Texas Southeast Belt

[Len Turner]

Thanks for the input Greg!

I looked at placing the yard ladder in the direction you suggest but the middle of the ladder was on the joint for the lift out section. The direction of the yard is not only to avoid that but to also be able to use the remaining portion of the yard and runaround as a yard when the lift-out is out. As for the yard, I know I labeled it as a staging yard, but it will be in the open with scenery, ballasted track, buildings, background, etc. I am planning a large industry, probably a plywood plant, to go in that lower right hand corner as you suggested. It will receive "peeler" logs from the off-layout sawmill (its in storage for the time being) and load finished plywood on flatcars and in boxcars plus get a load of glue in a tank car every so often.

I have learned one thing; a track plan can sure look different when you actually pin the track down on the layout surface and see the relationship of the track route to the layout confines...

Again, Thanks for the interest and suggestions!

[mountaingoatgreg]

Len,

If it weren't for those pesky joints, doors and windows the world would be a much easier place to build model railroads

Keep us posted on your progress!!

[Len Turner]

Got the yard tracks laid, wired and tested. Ran a couple different locos pushing & pulling six 40' cars through all the turnouts for a couple of hours with no problems other than having to fine tune a couple of the turnouts. Had to file the frogs down flat and open the flangeways on the frogs and guard rails a bit. The joint between sections also came out OK. The rail runs all the way to the joint on either side and uses a rail joiner slipped across the joint to line the rails up.





About the backdrop... After the paint dried it warped as you can see. I took another smaller section down and painted the backside and as expected it warped back the other direction but its not completely flat. May have to do something different with this...

As always, Your comments, critique, and feedback are welcome!
Thanks for your interest.

[jwb]

I don't remember if you've said what you're using for the backdrop. I've had no trouble with Masonite hardboard and craft shop acrylics for the sky color and art store acrylics for the details, for whatever that's worth.

[Len Turner]

Thanks for the comments JWB!

The backdrop is foamcore. Used it mainly because it was free...

I took it all down this evening, laid it out flat, dampened the backside and weighted it down flat. We'll see what it looks like in a day or two.

[mountaingoatgreg]

Looks like you are off to a good start!!

keep us posted on your progress and if you are able to resolve the issue with the Formica.

[Len Turner]

Greg, the backdrop is foamcore or foam board. The type with something like cardstock bonded to each side of a foam core. When I worked at the museum, we used this stuff by the case for mounting photos, text boards, etc. Its very light and easy to work with. But, like a lot of wood and wood fiber products, its prone to warping when you get it wet or damp, like painting, especially if you get it damp on one side. The solution is to dampen the opposite side and weight it down flat, which was what I did last night. This morning all the panels were again nice and flat, so they're going back up on the layout.

[jwb]

So Len, I wanna see some action with that Bachmann S-4 in the other thread! Until you customize it, you can claim it's on the T&NO!

[Len Turner]

This week's progress...

Ballasting the yard...

Gave the yard tracks a light coat of Floquil roof brown and a very light dusting of grimy black, then applied Woodland Scenics dark brown (fine) ballast. I put the ballast down on dry track, being careful not to get ballast particles in the flangeways, frogs, or point rails. I then prewet the dry ballast with some alcohol & windshield washer fluid mix, and finally soaked it with a very thin mix of Mod-Podge (matte finish), washer fluid and alcohol.





After everything dried, I vacuumed up any loose particles and scraped any errant specks of ballast off the ties and rail sides. I made sure the flangeways, frogs, and points were all clear of loose particles and cleaned the individual rails. I did have to go back and file a bit more clearance in a couple of guardrail flangeways. I then switched several cars through the yard for an hour or so with no problems other than a spot or two of dirty track.



One note about the Atlas turnouts though: I've had to widen the flangeways on the guardrails on almost every turnout. I checked all of them with an NMRA gauge before I installed them and filed out most of the flangeways then. I had to go back on several of them after I ballasted the track and file them out again.

Wiring...

The wiring plan is relatively simple. Rails to the front of the layout connected to the red wire, rails to the rear of the layout connected to the black. The layout is DCC powered so no power districts, blocks, etc. I also elected not to power the frogs on the yard section. I'm considering using Micro-Engineering track & turnouts on the remainder of the layout, so I may look at powering the frogs when I get to that part. I ran the track power bus wiring (14ga. stranded), soldered the plugs on for connection to the DCC unit and the lift-out sections, and wired up the track drops (18ga. solid). I used inline connectors to connect the track drops to the power bus and twist-on wire nuts in places where I may want to make some changes later. Once again, check for shorts and continuity, and several test runs. Nice to see some locomotives and cars trundling about the yard instead of just sitting around...



Backdrop...

Last week I had some difficulty with the backdrop warping after it was painted. I took it all down during the week, laid it out flat, dampened the backside, weighted it down and let it dry for a couple of days. Sure enough, it all came out nice and flat so its all back up now.

Track Plan...

I've also been working on some changes to the track plan too. On the upper 24" wide section, I'm probably going to eliminate the secondary (lower) thru track section and move the primary (upper) main switching run more to the middle of the section and run all the switching leads off of it.

That's about it for this week. As always,your interest & comments are appreciated!

[mountaingoatgreg]

Len,

You are off to a great start keep us posted on your progress!!

I look forawrd to seeing the new trackplan when you get it all figured out.

[Tyson Rayles]

Good progress Len.

[Len Turner]

Busy week so not much new here. Did set a few cars on the yard tracks for some test switching. Results were OK but some of the couplers need a bit of tweeking. Engine pulled/pushed as many as 10 cars through all the turnouts with no problems, slipped and stalled a bit with 11, but would not pull 12 at all. All the cars have Kadee #158 couplers, Kadee metal wheelsets, and are all about 1/2 oz over NMRA standard.



I have decided to put the track planning on hold for a while and concentrate on some buildings and scenery for the yard.

Thanks to all who have looked & commented! Your comments & feedback are greatly appreciated!

[jwb]

My impression is that the Bachmann S-4 is light, but then, so is the Walthers EMD SW9/1200. On the other hand, 10 cars would be around the upper limit for what a switcher would handle on a home layout, anyhow. Maybe one day Atlas will do the Trainman GP38-2 for A&NR.

That shed looks good -- how about more photos?

[Len Turner]

Thanks jwb! I figured 9 to 10 cars plus a caboose should be about right for what I have to work with. The shed is a Northeastern Scale kit leftover from the sawmill project.

And last but not least...here's one for you from the archives...

[jwb]

I have a couple of undecorated blue box bay window cabooses, and I keep thinking about doing up some A&NR decals for one on my computer -- shouldn't be that hard. Too bad, for that matter, that the A&NR S-4 isn't like the Bachmann or Atlas versions!