Running Bear's Coffee Shop LVIII

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PRR Modeler said:
Evening All,

Haven't accomplished much today but that's OK. Last night I went to the club and ran my L1 for about 2 hours without issue, so that made me happy. Tomorrow I am helping a friend move that is divorcing his wife.

Montanan- Nice shot.

NG- Sorry for the long post yesterday. I could of sworn they had the P3 decoder. Did you get the shark running?

Bnsf971- Glad you were able to figure out the T1 problem.

Chessie- I thought we were talking about ground throws then all of the sudden it seemed like everyone else was talking about laying track.

I hope everyone has a good night.
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Not so much laying track as trying to secure my track so that my throws don't push and pull my turnouts everywhere.

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Posting with my iPhone. We have not had internet all day because of a widespread outage following storms. I'll post again after we have Internet. Hope each of you is doing well
 


Good morning. 14 degrees to start off the day.

Garry - Hope you get the internet back soon. Hopefully you made it through the storms without any damage. They sure were some nasty ones.

Chessie - You sound a bit frustrated, but I'm sure you'll come up with something that works. I had to tear out tracks a few time because things didn't fit where I though they would, some of the track hand laid and ballasted too.

My picture of the day is hands at Mc Nab Livestock waiting for a couple of truck loads of beef so they can get the stock cars loaded and on their way.

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I was a tad bit frustrated last night. My radius curves were really ticking me off. So I walked away from it. It is fairly irritating to see how things don't line up like they should. I have to figure out now why I have this misalignment and get it corrected. Somewhere at that crossover my mainline is being pulled inward. Maybe my siding is the culprit. I don't know. I guess I can go and find out.

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That is one of th problems you can have by using sectional track. Trying to get everything to align properly with fixed radius curves and fixed lengths of track can present quite a puzzle. I can remember how much time that took when I started my N scale layout many moons ago, but then with the recommendation from the people at the hobby shop I was work with about using flex track instead, I never touched another piece of sectional track. Minor adjustments are so much easier to make when you're working with flex track and you can cut pieces to any length you need for working in tight areas such as yards.
 
montanan said:
That is one of th problems you can have by using sectional track. Trying to get everything to align properly with fixed radius curves and fixed lengths of track can present quite a puzzle. I can remember how much time that took when I started my N scale layout many moons ago, but then with the recommendation from the people at the hobby shop I was work with about using flex track instead, I never touched another piece of sectional track. Minor adjustments are so much easier to make when you're working with flex track and you can cut pieces to any length you need for working in tight areas such as yards.
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That is most likely my answer. My layout has a lot of trackage in configurations that really strains the sectional track. I had to tear up my runaround track where it meets the mainline and I have a spare piece of flex that I played with and it fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately with this is it puts me out for two weeks until I get paid again. I see why everyone uses flex track. It pretty much especially with curves makes it work better without too much strain. I may still make what I have work. It's just going to be tedious. It doesn't help that my smaller straight sections don't hold my joiners tightly at all. It's a collection of things I suppose.

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Good Morning All. Well, it's 34 degrees and snowing here in North Central Texas. We had a little over 5" of rain in the last 36 hours so it is "mushy" outside. Parts of my yard are still under water since it is draining slowly. The county hasn't maintained the ditches alongside the road for about 5 years so there is a lot of back-up. Water is running over the top of the road and into the pasture across the street. It wouldn't do that if the debris wasn't blocking the ditches. This snow should end within the next hour. It won't last on the ground past noon, around a 2" accumulation.
Chet - Your fences are too clean...lol.
CS3 - Track is not always "perfect". You had previously posted that everything was running well if I recall. I have a spot or two where there appears to be slight kinks, but it's smooth and I have no problems with derailments. As Chet says, some problems will go away with flextrack. I rarely use sectional track anymore.
Karl - I agree, what's going on? Like Chet and others, I run DC so I don't have that problem. Of course with 80+ locos, I couldn't afford that problem. If I was just starting in the hobby, I might be using DCC.

Trainwise, I mostly just ran trains yesterday. I did "Dullcote" and add license plates and drivers to six or seven autos. Today I am looking forward to cleaning and lubing a pair of Kato GP35's that have been in storage since early 2009. One is partially disassembled and I will be adding a crew to it as well. Hope I can still find all of the parts since the plastic bag they were in has disintegrated.

Willie
 
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santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Well, it's 34 degrees and snowing here in North Central Texas. We had a little over 5" of rain in the last 36 hours so it is "mushy" outside. Parts of my yard are still under water since it is draining slowly. The county hasn't maintained the ditches alongside the road for about 5 years so there is a lot of back-up. Water is running over the top of the road and into the pasture across the street. It wouldn't do that if the debris wasn't blocking the ditches. This snow should end within the next hour. It won't last on the ground past noon, around a 2" accumulation.
Chet - Your fences are too clean...lol.
CS3 - Track is not always "perfect". You had previously posted that everything was running well if I recall. I have a spot or two where there appears to be slight kinks, but it's smooth and I have no problems with derailments. As Chet says, some problems will go away with flextrack. I rarely use sectional track anymore.
Karl - I agree, what's going on? Like Chet and others, I run DC so I don't have that problem. Of course with 80+ locos, I couldn't afford that problem. If I was just starting in the hobby, I might be using DCC.

Trainwise, I mostly just ran trains yesterday. I did "Dullcote" and add license plates and drivers to six or seven autos. Today I am looking forward to cleaning and lubing a pair of Kato GP35's that have been in storage since early 2009. One is partially disassembled and I will be adding a crew to it as well. Hope I can still find all of the parts since the plastic bag they were in has disintegrated.

Willie
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Willie you are right. I have had several ops sessions with this track plan with no issues. So I'm back in the train cave getting the track put back in place. And with the exit curve being out of align....you can only really see it if you are looking for it. My hoppers don't really notice it. Like I said only if you know its there and are looking for it.

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Yeah, I saw it in the first picture. You're more of a perfectionist than I am...not that there is anything wrong with being a perfectionist. There's three things that you can do: 1) Leave it as is. 2) Substitute a piece of flex track. 3) Trim a little off the end of a piece of track to the upper right. This option is the worst option and will probably add to your frustration. As I said in the beginning, if it were me I would ignore it. You've already put a lot of work into it to get this far. If anyone besides you notices, use the "earthquake" reasoning.
Willie
 
santafewillie said:
Yeah, I saw it in the first picture. You're more of a perfectionist than I am...not that there is anything wrong with being a perfectionist. There's three things that you can do: 1) Leave it as is. 2) Substitute a piece of flex track. 3) Trim a little off the end of a piece of track to the upper right. This option is the worst option and will probably add to your frustration. As I said in the beginning, if it were me I would ignore it. You've already put a lot of work into it to get this far. If anyone besides you notices, use the "earthquake" reasoning.
Willie
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I am a perfectionist....maybe too much of one. I have decided to leave it be and press on. I have so much time invested in this track plan to start over.

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Good morning .... its 27 - haven't seen that in a while.

You should see all the news people on the TV. They have their high boots, leather skirts, and sweaters on. I guess they are trying to tell the rest of us that it is winter. Have to admit, bunch of good-looking well dressed women!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tonto, not knowing the Lone Ranger had disguised himself as a cigarette .. stomped his _ _ _ _.

Chet Nice picture .. very nice.

CS3 Does the turnout itself have a curve to it .. the normally straight side?
Maybe you just need to use some short pieces of flex track to connect the turnouts that you can cut to the length you need.
 
Sirfoldalot said:
Good morning .... its 27 - haven't seen that in a while.

You should see all the news people on the TV. They have their high boots, leather skirts, and sweaters on. I guess they are trying to tell the rest of us that it is winter. Have to admit, bunch of good-looking well dressed women!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tonto, not knowing the Lone Ranger had disguised himself as a cigarette .. stomped his _ _ _ _.

Chet Nice picture .. very nice.

CS3 Does the turnout itself have a curve to it .. the normally straight side?
Maybe you just need to use some short pieces of flex track to connect the turnouts that you can cut to the length you need.
Click to expand...
I was thinking that. All of my track going into it is smooth. There isn't any pinch points. It may very well be the turnout itself. If push comes to shove I suppose I could add some flex to it. I may have to do both sides at this point. I haven't even looked at the other side yet as I may substitute the flex I have there with one of my long yard leads. It'll be easier to do that as I'm having issues getting it straight on that side. It's funny how I figure out one thing to run into another issue. Oh well I'll get it figured out.

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More flood warnings go into effect at 1300 today and through the night again.
Woke up around 0230 this morning to sounds of a hellish rain coming down outside.
 
Good morning guys. 5 above and we got a few inches of snow over the last couple days. Still a pretty easy winter here. Christmas vacation is over for me and I think I caught a little bug so stayed home from work today.

Chet--life is much simpler with the DC layout. Way more time for fun.

I made some more trees over the break , also added some more ground cover and getting ready to pour a pond. I got my Baldwin S-12 in the mail Saturday already, Half Price Trains must ship immediately. It is a beautiful Bowser loco, maybe get pics posted tomorrow.

Still waiting for my Backdrop to arrive. I am all set to put it up so when it gets here I have some serious work sessions ahead of me. Saw some info on the site how it can be a one person job, if I make a stand for it. I think that is the route I am going to go.
 
BigE said:
Nice stockyard Chet.
Didn't you say once that you hand-cut every one of those pieces?
E
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Yes I did. I needed something that would fit into the space and went into my stripwood box and cut all of the pieces to fit. Don't think I try that again.
 
montanan said:
Yes I did. I needed something that would fit into the space and went into my stripwood box and cut all of the pieces to fit. Don't think I try that again.
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Boy you have more patience than I do. That would have drove me more crazy than my track is now. But at the end of the day it is a really great looking model.

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