Eureka!

After fighting with the electrical for more than 8 weeks I can finally get engines around the entire layout!  PTL!  As basically a lone wolf during construction, it was brutal hopping between under the layout and above the layout to test continuity.

After re-positioning the order of the modules, I had to switch the common side on 2 of the 4 "legs" to mate the 2 operational (and electrical) towers to "play nice". (This is a DC layout utilizing a "common rail".)

All the track is now in place but there are multiple physical locations that need significant "tuning" work. (Not to mention the 63 turnouts.) And the summer heat in the loft has not done us any favors.

I am currently returning buildings to the layout and working on scenery repair. I am also installing some plexiglass shields to cover some details that are now exposed to damage from family members coming upstairs to use the computer.

Wow, long road! Fourteen months since I "foolishly" decided to improve operations! At least there is light at the end of the tunnel. Operations in the fall? 😀

PIOMIP Continued

All the track is now in and you would think I would be able to run again.
Wrong! Somewhere along the line I have screwed up the electrical (happens when you connect different sections together in different orders: A to B to C to A became A-C-B-D-A).
I think I even blew a power pack.
I'll have to wait until I can get a second electrically minded person on site to begin testing and analyzing connections.
Electrical: 2 steps forward and 3 steps backward.

Layout progress overview:

Woodbury on left; Glassboro/Thorofare Junction ahead; new staging yards on right

Loop to gain altitude

Adding roads (1st pass):

Woodbury realignment due to peninsula

Timber Creek:

Buzby Bros. Cement spur relocated; PRSL power plant spur extended; Brooklawn circle added

Making Westville and Woodbury (see above) legs a peninsula costs about 18" of straight-away.

North Woodbury - Holloway Lumber spur modified

First Coat Plus Some Paint

PIOMIP (Progress is our most important product! (GE))

A little before and after action fully realizing we have a long way to go.

Before

After

 

Added a little rockface to the vertical wall to at least give the staging yards a feel of being semi-sceniced.

Track Cleaning

I know it's a tired old argument with everybody having their favorite method but the (free) Model Railroad Hobbyist on-line magazine contained an article (under "Publisher's Musings") that dealt with the topic and gave a scientific explanation for the dirty track we all fight with.

They also rated 34 products on their effectiveness in controlling the cause of dirty track. Here are the results.

I am sure the "my favorite product" arguments will never fully go away but I hope this at least minimizes their frequency.

I have used Wahl's Clipper Oil for about 20 years, over multiple layouts, and can vouch that I can go without cleaning track (during non-construction periods) for more than 5 years at a time. (The exception being my 63 sets of switch points).

Soaring Possibilities

There are two "periods" when I am thrilled feeling the artistic "soaring possibilities" in model railroading construction:

1) When you first lay track on a wooden benchwork (I get delirious at the smell of freshly cut and recently drilled wood). You can envision the beautiful possibilities laying just down the road and around the construction bend.

2) After you have covered the cardboard webbing of the first scenery mock-ups.

Final scenery, although satisfying, never quite measures up to the unlimited possibilities immediately after the above steps.

Anyway after coming down from my Pepsi high, I should get to see this week if my Sculptamold stash is still usable and get in the first pass ground covering. Wish me luck!

I still have to decide whether to permanently cover 2/3 of the access hatch.

Glassboro Junction

Woodbury to Glassboro

The last 3' of track to complete the mainline.
Bridge will go in after the Sculptamold.

Atlantic County 4H Train Meet

I got to visit the Atlantic County 4H Train Meet on Saturday April 29th. We went to the back door by mistake and immediately ran into 3 folks I was acquainted with from the Railwire forum, It was great to see the faces of people I had only known via the internet.

Cody, Chris, and Ed

They were there selling off David K Smith's vast stock of old N gauge equipment and buildings at fantastic prices. If I hadn't been chatting with them I would have gotten a Minitrix K4 for $15 but a few people ahead of me bought them in multiple quantities and wiped out the stock before I had a chance.

I had hoped to get to meet DKS so I could personally thank him for doing a track plan illustration for an N Scale Magazine article I published years ago but alas he was not in attendance. I did get to see some of his handiwork. Cody now has possession of his Trenton Transportation Company masterpiece:

DKS' Trenton Transportation Company layout

This is a sight you do not usually get to see: a freight train volcanic disaster:

A few additional photos:

Slow Crawl

As usual my modeling work during the tax prep season (38 days to go!) comes to a very slow crawl.

I have managed to complete and wire the staging yards, add a shelf over the staging yard with under-shelf LED lighting, complete the Glassboro junction trackwork and loop, and start the Brooklawn bridges. The bridges are in the last section necessary to restore the layout to running order.

Lionel TT gauge (1:120) display models

Glassboro Loop

Glassboro Junction

Brooklawn Bridges

I have begun returning buildings to the layout and testing arrangements.

A scenic divider was adding to separate Westville and Woodbury (they are at different elevations). I am still trying to decide if I like it.

The "new" Woodbury

North Woodbury

South Westville

Westville

Friends and Progress

A couple of my operations group friends have stopped by to help in the rebuild.

A couple of gag photos for Gene since he is known as the Reach Police on one of the forums for always counseling layout builders to minimize the layout width to be able to easily collect the derailed trains. We built an access hatch in the loop especially for him.

Later Bob came by to tune up some of the complicated trackwork before it gets partially buryed by a higher-level track.

Meanwhile I have added some LED lighting under the shelving to make it easier to ID cars in the staging yards. The shelf itself contains my collection of Lionel TT gauge (1:120) static trains. 

A recent Railwire forum thread was started on the equipment in the early days of n scale. Here is my early “spreadsheet” of purchases beginning in 1968.

And some of the early equipment? (Ah the memories!)

1968 Atlas hopper cars (224x series)

First car is an Aurora (Postage Stamp Trains) box car, the rest are 1968 Atlas box cars

The last picture shows the Atlas 1968 cars that are still used on my layout today. (I used PC cars as transition, Rapido to KD coupler, cars. (Penn Central was way beyond my modeling era.)

The PC and Vermont cars were built from Atlas box car kits. You could save 21 cents that way! ($1.29 vs. $1.50 for a RTR car)