City Belt Line (N-scale )

[Slim Rail Mike]

  Inspected the east end of the yard one last time. Found and repaired the last few tight flange ways and a couple of out of gauge spots.  The 0-6-0s crawled around searching for spots I missed. Acceptable.

  These sections and the vessels have moved into storage. The west end of the yard is now being worked on. Today the track buss wires and some of the feeder wires were installed. The turnouts again will use toggle switches to throw points as well as power the frogs. The power from the rails to the toggle switches I’ll pull from the buss instead of the track work. This should be visually neater and easier to trouble shoot.

You may note the RCA plug. I used the RCA connector after seeing (online) TTark modules using them in Australia. As it is unlikely any of these modules will ever be connected to anyone else's they are now my standard.
 

[Slim Rail Mike]

Slow progress, inching along on the west yard trackwork. The crossover is almost done. Yet to install the throw bars and wire the frogs. The ties are ready for rail, on one of the ladders. Each bit does advance toward the goal of an operating model railroad. Thus it is satisfying.

[Slim Rail Mike]

I’m installing the ladder that has been my focus for the last couple of weeks. One more ladder of three turnouts to go and the track work for the WP 25th St yard is done.

[Slim Rail Mike]

    The turnouts for the yard are physically done. They yet need to be tested, tuned, and wired up.  After cutting the frog gaps there was a short of about 500 ohms. After a lot of checking, and cleaning every gap nothing could be found. Yikes. I put the turnouts in place to start fitting them into the yard for a change of pace. Tested again for the short with my old analog meter, the short was gone. The short must have been a tiny flake or whisker of pcb cladding, or similar that cleared with the handling and wire brushing of the ladder.

   Another step towards an operational layout. On the topic of operations, I found a neighbor that’s a model railroader. I’ve helping him get his 30 year old table top HO layout running again. This in exchange for a promise to be crew and operate on my layout.

[Slim Rail Mike]

The power drops for the west end of the yard are going in. The slide switches for the turnout throw and frog power are ready to wire up and link to the throw bars.

[Slim Rail Mike]

WP’s 25th st yard nears completion. Wiring and track work check out with a meter. The throw rods are yet to be connected to the slide switches. Now to run equipment and fine tune / fix any issues.

[Slim Rail Mike]

All four sections assembled. Woo Whoo!

[Scottl]

Enjoying your build.  Nice looking trackwork.

[Slim Rail Mike]

   The track is all done in the yard. Thus the next phase is starting. Connecting to the Tea-Track modules to the free-mo-n yard.  I had planned to use a transition section to bridge the two standards. I had removed some storage cabinets in the garage to gain more space. The idea was to be able to have an operating layout in the space I have.  Well mis-remembered measurements and errors introduced by scribbled drawings, conspired to have the assembly just a tad too long to be able to close the  garage door. To be able to make things fit a short bit of kato track is going on the end of the yard instead of the transition piece . Anyway all the working sections that will fit are being put in place.

A tour of the as is layout.

Meeting place of two standards


The yard butted tight to the wall.


The farside of the ttrak loop. Future expansion off this end section.


The near side to ttrak loop.


A wide view the fiddle yard is under the WP yard.


In the upper left of some shot you can see orange boxes, these are the shells for the free=mo sections. All the layout components fit on the lift an are stored out of harms way.  Looking at the photos I'm thinking a skyboard along the back of the yard would be a good idea.

[Slim Rail Mike]

 Today hit a milestone in the City Belt build.  A train negotiated, from the yard to the TTRAK modules, and back to the yard.

   Installed an Atlas 30 degree crossing on the curve to the yard. I replaced the standard ties with tie strip from the flex track. I am avoiding building another crossing from scratch, at least for now. The train moves smoothly through the crossing. This is telling me to revisit the trackwork on the Florida St and Berry St modules. Which is a bit rougher of a ride.
   For now I’ll let the trackage rest. There are building and rolling stock projects that were on hold. Time to shift focus for a bit.

[Slim Rail Mike]

   Western Pacific had a tiny engine service area in the 25th St yard. It was just fuel, water, and a couple of tool sheds. In the mid 1950’s an engine house was built. The Sanborn maps show the buildings. I have only two photos that show bits of the structures. So I have a lot of room for creative interpretation.
 
   I made a scenery base, that fits the site. The base is held in place on the layout with a rare earth magnet, and a nail set into the layout.

[Spades]

From Charles Smiley

NEVER SEEN WP STREET RUNNING SAN FRANCISCO

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Shots of SF street running and Las Plumas than goes on to Oakland.  Amazing how many of the structures are still standing today.

Slim Rail Mike really informative thread.

[Slim Rail Mike]

@Spades Thank You for the video link. One can't have too much good information.