With everything now in organizers or carousels I finally have order. 100_0965-2 by John Moore posted Jan 22, 2021 at 11:50 AM And further supplemented with two adjustable shelves rolling carts that fit under the layout and each support base of the layout has storage. 100_0966-3 by John Moore posted Jan 22, 2021 at 11:50 AM
Continuing work on my third rail disconnects and power feeds. Blue box on a pole is the blue light station to kill power and the blue objects on the concrete pad are the disconnects. Red are to power feeds to third rail. 100_0968-1 by John Moore posted Jan 23, 2021 at 11:14 AM
I forgot to add the substation where the 17,500 volts are reduced to 750 volt third rail power. 100_0969-2 by John Moore posted Jan 23, 2021 at 12:14 PM
Got a pleasant surprise tonight as my switch stands were in the mail that I did not expect until late next week. I am going to use these to mark the locations of the unitrack slide switches in the industry siding and the port. They are laser cut wood that has to be assembled and ten to a pack. 100_0971-3 by John Moore posted Jan 23, 2021 at 6:06 PM
The first two switch stands are assembled. Four and a half N scale feet wide and 3 feet to the handle. 100_0972-4 by John Moore posted Jan 23, 2021 at 8:41 PM
Well this early evening I have finished assembling 10 switch stands, power feeds for the third rail, power disconnects for the third rail, and blue light boxes. plus just finished the two substations that will have underground feeds from the main power plant sub station. 100_0973-1 by John Moore posted Jan 24, 2021 at 5:02 PM
You have got it. The reason I went to third rail for the front part of the layout was to get away from power poles and line which could get bumped and broken.
Started applying the 3rd rail components to the layout and in this shot you can see the power disconnect and the blue light box and at the far right upper corner is the power feed to the third rail. 100_0975-2 by John Moore posted Jan 25, 2021 at 8:00 PM In this shot is the substation that takes the power down to 3rd rail power. 100_0976-3 by John Moore posted Jan 25, 2021 at 8:00 PM While working on the track I discovered 3 turnouts in a row that would not throw right so I had to wet the scenic material down and remove all three. Found that somehow some scenic glue had got into them. Cleaned them up in the sink then took the backs off to get to the mechanisms. Managed to clean up and fix two of them but the third one was being stubborn. And while messing with the mechanism managed to have a small part go flying. A search of the floor turned up nothing so then pulled out my vac and went over the floor and still nothing. So a new turnout is on order.
Been busy with repairing the turnouts and making switch stands and other items. Got the turnouts fixed, had to replace 1 and the scenic work fixed using the opportunity to improve my grade crossing at the village train station in the process. Been busy installing switch stands and electrical equipment for the 3rd rail. In the following shots you can see the 3rd rail power equipment and the new switch stands. 100_0981-1 by John Moore posted Feb 8, 2021 at 5:10 PM 100_0982 by John Moore posted Feb 8, 2021 at 5:20 PM 100_0982-2 by John Moore posted Feb 8, 2021 at 5:10 PM Still have about 6 more switch stands to install. I have two 2 car sets of diesel passenger cars ordered from Japan along with their mechanisms and I just dropped on Ebay and won a bid for an N scale shrimp boat kit.
Thanks. The switch machines were assembled from laser cut wood kits from Osborn Models 10 per pack. All the switch gear and electric connection were made from stryrene and small wire and the power substations were made from 20 foot containers that were made out of wood blocks with paper overlays. I went to my leftover parts from the Greenmax crossing kits for the telephone boxes.
This morning I placed the last switch stands, I think anyway. I still have about 6 stands un-assembled, and two assembled ready in the box. In the photo below of the village station and parking lot you can see the three turnouts that were giving trouble, the one off the inside main, the turnout to the hops mill and then the turnout to reach the sawmill. Quite a bit of scenic material had to be removed to take the turnouts up and had to be replaced. Thank heavens for the decision to use water based adhesives. A few spritzs of water and it was done. I took the opportunity to redo the parking lot and this time striped it with decals instead of trying to use a paint pen and a much better result. I also redid the grade crossing to the village station with a much better result. 100_0983-1 by John Moore posted Feb 9, 2021 at 11:17 AM I am going to go back now and sprinkle some grass around most of my installs and when that dries I will clean and vac the track and get back to running trains. Meanwhile waiting on my newest passenger power to arrive from Japan. 10278600p2-1-2 by John Moore posted Feb 9, 2021 at 11:52 AM These two car sets will replace the cars taken and converted to electric freight engines. They each will be powered by a Kato 11-107 mechanism the model that has the grey trucks. Since the Kato mechanisms arrive with rapido couplers those will be replaced by either 11-707 or 11-721 Kato couplers. I most likely use the Bandai coupler on the car fronts since that allows me to use the front pilots. The Bandai coupler will connect to either MTs or the Kato knuckle. These kits are once again Bandai and need assembly upon arrival. Their 30-34 foot length goes great for my layout with sharp curvature and short passenger platforms. My passenger consists can take curvature as sharp as 6 inch radius and look good doing it. With their arrival i will have three types of cars, the mini RDC type, electric, and this old style with out the roof radiators.
Well after a 2 and 1/2 month wait I finally got my motorcycles with sidecars. They are by Noch. 100_0984-1 by John Moore posted Feb 10, 2021 at 6:21 PM Now I have to figure how to get that danged dog out of the sidecar and the lady off the back.
I managed with no small amount of difficulty to get that mangy mutt out of both sidecars and the riders off. So now to redo them. 100_0985-2 by John Moore posted Feb 10, 2021 at 7:36 PM
Well working this morning and some last night I was able to get the cartoonish dog out of the side cars and the figures of the cycles. Then I went to my box of figures and chose a few more seated figures and with the dremel using some diamond bits I was able to fit everything. 100_0986-1 by John Moore posted Feb 11, 2021 at 10:10 AM The two motorcycles with sidecars got a family of 4 with dad driving one with a daughter in the side car, mother driving the 2nd with another daughter in the sidecar, and I reaped a bonus by using the other male and female to place on my trike. Also shown in the photo are some of my diamond bits from 3 sets for the price of 1 that I got off of Amazon, some very small tipped.
They are by Noch. Just query the internet for N scale Noch motorcyles. Unfortunately mine came from Germany via Ebay and took 2 and 1/2 months to get here. Come in a set of two both cycles and riders the same and with a danged dog in the sidecar which was just to hokey for me. So I changed some things. The Ebay link if you want to follow that route. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle...?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m
