The HO Scale Delaware Avenue Branch

[perezbill]

I've been working on the railroad no pun intended. I got out the bad Rapido electric uncoupler and I am ready to install the new one. The track is functional; switch machines are working as intended. I have been filling in the gaps I cut into the ties for electrical isolation. This is so when the track is painted the gaps will not become very visible. I have switch stands to work on. Weather they are going to move with the turnouts are thrown is still out for debate. I have more to build none the less. I am not far away from painting the track and ballasting the track.
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[perezbill]

Got some more work done tonight so thought I'd post it now. Head block ties are pretty much installed where needed. They will be trimmed once the switch stands are installed. I made all 10 switch stands for the area of my layout I am working on. They need to be painted prior to installation. So far, everything is going well from my perspective. The next 2 days I won't have time to work on the railroad due to train club commitments.

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[perezbill]

Yesterday was a milestone for me. With the help of my friend Christian the track got painted by him, and I was painting the switch stands. I am not totally sure I am sold on the color of the track yet. What do you folks think?

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[garethashenden]

I think its fine as a base color. But since it was all painted at once it wouldn't hurt to weather the ties separately. Then weather everything again once its ballasted.

[perezbill]

I think its fine as a base color. But since it was all painted at once it wouldn't hurt to weather the ties separately. Then weather everything again once its ballasted.

Thank you for the reply. That is a great idea. I appreciate the advice.

[nickelplate759]

Don't have a strong opinion on the color, but your technique of mounting the Tortoises sideways at the front of the layout is slick.

[perezbill]

Don't have a strong opinion on the color, but your technique of mounting the Tortoises sideways at the front of the layout is slick.

I am on the verge of turning 60 years old. I was thinking about having to replace/repair them many years down the road. The thought of climbing under the layout to work on them, while my layout height is 4' tall, is not something that sparked happy thoughts. Hence the reason behind mounting them the way I did.

In case you are curious. There will be a removable cover that connects to the edge of the layout to hide the machines. The other thing I did was to use balloon straws to create a conduit between the tortoise and the turnout. It's used to run the wire thru. This way scenery and other materials will not "mess" with the functioning of the actuator wire. It's really a simple idea that fits my needs as I am aware of my abilities declining as I get older. 
 
Thank you for your response.

[perezbill]

I have started working on painting the ties. It's going to take some time, but I think it's worth it. It's a little hard to tell in the pics because of the colored paints on the cork but I think this looks good. I don't think the pics do it justice but will post a couple anyway for you to see and comment on.

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[perezbill]

Some new railroad updates today. I have been working on track painting, a little ballasting, and I got my first Rapido uncoupler installed and working. I made a short video of the uncoupler operation. It works nicely. You can watch the video here if you wish. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1c_Tir1R7bA

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[pjm20]

Great progress, thanks for sharing! I look forward to seeing this come together.

[perezbill]

I have been making some good progress on the layout recently. Much of my time lately has been spent waiting on needed items to arrive. What have I been up to? I have been ballasting track, attached my new width extension to the next area and got foam on it. I currently have been getting the "roof" over top of the industry on the low-level setup and installed. There is a cutout in the foam where a track goes into a building on a level 3" below and upper level. I built a "roof" out of 10 thousand styrene and braced it. The upper-level track will go across the styrene. Below it will be inside of a building. Bought 3 ITLA buildings that I am going to use for the industries. I am also adding a Walthers REA building. These are going to be built primarily as flats. They will be lit using Logic Rail's LCC lighting board. I have my Rapido uncoupler functional but will be changing the toggle switch to a soft switch on a digital panel using LCC, specifically an LCC BOD4-CP to activate it. I have created an LCC US&S digital panel for the area I am working on. It works great and I love it. Running the digital panel on a Samsung tablet. This will make it easier for me to do any control panel updates in the future. I won't have the deal with physical switches and other physical items that make up a control panel. I just can change it in JMRI and reload it on the tablet. I have added an edge to the layout and covered up the tortoise machines that throw my switches so they will not get "bumped" or destroyed. The covers for them are removable so I can change out the machine if and when needed. I am working on the backdrop that separates this part of the layout from the other side of the layout. I found the perfect sky-blue color which represents that clear hazy blue sky you always see closer to the horizon. Got the paint at Home Depot and it's actually called Sky Blue. The next things I have to work on is getting the part of the backdrop I have mounted, and the buildings attached to it. A rather large part of the backdrop with the track in the building will be removable incase a car come off the track inside the building. This will allow me to get it out. As stated, the last few weeks have been slow progress because I have been waiting on ordered items to arrive to get back to the major building. Now that I have my ordered stuff I am hoping to make faster progress. If anyone has any questions on how I did something, please do not hesitate to ask. I will be happy to answer as best as I can. Also, I do apologize if some of these pictures have already been posted. Most of them are new but there may be some reposted ones attached to this post. One more interesting thing. I have a 5-day weekend starting today due to it being my 60th. I took off from work, so I am hoping to make a decent dent in my to-do list for the railroad. I will update hopefully in a few days with more progress and photos.

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[perezbill]

Thought I'd make an update on the latest work that is happening on the railroad. I have been working on a backdrop board that separates the part of the layout, 17th street yard, from the rest of the layout. I have the backdrop board up and painted. Found a great sky color that I like. Bought it at Home Depot. It's actually called sky blue. It has that nice hazy blue color that you usually see in the sky closer to the horizon line. I am currently working on some of the background buildings that will go up against the sky board. Once I get the basics done, I can finish ballasting the track. I need the buildings in before I can finish up track work because some of the buildings will determine where the track exactly sits and how much ballast will be placed down. Currently I have added a Walthers freight station to the backdrop. It's a low relief building that is about 90% completed. Still have things I need to the building which include lights, some seem filling, etc. I just need the building in place to see what I am doing around it. I am currently working on an ITLA building that will have a track running inside of it. This ITLA building will be the biggest building on this part of the layout. It is being constructed primarily as a building flat. It will have all the extra detail in it when completed including lights and seem filling where necessary amongst other things. I don't think I have any pics of the ITLA building yet but will soon. I do have pictures of the area currently with the Walthers kit in place.

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