John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

May 1, 2024

Video: Here are Rick's cab ride GoPro videos from last week. This short video begins at Eppley's Curve (north) and travels through Jackie's Forest into Rudd Spur.	Video: This cab ride begins at the swing gate and travels past Whittier depot, along the mainline past Jackie's Forest, through Mountain, the future refinery location, double track and then stops at Alaska Marine Lines.	Video: Although this video might appear to be the same as the previous one, the difference is the train uses the Usibelli Coal Mine siding to traverse Jackie's Forest.

Video: Our train begins at the double crossover, travels past the steep walls in Canyon and traverses the tunnel until reaching the double crossover. I wished I had painted the underside of the foam board black!	Video: Again we begin at the double crossover. However, this time the train will use the turnout to reverse direction. After traveling though the tunnel it emerges to the sights of Canyon, the Alaska Bridge and finally returning to the double crossover.	Video: This amazing "caboose view" ride shows how close the locomotive clears the end of the train when crisscrossing at the double crossover.

Rick spent the evening using his 35mm SLR to videotape a 30-car consist at the double crossover. There were plenty of derailments, most of which were caused by couplers bunched up going down hill through TwentyMile. It appeared derailments were inevitable when running this long train down hill due to coupler bunching.	Video: The derailments ceased when running the train uphill through TwentyMile. Rick was able to successfully get video at the double crossover.	We had a new visitor to Clayton's Alaska Railroad this week. Our new puppy Tazzy became a member of our home a month ago. This is his second visit to the train room and he found chocolate in a cup within seconds of his arrival. He must be watched closely as those sharp puppy teeth are looking for anything and everything to chew on!

May 8, 2024

An F7 A-B Maintenance of Way (MoW) consist pulls the track cleaning car around the mainline a total of 15 loops. The pads are changed every three rounds.	The pads are shown here in order of usage. The pad used for the first run (at left) shows a lot of dirt and grime removed from the rails.	Terry's cousin Linda and husband Eric stopped in for a four day visit. Eric was quite taken with train operations and spent a total of 5-6 hours in the train room over a two day span. Here he is practicing uncoupling train cars using the Rix Pick Uncoupling Tool.

Various train orders were cut for engineer trainee Eric. The first task was having his freight train pick up three refrigerator cars at Portage Depot.	Video: Eric's 24-car consist rounds the curve and heads south into TwentyMile.	Eric enjoys using two controllers simultaneously, one for running locomotives and the other for controlling turnouts.

Video: Engineer Eric was tasked with getting 16 hoppers of Usibelli coal onto the barge. After putting the barge into position, Eric carefully loads the first 5 hoppers.	Video: The dispatcher contacts Eric and he is tasked with taking passengers from the Whittier Depot through the scenic areas along the railroad and then stop at Dairy Queen for some tasty treats.	Video: Apprentice Eric grabs an 11 car coal train to finish the barge coal order. On a side note: he was very, very impressed with all the scenery work done since his last visit over two years ago.

Eric returns to the passenger train and two of the cars derail. Although no passengers are injured, Eric must get drug tested. Based on the above photo, wine coolers may or may not be involved.	Video: With the coal car completely loaded on the barge, Eric is tasked with taking cruise ship passengers from Anchorage to the cruise ships in Whittier.	Eric's visit generated a six item "to do" list for train night. First, the coupler on Princess Sanford rail car was not working correctly. Rick noticed the spring was missing. When he tried to replace it, he noticed the pin was missing as well. Unfortunately, our stock of Kadee #149 long overset shanks was depleted. Two pair were ordered from eBay.

Video: Rick ran a mixed passenger train comprised of four Princess and one Royal Celebrity Ultradomes and one Tour Alaska dome car.	The Royal Celebrity Wilderness Express car is still squeaking as it rides the rails. Rick removed the axles and added graphite.	Second on the "to do" list was GP38 #2004's horn sounded horrible. Rick found the iPhone speaker was bad so he replaced it.

Video: Here is the sound of the new speaker on GP38 #2004.	Video: This is a clip from last week showing how close Rick runs the front and end of the train at the double crossover.

May 15, 2024

Video: The Indiana grandsons were in town for an evening performance of Lion King at the Schuster Center. Arriving early gave them a chance to transport trains. Liam has a mixed freight/passenger train while Lincoln is taking Princess passengers to Whittier to catch a cruise ship.	Video: Liam continues with his mixed freight/passenger train while Lincoln drops off several Princess Ultradomes and picks up tank cars, Difco dump cars, logs flat and a caboose. Never let reality get in the way of building your train!	Video: As can be seen in this video, Liam has mastered the skill of putting rail car wheels properly on the track.

Video: One of the rules of running trains is never let your train collide with another person's train. Liam likes to push the envelope and get as close as possible. His tactic of making Lincoln nervous and annoyed is very successful. Ah, sibling rivalry!	Video: Lincoln's extra board job finds him on short turn service, delivering a formaldehyde tank car to Crown Point.	John begins scenery work on the Boy Scout campsite just north of Eppley's Curve. Over the years, he has acquired tents, Scouts and other accessories.

The Boy Scout camp foam board is removed from the layout and relocated to the project table. John begins by carving a small stream and then sanding it smooth.	John lays out the Boy Scout camping items to give him an idea of their location. Lines are drawn to identify where scenic materials will be placed.	Sculptamold is placed at both ends of the diorama creating various land contours. He also paints the stream in preparation for placement of rocks and water.

Spring is here! Terry heads out to the balcony area adding mulch and flowers to the three blue and yellow buckets.	Yellow marigolds and a train sun catcher adorn this yellow bucket. What a beautiful break area for the train train!	Video: Rick is checking off the work order items one by one. GP40 #3010 is now functioning correctly after Rick lubricated the motor and freed up the bearings. As for the Celebrity car, he added lots of graphite to the trucks and axles which, in turn, reduced the amount of squeaking.

Rick showing the locations where graphite was added. While working on the car the body came loose and the windows fell out. Everything was reassembled and is now back in service.	Rick noticed the Celebrity car's couplers were too low so he will take it back to The Eppley Shops and add washers between the body and the trucks.	The long shank overset couplers arrived from eBay. Rick replaced the bad coupler on the Princess railcar Sanford. He then noticed the coupler sloped downward at the end. To fix this problem he needed to create a shim. He took a thin sheet of metal and cut out a rectangle.

He filed the rectangular piece so it fit precisely in the Sandford's coupler box. Next, he filed a taper on the metal until it sloped and became a shim. Now the coupler stays level. Amazing work from the Eppley Shops!	Video: The Sanford railcar is now ready for service. John is amazed that a locomotive can roll three Ultradomes backwards across multiple turnouts into the yard without derailment.	Video: Turnout 4-1 wasn't pivoting completely. Rick worked on it and was able to fix the problem. This video shows the train backing up successfully over the turnout. Click here to see successful forward movement.

Video: When GP38 #2005 and GP40 #3003 were coupled together they would uncouple while running a train. It was discovered the couplers used were not Kadee. Once they were replaced, the problem was fixed. Thanks Patrick Durand for the heads up!	Video: A freight train pulled by GP38 #2005 and GP40 #3003 arrive at the southern end of the Anchorage yard. Running trains is what it is all about!

May 22, 2024

Work continued over the past week on the Boy Scout campsite at Camp Gorsuch. The land forms at left and right were painted with dirt colored paint. The creek was painted with sky blue. Part of the campsite had Mod Podge applied and then covered with blender ground and sifted stalk plants. Mod Podge is preferred over white glue as it dries completely clear. Lastly, pine trees were mounted using white glue.	Two days later everything had dried and was ready for the next step. Painters tape was placed over the tent sites to keep them clear. Next, Mod Podge was applied around the tents sites and over top the trunks of the pine trees. Mod Podge dries slowly and provides an opportunity to add, subtract or modify when things get screwed up.	Ground stalk plants were applied over top of all the Mod Podge. This ground material resembles wood chips found in a typical Scout campsite. Sand from Homer, Alaska was applied over top the blue in the creek. Two more days would now be needed for everything to dry completely.

The Eppley Shops once again worked their magic and revived GP38 #2004 from near death. All motor components were lubricated and the pesky engine noise was eliminated. Now #2004 purrs like a kitten.	Rick added a spacer to turnout 4-1 to ensure it stayed in the same position relative to the throw bar. This eliminated the partial throw problem and Rick ran several trains across to ensure smooth operation.	Video: The long shank overset couplers seem to result in a coupler end which rocks up and down. Rick decided the Chena needed a shim. As seen last week's report, Rick cut out a thin piece of metal and then filed it to fit the coupler box.

Once it fit the coupler box, Rick filed the metal from front to back so it created a tapered shim. Amazing work!	Video: Rick ran the entire Ultradome fleet and watched for coupler pull aparts. A common location for this mishap is climbing the hill at Whittier. As can be seen by this video operations were as smooth as glass.	Video: Clayton's Alaska Railroad has four SD70s, two Athearn and two Kato. These six axle locomotives have a tendency to derail on the layout. The Kato units (#4001 and #4014) almost never derail while the Athearn units (#7002 and #4011) derail on straight and curved track. Rick spent a hunk of the evening trying to figure out the cause of this issue. John did some Internet research and saw other people are experiencing similar problems. Work on this will continue next week.

With the ground cover dry, John removed the painters tape on the tent sites and glued the tents in place. An elevated sand base was created before mounting the fire-pits. Small rocks to ring the fire-pit will be added later. Next, backpacks, wood piles, log seats, people and an American flag were added. A left over piece of backdrop was placed behind the scene to add some depth for photos.	John continued work on the stream adding several different types of foliage. The American flag now flies at half mast for the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service.	Locomotive numbers 3002, 3015 and 7002 were marked Out of Service (OOS) and shipped to the Eppley Shops for repair.

May 29, 2024

Another marvelous meal: Jackie's World Famous salad bar, Terry's homemade macaroni and cheese, homemade bread, chicken strips and watermelon and Jan bringing a surprise dessert of strawberry shortcake with fresh "out of the oven" shortcake and freshly picked strawberries. Whoa! What a spread!	Jackie began work on her flower field which is adjacent to the Boy Scout campsite.. All materials were brought downstairs to the kitchen material. She began her work with a coat of Mod Podge.	Now the fun begins. She sprinkled five different shades of ground foam onto the diorama. Small bushes were added as well.

Back upstairs Rick discovered turnout 4-4 was not diverging completely. He tried working a file under the moving lever as well as cleaning off the points. Nope. The final solution was adjusting the fulcrum point of the Tortoise switch.	Firing up GP38 2005 and GP40 3001, Rick unloaded all the coal cars left on the barge by Eric. The train was halted on the main line next to the Anchorage yard.	Video: Tonight the new foreman hit the ground running. Taz (aka Tazzy) was full of energy and covered a lot of ground. No rest for the train and road service crews! He announced all train service crew members using cameras on duty would be subject to disciplinary action!

The blue segment of the layout (Whittier and beyond) experienced power problems. Power was cycled and the problem was resolved. Video: Heading down the gentle slope at TwentyMile, GP38 2005 and GP40 3001 pulled a 34-car consist of coal and freight.	Rick discovered the "North to the Future" box car had a low coupler causing a pull-apart. The car will be placed Out Of Service (OOS) and sent to the Eppley Shops for modification.	Video: GP38 2005 and GP40 3001 pull a 34-car consist of coal and freight on the main line next to Rudd Spur. John stated he loved how the scenery made everything appear, "drop dead awesome."

Video: Additional boxcars were added to the train and GP38 2005 and GP40 3001 pulled them effortlessly through the layout. The 40-car consist can be seen passing through the Coastal double track, Alaska Marine Lines (AML) and the APU. If you listen closely, you will hear the foreman barking orders at everyone!	Video: The 40-car consist as seen passing through through TwentyMile and the tunnel.	The first pass of scenery at "Flowers at Eppley's Curve" is almost finished. Next week trees and other larger items will be added.

Box car 10413 had a short stubby coupler and caused pull-aparts. Rick replaced it with a long overset shank (Kadee #149) and placed back into service. It's amazing how much maintenance is required over time.	Rick reviewed the work performed on GP40 3015. He found the locomotive ran fine on DC as well as when the LM-03 was inserted. He is guessing the problem may be associated with the trucks.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 6/5/24