Canfield

Some of this year’s motive power additions - at least so far! A few more Atlas RS-3’s, another GP-7 with torpedo tubes, and decoders in a whole host of my DC fleet.

Coming soon, thanks to ScaleTraxx - an actual model of C173!

After much consideration and just in time for the start of Q2 I’ve decided to leave the Cuyahoga Valley Terminal Model Railroad Club, redecorate the CVT equipment I made for my new fictional railroad - the Cleveland, Richfield, Akron, & Pacific - and turn Canfield into a model of Parma. This allows for the line’s acronym to be pronounced more like “crepe”. Now to figure out how to rename this page before I set to work on my new CRAP layout!

Been working on the railroad a little. Bachmann sound value Alco detailing, full Tsunami2 upgrade, LED replacement (WHY do they use orange!?), and the start of some weathering. Train shown has just dropped the first two flatcars at the lumber yard which finally has track. Both east side industries soldered to the crossing, but still need feeders before scenery which has been slowly progressing at the north end. Not shown, south end has been prepped for the west coal dock. Not sure what will drop next regarding motive power projects, a trio (!!!) of Atlas EL RS-3’s, or the Baldwin AS-616 duo. First is waiting on finding a good match for Atlas EL yellow for detail parts, the latter is waiting on a path forward for sound decoders. Maybe a certain long wheelbase Russian will beat out both!? Or maybe that PA led passenger special seen in the research photos will win out!? What WHAT!!! Stay tuned….

The first train I ever chased, at the age of 11 or 12 with the help of my maternal grandma, was a Youngstown & Southern train running north through Boardman, OH that comprised of a well-worn P&LE SW-1500, a beat up empty gondola, and the Y&S’s former P&LE (originally UP) caboose 32 in pale and rusty NYC green. Recently an HO model of the caboose in P&LE livery showed up on eBay and I couldn’t resist doing my best to model that train from memory. Follow along as the Y&S of 1992 travels back in time and about 10 miles to the west to visit Canfield in 1965!

The Arduino based DCC-EX with JMRI throttle was tested last night, and the end of DC operations is 5 encoder installs away. 5 you ask? There’s only 3 F3 units!…yeah, well…sometimes you have to strike while the Atlas EL RS-3 iron is hot. EL details and some encoders on their way, more to come! Thanks to IA Engineering as well, hoping to test my ProtoThrottle soon! Would say this weekend, but the weather looks good - plenty of Ohio winter to go, need to enjoy this while I can!

With all of the visible switches now controlled from the front fascia and tested (still have to wire up the frogs), I decided to switch gears a little to something more…detail oriented. Full set of track details to install before painting, with track this close to your eyes I really want it to stand out! A few joint bars tonight, lots more to come!

With everything cleaned up after a summer of outside projects, work on Canfield has started to pick up again. First off was finishing the last of the visible switch machine installs, followed by work on the front fascia to allow mounting of the “aircraft” style toggles I’ll use to control them (pull out then move, once released they lock into place). In addition, I secured the rest of an Athearn ABA set of F7s with factory installed sound, and am working on my DCC EX with JMRI install. With a ProtoThrottle in order, it’s shaping up to be an exciting winter! Finally, got some stock certificates that cover the history of the line and mounted them.

Come visit my club's open house this fall and see their layout depicting what is now the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad in action! Set in the post-WWII era, depicting a fictional railroad that took the Cleveland to Canton railroad over instead of it being sold to the B&O, this layout depicts the industrial centers of Cleveland, Akron, and Canton, along with the beautiful countryside that joins them.

I recently attended a business meeting of my local model railroad club, and the members present immediately started to ask about my layout and how research was going (which - PS - I'd say it's going very well!). I mentioned the following to them, but thought it was worth putting in one location for anyone in Ohio with similar interests in historical images. ODOT has a LOT of digital historical imagery online - all you need is the desktop version of Google Earth, and the following KML file from ODOT. Open Google Earth, open the KML file, and start looking around our fine state - images are grouped by selectable decades and years, and are (roughly) geolocated for easy finding! Attached you'll see a image from March of 1965, about 7 or 8 months before the timeframe I'm aiming to model, with the proposed modeled area cordoned off for reference.

https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/working/engineering/cadd-mapping/survey/aerial-imagery

https://www.google.com/earth/versions/

As warm weather starts to wane, and the days get a little shorter, I've started to resume work on Canfield. Mostly in the form of cleaning, organizing, thinking through some landscaping options, joining my local model railroad club to accelerate acquisition of aged or new skills - but all in preparation for some great progress. I wanted to give a huge thank you to my new friend, Bob, for his research on the branch and his willingness to organize and share the information via the website below. Without him, without this information, I wouldn't have such high goals to shoot for. The historical research has truly been one of the joys thus far. For attention, and to show I'm not just kidding, here's an updated picture of my kitbashed model of 301 as it sat near Rt. 62 in the early 80's. This was my introduction and the thing that cemented my love of trains, so I had to model it - even if it is 20 years outside the target date. More to come, thanks for the interest! PS, DC pack shown for now as I run trains and troubleshoot, but am working on an Arduino-based DCC EX implementation with JMRI on an old laptop with the goal of controlling EL F-units with a Protothrottle in the next 12 months. https://nilesandnewlisbonrr.com/

Passing of the torch. On the left, an A-A set of Athearn blue box F-7’s painted by my childhood friend’s older brother that were the stars of my old 6x12 layout in my parent’s basement. On the right, the new stars of my Canfield layout - an A-B-A set of Athearn Genesis F-7’s in Erie/EL transition paint. DC for now, while I start troubleshooting my track work while wrapping up wiring and switch machine installs. End goal is to have sound encoders and a Protothrottle, but a lot of work to do before that! Spent a lot of time detailing the B&O units, only to have the Erie units be better detailed and more accurate out of the box - incredible what the last 20 years has done to this hobby!

No matter how much planning one puts in, it seems you can never eliminate the issues that seem to arise when constructing a model even of this modest size. My first major obstacle showed up when my Walther’s switch machines arrived, having been ordered as soon as I completed my 3/4” bench work with 1” foam. Add to that 1/4” for the Woodland Scenics Trackbed, and the operating rods were about 1/8” to 1/4” too short to engage the turnouts.

The only solution I was able to find online was a YouTube video showing someone use a router to thin the plywood under the switches. I decided that wasn’t a workable solution for me, and instead ordered some 8” long pieces of High Strength Steel (HSS) 1.2 mm diameter rod from Amazon.

My original intent was to bend these into direct drop in replacements of the original Walther’s parts, but two things prevented that from happening - I couldn’t seem to heat the steel up sufficiently to get a 90-degree bend without the rod snapping, and the diameter was slightly larger than the factory piece requiring the base pivot point be drilled to a larger size thus reducing the thickness of the already thin plastic.

So like any good electrical engineer, when I hit these obstacles I reached for the universal glue of heat shrink tubing and zip ties! This approach involves using steel wire cutters to chop the factory rod off just below the servo body, and mechanically attaching the straight aftermarket rod to it, allowing the servo mechanism to act on the aftermarket longer rod while the original rod acts as the pivot point. The first attempt used only heat shrink, and while this appeared to be sufficient I decided a belt and suspenders approach for something mounted under the bench work was the best approach, so I added zip ties at the top and bottom of the heat shrink for added support.

So far this method seems to work well, and I’ll try to follow up here with reports of the long term use of these modified machines. As usual, be aware this may void all warranties, don’t try this at home, your mileage may vary, etc.

Why Canfield?

At the age of 3 my family moved to Canfield, OH, and I would spend the next 15 years there until moving to Akron for college. One of my earliest memories of Canfield was begging my parents for another trip to visit and play on the rusty old steam engine in town, YS&T 301 which is now under roof at the Canfield Fairgrounds. But by the time we moved to town, we were about 3 years too late to see any actual rail traffic there - but the signs and roadbed remained, more than enough for a young imagination.

As my love of trains grew to include HO modeling, I resorted to modeling the railroad closest to me - the B&O through Youngstown, OH. It was a modest 6x12' HO layout that my dad sold a prized hunting rifle to fund. It lived, with minimal scenery, until the summer of 2001.

With trains in my blood, I resorted to arm chair modeling, and found a renewed focus on steam railroad preservation when my childhood favorite NKP 765 came out of her second major rebirth in 2005. Over the next 15 years I put myself behind the throttle, and on work crews, as often as my busy work life would allow - which was never enough. In 2012 I dipped my toe back into modeling with a door-sized O-27 layout to at least get my Lionel out of the boxes.

But it wasn't enough. One house move later, and a copy of AnyRail, and I was dreaming about where to stick a layout. My ultimate goal was - and still is - an HO representation of Akron's JO Interlocking in the mid-70's, when you could find EL, PC, and Chessie on one of the two double-track mains that crossed in a downtown canyon filled with busy rail.

But the real estate that will require isn't in the cards right now, nor is it a layout I want to undertake without dusting off some skills. I originally was going to fill a room in our finished basement with a switching layout, but during the pandemic I elected to turn 2/3 of the room into a yoga/relaxation room for my better half. With even less space available, I started drawing up plans for a slightly larger Timesaver layout.

But an article in Model Railroader about the website Historical Aerials had me look my hometown of Canfield in late 2021, and the first image I found changed my direction and set it in stone all at once. I could model Canfield, mid-1960's when the depot was still there, and have most of the rolling stock still usable on my eventual Akron layout. The track arrangement was interesting, with a 30° crossing to clear the grain silos while still providing service to neighboring businesses. It was on the old Erie Lisbon Branch of the Mahoning Division, known as the "rollercoaster" to its crews, frequently requiring ample horsepower for the length of train. Best of yet, it saw a diverse set of motive power - but typically utilized two of my favorites, EMD F units in 3 or 4-unit consists, or on lighter days a couple Alco RS-3's.

I was - and remain - in love with this layout. The ability to model an area I'm familiar with, in a timeframe before my time. A chance to give my eyes the sight of 3-coupled F-units switching the grain silo in town, before coupling to a long cut of empty coal hoppers for the mines in Lisbon.

So with that, the layout was born. I decided early on to capture my efforts here, to help and encourage others to start planning and acting on the modeling of their dreams. No better time than right now! Thanks for following along!