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+--- Thread: Charlie b's layout (/showthread.php?tid=2463)
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-03-2010
P5se Camelback Wrote:Very cool, Charlie! What a nice long run!I have a variety, the F3's are from PCM and have Loksound, The USRA Mike is a Blue Line factory equipped. I added the Digitrac motor decoder.
What kind of sound decoder are you using?
That bell is loud!
I also have a trio of Life Like PA's with the MRC dropin decoder, and they work well too. I also put sounders from MRC in a trio of Sharks, and although I used the Alco sound they still sound pretty good, quite similar to the Baldwin prime movers.
I have some equipped with the QSI from Broadway and they work well too. If only you could get a good complete list of the CV's and their value ranges for all of these decoders. There are not many standards, and finding technical information is almost impossible. I've been trying to find the CV for the bell volume and the one it is supposed to be isn't it..
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - Gary S - 08-03-2010
Charlie B Wrote:If only you could get a good complete list of the CV's and their value ranges for all of these decoders. There are not many standards, and finding technical information is almost impossible. I've been trying to find the CV for the bell volume and the one it is supposed to be isn't it..
Charlie
Charlie, the entire 190ish page Quantum Sound manual can be downloaded from the QSI site. Now, if the bell volume CV isn't correct, then the manual won't help much. A call to the QSI tech department or to Tony's may get you an answer.
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-03-2010
I'vfe downloaded all of the manuals, If only they were correct....These Blue lines take a little work. I may have to try removing the motor decoder, then use analog to do the bell and whistle volume. I don't have time right now but winter is soon coming.
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-08-2010
I got a few hours yesterday and today and managed to insert some switches and connect track 3. It still needs to be straightened somewhat but minor.
I lightly tack everything down, in line, then I use the ballast and glue to hold the track.
I also unpacked a few boxes to see what I have and what needs to be fixed after moving and handling for 14 years. I aquired a bunch of old buildings that will need to be repaired, but they are worth saving.
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - Gary S - 08-08-2010
Good to see some trackwork there, Charlie. Those broad curves are going to be great!
Hey... your train room looks as cluttered as mine right now. Reminds me that i really need to do some cleanup in there.
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-08-2010
I have so much stuff in boxes that I will have to make more clutter to find out what I have and where it is. The only space left is the train layout, so it will get worse before it gets better, but I can put it on sections that I won't be working for a while. I have at least 30 large boxes of all kinds of stuff.
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I need them.
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - Steamtrains - 08-08-2010
It's great to have a layout room the size of a small house..!! The downside is that there's so much more room to put stuff and junk..!!
And true to Newton's Fourth Law (not well known, even in the physics community), every empty space is a gravitational attractor for old and little-used materials...
Re: Charlie b's layout - P5se Camelback - 08-08-2010
Charlie ...
As you (and anyyone else who has been paying attention) may know, I have developed plans to build a layout in one half of my rather large "Great Room." As you have apparently undergone an estrangement from your railroad stuff similar to my own, I can sympathize with your situation of having to endure a mess first to find out what you have and where it is. Most of my railroad "paraphenalia" has been packed in boxes and in storage since we moved to Florida in 1993! I had no clue what or where! i used to say I had "about 25 boxes" of railroad. Most of the rest of what I owned had been in storage since my divorce in 1997.
When I moved into this place, I had all the boxes from my move stacked in rows with an aisle in between to ease the unpacking process. The railroad boxes got stacked up along the back wall, so as to be unpacked last ... all 58 of them! Well, I finally got throught the 200+ other boxes, purging as I went. I have now unpacked almost all of the LS&W RR boxes and the stuff is all over the place where I intend to build the railroad. Building benchwork is "on hold" until after the "Challenge." But in the meantime, I have not had anyone other than my daughter inside this house, due to "The Mess." It just plain embarrasing to be discovered to be living amonst such "clutter!"
But, Charlie, if it'll make you feel any better ... if it will help you realize that you are not alone in your dilema ... I am swallowing REALLY hard now ... and posting the following photo of what I will have to figure how to deal with before I can really begin building my layout.
Look! I know it's a mess! I'm not happy about it! But I couldn't remember what I had or where any of it was in fifty-eight boxes! Not even many of my tools! (When the packing took place, I had taken a new job and had gone on ahead, and my daughter's mother packed my stuff, much of it at the direction of my daughter, who as a first grader, and knew what most of it was because she "played in the basement with her trains with Dad and his trains.")
If you only knew the physical gyrations I had to go through to take all those Corrugated Mock-up photos for the Challenge ...
![[Image: BigRedX.png]](http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af349/wwmarsland/Miscellaneous%20Images/BigRedX.png)
Disgusting, I know! But when the Challenge is over ...
EDIT: Posting that image was a mistake ... ... If YOU had unpacked ALL of YOUR model railroad stuff in one room of your house, it would look no different,
but I believe the photo was misunderstood and so I have removed it!!
but I believe the photo was misunderstood and so I have removed it!!
Re: Charlie b's layout - Gary S - 08-08-2010
Oh dang biL!
hock: And I get to feeling bad when my little work room gets cluttered from building something. I'm calling my wife in here right now so she can see what a REAL mess looks like! 
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-08-2010
Oh Bil! Thank You, You made my day. I know I am a normal model railroad builder. However, I can put skirting around the benchwork and then all I have to do is hide everything under the layout....
My problem is everything now has a use. I used to be able to trash stuff that had no life left, but the last thing I threw out I found out (too late) was a #561-B3 Gern Flux incubator, the last one known to exist. (however I did manage to save the B6A-11450-a Flux transformer)
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - mountaingoatgreg - 08-08-2010
Charlie,
They layout is looking good!!
I think I saw that picture above...where was it...oh yeah on the Hoarding show on TV :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Seriously though things really are looking good!!
Re: Charlie b's layout - P5se Camelback - 08-08-2010
I'm still trying to figure out, now that I have identified almost all of it, where to put it. I've started a book and each box that gets repacked has a page, and on that page is everything in that box. If there was a layout, almost all of this would fit in under skirting. I just unpacked more than I had room to put things away!
The deal is this ... unless you want to end up trying to figure out what to do with the contents of a two story, four bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, two car garage, two story, 2800 square foot house that you have moved out of the overpriced storage unit (costing as much as a two bedroom, two bath condo rental) and into a two bedroom, two bath 1300 square foot house where one small bedroom has a desk, a couple of filing cabinets, a drawing board and a love-seat-sized sleeper "sofa" ... when "she who must be obeyed" suggests that she wants something or that you do someting, give it some serious consideration!
Now, I'm sorry I posted that photo ... it was probably not the best idea I've ever had. But, despite the current mess, trying to rediscover what I have, it's still better than living in a rented room where the only things you have that are your own are the clothes in the closet!
In the meantime, the next time YOU move into a space that's LESS THAN HALF THE SIZE of the one you had been living in ... thirteen years prior ... and you haven't seen the contents of over two hundred boxes in all that time ...I DOUBLE-DOG DARE YOU to post a photograph of your new digs in mid-unpacking condition, especially if you are doing it ALONE! And if you don't have the nerve to do that, or if "she who must be obeyed" forbids you to do so ... maybe you will learn to keep your snarky comments to yourself!
If you haven't walked in those shoes, feel very fortunate! When it comes to divorce, you can lose everything! I was lucky ... I came out with my art supplies, my drawing board, which were my tools with which to make a living (and pay child support,) something to sleep on, something to sit on and ... my books and my trains.
It seems there is always someone who, with complete and total insensitvity, finds it somehow humorous to ignore the previously-explained uncomfortable situation of another ... and thereby removes all the enjoyment of this entire forum for the person who is the subject of their moronic insensitivity!
Re: Charlie b's layout - ocalicreek - 08-12-2010
biL - All I see is a great big red X...where did the picture go? If you don't mind sharing your misery I'd like to see it, thanks. After having moved 7 times in as many years, after having just gotten married (so there's her stuff and my stuff and all the wedding stuff, plus stuff from each of our parents place, childhood memorabilia and whatnot, etc.) we had quite a collection. It has taken a less-than-dedicated effort to chip away at our stuff...meanwhile, two kiddos come along and there's a whole new set of stuff! Thank goodness the second one was a boy and we could pass along the older one's things to the littler one! And while my wife is a 'crafty' person with boxes of scrapbooking things, fabric, etc., she is also the more organized of the two of us so her stuff is at least better organized and contained than mine. All that to say, do not despair! Organization will set you free! Sounds like you've got the right idea with the ledger book and keeping track of what's in each box.
Now, as for Charlie's 'stuff',
Quote:I also unpacked a few boxes to see what I have and what needs to be fixed after moving and handling for 14 years. I aquired a bunch of old buildings that will need to be repaired, but they are worth saving.
YES INDEED! By all means possible save the old stuff. As a consumate kitbasher, some of the older buildings that may not have been assembled with quality glue can be easily popped apart and reconfigured or used as kitbash fodder. I have a few gallon sized ziplock bags, each with a kit inside. Most came from train shows or yard sales where I found them cheap and brought them home, disassembled them, and packed them away flat until the day they meet the Xacto #5...
You have quite a collection there!
Galen
Re: Charlie b's layout - Charlie B - 08-14-2010
Hi group.
The main tracks are in place....(not finished by a long shot) and I started work on a the ravine that will be spanned by the wooden trestle that was donated by railcop. I plan on building a 4 track stone arch viaduct for the main over the ravine. but if it doesn't work out I'll build some kind of bridge for there too.
Here are a few pictures, and an updated track plan. If the ravine construction works out, I'll do a tutorial. So far I'm pleased with what I have.
Charlie
Re: Charlie b's layout - Ralph - 08-14-2010
Thanks for posting your track plan Charlie! Looks great! That Horseshoe Curve-like section in the middle will be a great train watching site! By the way, I agree about the skirting under the layout. It can hide a multitude of sins.
Ralph