NMRA National Train Show, July 6-10, 2016

[xboxtravis7992]

zephyr1934,

Nice casualty shot. 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah sounds like a good goal. Maybe I can stir things up in ULUG and get them involved.

I dare not ask but curiosity gets the best of me: How can your LUG's tables be worse than the provided ones? Are they falling apart? Are they broken? Are they three-legged?

3D LEGO

"Yes, yes; everything is happening as I have foreseen!"

No just kidding; kind off. I am really excited at the prospect of an NMRA convention in Utah near my home. I was already excited to get to see the normal scale model railroading stuff; and the clinic's and what not. But if there is a huge Lego attendance there I will be thrilled. It would be great to see Lego fans win layout awards like they did this year.

Not to mention I think the South Town Center where the convention will be held isn't to far from the Lego Store either...

Edited July 15, 2016 by xboxtravis7992

[pirzyk]

Well, we shimmed all of the tables and that helped a ton (pirzyk doing most of the heavy lifting) and at that point most of the tables were good (except for the finger piercing staples hanging off of most of them). A couple of them had sags and one was complete trash.

"heavy" should be in quotes :P I think zephyr1934 was just grateful there was someone as pedantic about tables being flush as he is. Every time I do shows like this (where we borrow tables) I am so grateful for my club tables. Tomorrow is another borrowed table show :/

Edited July 15, 2016 by pirzyk

[CrispyBassist]

CrispyBassist,

Thank you for the inside scope on your model. I really like the end result as it has a very lovely vintage feel to. All of your MOCs are splendid. Okay, I might be slightly partial towards electrics. (GE Box cabs, GE "Little Joes", PRR E44, EMD GF6C, EMD GM10B <- This one is ugly as sin but wickedly cool at the same time, Siemens Eurosprinter ES 64 U "Taurus". Mostly historic brutes but the last one is a sight to behold.)

Great videos. Your New Haven EP-3 was hauling down those tracks and around those curves. (By the way, that is how Milwaukee Road broke their EP-3s. - Compare them to the NH EP-2.) Then again the larger ME curves make it a lot easier to do.

...

3D LEGO

Thanks for the kind words! I'm partial to electrics too, and particularly boxcabs because they're so beautifully ugly and weird. I had somehow never seen the EMD GF6C before. I've got two more lined up to be built next, a New Haven EP-2 and a New York Central R-2.

The EP-3 was flying on those curves! I was pretty worried about it overturning, but it needed some good speed to keep the momentum up through the closer curves with 5 heavy passenger cars in tow.

[v6TransAM]

It was 2 hours away from me and I had to work nights all thru the weekend at the end of the turnaround.

I wanted to go and take the 6yr old with me.

[3D LEGO]

zephyr1934,

Ah yes, shimming the loaners. But standing on banquet tables definitely does not sound like a good idea. ULUG, which I was an active member of until about a year ago, built a bunch of "standard" tables back in the day to get around the loaner issue. They were a real pain to work with and very heavy. The second set was a whole bunch of approximately 6 x 18 32x32 baseplate sized tables that are much lighter and have attached collapsible legs. Last I checked it they had something like 27 or 28 of them. Definitely worth it. And a mondo box of shims. (They are joined with c-clamps underneath and spring clips hold on the plexiglass panels - table skirts attach to the panels or are tacked on.)

Oh and that picture that you linked. I am at a loss for words.

pirzyk,

Your efforts did not go unnoticed. I have been in that situation myself and I know it all too well. What I would give for some carbon fiber tables... The gears of creativity have begun to turn.

xboxtravis7992,

Last I checked, there is no OCS. in Utah compatible with my railroad. I guess that I will have to sit this one out.

CrispyBassist,

Despite its speed it did look stable while doing so. If I recall correctly, you use the PF train motor. That gives you the benefit of a lower center of gravity and results in better handling.

3D LEGO

[dr_spock]

Thanks for sharing. That looks like a lot of good times fun.

Staying up all night drinking like at AFOL conventions and operating trains next day could lead to crashes and accidents. Those scale model railroaders probaby know crashing a brass model is expensive and a major body work repair hangover.

[SavaTheAggie]

Looks like a great show, congrats to the winners - high praise indeed.

Texas Brick Railroad is currently in discussions about going to Orlando 2017.

--Tony

[Hod Carrier]

That looks like a great show. These club layouts always amaze me, but to see such huge entries from individuals is truly astounding. It's good to see that recognition was gained from the organisers too.

There were all sorts of great trains and other goings on. One of my favorites was Gerrit's working interlockings.

Forgive the question, but I wondered if you could clarify the meaning of the word "interlocking" in this context. It's just that US railroad terminology differs somewhat from UK railway terminology, and depending on the usage I might be interested to learn more about Gerrit's work.

Has Gerrit built a junction with signals and switches operated by levers in a tower, or has he gone a step further by interlocking the action of the levers to prevent collisions, etc? I've tried to search more online but the results I'm getting are inconclusive.

Thanks.

[pirzyk]

That looks like a great show. These club layouts always amaze me, but to see such huge entries from individuals is truly astounding. It's good to see that recognition was gained from the organisers too.

Forgive the question, but I wondered if you could clarify the meaning of the word "interlocking" in this context. It's just that US railroad terminology differs somewhat from UK railway terminology, and depending on the usage I might be interested to learn more about Gerrit's work.

Has Gerrit built a junction with signals and switches operated by levers in a tower, or has he gone a step further by interlocking the action of the levers to prevent collisions, etc? I've tried to search more online but the results I'm getting are inconclusive.

Thanks.

The latter, though his interlocker did not actually operate the switch, just the signals. There are certain combination that are not allowed in his system. The levers were locked out from moving into those situations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_signalling#Interlocking

Edited July 20, 2016 by pirzyk

[CrispyBassist]

The latter, though his interlocker did not actually operate the switch, just the signals.

One of his two interlocking plants had levers in place to control the switches, but my understanding was he had yet to figure out the best way to connect the switches to them. The smaller one only had levers controlling the signals. Here's a link to a video of his interlocking machine.

[Hod Carrier]

Thanks guys.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Hod Carrier

[zephyr1934]

Yep, tower, signals, switches and an interlocking to prevent conflicting movements, all built out of lego. From the outside it looks like a tower with the levers on the top floor, but the shell of the building comes off to show the inside with the mechanism on what would be the "ground floor" of the tower. Some of the show photos show the tower shell on and off. Well, I spoke in the singular, as noted in earlier posts Gerrit built two, one for each end of the layout. One had illuminated signal heads in the semaphores, the other did not. He is still working on a satisfactory solution for the switches. Purely mechanical connections need the switches modified to have no latching, but then the wires have enough slop that a train could easily pick the point on a facing point movement. So Gerrit is still working on it.