OK, so I finally saddled up Ol Blue (my '03 Ranger) a month or so ago and brought home lumber to at least finish benchwork. As of now, you can leave Newburg in either direction and arrive back and enter Newburg from the other end. I have main line only laid right now (except for Newburg yard and roundhouse) and will try things for a while to see what needs fixing before cutting in with passing tracks and sidings/spurs. According to 3rd Planit, I have 303' of main line run. This afternoon, I did a shakedown run with the 1045 and a 19 car freight. It took almost 9 minutes from the time it entered the main at the east switch until it reached the west switch. I need to plan passing tracks, industry spurs and sidings after "surfacing" the track for additional smooth running. At one time I had over 100' of track operating from one feeder with DCC and everything worked! Thought the "experts" said you need feeders every 33/64 of an inch and number 4/0 bus. Maybe I'm just lucky. Minimum mainline radius is 37". Most of the mainline curves are 40" and the 4500s are kind of cramped on that. I'll make them work when I get time. Many, many projects needing attention and we have a medical situation with the brother in law that is really eating up time. Nothing is ever easy. More later.
I hope things go well for your brother in law. I wish I had a 9 minute long loop so I could just sit back and watch trains roll. Let's see some progress photos.
I'll have to find a way to include as much as I can in the photo. If the snow melts, I think I can shoot through one of the basement windows and get a good portion of it. There are times that its nice just to put something on and let it run. I think that when the trackwork is complete, if we wanted an operating session, there is enough to keep several busy. Hostler, one or two yard crews, a helper crew or two, local and through freight and passenger trains. Or, I can just put something on and run it. My concept is single track as was the Frisco, meets, local switching in several towns. There should never be a dull moment. I have a place for the FLW wye, which could also serve to turn helper engines. I've done Newburg as faithfully as I could, but the main will be sort of out of sequence due to limitations. I'm also tweaking the lighting. I have a dozen can lights from Home Depot with 100W Bright White CFL bulbs. I need to add about 4 more for better coverage and then deal with stapling up wiring, etc. Right now, it looks like the old man's Christmas tree wiring from A Christmas Story. Work is never done.
"In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenities that-as far as we know-is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan." --Ralphie Looking forward to pictures when time allows, Don, but not at the expense of driving you to cursing. Take care of the family first, and thanks for the update.
Impressive weaving in of a quote from my favorite author - Don, Jean Shepherd was K2ORS. One of his stories was about Ft. Wood and playing baseball there in the heat of summer. They all decided to play in the nude. "And the catcher crouched pendulumnously."
One of my friends, who now lives in Colorado Springs was in town last month and visited, along with a mutual friend. He took some photos of the layout, one of which I'm posting here. Things haven't progressed beyond what you see due to health problems in the family, but I'm starting to get a little time here and there to get back at it. I have 310' of main line. I have just main line, no sidings or passing tracks yet. I want to see how things work in this configuration and get it debugged before going any further. So far so good. I'm getting ready to cut in the main and put the switches in for the wye at Bundy. I've built one of the Blair Line Grandview depots and will probably call it Alhambra and it will be up where the wye takes off. Until the day when I lay track over into the workshop area for a hiding yard, the wye can be used to turn helper engines. The topography of the main is bass ackwards. It's uphill both ways out of Newburg and in between both long grades is the river bridge. It should be at the lowest part, but the way the layout flows dictates it's location. I will have enough scenic blocks to hide the fact that it's at the highest part of the layout, plus there is a long level approach at either end. It is what it is. I'm still moving the can lights around and will probably add another 4-6 of them. I'm using 100W CFL bulbs in them, which consume 26W ea. I will probably end up with 18 of them which is well within a 15A circuit. That's why all the wires hanging from the ceiling. Once I get them in their final position, all of that wil disappear. Right now, if I leave Newburg in either direction and run at scale speeds, it takes almost 9 minutes to make the trip to the other end. Operationally, when finished the layout could make an interesting evening for a crew or 4 or 5. Newburg Hostler, one or two yard crews, helper crews, through freight and passenger and a loca either way. Later on, a FLW turn. Or, I could just sit down and run trains by myself. So far, I've flown in the face of Layout Design folks. I haven't worked from a plan other than what's in my empty head. I moved stuff around in Newburg until it looked right to me and followed the track map that I have until it was as reasonably close as I could make it. The main is typical Frisco Eastern Div. Hilly, winding around itself in a couple of spots, sags, etc. Long way to go!
In a word: spectacular! I want to know when the next open operating session will be held! Thanks for sharing, Don...
In addition to Don's modeling skills, a feature I really like is the nine-minute Newburg to Newburg round trip. That is really neat. Ken
Don, your basement time has certainly not been wasted. Did you ever take the time to learn 3rd PlanIt? I know AutoCad, but 3rd PlanIt has basically laid dormant on this PC for the past ten years since Sandy gave it to me for Christmas. Maybe 2013 would be a good year to get proficient on V7 and then update to the current version. 73, W3HO
I've never really sat down and worked with 3rd Planit and learned it. My buddy in CO springs laid out the main line after I had done Newburg yard and we piddled with it until we got all the curves to fit decently and I followed the basic premise of what he drew. I still need to work in where the passing tracks go (I have the switches in for them and FLW wye on the main. I still need to work another town in at the south end of the basement so it will be the first thing you see when you come in. Still thinking of Albundy for a name because it will be right where the wye takes off. I want a bulk oil depot and an elevator there at the very least so the local will have plenty to do there. Will also have a small town at the north end of the basement (East end of the RR) with more local work to do and another passing siding. I've done a little scenery up from the east switch. I also plan to have a junction at the north wall of the basement with an imaginary RR and also where the FLW branch comes back into the main. This summer has been very brutal on wife and I. On July 3, our 44 year old daughter took her life after fighting with alcohol/prescription drug/lousy husband situation. She would have been 45 on the 4th. On Aug 3, Rosie and I found her brother passed away in his house. We had driven in to see why he wasn't answering the phone. We've had to deal with all his affairs since he never married. He was also a hoarder. It was a monstrous job getting his house cleaned out and presentable to sell. The house had been in Rosemary's family since it ws built in the early '20s by her Grandpop. Her and I got married in the front room over 50 years ago. We have finally gotten it sold, so that's a load off. I've really had a hard time trying to get any enthusiasm built up to go downstairs and do anything. I have some work down there for other folks and for the life of me I can't get off dead center. We're hoping it gets better after New Years and we can get a fresh start. Christmas was very sad. The wife has health problems which has been keeping her down. So hopefully, I can get the layout going some more this coming year. I have so much to do that its hard to figure out where to start. So to those who are wondering why I've kind of been out of pocket for a while, now you know. Happy New Year!
Don, thanks for trusting your Frisco.org friends enough to share these sad events from the Wirth family. I wish I had some uplifting words to share, but I don't. Consider reading the Psalms. Many start extremenly sad, but they usually end with uplifting words. Call or e mail if I can help in any way. 73
Don - I think picking some moderate scope project on the Newburg layout would be very good for you to do right now. Something relatively simple but when complete would display obvious progress. As with Doug, call or e-mail if I can help in any way. Our best to you and Rosie. Caroline and I, and Kurt, are thinking of you. Kurt has really enjoyed some of the dialog you guys have had on Facebook, etc. Ken
