Robyn, I think the WS styrofoam over spline roadbed may be groundbreaking technology. It sure is easier than cutting the wood. You should put that in one of the mags, unless I am the only one who hasn't seen this before..... As for the tornado coming by, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! You can ask Mike D, who lives nearby where they went through! I will be travelling all next week, so no progress. I gave the railroad room a thourough cleaning, which is not exactly progress, but was exactly necessary (both in general and because of the house reconstruction project which puts an unprotoypical layer of dust everywhere. Darn our open floor plan! I did buy some Walthers Roundhouses to put together (yes I know buying kits is not progress) after seeing an HO layout where the roofline was modified to give it a more American look. It wil replace a old Heljan roundhouse, that is not modified, or particularly well built.
The bridge is painted and installed all I need to do is buy some rail for the inside of the rails and weather the bridge. I am really pleased with the outcome I will post some pics in the next few days
Burgh, I just looked at your web site of your layout. Looking good, guy. You are making great progress.
Here are the pics of the bridge I have built. I scratchbuilt the bridge and used an airbrush to paint it, my first attempt at both .
MONDAY MORNING UPDATE. Progress over the last week - none, zippo. The MRR budget dried up and spring has sprung here. So my free time this past week was spent outside cleaning up the yard. I'm ready to lay track, but need some tools. It's possible that some funds will free up soon. But until then, it's really great to read about (and see some) the progress on everyone's layout. It keeps me inspired.
Yes, I will attest, Jeff's story is true! I can't imagine if our houses (and railroads) looked like the houses of the unlucky souls who were hit directly. I guess your railroad would be the least of your worries in that situation!
I agree with Rick, Paul. Your efforts are much admired. Now you have a taste for this scratcbuilding, what can we expect next? How goes the backdrop Rick? We are anxious to see pictures of your activity.
Robyn, No pictures until I get a scanner or a digital camera. I am hoping late fall or early next winter to get something. My money now is into getting the layout up and running. I ran 4 feet short on one side (there are three sides) so had to order another panel, which won't get here for another month for the remaining 4 feet to be finished. But now I know how to do it. There is still the upper level and the nolix (no helix) area to be done with backdrop. I am waiting on an order to arrive for the one on the upper level. After I install that I will do the nolix area with backdrop. In the meantime I am working on the nolix area and getting ready to lay some track in the lower level. Thanks for asking. I had three weeks of intensive work, now I am kind of relaxing a bit this week and will only put in about 4 or 5 hours on the layout. But the worst of the first part is over.
Was working on the area where the logging railroad will be on my N layout. Added some dozens of trees. Also used real branches to create lot's of tree stumps. Covered the logged area with tiny bits of wood and sawdust. In the picture galleries on my homepage you'll find some construction pics of the area I'm currently working on. Shot a complete film last weekend and post the pics as soon as they're processed (beeing one of the poor guys not owning a digital cam). Yesterday covered another hill with a first layer of Woodlands fine turf. I really hate to wait for the glue to dry. Gives me some time to build some shacks and depot buildings to place along the logging route. Will keep you updated. If you're interested in my N layout or real railroad pics then please visit the picture galleries on my homepage.
Progress? Yeah, right. I did go on vacation this last weekend. I arrived in Cheyenne, WY. 17 hours after leaving Minot, ND. It should have taken 11 hours. We drove into Dickinson, ND thru a blizzard, and 6" of snow. It then stranded us there for 4 hours while they cleared the closed interstate. In Cheyenne, UP is king! I have never seen so many Dash 9's and SD90MACs in my life! I was in railroad heaven! But anyways, after trekking to the Mecca of N scale, N Scale Supply, and laying down some 160 greenbacks for cars, kits, and structures, my wife said we'd better bypass Caboose Hobbies... She kept reminding me that we plan our vacations around railfanning, and hobby shops...... Anyways, I have 3 DPM kits and 2 Walthers kits to build, and detail, and 2 turnouts to lay to complete the mainline. The mainline is now 85%-ish complete.
My weekly prgress report: I went to The Train Shop in Santa Clara today to get some bare rail for my trestle re-railer and bought some blackened code 40 rail, and a piece of code 55 bridge flex. On the way home I was stuck in slow traffic and it started getting hot outside. I pulled off and went and got a haircut while I waited for the lunch traffic to thin, and somehow lost motivation to work on my layout. By the time I got home, I found it too warm to do anything inside, so I cleaned the pool. (a small doughboy type) Well I just got my order of Unsinkable Molly Brown pool floats in last week, so I thinks I'll float instead of play Gandy Dancer the rest of the week! I do want to thank all for their positive comments on last week's progress though, and Happy Railroading
Robert, Something new for me. What is code 55 Bridge flex....I've never heard of it. It is possible my dealer stocks it but I'm just not conscious of it. Being the psychic kind of guy I am, I'm guessing it has something to do with "bridges."
Hi Rick, the bridge flex I bought was Micro Engineering #11-112. It is one 3' piece with longer ties, and 2 extra rails to go inbetween the rails on a bridge to act as a re-railer or guard rails. The track also comes with a bag of details like barrel stands and water barrels. I paid $7.50 for this "kit", and looks pretty convincing.
Well this past week I hooked up my Empire Builder II and actually ran trains!!!! Then I tried to install the DN146A into my Atlas SD-35 and....nothing...no lights, no smoke, nothing . I took it out and put the light board back in and it runs fine, in DC. I asked the Digitrax email group how to go about testing one of these decoders (the rest are easy with their nice colored wires) and got several responses on how to 'fix' the problem by hard wiring the decoder in place. Well I tried that and still no go. I did order an Atlas SD-35 with a decoder installed that will hopefully be here this week so I can finally enjoy the advantages of DCC, but it is nice to finally be able to run trains. Gotta lay the city and switchyard track next. That and the Suncoast train show are my goals for this week!
Ah, I've hit a road block! An evening working on the train and no progress. Can anyone give me input on these Atlas switch machines? I've tried to wire three and found two to be bad or only partially work. Is that typical for these blankety blank things? What are some other switch machines I could use? Some of these switches are in staging and need to be remote activated.
I hope it isn't typical, because I'm not too far off from wiring mine up too. I have not heard of any issues on the Atlas forum (assuming you are in N-scale). If they don't work, it's probably best to take them back for ones that do. Someone else here will have to advise you on any alternative machines that would be adaptable to the Atlas turnouts. I don't have any experince with anything different.
The past week has seen me laying track into the passenger car yard. This is where passenger cars go to get cleaned inside and all linen replaced and minor maintenance. The track is still to be ballasted. I also have to build the service building to go with the yard. I also installed a second infrared receiver for my Digitrax Empire Builder system. Now with two receivers I can go anywhere in the layout room and have full control. The loconet sytem by Digitrax is excellent and I am sure pleased I went the Digitrax route. I also finished the Gilbert Pigments factory. See pictures in the freelance forum. This coming week, I will build the service building for passenger cars and will do some more track laying in the industrial area
The question I need to ask is are you running the motors dircetly through a transformer? If so that is most likely your problem. Point motors require high voltage and current for a short period. If your points are a distance away from the transformer then the resistance of the wire will not allow the voltage and curent to the motors. What you need to install is a capacitor discharge unit this will enable a high voltage and current to drive the motors when it is discharging. It will also prevent the motors burning out as it only delivers a spike to the motor and doesnt heat the coils up. You can purchase discharge units at hobby shops or you can make them yourself. This week I have ballasted over my newly instaled girder bridge and ballasted the approaches to the bridge. The mainline is almost fully ballasted. I hope to finishe the remaining section this week.
Don't give up folks, We have just past the half way mark of 8 weeks of posting. For me it was a giant effort the first three weeks, with a bit of holiday this past 4th week. I have done some layout building, but not a lot. This week I only put in about 3-4 hours of work, kind of in cruise control mode, not working very hard. I have started working on the nolix (no helix) area and will in the next four weeks attempt to get about 80% of that completed. This is more daunting than it sounds, as I have to install a system of running the rails through my mountainous area to gain 20 inches of elevation without ever having seen anyone else model this way. I have decided to use spline road bed made out of hard board, one long piece of 1/8 inch hardboard on either side and one in the middle of the spline, with small blocks to hold it all together. I haven't decided what I am going to use on top, but probably hard board as well. This is the area I have been dreading psychologically so it will be a big hurdle jumped when I am done.
