Weekend Update 12/13/20

[davefoxx]

I think you're too used to typing kudzu, lol.

Actually, @DKS coined the term "kudzos," but I ran with it.   

DFF

[645diesel]

bravo on the TT modules, well done. the highway bridge looks great, the progress in Montana looks killer, and that coal dealer "mock up" is fantastic.  can you cut out another mockup, it will look at home in the Southern Tier of NY...

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started getting serious about getting a rough layout plan together (thanks to this place, you guys really can inspire and motivate, thank you).  the concept is a point to point on the D&H Susquehanna Division in 1981 with a very compressed Oneonta Yard (not final design), the Harpursville Trestle just after Nineveh Jct, and another bridge over the Susquehanna north/east of Oneonta.  This is just a rough idea to see if the track will fit and what it will look like.  i'm concerned about the passing siding on the curve, i'll be running 85' flats for the Apollo's... moving it south/west and using curved turnouts might help the look.  the aisles might be a tad narrow, i can fiddle with the distance between Oneonta and Harpursville Trestle and get a comfortable 32" gap.  the lowest point on the layout, Schenectady staging, will be 52", the highest point, Binghamton staging, 62" (a 1.56% grade from Oneonta and will require helpers out of Oneonta). the Harpursville Trestle will be closer to eye level to make it really stand out.  i need to add in some customer sidings and Nineveh Jct, but overall i feel this is a good start.  the "entrance" to the layout is via a swing door with a piano hinge which when open kills track power to the lower staging yard and 10" of track on the other side, just to be extra careful.

feel free to make suggestions. 

here is the Harpursville Trestle to get a sense of what i'm going for.

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[PiperguyUMD]

Fenced in the yard...

[eja]

Fenced in the yard...

So why aren't the kids and the dog play outside??

Beautiful scene ... bravo !

[randgust]

I've been hopping around more than a three-legged dog this weekend and haven't dropped in, got a PM from Bill Denton...  This was news to me.

Wow, I'd almost forgotten about this, but thanks.   I appreciate the response from this group as much as anything.

But it's Bruce Arbo that got me started in this, I was a babe in the woods with Ttrak about five years ago.

Neat thing about Trunkeyville, PA is that it's a real place, look it up on Google Earth, and that house on the RH side is still there, along with the remnants of the PRR concrete bridge I modelled.  Goes back to my father's stories of walking down the tracks to there from his house, and this is where the PRR Decapods pushing coal trains up river to Buffalo Lackawanna Steel stopped for water.  When the helpers cut off to water up, my father and his buddies greased the rails to stall the trains out, accompanied by being pegged with coal from the firemen.

Going back to the 1870's, Trunkeyville was the terminus of the first major oil pipeline and at one time, the worlds biggest oil tank.    A terrible fire took out most of the original town and the first depot, the pipeline was extended, and it became no more than a PRR flagstop by the 20's.

[SAH]

Let there be light.  And it was good.  The backdrop?  Not so much.  Further discussion in the AC&Y L.E. forum.

[SAH]

Very nice work Marc. 

I worked on my coal dealership.  I made some drawings, fired up the laser and started cutting parts for a mock-up.

And then things went a little crazy...



Don't think it's a mock-up anymore.

[altohorn25]

My layout progress has moved east beyond Missoula to Bonner/Milltown.  The area also introduces the Milwaukee Road on the South bank of the Clark Fork River.

The bridge looks good Andy. 

[nkalanaga]

Andy:  I, too, like the bridge.  Are you going to model enough of the MILW to make it worth adding wiress?

Richie:  According to the AAR rules (1977), the trucks (technically the journals) determine the load limit.  If it has to be lowered for structural reasons, it should have a star next to it.

Gondolas with bulkheads weren't uncommon, and were used for may things that today go on bulkhead flats.  Some stout stakes along the sides, and poles, pipe, etc could be piled to the top of the bulkhead without shifting.

[hegstad1]

Andy:  I, too, like the bridge.  Are you going to model enough of the MILW to make it worth adding wiress?

Richie:  According to the AAR rules (1977), the trucks (technically the journals) determine the load limit.  If it has to be lowered for structural reasons, it should have a star next to it.

Gondolas with bulkheads weren't uncommon, and were used for may things that today go on bulkhead flats.  Some stout stakes along the sides, and poles, pipe, etc could be piled to the top of the bulkhead without shifting.

Yes, I will have to run wire.  Someone one Shapeways is making the poles.

[chuck geiger]

Fenced in the yard...

Nice - What did you use for grasses?

[NtheBasement]

(Attachment Link)

feel free to make suggestions. 

Regarding the staging yards, is there a runaround?  How will you keep locos from getting trapped at the end of the stubs?

Taking into account the depth of the benchwork, will 10 inches of height separation be enough for what you want to do on the lower staging?

[OldEastRR]

The new Kato 20th Century Limited set arrived in the mail yesterday.  The only things I've done to it so far is add Digitrax DN163K0D decoders to the locomotives and swap out the Kato couplers for short Fox Valley Models (formerly Unimate) dummy couplers between the two units to bring them closer together.  I may put a MT true scale coupler in the nose of the lead unit yet.  The engines need some exhaust weathering on the roofs.

I like how KATO finally figured out how to light the obs running lights without having a huge black box sitting in the middle of the aisle and clearly visible through the windows (as per the COLA). I'd think about adding some lighting kits to a few TCL cars to complement the lighted obs interior. The kitchen/dorm seems like one good place for one.

[645diesel]

Regarding the staging yards, is there a runaround?  How will you keep locos from getting trapped at the end of the stubs?

Taking into account the depth of the benchwork, will 10 inches of height separation be enough for what you want to do on the lower staging?

no run around, i thought about it, but i need the length and each train goes to staging where it dies for the session.  it would make setting up for the next session not a hands on experience... so it has merit, i just am not sure how to implement.

the staging as drawn does not overlap, but yes, 10" is tight.  i'm trying to avoid a "dirty" word round and round elevation gainer 

[mark dance]

no run around, i thought about it, but i need the length and each train goes to staging where it dies for the session.  it would make setting up for the next session not a hands on experience... so it has merit, i just am not sure how to implement.

Could you put a slide out index table across the stub end of the yard? A friend is building an HO yard which will use a two track, pull out "traverser" - mounted on drawer slides - to release engines in a stub yard to a run around track...



md