Live Japanese train video stream

Relaxation now: If you're exhausted and longing for a getaway, here's a quick Internet fix to help get your meditation on. Railway TV (ustream.tv/channel/railway-tv) broadcasts video from the front of a Japanese train. With pretty scenery and the train's quiet, rhythmic noises, the effect is surprisingly hypnotic and relaxing.

Blue Mountain Union Pacific

N Scale Mountain railroad layout Located in Portland Oregon. Blue Mountains are in Northeastern Oregon where Union Pacific RR runs over from Southern Idaho to Pendleton then on westward on Columbia River to Portland.



Owned by Keith Schaber, it is very much a club type layout. Has full CTC signal system. Video taken September 2007

Rock Quarry on the Mud Bay & Southern

Jim Younkins has been hard at work on his N Scale empire. Having recently been driving dupm truck he frequented a large rock quarry and decided to model it. Where at on his already completed layout? Why not remodel? He has been sending me photos so I am now sharing them. (They are different sizes though). Below is a little slide show but you can see the slide show on my Picasa photo website where you can also download any of the photos

OWNRy Operating session October 27

Ran 23 trains. 9 crew members, rookie dispatcher (me).

Here are some photos. Just updated 11.8.07 with new photos from Stephen WIlliams



For larger version of photos or to download - click here

Donner Pass September 2007

Wednesday Sept 5, I went hiking up in Donner Pass area of Sierra Mountains in California. Went up in Coldwater canyon near Donner lake then headed back home and stopped at Yuba Gap. Here are some trains I saw including the special "Railventures" passenger train (not Amtrak) 8 minutes.
Video

Mishap at Black River

Last night as a BLS crew was running on the Mud Bay & Southern Ry near Black River there was a near fatal crash. Evidently the bridge over the Black River was out. BLS #10 hit the ground and skidded several feet before coming to rest hanging precariously over the Black River. When questioned, the engineer said the first he knew there was a problem was when he felt the engine lurch to the ground. The conductor said he didn't know anything about it and wouldn't comment further. The MB&S general manager had no comment. So, the question is, who was running the train? No one seems to know for sure. A full investigation is pending. (Photos and text courtesy of Jim Younkins)

Southern Pacific Shasta Route, Black Butte Subdivision

Operating an HO Model Railroad of the Southern Pacific Shasta Route, Black Butte Subdivision in 1952 era. Layout owner is Otis McGee. Website. What a delight to be able to run on this layout. I will re-record these videos in higher quality next operating session, if Otis invites me back. See links below to photo gallery and videos. Links will open a new browser page.

Some still photos here.

Video - Operating "The Scoot" local passenger train.

Video - running North Coast Periishable train from Dunsmuir to Klamath.."Up the hill"...

Video - Dunsmuir yard engine terminal

Hinton, West Virginia - Andy Schnur's MRR

I took this video with my digital camera in August at Andy Schnur's Chesapeake and Ohio HO model Railroad in Bay Area of California. This layout is based upon the C&O prototype where main yard is Hinton, West Virginia. You will see a coal drag coming into Hinton Yard, where a helper engine is added to the end of train in front of caboose, and then the train going up the hill to other end of layout. Steam engines using Tsunami sound decoders and Digital system is NCE. (I taped this at 320 with 15 FPS and will record it again at higher resolution someday)

Pesky short discovered and eliminated

for the past 4 days, I have been searching down a short causing half the layout to be down. As a result I redesigned my power sections and added 4 new ones (see previous post). While implementing this I also discovered numerous little issues such as the DB105 booster was not correctly wired to layout. I also rerouted numerous bus wires and generally cleaned up and further documented the power zone wiring, while also labeling a lot of things.

Finally found the short in West Pasco.

You see I use Caboose Industries 220S ground throws for industrial spurs and branch lines. These require 3 holes to be drilled close together and the 3 bare wire leads dropped through sub-roadbed then wired to power the frogs. Turns out the middle lead and one of the rail leads were touching and so when the switch was thrown one way it didn't short but did when thrown the other way...sigh..Thought I had looked at that earlier..Grr...must have jiggled it when I was rerouting the light cord underneath Pasco and above Walla Walla. Now all is well. Dropped some other leads down where I double gapped the power zones to ensure reliable track power.

Trains running again. Now time to go celebrate by seeing a movie and taking wife to dinner!!

Short in Pasco Power zone - No Ops session

About a week ago, an occasional gremlin short in Pasco power zone became a full blown gremlin!! I have spent several hours tracking it down and have eliminated most of the easy ones. Still not working. I canceled the June 30 op session...sigh...

I am pretty sure it lives in the common rail wiring. Next week I will begin to disconnect all the leads and rebuild the bus.

My plan will be to add another (3rd) Digitrax PM42 power zone circuit board and subdivide Pasco zone into 4 Zones thus further dividing power zones:

Reversing PM 42:

• Short detection for reversing sections
• Biggs OS to Troutdale OS
• Balloon Track in Portland
• Open

Second PM42 will have

• Portland Yard including Eugene
• Seattle Yard
• West Half of Main
• La Grande and Spokane Yard Staging

New PM42

• Pasco yard
• West Pasco and Walla Walla
• East half of Mainline around Pasco
• Aberdeen and Helix
  

then re-attach leads to separate bus wires. Hope that does it.
I have spare PM 42 and am ordering more TAP 3M connectors from Mouser.
Hope to start work this week.