Canton, Highlandtown and Fells Point - Compact layout

[wm3798]

A dreary Sunday means no work outside on the house.  So time to turn our attention to some nagging wiring issues that came about as a result of my impatient approach to such things. 



Pulled all the stuff off, and will remove the layout to the kitchen table to see how much I can get done before dinner's ready...
The whole object of the layout is to provide a little roundy-round enjoyment while I work, and a moderate amount of switching so I can "play trains" when time permits.  So far all I've been doing is cussing, scrubbing track with a cleaning block, and pinching alligator clips all over the place to try to overcome my shortcuts.

Today I said to heck widdit, and removed it to surgery.  Hopefully a few more drops, a complete bus circuit, and a couple of re-done track joints will alleviate my operating woes.  Look for a progress report a little later.

Lee

[DeltaBravo]

Often it is better to rip the bandaid off, dig out the infection and stitch her up good as new.

[wm3798]

Finally dealt with the power supply to the layout. What used to be a tangle of wires that prevented the cabinet below to close, is all tucked away thanks to a strategically drilled hole or two and a power strip mounted between the doors. Now the whole operation can be switched on and off using the reset switch on the power strip. Next up to diagram the wiring I need to do on the layout itself.

The layout is presently set on the kitchen table... it looks a whole lot bigger out there for some reason...

Lee

[wm3798]

Got about halfway through phase 1...  dropped all the leads on the industrial side of the layout and connected the bus wire to that point.  Still have to do the yard and brewery side.  Also tackled a couple of minor issues while I had it out on the table.  The biggest pain was the result of another shortcut.  I have a signal installed that lets me see how the turnout is set behind the brewery, and I ran the wire through the hole in the shelf to wire it to the Tortoise...  So that had to be snipped and rerouted the long way around so the turnout can be lifted out to allow me to pull the layout.  (naturally, the piece of track that runs through the center shelf support is a turnout, and more than that, a remote turnout requiring a tortoise, and it has to be signaled.  AND I have to be able to remove and insert it from time to time to work on the layout where I can get at all four sides.)

One thing that was interesting, the layout looks and feels very compact on the shelf next to my desk, but out in the open, it's actually quite large!

I'll try to tinker with it more during the week, with the goal being to have a train operating smoothly and reliably in the next week or so.
Lee

[wm3798]

Set aside actual work for a couple more hours of wiring.  Bus wire is complete, switches wired to toggles (finally!) and Humpty Dumpty is together again.  After some aggressive track cleaning and wheel de-gunking, my Bachmann S-2 has been burbling happily around the layout for about an hour now.

I'm thinking about leaving things be for the moment, so I can pull the layout out again to work on some scenery back in the corner.

Lee

[davefoxx]

Don't you just love it when shortcuts turn out to be just the opposite?  Argh!

DFF

[basementcalling]

Don't you just love it when shortcuts turn out to be just the opposite?  Argh!

DFF

Always thought there is good reason short cut and short circuit start with the same word.

[John]

Don't you just love it when shortcuts turn out to be just the opposite?  Argh!

DFF

Yup .. the M&O is one big shortcut that I've been fixing for almost 17 year

[wm3798]

Now that I can run a train without so many electrical glitches, I'm testing some of my preferred rolling stock, and finding that the severity of my urban curves presents a bit of a challenge in places.  So I went after two spots with a bit of super elevation to give me a little more elbow room.

I must say that body mounted couplers and lowered ride heights make for lovely models, but it definitely makes the cars more demanding on a small radius curve...





Once I'm satisfied that I can run the small variety of equipment I have room for, I'll ballast it in.  I will say that the redecodering of the Bachmann switchers I have will help make the trains look a little less clunky, but for now the big Geeps are the only things that run reliably right now.  I figure if they work through the circuit, anything else will be easy.

Lee

[seusscaboose]

jeez
that is definitely not Dr. Foxx's masking tape method for elevation....   it looks like you shoved 2x4's in there!

modeling on a shoestring I understand...    but is that ceiling tile! 

[wm3798]

No ceiling tile... it's extruded foam insulation with Sculptamold slopped on it.  I used that craft foam sheet to make the wedges.  Yeah, nothing subtle about it.

[seusscaboose]

i was referring to the wood under the track

I got no problem with the foam   hell... I do the same thing...

but that brown stuff on top of the cork

makes the Super Elevation rally SUPER

but hey... it works...  and a little ballast and no one is the wiser!

[wm3798]

Had a little fun with the traveling Railwire Express Car this week...



What the heck... it's Halloween, right?



Also added this little vignette.  To see what happens here, you'll have to visit the traveling car thread elsewhere in these pages!

Lee

[OldEastRR]

Wow .... right after Halloween the CH&FP rises from the dead! Great, I really loved following the project on an interesting small track plan like this. Makes me wish the ol' Mahoning Division would come back .....
No offense to big model railroads (I have one myself) but the amount of work to get them to a decent-looking stage is a LOT. I have a town area 7 feet long and from 18-32" wide and it's taking FOREVER to get the buildings done (even more time because I modify everything out of a kit box, sometimes radically) and placed, install the roads, do the greenery -- I mean this is AFTER the track's all installed, wired, tested and running smoothly (and ballasted, if you care for that). And the town is only about 1/4 (if that) of the layout.
'sSo I really enjoyed the "little" HCD N scale layouts of the past on TRW. because each stage or area got completed pretty quickly. I guess that's another advantage to N over large scales -- you cover more ground in the same time (pun intended).
But there is a lesson here, too -- if you build a layout with all kinds of electrical problems and track kinkage, you very likely will not be much enthused to keep at it. That's the case with most of my past layouts.

[wm3798]

Carved a dummy out of foam to establish size and sight lines for a new scratch build in Highlandtown.


Also planted a couple of trees along the main line.


I should probably work on stuff at the back of the layout and work toward the front, but when I'm sitting at my desk I don't really see through to the back!

Lee