HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

Have a great day celebrating the anniversary of American Independence! I'm about to go to a parade but I've been watching a great series about the American Revolution on the History Channel this morning.

Ralph

Howdy Gang!

This will be the construction thread for the small layout I'll build in the interim between moving in and being settled (at which point I'll build the layout as planned here - <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1290">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1290</a><!-- l --> )

I got tired of calling the smaller layout the Four-by-Six all the time so I made a passing comment to Loren (Nomad) that it needed a name. His creative brain churned out the name Ivy. You Roman numeral fans may be able to figure out where it came from. I added the 'West' since ridge or hill or creek, etc. just didn't sound quite right to my ears.

Basically it's a 4'x6', HO scale, standard gauge 'display layout' (read: continuous loop). There are no real operations to speak of, only a passing track that serves a more scenic function by offering a place to display equipment or keep a second train handy so I don't spend so much time taking equipment on and off the layout. There's also one siding located off the passing track which again, I suppose could be switched but really is there as a scenic feature, just for the diorama attached to the siding.

Last weekend I managed to build a set of rolling legs to fit under the layout base and this week I've been taking stock of what materials I've already got. I had, at one time, imagined I might use Bachmann EZ track (steel rail) but testing revealed the need to clean the black crud off the rails often, whether dry or 'wet' (light oil on rail, a la Wahl Clipper oil). Since that time I have stripped the code 100 NS rail off some old TruScale roadbed and plan to use it. I have a few wooden ties as well as a few #6 turnouts (also TruScale).

Along with the lumber for framing the legs I purchased a 4x8 sheet of pressed fiber board (celotex) for roadbed. Homasote is tough to come by up here and this was available readily. Construction adhesive will hold this to the foam base, and yellow carpenter's glue will hold the ties to the pressboard. Rail will be spiked by hand. Turnouts may be relaid from the TruScale solid base onto turnout ties on the layout - at least the hard work of building the turnout rail is done.

More to come - Photos will follow soon!

Galen

For any who are not aware of it, the July issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine is now available for download. The issue includes an article by JBakko from the Gauge on using Sergents couplers. One point mentioned in the article concerns the fact that while the Sergents will couple to Kaddees, the limited coupler swing available can cause cars to derail going through curves. Have any of the modelers here who use Sergents couplers done any experiments to see what sort of minimum curve radius is needed for the Sergents to work with Kaddees. I'm thinking in terms of relatively short freight cars (60 feet or less) not passenger cars or long freight cars. On the home layout I'm planning, I expect to use 100% Sergents couplers, but on the modular club layout our standard couplers are Kaddee #5's. If I were to run the Sergents on the club layout at a show during an operating session (as opposed to "Christmas tree" running) I would probably have the need to couple 2 cars together where one car had the Kaddees and the other had the Sergents. Our module standards call for a 36" minimum radius.

On right now!
National Geographic Channel(Direct TV Ch.276)
Diesel Locomotives...Scrapping an SD40-2

Hi All,

After hardwiring to DCC my latest loco Kato RS2 in Chicago Great Western paint and fitting Kaddes i was looking forward to adding the irons and rails, after detaching a front iron from the carrier sprue it seems they are too short to fit around the front body of the loco and holding them in tweezers i'm not happy at the thought of the carpet monster eating them should they deided to launch off into space.
How do these fit better and have any of you guys fitted them successfully, or are there better iron kits out there for it ?




Here is a good shot of the grab irons and how they fit around the front of the loco.

Well. Ive been thinking a bit about the layout, and havent touched it in months. I got an idea last night though. Im kinda at a roadblock scenery wise, and although I like my layout and have a lot put into it, the more I think about it, its not much more than a big circle, and when done probably wont leave much operating intrest, I have a very tight corner that all my 6 axle diesels have issues with, and other things as well. Id love a littel extra space in the basement as well. I dont want to be done or anything, but Im thinking of scrapping the layout and rebuilding something different. Something smaller, and more operational intreset. When I eventually move out I have MUCH bigger plans for a massive shelf style DMIR layout.

Ive been scouring around some trackplans, and the redrock northern comes to mind. Ive always likes this, and although it wouldnt be much along the lines of anything DMIR related, I could try and incorperate some DMIR to it, or just build it pretty similarly, since it looks pretty fun to operate.

What do you guys think of this layout?
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=1235">http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=1235</a><!-- m -->

Lastly, anybody ever find a good way to keep balast since I have alot of that layed and dont want to toss it all out?

to all the "Canadian content" at Big Blue!

Andrew