Welcome back, Mark. I hope you manage to get this one up and fully scenicked before the next move, but not just before the next move.
Crandell
It's been several years since I opined on this forum, although I have checked in periodically in that time. A major factor in my departure was a move from Virginia, where I was in the midst of building a 40x14 N-scale freelance layout modeling an area somewhere around Raton Pass in 1958, with a railroad nicknamed the Bunter Ridge whose claim to fame was controlling the pass and adopting diesel locomotives early, in an ownership change.
We moved to North Carolina in the fall of 2006, relegating the BR to storage boxes. Given my wife's propensity to want to move every three #*#@ years, she (the BR, not the wife) in storage boxes until I was convinced that threat passed. I didn't want to go from construction to demolition again, especially when the construction was just starting to take shape.
The basement here in Hooterville is finished, although a few walls made it hard for me to come up with a basic plan I liked. My office is in the basement (I telecommute), so there is a room that is not entirely available. To make a long story short, I have the framework for a plan, developed enough that I started construction this winter. I put up the wall brackets, had the L-girders from the previous rendition, and finished the "east section" of the plan to my liking. The "west section" is mostly done, but I am still tinkering. Two levels, with the lower level being visible but storage (7 tracks plus two parallel mains that dogbone to each other.
The peninsula on the extreme east end houses an oval helix connecting the two levels. I had the room to "spin it down," and using an oval rather than a circle reduces the tension of the constant curves and grade, and also reduced said grade (just under 1.5%). So far, the "east end" lower level is under construction, and I laid subroadbed, got (no small feat) and laid the cork into the lowest level of the helix, and got (again, no small feat) and have now laid two 18' parallel runs of track that have enterd the helix (to the point where I am ready to start the first "stacked" section. I dropped feeders into a DCC bus (I used Digitrax), hooked up the MRC DC pack, and viola, it worked and worked well. Last night I hooked the DCS100 up to the bus, removed the MRC and viola, we have movement!
The lower level is on its own power bus, the upper level will have two (one for each parallel track). I already own two DB-150s to supplement the DCS100, so I had three power districts "in stock."
I mentioed getting track was a feat. The original BR owned a bunch of MicroEngineering code 55 weathered flex track that never made it out of the package before demolition began. I used Atlas on the lower level. As everybody probably knows, dodo birds are more plentiful than Atlas code 55 flex track these days, so I ordered some ME unweathered from MB Klein. ME is different to work with.....it is stiffer than Atlas or Peco, which makes bending it a multi-step process (you sort of massae it into shape). The advantage is you can form it into shape, then remove it to cut and file the ends off-layout and it keeps its shape. The joints wind up being flawless, even on curves, since it holds its shape. For those of us old enough to remember having "plastic or fiber" tie choices in HO brass track, ME is more like fiber tie in stiffness, not quite as likely to knk in the shaping process.
Anywa, today is a milestone. Actually, it was last night but today is more symbolic. The nickname Bunter Ridge was for our dog, a mild-mannered genius of a pit bull. A year ago today he died suddenly. Last night I test ran everything on DCC. Today, in honor of my departed friend and his loyalty and companionship for over 11 years, I broke out the BR PA/PB-1s (the BR was a mostly Alco shop in 1958) and gave them a spin. I'd like to say this tribute was the goal of driving the first screw early this winter, but it just happened. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good!
The Bunter Ridge is back!
Cheers
-Mark
- Mark