Layout Expansion

montanan Mar 18, 2013

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    It's an interesting sensation, when an awaited parcel finally shows up. All that pent up ambition, ready to cut loose. :)
     
  2. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    I have made some progress. I did some rough assembly on the background buildings and have the measurements I need to start possibly laying some track. The turntable pit has been temporarily set into place. Still trying to figure out the final track plan for the yard. I have to come up with a run around track for switching. Maybe a few beers will inspire me. IMAG0247.jpg IMAG0248.jpg IMAG0249.jpg
     
  3. ScaleCraft

    ScaleCraft TrainBoard Member

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    The track that runs along the wall, under the building....is that main line?
    Good switching runaround is to parallel the ladder lead (angled track) from the track along the wall to the inlet track to the ladder.
    Dave
     
  4. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hmmm. Sometimes that works nicely. Other times, well..... :oops:
     
  5. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    There is no main line running through. My layout is a point to point, and this is one end. The mainline enters the yard where the two tracks enter by the turntable. The background buildings are just a cheap way of saving real estate. The track along the will will have at least three, if not four industries for additional switching. There will also be a passenger station where the white package is by the tape measure. Still in the planning stages. With no hobby shops within hundreds of miles, it can be a pain waiting for items to arrive.
     
  6. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have a local hobby shop. It's only a 250+ mile round trip.....

    Well, actually we have a craft & R/C shop which will order things in if desired. But I can do that just as fast, if not faster and save money, too, via the 'Net.
     
  7. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    There's a shop in Belgrade that is into R/C planes and cars, but don't even carry liquid plastic cement. I was running low and asked my wife to pick some up and when she asked, she said they looked at her like she had two heads. Guess I'll have to break down and visit wally world.
     
  8. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Same here in Slovenia. As far as I know there is only one shop in the country selling model trains, etc. It is is the capital, Ljubljana. I do have a diesel locomotive which they commissioned from a Chinese factory. Good to have a genuine SZ model. Trouble is, they do not do online ordering or payment, so I had a friend who works in Ljubljana pick one up for me.

    So anything I need comes from online shops or ebay. But as all orders are "international" they often carry a high shipping charge. A good percentage of stuff I need I get from UK dealers who I have dealt with for years, some have very reasonable shipping charges. Even when I lived in the UK I still had to get most of my supplies by mail, from the same suppliers I use now! Nothing changes! :)
     
  9. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    I thought I had it bad. It looks like you have a lor working against you. I'll have an extra beer for you. It can really get irritating having to wait for orders, but with having international shipping problems, it just makes things worse.
     
  10. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    A little more progress.

    I think I have finally come up with the final track plan. No, it's not on paper. Besides the passenger station, the largest structure will be this Walthers Freight station. I can't believe how prices have gone up. I bought it years ago when it first came out. I think the price has gone up about $10 since then.

    For Dave, the mainline comes in on two tracks below the turntable where the passenger cars are. My problem was coming up with a run around track and it ended up just to the right of the freight station. I positioned some Homabed behind the long black box which will be where the main street in town will be.

    I doubt I will be able to get any work done next week. My other hobby is restoring classic cars and next weekend I'm going to a "cruise in" and a car show. The last picture is my other toy. IMAG0254.jpg IMAG0255.jpg IMAG0253.jpg IMAG0252.jpg IMAG0251.jpg IMAG0250.jpg pictures 122.jpg
     
  11. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wow! Looks like you did a great job on the car! Classy!

    Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
     
  12. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the complement. This other hobby is probably why it took me so long to get this railroad built. This particular car was totally rebuilt, but to modern standards. Originally it had a little six cylinder engine with a two speed automatic transmission. It was found in a barn where it had been sitting for decades. I started stripping it down to replace all of the dried out rubber bushings and I had it torn down so far that I decided to turn it into what were call a "restomed" or grand touring car over here. The suspension was changed quite a bit with changed spring and shock rates. Power rack and pinion steering was added along with four wheel disc brakes. The engine was replaced with a moter from an unfoutunate 2006 CO6 Corvette and hooked up to a 6 speed manual transmission. For such a big car, it gets amazing fuel mileage. With the rear end gear ratio and the 6 speed overdrive transmission, we can average over 30 mpg on the highway, which we did this past February when we went to the Daytona 500 in Florida. It still is a rather fast car too. I have a number of them in my shop. I am in the progress of slowing down with this hobby and am trying to sell a number of them off. I have sold a couple on ebay motors and will probably be taking some to the Mecum Auction, which is a rather large car auction here in the states. Here are a few old pictures I found showing how far down the car was taken. It was totally remanufactured I guess. I wanter it to look as close as possible to being completely stock. I didn't leave europe out. The last photos are a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger.


    59 front.jpg 59 rear.jpg 59 Frame.jpg 59 interior.jpg tiger.jpg tiger2.jpg

    I guess I'm getting a little off topic here, but it is another hobby that I am really interested in.
     
  13. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wow! You do first class restorations. I love the beautiful Sunbeam :)

    Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII using Tapatalk 2
     
  14. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    That little sunbeam is what we call a "Poor Man's Cobra" here in the states. I wil be getting rid of a number of cars, but the Sunbeam will be a keeper.
     
  15. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Small update

    I got some of the track work started after getting back from a car show. A bit of track with some turnouts were laid and some temporary power was put to the rails to make sure that there were no problems. No derailments.

    IMAG0314.jpg IMAG0315.jpg IMAG0316.jpg IMAG0317.jpg IMAG0318.jpg IMAG0319.jpg

    The cars moved through the turnouts very smoothly. the half built freight station is about where it will end up. The big black strip is where the main street in the town will probably be. I laid it to scale, and it seems a bit wide right now. The RDC sits in front of where the passenger station will end up. No station yet, so no measurements. the B&O dining car will be where I plan to have it to be an upscale restaurant. Probably will get back to laying track this weekend being that I can't proceed with any structures, turntable and roundhouse until I can get some plastic cement. I found out that I was just a quarter of an inch out of level and has freight cars running loose until it was leveled properly. At least I know they are very free rolling.
     
  16. jhn_plsn

    jhn_plsn TrainBoard Supporter

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    The all but silent giant. I think I have seen one on the road in the last ten years.
     
  17. Jerry Potter

    Jerry Potter TrainBoard Member

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    Back to the layout, are you laying track directly on the plywood? If so, how are you attaching it, are you using code 100 track.
     
  18. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Very carefully. In yards, the track isn't on raised roadbed. I use Homabed on the mainline, but these tracks are right on the plywood. The track is code 70, and they are being spiked to the plywood. I'll lay track for a while until I run out of knuckles, take a break and go do it again. Rather time consuming. The hardest part is keep the track straight.
     
  19. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Yesterday the passenger station arrived. It's bigger than I expected, but this is good. This is a big help as I will now have a better idea of how to manage the real estate.
     
  20. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Now that I got the package with teh plastic cement, the station was assembled to get an idea of the space that would be taken. Like I had mentioned, it was a bit larget than I though it would be, but that's fine. It's a Walthers kit. It was a bit time consuming, but worth the effort. Saturday was a busy day, but assembly on the station was completed. Some more track was put down and tested.

    IMAG0328.jpg IMAG0334.jpg IMAG0329.jpg IMAG0330.jpg IMAG0331.jpg IMAG0332.jpg IMAG0333.jpg

    The first two shots are of the station for Logan. I think it's a pretty decent looking building. The next three pictures are during the track testing. I had a string of about 17 freight cars I was pushing into the different sidings t see if there were any possible problem spots, but after shoving the train into every available track, not a single derailment. The last two pictures are of a project I started a long time ago, but didn't have a place to put it until this town came into existance. I think it is a Campbell kit. I put an interior in it and a budding young painter and his models. Now all I have to do is figure out how to light it.

    I don't think much work will be done next weekend as we have a bowling tournament to attend in Butte, MT. I think I can use the break. I am spiking the track and turnouts down and it is a bit time consuming and a bit tedious. I about ran out of knuckles last weekend, and found myself using words that I thought I had forgotten.
     

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