The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[wm3798]

I like it!  But the more you run along th walls the more your going to wish you finished them.

Lee

[davefoxx]

I like it!  But the more you run along th walls the more your going to wish you finished them.

Lee

Meh, we’ve talked about this before.  I don’t have the finances to put $$$ into remodeling the layout room.  There’s other projects this house needs first.

The plan is to hang 24” strips of Masonite as a backdrop on the walls over the layout.  That also can be easily removed when and if we move, leaving this unfinished room as it existed before.

DFF

[davefoxx]

For posterity, I'll document this here.  While wiring the staging yard, a short occurred.  Thankfully, I usually only wire one step at a time and then power up the layout, so I can find a short as it occurs.  Here, I discovered this Peco turnout would short out the yard unless I gapped the rails here (and in the matching frog on the other side).     Oh well, it didn't take too long to fix this.



DFF

[davefoxx]

Here's a shot up the skirt at my wiring job.  I ran a pair of bus wires and feeders from each track and the sector plate.  My wires are color coded: generally, black is the front rail and red is the rear rail.  I used tap connectors to join the feeders to the bus wires.  I also added a Power Plug Luminaire Disconnect (nearest the camera) on the bus wires to allow me to disconnect the staging yard wiring when I move the layout:



DFF

[davefoxx]

The first train made it in to staging on the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Ry. and stopped on Track 2.  Here's how I plan to use the yard:



First, cut off the engine and run around the train on the front track (Track 1):



Tack on to the caboose:



Run around the train once more to place the caboose on the sector plate.  Return the sector plate to Track 2:



Run around the train a third time and hook up to the cut of cars to be returned to Aberdeen:



Shove back to grab the caboose (which is why the sector plate was already placed on Track 2):



Head out.  Use dynamic braking on the hill.  It's a lot of fun with DCC, sound, and the ProtoThrottle to put the train in to Run 8 as it barely crawls up the hill and to use dynamic braking as the train returns to Aberdeen:



The second train has already made it into staging, so the yard is at capacity, which frees up space on the layout elsewhere:

[Rich_S]

There are times like these where I really miss HO scale, unfortunately I only have room for N scale. Dave your sector plate idea works great for your staging yard, two thumbs up 

[Hawghead]

Dave,

First let me say that I've never been a big fan of the HO scale 4x8 loopty-loop model railroads, but yours is making a believer out of me.  I know yours is bigger than 4x8 but it's in that same category so to speak, but man o man you have really hit this one out of the park.  BZ.

Have you given any thought as to how the railroad will operate?  While looking at pictures of the layout, I envisioned a local in the yard track that leads to the wye.  Leaving the yard via the south leg of the wye (I'm calling the yard end of the layout south and the end up against the wall north), crossing over to the inside track and continuing north until it gets to the pulp wood load facility.  Make the pick up and set out, then continuing north around the loop past the town and onto the inside loop to the factory in the middle of the layout.  Make the pickups and setouts, then continue north over the trestle to the staging yard, run around the train then retrace the route going southbound back to the yard.  The only problem I see with that scenario is that the yard track is only about three cars long.  Do you have room to extend that one track enough to hold, say six cars a hack and a couple of Geeps?

Really enjoying following your progress.
Thanks,
Scott   

[davefoxx]

Dave,

First let me say that I've never been a big fan of the HO scale 4x8 loopty-loop model railroads, but yours is making a believer out of me.  I know yours is bigger than 4x8 but it's in that same category so to speak, but man o man you have really hit this one out of the park.  BZ.

Have you given any thought as to how the railroad will operate?  While looking at pictures of the layout, I envisioned a local in the yard track that leads to the wye.  Leaving the yard via the south leg of the wye (I'm calling the yard end of the layout south and the end up against the wall north), crossing over to the inside track and continuing north until it gets to the pulp wood load facility.  Make the pick up and set out, then continuing north around the loop past the town and onto the inside loop to the factory in the middle of the layout.  Make the pickups and setouts, then continue north over the trestle to the staging yard, run around the train then retrace the route going southbound back to the yard.  The only problem I see with that scenario is that the yard track is only about three cars long.  Do you have room to extend that one track enough to hold, say six cars a hack and a couple of Geeps?

Really enjoying following your progress.
Thanks,
Scott

@Hawghead,

Thank you for your kind words!  Yes, I do have plans to extend that one track, which is supposed to represent the "real" Seaboard line south out of Aberdeen.  Unfortunately, due to the roundy-round nature of the layout, I had to run the "model" SBD mainline through the other side of the wye.  Anyhow, I plan to build a folding shelf (like I did on the Seaboard Central 2.0) to extend that track three or four feet- just enough so that when it's not deployed, it will hang down almost to the floor.  That will easily add the capacity you suggested.  (I'm also flirting with the idea of a reverse loop off of the end of that track for out-and-back ops on the SBD with the wye allowing trains to go in either direction.)

The rough plan is that the roundy-round is the SBD main.  The line up the hill and over the trestle is the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Ry., and the small stub at the north end of Aberdeen is the Aberdeen & Rockfish RR.  As stated in a previous post this weekend, I would like to extend the A&R to add a two-track staging yard for a destination with a runaround track.  The ops plan is that the yard in Aberdeen (like the prototype) is switched by all three railroads with trackage rights for the A&R and A&BP from Aberdeen to the yard over the SBD.

The SBD line will get me longer trains with multiple units and an occasional passenger train for variety.  I'll just double cuts of cars out of the yard to get that length train.  The A&R and the A&BP will be small trains, not atypical for a short line.

DFF

[Steveruger45]

Dave
I like it, a lot.   Nicely done indeed.
Yes, I also tend to use higher code track in off- scene hidden / fiddle areas. 
You know, I’m looking at the way you used even the wall space between the studs and makes me think of gaining some more real estate through the wall!.  I’m sure you considered that and didn’t for all sorts of good reasons though.
There are limits to our “train room areas” often imposed by non understanding spouses as well as physical limitations.
Yes, I would definitely try and extend that other interchange track on the other side of the island, around the walls.  Maybe put another sector plate at the end of that too perhaps?

[LIRR]

good looking Geep….

[davefoxx]

good looking Geep….

Thanks, @LIRR!  It's an Athearn GP38-2 that I removed the Tsunami decoder from and added an ESU Loksound decoder and Keep Alive.  I still need to go back and replace the incandescent bulbs with LEDs, because, as expected, once I got the Geep back together, one of the two bulbs in the long hood died. 

DFF

[davefoxx]

Dave
I like it, a lot.   Nicely done indeed.
Yes, I also tend to use higher code track in off- scene hidden / fiddle areas. 
You know, I’m looking at the way you used even the wall space between the studs and makes me think of gaining some more real estate through the wall!.  I’m sure you considered that and didn’t for all sorts of good reasons though.
There are limits to our “train room areas” often imposed by non understanding spouses as well as physical limitations.
Yes, I would definitely try and extend that other interchange track on the other side of the island, around the walls.  Maybe put another sector plate at the end of that too perhaps?

@Steveruger45,

The only reason I went with Code 100 was because of the need for a three-way turnout.  At the time of the purchase, the only thing available was a Peco Code 100.  So, I just stuck with Code 100 in staging, which allowed me to avoid soldering rail joiners on the frog end of the turnout, and I can still separate (and move) the layout from the staging yard.

DFF

[davefoxx]

@Ed Kapuscinski, this post is for you.  While a number of 's want to make fun of island-style layouts, here's an advantage: a mobile layout.  In this case, I slid back six rail joiners, unbolted two carriage bolts, and unplugged the bus wires to disconnect the layout from the new staging yard; I removed one screw that holds the mainline layout to the wall; I unlocked the casters; and I rolled the layout away:





I want to continue working on the lighting in the layout room, and I need to move the layout around to get the old fluorescent fixtures down and finish installing the LED lights overhead.  Hmm, while I have the layout out that would make it easier to finish the final terraforming on that end of the layout.

Stay tuned,
DFF

[Chris333]

lol both of my current layouts are island style 

[davefoxx]

lol both of my current layouts are island style 

Yeah, I know, which makes it hilarious watching you attempt to break Ed's balls about building around the walls. 

DFF