Company coming, (family), so the layout is now all cleaned up and the most boring you will ever see it. Picture of the Christmas Train filled with candy, HotWheels and a Dino. Wait! Where did the dino come from?
Welcome back, Tim! If I'm reading it correctly, your track plan shows mostly dual main except between Gribble and Reagan River Crossover and lots of interchanges. Total Milage = ? The track plan looks like you could set up a continuously running train, if you wanted, but could also accommodate point to point operations from one major division yard to another major division yard. Will the two reversing loops ultimately have provisions for Staging? Will any of the modeled industries have company in-plant switcher jobs (as opposed to being switched by the RR setting out and picking up all cars at the industry)?
Hi Dave: It is mostly dual main -- with a lot of interchange work. Total mileage is about 250 simulated miles It could be set up for continuously running trains, and I'll probably do that sometimes to railfan and ride in the trains, however mostly it will be point to point ops. -- the 2 reversing loops are already set up for staging with 6 or 7 staging tracks each direction the ADM Facility will probably have in plant, the paper mill and coal mine might as well Its very possible the track plan will evolve with time, we'll have to see Take care TIM
Country Joe said: "I don't think I have room for a yard." If you don't have room for a yard, I'd encourage you to add interchanges and industrial tracks. Depending on the size of your layout, interchanges with a single track or multiple tracks can often add more operations options, without needing to model a giant yard. Model a small ready track and imply the large engine facility and multi-track yard out of sight off of the layout.
I will have a few industrial spurs. I have one track right now that will be an intermodal track. It’s up front and should make an interesting scene. I love double stack intermodal cars so this is an important scene for me. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to find room for a small interchange yard and engine track. It’s not prototypical for the FEC but will allow more operational options and that’s more important to me than prototype accuracy. I’ll post photos as I make progress.
A quick update for this week. Made progress on the new fascia and hung some art in the hall to the layout room Plus installed metal wheels on about a dozen cars.
Got the rock castings stained and have started adding the first layer of scenery material along the back side between the road and the sky board. This first layer is tan colored sanded tile grout. A large sheet of styrene is placed between the bench work and the sky board to protect the sky board from getting anything on it. While that was drying, I assembled and airbrushed some of the parts for the GHQ crane I am building for the scrap yard. Going to be quiet around here through Christmas so should be able to get a lot more done.
3 Settings: Fast, Faster! and Alll the Way! 3yo Grandson at the throttle. Update: Family here through Dec 28. There were a couple of 'forced' locations where the Kato HO track did not fit smoothly. While it didn't seem to bother the trains my advisor, 'Justin Case' urged me to fix them. So I disconnected the track at all of the corners and forced areas. Starting at the yard I re-connected all of the track. This resulted in a 2" gap between the turnouts from Yard Lead to Main. Argh! Fine, just fine. Darwin, (my other advisor), said, "Order the piece" Justin said, "In the meantime You could cut down a piece of left over track". My replies: "Darwin, ya, I get it. Do it the safe way. No reason not to." "Justin, come on man, do you know what that will take?"So, I placed the order and how that gondola fell into the 'basket' I'll never say. Note: 'Darwin' and 'Justin Case' sit on my shoulders and keep me make me think. And yes, I know they are not real.
Tim Holmes said: "Total mileage is about 250 simulated miles." WOW! I'll bet you don't have any trouble with the caboose blocking traffic in one town, while the loco is switching a car in the next town down the line! Soooo....Inquiring Minds, and all that... If you have 30 scale miles between switching in two towns, and it takes a while to get up to speed after switching in Town1 and then to slow down to zero MPH to switch in Town2, could you give some examples of how long it takes to travel the specific distance between a few of the towns/interchanges you've modeled? On most of our layouts, local switching jobs usually spend MANY more minutes switching cars than minutes spent actually traveling between various switching locations, and we use various ratios on fast clocks to compress an 8-hour prototype switching job into 1, 2, or 3 operation session hours. For switching jobs on your layout that also cover lots of miles at simulated prototypical speeds, how many operating session hours does it take to complete the simulation of an 8-hour prototypical switching job?
Happy Holidays to everyone! And may the New Year bring PEACE around the World, REASON, COMPROMISE, and COOPERATION to address our National Issues, HEALTH, PROSPERITY, and LOVE in our Families, and INSPIRATION, CREATIVITY, TIME, and FUN with our Trains.
Unfortunately no, I cant -- I havent run them yet. What I can tell you is the 250 number comes from the mileposts I have simulated. in terms of actual scale miles, Rolling line does not have a scale per se, but its close to HO, at a guess, the layout is about 5 scale miles in length
Hello everyone, It's been a few years since I joined one of the parties, so I thought maybe this is the year to join the party and get my backside in gear again. I have a few trips planned for the next few months so the area I'm going to work in will be small as seen in the image attached. I'm not sure what I want to do in that area. I hope to get the track ballasted get some crossbucks installed at the grade crossing some buildings on the camera side of the track whatever comes to mind, like maybe some lights in the buildings, some of which go back to the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, some of the supplies I have ordered have been delayed and may or may not get here in time to complete my ideas. After looking at the attached image, it looks like I need to do some street cleaning by the school bus and get the road surface above the ties. Gary
I found a post in the Layout Party from 7 years ago. Did I miss a more recent Layout Party post? What sort of signals are you planning to use at your crossing? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No, Dave, I don't think you missed any other posts. I've been looking at some on Amazon which most likely I'll order soon. Not the best looking but they will work for me. I hope. Gary
Problems on the WC Sub. Been working on a track plan. Made a lot of good progress-got the Metra yard (staging/display), an urban residential area (railfanning) and an industrial area for switching all done. I hadn’t finished the switching tracks for the chemical plant, I had a rough outline of the Schiller Park intermodal terminal but wasn’t finished, and also had an outline of Lake Villa, IL near the Metra station. But hadn’t connected it or made sketch of the scenery transition. Hadn’t started on the staging tracks but those were going to be temporary and stub ended until a later expansion. Discovered today the file is gone. I’ve got part of the Metra yard, my Lake Villa and Schiller Park outlines from an older file so I’m not a square 1, but pretty darn close. So it might be a minute before a make tangible progress. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Continued to work on the area that will include the mesa that hides the hidden track. Below the hog-back ridge on the upper level is started as it is created in 'fake' geological fashion by the folded strata that goes down to the main level of the layout. . The rock face of the hog-back ridge will continue over to the center backdrop. I used two separate tunnel portals to determine where the foam had to be cut on the near side above. A new portal will be designed that will print as one piece and the center top between the two portals will be change some. The new one will be the same dimension as above up to the stepped top. A layer is cut to close to what I want then the top of it is used to mark the bottom of the next layer so it can be cut out and then carved into for what is needed to get up to the next layer. This process is repeated over and over again. Above the next step would be to carve the relief into that top layer and then use it to mark out the bottom of the next piece of foam board. This goes pretty quickly and I normally glue the next layer to the one above it after it has been cut close to shape and then blend the joint between them after they are glued together. The Loctite Power Grab holds well at this point, so don't have to wait overnight for the adhesive to set up. I'll drive three short lengths of small diameter welding wire through the top piece after gluing it into the ones below and that helps to keep the new piece from sliding around on the one below it. The far portal rock face only needs one more layer at this point and will be left until the near side is built up higher to see what is needed to pull them together at the top. At the backdrop the rock face will start stair-stepping down and will end almost at the bottom of it. To be continued..... A link to this whole build ( HERE ) and a link to more info on the above ( HERE ). Sumner
Some of the parts I ordered arrived today. It looks like I have some work to do on these traffic lights. They are not as described and I not returning them to China. I have found the following wrong Posts are on the left. In my area, all the posts are on the right. The red and green lights are reversed. Some of the lights don't work. I assume that they are not wired. They appear to be wired wrong since the yellow and red come on simultaneously. Gary
Got some additional layers of scenery done on the area behind the road. The rest of the area has gotten the base coat of sanded tile grout done and some of it has begun to get the additional scenery layers. The part behind the road is dry but I many want to go over it again to lighten it a bit. Everything else is still damp and so looks darker. The GHQ crane is coming along. Got the second color done on the cab.
