The activities during May included my Ops Session which went better than last month however a few tweaks are still required. Another new schedule for Session 2 has been produced with new processes for Hornertown and Huntington. Maintenance issues this month included resurrection of a failed loco, addressing squeaky bearings and fixing some "sticky" turnouts. I configured a screen in PanelPro to control power to my hidden staging tracks. The updated laptop I gave to Wayne's has been commissioned and we recovered some old roster data. I prepared instructions for icing the PFE train, hosted a Trainmasters TV session and I attended three ops sessions. I missed Tom's Model Rail Radio Show 211 - Sorry Tom.
Loco Maintenance
GP38-2 4812
The dry bearing squeak has finally become annoying and noticeable by everyone so off to the workbench, body removed, worm covers removed which revealed bone dry worm gears. A small amount of grease was applied and bearing got a drop of oil each. Truck bearings also oiled. Placed on the rollers and run for 10 minutes then a check of the speed curve and made some adjustments and it now performs much better,
GP9 5634
During the Ops session it failed to start up. Despite a quick trip to the workshop for a rewrite of CV's it still would not work so it had to be red carded and removed, I ended up doing a factory reset and rewriting all the CV's using DecoderPro and hey presto! back to normal so it has been placed back in service.
GP38-2 4812
The dry bearing squeak has finally become annoying and noticeable by everyone so off to the workbench, body removed, worm covers removed which revealed bone dry worm gears. A small amount of grease was applied and bearing got a drop of oil each. Truck bearings also oiled. Placed on the rollers and run for 10 minutes then a check of the speed curve and made some adjustments and it now performs much better,
GP9 5634
During the Ops session it failed to start up. Despite a quick trip to the workshop for a rewrite of CV's it still would not work so it had to be red carded and removed, I ended up doing a factory reset and rewriting all the CV's using DecoderPro and hey presto! back to normal so it has been placed back in service.
Troublesome Turnouts
During the Ops session the point at the eastern end of Hornertown arrival departure tracks decided to become "Sticky" and in the industrial area there were two troublesome points. I adjusted the underboard mount on the Peco solenoid which was in a tight space area above the hidden staging tracks. The Hornertown East Industrial area also had a problem at centennial mills with the entry turnout failing - this has also been fixed by installing a new switch on the control panel.
New Session 2 (Version 3)
I have completed the shunt based planning using a 5 minute planning timeline for the eight operators.
Then I completed the train graph, job cards leaving only the local freight switch lists to be done. The new system dispenses with switchlists for Hornertown and Huntington where Yardmasters will be using waybill information for shunting. The arrival/departure and shunting jobs information has been redesigned with Wayne's assistance.
Should you wish to look at the detail here are the links
Completing the planning whilst watching the V8 Supercars...
I have completed the shunt based planning using a 5 minute planning timeline for the eight operators.
Then I completed the train graph, job cards leaving only the local freight switch lists to be done. The new system dispenses with switchlists for Hornertown and Huntington where Yardmasters will be using waybill information for shunting. The arrival/departure and shunting jobs information has been redesigned with Wayne's assistance.
Should you wish to look at the detail here are the links
Completing the planning whilst watching the V8 Supercars...
Panel Pro
I wanted to make powering up my staging tracks easier, so I was thinking a screen using JMRI somehow to switch them off and on. They are controlled by an Aux-Box I purchased from TrainTek some years back. So far I have them on a standalone MRC Prodigy system I had from years back.
I started by reading up on Panel Pro on the JMRI.Org website and watching some YouTube videos.
I learnt I had to define a table of Turnouts and using a Control Pane set the Icon to slide switch, inverted, with feedback set to monitoring and I can set the state with a throttle or JMRI.
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| All Locations Turned OFF |
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| All Locations Turned ON |
So I had a go and it works!
PFE Icing Shunt
I prepared a guide sheet for the Yardmaster and Assistant Yardmaster showing the moves.
JMRI at Wayne's
We spent an afternoon together where I loaded the SprogII unsigned drivers on the Win10 Laptop. We were able to recover most of the roster info from an external USB drive provided by an IT guru after Wayne's old laptop failed.
We needed to read all the CV's from two locos programmed by Don, one with a LokSound 5 decoder and the other a LokPilot 5 DCC decoder. The LokSound decoder took about and hour after issuing the "Read All Sheets" command and the LokPilot to about 50 minutes.
Having done one of each I then used "Duplicate Loco" and just read the Motor and Speed Sheets for the additional locos to ensure we kept the existing speed and motor settings before saving the roster entry.
We have populated the roster with all but one loco we forgot about!
The next task is to standardise the speed, acceleration and deceleration rates.
We also adjusted the dwell time on one of the PSX's so the time was increased before it detects a short.
Car Card Box Changes
The Hornertown Yard Master has suggested some changes to better identify boxes with different functions. Staging and Storage being a different colour than the normal blue In/Hold/Out yard boxes.
So, in the Eastern area of Hornertown there are staging tracks and industrial tracks so there are two sets of boxes blue for Hornertown Industrial In/Hold/Out and Green for Staging for Stirling/Fleet/Local Freights.
The Industrial Yard track has been changed to a single green box as two of the previous three were surplus to requirements.
New labels still to be applied - this will happen before the next Ops Session.
TrainMaster TV
This was the last activity for the month.
Barry, Chris and Dennis joined me for a couple of hours.
This is what we watched:
01 Make it run like a dream - Defining the dream (19:56)
02 Make it run like a dream - First Flawless Running (24:37)
03 Tricks with Microbrushes (5:12 minutes)
04 Precision Needle Applicators (3:33 minutes)
05 Establishing a realistic roster (32:06 minutes)
06 The Golden Age of Southern Pacific Steam (41:09)
Ops Sessions
There were five sessions in May: Mine; EVNGR, Picardy and two at Wayne's.
HCS Session 1 on 2 May
A much better session than last month albeit we ran 45 minutes overtime but we completed all but three movements. Thanks to Barry, Chris, Dennis, John, Ross, Peter J, Peter S & Wayne who made it all happen. I think we enjoyed this session more than last month despite a few challenges.
Last month I outlined "The Way Forward..."
I implement a Huntington Yardmaster, increased the frequency of trains and was told the role had too much free time....
The two up crews for shunting designating an Engineer and Guard seemed to work ok, so do the one up crew for mainline runs.
I reduced number of mainline movements and when the "glitches" are minimised I think the timing will be about right..
Some operators took the opportunity to sit during the session for 5-10 minutes to rest their backs based on the rule if >5mins to next task, then move to crew room, sit down and chat to anyone else sitting.
The changes to operating strategy seemed to work Ok and will be retained, however, the switchlists for Hornertown Yard are still causing issues especially when a car appears as a pickup in one location and set out in another (so it appears twice on the same sheet). So Wayne and I have decided on a new approach and format which I will implement for the June Ops Session.
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| Me checking the schedule with John & Dennis behind |
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| Wayne, Peter S, Ross & Chris |
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| Peter S and Ross |
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| Wayne with Peter S and Ross behind at Hornertown |
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| Chris at Flintston |
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| Dennis and John at Jimtown |
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| Peter J at Huntington |
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| Wayne, Peter S, Ross at Hornertown while Barry sitting is waiting clearance to move |
Afterwards we had afternoon tea and a debrief. Chris had to leave before afternoon tea, we were 45 minutes behind time and his ride home had arrived.
Picardy on 9 May
Following Oral Surgery and my recovery not quite going to plan I had to give it a miss - Sorry Ross.
Wayne's on 11 May
Alan, Des, John, Murray, Ross, Wayne & I attended and it was not the best sessions we have ever had but we still had fun.
Wayne could not recall a previous session where so many simple mistakes were made, he thought there were in excess of 14 without counting the short circuit issues.
His reflection comment was TV quote "Twas a funny old day today" - I think that sums up yesterday completely.
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| L>R John, Murray, Des, Alan, Wayne & Ross |
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| Wayne & Murray at Dunkley Towers |
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| What's that down there? |
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| Alan at Stokers Siding |
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| One of the "lighter times" between movements |
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| Wayne wondering what else could go wrong..... |
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| Alan & Des shunting at Red Rock |
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| John at Dunkley Towers |
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| One of those "Oh Shit moments" where there was a derailment in an awkward place |
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| Ross with a busy moment at Lowood Crossing |
Afterwards we enjoyed afternoon tea, a debrief and discussion on current events local and wider afterwards whilst around the table.
EVNGR on 16 May
Dennis, Peter S, Wayne and I joined Peter J for his second ops session since implementing JMRI Ops switchlists. Things were "more balanced" from an ops perspective however there were a number of electrical gremlins at play.
We all learnt some more about operating Peter's layout and had some fun even though some of the electrical gremlins were a bit trying.
I undertook the Yard Master role at Grass Valley
A few photos from the session....
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| Dennis with Peter S looking on |
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| Peter J at the "JMRI Ops Controls" printing "switchlists on the fly" |
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| Dennis shunting |
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| Dennis & Wayne |
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| Peter J providing advice to Dennis with Peter S in the background |
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea following the session - Thanks Mary!
Wayne's on 26 May
Barry, Des, Dennis and I attended Wayne's and Peter S was a late withdrawal due to sickness so we were one operator down. Get Better soon Peter! So Wayne had to step up and run some trains too!
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| L to R Dennis, Des, Wayne and Barry |
Well I had the Lowood Crossing Yard Master job and boy it was the busiest session I have ever undertaken at Wayne's since commencing. I started immediately and finished 5 minutes after everyone else had finished. I was so busy I did not get to take any photos let alone any video. I even raised a sweat!
Wayne was a lot happier than after the previous session and he thought he operated more than he had ever done before!
Afternoon tea was a welcome break when I made it inside to join the others.
That's it for now so until next time.....
-ooOOOoo-
