Grand Union Overhead

I've seen some Grand Union track-plans published.  But never for the overhead wires!

So the engineering dept of the Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co. has its work cut out for it designing a reliable working overhead cantanary wires for this intersection.

This detail from a Shorpy photo is the only photo I've ever seen of a (non-modern light rail) Grand Union Intersection. Its a bit asymmetrical with one of the streets cutting off at an angle like that.  But lets see what can be learned from this photo anyway.

This is my interpretation of the wiring configuration gleaned from the Shorpy photo. And I believe this arrangement can be improved upon. I know one factor for reliable overhead construction is that the pulloff wires should be perpendicular to the contact wire. Something that the traction company in the photo hadn't yet discovered in those early years. Having a pulloff wire pulling the contact wire at an angle will increase the tension on one side of the contact wire, and cause slack on the other end. Nice balanced overhead tension is desirable. 

Another interpretation. Here I'm trying to counteract pulloff wires pulling off at an angle by having a second pulloff pull from the other direction. But I have found that the tension of having too many pulloff wires tends to cause the contact wires to loose their tension and sag. A model overhead needs to be a simplified version of the prototype.

Getting a little too complicated here. The nice thing about the rotationally symmetrical design of the Grand Union is that each contact wire has a mirror image counterpart that it can pull off from. All that the line poles have do is simply hold the whole thing up!

Here we go! To get a pulloff wire that  pulls off the contact wire at a right angle when there isn't a place for the other end of the pulloff wire to anchor to requires a backbone wire. Support wires can attach to the backbone wire at an angle, but the backbone wire provides a place for the wires pulling off the contact wire to attach at a right angle.

I think I have done enough figurings. I think now its time to dive in and start laying in some of these wires and see where it gets me. Doing these drawings has given me a good idea of what I need to do and the confidence needed to cut into the mainline wire and add in the turnout pans and diverging route wires. Yes sir! It has given me the confidence to cut in and lay in those diverging routes!

Dandy

Time Killer!

Somehow I missed this, but in 1994 Microprose published the video game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. That game is way too old for today's operating systems to run and Microprose hasn't supported it in years so the game has long been abandoned.

But apparently the game has quite a fan base that wouldn't let it die and is now available for free as an open source game now known as OpenTTD! I am so addicted to this game right now.

It has a pretty steep learning curve, so it your going to play it, I strongly recommend watching these tutorial Youtubes, starting with this one on how to download and install the game:

When these videos are about to end, they show a link at the top for the next installment.

But I warn you: If you play this game, a large chunk of time will evaporate from your life! Yes sir! A large chunk of time!

Dandy

Dancing the Cloverleaf

Hot Damn! The overhead wires around the layout and through the intersection have been completed and the cars can now run a continuous "cloverleaf" pattern. So you know what that means:

A video! Watch as #105 and #426 run beautifully around the layout:

 Once all the bugs are worked out and the layout is running relatively smooth (and I build up the courage), I'll cut into the overhead and string the wires for turnouts on that Grand Union Intersection. Until then, lets enjoy the cars finally running under power from the overhead! Yes sir! Let's enjoy the cars finally running!

Dandy

Lucky 7

7 Years of Bloggety Blah Blab Blog and the Cars are Finally Rolling!

 What a difference a year makes. With my job going on hiatus (and then, unfortunately, cancellation) I was able to turn much of my attention to the layout. And finally, after all these years, the layout has transformed from a plywood monstrosity to a working, running model trolley layout, with damn fancy trackwork that, lo and behold, actually works as designed! Its still a plywood monstrosity though. So without any further ado, it that time of year again for:

The Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting of

 The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co.

A Figment of the Imagination Corporation (the “Company”)

Held on 22nd September 2013, 8:00 AM Specific Daylight Time

at the offices of the Company, San Dollar, California.

 Board Members Present: 

President:                         A placated Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                        The very relieved Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:              The hot-headed Robin DeRail
Finance Manager:            The always cool Count DeMonet

Director of Development: The fidgety Arnie Clever
General Manager:            The lethargic David Lyman

Quorum present?              Questionably so.

Others Present:

Technology Genius:          Volkmar Meier

Man of Mystery:                Fred Gurzeler

Company Orchestra leader:     Bill Bolton & Orchestra

Absent:                    That guy who was tying to tell us something vitally important.

 Proceedings:
· Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malon called the Meeting to order at 3:03 p.m.

- Secretary Mrs, Roundbottom recorded the minutes.

 · Secretary Roundbottom presented to the Board the minutes of the Sept. 2012 meeting of the Board for approval, whereupon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously refuted as a pack of lies.

Opening Message from the Chairman:

  

In a spectacular turnaround, this blogs "fiscal" year (Sept 2012 to Sept 2013) saw excellent progress on this little railroad of ours. The streetcars (all two of them) are running under power supplied by the overhead (Which fulfills a major requirement of the 2013 New Years Resolution). This Railroad is now a working railroad.

· Traffic Managers Report Provided by Chair, Robin DeRail:

 
~ Aye! Because of light blog postings last year, the first 5 weeks of this year saw a dismal decline in viewership. But that decline was nixed with a real zinger of a post Jumping on the 3D Bandwagon! Apparently the folks are real interested with this latest 3D Printing craze and wanted to see what we were up to with our Switch Tower and whatnot. This blog saw a mighty spike in viewership with a record 283 views in one week with that post! After that, postings have been almost weekly, helping viewership remain stable for most of the year. Once layout construction was well under way, viewership has seen a nice upswing. When videos are posted, traffic really ticks upwards. We need more videos! 

Aye! Look! I got a chart!:

Unique weekly blog hits (visitors, not page hits) from 9/21/2012 to 9/21/2013

~ What else... aye yes! This blog hosted 3,355 visitors this last year (Sept. 2012 to Sept. 2013). That's up slightly from 3,064 last year, and 1,939 the year before that. They visited 6,621 times, up from 5,484 times last year and 3,379 times the year before that. That makes for an all time grand total of 23,983 visitors.

~  This blog is now averaging 20 visitors per day, but viewing duration declined slightly to a minute and a half (1:39). That's a 20% gain of visitors from 15 average daily visitors viewing for almost 2 minutes (1:52) last year.

~ The top 3 posts visited this last year were:
       1. Birney #301 

       2. #426 Project ~ Cleaning and Preparing Brass for Painting

       3. My Old San Diego Trolley Layout
It should be noted that this years post Jumping on the 3D Bandwagon nipped at the top 3 by making #4 on the list.

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Count DeMonet:

~ The Count reported that revenue from ads (the only source of revenue) on this blog earned an average of $0.06 per day, up from $0.04 last year and $0.02 the previous year.

~ DeMonet continued with that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year are estimated at a record $22.78. That's up from $16.07 last year and $7.34 the previous year. This now brings the grand total to $62.26. He reminded us that we won't see a cent of this until the blog earns over $100. Debates raged over how to spend it, though the consensus seems to be to either invest it back into the blog somehow or into the layout itself.

~ The Finance Chair went on to try to persuade the Board that placing a banner ad above or below the blog title, as is typical with almost all websites, would increase revenue appreciatively. As it is now, all ads are "below the fold", and no revenue is gained unless the viewer scrolls down and the ads load. This sparked a raging debate over the artistic integrity of this blog.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:

~ Mr. Clever lamented the fact that with the razor sharp focus on getting the layout running, very little of the companies resources have gone to his planning department.

~ Despite this, "Good 'ol Arnie" continued, much is still needed to be planned. With the layout running now, what comes next? Usually, when the trackwork is complete, the next step is scenicing. And what with this being a city layout, the scenery this case are buildings. But! Arnie pointed out, the poles on 1920's street are temporary and are installed in the building lots next to the sidewalk until the specifics about the permanent poles are determined and the sidewalks drilled for them. So the next logical step is designing and building these complex poles. Only then can the temporary poles be removed from the lots, freeing up the space for buildings.

~ The Development Chair also revealed new plans for modules to be built for the Southern California Traction Club layout. So as not to interfere with construction of the layout, these modules will built at the clubs regular Sunday meetings.

 

Mr Sparks closed the meeting with remarks that pretty much boil down to, "well lets wrap this up and go run some trolleys. Yes sir! Lets go run some trolleys!

· Meeting adjourned at 3:05 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Come back again because the next post will feature a video of the trolleys running. Yes sir! A video of the trolleys running!

Dandy

Three Steps Forward, Two steps back.

Despite my determination to keep pushing the mainline overhead construction moving forward, pesky little problems keep popping up.

Just like nickel silver rail, nickle silver wire transfers power really well. So its being used for the contact wire.

Phosphor Bronze wire transmits electricity very well. So this is what I'm using for span wires and pull offs.

 

But as mentioned in previous post, the tension is mounting! And I'm finding out where the weak spots are. Above, apparently this pin wasn't soldered into the pole well enough and pulled out. Not an easy fix. But I'm trying to fix this stuff as quickly as possible so as not to get discouraged. Nothing will bring progress to a halt faster than getting discouraged. Yes sir! Can't get discouraged!

Dandy

The Tension is Mounting!

Apparently as the overhead is constructed the tension is building, as is evident in the corner poles which seem to be taking the brunt of it all:

I was excited with how quickly the overhead was going up, allowing my cars to progress further down the line. But this development has brought all that to a screeching halt.

So this is what I'm faced with:

A Guy wire is out of the question, the poles are right on the corner.

Swapping out the poles is no easy matter. The wires would have to be cut, the poles removed,  beefier poles constructed, the holes enlarged to accept the larger poles,  new wires spliced in to replace the cut wires, and then all tied together.

There is no easy way of doing this. So I just jumped right in and fabricated new, beefier poles from solid, hard 5/32" brass rod, painted to look like wood.

The eye bolt was carefully removed from the old pole with the backbone and pulloff wires still attached. The old 1/8"diameter pole was removed and the new one installed. A new wire was wrapped around the new pole and attached to the old eye-bolt, maintaining the original tension. And were back in business. Yes sir! We're back in business!

Dandy

YES SIR!

With the first length of overhead contact wire installed, cars are starting to roll on the layout!

Making a racket with a symphony of clickety-clack, Niles car #105 crosses the intricate intersection track work under power from the overhead. We are finally rolling! Yes sir! We are finally rolling!

Dandy

Tower of Tension

A helpful device for maintaining constant tension in the contact wire during overhead construction.

Parker Williams (1927-2010) was my trolley modeling mentor when I was a young pup in the 1980's. I met him when he was in the process of installing the overhead for the trolley line at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum at Balboa Park. He was using a device similar to the one pictured above and I instantly saw the merit of such an apparatus, so I built my own based on his design.

The idea is to maintain a constant tension of 12oz on the contact wire while its being soldered to hangers, crossings and pulloffs. Its biggest asset is that it frees up my hands for the soldering iron and the span or pulloff wires or hardware.

Its construction is pretty simple. A heavy base (Parker knew a guy who used a heavy ashtray!), I used a block of Iron (incorrectly labeled here as "steel"), with a rubber pad on the bottom to prevent slipping. Drilled about 3/4 of the way through to accept a 1/2" brass rod. Patio slider wheels have a nice concave contour that are perfect for channeling the fishing line that the 12oz weight hangs from. The clamp is a little tougher. I used half round brass drilled to accept a thumb screw. The bottom half is threaded for the thumb screw to tighten into. But it would have probably been easier to just tie a mini clamp to the line.

A Tension Tower isn't required for constructing overhead. The SCTC does just fine without one. But it sure helps to have that extra hand. Yes sir! It sure helps!

Dandy

The Line Pole Polka

Helping to give each street its own personality by using different styles of line poles.

This layout is very rotationally symmetrical (to the order of four!) and features six streets. In an attempt to prevent every street from looking the same so as to give the impression that the street cars are actually going somewhere, each streets "hardware", such as street lamps, telephone poles (or lack of), greenery (or lack of), signage, building architecture, and this case, line poles, are going to be of a different design.

The biggest factor in deciding the style of a pole is the era that its street represents. Refresher: each street represents a different decade, from the 1890s to the 1940s. So here are the styles I have selected for each of the six streets.

1890's

Studying old time photos reveal that the earliest line poles were of square milled lumber construction. A lot of times telephone poles doubled as line poles. These poles feature fancy iron work so as to illustrate to the citizens that this is a first class trolley operation that is here to stay and is worthy of your investment and patronage.

But because of the regular spacing of telephone poles and my need for more poles to support the overhead, I added some bracket poles to this street. All the poles on my layout are of brass construction, distressed and painted to look like wood or steel.

1900's

By the ragtime naughty "aughts", ornate was on its way out and simpler geometric forms were becoming vogue. This pole reflects that style.

1910's

Traction companies started switching to steel poles for the same reason rolling stock construction utilized less and less wood and more and more steel, it was more durable and lasted longer. These poles take advantage of K&S Engineering's telescoping ability of their brass tubes. Just don't get the soft stuff! Painted with (the now defunct) Floquil Light Green and weathered with Bragdon Weathering powders.

1920's

 Cities reacted to the fact that the new century turned their streets into a jumble of power, telephone, and trolley wires. Downtown San Diego eliminated telephone and line poles and attached the span wires directly onto the adjacent buildings. Telephone and power lines were buried in the streets, thus clearing the streets and giving a cleaner look. Attaching span wires to my model buildings presents some challenges I'd rather not delve into. So...

 A rather nifty alternative are these double arm boulevard lamps with a trolley linepole extension as seen here in Long Beach, CA. Streetlamps in HO scale have a big problem with being way overscale in order to get them to light. So it looks like I'm going to have to build these myself. A project all in itself!
 

After fabricating this one from brass, it has become clear that to build the 12 required for the layout would be way too time consuming. 3D printing is an option but the poles would need to be durable enough to stand up to the constant tension of the span wire. Right now I'm favoring the idea of doing a 3D print of a master, and make a rubber mold from it. Then during the casting process, place a brass rod in the mold, add the LED lights, tucking in the wires, and then pour the resin around it all. That might work, right? Yes sir! That might work! Until then, temporary wood dowels are being used as place holders for these lamps on the layout.

1930's

Economic Depression. Automobiles taking an awful toll on ridership. An inexpensive, standard wooden bracket pole will suffice.

1940's

These poles are patterned after a double bracket pole that was common when linepoles were placed down the center of the street. San Diego favored these kind of poles outside of Downtown. Since the other side of my street isn't there, the other bracket is only present in the abyss!

 So there you have it! I hope you like. I've tried making these linepoles every bit of an interesting model as the streetcars. Yes sir! Every bit of an interesting model as the streetcars!

Dandy

Grand Union Intersection Trackwork Complete!

The rails are in. The turnout machines are hooked up. The bugs worked out (for the most part). And the streets are paved. Lets watch the McWhirtagig battery powered test car negotiate the entire intersection:

So with that done, work on the overhead wires may now commence. Yes sir! Work on the overhead wires may now commence!

Dandy

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3, Testing!

Working out all the kinks in the track before the overhead goes up.

Making adjustments to the track after the overhead is installed would prove to be very difficult. Since trolley track usually isn't electrically insulated for two rail operation, testing the trackwork before the overhead is installed requires some other arrangement.  Southern California Traction Club member John McWhirter built a pretty darn nifty battery powered car that will do just that.  I was able to borrow that car to test out the track on my home layout, especially that intersection. Sure enough, it found some sections of track that needed some attention:

Thank you John for the use of your car (which we here at the Dan D.Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co. car shops have christened the "McWhirtagig"). It has been very beneficial toward achieving our goal of "0 derailments" operation. Now, back to testing and adjusting. Yes sir! Back to testing and adjusting.

Dandy

Wonderful World of Color

Painting the Streets and Sidewalks

 I've been staring at plywood and plaster for so long that even the new concrete coloring looks exciting!

 I grabbed some buildings and posed this little scene. Two of the streets on the layout represent the pre-paved era of streets. So they were painted Floquil Earth.

 But for the most part the rest of the layout is painted Floquil Concrete. And of course Floquil came out with "Aged Concrete" right after I painted it! But it doesn't really matter anyway because...

Another case of "if I were to do it again". Because if I were to do it again, I would have used Durhams Water Putty tinted with concrete coloring. In the photo above the effects of track cleaning and chipping on painted plaster can be seen. Bright white plaster peaking through. Tinted water putty would fair much better.
You guys are so lucky to be learning from my mistakes. Yes sir! Your so lucky!

Dandy

Paving the Way

Pouring the Streets and Sidewalks. 

Extensive testing of the track is essential before its covered with street paving. Especially that intersection. Making revisions to the track would be most difficult when its buried in plaster. Plus its fun to just run the cars around too!

It seems logical to me to pour the sidewalks first. I used angle stock that was the thickness I wanted the sidewalks to be. Where the sidewalks curve at the corners I cut slots in the angle stock so that it could bend (sorry about the dark photo). Then the angle stock is spiked down to create a trough to pour the plaster into. 

I used lightweight hydrocal, but if I was to do it again, I would use Durhams water putty. 

Originally designed for DC operation, the track is cut into electrical blocks. In the photo above you can see where the wires come up from under the layout and soldered onto each rail of each block. That also has to be tested for electrical continuity before being buried in the plaster.

 Once the sidewalks were in and the track passed inspection, I started in on the streets. Stripwood equal to the height of the rails were glued against the sidewalks (where the gutter would be). Then plaster could be be poured in between. The stripwood and rail would be used as a guide for a paint scraper to smooth out the plaster. I stuffed thick string into the flangeways to keep the plaster out, but I think I could have just masked if off with tape.

Interestingly, all the spikes rusted and soaked through the plaster. But I don't think the strength of the spikes were compromised. Besides, everything is now held firmly in place by the plaster. Derailments should be nonexistent since the whole layout is basically a rerailer!

Finally I sanded down the all the streets and sidewalks with a block sander to make it all nice and smooth. I don't want any pour marks showing. I also scribed expansion joints in the sidewalks before the plaster got too hard.

I can't get over how different the layout looks now. It's all looks so neat and tidy. Now I have got to get some paint on it. Right now it looks like a winter wonderland. Yes sir! It looks like a downright winter wonderland!

Dandy

Gandy Dancing in the Streets

Layin' Track 

Originally the layout was built 4 feet by 4 feet. But the curves proved too tight, the streets were too tight, the city blocks too small, the sidewalk corners had to curve to clear the intersection tracks... it just wasn't working. But just by adding another 6" to each side of the layout made all the difference in the world. So the intersection was cut out of the old cramped layout and then spliced into the spacious real estate of the new 4'6"x4'6" layout. 

Then, the mainline finally began advancing forward. Soon it made a right turn, then another right, and maybe even another! Then reconnected to the intersection. Route 1 is in baby! So you know what that means...

Time to put a car on the track and take her for a spin! Yeah, sure its "roundy roundy". But after all this time were finally rolling! I'll take "roundy roundy" over "display, display" any day. And when it does finally get old, well...

With the mainline continually advancing forward it wasn't long until all four blocks were in. Now the cars can dance the "Cloverleaf", the "Double Untwisted Figure 8s", or even 4 simultaneous "Roundy Roundys" and everything in between!

Pretty neat, eh? Yes sir! Pretty darn neat!

Dandy