Introducing The PistonBroke Line

[Russ Bellinis]

If you can reach a problem area by ducking under the benchwork, that is a suitable solution. Hopefully if the track work was done well, you won't have to duck under very often. What becomes difficult is when you have a derailment after all of the scenery is in and it occurs at a point that you can't reach without having to destroy scenery to get to the problem. Ducking and crawling as a part of railroad operation is no fun, but an occasional duck and crawl to rerail a train is probably a necessary evil for most railroad designs if there is any width to the bench at all.

[OBJack]

Hi all, I'm Back :hey:

This episode of "The Pistonbroke Line" may not interest those of us who can't read 'cause I don't have many pictures to show, but never mind we will press on

OK so where were we? Ah yes, we had some foam board down and a revised trackplan printed at a 1:1 ratio from Xtrackcad laid out on the bench.
Now I didn't know how to get the actual track down onto the foamboard ( after overlaying it onto the the printed trackplan which I have just pinned to the foam )
Envisage this.............All I need to do is pin the track on top of the printed plan and everything should be in its place. Right?
YEP!! Did that .......... looks good ............
Now all I needed to do was get the track plan out from under, without moving the flexitrack , so that the rail may be glued to the foamboard.... Whoops.
I tried to pull the plan out from under., but it just pulled the pins out, dislodging the rail which had been painstakingly just put in place.
I tried many variations on a theme and all were about as succesful as each other, which they were NOT. :cry:
I have since been told by a very experienced fellow RR that you use a ponce wheel along the center line of the plan which then transposes lots of little holes onto the board underneath. Simple ... all you have to do is ask.
This is getting right boring, but I don't have any photos of this drama.

So to backtrack a little

I decided to go with code 100 flextrack as it seemed to be more robust and could handle a bit more of the rough stuff that was sure to come its way.
Now the wiring was a different matter. DC or DCC? Now I know nothing about electric circuitry, but I was, (and still am ) fascinated in knowing how to wire up a fairly large layout with block control, in DC.
I think I liked the complexities of wiring up, say, an automatic route control circuit for yard control. or the wiring needed for Ys and turntables and reverse loops and multiple cabs and the like,
But reality soon hit home and I realised that if I wanted a RR running before next century I had better shelve plans to teach myself layout wiring 101. and go DCC and have most of that done for me. And maybe with Digital I might be able to foray into computer control. True!!
I am still very intrigued as to how DC layouts are wired, and I know that the only way for me to learn, is to do it. So maybe something for the future.

So DCC it was.............and we purchsed a lenz 100 system.

and so for all of us who only read the pictures

and the whole family of a 16volt 5 amp transformer, and the Lenz Brains and cab

I decided to go with electrofrog turnouts for a couple of reasons
one is that they looked a bit more real
two is that a train will usually cause a short and stop, and not derail by entering a turnout if it is thrown the wrong way
and I understand that some modifications can be carried out to enhance the electrical connections thru the closure rails, I know its early days yet but I have not had any trouble so far
And to keep with the

KISS

principle I gaped both rails at the frog ends of the turnouts and dropped feeder wires from every block of rail to a main bus wire and learned how to solder without melting lots of rail ties (well nearly )

For what it's worth here is some wire

So I thought I had a layout that would run a train with DCC

Here are early photos of some of the track laid down

and

Crickey I must be ahead of myself I see some sky in the background.

but we had a minor problem .....

NO TRAIN

Well we did have a little shunter you can see it in the last picture if you really are taking notice, but it had no decoder so that was one of the next challenges for this intrepid Railroader.

And Finally if you are still with me here is the poor little shunter who is going to be my first decoder patient

Anyway enough of the talk, back to reality, have to go and find the War Office and see if she will sponser another Loco for the Pistonbroke Line.

Cheers
See you all next time
Jack............... (of all trades master of None )

[Herc Driver]

WOW!!! That's some work! What a great use of space in a room...under the stairs...out of the way yet visible and accessable. That's a really great start to a great plan. Plus...you picked up a new skill set...floor polishing. (I'm amazed how much dust that generated.)

[OBJack]

Hi All,
Jack's Back, Gather 'round , It's time for show and tell again.

Thanks Herc Driver, the space thing was all I could get from the "War Office", as we don't have basements over here it had to be somewhere that was underutilized but still accessible, and I guess the size it is, anywhere else would have been a problem and caused world war 3.


So where were we going with this thing? hock:
We have got bits of track going around on top of a bit of foam on a bit of real-estate we probably couldn't afford, and a train that sort of operated on those tracks.
Now The War Office shes telling me... "Its gotta be more than this Jack,for the mess your making here The Anklebiters need a bit more 'Bang for their Buck.' And so do I " :hey: At least that's what I think She said.
I don't always listen to all she says.

Don't get me wrong,
I had a lot of fun melting the sleepers while soldering the feeder wires (which was wire we had used for the auto retic of the garden ) to the rails .......

...... and soldering my eyebrows and the feeder wire to the bus wire ...Which was left over electrical wire we had used for wiring up our house ......... don't ask what gauge that is, but it conducts electricity.
Yep got every bit of left over stuff you will ever need .....you never know when etc..

Here is 'The War Office' Ultimatum

1: We needed to give our little baby a heart transplant to run on DCC
2: I needed to attend classes ...Namely Scenery making 101 :geek:
3: We needed to jazz up the surrounds a bit... Like scenery and stuff
So after getting permission from the Fat Controller .....ie the bank manager... we went and purchased a $35 Digitrax DZ143 decoder even tho it had all the wires to run lights we only needed the 4 which would enable the engine to take digital commands from our cab

Here She is undressed with her new heart

Just had to be careful to isolate the body from the motor, which was transferring the electrical current to the two motor bushes in her old DC days, And this actually required some surgery to cut a bit of the two halves away and put insulation tape in there to stop it shorting. A job for Jack ........ Hammer.
Then attach the Black and red wires to either side for the pickup, and the grey and orange wires to either side of the motor.

Yes I was about as dainty as an old elephant. But it was a fairly simple op and DCC is all standardised so the wire colours don't change for what they do no matter who makes them. The only problem sometimes is finding a place to put the decoder under the Body Shell. This was a Z or N scale decoder as well so was reasonably small and it was able to slot into the drivers cab with him. -<

So all back together and we have an operating RR

That's No. 1 Ticked off the list
Now No. 2 lets just skip that one... Well I did read a few books.......... looked at the pictures anyway. Don't tell you know who.
So No. 3 some scenery ...............I'm well equipped to paint some sky by now

Its only some blue bits with some white bits isn't it?

SO... a blank canvas

A dab of paint

A bit more

And it finally ended up like this

It wasn't flash but if you stand back a bit at 1 o'clock in the morning after a few drinks... it was passable
So we did another 3 Masterpieces. and put them behind the bench for a backdrop
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the first thing Jack did then, was to cover the sky in cliffs.
The sky wasn't that good guys. :oops:

Here is a cliff hanger from Go to Whoa

Some paint

Then some greenery and water

Then a train

Early days yet..........
....I have added a bit more green stuff, trees and ground cover since, and will plant more next time it rains.

I know it is not up to the standard of you folks here, but it is all new to me, and I am enjoying the challenge and the experience of this new hobby immensely.

Wakey Wakey Folks, It's all over. Hope some of you can call back next week.
Now I'm Talking to much, Bye for now

Jack

Rabbit

[Tom]

Wow! You sure you are new to all of this? Pretty good for a first time!

[sgtcarl1]

[Ralph]

Looking good! I'm enjoying the step by step updates.

Ralph

[cnw1961]

Looking good! I'm enjoying the step by step updates.

Ralph

So am I. I am really curious where this will lead to . So keep it coming .

[OBJack]

Hi Folks, 8-)
Its time to take 5 minutes out of your busy lives, sit down, point the finger and laugh at Jacks attempt to build "The Pistonbroke Line" into an operating masterpiece.

Now I think we had a few cliffs on the make last time I was here, and the sky was the limit as far as the painting went. (Gee I reckon that dude looks a bit like me when I'm painting.)
But I digress

The line took a steady climb up this side of the layout alongside the cliffs

Then around the back corner and along the far wall

Until it came to a boxed in section of the wall where the electricity ran and the fuse box is located which we had to go around then back to the wall

Here 'Tis. Here, is also meant to be a bit of a ravine in the grand plan

I thought about going through that box section and making it appear as a tunnel.
A couple of minor things stopped me................
# 1 "The War Office" telling me I couldnt blast a hole in her wall.
# 2 And the smell of burning flesh if some of those wires inside the boxed section happened to get nasty with me.
So Jack had to find a way to get around and not through this obstacle. More on that later.
I will concentrate on this back corner for a while even 'tho it is out of sequence a bit.

After putting the risers down, I covered them with plaster cloth

and then gave that a liberal splashing of sculpturemoldy stuff

Great fun and hugely messy 'cause I've never done it before, and, I was reaching a bit to far to execute the job in hand with my usual aplomb and flair,........ And if you believe that then then I indeed have you under a spell. :oops:
Trouble is the reaching really got bad when I had to fill in that back corner we have just come around.

After the"Sculpture stuff" was dry I tried my hand at painting again.

Maybe a mountain or two

And

Then a bit of green stuff on the embankment and a few trees planted along the back

And

sorry about the blur...... That cameraman is no longer employed here.

and

So we had traversed up a bit of a rise and come to the bridge at the fuse box.

Here are the only photos I have of how I intend to get around this problem

And

Obviously the cleaner was also let go. :oops:

I cut some foam board and made the bridge supports. They 'aint flash but they are doing the job for now.
I spray painted them with an enamel based paint from a spray can, which melted the foam to give the concrete sort of appearance. :mrgreen:

Then around the other side of the bridge the line descends down to sea level again to what one day maybe the port

And Are we there yet?

Yep I think so

Ok. So we have a completed Line going around the outside, and the trains up and running.
A bit of paint slapped on the backboard to give a fleeting glimpse of what we may be passing thru. ( my painting dude again)
And next Time I will try to find some photos my attempt at filling in under the stairs up in that top left back corner we have just passed.

So till we meet again
So long from
Jack and the 'War Office"


Silly girl

[Tom]

Wow! It's looking GREAT.

How do you like those Peco switches?

[jglfan]

Wow, that one photo with nearly complete scenery shows that you are going to have a very nicely scenicked layout. Very nice work. I also love the layout room, the first photos showing all the glass and the gardens outside make for a great setting, so much nicer than my basement!

Gary

[LynnB]

Your layout is looking nice and busy. You did a swell job on the rock work and backdrop. Did the chassis fit ok over that decoder install?

[Trucklover]

Beautiful work Jack!!! I really like the cliffs and the tracks that run up there. And the bridge to get around that pole is sweet too!! Awesome work

Im really enjoying this thread

[Dan85]

Awesome Work!!

Landscaping looks really good, as do the backdrops! I really like the curved bridge too - adds an interesting touch! Also, those are some really neat stairs too!

- Dan

[OBJack]

Hello All,
Thanks for the unbiased comments that the Pistonbroke Line has received this last week, it is truly encouraging for the founders.

Tom, I have not had a problem as yet with the peco switches, and they are the only switches I have had any experience with with so I cannot compare anything else. I have modified them as per Allan Gartners method for DCC running on those I have put tortoise motors under.

Gary, I only wish I had a basement as big as some of you guys to fill with trains. ... You have no idea of the negotiations that took place to secure my little piece of realestate from the "War Office",

And Lynn, the Shell went back over the decoder and she is still running, so something was done nearly right.

OK ... back to the trains,

So we were going to fill in this back corner

Yep there was a big gap where the backboards didn't meet so a filler was cut and welded in there, rather crudely as it turned out, ...but hey the hammer and nails man is nowhere to be seen when you need him.
Maybe a bit of scenery up there will hide the join a bit ,

But first lets see if a hill is a good idea

Then a bit of plastercloth

Don't really know what I will do here but first we will see if

Some paint and coloured plaster help at all

Maybe an I thought Jack let that photographer go last week, but seems like he's still here.

Still we pressed on

and joined the cliffs up to the rise we had going

It was still not happening for me but decided to continue, to see where we end up. Notice all that stuff in the foreground which was built first. ( but I seem to have overlooked,.......... maybe next post) It was making it very difficult to plan that background scene. yep that looks like Jack again, being a Smart and daintily precise modeler. ........
....Oh, so that's why you dont model the easy bits in the front first............... 'cause you keep knocking it all over. Hellllp.

Next Jack put some N scale houses up there to see if it would fade the scene into the background

"You definitely need more paint" says the War Office

"I know it Still looks ordinary", says I " I was just about to do that" and as for the War Office.. Ive told her many a time,
"Women and Chooks should never see a project half finished"
So out with the paint box and a few deft? strokes with the brush..

to try and hide a bit more of the obvious

And

And

a few more mountains in the background some trees

and

A few trees

maybe from a distance now it is looking better

NOT REALLY

But I reckon the idea will stay. and I'm sure the "War office " will help me plant more trees, shrubs, grass etc up there in time to come.
'cause shes got green fingers .......come to think of it..........

OK people, I think all have gone to bed in this household now, so after all the encouragement Jack got last week, and while its all quite I think I will sneak off to the Train room, and blast that hole thru the fuse box.

Goodnight.

Gelignite Jack