The Mogollon Railroad

[Gary S]

Nice work on the throttle, Kevin. I didn't know you were an electronics expert!

[nachoman]

Expert? Hardly. I'm more like an electronics hobbyist - and a novice at that. I can usually look at a circuit and figure out how it mostly works, and can usually make minor modifications to circuits to better suit my needs, but designing complicated circuits from scratch is beyond my abilities.

[doctorwayne]

Nice job on that throttle, Kevin. I bought one directly from Ken (he's only about 15 minutes down the highway from me), but had trouble when I hooked it up to the layout. I took both the main board and the hand-held back to him and both checked out okay. I had wired it into the layout so that I could select either my MRC Controlmaster 20 handheld, MAW Scale throttle, or Intrakit pushbutton throttles (both run off the AC terminals), or the PWM handheld, simply by flipping a couple of dpdt centre-off switches. All worked fine except the PWM, which was absolutely dead. After rechecking my wiring several times and finding nothing wrong, I shifted the input power to the board from the fixed-DC outlets of the CM 20 to the AC outlets (same as the MAW Scale and Intrakit handhelds) and, lo and behold, worked like a charm. It turned out that the brand new dpdt switch used to control the PWM throttle was faulty.

Wayne

[nachoman]

Wayne, I was thinking of building several throttles to plug into the same plug. Not that I intend to run more than one train at once, but so I could experiment around with making different kinds of throttles. I will electrically isolate several sections of the layout so that I can "park" engines on the layout - and that is about as complex as I will get. My layout is small enough that it would be very difficult to ever have more than one simultaneous operator.

[doctorwayne]

That was what my intention was, too. While I may eventually divide my layout into two or, at the most, three blocks, it's meant to be operated solo. Even with multiple blocks, no train should be moving if it doesn't have a designated operator.

Wayne

[nachoman]

For those who questioned my desire to add some blue or turquoise coloring to the rock on my layout, here are two colorful rock samples from Arizona copper mines:

[ocalicreek]

Kevin,

I'm one of those folks who could sit around and stare at rocks all day, especially beauties like the two you shared! Go ahead and add some color to your landscape, I for one won't mind!

Just keep in mind the effects of sun, rain, wind, oxidization, etc. when doing so...

Galen

[nachoman]

With the uncertainty of unemployment, I had curtailed layout building for the past few months. It just made no sense to work on my layout if I was facing a real possibility of relocation. Now that I know I will be working again starting next monday, I found time to relax a little and put some effort into making my layout more presentable. If you want the most "bang for your buck", paint all those blue and pink foam hills, and the plaster and plywood landscape. Even a simple tan latex paint makes things seem a whole lot more completed. So, I painted the blue foam behind my bridge, and built a couple of bridge piers. It's not quite Gary-esque yet, but it's a whole lot better than blue foam.

[faraway]

... Now that I know I will be working again starting next Monday,....

Very good news. Congratulation!

[ocalicreek]

It's good to see you back at work, and back at work on the layout, too! It's beginning to look a little like Malcolm Furlow or John Olson's work...that's a compliment, btw.

Galen

[nachoman]

No shame in drawing comparisons to Furlow and Olsen. Those two sure take a lot of hits from the rivet counters, though . While some of their work seems a little far-fetched for my taste, when it comes to model railroads I tend to favor the spectacular and unlikely over the mundane and realistic. I'm willing to sacrifice a little realism in order to create something eye-catching and interesting. That's not a knock against the modelers who strive for a high-fidelity to the prototype. Actually, that is a recognition that even the strict prototypers often exaggerate things a little (unknowingly) making things more interesting. Face it, if we were to exactly miniaturize the real world, layouts would be a flat table with a straight track, one or two sidings, and only one town. Simple space constraints that require steeper terrain, sharper curves, and closer towns prevent most layouts from being too boring. In my case, the prototypes I am following were on the spectacular side; cramped mining boom towns clinging to the side of a hill. The Morenci Southern Railway had five (!) 360-degree loops over its own track, had some two dozen bridges and trestles, three tunnels, and very steep grades over an 18-mile route. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.co.greenlee.az.us/morencirailroad.aspx">http://www.co.greenlee.az.us/morencirailroad.aspx</a><!-- m --> Given the same space constraints and an already spectacular prototype, that just makes my layout seem even more breathtaking.

[Gary S]

Kevin, great to see you back at the layout. You are always one of the most prolific posters here at Big Blue and I gotta admit that I have been missing the enthusiasm that you so often bring to the forum. So again, I'm glad to glad to see you enjoying your railroad and I'm looking forward to seeing lots more photos of your layout as it progresses.

layouts would be a flat table with a straight track, one or two sidings, and only one town

Oh man... you just described my layout.



I'm really glad that everything is going your way.

[Sumpter250]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.co.greenlee.az.us/morencirailroad.aspx">http://www.co.greenlee.az.us/morencirailroad.aspx</a><!-- m -->

And there it is, the " Prototype Helix ". That is some spectacular country, no "flat earth" there!!!.

[ocalicreek]

Face it, if we were to exactly miniaturize the real world, layouts would be a flat table with a straight track, one or two sidings, and only one town.

Sounds like some Free-mo setups I've seen. I love the Free-mo ops and design concepts, but the execution often comes off looking like just what you describe. BOH-ring! Scenery? Sure, I gotz scenery! Just put some paint down on the flat sheet o' foam and sprinkled a little WS ground foam on there.

Anyway, if you've got a chance to include some spectacular scenery, I say go for it! That's one of the design drawbacks of my current layout, is the ratio of track to scenery is pretty high on the track side. Even so, I hope to still include some interesting features that'll at least be photogenic.

Galen

[nachoman]

A trip to home depot returned a three-dollar piece of hardboard, and now I have a fascia on one end of my layout. Not being
able to see into the tunnels from the side sure improves the overall appearance. I still need to get some more foam landforms in place before I can put a fascia on the other end. I'll probably start working on that after I work on my EOY challenge for awhile.