A Memorable Memorial Day

So what's been going on these many quiet months?

I've been busy.

That’s not an excuse, but a proclamation, and in my opinion, a good one. Well, not for the blog, but for the layout.

It all started before last Memorial Day. We had planned a cookout for our families (a rousing success, I must say), and so I set a deadline for myself. You see, I didn’t want people to ask “How are your trains coming along?” and be forced to once again say “Well, I haven’t done much.”

So I did things.

The Goals

Goal #1 was to have enough track laid and operational to, well, operate. At least a little bit. Keeping in mind that not a single one of the family members attending are model railroaders, operation in this case meant the ability to run a locomotive with some cars on the main track and into some sidings. At the time, I had not yet ordered the large Peco Code 100 wye that I needed to split the track at the north (right) end of Wicomico St., so the main track ended just where the wye should be.

Having taken care of the bus (as described here), I was free to wire up the drops. I managed to complete that in a few hours over two evenings, and I didn’t even burn myself. (An achievement in itself considering my soldering skills.)

Goal #2, as I alluded to at the end of this post, was to get a backdrop up. As the photos attest, I wasn’t quite as successful on this count. (It’ll make a good topic for a later post.) It turned out to be a much bigger job than I had envisioned, and certainly more than a one-man job, so after 8 feet, I gave up. (I will go back to it as some point, but I’ll probably scrap what I have currently. I’m just not happy with it.) At that point I focused on trying to ensure that things ran well.

The Goals

And they did run well. I had more than a few people down to see the layout, and all seemed impressed, even the very young kids. This last point was especially good considering there is no loop on the layout, meaning there was not even a glimmer of the possibility of the roundy-round running kids usually love. (Although I will say the sound-equipped Conrail B23-7 didn’t hurt in keeping their attention.) I was able to deliver and pick up cars. The runaround worked well, and the lone code 83 spur caused no issues.

As these things tend to do, the running raised some points. First, it became obvious that I needed some sort of off-layout storage yard, which turned out to be as simple (at least for now) as extending the track the joins the layout. Second it was obvious that I needed to get the wye in. Both of those have been completed, making ops a bit easier.

One major drawback of the unfinished basement is that it’s really (REALLY) cold in the basement in the winter months. So, my progress has been slow this winter (plus I’ve still been working on my portion of the the WMRR club layout as mentioned here). With warmer spring temperatures around the corner, I’m hoping to get moving again. More on the slow progress I’ve made in the next post.

Until then!

Time Flies!

I just looked at the blog and realized nine months have gone by since my last post. What a slacker! (What scares me even more is how quickly those nine months went by.)

So, just to give a quick status, while the blog hasn't been updated, the layout has. Not a ton, but some. (You see, I also belong to the Worcester Model Railroaders, and have a pretty significant street running project going there, too. So that's been seeing a lot of my modeling cycles.)

Just a taste of what's happening on my section of the Worcester Central Lines layout at my club. But that's another blog!

At any rate, I've laid all the track, gotten it wired, and have done a few impromptu solo op sessions along the way. Tired of losing a few feet of track every time I wanted to set up a train, I also built a (somewhat rickety) staging addition that goes on the left side of the layout.

On the non-ops side, I've been doing some planning on structures, as well, and laid my first bit of scenery!

I'll expand on all this with real posts (and photos) in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!

The Wicomico St. Bus

Baseball season is tough for me. At least from a modeling standpoint. I love to watch, and somehow, before I know it, 3-4 hours each night have gone somewhere, never to be seen again.

The terrible start of my beloved Red Sox this year has made it easier to not watch. They're off to their worst start in... ever. At least in my lifetime. In fact, the only games they've won are the ones I haven't watched. And being a superstitious baseball fan (and a superstitious Red Sox fan to boot) that clearly means I can't watch any more Sox games this season at all. (Because obviously the success of a team with a $150 million payroll rests squarely on my shoulders.)

That's not going to happen of course, I'm not that strong. But for now it's certainly a boon to my modeling time.

What the heck does this have to do with Wicomico St. or busses, you ask? Well, it's my long-winded way of saying I got something done on the layout last night.

The Bus

Last night I dragged my butt downstairs, then dragged some wire. Given that the layout is only 17 feet long, this may not seem much of an achievement, but I've been avoiding it, so it is. Let's be clear: The wiring on this layout is not hard. I just don't like doing wiring at all, ever, so I'd been putting it off.

With a burst of enthusiasm I slid under the layout and drilled holes through the leg anchors. I had decided that I would use brass hooks to keep the wiring neat, that is, to keep it from sagging once the drops are connected to it, since the suitcase connectors will have a little weight. Once I'd pulled the wire through, I determined the hook locations and put them in. This was a ridiculously simple task since the roadbed is thin luaun plywood on a hollow door.

The LocoNet

Once the wiring was hung I realized I hadn't considered the LocoNet, (I'm using Digitrax) but I quickly decided I wasn't worried. Again, the layout is only 17 feet long, and I would only need a UR91 and a single UP3. (Yes, I know these are outdated, but I have them and they work.) I had saved the wire from the old layout, so I have all the LocoNet wiring I need for now. A couple of additional hooks will take care of keeping that wire out of the way. Then I hung the UR91 and UP3.

Running with DCC

Did I run a train? Alas no. I realized that I don't have a 1/8" drill bit long enough to go through a ceiling tile or two, two inches of foam and a hollow core door, so I couldn't install and drop wires. I decided to I would pick up a bit today; then I called it a night. It was a productive hour. It's amazing how little time it often takes to do the things you spent so much time avoiding.

The tougher part is next: soldering drops. As I think about it, soldering is the part of wiring that I really dislike, (not to mention I'm not that good at it), so my avoidance mechanism may kick in once again, but I'm going to try to keep my enthusiasm up and get the task completed very soon.

I'll update you on that one next time...

Proof!

Hello, everyone!

Since last time, when I made the momentous announcement of a train running on the layout, I've made some more progress, which I'll document in the next posting, but people have been asking for photos, so who am I to deny you?

Good News and Bad News

Hello everyone!

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought at the very least, I would give you a little news. Both Good and Bad.

The Bad News

Well, part of the bad news you already know: I haven't been able to post for a while. I've been very busy with various work projects since early November. As a consultant and small business owner a) you don't necessarily keep 9-5 hours b) you take work when it's available and make the most of it. So, that's kept me from posting as much as I'd like. That is, at all.

Breaking Ground

It's been a while since I posted, and the reason for that is that I was getting all my materials together to start construction. The major holdup was the ceiling tiles.

Like Jim Six in Model Railroad Planning 2010, I'm using ceiling tiles for my roadbed. However, I don't need pristine tiles (I'm just going to shave them down and cover them with paint anyway) so why would I want to pay full price for them? I asked at the local Lowe's what they do with damaged tiles, and the guys said they sell them for pennies on the dollar. So I waited, checking the clearance bin each time I went in. About a week or so ago, there were 5 cases sitting there in various level of distress. One case had only one tile in the package that was damaged minimally; the rest were perfect. I got them for 50% off. Not exactly my idea of pennies on the dollar, but certainly cheap enough. I also had to run around looking for the right size T-nuts for the wheels. I wasn't paying $3.50 each for stainless steel, but no one seemed to have the galvanized in stock. I finally located some, still stainless, but appreciably cheaper than Lowe's. I bit the bullet.

Track Plan Unveiled

It's time to break out the champagne and christen the final Wicomico St. Track Plan. Except I don't drink champagne and christening the plan will just make the paper soggy.

Regardless, as many of you know, coming up with a workable track plan can be a pretty difficult thing. That's partly why I put together this blog. as I've found that getting ideas from others can be very helpful. That proved true here.

I'll be honest, though: apart from this initial Wicomico St. portion, I haven't a clue as to how I'm going to put all of the things I want to include in the layout into a workable track plan for the rest of the room.  But I'm not worrying about that at the moment. As stated in the "Planning For Portability" section of the Planning and Pondering post, I'm building this portion first so that I don't need to worry about having the whole thing finished.


The level of incompletion for the basement plan as a whole doesn't diminish the satisfaction I'm feeling with finalizing the plan. So without further ado, here is the final drawing.

Now, before you get in an uproar, (I know you were thinking about starting an uproar... I sense these things) I'm aware that a "final" plan is rarely final. And I already know that the layout won't be built exactly as shown here. I plan to shorten some of the Peco turnouts to lengthen the runaround a little bit and move the spurs to the left slightly further left. But anyone who has worked with 3rd Planit knows, it's a lot easier to plan for these things than to redraw a turnout. So, I'm saving myself the work. But, the framework is there, and this is the plan I'm moving forward with.

A note on the operation: trains will enter the layout from left to right. On the prototype, trains bound for Wicomico come of the main line and connect to the section represented by the layout to the left of the W.T. Burnett area. The track terminates at the end of the street (near the area I've designated "Storage"). So, nothing will ever connect there on the layout.  

I want to thank everyone who has given their input and some great ideas to get the plan to this point. I'm looking forward to doing some building. And when we return, thoughts on building...