Welcome back. We’re about to start another weekend, so it’s time to see what we have planned. Not much for me, I’m taking the snowmobile up north for some trail riding Saturday then Sunday we are expecting at least a foot and more of snow. I’ll be breaking in my own snowmobile trails and hopefully be riding more locally. Between snowmobiling trips, I plan to work on some HO track plans. I’m working with a space of 2 feet deep by 8 feet long composed of two Masterpiece Modules Free-Mo 2-foot X 4-foot modules. Currently, I’m undecided on wether or not to go with Free-Mo standards or just do a stand alone switching layout. Roads I’m flirting with are Maine Central lumber industry, Boston & Maine Paper industry or semi modern Vermont Rail. I expect I’ll have answered many of these questions after next week. So how about you? What do you have planned for the weekend? Let us know. We’ll come back on Monday the 21st and see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Today I start the dreaded electronics issue I have been holding off on. I am a novice when it comes to electronics and I feel overwhelmed. I ha e 12 sound cards to assemble or require. 11 from ngineering and one from Ramtrack. I want 6 more from ngineering for that nice background sound defect. About half will be operated by momentary push button switches and the looping ones will be run with a simple with a simple toggle switch. Other electronics items are the crossings. I have the stuff just feel out of place when it comes to installing. I have 4 crossings to do. The electronics comes from azatrax.
Well, I would like to finish some scenery...start on the warehouse I've wanted to scratch build for a while now. I have a 3-day weekend, and there is rain coming tonight and tomorrow. All the cars except a couple now have MTL couplers so I may start cutting in some de-couplers. And, it might be time to start finalizing plans for my point to point that comes next. Won't be large, but it will be fun!
So, I am pretty much finished painting and decaling my friends NYO&W NW-2's (7 of 'em) -- PHEW.. as tomorrow is an ops session on his wonderful layout. So, that will be my Saturday -- ops on the NYO&W - then perhaps I will start the indicator light project on my control panels. Sunday -- probably honey do's -- as it has been raining for pretty much a week. Have some stuff around the house to catch up on. But, who knows - maybe I can work on my control panel project. Let Y'all know on Monday. LOL Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
Confirming that my (N Scale) Kato turnout control circuit is as I want (correct LED color, toggle switch position and turnout position) before I begin to hard wire the panel. Note that the capacitor is atop a glove to protect the carpet in case I had it wired backwards and it popped! Happily, all worked as planned and I can now warm up my soldering iron.
Well, I installed my uncoupled magnets. I added a delivery truck and worker to the coal and oil company. And I began clearing out the alcove where the layout will be moving soon. The existing shelves are being dropped a few inches and the new layout will go above them, about 50-55 inches off the floor. Time to get to work... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I am readying one of my Ntrak modules for a show Feb 23 - 24. It has not been out for a few years and need a little work. I have been posting about this project in the winter layout party thread.
Last week I set out to wire up my 9-1/2' modular freight yard, but was sidetracked by other tasks. I thought it would get done while the NFL playoffs were on tomorrow but I just piddled around the garage and found myself with an almost completed set of modules. So almost 50 feeders, throttle pocket, UP5 panel, and clean up. A good day of progress. I re-populated with rolling stock and ran a couple trains. There are a few rough spots but its manageable. I must be getting better at the hand laid turnouts as they all run fairly good. A few adjustments are in order but I'm happy. It all actually fired up on the first shot and allowed me to run a loco through the entire yard. The frogs are dead for now but my Rio Grande SD45 was silky smooth through everything. My MP15 stopped on one turnout. This yard sure adds to the fun factor to feed seven industries. So I hope to get a buddy over for an informal ops to put'r through some trials.
I hung up a vintage control panel from a sleeping car. I believe it was from the Southern RR. I’m going to have it control my low voltage scenery lights. I only turn those on when doing night ops. I left a bit of space on the right for LEDs and other buttons. Also placed the first of numerous power lines. The playground in the foreground is being worked on, I hope to set that up today or tomorrow. Poor kids are so exhausted they are staring up at the clouds! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, I got most of the gridwork done for the new alcove layout. It’s about 2/3 of what it will be when complete but it was a good point to stop for now. The central portion will be a whopping 33” reach to the far back. Not what I would have hoped for but if I’m going to get the radius I wanted that was that. I’ll likely make those rear tracks open from underneath and screened by scenery from the front so I can deal with derailments or other issues. I’ve got a safety rail stepladder that lets me reach the far corners so the project continues. My small workbench is beneath this center section so reaching up to the rear will at least be convenient. By tomorrow I should be able to attach some foam for a base in the yard and begin to trace a roadbed in the rest of it. Pictures tomorrow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
And the grid is finally solid, though the legs will have 45-degree brackets added to keep them from kicking out. First foam board down where the first city/small yard/hidden staging will be. The open part will be the middle portion with a twice-around (with a cutoff for continuous running). To the right of that will be the final portion, another city/small yard to complete the point to point. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
