Progress on the Canadian Southern

[viperman]

I really like that track plan! I should look into modeling N scale one of these days

[Wiredup]

Got one side of the mainilne done today. It's a lil glitchy in one direction, and REALLY glitchy in the other direction. But my Walthers sleepers do the whole loop without looking too much like crap on the 13.5" radius curves, or without derailing (an issue since they don't like 11" radius)

I'll shoot a video a lil later this weekend once I got the bugs worked out.

[TrainNut]

First off, your post on Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:27 pm... it sounds like you are describing some pictures and you even mention that you had the chance to upload some but.... I don't see 'em.

The problem I have there is.... do the add-on stalls include outer walls? should I buy two modern roundhouse addons, or just one, and buy another complete modern roundhouse kit?

I've never built the roundhouse nor any additions but perhaps Josh (Trucklover) could help you with that since he's now a dealer and might be privy to just a bit more info than the rest of us get.

I'm gonna go out and order my first BLMA kit this coming week... the new car lot kit that they just came out with. Any links on howto build a laser cut wood kit?

I've only ever assembled one laser cut wood kit (Fred and Red's Cafe) and the only thing I can remember is that it said not to apply paint with a brush as it would warp the wood. I did anyways, sparingly, and it did not.
Looking good... watched the video. You mentioned something about caulking... is that how your attaching the track to the cork? I've only ever used the track nails and found that more than sufficient. I'm off to visit the gallery and see if I can find the pictures your referring to...

EDIT: Luke, I see that you have not used our gallery to upload your pictures to but rather the gallery at Nscale.net. Upon visiting that site, I can not get your pictures to display from that location either. I've got a question in to some of the other mods to see if this is just me... or what.

ANOTHER EDIT: After messing with this for a bit, I finally decided to join Nscale.net to see if that would help anything and it did. I can now view your pictures in this thread. I have no idea why but it seems that anybody else that is not a member of that site will not be able to see your pictures.

[doctorwayne]

EDIT: Luke, I see that you have not used our gallery to upload your pictures to but rather the gallery at Nscale.net. Upon visiting that site, I can not get your pictures to display from that location either. I've got a question in to some of the other mods to see if this is just me... or what.

I can't see the pictures in that post, either.

Here's a link to photobucket. It's free to join, you can post as many pictures as you wish, and they also give you some editing options. Just follow their simple instructions.
To post a picture from photobucket into this forum, click on the photo which you wish to post, then click on the line of data beginning with "IMG". This will automatically copy the data. Next, in your composition window here, place the cursor where you'd like the picture to appear, then click on "EDIT" on your browser's tool bar, then click on "PASTE". The line of data will appear in your composition window, but it will automatically appear as a photo as soon as you hit "POST".

Linking photos from another train site's gallery is frowned upon in most forums - something about using-up their bandwidth or some such horsefeathers.

Wayne

[Wiredup]

EDIT: Luke, I see that you have not used our gallery to upload your pictures to but rather the gallery at Nscale.net. Upon visiting that site, I can not get your pictures to display from that location either. I've got a question in to some of the other mods to see if this is just me... or what.

I can't see the pictures in that post, either.

Here's a link to photobucket. It's free to join, you can post as many pictures as you wish, and they also give you some editing options. Just follow their simple instructions.
To post a picture from photobucket into this forum, click on the photo which you wish to post, then click on the line of data beginning with "IMG". This will automatically copy the data. Next, in your composition window here, place the cursor where you'd like the picture to appear, then click on "EDIT" on your browser's tool bar, then click on "PASTE". The line of data will appear in your composition window, but it will automatically appear as a photo as soon as you hit "POST".

Linking photos from another train site's gallery is frowned upon in most forums - something about using-up their bandwidth or some such horsefeathers.

Wayne

lol, yea I figured that it might be frowned upon, but for some reason I can't figure out the gallery on Big Blue... which is why I linked from there.

I'll transfer over to Photobucket and repost said pictures this weekend.


I'm using Caulk as my way to keep the track down because track nails seem to still lift up in sections, and its letting the track spring at the joints. I'm also running into issues with flex track at curves, one section especially as one rail seems to have raised higher than the other rail... while I'm only getting stalls on my EMD E8A, GP9, and SD40. My steamers seem to be able to navigate it just fine (which is total opposite from what I'm used too!!!)

I have also found that the heavy mountain struggles at speed step 10 (outa 24) on the 2% grades hauling only 3 passenger cars... I must find a way to increase tractive effort on this loco...

[Wiredup]

I've been enjoyin summer so I haven't been in the train room a whole lot the last month or two...

but today I went in to start back up and get going.... and came across a few hurdles....

first, the ceiling lamp... fell down off the brackets. This is the lamp that was installed when I moved in... grrr! I haven't really played with it yet, but I'm not happy... it could be a good excuse to install a new, better, more powerful track lighting system though.


The next thing I noticed that the weather has caused some changes... I knew that the track would expand/contract... but I didn't know it would THIS much. Pretty much my whole mainline has jumped off where it has been glued down, even some of the stacked and glued foam came loose....

I'm not impressed, in fact I have no idea what to do with it all now....


Anyways, I'm thinking before I get too much farther... I got a few options:

Sell off what track I have not used (a few peco switches, a boat load of flex track), and salvage some of the peco turnouts that are down and sell them off too... After that, use the funds to buy up some Kato track and lay this down Kato style!

Sell off whats mentioned before, and go HO.

[Wiredup]

So I've been going over my options a bit, and I'm thinking that my original plan wasn't working out soo good in the end anyways....

I just wanna run trains, and I wanna do it quick. I'm more into building the land forms, running the trains, and kitbashin stuff than I am about the track laying... so I'm gonna take a short cut and use unitrack.

But I think I gotta revamp my design... first thing... the yard on the current design is not big enough for what I want.

I got four flagship trains that I wanna have on the layout:
1954 CN paint scheme passenger train 8-10 cars
maroon CPR paint passenger train 6 cars
8 car UP passenger train
SP Daylight core set

I also will be expanding my freight collection quite extensivley as well...

So average train will be 4ft long.....

which in a 10x10 room shouldn't be bad... in fact I should have enough room for this!

I just can't figure out why I can't get it all in properly....

[doctorwayne]

I got four flagship trains that I wanna have on the layout:
1954 CN paint scheme passenger train 8-10 cars
maroon CPR paint passenger train 6 cars
8 car UP passenger train
SP Daylight core set

So average train will be 4ft long.....
which in a 10x10 room shouldn't be bad... in fact I should have enough room for this!

Based on your list (I'm not aware of the length of the Daylight core set, so didn't include it in my calculations), your average train length, not including motive power, is just under 8 cars.

I just can't figure out why I can't get it all in properly....

Even if you're using Athearn's "shorty" passenger cars, a six car train will be about 5' long without the loco(s), while a ten car train will be over 8' in length, again without counting the length of the loco(s). Using full-length passenger equipment, your trains will be even longer. No wonder you "can't get it all in properly".

I just wanna run trains, and I wanna do it quick. I'm more into building the land forms, running the trains, and kitbashin stuff than I am about the track laying... so I'm gonna take a short cut and use unitrack.

Don't rush through the groundwork for your layout. Benchwork, track planning, track laying and the associated electrical stuff, not to mention room lighting, backdrops, etc. are all necessary tasks that should be done before you get to the "running trains" part. Putting these tasks aside or rushing through them will most likely result in a less than satisfactory experience when you try to run the trains.

Wayne

[Wiredup]

I got four flagship trains that I wanna have on the layout:
1954 CN paint scheme passenger train 8-10 cars
maroon CPR paint passenger train 6 cars
8 car UP passenger train
SP Daylight core set

So average train will be 4ft long.....
which in a 10x10 room shouldn't be bad... in fact I should have enough room for this!

Based on your list (I'm not aware of the length of the Daylight core set, so didn't include it in my calculations), your average train length, not including motive power, is just under 8 cars.

I just can't figure out why I can't get it all in properly....

Even if you're using Athearn's "shorty" passenger cars, a six car train will be about 5' long without the loco(s), while a ten car train will be over 8' in length, again without counting the length of the loco(s). Using full-length passenger equipment, your trains will be even longer. No wonder you "can't get it all in properly".

I just wanna run trains, and I wanna do it quick. I'm more into building the land forms, running the trains, and kitbashin stuff than I am about the track laying... so I'm gonna take a short cut and use unitrack.

Don't rush through the groundwork for your layout. Benchwork, track planning, track laying and the associated electrical stuff, not to mention room lighting, backdrops, etc. are all necessary tasks that should be done before you get to the "running trains" part. Putting these tasks aside or rushing through them will most likely result in a less than satisfactory experience when you try to run the trains.

Wayne

When I measured out my UP train with Challenger pulling... it ended up being 5' long.

Still...thats not short! lol


track laying will be done with unitrack, so a lot quicker and more reliable than flex... I think if I woulda bought unitrack this whole time I've bought and ripped up flex I woulda have had enough unitrack to get everything going again! lol

Benchworks done... a nice solid lattice frame rectangle thats 3.5 ft off the ground, using foam core for a table top.

I gotta redo the track plan... but I think I should maybe try planning it with the track on the board...isntead of software?

I'm using winrail 7

lighting is being planned out...

but I guess the track plan is what I'm really having the most trouble with.

[BR60103]

Pstt: Wayne
I think he's working in N.

[doctorwayne]

Pstt: Wayne
I think he's working in N.

DOH! DOH! DOH! DOH!

Wayne

[Wiredup]

Pstt: Wayne
I think he's working in N.

I thought those lenghts were a bit long.

[doctorwayne]

Yeah, I noticed the topic title, but overlooked in which forum it was situated. :oops: The Canada Southern has been one of my favourites ever since I saw one of their boxcars, on a school outing, at the age of six.


Wayne (seemingly oblivious to scales other than HO)

[Wiredup]

lol, and here I thought I was fictional freelancing.

so much for google.


Anyways, I've come up with a cool terminal plan that sets the stage for a pretty interesting track plan. I borrowed some cues from a few MRR magazines. I just put in the unitrack order with Mike Fifer for everything but the yard tracks for the terminal. Should turn out pretty good.

I'll pots a trackplan diagram later tonight... but I'll try and describe it a bit.

The terminal's freight yard will be 3" above "sea level". The terminal will have it's own integrated reverse loop, and seperated by the main line with the freight yard south of the main, and the engine terminal and reverse loop north. The passenger terminal we actually be below the freight terminal. Access to the passenger station tracks from the south will be from sea level, from the north, it will link with the main yard. Unfortunatley I won't be able to "see" my passenger trains at station keeping. But, this whole terminal setup gives me more options for setting up the mountain terrain for the rest of the layout. I can now fit in everything I want into my termianl, while keeping minimum radius's above 13"

I'm toying around with actually using the "passenger terminal" as staging tracks as well... it's currently setup to be double tracked, but I think I can also add a wye to link with the rest of the layout and have a few tracks of hidden staging along the wye.

I'll post my terminal plan later, and then come back with a more finished overall plan.

[Wiredup]

Attached is the start of my terminal... I'm already seeing flaws....