Better Get the Corman equipment out there ASAP!:tb-err: glad not too much damage- and yeah, its REAL cold- South Florida wind chills in the 20's, good day for trains!! my best, Jan
It was 16 degrees in Dallas this morning. It's too cold for me after living in South Florida for the past 15 years. Jim: Glad to hear that there wasn't much damage to your equipment.....I know the feeling.
Fortunately it was just freight, no passengers were harmed. All crews safe and accounted for. IRL glad nothing was damaged. :tb-biggrin:
Progress continues - in between taking down CHRISTmas decorations I've managed to get rerailers installed and tested - you can see the home-brew Code 80 at the left and the new Code 55s to the right. Now I can cover the staging area! Then I had to test them all - running the five trains I have on the layout at the moment through EACH staging track. I'm happy to report no derailments in staging - just everywhere else! (see earlier in the thread...)
I can relate to the track poping problem. It will be awhile before I do any ballasting on the Geneva Subdivision. With the furnace running this winter there's been quite a bit of wood drying and shrinking on the Geneva Sub. Its going to take a while for the wood to settled down before any ballasting can be done. Maybe this summer. Daryl
I'm not sure I'll EVER get to that point - just about the time you think you've got it, up jumps the devil! The good news is, other than the track pops, it's all been car issues, not the track. And I found a truck pin by that switch. Using ME track gives another benefit - where you have pops, all you need to do is a bit of judicious trimming and the track pretty much stays where you put it. The additional good news is where the track is ballasted there have been no problems with popping - back on the old layout I had eight inches of track lift, ballast and all. Of course that was with Woodland Scenics walnut shells as opposed to AR&M's real rock which I now use. Daryl - it'll come, just hang in there!
Oakville had a visitor Friday! Atlanta area modeler Bill Hebb came up to take some leftover spline off my hands. We ran some trains and generally had too little time together - but what we had was great - it was most enjoyable. Bill's on the right: After installation of the rerailers in the south room, it was time to complete the scenery. Here are before and current (this morning) shots of the progress:
Awesome work. The mainline is so realistically long, makes my door layout seem even more puny than it is!
Jim: First, thanks to both you and Nancy for your hospitality during my visit. The layout, frankly as good as the pictures are, looks better in reality - and even more importantly - the layout runs as good as it looks. I was quite impressed with Jim's choice of layout height, for my 5' 10" height, it averaged right at my chin, something that "feels" better in operation than one would expect from just looking at the pictures. We ran multiple lashups with 40-60 car consists and the trackwork was flawless. Thanks Jim for sharing this great layout with all on the board and for a memorable visit. Best, Bill
It was indeed a great pleasure to have someone to talk to with Bill's range of experiences. The Sub has been visited before, but usually by people who just "heard" of this guy's trains - and they have no experience - you spend time answering the most basic of questions. With Bill, it was just hand him a throttle, show him which trains were his, and enjoy. Yeah, Jerry, whether it's the guy next door or a cub scout pack, it's good. But when it's someone like Bill, it gets special.
Oakville had more visitors this week - a local Cub Scout den visited Thursday evening. The photo below also gives you an idea of the layout height - we had several ladders and stepstools for the scouts so they could enjoy a closer view. I call the next image The New Meets The Old - a pair of GEVOs pulling their first Oakville assignment meets some SD40-2s working out their last days - and as you'll note, the south island now has it's grass.
LOL -- that picture of the Cub Pack is a classic - eyes rolling up, goofy grins, the works! Hope they had a great time, and were suitably impressed (as much as 9-11 year olds can be). That newly grassy hill looks great. Your progress is amazing.
I love it. Did the cubs get a throttle for a 60-car stack train? So how high is the main in that shot Jim? It seems higher than I would have guessed from your room shots. Does the main have any grade to speak of? Best, Gary P.S. Ironically, the SD40-2 is wearing a newer scheme than the GEVO.
