I know there have been a few short over-fillings due to such as roadway construction. But that isn't quite reverse tunneling.
George, The track to the left will have the sheer rock face on both sides. I want the tunnel for a bit of separation between the mains.
BoxcabE50, I anticipate some geological uplifting in this region at some time in the future. The railroad, anticipating this uplift, is being proactive by putting the tunnel in sooner rather than later.
The second tunnel liner worked out better. The clearances are excellent and it weighs less than half of the prototype. It's installed and now I feel inclined to provide the requisite hill for the tunnel to bore through. View attachment 60452 View attachment 60453
BoxcabE50, the attachments were there for a couple of days before taking a flyer. I wonder why when I click on them they get displayed one at a time in a new browser tab instead of a closeable window that allows me to scroll through both. It's a mystery. This part of my railroad has me thinking because of the proximity of the elevated track to the tunnel entrance. I will try to add visual separation with some rock outcropping and vegetation. I would like to mock up this area to explore the possibilities. I also don't want to permanently mount the tunnel, so also exploring how to make the area accessible.
ML&S gets a new pushbutton yard panel that greatly simplifies setting switches to move about the yard. Starting at the bottom and working up the yard tracks are number 1 through 8. They are not yet numbered on the panel. The row of buttons on the far right select the routing into the east end from either the East Lead or South Lead. The next button row to the left select yard tracks 6, 7, or 8. The next button row to the left selects yard tracks 2 through 5. The west end is much simpler. The button row on the left selects yard tracks 2 through 5, and buttons to the right select tracks 6 or 7. It's not the most elegant panel but it beats setting individual switches. Each button is interlocked to clear when another routing is selected that conflicts with the current one. Here is the main line panel. This one is a more traditional CTC panel without the CTC. It can control main line control points and has been in service for almost two years.
Last night I celebrated a "Golden Spike" moment after completing the remaining trackwork on my layout. The two sub end sidings will eventually have a coal mine and a small town. The shortest siding is 13" and can handle 3, 40' cars when they are switched with smaller locomotives. With track complete I will enter the "test it like crazy" phase before ballasting. I also have most of the scenery support in place and can advance progress in that aspect.
This weekend I repurposed the rooms in my house to fix a long-standing problem: the train room was just too small. I turned the living room into the train room, the dining room into the living room, the old train room into my bedroom, and my old bedroom into a new spacious office work area. A friend and her children came by this weekend and assisted with the transformation. I also got a small work shop adjacent to the train in an under the stairs closet. The train is now in the living room along with the wood stove; a much warmer room than either of the bedrooms.
It was the right choice for me. I gave up the benefit of optimum room utilization for the mobile flexibility when I started the design about 10 years ago. The layout tolerated the move fairly well. Two turnout throw rods came disengaged but otherwise no bad effects found yet. The main line is still down because I want to complete foundation scenery at the location of a future bridge and trestle location. Completing the temporary bridge is my next task so I can get back to full operation and continuing developing scenery.
Love the thread about your build. Since I am located near Knoxville I can't help wondering if you went to UT, directly adjoining the old L&N yards and station. Would like to model the L&N and Southern junction area as well as the John Sevier Roundhouse and yards. May take more room than the significant other will part with though. I look forward to your continued progress!
I lived in Memphis 65-78 and went to Memphis State. The L&N line ran through Bartlett about a mile away. The Southern through the college campus. Those are the railroads that formed my attraction. I did not do much railfanning in my early years so most of my images now come from a collection of books and magazines. A nice part about modeling is being able to select the elements that hold our interest. I like wood trestles, truss bridges, signals, high hood early diesels, and complex interlockings.
This is what I am attempting with my T-Trak modules. Making highly compressed scenes from fading memories. Keeping a favorite slice of time alive a little longer.
This is a brief update for what has been a quiet year on the ML&S. Since January I started a major house remodeling project that kept me busy and thoroughly tossed the contents of my house in the process. This on top of MN summer being time where outdoor activities take precedent. A month ago I cranked up operations and successfully ran the track cleaning car around the main. There's still a lot of dust everywhere but much of the track is now back in service. I have a couple of projects lined up. I want to consolidate two JMRI CTC panels into one. I need to rethink my panel organization because the schematic layout doesn't cleanly support routing through Linden Yard during operations. There is nothing better than regular running of trains to highlight where the gremlins lurk. The good news is there are fewer gremlins lurking in the physical track. Most of my problems are operational errors rather than derailments; misaligned switches and train movements exceeding their intended authority. It challenging to be the dispatcher and the engineers at the same time, especially when trying to run more than two trains. I fixed a sag in track alignment that repeatedly derailed one tank car. All the other trains and rolling stock passed over just fine but this one car would drop its wheels outside the gauge. The Homasote roadbed is holding up well but I can't tell if this is a new issue or one that has been latent. Track is attached with Aileen's Tacky White Glue so fixing is simple; wet the track to release the glue, jack the track to the desired level, and apply more glue to hold the track in the new elevation.
Construction dust. Ugh. Ten years ago I was doing some finishing work in the basement; drywalling, etc. Even though I took precautions, there is still dust in the house. And it slowly settles on my modeling bench, etc, even though I keep that covered when not in use.
That's the stuff, Ken. It was everywhere even though there were sealed zipper doors. Mine started as plaster & lath dust from the demolition. The drywall was pretty benign in comparison. I also get more than a little dust/dirt from burning 5 cords wood. I still need to do the vacuum cleaner over the entire layout and then clean every piece of rolling stock. I will get right on it...tomorrow.
