Chipping away. No rocks or only a few rocks. Smooth forest and tall grass covered hills, maybe too smooth. And yeah, some sort of a short bridge.
Plastering away. Sanded off the first layer and have started on applying the second. Slow progress. I haven't turned my attention to the switches yet. I saw that ESU has come out with a servo. More intended for opening doors and such but maybe they are smaller than Tortoise and available here in Sweden is a plus.
Slow progress. I'm not even convinced it is moving forward. In some spots the track is hanging in the air so more plaster needed.
Wow, no update since April, that's bad. I believe a summer came in between. I haven't done much, kind of lost momentum. Last time the track was hanging in the air. Since then I have added more plaster and sanded and now I am ready to add cork, ballast and grass. First one more testrun. I'm running my two AZL GP38-2, SOO and MILW, and a short string of grainhoppers. I need to work on the track and make it more even. But it looks cool when I look along the train and the cars wiggle around on the uneven track. The video is a little bit dark since I used black cardboard to hide my workbench. And I and the camera doesn't always agree on what to focus on. [video=vimeo;75103197]https://vimeo.com/75103197[/video]
I know exactly how you feel with no progress during the summer on my module either. Just watch, John will now chide me for the neglect I've shown my modules. Your test run with track just roughed in as shown has got to be a first and while your rolling stock does look kind of prototypical as if it were on some old track, I'd sure encourage you to make sure your final track laying is as smooth as possible to avoid future headaches. How will you secure your track to your scenery? Watching your video almost gives me enough encouragement to once again pick up my tools and make some changes on my project. Now that it is fall and the rains have come to Southern Oregon, I really need to get off my rear and do something. Thanks for sharing and I'll consider you my kick in the rear )
I'm glad that I spread some inspiration. I feel that I need to put some green colour on the layout so I can see some progress. And yes I need to pay some attention to the track. The caboose derailed every second lap when it ran across the crossing. The track will be clued to the roadbed when I put ballast around it. And maybe I put a nail here and there just to keep things from moving around. But first some cork roadbed. And install and testrun the switchmotors.
Not much progress but I have sanded of the grades a little bit and added cork. I guess that one of the reasons why cars kept on derailing in the crossing was the train coming down the grade pushing so I leveled the grade a little bit. I got five diesels in the mail, one AZL UP GP30, two AZL UP GP38-2. one MTL MOPAC (UP) SD40-2 and one used MTL UP GP35. And one MILW Mikado. None of the diesels wanted to run on my yard layout while the Mikado ran well. Tested my SOO-line and MILW GP38-2 that I know runs but no. I cleaned the track but still no. Switched to this layout and started to test some of my engines. Finally I let a poor MTL UP GP9 that was running drag around the others and after being stubborn I got most of them running except one of the UP GP38-2. The headlight is flashing and it moves a little bit so it isn't dead. The conclusion from this is I don't run my engines often enough. While testing different engines, looking at my boneyard of engines and cars waiting around, I came to think of Larry's Trucks and Electrics from Trains Feb 2012. The next step on this layout is to start fitting the Tortoise switchmotors. That will take some time. The camera had a hard time focusing on the black Mikado so only a very short clip of it running was usable. The rest of the clip is with the poor MTL GP9 draging around the GP30 and the two GP38-2. http://0.tqn.com/d/modeltrains/1/0/K/7/-/-/LTE.JPG http://vimeo.com/86199766
I used my bigger camera today so I could use manual focus on the Mikado. But with the bigger camera I also get shorter focal depth. And a little bit dark despite a little bit of daylight. Also added a MTL MILW GP9 as pusher to help throught the tight curves (195mm) and the curved Maerklin switches that the Mikado doesn't like. Also the inner loop has 145mm radius and that doesn't work at all. But anyway enjoy. At the end a solo run by the AZL UP GP30 just because it can and wants to today. [video=vimeo;86244898]http://vimeo.com/86244898[/video]
