My new layout. Toptrain1

[toptrain1]

Opening day inaugural train runs.

** "Opening Day of the new two Main Lines."

Today was a good day. The first train runs of the two mainlines were today. Due to a large demand to ride the new line on opening day. Little HO people came from everywhere to attend this inaugural event. Multiple passenger trains had to be brought out for this very special days runs. The Pennsy, Lehigh valley, CNJ, Anna, Reading, and B&O all supplied trains. Even tho their were few places for the people attending to rest, a good time had by all.
frank

PS. See you this saturday at the train show in East Rutherford NJ.

 

[S class]

sounding good toptrain, can't tell you how good it feels to have run a train around my layout for the first time ever!

also I'd come see you and the others at East Rutherford, but I'm going to need some help paying for the plane ticket! sign1

 

[toptrain1]

re--

Well S class, to bad you can't come to the show. You will be missed.
frank

PS. See you this saturday at the train show in East Rutherford NJ.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Serious storage

It looks like you have some serious storage under your layout!

Keep us posted as it shapes up

Bill Nelson

 

[toptrain1]

under layout storage

* Hi Bill, My new storage has helped. I keep changing and finding more space. I have been bringing boxes of trains up from the basement and storing them under the layout. Not that the space keeps growing but I keep finding better way to use the space.
* I'm now putting together my old roundhouse, a 8 stall Heljan 802 with additions, and the 804 turntable, to find out how it will fit. I had to take it appart to store it after I took apart my basement layout. I keep seeing that i have to put in my third track for the entrance and exit of the main yard. It will parallel the two mainlines for 3/4 of their distance. I need the part of it that is in the roundhouse area in place to see how the engine facility will fit. :nope:
frank:steamtrain:

PS. See you this saturday at the train show in East Rutherford NJ. I am getting my trains to sell ready for the show. If I sell anything I'll have money to spend on differet trains. Get tired if one get another.

 

[Bill Nelson]

PS. See you this saturday at the train show in East Rutherford NJ. I am getting my trains to sell ready for the show. If I sell anything I'll have money to spend on differet trains. Get tired if one get another.



I'll have to miss that one; out of my normal range, but I have been there. My in laws are both from East Rutherford NJ. It is an interesting place, but not rural enough for this country boy.


Bill Nelson

 

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

PS. See you this saturday at the train show in East Rutherford NJ.

Could you please stop repeating that?

 

[Sawdust]

OK! See you this Saturday at the Train Show in West Chester, Ohio. Saturday noon till 7 pm. & on Sunday from 11am. till 5pm. Don't worry Zelda it will all be over buy Monday.:mrgreen: Maybe Monday we can all show you what we got at The Train Show.

 

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Alright. By the way, my name is Brendan Aggeler.

 

[toptrain1]

**********The New York Society of Model Engineers train show**************
** Well I'm back!!!! Wasn't that some kind of movie line like Arnolds " I'll Be Back ". Or there was a Horror movie with " He'sssss---- baaaack ", that was said just before someone got killed. Well the show is over. I'm back ! I had a nice time. I was next to a good friend Bob N. We talked a lot, about many things. The time flew by. Bob had some Fleischmann Locos that I bought from him. A pair of F7As and a UP Baldwin switcher. He also had a Red Ball, Borden's Mike car, built, which I also purchased. The white elephant table had a Stewart U25B in New Haven, It's very nice price made it mine. The fellow to my left had a Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado, It was unique because the Mantua boiler wasn't there. It had a Cary boiler. It was all built up, and ready to run, and $25. Well it's mine. I also got another dozen cars, and a 3 section Heljan 802 Roundhouse to finish. For me, it was a good day.
frank
PS I have no reason at thist time to say see you at --------. So I won't.
PPS. How U doin Brendan.

 

[Sawdust]

Your a good sport Brendan,
Hey Frank where are the pics. I had a good day as well, will be posting some pics as soon as I can.

 

[toptrain1]

re

Jim I had my camera with me but didn't take any photos. Musta had photo block. Where did you go today. frank

 

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I'm alright. My Thomas modelling is going well. Check out the Bachmann forums and http://sodormodelling.proboards.com/ to see what I'm up to.

 

[toptrain1]

The engine serviceing facility

**** Here we go the roundhouse,turntable.
* As I had said I would have to install my yard entrance track. This is now done. the road bed is there. Next measure a viable space between the tracks. It is 66". Mark the centre. The centre of the turntable will be 9" from the edge of the board. Next I make another circle at a 15" radius. Now I extend the turntable centre line across the entire 66" clear space. The roundhouse segments are 10 degrees apart. 8 stalls times 10 is 80 degrees. I make a mark at 80 degrees. I make a line from the turntable centre thro my 80 deg mark to the roadbed. I placed my 8 stall round house in its location aliening the centre line as a track centre for stall #1 going cc wise. Using the 15" radius circle as a curve outline to match up my roundhouse front, sliding the round house back away from centre till the 0 deg centre line and the 80 deg. line match up with the door centres for section #1 and #8. Also keeping the space between the 15' circle line and the roundhouse even my alignment is done for doors 1 and 8. I marked the centres of the other 6 door sections. Then I removed the roundhouse placing it aside. I drew the remaining 6 lines for the track centrelines thro the other 6 sections. Placing the roundhouse back in its spot I checked all alignment marks front and rear of the round house. I now have the roundhouse properly aliened and all track centres located. I just have to mark the location of the complete rear wall. Note it thickness. then mark my centrelines to show the length of the tracks into the roundhouse. this completes the marking for the 8 stall round house. I choose a location for the 3 section roundhouse and do it all again using the marks already there.

 

[Sawdust]

This is going to be a good one to watch Frank. I can already see all those beautiful Steamers in the yard. Don't miss a single pic!

 

[Bill Nelson]

That is a humongous engine facility. That will be very useful for a collector such as yourself. I also am looking forward to seeing more pictures. This looks like it will be a main focal point of your new RR.


One question I have I how is the lead to the turntable going to hook up to the loop. I'd like to see an overhead view when one will answer that question. With those big stalls, and some of your big power, I hope the approach can have a gentile enough curve to work mechanically and visually.

Have you thought about water and coaling facilities? with such a massive facility one of those tichy train group concrete coaling towers is the only commercial solutions I can think of. It might be hard to find a water tower big enough for such a humongous engine facility too.


Bill Nelson

 

[toptrain1]

re new layout

Jim, Bill, It's no secret this is not going to be a high detailed layout. I can't do that. I will be able to run two long trains at once, and store other fully made trains to rotate them on and off the main lines.. Also the turntable storage will give some photo opps. At the show last Saturday I could have gotten another 6 section roundhouse. That would have meant too many locos would have been hidden inside roundhouses. I did not buy it for that reason. The three section roundhouse will not stay where it is. It will rotate to a new home clockwise to a spot where it is closer to the larger one. that will give me two storage tracks that will accept large articulating locomotives. They will be able to run straight across the turn table onto these tracks.
* The control board will have to be built into either a hill or building. I keep playing with the idea of using my big station. I'll have to relocate just one switch machine. All this in its own time. I'll just keep on dreaming of what can be done with what I have.
frank

 

[Bill Nelson]

Jim, Bill, It's no secret this is not going to be a high detailed layout. I can't do that. . . . . . .


* The control board will have to be built into either a hill or building. I keep playing with the idea of using my big station. I'll have to relocate just one switch machine. All this in its own time. I'll just keep on dreaming of what can be done with what I have.
frank

Frank, the important thing is to do stuff that is fun. as you can tell I can zone out at the work bench spending hours on something that is going to a tiny piece of something larger. This makes neat stuff, but my railroad suffers from not being run enough.

I like that big station, Do you know what the origin is? I remember looking at something similar as a terminal for Harlow, but I went with something more rustic . If you put the control board in the station be real careful, as it will be , along with the engine facilities, another natural focal point for your railroad .

A control board (for the conventional DC layout), is kind of a necessary evil. It helps to have the controls all together in some kind of rational order, but it can be a real visual distraction. I was lucky on my railroad, due to the multilevel plan, and mountain scenery, to have a big blank piece of fascia @ chest level to put my controls on.

In the past I have had my controls decentralized with smaller panels, or block and switch controls mounted directly to the fascia . this is less visually distracting, but it makes it harder for visiting engineers to operate. It also only makes sense if you have hand held throttles, but I've been solidly committed to them for close to forty years. I was amking my own before they were commercially available.


Bill Nelson

 

[toptrain1]

Bill ; I never posted photos of the large station. It is by Kibri. It is there Bonn station 9373,with two train sheds, 9565. It is almost 3 feet long.
frank

 

[toptrain1]

re new layout

here it is with a Heljan 804 turntable cut in. I placed some locos around to show size.
frank