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Track is Down

Well I've got all the 30" gauge (HO) track down.  Now it's a matter of getting it all wired up.  There are a few "dead spots" in the track which I need to either run more feeds or whatnot, but I can start to feel the layout taking shape now.

I took a break from track and wiring (and to be honest wiring is probably one of the more dull parts of putting this together) to carve out a rough river bed for the miners.  I just need to pickup some primer and I'll give these guys a paint job too.

Bachmann On30 0-4-2 Porter on 8% Grade?

Yeah... it can do it.  With no cars it can do it fine with just a slight bit of slip.  With one car there's noticeable slip.  With two cars it barely makes it.  And with three cars it stalls half way up.

I know this because I have an 8% grade on my micro layout (around a 7" radius curve no less).

This evening I anxiously picked up my package from theFavoriteSpot which contained a 3-pack of Bachmann's Wood Side dump cars.  As with most of the On30 Spectrum line, these are cooler in person than they look in pictures.  The cars are mostly cast metal, have real chains, and actually dump side to side.  I think with a few passes over with Bragdon Ent's weathering powders they will look amazing.

Back to the micro -- The porter can't pull 3 up the grade.  So here's what I have to decide:  Do I rip up the grade and most of the 2nd level and make it 4% so 3 cars can be pulled up -OR- do I say "operational interest!" and simply make it a rule that on this particular small railroad the grade is so steep that cars must be taken up 1 at a time?  I'm leaning towards the latter.  It's amusing to drop cars as the bottom then go back to pickup more.

And with that, here's some layout pictures...

I used Woodland Scenics foam risers.  Waaaaay recommend these things.  You get 4 per pack for $5.

I then put a layer of cardstock over the risers, soaked in glue.  It dried reasonably hard.

Layed out something what the top industry area will look like.

Engineer stands by 2 wood side dump cars next to a cab-less Porter.

Layout Revision

Based on the things I learned yesterday I made some revisions to the layout plan...

Paper Prototype

I was feeling quite motivated, so I printed out a full-size version of the micro layout and assembled it together.  Made some really good discoveries doing this...

• Need to re-think the clearance around the turnout throws when buildings are near (don't want the giant hand to knock over any buildings)
   
• The footprint I had allotted for buildings was waaaay off
   
• O-scale might be too big (HOn30 is the fallback, which oddly I actually own more equipment in)

Full-size Paper Version

Paper Version w/ "Buildings" and rolling stock

Micro Layout On18

After a couple months of simmering on it, I'm back at it again -- designing another micro layout, this time apartment sized and using lessons I learned from the previous layout.  Inspiration came from two places:

1. I recently drove cross country with my wife, and the scenes of Union Pacific pulling long consists through northern california, nevada, and utah have given me some good ideas for scenery.
   
2. I found an already existing track design that fit the space size I had allotted.  It was designed by "russn20" and uploaded to the On18 Yahoo Group.  I've pretty much based the entire design off of his/her original plan.

Overhead Layout

Concept Sketch

PLAN STATS

• Size:  36" x 20"
• Scale:  O-scale
• Gauge:  9mm
• Electrical:  All 1 circuit
• Control:  DC, Varpulse
• Track:  Peco HOn30 "Narrow Gauge" Turnouts + Flextrack
• Benchwork:  Homemade foamcore and matteboard ply
• Scenery Base:  Plaster over "pink foam"
• Location:  Somewhere in eastern Utah or western Colorado
• Era:  Mid-1900's

As you can see the track plan offers a basic loop with a passing siding on the "main line", along with three industry areas:

• Boulder Lode Mine (central)
• Gold Hill City (upper middle)
• [Un-named] dock area (lower left)

Servicing the industry areas will be the Boulder Lode Mining RR (BLM RR) carrying a fleet of ore cars, boxcars, flatcars, and perhaps a water tank or two.  BLMRR will start only owning a single engine: an 18" gauge diesel center cab.  The majority of the company's rolling stock will be in ore cars.  I had originally planned to use Railway Recollections' products, however the not-yet-available center cab may pose a 

problem.

Center Cab Diesel

Ore Cars

Porter Update

Small update on the porter:

• Sound is a no-go. Sound/motor decoders are more than the cost of the engine.
• So with that I picked up a Digitrax DH123D decoder