The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch


The track circuit is almost complete. Only about 20' left to lay down then the wiring will begin on this last section. The freight yard is still under construction and will be tied into the mainline right at the front of this picture. The industry sidings will be started then the scenery.

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The loop is complete. This is the first train to run the entire circuit around the basement, passing through three power districts and over 300 feet of track.
It was shortly after this that I was soldering more feeders from the buss wire under the benchwork to the track, right about where this train is now, when the soldering iron arched to the wire and killed two of my command stations.

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This picture illustrates the power districts that I have setup on the layout. The heavy line is the double track mainline. The 3 heavy lines across the tracks are where the district divisions are.
CS is the command stations. CS 1 is the DCS100. After the soldering incident last night, I have one DB150 at the CS 1 position and jumpers connecting all the power districts. I was able to run a train the entire length of the layout today using the one DB150. It ran a little slower than normal at the furthest distance from the CS and still had sound but that is expected with the resistance of about 150' of wire.

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Display

Ken,
Can't wait to get back from overseas and met up with you. I think if we can get the layout up and working we can make a sweet layout and possibly an awesome club there.

Eric
 
EHodges said:
Ken,
Can't wait to get back from overseas and met up with you. I think if we can get the layout up and working we can make a sweet layout and possibly an awesome club there.

Eric
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I should have the two CSs repaired or figured out by then. I left a message with tech support of Digitrax and expect a call from them tomorrow. It's just a matter of money. :cool:

Ken,
 
Took a little time to just run trains tonight. Here is a meet between a coal drag being pulled by a couple of BLI sound units in BNSF road colors and a string of autoracks being pulled by modern BNSF units with sound.

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The first powered cross over on the layout. The two Tortoise machines are activated by the slide switch. Constant power to them as they are stall machines.

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The one command station DB150 that survived the lightning strike along with it's power supply and the turnout power supply sitting on top. I still have some work to do in untangling the spaghetti bowl look.

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This is the right yard throat as the single yard lead feeds into the two arrival/departure tracks and the drill track that pulls back toward the camera on the left. The double track mainline passes on the right.

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This is the left yard lead. Note the three way turnout that was worked into the ladder scheme. A #6 double slip is lurking in the pile of turnouts for the yard. Once again, the double track mainline passes on the right.

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Looking good Ken!
That X over in the first pic looks like a #8?
If you're thinking of powering the switches with the NCE "switch8" I highly recomend it, vastly improves running!
 
No, those are #10 turnouts.
I haven't heard of the NCE things, but then, what could be more reliable than the current setup. I used this type of control on the previous layout and it worked as planned for many years.
 
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Got the second cross over wired in with Tortiose machines and powered the frogs.
Referring to the layout diagram in post number 62 above, this crossover is on the right most peninsula on the left side of it half way up the isle.

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Wired the third crossover for turnout machines and powered frog. The loco is on the liftout section in front of the storage room door. I ran a container train through it to make sure things were good. Actually, the crossover didn't make it in the picture. It is just a few feet ahead of the loco. Didn't realize how blurred the front of the train was until I uploaded the picture here. Can ya see the one 89 foot flat in the string of cars?
The turnouts for the yard lead will be just behind where the loco is now. The benchwork will have to be filled in then the roadbed and two tracks will run next to the mainline back to the yard.

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railfan said:
Is the 89 footer closer to the front of the train? That's what it looks like to me.


Mike
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No, its back just behind the two white double stacks.
I intended to shoot this with depth of field but I didn't set the camera up right for it. I'll reshoot it again tonight.
I'm really liking how this layout offers such views of long trains.
 
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I finished the benchwork extension to support the double track yard lead. So far, it's just the cork road bed. In the next few days I should have the track laid down. The two tracks will merge just before joining the mainline. A crossover to the second track is about 10 feet further down the track behind the camera.
The yard surface can be seen on the right side of the picture. The trains will go down the yard lead and loop back around to come into the yard from the distant end. The yard will have a slight bend in it to add a bit of character.


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Just getting back to the layout after some time off to travel and write some resumes. Yeah, the job hunt is on.
Put the two command stations back on line and test ran a couple of trains then did some trouble shooting on the turnout wiring. I posted about that in the wiring and DCC section.
I've picked up some facia material, sorta like what clip boards are made of. I want to install the back boards down the center of the penninsulas first before putting the facia on. That way I can stand a little bit closer to the backboard for scenery application and painting.
Pictures to follow.
 
Getting started on the main body of the yard. The tracks currently being laid are storage tracks. The two tracks on the right most, not the mainline are the A/D tracks. The double A/D tracks extend down past the end of the yard and come back up the wall on the left past the edge of the picture. This opens up the traffic flow to have one train leaving while another is pulling in from the mainline.

In the distance is a cut of 12 hoppers and a four truck heavy duty flat with transformer load on it. Rough calculations show that the yard will hold about 350 frieght cars and still have room for shuffling them.
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This sure looks good. This is usually the most interesting part of building a layout and the part I enjoy the most. My layout is about 60 percent done with scenery on most of it, but I still have one town, yard and a few industries to put in the town, and a yard and engine terminal with turntable and am looking forward to getting started on it.
I had trains running on the main line years ago and a couple of towns with industries for switching and I guess I sort of got distracted by wanting to get scenery started.
I had been handlaying my track (Code 70) and a couple of years ago my old Kadee spike gun broke to the point where it can no longer be repaired, so I guess that is the main reason for putting it off. I have been hoarding code 70 switches and flex track to finish the job. Now that summer is over (was in the 20's this morning) and I no longer have to worry about keeping a 2 acre yard in shape, it is finally time to get back to work on the railroad. Seeing this was sort of a jump start. Thanks.
 
Did some wiring over the last couple days and finally applied power to the yard. The Southern Pacific GP35 with the coal drag on the arrival track is the first train to run through the yard under its own power.
The two tracks to the left of the yard is the mainline and the return from the distant loop with the yard lead is further to the left.
The yard joins together into two yard lead tracks and loop around behind where I was standing to take this picture then run up along the wall on the right. The yard leads join into the mainline just before the doorway.
Yep, I completely disconnect the command stations while doing any soldering work now.

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Looking good Ken!
Runing trains on cork over bare plywood is one of my favorite things, don't know why...
 
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