It's been a couple weeks for me; below is the reason. This is the control panel for the staging area: Now, what the panel tells us: There are trains on the first four tracks staged and ready to exit. The fifth track has a train entering staging - note the yellow LED to the left - when it goes out, the switch is clear. Note the center LEDs - these are long trains, the LEDs mark the halfway point of each track. Next up: the yard throat panel: No prox sensors here, just switch indication. The crossovers are dark since they're set for straight. Back to the canyon, which I think is now finished (allowing me to continue). Here's the view looking west: All those little rocks...OY! Here's the view over the mountain looking east: It was a very busy two weeks!
Chronicle of a week's work: basic framework Lattice in place: Joint compound applied: Ready for foliage: Continued next post...
And as far as I got before I ran out of trees and tufts (mainly trees). This angle will be lost when scenery is completed - it'll be inside a mountain!
Bad thing is I'll be out of town for a couple weeks soon so I can't get it on order - then when I DO get back it's gonna take a week to get the stuff in.... :mwacko: Ah well!
Do you realize there are over 20k views of this topic? I'd guess "inspirational" would just begin to describe your layout Jim. Thanks for all the modelling tips and photos!
Yeah, and that's great - but I can't touch Jerry DeBene! Last I looked he was past 110,000!!! (And well deserved, I might add!) Seriously, I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. And if you can pick up some tricks, that's great also.
Jim, I am in awe of both yours and Jerry's work. And I have picked up some tricks. Thanks so much! Craig
Did another ten feet or so of mountain last week: Then left on vacation Friday in order to be at the Illinois Railway Museum yesterday for Museum Showcase/Members Weekend - where this shot was taken around ten last night - they had tons of rare equipment operating all day and evening. What a blast! Almost as much fun as N Scale modeling!
There hasn't been much progress at Oakville the past few weeks - the lack of Code 55 Rerailers is making itself known - I can go no further in the south room without them, so next week it's off to the north room. Meantime, track needs to be cleaned. Here's what I'm running these days: Specifically that's nine Aztec cars - the Monsoon puts down liquid, the next in line smooshes it around with a canvas roller, then we have five, count 'em, five Predators, followed by a couple of cratex cars. It amazes me how much crud that fifth Predator picks up. I'm almost tempted to add a few more! Anyway, one or two passes with this baby is all that's needed to keep the rails nice and shiny. You'll note I run with loose Han-D-Wipes - that's so I can snip off the end when it gets too dirty, thus banishing dirt from the track. Ya gotta get it OFF!
