AC&Y - Litchfield to Spencer OH

[SAH]

Wacky indeed!  I may have missed this, but how does the cassette dock to the layout? Do you have to hold it in place?

Cheers,
Gary

LOL.  Wacky but not crazy.  No you've not missed it.  I don't have the current supports built yet but in its prior version I used simple brackets and added jackscrews to allow horizontal and vertical adjustment.  Once I set the screws I was good for an evening of running trains.  The layout was in an unconditioned attic and it "moved" with the seasons a fair bit.  A ground buss, as in the kind of thing you find in an electrical panel, provided parts for a nicely machined, inexpensive jackscrew-like gizmo.  It was way over-engineered but worked very well.  I'll do something similar this time but will eliminate the adjustments that turned out not to be necessary.  The layout space is conditioned too, which will help a great deal.

Steve H

[SAH]

Made lots of progress this weekend.  All the track is down around Spencer Forge except for the house track and ACY main due to a missing Atlas RH curve turnout.


So I scanned, flipped and printed a LH version and am building one from the scraps of my first attempt at this kind of thing at the east end of Spencer.  I think I'll do better this time.


The level is resting on " and points West" staging.  The staging section is 6' long.  Prior to the staging section is a section for the staging throat.  The light beneath all the tools and junk will illuminate Brittain Yard (Akron).  At 36" above the floor, Brittain will be a desk job, literally.  Or at least a "sit down" job.  This design keeps the yardmaster out of the operating flow on the other side of the "wall" (the other side of the yard backdrop).


Here's the lighting valences in the maintenance position.  I sure do like being able to get the valence out of the way above the deep sections.


Steve H

[Specter3]

Steve

Wonderful looking layout you have there. You mention NC. I live in Charlotte. Nice to see more N going up around here.

Ryan

[SAH]

Thanks Ryan.  We're fortunate to have a number of good running operating layouts in central NC - between Charlotte and Raleigh.  And many of them are N scale.  I live in Greensboro.  You're working in N too?

I've finally accomplished enough tasks with some visual interest over the last few months to get another update out.  Maybe this weekend.

Steve

[SAH]

I haven't been completely idle in the last three months.  Not much in the way of post-worthy material though.  Wiring, benchwork and stuff.
Here's a view of the west end of Spencer with track down and lighting installed.  At the right side of the photo you can see a test installation of the next level down.



The long view with a better view of the second level.  There is an 8" separation between track level and the bottom edge of the next level's fascia.  I think it will work fine.  Some of the guys from the central NC ops group stopped by on Saturday to give it a once over.  No real concerns voiced, which is good news. 

[SAH]

Now for an update from the wacky ideas department.     Here's a shot of the installation east of Litchfield to the staging cassette.


A short WB has backed onto the cassette.  I've not added the foam on underside of the lid yet.  The foam (open cell weatherstripping) keeps the train in place during cassette transfer to the next level.  At this point there is no second level so the cassette will serve as a one track staging yard.


Details of the cassette docking end.  The leveling device is an electrical panel grounding bar.  Nicely machine for the purpose.  Cheap too.  The metal thingee keeps a slight mount of pressure on the cassette to keep in in place.  It's serves as a leaf spring and comes with poster frames, used to press the posted against the glass.  Even cheaper than the ground bar.  The other end of the cassette is supported by a shelf bracket with a wood stop added as a guide.

[SAH]

I went harvesting N scale lumber this morning.  I have no idea what kind of weeds these are but I spied them alongside the NS Greensboro, NC to Danville, VA main on my drive to work.  (Weedicus Tracksideicus?)  NS nicely prepped them for me (weed killer).  A good starting point for some nice looking trees.  And did I mention that they're cheap?       Steve

[MichaelWinicki]

Those weeds do have a nice structure to them.

I have problems with many of the weeds that are used as tree armatures because the structure is more of an up-side tree, with the thick part at the top.  These have a tree-shape to them.

[SAH]

The staging yard is in place and operational.  Here's a long view with the work lights illuminating the yard.  Only 6' long, despite what the camera would lead you to believe.


Here's a view under ops lighting conditions.  The shadowbox effect of the layout should draw attention away from the staging yard.  That's the intent anyway.


The test train backing out of the offstage shadows.


And here's what we live for.  Just imagine a pair of NKP 6-axle units pushing a 700 series ex-Wheeling caboose and a cut of cars to the AC&Y interchange.  And while you're at it, envision the scenery done and the buildings finished and . . . . . oh well, in due time.  Now to get enough locos and cars up to snuff for a test ops session.                         Steve

[SAH]

Geez.  Last post in October.  It has been awhile.  The freight car project took all the RR time and then the Holidays came and went.  Anyway I got the itch to do some scenery so decided yesterday morning to refresh and rebuild some of the Spencer module.



Here's the flat on view.  Nothing special about the scenery technique except maybe most of the trees are weeds and dried flower arranging stock. 



You may notice a difference in the trackside ground cover nearer the camera.  I FINALLY got around to building my static grass applicator and must admit it was the reason for digging into a scenery session.  I'm still playing with technique but I think some good will come of it as I get more practice.



Here's the tool.  JusTrainCrazy (Kevin Beck) put me onto the right angle design which makes application between decks very easy.  I made mine a top loader.  Dump the flock in the top of the tee.  Turn it over to dump it out and change colors or lengths.  Quick and easy.  I like it.  The button is a momentary contact type.  Let go and the power to the grid turns off. 



That's it for now.  Maybe it won't be another three months until the next post.  Then again . . . . . 
Steve

[SAH]

I found some unexpected free time on Saturday and pressed on with some scenery experiments.
I thought I'd try a dead patch of trees by the r.o.w.  The first attempt looks too much like Spring.  I did not paint the SuperTree foliage.  The light green and greenish pink says early Spring to me.


So I spray bombed it with gray primer and khaki (rustoleum camo colors).  No longer Spring but might not be late summer either.  In the context of what follows, what do you guys think?


Here a view of the S-curve after this weekends session.  It's starting to come together.


And on around the curve headed toward the Black River crossing.  I think I'll ballast next, up to the turnouts anyway.  I still have to fix the crappy frog on the one I scratchbuilt. 

Steve

[DKS]

Steve, I think it works well after the color adjustment. One suggestion, though, instead of one big dead clump, how about a few smaller dead clumps, so it doesn't sit there screaming, look! I'm dead!

[SAH]

Thanks David.  I didn't start out to make a dead forest zone.  Kind of got carried away.   
There are a few other dead trees in the line up.  To your point:  They don't jump out at you.
I think I'll live with it for awhile and see if it bugs me.  Had I left the funky colors I think it would. 
And being scenery, It's easy to change it out.

[nscalemike]

I like it a lot!  Maybe a touch too much in one group, but I've certainly seen it like that before (could have been caused by a spill or something) and I think its a nice contrast. 

Mike

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like the dead trees. I've seen that often in real life too, and it's barely ever modeled.