The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch


Conducted an Open House on 12 Nov. Had a few members of the James River Division over after their meeting in Fredericksburg.
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No, nobody else is helping with this. Just my hobby interest.

I have a limited amount of experience as a model railroader. I do however have a lifetime of experience in sports, both playing and coaching.

One thing I learned from sports is that all the great players have a passion to play that borders on obsession.

Ken you have that kind of passion for your hobby and that is what makes you a great model railroader.

God bless you for sharing your hobby on the internet. By doing so I am sure you will inspire many others.
 
One of the projects I've been putting off for a while now is replacing the turnouts at each end of the classification yard. The turnouts I originally installed were Atlas #6 with the pot metal frog. I really didn't like the distraction of a big screwhead sitting right there by the frog. Sorta like having a big snap solenoid sitting next to the track.
First step is to remove the old turnouts.

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Then start laying the new turnouts.

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Wow! What a great build. It took me a while to read all if it but it was worth it. Learned a lot and am going to use some of that in my little build. :D
 
Trying to balance my time between building the bridge and swapping out the turnouts in the yard. Seems I'm not progressing very fast on either one.
I was able to put a little work into the turnouts today linked two more tracks plus got one turnout installed on the cutover from the A/D tracks to the fiddle track.

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Ken, your layout looks GREAT! If you decide to sell any of the atlas switches, i would be more than happy to take them off your hands.
 
Got the A/D tracks linked up to the yard lead and the fiddle track. Just three more yard tracks to link up and this end is done. The other end is a bit more complicated.
 
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OK, I forgot to hit the publish button on YouTube. Try it now.[/QUOTE

OK that worked.

Too bad you don't have enough room to run long trains. :)

My space is only 21 by 13 but I didn't want to have to duck under the table to reach some access hatch so I have a simple U shaped, folded dogbone track plan.

I wanted a workable classification yard and I got that, albeit a small one.

I wanted a decent passenger yard with station and I got that with sidings long enough for 10-12 cars.

I wanted a engine yard with full turntable and I got that.

To get all that something had to give and it was the mainline - just the simple folded dogbone.

I always wanted to have the space you have but it has never worked out that way - the wife always has other ideas when she sees a wide open basement - wives must love walls or something.

Frederick
 
Got some more work done on the other end of the yard. Cutting the track to fit is the easy part. setting up the slide switches takes longer. While I'm using them to control the turnouts, I'm also applying wires to the terminals that face down under the layout to provide powered frogs and later on to power dwarf lights.
The two most forward tracks are the A/D tracks. The third track that is partially completed is the fiddle track.

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