My channel contains videos about my model railroad (The Clear Lake Timber Company), and also contains some videos of Space Shuttle flight crew training sessions recorded in the Shuttle Mission Simulator at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Very nice video and excellent details on your layout. I enjoyed it a lot. Very nice modeling. I am building a mountain standard gauge RR with many scratch built bridges. I was (and still am) a very big John Allen fan) which kind of set the stage for building a mountain road w/steep grades since I was a young kid seeing his layout in MR and RMC. I am currently trying to find a way to mass produce Evergreen trees in the least amount of time. (I need roughly 500-600 of them I would say. I have made the twisted wire type tress, which look excellent but they take a while. I probably will stick with that method, but always looking for new ideas. Your trees look excellent. I will take a guess and ask if you made them with the furnace filter method. They look really good no matter what method you used! I just wanted to say hi and complement you on a job very well done. You did an excellent job. All the best from the Jersey Shore. Phil
Hi, Phil, and thanks for the kind words. Yeah, who isn't a John Allen fan? With respect to trees, I tried the caspia fern branches glued into a balsa wood trunk on a previous layout. While they looked nice, they took a lot of time. The evergreen trees you see on my layout today were made from a material kit from Coastman Scenic Products. Their stuff is, I think, similar in concept to the furnace filter technique (though I haven't tried it), only using their unique product that is presumably better than furnace filter material. They go together faster than the caspia fern method, but still take a little time. They provide pre-made tapered real cedar trunks plus sheets of the green stuff. You tear the green stuff into the size and shape you need and slip them down on the trunk from the pointy end, then follow up with green foam flocking secured with hair spray. I think the result is good for the amount of effort involved. Naturally, there is some expense involved. I have about 200 trees on my layout, but have forgotten how much they cost. You might check out their website at www.coastmans.com. Regards. Carl
@@CarlBrainerd Thanks Carl for your reply. I will definitely check your link out as well. I haven't started making my Colorado type evergreen trees yet other than about 10 that I may about 5 years ago as a test. I see some videos where people mass produce the twisted wire type and I guess with some kind of jig (to twist the wire easily as I've seen some people use) it might be doable on a large scale. Your trees look very good so I am interested in checking your link as well. I really like your buildings and how you fit them into the various scenes. I have made many scratch built bridges to scale, (I made about 25 of them...John Allen inspired), but have done very little to making buildings. (Other then some RTV molds I made of old Magnuson kits and cast my own wall sections in resin.) I want to make more wooden type buildings as to me they have a lot more personality. If only there were more hours in the day. It seems there is never enough time to do all the projects one wants to build!. Thanks for your input. I appreciated your response. Phil
Besides the great layout, I'd like to commend the excellent camera work and narration. Really made the video so much more enjoyable to get to see everything in detail, with enough time and without music. Super stuff! Greetings from Sweden
Sadly, the simulator is not operational. It is a static display only. The museum had no space for the computer complex and it would have taken an estimated 50,000 labor hours to reassemble it and run the miles of cables involved and to install the motion system hardware. Then it would have taken a large staff to keep it running (like it had when it was operational operational). So, basically really impractical. In addition, the museum had a requirement that the display be moveable, so we put wheels under it. But moveability would not have been possible with the entire complex hooked up. The images on the cockpit displays are hard copies taken from videos recorded when the last Shuttle crew was training (see the videos elsewhere on this channel). The hard copies were printed on photo paper and are stuck to the face of the displays with double-stick tape, and came out looking pretty good all considered. The original videos play on a video monitor in the rear of the cockpit and also on a display outside the cockpit, and the audio is piped into the cockpit using the original aural cue speakers. I wish we could display the videos "live" on the displays, but that would have required replacing the displays with non-prototypical LED monitors and considerable effort to engineer a system to drive the displays with multiple time-synchronized video feeds. Once again, beyond the capability of the museum.
I believe this layout represents model railroading at its finest; It accomplishes what many warehouse-filling layout don't in that it provides in immersive experience. I paused the video at one point and when I came back, it took me a moment to remember that I wasn't looking at a photograph of a woodland railroad. Very well conceived and executed. You created a functional railroad in a small space that is a work of art, and doesn't feel small at all!
Thanks so much for the kind words. I think "functional" is the key. The railroad has an obvious purpose and is able to operate in a realistic way, i.e. to "function". No going in circles around a spaghetti bowl...... I still find it interesting that although the railroad is actually small by any normal measure, the cab ride doesn't seem so small (of course slow speeds help with that). Anyway, I am pleased with the outcome.
Hello Carl, I love your layout. Nice work! I’m building my layout for the first time. A logging camp. Your layout gives me a lot of ideas. I really like the log loading crane and I want to build it. But I just can’t see the details of it. Like how it turns, and the cables and where they go, and what powers it up. Any suggestions to help me out? Thanks, John
John, the loading crane was part of a Sun Coast Models kit. It had a little "power house" shed structure where the cables terminated, but there's nothing inside and the instructions did not address what might be in there. Since my crane sits near the back of the layout I didn't worry much about such details. The base of the crane has a round turntable-like device that the cables from the shed wrap around. It appears that it rotates based on pulling on one side or the other of the cables wrapping around that turntable thing. So that's two cables going from the crane to the shed. There are two more cables going back there, one for raising and lowering the boom and another for raising and lowering the hook. Sorry there doesn't seem to be any way to put a photo in these replies. I hope that helps a little bit. Carl
Hello Carl, thank you for responding to my earlier question regarding the models on your layout. What kits are the two engine houses on your layout. Thank you Lynn
Lynn, the engine house near the sawmill is from Micro-Scale Models, and the one in the logging camp is from Master Creations. I thought both were pretty neat and just right for the railroad.
I have never seen a video done in such a concise manner. A crisp explanation of the operation and then a great show of the operation without talking or other interuption. Thankyou...well done.
Carl this video is so good ❤ no words would justified my feeling on how great your rail road is 👍👍👍 Now I'm going to look at all your videos you have noted
Mike, no, I bought the replacement gear set some years ago, most likely on eBay. I wish I'd bought 2 or 3 sets now, but at the time I only had one Shay so one set seemed like enough. Now, like you, I cannot find any more. I check eBay every now and then but so far without any success. I'm guessing that most, if not all, of them have been installed in broken Shays by now and NWSL is no longer making them. Good luck to all of us!
@@CarlBrainerd , thanks Carl. I thought that might be the case…wishful thinking. I did send NWSL an email to see if they were going to make another run. Best wishes, Mike
Thanks for the sharp eyes. I will be looking closely at the tender trucks sometime soon because I think the whole tender body is sitting too low and possibly shorting out between the rear steps and the track. Once, so far, I have actually seen a spark there. So a new look at the tender is coming as this long drawn-out saga continues.
Thank you for the video. I found an Earlier English's kit of the same tooling this morning hiding at the back of a NYC hobby shop with no documentation and this will be a big help.
You mentioned the brand of the building kits you used, but I didn't catch it. Sounded like "MicroSkillKits"...is that correct ? Can't seem to find it. Thanks.
The structures are all kit-built. They came from various manufacturers. The primary ones were Micro-Scale Models and Master Creations for all the "large" buildings, i.e. the sawmill, engine houses, and industries.. Others were JV Models, Precision Lasercraft, Evergreen Hill, plus one from Fine Scale Miniatures.
well done sir..looks fantastic...Brass makes a difference, i have two Rivarossi 0-4-0 A5's that run decent, but using your vid to give me ideas..Nice build. thanks for sharing.
I feel your pain, brother. Those Bachmann Shays, Climaxes, etc. are very disappointing. I also got suckered into buying more than my fair share of HO and On30 units. My problem is that I have the geared loco monkey on my back making bad decisions. And now NWSL isn't making much in the way of replacement gears any more. Ah well. The Bachmann parts store sometimes have replacements, but I'm not so sure I want to throw more money at Bachmann for something that is likely to fail in a similar fashion. Rumor has it that the replacements are better. I'm not so sure. As you found out, if the gears themselves don't fail, there are still a number of other items made from the same plastic to fail. (couplings, joints, etc.) Thanks for the video. Always good to see updates to your layout, etc. On my next layout, I will be "borrowing" some of your benchwork construction ideas. :)
Thanks for your note. Yeah, I'm done with Bachmann, too, unless they start using metal gears, and even then I'd be wary. My next big project may be an MDC Shay with can motor replacement and NWSL replacement gears. I have all the parts on the shelf (for the last 30 years, ha!). Just a matter of getting to it. That darn geared locomotive bug bit me, too. Not an easy road......
You can set the metal gears on the burner of a coffee maker for 30 seconds or so then install on shaft with your pliers, make sure you have a little back-lash on the gears by moving gears slightly on the shaft to increase or decrease endplay.
Yeah, it seems pretty likely. I have started watching eBay for anybody selling the regear kits, but so far there don't seem to be any out there for sale.
@@CarlBrainerd contact NWSL and ask if they are making more. I did last night, they said it’s being considered but no eta. If more people ask though, more likely I’d bet. They have a contact section on their website
@@tcepilotGood idea! I also sent them a note and told them every Shay Bachmann ever made probably needs this kit. I also suggested they make the hole in the gears a little larger....
Two of my three Shays were also essentially NIB, too, with minimal running time. I got them at an estate sale. You may find those old gears already split out of the box. I hope not, though, so you can enjoy a little running time before they fail.
While temperature does indeed affect size of metal parts, my gut feel is that the difference here is a lot greater than such a temperature difference could deal with. But I didn't even think of trying it.....
Great video. I need to do this as well. One question - the shafts on the universal joints are also disconnecting on my shay. Doesn't supergluing them defeat the universal joint action? And once glued in place do all the truck shafts have to come out in one piece? (truck one to power, power to truck two and truck two to truck three? Thanks for posting. -Scott H
No, the universal joint function is not affected by gluing the joint "fixed" end onto the shafts. The little square rod that sticks out still articulates freely, and that is where the universal joint function happens. So the joints between trucks still operate normally, i.e. they slide in and out as needed for going around curves. Each truck can still be removed individually.
Very nice layout and tour, beautiful is more accurate. As far as coal mining in the PNW, probably a political thing and rightly disregarded in Model Railroading and elsewhere. Thank you for the tour.
Same theme 76 yrs old will i make it ?? have all the buildings and room and no lay out yet ,like the idea of tug boats which i have different types etc wish you had a book on this great lay out thank you for any reply.trees lay out track ho .tips for pine trees very costly .
Hi, Louie. Thanks for commenting. I was 69 when I started building the railroad (77 now). You can do it! I don't have a book, so my videos on the my RU-vid channel will have to do. You might want to check out the one about building the railroad. I used Micro Engineering code 70 #6 turnouts. My flex track is code 70, whatever I had on hand (I think mostly Shinohara/Walthers). I used Blue Point turnout controllers connected directly to knobs on the fascia via dowel rods. For the "pine" trees I used material kits from Coastmans Scenic Products. They probably cost more than using Caspia fern branches from the craft store, but I think they went together a lot faster. Good luck on building yours.
Again, absolutely a beautiful layout! Im also building a point to point logging layout (also ho scale) named “ Black River Logging” I have scratch built my saw mill and want to scratch build a 2 stall engine house like the one on your layout as my locomotives are a 3 truck Shay and a 2 truck Heisler. I was wondering i f could bother you for at least the dimensions of how far between the tracks center to center and the height of the door. This would give me an idea on how big to build the shed Thank you in advance! If this not possible please disregard my request. Watching your Clear Lake Timber videos has been a huge inspiration for me! Thanks again Dick
Dick, glad to help. My engine house (the main engine house near the sawmill) was a kit from Micro-Scale, so the dimensions were fixed. The track centers are 2" apart, laid to fit the kit dimensions. This worked out fine, but there was little room between the tracks inside the engine house for adding detail. just a narrow strip of detailing stuff. The height of the doors is 2 3/8" above the railhead. One thing to pay attention to is the door width. Mine are 1 3/4" wide (the opening). I found out that the cylinders on my Heisler (Rivarossi) stick out the side so as to make it my widest locomotive. It just barely fits through the doors, so the placement of the engine house had to be very precisely centered on the tracks to avoid contact with those protruding cylinder heads. Since you're scratch building, you have the luxury of adjusting this stuff. You might benefit from an extra quarter inch or so on the door widths. My other engine house, the smaller one in the log camp, was a Master Creations kit. It also was built around 2" track centers. The comments above about door width apply here, too. This particular kit, being smaller, turned out to be not quite long enough for either a 3-truck Shay or a 3-truck Heisler to fit into completely, so they hang out the door. Good idea to double-check the length since you're running a 3-truck Shay. By the way, my Shays are the Bachmann models. They all have suffered driveline gear failures. Right now I am struggling with trying to install a NWSL re-gear kit into one of them as a pathfinder for my other two. It's not an easy swap. Wish me luck!
Carl, Thank you so much for the information it will be extremely helpful. Yes after watching the video at the end when that Heisler pulled into the stall i was saying to myself wow thats close!! I will certainly give the doors a 1/4” extra on the cylinder side. My Shay is a Bachmann Spectrum and the Heisler is a Rivarossi also.i haven’t had any gear issues yet but after seeing your work and detail on the Clear Lake Timber layout I’m sure you’ll have no problem with the gear kit!! Good luck and thank you again!
I noticed the front wheel set on the rear tender truck not rolling well. I've built 3 of these 1 with the open frame motor and 2 with the can and gear box. one of the gear box versions has a bit of a hitch when I don't keep the rear loco axle oiled ,I probably should of opened that saddle just a bit more .
What a fantastic layout. You have managed to pack a lot in and at the same time avoiding making the layout too crowded. I was wondering that when you cut and inclined the ply trackbed the plan dimensions would've become slightly shorter. Where little make up bits required or was the difference insignificant?
No, I didn't notice any such effect, although I recognize it is mathematically/theoretically possible. Even with a 5% grade, I guess the climb angle is still pretty small trigonomically speaking. So, no noticeable problem.
Just stumbled on your channel and love the videos and your methodical, unrushed style of presenting. As a modeller it is always good to see 'behind the scenes' and how you have tackled both the construction of the railroad and the practicalities of moving it. Presumably the completed, assembled railroad had to be slid into it's final position against the walls? Was this straight forward? Did it need lots of helpers to push it?
Yes, actually there was quite a bit of moving the layout sections and the whole thing once assembled, due to the need to get behind it to work fasteners and also the limited dimensions of the room. But with wheels on all the legs and a hard floor (ceramic tile) to roll on, it rolled pretty easy and I did it all without help. It hung up a little bit when wheels rolled into the grout lines, but a little "persuasion" got it rolling again. Then there was a final move into the final position. Now I find that it's easy to accidentally move it a little bit if I lean against it.
I also preplanned my hon3 logging layout so that it can be moved in one piece. It is 96”x52” and no greater than 24” high. The rolling legs are on a separate structure so the layout comes off. It will take a person at each corner and tipped sideways it will fit through a standard bedroom door opening. No worse than moving a full sized freezer/refrigerator.
Incredible, like watching and listening to Bob Ross do a painting. One of the best layout moves I've seen performed. It is all in the pre-planning it appears. Well done!
Incredibly detailed layout sir. Your video brings back some wonderful memories of my father, who loved geared Shay locomotives. He built a beautiful Sierra Nevada logging layout. He would be 89 this year.
Hi Carl. I too have built my layout in modules (about 20) with a manual so that someone can disassemble / reassemble when the time comes. All the buss wires are below deck so I don't have an electronics cabinet but you have convinced me of the wisdom of that. Well done on the move and congratulations on the restart assembly!!!
