December 30th I finally got started on a loco project I've wanted to do for years - convert this PFM brass Great Northern P-2 Mountain from straight DC to DCC.
That turned out to be a bigger project than I was expecting. The last time the loco ran was probably 35 years ago. It ran great at that time, but during the years the loco was packed away the grease in the gearbox hardened. When I tested the loco on straight DC before starting the conversion, the motor tried to turn but the drive train was frozen! I would have to fix that as well as do the conversion.
Initially I planned to put the decoder and speaker in the usual place - the tender. But when I tried to disassemble the tender all I found in the bottom of the can were a few holes that were way too small to fit the electronics into.
If I was careful I could cut larger openings that the spine of the car would hide once reassembled, but I decided to investigate the possibility of putting the decoder and speaker into the boiler. So I started disassembling the locomotive.
As usual I took photos of every step along the way. Here I've removed the pilot truck.
A few more minutes and I had the boiler completely removed from the running gear. Here's the mechanism. It's January 1st, by the way.
When I inspected the boiler I was amazed at how much room there was inside, even with the weight installed.
I've been wanting to try out one of the Boiler Barker speakers available from Scale Sound Systems in one of my locos, and when I looked behind the smokebox cover it looked like there was plenty of room to install one. I ordered a couple of different sizes.
There also appeared to be plenty of room behind and above the boiler weight, also.
I test fitted the decoder and keep-alive in the boiler. In this shot the keep-alive is above the weight and can't be seen at all. The decoder also partially fits atop the weight. What is left sticking out has plenty of clearance above the gear tower. I wouldn't need to put anything in the tender except one connection wire for power pickup.
With the speaker for the P-2 on order and the mechanism awaiting cleaning, I turned my attention to building the next phase of Cody on the layout - the marshaling yard for Husky refinery.
As of January 3rd, this was the view of the lower level looking from the Vocation side through the peninsula and over to the Husky refinery.
This is the track plan for the yard. Pretty basic:
By January 5th I had the plywood base cut for the yard and the pieces spliced together.
The next day I moved the base to the layout to test fit it in place.
I moved the base back to the table, trimmed the end that connects to the Husky refinery base and, over the next couple of days, added the cork to the top. In this shot the cork is yet to be trimmed to the edges of the plywood.
Then it was back to the layout again, this time screwing the base to the Husky refinery section so I would know exactly what the orientation between the sections are for laying track.
Once I had the exact position of the track at the interface defined, I took the yard back to the table yet again. By January 10th I had the second of layer of cork installed for the roadbed for the mainline, and I marked out the centerlines for the yard tracks. You can see that this was a bit of trial and error, as I had to make adjustments for the turnout geometry.
Then it was back to the layout for the third time. The first switch in the yard actually spans the gap between Husky and the yard, so the safest way to get this right was to install that switch while the base was in its final position.
Here's a close-up of that turnout installed across the joint. If you look close at the first PC board tie to left of the joint you can see that this turnout is secured in place using a flathead wire brad. The other end of the turnout is also secured with a brad. This thing can't be allowed to shift at all or equipment will have a problem staying on the track through here.
Here's the view sighting down the tracks from Husky through the first yard switch. This is the best way to verify smooth trackwork.
With that first turnout located it was just a matter of installing the tracks. The yard went back to the table for the last time, and I began laying track. This is January 11th.
At this point I took a break from yard construction to tackle another job - installing lights for the lower deck. It occurred to me that it would be easier to work on Cody with more light. So the first step was to install the panel for the switch to control the lights. This is exactly the same as the one for the sections of the main deck below the upper deck, over near Douglas. The installed switch/dimmer on the right side is for the lower deck lights, while the empty box on the left is for the power switch that will someday control structure lighting power supplies for Riverton and Thermopolis.
By late in the day on January 15th, I had the outlets installed for the lighting. There are two - one for the Alkali Creek / Vocation side (under Thermopolis), and one for the Cody side (Under the Wind River Canyon). Here's the Alkali Creek-side outlet:
Over the next few days I installed all the lights, with a break of a couple days while I waited for some two-foot LEDs to arrive. During that time I worked on tracklaying in the yard, but we'll get back to that.
On the 17th I finished installation of the lights on the Vocation side of the peninsula. Here's Vocation all lit up:
By the 19th the new LEDs had arrived, so I began installing the Cody lights.
Here I'm checking the fit of a two-footer between the low hanging beams that support the bump-out of the Canyon above.
The Wind River Canyon benchwork edge weaves around a bit, so Cody does as well. Fortunately the LED butt-end connectors allow for a bit of angle between the lights:
At the end of the day on the 19th the lower deck lighting was finished. In this picture you can see how the LEDs angle around to stay roughly along the front edge of the benchwork:
I was pretty sore after crawling around under the layout for several days. That plus some non-railroad stuff kept me away from the layout for a few days. I didn't get back to work until around the 22nd. However...
While I was waiting for the two-foot lights to arrive I did do some work on the yard on the 17th and 18th. Here, on the 17th, I'm installing the ladder turnout at the east end of the yard. This, the turnout at the other end, and the yard tracks are all code 55.
On the 18th I was adding the yard tracks themselves.
I got back to the yard on the 23rd of January, after finishing up the lower deck lighting and taking the break I mentioned earlier. Here, on the 24th, all the yard tracks are complete.
Also on the 24th I extended the track power buss from the connection point under the yard to the next point, which will be near the depot and engine shed.
Over the next couple of days I added ties to all the yard turnouts and installed ground throws.
Late on the 24th the yard went back onto the layout, this time for the last time. The connection to Husky was glued and screwed in. Over the next few days I added risers and leveled the yard, then connected all the tracks to the power buss. The only thing left is to run a train into the yard, and into Husky, to test everything out. I have yet to do that.
With the yard now installed and the lighting done, I turned back to the P-2. The speakers had arrived a couple weeks earlier, and I test fit them in the smokebox. Here's the smaller one set in place:
I stopped working on things and actually ran a few trains around my own layout! Good thing, too - I found a couple locomotives that need some work, so I pulled them off the layout for now.
On February 7th I got back to the P-2. I removed the gearbox / motor assembly from the chassis:
Then I disassembled it further. Here you can see the gearbox, universal shaft and motor.
Then I disassembled the gearbox itself. You can see how over-filled it was with grease, all of which was very thick and sticky at this point.
I dug out what I could with a toothpick, then removed all the components - worm and bearings and idler gear and its bearings, and cleaned them all with mineral spirits. Here's the grease I picked out of the gearbox housing:
I let everything soak in the mineral spirits for an hour or so, then went back and picked out more of the now softening grease. I wiped everything down with 90% alcohol to remove the mineral spirits residue. Here's the gearbox housing halves after being cleaned:
