Charlie b's layout

[Gary S]

Charlie B!!!!

What's been going on with the layout? Any progress?

[Charlie B]

Not much progress, been doing some massive yard work, and had to mix a half a yard of concrete the hard way, in a wheel barrow.
I have snuck in just to do some tinkering, but not enough to talk about. here is a little picture of what I've been up to besides the trains. This is the other side of the house.
There was an old foundation that we filled in and I cut the old cement porch so we could salvage most of the walkway because we had to remove the cement that was over the old cellarways so we could fill there. We now have a patio that is 15X15 with a 15X5 foot walk way to the center of the yard. Then I had to screen and spread 10 tons of top soil, and still need about 3 more tons.
Charlie

[Charlie B]

Here are some pictures of the over-all layout. Cluttered but able to play with the trains. It's amazing how they can run for a long time, then suddenly you find the bad spots.
Charlie

[doctorwayne]

You've really made great progress, Charlie. I certainly hope that one of those "bad spots" wasn't on that trestle - looks like a long drop.

Wayne

[nachoman]

That's definitely the layout of someone who likes to watch trains run! I hope you don't have too many bad spots - because that could interfere with the HIGHBALL!

[OBJack]

Wowzers Charlie, that is very impressive my man. Certainly a great photo of the trestle and chasm, and those long straight drags have great photo potential for some massive ore trains.
Exciting times ahead..(as soon as you finish your little outside chores of course. )

[faraway]

You want to run trains, right? Switching is second priority.
A well understood preference with that amount of space available.

[Charlie B]

You want to run trains, right? Switching is second priority.
A well understood preference with that amount of space available.

There are 2 branch lines that will handle most of the switching for commercial purposes. other switching will be adding and removing helpers to the heavy trains and running scheduled hot shots around regular mixed freights.
Once I get the trains running flawlessly and the track ballasted I will spend more time on the scenery then I will running trains.
Charlie

[Charlie B]

Hello Blue, I have about 95% of the track down and what is there is derailment free. It needs to be ballasted of course, that is when I get it as straight as possible. Even got a coat of paint on the backdrops. I've been repairing some locomotives to break the work a little.
I still have about 30 boxes to unpack before I can lay out all the scenery. I have other work to do around the house too, but I think it is coming along fine.
Charlie

[doctorwayne]

....I think it is coming along fine.

I'll say! Can't wait to see it in person.

Wayne

[ak-milw]

Charlie,
That is the way to fill an empty room!!


8-)

[Ralph]

Charlie, your scenic dividers really create a sense of distance and different locations on your layout! Its gonna be a blast to operate!
Ralph

[Charlie B]

Charlie, your scenic dividers really create a sense of distance and different locations on your layout! Its gonna be a blast to operate!
Ralph

Yes, Ralph, already I'm doing too much running, and not enough modeling. I hope that is because I have only been running the 12"/1' for so long.
Now I have some sidings to switch I'm using the excuse of "fixing the switches" to run trains. I have about 60 Atlas Mark III switches that I am going to temporarily use and I am finding out that with a little patience I can actually make them work quite well. I do have to modify some of the guard rails, which are about a scale 5 in gap from the stock rails, which is about 3 inches too wide, but with some point filing, and point protectors I'm learning a lot. I'm putting a lot of my prototype experience to work too.
I even found out that if you use a telephoto lens on model track you can get the appearance of really lousy branch line track .
Charlie

[Charlie B]

Well, one of my friends in Michigan suggested I do some overhead shots so he could understand the layout a little better, and he sure is right so I thought I should post some here.
I wired two extention plugs for the DCC cabs today, and I have 2 more 2 do. I'm building my own with CAT5e recepticles. I have a powered one on order that will boost the signal a little more for when I have more cabs running at the same time.
Charlie

[Steamtrains]

WoW..!!! How many feet of track do you have there..?? You're gonna need a whole stable-full of locos to do continuous running..!!