UP Elmwood Subdivision - N Scale Layout

[nolatron]

Since my last update, I've been working on a variety of things on the layout.
So here's a recap of what's been going on. Might wanna get some popcorn, a box of peanut M&M's, and a large soda.

Staging Level
The staging level is pretty much complete, though a little redesign of one end of the ladder is planned (you'll see in a minute). I need one additional turnout to complete the yard ladder ladder not getting a makeover. Last night I finished putting the track feeders in place and got the level connected to the DCC bus. The reverse loop hardware, a PSRev PowerShield Intelligent Reverse I bought 4 years ago from Tony's Trains and luckily still had, was installed as well for a reversing loop section.

At the moment the track is just sitting on the benchwork, not secured down. I need to go back sand down a few spots to try and level them out a little more. Once everything is nice and happy, I'll just use dabs of hot glue to secure the track to keep it from sliding or anything. I don't think I'll need anything major here.

For the turnouts on the staging level, my plan was to use the existing open ports on my two DAC10 turnout controllers. I have 11 turnouts on staging, and 11 free spaces. Perfect. But then I discovered the DAC10 doesn't play very well with the two-wire motors like the Kato Unitrack motors. You need to build some kind of controller card for each turnout to handle the three wire connection from the DAC10, to the 2 wire Kato connection. I found a diagram on how to do it, but I'm not very savy on electronic diagrams. I would also need to re-wire the turnout wiring connections in the wire panel for a three wire connection as well. Not impossible, just extra work.

So I thought I'd see what other alternatives are out there. There's three Digitrax products I could use; A DS64, a DS52, or a DS51K1. All three products are made to run out of the box with Kato 2-Wire turnoutsDS1K1 is actually made specifically for Kato turnouts).

I've been reading up on the Digitrax DS52 and it looks like it's the best way to go. Each DS52 has two outputs, but you can hook up to *4* Kato turnouts per output. So if I redesigned the staging yard to be a typical double-ended yard (instead of the current design where it flip flops at the other end, no idea why I did that), I can connect the 2 turnouts on each end of a ladder track to a single output. I would only need 3 of these decoders for a cost of about $57 to control the entire staging level. Sweet.

I'd to sell off some these 4 Right Hand turnouts I will no longer need to cover the cost of purchasing 4 Left Hand ones. If you need some #6 RH Kato Unitrack turnouts, or have some Left Hands you'd like to trade for Right Hands with the Kato connector cut off, lemme know!

Staging Elevator
The staging elevator is just about complete as well. Everything is place except for the sidewalls to prevent stuff from falling off and hitting the floor. I plan on using pieces of 2x24 styrene for the walls. I tested out .030 thickness on a spare piece of wood, securing it with hot glue, and it worked out pretty darn well. The hot glue held better than I thought. So probably next week I'll have that styrene on hand to complete the bridge.

I didn't take many photos of the building process because a lot of it was sorta improvised on the spot. Here's a look at the bridge in place.


The elevator lifts move up/down on a telescoping heavy-duty drawer slide, and a cleat is used to hold the elevator in place at the lower deck. I do plan on painting all of the wood probably the same color as the fascia.


The bridge has a guide screw on each end that plugs through a wood piece on the top of the lift. A wing nut secures the bridge to the lift.


And power wire to the bridge.


I plan on removing this entire piece of facia and install on larger, taller piece that covers the whole end. It's act as the end plate of the layout. A bridge will be installed right at the end of the layout on the otherside of the fascia, so a train will pass under the bridge, and then off the layout.

Scenery
In the middle of all the staging work, I'm still making a little progress on my groundwork. I'm currently working on the cliff corner, covering up the tape and plaster cloth with mold-a-scene. With the Staging level going on hold until I complete the bridge and turnouts, I'll be able to focus a little more on the scenery. I also added a motorized oil platform to the layout, got the other old crossing track embedded some scenery, and relocated the double target signal before the bridge (just after the road crossing) instead of after it as before.


In the refinery, I decided I didn't need all the tracks and turnouts I had. A simple double track unloading platform will work for any operations I want to do. I don't think I need to get fancy with multiple tracks all over the place that I'll never ever use. So up came two turnouts and two sections of track. The two humpyard throws no longer in use will be removed, and the third one that remains in use might get replaced with a tortoise. Still thinking about that one.


Upper Level
I've also been working on the upper level roadbed. There's a spot in the benchwork where two meeting pieces don't line up. When I first install this section I didn't worry about it because I had no plan of putting track here, but since I am now I needed to fix it. In came cork roadbed and a lot of sanding. Now I've got a nice transition from one section to the other.


The mainline on the upper level will be put down on two layers of cork to give it a higher profile, while the siding will be on only one layer of cork. Hope to get the roadbed and mayyyyybe some track installed through half the upper level in the next week or so.

The Room
Another side project I've been working on is tidying up the office/layout room. Previously, I had several short bookcases under the layout with bins of stuff on them. Kept stuff organized, but still looked like a chicken coupe to me. I tried covering it with a tarp/sheet hanging under the layout, but that looked just as bad to me. So last weekend I replace the bookshelves with cabinets with doors. Now everything is tucked away behind doors, leaving a nice, clean appearance.


Before................................................and After

And that's all!

[eightyeightfan1]

Nice!

[nolatron]

I sketched out the current yard design this morning to see how turnout hookup would work, and it looks like I can actually still get away with using only three DS52's with the current design where the ladder turnouts flip flop at the other end.

The first turnout at each end of the yard will get it's own output on a DS52, but the inner turnouts at each end of a individual yard track can be combined to a single output on a DS52 since both ends of the yard track could either be closed or thrown at the same time.

So yay, no fiddling with track work will be needed.

[nolatron]

It's been 10 days since since I started a little hiatus from working on the layout. It was nice little break from the layout and I took the opportunity to work other non-railroad projects I've been putting off doing.

There's also been some reflection on the layout. During my time-off, I was also able to really think about the layout (mainly at work, heh). I thought about what my goals are for it, what issues it has, how many things were built so they "sorta worked", and what things I would do differently. When I think to myself, "Was it that I really want to get out of my layout?", I usually just want to railfan the layout; Someplace where I can go and just watch trains run. I'm never going to have op sessions with others, and I'm not really into switching (not yet at least) either. I think I really just want a (almost) "roundy-round" with a few industries for future operational switching. Something that I could turn on, and just let run if I wanted.

During all of this (and previously), the wife and I talked about the usage of the house and the space we have, as we'd like to have a 2nd baby and we only have 3 BR's (1 being a guest room we'd like to keep). In short, instead of buying a house, utilizing the office/layout room as the guest bedroom would be the most cost effective measure for us.

So I've been pondering the idea of removing current layout and starting fresh with a new 16x7 layout in one half of the garage (picture a rectangle with a 28" aisle down the middle).

While I know it's certainly a *huge* change after spending nearly 2 years on the current layout, I feel like I could now build a layout more to how I really want. No crazy staging elevators, no cassettes, no helix, no double decks, etc... A more "traditional" kind of layout.

So needless to say, all work on the current layout is now on hold while this new layout is researched.

[tetters]

Its kinda heartbreaking isn't it? I certainly enjoyed watching you put this layout together. I'm sure that what ever direction you decide to go, you'll be able to make yourself an excellent layout.

Good luck!

[nomad]

It's frustrating, isn't it? I am at the same point. I am doing nothing on my layout will I contemplate this problem, and Galen draws me a track plan.

Loren

[UP SD40-2]

I am crushed to read this current news, but fully understand, hey, family DOES come first .

7x16 is a good size for N scale, i know you'll put much thought into it and it will be Fantastic!

[nolatron]

After doing additonal reading on garage layouts and people’s experiences with the multitude of things you need to do to combat the elements, you can’t help but to think of one thing… What a pain in the rear!

So I pitched an idea to the wife and she’s okay’d to let me keep the layout in the current room, along with making it a guest room. The plan would be to place the guest bed on the West wall of the room (the wall with the doors), the layout would occupy only the East wall (the longest wall where most of the layout is now), and my computer desk would remain where it is on the South wall.

While the layout could be cut by nearly 75%, I feel it’s a much better alternative to building in the garage. I would also be able to utilize the existing shelving benchwork mounted to the wall, though I would extend it from 15″ to 24″. The plywood tops could all be recycled as well.

I’ve been doodling on a simple, single level plan, though I have thought about keeping the double deck since I have already have the helix. I’ll have to see what I can come up with though.

[TrainNut]

After doing additonal reading on garage layouts and people’s experiences with the multitude of things you need to do to combat the elements, you can’t help but to think of one thing… What a pain in the rear!

So I pitched an idea to the wife and she’s okay’d to let me keep the layout in the current room,...

Smart move! I also had a layout in the garage. Never again....

[nolatron]

So here's the first plan I put together for the office layout.



The guest bed would be the big dark blue box, the desk the black box. The black area at the very lower left are walls.

So we have a single level track plan. a dogbone I believe you would call it almost. The back 8" of the layout is space for 4 staging yards. Since I still had the desk wall, I added in a 3 additional shorter staging tracks there as well being the monitors. The 2% grade loop will drop the track to this mini yard.

I opted to keep the scene the town scene of Elmwood. I have 2 small industry spurs, as well at the larger Superior Paper Mill spur. In case I want dom some switching, I'll have some spurs for it.

The scene is just long enough for me to have 100" mainline and siding for meets. The staging can hold trains up 127", so I can run a really long one through if I wanted while keeping a shorter on the siding.

As much as I'll miss at the different parts of the soon to be "Old Layout", having this smaller one scene kind of layout is kinda nice. I'm be able to dedicated time & effort to really working on this one section (which be the entire layout) as opposed to multiple ones, ya know. It's hard to explain. Like I won't feel so overwhelmed by having such large layout. The long runs are great, but all the scenery work....oy!

In order to keep the design and the work simple, I don't think I'm going to do a double deck. So my double track helix will eventually go on sale once it's removed.

While it's sad to see the old layout go, I'm actually kind of excited to get to work on this new smaller one.

[tetters]

Look great! When you get the guest bedroom and layout set up, can I visit your place and sleep over?