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Layout Update 07/14/2010 PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 10:49
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CP Lakeport
Dispite the looks of things around here things have actually been pretty productive on the layout and the speeder. Web updates have been kinda slow as my time to spend on the net has been reduced as I recently changed departments. Since moving to Ossipee PD last month, and even with a 4 on 3 off schedule my time has been really spoken for! The significant pay increase has allowed me to get some things done around the house like finally getting our lawn in, planning a new large deck out back, and renting a dumpster to clean out the basement. Best of all it has helped to progress the layout and the A6 as well. I've also been putting in some shifts over at New England Southern as well, getting our new trackage in Canterbury all set up.

 

The A6 is moving smoothly along. The old cab has been take off, all 1200lbs of it and was cut with a torch so that it can be brought to the scrap yard. With the cab off I can now easily get to working on replacing the floor. I bought 5/4x6" pressure treated boards to use for the floor and got them all mocked up on Monday after removing all the old wood. Once the floor is finished next week I will be installing the new battery, starter solenoid and ignition switch so that the car can be taken out for a test run. The new cab steel will be picked up next week as well, and the cab will resemble something similar to the one that was originally on it. The only things that have changed in the cab design is that it will be 4" taller and the doors will open out instead of sliding.

On the layout things are moving right along. 30 turnouts arrived last week and were installed on the main line. Along with completing the trackage on the Pemi Industrial Track, these turnouts helped make the mainline now 100% complete. All that remains to be installed for track to get "roundy round" trains is the hidden staging yard in the utility room and that should be completed shortly. The staging yard will be Code 80 track mostly for cost and its availability at area train stores. All the train stores here in Northern NH and Western ME seem to think that Code 80 is the way to go and do not carry a THING of Code 55. Code 55 I have to order online, and in the area where this is going to be installed I want track that is overly built as it will be in an area where haphazard repair men may be going if something happens in the utility room. However with  getting all the track down to the point were trains can at least do loops around the layout will really give me a push to get things moving, especially with wanting to be on the Tour de Chooch in 2011.

 

Granite Stater westbound at CP Pinnacle
Base scenery continues to move along helping to shed some light onto how the layout will look. Base grass and the signal for the Pinnacle Industrial Track has been installed at CP Lakeport along with the Route 140 overpass. Structures are starting to pop up here along Simonds Street. Just a bit west at what was CP NOK (I have yet to rename it but it may become CP Pinnacle) the local yard has been completed and ballasted. Behind the yard is the 2 track mainline for the rapid transit trains and behind that a row of garden apartments on the hillside. The garden apartments are from Walthers and are about 5 stories tall. When I put them at the backdrop they were not as tall as I wanted and I will end up having to stack a second row on top of them. One of the layout "standards" is that a majority of the buildings against the back drop must be taller than my eye level, about 5'08". I feel this height for buildings will help draw you further into feeling that you are physically in the city. I've also decided to increase the upper fascia board to 24" instead of the 18" I had it at. This helps to keep your eye from wandering to the sky as not much of it is showing now.

 

 

Completed track on the Pemi Industrial Track
The Pemi Industrial Track's trackwork is now 100% complete allowing me to begin adding structures and scenery to my rendition of Bill Denton's Kingsbury Branch. Structures on this part of the layout are most likely going to take a while because they will all need to be significantly kitbashed because of all the odd angles and roads. However this will be one of the focus points of the layout so the effort is worth it.

 

Wiring keeps pudging along, BDL168s and SE8C's installed here and there to make everything complete.

I'm also testing out a streaming webcam that will be placed on the layout, most likely by Meredith Yard that you can view here. Until its final spot it's pretty much running when I am working on the layout and you see good ole me working on the layout.

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