Seaboard Central 2.0

[nscalemike]

I am also using these Radio Shack slide switches for industry turnout control.  I would recommend a careful application of glue around them, either for the install or nearby scenery.  I've had to replace more than one because the glue entered the switch and locked it in a set position and each time I broke it free something inside the switch broke and no longer passed the current through as it should.  It may not be a problem if you don't wire them, but I am wiring all of mine and thats how I found it, a short on one throw that wasn't there before.  I am currently debating between a micro brush with full strength glue and a careful ballast job or maybe forming some modeling putty around it and working a layer of ballast into the putty before it dries.  That being said, I have half of my turnouts controlled by these now (10-15 maybe) and they seem to work flawlessly!

By the way Dave,  Great progress on the layout, shaping up very nice!

Mike

[davefoxx]

I bought some new slide switches and was working on installing a few turnout controls this afternoon when some ideas on how to expand the layout hit me hard enough that I decided that I better document them before forgetting them:

Current:


Planned:


This would be accomplished by a 36" door attached to the original HCD perpendicularly at upper right but offset 12".  I would have to fill in the 12" x 36" space at the end of the original door to do this (not expected to be difficult).

Now, this will require two tweaks to the existing track plan.  First, the crossover in Aberdeen from the SBD main to Yard Track #1 would be changed from #5 left turnouts to #5 rights, and the yard tracks would be extended 12".  This would allow even more freight car capacity, and the layout's maximum train length may increase by a car or so as far as runarounds go.  The second revision fixes a significant flaw.  Look where the SBD track crosses the lake.  Now, the passing siding ends just to the right of the bridge very unprototypically.  The new version would extend this passing siding, and the tracks might possibly remain a double track all of the way out and around to the new staging yard at right.

Please note that I have not planned the trackage on the new section, so it's obviously incomplete.  I plan to connect the two ends of the new SBD trackage with a double ended yard.  This will create a much larger loop for the SBD trains and demote the original loop.  The A&R extension will be a three-track double-ended yard that will be 2" above the SBD tracks and allow out and back operation from Aberdeen.  I haven't decided how to scenic this area.  I would really like the focus of extension to be the A&R (probably Fayetteville, North Carolina), but that huge SBD staging yard will be difficult to camouflage (I want to minimize hidden track).

The big problem?  It will be a challenge to fit this in the layout room without cramping access on at least one side.  Ah, the disadvantage of island-style layouts.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I'm home sick today, so I thought I would take the opportunity to update my snail-like progress.  There's not a ton of new things to see on the layout, because a lot of my minimal hobby time has been spent doings things like messing around with JMRI and learning how to use my cell phone as a Withrottle.  I've also taken the opportunity to rebuild a broken B23-7 into a B30-7 (the fuel tank has since been painted):



To combine shipping when I bought the B30-7 parts, I also obtained some new trucks to put an SCL SD35 back on the rails.  I've also been working on trying to get a pair of SD50s to run better, but the fruits of that effort remain to be seen.  However, some parts are on order, and I haven't given up yet.  And, as you may have seen over on Weekend Update, I relettered a Walthers 10-6 sleeper from PRR to SCL:


As for the layout, here's where it stands at present.  I've got most of the scenery forms to their final shape and have begun applying a base coat of foliage (which I ran out of - grr!).  I roughed in the street through Aberdeen, made from tinted joint compound over cork roadbed.  I need to finish smoothing the road surface before painting.  To differentiate the two railroads that the road crosses, I made one crossing out of wood timbers and the other is paved over.  You can also see the building shells that I used to help define the parameters of the street.  I like the structure that is two stories in the front and three stories in the back to fit into the hillside.  Except for remaining in only a primer coat, the highway bridge is practically finished and just needs the top coat of a concrete color and weathering.  I like how the bridge came out, despite the extra work to skew the basic kit parts.  But, hey, that makes it unique:





Thanks for tuning in,
Dave

[wm3798]

That is a dead sexy layout, Dave.  I'm pondering the track plan for my own little potential HCD... 
Lee

[davefoxx]

You're much too kind, Lee, but thank you!  I really like this plan, which has three railroads on one HCD in my version.  It also has room for expansion in four different directions.  Tacking on a staging yard or two, as I did on the Virginia Central, will add significantly to ops potential.

By the way, we HCD boys have been waiting to assimilate you into our group.  I look forward to seeing what you can do on a door.

DFF

[Chris333]

I'm diggin' the overall shots 

[MichaelWinicki]

Very nice Dave!

Coming along very well.

[VonRyan]

Dave, reading over your progress prompted me to get back down into my basement and actually do more stuff on my old HCD layout.
And by "do stuff" I mean finally tear it all off and get ready for the new one.

Thanks for the influence that just so happened to turn into motivation!


-Cody F.

[davefoxx]

Heh, y'all probably think I'm delirious, because I continue to revise my track plan.  Perhaps I should have spent more time trackplanning?  Maybe, but I really think that operating the layout is the best way to find faults and to come up with options and alternatives to make improvements.  Anyone who has followed along with this thread will recall that I originally built the passing siding in Southern Pines along the lines of the MR plan for the original Seaboard Central.

Well, then I revised the track to add much-needed additional length to the passing siding (see page 12 of this thread).  That, unfortunately, had its flaw in the double track bridge at the end of the passing siding.  The prototype most likely would never have built the much more costly double track bridge and would have preferred a single track bridge with the passing siding starting on the other side of the river.  Well, I don't have that kind of room.  It was more important to me to have that additional capacity, but that track arrangement really bothered me.

Then, I came up with a new plan.  If you look toward the top of this page, you will see a revised plan that extends the passing siding and creates the expansion beyond this HCD.  Over the last several days, I made that change:

Before:


After the deconstruction was complete and the subroadbed was repaired and leveled.  I even had to cut into the fascia and hill near the corner to level the area enough to allow the passing siding to exit the HCD (more obvious in the last picture in this post):


After:



Now that the passing siding will be extended, the double track bridge doesn't look as silly.  Plus, there is now potential to run longer trains on this layout once the expansion is complete.  I also now have the incentive to get going on the scenery, so then I can begin planning the addition.  Yes, I lost my runaround in Southern Pines until the addition is added, and the "mainline" is a dead end.  But that's okay.  No real ops have begun on this layout yet, so I continue to be a roundy-round guy, which is still possible even in the revision.  But, now the roundy-round connection is disguised in a tall cut, and the loop is not as blatantly obvious.  It now appears as a branch or a siding, and the mainline heads off of this HCD.

In the picture below, the SBD mainline is the track at left, and the passing siding (which can access the roundy-round, I mean, siding or branch) is the track at right.  My goal (I hope!) is to extend the passing siding to get two locomotives and fifteen freight cars as the capacity.  The staging yard on the addition will be built to match the capacity of the passing siding, and the yard in Aberdeen will also be slightly lengthened for increased capacity after the expansion.



You may have also noticed that the concrete abutments are now in place.  I need to install bridge shoes and rough in the scenery base around the abutments.  I made the rail joiners on one end of the bridge able to slide completely back, so that I can still pull out the span and finish the scenery base, paint the lake bottom, and pour the water.

Enjoy,
DFF

[seusscaboose]

is that static grass i see?

[davefoxx]

is that static grass i see?

Not yet, but that is the plan.  I've only thrown down a base layer of foam at this point in some spots.

DFF

[Ian MacMillan]

I like that little mod to the track. ... however... it eliminated the ability to switch both industries on that side of the layout without having to go over to the other side to change tracks.

[davefoxx]

I like that little mod to the track. ... however... it eliminated the ability to switch both industries on that side of the layout without having to go over to the other side to change tracks.

You're right, but that will be alleviated with the expansion.  I figured that it would be easier to change it now, since I had to pull the bridge to start working on the lake anyway.  I really don't want to make such a revision once scenery is well along the way, especially around the water feature.  Since, I really haven't been operating the layout yet (I need additional staging) other than roundy-round, the loss of the run-around in Southern Pines is negligible. Heh, when I get tired of it, then I'll get the bug to build the addition.

[John]

You need a Y for that switch ..

[davefoxx]

You need a Y for that switch ..

Nah, that will become a little used siding or interchange, except when needed for roundy-round operation.  I'll make sure that the ballast is less maintained looking on that trackage.  Although it joins only a passing siding, the latter will be much more travelled, so the straight side of the turnout on the passing siding makes sense.  To me, anyway.