Dave's Layout v. 4.0

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I was able to back up enough to get the pic showing almost the whole layout, with painted fascia and electrical work all done, should be glueing down the final track at least by the end of Saturday then finally get to the track cleanup and then run trains

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There is a lift out section that goes where the closet door is, it is current "lifted out" is on the floor by the basket on the bottom left

Dave LASM
 
logandsawman said:
Curt, Patrick, Jeff, Willie - THANKS for commenting, been waiting a long time to get the paint on the fascia but really made a difference.

Patrick - it helps that I don't have a ton of other stuff going on in my life
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Doesn't matter, SWMBO will find something to keep me busy when I do retire. Actually will be dead 6 months before I can quit working and other stuff...🤣
 
Well I got the track all installed, cleaned the inner loop. Moved the train then plink, blew the fuse. Will have to find the short, I think I know the culprit--

in the meantime, some of the landscaping I finished, first the last stretch of track ballasted and complete:

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lots of ground cover left to do

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The area around the water tank is figured out, lots left here, too. Should be able to drive the inner loop.

Will be searching for a short this evening, or until it is found

THANKS for looking!!!!!
 
I ended up getting lots of work done in the vicinity of the lift out section. Forgot to post that last week got all the sections wired and had to add a couple insulated joiners and feeders cause my Peco turnouts have live frogs that required a little extra care.

First I put the screen down, have to get the slide out in place and see how things are going to match up

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I use the hot glue to get the screen in place, you can see the track bed is raised

I did all along the sides of the feed mill as well

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I used a sheet of the Woodland Scenics fake ground cover for the slide out section, also decided to use it up on the hard to reach outer edge of the layout:

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The areas not covered with the grass mat will be treated with hydrocal and ground foam and dry sand etc

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Will be getting some more hydrocal down, painting, then adding materials to several sections where no buildings are planned. Kind of doing a hop scotch method to get this done.

THANKS for looking!! Dave LASM
 
I had similar issues with Peco turnouts causing shorts on passing sidings when points were thrown certain ways. It's because I run drops to all sides of my turnouts, and with power routing, I would get shorts, so I just got used to insulating the frog rails on all my turnouts... It's just simpler to always plan on using the plastic joiners on the frog rails.
 
PRR Modeler said:
Dave,

A lot of good progress on your layout. Most of my T/O's are PECO Insulfrog. I put feeders on all 3 tracks and don't have issues. Now a PECO Electrofrog is a different story. I have one on my layout. Ask me how I found out. 🤔😆
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Jeff and Curt, I had two "Peco special" and 8 or 9 of the normal Peco turnouts, I saved all the packages so in the end when I had shorts was able to quickly figure out the problem. It looks like the more expensive special turnouts have live frogs that are also insulated so don't have to do the insulated joiners.

For ease of wiring, I laid out two main conductors, "inside" (+) and "outside" (-) rails. I kept it consistent throughout the whole layout so can easily add feeders, which I did. I always leave small spaces where joiners go so there is a cushion in case all my wood swells up, which it can, but also made it easy enough to take out the nickel silver joiner and presto small gap works to cut power!

This is the easy DC wiring but sometimes can create a headache.

Thanks for commenting! Dave LASM
 


A few pics of the weekend progress First the slide out section, in later pics you will see ballast work done on this

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her we go with the slide out in place. Got one spec of hydrocal on the grass mad, will be covering that up with something

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getting pretty close to the whole layout being "roughed in", will begin populating it with trains soon. I want to get most of the sand work done before I run the trains regularly. Not a fan of sand on the tracks with trains running, patience, patience

Feel free to share a comment!!!



Thanks for looking, Dave LASM
 
Well I have some progress to report, first the lift out section gets ground landscaped, also video of the first train on the new layout!!!!

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I like the way it turned out. Will be adding details, however it is nice to have some open ground for a while

My new shelf, really helps organize the train room

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Here is a shot of my two Varney Casey Jones. The back one is an older model, not sure if I will be upgrading it

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First time around the track:


THANKS for looking, leave a comment!!

Dave LASM
 
JeffH said:
Nothing like that feeling when you run a train for the first time on your new layout!!!

Looks like everything is running smoothly!
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Thanks, Jeff,

Everything ran well for a first run especially. The engine went smoothly through the lift out section with a very slight "hill" showing up at one end, which I did not expect. However not enough to uncouple cars.

Last night I ran the switcher with two boxcars and did find one place where I may want to do a little track work, will be doing a short video.

Dave
 
Thanks Troy, not expecting much on the channel as I don't promote anything. I have this theory that if you don't sign up for all their extra stuff then your content isn't suggested anywhere.

Spare-knickers Gorge would definitely be a disaster but maybe also make me a star if I had several expensive loco's go over 😩 🤪

I was surprised when the adds appeared since when I originally started the channel we could opt out of adds, which I did.

Regardless of my theories, thank you for the thumbs up!!!!!

Dave
 
BigGRacing said:
Looks awesome Dave!

I saw your comment in Smudges post about not being a fan of turntables, may I ask why?
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They take up a ton of room on the layout, that is the main reason. Plus, unless the space you have is pretty massive like Ken DJ, they seem out of place or crammed in.

Not to dissuade anyone, it can be your "main attraction" and I think it could be pulled off successfully.

Made up another video, showing the switcher backing down the inside loop to the potato warehouse.



HAVE fun and THANKS to all who watch it. I had to split it when I did the turnout, so there is that one edit. Otherwise, train went smooth with freight cars on the first run.


Dave LASM
 


Well I spent a bunch of time on tuning up freight cars and also NP #328, Varney HO scale antique locomotive. Am getting the kinks out, also having fun running trains!!

Here is a still photo entering the wooden truss bridge over the St. Croix:

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This video (only 51 seconds, all action) features the inner track loop with some freight cars newly taken out of storage:




Will be working on freight cars for a while, also fine tuning the old Varney. Kind of a noisy bugger so far, but it has smoothed out a lot with use!!


THANKS for looking and to all who watched my video!!!!


Dave LASM
 
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