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Reply to "What did you do on your layout today?"

Slowhands posted:

Over the weekend, I made a few changes to the layout. After running the 2055 (which I've named "Old Bill" in honor of the gent who originally owned it) for a while, there were a few things that started to bother me a bit. Grandson was fine of course, just happy to see trains running! The first thing that was irksome was not enough space for the #97 Coal Elevator that we picked up at the DuPage Train Show a few months ago. Then we noticed that that there really wasn't a good place to park rolling stock, and then we saw that there was no way to change direction on the loop without physically picking up the engine. Grandson and I messed about in SCARM with some ideas, and he really liked the train simulator. I did have trouble with trimming tracks to fit. So we did two "major" changes to the layout tracks, end result of which was more siding space, room for the Coal Elevator, and eliminating 1 switch.

There's a bunch of stuff on the layout right now, so I'm a bit embarrassed to show any pictures, however here's the SCARM file of what we've done. After running "Old Bill" for a while, we like the changed layout so far. While it isn't great that changing back to the original direction of travel requires backing around about 1/2 the layout, at least it is an operating "feature" that we don't have to pick up the engine.

Next thing to work on is getting the switches to be all directly powered instead of track power.

What kind of track are you using? Your track plan looks pretty good!!! 

Jim 

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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