It has only taken about two months of shifting ideas and decisions but the future home railroad will soon start to come to life. The feature player for this new railroad will be the new Lionel Mikado locomotive pulling a string of 12 various PRR's rolling stock. This was not a stock set and I was happy that I was able to put this together over the past two months.
A future Canadian National locomotive will anchor the second main line; I am still looking for a TMCC version However the rolling stock is all in place and if it comes to it I have found a MTH CN diesel.
The third main land will be an elevated passenger service held steady by the MTH Aerotrain. Construction of this line will include a mountain site passenger station and the inclusion of a large MTH black steel arch bridge.
There has been an addition added today as we purchased a new MTH Trolley to complete a short dedicated trolley line.
The first two mainlines will be interconnected with added sidings and passing lanes with the inclusion of isolated sections so that we can run conventional trains.
The power sources will include four separate transformers with the main power for connecting mainlines coming from the Lionel 180 power brick, Lionel Lock on and TMCC control. When not connecting both lines the choice of power for main line number 2 will come from either a Lionel CW-80 or Lionel SW. The elevated line will be powered by the MTH Z- 1000.
With a little creative wiring it all works out even if you have to play around with a few transformers and connections. I figured I would use what I have and adapt later when it makes sense and I have a few more dollars for do it better for the power.
The subject of track was an easy choice, I had Lionel Fastrack and I like it. Unless I run my trains at speeds capable of tossing a train of the tracks I don’t hear that wild noise everyone speaks of. I figure that since this is my first major layout I will change it in the future and fasttrack would provide me the flexibility to get an cool looking layout up faster.
The main base of the layout will be a 9X 5 with two wings added. I have included some trap door access spots that will permit me to work on anything.
The layout will be made out of ¾ plywood supported by a sturdy frame and will included hidden shelves and wiring harness etc. I have not made my final decision on the top cover for the plywood though I am leaning towards some type of a foam board.
Well this is the major plan and I’m sure I will make some changes as we move forward. Our target date to start is this weekend provided nothing important comes up. We don’t have a completion date since I will be making most of the support columns and tunnel entrances.
I really hope to get some photographs of the trains up over the next few days, I will be sure to provide photographs as the layout progresses.
[FONT="]If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to pass them on[/FONT]
A future Canadian National locomotive will anchor the second main line; I am still looking for a TMCC version However the rolling stock is all in place and if it comes to it I have found a MTH CN diesel.
The third main land will be an elevated passenger service held steady by the MTH Aerotrain. Construction of this line will include a mountain site passenger station and the inclusion of a large MTH black steel arch bridge.
There has been an addition added today as we purchased a new MTH Trolley to complete a short dedicated trolley line.
The first two mainlines will be interconnected with added sidings and passing lanes with the inclusion of isolated sections so that we can run conventional trains.
The power sources will include four separate transformers with the main power for connecting mainlines coming from the Lionel 180 power brick, Lionel Lock on and TMCC control. When not connecting both lines the choice of power for main line number 2 will come from either a Lionel CW-80 or Lionel SW. The elevated line will be powered by the MTH Z- 1000.
With a little creative wiring it all works out even if you have to play around with a few transformers and connections. I figured I would use what I have and adapt later when it makes sense and I have a few more dollars for do it better for the power.
The subject of track was an easy choice, I had Lionel Fastrack and I like it. Unless I run my trains at speeds capable of tossing a train of the tracks I don’t hear that wild noise everyone speaks of. I figure that since this is my first major layout I will change it in the future and fasttrack would provide me the flexibility to get an cool looking layout up faster.
The main base of the layout will be a 9X 5 with two wings added. I have included some trap door access spots that will permit me to work on anything.
The layout will be made out of ¾ plywood supported by a sturdy frame and will included hidden shelves and wiring harness etc. I have not made my final decision on the top cover for the plywood though I am leaning towards some type of a foam board.
Well this is the major plan and I’m sure I will make some changes as we move forward. Our target date to start is this weekend provided nothing important comes up. We don’t have a completion date since I will be making most of the support columns and tunnel entrances.
I really hope to get some photographs of the trains up over the next few days, I will be sure to provide photographs as the layout progresses.
[FONT="]If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to pass them on[/FONT]
The first stage of the rough bench work is done. I made some test runs just to see how the fastrack sounded on bare plywood. To be honest I have no clue where all this noise stuff comes from. In fact I would call it pleasantly quiet, I had no problems with it drowning out the railsounds.
