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!

Lofty Ambitions Christmas Special

I managed to get the baseboards/sub-roadbed in place and connected all the way around the loft. Some shots of the progress. Subroadbed in place:

I took this after fixing the supports for the yard modules in place, but before I started on the far end or any track... 

Transition into the Yard:

The transition from the narrow "around the walls" layout to the yard modules. The triangle shaped section is removable to allow the yard modules to come out. The two sections of foam are left over from other projects, so not wasted...

View through the Yard:

Now that it is all in place we can look down the space where the yard will be...

I then started to work on where the track will go, so I can hopefully get the mainline laid and run some trains all the way around.

Platform One (of Two):

Rough-in of the Passenger Depot area; there will not be a station building on the layout, but the platforms will be lit. The platform is eight feet long, and the train is sixteen cars of heavyweights. 

A three track coach yard with three four foot plus tracks is planned for the area "behind" (down and left) this view.

Proof of Concept test:

I laid out the tracks with proper spacing to see how many would actually fit in the space I have; it turns out that even after adding an additional track I still have some extra space along the back...

More "Proof of Concept":

 

Another shot of the proof of concept testing. I laid out the tracks using the "bridge" walkway sections from the Walthers "Butterfly" platforms to space the tracks. The cars in this view are the Bluford Shops 86' High Cube box cars. Track is by Peco.

Tuesday is hopefully going to see the Mainline track laid through this whole side. I’ll update if and when…

More Progress; Yard Frames Built!

Despite the colder than average attic this month, I managed to get the last of the three frames completed and the foam cut and fitted inside the frames. Now if the glue sets over the next couple of weeks i can attempt to finish the edges and get the yard section in place. After that it's run the rest of the mainline and start the trains!

But first; I mention partly recessing the foam into the frame section. I trimmed a channel around the edge of the faom sections where needed so that it sit halway inside and half above the frame. Not sure why, but I thought it would be better not to have a bare section of wood on the edge of the section; it is in effect a solid foam sub roadbed. Here's a shot of one section:

There are also eight 2"x2" supports and four plywood cross bars to support the foam, so it's not all down to the edge to keep it together.

Here's the three sections stacked for drying:



Like I said, getting there...