The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch

[otiscnj]

I see by the looks of the loco line-up, its mostly SP? I know the SP engines I saw prior to the Grande typeface, always needed to be in a very bad need of a trip thru the washer. For some reason I've always had a thing from regular SP SD40-2's, even though I'm more of a WP fan, in terms of western roads, and 'anthracite roads,' back east. Keep those news stories and photos coming!

[Cjcrescent]

Originally Posted by D&J RailRoad

...Always something to complain about.

Well, if ya didn't complain, would ya be any happier? Iffin you're like me, NO!!

[racerdonnie13]

I went out and saw this layout today in person...all i can say is wow! Very nice work Ken. It was nice meeting you.

[D&J RailRoad]

Thanks Don. I've been tied up with first week at work stuff so I haven't done anything with the layout. Had some down time this afternoon to do some detailing on flat car load with some chain that I bought at the Timonium show last week. I think I need to add some wheel chocks to it.





Added the dunage to chock the wheels and under the front bucket.

[tomslack34]

The first thing that came in to my mind after seeing these images were technology has grown high and faster.
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railway maintenance jobs

[tootnkumin]

There's a hint somewhere about taking the slack out of the chain. Involved hanging the chain vertically from a pin (maybe with a small weight attached and dribbling liquid CA glue down it's length, then cutting to required lengths once dry. Can also be done afterwards so long as the chain is able to be passed through the stake pockets and pulled taught. The dunnage looks excellent but I've yet to find a close up pic of how it's fixed to the deck, possibly bolts through or large screws into the deck.

Retro-gluing would have the advantage of being able to cut slightly overlength pieces and attach to the load and then doing a final trim once all are in place.

Lonestar models, www.lonestarmodelsinc.com make the load tie downs (ratchet ends) for the chains in brown or grey.

I also got 40 links/inch black chain by A-LINE (ProtoPowerWest) which to my eye looks somewhat smaller than what you are using (and seems to match the tiedowns. I got both of these through Walthers)

[D&J RailRoad]

Yeah, you're right about the chains looking a little bigger than they should be. After I finished this model load, I did find some smaller chain in one of my junk boxes but I don't know where it came from.
I thought about doing the ACC on the length of chain but then decided against it as it might fill the eyelets of the chain and then look kinda hokey.
As far as the dunnage, it's usually just nailed to the deck of the flat car with large spikes or screws. No real science of accuracy there.

[EHodges]

I have been over to Kens and ran trains on his layout before. He has a well contructed layout and with a few trains running it really gets interesting. I did however "ruin" the layout (as most would say) running NS engines on his BNSF and UP layout. Amtrak mades it appearance with a small superliner / autotrain. I showed him my new Bachmann Spectrum schnabel generator car and it pulled around the layout perfectly. It was amazing how great it looked on there. Ken has built his layout that allowed that big car to move around the layout with other trains passing. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can see some more NS power running on there again. Hopefully my new custom Kato NS SD40-2 converted high hood will be done and ready to go. We shall see!!!!

Eric

[otiscnj]

Great job on the flat car & load, in keeping with the 'good enough' approach, at least!! If you really want to pick nits, I think 40 links/inch is not correct for HO, but I dare you to find something commercally available, that's any better-or at least that's the way it was, last time I went looking for chain.

[D&J RailRoad]

Originally Posted by otiscnj

Great job on the flat car & load, in keeping with the 'good enough' approach, at least!! If you really want to pick nits, I think 40 links/inch is not correct for HO, but I dare you to find something commercially available, that's any better-or at least that's the way it was, last time I went looking for chain.

Actually, I did find some 40 LPI chain at the Hobby Barn in Wilson, NC. I bought a few feet of it to finish up some projects that are stacking up back home. I've been on travel for a couple weeks so no progress on the layout.