Ohio Valley - somewhere between Weirton and Wheeling

[Topherisme]

Looks great, and better yet seems every thing runs smooth as silk

 

[JeffH]

Looks great, and better yet seems every thing runs smooth as silk

Thanks!

I have a couple spots where I get an occasional stall at slow speeds.

 

[Rico]

Very nice, and I love the houses and barges!
I was thinking I’ve seen something like this before, and I have!

 

[JeffH]

Thanks for that picture, Rico!

 

[Topherisme]

I did notice a slight stall on the NS train going over a turnout, had the same problem myself, took a little tinkering but I got it to run smooth at extremely low speeds…

 

[JeffH]

I did notice a slight stall on the NS train going over a turnout, had the same problem myself, took a little tinkering but I got it to run smooth at extremely low speeds…

Yes, that's the one... The turnout that feeds the spur near the logging site. I have gone over that area a dozen times with rubbing alcohol and an eraser with cloth wrapped around it. It worked perfectly before I masked off the track to lay grass. I need to focus more on that spot to see if it's still crap on the track, or if I may have made a dip in the track worse. It actually stalls right when it hits the joint from flex track to turnout where I have isolated the frog rails. I have gone over that area with a multimeter, and I'm getting power (in the right phase) everywhere along the rails and frog, and I'm not sensing a short when the train gets there... When the train stalls, the voltage reading increases a bit, but that's because the train is no longer taking a load from the track. I see no blip indicating a short. So I'm thinking it's just a low or uneven spot.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to trouble shoot that area, and whenever I do clean that area, the behavior changes slightly.. the stall either gets worse or better, but never goes away completely, so long as the train has momentum to get past the bad spot.

Which leads to a question. I have momentum turned up because I like the realism of the train coming up to speed to stopping gradually. When the train loses power, for a brief moment, does the speed kind of start over? In other words, is the temporary stall made worse because I have the locomotive programmed with a lot of momentum and it takes a while for the loco to come back up to speed after hitting a small dead space?

The gap in the track is a little on the large size right there. Maybe I need to solder that joint, or at least see if the joiners could be better. I try not to solder the frog rails as I'm not confident I can solder those without damaging the jumpers that go through the frog.

 

[Topherisme]

My problem was the distance between the 2 rails, had to force each side in just a hair to make sure both left and right side wheels sets were firmly on the rails, nothing noticeable when done except loco no longer stalls…. I don’t have experience enough to know if cv values could also be a culprit, but obviously something going on there with track or the cv issue wouldn’t be showing up at all…

 

[JeffH]

Agreed! I know it's an electrical pickup issue... I'm just curious about the "momentum" setting, and if "momentum" (the setting, not actual kinetic energy) keeps the train standing still for a brief moment even after power is restored to the decoder (the whole reason for the momentum setting).

With the momentum setting at 9, it takes a second or so just for the train to begin moving, then the speed slowly improves until it reaches the actual setting I put into the throttle. Same thing the opposite way when stopping... it may take a few feet for it to stop.

But as soon as the electrical pickup is interrupted, the train stalls immediately, hesitates, then will slowly start back up if I nudge it just a bit forward If the train was travelling fast enough, it still stalls and hesitates, but the kinetic energy carries it far enough for it to start back up (albeit slowly) again. I'm thinking if I change the momentum setting to zero, the effect of the stall may be less pronounced since the locomotive doesn't think it has to step up from zero throttle all over again like it was starting up from a standstill.

The reason I ask is that I realized just this morning that the stall may appear worse than it is if all of a sudden the locomotive thanks it needs to start at zero speed and slowly work it's way back up to the speed it was travelling the instant before it stalls.

 

[Topherisme]

I see what you are saying, but I am no help on that one…. From what I see in the vid don’t think that’s the case though, seems to return to speed almost as soon as power is restored, doesn’t look like a gradual recovery

 

[JeffH]

Ok, problem solved. I had gapped the frog rails to prevent a short, but the main through rail was gapped too far.

I was able to close the gap by adjusting the apex of the curve leading to the turnout. Either the gap was the trouble spot, or maybe I had a low spot that went away when I repositioned the track.

Either way, problem solved. And I was able to test the momentum theory before making the fix. With momentum all the way at 9, the stall would last a couple seconds then the train would slowly come up to speed. With momentum set to zero, the stall was barely noticeable.

 

[JeffH]

Another observation regarding static grass, especially with N scale... Even using the smallest static grass (2mm), it ends up being so tall, it is difficult to get my farm animals to stand up by themselves... The static grass is just not worth it, in my opinion. If I had to do this all over again, I wouldn't even bother with static grass. I imagine it would be much better suited to HO scale and larger. Regular old foam-based turf is faster, less expensive by a wide margin, and from 2-3 feet away, I don't see any discernable difference between foam based turf and static grass.

 

[JeffH]

I tried my hand at adding water to the stream.

I came across a guy in the UK who uses Clear-Fix hybrid polymer to model water effects. His results were great, so I set out to mimic what he did.

This stuff comes in a tube for use with a caulking gun. It is soluble in isopropyl alcohol. I used the suggested 99.9% available online.

I wanted to get the illusion of depth, so the first pour was really thin so it would self level and form pools.

I added I couple drops of raw umber and one drop of yellow ochre, then mixed with alcohol using a popsicle stick until I had the consistency of thick honey.

The dye ended up being suspended participates, and sort of settled into the murky depths.

This is the first pour. I let it set overnight.

 

[JeffH]

Then I mixed up a thicker batch without any dye. I still thinned it out, but not so much that it self leveled. Then as it set, I would pat it with a popsicle stick soaked on alcohol so it wouldn't stick too much as I manipulated the water into currents and waves.

I think it came out great! Maybe a little too clear.

 

[JeffH]

OK, I could use some suggestions on what to do with the riverfront.

Think Ohio River, with piers on either side.

The white surface will be the riverbed. I'm thinking the "water" will end up being 1/8" or thereabouts.... Murky for sure. Anyway, I have a plan for the water, but could use some ideas to make the river banks more interesting without being too ugly (I'm not into heavy industrial areas)

I had some pieces of scrap wood and strips of styrene that I hit with a first coat of wood colored paint. Not sure I like where this is heading, but I haven't really put a lot of thought into it. I know I'm going to need a few cranes to handle the cargo for the barges on the water.

I do kind of like the Texaco tank that is sitting on top of scrap pieces of retaining wall. I'll probably just color the plaster to look like concrete. And I need to paint the bridge piers too.

Another view of the West Virginia side

Here is the Ohio Side. This side is where any ugliness will fit in, LOL I have a lot of work to do in these 2 areas, but I've got modeler's block...

 

[logandsawman]

First, I think your stream looks great. I never heard of using clear-fix, but it is something I may try.

I lived in the wheeling area for a while back in 1983-84. I remember some steep terrain, which you captured in one of the pics.

For ideas, I Google wheeling and there is an image with barges, others like to show parks and the amphitheater. Otherwise, trees down to the river.

I personally prefer the industrial scenes, however there appears to be a lot of latitude on what would fit.

Dave LASM

 

[JeffH]

First, I think your stream looks great. I never heard of using clear-fix, but it is something I may try.

I lived in the wheeling area for a while back in 1983-84. I remember some steep terrain, which you captured in one of the pics.

For ideas, I Google wheeling and there is an image with barges, others like to show parks and the amphitheater. Otherwise, trees down to the river.

I personally prefer the industrial scenes, however there appears to be a lot of latitude on what would fit.

Dave LASM

Thanks Dave!

I was shocked at how nice the stream turned out. I will say that Everbuild Clear Fix is a great water effects product, but it is too thick for an application that calls for a large body of relatively still water like you would see in a river like the Ohio. You probably could thin it enough to get a nice pool of self-leveling water, but I'm not sure I could mix enough in one batch to do this large of a body of water. I think I'm going to test out regular old Acrylic Gloss Medium, which is water soluble. But I may go back to this for making the tugboat wakes.

 

[JeffH]

I figured out what they call the big, usually round, pilings are that are out in the water where barges are moored while they wait to be loaded or off-loaded.

They are called mooring dolphins. I have a few in this picture.

Still not sure I like where the shorelines are going.
.

 

[kleiner]

Really impressed at how fast you are moving! And it all looks good too!

 

[kleiner]

After watching the video (which is great), one small suggestion is to paint the roads great rather than pure black - in the real world, the asphalt always fades so you get an uneven grey texture. You have achieved more in a few months than I achieved in a year (and I am relatively fast compared to many here )

 

[JeffH]

After watching the video (which is great), one small suggestion is to paint the roads great rather than pure black - in the real world, the asphalt always fades so you get an uneven grey texture. You have achieved more in a few months than I achieved in a year (and I am relatively fast compared to many here )

Thanks! I planned it for a good 5 months before starting. I agree about the asphalt. I just used 2" gaffers tape. It was supposed to be a test. I may replace some before painting it a more weathered look. I also need to figure out concrete sidewalks.