Large Scale Central

Another expansion thread?

Track and Trestles
#121
Ric Golding said:
Just be sure and make it deep enough for the dogs to lay in with their head resting on the side to watch the trains run bye.
If he has bears by him like I do it will make a nice watering hole for the bears. LOL Thats why I cant make a large and deep pond.
#122
Ric Golding said:
Just be sure and make it deep enough for the dogs to lay in with their head resting on the side to watch the trains run bye.
Well, Ric, unfortunately the only one left is the little whatchamacallit thing. And that one is so small it would drown in a rain puddle......;)

And no bears in this neck of the woods, thank goodness…:wink:

#123

“Well, Ric, unfortunately the only one left is the little whatchamacallit thing. And that one is so small it would drown in a rain puddle…”

I’m truely sorry to hear that. Good memories.

#124

I wasn’t sure whether to start a new thread or just add on to this one, so I decided since it’s just one more phase of this thread it’ll go here. So this thread has been resurrected. Over the winter with all the snow and rain we had I came to the conclusion that this area needed some drainage. That thought had entered my mind while I building in this area. I just figgered I’d wait and see how bad it got. A few times the water from melting snow and rain covered the track work which is a good 4" in some places above ground level. I didn’t think of it at the time to take pix, so you’ll have to take my word for it. This convinced me that I needed to put in something to drain all this water away. Overall the layout held up pretty good over the winter. One exception was the switch on the south side entering Hesperus. Due to a lot of below freezing weather this area for some reason experienced a bit of frost heave and tore out some of the track on the switch. I pulled the switch and rebuilt it last month. Hopefully I reinforced it enough that it won’t happen again. While I had that switch on the workbench, I decided to lift the switch at the opposite end and rebuild it too. I had made it with some left over code 332 aluminum track and had been debating rebuilding it with 250 alum. The drainage issue came up so I pulled up that switch to rebuild it and while it was out began planning on how to put some drainage in. This is what I came up with.

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/expansion/expand070.jpg)

This end of the layout seemed to have the worst drainage problem so that was where the drain would go.

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/expansion/expand071.jpg)

The switch that was pulled up and rebuilt and is now back in place.

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/expansion/expand074.jpg)

As you can see this added a bit more dirt to the layout and once I get that spread out, it will be a few less truck loads I’ll have to buy and spread.

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/expansion/expand073.jpg)

The Japanese Maple on the left didn’t fare well over the winter either. With all the snow accumulation it split right down the middle. My son taped it back together but it doesn’t look good at this point and will probably need to be replaced. Now, all I need is some rain to see how this all works out!

#125

Nice. Installing a drainage system has really reduced my maintenance.
Ralph

#126

Well, I wasn’t really having a problem with maintenance, just with the accumulation of water in this area, it would turn into a swamp and I’d have to wait a few days for it to dry out. I had realized this before I put the layout there, but didn’t fore see all the snow and rain we had this winter that just made it worse. I think this will relieve that problem.

#127

Work looks good, Ken… Water is the one thing that could seriously ruin a good railroad… It’s usually one of the first considerations I have, when adding a new area…

#128

You realize that now that you have put in drainage it won’t rain anymore?

#129

I know, Doug, but that’s okay too…:wink:

#130

Glad to see someone else moving dirt. But it should take care of your unwanted pond.

#131

NICE!!
That almost looks good enough to invade this year with some powered boxcars! Sucks about the Jap. maple I really like them but opted for firethorn hibiscus instead

#132

Looks nice Ken. Great expansion of the railroad.

#133
David Russell said:
NICE!! That almost looks good enough to invade this year with some powered boxcars! Sucks about the Jap. maple I really like them but opted for firethorn hibiscus instead
Invade away!!!!!

Track work looks to be in reasonable shape. Haven’t run a train yet, just working on spreading out the dirt I dug up. Unless those powered boxcars have batteries in them, all they’ll do is look pretty sitting on the track…:wink:

Pissed me off about the Maple, but my son said not to worry. He has a about 30-40 of them that are that size sitting down at his yard.

We’re supposed to get some rain this weekend, so I’ll see how all this works turns out.

#134

Ken Brunt said:
[i]

I was thinking the same thing. Too bad he’s a USA Trains guy or I could show him how to make up a battery trail-car rig for Aristo engines out of stuff he already has. Can be done for USA too, but requires wiring. The original…

(http://photo.cvsry.com/RCX-6400.jpg)

The expansion looks real good too !

#135

I have already decided I’m gonna do some battery locos just haven’t decided which ones. Really considering one of my Genesis units. Got a schematic for that Jon? They do have a jack outlet on the back.

#136

I know nothing about LGB. Sorry.

#137
Jon Radder said:
I know nothing about LGB. Sorry.
You suck! :)
#138
David Russell said:
I have already decided I'm gonna do some battery locos just haven't decided which ones. Really considering one of my Genesis units. Got a schematic for that Jon? They do have a jack outlet on the back.
My Genisis is powered thru the outlet in the back, thru LGB's (Long, Gone & Bankrupt) material handling car, as the battery car... You just need LGB's electric plug to make it work....
#139
David Russell said:
Jon Radder said:
I know nothing about LGB. Sorry.
You suck! :)
No, LGB sucks !!
#140
Jon Radder said:
David Russell said:
Jon Radder said:
I know nothing about LGB. Sorry.
You suck! :)
No, LGB sucks !!
No, LGB bashers suck. Show me ONE major manufacturer who now makes ANYTHING near as durable hardpulling, and easy to work on as an LGB Stainz.... Botchmann? Hell no. Aristocrap? Are you kidding? Hartland? Maybe.

EP Lehmann never claimed to make anything but great running TOY trains. They did so, admirably. If you bought one, you could expect to get your money’s worth.

Their big ‘mistake’ was in not supplying masses of cheap, flimsy, pretty much disposable, but ‘more to scale’ crap to pad the bottom line. Quality shows, but dogshit sells because people these days have a Wal-Mart mentality.

But this has been hashed ad nauseum. And nobody is likely to change their minds, now… so give it a rest already.