Lonely Hearts Club Band

Rick, I can't wait for you to get a scanner or camera so we can see the results of your efforts. You certainly achieved a lot of what you set out to do. Congratulations.
For the rest of the updates, good going everybody.
I reached my goals for this week.
First, I finished scratchbuilding six subway cars but only five fit into the Front Street station.
Here is a picture of one of the cars.

See more pictures and info in my post at the freelance forum.

Next, I layed about ten feet of industrial track with switches. Here is a picture of part of that area.

This is all recycled track from my previous layout and ballasting comes next.

I also started on a water area near Tayside. A saw mill will be located here. So far it is just plaster on masonite with a few logs.

Next comes painting.
My goals for the final week!
Lay about another twenty feet of industrial track and finish the water area.

[ 09 May 2002, 23:16: Message edited by: Robin Matthysen ]

 

Groan, just when I think I'm doing great you and Paul come along and show how you built an entire layout last week.... lol! Your pictures are looking good. If I ever make it out East, not as improbably as it sounds, I will see if I can mooch an invite to see your layout in person. Ditto for you if you come out here. Who knows, maybe you'll take that cruise to Alaska and then you'll be in the area.

On the positive side, I was eye balling digital camera's today so I am thinking I might have one by the end of summer.

I did something smart I never thought of, and it worked out very well. Two doors from me lives a fairly well known artist. I was pondering an issue about my backdrop and perspective and decided to invite him over to get his opinion. In about two minutes, he figured out what my problem was, how to solve it, and gave me some great suggestions to further enhance the layout in relation to the backdrop. I know he enjoyed the visit and I got some great advise. So to you lurkers out there, don't hesitate to invite an artist in to check out what you are doing, you might be surprised by their excellent advise.

 

Well I haven't updated in a while, had some out of town company and a short vacation to the beach. But with 2 weeks left to go I still feel pretty confident. I soldered most of the business district last night (still need to cut a piece of track to fix one small section). I think I'll take the time to wire this section as well before laying the yard. Or maybe I'll lay them both and wire them together. I'll post some new pics this weekend, showing my SD35 lashups and even the new Spirit loco making the circle.

 

Thanks to all of you for your feed back My coffee table was my first attempt at working in N-scale. I had several HO scale layouts growing up and I still have the 027 my grandmother gave me almost 30 years ago. N-scale has proven to be a very enjoyable scale to work with and after a few Navy deployments and several years, I'm back in the hobby again!!

I was out of town all last week so I didn't make any real progress on my layout. But I did work out a new plan (on paper) for the yard and engine terminal along with planning for the town area.

Colonel,
Hey mate!! I work with one of your mates from the Royal Australian Navy. He and I are submariners and we are both stationed in Hawaii. I have been to Australia twice on Navy deployments and really enjoyed being there.

The layout is based on a plan from the book Model Railroading in Small Places. I changed the track plan a little but mostly followed the plan in the book.

 

Well, I see that I march to the beat of a different drummer even in this hobby, not just in the rest of my life: scratchbuilding your own custom-fitted turnouts is obviously fairly uncommon, and it does make for very slow progress compared to some of the efforts I am hearing about (and seeing). I am just about sick of it, though, and want to move on to backdrops, scenery, and structures. I have a feeling I'm gonna be just as fastidious about those aspects. I have had to rip up my all-curved diamond crossing and re-engineer the throat of the yard at which it was located. I should have predicted it, but very light, empty cars, like MT 33' coal hoppers, could not hold the rails through the crossing, the curve puts slight lateral torque to the wheels, which will pick the points of the crossing and derail. Loaded cars are OK, but you gotta have those empty coal drags too! I have reworked a lot of my frogs to prevent wheels dropping, and I am going to use the incredibly beautiful North West Short Line metal Code 64 tread 33" and 36" wheels on tank cars and possibly some hoppers.
I have probably built 60-70 turnouts over the last 3 years, about 30 on my latest layout, and I am still learning things, even as the trackwork is coming to an end. Certainly, there is no way a small layout (about 42"x90" N scale) like this could have such long passing tracks and natural-looking sweeping curves without custom trackwork. At the end of the evening, I had a pair of Atlas CSX GP38s pulling some old empty 33' Clinchfield hoppers and an Atlas EV Family Lines caboose running analog on the inner loop, while a pair of Kato CSX SD40-2s running DCC and pulling LBF hi cube boxcars and MT 56' tankcars roved the outer loop--everything worked, very cool and satisfying. Now I need to get a digital camera to start to show you what this little project looks like, now that it's a technical success, I think you will find it intriguing.

 

I think most of us who don't scratchbuild their own track and turnouts envy those who do. It is a skill I would certainly enjoy having.

However, my son Dane is finishing up grade 10 and I would like to have our layout up and running before he leaves home for whatever. That could be as short as 2 years away and a bit, depending on his plans. So I have forgone that route. When he leaves home permanently, I will probably have changed my mind about some of the layout I have built and begin to pick up the skills necessary for building your own track.

I have a buddy who has had a very stressful job with CN until Santa visited him at age 55 (full retirenment and a great buy out package). He walks around with a smile on his face now. During his high stress, although he didn't say as much, his track laying I believe was a form of therapy for him. The concentration, repitition, and skill required of building some very incredible turnouts and track, probably has saved his health.

 

to quote the humorist Dave Barry - "the line between hobby and mental illness is very thin". (And as I reread that I laughed at the rail road pun that I don't think he planned)

 

My (final) update.

Track work - Complete.

Wiring - Complete.

Ran two trains around (simultaneously) with no problems. No track kinks, no dead spots, no eletrical shorts, no derailments. I'm still in shock

Well, I've come further along than I thought. I still need some updated equipment, but everything works fine for now. It's all scenery from this point onward. I'll keep watching for the next installment of the "Lonely Harts Club Band."

 

Richard,

When handlaying turnouts, do you use the PCB ties that Clover House sells or have you cut any on your own from plain PCB material? Any help in cutting my own or is it not worth it?

I want to handlay code 55 turnouts to use with Atlas' new code 55 flex.

 

Congrats Bruce.

 

Hemi,
I wasn't getting anything done on my layout because I was spending large amounts of money on engines and cars I "had to have." Well about half a year ago, I vowed not to buy any more engines or cars for one year, and to put all the money into getting the layout further along, no matter how appealling the item.

Well, Atlas came out with a BC Rail in N which is very rare for them (engine) and I haven't bought it. And I have put off buying the consolidation (N) which I really wanted. But that freed up all kinds of money to work on the layout, buy backdrop and necessary stuff to put it up, and the layout has moved along nicely.

[ 14 May 2002, 20:20: Message edited by: rsn48 ]

 

Rick (Nicholson)

I'd rethink the idea of spending/wasting money on the Atlas BC Rail engines. Have a pair of them. They look good but they're poor runner. Somewhat jerky and insufficient pulling power. After coverting them to DCC they run a bit smoother but still rough and noisy.

Check out Pacific Western Rail in Vancouver. They offer custom painted Kato SD40. As far as I remember they're doing a BC Rail as well.
(I ordered 16 of the custom painted SD40's....)

 

Sandro,
I will wave a red flag around Pacific Western Rail company. I am very familiar with the owner and the company. I am providing you a link to a discussion thread on the Atlas forum, in HO scale I believe, that talks about this company.

http://forum.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5577

[ 15 May 2002, 22:27: Message edited by: rsn48 ]

 

Well this is my last post here. Since the begining of the Lonely Hearts Club, I have completed at least 40% more than I would have without this gentle prompting. I kept thinking I needed to do something for my next weekly report so that is what I call FOCUS.

Thanks to you Rick for thinking of setting this up as it has helped us all
Now I will look forward to this fall when you start this again.

 

Well,I'm finally starting to feel better and can stay on my feet for more than ten minutes at a time so just maybe I'll have something to report come this fall when this little ole club gets started up again.

 

This weekly report idea is excellent. It will force me to work harder. I've had problems with health, which meant I could not stand very long. This has been lessened and now I can get back to the layout. Nothing much to report as I'm still in the process of laying track. I'm working on the larger leg of an L-shaped N scale shelf layout with a Midwest theme (1950s-70), a fictional shortline owned by the Milwaukee Road. This portion is 16 feet long, 18 inches wide. The other leg will be 8 feet long, 18 inches wide. As soon as I have the first leg up and running, I'll install the second leg. My major problem is wiring and soldering; I'm electrically challenged.

Anyway, next week I'll have something more concrete to report. You betcha!

 

John A,

Lol... if you look at the dates of the posts, you will see this one is over. BUT, I am about to start another one. I was going to get it going this past week, but with the Athearn announcement into N scale, I thought I would let the dust settle. The next one will be called something like "High balling the Layout."

So hold off one more week. I will be putting announcements in H, HO, and O here and in all three at the Atlas forum.