Eureka Coast Route


Renodemona

Renodemona

Member
So I guess I'll be documenting my layout construction and all the attached progress for my Freelance road, the Eureka Coast Route, which is a fictional railroad that has trackage from Eureka CA to Sausalito CA, as well as a branch over to Red Bluff to meet the Sacramento River. Basically, what if the NWP never existed and instead all the logging roads got together with financial backing from Santa Fe to build south to the Bay Area and East to meet the then busy steamboat port in Red Bluff.
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This is the opening 4' x2' section that will represent one of the small towns on the route.
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Starting to lay out the little main street and industries as I get more track down. Still waiting on the curves to complete the loop and spur. Definitely more urban than I thought it'd be but I think I can break up the scene with details and creative breaks between the main street and the yard/factory using vegetation and walls.
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The "other" side of Main Street. Train sheds/Industry at the top, street will enter from the upper right and make a squiggle then run down past the block of stores and the little mini flat iron style building, then past the local brewery and a couple houses, and exit the layout at the lower left. The branch line will loop around the small industry and loading dock then head back up behind main street to the sawmill and larger industry. I will try and hide the loop as best I can with the larger industry and strategically places trees.
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Still playing around with industries and locations. I may take the big train shed building out and put another industry there. The small train shed is a nice way to hide the spur track and eventual connector to larger layout though. From far away to close, the sawmill on spur 1, undetermined industry on spur 2, cannery/refrigerated goods on spur 3. Then the downtown. Then the furniture works on S Spur 1, and the paper mill on S Spur 2 with the little freight dock. In theory I can bring flat cars with timber to the sawmill, then flat cars with Lumber products from the sawmill to the furniture factory and paper mill, then pick up empty flat cars and loaded box cars from there to go back to the logging camps, and pick up refrigerator cars from the cannery. Too much ops in a small space? I think watching trains go around in circles might get boring so I thought more to do would add function. Thoughts?
 
First two Locomotives with the base colors on. Could have done a better job with masking but nothing some touching up can't fix and be blended with weathering. The Bachmann unit will get an economy decoder and be permanently coupled to the Trix unit for an A-A combine (decoder actually will be in the unpowered Trix). I think the Bachmann unit has a steam generator modeled so could do some freight or passenger services. Close enough anyway.
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5 F units with base colors on, definitely need some touch ups and one needs black trucks. I have a single B unit getting its paint stripped off then the Kato A unit and it will go for painting. After I get some more of the passenger cars painted I'll clean these all up and the couple nicest running ones will get a DCC Decoder along with the Kato unit, the rest will get stripped out to be unpowered units so I'll have lots of choices for combines or consists haha. And yes I am aware the rears need to be painted but they will be done in black so should cover nicely.
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NCE Power Cab starter system arrived! I've got the turnouts isolated now working on dropping the power connectors through to hook up the power bus.
What are some switches people are using instead of the big honking kato ones? Something that can be mounted to the side of the benchwork.
 
All the locos went back in the iPa bath. I wasn't happy with the shading so I'll be doing a more traditional spray and mask method then weathering.
 
Kato switch motors use polarity switching DC, so you need to use a double pole double throw momentary on off on switch. You can also use a DCC stationary decoder and control with them with both your Throttle or a control panel with push button switches. Do a google search and you will find many alternatives to the giant blue switches :)
 
Busy night in the paint shop! Got all the locomotives stripped and re-primered or primered where applicable. Used a label maker to assign unit numbers to each unit. I have 4 more locomotives coming tomorrow and that should more or less be the entirety of the motive power along the entire route. Here's some Alco action:
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Pair of C420s and pair of FA2s, little new and old for you!
 
Less exciting but needed work. Power busses going in. Main track power going out to 3 remote busses to power the various sections of track. I will be using the method of insulated connectors on the turnout sections and powering that block "upstream" if you will, except where 2 turnouts meet then will power the block above the second turnout. That should keep signals crystal clear and eliminate any issues with the #6 turnouts.
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I've also installed what will be a separate 12v power bus for some accessories like lights and a sound generator for one of the industries.
 
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