Lol! Thanks everyone for the effort on the name. I do like the things that are being brought up, but I think I may have found something that I like, but I'm still mulling it over. Something along the lines of Hacker Valley. Maybe The Chessie System's Hacker Valley. Alternatively there could be something like The Chessie System's Teetac River in Hacker Valley. A mouthful perhaps, but something to work with also. In other news, got 80% of the painting done so everything looks black and boring, but functionality is the key and down the road this paint job will pay big dividends. Didn't feel like taking a picture of a black layout... In other news, spent a good part of my day soldering frog wires to all the turnouts. Pain in the whatsit but had to be done regardless. Anyway, doing that allowed me to start putting some track down. This has been a horrible experience and I can't quite figure out why. It's not like I haven't done it before :/ Took me forever, and, one butt load of swearing later I have officially laid three feet of track, which includes a crossover. (Whoopie) Better luck tomorrow perhaps.
Big milestone today: hooked up the Prodigy and ran a loco, two cars and a caboose back and forth on what track has been laid so far. Was very rewarding. Also gave me a chance to check out the super-elevation on the mainline, and I have to say that I am very impressed with the results. Not bad for a first time effort. Not sure if the pictures are going to show it well or not, but I promise it's there. Also got the rest of the painting done today, so that's reduced the list a bit. Soldered the frog wires the other night, and got the bridge abutments in the mail the other day, which I promptly modified in a butcherish sort of way. Oh well. As for industry placement, The grain elevator is too big to go where I'd envisioned, so musical industries is soon to ensue. No idea yet what's going to come of that. Dreading painting the track-still no airbrush. On the plus side only the center facing rail sides have to be done, so that's a big improvement over the last two layouts. Cheers till next time!
You have made great progress on your layout. Running a train for the first time is a huge milestone. I'm still on the making room stage for my layout. Looking forward to seeing some nice Chessie locomotives running on your layout. Looks great!!
Thanks! Huge Milestone indeed. Tonight was another (albeit slightly smaller) milestone: got a full loop of track down; continuous running time! The inner loop (mainline) is now complete complete with passing siding (in front of the town). Next up is the secondary line, which will have all the industries and storage tracks branching off it. It could be a while before that bit is done, I still have to decide where everything is going. Speaking of which, I realized today that the Walther's Grain Elevator is backwards for my purposes. For what I'm doing, train loads are received and dumped, not loaded, so I have to take a closer look at things and see if there is a kitbash in there somewhere. *Sigh* If anyone is wondering what the little white bits are on the turnout throw bars, those are styrene shims. For me they serve to keep the point rails level (height wise) with the outside rails (or whatever their proper name is), which has been described in detail by MC Fujiwara in one of his threads. Another (huge) benefit to me is that these shims create enough friction to actually hold the switch set in position. No $12-16 per switch spent on Tortoises here. Didn't realize how bright that cab light was till just now... And that should wrap it up for today. Tomorrow will probably be spent laying a touch more track along the secondary line before it gets into town, and pondering industries. Oh yeah, and a butt-load of homework. *sigh part 2* Cheers!
Broke out my 'weathered train' last night to cure a spate of boredom and promptly spent a good hour watching it run around the room, getting close up views of cars rolling along the superelevated turns, running it through the crossovers, staring at it traverse the bridge... etc. It just happens to also be the best way to inspect the track work and search for flaws. So far so good. Then today started construction on the grain elevator. Still trying to figure out a minor kitbash that I can actually do to see if I can make this fit where it was originally meant to go. Observe: I think the solution is thus: Flip the two loading/unloading bays around, and then leave the truck unloading bay off, but use the loading 'elevator-tubing-stuff' as opposed to the unloading chute, y voila one grain elevator that receives loads instead of one that produces loads (from trucks), and hopefully one that just fits where it was meant to go in the first place. The Chessie System's Hacker Valley? I'm guessing none of these name combinations are striking a chord with anyone else lol. I think I'm getting pretty close though. The river can definitely be the Teetac River though Now I just need a name for the town...
Today was a relatively good day, and pursuant to that I got some things done around the train room. Built a little more of the grain elevator. Need to figure out how to weather this soon. Trying to get a feel for where everything is going to wind up: Laid three more turnouts, and playing around with positions for others: Took a close up shot to give a little feel for the depth of the scene: Took another close up shot just for the hell of it: Contemplating adding a three track staging area after the silo, 'cus i can't seem to squeeze it anywhere else, and given this is a/the major industry in the town, I need some space to stack the covered hoppers. Not sure if this is the solution, but we'll see: And lastly, broke out a can of spray paint I had lying around, that said it's good on metal, so shot some track to see what things looked like. Will check results later when things are bit less wet: Lastly, about to settle on a name: "The Chessie System's Hacker Valley" ~Along the TeeTAC River You have until this time tomorrow to object and make me change my mind. And that's it for this train of thought. Till tomorrow...
Hey Chris, I really like this layout compared to the Blue Ridge. It's nice and simple with wide open spaces and a potentially more reliable set of track in my opinion. The Blue Ridge seemed like a lot of complexity in a small space. But I'm a sucker for long main line runs through open scenery.
Yeeeah, that was a big part of what led to the Blue Ridge's downfall. That layout turned out to be a good idea that turned into a bad idea, that turned into a rushed decision, that turned into over-eagerness that turned into a mess. Goodbye. I too am enjoying the large spaces, and imagining how everything is going to look with one track through much scenery as opposed to three tracks through less scenery. I'm also loving the larger radius turns and just the feeling of space-even though I am 'stuck' in the middle now Thanks for the compliment!
So apparently my photobucket took a giant... ...so over the next few days I will be replacing all of the empty boxes with pictures. Bear with me...
Yep, seems like there's a timer on the edit function. Sorry Photobucket kicked the... wow, there's an Escher drawing for you. Stopped using the 'Bucket years ago. Picassa Photo Albums (NOT Google+) works great for me.
Unfortunately my photos here are all linked to my photobucket account which did something funny, and as such, unlinked all the pictures. Apparently there isn't any way to relink, or edit my previous posts. Consequently, I will be starting a new thread, with a proper name, and a chronological photo series until I reach current events, at which point I'll start talking again. Bear with me. Look for thread name "The Chessie System's Hacker Valley". Cheers.
