Well I've been busy the last month. Assembled a few more structures and finished the hill overlooking the town. But more importantly I, (with the much needed help of a few friends) completed all the wiring. I now have four blocks on the CC. Yes I went with DC but figured I would learn on that then make the move later to DCC. I have also found all the motive power(at least for now). I've decided to stick with the Southern/Seaboard line up. 2 GP-7's Southern (Atlas) 1 GP-9 Seaboard Air Line (Atlas) 1 RSC-2 Seaboard (Kato) 1 2-8-0 Seaboard (Bachmann) 1 2-8-2 Mikado (Unmarked) (Kato) Guess I'll mark up the Mikado as Southern. Am learning quickly on swapping out MT coupler assemblies. Put one on the GP-9. Picking up a 2004 for the 2-8-0. The Kato Unitrack runs flawless. All turnouts are #6's. Lesson learned on Kato Power Pack. Never plug the power cord to power pack into anythng other than power pack. I pluged it by accident into my drill to charge. Burned it up. Kato does not sell replacement cords only complete power packs. Cut a few custom pieces and they work perfect. I love my Dremel:thumbs_up: I have attached photos for comments, advice, etc. Please be frank. I kind of feel like the hill is too high. I am not going to have any passenger ops for now on the CC. I had two Lima cars with the dreaded Rapido couplers so I wanted to break in the 2-8-0. Need to figure out some type structure for the area by the two storage sidings. Black lines are roads. Across from the DPM kits I will probably put in a gas station. Need to find room for a good Hickory Pit Bar B Q too. Thanks to all who have mailed me, helped and given lots of great advice. Thanks Again & Merry Christmas Bruce
Bruce, nice job! I really like the way you have the river flow through the layout, it looks so natural even though it is still pink. Did you use a hot wire cuter to form that and the hill? Speaking of your hill, no I don't think it is too high, it hides the fact that your layout is small as it is. Once you have trees on it it will give the illusion of distance. Any chance you have room to but a siding on that back stretch behind the hill to act as hidden staging? Nice work! Jim
Great job so far, Bruce! The river's gonna look great, I can just tell I must admit I went straight to the pictures before reading the text, but I don't think the hill looks too tall at all...I was gonnas say I like the way it's all in proportion
Exceedingly good work! I live next to the Rockies. Your hill/mountains are just fine, I look forward to seeing the next set of pictures! And, Merry Christmas back at you! Joe
Many thanks all. I have encluded a pic of the area behind the ridge. It is a nice staging area. The Kato turnouts actually act as a block. But I also added a block to the main line. This allows me to continue switching and pull trains onto the main I can put nine cars to include engine into the staging area. Any more than 9 cars the train starts to look kind of unrealistic. I don't mind this as I grew up on the Southern and was use to very small freights going by. I've got some time off the next few days so hopefully I'll get to finish the structures I have. Once they are finished I'm going to hit the roads with cork and styrene. Paint the track and then start on the sculptimold. All of the ridge cutting was done with a hot knife. The cut out for the road and river was started with the hot knife. Then worked on with a drill/wire brush attachment. Also used the dremel to shape it up a bit. I measured the hill/ridge and it came to 40 "N" scale feet. So I guess it's not too big. I was suppose to go to Ft Benning, GA this weekend. Unfortunately the trip was cancelled. This was going to enable me to drive through the area I am modeling. One of the things I haven't done yet is name the town & river. Will probably hit Yahoo maps and pull up the area and find something. All in all this has been a much fun endevor. Lot's of good folks in model railroading. Take Care Bruce
Your doing a fine job, and it will be nice to see some railroad action from the south. Can't wait to see your progress in the next few days. Jim
Upatoi Creek runs right through Benning, of course there is the Chattahoochee that runs through Columbus, and borders Benning, it has many rail bridges over it. Brad
I've looked at your layout, going back several times to look at one feature or the other. Each time I find something I missed that captures my attention. Your use of the foam has given me some ideas for my layout. Should you want your layout to grow in the future, it can grow as time and space allows. Keep up the good work. You are doing an excellent job. I'm impressed. Although, you might be ignored for a post or two we will still be reading your updates. So, keep bringing it back to TrainBoard.
