With the bulk of the wiring in place it was time to assemble the layout. With all the connections secure the crew is ready for the first test run. I made several short videos that day and here is a link to the first.
Lookin' good. 
How fun is this? I'm excited for you.
That looks great, Jim!!
Looking great Jim!!!
Here is a link to my second short video.
Hi Jim,
Everything is looking wonderful. May I ask who makes the brick posts that are shown in the park?
Dave
Slipping in a little something extra. Had breakfast with 10 of my best train buddies and then we waited 3.5 hours for dessert.
This "Drone's Eye View" video was taken from the balcony. I wish I would have at least completed a full lap. Maybe on my next visit.
It looks great, Jim! How far do you have to travel to get to their workshop?
Glad I read this thread! I too am a 2 looper, no switches, just two long loops through buildings and scenery that I love to build! Now that I realize I don't need therapy for this I can buy more kits to build! Thanks Santafejim LOL
Time for another video.
Last one for a while. I may go visit the builder next week to check on progress.
Mark Boyce posted:It looks great, Jim! How far do you have to travel to get to their workshop?
Mark,
The builder is about 25 miles from my house. Of the 25 miles 80% is tollroad so I can get there in under 30 minutes.
SantaFeJim posted:Last one for a while. I may go visit the builder next week to check on progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZVfkbuw9Ns
That HO locomotive not only looks good but sounds good what brand is it.Im happy for you Christmas will come early this year.
MR-150 posted:SantaFeJim posted:Last one for a while. I may go visit the builder next week to check on progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZVfkbuw9Ns
That HO locomotive not only looks good but sounds good what brand is it.Im happy for you Christmas will come early this year.
Mark,
The Santa Fe F7 is an Athearn Genesis with a Tsunami sound decoder.
Jim
Went to check the progress of my layout build. Long discussion on lighting; buildings, street, parking lot(s) etc. Also long discussion on signaling. Sorry to report that there is not a whole lot available.
On the bright side I did snap some more pictures that I can share. The first pic is the EAST tower of the Colton Yard. It has a twin on the West end. More weathering and lighting details are scheduled for both structures.
This is NOT an antenna farm. It is a section of one of the primary focal points, which is a LARGE farm with crops and many cattle.
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Jim, The layout is really shaping up nicely! I like the farm scene and that tower is excellent!
SantaFeJim wrote:
"Also long discussion on signaling. Sorry to report that there is not a whole lot available."
Curious about this statement. I know of a few options:
- http://www.digitrax.com/products/detection-signaling/ This is the route that one of our Friday night crew has went down, integrated it with his entire Digitrax system. His CTC panel drives the signal system, and is PC based (not using JMRI, uses something else). BTW, if you want to use Digitrax as a stand-alone system for signalling, you can do that. I love my NCE DCC system, and it works quite fine for what it does. I've considered an overlay of APBS on my railroad, and using Digitrax to operate it to keep it separate from my command bus. My round robin buddy is not using the Digitrax LED signals, he is using BLMA signals IIRC. BTW, I have dispatched his railroad under CTC, it is an absolute hoot.
- https://www.nmra.org/lcc This is LCC, which stands for Layout Command Control. Looked into this also, and there is one manufacturer at the moment that is standard compliant: http://rr-cirkits.com/ I am not sure if there are more suppliers of LCC compliant signal components.
- My buddy Warren, who you have met, had Signalogic do his system. Kevin Rudko is the owner. He is a railroad signal consultant in real life, has done quite a few model railroads. http://www.signalogicsystems.com/index.shtml Warren's system is ABPS. Kevin does an outstanding system. A young guy that should be around for a long long time too.
- And then there is Atlas. https://shop.atlasrr.com/b-int...s-signal-system.aspx Don't know a lot about their system, but they definitely can do dual track ABS, which is what I think you want. IIRC, in the era you are modeling, I think that is what they had in their dual track territory. Not sure when SF implemented CTC on their railroad, and where it was implemented first.
- Or, you can "roll your own" https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/32179 There is a link in this thread to Ron Paisley's web page also: http://www.circuitous.ca/CircuitIndex.html
Regards,
GNNPNUT
