The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch


I'll second what Willie said. I remember seeing a post a few years ago .. and my jaw dropped open when I went back to your first post. WOW .. Just Very Impressive, Ken.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. Always encouraging.
Ran a shake down today and found some more problems with the signalling. Apparently I have some blocked sections linked together somehow. When a train is on one track, another adjacent block is lit up as occupied. I disconnected all individual leads from the block inputs and one block still shows occupied even though there is no voltage going to the track. I think it might be the BDL168.
A friend has a spare BDL168 and will bring it over tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be going through the leads to the two tracks that seem to be linked together.
 
Finished the trouble shooting and found the problems. My friend brought his laptop with JMRI installed on it to read the signals going over the Loconet. I didn't know JMRI could do that. It was instrumental to determining what sections were being triggered on the layout. The signals are all working correctly now. All that's left to do now is put the fascia back on the layout and start planning the switching moves for the open house on 2 Oct.
 
Guess there a lot of work to get done for the open house, but it looks like you have everything handled. Hope you take some videos during the open house. I always enjoy them. I was hoping to get into the area in the beginning of October, but we couldn't find tickets for good seats at the NASCAR race in Dover, DE. Only a few crappy seats were left and can't see driving 2,000 miles and not be able to see the whole track.
 
I was really looking forward to visiting you empire. I have watched the construction since you first started posting and have really enjoyed all of your videos. Seeing the layout in person would have been a big treat for me, but I just can't see spending the time and money to go to the race and have crappy seats. We do work out way to the east coast every couple of years so I am hoping to get to see it some time in the future.
 
The open house is history now and it's back to work on the layout, making it better and more scenery.
I had a #6 double crossover at one end of the arrival departure tracks in the main yard. The #6 just looked to cramped in there and I couldn't find a #8 double crossover, so I removed the #6 DC and replaced it with a couple of sets of #8 turnouts for independent crossovers.
The two tracks on the right are the mainline that bipasses the yard. The next two tracks moving left are the arrival departure tracks coming into the division yard. The rest of the tracks merge together into the fiddle track that goes around the bend to the left. The to sets of #8 turnouts can be seen in the arrival departure tracks. One set brings trains over to track two as they come out of the bend to the yard and the second set moves trains from track two over to track one coming into the yard. It also provides a route for the yard switcher to pull trains off track one of the A/D tracks into the fiddle track then to be able to shove them into the yard.

crossover_zpswkaeiqna.jpg
Yard full.jpg
 
Last edited:
For your long trains and large locomotives, the #8's will look so much better. I have a couple of #6 double crossovers that I had to use due to space limotations, but being that I model the transition era with shorted locomotives and freight cars, they don't look too bad.

I see you have also been working on scenery. Any updated photos of that ????
 
I did see that video. Think back to when you started your layout, it is amazing what you have done. I have followed you layout since you painted the walls and started the benchwork. It sort of reminds me of my friends layout in Missouri. He also has his entire basement, around 2,800 square feet, full of his empire. I can remember visiting hime about 25 years ago and helping him with his bench work. We manage to get by at least every couple of years and like yours, watched the layout bloom.

Do you have anyone helping you with the build? It seems a bit overwhelming for one person to get all of that work done. My friend did have a lot of help from members of his model railroad club and now has an outstanding layout.
 
I've turned my attention to the yard for a few fixes.
I had a #6 double crossover at this point in the yard but just didn't like it. It seemed to cramped of a cross over for the amount of space I had. I removed that and replaced it with two sets of #8 crossovers.
The control is a slide switch on one turnout and a Tortoise machine on the other. The slide switch moves the points on one turnout and activates the Tortoise on the other.

 
Last edited:
Been working on the oil facility since the last op session. I installed a siding for the local switcher then installed turnouts to access the three loading platforms. This past weekend I laid down some ballast then cleaned the tracks. We're open for business.
In the picture, the SD90MAC is pulling out a loaded set of crud oil tank cars and will push the empties into the siding that are waiting on the mainline. The SP switcher in the holding track will push the empties into the loading tracks later on.

1020161114.jpg
 
Last edited:
The sheer size and scope of your layout never cease to amaze me! With The smoothness of your operating trains, signals, and trackwork .. I dub thee: "ONE AWESOME MODELER"!
It is my sincere hope to be able to visit it one day.
 
After thinking about this for a while, I finally put some foam berms down to surround the oil tanks.

1101161901.jpg


This turned out to be quite easy. I used some 1/2" foam board and cut it into strips then beveled the strips to look like the berms you see around the tank farms. Cut them to length, shape them with a rasp tool, a little bit of liquid nails and they are in place.

1101161901a.jpg


The next step will be to apply the ground color then the piping over to the separator, then to the loading racks.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top