I think your user name kind'a gives that away, seriously though, I've about having different era specific sets of equipment for this layout, GN Steam, GN mid 60's and early 70's BN... That's three times as many Locomotives and Cars as just one era
Sometimes railroads have too many locomotives on one end of the line and need to move them to the other end. When that happens they are pulled behind the powered locomotive(s) like any other rolling stock. I once saw a train in the Mid-Hudson Valley pulled by 5 Santa Fe engines. If I remember correctly it was in the late 90s. On the old New York Central water level route 2 locomotives can easily pull a hundred or more cars. As an observer it looked like 5 engines were pulling the train but probably only 2 of them were running. They were most likely being returned to the ATSF, or maybe the BNSF at that point, but it was an impressive sight.
Revised roadbed is going in, this will give me a passing siding and a revised yard lead at Fruitvale. The new turnout is marked "A" and is just ahead of my Mikado in the lower right and a trailing point turnout on that branch will be just before where the current yard lead is located. The current yard lead is being removed and replaced with straight track. The branch on the lower loop is Northbound toward Nelson and the hinged staging yard. The southbound to Waneta turnout and roadbed still has to be added and will be roughly parallel with the opposite end of the new Fruitvale siding in the upper center on the lower level and parallel with the wall... Off on holidays for a few weeks so any progress will be imaginary... Any Hobby Shop recommendations for San Diego or Los Angeles?? Brent
Brent, I live in San Diego and there are two stores that I know that are good for N-scale: 1. Reeds Hobby, is in La Mesa accessible from downtown San Diego using the Red Trolley line. It has a good N scale selection, good scenery, paint, DCC and magazine selection. This is a slightly old fashioned store but my go to store. 2. Arnies, is a more modern and bright store with very good N-scale and DCC product selection including some hard to find items and also good expertise for help with DCC. It is in Westminster, Orange County about half way between LA and San Diego. So, while it is very nice I do not get to it very often. - Tonkphilip
Dropped by Reeds and picked up a few things, a Micro Engineering deck plate Girder bridge, a used / mint MT Great Northern flat car and a few more used Peco code 55 turnouts for the revised Fruitvale yard, all at good prices. Well worth the 15 minute drive from our Air B&B. Thanks again tonkphilip! Brent
Had some time over the weekend to get the roadbed and track laid for the Fruitvale passing siding and revised yard lead… And played around with layout for the Fruitvale yard and industrial tracks… more sawdust in my future… Here’s the revised again track plan and schematic… and a photo for fun… Thanks for tuning in! Brent
Hi Guys, It's been a little while since the last update, not much done on the layout itself, but planning and procurement continues! In the track plan in the post above I've moved the bridge scene to the corner of the layout, I've neglected to update the schematic though. Here's the inspiration, this is the cover of the book I picked up years ago that has become the bible for this build so far... This is the Beaver Creek Falls Bridge , wood trestle approaches on both ends with a plate girder center span. This is an inside curve view but it will be flipped to an outside curve view so that the falls will flow to the corner of the layout. Here's a crude overhead and elevation plan, traced the rails with pencil for the overhead plan. I'll have to close the line and build this in place I think, I'm on about a 15" radius curve with a slight grade... The plan needs some editing, there's actually two equal height trestle bents at each end of the girder with 10 -12 heavy timbers parallel with the track direction supporting a shorter pony bent that supports the stringers and track leading up to the girder on each end. Here's a pic of how it looks now in the wild.... I have the Micro Engineering 80' Girder Bridge kit I bought in San Diego and have some scale wood on hold at the LHS, and waiting for a length of bridge flex track to arrive... Now to lay some more track.... Thanks for tuning in! Brent
Sweet! Gives me an idea for a spot on the highline on my Spaghetti & Western, using a Unitrack 19R 15 degree curved bridge!
This could help me too if I have trouble getting the curvature I want out of the ME bridge flex I have on order. It arrived at the local hobby shop but I won't be able to make it out there until next weekend... I didn't even know Kato made this...
Well, I looked at the spot on my layout, and making the terrain work for a ravine to cross with the bridge is just "A Bridge Too Far!"
Ha Ha! You could change your layout to be in Madison County and have multiple bridges! Mostly covered though if I remember, so a bit of a change of scenery from Texas...
Hi Guys, I haven’t posted for a while but I’m getting back on track. Yesterday I picked up a Digitrax LNWI so guests can join Operating sessions after downloading the free Withrottle-Lite app onto their Apple or Android phones to run trains. Supposed to be an easy setup and it’s a lot less expensive than purchasing and installing loconet plugs and buying multiple wired throttles. It can handle 4 operators out the box, more than enough for my needs. I still need to get some track down to get the staging and Fruitvale yards in so I can test my track plans… I also picked up a decoder for my Life-Like / Walthers RS2, that will give me three DCC locomotives to go with my old DC Atlas / Kato GP 30, no drop in Decoder available for that one. I’ll have to look into milling my frame but for now can run it on address 00…or get a split board decoder from TCS to minimize the milling….Thanks for the links Allen H! Thanks for tuning in! Brent
Got my decoder in and readdressed to the road number on the RS2 and adjusted the volume CV’s on my BLI Mikado and SW7, oh and readdressed the Mikado road number as well, a successful afternoon! Brent
Happy Holidays everyone! Installed my Digitrax LNWI and it works great. It creates it's own short range Wifi network which my phone automatically switches to when I power up the power bar for the Zephyr and LNWI. When I power it off or even walk upstairs I'm back on the home Wifi, so easy... The Withrottle Lite app (the Free Version) remembers my decoder addresses so it's much easier to recall different locomotives, no more key punch errors! Very pleased that I don't have to go to dedicated cabled or even more expensive wireless throttles to have other people over to run trains, they just download the app, select the Digitrax Wifi network and they're running trains in a few minutes... I also got 2 52' GN GSC Athearn flatcars and an Amazon cheapie Static grass applicator, eager to try that out on one of my scenery test modules.. Also built the main ME 80' girder assembly for the bridge project, currently running trains for fun over the holidays. Thanks for tuning in! Brent
If you like your phone app for a wireless throttle, you'll really like a dedicated WiFi throttle, like the TCS UWT-100 or -50. Both can operate on either the Wi-throttle protocol (same as your phone app), or on the LCC throttle protocol (at this time, I think TCS command stations may be the only commercial ones supporting it yet.)
