Good evening fellow Track Layers and Spike Drivers,
Hi Flo and Francine, nice to step in to the warmth of Jeffreys' Dinner on this cool breezy day. I'll have some Chilly Beans with Ground Beef and Onions if you would and probably a slice of your Dutch apple pie for desert. Thanks.
The weather here, as stated above has been breezy and a bit on the cool side.
Lets check WW: Overcast at 45.5 °F - Feels Like 46 °F
Wind is from the ENE at 2.2 mph, it was blowing about 7 mph earlier;
oday
High 53 | Low 36 °F
20% Chance of Precip.
Yesterday
High 78.1 | Low 47.7 °F
Precip. 0 in
Pressure 29.86 in
Visibility 10.0 miles
Clouds Few 9000 ft
Scattered Clouds 10000 ft
Windchill 46 °F
Dew Point 38 °F
Humidity 76%
Rainfall 0.00 in
No work on the layout yet today, but probably in a little while I'm going to see if I can't move the newest section of Rail Craft track and Central Valley Branch Line tie strips a bit closer to the back edge by only about 1/2" to 3/4" to give me a bit more room on the upper mainline so I can possibly put in a third passing siding. I don't want things to look or be too crowded so I'm not sure yet about the third siding but moving the newest section of track will open up a bit more room.
A buddy Joe that lives about 20 miles East of me said it supposed to get fairly cold tonight and tomorrow and I see by the weather report that 36 °F is getting fairly cold and could possibly snow so I spent the afternoon getting a real full load of wood in my garden cart to leave near the back porch door along with a bunch of small branches to get a fire going to keep the house warm. Needless to say there seems to always be something to make the task a bit more involved. When I finished unloading the last few left over pieces of wood from the last fire I had going a few weeks back I discovered that the Right front inflatable do-not tire was very low on pressure so I went about trying to get it sealed up by squirting some green Slime in it and had to bring out my little pancake air compressor to pump it up. It turned out to be a two time event as I put it back after the time of filling the little tire thinking it might just be a leaky air valve but it wasn't. So then I filled the little green mesh garden cart really full and pulled it over to the back door and covered it over with some black plastic to keep the rain and snow off it and recovered the wood pile that Joe was generous enough cut and bring over to me. He even mentioned this morning he has more wood for me, unbelievable, but appreciated. Speaking of Oak wood, I have three fairly large Oaks that appear to have died and one that is a bit smaller with in a fairly short distance from my back yard.
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Sherrel, sweet doggies you have there!
OK, I went back down cellar and took another series of photos in the Blacksmith Shop location. I think David was right to back away just a bit more and keep some track in the lower part of the photo. Might just as well show off the hand laid track and turnout while I'm doing it. I like this one far better!
Thanks to all of you who took time to comment on this. We shall see what we shall see with the photo contest. It is just for fun anyway! I will be entering these in the local NMRA Meet the week before the Region Convention as well.
Have a good one out there.....
Say Ray: Glad you felt my suggestion was worth looking into. It should be interesting to see how it turns out?
Good afternoon to all of you back East. I slept in today and my two sleeping partners did not wake me normally before daylight. There were NINE doggies at the festivities for Easter Dinner, and they all had a great time romping around the three acres of property.
It's an overcast day at 58 degrees and sure looks as if it may rain, but we get fooled a lot.
Hope all have a nice day!
View attachment 56542
Say Sherrel: Nice looking and well behaved puppys! Give them a pat from me.
Willie- the area I have is about 9' wide. I think by changing it and going 4X8 or even a little wider will suit me better to get the curves I want to run the bigger locomotives.
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Say Lame: I'm not sure of the radius that they suggest for running that Loco but as you've found out due to the swing of the front and back it can tend to derail cars as it tends to push them toward the outside rail. You'd have to check to ensure you allow a large enough radius to resolve that and I would think, just as a guess that probably 24" radius is the smallest you should go and possibly even 28" or 30" radius.
The point I'm getting to here is that any return loop such as what you have on a folded dog bone layout would need to be probably at least 4" to 6" wider than your radius to allow some space on the outside of your tracks for scenery.
So that would mean that even if you could use a 24" radius which is measured from the center line to the center line or more precisely from the outside of the near rail to the inside rail 180 degrees across and then you till have to add about 1.5 inches to get to the bottom edge of the road bed taper and you till should allow at least a couple of inches or more for some scenery so things look more natural. So even if you were going to use a 24" radius it would still require a table area of about 52 plus inches, so be sure to keep these things in mind when planning your curves. Also it's a wise idea to have a template of the smallest curvature your going to use for the large Loco and use that or expand out broader if you want.
The same applies to the Turnouts/switches your going to uses as a bigger loco will need longer switches to negotiate smoothly.
I hope this is some help to you?
Thanks Chet!
David, thank you for your suggestions. I am going to go back down and try a different angle and tack on the photo. BTW the blue stuff in the window isn't draperies or curtains... That is the sky over across the room...... The Blacksmith's shop never had any curtains at any time in it's history AFAIK and doesn't today. It is now used as a storage building and workshop for a local Farmer in the area. The earliest photo I have found of the place was on a post card in 1911. I have no idea why the stone shows as "shinny" in the photo.... I think it may just be light reflection at that specific angle. You also notice that the front light of the little 0-6-0 tank loco is not on. 1925, locos did not run in daytime with lights...
Back to the layout for some different shots.
Say Ray: I'm glad I could offer a suggestion which you accepted and acted upon. Your new shot looks very much what I had in mind. To me, it's a lot more appealing especially with the switch stand and tracks showing as well as the bits of grass or weeds growing in the ballast between the two rail lines showing your rusted rail. It also shows the caboose and reefers on the far line and the Blacksmith's shop nicely. I think you may well have a Winner there!
Btw, what make of saddle tank loco is that? I've always been partial to loco's with flat top steam chests, it looks a bit different from the MDC saddle tank loco that I have.
Here's some pictures of my Con-Cor/Kato S2 Northern. They're not very good but will have to do for now.
View attachment 56528View attachment 56529View attachment 56530
Say, RAY- That "new" photo of yours is Soooo much better! Shows off the trackwork, switch stand, and loco.
If I may suggest? Add a couple young boys sitting on the wall looking at the locomotive. The couple standing there sort of look as if they are watching too!
CURT- nice pic of your RS-1 ... I really like them. Funny, 50 years ago, I thought they were ugly!
Say Sherrel: We are about the same as far as the RS-1's, I didn't like them either or the other diesels till more recently.
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