New layout progress (Some scenery)

Alright, Norm! Now you did it! Looking at your work, you have forced me to start to redo the Ironville, Sporting Valley and Southern after a three year hiatus. LOL! Excellent work and I can't wait to see your progress in making what is new old.   

Well good Jim, hope to see some progress shots soon.

Just before the holiday break I got the Greensville Cutoff put in place which gives me the second reverse loop. The supporting benchwork here may be temporary at this point. I think there may be some bridges installed in this area depending on how ambitious I feel.

I also decided to rework the Northbrook yard trackage a bit. I took out the short spur since I didn't want to spam another factory into this scene and I felt the sidings were too cramped up anyway. Doing this rearrangement allowed me to bunch up the switches closer to the main duckunder for this end and now they are more accessible. I will put a tower and some signals here and use this trackage to mostly pose trains and rolling stock.

This is what the plan is looking like now:

Not sure if I'll put that spur in that scissors off the RH/TT approach.

Norm,

I saw your layout the first time on "I Love Toy Trains" and was blown away.  I kept it on the DVR so I can go back and watch it over and over.  Your old layout inspired me to get back into trains.  You did 3 rail trains like I wanted to build all these years-weathered and realistic.  I have started planning a layout and I am getting everything together to build my dream train layout.

Saw all of your youtube videos also and I am thrilled, as a new member here, to see your new layout progressing.  Just incredible is all I can say.  It is great to know guys like you are members here.

Thank you for motivating me to start building a dream.

Thanks 86. Hope everyone is enjoying some time off for the holidays. I haven't had much time to work on the layout until this past weekend. I am starting to lay out the flats for what will eventually be Northbrook. All of these buildings are from the old layout, and some were in semi-retirement after I rebuilt my previous layout to play around with some different ideas I had at the time.

Someone might recognize the old Wilfred Gage building which got to spend some quality time with Mr. Table Saw in order to get slimmed down to fit into its new home.

I plan on working this area over the holiday break, working from the background forward. I think this is the final configuration for the flats but that could change, who knows. I ordered a 28" PRR style TT from Al Z. and I will take a break from grinding away on the city scenery to set up the engine yard and install it. Out of all the layout doings, I am the most stoked on getting the new turntable set up..

Hi Norm,

Looking fabulous, I have the same TT from Al that you just ordered. It's amazing, did you purchase the automatic indexing system from him

Thanks,

Alex

Norm thanks for the pictures, the layout is looking good. Keep upthe good work.

Thanks guys! Alex, no I plan on running it without indexing. He showed it to me at York and it's real nice. I will have the TT on a peninsula and plan on running it with my CAB-1 like I did on my old Bowser. I can be up close to it and can easily align the tracks by eye. I am looking forward to setting it up, hopefully in mid-January.

Norm,

Looks great!

Dave

Good to see some buildings on the layout Norm!

Norm

This looks great!

Thanks for posting.

Norm:

Looking good man! Keep those pictures coming!

Billy C

Hi Norm,

It's a pleasure to watch everything unfold. Please keep the updates coming.

Andy

Thanks everyone. I took a break from the layout work to film this Q1 rolling through Northbrook. I bought it knowing it was not in the best cosmetic shape. I still need to rewire the engine itself (pull the markers, disable the smoke, etc.) and fix some minor paint issues then it will eventually get weathered. I was pretty stoked to find out that someone had put ERRCo cruise and sound in it as I am thinking these were made with EOB originally. I had to work on the antenna and swap out the R2LC to get it to run right. I also put a Kadee on the tender since the original electrocoupler was smashed up.

Looks great...have to follow this thread !!!!

Norm, the layout is really shaping up and looks good.

Nice find on that Q1.  Yes, you're right in that they originally came with EOB.  Already having a Cruise Commander is a big plus.  In case you want to get rid of that N&W hooter whistle, Lionel sells the RS board from their S1 duplex and it sounds good in the Q1.  It's what I used in mine and the part number is 691RS4E018.

Looking forward to seeing it again after you weather it.

Good advice Bob. I just pawed through my stash and don't see it in there. Thanks for the part number.

Looking Great Norm as always!!!!! 

Thanks Drew - glad you like the progress so far.

I got back to work on the layout today to carve another foam hillside for Northbrook. I was thinking of parking another factory flat on top but decided to reuse my hillside dream shacks.

Also, can't go wrong sticking with the classics, this one has been in heavy rotation down here in the basement...

."...don't follow leaders and watch your parking meters.

  the pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handles"  

or was it

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"

Abe said "God you must be putting me on?"

God said "NO" -  Abe said "What?"

God said "You can do what you want Abe but,  If you see me coming, you'd better run!"

Abe said "God where you want this killing done?"

God said "Out on Highway Sixty- one..."

How can I remember that from 35+ years ago but have trouble with my keys?