Today I soldered all the feeder drops onto the rails and turnout frogs and then hooked them all up.
I realized that since the layout was just on saw horses and there was no scenery yet, I could stand it on edge and lean it against the wall so I didn’t have to lay underneath it to do the wiring.
Continue readingAfter doing some work on the house (and messing up my back, twice) I’m finally able to do some track laying!
I soldered the joints and glued the track down with white glue in five sections.
This morning the postman dropped off the cork and rail I ordered.
So that meant I could get to work! I laid down all the rest of the cork roadbed.
Continue readingSince the basement is still full of boxes to sort out and find locations to put stuff (including model railroad stuff) I decided I’d build a switching layout on a shelf in my office for the time being. I should be able to incorporate it in the larger layout when that actually happens.
Continue readingThe last update had us moving to a new house and building out a room for the layout.
Unfortunately we decided that the house was not quite suitable for our needs and moved again about 11 months later.
Our new house is a bit larger, and in a better location. It also has space for my layout (an important criteria.)
Continue readingAs I mentioned in a previous post, we have moved. This means that I have torn down the old layout and will build a new one. This is actually good news because I learned a lot building the first layout and the next one will be even better.
The new house had what I would call a “semi-finished” basement. A previous owner had installed sheetrock on most of the walls (badly) and done some electrical wiring (also badly.)
Continue readingI seem to have neglected to post the final steps and images from this build. Not too unusual for me. I also didn’t take a ton more photos during the final steps. But I have a few to share and the final product turned out pretty well.
The next step was to assemble the boiler, the winch mechanisms and all the controls and piping.
The Great Northern Historical Society had an auction recently and I put bids on two Sunset Models brass GN O-8 class locomotives. I won both of them for a very reasonable price!
We just had an offer accepted on a new house.
The good news is that there is lots of basement for a much larger layout.
The bad news is that we have to move. Which means tearing down the current layout.
I’m actually okay with tearing it down. I’ll save all the buildings and bridges and try and save the flex track.
This first layout was a good learning experience but I’ve never been happy with the turnouts I built. I know what’s wrong with them so I can avoid the issues when I make the next batch.
Plus I can make a new track plan and setup for continuous running – something I didn’t have room for before.
So, I’ll probably go quiet for a bit while we move, then I’ll probably start posting a new thread where I build out the layout space and start track planning.
I’m really excited about the new house and much larger layout space.
After the last blog post I spent some more time on this build. So I’ll make another progress post.
Step five is to assemble the pulleys and boom forks. The pulleys are three pieces each and I had to sand them down a bit to make them fit in the forks.
