Catching Up On Progress

It’s been a few months of short spurts of progress, with the exception of track laying:

 The locomotive terminal, most of the track laid

 And finished.

I spent some time over the past weekend attaching feeder wires. Since I plan to make the layout DC friendly, I needed a few of them! And not to mention that a layout this size will still need more feeders even on DCC!

Next time I HAVE to do something about the control panel. And hopefully get thirteen more toggle switches wired before then. Not quite sure how I’ll do it, but I’d really like to the DCC bus in, and have the two power options available…

Fighting the funk of not working on the layout

We were talking on line about the malaise that sometimes sets in; you can go weeks without working on the layout, until something moves you to make progress.

I decided to do something about it!

All finished:

Except for the details, and the wiring. And the scenery. Oh well, at LEAST I can use it as a yard

The coach yard tracks in place; what color WOULD you expect me to use?

The caboose track (of course):

The locomotive servicing area; I need to make a few small adjustments in track centers to fit the refueling and sanding equipment in place, and give my little 1:160 service crew room to work, but for the most part all that remains is to lay the track:

Next time: the last of the track laying. For now.

Yard Work, Model Railroad Style...

It seems like it has been a long time, between having to find a new job, being sick with the flu, and the weather making it a bit too cold to do anything productive. But in my efforts to make good from bad, I put the gift I as given by my colleagues when laid off from my job to good use and purchased most of the track I would need to finish the yard area.

Three boxes of Peco flex may have been overkill. But it DOES mean I can look to do something “with it”…

Progress:

The caboose and auxiliary tracks have been put in, except for the #2 drill track, as I was short a turnout.

The pinned tracks are in place to plot the location of the cork. This way I can visualize where the tracks will be and decide if I like the location and placement.

The through tracks are all in place, and the pins are are holding the track in place while the glue dries.

And to make more progress on the next visit: It looks like the happy birthday fairy blessed me with all the turnouts I need to finish the loco servicing area real soon.

Time to look at details: since I can't go to a hobby shop and see them, what are your thoughts on the fuel and water products offers? I've got a Stewart Product double track sanding tower, so looking at Stewart Products, American Limited, Walther's, and JV Models. Any other manufacturers?

Edit: Well, so much for on-line ordering lol; in place of seven N turnouts I got seven HO/OO. The packing slip has the N product numbers, so worst case I have hostages lol...

Illness delays progress

In a cruel twist of fate, I was in the position to do some work, and got the track in, but suffering from flu! So no progress, but three boxes of flex track and half a dozen turnouts await my next visit!

Completing the Main Line Tracks

Completed the first of two crossovers

I had these two Micro-Engineering code 70 turnouts left lying around from another project, and since most everything I own works with them, I used them in this location...

Preparing for the last crossover

I need this one to get trains in and out of all platforms in both directions. These lines both worked well, so I hopefully I won't mess it up too bad...

Cutting the first line

I found this tool, which is primarily used for soldering, to be a very useful thing for holding the flex that is already in place while I cut the section out for the first turnout...

Completed the first cuts

Cut out just enough to insert a Peco long-radius turnout.

And the second...

Both "holes" for the crossover are made. The fitting is actually harder than just putting them in when I was laying the track, but as you can see from this picture, it would have been backwards anyway...

Letting the glue dry

Fully fitted; once the glue dries I can solder the joints that need soldering, and power the section between this and the other crossover I put in, as both lines (to the right of this picture) are now isolated to avoid shorts from the power-routing turnouts...

And no unsightly kinks…

The tracks are both straight, so I managed to leave enough space between them to drop this crossover in now. It was a bit of a pain, but it looks like it works out OK. Will know tomorrow when I run some trains through it...

Train Running

First one of the day:

A CSX GP38-2 (#6638) moves a transfer cut of box cars through the station to the freight yard. The locomotive is probably thirty years old, and not doing too badly for it's age.

Of course, it couldn't get far without a power change:

Home road power finishes the journey out of town towards a connection with the UP.

And a little more variety later on:

CNW GP15-1 #4421 leads a string of Burlington Northern cars out of the yard on a transfer run

An Atlas passenger GP7 (#1521) moves a string of gallery card in preparation for rush hour...

Hopefully you can see how much tidier the yard is, after a clean up. And yes, I drank the water...

It's not just play...

Preparing to bridge the last electrical gap

This corner, inside track, is the last dead spot, at least since I added block controls. powering it will again allow both loops to run, and now I can park trains and power off the station and yard tracks...

Now that that is done, and I can run trains on all existing tracks, I can focus on finishing up jobs that have been hanging around.

Mount Crossover; first to do

Now that I am running on both tracks, and have some control, it's time to finish up these jobs. This one is just outside the station and freight yard.

Mount crossover; second to do...

This one will let me have access to the other track, and is second priority. I can start adding power to the key turnouts, and hopefully get more track!