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Layout Progress - York Central Railway

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  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
York Central Railway - Progress Update
Posted by Aralai on Thursday, December 9, 2010 3:51 PM

I made a minor tweak to my layout - changed what was originally a siding at the Southlake GO station into a passing track. It made more sense to allow a train to be in the station and others to pass, and the industries I have planned have sidings, so that one would not have been very useful as a siding anyway.

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Thursday, December 16, 2010 11:33 AM

More work and updated pics:

The high trestle and low bridge will bridge a narrow but deep gorge cut by a waterfall. The geology of the gorge is based on local geology - the Niagara Escarpment - a sedimentary formation capped with a hard flat layer on top. This causes waterfalls in the region to undercut the weaker, softer layers underneath, resulting in sometimes spectacular waterfalls and gorges. This particular gorge and waterfall are modeled on Tew's Falls in Hamilton, ON. The prototype does not have a railway crossing the gorge however.

Another view of the area:

 

The Town of Southlake is taking shape. Here is the main intersection of Huron Street and George Street.

Using the Walthers Lakeville Shipping kit, I have created a Magna Auto Parts Plant that will act as hidden staging.

Main Street, Southlake with the Magna Plant in the background. The GO Commuter passenger station is located in between Main Street and the plant.

Next:

  • Finish Waterfall / Gorge area
  • Build the Medusa Cement Plant
  • GO Station
  • Two more view block buildings
  • Anticipation of the arrrival of RDC loco bought on eBay. (I love RDC's)

 

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
  • 75 posts
Posted by Antag2002 on Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:12 PM

Looking good i cant wait to get started on mine just stuck on layout design

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
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Posted by Aralai on Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:18 PM

Antag2002

Looking good i cant wait to get started on mine just stuck on layout design

My advice is to be as patient as you can. The layout design, track laying and testing is the most important part to avoid problems later. I know the scenery and finishing touches are the most fun part (at least for me) and I'm not a very patient person, but this time I have taken since July 2009 to get to this point!

See my original thread here to get an idea of how my layout plans progressed.

Good luck & listen to some of the folks here - they saved me a lot of grief...

 

  • Member since
    June 2010
  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
  • 75 posts
Posted by Antag2002 on Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:48 PM

they have been very helpful im waiting on some books they have suggested before i go anyfurther

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Maryland
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Posted by skray775 on Friday, December 17, 2010 5:32 PM

That looks great!

Kelly

www,finescale360.com

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 2:35 PM

Bought and started to build Walthers Medusa Cement. I am loving the Tenax 7R cement - it's so much better than that Testor's mess.

I also bought a Proto 1000 RDC Budd Loco on eBay - New Haven livery. I had an old Triang/Hornby CN RDC Loco with two dummy cars, but the loco is not working, plus the old Hornby stuff does not work well on the Peco Code 100 switches.

The Proto RDC is awesome. I can't believe how much it weighs! It's top speed is not that fast, and it's got a real whine when running, but as I recall the prototype RDC's that ran the West Island 'TownTrain' commuter run in Montreal in the mid 1970's - they were not all that fast and had quite the whine themselves! (See my profile pic)

I am converting the two old Hornby CN RDC dummy cars - swapping out the trucks and couplers. The old trucks and wheels were oversized and did not spin well - a lot of drag - all plastic and no pointed ends on the axles. I will post some before and after pics - I successfully mounted new trucks on one, and put Kadee couplers on the coach instead of the trucks. It is running well behind the new loco, other than sometimes leaning. I need to tighten up one of the trucks and I think I may need to add weight - the dummy cars are light as a feather.

If I can get one working well, I will convert the other dummy car and likely de-power the old loco and convert it to a dummy car too.

I think I'll also paint the vents on the new RDC a flat black like the CN ones - the Proto model comes with the vents the same as the body color - silver and I think the black looks better and from what I can tell is more prototypical.

As my layout is current day, the idea is that the RDC train will be a tourist train, so having the New Haven loco and the old CN cars should be believable as tourist trains often buy old stock from various railroads. I had thought about painting the New Haven one in CN colors, but it seems a shame to change it.

Over the Christmas break, I hope to finish the Medusa Cement, including painting and weathering the silos (wish me luck - I've never done it before), as well as complete the RDC conversions and work on the waterfall / valley area.

 

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
  • 75 posts
Posted by Antag2002 on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 3:01 PM

awsome take some progress pics on the cement co

cant wait to see it

  • Member since
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  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Thursday, December 23, 2010 10:22 AM

Working on my RDC's:

Learning lots about trucks & couplers.

1. Mounted new trucks and couplers on old RDC. Coupler height was perfect but car was wobbly due to the truck being mounted too low - not tight to the car body.

2. Second attempt - mounted the truck tighter to the body resulted in the coupler height being too low and the whole car too low.

3. Now adding a styrene shim sheet so the truck can be tight and turn smoothly and the couplers will still be the correct height.

Pictures to follow when my camera batteries are recharged Hmm

  • Member since
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  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Thursday, December 23, 2010 5:34 PM

OK, Here are some update pics:

 

  • Member since
    June 2010
  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
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Posted by Antag2002 on Thursday, December 23, 2010 5:50 PM

looking good!!

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
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Posted by Aralai on Friday, December 24, 2010 2:15 PM

Hmmm - a small new problem has reared it's head.

The old CN RDC's had couplers mounted to the trucks. When I converted them, I moved the couplers to the body. The new trucks are a bit smaller and that combined with a few tight curves on my layout is causing the couplers to bind on the tight curves, derailing the coach. I may be able to modify the coupler slightly to allow a little bit more sideways motion - it does not need much. At this point, fixing the curves is not an option I relish. Either way, I need to fix it. It took me a while to figure out that it was the couplers binding - the coach was derailing on a switch and I thought it was the switch. Basically the curve caused the coupler on the loco to swing out one way, and the coach coupler the other way, and they met the limit - so then it just pushed the car off the tracks.

One of the reasons that the RDC cars seem to be worse than my Bombardier 85' B-Level coaches is that the trucks on the RDC are set back quite far from the front and rear of the coach, so the swing is wider on curves. The trucks on the Bombardier coaches are quite close to the end of each coach so the swing on curves is less. I think that is pretty true to prototype.

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Monday, December 27, 2010 7:43 PM

Fixed the coupler issue. I provided a bit more sideways motion on the couplers and loosened one truck a bit to allow the car to flex a bit on uneven track.

Worked on the waterfall today. Some updated pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2010
  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
  • 75 posts
Posted by Antag2002 on Monday, December 27, 2010 10:42 PM

looking good glad to hear you sorted out the issues with the couplers.

I have a concern in the picture of the turnout the straight leg then the curve looks as though it may be a bit of a kink. just the way it looks to me in theis pic

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Monday, December 27, 2010 11:21 PM

Antag2002

I have a concern in the picture of the turnout the straight leg then the curve looks as though it may be a bit of a kink. just the way it looks to me in this pic

I noticed that too. I need to take a look. I don't have any issues there when I run trains and maybe it's just one of those weird photo things making it look worse than it is.

  • Member since
    June 2010
  • From: Oshawa,Ontario,Canada
  • 75 posts
Posted by Antag2002 on Monday, December 27, 2010 11:23 PM

ok cause i would hate to not say anything and you have to rip out your hard work later to fix it if it is an issue

 

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: Newmarket, ON Canada
  • 334 posts
Posted by Aralai on Monday, January 24, 2011 3:35 PM

My layout progress continues in this thread...

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