Still Progressing

All has not been quite, though the progress is sometimes only slightly forward.


Over the last few weeks I have focused on adding additional power blocks to allow the running of multiple trains, or at least run trains on both loops, independently. Sometimes I do think it would have been easier to do this from the onset, rather than quickly run temporary wiring to run trains, but the whole point IS to have fun, isn't it.


At present, I'm focusing on getting the main line and passenger station area fully and properly wired before moving on to the freight yard construction. This will also involve the addition of a few more turnouts, to complete some badly needed crossovers, but not necessarily motorizing them yet.


All control blocks will allow the choice of DC or DCC power, though I have not considered a facility for multiple DC controllers. One option lies with CMRI's Train Brain, but that will be some ways off if at all.


More to follow during the Christmas break!

Trackwork and Running - Who needs a Big Boy?

As part of the work needed to allow running on both main tracks, and all station tracks, insulated gaps are needed to break up the long main line into smaller blocks. I know I should have done this during construction, but wasn't aware of the impact of the Peco Electrofrog turnouts on the conduction of electricity, nor appreciated how much simpler it would have been to use them, instead of cutting and filling gaps.


Live and learn...


But did some any way, and spent some time running a train or two. Everyone I know has, wants, or would like a Big Boy and/or a Challenger. Why? It's only one locomotive, and it's used by one rail road on one specific piece of the line. And it's that least favorite rail road (lol). Look at what five GP7s can do, and IMHO, with more style. This one is submitted for your entertainment:

Until next time....

Preparation...

No real excitiement this time; spent a few hours soldering some track joints, and adding feeder wires to a majority of the second loop and station (platform and service) tracks in preparation for running the second track. I need to gap several places near the turnouts to avoid shorts (one disadvantage in the superior Peco Electrofrog models. Once I get the track-work sorted out, I might start on the station, or the freight yard, and at LEAST get the arrival/departure track in so I can park another train while I operate...

Until next time!

Troublesome Track No More!

I found a very cool portable light which throws out 120 watts of bright light; perfect for working on troublesome track, so I attacked a troublesome turnout; it wouldn't let me run one direction with most stuff, and derailed a number of locomotives going the other direction:

The turnout on the left hand side (above) was replaced with a Peco long radius turnout:

Next project is to get the jog out of the tracks on the left-hand side of the above photo so I can get the wiring done, and run both mains. But at the minute I can run both directions at good speed through the one loop...


Also, these were taken under the new light with the iPhone:

I'll bring the camera and try it under the light next time, and get some videos as well..



The next day I took the plunge and re-laid the other offending turnout at the end of the passenger station to remove the kinks in the track. The previous:

The new:

A wider-angel view of the work showing the new smoother lines. I tracked a string of Micro-Trains Pullmans and Athearn Maxi-Stacks through to confirm the smoothness:

Hopefully next time I can get some wiring done and run trains on both lines next time...

A Small Step

Haven't been totally quiet on the layout, but progress was limited to a few feeder wires on the second main line, so I can run trains in both directions. And a little track maintanence, to fix a derailment spot. I may have to cut one of the old Shinohara turnouts and replace it with a Peco one, but time will tell...

Overdue Progress Report

I prepared this a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't had the opportunity to get it posted here. Not sure how many are following my progress religiously, but apologies for the delay. It's been a little busy, and a little warm, so other things have gotten "in the way" as it were.

On day one I managed to get the last small sections in place to connect all the platform tracks:




I also finished the double track on one side, at least temporarily, so I can run trains until I motorize the turnouts. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to finish the mainline, and get some video shoots done!

More on the To Do List:

From the crossover to the box in the distance is all that is left to do to be completely double tracked; it's only pinned in place at the minute, and I need one more turnout to fit the right to left crossover about where the Bachmann box sits. Then perhaps in a couple of weeks I can run opposing trains...

Crossover - To Be Completed

This is beginning of the last bit to do on the mainline as seen in the previous picture; another left to right crossover to let trains into the other platforms, and keep all platforms accessible form all tracks. The turnout with the pins on it is not fixed at all, and the one next to it is only temporarily in place, until it gets powered. The trailing point turnout in this photo has a motor, and eventually all of the passenger station and mainline turnouts will be powered...

The Double Track

Day two:

Most of the rest of the loop is already doubled; the two ends of the yard WERE all that was left. I managed to get this end done tonight, and now just waiting for the glue to dry. Just beyond the pins is a crossover that will allow left-hand trains to cross to the right-hand line. Another crossover for the opposite is located on the far side of the loft.

I got the crossover fixed in place, though the turnouts can still come out to attach switch motors:

So far the stub to the freight yard is a bit abbreviated...

Then I moved on to the remainder of the double track:

The track is down, the glue is drying, and the pins hold it all in place until it's done...

And only one small section left to go:

There will be a crossover here, so there wasn't much point in putting this piece of track down, to only have to cut it out later. Hopefully I can source these two at least, and get the mainline track connected all the way around.

I shot a few moments of video:

The lighting is pretty poor for the video, so I need to make this a priority. Once I have the sidings and crossovers working I can spend more time operating, so the plan is to have better light at least by then. My portable work lights are good enough for snapshots and work, but not video...

It's been another long break...

Life has a funny way of getting in the way of what you'd like to do. But once in a while you do get to do the things you want to as well...

Spent a good bit of time working on the passenger lines in and out of the station:


I guess this will be "Track 1". Behind the heavyweights is the other platform, just laid in place to see what it looked like. The other platform will go on top of the cork you see between the tracks...

You can get an idea of what I'm working on. There are thirteen cars in the Santa Fe train, and the platform is (barely) long enough for it all.

I also roughed in the second main line on the west end, but didn't fasten down the turnout or track this side of it, as I'd like this one to be powered. Another project for another day, but getting closer to having two lines running at once.

It looks like there is a jog in the track (2nd from right), but it's an illusion; I rolled two Maxi Stacks through it at speed to test it, and at the turnout it looks fine. Also one of the last of my old track. Have to break down and buy some more very soon.



More to follow!

Sorry Folks

No new progress this weekend; the dog wasn't well enough to travel, so we were house-bound. Hopefully I'll have an update soon!

A little more progress, a little more trains...

Slow and steady beats frantic, especially in terms of progress, and FOR SURE beats NONE! Yeah, more time working on things would be nice, but life goes on and too often we do what we need to, not what we WANT to. But it does make the enjoyment all the more enjoyable...

First off: maintenance. There were a few places that things didn't always work out the way nature, or mechanical engineering, dictated. One of those was the turnout into the passenger station: a few of the bigger locomotives liked to choose that spot to go to ground. Not good at all. So a bit of track repair was in order. I managed to discover that one of the rails was slightly out of gauge, pushing the whole thing narrow, so I applied soldering iron, file, and cutting wheel as needed to space it out properly. As long as you don't try to fly through (and I tried) everyone is happy. Normal running speeds are no problem.

Next, tidying up the feeder wires. Since I only have one track running through there is little point worrying about panels, right? Besides, it takes time away from running trains. SO I did drill a few holes through the yard boxes, and fed the feeder wire through them. I also secured the terminal blocks to wood, though the screws I used were just a bit too big, so they need to be re-done next time. Or the time after that...

I've managed to to glue down all the cork for the passenger platforms and coach yards, but didn't get much more track laid.

Lastly; the reason we do all of this:



The locomotive is "lettered" for my mythical shortline, the IPT (Inland Port & Terminal Railwy, or "The Terminal"). I've always liked the Alco C-420, and this one, number 405, moves an odd combination of freight cars through the passenger station area. After suffering through years of "Mehano" junkers, the Atlas incarnation is SO sweet. Just too bad it doesn't pull better, but I got a jar of green stuff for THAT problem!



This time 405 gets a little help from a friend, a Life Like GP38-2, thouh the train is a bit longer from the inclusion of a bunch of box cars. Mostly CNW now, though a few other names appear as well. Thanks for the caboose Bob!



I prefer the "older" railroad-owned passenger cars, but have a good selection of Amtrak in N-Scale from over the years. You have to admit Kato seems to know how to do it best, mixing quality and reasonable selection of models. Here we have six Material Handling Cars, and thirteen Superliners (in two schemes), pulled by three EMD F40PHs.



This time it's same train, different locomotives, with GE P42s doing the honors. I remember thinking when the E and F units started to disappear from Amtrak that I'd never learn to like F40PHs, but they are a bit less alien than these brutes, though the GE units do have a sleek line to them. Points for style? I'm not voting on this one...

Needs better lighting, but it's happening...

High angle shot of the official "first run" on lofty ambitions; 4 Atlas GP7s, forty MDC/Roundhouse/Athearn 57' mechanical refrigerated cars, and one bay window caboose (compliments of Bob). Need to sort out the power issue (you can hear the locomotives 'kick in' past the camera) and invest in some better lighting. It looks good enough to work on, but very dark in the video:



A low angle shot of a later pass of the same train:



And just because I had to; ninety-three Micro-Train box cars, behind four Atlas GP7s, on the same section:



I'll see if I can do something about the light, and update these videos soon...

Let the Train Run

Yesterday I experimented and planned; today I ran the train round the loop, seeing how many times it could go before a problem stopped it. Other than power problems that would make Mr Scott despair, things went all right. Mostly excessive gaps from the cool weather, and I'll have to wait for the warmest days to see how much expansion there is to deal with first.

 

3 GP40s moved the ninety-three boxcars (and one caboose) past the camera. Stretching almost a scale mile, it still doesn't take up half of the loop, and is much longer than what I plan to run "normally". Maybe occasionally...

The jotting on the foam gives a but of hint to what goes (or will go) where, and I did it mainly for my own sanity, as there were so many stray lines there.

In this long, long string there are only two duplicates; you'll have to wait for the video to spot them, but a hint: they are near the back, and one is weathered...

Track Planning: 1-to-1 style

I finally broke down and downloaded the turnout templates from Peco (http://www.peco-uk.com/page.asp?id=pointplans) and am I glad I did; a few of the things I wanted to do would not have worked out the way I intended, and having the templates allowed me to see one-to-one how the overall "plan" would work out.

I started on the "West" end of the yard, where the mainline goes almost directly into the passenger station, and the first switching "drill" track is reached via a crossover. The Peco track templates allowed me to visually see a better way to fit the two-to-four track transition in the the space and keep things smooth:

You can see the lines where the tracks come away from the turnouts, and where the crossover to the switching "drill" lead will be. There will also be a switcher pocket (from the cork off the existing track, past where the pin is stuck in the foam, to the end of the platform). This will allow the station passenger switcher to get out of the way, or lay-over between jobs. Things were going pretty well according to original plans here...

BUT on the other end of the station things were a bit of a mess; even today's planning activities went a bit awry, and you can see in this photo where some realignments were needed:

To the left of the track alongside the box cars are a few redundant lines; I had a bit of a mess here. The original locations meant a few turnouts were sited on separation gaps, hardly a good thing on a portable layout! So I shifted the platforms "west" slightly, which consequently allowed a bit better overall positioning of that end, and a couple extra inches of space in the coach yard. Those are the tracks nearest the bottom with the push-pins holding it in place; the right track will actually end about a foot shorter, at the turnout you can see just past the last (green) pin.

The other pinned track also includes another switcher escape pocket, since this (rightmost platform track) is also the mainline (eastbound) through the station. The second track from the edge is the westbound mainline, joining the westbound track via the nearest (bottom-most) turnout. By the way, this IS a C&NW layout, so it also means left-hand running...

One of my oops moments:

A little better shot showing where the tracks should go. You can barely see some squiggly lines through the turnout template on the left; I'm not sure WHAT I was thinking when I glued it down, but it would have mean the track running into the platform! You can also see a couple of cases where I moved the turnouts to avoid the gap; that is where the two sections are joined, and I wanted to keep things simple as possible here.

Once I got this resolved it was fairly simple to lay out the locations of the other turnouts, and the already mentioned coach yard's tracks. I am trying to keep it flexible, to allow for some switching, without overloading the whole thing with crossovers. I think I hit a fairly nice balance:

If you follow a line from the turnouts up you can see where the second (westbound) mainline track will go. This is a departure from the original plan by John Armstrong that was built around a single track mainline. I wanted the ability to run two trains, so added the second main.

At the top of the picture, past the line of box cars, you an barely see the turnout that leads into the east end of the freight yard. Most of the top-right hand area will be my "city", mostly tenements and such, but haven't committed too much else than that.

That pretty much sums up today. And guess what: more tomorrow!

Well, connected...

My "Golden Spike" moment:

I felt I needed something to celebrate the joining of the loop. Didn't have enough time to run many trains or do much else. Soon...


The last stretch of track

The pins are holding it until the PVA dries. Next visit I hope to double-track this section at least to have both mains running, now that the heavy engineering is figured out...


The long run through the yard

This is the main through the station area; the platforms will be to the left of this track, and the freight yard to the right. I am toying with options to add another arrival/departure track in this area since I can fit another track in to the plan…

Next installment: some action!