Large Scale Central

It begins again

Track and Trestles
#1

Hi Gents. (And the odd lady or two) After a long period of time and a lot of trials and tribulations I have restarted in on a new layout at my new place of living. Some of you may recall the old freight yards that I built a long time ago and what went on after they were finished and the final nail was the damned neighbours horse that got in and trashed the thing. Then the separation and so on. I have finally been able this weekend to throw down some track just to give me a idea of the area required for me to build a low deck to lay it on properly

The idea for the layout is point to point with a sneaky loop at the far end that will be hidden for the most part.

The last turnout you can see is for the loop to run around the front of the house and connect at the other side. Entirely out of sight On the other side of the house hidden completely from view of the this yard will be a second small yard.

Turnouts from the old frieght yards (pre: Horse)

were used for this new layout but unfortunately I could not use them all. Mostly 6’s and 7’s are left over.

No real thought at this time has been given to what the line will carry but I have a heap of MDC coal hoppers so I guess that may give me a clue? Any suggestions will as always be appreciated. Grant

#2

The only current suggestion I can give is, “Keep us posted with pictures of your progress”. :slight_smile:

#3

What he said! Photos good! Now to find batteries for my own digicam. Grr

#4

Good to see you out & about again railroadwise. It doesn’t look as though you are in any danger of galloping horses there at least. :wink: Best wishes my friend!

#5

Thank you for the kind words. I have re-edited the first post with better photo’s and also some extra ones of the other side . No links this time so you can see them direct. ( I forgot how to copy location and paste. heheheh silly me!)
Grant

#6

Hey,

Bout time you got back on-line. BTW, nice work…:wink:

#7

Grant,

What type of throws are you using?

#8

I beleive he makes his own…

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/soundgk/page18.html

#9

Sorry Ken. I don’t make throws. However on the old layout what I used for throws were actually hidden under the deck. I, for want of a better word, aquired them from a mate who worked for a Large phone company here in Oz. they were used as relay throws in the old phone exchanges and ran of 12v D.C… they were spring loaded so that power applied threw them and removal returned them to open status. Quite hefty units to. On this new layout however I will use Bart’s design. Simple and effective. That or tenmille units.

#10

Thought I would bring you all up to spped with what I have been doing in my limited time away from the rig and those damned white lines. I also made a couple of alterations to the original idea. Yard throat south end.

Storage track throat and the shed behind that doesn’t know it yet but is getting a ventilation point put in. heheheh

the other end is still to be done but hey, these things take time but from what you can see not much left to do.

#11

Youre gonna have to find another place for that car in the last picture, its in the way of the expansion!

#12

Grant,

Looks good there. Some nice progress! I especially like point to point operation. Could you guess? :wink:

Just one suggestion though:
Install some 2x4 auxiliary legs to the benchwork besides the fence while the framework is still visible and it’s easy to do. You might one day need to cut the benchwork away from the fence to do repairs. That way the layout will still be supported.

Fences have a way of leaning and sagging over time and are very prone to wind damage. Also you never know what a neighbor might do. When I lived in a tract an idiot neighbor hung heavy chains on his side of the fence. This loosened a couple of posts and then we had a windy period. The chains slapped the fence boards knocking many clean out and the weight pushed the posts over.

#13

Nice work Grant, as usual.

Do you still have that Challenger?

#14

Sure do Ken. Will never sell it neither. Can’t anyway. Re-organised some of the electronics in it so it will never run like MTH wanted it to with their crap. And with some of the Mods I have done to it to make it run properly it runs like silk. can you say Beta testing!. Hell that sounds like another company we all know and love… ooops better not open that can of worms again.