The layout is really coming along nicely. Nice work. Enjoyed the videos. Sure wish N scale locomotives ran that well back in the 70's.
The difference is extreme! They run so well and very reliably. The detail is superb and siderods are so much finer. Yup, the golden age of N scale seems to be today.
In the early 80 I tore out my N scale layout with over 11 scale miles of just main line, let alone a couple of branch lines. The locomotives of that period were not only crude compared to what is available today, but seriously unreliable. I can't get over how smoothly todays N scale locomotives run.
And the new N-scale cars are awesome too! Received my Christmas order from Atlas this week! Just in time for my bday!
My bday ain't until the 10th of June. I figure since I ordered this set before Christmas and got it just a few weeks before my bday, well it's both a Christmas gift (late) and a bday gift (early) !!!
Spent a few hours ballasting the main yard tracks, and setting ties on the passenger siding - main east switch. Between working on this n that yesterday, had an issue with my pickup, spent some time under hood of sons Jeep, worked on a rental unit, visited with a couple of my sons,.....busy days! At the end of the day last night, the tack is holding down a spot of loose track, and it is all very wet yet!
Saturday morning I discovered some contraction issues, A little soldering and cutting in of gaps helped. I was then able to get busy placing ties and laying ballast. I discovered a few missing frog feeder wires, soldered those in also. I really like the way the wood ties look in various colors! From the west end of the yard, more got done than this, And even a few details, As much as this relaxed me, I don't know why I put it off so long!
Looks great! As hot as it's been, it sure got chilly for a few days. I guess that probably caused the pull aparts. You guys get the wicked stormy and windy weather got this weekend?
No storm this weekend. We did have a good one a week ago or so. Over 4 inches of rain in May! HOT and cool, radical temp swings. Spent a little time last night trying a rusty drybrush on the rails, it doesn't seem like the wrong color . . . what do y'all think?
Same weather here. It cannot decide whether to be March or July. Rail color looks good. Not the orange/red some folks use. More toward a brown.
Thanks for the feedback guys! The more I look at it, the better I like it. Now to go back and dry brush all the ballasted track! No timetable anyway.
The latest excitement happened Thursday night when a Thunderstorm blew through and nailed a cottonwood 20 feet from the trainshed! This one also happens to be 20 feet from the livingroom window where we were sitting. BOOM!! And a flash!! The tree will be okay, it split bark as the water flashed to steam instantly! The only known damage to trains so far discovered is some derailed cars, the concussion was felt quite a ways!
Cottonwood trees are great aren't they? Conduct electricity. Natural lightning rod. Leak all kinds of fluffy white stuff all over the place. . Glad all is well.. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
So far the only damage was the DVR blew it's hdmi output. Inside the Trainshed, the NCE is functional, it will run a loco on my staging tracks. However, the mainline has a dead short somewhere. Am in the process of pulling cars off the track to be sure none of those are the culprit. Have looked at the tracks closely for something conductive, but need to look more. A fused wire, a melted circuit on the short circuit protector? Still looking everywhere. Photos and updates to come.
Quick update. Found the only damage was the derailed cars. The short circuit on the layout was engineered in by me! While ballasting I did some soldering here n there and re set a point tie bar on a switch. That moved the points to the same side of the gap. Cut in a new gap and all is well!
