01-03-2009, 01:38 PM
Here's the final lower plan. All in all the track work was pretty good. I'd give myself about a B-. I still have some cleaning up to do on the inside of the rails and fiddling with the turnouts a little, and maybe add another feeder or two. I spent the better part of yesterday soldering turnout wires until I went to Lowe's and discovered butt splices. I don't know how reliable they are, but they saved me hours. There's 11 turnouts on this little layout. I am too hard on equipment to use ground throws. I thought rail joiners were a pain in HO, man were they no fun to work with in N. I ran across some of my HO track this weekend. It looks like O after working with N. I got my bridge for the upper part this weekend. It of course comes in a kit that I'm not in the mood to start yet and it may not have all I need for it. Stupid kits. I wasn't sure how well the helix would work, but I was pleasantly suprised with this. I've never done one. It is pretty stout considering the design. I will probably regret not painting the wood. The grade on it is 2% max and my little engine can only pull about 4 cars up it, which is the reason for the yard. I don't know much about operations, so I created some. I had two goals: turn trains without lifting them or backing into a wye, and to gain elevation to use a bridge. To create operations, I made a little yard to hold cars while the engine took a few at a time up and around the loop that is elevated after the helix. If I ever get finished with this side of the wall, the other side of the wall gives me 12 feet of space to make a more realistic operation line with space for the town of Waynesburg, and a river load out. It will probably be quite a while until I update this again as I have to build this bridge and paint our unborn child's room, among other things like getting very busy at work and reading baby books. Comments are welcome. Thanks.
"You did NOT cut a hole in the wall for the train, did you?" - the wife
The Waynesburg Southern
Blue Mountain Aerial Mapping
The Waynesburg Southern
Blue Mountain Aerial Mapping