Planning to model Cass Scenic Railroad - Thoughts?

[bibbster]

Thanks for the input on the Atlas book and the other suggested books.

[bibbster]

cuyama

...A good older book that is available used through resellers is Andy Sperandeo’s Easy Model Railroad Wiring, Second Edition (Kalmbach, 1999). A more-recent book is Larry Puckett’s Wiring Your Model Railroad (Kalmbach 2015).

 

I have a copy of each coming, $16 shipped for both. The more the merrier! Thanks for the suggestion, cuyama.

Hopefully they will help clear up a lot of genearl questions so I don't drive you guys nuts.

[bibbster]

Just a small update that I shared with someone else today and wanted to share with you all. My wife and I did a little work on our benchwork and tested our Shay's pulling power. The latter was a lot of fun and proved to be interesting. We definitely won't be able to model a scale 11% grade like that at Cass, but we can comfortably get to 6.875%.

We tested with our passenger cars as well as some log cars and 8% was pushing it, so we settled on 6.875%. Why? Well, we were using 2x scraps stacked up to test elevation and we removed one scrap to get to that comfortable incline. Highly scientific isn't it? 

We've also been thumbing through the two books about electrical that were suggested. Lots of good info so far, though somewhat overwhelming.

[bibbster]

It's been a long time since I updated anything here. Beside the big Photobucket ransomeware on my photos, life has been hectic. At any rate, here are a couple 3D images of the layout. We hope to start on the benchwork soon. We'll be using what was left over from my slot car track. Trimming it down to the dimensions we want, and then making it into at least four sections that we'll bolt together so that it can be dismantled and moved should we decide to sell the layout, or the house for that matter. Still planning on putting it on casters so we can move it away from the wall into the center of the room.

[ripvanwnkl]

Good luck with your Cass layout!  My grandson and I don't have a permanent layout but when he visits we put Bachmann EZ track on the floor and have a great time.  We fondly remember our trip to Cass in @2005 where we did the full tourist ride thing.  We have Bachmann's Shay #5 with a couple of Bachmann's #17445 Cass open air cars. 

For our station, we found Walthers Cornerstone #933-4057 which has almost exactly the same ornate eave trimwork as the prototype.  https://www.walthers.com/union-pacific-style-depot-kit-11-3-4-x-5-5-8-x-4-quot-29-8-x-14-2-x-10-1cm

[bibbster]

Thank you, Dave, for the well wishes. And thank you for the info on the Walthers kit. We picked up a couple used depots that are already built that I think we can bash together to make it 'close enough'. We'll see. We may end up buying one of those kits.