The wife's HO Atlas layout...


Your layout is looking wonderful! I agree with KBo2, but it's your layout! One thing about it - a 'dense' forest is expensive for sheer volume of trees, but it looks so much nicer than a few sporadic ones!
By the way, how did you end up 'planting' your trees? Do you drill a hole and then glue them in?
 
Your layout is looking wonderful! I agree with KBo2, but it's your layout! One thing about it - a 'dense' forest is expensive for sheer volume of trees, but it looks so much nicer than a few sporadic ones!
By the way, how did you end up 'planting' your trees? Do you drill a hole and then glue them in?

I have used three makes of trees:

Woodlands,
JTT and
Grand Central Gems (GCG).

The Woodlands and GCG did not have bases so all I had to do was drill the holes then used glue to secure them. The JTT's came with "fixed" bases which I had to cut of then "drill/dig" holes for them to sit in. They were also glued obviously.

Nice pictures Tony. Looks like things are coming together well. A great scene, well done.

Thanks Montanan, it is coming together. Once I get the rest of the 3" - 5" tree's I will be able to complete the left hand side as seen in the pictures above. Then I will start working on the tree's on the right hand side.

As paper-tiger said though, with the amount of tree's I need to make the thing look realistic, it is costly BUT, I think (and hope) worth it in the long run.
 
This is the left hand mountain so far. I obviously still have to add more trees to the left hand side of it but so far so good I think:


Treed%20hill_zpsavamf10a.jpg
 
3 or so months late on the reply but thanks mate ... there hasn't been too much done since this but will get some more recent shots up sooner or later.
 
Hey Guys,

Surprise Surprise ... I am back working on the layout!

I spent this afternoon cleaning all the "junk" off of the track work and giving the track a good cleaning. Incredibly, everything still works and runs well, with the exception of the diverging tracks from the turnouts which are all dead. (see post in Wiring thread). Although I didn't run a train for long, all sections of the track work seem good. There are one or two feeder wires that need to be "knocked down a tad" where they have lifted a little to be above the rail height but other than that - it is all good.

Over the next few days, I will clean the layout of completely and resume work on the scenery, placement of buildings etc. Might even put in a little more track - MIGHT ;)
 
I've been waiting to see more progress on your wife's layout (especially since I have made zero progress on mine in the last year).
 
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that has made zero progress. With my house remodeling projects, I just don't have the time. On a rare occasion when I have to go into the train room for a tool, I may run a train for a few minutes just to remember what trains are about, but absolutely nothing has been done in months.

Tony is probably preoccupied with his G scale layout and just came inside to cool off.
 
I've been waiting to see more progress on your wife's layout (especially since I have made zero progress on mine in the last year).

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that has made zero progress. With my house remodeling projects, I just don't have the time. On a rare occasion when I have to go into the train room for a tool, I may run a train for a few minutes just to remember what trains are about, but absolutely nothing has been done in months.

Tony is probably preoccupied with his G scale layout and just came inside to cool off.

Thanks guys, and Jim, thank you for "hanging around" and being patient. Can't say how much is going to be done, but there WILL be work done on a "fairly regular basis" :)

Chet, you are partially right about being pre-occupied with the G Gauge and getting in out of the weather, but not entirely.

With all of the non railway associated problems I was contending with, the wife's layout got put to one side. The longer I avoided working on it, the less I wanted to work on it, it just seemed not worth the effort at the time. The G Gauge in fact, re kindled my interest and my commitment to this layout, to get it finished to a point where it would run properly, with the buildings in place and looking like it was always supposed to - not a "crap heap" sitting in front of me. Basically, until I started with the G Gauge, this layout looked like too much work to revamp it and get it back the way it should be.

I neglected it and now I have to fix it - and now is a good time for that to happen!
 
Hey Guys,

Well, I have finally had enough of that "bloody" digitrax - it is gone, and I DO mean gone! All this time I thought I had screwed up my track and wiring to find out that there is nothing all that wrong with it that some "closer cleaning" wont fix.

How do I know this? The answer is simple - the digitrax crap is some where out in the front yard, I didn't stop long enough to see where it landed (yeah, I was pissed). Once that had been disposed of, I connected up an old MRC Railpower DC Controller, stuck my little GP35 on the track and away it went, and I DO mean away. That little thing really moves along and had no problem pulling half a dozen or so cars behind it with a track cleaner in front.

Once it started I let it run for almost 45 minutes and not once did it stall, derail nothing - it ran incredibly well considering the track isn't 100% clean, AND that includes my ripping out a section of track and "loosely" dropping in another Wye for another siding. Needless to say, I am very happy at the moment :D

So, the digitrax is gone, am running straight DC at the moment and will until I can find my NCE System which I will then setup. Now before anyone jumps up and down and gets all emotional about the demise of the digitrax stuff - it NEVER worked properly from day one, well perhaps week one. It would not reset to factory defaults, it would not program an engine to an address - not even 03 - it was nothing but a huge pain in the rear end and I DO think (now) that was the main problem - NOT the track or the wiring - the Digitrax.

So, at the moment I can only run one train at a time but who cares - I can finally run a train around the layout that I built and that is all that I care about for now.
 
AAAAhhhh--The joy of simplicity!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, chuck it. I agree with David.

I totally agree with you both. When I connected the old MRC I thought I was being ridiculously optimistic and that "nothing" would work. You have no idea how surprised I was when the GP 35 took off! I sat here waiting for it to derail, stop or plain disappear into oblivion. The longer it ran, the better it ran!

Unfortunately, that (other than a small 0-6-0) is the only DC engine I have.

Now with that being said. I am going to pose a question or two to you all - especially the DCC Guru's...

Why does everything run so well on DC, yet there are so many issues when running (trying to run) DCC?

This I do not understand. Regardless of whether it is DC or DCC all it is is power going from point A to point B. If DC power gets to point B without an issue, why doesn't DCC power do the same thing?

How is is that DCC engines will derail and stop and hesitate and mostly just not run period, yet DC engines have no problems on the very same track work and the very same wiring?

Why do old, not all that clean, DC engines run fairly well on the track when "BRAND NEW" (never been out of the box) DCC Engines wont run at all? This was the straw that broke the camels back by the way.

Anyway, moving on. I do have to make a couple of small changes to the track for the Amtrak Engine and Cars I am getting. They run nicely on 18" radius but it seems as though I have two curves that are closer to 15" radius, which they most likely will not make. As such, I have to increase those curves which means taking up about 8' of track and re laying it; 8' of track which includes one old and one new Wye switch. Luckily for me, that section of track is at the front of the layout, as shown below:

FinalTrackPlan_zps27c3c35c-1_zpsdmeapjjk.jpg
 
Glad that you finally can get trains running again. The change looks like it should help of you're running passenger cars.

You made a real good point, it's not a competition out there. Our model railroads are ours, and we all have different interests, model different eras and have different likes and dislikes. In a post by the IRON HORSEMAN, I realized that I have been building my layout for over 30 years, and it's still not done, and probably never will be. I have finally laid the last tracks, but will most likely go back and upgrade older parts of the layout using thing I have learned over the years using methods and skills I didn't have when the layout was started.
 
This I do not understand. Regardless of whether it is DC or DCC all it is is power going from point A to point B. If DC power gets to point B without an issue, why doesn't DCC power do the same thing?

How is is that DCC engines will derail and stop and hesitate and mostly just not run period, yet DC engines have no problems on the very same track work and the very same wiring?

Why do old, not all that clean, DC engines run fairly well on the track when "BRAND NEW" (never been out of the box) DCC Engines wont run at all? This was the straw that broke the camels back by the way.

Hi Tony --

The derailing is hard to explain. The same locomotive running at the same speed ought to have an equal chance of derailing whether powered by DC or DCC, it seems to me.

Stopping and hesitating tells me there are places on the layout where the loco's wheels are not making good contact with the track. This could be dirty track or uneven track -- anything that would cause a loss of wheel-to-track contact.

When running DC, the loco's momentum carries it past the loss of contact, and the loco keeps going. A momentary loss of contact does not bring a DC loco to a stop. However, if I am correct, then speed is a factor. If a DC loco is moving very slowly then it, too, would stop at the "bad" spots.

With DCC, even a momentary loss of contact can be enough to stop the loco because the flow of data is interrupted. That's why so-called "keep alive" decoders and add-ons have been developed for DCC. These include capacitors onboard the loco to provide a continuous source of power to the decoder during a brief loss of contact with the rails.

A less expensive solution is to keep the rails and wheels squeaky clean. Even brand new from the box locos can often use a wheel cleaning.

- Jeff
 



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