Starting the new layout!


I finally registered

Hi guys. This is Dad. I finally got around to registering on this forum so I can - once and for all - tell Myowngod what I've been telling him in person for years. IT'S NOT PENNSY MAROON! IT'S TUSCAN RED! My dad, a Pennsy/Conrail fireman and engineer for over 40 years, would roll over in his grave if he saw MAROON - uggghhhhhh.

Dad

By the way, my son hasn't been able to get down for the last couple weeks but, time permitting, I got almost the whole mainline corked about half the mainline track down. (I know saying that'll kill him - not being able to see it. I'll take some pictures and get them out in a couple days.)
 
Great Sky

What a great sky. I'm thinking about doing my sky over any tips? I worked as an fireman & engineer form 1969 to 1981 for the Penn Central and the starting of the Conrail years. Because I worked in Brewster, NY most of our engines were NYC and NH they weren't painted with the PC logo yet . I see you didn't mention the New Heaven the third Penn Central Line. We'll I hope to see some NYC equipment on your layout in the future.

NYC_George
 
Dad,....your absolutly RIGHT!!!!!!
Ron, next time...listen to your father:p :D

Well spoken Mr. RonK;)

Jos
 
Back from another trip. Although it was quick, I managed to snap a few pix. As my Dad mentioned a few post up, he has most of the cork down and about half the mainline track down. I do have to fix a few spots where he wasn't as anal as I would be, but it was at the beginning of the track laying process. As he got deeper into the track laying, the skills improved.
Here are a few shots...

This is a shot from the den area across the mainline down into the lower staging track. The track that stops right at the bottom of the picture is waiting for the Walthers curved turnouts to show up. We've got all the track from the hobby shop in NY, except the curved turnouts.:rolleyes:
View attachment 5540
below is looking across the middle staging area and down into the lower staging.
View attachment 5541
The latex brown caulk we used is working out well. I need to solder all the feeders every 3-6', on the next trip down. Can you say tedious?:eek:
This next shot is the track from the main yard down to the middle staging.
View attachment 5542

I tried to "quickly" install a decoder into his new Athearn F3. Well, it didn't work. I guess it was the long day of work, the 2 hours of driving, and not starting the project until 11pm at night... my eyes were a Little fuzzy. I ended up bring it home and will work on it later, at my work bench with the proper tools. I want to test out his new NCE PowerCab, also.
View attachment 5543

Until next trip...
 
Finally a video!

I finally got a video of the layout up on Youtube.
Here's the link Layout progress as of Jan 25, 2007

I'll put some more up later of earlier videos.

If it is to long a video (1 minute), please tell me and I can edit it for slower download speeds. I must say cable modems are a wonderful thing.:)
 
Added alot lot of videos at Youtube.com

I just got done uploading all the videos I have of the progress of the layout, from beginning until last week.
Here's a link to youtube of my videos.
youtube.com my videos
When you get there click on the tab " more from this user" to see all the videos I have. It's to the right of the video screen. They include the backdrop construction and painting, the benchwork beginings, adding the roadbed and risers, laying out the centerlines, gluwing down the cork roadbed and actually putting down some track.
I hope you enjoy them.

I'm heading down to the layout this weekend to start to solder all those feeder wires on to the track. Pretty soon we'll be running trains... YIPPY!:D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
We have RUN TRAINS!!!

Finally, we have test run trains on the layout. :D YIPPY! :D To check out any trouble spots, and there was a few. I fixed those the next day after this initial run, February 3, 2007. you can see the videos at Youtube. Man, it's a good feeling. It sure is a nice sound to hear those wheels clicky-clack on down the track. This is a video of a section of track about 5' long that I tweaked to perfection (I hope,hehe). Completed track section It's all glued down and the holes for the switch machines are drilled. We're using Atlas under-table machine many because of $$$. Tortoises are great but 3times more.
Here's a shot of the 1st run.
View attachment 5611

I also started some wiring. I ran the bus lines under half the mainline using 14ga stranded wire, colored black and white. The feeders from the track are 20ga solid wire that I solder to the outside of the rail. It became almost invisible... a little ballast and it will pull a Houdini.
This is the wire clips I use to hold the bus in place.
View attachment 5612
I replaced the nail that came with them with a #4-5/8" screw. It worked out great.

This is a 6" feeder wire. I used an automatic wire stripper I got from work. Wow, if you can get your hands on one of those it's a great tool. I'll try to get a picture of it later.
View attachment 5613

This is just a picture of the feeders hanging down and a clip screwed to the right of them. I forgot to get some pix of the bus snapped in place and the feeders attached using 3M suitcase connectors. They're life saver, too!
View attachment 5614

That's it for this trip.
Yeah, we ran trains!
 
Looking good on the track, I know what you mean about the automatice wire stripper. Those things are great I wished I had my own personal one.
 
Short detection buzzer

Here's a simple buzzer I made to detect the short as soon as you connect it to your layout. If my Dad remembered to hooks this up one time It would of been easier to find a short in the old fashion shinohara turnout he installed. Now I had to pull it up and make it DCC friendly. I wish Walthers would come out with those curved turnouts already.

View attachment 5845

I cheap doorbell buzzer, 2 aligator clips,a 9V battery, and three pieces of wire. I used the 20ga wire I'm using for the feeders from the track. Just clamp it to each rail anywhere on the layout and...BUZZ! if there's a short
This device saves a world of headaches. Just remember to hook it up, and unhook it when you have your dcc system hooked up.
 
Well, I'm back from another trip down to the layout. My Dad and I actually had 2 days of working together on the layout. Usually it's just a couple hours at night or one of us by ourselves. The main thing we did was install most of the Atlas under-table machines.
View attachment 5893
To install them, I marked on each side of the points to find the center. Most of ours turnouts are Atlas #6's so the space between these marks are 3/8". After you pull up the turnouts We took a 3/8" spade/paddle bit and drill straight down through the cork and plywood. Then from the bottom we took a 1/2" speed bit and drilled up about half way through the plywood to give more clearance for the switch machine arm. This technique is good because you don't see the hole from the top, but plenty of clearance underneath.

View attachment 5894
Mounting the machines was a challenge at first, then we discovered putting a couple dots of the caulk from the track gluing process held it in place while we adjusted and fine tuned it. once we had it in place and operating smoothly, we took a 5/64" drill bit and predrilled for the screws that Atlas provides. Screw them in, and presto! Under-table mounted switch machines.

We also test ran a few trains. This is a link to some video I shot while testing all the point, forward and backward. We used an Athearn F3, a BLI GG-1 (with fussy pilots), and a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidated. The GG-1 gave us problems by pointing out all the littles imperfections. But this was good because I want as close to bullet prove track work as possible.
Here's the link to Youtube videos . Click on the "More from this user" tab to the right of the screen. Some of the files are long and others are pretty short for the Dial-up users.

Thanks for looking
 
Ron,
I have just "breezed" through this thread. You have made some impressive progress in a short period of time (relative to how long I've been working on mine, that is). With work and all, and the the fact that I am going at it alone, the motivation is sometimes lost. It's pictures like yours that puts it back in perspective! Keep 'em coming. Good luck, Dave
 
New Layout

Myowngod said:
Finally, we have test run trains on the layout. :D YIPPY! :D To check out any trouble spots, and there was a few. I fixed those the next day after this initial run, February 3, 2007. you can see the videos at Youtube. Man, it's a good feeling. It sure is a nice sound to hear those wheels clicky-clack on down the track. This is a video of a section of track about 5' long that I tweaked to perfection (I hope,hehe). Completed track section It's all glued down and the holes for the switch machines are drilled. We're using Atlas under-table machine many because of $$$. Tortoises are great but 3times more.
Here's a shot of the 1st run.
View attachment 5611

I also started some wiring. I ran the bus lines under half the mainline using 14ga stranded wire, colored black and white. The feeders from the track are 20ga solid wire that I solder to the outside of the rail. It became almost invisible... a little ballast and it will pull a Houdini.

This is a 6" feeder wire. I used an automatic wire stripper I got from work. Wow, if you can get your hands on one of those it's a great tool. I'll try to get a picture of it later.
View attachment 5613

This is just a picture of the feeders hanging down and a clip screwed to the right of them. I forgot to get some pix of the bus snapped in place and the feeders attached using 3M suitcase connectors. They're life saver, too!
View attachment 5614

That's it for this trip.
Yeah, we ran trains!
Click to expand...

I hope your not using the same color wire for both feeds. I did that on my helix because I ran out of red wire. What trouble I had. I went down to Radio Shack told them they would have to try and keep more red wire in stock. They said, "for your speakers" I said, "no, for my model railroad".

NYC_George
 
NYC_George said:
I hope your not using the same color wire for both feeds. I did that on my helix because I ran out of red wire. What trouble I had. I went down to Radio Shack told them they would have to try and keep more red wire in stock. They said, "for your speakers" I said, "no, for my model railroad".

NYC_George
Click to expand...

No, I could see where that would get confusing. I'm not even done with all the wiring and it's a spaghetti bowl... even though it's DCC! My main bus wires are 14ga black and white, feeders are 20ga red and blue, switch machines common is white and polarities are green and yellow. I hope to keep it pretty consistent. It helps that I manage a hardware store, if I see I'm getting low... I order more. A little bonus for working there, plus everything 10% over cost saves alot on materials. I think all model railroaders are penny pinchers.
 
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