I thought I’d post a little update on the layout construction. The staging yard trackage on the (railroad) west end of the layout is complete including wiring. I’ve been working along the north wall of the train room these last several weeks (the area along the right side of the layout plan). This area is the City of Willis and will have a business district along the wall (those buildings will conceal some of the hidden Louisiana Central staging trackage). The Illinois Central also makes it’s entry into the layout here with the mainline passing through, along with a short passing siding and the interchange spur with the Louisiana Central. I’m using sheets of plywood topped with Homasote along this wall and most of it has been installed. I’ve installed some of the raised roadbed coming out of the IC staging yard and through the town. I’ve one more odd-shaped piece of tabletop to install before completing that. From there, the IC track will disappear behind an industry building and head into the hidden staging at the east end of the line.
I’ve also starting laying the tabletop sub-roadbed into the Willis yard of the Louisiana Central. This is the peninsula coming off the benchwork along that aforementioned wall. I’ll probably go ahead and put in the tabletop for the entire Willis yard now so that I can start working with that area.
Generally, in yard and town areas I’ll be using the plywood/Homasote tabletop surface. In mainline areas between towns, I’ll be using just roadbed wide sub-roadbed. I still haven’t decided what method I’ll use. I really wanted to use spline sub-roadbed for all these areas, however since I’m usually working alone, it might be easier to simply cut out plywood sub-roadbed and top that with my Homasote roadbed. Of course that greatly increases the cost (relative to the spline sub-roadbed), what with having to purchase so much plywood, and there is always a huge amount of waste when using this method. But that method is much easier, I think, for one person to cut and install.
Anyway, things are beginning to take shape. I’ll probably post a couple more photos on the website in a few weeks. Most pictures that I post now will be after I actually get the track laid in an area.
If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to comment.
-Jack
Jack S
Glad to see you’re making progress. Hope to one day soon be able to operate on your railroad.
I know what you mean about working alone. I sometimes can get one or two people over here but never on a regular basis. Everybody still wants to try to get Lou’s layout running. As far as wiring goes he would be better off to tear out all his wiring (except Tom’s CTC wiring, which was done right) and start over; this time putting feeders on all track sections and having a consistant wire guide.
But that’s not going to happen. I have no idea when we will operate over there again. Lou says he doesn’t want to have an op session until the layout is in good shape. World peace might come first. LOL
I miss seeing you guys.
Hey Bill,
Good to hear from you. I wish I could say that operations would be starting soon, but I’ve got a long way to go before that happens.
How is Lou doing? The last word I got suggested that he was at least back up in the train room. I agree with your sentiments on the layout wiring. It’s a shame because that is the one major nemesis of the layout.
Yes, I miss going to the sessions over there. I enjoy seeing you guys as much (sometimes more) than the operating itself.
-Jack