Vermissa Valley - PRR 1960s

[Dave V]

Maybe one is older, before cuts were made as deep; or perhaps one was daylighted for clearance...?

There may well be a prototype for this very situation...  However, my humble opinion is that the more backstory something needs, the less plausible it is when taken on its own merit.

That said, I'm enjoying this build very much!  Pretty soon this place will be the Pennsywire.   

[Hornwrecker]

Make sure that you glue that stuff down and then glue it again.  I'd then go over it with a strong magnet to be sure these filings aren't sucked into your locomotives gears and/or motor magnets.

One thing I am having a tough time with is the deep cut right next to a tunnel in a hill of equal height with the adjacent cut.  Why wouldn't they cut at both lines?  J MO

Definitely did the magnet check.  I made the scrap pile on the bench, so I didn't get any swarf near the layout.  It's surprisingly light and strong once all the glue dries. I think the diluted glue rusts it even more.  I'll put it in a warm place for awhile to see if it falls apart.

To tell the truth, I didn't think about it when I redid, just followed the same arrangement of the original, and totally illogical railplan that the layout started with.  I suppose the tunnel entrance could be moved back about a foot, and then install two bridges, one for the coal mine switchback over the tunnel portal, and another for the branch line going up, then the portal.  Maybe in a few years when I see changes needed and your comment starts bugging me, I'll daylight the tunnel.

I think I'll go with David's reasoning.  On the real area (there are no tunnels going into Wilkes-Barre or on the other end)  the mainline was there first, then maybe the yard built sometime before 1900(?), interchange with CNJ in 1900, and the WBCRR to interchange with  the D&H  right before WWI.   There is no branch to interchange with DL&W/EL and LV in the immediate area.  I decided to through in Lehigh Valley into the mix, helps to explain some track on the top level, and I did buy a sweet, little Bachmann LV NE caboose recently; nice detail, metal wheels, and painted grab irons.

Next step is to put in another strange feature of this yard, a road crossing six yard tracks.  The real Plymouth Ferry Rd crossed 11 tracks!  I'm going to go with gravel and timber crossings, since I don't have any on this layout yet.

Thanks for a little activity on this thread, guys.

[Hornwrecker]

Added the road across six yard tracks, like the prototype. 



Should keep the yard goat on its toes, but I think there'll be a lot of complaints to the yard office about the road being blocked.

Here's the road today, after I added dirt shoulders and a bit o'weeds.



Took the plunge into DCC today with an order to BLW.  Ordered an NCE Power Cab system and a few TCS and NCE decoders.  This should keep me busy for awhile, learning how to program them, and installing the TCS CN and GP decoders into an older Atlas/Kato RS and Geep.  The other ones should just be drop ins, like the H-24-44, SD35 and VO1000.

[Philip H]

I've got a powercab, and I LOVE it.  do the drop ins first - they make getting to play with the programming all the more quick, and after you fiddle with 3 or 4 of them you'll be ready for the others.

And nice equipment shot in the yard- it almost looks like an ESM catalogue shot.

[Hornwrecker]

I forgot to get the PRR X-58b into the shot.  The BLMA G31s are real picky;  I've found lots of turnouts in my yard that need tweaking, so that should improve ops once I find all the problem areas and get the points filed.

I've been reading DCC for Dummies (NCE).  Looks like it should be a pretty easy learning curve.  I didn't buy the 5 amp booster, so that I can hook up the mainline, because NCE is coming out with a new improved version which hasn't shipped out to dealers, yet.  I also bought a plain throttle, that looks simple enough that Joey Uboats can operate it, although he'll still bitch about me not having Rapido couplers on the equipment.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/DCC.htm#Contents

[MichaelWinicki]

I forgot to get the PRR X-58b into the shot.  The BLMA G31s are real picky;  I've found lots of turnouts in my yard that need tweaking, so that should improve ops once I find all the problem areas and get the points filed.

I've been reading DCC for Dummies (NCE).  Looks like it should be a pretty easy learning curve.  I didn't buy the 5 amp booster, so that I can hook up the mainline, because NCE is coming out with a new improved version which hasn't shipped out to dealers, yet.  I also bought a plain throttle, that looks simple enough that Joey Uboats can operate it, although he'll still bitch about me not having Rapido couplers on the equipment.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/DCC.htm#Contents

Hey Bob, on those BLMA cars, it's probably more a problem with the wheelsets than it is the points of the switches.

They suffer from two issues, the wheel tread being too narrow and being slightly under-gauge.

BLMA has since come out with an improved version of their wheelsets.

Once I swapped out the BLMA's for someone else's wheelsets my G31's behaved much better.

[Hornwrecker]

Many thanks for that info, Michael, it will save me a lot of time and aggravation. 

Since I just bought all five numbers from BLMA online (they were the only ones I found that had them all in stock), you'd think that they'd at least include some of the new wheelsets with the order.  I guess I'll just bad order most of them until they're fixed.

[Hornwrecker]

Made a panel for the front, with a programming track below it.  Still blank as my orders from BLW and Litchfield Station just got shipped out today.  Had a long piano hinge around, so that's what all those nuts are near the bottom.  Have to paint the bare wood now.  (I should have masked off some stripes before painting the back.  Maybe, like five gold ones.  Oh, well.)



That rather large, beige colored lump on the right, under the layout is George the wonder dog, dutifully guarding it from any foe, foreign or domestic.

[Hornwrecker]

Underway on DCC Power!



My NCE Power Cab came in today, so I got that installed in the control panel, hooked up to a DCC Specialties circuit breaker, next install the DPDT switch for the programming track.  Also got three decoders installed and running; need to tweak the CVs , but the NW2, RS2 and H24 are running.  Found out that one can install the decoder upside down in the Trainmaster, no harm done, and it worked upon proper installation.  Need another coat of green paint on the wood, too.

Can't get my throttle cab to work. I give it a fresh look at tomorrow, probably something obvious that I'm not seeing from having done too much DCC stuff today.

[Philip H]

With the Powerca. You can only plug the big paddle into one of the sockets and have the system work. I think you need to try switching jacks.

[Hornwrecker]

With the Powerca. You can only plug the big paddle into one of the sockets and have the system work. I think you need to try switching jacks.

Figured it out.  The throttle needed a reset to factory specs (00), but then needed a cab number assigned; gave it the 05 default number, and it started working.  No idea why a factory reset wasn't enough.  Maybe I have a reading comprehension problem.

Nice to finally have walkaround capability,also with having the UTP in the back, I can finally switch that area by myself.

[Hornwrecker]

Been busy learning how to install DCC decoders.  I've got all my drop-ins done, with only a problem with the CNJ SD35 - seemed like the slow speed motor blew out on it, luckily I had a spare SD35 to drop the board in.  Will figure out the why on why it failed when I have some time to tinker around with it.  Next up the CN and CN/GP istalls.  Might take a break before doing this, and get back to more scenery work.

Sure nice having some visible lights on the locos. 



Since I had the MT 1015 assembly line going while I had the engines apart to do some conversions, I decided to body mount some of my Bowser H21s.  They have got to have crappiest plastic wheelsets I've ever seen, at least one warped one per car.  Looks like I'll have to order the FVM wheels a lot earlier than I had planned.

[Hornwrecker]

Got the main under DCC, with a DPDT so that I can still run it on DC to check engines and run friend's equipment.

One unanticipated benefit of taking the plunge is that the wiring of the layout is much improved and logical, instead of looking like something made by some African weaver bird.



Still need to add another circuit breaker and a couple of AR units to the control panel.

[chicken45]

Awesome!

[Ian MacMillan]

Looking good. You will like some of the things you can do with DCC.