The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[cuse]

Wow. The absence of the display case certainly opens up a lot of breathing room.


John

[donatode]

Tom .... looking good ..... (ya wanna come up to S.I. and do MINE?) 

[ReadingBob]

Geez Tom!  Slow down.  At the very least, save a spot for Sokol's.  You'll have the layout finished before I have Sokol's finished.   

Looking good my friend.  Looking very good!   

[ACL1504]

Tom,

thanks for the picture update. I got a glimpse of the third level. WOW, progress is being made. Good to talk with you the other day. Looks like you are having rain and we are having sun and 80 degrees. Lovely is all I can say. I like your new center island. Your layout  is going to feel like wall to wall layout. Awesome. Looking forward to more pics.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

Thank you for the encouragement. Yes, the third level does have a test section and there  will be more on that later in the thread. I'm making very good progress now that I'm not medically bound up. I mentioned on the morning thread that yesterday was the first day since June I was actually able to cut the grass and work in the yard, I loved it.

We've had record highs here in Central Fl. the past week or two. I need a little cold weather to really get me going on the layout.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Wow. The absence of the display case certainly opens up a lot of breathing room.


John

John,

Yes, it did open it up quite a bit but have no fear. It will also be filled with some sort of bench work.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom .... looking good ..... (ya wanna come up to S.I. and do MINE? ) 

Donato,

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. Yes, I'll come on up and do yours as soon as I finish mine. Should only be a few years.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Geez Tom!  Slow down.  At the very least, save a spot for Sokol's.  You'll have the layout finished before I have Sokol's finished.   

Looking good my friend.  Looking very good!   

Bob,

Thank you for the kind words, much appreciated Butty! I took it slow all summer so now I can't let any grass grow under my feet. There are plenty of locations for Sokol's. I do hope to have the second level finished and scenicked (sp) by May of 2017.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Another area of the current track plan I changed is in and on the south reverse loop. For some unknown reason I installed two turnouts with a short section of 3.5 ft. of track between the two.  All that did was to shorten the one leg of the reverse loop. Here is a photo of that area. For those of you living in the Central Fl. area, I'm referring to the track in the middle.



You can see how short the section is between the turnouts. It was a waste of two turnouts, two Tortoise motors and wiring time.

This is just another angle of the area.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The turnout in the above photo was removed along with the short section of track. A new section of track was installed.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The lower section of track was removed along with the middle turnout. A new section of track was added. I'll leave the cork roadbed and add ties without rail in the old section.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is another unsightly area of track work I'm changing. This has worked fine and I've had no derailments here. After several months of looking at this section, I've decided it needs to be a bit smoother looking.



I used a lefthand turnout here. The above photo is looking South. The next photo is looking North.



A righthand turnout is more appropriate and will look much smoother.



More on this change in a few days.

[ACL1504]

I worked on the above area for several hours today photos later in the week.

Tom

[Erieman]

Tom,

Great looking track. When I first looked at the change above, I thought you were going to install a 3 way switch and then once I put my glasses on I saw that you had a right hand switch laying on top of the left hand. Then I said to myself - A three way would look marvelous there. Just my humble opinion.

Frank / Erieman

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking very nice, Tom.

I must admit - I looked at your picture and thought 'there's a track missing there' and then realised it was an overlay!  Very nice work!

Cheers, Mark.

[ACL1504]

Tom,

Great looking track. When I first looked at the change above, I thought you were going to install a 3 way switch and then once I put my glasses on I saw that you had a right hand switch laying on top of the left hand. Then I said to myself - A three way would look marvelous there. Just my humble opinion.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

Thanks for the kind words on the track. I did consider the 3 way switch but didn't think the location was the best. I didn't like the lefthand turnout as it took the track to close to the edge of the bench work. Besides that, the area under the turnout has two 1X4 braces and not enough room for the two Tortroise motors required. I'll have photo of this new area on Friday.

Tom