It came down to that I just was not happy with the 2nd rendition of the TCC and I was not getting what I wanted. So I tore up the plans and got the water bottle and hammer and chisel an went to work on the demo. Again the use of water soluble adhesives, namely Elmer's, made the job easier. The creation of the plateau actually took away space on the layout and the rails in the canyon were almost unreachable. I have gained about a foot more of width with the new design. And I am going to orient the port section, as far as the docks go, completely different from my plans. I am still going to have a continuous run track and the port entry will be through a wye off of it. Also have decided that the port will have its own electrical supply and control cab. Right now I am setting in the man cave staring at an Atlas turntable and deciding whether I want to go with it and mess with a bunch of wiring. Would end up with less space used and track at my engine terminal but I am reluctant to dive into the wiring, not my strong suit. No plans this time, just a vision in my mind. Would be nice if somebody came up with a simple system of wiring these danged storage tracks. Maybe a set of flexible wipers that contact with turntable tracks.
Very little work done on the layout during the holiday to busy cooking for family. I did managed to work on shimming a few spots of track at the take off to the mine spur and the main just at the bridge. Did decide on a new location for the 2nd lighthouse up on the high point of the cliffs and then cleared some scenic materials to make a road to access it up there coming from the resort area next to the backdrop. Probably going to be a dirt road using strips cut from a grey or brown artist's paper for pastels as it has a nice thickness and texture. Plus it easy attaches with some Elmers and can be painted.Plus dampened with some water and the water based glue it easily conforms to any grades on the layout. And it is something I already have in stock also dabbling in art work at times in both paints and chalk pastels.
A different type of lighthouse installed now than was previous along with a keepers house and some sheds. Got my paper road installed where the old track bed used to be and installed some more trees. Started ballasting the newly laid track and may apply some ground turf tonight. 000_0448-1 by John Moore posted Nov 23, 2018 at 4:27 PM
Added a third industry to the layout, a hardware and lumber, and some houses. Tomorrow I will run stiff brush over the track and then vacuum up all the loose stuff and see how much more scenic material need to be added and install some more trees. 000_0449-2 by John Moore posted Nov 23, 2018 at 8:44 PM
With the guest gone from Thanksgiving and another day of rain I managed to get some more work done on the layout. Pink foam has now crept onto the port section partway. Track that was laid previously has been cleaned and a little 44 tonner run back and forth over it using a 9 volt battery to test it out. A overall shot of the layout. The little bridge between the two Kato double track bridges is a Atlas bridge that has been converted to a road bridge by removing the track and installing a wood deck. 000_0450-1 by John Moore posted Nov 25, 2018 at 8:26 AM I continue to bring the cliffs down to the port level with staircased carved foam and more talus slope that will get some rock castings today. Plaster cloth is bridging a joint in the foam board. 000_0451-2 by John Moore posted Nov 25, 2018 at 8:26 AM Meanwhile on the workbench I have assemble a over 30 inch ladder of track and turnouts that will be installed in the front of the layout just over the bridge on the port side. Two corresponding sections of flex track go on the rear dual mains. 000_0452-3 by John Moore posted Nov 25, 2018 at 8:26 AM So today I will be working on the cliff face and laying the cork roadbed for the rear mains. Then I will go back up to the stoneworks and install some more trees.
Well did not get as much done as I had planned yesterday some house hold repairs came in the way. Did finish installing the rock castings along the remaining cliff and cut the transition pieces of foam to go from 1 inch of foam to 1/2 inch of foam in the port area. 000_0453-1 by John Moore posted Nov 26, 2018 at 9:37 AM Multiple layers of plaster cloth were installed to ease the elevation drop. 000_0454-2 by John Moore posted Nov 26, 2018 at 9:37 AM I decided to run the docks from the edge of the layout back toward the backdrop rather than parallel with the edge. That puts all of the turnouts closer to the front for ease of maintenance and throwing. This is a 180 turn from my original plans. 000_0455-3 by John Moore posted Nov 26, 2018 at 9:37 AM
Finally got the rocks, plaster work, and foam painted and talus installed at the base. 000_0456-4 by John Moore posted Nov 26, 2018 at 3:02 PM Took the plunge this morning and outlined the harbor area. The front dock is 6 inches wide the accommodate 2 tracks and the far end pier is 4 inches wide and will be the location of NUMA and the research vessels and be served by a single track. At the far left end will go the ferry dock, train station and seaplane landing. The lighthouse and USCG station plus vessels go in the immediate left front. Everything else is up in the air for now. The harbor area including the docks is 30 inches deep by 50 inches wide. 000_0457-5 by John Moore posted Nov 26, 2018 at 3:02 PM
Today all work has ceased on the layout while I trouble shoot some electrical transmission problems and at least one turnout problem. The rear double track bridge track is dead on both mains so there is a connection problem on the left side. And I have two sections of track that have issues on the front plus a turnout who's spring has given up the ghost. In hind sight I should not have jumped the gun and ballasted that section right away. Lesson learned. The bad turnout is in an unballasted section but the other areas are ballasted. I was playing with the thought of soldering some of the connections and once it have the ballast softened, thank heaven for water based glue, I will remove the back bridge and solder all the track leads to it and at least three other spots will get the same treatment. At least I only have about 12 feet of double main to trouble shoot. 000_0458-1 by John Moore posted Nov 27, 2018 at 10:56 AM Fitted a small shelf below the layout to one side of the base center cabinet where the two sections of the layout meet. There the power supply/ throttle is going along with a block control to run both or one section at a time. Essentially the layout will have two power blocks with the turnouts all power routing creating more blocks on this DC layout. Another small shelf was cut out this morning to take the controls for the turntable and track. More wiring and Atlas electrical controls are ordered plus two Peco single slip turnouts for either end of the mains to provide access to the port from either one and offer a continuous loop running also. Got lucky and got extended Black Friday free shipping so I saved a little. 000_0459-2 by John Moore posted Nov 27, 2018 at 10:56 AM
So out came the bridge and track and the soldering operation went very smooth and did not melt the bridge. Tested with the little 44 ton and smooth sailing all the way. 000_0460-3 by John Moore posted Nov 27, 2018 at 1:24 PM Now going to repeat this operation all the way back to the front bridge and beyond.
Took some time out to check the recently laid track and ran into conductivity issues. So after a lot of soldering work on both mains tested them again late this afternoon and ran into some derailment issues that are mainly confined to the mainline dual curves. I also had some turnout problems to the stoneworks so tomorrow it is take out that Kato dual track bridge and either see if I can set it down further in the foam to reduce the shimming and redo the track in the curves and the track to the stoneworks. My other option with the bridge is go back to two Atlas bridges which set lower.But have all the time in the world, I am retired, it is cold outside, and it is going to rain again this weekend. 000_0462-2 by John Moore posted Nov 28, 2018 at 8:44 PM
Well the reworking the track and soldering almost all joints has eliminated my electrical issues. Meanwhile had another Atlas manual turnout fail due to something failing in the switch box. So it is getting a Caboose Industries throw. I ended up replacing the Kato double bridge with two Atlas bridges that were bashed together which eliminated the shimming of the roadbed and eased access to the mine and stone works spurs. Starting now to layout another spur to the brewery site and possibly the grain elevator and the hops processing plant. Where the locos are sitting on the track is where one of my stations go and behind that will be the brewery. 000_0463-1 by John Moore posted Nov 29, 2018 at 9:08 PM The little DD-51s are sitting where the station will go hooked up to one of my Aztec track cleaners. The huge rock is holding down a pad of cork letting the glue set for a mounting pad for my ground throw. The Little Bandai DDs are capable of 30 cars up a 2% and be gaining speed at the top. They have Bandai's all wheel pickup and all axles geared mechanism under them. 000_0465-2 by John Moore posted Nov 29, 2018 at 9:08 PM
Start rough laying of the track using sectional track for the brewery and mills. Most of this will be flex track. 000_0466-1 by John Moore posted Nov 30, 2018 at 12:38 PM Needing some small footprint stations I built this from styrene with window and door castings. The canopy over the passenger platform is a recycled clerestory car roof from my parts bin and the bench seats are from styrene shapes. The Brewery is totally scratch built from plans of the Virginia Brewery in a narrow gauge book and the two mills are both from wood kits. 000_0467-2 by John Moore posted Nov 30, 2018 at 12:38 PM
Added three sidings into the brewery complex. 000_04694 by John Moore posted Nov 30, 2018 at 8:24 PM The brewery is tacked down but the other structures are not yet and not sure on the out buildings if they will stay by the station. I also may move the grain bins to the other side of the tracks and buy a Rix grain elevator kit. Buildings right to left are the hops processing, and then the grain processing next to the brewery. The rear structure is for processing the used products from the brewing into animal feed. 000_0468-3 by John Moore posted Nov 30, 2018 at 8:24 PM
Woke up this morning with a fresh view on the layout and rearranged and added some structures. Added a pump house, speeder shed, and storage shed to the right. Then added a water tank and a water column to the left side. In the rear I have placed one of my farm modules done about 6 years ago, and then moved all the grain bins back with it. That module was a feed producing set up of a farm building and some Rix products and has been in storage. 000_0470-1 by John Moore posted Dec 1, 2018 at 8:49 AM My supply order is being shipped and anymore track work will be waiting on it, so in the meanwhile I will continue on with this area to develop some more commercial structures.
I came to the conclusion that I needed a way to get the used product from the brewery across two tracks and then into the drying processing mill behind the brewery. So I am re-purposing another surplus kit, this time a Cornerstone trestle kit into a pipe trestle for one roof to the other. I also used the fire standpipe with the kit as my pipework for the used fermentation mash. 000_0473-3 by John Moore posted Dec 1, 2018 at 1:50 PM And I am now working on a little longer one to run from the back mill to the bulk processing and bagging plants silos.
Thanks and I now have the 2nd one done almost and will be ready to install them later. With this one I am coming from the mill and feeding the two metal grain bins. 000_0474-5 by John Moore posted Dec 1, 2018 at 5:54 PM There is another layer of structural under the deck not showing here.
And the pipework is now installed. Next up is digging through my stuff for a suitable power plant to install. 000_0477-6 by John Moore posted Dec 1, 2018 at 6:51 PM
