Focus on trackwork

Been busy most of the summer with other activities, but in August I was able to get back to working on the layout. After some initial clean up of the area, I looked around and tried to determine what I should focus on. There are plenty of things to do, but I am committed now to getting in all of the remaining trackage on the layout in order to host an initial operating get together. Not a formal session, but just something to introduce my layout to some local operators and run through the train schedule to see how things play out. I have a full operating plan on paper and in my mind, so I would like to see if it will really all come together as planned. (I imagine adjustments will be made).

First up was to tackle a staging deficiency I identified after I started to revise some of my Canadian Pacific train operations. Originally I built Newport staging with 3 separate tracks. But with the addition of an Amtrak train to 2 CP locals and 1 through freight meant I would have trouble staging 4 trains. I could see a (somewhat) easy remedy by adding a new track, but it meant working in a tough location under benchwork for Gilman, VT above. Over the course of 3 nights I fit in subroadbed, Homabed and track, cutting in a new turnout and adding a new Tortoise switch machine. It was not easy to work here and I would recommend building hidden staging completely before adding stuff above it! Now I have space to stage either the Amtrak train or one of the CP locals, and the other 3 tracks for the remaining trains.

With that out of the way, I turned my attention to the area above, figuring out the track layout and building arrangement for the paper mill in Gilman. Using some prototype information about the real Gilman mill sent to me from fellow MEC modeler Cam Green, I determined that long sidings can be used to handle multiple car types at different spots. I know of this concept but sometimes you just get hung up on one siding having to be for one purpose and used to hold all the cars for that purpose.

So I have one long siding that will handle inbound pulp paper boxcars and also kaolin tank cars. And further up a siding that splits off will hold outbound paper loads, with extras on the main siding. This overcame an obstacle I had trying to fit in multiple turnouts. With less turnouts, I have more track to spot cars. I also have another siding to handle covered hoppers of starch and hoppers of coal. These 3 sidings along with one long passing siding (which will also hold cars off spot for a local to spot later) seem like not too many tracks but actually serve all the needs of the mill and actually follow the prototype fairly well. Here are two overhead kind of shots with the building pieces mocked up and some cars spotted in appropriate places.

Then I moved over to East St. Johnsbury where I put in 3 sidings. Two long sidings will handle Maple Grove Farm food products and Ciment Quebec (cement) and another will be used for a pulpwood loading siding. I removed the temporary trackage and put in the three turnouts and fit in new sections of code 83 track between them. I also added under track uncoupling magnets on each track. Next up will be adding Tortoise machines to the 2 turnouts out of reach and a ground throw on the other that is easily reached. Here is an in progress photo. The kaolin cars were just used to test the track and do not represent cars that would be spotted here.

So progress has been made. I need to next tackle the final track in Sheldon Jct., which I have not touched since putting in track about 5 years ago. I have also started to lay out the track in Morrisville for the yard, engine house and assorted industries. This I may do next because it is pretty much finalized. I also have the track for the talc mill in Johnson, some B&M track in Whitefield, the B&M track in Groveton for the other paper mill and the track up on the North Stratford shelf. Hopefully I can keep at it and meet my goal of hosting an operating night sometime this winter.

Heat Wave

Has it been hot enough for you? At least most of the country has been at or near 100 degrees this week. Yikes, nowhere to go but the basement I suppose!

Well, I have not been real good about posting something at least each month this year like I planned. It was April, and now July is almost over! Well, let me post some stuff to get back on track.

I will have my layout open for the New Jersey Division Meet on September 10th. Check out njdivnmra.org for more info. It will also be open again in November on a date TBA for model railroad month as part of the MD-DE-PA-NJ full month of open layouts.

On the Free-mo front, I am disappointed that the NER Convention in Warwick, RI will not have a Free-mo set up. The New England Free-mo guys tried real hard to get it to happen, but the convention committee seems to have dropped the ball on having a great addition to their convention. Oh well, these things happen.

I will have my Free-mo modules at the October 29-30 Timonium, Maryland Great Model RR Trainshow. I'll participate with the Capitol Free-mo group. I should have some more updates to my modules, and I look forward to doing some operating amongst the modules set up.

Speaking of the modules, I thought I would share a couple of photos about how I store them when I am not using or working on them. My layout was pretty much designed and all benchwork was built before I learned about and started down the Free-mo path. The layout is not changing, and I am not able to incorporate my modules into the layout. Which is OK because part of doing the modules was to allow me to model a time period after my layout which is set in 1980. So things you would see circa 1996 to 2005 are on the modules and would not be easily integrated into my layout.

So I needed a place to store them safely within the confines of the layout room. I built a set of brackets under the layout and use plastic sheeting to keep dust and debris from above the layout.

The smaller module sits to the side and the legs go underneath. They are safe here and still allow me to work on the layout above with no problems.

These have been in storage since the last Timonium show, but they should be up in the garage in September to get ready for the NJ Division Meet, as they will be on site at the Meet location.

Free-mo Update

A while back, I wrote about my Free-mo modules, but I have not given too many updates. Well, I have been working on them pretty steadily since January to get ready for a display at the Timonium, MD train show on April 9-10. You can see my previous Free-mo posts using the Labels listing at the right.

Started in 2 years ago in the Spring of 2009, my modules were designed to be self-operational as I was the only one who would have any in my geographic area. I have been bringing them out to various NJ Division NMRA Meets since May of 2009. After getting the 2 main modules constructed, I built a small third module to complete the set and have to ends with standard Free-mo interfaces. Here is a trackplan of the modules:

After getting the basic benchwork done, using the ideas presented in the August and October 2008 RMC articles, I completed all trackwork and wiring before moving on to scenic elements. I painted all the track, highlighted individual ties and painted the rails. I then set to start ballasting all track. This always takes a while to get down properly and then totally cleaned up, removing ballast particles from rail sides and on the tops of ties. But it is well worth the effort and really makes the track look great.

Knowing I had the show in April, where I would be connecting my module to those of the Capitol Free-mo group, who in turn would be connecting to the larger (250' x 75'!) Sipping & Switching Society layout, I wanted to get some base scenery and structures in place and finally stop looking at the plywood pacific of the last 2 years. I used ground foams, real sand, static grasses and Siflor weed clumps to get a base layer in place. Then I spent some time building a few structures. This included a DPM freight depot I purchased around 1984 (prince tag was $6), finished of a LaserKit Yard tower started years ago, a Rix shortline enginehouse and a Walthers background building for a rail served warehouse. I took time to paint all of these so they would not necessarily look like the pictures on the box.

Finally it was time to drive down to Timonium. I left my place real early and headed down I-95. The good news here is that there is a lot less traffic to deal with instead of leaving later when I go to a regular show as an attendee. I met up with the Capitol Free-mo guys and quickly integrated my module into the layout. For the rest of the day and Sunday, I had fun running trains on the Free-mo modules as well as taking my train out onto the big S&SS layout where I was gone about an hour traversing their 1000+ foot branchline track. Lots of fun!

I also had some time to walk the show floor and caught up with some manufacturers, such as Scotty Mason, James Harr at Stella scale models, the guys at Nick & Nora Designs, the guys at Yankee Dabbler (great prices on model railroad stuff!) and others.

I stayed the night at my buddy Anton's place, catching up on his layout and watching some Canadian Pacific Alco DVDs. Anton is also a member of the Four County Society of Model Engineers and he was there at Timonium with his club as well. All in all a great model railroad weekend.

Here are some pictures from the set up. I hope to return again in October for the Fall show.

For now, I will put the modules back into their storage location under the layout as I want to get back to working on the layout after spending most of my time on the modules. But I wil get them back out before the Fall for some more work as I hope to also take them up to Rhode Island for the NER convention, plus local NJ Division NMRA Meets, and the October Timonium show. Hopefully I can get most of the scenery completed and maybe start work the remaining structures. That would pretty much complete the modules. Either way it will be fun just to operate on them, alone or part if a larger layout.

For more info on my modules as part of NJ Free-mo, check out the NJ Free-mo web site. And for more info on Free-mo in general, check out the main Free-mo web site.

Hydrocal Structure Kits

Continuing with my structure building bug that has hit recently, I built 2 structure kits based on Hydrocal wall castings. The impetus for building these came from my recent acquisition of Motrak Models latest HO kit, the brick supply shed, item #87602. Jeff at Motrak asked me to do a review of the kit on the ModelRailCast podcast, so I knew I wanted to get building it sooner rather than later.

The other kit, well, that has definitely been a 'later'! The CC Crow Safety Hook & Ladder building kit has been on my shelf for about 20 years. I knew I would always get around to it, but there it sat. So instead of building one Hydrocal based kit, I thought it would make sense to build both at the same time and take advantage of doing each step needed on both kits.

A full review of my building experience will be on an upcoming ModelRailCast show. I'll post the exact show number here when it is available. But I'll hit a few highlights here. First, couple of pictures of the completed kits.

Here is a look at the Motrak kit unpacked:

I started construction by first spraying each wall white primer, with light coats. After drying overnight, I applied 2 different red colors to get a brick color I liked. Then I used Durham Water Putty, supplied in the CC Crow kit, to do the mortar. This took some trial and error to get just the right amount, but I do like the results.

I painted the windows and added the glazing, then inserted them into the openings. The CC Crow kit includes strip wood to cut for the window frames top and bottom, as well as the full frames for the small windows. This made them look more unique in my opinion. Here are the walls while the windows were going in:

With each wall done, I assembled the basic boxes and used some clamps to lightly hold them together.

You do need to be careful when working with Hydrocal parts as they are very easily broken. I did have some trouble with the CC Crow kit breaking but each one was easily fixed, except for one which did not go back together invisibly. I used some small gauge wire to hide the break, making it look like a conduit or hose running from the upstairs window down to the ground.

The CC Crow roof was also cast Hydrocal. I painted the top silver to look like metal roofing, and the edges white to look like wood trim. The Motrak kit uses black paper to represent tar paper. I used 3M Transfer Tape (available from Fos Scale web site, and others), a first for me. I really liked this product and will use it extensively in the future. It is not real cheap, but the results are great. It lays down an impossibly thin sheet of double sided stickiness that is really easy to then overlay with shingles, tarpaper, etc. I recommend giving it a try.

All in all these were a lot of fun and went together in only a few evenings. Most of the work is paint and finishing. I used chalks to add some weathering to the sides and roofs, but most of the details are in the castings. These really stand out in a sea of wood-based structure kits, and also look different next to a styrene based brick kit. So give one a try. The Motrak kit is definitely good for a beginner (which I was with hydrocal before these kits). Check out motrakmodels.net for all their products, as well as this kit, which lists for $25.

Three Little Sheds

As Bob Marley says in Three little Birds, "Every little thing...is gonna be alright"! Well, if you have this kit in your stash, I recommend pulling it out and getting started on it. It goes together easily and quickly, and you should have no problems with these at all, mon!

These three little sheds I built from a kit by KingMill called 3 Sheds at Cohasset. I built these as directed in the kit's instructions, including ideas on painting. The instructions are good and you should read through them all first as it will make assembly easier knowing what is coming later.

The walls were painted gray first and then drybrushed with Aged White over that to give the effect of peeling paint. I think that technique is pretty effective and I recommend giving it a try to see what effects you can create.

The roof material (self stick shingles and tin panels) was painted LV Cornell Red by airbrush. However after installing the roof, I still had to go back and repaint and touch up, so I m not sure painting it ahead of time really saved me any time or effort.

I finished these off using weathering powders from Bragdon, using grays on the walls and rusts on the roof, with some black applied sparingly here and there.

All in all a fun and easy time building these. A good kit for the beginner to the expert. Now, where to put these on my layout?

Here is the kit on the KingMill web site:
KingMill 3 Sheds

Their website indicates that these are sold out right now, but maybe you can find them at a show or hobby shop. You could also send KingMill an e-mail and let them know you are interested in getting these kits run again.

If you have any questions about these or want some photos, let me know in the comments section.

Springfield Report

[FYI...yes, I updated the look of the blog. I figured after 5 years it as getting kind of stale]

Just back from the Big Hobby Show in Springfield, Mass. My second time there, I went up with my buddy Anton and also his father this year. We left Friday morning hoping to avoid the rush hours, but we still had lots of traffic going up I-95 and it took us about an hour and a half longer than usual. We arrived in Palmer in mid afternoon and had lunch at the Steaming Tender. Pretty good food and a beautiful station restoration. Hokey old music was a tad too loud, but all in all pretty nice. We went outside and watched some of the action as a CSX train passed and the New England Central sorted cars. That is the restaurant and next is my buddy Anton next to the 12 foot icicle hanging from the side of the depot.

We were waiting on the northbound Amtrak Vermonter hoping to watch it do its reverse maneuver. It was getting late so we headed towards Springfield and in about 10 minutes heard that train 56 was due into Palmer in about 15 minutes. We quickly found a side road and stood trackside as the Vermonter passed at 61 mph. Here is some video from Palmer. I unfortunately screwed up the Amtrak recording so it is very short.



We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Springfield and it was pretty much filled with people there for the show. Almost like the convention hotel at an NMRA event. We headed to the show about 45 minutes early and waited in the car until about 15 minutes before the doors opened, then we got in line. We decided to focus on the biggest building first, the Better Living Center. I quickly found some Atlas Kaolin tank cars I needed for the paper mills on my layout and then came across Dave from Perkins Road Depot. He had wonderful custom painted and modified freight cars including some great wood chip hoppers. I had to have some!

Other highlights included talking Flyers hockey with Mike Baker at Nick & Nora Designs, watching (and buying) 2 Blu-Ray DVDs on the CP/CN and the Pan Am/Guilford, saying hi to Dave Frary, and coming across other people I see but once or twice a year. Also checked out the latest kit from Stella Scale Models. I need to finish my New Erie Cafe before buying another one! Also looked at some great images by the guys at The Pixel Depot. Really nice shots of prototype railroads.

For the next 5 hours we walked the BLC building before declaring it complete and then spent the next 3 hours walking the Stroh and Young buildings before calling it a day. Mainly took advantage of show specials throughout the building to add to my goodies bag. We left about 15 minutes before the show ended. This helped us get out of the parking lot and get a seat at a restaurant before everyone else did. Apparently the attendance on Saturday was around 11,500 and totaled out somewhere around 21,000 for the 2 days.

On Sunday we walked the Mallery Building. Said Hi to Mike Rose and Scotty Mason, took advantage of great prices on Tsunami sound decoders and the Soundtraxx instant $5 cash back program, and picked up an EOT flasher that I can use with my Free-Mo modules (I pretty much model post-1990 on that as opposed to the layout where it is firmly 1980). Got to meet Jeff Adams of Motrak models, who I had previously did an interview via Skype on thr ModelRailCast show. Picked up some loads and his latest kit and Jeff gave me the 15% ModelRailCaster discount. Met Ron Kosmider of LaserModeling3, a relatively new company and pretty young guy for a manufacturer. They had 3 really nice kits, but they are a bit early for my layout. But he did show some nice simulated embossed tin panels that I can use for modeling the ET & HK Ide building. Finally something that looks like the siding on that building! Also talked to Atlas and found out that the long awaited (by me at least) GP40-2W locomotives should arrive in April. This will finaly give my Guilford SD26 company on the Free-Mo module.

All in all a great time and well worth attending. Looking forward to going next year and possibly arriving earlier to catch more trains in Palmer.

Happy New Year

I have not been real diligent in posting updates and info to the blog. I'll see if I can remedy that this year and put more info out there. Anyway, Happy New Year to all that follow or otherwise come across my blog. This blog works in conjunction with my main web site, nekrailroad.com. That has more static type information about the layout while the blog is more about in progress stuff and updates.

I thought I would start of 2011 with some updates on layout building progress in the past year. As previously mentioned, I completed the staging yard for Portland/Newport (double ended serving as staging for 2 different mains, MEC and CP). After that was in, I started to figure out how to get the track from the MEC up to the new shelf I added for North Stratford. Here is a pic of the "ramp" that gets a train there. It will be hidden behind the backdrop as you will see later. Building it was done with laminated spline and simple risers. It was kind if like those old train and trestle kits I had as a kid that raised the track on a figure 8 so it could pass over itlself!



Next up was installing the long backdrop behind Whitefield and Crawford Notch. I again went with styrene and here are some in progress building shots. if anyone has specific questions, just use the comments section here.





I then painted the styrene blue and started installing photo backdrops. Here is a couple of views of the completed backdrop. I'll post some more with the photo backdrops in place later.




One thing I did not do this past year was post updates from my trip to the Fall NMRA convention. I actually attended 2, one in Burlington, VT and the other in Princeton Jct., nearby here in New Jersey. I just got caught up in things and didn;t have time to post daily updates. I did however post photos and a video from the Burlington VT convention. Check out the foloowing 2 links to view those:

NER Burlington Photos
NER Burlington Video

My other activity going on this past year or so was building a Free-Mo module set. I think I did post something about Calais, Maine a while back as my design choice for the modules. I need to add a page to my web site about the modules I suppose. The only real drawback is that I cannot configure them into the layout. However I plan to take advantage of them being separate to model more up-to-date stuff that would not fit on the layout. I plan to share more info about building the modules on the railroad-line forums. For now you can check out njfreemo.org for more info and some photos.

The Model RailCast Show

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have started contributing to the Model RailCast Show, a podcast that you can listen to on your computer, iPod or other MP3 device. Starting with episode #112, I have been contributing segments on the prototype railroads of Northern New England. These segments are mixed to the regular show content and are about a 10 minute segment of the 90-120 minute shows.

Here is what I have contributed so far:

Episode #112 - North Stratford RR
Episode #116 - Canadian Pacific in Vermont
Episode #117 - Portland Terminal, Belfast & Moosehead Lake, Aroostock Valley
Episode #123 - Recap of the NER-NMRA Convention in Burlington Vermont

Upcoming is a look at the Maine Central's Mountain Division.

The MRCS podcast is a great way to find about other model railroaders, prototype and model railroads, manufacturers, big names in the hobby - and lots more. It is well worth a listen and can help make your commute to work or wherever a little more enjoyable.

The Model RailCast Show is hosted by Ryan Anderson and you can find out more info by checking out the website modelrailcast.com. If you like what you hear, please consider a small donation to the show to help keep it on the "air" and available to all model railroaders.

Photo Backdrops

I have been working on the layout during these hot summer months. I'll show a little bit of what has been going on for you now...

I had picked up some CDs of Photo Backdrops at the Springfield show in January and I decided to try and make use of them. These are the ones from Larc Products in New York. I printed on full page labels and then cut them out as instructed. I installed them in 2 places. The first is behind the MEC track between East St. Johnsbury and Gilman. I am pretty happy with how this turned out and I am looking forward to putting some trees and scenery between the backdrop and the track to finish the effect.



The next location I worked on was a new section, a shelf above the existing track at the end of the aisle. I added this to represent North Stratford. I'll detail a little more on how the trains get up to this level in a future post. This was an even longer run, with the backdrop measuring 11 feet I believe. Here is a look at part of it over the Gilman scene below.



I really like how these turned out and look forward to using them on the scenes behind Whitefield and Crawford Notch. I played around with using parts of them behind existing ground foam covered backdrops I installed along the LVRC, and I think this will work well also.

Princeton Jct. Convention

My layout will be open for the upcoming NMRA Mid-Eastern Region (MER) Fall Convention, Princeton Junction 2010. Being held from Thursday September 30th through Sunday October 3rd, there is plenty to see and do at the convention. More details on the MER Convention Website, http://mer.nmra.org/MERConv/MERConv.html

I will open my layout on Thursday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I was asked to submit 4 photos of the layout to the promotional committee, so here they are:






This does not show any of the unfinished areas, including the 2nd and 3rd phase areas of course, so there is more of the layout to see than this. But the finished scenes work better for promotional purposes.

Hope you can make it to the convention and a visit to my layout!

DVD Review: Rails Along the River - WRJ to St. J

Just finished up watching the DVD "Rails Along The River: White River Jct. to St. Johnsbury, VT" from Tell-Tale productions. I picked this up along with part 2 "St. J to Newport" at the Springfield show. (Have not watched part 2 yet). Here is my impressions of the video (I have no affiliation with the producer).

Pretty good overview of the line from south to north. Some period photos help explain the importance of this line in earlier times. Footage mainly from the 2000's, with some CP Rail RS18 footage from the early 1990s. Includes current VTR Washington County ops, as well as predecessor Iron Roads’ Northern Vermont RR from the first half of the last decade. “Side trips” to the Claremont Concord, Lamoille Valley (including snow plows and covered RR bridges) and Conway Scenic’s ex-MEC MountainDivision (including a steam excursion) are nice extras that flesh out railroading in this area. Video includes freights as well as some passenger excursions.

A little sparse on commentary about the trains themselves, but it does include some historical interviews about certain areas throughout the video that go beyond a normal train video, kind of like a Ken Burns documentary at times. Cuts to a topo map at each town are a nice touch as they help you see where the rail line is in relation to the Connecticut River and other towns. Action from all seasons gives one a good feel for the area. I wish they spent a little more time on certain train segments (like switching at the customers) and a little less run-by shots.

Some trains were filmed the whole length of the line, so you see the same train in a run-by multiple times in different locations which starts to get old after a while. Also, you sometimes want a little more of a shot, or a less zoomed in view, like when the train plows snow through a grade crossing, which is not as dramatic because it is zoomed in and you don’t see the snow bank getting blasted at the road. I did like some of the shots of buildings, stations and right-of-way intermixed with the train footage as it really helps with ideas for scenery and structures on a model railroad.

Coming in at 100 minute (with a 10 minute bonus feature and 10 minutes of ads for other titles), the DVD sells for $25 (I got mine for $19.95 at the show). Overall 3.5 out of 5 boxcars. Good video quality and good camerawork. Could have moved along a little faster and perhaps been just 75 minutes in length. But a good deal ($25 includes shipping and tax) and certainly a good look at something different than a lot of today’s videos that feature big trains from just the big railroads. More info:www.railroadvideodvd.com

Track in at Crawford Notch

With wiring tasks done for right now, I am turning my attention to getting sidings and passing tracks installed off of the Maine Central main line. First up was the small yard at Crawfords Notch. I pretty much followed the prototype by having a 3 track double ended yard. Operationally I will use this small yard to receive gravel cars from the LVRC that the MEC would use for ballast along the Mountain Division. These could be dropped by YR-1, but more likely I will have these delivered by a ballast extra, returning with empties back to Hardwick gravel on the LVRC.

I installed Walthers #5 turnouts and Atlas code 83 track here, but used a piece of Micro Engineering code 55 flex track for the far #3 track. Pictures show this track as being pretty light and somewhat overgrown in 1980 as it was not used too much I suppose.

After getting the track in and feeders wired in (aaahh, more wiring!), I ran a local MEC train through the tracks to see how they worked. Next I stalled Details West tie plates and turnout brace castings on the rails facing the layout edge. This is the first scene visitors will encounter when entering the layout room, so I want to make it look as good as possible. However I used up all that parts I had, so I need to get some more to finish up here. Also, the castings are too big for the code 55 track, but I might be able to install them and then file down what extends above the rail. We’ll see.

For turnout controls, I went with hand operated throws as this is right along the layout’s edge. I decided to give the Caboose Industries high level switch stands a try. I am not sure yet if I like these. They do look a little better than the standard ones in use on most layouts. But they are a bit delicate and I am not sure how they will hold up over time. I actually broke one by throwing it back and forth too much while getting the alignment right. We’ll see how it goes. I do like being able to add the target to the pivoting rod. That is neat.

I also plan to use this yard in a somewhat freelanced way by having a local out of St. Johnsbury travel to the yard, pick up any cars for North Stratford dropped by RY-2 and then run around the train to head back up the line towards Whitefield, taking the switch to North Stratford. This will then travel to a section on a shelf above Groveton to interchange cars with the North Stratford. I’ll post more on this later when I build that small section. It will make a nice model railroad operational job, although it is not prototypically accurate.

Next up will be adding the interchange tracks in Whitefield between the B&M and MEC, getting the B&M mainline track in place, descending downhill, under the MEC line and into a hidden section that turns back and heads to Groveton. Here is a look at the Micro Engineering bridge on the MEC and the B&M roadbed underneath. I attached Chooch abutments here although I need a small stone block to reach the bridge footings.

It Ain’t Fun, But It Has To Be Done

Wiring of course. I don’t know too many people who enjoy it. I don’t mind too much as I like the results you get, being able to run the trains or operate turnouts, etc. But it is tough to get under the layout and reach areas for soldering, work on wires in tight spaces, etc. Luckily it is something that you do and get out of the way, and if done well, you do not need to revisit it too often!

A lot of time recently has been spent getting the wiring done on the third phase section. All feeders have been put in on the staging tracks and the Maine Central main line. Next up was the installation of Tortoise switch machines for all remote turnouts, in staging and also on the main where it is not close to the front of the layout. In all, I installed 15 Tortoise machines and wired them into Digitrax DS44 stationary decoders in the last couple of weeks. My knees are telling me “Enough!” with crawling around, getting up and down and sitting in awkward positions to get the Tortoise alignments correct. I still have at least 4 more Tortoise’s to install, although these are in places where the turnouts are not yet installed (the B&M line leading into Whitefield and the MEC switching at East St. Johnsbury for Maple Grove Farms and Ciment Quebec. So, I’ll work on getting the trackwork done in these locations and give my knees a break for a while. One good thing is that these installations are not too hard to reach from the front of the layout, so they will be easier to do than say the staging yard machines. Here is a look at the work done at the Rigby (Portland) end of hidden staging, showing the Tortoise machines, various feeders and bus wires, plus the DS44 decoder.

Another wiring task I took on prior to the Tortoise blitz was installing a remote Short Circuit panel. This feeds off of the PSX circuit breakers that split the layout into separate power districts. As I could not determine a good local location for each short circuit indicator LED ( I do not have local control panels), I decided to centralize them and install them above the backdrop in the central peninsula. This makes them visible from about 80% of the layout. I might still run another local LED over to the paper mill sections as they are visually behind this indicator board. But this is better than walking over to the DCC shelf to look for the warning LED on the circuit board. I built the panel out of styrene, making a small box. I ran the wires as a bus from the circuit boards and used regular LEDS from Radio Shack in plastic mounts. I printed the background on my computer using a drawing program and setting the background to black with white text. Here is a look at the panel:

I plan to build some more panels like this to show turnout positions as well as track occupancy lights for some of the hidden tracks on the layout. I picked up a few IR detectors from Boulder Creek Engineering to install on the Central Vermont hidden staging tracks. When that is in place, I’ll post an entry on that letting you know how it turned out.

Layout Update

It has been a little while since I posted an update on the layout, so here comes a few updates on the layout in a couple of postings.

Work on phase 3 has been progressing nicely since I started construction back in August. I have all of the benchwork and mainline track in place prior to the open houses in November, so I was able to run the trains on this section. This was also the debut of the U18Bs and they performed quite well (operationally and sound wise). I’ll give an update in a lnear fashion, moving from the existing layout area starting at Gilman and finishing up at the other end of the room.

Putting the trackwork into this latest phase solidified some things that were up in the air and opened up some new possibilities. First, I removed the MEC Connecticut River bridge crossing. It is nice to see a train roll through a bridge, but it just felt too cramped and forced right next to the paper mill at Gilman. It also created a difficult scenery situation. So now I extended the track out of Gilman into the area where the bridge was, which gave me a nice sized passing siding and a realignment of the mainline through a broader curve. I still have to get in there and finalize the actual track sidings and of course get some of the paper mill building built. But Like this arrangement better. Hiding the hidden CP track behind the mill is also easier now as it will just be behind trees. To the right is a look at the revised Gilman area.

The MEC line after Gilman will parallel the CP line and head behind a new foreground scene that has been opened up. Before, I planned to have Whitefield in the 2x 8 area across from Gilman, but it was just too hard to fit the track in correctly. So I moved Whitefield further down the benchwork on phase 3 and created a new area as a destination for B&M local trains, the Groveton paper mill. This will provide a good switching location for an operator and give some purpose to the B&M trains crossing and interchanging with the MEC at Whitefield.

In the picture you will see the 3 tracks along the wall. The far track is the CP mainline into staging (having come out of St. Johnsbury’s south end) and the near track is the MEC main. In between is the staging track for the B&M, representing the south end (i.e. White River Jct.) From this staging track the B&M train will come “on-line” to the layout entering Whitefield. It will then travel and turn back on itself, descending as it does (more on this later). It will end up here on the pink foam which will be the Groveton paper mill. I will also incorporate an interchange track with the Grand Trunk as another car destination (and I could make it an operational interchange if I want to add some GT engines to the layout!).

After Groveton, the tracks pass through the utility closet to the rest of the phase 3 section. The B&M track into Groveton will pass in front of the doors on a shelf or drop leaf. In the picture the MEC track curves towards the front as it approaches Whitefield. The B&M track is in the middle, also heading to Whitefield. The far track is the CP heading to the staging yard.

Here is an overall look at the bulk of the phase 3 section built since last August. The front track near the edge of the layout is the MEC. The B&M track/roadbed is seen heading diagonally towards the diamond crossing and then along the front of the layout edge, descending to a turn back curve and then reappearing under the staging yard and the MEC track (the spline and Homa-Bed is the B&M). In the back is the double ended staging yard to handle CP and MEC trains at each end. There are 6 tracks in total and this, along with their length will fully support all the trains I will operate. The staging yard will be hidden by a short backdrop, allowing someone to peer over it to see the yard, but visually separating it from the foreground scenes. The sidings and interchange tracks at Whitefield still need to be added and are next up on the work list. At the far end is Crawford Notch and the curve that leads into the other end of staging, representing Portland, Maine. (Pictures and info on that end will come in another post)

I’ll close out this post with 2 more views of the new area. The first is a look in the reverse direction, back towards where the above photo was taken. Here you can see the existing layout sections to the right, and Crawford Notch is directly on the left. The throttle is sitting atop the B&M line.

And finally a look at the new section from the existing layout area where St. Johnsbury is located. In this view you are looking directly at Whitefield. The freight cars in the background are in staging will get hidden by the short backdrop coming later.