My unnamed HOn3 layout build

[eja]

Man, that shelf looks like it would support an elephant ....

[Santa Fe Guy]

All of my layouts spanning 50 years have been constructed this way eja.
I quickly learnt many years ago never ever to use chip board if you do not want your track to lift with moisture.
Been using 5 ply for so many years along with L Girder to give me strength over long sections of layout without needing a lot of legs to prop it up and depth for creating scenes lower than the track.
I am also a fan of fairly deep fascias so I can mount control panels, hide all my turnout motors and wiring and somewhere to mount all my operating waybills and car cards etc.
So there is method in my constructing in this fashion.
If you take a peek at my blog you will see the stuff I mean in my SFRSD images that started back in 1994.
Rod.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Quite a bit more done on the Monarch Branch over the past week in amongst the honey do's.
Track work at the town of Gunnison was completed, Control panel for the same town printed with thanks to Big John for the layout and then several versions he had to design for me to get it right for him to complete. And the control panel mounted after I laminated it and designed the installation.
Yesterday the two Johns ( my electrical engineering team) came over and whilst they fiddled with the installation (of the new to me MP1 turnout motor) I soldered on some track droppers on the rear rail ready to attach to the bus wire.
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I wanted something a little different for my control panels so after searching for inspiration I asked John to design my panels to resemble a 1939 Ford VIN tag.
It turned out real nice and will be the style for the rest of the RR.
Rod.

[bdennis]

Nice work.. Looking great

[Santa Fe Guy]

Thanks Brendan.
Yep very happy with how the panel looks just a bit different from the past RR's.
Rod.

[Santa Fe Guy]

More track laid on the L/H/side of the RR from Gunnison heading to the town of Cimmeron. This meant laying track across the first removable duck-under which took careful planing and execution.
Knowing that this needed to be done many months back I purchased several packs of HOn3 Gap Masters to help secure the tracks on either side of the gaps once the rail was cut to allow the duck-under to be slid out. Many years back when a good friend and I built our Thompson River Canyon N Scale display layout we just used individual PCB's to accomplish the same job. Whilst they worked out okay I wanted something a little better.
I installed one set on either end of the track so one set would be on either side of the gap once the rail was cut.
I stuck them down at the same time as the track using Ceder coloured No-More Gaps which is an acrylic gap filler. This works really well for holding the track in place and dries to a colour that you cannot notice.
Now that these were in place a dab of flux and solder to the top of the gap Masters (as they are pre soldered) and the rail was now securely held.
I then added Peco track nails to the Gap Masters to make sure they were not going to move before using very fine razor saw to cut the rail.
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I also added an additional panel for the turnout motors at the two mines planned for this area. The panel was draw by good friend John.
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Happy with the progress thus far.
Rod.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Electrical work got underway in earnest on Monday. Following last weeks installation of all the MP1's under Gunnison yard and the two mine turnouts on the main line, John came over to sort out the wiring for each turnout.
To start we checked to see if anything had changed electrically only to find we had a short on the whole length of the layout that was not there last week. Well after testing, checking and cutting bus wires we finally found the culprit. In the past whenever a turnout has failed on my N Scale layout it was a pain to take it out of the layout and as I am using hand made turnouts this time I pinned the turnouts down using Peco track pins on a few of the PCB's. We had a hotter than expected day last week and as we pulled the last pin out the short disappeared. So, lesson, do not pin on a PCB opposite one another. Offset the pins or clean the underside of the PCB so you do not get a short. Same for the underside of the throw-bar wire.
Here are the neat small MP1's under Gunnison. The MP1's provide a lot of adjustments to get them to work well, fit into a small space and with a neat terminal block on the side.
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And the unit that will control the Kit turntable speed.
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I have just remounted this unit to fit nicer.
Bus wires are all in down this side so we are getting closer to running the first train as too the NCE panel.
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A big thanks to the guys for their assistance.
Rod.

[bdennis]

Coming along nicely Rod..

[Santa Fe Guy]

Coming along nicely Rod..

Thanks Brendan, yep very happy with the progress. Getting some stuff done even with Helen needing to be in hospital for a few days.
Rod.