Hi! The surface texture, or structure is one important factor to get that "Wow-effect" from your creations.

After a month of operating sessions and doing a bit of scenery, I decided to get back into my left brain and attempt a steam decoder install. Actually, it's a REinstall where I removed all the electronics in a Bachmann steam loco and replaced them with a new Loksound decoder and iPhone speaker. It ended up nice, but the process wasn't without its pitfalls (let's just say that not all manufacturers follow the NMRA standard on wire color...). Details to follow . . .

The Valley Local

Hosted fifth operating session last night.  Good time was had by all.  Crew of 4, plus myself and my son ran for about 3 hours on the W&N Branch. 

We ran 3 passenger trains, the north local, the Kentmere local, 3 freight trains, a B&O interchange plus the Wilmington, Maryland Ave and DRE Switchers.

This is a build log for a 2-rail O scale switching layout based on waning days of the Chicago & Evanston’s North Line, better known as the Lakewood Avenue Branch of the Milwaukee Road.  The layout will be a 11’ x 9’ “L”-shaped shelf layout located in a second bedroom.

Now that I have gone over most of the build for my layout up to present day (I will take pics of the newest table with the mountains and rock faces in place and post them soon), I thought I would show some of the details I have been working on like tunnel portals, bridges and structures. Since I didn't take any before pics of the portals or bridges before I painted/weathered them, I found pics online of what they look like out of the box.

After going back and forth with myself several times, I finally decided I did want a removable bridge for continuous running. Mostly when I am working at the work bench and just want to see the train go by. So here it is. Yes it's ugly. But it's functional. I will paint it dark brown and maybe add some type of bridge like structure, but it works. It's snug. Doesn't move at all.

http://youtu.be/HLTadXj-GIc

I have had several false starts at doing this. I opened up some loco's to see what I had to deal with and sort of lost interest. Mostly I lose interest as I am not certain of what I am doing and watching video's and reading the manuals doesn't seem to answer all my questions. I have a couple of Lok pilot decoders I just received. Those should be simple as I wont be changing the installed light boards.

Download This Podcast at: 

I just learned more about the Southern (the railroad I've taken a shine to... almost all of my engines, and cars are Southern now)  from this video, than anything. Oh, and to the guy at the LHS that said the Southern would never have a Santa Fe box car on their trains... 3 seconds in disproves that!

Also, there is a yard that looks like it would be cool to model, and some rather unique switch track that I have yet to see modeled. This was fascinating!

After fixing my problem with getting my locos up a 2% + grade (it was never consistent for the entire run) I then saw another aspect of my original plan that I never really loved. At that point I had my loco run up hill about 4 inches over the course of 8-10 feet or so but coming back down hill was done inside another tunnel on the opposite end of the layout in about 3 feet. Needless to say it was a steep hill downward though a few tests showed that locos would not fly off the track or even move that much faster so it was doable but I didn't love it.