Looks great Gerry I dont see any trestles yet ?
Wow! It looks great! With the station and coaling tower I look forward to seeing the sidings in place. And the wall of hats lives on!
Happy Father's Day!
-Greg
Looks great Gerry. Buildings look great, track looks great too. Heck, I wouldn't know anything about good design or bad design. Most likely I'd get wires crossed and stuff would blow up.
Also, Happy Father's Day to all the Father's. It doesn't apply to me, so I'll have to wait for Uncle's Day, lol.
Well done, Gerry!
Peter
OK, so a couple of responses as we move forward. Greg, don't hold your breath on the coaling tower. That might be on the table I have at the Edison Greenberg show. I have WAY too many trains, and need to reduce the inventory for both rolling stock and scenery.
Ben, you really made the old grey matter work. I hadn't even thought of the trestles on this layout yet. I bought them from the club before I became a member. Has to be at least 10 years and 2 houses ago. Anyway, the first time I used them I had to go from a higher table (about 40" off the floor) to a lower table (about 32" off the floor) and in front of the utility room door. Talk about really stupid planning! The 32" table was so that the grandkids could use it easier. Have you ever worked under a 32" table? Trust me, you don't want to. In the meantime, the plastic stepstools are easy and cheap. Anyway, I had a good friend who came to my house for a few days and made bridges to from one table to the other and set up the 072 semi-circle of trestles I bought from the club. And told me to join the club. Here are pictures of my Trooper train going over the Fitzhenry Ironworks bridge and a group of friends in front of the Wall of Hats at that house.
And now I have an idea for the trestles on this layout, but it will take a bit of time, so TY.
Gerry
Attachments
Images (2)
I heard that the Edison show was August 13th & 14th. I hadn't really thought about any shows besides York, shame on me. I'll have to see what I'm doing and pop over there if able.
First time I'm taking a table anywhere. My table will be together with Al Spaventa and the NJHR. It makes it easy for me, because I won't have to be at my table 100% of the time. Just another benefit of joining the NJHR!
Gerry
Looking good.
Any subway lines going in this one?
More like an "El" than a subway. Ben gave me an idea when he asked about the trestles, so we'll have to see how that can be worked into the layout design. However, it will have to come after setting up command control, wiring in the track, wiring in the accessories, etc. So it's on the list, but nowhere near the top of the list.
Gerry
BRATS RR v2
Funny the things that delay you. I’m sure that all of you are much better organizers than I am. But somewhere in this mountain of boxes are the barrier strips which go under the tables and are ssential for the electrical connections. But where oh where are they? Lost a whole bunch of time to looking for them and still haven’t found them. Ordered some on Amazon. Not a lot, because as soon as I order a lot, I’ll find the ones I “lost”.
And how did I get 6 180 watt bricks to go along with my 2 Z4K’s? Did I actually buy that many? Did a gremlin give them to me? But that’s what I found when looking for the barrier strips. Yes, I know that one 180 watt brick is worth about a gajillion barrier strips. They’re just bigger and easier to find.
Anyway, the 110 volt wiring has been done underneath the table and there are 5 switches to turn it on and off. Power supplies will be on the first 2 switches and accessories on the last 3. So the picture of my lighted buildings on the “strip” took more work than just dropping the wires.
And I got my Vinylbed down under a lot of the track including the 2 loops around the amusement park. And the wires are dropped from those tracks so they can be wired in once I get the power up and running. One Z4K is on a lower table and that will power the 2 large loops. As you can see, I placed 4 Lionel 180 watt bricks near the “command central”. I’m not quite sure how I’ll wire them in, but I am sure that is more power than what I’ll need. And I’d like to figure out how to drop one of them to 14 volts for the switches, but it’s probably just easier to get an accessory transformer or use the 14 volt output of the Z4K. Or maybe even a ZW. After all, you can look at the handle of a ZW and see if you moved it to 14 volts output.
RR Track is a really nice program and was a great help. But there’s something about actually laying down the track, looking at it, and wondering if there isn’t something you missed. If you go back to what I had down on this straight away last year, there were 2 passing sidings. And one wasn’t ideal because of the way it connected to the dogbone. Now I’ve got three 4 way switches from Ross, and I’m thinking that maybe there’s a better use for them than just dead end sidings. Like maybe a 4 track pass through yard. Each of the sidings would be about 17 feet, so lots of room to park trains. So I just laid the 4 ways there and am thinking about it. What do you think?
Gerry
Attachments
Images (8)
Gerry
Looking good, if you send the corporate jet down I’d be glad to help you complete the wiring.
Looking forward to seeing you in 2 weeks.
That's usually the case Gerry. You look for something that you're 100% sure is where you put it, but you end up not finding it. After you get the replacements, low and behold, here are the ones you were looking for. I don't know how many times my grandfather would be looking for a certain tool he needed to do something and he'd never find it. He'd get a new one and set that down. Then when he needed a hammer or something else like that, he'd find the tool he was looking for months ago. He'd put that somewhere safe to find again only to lose that and find something else he was looking for.
Count this as a vote for a pass through yard! As you stated, even if you don't use it operationally it's an easy way to store and stage trains.
-Greg
I took another look, Gerry.......I just love all the colors!!!!!
I agree with you about an EL.......it's easier to have something on the table than under the table with a 16" clearance to wire......
Keep up posting progress pics......they are GREAT!!!!
Peter
Gerry better label those five switches pronto before they get connected to the wrong things.
Greg, I agree that the pass through yard seems better to me than 2 passing sidings and dead end sidings elsewhere on the layout. That also means that the coaling tower is likely to end up on my table at the Edison Greenberg show.
Gerry
I've had the Edison show on my calendar for a while now and it'll be nice to see everyone! I just hope it doesn't turn out to be the weekend I need to take my son back to college. I'll hear definitely by mid-July.
-Greg
Hopefully Greg back to school isn't August 14th & 15th. That would really be a downer.
Hey Gerry,
Looking good. I let you know when you can build mine
@coach joe posted:Gerry better label those five switches pronto before they get connected to the wrong things.
Great idea Joe. The room had 2 new circuits wired in, and I'm using both of them going to the 110 volt switches. So I did label them as you can see below. Probably not the labeling you would suggest. The B switch controls the Z4K; the R switch controls the Lionel 180 watt bricks; the A switch controls outlets in the general 2 pole area; the T switch controls outlets under the table behind the Z4K and the S switch controls outlets in the amusement park area. The B, A and S switches will be on one circuit and the R and T switches on the other. Trying to balance the load a bit.
Gerry
Attachments
Images (1)
