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Comments
Geezerbill
You are making good progress. I found that building the layout is a good change of pace from building the structures. It makes a good balance between the small progress of adding nail holes in individual boards compared to adding yards of track. Forge on!
Mitch
Also, on this layout, I am putting in a lot of Tortoise switch motors. I plan to control them with Berrett Hill touch toggles. These are really cool toggles and you will see that you can easily put them on a panel to control your switches. Stay tuned. Phil
You are looking at the future site for the Twin Mills Saw Mill. You are also looking at the beginning of the timberline branch that will lead to an elevated timber cutting area. The white things are woodland scenic inclines. I'm going to elevate my track by 1/2" so I can build my kits on 3/4" foam board. If my math is right, that will put the track on the same level as the buildings. That way, I can build a diorama on the foam board and then place it on the layout without making the placement permanent.
I'm also playing around with the placement of kits I've already built. The Woodcutter's Shack will probably be on the way to the timber cutting area. Duluth Plumbing will probably be on a siding coming out of the yard.
This is getting fun and I'm getting a good idea where each kit will go.
Thanks for checking in. Phil
I didn't recall a build thread of the Duluth structure, so I had to go back and find your pictures.
That's one of those kits sitting on my shelf that keeps calling my name...
It's got a certain charm to it that is very appealing and your version looks terrific.
Bill, I didn't build Duluth. I found it at a train show (for $80) and that's how I found Sierra West and this forum. I remember looking at Duluth and saying, "How do you build a structure like this and get this great realistic and weathered look?" Then I found Karl's blog about painting and weathering and the rest is history. Phil
Before I go to Section 3, I'm going to go ahead and find a place for my Digitrax system and wire up what I already have including the drop down bridge. That way I can run trains while I'm building the other sections. Also, I have installed two program tracks, so I need to install the DPDT switches you need to toggle between the program track and the regular running track. So far I have installed 9 Tortoise slow motion switch motors.
Thanks for following my progress. Phil
Geezerbill
This an outstanding layout room and workspace. This is going to be an fantastic layout. Thanks for showing the steps you are doing. I have built about 5 of Brett's kits and am trying to figure out how to integrate them in a plan I had found several years ago.
Jim
The first step was to build a shelf for the digitrax system. Normally, you would want this centralized, but with a smaller layout, I decided to locate it under the yard.
From there I ran my main bus line throughout the layout with 14 gauge wire. All those holes I drilled as I was putting in the joists came in real handy. Once I finished, I hooked it up to the digitrax and checked the voltage at the end of the bus - 14.8 volts!! I'm ready for the 20 gauge feeder wires.
When connecting the feeder wires to the main bus, I use suitcase connectors which make it very easy to tie into the main bus. I also got very good at soldering the feeder wire to the rail. I also had to wire up my two program tracks. This is where you can isolate the track so you can program your locomotives. I use a DPDT switch so I can run regular track power and the program wire.
Now came the fun part. I needed to wire my drop down bridge so that the power would cut off if the bridge is down. This is done with micro switches on both sides of the bridge. Thanks to Model Railroader and David Popp who gave me the plans for the bridge as well as the wiring diagram. It worked like a charm.
I also wanted to try out my new Barrett Hill touch toggles. The touch toggles are connected to a controller which is the center point for the wires coming from the tortoise slow motion switched. They also offer an easy adapter so you don't have to solder wires to the tortoise. It was very easy to install and I had four switches working in no time. I'm very impressed with this product.
I wired the track around Twin Mills and it was time to test my work. More importantly, would a train go easily over the bridge?
As you can see, everything worked!! I lowered the bridge and the power dropped out as expected. Now, it's on to Section 3.
This area will be very important because this will be the area where a lot of the Sierra West kits will reside. This area will be the town that supports the wood-cutting operations. I don't want it to be flat so I plan to cascade down different levels from the elevated timber line track. What will be difficult is figuring out the spacing of the four different tracks going through. I'm going to have to get into each kit and get the dimensions. I may make paper templates so I can work on the spacing of the kits.
Thanks for checking in. Phil
Wish Brett had made the Duluth Company in O scale. Such a neat kit that.
I saw a video on those touch toggles and they looked really cool. I think Joey Ricard has used them on his module. How do you like them? Was the cost justified?
Bill, Joey was the one that turned me on to them. I really like them; they are easy to install; they have great product support; and they will enable me to create a really cool control panel. As for cost, they are more expensive than installing switches and lights, but you will spend a lot more time doing this. It took me less than 15 minutes to install per switch. After using these, I wouldn't use anything else. Phil
I plan to place the Loco and Service Shops, the Donkey Repair Yard, the Railroad Camp, the Logging Camp Main Street, and the Logging Camp Essential kits in this location. Each diorama calls for the placement of track in a certain location. So I wanted to have a good idea of where to place the tracks to make it all fit together. This was a lot tougher and took a lot longer than I thought, but getting into each kit, it gave me a good idea of what I wanted to achieve with each kit. BTW Mike Engler's layout gave me this idea. Thanks Mike.
Of course, I may move buildings and features around a bit when I actually build the kits, but as long as I have the track work in the right place, it should look believable.
Next step is to mark the track work and start working on the timber line in the very back of the layout, followed by the elevation of the main line. I will not lay the track through the kit area because I plan to hand lay Code 70 track when I build each kit. However, I plan to mark the location of each kit.
Thanks for checking in. Phil
When I last left you, I was working out the arrangement of my Sierra West kits in Section 3 of my layout. Once I was satisfied with their placement, I used a Sharpie to mark their location including the track.
I then continued with the "timber line" and tried to maintain between 2 and 2.5% grade. That's a lot of work getting it as smooth as possible.
That's when my day job got in the way. One week I was in the Southern Hemisphere in Santiago, Chile and another week I was in the far Northern Hemisphere in Anchorage, Alaska.
However, on my morning walk one day, this turkey told me to get off my a** and get to work on my layout.
So, back to work I went. First, I completed the back half of the double mainline which I have elevated in the back. Why you ask? Because Logging Camp Essentials has elevated bunk houses and I wanted to make sure they were level with the mainline, which will run behind them. Also, I found a great place for the water stop.
I then got busy putting down cork roadbed, laying track, installing tortoise slow motion switches, powering the switch frogs, and finally hooking up the amazing Barrett Hill toggle switches. Whew!!!!
The satisfying end result was the running of trains over these completed sections. I had a few issues, but nothing major. Now, it's on to the back half of the layout where I will continue the timber line and install a double switch back so my trains go from one main line to the other.
Thanks for checking in. Phil