Pikes Peak "N" Gineers Model Railroad Club

THE RAILHEAD

Important Dates
Layout Hours and Address
Just a reminder
Club Calendar, Part 2
Our growing library
Thanks, Larry, for the wire
Joe's laid up
Joe and Rick get under way
MicroTrains July release
Reopened passenger line
Rails and curvature
AEI tags
A pile driving project!

The club's main June activity was participating in the NMRA's Regional Convention, The Rocky Mountain Gold Train Show, which took place June 12 & 13, 1999 in the Denver Merchandise Mart at I-25 & 58th Avenue.

As usual, plenty of club members turned out to support the club effort and have fun. Typically, club members arrived at the club well before the appointed 10:30 time Friday morning, June 11, to load Joe's trailer for the trip up to Denver. The many helping hands made loading quick and easy. Our esteemed superintendent showed up at 10:40 and almost missed everybody. We were leaving!

The trek north was uneventful. Again many hands rolled our gear into the Merchandise Mart. Our layout was set up and running in about 40 minutes. Club members helping the club load and set up included Steve, Scott, Joe, Rick, Mike, Lois, Craig, and Charley.

The following Saturday morning found us running trains at the appointed opening time.

We had fun Saturday. Everybody got to run trains and show off our equipment and layout. We also had plenty of opportunity to visit with manufacturers, vendors, and other clubs. There were 21 layouts in various scales. Some of the scenery was simply outstanding. If a person, didn't come away inspired with new modeling ideas, he must have been in a coma.

Our Sunday operations were fun. They went just as smoothly and trouble-free as Saturday's were.

Following the examples set by other clubs around, we started to break down our traveling layout on Sunday well before the scheduled 6:00 pm time. We were out of the Merchandise Mart in 29 minutes flat. We didn't rush, either.

Club members helping Saturday and Sunday included our Dispatcher, Joe, and Rick, Mike, Sam, Vicki, Lois, Jim, Craig, Glenn, Jeff, Don, Paul, and Charley.

In all, 15 members helped the club in some way for this event. Out of about 24 or so local members, that ain't bad at all.

Public attendance at this NMRA Regional Convention was poor. The vendors were apparently promised 8,000 to 10,000 attendees. Unofficial reports said that 600 people visited on Saturday, June 12, and less came on Sunday. General observation suggests that the reports are close to being true. By 4 pm on Saturday, there were more exhibitors in the exhibition hall than there were visitors. The same could be said at times on Sunday. That was truly a shame.

Discussions with various vendors and other clubs suggested that a contributing reason for this sorry situation could have been the fact that this was the first year that the NMRA was at the Merchandise Mart instead of at the National Western Complex.

But, the almost universal feeling suggested that the NMRA failed to adequately advertise its convention in Colorado and surrounding states. After all, this was supposed to have been a regional convention, not a state or city convention.

On the bright side, one of the truly great things about the convention was the fact that one could see many layouts in one place. There were some pretty good ones, too, which provided ample opportunity to learn and have fun. Sam got some pretty good pictures. He was kind enough to temporarily leave his at the club so that we all can take a look and enjoy them.

Webmaster's Note:  Meeting minutes will not be published on the website.
PPNG members may obtain minutes from the Stationmaster.

Jul 12: Board of Directors meet
Jul 16: Business Meeting followed by Master Modeler Craig Kleinman's Painting and Decal Clinic. Take notes and learn!
Aug 9: Board of Directors meet
Aug 20: Business Meeting followed by a scenery clinic!
Aug 22, 1999 (Sunday): Club Picnic at the Palmer Lake Pavilion.
Sep 13: Board of Directors meet
Sep 17: Business Meeting
Oct 9: Slim Rails' Swap Meet.
Oct 9 &10: PPNG Open House.
Oct 11: Board of Directors meet
Oct 15: Business Meeting
Oct16: Club's Tenth Anniversary Party! Yup, gang, we are ten (count 'em, 10!) years old on October 13, 1999.
Nov 8: Board of Directors meet
Nov 19: Business Meeting
Nov 26, 27, 28: Thanksgiving Open House
Dec 11, 12: Christmas Open House
Dec 13: Board of Directors meet
Dec 17: Business Meeting

Much has been donated to the club over its 9++ year history. Some of this are magazines. We have many issues of Model Railroader, Model Railroad Craftsman, N Scale, Trains, NMRA Bulletin, Rail Model Journal, to name some.

I have been creating a list of these. Once finished, the list will be in our Maintenance of Way store room along with the magazines. They have a wealth of information about all aspects of the hobby as well as the railroad prototype.

Larry Cothren showed up at the club a couple of Fridays ago. In his hands was a nice sized spool of multi-stranded telephone cable in a number of glorious colors. This thin gauge wire will be ideal for use as feeder wire from our tracks.

Thanks, Larry, for your donation. No doubt Kirt will use most of it when he gets a chance to start wiring our freight yards.

Joe met a doctor. The doctor chewed on Joe. Joe's arm is now in a sling.

Let's hope that Joe recovers soon.

While most of us are doing things other than model railroading, Joe drafted Rick to be his arms and hands.

Joe and Rick planned, cut wood and assembled a set of shelves for our traveling layout in the club store room. The shelves allow us to make better use of the space the layout had occupied. Not only are the modules up and safely out of the way, the traveling layout box, which is more frequently becoming better known as "The Coffin," also has a place.

Many thanks to Joe and Rick for their hours of work in making a good idea into reality.

As usual, MicroTrains is releasing some new cars in July. Noteworthy is the fact that the new releases include a two car set of AT&SF tank cars.

Run, don't walk, to get these cars. The prediction is that they'll evaporate quickly.

For the first time in 32 years, regular passenger rail service through 1,053-foot-deep Royal Gorge, known as "the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas," is scheduled to resume Saturday from the historic Santa Fe depot in downtown Canon City.

Last weekend, the Canon City & Royal Gorge Railroad completed negotiations to acquire the station, built in 1913, for a restaurant, gift shop and ticket sales. The tourist railroad bought an existing 25 year lease form a restaurant operator, said railroad spokesman Mark Greksa.

The station is just south of U.S. 50 on Third Street. Trains depart at 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. Tickets cost $24.50 for adults and $16.50 for children ages 3 to 12. For more information, call 1-888-RAILS-4U.

The reconditioned, bright-yellow, 50 year-old streamliner-style diesel "executive fleet locomotives" of the railroad's Royal Gorge Line will pull vintage passenger coach cars built by the Canadian Car & Foundry in 1954.

Passengers will ride west along the Arkansas River into the gorge and across the fabled "Hanging Bridge," which supports the tracks above the river through the narrowest part of the gorge, where the canyon walls are only 30 feet apart.

Although the two-hour round trip covers only 24 miles, it offers riders a view that promoters a century ago described as "the most arresting scenic site in all of American railroading."

The train will include one open car for those who wish to photograph the Hanging Bridge and Royal Gorge bridge, more than 1,000 feet above at the top of the gorge.

En route, passengers will see remains of at least two old rock "forts" built by opposing railroad companies vying to push a rail line through the gorge. At the site of the Hanging Bridge, there is room for only a single set of tracks.

That natural bottleneck produced the "Royal Gorge War," which saw more fireworks in court than along the route, as both The Denver and Rio Grand and the Santa Fe Railroad competed to open a route west.

The first passenger train through the gorge arrived in Salida in 1880, and two years later the Royal Gorge route became a transcontinental link between Denver and Salt Lake City, via Marshall Pass.

The opening of the Moffat Tunnel in 1928 offered passengers an alternative route through Glenwood Springs.

Daily passenger service between Denver and Salida through the gorge was discontinued in July 1967.

[For a more personal view of the Canon City & Royal Gorge Railroad, talk to our own Greg Pitman, who was fortunate enough to ride in the diesel locomotive's cab with the engineer. Wow! Has Greg got tales to tell.]

Sam says, "I have been reading of 56-pound rails and 15 degree curvature and repeating it as if I knew exactly what it meant. I have a general idea, but I would appreciate it if one or more of the wizards lurking herein could share with me a more detailed explanation.

"For rail that is qualified by weight, is this the weight of one foot of rail? If so, are different 100 pound rails comparable? Given the different geometries possible with an I-beam, a 100 pound rail from one manufacturer could have distinctly different characteristics than one from another manufacturer."

William responds. "The weight of rail is the approximate weight for one yard. There can be variations of the design of a rail section within each weight classification, reflecting differences in the shape and size of the railhead, the base of the rail, and the thickness and height of the rail web. 100# rail happens to be a section for which many railroads had their own standard in the early part of the century. There are also industry standard sections sanctioned by the American Railway Engineering Association (AREA) and predecessor associations. Modern rail is heavier, with 115, 119, 132, and 136 pound sections common.

JLS adds, "Rail sizes, as you stated in pounds per yard, are marked on each rail at the time of rolling. This marking includes an identification of the rails section. Examples are 9020 for 90# Great Northern, 9010 for 90# Northern Pacific (they cannot be joined to each other without special "compromise joints"), 100RE for 100# RE section (a predecessor of AREA), and 132 AREA. Also marked is the year of rolling, and the mill, sometimes the country, and often the "heat" from the mill."

Then, Sam asks, "For curvature of so many degrees, is this the displacement from a straight line after so many feet? How are the degrees calculated or determined?"

William clarifies, "If you assume that the curve is circular, and place a 100 foot cord across a section of the curve, the degrees making up that section of the curve is degree of curvature. To measure it practically in the field, a sixty two foot piece of string is stretched along one of the rails in the curve. At the mid-point, the distance is measured from the string to the rail. That distance, in inches, corresponds to degree of curvature.

Steam and diesel engineer, JLS, adds, "To add to your comments, a curve of 1 degree has a radius of approximately 5730 feet. To find the approximate radius of any other curve, simply divide 5730 by the degree of curvature.

"In a main track, curves of 1 degree (let's see, that's 65 foot radius in HO!) or less can be taken at high speed of 70 or 80 m.p.h., but anything less will probably require slowing. A 6 degree curve at 40 m.p.h. will get your conductor's attention in a hurry, as it will slide stuff off tables in diners and parlor/observations. (Not only that, it's sharp enough that on a left hand curve, an engineer cannot see any track in front of a medium size steamer, such as a Mikado). 10 degrees is sharp! (Does anyone know of any class 1 mainline, besides the Milwaukee, that had 10 degree curves in its main)? Twenty degrees is about the limit for an eight coupled steam locomotives, though UP's 4-12-2's were designed for 22 degree curves found in engine terminals! 40 degrees is the absolute limit for something like an Alco S-1 diesel switcher coupled to a 40 foot box car on industrial trackage."

Trains speeding along curves leads to mention of superelevation. John Armstrong explains, "To compensate for the effect of centrifugal force [caused by speeding around curves], the outer rail on a curve may be raised (super-elevated) to tip the cars inward. The... superelevation or "banking,"...the difference in elevation between the two rails, [is] also referred to as "cross-level"...."

Ken adds comments about superelevation. "In the real world, in the United States, there is a formula which is now enforced as a regulation by the Department of Transportation. The maximum superelevation is 6". This is imposed to keep trains which have to stop on a superelevated curve from toppling over and undoubtedly has a big safety margin.

"The DOT formula relates the maximum allowed speed (S) in m.p.h. on a curve to the amount of superelevation (SE) in inches and to the radius of the curve (D) in degrees:
S = sqrt((SE + 3)/(0.0007*D))
where sqrt indicates that you must take the square root of the quantity in the outer parentheses. The DOT also imposes a maximum speed of 110 m.p.h. on any trackage unless prior permission has been obtained.

"So to be accurate, you can use any amount of SE up to 0.0375" (N scale). Because of the way dynamics [works], scale SE is not necessary on model railroads-it is only used for cosmetic purposes."

Geoff adds that for operation in N, you probably don't want any superelevation (banking). As referenced in another reply, the "scale" height is almost unnoticeable. In our scale, the forces of drag from the end of the train are far more noticeable that the forces of centrifugal force. For example, "you are more likely to have the train topple inward on a curve than fly off the outer edge.... This is compounded by the relatively sharp curves modelers use."

"To ponder further on our sharp curves, a 24" radius in N scale is equal to 320' in the prototype. This is an 18 degree curve-relatively sharp for a mainline."

3645 Jeannine Drive, Suite 108

Tuesday: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Fridays: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Saturday: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Thirty years ago, railways in North America began searching for a system that would allow them to automatically identify rail cars. In the late 1960's, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) adopted an optical identification system that used color-coded labels. These labels were mounted on each side of the rail car. This system was called Automatic Car Identification. All rail car owners were required by the AAR to install these labels on their cars. This requirement lead to the full scale implementation in the early 1970's.

Unfortunately, because dirt accumulated on the labels, and the labels began to deteriorate with age, the system's accuracy was much less than expected. ACI was eventually abandoned in the late 1970's.

Burlington Northern was the first railway in North America to start the search again for an identification system. Burlington Northern had been closely following the efforts of various maritime shipping companies, such as American Presidents Lines, in their efforts to find a system to automatically identify containers. Based on the maritime companies' interest and their success with RF based identification systems, Burlington Northern began a testing program.

Burlington Northern initially asked nine vendors to present their identification systems. The two vendors finally selected were General Railway Systems (GRS) and Union Switch and Signal (US&S). The Union Switch and Signal identification system is manufactured by Amtech Corporation of Dallas, Texas.

In January, 1988, Burlington Northern equipped 1,500 taconite cars in northern Minnesota each with a GRS and an Amtech transponder. Each vendor also installed three wayside reader sites. All tags were mounted on the sides of the rail cars.

A 1988 Burlington Northern paper on the results of its testing was presented at the AAR Communication and Signal Annual Meeting. They reported that the accuracy of both systems over a six month period was in excess of 99.99%.

A committee was formed by the Association of American Railroads and charged with developing an Automatic Equipment Identification standard. Railways, such as Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, CSX, and Canadian National, began their own testing programs and reported the results to the AAR's AEI committee.

The AAR, in August, 1989, informed various identification system vendors that Amtech's identification technology had been selected for the Automatic Equipment Identification standard. The only major decision that was still unresolved was the location of the tag on the rail car. This became a very controversial subject for the next nine months between two groups of thought.

One group wanted to place tags on the sides of the rail cars and another wanted them underneath. Each location had its advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost and maintainability. The tags were tested and found to operate well in both locations. It was finally decided by the AEI Committee in the summer of 1990 that two tags would be mounted on each rail car, one on each side.

In July, 1990, the AAR Committee on Car Service sent a resolution to the O-T General Committee of the AAR to set a mandatory implementation date when all rail cars interchange service would be tagged.

In August, 1991, the O-T General Committee of the Association of American Railroads voted to make the AEI standard mandatory. The mandatory vote was ratified by the Association of American Railroads Board of Directors at their meeting in September, 1991.

As of December 31, 1994, the AAR reported that over 95% of the North American rail car fleet was tagged. Approximately 3,000 readers have been installed by the railways in North America as of the end of 1996.

Each rail car is required to have two tags, one on each side of the car. One tag is located in a placement window on the BL (B End-Left Side) portion and the other in a window on the AR (A End-Right Side). The B-End of the car is the end that has the hand brake. The left and right side of the car is determined when facing the B-End of the car and looking towards the A-End. Because the AR and BL portions of the car are on opposite corners when you face either side of the car, the tags are always located near the truck on the right end of the side you are facing.

The tags' vertical placement can be anywhere from two feet to five feet above the top of the rail. The horizontal placement window is from two feet left of inner-most axle of the right-end truck to the 18 inches from the center line of the right-end truck towards the outboard end of the car.

Editor: Charles J. Bay

THE RAILHEAD is published monthly by the Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers Model Railroad Club, P.O. Box 594, Monument, CO 80132; Telephone 719-488-9318. Subscription is covered through membership in Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers, a nonprofit corporation. ©1999. All rights reserved. We assume letters, questions, news releases, and club items are contributed gratis.

The technology:
The identification system operates on the principle of modulated backscatter. The reader sends a continuous unmodulated radio frequency (RF) signal to the tag (transponder). The tag encodes data by altering the strength of the signal (amplitude modulation) it reflects back to the reader. A mirror operates in a similar fashion to a tag except a mirror reflects light instead of RF energy.

There is not one single radio frequency that can be used in every country. Therefore, a single tag mounted on a container must have the capability to be read at different frequencies and power levels. Amtech's tags have this unique ability, and this system is the only system that meets the current ISO 10374 Standard for container identification.

There are two types of Amtech Transportation Tags, Beam Powered and Battery Powered. The Beam Powered Transportation Tag does not contain a battery. It must get all of the energy needed to operate its internal circuitry from the reader's RF signal. Because of a this constraint, its maximum range with a 2 watt 915 MHz reader RF source is approximately 50 feet, and its normal operating range is 25 feet.

Because the railways do not need long read ranges, the AAR standardized on Amtech's AT5110 Beam Powered Tags. The tags can store up to 120 bits of user data and be programmed in the field.

This feature is extremely important to the railways since they want to encode rail car information into the tag immediately before mounting the tag on the car. Information the AAR specified to be encoded in the tag includes the rail car owner's code, car number, number of axles, bearing type, and length. Tags can be reprogrammed in the field up to 10,000 times.

This information was summarized from the Signal Computer Consultants website http://www.signalcc.com

Forty years of disuse have taken their toll on Pile Driver OB, the only steam-powered narrow gauge railroad car of its kind.

When it arrived in two pieces recently at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry after a 300-mile journey from a Chama, N.M. rail yard, the pile driver wa barely recognizable. The powerhouse that built trestles across the state's once-expansive, narrow-gauge system had been reduced by wind, sun, rain, and neglect to a conglomeration of rotting wood and rusting steel.

But, if members of the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad prevail, the 108-year-old car will be restored to its working glory in two years.

Restoration work will take place two Saturdays a month at the museum, just north of Colorado Springs.