• Tortoise Re-Conditioning: Pro-Tip

• Improving Athearn RTR Loco Electrical Pick Up

• Cantilevered L-Girder Supports

• SP Lordsburg Sub - Construction

So, on pages 6 and 10 of my "SP Lordsburg Sub - Construction" blog, I posted a couple of entries about how I went about reconditioning a batch of used Tortoise switch machines that I had picked up

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/38537?page=5

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/38537?page=9

I picked up a new/old-stock Athearn RTR SD40T-2 a few years back and only just now got around to installing a RailPro LM-3S receiver into it. Let me back up a bit and state that the loco ran just fine on straight DC-only power. Fast-forward to today: AFTER installing the RailPro receiver and soldering any/all connections in the loco, it ran incredibly erratic! It would run a bit, stop, start, run, stop, start, yadda, yadda. When standing still and just touching one of the trucks, it would lose power.

So I've started actual benchwork!

Construction of my SP Lordsburg Sub has begun! My first (of four) stud walls went up yesterday. The first view is standing in the doorway looking in and the second is from the opposite corner of the room looking back to the entrance.

Photos in the next post.

I'm finishing off the last piece of my track-plan - that being "The Helix".....

I've been perusing the numerous articles/posts on MRH on this topic and have pretty much decided to go the route of using trapezoidal sections to build it.

At this point my helix will be ovular, single-tracked, 32" radius with a 12" straight section. This yields an approximate grade of 1.85%.

If you care to add in the "helix compensation factor", in my case that adds another 1% effective grade for a total of 2.85%.