the Big Hauler stuff, or the LGB caboose, so for awhile I had an ecclectic mix of 1:22.5, 1:20.3, and even some 1:24 and 1:29 thrown in for good measure. Eventually, though, it just began to look "wrong" to me, and I started to think more along the lines of scale fidelity. At that point Bachmann released the 2-8-0 in 1:20.3, and it wouldn't take the curves ... and the magnitude of the error I'd made was fully revealed.

For better or worse, it was about that time that my then fiancee and I determined that I would need to move to North Carolina ... meaning that the railroad that had only just been up and running for a year and a half would move too. The good news was, the new residence had a basement of some 40x40 feet that would be available to start over, and correct the issues of scale and curvature, and from which I could remove the grades all but entirely.

Today all that's left of the Slate Creek Mark I is the mural in the living room, and some stray track and scenery that hasn't been pulled up yet. The mountains in the bedroom and bath are gone, and the track has all but disappeared. The non 1:20.3 equipment was sold off, although most of the equipment lettered "Slate Creek" went to a nice fellow in Wisconsin who built a really nice looking large scale railroad around his rec room ... they share track space with an Aristo Mallet and a project you'll see chronicled here in the next couple of weeks, an Aristo Mikado that I'm customizing for him. The logo remains, and the 1:20.3 fleet is nearly larger than the old ecclectic fleet once was.

The old photo gallery for the old layout still exists, and can be seen at: http://home.earthlink.net/~mbrown31/oldscry.htm