Amoskeag Northern Version 4.8675309

[Ian MacMillan]

Things are back in the swing and looking good! More to come. I've got like time for interwebs now.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Very nice. Love the bricked up mill and that crusty a$$ LEF&C box in there.

[davefoxx]

Man, for some reason, I have this song stuck in my head: "Jenny, Jenny, you're the girl for me . . ." 

DFF

[Ian MacMillan]

Very nice. Love the bricked up mill and that crusty a$$ LEF&C box in there.

So much brick in this layout!

Man, for some reason, I have this song stuck in my head: "Jenny, Jenny, you're the girl for me . . ." 

DFF

 

[Ian MacMillan]

Lots going on as snow continues to fall, even though we had some 60s last week. It's so lovely going from 65 to 18 with 14" of new snow within 8hrs. 

Anyways, layout. Started working on some scenery as well as signaling on the east end of the layout in the area of CP Callahan. Signaling is quickly becoming an interesting endeavor as the layout is acting as a test bed for a good mount of signaling logic for Azatrax's signaling boards. While I had planned on going full JMRI/Digitrax, I at some point between now and the old N scale show layout, ended up selling all my SE8C boards...I don't remember this but I also can not find them...so logic states I purged them at some point.  Looking at a set it an forget it situation, a buddy of mine who is a signal supervisor for PanAm introduced me to Azatrax as they had been using it on their Dry Hill Model RR Club layout. Bring in the AN and its urban trackage and complex interlockings and its now being used as a test bed for the TS3, TS5, TS5-Xing board logic for quasi NORAC prototypical signaling. Some back n forth with John at Azatrax and Matt's know how have got us to a point were we really like what we can do. Over the last 8 months or so the TS5 boards firmware has been modded so that you can have complex interlockings within an interlocking, and give the proper aspects based on the route through the plant with 1, 2, or 3 head signals. Firmware 2.6 was released at the Springfield Show.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]


Over at CP Callahan
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

and the east end of Amoskeag Yard by Interstate 493 scenery is starting to get roughed in.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I've also been doing monthly layout update videos on the YouTubes, which should have the February one up next weekend if you are into that sort of thing;
https://www.youtube.com/ianscape

Idealy the plan is to really get cracking on scenery over the next year or so as we start to enter the planning stages of moving, which will be in about 3yrs. We are looking at buying quite a bit of property in OH, so the plan is to bring the AN along and still model New England out there. I think people may like to see New England when they come to visit the layout.

[Dave V]

That overpass scene is gonna be da bomb.

[Ian MacMillan]

That overpass scene is gonna be da bomb.

Thanks Dave, I hope so. It's a mashup of the bridge over Route 1 in Portsmouth, NH and the bridge over Parker St. in Lawrence, MA.

[Ian MacMillan]

Woah, long delay... Have been working on the layout however.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
SD70M-2 5001 and SD40-2 6302 lead eastbound CHPO under Winthrop Ave., approaching the old Mandrake Falls station.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
AN 27 can generally be found working the Simonds Branch and today is no different as the former MILW MP15AC switches International Paper's Cardboard Division on the east end of the branch.

The long-forgotten B&M signal battery box by the crossbuck serves as a reminder that this branch was at one time signaled mainline; However, now it is a shadow of what it was, the track truncated only a tenth of a mile beyond the chemical racks.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
CHPO pulling a cut out of Amoskeag yard over I493

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
CHPO passing under Winthrop Ave. and passing Callahan Auto.

[wazzou]

I hear they’ve got wicked good pizza in Mandrake Falls.   
The progress is looking good as usual.

[packers#1]

Layout is looking really great Ian, love the addition of the IP box plant, they’re great traffic generators. One quick note though; there’s no such thing as cardboard in the packaging world; cereal boxes and the like are paperboard, and the big boxes that we think of as cardboard are called corrugate.

[Ian MacMillan]

Layout is looking really great Ian, love the addition of the IP box plant, they’re great traffic generators. One quick note though; there’s no such thing as cardboard in the packaging world; cereal boxes and the like are paperboard, and the big boxes that we think of as cardboard are called corrugate.

IP signed their two plants in NH as Cardboard Division.

[packers#1]

IP signed their two plants in NH as Cardboard Division.

Huh, that’s interesting; I guess they changed the nomenclature in the industry back before I had started working in it. If you called it cardboard they corrected you in a hurry; same with the packaging students at college. The more you know.

[Ian MacMillan]

Huh, that’s interesting; I guess they changed the nomenclature in the industry back before I had started working in it. If you called it cardboard they corrected you in a hurry; same with the packaging students at college. The more you know.

Well that's the 80s and 90s for ya!

[LIRR]

the roads look great.....aged asphalt is a difficult look to achieve.
nicely done...

[Ian MacMillan]

the roads look great.....aged asphalt is a difficult look to achieve.
nicely done...

Thanks. Krylon Stone Gray is the color. Should look better once weathering gets into the list of things to do.

People can also follow down the rabbit hole on how the hole mental OCD process of the layouts building works in monthly rants.