Large Scale Central

BN 8th Sub (Issaquah Branch) Track Plan

Track and Trestles
#221

Trust me Rick’s layout is much better and bigger than mine but I’ll take the compliment.

I drew up a track plan years ago, well about 8 I guess, and it turned out fairly close to what I drew up. There’s definitely some compromises. I’ll have to measure the total track with my speedometer car but my gut says 300’ give or take.

Smaller than Paul Burch’s layout as all this track is from him and I have a pile of leftovers. If I had more room, the only thing is change is the running distances between Redmond and St Regis. The Redmond straight section is pretty close to 1:1 along with the Issaquah section from Darigold.

It’s been a long time building. I think I officially broke ground during the Spring of 2020 with COVID on the outside portion.

Now I can go back to the fun projects of modeling! I’ve got a half a dozen buildings left to finish.

2 Likes
#222

Sitting around that fire pit while trains go by will be a blast. Neat design.

With that far shot from the roof though, I can’t help but imagine that small-scale modelers, when seeing that scene, and not realizing this is large scale, might wonder: Oooh, are those multiple flicker LED’s, or some new sort of flame LED’s?

:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like
#223

Eventually, aka once I get the buildings done, I want to run some landscaping wire around the layout. A few spot lights to light up the walkway and then each building/scene will have its own lights. I think it would be really cool to have a nigh ops session and add a bonfire to the mix.

2 Likes
#224

Craig,
Beautiful overview of your RR, it’s coming along great. The large structures and fidelity to protype will be stunning when completed. Just remember as you go along we are all limited by time and available space.
Great job
Rick

1 Like
#225

Honestly I don’t know that I’d want much more of a layout to maintain even if I had the space. This layout seems very achievable in terms of size and funding. I am looking forward to non layout projects again at some point in the future.

What’s been really interesting about this journey so far is the reception amongst mostly HO scale modelers. There’s two distinct camps that emerge: one that just discounts it right away because it’s “a garden railroad” and then there’s the people that are curious and encouraging.

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#226

Craig,

Congratulations on this accomplishment! It must seem like there is actually an end in sight now…even if there really is never an end!

Eric

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#227

Thanks Eric,

There’s plenty of times that I wonder why I’m building such a big layout and then I remember there’s guys indoors building 2000-3000 sq ft basement layouts on top of a 3000 she ft house.

Once I get the remaining buildings finished I’ve got a long list of other projects.

But what I’m excited about right now is the possibility that I might be running a train here in the next few weeks if I can get my locomotives are figured out. One downside of batteries is they need replacement especially if you let them sit for a long time without use like I have.

#228

WOW
Now you’re going to need some mow equipment to keep the line clear , nothing like working equipment

#229

I’ve got a snow plow that needs a bit of work (putting the truck back on). That plow is more functional than anything else. In fact it’s quite ugly.

I do have in my future if I ever run out of projects list to make a working Pettibone speed swing, Kershaw Ballast Regulator and a few other pieces of random MOW equipment.

The ballast regulator is kind a high on the list as if I can make it with a functional broom/brush I can use it to clear debris before an ops session.

1 Like
#230

You could mount a boat 12v bilg fan with some duct for a working leaf/ballast blower (I use my cordless drill batteries on mine)

#231

“Snow plow that needs some work” is that the dozer you were working on some time ago??

#232

Thought of you for some reason

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#233

Yes and no Pete.

I have the Snow Dozer project I started years ago that your thinking about still to finish. As horrible as it sounds I might just end up scraping it and starting over again from the ground up. Too many small errors in dimensions, slightly off square that are causing issues.

The actual working plow I have at the moment is a hunk of 3" PVC pipe cut down the middle, then cut at a 45° angle and glued together. Then it’s held onto an old Aristocrat drop end gondola with a brass rod. It’s literally the ugliest thing I’ve ever built but it works. I need to make a tensioner spring on the top to hold the plow parallel with the rail as right now it tends to drop. I can’t remember the last time we got enough snow to actually plow the railroad. There’s a fine line of no enough and too much. It’s about 1" max that the plow works good on.

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#234

Craig;

I think I read something on MLS way-way back when that it helps to spray the plow blade with PAM cooking spray before starting to plow. The PAM helps to keep the snow from clinging to the blade.

It’s also good to leave the plow outside for several hours (in a dry place) before starting to plow.

Hope this helps, David Meashey

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#235

Yep I’ve done both those things…

Our Western Washington “snow” is 32° heavy wet snow, not the nice dry fluffy stuff. And it’s usually just barely 32° so any snow that melts refreezes almost instantly.

The bigger issue I’ve found is ice building up on the flanges of the wheels. Keeping the plow cold helps with that but our snow is so thick it’s hard to plow. Once we got some nice fluffy snow and it plowed like magic.

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#236

Guess you need to import snow from some other areas! No doubt the west coast snow is wet and heavy , hated driving in it!

#237

Apparently only buying a single 3000 pound bag of rock instead of say 70,000-80,000 pounds gets the attention of the marketing department and they contact you for a interview about what the heck you are using the product for…

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#238

Nice publicity, Craig!

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#239

Great writeup Craig, it is sure coming together!

#240

Thanks guys. Eve did a great job taking our conversation and making into something worthwhile.

Definitely a business that has customers in mind. I told her they could corner the market on model train ballast if they started selling in “small” bags. :joy: Eve said she recently got one of their sand products into retail stores.

I was totally blown away when she reached out after I bought the rock. Why do they want to talk to me, I’m not that interesting.