Newport & Rock Falls: Another Retro Micro-Layout

[DKS]

I vaguely recall seeing a post from DKS mentioning that he had a vast amount of insecure/legacy content and that updating it to secure status was either infeasible or uneconomical.
If the photos had first been uploaded to a RailWire gallery, would this then not have been an issue?

I doubt Tom would appreciate my flooding the Railwire gallery with a couple thousand images. Plus, it would more than double the work for me to re-upload images that are already online.

[DKS]

13 February 2021. I made some headway upgrading those silly-looking plate girder bridges. I made thick concrete decks to beef up the structure and give it a more realistic profile.





I've also made new choices for crossing flashers, signals and street lights. No, they aren't "retro" by any means, but they were all just sitting around in drawers not doing anyone any good.







And I chose a new switch tower kit:

[DKS]

14 February 2021. With some paint and weathering, I wrapped up the plate girder bridges.



I also re-finished and installed the yard office, formerly the control cabin for the rolling lift bridge.



And finally, I got started on the gravel works. And look: the T Gauge flex track matches the track detail on the kit!

[CRL]

Are those the Atlas plate girder bridges? I like your mods to those. I’ve enjoyed using the Atlas plate girder & Warren truss bridges in the past because they’re so easy to bash into something plausible for small crossings that you don’t want to put a huge amount of effort into by making a museum quality piece. Plus, they can be easily replaced with something better if the scene latter warrants the attention.

[DKS]

Are those the Atlas plate girder bridges?

Affirmative.

[delamaize]

Those Atlas Plate Girders are always one of my favorite kit bash fodder. Chopped up, and they make great oversized flat car loads....

[DKS]

15 February 2021. While work continues on the gravel works, I took a serious look at my control panel plan, and decided it needed some revision. Instead of a separate panel connected to the layout with an enormous cable, I've elected to make the panel a permanent fixture on the layout itself. Most of this had to do with being a little lazy: I didn't want to deal with making a cable and wiring it to a separate box. A secondary reason is that, with the addition of working signals, crossing flashers, street lights and building illumination, there weren't enough circuits in the DB44HD to carry it all. So I decided to make the panel a permanent fixture on the layout itself; thus all of the above is no more. The downside is that I'd have to completely rewire the layout; the upside is it's still less work than making the cable for a separate panel and fabricating the panel and box.

The new panel would need to be smaller to fit the available space, so I was just going to arrange the controls in rows, numbered to key with the turnouts and uncouplers; however, I really prefer a graphic diagram. I got it to fit by using subminiature momentary-contact center-off toggles instead of pairs of pushbuttons to control the turnouts. This allowed the panel to be more compact, with fewer holes to drill and fewer connections to solder.



green — SPDT momentary-contact center-off toggles for turnouts
yellow — SPST pushbuttons for uncouplers
red — SPDT toggles for track power
pink — SPDT toggle for the rolling lift bridge

[DKS]

16 February 2021. Rewiring the layout has begun. It's not as onerous as it sounds; mostly it's just re-routing wires, lengthening some, shortening others.



Meanwhile, I've also wrapped up the upper/lower level transitions: all of the stone and rockwork is permanently in place.

[DKS]

17 February 2021. Rewiring the layout continues, alongside completion of the gravel works. The main building is done and in place, and I've begun work on the little narrow gauge line that feeds it.



In other news, I've come up with a new yard office, since the lift bridge control cabin was repurposed as the business office for the gravel works: I bashed it. I found this nifty little roof part that came from the Pola Old Brewery (B239), along with a bunch of spare wall parts that I've chopped up.

[wm3798]

I always liked those roof shingles that look like pie plates!
I have a couple of those kits to play with.  With those shingles, I'm thinking an abandoned Greek olive press might be in order.



Of course, there's no trains on that island... so a little free lancing would be in order...
Lee

[DKS]

18 February 2021. While it snowed outside, I finished the little narrow gauge line that serves the gravel works. I scratchbuilt the trestle from strip styrene entirely by eye, with nary a care about precision, since structures such as this often looked spindly and wonky. To wit:









I also assembled the Kibri switch tower. There's no question this is a modern kit, as it was tooled with exceptional precision by CNC. But it's the size and look I wanted for the spot.

[bdennis]

David, I assume your posts include pictures of your progress. I'm not seeing them for some reason?

[DKS]

Brendan, please see this thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=50726.0

Also applies to Microsoft Edge.

Also, while we're on the subject... I assume you have an avatar?

[davefoxx]

I can see the pics.  Love the narrow gauge roller coaster. 

DFF

[bdennis]

Brendan, please see this thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=50726.0

David,
Thanks for that. The thread looks much better now.. All fixed.

Re my Avatar.. Yes I should have one. I will look into that.