The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[ACL1504]

Looking good Tom!! Your getting a lot done. I need to get down there and see it in person once I shake this cold.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks Butty and I'm sorry you still have the cold. Most definitely stay up north until you are over it. Also, I'm really loving this retirement gig!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,

Looking great. I especially like the wall of boxes!!! Only kidding, It must feel like you are working in a tunnel. You are moving right along. Pretty soon you will be on level two and then it should get real interesting. That's a lot of storage tracks. Is your intention that one yard is East Bound traffic and the other yard is for West bound traffic? Plenty of storage on your layout. you could probably go for the Guiness World Record for the longest train by coupling all the trains together.

Keep posting pictures of your progress. I was going to work on track and scenery, but have gotten wrapped up on the East end Market Structure. This is not good. Tomorrow is another day. Have a great weekend.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

I'm thinking the wall of boxes is becoming the "wall of shame" as its a shame I have that much train stuff yet to unpack. The older layout gave me the room to store all the stuff "down under". As I get the lower level wiring finished I can unpack 90% of it and free up the room in the middle. No need to put it under the benchwork and just have to move it again.

Ref the inbound and outbound traffic - The lower level is only storage to change trains. Here is the plan and the way the tracks are set.

A train comes off the Ovalix headed Northbound on the westside. If the spot for that train is on the west side then it simply takes that spot. If the train has the assigned spot on the east side then it bypasses the west staging  and moves around the room to that assigned location on the east side.

A train entering the layout from the west side will move around the room, bypass the east staging and enter the Ovalix. From there the train can either get off at the second level or go to the top level. A train stored on the east side enters the ovalix to the other two levels.

Gee, I'm a bit confused just saying all that. Just kidding, it only took me six months to figure it out!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Looking good.....how's the back?   

Greg,

Good to see you this morning. Thanks for checking in. The backs hurts like I'm old. Wait, I am!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Glad to see Diet Pepsi back on the bench!!
It's already producing great results - now, I'm comfortable that thangs are gonna move on smoothly!! 

Well, unless that Cuse boy buys another loco that needs worked on!! 
Even if it's your thread, I can't cut him no slack!!!

Gman,

Good to see you my friend. Yes, the Diet Pepsi keeps me moving on the line. I do have two builds I'll be doing next month for a couple of peeps. I'll be doing a thread on each as well.
Cuse is no problem and I'd love to weather another of his locos.

Tom

[cuse]

Got that in writing, Tom 


Once the credit card stops smoking from Christmas shopping, I'll give Mr Blackstone a call! 


John

[ReadingBob]

Wow!  There's a lot more staging tracks on the West Yard than I had imagined.     You know you're going to have to mark the panels or walls with compass points for those of us who can't remember which way is which?   

Glad to see you're putting your retirement to good use.   

[ranny9]

Tomorrow I'll go over an issue I had and how I resolved it.

Why no cork roadbed for sound deadening?

Randee,

The cork question is an excellent question. I've had a couple of visitors ask the same thing. This is the lower level staging of the tree levels. It serves only to store the trains. All the trains are DCC/Sound installed. With the sound of the locos, there is no perceivable noise other than the loco diesel and steam sounds.

Another reason for no cork is the fact the framing for the second level is only going to be 10 inches above the staging level. The 10 inches gives me plenty of room to reach in if needed and I figured it would be easier with the track if an issue should arise. I think the cost of adding cork to the bottom/staging level would have been close to $270.00.

Tom

Ok, the installed sound is a good idea to mask the noise in the Ovalix...

[ACL1504]

Got that in writing, Tom 


Once the credit card stops smoking from Christmas shopping, I'll give Mr Blackstone a call! 


John

John,

You know where I'll be when the time comes.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Wow!  There's a lot more staging tracks on the West Yard than I had imagined.     You know you're going to have to mark the panels or walls with compass points for those of us who can't remember which way is which?   

Glad to see you're putting your retirement to good use.   

Bob,

It appears more complicated than it actaully is. One way in and one way out! And, I need the space for all the trains packed in the boxes.

The first week has been excellent. I'm really liking this retirement thingy!

Tom

[ranny9]

Wow!  There's a lot more staging tracks on the West Yard than I had imagined.     You know you're going to have to mark the panels or walls with compass points for those of us who can't remember which way is which?   

Glad to see you're putting your retirement to good use.   

Bob,

It appears more complicated than it actaully is. One way in and one way out! And, I need the space for all the trains packed in the boxes.

The first week has been excellent. I'm really liking this retirement thingy!

Tom

It only gets better trust me...

[ACL1504]

Tomorrow I'll go over an issue I had and how I resolved it.

Why no cork roadbed for sound deadening?

Randee,

The cork question is an excellent question. I've had a couple of visitors ask the same thing. This is the lower level staging of the tree levels. It serves only to store the trains. All the trains are DCC/Sound installed. With the sound of the locos, there is no perceivable noise other than the loco diesel and steam sounds.

Another reason for no cork is the fact the framing for the second level is only going to be 10 inches above the staging level. The 10 inches gives me plenty of room to reach in if needed and I figured it would be easier with the track if an issue should arise. I think the cost of adding cork to the bottom/staging level would have been close to $270.00.

Tom

Ok, the installed sound is a good idea to mask the noise in the Ovalix...

Runs and sounds like a Swiss watch.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Wow!  There's a lot more staging tracks on the West Yard than I had imagined.     You know you're going to have to mark the panels or walls with compass points for those of us who can't remember which way is which?   

Glad to see you're putting your retirement to good use.   

Bob,

It appears more complicated than it actaully is. One way in and one way out! And, I need the space for all the trains packed in the boxes.

The first week has been excellent. I'm really liking this retirement thingy!

Tom

It only gets better trust me...

Yes, I do trust you. I should have done this years ago! I was going to retire after EXPO 2012 and let them talk me into staying. Not this time though!

Tom

[ACL1504]

One issue that arose on the West Staging Yard was one of the turnouts was directly over another brace. I mounted the other Tortoise machine on the top to avoid moving the turnout.

This time I moved the turnout. By doing this I knew it would also change the distance between the tracks. As I wanted the track to remain parallel to each other, I needed to add the correct distance between the turnouts. Back to this in a moment.

The other tracks are 5/8" apart tie to tie or 2 inches on center. 5/8" is the exact width of the aluminum Ribbon Rail section.



As I secured and added the flex track ,I kept the piece of aluminum tight against both track ties.

Since I would have a larger gap between the other track I used my Grandfathers 24" Arthur Gaebel steel ruler. I layed the tracks on opposite sides of the ruler and measured the distance I needed to move the turnout so the track ties would fit.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

After rail joining the track to the turnout, I determined I needed a piece of track 5 1/8" long. This gave me the correct length to keep the track aligned to the other one. You can see in this next photo the 5 1/8" piece of track between the two turnouts.



And here is how it looks. Once this issue was resloved I was able to get back to the 5/8" between the ties.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

 There is a larger distance between the wall track and the others as I wanted to keep the wall track straight off the north end turnouts.



To do this I needed to move the last track out further of meet the other end.



Continued in a few.