N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[wm3798]

Whoa, that is something. I had never seen that before! Too bad the printing is so bad.

Earl Scheib painted train cars, too!

[wm3798]

Is it Hi Rail?


It's shiny and flashy, and built in 1987.  So maybe not Hi Rail, but definitely a vintage classic.

I'll be putting her on the layout shortly.

Spookshow is quite enthusiastic about this one.  So am I.

Lee

[peteski]

That's pretty!

With the very fine photoetched running gear, is this a brass loco?  If  it is then yes, itdoes not seem to fit with the tru Hi-rail Bachmann, early Arnold, or Minitrix locos. 

But it is so pretty! 

[Chris333]

I had one of those, sold it on ebay.

[Point353]

With the very fine photoetched running gear, is this a brass loco?

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/keyp7d.html

[wm3798]

It ran beautifully for about an hour, then the universals jammed up.
Then they started slipping on the drive shaft.
Looks like I'll be tearing it down to assess the problem.

 
Lee

[wm3798]

New shipper on the layout...


Lee aka Old Salty

[wm3798]

Did a little flippy floppy.


The original set up had the Tower of Power (packs) to the left side.  Since I added the yard modules to the right, this no longer made sense, so I jacked up the layout about 3", pulled my H frame out, and flipped it over, putting the power pack rack to the right, and more centered on the overall layout space.  With this completed, I can now begin working on the control panels needed to make the yards work properly.

Here's the best "Before" shot I could dredge up.  The yard is modular and is presently not installed pending the wiring project.



Lee

[mkearns]

What’s your favorite of all your retro locomotive fleet?

[wm3798]

Easy...  The NEXT one!

But seriously folks, it really depends on what I'm in the mood for.

With the Max-Magnet rebuilt motors, my Rivarossi steam is probably the most enjoyable to run.  I do like the motion of the siderods, and the steam era rolling stock.  I've got good examples of just about everything they built (no Challenger or Big Boy, because what's the point on a loopty loop, and plus YouPee...  Blecch. But I do have a 2-8-8-0 with a vandy, because B&O)


But I also enjoy the growl of old Trix and Roco diesels, and Arnold and early Bachmann offerings with brass gears and 200 amp blender motors.


When I just want a train to run for hours, I have two sets of Con Cor PAs, which have Kato drives and are basically indestructible.  Of course, they're hitched to strings of Con Cor smooth side passenger cars. 


On the freight trains, I'll pull out the Life Like FAs and F7 lead sleds, which also purr smoothly for days, and will pull the paint off the wall if instructed to do so.


There are dozens of other engines that periodically make appearances, including more modern Atlas Classic geeps, Model Power's Korean steamers, and Bachmann Spectrum doodlebugs.


The good news is that I don't focus on any particular time frame or locale, so I get away with a fair amount of Rule #1.  I'm an Appalachian scenery guy, so I don't bother with western stuff, and most of what I run is B&O/WM/PRR/PC and of course my Laurel Valley


As you may have guessed, I'm on the ADHD spectrum, with the needle usually pegged in the red zone.  Which isn't always good for the budget, or the storage requirements!

But the bottom line is, to just have fun.  Which I do, right up until I have to do wiring.  But you know, you gotta take the bad with the good!
Thanks for asking!
Lee

[wm3798]

It's time..


...to properly wire the yards.

Lee

[wm3798]

Progress continues to be made on the new yard. 


The turnouts are all wired up and working, and the switcher can move freely from one end of the yard to the other.

Next I have to isolate the three run around tracks to allow an outbound train to be parked while the inbound train arrives.



I'll also need to work on some improved lettering for the control box...

Lee

[wm3798]

Finished wiring the TTrak compatible yard, and got it reinstalled.





Then I got a wild hair to add an industrial track at PawPaw.  I've had the warehouse there since the very beginning, and had a sort of abandoned track thrown down, but now that I have a yard and a wye, I can actually send a short local out to do a little switching.



And so I did!


I grabbed a bit of whatever was at hand, in this case a Lifelike switcher, a couple of freight cars and a Cheesie caboose.

[wm3798]

With the impending arrival of the drug store on the corner in Paw Paw, I've decided to put some badly needed attention into the suburbs at the top of Winchester Street.


I had some foam core bits just kind of thrown in there, but now it's time to build a proper base and get the sitework started for a couple of houses and the vintage branch line depot.

Let's see how much of a hurry I am to get this pushed forward.

Step one is the base, which I have templated here in cardboard.  Next will be to establish the elevations for the house lots.  The diner will be at grade with the depot, the blue house a bit higher, and the white house higher still, with the road curling into the back drop between the white house and the tunnel portal.

Where the spray foam is, will be an elevated roadway above the tunnel to reach the truck dump coal loader just out of frame to the right.


This is an earlier shot I took when I was thinking of putting three houses (actually four, the one on the left is a duplex) but I opted to make it less crowded and add the diner so there's a place to get some meatloaf in this God foresaken town. (plus, it's one of the last remaining remnants of my earliest modeling efforts!)

I've already got a power drop wired to that section which I can plug the building and exterior lighting into.  Getting substantially underway will be the hardest part, but once started, it should come together pretty quickly.

Lee

[OldEastRR]

Have you thought about using AMB company houses instead of the Bachmann farm houses? (which look a little too upscale for a mining town).