Welcome to MRH

Welcome to MRH brother. Nice to see you have more real estate for your railroad. Keep us posted on your progress.

Rob Teed

Oh, what a feeling

Running trains for the first time on a layout. One of life's greatest pleasures.

I'm Curious...

Playing around with your first train on the new track is wonderful.

Are you planning to run operations of some sort, or just run trains around the track? The reason I ask, is that the first thing I noticed was the quick starts and stops, and the speed of the train.  That's fine if all you care about is running trains around the track.

If you are looking at moving cars from one location to another in a more realistic manner, you'll want to set your decoders so that they start and stop slower, and you'll want to run a more realistic speed. Especially when coupling to cars.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a criticism, just something that I noticed. I know this was your first train on the new track, and the important thing was that it ran!

Running

Agree with Ken on his comments. If not DCC, you might consider going in that direction as you are not too far along to start. Were you planning on under the table switch machines? The one near the water tower is very noticeable. If you have only a shelf depth, you might want to consider ground throws or none at all, using a pick tool to uncouple cars and "throw" switches to align the track.

Keep up the good work; you're in a great hobby that will teach you everything from carpentry to electricity to how mother nature looks in miniature. Enjoy.

Great Western Railroad

Hello Ken,Thanks for the comments, Yes I will run operations, I was running too fast and with jerky starts because I just hooked up a cheap train set power pack. Hard to control speeds ect with that pack. I do have DCC and will be setting that up soon. I was just basically using the cheap power pack while running feeder wires and soldering them. With My DCC Prodigy Express I will be able to run at scale speeds.

Great Western Railroad

Hello David, Thanks for the comments. I am going to have manual turnout controllers under the foam board.I am trying to figure out the cheapest way to go about that. I bought a pack of starter track and in it were 2 of those ugly switch machines, I think I can remove the switch machines and convert them to the manual type.

I Figured

I figured it was something like that. I wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't criticizing, just making observations. I don't want to discourage someone who has just got some track down and trains running. That's when the fun starts!

Good to see another GWR modeler

Hi GWR Fan,

That's a good start on your GWR.  It's nice to see another modeler doing the same railroad. I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress.

If I'm not mistaken, you have built some sugar beet pilers.  I would be interested to hear more about what you did since II need about eight of them for my layout.  

Is that the new Walther's drop bottom gon?  Are you going to add wooden racks to increase their capacity?

Great Western Railroad

Hello George, Thanks for the comments. I have built one beet piler.I built it from scale drawings in I think RMC magazine. I'll have to dig out the issue and be more precise on what issue. I want to build one or two more at least. I would like to build one as a flat car load as that is how the GW moved them. Do You know of any photographs of a beet piler on a flatcar?

As far as the build I mostly just looked at the scale drawings and built it out of styrene. I used an Ho scale bulldozer for the crawler mechanism.

That Gondola is an Detail Associates kit one of two that I have built. I also have built a couple of the Red Caboose drop bottom Gondolas. I have a few more waiting to be built.I have the extensions for all of them as well. I didn't attach the extensions permanently, Still debating that.

Also notice I haven't lettered that little switch engine yet. Just another project I'll have to get around too.

Scale Drawings

You probably mean the three part series in RailModel Journal in 1981.  The last part had a short piece on pilers.  I found those articles to be great resources for modeling the GW.  The author, Art Mitchell, was the primary Loveland yard yardmaster on my previous layout which was also featured in the articles. I hope to do a much better job of modeling this time. 

I've not seen any photos of a piler on a flat car, just references to the practice. Burlington Bulletin No. 32 was devoted to CB&Q sugar beet operations but also has a lot of GW mentions as well as piler photos. \

Ah, yes, the Details West SP beet gons.  I still have two of three left to build.  

Cheap Manual Turnouts

Hello, Great start there!

If you are still looking for a turnout control solution, May I suggest the Bullfrog Turnout?  The price is pretty nice.  A turnout + Control Rod costs about 10 bucks per switch.  They are easy to put together. (watch the youTube demo first)  I have yet to install them, but they look like they should work great.