While we are on the topic of mugs, my Dad made these holders for me using wooden pegs. My wife and I use our rail mugs nearly every day, handwashing them to preserve their finish. We bought a lot of these as souvenirs on vacations long ago when it was easier to find local hobby shops. Some were also bought aboard fantrips and at museums.
After being gone for a few days, was able to spend a few minutes last night starting to lay out some track to get a feel for how the track plan is going to work.
I'm a long way from building benchwork, but am so looking forward to starting with Kato Unitrack as you have. I was looking at my track plan last night and realized that a change here and there are needed and how nice it will be to test fit pieces to see what works best. I'm using the crossover piece on the backside of my (36" deep) railroad and hope that it's reliable because I'll have to pull the layout away from the wall to access it in case of trouble. I read that the four turnouts are No. 6s and that it works very well. Are you using No. 4s anywhere on your road? I must in my yard and spurs, but want to test them in service to see if they'll need modification.
I agree that being able to lay it out like this and test fit it all before I go any farther is great. As for turnouts, I am going with all #6. I thought about the #4's but honestly just didn't want to do the tune ups they need to be more reliable.
So far everything seems like it is going to fit as planned. Managed to lay out some more track last night. May be a few days before I have the chance to work on it again but here is where I am at now.
I can hear those hammers ring from here. I realize that it'd make a mess out of dealer displays, shipping and inventory storage, but it'd be cool if Kato would offer extra-long straight Unitrack, something like two or three times the longest (248mm Kato0 20-000) section. Bring in the workers and bring up the rails We gotta lay down the tracks and tear up the trails. Gordon Lightfoot
I agree, some longer sections would be nice. Hopefully the hammers were not too loud. I tried to keep it down.
Last of the track for the initial track plan is installed. Here are views from all 4 sides. Next up is drilling holes for the wires.
Had Boy Scouts with my son last night so only a few minutes to tinker with the layout. Set up a scrap section of white beaded Styrofoam to kind of get a feel for how a scenic divide will fit and look. Probable will end up a little shorter than this but I think it will work.
Got the holes drilled for the switch and track leads and all the wire tucked trough to the underside of the layout last night. Looks a lot cleaner now. Next up will be running some bus wires and digging out my box that has some toggle switches so I can set up the power blocks. Have some commitments the next few nights so not sure how soon those two step will get done.
Didn't expect to have any time to work on the layout last night but worked out that found a few free minutes. So off I went down to my dungeon, gathered up the drill some safety glasses and a box of eye hooks. Thought to myself, I should be able to get a bunch of these in place to hold bus wires. Well I crawled under the layout and started putting in eye hooks. I got these four in place and realized that all of a sudden, I was feeling very dizzy. Managed to right myself there on the floor against a wall and there I sat for the rest of my free minutes until I slowly began to feel stable. No idea what happened but may be related to a combination of some medicine I am taking at the moment and dropping down and rolling onto my back a bit too fast. I forget I'm not a spring chicken anymore. Overall, it was a bit scary but seem to be fine now. So, with that said, all I accomplished was 4 eyehooks. Better than nothing I guess.
Pressed [Like] upon reading that you're okay. Scary stuff. Bravo for wearing safety glasses. I usually wear them too. After 35+ years working in industry, it's habit. Though in retirement I no longer wear my hard hat.
Eye protection is a must and especially when doing overhead work. Always have my safety glasses handy. As for the hard hat, it rarely moves from it's spot on my desk at work. It's actually much more shinny than this when the dust is wiped off of it.
No real work on the layout last night but did piddle for a few minutes. Got off work, rushed home, got changed and ready to go to my son's band concert at his school. As usual and maybe even expected, my wife wasn't ready so knowing I had 10 or 15 minutes, I headed downstairs to check on the layout. Started digging for some toggle switches I know I have somewhere. Didn't find them in that short of a time but did discover what box my wire was in so it is out and ready for when I finish installing the eye hooks. I had forgotten that all my black and white wire is a heavy 12 gauge solid copper wire. All my other colors are 12 gauge stranded copper. Thinking about it this morning, I might have to make a Lowes run this weekend for at least some of the stranded white since it is more flexible and easier to work with than the solid copper 12 gauge wire. To try and keep it simple, I'm thinking blue and white for the track power since that is what Kato uses to their feeder tracks. Then use my Green and yellow for any aux power. Red and black are covered by the Kato switches and switch controllers. I have some brown wire and speaker wire (copper with a clear insulation) that I can always use for other odds and ends. I am sure numbering my connections and diagraming them as well will be a big help in any future trouble shooting. Seems like the wife has us over booked for things to do this weekend so we shall have to wait and see what can be done.
I'm working the same on my road and bought spools of matching color stranded wire to carry Kato's prescribed colors throughout.
No pictures this morning but did get some work done over the weekend. The rest of the eye hooks installed under the layout. The blue and yellow bus wires are run. The green bus wire started. Started on a temporary control paned for the power toggle switches and maybe the track switch controllers. One white power lead completed to so the inside track loop now has full power. Even ran a test train on that loop. Monday night is Boy Scouts with my son so no work expected tonight.
