All of the track is now in for the BAH R.R. Things are still a little messy; however it is fully operational.
This photo tour shows the “complete” BAH R.R. as of today.
Between is being leveled in place in the layout:
Trackwork and mine in Between:
First empty ore cars being spotted in Between:
The other major mine is the one in Arock:
Overall views of the complete BAH R.R.
This is Arock over Hardspot (24" real world difference):
Both towns take a turn to the right (12" shelf portion of layout) for the town leadins (Station in Hardspot):
The rest of the wall (shelf side):
To get from Hardspot to Arock; a 96’ climbing loop is used. This will be a pair of mountains with a low level continuous run loop at the lowest level (another 33’ of track).
The layout has 34 turnouts and 300’ of track in a 75" x 178" room. Hardspot, Arock and Between are all level. The continuous run loop drops 3" away from Hardspot (halfway through the loop). The three climbing loops between Arock and Hardspot are about 30’ long each with a average (continuous) grade of just sightly over 2 %.
Outstanding work. I think the whole helix structure shows excellent craftsmanship.
While you still can, though, think about hiding those Atlas switch machines. It’s a bit tricky, but you can glue them to the underside of the turnouts themselves and mount them in the roadbed. I really wish I’d done that before I ballasted a lot of my track. They just don’t look right anymore. Also, you can get small SPDT momentary contact toggle switches, electrically equivalent to the Atlas buttons, for about 75 cents a piece. The Atlas buttons have a poor reliability record. Worst case, they sometimes stick on the down position, and if you don’t notice it pretty quickly you’ll have a fried switch machine.
Thanks for the comments. Doing the climbing loops (helix) was a lot of fun and kinda like weaving a basket to fit a mental design. I sure will need a lot of tunnel portals.
I decided that the atlas switches (due to cost) were acceptable to me; even though others would look better. They are mounted on plywood without cork. I am not going to cut the plywood to try and hide the switch machines.
I do plan on using control panels with momentary toggle switches and LED status lights. This will happen sometime in the future. That is why the control panels are just printouts instead of nicely laminated and colored stock. I now have two fried switch machines from leaning on them while working on the layout (I now turn off power to them when working on scenery).
A build-it-yourself capacitive discharge circuit will help protect your switch machines, even with those control buttons. It was my first “electronics” project for my layout, and it works like a charm. The CD circuit stores a big charge and then releases it all at once when you push the button. After that, though, the voltage rapidly drops off as the circuit recharges itself, and the current available to otherwise melt your switch machine is restricted by the circuit.
You might try mounting the switch machines upside-down. This will flatten the top and make it easier to disguise. Yes, you will lose the ability to operate them manually, but it looks like you’re already committed to electric controls anyway. All my turnouts are wired, and I almost always use the control panel, even if the turnout is right in front of me. (I just don’t like the “big hand from the sky” approach. I like magnets for uncoupling, too.)
I bought one plaster tunnel portal and a jar of Woodland Scenics latex rubber. I made a mold from the portal, and now I cast my own portals as needed from Hydrocal. I like the way Hydrocal castings take paint and India Ink weathering for stone portals, rock walls and the like.
I have thought about building a capacitive discharge circuit ; any recommendations on a “quick and simple” circuit.
The switch machines will be painted and have some scrub brush planted on them; this tends to reduce visibility somewhat. I use the control panel to switch; not my hands. I am doing everything that I can to operate without any hands (except for the handheld DCC control unit). I emptied the shelves at Caboose Hobbies twice on magnets !
I have one portal left over from the prior layout that I designed around a rock formation; I am going to make more of them. I bought one of the Woodland stone portals to see if it would fit in and i
You give a new meaning to the term “packin it there”. Very impressive work to come up with all that. Outside the box thinking to come up with that. Great job.
Since all of the track is in, and working well, I am spending a fair amout of time actually operating instead of building an empire. Still finding minor problems with old rolling stock (sticky couplers, etc,).
I did get started on general forming of one of the mountains. Basic hardshell is in about 1/3 of the front mountain to define the general shape and where tunnel portals will be needed. Boy, I am going to need a lot of portals!
Here is a shot of #6 with a short passenger train comming out of the first tunnel on the lower level running loop.
It has been a little slow around here for a couple of days; here is a mid week report:
Most of the lower levels of both mountains now have basic shape (in hard shell). Today, I got started on the area where the two mountains meet. The two lower bridges have been in for a week; however, the upper bridge actually needs mountain to rest on. Getting the upper bridge in is my next task.
This photo shows the start of the junction of the two mountains and gives a general idea of how the bridges function.
More later - thanks for looking and your comments.
The major push for this week was to get the bridges in. Some work was also done on forming the back mountain (the front mountain has not changed in a couple of weeks. I also ran a feeder to the continuous run loop at the lower level of the mountains; this had been powered from the same feeders as the mountain loops. I made a lot of operations runs between Hardspot and Arock; and had to correct a couple of clearance problems with the new mountain work.
As it stands now:
Back side of front mountain:
The three bridges connecting the mountains:
And the back mountain:
I now have to work on the top levels of the two mountains and the community (silver mine) of Between that sits on top of the back mountain. This may take a few weeks as I have to build some shelving to hold the “stuff” stored on the back wall before I can build a mountain top.
More weekly updates to follow. Thanks for looking and your comments.
I got a new 4-4-0; so I spent most of my time playing with it and with operating instead of building. I wrote a mini-review of the 4-4-0 (posted on the general discussion forum) at:
I did some routine “corrections” or modifications to the mountain work. I did get some color on the white plaster mountains (boy that was a lot of white to stare at). Current status is:
The new 4-4-0 (to be #10) took over the passenger route and demoted the old 4-4-0 (#4) to hauling loads of ore and empty hoppers.
Old #7 (shay) got relieved of the ore car loads and went back to MOW service. Of course, MOW work right now is plaster and painting - such an easy life.
I almost did not post an update as I did not think that I got much done; however, I changed my mind.
I built and installed a capacitive discharge system to flip my turnouts.
I built three 2-shelf storage units ( 2’ h x 4’ wide) for under-the-layout storage and cleared off the back wall (over Between) so that I could continue my mountain building.
I got color on most of the mountains, to keep from staring at all that white plaster.
I painted (sky blue only) the last 3’ section of lower level backdrop and installed it.
I installed and painted (sky blue only) 20’ of upper level backdrop.
Arock over Hardspot:
Lead-ins to Arock and Hardspot:
Bridges with new 4-4-0 headed up with ore cars (shows mountain color progress):
I spent a lot of time running the new 4-4-0 up and down the mountain with 2% S curves.
I added backdrop (yet to be painted) to the right side of the room back end:
and the left side and around to the back wall (again un painted) so that I can build the mountain top at Between.
I got all of Arock and most of the lead-in to Arock done with basic landscape (no detail or clouds yet). None of the structures are glued down yet; they are just sitting on the ground. Here is Arock over Hardspot.
A few close ups:
The mine end of Arock:
The entrance to Arock:
And an extra bonus: The new scale is weighing a ore car load for the trip down to Hardspot.
I added about 6 feet of rock “wall” along the Arock lead-in (from the weight station to the back wall.
I am “playing with” the shape of the top of the back mountain. I have decided to have the train approaching Arock to come “around” the mountain instead of emerging from a tunnel portal. The basic shape is mocked up in the following photo’s with paper towels and masking tape on sticks. As usual, lately, I have been doing a lot of operating and debugging of areas about to get scenery.
Here is a train “coming around the mountain”:
Here is a train of incoming empty ore cars pulled by the new 4-4-0 past the new scale and past the waiting MOW Shay.