Southern Pacific Coast Line in HO


I agree, that’s a very nice train set!
How fast can it go?

(see I do remember stuff!)
Seriously tho, what Jim said!

Now that's funny!
Haven't heard that in a while?
Seriously tho, what JIM said!

Greg -- As a footnote: Most "walking beam" oil well pumping units have a horsehead of some type.
 
Not much layout progress to report. I've been mostly working on some rolling stock and passenger car projects. But I did get about 30 more inches of ballasting done on the Watsonville side. Lots more to do over there.

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Finally got more scenery work done around the ice dock in Watsonville.

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The scenery at this end of Watsonville is mostly done now. Time to concentrate on the east end.

I should also add the track on the left, away from the ice dock, is the clean out track. When empties come in off the system they are spotted there for cleaning then switched over to the icing track as needed. The two tracks hold five cars each for ten total. I have about 17 or 18 PFE reefers on the layout and six or seven customers that require them. So just moving reefers around the layout can keep me busy for an hour or two. :)
 
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Finally made some more progress. I've been planning this staging/return loop for something like three years. It's in very unfinished room next to the main layout. After the trains leave Watsonville they pass behind a curtain and enter this other room.

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The inner track is 30" radius and the outer loop is 32". There's room for a third loop and some short storage tracks if I ever need them. In the first photo you can see two Frog Juicers that serve as auto reversers. They take care of switching the polarity as the trains come in and go out of the loops. I still need to order the Walther's turnout controls and make a control panel so I can stay in the main room and set the turnouts and cut the power to each of these loops independently.
 
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This is the panel I'm making to control the above loops. The goal is to not have to go in there to see what's going on. I couldn't figure out how to know which locomotive number is in there when I hit on the idea of using a white, dry erase board. So I picked up this 8 x 10 one at the local big box office supply. I can simply write the locomotive number on the appropriate track before I run it in there, so I can program the correct number into the DCC throttle when the time comes for that train to move back out on the layout. The turnout controls are from Walther's (I still need two more) and the lights will indicate which route the turnouts are set for. The toggle switches are to shut off the power to each track individually so I don't have trains with sound sitting back there idling all the time. The light next to each switch indicates if power is on or off.
 
Well, I can see that you didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday for sure.
That is downright brilliant! :)
 
Time for another layout update as the weather turns colder and I get down to the basement more often. Some of you may remember, back on post #43 I built a drop-down bridge to connect Watsonville to Santa Cruz. Here's a photo reminder:

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Well, I was never really happy with it. It was a constant source of derailments due to alignment issues. And since it's connection provided power to the Santa Cruz side it had to remain up during operating sessions so I was having to duck under it anyway! The only time it was down was when I was working on the layout. In addition, I had built the bench work for that part of the layout with less than the best lumber and it wasn't level everywhere and not stable enough. (And I'm sure that contributed to the bridge problems.) Well, enough was enough. A month ago I removed the plywood top, track and all, and scrapped all that bad benchwork. Rebuilt it with new, straight lumber and reinstalled the top. And then I replaced the drop down with this:

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The base of this is a 1 x 3 painted black and solidly screwed to benchwork at both ends. The DCC bus wires are attached to the underside. The truss is from a Central Valley kit saved from the old layout. It is not permanently attached and can be lifted off for ballasting and track cleaning, etc. Now trains run smoothly over this thing without so much as a click or clack at the joints. No more derailments. Yes, I now have to duck under it. But like I said, I was doing that before anyway. Trains run well, it looks okay, and I'm happy. :)
 



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