Introduction, Grandfathers legacy build


Looking really good! I am sure your grandfather would be proud and honored to have his grandson doing what you are doing.
Keep us posted. There is alot to learn in this hobby...and this is a good place to learn.
 
I appreciate that. I know he would be too. I always looked up to him.

Today I just got the roundhouse and motor assembly, as well as the rest of the track components and switches.

This weekend i should have some updates.
 
Update 1/30/11

Today I made an attempt to finish the track today. Over the week many shipments of Railroading goodness arrived and one of the packages included was my 10 pcs of 36" flex track. This stuff goes a long way to helping finish the long straight sections and akward curves.

I also was excited to get the turn table. I also purchased the Motor with shack to go with it. Installation was a snap and it looks and works great so far. I still have to power it up, so for now im using the hand crank.

And I also went with the suggested method of using adhesive caulking to secure the tracks. Its a little tricky if you dont put enough down, but it works great! It makes the tracks look a bit more realistic (without any nails showing). The adhesive leaves a shiny coat on the raodbed but that will be taken care of with some of the gravel ballast i plan to use.

I sat down and designed to scale on paper, a truss bridge that will span my layout. It will be 100% custom built. I just need to figure out what materials to use to build the base. The base needs to be about 1/4" thick, no more, no less. I need a wood (other then balsa) that will be strong yet thin. Im thinking maybe a 1x5 or 1x6 ripped down. (they start at 3/4").

Im literally 4 hours or less away from having the entire railroad fully operational. I have been checking all my rails and connections along the way for problems and have had none. :D

Anyway, here are some pictures of my work.
No nails!
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The adhesive method
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80% down
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The yard is done!!
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And here is the scale drawing of my planned bridge. The support coulums will be dressed up later to look like concrete or block piers. The scale is 1/4" = 1"

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Updates 2/12/11

Hey guys, Its been slow going due to lack of funds this past 2 weeks but i finally got the track done. Its not 100% done though because there are a few places i have to tweak to avoid derailments.

Also, im going to pick up a bright boy so I can clean all the track. I noticed that the new flex track i bought gets perfect contact with the train but the 16 year old track sections have some corrosion on them, and so the engines can barely get around the layout without needing a nudge here and there.

I dont know if its because of a bad contact situation but it seems when pulling a full load of cars, the engine will struggle and almost sound like the wheels are spinning in place. From what I can see that is almost exactly what its doing. Im hoping a good track cleaning will help this.

I bought alot of plaster cloth and plaster materials to start doing the terrain. I already built a tunnel with viewport. I have yet to finish it so I am waiting on pictures.

here are some pictures below of the railroad progress.

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Hi, everybody, my name is Trailrider and I'm a model railroadaholic! :D Stop me before I buy another engine! Just bought an undecorated Proto2000 E-6, which I hope to turn into a Burlington E-5...eventually!

Just finished wiring the main lines on my 14x14 ft. Grashhook, Galesburg & Western Division of the Burlington Route. (Whew! Crawling around under the layout at my age hasn't gotten any easier!) No time for photos right now, but at least the trains can be run, including shortened versions of the Zephyr's (both "shovelnose" and E-unit led), the Great Northern's Empire Builders, and the Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited.

Wiring of the main yard will have to wait a bit until I have the time...

Green boards all the way!

Oh, yes, there are freight trains, as well.
 
My brother has the exact same layout. We stopped at Railroad Hobbies in Roseville (CA) one afternoon just to kill some time and we saw a "For Sale" ad for this gorgeous layout, and went to check it out. He was still a teenager at the time, and living at home, so my mom asked about it. She went over with us to see it and when she did, she whipped out her check book on the spot. The guy had a massive Lionel layout in his garage and wanted to expand, and this HO layout was right in its path and had to go. He did a SPECTACULAR job on it. Timmy is now in his mid 20's but still has the layout. Him and my Dad had to rent a U-Haul to bring it home because it's 14 feet long x 4.5' wide. His has a HUGE Heljan chord bridge (arched type deal) and a Central Valley 150' through truss bridge that are made to be removeable for cleaning track. The detail work on it was top notch and it came with a lot of rolling stock and several nicely detailed SP steam locomotives. It looks like the SP in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I'll have to see if I have any photos of it. If not, we are in the middle of remodeling the garage at Mom and Dad's for Dad's '55 Chevy (making it a 50's retro themed garage with checkered tile floor and gas pumps, jukebox, etc.) and walling off a portion for Tim's model railroad to have it's own space, so if I don't have photos, I'll get some soon. The model railroad hasn;t been touched in several years; it's been blocked in by the parents accumulated junk over the years and cramped in the garage with all of the stuff, so he hasn't been able to get to it since they moved into the new house 7 years ago, but, we just finished the new shed on the back yard yesterday afternoon, so next week when this storm passes, we'll be able to spend a day sorting through the crap, storing it in the new shed, and we'll start remodeling the garage. Once that is done, Tim's version of this classic Atlas model railroad will get some much needed clean up work and attention!
 
cct70 said:
My brother has the exact same layout. We stopped at Railroad Hobbies in Roseville (CA) one afternoon just to kill some time and we saw a "For Sale" ad for this gorgeous layout, and went to check it out. He was still a teenager at the time, and living at home, so my mom asked about it. She went over with us to see it and when she did, she whipped out her check book on the spot. The guy had a massive Lionel layout in his garage and wanted to expand, and this HO layout was right in its path and had to go. He did a SPECTACULAR job on it. Timmy is now in his mid 20's but still has the layout. Him and my Dad had to rent a U-Haul to bring it home because it's 14 feet long x 4.5' wide. His has a HUGE Heljan chord bridge (arched type deal) and a Central Valley 150' through truss bridge that are made to be removeable for cleaning track. The detail work on it was top notch and it came with a lot of rolling stock and several nicely detailed SP steam locomotives. It looks like the SP in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I'll have to see if I have any photos of it. If not, we are in the middle of remodeling the garage at Mom and Dad's for Dad's '55 Chevy (making it a 50's retro themed garage with checkered tile floor and gas pumps, jukebox, etc.) and walling off a portion for Tim's model railroad to have it's own space, so if I don't have photos, I'll get some soon. The model railroad hasn;t been touched in several years; it's been blocked in by the parents accumulated junk over the years and cramped in the garage with all of the stuff, so he hasn't been able to get to it since they moved into the new house 7 years ago, but, we just finished the new shed on the back yard yesterday afternoon, so next week when this storm passes, we'll be able to spend a day sorting through the crap, storing it in the new shed, and we'll start remodeling the garage. Once that is done, Tim's version of this classic Atlas model railroad will get some much needed clean up work and attention!
Click to expand...


That sounds like its taken a long journey for that railroad. If you ever find pictures of it, post it up! Id love to see other peoples take on this railroad.
 
Well, as it turns out, Timmy started cleaning and resurrecting the layout yesterday and it looks a 100% better now that he's vaccumed and dusted it all off and has started repairs to the structures. Him and I got trains running again tonight and I'll get and post some photos of it soon.
 
This is an awsome layout. I thought real hard at building this track plan but went with something else. The only thing I didn't like about this plan was having to back in or drive all the way around the track to get into the yard. Otherwise it looked like it would be fun. I plan on keeping up with you so please keep the pictures and dialog coming. Thanks for sharing.
 
Not on this layout. My SD40-2's throw a FIT with the 18" curves in a couple spots. Curves and switches are way too tight for engines that big. I tried a UP FEF-3 4-8-4 and the Centipede tender went on the ground in almost every curve. Just way too tight for anything bigger than an SD9.
 
cct70 said:
Not on this layout. My SD40-2's throw a FIT with the 18" curves in a couple spots. Curves and switches are way too tight for engines that big. I tried a UP FEF-3 4-8-4 and the Centipede tender went on the ground in almost every curve. Just way too tight for anything bigger than an SD9.
Click to expand...

IF there is enough swing available on the trucks, you might try removing center wheels (or axles, unless they are part of the gear train). I've got kitbashed 2-10-2's and 2-10-4's made from Mantua Mike's that will go around 18" radius curves with no problems. I shim the center, blind driver axles up and the flanged, end axles down so the center drivers are off the tops of the rails by about .015". This allows the blind drivers to NOT catch on the rail head coming out of the curves. With some of my old Athearn six-wheel diesels (no, I haven't tried the SD40 series), I removed the wheels from the center axle.

On that centipede, I'd try pulling the center axles from the lead end of the 'pede.

Just some food for thought.
 
I've got plenty of 4 axle power to run on Timmy's layout, but I've got WAY too much time, money and work into my SD40-2 fleet to modify them to run on 18" radius curves. And his 844 model? No way would I modify it, not when all of that stuff will run on my layout without trouble. He was a little disappointed that the 844 wouldn't run on the layout, so I gave him the Bachmann 4-8-4 with Vanderbilt tender as it runs like a champ on his layout. My 6 year old niece LOVES the smoke feature on it. I've tried what you suggested years ago and it worked great on steam engines, but never tried it on 6 axle diesels. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas though.
 
I have decided long ago that only 4-axle diesels will run on my layout. My tightest radius is 22" on the helix, and 24" - 28" everywhere else. I wake up in cold sweats thinking about attempting to run 6-axle modern diesels; I don't believe they would work. Besides, the era is all wrong for what I like to model. The most modern loco I have is a GP-60M, and it's really too new for my tastes. I hate comfort cabs.
 
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