Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your kind comments. Good to hear from you and please feel free to arrange a return visit if it suits. Finally about to get the last of the track down, just 2 or 3 spots where I need a currently out of stock turnout and I'll be done......with laying track, anyway. Still plenty to stay busy with, starting with lots of ballasting.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hi Mike, as one who has had the opportunity to see your layout in person,all of these posts are great.I really like your methods for senery it sure covers a lot of ground in a ahort time.
Thanks again for sharing your great talents.
Jeff.
Here's a look at adding the house track in Crater Lake. You earlier saw how the station could be moved back to make way for this spur in front of the station. This works out well, because this track was needed in part to get a local passenger train out of the way for a few hours on the fast clock between it arrival at CL and its departure for Silverton in late afternoon.
First, I cleaned up the ROW. Turns out it was in pretty good shape, needing only some limited "earthmoving" at it's end. I didn't need to dig up Sculptamold except for the last 15" or so.
I then cut the existing main to install a ME #6 turnout. For the last foot or so, once the Sculptamold was peeled up, it was pink foam underneath. I needed some thing to spike into. I could have skim-coated it with Sculptamold, but it would have been a day or two before it was hard enough to hold spikes. Instead, I cut a piece of 1/32" aircraft plywood, applied water-based contact cement and bonded it down. The plywood provided a place for the spikes to hold, as well as smoothed out the roughness of the foam. An hour later I was ready to spike track. Here's the plywood coated in cement while it dries.
Because the track would be right at the edge of the fascia, I decided to add a fascia extension, which also provides a place for a few structures. Here's the cut piece of prime 3/4" New Zealand Select pine cut to shape, pockets for the long screwes cut into the edge and 4.5" screws ready to go.
Here the extension is installed. It's screwed into the side of the existing road bed. I've bonded the plywood to the roadbed, so things are nice and flat.
I wired up the turnout and track and spiked them down. Here's a view from one end...
And the other end, where I relocated the coal dealer.
After track is laid, even when well-designed and carefully installed, it's important to test. With operating sessions coming up, I ran several trains to verify things, truning up some minor issues that needed some fine tuning. Here's a few pics of a stock train we'll be running as it tests.
A crucial factor in transforming this one-time branch into part of the main was getting everything adjusted so that my "big" C-C diesels could operate up it.
Even before a full test of the new ops scheme, I can say it's much more satisfying to cover most of the layout to get to the destination. This will help clear the crowded aisles as people try to get outta Silverton, where it always seemed to breed a traffic jam with my long, too-narrow aisles. Now I can split crews so that 2 or 3 max are in either of the two layout rooms at one time.
Now for a little Design Philosophy...
The Cascade was intentionally designed to a tighter min R, in this case 20" min R. In a couple of places, like the new wye at Black Cat Junction, I do go under that (17" @ the BCJ wye for instance.) Blackstone generally operates around an 18" min R curve, so there is a little slack in the design because of that.
Slack is a good thing in trackplan design, because it makes a lot of things possible if you need or want to make adjustments later. If you're right up against that wall from the start, your options are generally far fewer.
One example here is the new siding at Summit. Had not planned that, but it turned out to be a good idea. I had enough set-back from the fascia that it wasn't a big deal to add more roadbed for a siding, as I did here.
In the case of the siding, it's also very helpful that the scenery surrounding it, like most on the Cascade, is a removable liftout. I just needed to trim the liftouts to make it fit the new roadbed.
Sometimes, your slack is already there. I was pondering adding a new spur to handle excess cars, MTs, or a laid-over passenger train. Thought I'd have to scab on a little wider subroadbed in front of the fascia, just past the Crater Lake station.
I was pondering that when I realized the roadbed was already there in place, I just needed to move the station out enough to take advantage of it, as the next two pics show.
Before
After
The subroadbed is lurking right underneath, just need to clean up some Sculptamold to get things level and true. The turnout for it will be just past the road crossing and I have room to make it about 4' long.
This one covers needed capacity improvements to take advantage of the opportunities the extension provides. This first pic shows Tefft and the Cascade's line climbing above it.
Here are part of the signals, the ones for the east end of the Elk Park block.
In Silverton, I added the two tracks closest to the fascia to add yard capacity there. The west end signal for Elk Park is visible.
The Elk Park block is roughly what's in this pic in between Tefft amnd Silverton.
Yeah, lots going on for sure. Total turnouts, including SG, is around 180. I like having lots of options.
The main room is 28' x 16'. The biggest part is 16' x 16', then it narrows some towards the entrance.
The Cascade Extension fills a 12' x 8' room, then meanders on for another 12' or so.
Total HOn3 main (Durango to Snowden) is about 150', but doesn't included staging to Chama under Durango.
Here are the Cascade track charts in order. The main is in red, and shows the normal position of turnouts on it. Off the main, yellow shows the normal route. Black is the rest of the track. Not to scale, but represents roughly the shape of track at each location. The press-on numbers are the register numbers for each turnout so operators can distinguish the turnout control for each.
Purgatory
Camp 10/Black Cat Junction
Summit
Crater Lake Junction
Crater Lake
Snowden
Hope to upgrade these soon, but gives operators what they need now.
WOW Mike!
You have a lot of stuff going on there! That's a good thing IMHO in case you were wondering about my meaning.
You have given me cause to ponder my layout plan. I don't have anywhere near the number of switching opportunities that you have. I'm kinda being pulled back to the drawing board. At the very least, Im going to try to add more sidings.
Can I ask how big your layout room is?
Thanks
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave,
I've got a track diagram, but not a track plan. This is for the Cascade Extension.
And this is the one for the main layout room narrowgauge.
I did take pics of the track diagrams at each station that show each location in detail and will post soon.
Mike:
Do you have a track plan diagram? I would love to see the bird's eye view of the layout. You don't need to go to the bother of drawing one up if you haven't got one already.
Thanks for the referral to the night scene lighting thread. I have to confess that I had totally forgotten the conversation we had in 2014.
FWIW, I have settled on using 5630 natural white strips (4000 - 4500k) and three blue strips with the same specs. They do require power supplies but the overall costs are still way cheaper than any other lighting solution. I will have to wait until they are installed to see if they are bright enough.
To give you and idea of relative size and distance, the last group of pics and this one were mostly taken from the same tripod location, with the camera right against the ceiling, rotating to the left as I took pics.
From Black Cat Junction (BCJ) the track continues east in a long siding with a crossover in it's middle, about halfway between BCJ and Camp 10. At Camp 10, a long spur holds car to be loaded with logs.
Obviously, got a lot of ballasting to do, but I like to let the track settle while I run on it awhile so I can get most of the finetuning done before I bury it. Note that these high angle shots tend to show the liftouts a little better. Most of the scenery you see is removable as liftouts. That includes the big mountains behind Camp 10 and the one that is inside the curve that the track curves to the left behind as it descends the canyon back there to reach the Lime Creek Gulch bridge and enter Purgatory.
In Purgatory, observant readers will note that it's been reconstructed again, at least the 3rd time. The TT lead was on the bridge/west end at first, moved to the station/east end, and now I've added a turnout to provide a second lead from the west end again. This also conveniently lets crews access both industrial leads by crossing the TT.
The stockyard was rebuilt after the previous one was carted off and expanded at BCJ.
This pic is looking down on the location of a siding I'm waiting on turnouts for, a third track to provide a house track for passenger trains and quarry-to-mill flats to wait on out of the way.
Black Cat Junction is finally done and really helps op flexibility with a wye, thress through tracks and what will be a two or three track yard (just one track back there pending more turnouts.) The pics go from RR west toward RR east.
First, there's the rough country between Summit and BCJ.
The stockyards and west lead; you can also see the "cut/tunnel" that the line enters from the main layout room below as it curves into Purgatory.
The wye, unforetunately only about 17" radius on the two curved legs, but the Goose is now able to get around them so I think I'm good. I also had to cut a small "tunnel" in the coved corner of the backdrop to get a long enough tail track to turn a 2-car passenger train and loco. Planning to disguise this by building up the hill on the town liftout some more to block the view.
Finally, the east yard throat at BCJ.
Let's continue down the track to Crater Lake Junction. It will get another siding at the back of the three tracks visible in the background in this shot. I added a set-out spur that the loco and caboose are sitting on. It's also a bit of a tail track so trains don't have to go down the steep spur into the quarry from the CLJ yard or the spur up to Camp 13.
Next is Summit. Originally, just a station in the middle of nowhere, it's the highest point on the main. I added an 8 car siding to give the dispatcher another passing point. This is the west end...
And this is the east end.
I also laid new track downgrade past this point towards Black Cat Junction, as it was previously cobbled together pieces of flex that gave me trouble several times.
Thanks, wish I could get a new set of batteries some mornings, but I do like to see progress
I'm using a product that is an enclosed version of the LF 3528 strip lights. It's like a light cord sheathed in a clear outer plastic. The power is built into the cord. They come in 13' long segments ($40ish, but on sale for less at times.) I get them from Menard's (don't know if they're in Canada, but are an upper Midwest chain that has expanded outward, so maybe? The current brand is Patriot. Before that, they were Meridian, which I can't recommend due to quality issues. The Patriot ones are holding up much better.
The current draw is something like 19 watts each. Total wattage in the main layout is around 200, so pretty darn efficient. I use the Cool White version, which is actually more like Daylight than the bluish stuff that often comes labeled that way.
There is lots more discussion and pics starting about halfway down this page in my Night Scene thread: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=3
I'll be back to get pics going here a little later. I was up way too late last night
Hi Mike:
You're like the Energizer Bunny - you never stop! (I think somebody may have said that about you before). Great work.
I have a question which you have no doubt answered before but I'm too lazy to search all your posts:
What LED strips are you using for layout lighting? I'm in the midst of acquiring all the bits for my LED ceiling lighting and I just want to compare what I have chosen with what you are using. I have purchased 10 x 5m 5630 strips that run at 5 amps each, plus three blue strips with the same specs. The layout room will be 10'x'23' with the track using about 60% of that area.
The combination of unfinished business, particularly at Black Cat Junction, and the need for added capacity drove the track gangsforward. There are less than a half dozen turnouts still needed once the ones on order arrive to finish 2 more sidings and a couple more spurs. Let's go on a tour starting at Crater Lake to look at what's done and a few place that are not. This pic in front of the station there shows the siding used by passenger trains to help turn their consists here near the end of the line. It tends to need to be kept clear, so I'm thinking of adding anouther spur in front of or just past the depot.
Have been finishing up almost the last of the trackwork on what is now formally know as the Cascade Extension, rather than the Cascade Branch. Why? I had a brainstorm while trying to figure out a way to deal better operationally with the short back track required to get onto the Cascade from Silverton. It started with this:
Which controlled the rail between Tefft and Silverton, along with the turnout leading to the Cascade with these signals (and one more in Silverton.) More on them here: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/253256.aspx
Why not just make the Cascade a continuation of the Silverton, in effect doubling the length of the mainline run? So I did that, still working up all the paperworks, but it further facilitates the original goal of speading out my operators while giving them a longer, more interesting run. This doubling also simplifies, not only the schedule, but the overall operating concept. Add in a little Xmas cash for track and the project began.
I made some adjustments to the track and various rolling stock and soon had my six-axle units running the whole line.
Thanks! Haven't been getting many comments lately, but people seem to enjoy reading and viewing the thread. It pushed over 12,000 hits in the last few days.
Thanks for the update. You have a great layout!
After Camp 10, the grade drops down around Sugar Mountain, so-called because what RRers call it isn't useable in polite company. The grade reaches its max just before the bridge across Lime Creek Gulch. Get off the track here and it's a long ride to the bottom. With most trains, the mountain hides them completely. This one is long enough it's visible at both ends if you stand back far enough. Here the loco is just coming into view as it prepares to cross the gulch.
It was our lucky day, as everything stayed safe on the rail. After crossing, the tracks are in Purgatory, where the Crater Lake Stone Mill is located.
Passing Summit means it's mostly about braking to get to Durango safely. Grades average 2.5%.
A wider view show how the longer trains can't quite be hidden by the scenery. But all my planning involved a sleepier branch than what it's turned out to be -- a way to get some operators out of my crowded central aisle in the main layout.
Black Cat Junction is the last town still needing track, but the recent install of a long siding with center crossover will ease the dispatcher's job.
Our train fit if a meet was needed, with 3 or 4 more car lengths to spare.
At the east end at Camp 10, a siding now holds MTs to be winched past the loader if no loco is available or simply held there for loading later at Camp 13 or Snowden. There's a lot more logging modeling coming down the line.
Crater Lake Junction now has all three of its feeder lines operational . The track in the right background rises as it climbs to Camp 13. The line in the right foreground leads down to the Crater Lake Stone quarry. in the left background a spur leads off the main down to the Outlaw Mine.
While CLJ's yard is small, it's big enough to relieve the pressure on crowded Crater Lake proper. It will eventually get one more siding along the back. Not bad for a place that's only 10" high.
Headed east, there's a moderate grade that climbs to just before Summit.
Besides crude oil for the Oriental Refinery, there's limestone flux for ASARCO's smelters, both in Durango, and raw ties for the Koppers treatment plant in Alamosa.
This set of pics catches up with construction over the last few months that made the Cascade Branch nearly operationally complete. We'll follow a tank train from Snowden as it makes its way RR east to Tefft to take these raw materials to market. Since the last installment, 14 more turnouts were added for yards at Snowden and Crater Lake Junction and a set of sidings between Camp 10 and Black Cat Junction.
Here's a string of pipe gons and idlers in the team track at Snowden spotted by Extra 100 West.
The crew went dead on the law, so spotted the motive power in front of the depot to get enough crew rest to be legal.
Rounding the bend back to Crater Lake Junction, a great view of the valley below opens up.
A higher angle shot shows the new yard better.
Camp 10 is next up, with only the bare minimum passenger shelter and freight platform. This area will also see its track reconfigured once more funds become available.
The whole mountain past the tracks is an ~6' long liftout. I used some of the black foam material I make coal loads out of to fill the gap between the subroadbed and the liftout. A wash of earthy looking paint leaves it looking like gravel. And my Powerwagon won't fall through to the floor!
The Goose heads downgrade around the mountain eastbound toward Purgatory. There we get a good view of the stone station that is the sister to Crater Lake's.
Our final pic from this chase shows #5 dropiing down the 3% grade to the junction at Tefft.
Hope your 4th of July was a roaring success.
We'll chase the Goose's charter run back to Tefft now, where it's patrons can catch a train onward to their next destination.
Having topped its climb from Crater Lake Junction, #5 approaches Summit on the 2.5% downgrade.
Several miles later, the Goose pulls into Black Cat Junction, where much construction is still underway -- or at least planned.
Unlike many of my online towns, this one has plenty of housing for the workers.
A higher angle shot show the whole place is a liftout. There's some forced perspective with N scale structures in the back underway, also.
Aw, that's the tie mill, so they are for a very specific purpose. The loads are ties glued atop a piece of pink foam to fit the cars.
The hobby sticks I got from Hobby Lobby. I used my trusty diecast NWSL Chopper to cut them to length, then used gap filling CA to make neat stacks of ties drying. There's a mix of standard and narrowgauge ties in there.
I love the lumber piles and loads! I'm guessing you made them yourself. Is that right?
What wood did you use?
What did you use to cut the ends so nice and square?
Snowden has no turning facilities, so the Goose backed into Crater Lake to turn on the wye. The first shot shows it on the tail of the wye.
Running past the rock and coal bins.
The Goose is then backed into the station for crew and passengers to get a quick bite to eat and check of other trains on the branch.
#1 went ahead of us, but was slated to take the spur up to the Merry Widow Mine. We caught it idling at the bottom of the grade before it climbed up to this AEC-contracted facility with a pair of gons to trade them for the 3 loaded hoppers under the rock bins there.
Sandwiched in around a water heater, the leads to both the Merry Widow and Snowden are not exactly photogenic. But you then enter the scenic upper box canyon that required the pipeline and terminal to load the crude oil onto the RR for transport to the refinery in Durango.
This area will eventually see two more sidings, one to serve the loading racks for the pipeline terminal and another to serve as the team track to unloads pipe from gons. A spur will allow loading/unloading of tracked and wheeled heavy equipment, as well as serve a warehouse to store drilling mud.
Down at the end of track, a crawler crane is shifting some pipe around as a dozer trims the surface around where the pipeline surfaces to bring crude into the terminal. It's also the best view yet of this pristine spot.
The Merry Widow Mine remains a work in progress, but WPF pics last week pretty much proved it has the world's shortest aerial tramway.