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Hi,
This layout first brought my attention to Big Blue, recently. The track plan looks great, well thought out.
Look forward to seeing your progress.
With regard to the coupling issue, I agree - Kadee #5 or #158 whisker. I've got rid of the plastic couplers that come with some stock
and standardised #5 or #158 for Palmetto, which I use manually.
Not sure if you are using magnets or manual, but anyway #5 or #158 will prove most reliable.
regards,
Mal
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If you haven't started using Kadees, yet, the only reason to use #5's over the "scale size" #158's is if you have any dips or humps in your track that would cause uncoupling. I'm planning to try out the Sergent Engineering scale couplers on my home layout, but I also belong to a modular club, and can tell you from over 20 years experience with that club, that no matter how much time we take with alignment in the set up, we still end up with "fussy" dips and humps between modules that make using the #158 Kadees on the modular layout an almost guarranteed problem. I have never seen any "kadee knock off" with the plastic "leaf" type knuckle spring work reliably. The McHenry couplers found on Athearn are fine for very short trains, but with more than 8 or 10 cars in a train, those McHenrys will start causing nuisance uncoupling! On the other hand, I've seen Kadee #5's handle 80-100 car trains in ho scale on the modular layout without any problems!
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Thank you Mal, for the compliment and advice... Please feel free to comment at any time!
Hey Russ...looks like I have just ordered the 158 Whisker Kadee for all my rolling stock... The guys at DCC Installed are so helpful... I recieved my Kadee 58 size Shelf couplers for my new tank cars last Friday and oh boy do they work great. Had a busy weekend and not a lot of time to work on anything serious, just doing the odd switching session when I can to get a good feel for the layout. Going to be no progress for a few weeks coming up as my schedule is full, good for business!!
Basically happy with the track but need to decide on the South Eastern corner, 99% sure it will be the Grace facility in Pheonix AZ...
...seems to be a fertilizer and agricultural plant of sorts, wish I knew maoe about it, maybe I should call them and ask... 
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Well, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes and made one of the grade crossing mock ups, made from card stock, I can use these as a templates for the Styrene ones I'll make once the track is down permanently... Going to either use Kurts method of fine grit sand paper of the spray on texture with spray painted Rustoleum Gray Primer as Lance uses in his new book "How to Build Shelf Layout" which is a must read! I realise the road is far too dark to be realistic but will sort that out with the real thing... At least now it doesn't feel like I'm on the road to nowhere... 
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Was wondering... Would a lost SD40-2 T EVER be seen switching an Industrial District like the SSWUP.I.R (SSW and UP Industrial Railroad)?????
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SSWUPinSA Wrote:Was wondering... Would a lost SD40-2 T EVER be seen switching an Industrial District like the SSWUP.I.R (SSW and UP Industrial Railroad)?????... The trucks are the problem. Three axis trucks do not negotiate tight curves very well as they are found frequently serving industry. The power is no problem. BNSF runs two GP60 serving industry in the LA area. They are great to work on the ladder to do sorting in classification yard (e.g. SD38-2 at Colton).
However, you might find examples where they are used to do transfer jobs.
Sorry, I am afraid that is the wrong answer...
ps. You model is weathered so beautiful it has to find a job on your layout anyhow 
Reinhard
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SSWUPinSA Wrote:Basically happy with the track but need to decide on the South Eastern corner, 99% sure it will be the Grace facility in Pheonix AZ...
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...seems to be a fertilizer and agricultural plant of sorts, wish I knew maoe about it, maybe I should call them and ask...
Googled a little. W.R Grace received hoppers of vermiculite from the Libby mines in Montana (until 1992), and later from a mine in South Carolina. It received vermiculite in hoppers carrying 45-50 tons each, and processed this by exfoliating it (heating it and letting it expand), turning it into various products - insulation, a lightweight aggregate for construction, soil addition for gardening, fireproofing, and absorbent and filtering uses in the industry.
Smile,
Stein
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SSWUPinSA Wrote:Well, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes and made one of the grade crossing mock ups, made from card stock, I can use these as a templates for the Styrene ones I'll make once the track is down permanently... Going to either use Kurts method of fine grit sand paper of the spray on texture with spray painted Rustoleum Gray Primer as Lance uses in his new book "How to Build Shelf Layout" which is a must read! I realise the road is far too dark to be realistic but will sort that out with the real thing... At least now it doesn't feel like I'm on the road to nowhere...
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SSWUPinSA
I have used both Kurt and Lances methods for road construction and both work very well. Only one comment on Kurts; make sure that when you glue the sandpaper to the sheet plastic, that you wrap it under the shoulder of the roads. I didn't do this and only glued it to the surface of the plastic sheets using 3M Super 77 adhesive. When I started to add scenic materials (such as sand) and using a 70% alcohol as a wetting solution, the alcohol wicked under the edge of the sand paper and lifted the paper from the plastic. This could probably be averted by rolling the edges of the sandpaper slightly under the road shoulders before gluing the sheets to the foamboard.
As a result, I had to pull the roads up and start fresh. This time I used Lances method of gray auto primer sprayed on the plastic sheet. This was less time consuming since you don't have all the white wash applications to the primered plastic to achieve the desired color. I did sponge brush one or two coats of the white wash medium on to the gray primered plastic with success. It lightens the gray primer, leaving a more charactoristic bleached out look.
Larry
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[quote="SSWUPinSA"]Well, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes and made one of the grade crossing mock ups, made from card stock, I can use these as a templates for the Styrene ones I'll make once the track is down permanently... Going to either use Kurts method of fine grit sand paper of the spray on texture with spray painted Rustoleum Gray Primer as Lance uses in his new book "How to Build Shelf Layout" which is a must read! I realise the road is far too dark to be realistic but will sort that out with the real thing... At least now it doesn't feel like I'm on the road to nowhere...
SSWUPinSA
Just a quick observation. You mentioned about about using your cardstock buildings as templates for the sheet plastic structures. You may want to make sure that your loading dock doors are roughly at the same height as the doors on you rolling stock since your card stock mockups have the doors at ground height. I am cutting my dock doors about 1/2" above the edge of the sheet to get the desired height with Peco Code 83 flextrack. I am not using cork base since most all of the layout consists of unmaintained secondary tracks. As a result, the track is simply glued to the paint foamboard.
![[Image: IMG_0003-3.jpg]](http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/ROADMAN_2006/IMG_0003-3.jpg)
![[Image: IMG_0018-1.jpg]](http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/ROADMAN_2006/IMG_0018-1.jpg)
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Hi,
Superb structures and roads on this layout!
Wish I had the space to build a larger layout.
regards,
Mal
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Thanks for the heads up Fast Car... In fact my Rail served doors are above ground at car floor level on all my mock-ups... This photo is of Trujillo and they have 2 ground level doors for their deliveries big enough for the forklift to fetch and load thier delivery trucks... 
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Here is Trujillo with the cars pulled...
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I think that fork lift would find it impossible to get over the tracks.
As far as your previous inquiry about using an Sd40-2t for switching, the U.P. uses them all over the place not only for switching industries in the City of Industry, but also they are the primary yard switchers in the City of Industry Yard. I've also seen them switch out industries in C.o.I. with Sd75's & 90's as well as large GE power. There is no way that large 6 axle power could be used in an old industrial area like the L.A. Junction or downtown L.A., but in new areas, they put in larger radius curves to allow larger power for switching. I suspect Pheonix might be a newer area since I think most industry moved to Pheonix since WW2.
By the way, as far as I could tell from reading about their products, W.R. Grace does very little in the way of Agricultural Chemicals, but the bulk of their business seems to be for the construction industry.
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