Looks good Devon, I like your idea about the bench work and what it looks like.
Wow, I just started page 32. Better catch up Ken.
Devon Sinsley said:
OK well I got the track in the yard laid. I had about enough time to take a couple pics and shoot a short video then I had to run to the fair.
I am happy with it even if it has some pretty poor track arrangement. Some pretty tight curves and S-curves to get everything lined up. You will see from the pictures and video. But I ran the GP9 and a car through it and it will work. Its not perfect but it will function like I want. I wish someone here would have told me that what I have on paper and what translates outside wonât necessarily be the same.
Well there is track and I am running trains (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). Up next is the start of the bench work for the wye. The wife will paint the rest of the house then I will write a new article.
CONGRATULATIONS!
and welcome to LSC. now you really arrived.
edit; (and take your timeâŚ
good work needs time)
Now we are talking, and it only took 30 pages to get here.
Well done Devon!
Huzzah!
Hard to see, but I hope you gave your cement footings a slight crown to drain water away from the posts⌠if not do so on any future foots.
I see you are following the Cliff method of over kill 2x4 construction! Come heck or high water the Mail must go through!
John
The 2X4 over kill is twofold. One esthetics, I like the looks of the beefy trestle look. Then the reason that there are so many stringers is to support the PVC boards. They donât have much strength. These are/will be 9 3/8 on center (when 30") which should support it well. Not cheap but in the end I will like it and it will be hell bent for stout.
Well reality is starting to set in as I was warned it would. The track plan I had worked out just isnât going to work. The chief concern is the wye. In reality it is quite a bit bigger than I anticipated once I built it on the ground. The issue is that it is 7â from the back of the straight section to the tip of the wye. This just wonât allow enough room from the tip to make a 30" walk through bridge and then a 90 deg 4â radius curve. Just wont fit in my 12.5â wide space. I also was not real thrilled with two walk through bridges. To add to my dilemmas is the ever increasing focus on operations instead of chasing my caboose. I was introduced to switching puzzles at my last club meeting. With a small space and operations focus I think I want to include some switching puzzles. They will both function as operations sidings and then be stand alone entertainment.
With all these considerations in mind I am rethinking the layout (I know, I know). The new concept has the same basic form as the last iteration. But I no longer have a double reversing loop. The wye is stand alone at the yard end. Off the point will be a straight section that will serve an industry. It will be the only lifting bridge and that will stay up most of the time. The wye, it has to stay because its a significant prototype feature, will turn locomotives for the yard. Next to it I will leave space for an optional to include an Allenâs Time Saver puzzle. For now this will be just a siding. At the other end the reversing loop stays. I had planed a industry here with three tracks. Well that lends itself perfectly to the Inglenook Siding Puzzle. The only change there is the lengths of the tracks to be limiting for the puzzle. To give my self a contentious run I have built in a loop track. I have planned for some other siding areas. Nothing at this point is set in stone other than the location of the wye and its size and the reversing loop and its location. Those are pretty well defined. The inside loop section on the right will be 22" off the ground and will be a raised bed that can walked on and accessed by steps.
This is the new basic concept. The back grey portion is the house. The brown is the bench. I am not showing it but the bench will extend tot he point of the wye. Also on the right it will come about half way to the bottom along the fence. The rest will be ladder filled in with raised beds. The green is the actual surveyed area I have to work with. The upper left is the existing yard. Like I said thi is all very fluid. I now have a reality check that it may or may not work as planned but this gives me something to shoot for.
Edited: Oh forgot to mention. The inner loop can be a second phase. the idea right now is to be a point to point with the wye and the reversing loop. the rest off that inner loop section can come later or be sidings we will see.
I should give an update so people donât think I am only just daydreaming again. The wife got the house painting finished yesterday. There is one piece of trim that needs to be redone but thats minor. I laid out the wye on the shop floor and cut all the tack and got it all bent and attached and marked and disassembled. I will build the bench for it this weekend and install the wye. This week after work I will try and finish up the five way so I can install it this weekend as well. I will also try and paint the yard cabinet and install the doors this week after work.
Do not worry, grasshopper. The plan will change many, many times before it is considered finishedâŚ(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Ken Brunt said:
Do not worry, grasshopper. The plan will change many, many times before it is considered finishedâŚ(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Yeah I am realizing that Ken. I did the same thing in all other scales also. The imagination is always bigger than the space. But I have to have some plan to work to otherwise I just feel directionless. I now it will change as I lay track and say âwell that wonât workâ the narrow space is an interesting constraint.
are you using some thing that can be set to scale, so that 1 square equals 1 foot ? that will help to get better ideas if things will fit. I am reworking my plans and found some graph paper and can use it that way ,1 square equals 1 foot to visualize the problems, I kept running outside with tape measure yesterday to check a location of something that is not moveable. I like the ops idea and will have to research the puzzles you are displaying. I seem to remember the timesaver one from way back in the early 80âs HO days
Edited to ask:
Why not connect the right side end to your timesaver to the other spur? would that give more options for operating and a siding to clear the main line ? or will that destroy the idea of the timesaver. siding going thru one building , spot cars there then blue flag it so the car cannot be moved for the timesaver and you have basically the same thing with an additional siding
Pete,
if you view that image by clicking on it you can blow it up. You might have to right click on it and hit view image. You will see there is a grid. I use the program AnyRail. There is a free version I just bought the unlimited version for $59 bucks. I toggle back and forth between 3" and 6" grids depending on how close I am zoomed in. This problem had to do with what I could make Anyrail do versus what really happened when I fit my pieces together. This actually is similar to one of the first versions of this layout.
Now as for the puzzles check this site out. This has the information on both that I am playing with. There is a simple one that uses the wye also. I will make 11 special ore cars for the Inglenook, they will be shorties. I can extend the legs of the spurs out and get more space on them when using them just for operations and then put stops or flags (as you suggest) when using it for the puzzle.
Now for your suggestion on the right leg of the time saver and the other spur. Their not connecting is by design. For one thing the timer saver is all flat. On the mainline of the Time Saver on the right side right past the three car length section needed for the puzzle it begins to drop at 2.4%. Then at the switch the spur continues to drop at 2% to the straight section which is then flat. This is to give some elevation differences and visual interest. If I were to go back up instead of down that spur would be very steep in order to meet the time savor. So thatâs why they donât connect. That spur is fluid anyway. its just there to give me ideas. I will have to see what will fit where as I go.
The nice thing is this new design uses the same number of turnouts in the same directions as the old one. I got lucky there. I do have to switch a #4 with a #6 in the Mess in the reversing loop. I also can put a small siding on the right side of the wye. that will use all my turnout. I hope I have enough track, I should. The only thing left out would be the Time Savor for now. It will be just a single spur of the mainline down that right leg. The rest of the timer saver will have to come later.
Funny you should mention, my oldest son sent me this yesterday:
Yeah thanks John. This just goes to show why I think having these puzzles incorporated into the layout will be a great addition. Since I canât have a giant empire the more interest I can put into the operations the more fun I will have with it and others coming to visit. A person can spend an hour just playing with the puzzles. My layout will likely only be able to run 1 or two trains out on the mainline at a time. With the puzzles there could be as many as 4 people operating.
Size is a consideration. If I were to design them for full size 1:20 locos and full size box cars they would be huge. But this shows with small cars an a switcher they can be quite compact. I plan to have special cars for each puzzle and some smaller locos on hand for when people visit to work the puzzles while others can be running ops on the the larger layout. If designed right the puzzles can be operated as stand alone while others can run on the larger layout, or for a regular ops session larger cars can be put at the puzzle locations and used like any other sidings.
I have all I need to do everything but the time saver. I need 4 more switches to do that. But it is a real possibility by grand opening.
HA ha, over 8 minutes on a âtime-saverâ. Yea, I wasted a lot of time mousetrapping myself on them puzzles on the computer. No thanks. If I am going to work that hard, I want something for my efforts.
I guess I will always be a roundy roundy
David Maynard said:
HA ha, over 8 minutes on a âtime-saverâ. Yea, I wasted a lot of time mousetrapping myself on them puzzles on the computer. No thanks. If I am going to work that hard, I want something for my efforts.
I guess I will always be a roundy roundy
See the more roundy round I do the more I want operations. I have to have some sort of continuous run though, thats why I have not totally gone to the dark side. Either reversing loops or now I am back to a true loop, albeit a small one put its there. I have always been trying to figure a way to add elements of fun to this layout. Its small, it will be limited for visitors. There wont be four trains chasing their cabooses on any layout I build. So I have from the beginning have been trying to figure out how to get interest built in so the club can come over and have some fun. With its size operations made more sense plus I like ops. Now add in the puzzles and people can be doing that at the same time others are running ops. this will get people working the layout. And when its just me well I have so things to keep me going. Use the puzzles as terminals or just try and beat my time.
To each his own. I am not trying to discourage you. I do ops on the NMRA set up too, but most of them are simple sidings, or short passing sidings with a spur on one leg. Something a simple mind like mine can handle.
there is one point in favor of roundy round:
you run trains while having guests. (if you donât, somebody will ask: âcanât youâŚ?â)
a roundy round then gives you the leisure to talk and explain.
David Maynard said:
To each his own. I am not trying to discourage you. I do ops on the NMRA set up too, but most of them are simple sidings, or short passing sidings with a spur on one leg. Something a simple mind like mine can handle.
I didnât think you were trying to discourage. I thought your were just stating a preference. I agree each to their own. I read an article and the guy absolutely hates shunting puzzles. Then you read an entire website devoted to them.
I love LSC becuase for the most part people embrace what your doing even if it isnât their thing. I believe at the end of the day we do what we want. All suggestions welcome, even some criticism, but at the end day please donât tell me what I want is wrong, its mine.
David, If I ever get this running and you ever make it to N Idaho I promise I will let you play on the puzzles. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Devon Sinsley said: If I ever get this running ⌠(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
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