Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

Three years. Robyn just reminded me. That's right, as of 6/30 it's been three years since we closed on the layout building. How time flies.

[sigh]

We're on track for another course of ceiling grid this afternoon, and then I have to pause for support bits holding up the theater lights. Progress may be slow, but it is progress nonetheless.

[Specter3]

Mike

It may be three years, but I have learned a lot from you and your work on the building. I am sure I have said this before but so many of us have dreamed of taking an old building and making a huge layout space with it. I certainly have. Your work has put a lot of realistic holes in those dreams, but I am able to live vicariously through your posts and it is something I look forward to reading. Keep plugging away!

[James Costello]

And "Hi!" to Jerry at Hobby Smith in Portland, who eventually made the connection that, yes, we were that crazy couple building the monster layout somewhere outside of St. Louis. (Hobby Smith is a great, great resource for N scalers! We did not leave empty-handed.)

A mandatory stop for me in Portland and I never leave empty handed either!

[C855B]

More plugging away:



Ceiling is now one-third finished. The next third is tricky logistically, as all those materials in the middle have to be moved first. Good thing the piles-o'-stuff are shrinking!

The next couple of weeks are subject to unscheduled interruptions, and we have to tend to projects in the guest house so our college kid will have a place to crash when he's home in August. So... will we make our end-of-summer target for starting benchwork? We'll see.

[C855B]

Actual layout construction!



Psych!

Yes, it's just an N-Trak module under construction. With the floor mostly cleared in the layout room and all necessary tools handy, it was a nice place to piddle with it. But I think that's really good - it's a preview of what layout construction will be like in the "train palace", and, you know, it was pretty darned pleasant. Looking forward to it.

[PRRATSF]

"Train Palace",seems appropriate after all the work you've put into it, I like it. 
Sam

[C855B]

Oh, I won't take credit for the moniker. Blame it on @JSL : https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26087.msg417144#msg417144

[JSL]

Someday I will bow down in the Train Palace to the train palace King

[C855B]

A different, "artsy" view of the layout building on a rare lovely evening...



That's the "infamous" truck. Having it has been a big blessing in making headway on the building. Lowe's/HD/Menard's trips would have been nightmares without it, or at least a lot more complicated. Added bonus - it's a rolling storeroom. Great place to stash stuff that might be in the way at the moment.

Ceiling progress is momentarily paused due to a few "critical path" items - stuff that needed to be done before the ceiling compromised access to the space above. Knocked-out in an evening was wiring outside security lighting. Bigger project is a catwalk down the center to get to support bits, as I suddenly realized that major electronics would otherwise only be accessible by lifting ceiling panels... which simply was not going to work for me. The catwalk turned into a big deal, but should be finished in a couple of days. Pix when I'm done.

I mentioned the south wall had blistered and peeled over the past year, so I'm taking advantage of the break in the rain to get that knocked out. It's going well, well enough that I may extend this thinking to the north wall which still has the original paint from three years ago. It would be really nice to have that done. Our college kid will be home soon for summer break, so both of us have lists of projects where we can use his assistance. He enjoys the change of pace... and the paycheck.

[C855B]

I have relented.

Many months and pages ago, a couple of you (I won't name names... Gary... ) were haranguing me about not having any staging. I countered that by having yards as big as they are in the plan, staging won't be necessary. I have been mulling this since, unsure about how to work staging into the operating scheme and layout design. For the moment I seem to have a plan:



It's hard to see, but up at the top of the lobe there now is a "TO STAGING". I have worked this into the Los Angeles ("East Yard") end of the operation, creating a trench line between the double-track mainline (outer tracks) and the yard lead and support areas. The trench will lead to a 2.5-turn helix under the lobe, the helix entering a stub-ended (???) staging yard of 8 to 10 tracks below the left side of the upper benchwork.

Operationally, it is my intent not to stage full trains, but, rather, blocks of cars as "transfer cuts" to and from the SP and ATSF. Train arrives at East Yard, power and caboose are cut off and hostled to their respective service areas, yard job separates the "blocked" train, pulls the SP (or ATSF) block out, and sets it out to one of the two transfer tracks on the right. Switcher pops out of the trench tunnel and moves the cut to staging.

Although you can't see it in the cropped view, by inserting the transfer tracks between the yard and main, it is possible to route a complete train into the staging area. The stub-ended staging yard makes this less than desirable - I guess the power can be cut off and routed around on an escape track, 'cause there's no way in heck I'm incorporating an operating protocol that backs a 50-60 car train through a yard ladder and up a 1.5% helix! So I'm not sure yet if this feature will be part of the operating plan, or just allowed to be a fudge of convenience. Lemme think about this some more... there may be room for a balloon track on the staging level.

[jereising]

If there's any way you can do it, make staging double ended.  My staging yard works extremely well - six tracks, each of which will hold about 125 50' cars.

I generally keep one track open for run throughs.

I have the distributed power earthworm (108 cars) on one track, with the others holding two trains each (I have mid siding sensors, so it's easy to get two trains per track).

So that's nine trains not cluttering the visible portion of the layout but available instantly.

[davefoxx]

So that's nine trains not cluttering the visible portion of the layout but available instantly.  (Emphasis added.)

This is the crux of the issue of staging yards.

DFF

[GaryHinshaw]

The room and building are looking great Mike!

I have relented.  

Many months and pages ago, a couple of you (I won't name names... Gary... )

Is there more than one of me?    Glad to hear that you are thinking about it, but you may be unwise to listen to me. My layout currently has three times as much track in staging as it does in visible main line... I agree with Jim that a double-ended staging yard is preferable, but I think you could make stub-end work in your configuration, because you have it connected to a big terminal.  I have a similar situation in which my (double-ended) helix staging connects to a stub-end storage yard at the bottom of the helix.  Southbound road crews will terminate their trains in helix staging, and the terminal manager will navigate the trains into stub-end storage.  To facilitate this, I put a helper pocket near the bottom of the helix so that head-end power could be cut off before getting trapped in the stub and the helpers could "push" the trains into the stub-end yard (the approach in is mostly down-grade).  You could do the same: have some yard power lower the trains (or cuts of cars) down the helix into staging from behind.

The scheme of moving cuts from the terminal into staging sounds intriguing.  It will give the yard manager some interesting work, but the actual transfers won't be a very interesting job for a visitor.  Best to assign that to one of your home-road crew members.

A note for Gary... we were talking about total lumens and I accused you of having surgical levels of lighting. Well, based on the performance of the troffers installed so far (5500 lumens each), your observations are vindicated. If I were relying on the troffers alone for primary lighting, given the space and ceiling height, I would need twice what I will have. The spot lighting from the track light system and of course the theater lights will more than make the difference, but I am still somewhat surprised that these "work lights" will be merely adequate.

I know just what you mean.  Despite how bright the ambient light levels are in my room, I still wish I had more light on the trains.  That will definitely happen on my lower deck, but I may end up adding some spots for the upper deck as well.

[C855B]

First, the catwalk is 95% done:



What's left is about an hour's worth, out of view of the pictures. More important - the catwalk is finished to the point where I no longer need to work on it from underneath, so I can resume ceiling grid build-out.

As to staging... I dunno about "clutter". Gary has a point about too much staging versus trains setting the ambiance on the layout. Let's discuss those big yards again in East Yard and Cheyenne. There is beaucoup room for lots of trains, both complete and in stages of assembly or breakdown. The yards need to be populated, and there's nothing wrong with "staging" trains in plain view. I'll just tell the yardmaster they're waiting for a crew.

I'll work on the staging/transfer layer a little more and see if I can work in a loop or balloon. Certainly is room for it under the main deck, I'm just getting a little nervous about hidden track with potential access issues.

[MRLX1020]

Mikey:

With what little I know about southern California, is there a staging opportunity at any of the multiple junction points with ATSF or SP?

Having Santa Fe trains on that last segment could add some nice operational twists - a long transfer cut could be a road train - and with UP being a tenant on ATSF across Cajon....
My guess is that you either weren't going to have much/any ATSF action, or that if you did, it wouldn't be running through to Cheyenne and points east.

Just my thoughts and 0.02 worth.  Progress looks good, will have to visit again soon.

Justin