Yard Progress Report... This Just In...After three weekends of nearly ceaseless toil, the yard was finally installed to serve the Western Maryland Railway...
The original yard:
Small engine terminal, few and short yard tracks.
Week One:
You can see I incorporated the original yard module into the new plan. This prevented the need to cut a new hole for the turntable, and to have to re-program the indexing for half of it...
During the week, I laid out the rest of the track, and picked up two more turnouts and a couple of pieces of track. Aside from those items, the bulk of the materials for the yard were salvaged from old layouts. Remember, Never Throw Anything Away!
Week Two:
The trackwork was taking shape, and I was starting the basic ballasting. I waited until I had solder in all the wire drops before I painted the track and ballasted.
During the week, I completed the basic wiring, running a pair of drops from each track section. Note that the narrow section is to be removable as it is located in front of the window. It won't be long before the old air conditioner gets installed!
Week Three:
The wiring is completed, including a control buss line, modular connecters for the lift out section, and an accessory line for lighting and the turntable. On Friday, I took the afternoon off and hauled it all up to the attic layout room.
I've also been tinkering with a backdrop using sections of sheet styrene. I'm still developing the process, I'll post a separate thread later when I'm happy with the results.
Meanwhile, here's a quick tour of the new yard...
Trains approach the yard via the track on the right, crossing the bridge, then passing the caboose servicing tracks.
The mainline track is ballasted with grey, then there's the main bowl of the yard. The track on the far left is a stub end staging track for interchange traffic (This is where the giant 0-5-0 grabs cars and sets out new ones...)
RS-3 188 works the lead to the car shop, the red building in the foreground of the above shot.
Power from the neighboring B&O waits on the Ready Track with a lashup of WM diesels.
A look at the turntable area. I finally have enough room to store almost the entire fleet...
Now I see there are lots of details to build and add to these scenes.
Not bad for three weeks' work.
Lee
