Atlas Turnout Wiring/Misc

[Anonymous]

Hi all--
I am back into the hobby after a 15 year hiatus. I am putting together the plans for a 4x8 layout with an Inglenook yard on one side and a Timesaver on the other, connected by an oval and separated by a scenic divider. A couple quick questions, as my memory has faded over the years:

1. Does one need to "jumper" Atlas Custom-Line turnouts? I plan on 4 blocks for dual-cab wiring with 2-3 feeders per block, but I can't recall if the yard arrangements require some special wiring around the turnouts?

2. I remember a project layout in MR some years ago called the Gold Hill Central which had a city scene on one side of the scenic divider and a foam hill on the other. The train entered the hill through a tunnel portal, and it seems there was some neat way of disguising the opening on the city side, too. Anyone remember?

Thanks!
GF

[Anonymous]

GF,

What is an Inglenook yard?

What is a time saver yard?

As long as you don't have any reversing sections you shouldn't have to do anything to wire for Atlas Customline turnouts. I use them all the time. Lately, I have been using Peco, but that is a different issue.

I recall something like you describe and I believe you can hide an entrance like this between buildings or by placing a highway bridge around the opening. With the right kind of backdrop, it will be hard to notice.

Good Luck - Ed

[Anonymous]

Hi Ed--

Thanks for the reply. An Inglenook is a cool switching puzzle I ran across which is simply a three-spur yard which can handle 5 cars on one spur and 3 each on the other two. The lead can handle the loco plus 3 cars. Eight cars are placed on the yard and 5 car cards are drawn at random. The goal is to make up the train of the 5 cars in the order drawn in the fewest amount of moves. It seems deceptively simple, and sometimes is, but sometimes is incredibly difficult. An online version can be found at:

http://www.precisionlabels.com/shunt/jpage330.html

The Timesaver is another classic switching puzzle developed by John Allen which involves swapping 5 cars on 5 spurs with a short runaround. See

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-timesaver.html

I figure with these to keep the switcher in me happy and an oval to keep my little guy interested (plus a train on the mainline will keep me from cheating on the Inglenook!) I get the best of both worlds. It is getting harder and harder to find info on cab control with everyone using DCC these days, but I figure I'd better ease back into things first.

Thanks again
GF

[Anonymous]

GF,

So you have the same layout design goals as I do. I designed a 4 x 8 for my little fellow so we can share the hobby together. It has an oval with four industry spurs toward the inside. On the 'far side' there is a track which will be used to interchange cars between his layout and mine (when I get the space to build mine that is). On the 'near side' there is a yard three tracks wide with a switching lead curving around the oval curve on that end. It crams alot of track into a 4 x 8.

Right now, I let him run his Mogul with a few cars on the oval shaped main line. Some times he drops off a car or picks one up. While he marks off time, I do classification in the yard. Since the yard and lead never fouls the main, he can do his thing and I can do mine. Once in a while he comes into the yard to pick up a new train. The funny thing is that I do my work in the yard with a Consolidation. I use tall warehouse type buildings to create the view block.

Enjoy - Ed

[Anonymous]

I remember the Gold Hill Central series, I think it ran around February/March of 1984 (1984 being MR's fiftieth anniversary and hence the gold theme central). The hole in the backdrop on the city side was disguised using an elevated walkway between two buildings, think of a covered bridge connecting two larger structures. It was an interesting little railroad which I thought of building at the time.

Drew

Modeling the Reading Company and Lehigh & New England in 1953.

[Anonymous]

Hi GF I recall a layout plan in MR back in the 70`s of a plan like the one you describe, but don`t believe it was The Gold Hill plan. The Gold Hill might have been a project rr. I have searched in vain for that 70`s plan, but no luck.

As for the Atlas switches, if you have short wheelbase locos, you may have to power the isolated metal frog with Atlas Snap Relays. That may not be needed with today`s locos, but I have older locos which reequired me to power the frogs. It works out very well.

Art

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I think I am going to use a DPM arch and kitbash a building with a discrete backdrop opening. Right now it is all I can do to get the thing wired; my knees are not as forgiving as they were when I first got into the hobby!

Ed, you and I are probably on the same wavelength. My son is ignoring the railroad for now, hopefully once I get the trains running he'll be into it.

[BR60103]

I think that the inglenook yard was designed to fit in the "inglenook" of an English house, which is the space between the fireplace and the next wall, i.e. it comes out the depth of the fireplace (less than a foot?) and may be 3 or 4 feet long.
--David