Monday, February 27, 2017

Kreg Jigs and Model Railroad Benchwork

I make no attempt to conceal my ulterior motives from my wife when it comes to home improvement projects that may directly or indirectly benefit my model railroading hobby.

For instance, I recently built this set of shelves to go at the bottom of our basement stairs to store extra kitchen stuff that doesn't fit anywhere in the kitchen and that only gets occasional use. I'm going to build another identical set of shelves to go to the left and butt right up against this set. You can see part of the glass block window in the upper left corner of the photo; the second set of shelves will frame that window perfectly. Railroad benchwork will begin just a few feet to the left of this window.



My ulterior motives for this project were twofold; I wanted a place to put some of this stuff to clear out room along the basement wall to the left of this location for railroad benchwork, and I also wanted to buy a set of Kreg Jigs.



For those who are not familiar with Kreg Jigs, they are a system of woodworking jigs and accessories for quickly and accurately drilling pocket holes. I haven't seen much writing on the Kreg Jig in the model railroading community, which actually surprises me. I didn't know much about the Kreg Jig until I happened to stumble upon a YouTube video where they were being put to use. From that moment on I had to have a set.

I for one was aware of what a "pocket hole" is but I had never used them and was completely in the dark on the benefits of using them in woodworking.

The shelving unit above was completely constructed of 1x4 dimensional lumber and MDF using Kreg pocket holes with the exception of the Spax screws that attach the shelves to the vertical sides of the shelf. All of the shelves use pocket holes to hold the shelf sides and backs to the shelf. Not really visible in the photo, but under each shelf there is a 1x4 crossmember that supports the shelf; these are attached to the vertical sides with pocket holes also.

Kreg actually makes many products but the heart of the Kreg Jig system is the jig unit below. The set I bought for $100 at Lowe's came with the jig (the blue contraption), the special quick release drill bit & collar, and also a square head quick release screwdriver attachment. Lowe's was running a special where if you bought the set they threw in a 500-ct of Kreg screws for free ($20 value).

The Kreg Jig is the blue contraption

The quick-release Kreg drill bit with adjustable depth collar

The quick-release Kreg square drive screwdriver bit and a 1-1/4" Kreg screw. Kreg makes the screws in many lengths and also in coarse thread (shown) and fine thread, allowing you to screw into different types of wood.


The parts above are all included in the standard set and are really all you need to drill perfect pocket holes quickly.



Here are some in-progress construction shots of my shelf project:

Kreg makes many accessories for the jigs. One of the more useful ones is this clamp that fits in one of the pocket holes and is used to hold the work together to drive the first screw. Once the first screw is in, the clamp can be removed.

Once you drive the screw in the empty hole, it will pull the joint together very tightly and the clamp can then be removed to drive the other screw.

The Kreg Jig can hold any size & shape lumber for drilling pocket holes. The jig is depth-adjustable for drilling into different sizes of lumber.



I know what the skeptics are thinking. This is all just a gimmick and why spend the extra money.

After talking to experienced cabinet makers and reading about woodworking methods, I discovered that the traditional way of building model railroad benchwork by driving screws through the face of a 1x4 into the end of another 1x4 for crossmember joints, or through the edge of a 1x4 into the end of another 1x4 for corner joints is the weakest way of making a 90 degree joint. Cabinet makers can't drive screws through the face of the lumber anyway so they need to be able to hide the fasteners on the backside or underside of the work, hence the alternative methods of joining lumber like the pocket hole joint. Not only do pocket hole joints look better, but they are much stronger. You can also make joints at angles other than 90 degrees easily with the jig.

The shelf project was built as a test and I have to say it was a breeze to build it and not only that, the thing is very sturdy. I didn't use any glue at all, just pocket hole joints. Using the Kreg Jig was fast and easy. The screws would actually pull the joint together tight in a way I have not seen by just driving screws in the traditional way. I think it was totally worth the money.


Thursday, February 23, 2017

Not So Wordless Wednesday on Thursday #18

The PRR T-1...

The Pennsylvania RR by the 1940's had lagged behind most of the other major railroads when it came to passenger steam locomotive development. The K4s 4-6-2 was the front line passenger puller for Pennsy in the 1930's to 1940's but it lacked the pulling power that other railroads had for their premier passenger trains. Passenger trains were getting heavier and heavier and the K4s just didn't have enough power at high speed like the NYC Hudsons (4-6-4) or 4-8-4 Northerns from other railroads did. In the 1930's Pennsy devoted most of its resources to electrification and electric locomotives (i.e... the GG-1) so it fell behind in the steam passenger locomotive race. Anything they did to improve electrification didn't mean a thing west of Harrisburg, PA though, so the New York to Chicago or St. Louis trains of Pennsy were not winning that competitive timetable race. Diesels started appearing in the late 1930's but the Pennsy was slow to get on that train so to speak, and with WWII putting a damper on new diesel locomotive production, the Pennsy was still stuck with its huge fleet of K4s pulling nearly all their passenger trains when the war ended.

Enter the T-1 locomotive. The T-1 was a 4-4-4-4 duplex drive non-articulated steam locomotive built by PRR at Altoona and Baldwin in Philadelphia exclusively for PRR. The one-of-a-kind streamlined design of the locomotive was by Raymond Loewy, who in the industrial engineering world is considered the father of streamlining.

PRR T-1 #5533. Unknown photographer, Creative Commons license.

Two T-1 prototypes were delivered in 1942 and the trials on those two locomotives prompted Pennsy to order 50 more which were delivered in 1945 & 1946. At the time, the T-1 was arguably the most technologically advanced steam locomotive ever built. It was not articulated like other split-driver locomotives and because of this was nicknamed the "rail straightener". The T-1 had more than enough horsepower to pull a 16-car passenger train at 100mph or more on flat terrain. 120mph was easily achievable and there were unofficial reports that some had reached 140mph. The Pennsy never tried to go for a world speed record with the T-1 though, which it probably would have easily set back in the 1940's. 

There was of course a downside to the T-1. First, it was prone to wheel slippage even at high speed on the rear driver axles and it took a highly skilled engineer to run it at high speeds. Most importantly though, it was very complex and expensive to maintain. The driver rods for instance are roller bearing rods instead of friction bearings common on most other steam locomotives. Violent wheel slippage at high speed could be very dangerous and could cause poppet valve failure.

In a sense, the advanced technology of the T-1 actually led to its downfall and caused the Pennsy to push for dieselization across the entire fleet. Pennsy management eventually realized that the T-1's only made it a couple thousand miles before requiring expensive maintenance overhaul, when at the same time the few diesels on the roster were routinely making it 50,000 plus miles before requiring overhaul. As the 1940's ended, Pennsy was ordering dozens of new EMD E7's and E8's to replace all steam locomotives in passenger service. T-1's were taken off passenger service and lived out their final days pulling fast mail & express trains.

In the early 1950's all of the T-1's were taken out of service and by 1956 all 52 of them had been scrapped. The T-1 had a very short but very profound life.

The T-1 Trust


The T-1 Trust is a non-profit group with plans to build a fully functional T-1 (#5550) from the ground up. From their website, their goal is "To provide mainline steam excursion service and to set the World Speed Record for a steam locomotive".

Check out their website to see their progress.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Columbus Ohio 1953

I think I finally found my Holy Grail.

With all the research I have done in my quest to find a prototype passenger station to base my model railroad on, to date nothing has had as much of what I am looking for in one place as Columbus Ohio:

1. A small Union Station (small enough to model with 4 platforms) but plenty of trains stopping and passing through. Starting in the 1950's as we all know, passenger train travel in the US was on the decline due to the rise of the interstate highway system and airline travel. However, in Columbus Ohio even in 1954 there were still 38 passenger trains a day that stopped. 

2. A good assortment of railroads with PRR, B&O, and C&O being some of them. I have a decent inventory of HO scale PRR passenger cars already, followed by some B&O and C&O equipment, so I have a head start. The B&O had 2 trains that stopped in Columbus, N&W 2, C&O 2, NYC 10, and PRR led the pack with 22.

3. Co-located coach yards, passenger car servicing and maintenance facilities, express and freight service, and locomotive servicing.

4. A good mix of transition-era steam and diesel use.

This photo from the USGS Earth Explorer website shows the central Columbus area circa 1953. CUS (Columbus Union Station) is dead center. Visible in the photo are all 5 railroads with yards & facilities, freight houses, express and mail, and also the lines used by each to converge on downtown Columbus.



Here is a zoomed in view of the area just west of CUS.



Besides CUS itself, I'm thinking the PRR roundhouse, coach yards, and locomotive facility will be a key feature on my layout. That may even be the starting point before anything else.

I don't envision any long mainline runs on the layout, I simply don't have room for that. The focus will be switching operations fed from hidden staging/fiddle tracks and the traffic control operations in this area that was managed by several towers in close proximity to each other. 

Stay tuned!