markoles Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 We're scheduled to have an open house Sunday October 6 from 1-5 as a part of the annual garden railroad tour hosted by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This year, 11 railroads will be open to the public for touring. http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/visitors/seasonal/modelrrday/GardenRailwaysTourFlyer.pdf If you are in the area, this is a great event and the money raised goes right back to the museum. Hope to see some of you there! Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman4449 Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 Sounds like a great time, I wish I lived closer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 We were there last year around now and had a great time. It was fun to watch them "steam up" on the Strassburg RR. I even enjoyed the steak sandwich on the ride. How are you connected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted August 8, 2013 Author Share Posted August 8, 2013 The Railroad Museum of PA is part of the state run museums. It is actually separate from the for-profit common carrier Strasburg Rail Road. The museum organizes and benefits from the funds raised through the sale of the tickets. I suspect that it is about 98% pure profit for them. They do have some advertising and printing to do, but it's not like they're giving me money to do trackwork or add motive power (but it would be nice!!) It also give the local g-scaler community an opportunity to promote our hobby! I got involved when the museum originally organized this in early 2007. I was on a list of members the local garden railroad club gave them. That first year, we had about 400 people come through the backyard. In 2009, the local paper and county magazine did articles about our railroad, and we had over 600 show up. Average attendance is somewhere about 350. Last year, it rained and we only had 250 come by. I keep a guest book and ask people to sign it. That's how we get these figures. If you like, you can search youtube for 'trainman24' and look at his videos of 'RR Museum open house'. You'll see my original Millersvillanova Railroad as it grew and was modified over time to accomodate longer and varied trains. We did not host in 2010, my daughter was born 3 weeks before, and our yard was all torn up from a sewer project. 2007-2008-2009 and 2011 are shown. I think floaman has a video from 2012. I was doing a search of videos, and one of the other guy's railroads popped up: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted September 25, 2013 Author Share Posted September 25, 2013 So, the jitters and the gremlin attacks have once again arrived. I over ballasted the railroad about a month ago, and due to work and other commitments, I've been unable to get to run the trains very much. When I have run, it's been a nightmare. Finally, last Sunday, I decided enough was enough and I basically lifted all the track up out of the ballast, shook it, and then settled it back down. Now, I actually need to go dress up the center of the tracks a little bit. But wait! THat's not all! I managed to crud up the wheels on: 2 RS-3's, 2 connies, one mikado and completely destroy one mallet! Yay! The engine that ran best for me was the LGB mikado, which I prefer to use sparingly. The good news is this: I am able to clean the wheels on all the engines pretty quickly. The connies and mikado cleaned up nicely. Once clean, the engines are running a lot better. The black crud that the aristo track cleaning caboose is picking up wipes off quickly, so I believe I'm making progress there. Navin at Aristo is going to fix my mallet for me in time for the show. I may even have a new REVO transmitter in time, too. Fingers crossed. Other news: I only have 2 engineers this year, and one is Luke. The other is Kevin. I expect that means I will be one of the drivers this year for the first time. My suspicion is that I'll simply have two or three trains operating on the mainlines and the P&W. I have a major road race this weekend in Deleware (Dogfish Head Brewery), so my focus is not really on the trains at the moment. I plan to get out and run some more this evening. Might work on the yard tracks, which I have not touched yet. I'm not as concerned about them because I don't expect we'll actually be doing a whole lot of switching during the event, as opposed to other years where we had multiple operators and various equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted September 26, 2013 Author Share Posted September 26, 2013 Things are improving quickly. Ran trains last night for a while. Had to fix a trouble spot in the one curve where the RS-3 would derail every time. Then it started to derail the first car behind, so I did a little more ballast work, then changed that car for a different one. Both things solved the problem. I also spoke with aristo and they helped me out with the repair to my mallet, and I expect the repaired motorblock today. That's service!! The bad: I noted a strong smell of hot electric somthing. It appeared to be coming from a heavyweght car, so I took it out of service. During inspection later, I discovered there was some evidence of melted plastic in the floor at one of the solder joints. When looking at the trucks, I noted that on the side of the 3 axle truck where the power gets picked at the center axle, the wire had fallen or melted off. I took the truck apart to see about putting the wire back on, when I noted that it had essentially melted through the insulation. The bearing for the axle had worn so far that I suspect there was major arcing going on here. The side frame had melted a little, pushing the bearing further out, further exaserbating the situation. I cut the wires to the coach and removed the rest of the wiring. I need to replace the side frame, eventually, but believe I can run with the car as-is. This coach is older, probably mid to late 90s production. I'd like to replace the plain bearings with the aristo ball bearings. Has anyone done this on heavyweight cars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman4449 Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Good to hear Mark. It does seem without question that the second you try to have an Open House is when things all go crazy. They can run smooth for months and something you've never seen before like a broken coupler will happen when everyone is on scene haha. Yes at our mall display the LGB Mikados just about no matter what I did to try and keep the motors cool would keep overheating and burning out motors, even with the lightest loads. They just were geared way too high and didnt have a high enough RPM motor. They are a great looking engine but I would have been disappointed if I had ever bought one as I need engines that have pulling power given the hill I have at the back of my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Well, this show is come and gone now. Things ran really well, for the most part. One thing I didn't realize at the time during the show was the pumpkins I loaded on flatcars and gons were really heavy! The FA-FB-FA consist had a hard time, and I suspect it was due in part to the overloaded freight train. Charlie Z and Kevin Y came to help run the trains, and Luke did a great job too. My brother in law VInce helped man the kids railroad. I belive we had about 400 people stopping by overall. Lots of nice people on Sunday. Charlie brought his 4-6-2 pacific, latest run, and it ran great. ALso some Reading FP7's (USAT F3s) and some GP35s (GP-38s). Nice looking paint jobs! The rains have now arrived and it's been raining all week. I had intended to run trains with friends on Sunday, but the forecast doesn't look great, so we'll see what happens. The only failure happened after the show closed. I had an RDC-3 on patrol, and it derailed the lead truck at some point. By the time I noticed it, the smell of burned electronics was strong. Last night (Thursday), I tried to pull the motorblock apart, and the plastic melted to the point where I need to used a razor saw to open it. I am about 90% of the way to getting the block opened, but I sliced my finger with the same razor saw and decided to call it a night. Turning the wheels, I was able to make the motor move, so perhaps it'll be all right once I get it all opened up. At first, it didn't want to move. I suspect that I've melted some of the block, and I'll need to either send it for repair or do some sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman4449 Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Sounds like things went pretty well considering. ON the RDC motor I would guess that motor is burned up and will need to be replaced. If you haven't already I would power it up separate from engine direct off a power supply with an amp meter and make sure it doesnt have a really high amp draw. Will be seeing pics and videos maybe later? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 The motor appears to be OK. It was the housing that melted. I suspect that there was some issue with one of the power pick ups. Might have had a slight gap created when the truck derailed, causing arcing and high temperature. Motor runs fine, does not get hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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