malletman
Alcohaulic
Below is a picture of what I am working with benchwork wise. Out of sight on the right is a narrow shelf about 3 foot long along the wall that dead ends at the door to the room. The other side of the layout will eventually have a 5 foot shelf that is narrow above my work bench(which is in front of the window) but will be 24" deep after its past the bench, so a 2x2 area roughly. I just bought a brass 2-6-6-2t, which will require me to keep the bridge across the narrowed middle area(necessary for me to reach the storage shelves at the rear on the wall). If I had gone just geared, I could have removed this pain in the butt item. I do plan to get a geared engine as soon as a couple other brass pieces sell. My thoughts are a 22" radius(mostly) level loop at the bottom for the Mallet to run on. Then a switch back, diverging off the mainline at the front right corner, using that shelf for its head room, then climbing at 3% along the rear of the layout, bridging over the lower mainline at some point, then again at the left front corner, going above my work bench, then arriving at the reload camp on that shelf space just past my workbench. The "hill line" will be the domain of the geared engine, with the mallet handling the loads to the mill and emptys back to the base of the "hill line".
Here is the left side prior to the front bridge section being installed infront of the control shelf 15" radius Atlas track can make a circle in this space, same for the other side. Ok for geared but not sure the Mallet would like that.
And here is the right side and you can see some of the extension shelf where I could put the pull back track to start up the hill line.
Here is the Mallet, which should arrive here later this week. I sprung for it as its the brass version of the very first logging loco I owned at age 12, the Mantua Booth Kelly Logger. That engine started my logging obsession. This is the NWSL brass version of it. I already have a Canon can motor on order for it. But I doubt it will handle 15" radius track, but I will try to tune it for that. If I can, then I will remove the bridge section as the layout looks much better without it.
If I can get my brass diesel and caboose sold, I know of a NWSL 3 truck Willamette geared engine, which Booth Kelly Lumber Co had as well. So a natural stable mate to the Mallet. I am open to suggestions to track plan and layout ideas. While I can tune, repower and rework brass locomotives, I suck at planning track laoyuts. I will be using Woodland Scenics foam inclines and spacer blocks to build up the elevation of the line and keep weight low. Mike the Aspie
Here is the left side prior to the front bridge section being installed infront of the control shelf 15" radius Atlas track can make a circle in this space, same for the other side. Ok for geared but not sure the Mallet would like that.
And here is the right side and you can see some of the extension shelf where I could put the pull back track to start up the hill line.
Here is the Mallet, which should arrive here later this week. I sprung for it as its the brass version of the very first logging loco I owned at age 12, the Mantua Booth Kelly Logger. That engine started my logging obsession. This is the NWSL brass version of it. I already have a Canon can motor on order for it. But I doubt it will handle 15" radius track, but I will try to tune it for that. If I can, then I will remove the bridge section as the layout looks much better without it.
If I can get my brass diesel and caboose sold, I know of a NWSL 3 truck Willamette geared engine, which Booth Kelly Lumber Co had as well. So a natural stable mate to the Mallet. I am open to suggestions to track plan and layout ideas. While I can tune, repower and rework brass locomotives, I suck at planning track laoyuts. I will be using Woodland Scenics foam inclines and spacer blocks to build up the elevation of the line and keep weight low. Mike the Aspie