The Oakville quarry - off layout! Never know when you might need to go to Nashville...good spot for a vacation, lots to do and see - and Pigeon Forge (Dollywood with live steam) and Gatlinburg are only a couple hours away... Sure, got to, the prototype runs one. But no reefers - YET!
In my model railroad world, the engineers found out they could increase the fuel efficiency by keeping the locomotives clean and reducing air friction. Managment enforces the efficiency approach so they are clean and will stay clean. The same goes for the rolling stock. Then again, my layout is all about operations and not so much about looks. Jim, This week I will be putting the decoders into the last UP SD70ACe Heritage units if you would still like them to visit! PM me and we can work out the details.
That second set of switches by the setout track look pretty harsh from the angle you shot it at....the crossover has a couple of kinks in it..is it done or are you still working on it?? And your right about the ballast....but leave it....railroads don't always use the same ballast..BNSF patches the red ballast with gray all the time...looks more real like that..
As I said earlier, Newman, I'm not totally happy with that either. Likely remedy will be to move the surrounding track and south switch a bit to line them up properly. That's at this point a low priority, I'm working on the staging yard control panel bringing it into the 21st century. And trains run through just fine, so other than cosmetics it's no problem.
Maybe thats why the SP could not stay profitable. To bad, but since I model SP it has to be dirtied up real good. For the most part the BNSF that rolls through Colton and Riverside are much cleaner than the UP that rolls through the area. I think the UP has realized the challenges the SP had to deal with, as their units(UP) are showing up with all kinds of decal additions(graffiti).
Been a busy couple weeks with the better half having (successful, we think) surgery, but managed to take a few photos: Coil train at one of the new crossovers: And from the other direction: In other news, been adding 5161s to the earthworm, and ended up successfully running it as a 90 car train - longest I've yet attempted. Now I suppose I'll HAVE to try for 100...
You'll have to post a video of your 100 car earthworm! I just got my first dozen BNSF hoppers, I'm aiming for about 60.
Don't want to give the wrong impression - those 90 cars aren't all 5161s...I've got the IM last two releases and some of the first, and the Exact Rail cars - most of the rest are IM 4650s in Swoosh...and there are still a couple grey cars in there also...
Thanks, Charlie, for asking. She's actually doing better than expected but is seriously limited in what she can do until she sees the surgeon for a follow-up in four more weeks...back surgery is nothing to sniff at...
You may recall this shot from a couple weeks ago: I was unhappy with the way the track looked - didn't flow like it should have. So I changed it: It's much better now, and I can once again sleep at night. A couple more shots at this location:
Hi Jim, It does look nice! Almost too nice based on the track I have ridden daily on the Amtrak Capitol Corridor for the last 10 years or so. But could you expound upon what you did? I think I may have a similar problem and I would like to know what you did. I am using ME track and handlaid turnouts though. I may need to make a different set of turnouts. I used a #8 frog where I probably should have used a #10. Update, bad decoders are keeping the Heritage fleet from arriving, but fear not, new decoders are on the way. Thanks!
Actually, David, it was a lot easier than I thought...I simply moved the far switch about two inches farther - that's the piece of flex you now see between the siding switch and the far switch. Suddenly everything worked. The crossover switches are #10s, siding #7. This is a situation that cries for handlaid, built in place. I can see how it would be done, but I'm not a hand layer, nor do I particularly need or want that skillset. Guess I'm gettin' old! And thanks, Hemi!
Regardless of how it ran before it did not look like it would flow well with a train on it. So good job on the revision of the revision. Do we get a shot of a train utilizing one of the crossovers?
Thanks Jim! Well I looked again at what I have and see I need to make new turnouts and increase the size of the radii. I used a #8 with a 36/24 radii. I thought it would be fine, but I have a simialr wiggle that farther spacing will not fix. So I am off to build a pair of #10 40/30 radii for my crossover. and extend the divergent routes about 3/4's of an inch and they should mate directly to each other. All I will need to do is trim the track back about 1.3 inches and adjust the transition curve a little. Mine is a case where it looked good in XtrkCad, but didn't work in reality. Cie est la Vie Better trackwork requires the occasional rebuild.....because the magestic wonder of the running of the trains is all in the trackwork.
Thanks, John Actually, the trains had no issues with the earlier version, never a hint of a problem. It just didn't look all that great, and I know the prototype would never do it that way. But now the trains track well and it looks good also. That's what I get for doing crossovers after the fact on a line with very little tangent track. But it works. David, I rather envy you. Your way is probably the way I should have gone. Atlas' curved switches might have worked, but they have serious teething problems - they'll get it right eventually. Handlaid is best, IMO. But I wasn't going to have ANY crossovers on the main. Of course once it's finished, you look at it and say "What if..."
