Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[S&S RR]

Here is a picture of the clay mock-up at the end of the day today. The top area - about 36 square feet - is ready for the city developers. I will be using the same process George Sellios used when he designed the town of Franklin on the F&SM.  He put in the roads and then designed structures to fit the spaces. The blue line on the mock-up is the bottom edge of the backdrop you can see in the picture of the actual area on the layout.  The landform from this flat up to the ceiling is all useable space.  I added clay up to the highest point I thought I would want the ground level to be at this time.  How many structures do you think this area will swallow up? My vision here is a town like Franklin on the F&SM.
It will not be a copy of it - but there will be some design cues.


The flat area moving from top to bottom is the area all ready for the Narrow gauge yard (the space is 12 inches wide and 48 inches long.  Plenty of space for a Narrow Gauge Yard.  I have the option to add some hidden area inside the mountain if I decide to use it.  I would probably run the trains inside a structure to disguise it. 


The second flat area is where the helix will be exposed and will be the location for the transfer facility. This area will also have a Station/Depot that will service both railroad lines.  One of the sections of rock work that I removed from this area will probably cover the drop down to the lowest level of the mainline.  The trains will come out of the tunnel from the helix here. So at this point I'm ready to finish building the benchwork and laying the track work in this area.  This is the last section before the gold spike is driven home on the layout for now. 


My commitment to the CEO of the S&S RR is to finish all of the structures and scenery and complete the layout with it's current footprint.  That means it will be many years before the benchwork starts going into the next room .  The right-of-way has already been negotiated.

[S&S RR]

One more comment on this mockup and design for tonight.  The backdrop - which has been on the wall for 6 or 7 years now is setup so the ground level as you walk in the door to the layout room is at my eye level. You will be looking right down one of the streets of the town at a street that will run up hill and then turn to the right. I knew what I wanted here when I built the room.  This clay mockup has really helped me to accomplish my goals for the scene. I will be building cardboard mockups of the structures and adding them to this mockup as time goes on.

[S&S RR]

This week Wayne Olson spent a day helping me on the layout.  I crawled out from under the layout and took this picture.  I told him we had lots of track to paint.  I want to be able to paint the track on the upper level when I'm 84. Just sayin.  Thanks for all your help Wayne.

[ak-milw]

Benchwork load test

[S&S RR]

Benchwork load test

No issues - I could drive the Jeep on it. 

[ACL1504]

Great photo of a man at work. And, I'll add the rocks look very realistic. Heck, the guy with the knee pads even looks real.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Great photo of a man at work. And, I'll add the rocks look very realistic. Heck, the guy with the knee pads even looks real.

Tom

Just a little out of scale.

[EricQuebec]

John,
It'S the kind of picture that shows the gigantism of your layout.....
Eric Québec city

[S&S RR]

John,
It'S the kind of picture that shows the gigantism of your layout.....
Eric Québec city

Eric


It sure is going to take a lot of structures to make the scene look complete.

[S&S RR]

I'm spending some time this morning doing some pre-planning for all the wiring I need to do on the layout.  At this point I have 90% of the wires pulled and all the drops attached to the track on the upper levels.  Now, it's time to start attaching the drops. I like to have a meter on the circuit for each block as I connect the wires so I know immediately if I get my wires crossed. I will be switching between finishing the benchwork and track in the area we have been discussing above and connecting the wiring to the track that I have laid over the past few months.

The layout at this point has 108 blocks, 9 power districts run off from two 5 Amp power supplies. We will see if I need to add more juice once I get everything running. I have digital amp and volt meters that I need to wire into the control panel so I can monitor the power.

[bparrish]

John...

While you have Wayne climbing around there.......

Have him go after that offending light fixture.

I did find out another thing about retrofitting LED tubes to existing fluorescent fixtures.  You must have a newer solid state ballast to allow them to work properly.  Most fixtures sold in recent years have such ballasts.

see ya
Bob

[S&S RR]

John...

While you have Wayne climbing around there.......

Have him go after that offending light fixture.

I did find out another thing about retrofitting LED tubes to existing fluorescent fixtures.  You must have a newer solid state ballast to allow them to work properly.  Most fixtures sold in recent years have such ballasts.

see ya
Bob

Hi Bob


I actually bought new fixtures for the valiance this week and will be adding directional LED lighting from there to make up for the overhead fixture that is giving me problems.  It has to be the ballast but some days it works and others it flickers. I like the way I can make the aspen trees light up with the directional lighting. I will take some pictures once the area is completed and the new lights are installed.

[deemery]

John...

While you have Wayne climbing around there.......

Have him go after that offending light fixture.

I did find out another thing about retrofitting LED tubes to existing fluorescent fixtures.  You must have a newer solid state ballast to allow them to work properly.  Most fixtures sold in recent years have such ballasts.

see ya
Bob

Or buy the tubes for which you remove the ballast (more energy efficient?)


dave

[S&S RR]

John...

While you have Wayne climbing around there.......

Have him go after that offending light fixture.

I did find out another thing about retrofitting LED tubes to existing fluorescent fixtures.  You must have a newer solid state ballast to allow them to work properly.  Most fixtures sold in recent years have such ballasts.

see ya
Bob

Or buy the tubes for which you remove the ballast (more energy efficient?)


dave

Hi Dave


I thought about that but changing them out is a real big deal now that all the trees are in that area so I decided to go to a different lighting system.

[S&S RR]

Update for today,  the track work continues.  I will be spending most of the day underneath the layout connecting drop wires.  I have also finalized the design for the benchwork and track for the area in the clay mockup.  I really need to come up with a name for that city.