Built the climb out of staging over the last 2 days.

The climb is 2.2% and is currently held in place by clamps. I'll screw it together on Saturday now that it is tested.

With 1 locomotive I was able to pull 15 cars up the hill and around the 2 curves, but only barely. It did stall twice on the grade but recovered both times.

With 2 power units, we pulled 29 cars up with ease; no obvious slipping, no significant slowing.
Nice! That's SYNERGY.     My largest train will be 24 to 28 cars.

This is great video of the Challenger and the Sue Lines.

As always its free.

Great Model Railroads 2010 had an article in it that got me hooked as soon as I saw it.  The article was titled 'From Shelf to Shortline' by Mike Confalone.  Since seeing that article, I began work on a very small 2X4 foot N scale layout, modeling a small branchline of the Northern Pacific set in late fall 1950.  Since my wife and I were then living in a very small apartment, the scale chosen to model was out of necessity instead of preference.  

I've been hacking away at getting the CMRI Emulation working on the Launchpad. When it comes to a standalone unit, it is currently working like a champ. Getting multiple Launchpads to talk on the same serial bus has been quite unsuccessful thus far.

As well as my own layout the Kanunda & Emu Flat Railway I regularly operate on the Ippinitchie Creek & Unicorn Timber & Mining Co. The December session is usually bring your own loco. The video below shows some scenes from the IC&UT&MC. The IC&UT&MC is a freelanced 1960s short line. There are four main stations Afton, Barre, Catalpa, and Davidson in alphabetical order as well as a branch to Opie and Unicorn.

THE RAILROAD HAS LIGHTS! Once again, I have solve-ed the problem; which is why they used to pay me the big bucks. . .LOL! Having had eight clip-on lights hanging from the backdrop of the old railroad, the new layout has very short backdrops and are not conducive to clip-on lights of any kind.

Solution: take a combination of small screws and tea cup holders and attach the lights to the ceiling, running the long IKEA cords to a central point hidden behind the backdrop at the end of the rail yard. A couple of zip ties and two pieces of DUCK tape later, and, viola!

This is a great video on assembly of a model. Please note that all parts are painted. I do not mask edges but scrape paint off with exacto knife after painting but this is each to there own.