You could have lied to us and him Taken credit Either way they are really nice! Looks like Uncle will be busy in the future? As much as I like the wood work, the track plan and laying stuff is you, right? You are doing that part Very impressive I must say! As I said before, very clean and organized. Guess I am jealous. Not really, but really cool!
The Bakery/Milling facility tracks are finally all pinned in place. Its quite the task when there are multiple tracks that all come together in one location. Lots of measuring between the track planning program and finding the exact location on the module, marking, measuring again, double checking your measuring, and then cutting and praying you measured right lol. BTW, the curves from the double slip look tight and sharp, but they work out to be somewhere between 15-17" radius. The right stub ended track in the photo below was the tightest radius and was going to be around 14" and just looked too tight so I had to sacrifice some of the straight track to open it up slightly and allow for 15"
LOL thank you again for the kind words, I really appreciate it. I have always been a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. Plus, its kinda hard to say I built them when Kam Konnect embosses the sides of the modules with their name on it And yes, I am doing 100% of the track designing and building for these modules Im just happy to have finally started these, its been a long while in the "planning stages" messing around in the track planning software before I finally jumped into the building phase.
Last progress for today, time to eat some dinner and get some sleep to be well rested for the new year tomorrow! Plus, I ran out of track pins, so to finish off the last couple tracks I need to start gluing a few in place to free up some pins to finish the intermodal tracks and the last few straight sections at the double crossover.
I took your advise and did a little re-arranging to the locomotive servicing in the yard. We are looking at the white tracks here in the picture below. While it is still not perfect, and a locomotive still cannot return directly to the branchline after fueling (I just couldnt make it fit in this narrow space the way I wanted), I think it does flow a little better and does not require a locomotive to have to go through the maintenance building to fuel and sand anymore. In addition, as suggested the fuel and sand island now has a run through track, as well as a second track that can be used for fueling/sanding but also leads to the shop for quick maintenance work. The second track can be the heavy repair track with storage at the right end of the building. I had to chop this shop building and eliminate a service track/bay to move its location around, so I chose to make it longer to make up for the sacrifice of making its width less. It was previously 3 tracks/bays, now like the rail shop. Both Walthers kits are 3-bay shop buildings, so they will need to be kitbashed/modified when built. I also moved the rail car shop a little to the left and re-arranged these tracks as well. I added what im calling the RIP track, and its purpose will be to temporarily hold cars that may need a bit more attention then just quick services, a holding track I guess you could say until space becomes available for the more in depth major repair work. This could also bring the addition of a small yard shop switcher and provide yet another switching operation for the layout.
That's more like it. Fueling and servicing can be done quickly and won't interrupt the work going on in the shop. When a unit is in the shop, it is tied down, chocked or chained, blue flagged and guys are under and in it fixing and maintaining it. Fuel and oil filters, traction motor and generator/alternator brushes, brake shoes and lots of other piddly stuff. It is a major evolution to stop the work and clear it for moving! The car shop looks good, easy in and out. The RIP can be used for the little piddly repairs, bent grabs, door rollers, etc.
Some excellent points and tips, thanks again for the suggestion! As I mentioned its easy to make changes now as I have not started those modules yet. I would have been less inclined if I started, but probably still would have done it because, well it just makes sense lol Thanks! My idea was to have easy access from the main yard tracks, quick repairs on the top shop track, second shop track doing the more major repairs, and the 3rd being a run-around to shuffle cars around or to stage the finished cars to return to service. I like the idea of using the RIP track for the small non shop required repairs.
Gluing track down has has consumed much of the time spent on the modules in the last couple days. I needed some Micro Engineering Code 80-Code 55 transition insulated rail joiners to join the peco double slips and double crossover to the surrounding atlas C55 trackwork, so I cant do much around those areas until those joiners arrive, hopefully in a couple days. Ive glued just about all the track I can until those arrive. I was looking at the track-plan again while waiting for the glue to try on some tracks, and wondering if there was anything I could do to improve the flow of the Intermodal Yard since it will be one of the main focuses of the layout. It did not make a whole lot of sense to have the yard tracks at the bottom and then container storage rows below the yard as it would mean containers would have to travel extra unnecessary distance to be loaded or unloaded from the loading tracks. I ended up re-arranging the entire Intermodal yard in the process, basically flip flopping things from top to bottom to achieve a better flow for the yard. I also extended the yard lead (right most gray track running at the bottom right below grain and paper mill) track by 15", it is now 91" with the lift-out cassette extension. It is still a bit shorter then the longest loading track, but that will mean I will just have to service a little shorter cuts of cars on the loading tracks as the lead is at its max length. Yard tracks are now at the top, followed by the 2 pairs of Mi-Jack Container tracks, then the Long-Runner/Spine Car track, and lastly, the 12" wide storage area for containers and trailers at the front of the modules. All 5 of the loading tracks will be serviced by several Mi-Jack Container Cranes per row.
Public Service Announcement People, get your tracks NOW before Denali finishes his track plan. There will be guarantee of shortages! All places will be sold out!
no kidding! LOL. I bought alot on black friday already though and have on hand most of what I will need. Bought 75 each LH & RH's alone on Black Friday lol. Cleared out woo woo woo on their #7's and also got alot from Factory Direct Hobbies. Oddly enough the trackplan as it stands right now is 84 each LH & RH #7's
LOL nope, all atlas code 55 with a few Peco C55 double slips and double crossovers. The start of the Intermodal Yard has been re-laid on Module #5 and is now glued down. This is as much trackwork I can do until the insulated rail joiners arrive, hopefully in a day or two. I also cut the tracks between the two modules today using a Dremel with cut-off wheel, makes for quick clean cuts of the rail and ties. I will go back and file each rail lightly when I separate the modules to remove any burrs that were left. Tested each track and after cutting, the rail tops remain flush and have a smooth transition from module to module. Next up, after I finish gluing down the remaining tracks on Module #5 will be to paint and weather all tracks on modules 4&5. Finally, when all that is done will be time for ballast. When I go to ballast, I will pin the last few inches of each track again so the glue does not loosen up the tracks and move them at all to ensure the alignment stays true. This has been the approach I have taken in the past and it seems to have worked well. That is, if you handle the modules with care and are careful not to damage the module ends when moving them around. I usually have someone help me move them around and set them up, makes it 100 times easier to handle with care.
Separated Modules 4&5 today and started working on wiring the feeders to terminal blocks on Module #4. Took a few hours, and not the cleanest looking wiring job, but it will do and Module #4 is done as far as track wiring goes. Track feeders are all 22 gauge, terminal feeders are 16 gauge, and main bus is 12 gauge. All solid core wire. The main bus has Anderson Powerpole quick connect connections at either end to connect to the a-joining modules quickly and easily. I installed wire clips to secure the excess bus at the ends when not connected to an adjacent module. To the left edge you will see a Touch Toggle Servo base controller mounted, it will control 8 servos for 8 turnouts on Module #4. If anyone is interested in a different approach to turnout controls over the conventional tortsie motors or hand throws, I would highly recommend checking out Touch Toggles! There turnout control system utilizes servos to throw the points on switches. Link to their website can be found by clicking HERE There are 12 total turnouts on this module, so ill install another base controller that only has 4 servo controls on it, most likely next to this one. Eventually I will be making a control panel for this module mounted in a picture frame, where turnout touch control pads will be mounted on a scaled down drawing of the module. Each module is going to have its own frame, and the frames will be removable so it can be taken down so they wont get damaged or be in the way when handling the modules.
Thank you Andy! The brackets are to allow the legs to fold. Each module has 2 legs mounted on the "male" end of the module. The "male" end referring to the rotating Cam-Lock that joins and locks the two modules together. The leg brackets lock in both the up and down positions, making it handy as to not worry about them either falling down when they are closed or collapsing when they are up.
If each module has legs on only one end, what do you do for the female end of the first (last?) module, especially since you would sometimes not have them all set up together? Do you have a pair of legs on just a crossbar with a male cam-lock joiner for that? Come to think of it, you could have a legless crossbar that mates with the open male end, and sticks up above track level to prevent wayward trains/cars from taking a dive off the end. You could do the same with the legged crossbar too.
@BigJake @Denali_Subdivision Well this one module for sure has 4 legs, me thinks? Sure looks like it , and the one he is wiring is on top of it upside down, me thinks? BTW, part of my Winter Layout Party is to organize my wiring on my 2' x 4' base. Now I feel really bad after looking at how well he did his, amazing wiring, so clean and... well it's just nice! I don't think mine will look that good after I am done? Now I know I need terminal strips like his, but smaller! I'm amazed by your patience, to lay track, wiring, etc... And your wood work...oops that's not you
It appears to me that the module is laying on a bench or support that has the legs shown below the left end; they are not lined up relative to the corner like the modules' legs at right are. But I could be wrong (it's happened once or twice before...) The practice of providing only two legs per module is efficient, even when accounting for an end-bar with two legs of its own. Add to that the ability of an end-bar to block off a module's unmated track ends, and their utility is even better. A legless end bar (that just blocks off track ends) can also be mated to the legged end bar for storage/transport.
