AT&N: Modern-Era Layout

A little more progress...

I got in about 3.5 hours of work tonight which included:
1. Getting all of the none-layout stuff off of the layout (You couldn't tell it by looking around but I can't stand clutter)
2. Opening and running my newest loco, my 3rd Life-Like UP 0-4-0 #3197. AT&N (Ex-UP) #3197 was fired up to pull a small VIP excursion consisting of a former BN passenger car and a former BN caboose for the West Alabama Railroad Museum. Tonight's inagural run served as a test run for #3197 before the museum's Father's Day excurtions this weekend. (Oh my goodness, if I was going to drag race a model locomotive, this would be the only one I would enter. It will F-L-Y!)
3. Started up old AT&N (ex-SLSF, ex-BN, ex-BNSF) SD40-2 #956 for a work train to carry some materials and a front-end loader on an old gondola to one of the 2 sites where a switch will be installed soon for one of the new spurs. #956 certainly looks good in it's Frisco O/W scheme.
(I will have the option of connecting the ends of the spurs at a later time at one end of the layout to have a 3rd track. As much as I like the idea of spurs, I doubt I will be able to resist the thought of running 3 trains on a layout for the first time since 1995.)
4. Moved around my structures in an attempt to nail down a plan for roads, parking lots, etc.

Tonight was probably the first time I ran a train on the layout since Jan. or Feb. It felt pretty good!

I'll try to get a progress photo or 2 uploaded before the end of the week.

 

Trip to Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Lowes, and more

Well I think I just lost an update in the attempt to submit. I picked up a few things today. As late as it is now, I'm certain this will be the "readers digest" version.

Hobby Lobby: Dried Moss (Thank you, Jim James for that tip), Fine ground foam for grass. Looked/asked in fabrics for "fake fur." Apparently that's not what they call it, Jim... at least not in Tupelo, MS. I found something that had the word "Honey" on the label. Let me know if that's it.

Walmart: Plaster for RR crossings, Elmer's glue for ground foaming, sticky putty for installing utility poles and street signs.

Lowes: Foam board to seal off door around air conditioning cart (photos coming soon).

Ebay: Bought an AT&N sew-on patch. Will be sown on a cap eventually. Looking at rolling stock for current RR's now crossing the old AT&N R.O.W. so that my modern AT&N can interchange with those lines. Also looking at some "Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks" rolling stock for the AT&N to once again service that area.

Private Sale: Have a deal in the works to buy a GE 44 ton switcher and ALCo RS-1... each a part of the AT&N's first 13 diesel locomotives.

Lots to do. Ship it on the ... "Any Time At Night." I still haven't learned the origin of that nickname.

 

Blue Skys & A/C!!!

Well folks... I'm not a plumber, but I play one on T.V.! I had intended to do a lot of layout "work" today until... our dishwasher started overflowing out from under the door. The wife and kids were gone and I had been out at the storage building, working on the layout. I just happened to be in the kitchen getting a drink of water when I heard water start pouring (after I had cut off the faucet). I look down and... well... you get the picture. Did you know that you shouldn't put the straws from juice boxes in the sink? Well, my kids didn't I guess. Turns out that they don't flow through the "pee trap" very well and that while they're stuck there, they can clog up the entire kitchen since our dishwasher drain is connected to the sink drain above the pee trap. I'm just glad I was able to fix it myself.
Anyway, before all that happened, I cut my foam panel to fit the doorway, cut a hole for the A/C, mounted it all on an old classroom TV cart and... ta da... I can once again enjoy model railroading without having to endure southern heat and humidity! This cart is about 2' taller than the other cart I was using and the foam board is more rigid than the paneling I was using...not to mention it's better insulated. I took a picture so maybe I'll post it with some others in a few days, after I get some other stuff done.
Between the little 5000 BTU A/C and the boxed fan I have in there, I was very comfortable... so much so that I decided to finally put a second coat of paint (sky) on the walls.
After that, it was time to "re-arrange" the town again to see where I can squeeze in roads, structures, parking lots, residences, farms, etc. I have: 2 farm residences (house, barn, silo, etc.), 2 stations (Sulligent & Sulligent Jct.), A small cement plant, A lumber yard shed, An old school building that will house the West Alabama RR museum (also gonna have some track outside with old equipment), A sand bunker with water tank, A store (soon to be Dollar General), A couple of freight storage buildings, my Sulligent Cotton Oil Co. building and water tank, a store with gas pumps, a couple of control towers, a big Exxon tank... well... I guess that's about it. I may not sound like much but when you start trying to lay it out with parking lots in mind, it's a lot to fit in.
I still have to install the turnouts at Sulligent and Sulligent, Junction. I have decided that the spurs will indeed be connected to form a 3rd track. I already have 4 DC power packs so I just need to buy some plastic rail joiners and I'll be set to run 3 trains.
For now, I'm running 2 on the double track oval.
Tonight BNSF (ex-Santa Fe) #3814 GP50 delivered some lumber and a loader to Sulligent Junction to be picked up by the AT&N. Also, AT&N (ex-Frisco, ex-BN, ex-BNSF) #956 SD40-2 was used on excursion service by the West Alabama Railroad Museum. The museum had to run 3 passenger cars today to keep up with demand/turnout for the big Father's Day Weekend event.
In all seriousness, those 2 units are Athearn Blue Box units and I can certainly tell a difference in them over some of the Life-Like units I have. Those 2 Athearn BB's run as smooth as a baby's butt and at low speeds too. LOL That's all for now. More to come.

 

No A/C? No windows? No problem?

2nd coat of paint on walls. Construction of spans for highway underway.

 

These are older photos now from older posts but take a look at the outer oval and the long siding that goes all the way around the near end in the photos.

I want to install some turnouts and extend that siding all the way around the other end to create a 3rd oval with crossovers to the middle oval.

I just watched this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iDUkaXA_t0 to find out how to wire 2 remote switches I bought on ebay for the 4 turnouts I have. I have 4 questions (keep in mind that I'm still running DC):

1. I want to be able to stop trains AND switch turnouts while the trains are stopped. Would I have to use an extra power pack I have to power the switches while the trains are stopped?
2. If wired to both, can 1 remote switch control 2 turnouts at the same time?
3. Can 1 remote switch control all 4 turnouts at the same time? That would allow me to save 1 switch for another possible siding in the future.
4. If I isolate the power of the outer track and install a 3rd power pack on it, couldn't I run an independent train on each track provided the turnouts were in the "straight ahead" position?

Even with 3 tracks/power packs, I would still have 1 extra DC power pack for the switches if needed. 4 power packs? A 4th track? Hmm...? I considered it at one time but I barely have space for stuctures and streets now and the 3rd, full track will limit available real estate even further. If I ever start completely over on a new layout like this one (5.5 by 8 or larger) I might consider more tracks, but for now, 3 is about all this layout can handle. If I had thought about it from the very beginning, I might have done a double track as "inside" as possible and another double track as "outside" as possible with real estate in between the 2 double tracks. Oh well... I do good to keep 2 trains running. A 3rd will really keep me on my toes. If I was crazy enough to try to run 4 trains at the same time, I would just go ahead and apply for a position as a dispatcher for a real railroad.

 

Got a little work in today.
1. I wanted to touch up the green paint before my first ever ground foam attempt. I wound up going over everything that was green again.
2. Also, the far end of the long board on the left side was rounded off for a previous layout consisting of a sheet of plywood sat on a folding table with ez track and powerlocks track for a temporary layout. When the weather was nice, my girls and I would set it up in the carport once in a while when we lived in a smaller house and didn't have any space anywhere for a permanent layout. After my youngest ran into the corner head first, I rounded off a corner and put the layout in the corner of the carport to prevent a repeat. I cut out a replacement piece months ago and finally got around to trying to patch it in and painting it today.
3. We now have our first street, "Frisco St." We actually have a Frisco St. here in Sulligent for one block, paralleling the tracks on the north side.
I have no idea where the red car came from or where the white car thinks it's going right now.


It will be Friday night or Saturday before I get another chance to do anything else. I think as long as I have that left side cleared off, I may as well get that turnout installed and start laying track around the other end to complete the 3rd track. Then I need to finalize the sites for structures so I can begin planning other roads, parking lots, plaster crossings, etc. I thought I'd need to get all of that done before applying an ground cover in grassy areas. I really need to run a bus wire for each track and wire each section of rail. Thankfully I used flex track so that will cut down on the work. I really appreciate all of the encouragement, advice, tips, and guidance I get from everyone here on frisco.org. Thank you all very much. - Brandon

 

For the first time since 1995, I now have a layout with 3 tracks! After several hours of trying to convince devices to play nice with my computer again, I finally have this uploaded to youtube. I just hope the link works now.



I plan on buying some plastic rail joiners and toggle switches to connect the turnouts in the outer 2 tracks.

I also have some photos:

I scratch built two bridges out of some "Mini Sticks" from Hobby Lobby and Elmer's Glue to replace the through truss bridges that were too large for Town Creek. Here's one of them up close:


Here are some bags of material I picked up from Hobby Lobby, along with 39 blooms of an unknown plant/bush/weed near a creek about 1/2 mi. from our house. If they dry like I'm hoping, they'll make great tree material:


Here is the "work horse" of the modern-era, "what if," AT&N -#956 - a "fully restored" Frisco SD40-2 with some cars unloaded off of the ferry in Mobile this morning. BNSF will take them the rest of the way from here.


Viewer Dicretion is Advised as BNSF #3814 delivers a train for the AT&N to take to the Alabama State Docks in Mobile. Residents all along the AT&N are lined up along the tracks with rotten eggs in hand for the passing through of the rolling stock.


West Alabama Railroad Museum's little UP #3197 switcher shows off pulling the 11:00am excursion over the 22mi. round trip to Vernon and back.

 

Until I run a bus wire and wire each section of track, there seem to be some spots where current drops. To keep locomotives from stalling, I use speed/momentum to get through those little spots. I'm really not sure why I have that problem considering my longest track is only about 24 feet long and that I soldered every joint on the inner 2 tracks and every joint except at the ends of turnouts on the outer track. The middle track has the worst dead spot. If I can ever get roads, ground cover and trees done, my next task needs to be running a bus wire. My Athern blue box locomotives perform better than the Life Likes and lower end stuff right now.

Tonight, I painted a couple of roads and parking lots and formed 8 plaster rail crossings... 4 double track and 4 single track. I've never done that before. I didn't enjoy it at all. There's bound to be an easier way than the technique I used. I left the air conditioner out there on "fan only" and set a box fan (at least that's what we call them here in NW AL) on a stool on high to help the plaster dry by morning. I ran my least favorite car through them several times in an attempt to make the necessary grooves inside the rails. I'll probably do some light hand sanding to smooth things out before painting them to match the roads. I need to paint a few dirt road roads also.

I tried something else for the first time tonight with decent success... ground foam appication. I only covered a small area but it turned out nice I guess. I know some people dilute Elmer's Glue with water in a spray bottle but I wanted more precise control of where the glue would be. So... I simply brushed in on as thin as possible. I put the ground foam in an old salt shaker that has some relatively large holes so that I could sprinkle the ground foam onto the glue. For my first attempt, the results were pleasing to me. I'll post more progress photos soon. In the meantime, what stain should i use to weather those wooden bridges?

 

Brandon, You've come a long way, baby! Things are shaping up very nicely.
I am from the old school I guess; I can just sit and watch a model train going in a circle for hours.
The fact that you have three going at the same time is great.
You may want to consider spraying some type of fixit-adhesive on your trees to hold the foliage .. I am sure that Manny, Jim, or others have good suggestions.

Carry on Sir:

 

I do.

 

I imigine most Baby Boomer Tinplate Railroad Tycoons had Plasticville sturctures on their layouts. It is shocking to compare Bachmann's current prices to the ones when I was no taller than a Texas grasshopper though! Wonder what the inflated % is when prices are compared and if they are realistic today or just Greed Pricing? They were advertised as O/S scale if I recall. Shucks, there weren't many boys who worried about the size of any structure or signal or even vehicles back in the 50s. My last addition to my 027 was a pair of Marx "Armstrong" switches. You could really "bend the iron" and they looked a lot better than Lionel in my opinion and were not as expensive either.

That all changed when I spent a shiney new dime for a Revell H-O (notice the hyphen!) catalog. My eyes lit up when I discovered the SL-SF yellow flat car! A Ulrich Frisco hopper and Varney double door 40 ft. box car followed plus a Katy 50 ft. double door box car that MDC released in their Roundhouse line and the Varney yellow Katy stock car. "Southeast...Southwest...HO model railroading...at it's very best! With most boys converting from O and S gauge to HO, Revell coined a diddy, "Twice the layout in half the space!"

Great Memories!

 

Not to be a stick in the mud, but we all know what oil prices have done, with many plastics made from petroleum. Also, if you could see the dramatic increase in what molds now cost.... Tooling prices are very steep. Most molds are being made in China these days. A $100,000 mold here will cost about $10,000 over there. Being in the plastic industry for almost 30 years I have seen many changes. We are now molding some products with material made from soy beans. Looks pretty good, and bio-degradeable too.
Dan

 

I'm a "cord salvager." I salvage the power cord to any and all electronic devices that stop working. (No, they do NOT stop working because I cut off the cords.) Between home, work, church, the homes of extend family, friends, etc... you might be suprised at how many cords one can collect over time. It may not be the correct way to do things, but tomorrow I intend to make 3 "buses" for my 3-track, DC layout, out of long vacuum cleaner cords and some "feeders" out of some other electrical cords. Oh I know... I could just go and buy some wire, but what would be the fun in that? I find it much more fun when it doesn't cost anything. It makes me feel like I've "beaten the system" I guess. One man's junk is another man's treasure. You know you have a lot of salvaged cords when you start using them like ordinary rope! I certainly hope I see an improvement in locomotive operation. I assume I should attach the feeders to the buses with connecters like the one pictured below. If not, please reply before I go shopping tomorrow.
Also, I'm thinking about putting some lights in my structures at some point in the near future. My girls had some decorative lighting in their room that they no longer want. Think of it as a strand of pink Christmas tree lighting...yes I said pink...the wiring that it. I could drill a small hole under each structure and install a light from the strand in each hole. If I wanted to be cutting edge, I would spend money on LED's I guess... but like I said, what would be the fun in that? Oh, and just for the record, I have no problem with pink wires under my layout.