At long last… Over this past weekend we finally held the ‘golden spike’ ceremony on the new pike. 300ft. of double-track mainline is now complete. Not much else is complete, mind you, but the trains, they be a-runnin! Hooray.
I might even find time to read/post again…stranger things have happened.
-… — -. .
Congratulations!
-George
Congratulations!
I hope to have a similar ceremony within the next year! Slowly but surely!
So hey,
WHERE ARE THE PHOTOGRAPHS?!?!
Congratulations!
Congratulations! I’ll bet it seemed like forever at times, but the grand day has arrived.
I am nearly there…maybe another week.
Good to have you back, kchronister.[:)]
Success is sweet. Congratulations. Let the fun begin.
Oh yeah, that… I’ll get some pics up in the next coupla days. Still very much “plywood central” of course (well, “pink foam central” really).
Congrats. kc. I remember when I got my layout finally together enough to run some trains, and the first time I watched it pull out onto the trastle…Man what a natural high, or should I say ‘‘train high’’.
Looking forward to some pics. Mike
Thanks everyone!
One other thing I just had to share. This is the first time I’ve gritted my teeth, been patient, and taken the time to really lay bulletproof trackage. In prior layouts I was usually in such a rush to get running that it got a bit slapdash…
So last night I hooked up a mixed bag of 20 PRR 80’ passenger cars (some spectrum, some walthers, some Rivarossi) and ran 'em about the thing.
What a joy! No derailments at all. Not even a hint of it. I’m now definitely a convert to the “take your time stupid” school of tracklaying. “Hear me oh ye of the sloppy tracklaying and repent your ways!”
I was also very pleasantly surprised at how many of my locos would pull this train about. Admittedly, the mainline is all level, but I was a bit surprised to see one K-4 without traction tires haul it about with no problem… Quite nice since 50% of my motive power fleet are K-4s… The others were less surprising, but still a pleasant relief - the GG1 didn’t bat an eye at it. The 2-8-8-2 (how unprototypical!) despite being rumored to “not pull as well as you’d think” didn’t even break a sweat. And the T-1 did great too (which means better than the prototype!)
Now I must admit that’s probably a testament to all-metal wheelsets, the power of graphite powder lube, and mostly me being realistic and holding myself to minimum radius on the mainline even when “just a couple inches cheating and I could fit ____ in.”
Sorry if I sound like I’m bragging. But like a mom showing photos of the new baby, I’m going to claim the right briefly… It’s really just the first time I’ve had my own layout without derailment issues and without tight curves that made motive power straining a problem…
Okay, enough for now. Piccies later tonight or tomorrow.
Congratulations and welcome back! That bulletproof track makes the world a better place, doesn’t it? Now go run some trains for awhile.
Congrats on the event! I have not done much with trains lately but I am going to order my 28 switches from the LHS on wednsday. hey at least its progress. On this section of layout I AM DETERMINED TO HAVE GREAT TRACK. I am not a big fan of roadbed so I am covering the surface with yard pads. Its diffrent but will save time and frustrtion + wasted broken track. Good luck with scenery if you start it soon. Tim
Hey all, managed to get downstairs with a little photo/video cam I’ve got. Not the best quality, but interesting enough.
Okay, here we go. First off is a track plan with the photo locations marked, so you can see what you’re seeing, see?
Now… First is looking back toward the entry door.
Second, the exact opposite - looking in the door.
Next, a little closer in along that wall. In this one, you can see most of that long passenger train I mentioned.
Just for kicks, here’s almost the same view just after benchwork was completed:
The next two are general views as noted on the layout plan… In the first, you can see where one of the tracks disappears behind the backdrop going through the staging area. In the future, that will be inside a mountain and not visible.
This next image shows the large peninsula that will be the loco service facility and passenger terminal. Nothing done here yet except the roundhouse is sitting there waiting.
Next, the elevated logging line and mainline passing the large empty area that will become the classification yard.
And last, two pics that are as much of a “birds eye view” as I can manage in the space
[IMG]http://i27.pho
congratz !
it must feel great to reach this stage , and to have no derailments on your first run is an accomplishment you can brag about for years [:)]
enjoy running the trains until the next shipment of rail arrives , then it’s back to work !
Great pictures, man!
When’s the first ops session? [:D]
Hello kchronister:
Congratulations on driving the Golden Spike [bow]. The pics are really great and the videos are even greater! [tup]
As you can see by my name I am real fan of the GG1! Your GG1 may be using the same technology that mine uses – It is a very little known technology and comes from somewhere in . Like your GG1 it does not need the overhead catenaries – it extracts electricity out of the air to run the motors – known as “Dos Airenzie de Electrofusion!” [swg] [(-D]. Is that what your magic GG1 uses?
GP
Pennsy-GG1
Very nice, and huge undertaking, KC. Lots of hard and good work there.