AC&Y - Litchfield to Spencer OH

[Chris333]

Sweet! I would have put in a loop track

[JSL]

Excellent! Nice to see you back in action

[packers#1]

It lives! Sweet, this was one of my favorite layout threads 

[SAH]

Thanks guys.  Glad you enjoy the thread Sawyer.  And no Philip, I've had enough of corn planting adventures.  At least the way I did it anyway.
I'd considered adding a loop but space didn't allow it.  Better to reuse what I'd already built and preserve the ops character of the design.

The train shown in the photos had all weathered cars in the consist, many from my reintro to weathering thread a few months back.  They look just fine and blend into the scene.  Encouragement to move forward.

After the backdrop addition and a few other housekeeping items I think I'll focus on finishing the Spencer scene, or at least the part that is in the long term vision.  Should be what, another 6 months before the next post.   

Thanks for your encouragement and kind words guys.

[GaryHinshaw]

Good to see this back in 3d.  Its reappearance prompted me to look through the thread from p.1 and from what I gather, it's back in its original space, no?  Is the main peninsula still as shown on p.1, now with staging extending to the upper left in that diagram?  What your plans for ops?  Is it mainly interchange with the NKP?  (questions, questions....)

[SAH]

I'd forgotten about a lot of all that stuff Gary.  Hmmm. 

Yes the design is pretty much as shown in the first post.  Much of the construction technique has changed though.  Three cheers for following a prototype.  Copy what they did and you'll have a winner.

I typed a much longer description of the ops details earlier but my fingers got tangled up, hit a wrong key and the whole thing disappeared.   .  Oh well.  Some other time I'll try again.

Thanks for your interest.

Steve

[davidgray1974]

Awesome! Glad to see you back up and running.

+1

[kc9jts]

+1

+2

[Rich_S]

I reused the 5 track staging yard built for the last set-up.  Also used the cassette as a fixed staging track to serve the east side of the layout and to compensate for the slight elevation change.  There wasn't supposed to be an elevation change between the two ends but - **it happens.    So i only had to build one section to tie everything together.  I'll scenic the Spencer end and stick a backdrop in to hide the view of staging seen here.  From an ops standpoint it will work pretty much the same as before and will do for now. 



Thanks for looking - Steve

Steve, The layout looks great. I have one question, are you planning on adding a few more staging tracks for the East side?

Rich S.
Modeling The P&WV in "N" scale.

[SAH]

I closed in the backdrop to staging and added the valence.  Still some work to do with blending the different vintage backdrops but overall it looks OK.


Pivoting valence / lighting sections:  Still my best ever goofy idea, IMO.


There will not be a second staging track at the east end Rich.  There are two for the west end of the layout.  An ops session runs two AC&Y trains so three staging track total will work.  I have to run the westward train first of course.  Or stage a meet in Spencer if I run an eastward train first.

During the NC RailRun last October I hosted two operators and ran three trains:  East and westward AC&Y and a NKP transfer run.  The layout as configured now will allow the same sequence.  Running prototypical slow speeds and employing something like prototypical switching procedures (keep the position of the switchman/brakeman in mind as you throw turnouts) took about 45 minutes to run each train.  I used switchlists, which slows down things too I think.

I had to give up a few things, such as the Spencer Forge siding.  I’ll just spot those cars on the AC&Y house track.  I also lost the NKP west switch and so the NKP cannot run around its train.  The transfer becomes a push/pull movement - Not nearly as interesting.  On the other hand there really wasn’t a transfer run (Bellevue to Spencer and return) as I do it.  NKP EB and WB trains each worked Spencer on their way to Brewster and Bellevue respectively.  I like having the live interchange though, so it works for me.

Other things I picked up to impact the speed of model RR ops from an employee rules book of the era:  If an eastward train is working Spencer, the engines must be cut off west of a short yellow rail length posted about 100 yds west of the Spencer depot.  The reason:  To prevent the crossing flashers at OH Rt 303 from activating continuously during the work.  I started looking through my photos and sure enough, there it was.  And the train sans engines was west of the post.   For me, research is half the fun.

Thanks for your interest - Steve

[Chris333]

The last freight car i finished prior to NC Rail Run



It's a resin kit from Rocket Express.  A 40' automobile box car with end doors.  I bought it at the Naperville show four, maybe five years ago.  You have to let the resin cure completely ya know.     Anyway, I shaved off the cast ladders and grabs, replaced them with GMM and BLMA parts.  Lowered the body shell and body mounted the couplers.  Added weight.  The literature says a few survived up to the end of The Rock.  I'm doing the early 60's so modeled and lettered it as a general service XM.  I'll probably go on a weathering binge in the Mark Dance manner soon.  (Great looking work.  I hope I can do as well.)  Looking forward to dirtying this guy up.

Thanks for looking.

Steve Holzheimer

10 months later my kit showed up in the mail.  Good news is it looks like a great casting.

[SAH]

10 months is pretty speedy Chris, if you're measuring against the Sunshine business model.     The Rocket Express casting does make a good looking model.  I really like mine.

Rained all day Saturday in central NC so I hunkered down in the basement for a scenery session.


The depots are the "real" models this time, as opposed to the cardboard mock-ups.  Here's a long view of the whole scene.


And a close-up of the new scenery.  I think I'll try out some of that chain link fence I've been hoarding for years.  The triangular space in the corner will become the Spencer Forge "bone yard" - Scrap equipment too good to scrap.  Since I can't model the industry itself, suggest it's there in some other manner.


Hmmm.  It's probably just me but picassa befuddles.  I've been able to post large images before but it seems never the same way each time I go into the !^@%#^&@ program.  I'll see if I can get a larger image later.

Steve

[Chris333]

With Picasa you have to change the size number in the URL to 800.

[SAH]

OK.  More like what I was expecting.

[Rich_S]

OK.  More like what I was expecting.

Steve, The layout is looking good. Are you planning a highway over pass to hide where the tracks pass through the backdrop?