Great video bench work for helix looks pretty solid can’t wait to see more of that build. Great seeing your trains run around the layout great work done there Thanks
Hey Sheldon, Nice video as usual, I like the frame work build, nice to have it preserved for future generations, should have called, we could have gone lumber shopping, The Duallie is always itching to get some road time. The fog or haze effect is really nice as are the full zoom shots, hope the air conditioning didn't break down. Joe
Hi Joe. The AC is fine. I know I could have called you, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Do you remember the fun we had carrying the 4x8 sheets of drywall down those stairs 30 years ago?
@@QNERailroad Hi Sheldon, Glad to hear that the A/C is fine, I do like that hot and humid summer haze effect in your video of the Railfanning portion. Yes, I remember the fun with those drywall sheets, the staircase was a challenge. In regards to the lumber and seeing how it's stored in most stores, I wouldn't trust them to select it and always preferred to select my own, been many a time where I've had to go to two or three stores to find good pieces and sheets. Here's hoping that it was seasoned enough and that you won't have too much warpage. Joe
I've learned to stay away from framing grade spruce. It's a bit more expensive, but I always use 1x4, 1x3, 1x2 pine. And always go into the store to purchase.. leaving the KOHO pieces there lol. Just flip down the rear seats in my car and 8 footers fit in perfect, but that doesn't help with full sheets of ply. Progress is looking good 👍
Yup. Lessons learned (again). The original layout benchwork (circa 1994) is made from proper cut lumber with square edges. I don't know why all the edges are rounded nowadays.
excellent video qne !!! the sd 50/60 engines are my favorite of all time !!! mine are the "older" lifelike engines that i have purchased regularly when i see one, two or three i really like !!! are yours lifelike ? walthers got a real good deal when they bought lifelike years ago... not tons of detail but they are smooth runners and, just like their conrail prototypes, pull like the dickens !! btw, you were correct in saying that videos on benchwork is like watching paint dry, but think about it from this angle... younger modelers get to see what really nice benchwork should look like and your work IS really nice !!! so, in the long run, even though watching paint dry on the qnerr might not fit the bill for all, you are really helping some guys out !!! thanks, qnerr !!!
Thanks Denis. I hope someone gets something out of it! My SD50/60's are all Athearns. I found the LL/Proto Conrail blue too dark - on the verge of purple, so I never bought any of their offerings.
@@QNERailroad yes, i will agree that conrail blue was off a bit... so were LL's first run red faced soo engines !!! their white almost looked like some sort of diluted vanilla ice cream that melted !!! absolutely awful !!! i had tom poeschel, who owns motown models, re-paint mine in the carload express and avr liveries (both in/near pittsburgh as my bprr runs the bprr line from bflo ny to pitt pa).. if you go to his website you will see them as a display.... best move i ever made, no shit !!! blessings to you, qne !!! denny
Just discovered and subbed your channel, top notch. Video headings including a word at the end about contents would help accessibilty to the vast catalogue. For example, have you posted a track plan? My youtube postings only started this year, so I don't know if the existing names can be editted without causing trouble. Appreciate the time it takes to make the videos, and the superb modelling. Looking forward to going through them all, thank you.
Thanks for the sub. Yes, titles can be edited, but I am on the fence about it. I'll have a rethink. Html links to the track plans for both the visible and hidden levels are provided on my home page and in the "more ... " section. The Q&NE backstory and explanations of the track plans can be found in Video #155. Enjoy.
Nice presentation and step by step on the new benchwork. It's always exciting when you are able to make these types of additions to your railroad. Also enjoyed the run session with your Conrail power. What kind of Q&NE geep is that at 28:15? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your comment. The locomotive is an Intermountain GP10. If you are interested in how I modelled it, I have a five part video series starting at Video #080.
Once the new staging yard is in place for the Q&NE trains the average Conrail train length will go down and the power will be less stressed. That said, I was deliberately running slower to simulate the heavy grade. No DPU's in the 1980's although Conrail did use helpers on the head end.
I am a big fan of ConRail. I go on the ConRail historical website looking for ideas. When you run multiple engines, how many are powered and are they speed matched?
Me too! All my locomotives are powered. I have not formally speed matched any of the Conrail locomotives because they tend to run well together the way I have them consisted (mostly by keeping them grouped by the same manufacturer, but there are examples that just run well together by coincidence). Some have other performance issues, like the 2813 in the video, that are unrelated to speed matching. Some day I'll get around to mixing them up, but I have many other projects on the go!
Well, Mike, I was wondering what to do for my next video, and you are not the first person to ask this question recently, so perhaps I'll make a new "whole layout" video. The last time I did that was in March of 2018 and so much has changed or been added to "complete" the scenery since then. That was video #066. More recently video #136 provided a working glimpse of the two staging yards, and #155 provided the overall backstory of the Q&NE using maps and track plans. Enjoy.
Thank you for the Conrail run-bys. I did not realize just how much goes into building a layout. Thanks for the update. Is your layout wired for signals?
My pleasure. There are actually wires dangling beneath the layout coming from all the signals but I have yet to figure out what to do with them. The main reason is that the signals are a much older design that only display red and green, and I absolutely want/need to display yellow. Someday ...
More than that, I think. Trains making switching moves off the main into Rule 105 territory should get a restricting signal, shouldn't they (prepared to stop with in half the range of vision or not to exceed 15 mph)? Approach is used to govern speed at the next signal (e.g. high yellow - prepared to stop) or slow approach (yellow over yellow), but there is no next signal in this case. In any case, the point is that I need to be able to display yellow, which the original NJ International heads weren't designed to do easily/well.
@@jacobvoracek2349 Hi Jacob. The signal naming convention has changed over the years with the introduction of flashing lights and there are also differences between some roads' rule books, not to mention the more recent CROR adaptation of the UCOR. The fact remains that I need to be able to display yellow aspects for movements leaving the main line and entering the yard at restricted speed, which is not straightforward with the old NJ international signals.
Yes, conveniently so, because most of the Conrail road power are not equipped with sound! The gates, flashers and bell provide some measure of protection. (:
Do you most of your Conrail diesel locomotives have sound or do you have a lot of them with a lot of sound or Alive engines with a lot of sound decoders in them
At the moment, only the SD45-2 is equipped with sound, but more sound-equipped units are on order. I have never needed keep-alive circuits in my road power because they have long wheelbases, are mu'd with other locos, and the trackwork/electrical connections are solid. I have keep-alives on my Q&NE SW1500's because they are short enough to get caught at the diamonds at slow speed. I have sound in some of my MP15's, GP9's/GP10 and GP38-2's.
Other than the last train in the video, which I admit is over-powered, and which was set up to give me an excuse to show off my repaired SD45-2, all of my trains require either 4 four axle units or 3 six axle units to make it up the helix grades (about 2%) with train lengths that typically exceed 30 cars. Remember too that in the 1980's the higher tractive-effort AC units were not as prevalent as they are today.
sheldon.... just thought i would ask you... where abouts in canada are you located ? i am 35 miles directly south of buffalo, ny in big farm country. here's why i ask.... as a youngster i lived on a real big hill and by turning our antenna i would watch canadian tv all the time ( wrestling with lord athol layton/ whipper biily watson and even hatstack calhoon... yes, i am an old fart !!!) but the best tv was hockey night in canada, which i have watched faithfully since the second grade, no shit !!! so, that makes me wonder who you pull for in the nhl.... leafs/habs/sens/jets... please do NOT say the sabres !!! we do NOT have anything that even comes close to what hockey is all about here in western ny state !!! none of our players on the sabres current roster have heart !!! you need players like danny gare, davey keon, jim schoenfeld and stan jonathan of former days if you want to win !!! i saw the lvg knights last year and there was only about 7,000 fans at the marine midland arena up in buffalo... 2 beers cost 34 smackers, parking was 25 ( 5 blocks away !!!) etc/etc/etc. when i went to buy my friend and i our 4th or 5th beer, the vendor asked me if i would like to give him a tip... i said "brush your teeth and comb your hair " !!! such is life, my friend sheldon !!! blessings to you and please keep the videos rolling !!! denny
@@dennisarmes3473 Hi Denny. I'm just north of Toronto, but I grew up in Montreal, so pretty much a Habs fan till their last cup in 93, especially through their second dynasty in the late 1970's. I'd like to root for the Leafs now but they choke in the playoffs every year without fail.
@@QNERailroad yes they choke pretty good sheldon... annually !!! i get am 590 out of the big "TO" and, as i am sure you hear, it gets pretty heated when fans call in and say how they feel, and rightfully so !!! as for the sabres, we have an owner that will not spend at all. sheldon, look at the guys we let go just in the last 4 years... oreillly goes to the blues and wins a cup and is mvp/ sam reinhart and kyle okposo to fla and they win a cup/ linus ullmark to boston and they almost win a cup/ jack eichel to lvgk and they win a cup !!! down here it is really frustrating... the "BIG" rumor for years down here is players do not want to play in buffalo and how can you blame them !!! thankfully we have our layouts for fun, right ??? btw, do you by any chance know when rapido will have their gp-9 in cando available for purchase ? blessings to you, sheldon !!!
Great video bench work for helix looks pretty solid can’t wait to see more of that build. Great seeing your trains run around the layout great work done there Thanks
Thanks, Mike!
Hey Sheldon, Nice video as usual, I like the frame work build, nice to have it preserved for future generations,
should have called, we could have gone lumber shopping, The Duallie is always itching to get some road time. The fog or haze effect is really nice as are the full zoom shots, hope the air conditioning didn't break down. Joe
Hi Joe. The AC is fine. I know I could have called you, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Do you remember the fun we had carrying the 4x8 sheets of drywall down those stairs 30 years ago?
@@QNERailroad Hi Sheldon, Glad to hear that the A/C is fine, I do like that hot and humid summer haze effect in your video of the Railfanning portion. Yes, I remember the fun with those drywall sheets, the staircase was a challenge. In regards to the lumber and seeing how it's stored in most stores, I wouldn't trust them to select it and always preferred to select my own, been many a time where I've had to go to two or three stores to find good pieces and sheets. Here's hoping that it was seasoned enough and that you won't have too much warpage. Joe
Great mainline action. Wonderful bench work.
Thank you very much!
Looking great. Nice benchwork!
Thank you! Cheers!
Good to see that you are still doing operations.
Not as often as I would like, but just enough to keep the rails from rusting up, lol.
Not fully sold on the idea that those boards are even suitable for wall framing. Your work is looking great, can't wait to see it all finished.
Thanks. Makes me wonder what's hiding inside new home construction these days!
I've learned to stay away from framing grade spruce. It's a bit more expensive, but I always use 1x4, 1x3, 1x2 pine. And always go into the store to purchase.. leaving the KOHO pieces there lol.
Just flip down the rear seats in my car and 8 footers fit in perfect, but that doesn't help with full sheets of ply.
Progress is looking good 👍
Yup. Lessons learned (again). The original layout benchwork (circa 1994) is made from proper cut lumber with square edges. I don't know why all the edges are rounded nowadays.
I've split a lot of my 1X3 pieces and used clamps and glue to get them back in shape.
Yup.
I think that fog was actually haze from all that diesel exhaust!
Now why didn't I think of that! :)
excellent video qne !!! the sd 50/60 engines are my favorite of all time !!! mine are the "older" lifelike engines that i have purchased regularly when i see one, two or three i really like !!! are yours lifelike ? walthers got a real good deal when they bought lifelike years ago... not tons of detail but they are smooth runners and, just like their conrail prototypes, pull like the dickens !! btw, you were correct in saying that videos on benchwork is like watching paint dry, but think about it from this angle... younger modelers get to see what really nice benchwork should look like and your work IS really nice !!! so, in the long run, even though watching paint dry on the qnerr might not fit the bill for all, you are really helping some guys out !!! thanks, qnerr !!!
Thanks Denis. I hope someone gets something out of it! My SD50/60's are all Athearns. I found the LL/Proto Conrail blue too dark - on the verge of purple, so I never bought any of their offerings.
@@QNERailroad yes, i will agree that conrail blue was off a bit... so were LL's first run red faced soo engines !!! their white almost looked like some sort of diluted vanilla ice cream that melted !!! absolutely awful !!! i had tom poeschel, who owns motown models, re-paint mine in the carload express and avr liveries (both in/near pittsburgh as my bprr runs the bprr line from bflo ny to pitt pa).. if you go to his website you will see them as a display.... best move i ever made, no shit !!! blessings to you, qne !!! denny
I like your whimsical flatbed loads. lol
If you blink, you miss them!
Just discovered and subbed your channel, top notch. Video headings including a word at the end about contents would help accessibilty to the vast catalogue. For example, have you posted a track plan? My youtube postings only started this year, so I don't know if the existing names can be editted without causing trouble. Appreciate the time it takes to make the videos, and the superb modelling. Looking forward to going through them all, thank you.
Thanks for the sub. Yes, titles can be edited, but I am on the fence about it. I'll have a rethink. Html links to the track plans for both the visible and hidden levels are provided on my home page and in the "more ... " section. The Q&NE backstory and explanations of the track plans can be found in Video #155. Enjoy.
Thanks for the video. But dirty and rust up that equipment. LOL
I'll add it to my list ... lol!
Nice presentation and step by step on the new benchwork. It's always exciting when you are able to make these types of additions to your railroad. Also enjoyed the run session with your Conrail power. What kind of Q&NE geep is that at 28:15? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your comment. The locomotive is an Intermountain GP10. If you are interested in how I modelled it, I have a five part video series starting at Video #080.
@@QNERailroad awesome, I'll have to check it out.
You really need to put a DPU on your trains when there’re coming out of the tunnel
Once the new staging yard is in place for the Q&NE trains the average Conrail train length will go down and the power will be less stressed. That said, I was deliberately running slower to simulate the heavy grade. No DPU's in the 1980's although Conrail did use helpers on the head end.
I am a big fan of ConRail. I go on the ConRail historical website looking for ideas. When you run multiple engines, how many are powered and are they speed matched?
Me too! All my locomotives are powered. I have not formally speed matched any of the Conrail locomotives because they tend to run well together the way I have them consisted (mostly by keeping them grouped by the same manufacturer, but there are examples that just run well together by coincidence). Some have other performance issues, like the 2813 in the video, that are unrelated to speed matching. Some day I'll get around to mixing them up, but I have many other projects on the go!
At 1:41 is all the pencil lines where the track will eventually go?
Yes, the lines on the tracing paper reflect the staging tracks. If you haven't already seen it, Video #155 includes the staging level track plan.
Thank you for sharing. Can you tell me what video number shows your entire layout
Well, Mike, I was wondering what to do for my next video, and you are not the first person to ask this question recently, so perhaps I'll make a new "whole layout" video. The last time I did that was in March of 2018 and so much has changed or been added to "complete" the scenery since then. That was video #066. More recently video #136 provided a working glimpse of the two staging yards, and #155 provided the overall backstory of the Q&NE using maps and track plans. Enjoy.
Thank you for the Conrail run-bys. I did not realize just how much goes into building a layout. Thanks for the update. Is your layout wired for signals?
My pleasure. There are actually wires dangling beneath the layout coming from all the signals but I have yet to figure out what to do with them. The main reason is that the signals are a much older design that only display red and green, and I absolutely want/need to display yellow. Someday ...
@@QNERailroadthe aspects of the signals are clear, apporch ,stop.
More than that, I think. Trains making switching moves off the main into Rule 105 territory should get a restricting signal, shouldn't they (prepared to stop with in half the range of vision or not to exceed 15 mph)? Approach is used to govern speed at the next signal (e.g. high yellow - prepared to stop) or slow approach (yellow over yellow), but there is no next signal in this case. In any case, the point is that I need to be able to display yellow, which the original NJ International heads weren't designed to do easily/well.
@@QNERailroad yellow over yellow is advance approach.
@@jacobvoracek2349 Hi Jacob. The signal naming convention has changed over the years with the introduction of flashing lights and there are also differences between some roads' rule books, not to mention the more recent CROR adaptation of the UCOR. The fact remains that I need to be able to display yellow aspects for movements leaving the main line and entering the yard at restricted speed, which is not straightforward with the old NJ international signals.
Is it a no horn zone at 24:07?
Yes, conveniently so, because most of the Conrail road power are not equipped with sound! The gates, flashers and bell provide some measure of protection. (:
Do you most of your Conrail diesel locomotives have sound or do you have a lot of them with a lot of sound or Alive engines with a lot of sound decoders in them
At the moment, only the SD45-2 is equipped with sound, but more sound-equipped units are on order. I have never needed keep-alive circuits in my road power because they have long wheelbases, are mu'd with other locos, and the trackwork/electrical connections are solid. I have keep-alives on my Q&NE SW1500's because they are short enough to get caught at the diamonds at slow speed. I have sound in some of my MP15's, GP9's/GP10 and GP38-2's.
Tardis! 😂
Yes, plus #12 and a Weeping Angel thrown in for good measure. Don't blink!
Never have been a fan of how model railroaders over power their trains
Other than the last train in the video, which I admit is over-powered, and which was set up to give me an excuse to show off my repaired SD45-2, all of my trains require either 4 four axle units or 3 six axle units to make it up the helix grades (about 2%) with train lengths that typically exceed 30 cars. Remember too that in the 1980's the higher tractive-effort AC units were not as prevalent as they are today.
sheldon.... just thought i would ask you... where abouts in canada are you located ? i am 35 miles directly south of buffalo, ny in big farm country. here's why i ask.... as a youngster i lived on a real big hill and by turning our antenna i would watch canadian tv all the time ( wrestling with lord athol layton/ whipper biily watson and even hatstack calhoon... yes, i am an old fart !!!) but the best tv was hockey night in canada, which i have watched faithfully since the second grade, no shit !!! so, that makes me wonder who you pull for in the nhl.... leafs/habs/sens/jets... please do NOT say the sabres !!! we do NOT have anything that even comes close to what hockey is all about here in western ny state !!! none of our players on the sabres current roster have heart !!! you need players like danny gare, davey keon, jim schoenfeld and stan jonathan of former days if you want to win !!! i saw the lvg knights last year and there was only about 7,000 fans at the marine midland arena up in buffalo... 2 beers cost 34 smackers, parking was 25 ( 5 blocks away !!!) etc/etc/etc. when i went to buy my friend and i our 4th or 5th beer, the vendor asked me if i would like to give him a tip... i said "brush your teeth and comb your hair " !!! such is life, my friend sheldon !!! blessings to you and please keep the videos rolling !!! denny
@@dennisarmes3473 Hi Denny. I'm just north of Toronto, but I grew up in Montreal, so pretty much a Habs fan till their last cup in 93, especially through their second dynasty in the late 1970's. I'd like to root for the Leafs now but they choke in the playoffs every year without fail.
@@QNERailroad yes they choke pretty good sheldon... annually !!! i get am 590 out of the big "TO" and, as i am sure you hear, it gets pretty heated when fans call in and say how they feel, and rightfully so !!! as for the sabres, we have an owner that will not spend at all. sheldon, look at the guys we let go just in the last 4 years... oreillly goes to the blues and wins a cup and is mvp/ sam reinhart and kyle okposo to fla and they win a cup/ linus ullmark to boston and they almost win a cup/ jack eichel to lvgk and they win a cup !!! down here it is really frustrating... the "BIG" rumor for years down here is players do not want to play in buffalo and how can you blame them !!! thankfully we have our layouts for fun, right ??? btw, do you by any chance know when rapido will have their gp-9 in cando available for purchase ? blessings to you, sheldon !!!
@@dennisarmes3473Rapido's website says they are still taking pre-orders, so they probably haven't set their delivery schedule yet.