Progress report #2

[ginzokid]

I locked the other thread. There is some good stuff in there that probably has been reposted in other threads. I'll check. In the meantime, here's another place to write. B-)

[taz-of-boyds]

Pete,

You should have some bunches of tall trees for track to go through where you only see the train through the tree trunks.  That is; part of a forest where all the leaves are mostly at the tops of the trees.  It is like that a lot on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad where the trees have been allowed to grow wild.  My model railroad is going to be more scenery than track too, mostly because of trying to model parts of the real railroad around here.

Have fun in any event.

Charles

[ginzokid]

Starting to tear down my present On30 layout and have plans to rebuild it better and with easier access. No duck unders this time. I will be selling off some extra rolling stock in the process. Last run will be done today. Boo Hoo!!!!

[dl85vette]

the sadness will be quickly wiped away by thoughts of better trackage. I looked forward once mine was ripped up and had new table tops waiting for the sharpie marker (track arrangment)

Don't sell off rolling stock jjust yet my friend..... we know the moral to that story.....regrets.

[ginzokid]

I had 6 billboard refers for breweries and kept two. One has the same name as the actual brewery structure that I built. The other is just good looking. Two is enough. Listed six cars today. Looks so far but only 1 watcher. It's only day one.

[taz-of-boyds]

Pete,

That does not seem so bad...  But real railroads do seem to have lots and lots of rail-cars.  I was struck by how many rail-cars the C&P (one of my little railroads) had, this is from a list from sometime in the early 1900's:

 . . . freight locomotives: 21

 . . . passenger locomotives: 3

 . . . box cars: 5

 . . . flat cars: 6

 . . . gondola cars: 1082

 . . . hopper cars: 1407

 . . . caboose cars: 21

The C&P was a small coal railroad, and when I finally recognized the numbers of hoppers and gondolas they has I was surprised, but maybe that is because I don't know how much is involved in running a full sized railroad, even a small one.

But where to put all those rail-cars...  Maybe there needs to be a kind of staging thing that represents the world outside the modeled railroad, where cars leaving the railroad are shuffled, and cars returning to the railroad are pulled from.  I suppose one way to do this is an off railroad staging yard.  That is interesting, but operation of the staging yard will be a separate operation from the modeled railroad, where the cars entering the car pool in the yard are shuttled about and rearranged into returning trains.  At least this backstage area could be all packed track all grubby and dingy,... well something like that.  How about a cartridge storage system to keep the thousands of cars you need... (oh well, have fun rebuilding your railroad, without duck unders).

All the best,

Charles

[ginzokid]

The club layout has a five track staging yard on a lower level than the operational railroad. These tracks are about 25 feet long for the HO system. We can store over 200 cars down there and we have almost 400 cars now. It's a big layout. I think we have over 70 engines now.

For my own new layout I do not want to have any wasted space like staging. I have it now and find that the mainline run is too short because of this wasted space and the thing looks like a spaghetti bowl. That's why it has to come down. Since this layout is for me only and for my fun I have decided to not have any extra cars that have no meaning on it. Call me selfish but I do not plan on having any ops sessions. I will provide extra throttles for guests to run a train or two, but no planned ops.

Today will be the last run of the old layout. I plan on moving all the power and rolling stock up to the branch line which will remain. The structures will be brought upstairs to the dining room table. What else is there to do in the middle of a winter storm.

[taz-of-boyds]

Pete,

You should post some pictures of the commemorative last run before the take down.

All the best,

Charles

[ginzokid]

Too late. All the trains are now up on the branch line in storage. All the structures are sitting on the dining room table with the brass hat's permission of course. Today I might start taking up the switch throws, bumpers and turnouts to save them. I'm not rushing though.

[dl85vette]

You need a bungalow so you can poke some holes in various walls and have your train run through the house. Have a different theme in each room...yard in one room along wall shelf, town in living room, industries in another, logging branchline in the dining room...   My wife would think that would be neat. She's surprised that I haven't doen that already.

[ginzokid]

What I really need is a man cave for my trains like Barry has. Actually the best layout I had designed and started was the N scale one. All the track was laid, 14 scale miles of it, but the thought of all that scenery was overwhelming. And then I got hooked on sound and DCC so here I am designing another one in my head as I tear out the old spaghetti bowl. My space would be better suited to N or HO, but I have all this money invested in the On30 now and all those buildings done.......

[dl85vette]

AS long as you enjoy the hobby that's all that matters.  At least you're on Ver #?

Some of us never finished the first version yet.

Some former members never even got to looking at empty framework.  Shame that whatever happeneded in their lives, they never got beyond a collection of rolling stock, design,etc.

[dl85vette]

I wouldn't necessarily do it to entire railroad but depending on the room size,etc, I would go from dominoes to narrow shelves with backdrop scenery in some areas for mainline, less scenery to do but yet still convey idea of wide open country side. 

[ginzokid]

Testerday I took up all the end bumpers, the Caboose ground throws and some of the track in what was the town area. I'm going to try to get all the turnouts up today.

I have been thinking about the shape of the mainline trying to get the longest run possible using penninsulas. I will measure the areas and try to account for 3' wide aisles. I may have to draw something out eventually.

This is version #4 BTW. Funny but the first two were N scale with all the rack laid and operational. Some scenery was done, but there was a lot of bare plywood. #3, what I'm taking down now again has all the track laid and operational. About 1/4 of the scenery is, was, in. So you see, I make sure the thing is totally operational before I do the scenery. My philosophy is that the track has to be perfect before the scenery is done. If it doesn't run right, who cares how pretty it is.

[dl85vette]

I concur. that's why I knew that even though the rr would look nice with scenery, it won't make running trains any better if you aren't happy with the design. hence why I did half of mine over again.  Plsu if happy with the design, run trains to make sure you are happy and to make sure things run smoothly. Easier to pull up track before it is plastered, ballasted in place,etc.

[ginzokid]

Worked on some of the ballasted track yesterday along with pulling up turnouts. I used two different ballasts. Fine for the yards and medium for the mainline. Well, the mainline just pulls right up and the ballast comes off easily with a wire brush. Even the turnouts look like new. The fine ballast is a female dog to get up for some reason. Same glue. Once up it too is cleaned easily with the wire brush. Will probably take the rest of the week to get it all up. So far I have only had to toss out about three feet of track.