Seaboard Central 2.0

[CodyO]

more expansions!
You better hurry and claim as more land as possible before the misses finds out!

[Bsklarski]

Just build it, it is much harder to make you tear it down once you build it 

[davefoxx]

Commandeering space in the layout room isn't an issue between my wife and me.  When we bought our home a few years ago, this space was dedicated to be my train room.  Whatever I take over on this side of the passage door shouldn't become an issue.  Understandably, how much I spend on the hobby is a diifferent matter.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Cork roadbed is down.



I found that MBK not only has Atlas Code 55 turnouts, but they also have ME flex.  That will be fine for this staging loop. They also have the Digitrax AR1 auto reverser that I obviously need.  This will be the first reverse loop that I have ever built, but the AR1 should make it simple and automatic.  An order will be placed today.

DFF

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looking good.
(You sure it's long enough for the trains you're running?  )

For what it's worth, I (and others I respect) have found the Digitrax AR-1 to be not very reliable, as it becomes twitchy and craps out (& in, & out).
We've found the DCC Specialties PSX-AR (available at Tony's Train Exchange: http://www.tonystrains.com/products/dccspecialties.htm) to work flawlessly and well worth the price.
Very easy to adjust sensitivity, and you can hook up to Tortoise to automate point throwing (not that you need that option for your layout).

Anyway, exciting to see the layout expand in awesome directions.
Cheers!

[CodyO]

I never used the AR1 but I have used the digitrax PM42 to set up blocks and reversing sections
No problems with it to report

[davefoxx]

M.C.,

It's definitely long enough for the Southern Ry. local, which can only have five or six cars before it overloads the stub siding in Aberdeen.  The loop essentially allows the Southern train to run out-and-back, avoiding push/pull into Aberdeen.  No other roads' (SBD or A&R) will use this return loop.  It's the Southern Ry. interchange.

I'm really liking the flexibility that I should get with this loop.  I wish I had some track, so I could install it.  I'm also now out of cork roadbed.  I guess I estimated the track and cork roadbed for the SBD expansion pretty well, huh?.  Well, when I restock, I'm now seriously considering building a two-track return loop on the shelf on the other side of the water heater for the A&R.  That will represent the far end of the line in Fayetteville.

Thanks for the heads-up on the PSX-AR and the PM42, guys.  I'll look into them, too.

DFF

P.S. By the way, I call it the Southern Ry. interchange, but in the years that I model (1983-86), the Norfolk Southern merger has already occurred.  But, even more importantly, the Southern Ry. sold this line several years before, and it was owned by the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Ry.  One of these days, I'll try to paint up a A&BP loco, but, until then, I really like my Southern Ry. high hood B23-7.  So, for now, I refer to it as the Southern interchange.

[davefoxx]

Well, I should be dropping feeders today, since I'm unable to progress any further on the Southern Ry. interchange project.  But, a pleasant diversion is always running trains.  Here's a coal drag rolling southbound through Hamlet, North Carolina this afternoon.  Typical of the pre-CSX roads in the mid-1980s, a run-through Chessie System (C&O) caboose brings up the rear.  Much to Lee's chagrin I'm sure, it couples just fine with Laurel Valley rolling stock.   

DFF

[John]

Of course, you could wire this up the old fashioned way .. with a toggle switch .. saves about 30 bucks ... high tech is overkill sometimes


http://www.waynes-trains.com/site/dcc/DCC%20Basics%20PT4.pdf

[GimpLizard]

Instead, this afternoon, I retired the cassette and built new benchwork, so that the Southern Ry.'s staging track can have a return loop that will allow a train to turn, thereby eliminating the existing push/pull ops into Aberdeen. 

I'm really liking how this whole project is coming together. Excellent work, Dave. One though, however... how about filling in that sliver between the new extension and where the road ends on the main part of the layout? Then continue the road into the new portion.

[Chris333]

I was thinking something more like this:


 
 
 

[davefoxx]

                                                                                                     

I was thinking something more like this:

[conrail98]

Convert that workbench to a pull out one and you'd be set. I have pics of one from one of the layouts around here I'll have to find,

Phil

[davefoxx]

I'm really liking how this whole project is coming together. Excellent work, Dave. One though, however... how about filling in that sliver between the new extension and where the road ends on the main part of the layout? Then continue the road into the new portion.

Thanks!  I considered that but ultimately decided to go with pure staging only.  Besides, I don't want it to feel like there's a return loop in Aberdeen.  I'm either going to go with simplified scenery to represent a distant point away from Aberdeen or go the ol' Carolina Central trick of painting the whole thing black as if the train out there is off-stage.

DFF

EDIT: I've thought about it more, and I'm thinking maybe I'll go with some sort of bluff to disguise the loop.  I've got plenty of foam scraps lying around to build a hill in the middle of that loop.  I should research what is up the old Southern Railway Line to Star, North Carolina and see if there's anything that I can use to disguise the loop.

[davefoxx]

Convert that workbench to a pull out one and you'd be set. I have pics of one from one of the layouts around here I'll have to find,

Phil

Heh, we bought the house and that workbench came included.  The previous owners blessed us with a couple of things in the house that they couldn't or didn't want to move, e.g., that shelf where everyone wants me to expand the A&R beyond the water heater.  In the previous homeowners' defense, they had to move to Arizona for employment reasons with very little notice, so we didn't make a big deal out of it.  Anyway, that workbench is big, heavy, and isn't going anywhere without a sledge hammer.

DFF