Train time it was! Today, I removed the weights used to keep the track down until the glue cured: Now you have a new use for those dusty bottles of model paint! Crescent siding: I also put a short train of Athearn hi-side coal gons, a caboose and GP30 on the rails, and tested them with a 9V battery. No feeders are installed yet. She ran like a top, and even with MT lo-pros, the cars rolled smoothly across all the joints and frogs. I was shocked! I guess all that time spent leveling the roadbed made a difference. All the curves are soldered, and all turnouts joints are free-floating. The real test will be soldering in the feeders, and doing full-scale testing with the PA's! More photos here: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=1014
Train #702 First train! The Energy Mine-Denver Cherokee PSCX Plant loads ease through the Tunnel District! My youngest engineer in training looks on as the first coal load negotiates the sinuous mainline at Tunnel 25: After exiting Tunnel 19, the wonderful curves at Crescent are the next stop: Crossing Gross Dam Rd: Leaving Crescent behind, our PSCX Cherokee plant load enters Tunnel 18 (ignore the Athearn box on top of the hill...) Yeah, I kow, I recycled Tunnel 10's old portal, but it's all good!
Hemi, You could not have picked a better looking first train to run on the layout. Your progress is looking GREAT! Ben
For a second i thought your first picture was a train, had to do a double take on that one LOL Nice start to your layout
Thanks, Ben & Josh! If I had the CZ unpacked, I would have ran it first. BTW, the PA's have no problems with the route. I'm stoked! It's been a blast getting things running! Glen and Isaac both love watching the 9V battery-powered train make its circuit! Isaac will grunt to me or DC, and we'll ask what do you want, and he points. I've got him "trained".... Tonite, I'm soldering permanent feeders!
Good to see it running Hemi. Layouts looking good and I love your Athearn blue sky thats great....lol
Progress report! It's been a while, but after quitting Mafia Wars gaming, I have some extra time on my hands. Now that I have gone back to school (online), some of that time is spent in course work, but I can devote a little time each week to finishign the layout. This weekend, I made rock castings with hydrocal, and applied them to the cut adjacent Gross Dam Rd, and the bigger cut at the west end of Crescent Siding. Last night, I sculptamold'd them in, and applied sifted dirt from on-location onto Gross Dam Rd. Pictures later!
I just kicked the mafia wars habit myself... Then I off and get myself sent TDY, so I have even less time to work on the layout... sigh
Looking good! Think my GP9's and GS gons would look good. Or the Cal Zephyr with PA's. Can't wait to see more progress photos.
My son got me hooked on Call Of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 online. It's hard to say no when he says, "Dad, lets play a few matches..."
To be honest with you, I cannot find what I listed my min radii at. I thik the min is 16", and 14" on the siding, but I could be wrong. Autoracks, and passenger cars look a little funny...
