The NEW Puddington Valley Division of the CPR

[Puddington]

Day One: Foam was cut; the first corner "module" (for lack of a better term; I am building this in "hunks") is a 48" x 48" corner. It will host a large radius (18") curve that will handle my passenger cosnsists quite nicely. Portions of the curve are in a tunnel. The Division's "interchange" with the CPR mains takes place on this module......Drawing and pic's to come....

Oh ya, I'm going with visable staging..... the staging will be on the lower "interchange" level, and will be "disguised" as the yard for the car float across the lake to the "GN interchange".... whole cuts of cars can hide in plain sight this way and be accessable. There will be hidden passenger staging on  aleter module.

Battle hath been joined ! 

[Scottl]

Looking forward to seeing it!

[Dave V]

Oooo, nice!  I wanna see the plan!

[wazzou]

I thought you had a layout Mike.  Have you torn it up and moved on?

[davefoxx]

I thought you had a layout Mike.  Have you torn it up and moved on?

Yeah, what he said.  Are you salvaging sections of the old layout or continuing to operate it until the new layout is farther along?  Or is it already bye-bye and in a dumpster near you?

DFF

[Puddington]

I am retiring the Northhill module and completely rebuilding the Samuel Ridge section; albeit last so I can still use it for now...... I want to use code 55 (the others are code 80 and unitrack) and want to have a more "operational" style layout with visable staging, re-establish my barge service for off layout staging and have far broader curves so i can run passenger trains on a continous loop while I switch freight and barge service.

David helped with the track plan which I am modifying a bit....

[GaryHinshaw]

Sounds good Pudd.  Do we get to see this plan too?  Better to have us criticize it now rather than later. 

-gfh

[Kev1340]

Exciting times Pudd, look forward to seeing the updates.

Cheers,

Kev

[JSL]

Great! But we needs a plan Puddy!!

[wm3798]

The plan will include the Canadian National main line, which will negate the need to actually have operating trains.  It will also add some proto-realism to the smoke pouring out of Pud's first self-inflicted decoder installation.

The Marty Coil Caboose Shop will be the key industry on the line, featuring highlights such as piles of scrap metal, and a crew of monkeys in overalls beating an old Milwaukee Road hack to pieces.

Following Ed's lead, he will use Jack Daniels (rather than vodka) as a base for his weathering technique, using the "One For Me, One for You" method.

Lee

[Puddington]

The plan will include the Canadian National main line, which will negate the need to actually have operating trains. ( AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH...) It will also add some proto-realism to the smoke pouring out of Pud's first self-inflicted decoder installation. (POURING OUT.... I THINK WE'RE TALKING SECOND ALARM...)
The Marty Coil Caboose Shop will be the key industry on the line, featuring highlights such as piles of scrap metal, and a crew of monkeys in overalls beating an old Milwaukee Road hack to pieces. (WHILST BENDING A SEVEN IRON INTO A SUPER ELEVATED CURVE...)
Following Ed's lead, he will use Jack Daniels (rather than vodka) as a base for his weathering technique, using the "One For Me, One for You" method. (WELCOME TO THE SOUR MASH AND CHEETTO'S RAILWAY....)
LEE; YOU KNOW ME SO WELL..................
Lee

[Puddington]

More foam work yesterday and today; because the corner of the module will be very hard to get at (the mountain top will be removable for access to the tunnel but you really don't want to have to do that) I have been carefully crafting the tunnel walls and associated roadbed and track..... this isn't an area for bad track....

(That's the benifit of building this thing as a stand alone module and then popping it into place, fully wired and sceniced.........)

In a related issue, I am using pink styrofoam as a base and risers, time tested and ture method I like but have decided to use automatic switch machines for two hard to reach turnouts.... I have the Atlas code 55 machines but am having a bit of a problem getting my head around how to mount them and make them active in the middle of a built up foam base.... can you mount these suckers 8 inches below the turnout and still have them activate the switch...? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.......

[Scottl]

It ain't happening if there are not pictures 

The plan will include the Canadian National main line, which will negate the need to actually have operating trains. ( AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH...)

I have a story about CPR.  After crossing the CPR main from Toronto-Montreal weekly for the past decade, I finally saw and was stopped by a train.  It was a broken down intermodal with all the wells empty.  I sat 15 minutes before giving up...  LOL

[Puddington]

A sketch of the corner module.....



The barge yard (aka - visable staging...) is 2.5" lower then the mains, it will climb up at the far end of the layout to meet the mains...

Some snaps of progress... such as it is....



It's still nice here in Peterpatch so we're working in the messy garage..........



Looking from the "barge end" of the module, the tunnel is the interchange to kamloops (in theory, really it's just a siding... as is the one below to Nelson) and the Kato bridge (which will NOT come a part...grrrr.......) is the mains



From the rear of the module the main line crossing the wooden trestle....



From above..........

[Scottl]

I like it, thanks for posting!