16
Jun
What’s New?
The other day I was down in the layout room and I decided on some changes. Basically the changes are minor to make future expansion more feasible and looking at a couple of industries. It is something we all do if we have layout. Something does not look just right and something better will fit here instead of there. So I will have a few more things to to do over the summer.
I also have a modeling project. I picked up two brass ALCO Models ALCO T-6 Switchers. The motors are tiny open frame and I just can’t get them to run. I disassembled them cleaned them and lubed the gears. The mechanisms were not that great so I am going to switch out the chassis and drives and just leave the shells. I have an old Proto 2000 SW 9 switcher which I thought would be a good candidate. It will work but there will have to be some serious grinding. The couple pockets will have to be removed and some minor grinding of the motor cradle will also be needed.
This is what I observed:
1. The circuit board or DCC decoder would have to be changed to a smaller one.
2. The coupler pockets on the chassis of the SW9 would have to be ground off
3. The sides of the motor cradle would have to be ground down a little.
4. The cab floor in the T-6 would have to be partially removed
5. The length of the chassis is correct.
6. As with any grinding the motor would have to be removed first.
So in the meantime I am going to look for an Atlas or Athearn switcher underframe and see how they will work.
A.J.
2
Jun
June 2010 – Updates
How do you like the new format for the site? I like it and I guess that is whose opinion really matters 
I have added a few more photos of the old NVRRA Bolton layout. I had these on my computer but I just never had the time to get around to posting them. Check them out. It shows what a nice layout it was. If you notice, you will have to use the drop down menu from the Other Model Railroads button to get to the tribute. You also have a couple of choices when you click on the Appalachian Northern menu button.
As for my layout, I just received my custom decals. I have about 7 or 8 freight cars to paint, one undecorated locomotive to paint, with two more on order from Atlas, which should arrive around Christmas 2010. I also have three locomotives that need new decals and minor touch up. Time for me to find my airbrush and go to work. It looks like a rainy weekend coming up so I may just get my chance to work more on the layout.
I also managed to get down to Pennsylvania again this past May. However, I had very little time for railfanning, about an hour or two. I got a few shots when the sunlight was about gone for the day in Cresson. The next morning I saw a train climbing the hill westbound at Gallitzin. I managed to get to Cassandra ahead of it. It was pouring rain. I hope to add those shots to the Pennsylvania Gallery soon.
Feel free to leave comments and please know that you can contact me, A.J., at ajgemp@gmail.com Stay Safe! A.J.
13
May
May 2010
Hello Again. I have been busy lately and have not had much time to work on this page. I had some minor flooding in the layout room. No damage was sustained, it was just a headache to keep ahead of the water. The layout room is cleaned up and I have settled back down to working on the layout and some projects. I have also ordered a decal set and plan to paint some rolling stock for the Appalachian Northern. I will post some more pictures as the progress moves along.
I have also edited the model railroad page regarding the fictional history of my model railroad, the Appalachian Northern. Check out the changes.
I have not been track-side much either. CSX runs up near here and the traffic during the daylight hours has been light. There is more traffic at night, but this is not conducive to photography. Besides, I have been spoiled by my trips to western Pennsylvania over the years with all the traffic down there, it hardly seems worth the effort to spend a whole day track-side in New England and see maybe 6-8 trains vs. that same number of trains in 1-2 hours in Western PA.
Hang in there and please come back to visit. If you need to contact me about wanting to use some pictures, please email me at ajgemp@gmail.com. I apologize if you tried to contact after this past October. I switched internet providers and forgot to update the email settings on this page.
A.J.
17
Mar
The Appalachian Northern Replaces My Gauley River (Model) Railroad)
The last couple of years I have been getting back to my own model railroad. I do not have a large layout. I have roughly a 10ft. x 10ft. layout with coal mine, power plant and some local switching industries. One of these days I would love to expand it. Of course traffic rights would have to be negotiated.
For years I had a small MSN Group called the Gauley River Railroad. Well MSN took all the small groups down. I also know that my railroad had the same name as a real Gauley River Railroad with reporting marks GRIV. I used GRR which turns out were reporting marks for the Georgetown Railroad. So I decided to go with something new and fresh. So I decided upon the Appalachian Northern. It was a toss-up between that and the Appalachia River, but I thought that was too specific. The Appalachian Northern seems a little more user friendly and gives me some leeway, if I ever get expansion rights. (However, before I expand, I have to finish what I am building.) Anyway, I did a Google search for Appalachian Northern and did not get any specific hits. i then went to a website that had railroad reporting marks. ANR was already taken, but ANOR would work just as fine and no other railroad had it. So it is now the Appalachian Northern. I plan to get decal sets soon. Watch for my progress.
A.J.
17
Mar
New Page Added NVRRA Bolton (Nashua Valley Railroad Association)
Please check out my tribute page to the old NVRRA layout in Bolton.
http://www.gemperfilm.com/a-tribute-to-the-bolton-nvrra-layout/
Thanks.
28
Feb
DCC Problems
Just a quick update. After discussion with some friends and local experts on DCC. It was decided that my power supply may be going bad. So for $40 I went out and purchased a new supply and hope to get it installed this weekend or first time I get some time.
My old power supply was about 9 years old and was purchased fron Tony’s Train Exchange via mail order. Tony’s is in Vermont. These first power supplies did not come with and enclosure and so you had to buy one for it. Over the years, I understand that there could have been problems with them. But hey, I had mine for at least 9 years. I don’t know if that is normal shelf life or not, but no complaints from me.
A.J.
16
Feb
The Fun With DCC
Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right. Or you have a project you are working on and one glitch leads to another. You end up spending som much time trying to take the easy way out, you end up spending more time than what you would have done if you had done it right in the first place.
What I am talking about here is my test track. I cheaped out on the wiring and used 20 gauge wires. This worked well until I put a locomotive on it that was equipped with a QSI decoder. It programmed well but then when I flipped the switch to have the test track get mainline power, the locomotive did not respond. Frustration sets in.
So I go get my handy voltage detector and start testing everything. Well this story is not over. I replaced all the wiring except for the last foot, with 16 gauge stranded. This did the trick in that all my locomotives worked again, except this one with the QSI decoder. It is not the locomotive as it runs perfectly on the test track. So the problem has to be the last couple of feet of 20 – 22 gauge wire. So next weekend I plan to take out this wire and solder the 16 gauge wire to the track. I hope it works.
I knew that QSI locomotives drew some power, but I never ran into this problem before as the rest of my layout is wired with 14 gauge stranded bus and and 18 gauge drops. You live and learn and waste time in the process. I will let you know how it goes once I solder the 16 gauge to the track.
15
Feb
Winter Projects
It has been a snowy winter here in eastern Massachusetts. A lot of snow, but unfortunately I have not had the time to go out and get more snow pictures. After spending all the time digging out it seems the last thing on my mind is to go out again in the cold and wet and try to get some pictures of trains. Especially since the predictability and timing is harder than ever this year. I must be getting old. So this winter I have concentrated more on my model railroad.
I finally built a 10 foot straight test track. I also purchased a scale speedometer that you can get from Greenway Products or www.trainspeed.com. It took me longer than I thought to build it. What I thought would take a couple of hours, ended up taking up the better part of weekend. Now that I have it, I can check out my locomotives and adjust the speed settings, via DCC so that they can run together. I wrote an article about it for my local clubs newsletter. I will publish here after the newsletter is out. I also spent some time cleaning up my work area.
I am still in the midst of some projects. My coal mine is coming along and since I moved a piece of track I had used for programming, I now have more space for the little coal mine community. There are always things to keep me busy on my railroad. Time to fix things here and there. Regular maintenance. My home layout is roughly a 10ft by 10ft layout. It keeps me busy and it makes me wonder how some people manage to build these basement empires.
Until next time, stay warm, stay safe.
AJ
5
Jan
Updates
Hi all. I have been busy through the holidays both with model railroad and issues not related to railroading and model railroading. What I have done is manage to get the test track under way. I am about 80 percent completed with it. I will have a new programming track, a DCC and a DC test track. Basically it is two tracks that are 10 feet long. The tracks are straight with no turnouts. I am also working on putting in a speedometer so I can balance out locomotive consists. I will have more later. A.J.
28
Sep
More Railfan and MRR Pictures Added
I have slowly been going through and organizing the pictures I have taken over the years. So I have added a lot more pictures to the New England Trains Gallery. Some photos are as recent as August of 2008. Others go back to the mid 90’s or earlier.
I also wanted to show some progress of my model railroad. I have been building the New River Mine by Walthers. I have been taking my time with it. Sometimes I may only get a piece or too glued a night, but there is progress. Anyway there are some shots of this progress in the Model Railroad Gallery. You will see two interior shots of the New River Mine.
A.J.
