Hey guys its November with 2 months left in 06 (thanx god this year is almost over [censored] but thats not really train realted) I am going to begin track laying this weekend on my extension! ya iv only been talking about it 10 months… I should have the golden spike down by Christmas. Scenery will start in January. I can not weight for 2007 since this year HAS REALLY SUCKED. Hows your RRs next 2 months looking? Tim
Its been good as far as making sure my woodworking skills are in good shape, I started and completed one level of my failed triple deck layout. Took that down, I build the new benchwork for my N scale layout, At the begining of the year I had 1 N scale engine, 11 cars, and a pair of cabeese. Now I have 9 locos, and 37 cars, all the benchwork is up, and all the cork is down(except for the Branch, I can’t do that untill the hidden trackage is done) If I would stop buying Rolling stock and start buying track I might have the main useable by Christmas.
I have a history of diving headfirst into something and going full tilt until I get burned out. I sort of did that with the benchwork, splines, and track-layiing between April and the first of June. Then I did nothing for nearly three months…at least train-related. Since the beginning of September, I have built all my topography, scenicked in rough, painted many of my ties shades of gray and brown, and have ballasted about 70% of the trackage just since yesterday.
Still to come by end-January, is weather the ballast, paint the rails, build roads and a town, install the turntable and roundhouse, and build a yard with passenger depot on the side. This includes finishing one double-slip using Fast Tracks jigs and building another.
So much to do…
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been ballasting track and cleaning wheels. For the rest of the year it will probably be a first pass on scenery and building some kits. Once the holidays are over, I’m planning to detail some buildings and do a second pass on the scenery. That should keep me busy until spring when it’s time to get outside again.
Oh, yeah. And run some trains!
Tom
Now that enough of the benchwork is in, I’m about to start cutting (plywood) cookies - beginning in Down Staging (aka Mikasa,) which is both the lowest projected track level and the farthest from (theoretical) Tokyo that freight runs on the JNR Nichigeki Route. Meanwhile, operation soldiers on at the 1980-built module that will be the colliery at the end of the line for the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo.
Interestingly enough, that module will be the highest “JNR standard” (1067mm) gauge track on the layout, directly above Down Staging.
Since I’m not working to any kind of construction schedule, it’s anybody’s guess how long it will be before the first unit coal train departs the colliery for (eventually, with an engine change) Mikasa. Judging by the rate of progress to date, holdeth not thy breath!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September 1964, since 1964)
Well I progressed from a 4x8 layout with half completed scenery and 2 locos + 10 cars to a 16x8 with 11 loco’s and 30 cars, and then from that to selling all my American Prototype stuff except my Athearn Genesis SD45-2 and 2 cement hoppers to a Australian themed layout.
[:D] overall, an eventful year so far…
I’m going to complete my behemoth helix in the next three weeks, then go back to the lower level and start extending the mainline again. I also may start in earnest on the small engine terminal in Laurel.
After I wire three more tortoise machines, i’m going to use up the rest of my vacation and start an expansion project. I have to build some shelves under the benchwork and then start on some shelve and drawer removal from the train room and start some bench work to create a small stub yard against the wall where the shelves and drawers used to be…I should be thru with the entire layout’s trackwork by the middle of January…
I’m going to lay roadbed and hopefully track as well until the supply & funding run out, and hope that it’s enough to run a train.
Then I’ll buy my kids cork roadbed and #4 turnouts for Christmas…
I started my layout project in May 2006 and have worked on it steady since then. I have complete about 95% of the first level benchwork, and about 75% of the sub-roadbed for the same level. I have also put down about 60% of the cork roadbed. I hope to finish all of the above and get some track put down by Thanksgiving, I have the next four Friday’s off from work so that gives me some extra time to devote to workin on the railroad. We want to run some trains for the holidays!
this week i am finishing the bookcases that the benchwork will nestle right on top of…
then its time to start doing some scenery… inch by inch all winter 
and weathering some cars when i get tire of ground foam!
The goal is to get the yard complete so we can use the turntable. Also, get the trackwork complete and functional in the RH.
I am brainstorming a work bench in the corner under the layout. It is a good thing that I am short. HaHa.
If I have any spare time, I will finish a rock section, carve some large fir or cedar trees, and place vegetation on a 1 x 4 foot section.
Sue
Being that I haven’t hardly touched my 4x8 layout at all this year, I plan on getting some stryofoam to put on top and then hopefully buy some flex-track so I can get started on the layout. Might have to buy some cork roadbed as well. Not really sure. I don’t have much money as I had to make a down payment on my apartment for next school year, bought a new guitar, and made some other costly purchases. I’ll be looking for a job next semester and hopefully have my job for the winter and next summer.
I’d like to get some buildings up and on the layout but what those are is still up in the air. I have the ADM grain elevators that will be on there for sure along with some other grain buildings. Also thinking about having a scrap yard area so I can run my gondola’s. Along with a fire station and some other buildings that a town would have. Locomotive purchases and rolling stock are also on my priority list. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some money.
For now, being at college it’s just thinking and looking at other peoples’ layouts…not my own.
Im surprise how far i got since may when work first began heres my two month agenda though
Nov-Dec
- Finish buying switch track and laying the rest of the track
- Lay all the road bed
- finish laying bus wire and feeders, well the bus wire is in places never go aroung to wiring the feeders yet.
I hope to complete this before december is over, in jaunary i plan to ballast the track and start work on the sceanery if all goes well. Ground braking on the sceneary will be the lumber yard made by walthers cornerstone series i hope to get it and work on it and the scnery on the left side of my layout ( for thoose who dont kno my layout is sguare in shape and made of of 4 sides and a penisula in the middel).
I hope to run some trains by the holidays!
im gettin more engines for my roster, buildings, and a DCC system
This is the time of year I get back into the hobby. Most of last winter was spent completing the main yard and engine terminal which I posted pictures of. My first few days have been spent on general cleanup and getting organized. I had several unfinished structures started and I completed one of them.
I’ve decided to start this year by first concentrating on finishing the industrial switching area to the east of the yard. This will require laying the spur tracks and building several structures, the largest of which is the Walther’s dairy complex which consists of several modular structures as well as some structures recycled from previously issued kits. I’ve already discovered that I needed to swap its original intended location with a produce warehouse I just completed (Walther’s Citrus Packing company). I couldn’t get the spur tracks to fit as originally planned and I think I will like the way this looks and operates better. Also I will be building a kitbashed brewery with the Walther’s Brewery as it’s main component.
That will probably take me well into December and by then I will turn my attention to the layout west of the yard. I want to get the base scenery estalished so I can run the entire mainline west of the yard with no bare benchwork. Then I’ll start adding the structures and detail along the way. Before I tackle that, I need to make a decision on a problem area of track. The west entrance to the yard requires trains to negotiate several S-curves as it goes through the crossovers. I thought I could get away with it because I use #6 turnouts, but there is one spot that is causing frequent derailmentss. If I can’t get the bugs out of it, I’m going to move the entrance farther up the line and eliminate problem S-curve.
The last planned project is to complete my second largest town which is at the west end of the layout. This is a critical junction in my operation scheme and right now there is nothing but track and one fairly well detailed mountain/tunnel which is at th
I’ve got just a few more Tortiose machines to install, give the track a good cleaning (just got a CMX Clean Machine), and start running trains. The trackwork will be about 98% finished at that point and about 10% of the scenery is done so i will get started on more buildings, trees, rocks, and other such stuff soon.
Think I am going to build a small switching layout, maybe 10’ by either 18" or 24". Mainly just to give me something tangible to do while I am away from my family and practice/try out some scenery techniques and of course to eventually run some trains.
Rick
2006 sure does suck …but i won’t get into my health problems.got 7 diesels and have put decoder’s in three of them.just got three more decoder’s in the mail today so i will be busy on friday.going to do a little ballasting and redo a small section of track.always something to do isn’t their.that’s what i love about model rring.terry…