Static Electricity Problems

In my post of July 29, I described how a low-cast rubber mat solved my floor covering problem. Well, I was a bit too quick to brag about it. Everything was fine until the weather started to get colder and the humidity lower. Static electricity reared its head. Walking only about five feet would generate enough static to put out a great spark when I touched almost anything, such as the rails on the layout. With sensitive decoders and command stations about, this did not seem to be a good situation to have. The question was what to do about it.

One end of the wire is stuck into the rubber mat about 4 inches while the other is soldered to an alligator clip which is then attached to a grounded nail.

I looked through various pages of advice on the internet and one suggested grounding the mats. I did this with a piece of 14-gauge solid wire stuck into the side of the mat. An alligator clip on the other end allowed me to attach the wire to one of the nails I shot into the concrete to secure the benchwork. This actually helped the situation but did not reduce it to levels I thought were acceptable. More research was done and I found an industrial static reducing spray, Staticide ACL 2001. I ordered a gallon of it, sprayed it on the matting with a garden sprayer and let it dry. It worked! The static electricity was gone. 

At the same time that I was applying the anti-static spray, I replaced the matting in my humidifier on the furnace. It hadn't been done in a couple of years. Right away, the humidity jumped up significantly which will also help the static problem during the winter. When I lived in Southern California, humidity, or lack thereof, was never a problem so this is rather new to me. The perils of living in the midwest, I guess. At least now I won't be blowing decoders during an op session.

Oakdale Water Works

Oakdale is shaping up as nice little town. We have hotels, stores, industry, a public water works and even a public bandstand. The view of town as you cross over the tracks is fairly attractive. I meant to mention last time that the dry goods store and cyclery were made from a Main Street Heritage kit. These are attractive resin kits and go together easily. The painting is always the problem, though, with an 1800s building. It just takes time to get right. The cafe next door is also Main Street Heritage. The newspaper building is from California Models. Although they are mostly cardboard kits, they go together quite nicely. Next door, the photographer's studio is a Woodland Scenics kit and Kathy's Confectioneries is scratchbuilt with an interior.

The new water works building is placed pretty much where nineteenth century Oakdale had the prototype water works and was about the same size. Made from a DPM kit, all I did was brick up some of the windows and add a smoke stack. I have not found any photos of the real thing so the signs and building appearance are freelanced. Adjacent to the pumping station is the wood water storage tank. The tank is very close in appearance to the prototype tank.

At the far end of Oakdale, the railroad passes over J Street on a short trestle. In later years, the underpass was filled in and now the road goes over the tracks in Oakdale.

Due to several out-of-town trips in the last couple of months, the S&C has not had any operating sessions for about three months. I've scheduled one for this month and the date is coming up quickly so I had to clean the scenery stuff off the layout and get ready for that. The south end of town still needs the gas works to be finished and a fairly large grain warehouse to be built. That's next on the agenda.

Another Block of Buildings

After another quick out-of-town trip, I managed to get down to the railroad and finish up another short block on East Railroad Avenue in Oakdale. This time we have an ice cream shop, photographer, office of the Oakdale Leader (newspaper), the Ban Box cafe, the Oakdale Cyclery and the E.L. Barris Dry Goods shop. As in the previous structures, most of these were based on real Oakdale businesses. The photographer and ice store are freelanced but Oakdale did have both businesses.

   Down a short alley is Hammond's Billiard Parlor with an adjacent pawn shop. Although the pool hall is intended for adult entertainment, there are always some kids in knickers trying to get a view of what the older folks are doing. The Sen-Sen ad was made from an existing ad painted on a wall in one of the towns along the Missouri River. For those who are not aware, Sen-Sen was and is a breath mint similar to Tic-Tacs.

   Across the street from these flourishing enterprises is a city park complete with bandstand and band. The bandstand was built from an etched brass kit available in the UK. The band is Preiser while the chairs are also etched brass from the UK.

Virginia and Truckee Historical Society

Not too much modeling this last week. I was attending the annual Virginia & Truckee Railroad Historical Society conference in Carson City, Nevada. Over a three-day period, we had the opportunity to listen to several talks on V&T subjects such as passenger cars, paint schemes, modeling equipment and development of the V&T's signature mogul locomotives. Other speakers showed the development of the main yards and shops at Carson City. There were several vendors of V&T related goods, both model and prototype.
   The best thing, though, is being able to visit with knowledgeable folks that you only see once a year at the conference. People from all over the U.S. attend and after-conference groups break away to discuss their own particular interests.
  The Saturday night banquet featured speakers from the engineering staff who are rebuilding the V&T from Virginia City to Carson. This is a great train ride, incidentally, and I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

   A visit to the V&T's first depot in Virginia City was the Sunday field trip. Of course, most us had to visit the Nevada State Railroad Museum in town and see what has been happening. The museum's gorgeous McKeen car was rolled out in the great Fall weather.
  Fortunately for me, I had some time to visit the University of Nevada and do some research on the early railroads of the area. This research has been very helpful in my modeling efforts.
   For those of you interested in the Virginia and Truckee, check out the Society's webpage at www.vtrrhs.org. They have a great newsletter and publish some well-research books on aspects of V&T history.

Tulare Lumber Company

The model of my Oakdale Lumber Company is loosely based on the Tulare Lumber Company in Tulare (pronounced too-lair-ee), California. They were in business for several years but all I have is one photo of the operation which is that displayed here.

Also, the company was clearly depicted on the Sanborn maps of the late 1800s showing the layout of the plant. For the model, I used the office design but made it a little smaller (two windows instead of three). I only had room for the one lumber storage shed so the whole facility is a bit smaller than the Tulare company. You can see the Lime House on the plan which gave me the idea to make my own.

Oakdale Lumber Company

Oakdale Lumber with the office on left, lumber rack in center and the cement shed at the right.

My plan called for the Oakdale Lumber Company be served by one of the sidings in Oakdale. As my scenery moved toward the southern part of the town, it became time to build the structure. I decided to join two Atlas lumber yards together to get a large enough facility to be served by rail. The modification was straight-forward, just joining the two lumber rack structures together. A new roof was made with styrene sheet and deformed slightly to create a sag which might indicate an older building. I had seen a photo of the 1890s Tulare Lumber Company and was attracted to the lettering indicating the products sold. I just had to duplicate that for this building.

The building end lettering was copied from the Tulare Lumber Company of the same period.

The lumber racks were stocked with lengths of stripwood I had on hand glued together.

The Lime and cement building stands at the far end of the siding.

Since the lumber yard sign shows cement and lime sales, I built a small building flat to use for the storage of these products with a few sacks outside. Remember, my layout represents summer in California and the likelihood of rain is zero. A small office was scratchbuilt and the buildings installed on the layout. I had several resin stacks of lumber intended for flat car loads that I glued some short 4x4s to and placed them around the property. A section of fence to keep trespassers out and the yard was completed.

White Pass and Yukon RR

The original wooden swing bridge over the Yukon River still is in use in Carcross.

There's been no work on the S&C for the last couple of weeks. My wife and have been on an Alaska cruise. The highlight of last week was the trip over the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from Carcross, Yukon Territory to Skagway, Alaska. This 67-mile ride was spectacular. As most of you probably know, the 3-foot gauge railroad was built in 1898-1900 as a reaction to the gold strikes in the Klondike.

When the 1901 steel bridge was bypassed in 1969, the railroad drilled tunnel and erected this trestle. Note the water barrels.

A typical train on the WP&Y.

From the wharves at Skagway, the railroad climbs along a roadbed blasted out of the solid rock rivaling any Rocky Mountain railroad. Significant wood trestling is still used in several spots. The ride even had a stop for lunch at a railroad eating house, something very reminiscent of nineteenth century pre-dining car railroading. Although the locomotives were diesels, the coaches certainly went back to the 1800s. We rode in a coach of unknown parentage built in 1889. Apparently the line bought up used equipment from narrow-gauge railroads being abandoned to provide the needed rolling stock.

Crossing the Skagway River near Skagway.

According to the conductor, there are five trains scheduled for a short trip in the morning and another five in the afternoon with only one going the full length of the road. All dispatching is done by track warrants in the U.S. and by a similar system (OCS) in Canada. Although there was no modeling done, it was a great trip and a great cruise.