The "new" JJJ&E In N Scale

Powersteamguy1790 · October 21, 2014, 02:47:03 PM

I've been in model railroading for over sixty years. In the early 1950's my dad who was an avid model railroader took our family to see many of the switching yards and rail lines in the western United States. We did this over a period of 2-3 years.

I've built large O scale and HO scale layouts in Massachusetts over a thirty year period. I moved to Jupiter Florida in 1994 and I started to build an N scale in 2000 in an air conditioned and heated third garage (The "Original" JJJ&E). The "Original" JJJ&E was named after my four grand daughters; Julie, Jenna, Jillian & Emily. The "Original" JJJ&E was in full operation for over nine years before it was completely dismantled when I moved from Florida to Texas in February 2009. N scale really intrigues me and I now am building the "new" JJJ&E which I started in 2009 is now almost six years old. About 98% of the basic scenery has been completed and the layout is fully operational. I've also written 8 articles for N Scale Magazine in 2007 and 2008.

The "new" JJJ&E is an inverted "U" shaped around the room layout that is run by DCC using a NCE Radio Controlled Power Pro. The "new" JJJ&E is in a 21x12' train room. The layout is divided into three main sections; the turntable and switching yard side of the layout, the mysterious middle part of the "new" JJJ&E and the San Marino and Monterrey Mountain side of the layout. This layout is a steam/diesel tradition layout in the 1950's-early 1960's time frame. The rster of the "new" JJJ&E is mainly comprised of steam locomotives and early diesel locomotives. All of the locomotives on the layout have decoders and a good number now have sound decoders.

The Turntable/Switching Yard side of the "new" JJJ&E is 18 feet long and 30 inches wide. The turnaround area on this side of the layout which houses the 24 stall Roundhouse is 50"x50". The radii in this turnaround area are 23 to 24 inch radii. The rest of the radii on the "new" JJJ&E are 30 inch radii. I used 28 1/4 inch radii and easements to get the 30 inch radii. The Roundhouse located in the turnaround area has 24 stalls. I'm using a Walthers 130 foot turntable which is powered and indexed. The turntable pit has been weathered. There are ten holding tracks around the turntable and two tracks for entering and leaving the turntable to the Switching Yard. I used Peco Code 80/55 flex track for the holding tracks and all the track in the 24 stall Roundhouse. Peco Code 80/55 flex track mates well with Unitrack. I used UniTrack rail-joiners to mate the two tracks to Unitrack which is the track I used for the majority of track on this layout.

The Switching Yard has two ladder yards to hold the many locomotives on the roster of the "New" JJJ&E. Several of these yard tracks will also store full trains and individual freight and passenger cars. There are 31 switches/turnouts in the Switching Yard. The switches/turnouts are controlled by stationary decoders. I am using NCE "Switch-Kat" stationary decoders to control the switch/turnout. Each NCE "Switch-Kat" stationary decoder is wired to one Unitrack switch/turnout. A dwarf signal is also wired to each NCE "Switch-Kat" stationary decoder and shows if a switch-turnout is open or closed.

I used Arizona Rock & Mineral N scale ballast to ballast the "new" JJJ&E. Since this layout is somewhere in the western United States, I used Arizona Rock & Mineral ATSF Windsor "New Hue" Ballast for the mainline and Black Cinder Yard ballast for the Switching Yard and sidings. below are some photo's of the 18 foot Switching Yard

GPdemayo · October 21, 2014, 03:24:53 PM

Great looking layout and history Bob.....don't be stingy with your photos. Thanks for sharing with us!

bparrish · October 21, 2014, 03:33:57 PM

Bob

Great railroad and super story about yourself.

My dad started me in HO in 1954 after a few years in S scale. He also was a prewar modeler and post war Ho fan.

see ya
Bob

Powersteamguy1790 · October 22, 2014, 09:16:22 AM

Thanks guys. I'll try and post more photo's as time goes on.

Stay cool and run steam....

Janbouli · October 24, 2014, 04:58:21 PM

Welcome Bob , great looking yard , and I'm very glad to have a fellow N-scaler join us.

Powersteamguy1790 · October 24, 2014, 05:41:46 PM

Quote from: Janbouli on October 24, 2014, 04:58:21 PM
Welcome Bob , great looking yard , and I'm very glad to have a fellow N-scaler join us.

Thanks Janbouli for the welcome. I didn't realize how rare N Scalers are on this forum.

Stay cool and run steam......

S&S RR · October 25, 2014, 07:58:23 AM

Bob

Great looking layout and it is real nice to see another layout build thread here on the forum. I will be following along.

cuse · October 25, 2014, 10:03:43 AM

Jan,
Be careful what you wish for. N scalers come here, get tempted

and convert

Great layout, what a nice array of N scale steam!

John

Powersteamguy1790 · October 25, 2014, 03:10:31 PM

Quote from: S&S RR on October 25, 2014, 07:58:23 AM
Bob

Great looking layout and it is real nice to see another layout build thread here on the forum. I will be following along.

Thanks John. I plan to add some photo's of the actual building of the train room when I first built my home in North Texas in 2008 and finished the train room build in early February 2009 either late today or tomorrow Then I 'll go on from there.

Stay cool and run steam.......

Powersteamguy1790 · October 25, 2014, 03:20:39 PM

Quote from: Cuse on October 25, 2014, 10:03:43 AM
Jan,
Be careful what you wish for. N scalers come here, get tempted and convert

Great layout, what a nice array of N scale steam!

John

Thanks John for your comments. However I have no plans to convert my N scale layout to HO or O scale. I've been there and done that when I lived in Massachusetts for 35 years. I had large HO scale and O scale layouts in that time frame. ( I do have two or three brass HO steam locomotives that I didn't sell when I auctioned off my HO scale collections in 1994).

At my tender age of 73, I really enjoy the challenges that a N scale layout presents and I'm finishing my sixth year working on the "new" JJJ&E. 98% of the basic scenery of this large N scale layout has been completed. I still do all my DCC sound decoder installations and all my locomotives have decoders installed in them.

Stay cool and run steam.......

Powersteamguy1790 · October 25, 2014, 04:51:07 PM

I started to build my home in North Texas in July 2008. I decided to incorporate a finished train room in the house when I first designed the house. The house was completely finished in February 2009. It is one story home with approximately 4400 square feet. The train room is adjacent to my office/computer room in the front of the house. The train room is 21'x12' which was more than enough to build a inversed "U" shaped large N scale layout.

The layout itself is 18'x12' and there is plenty of room for a work bench and shelving to store locomotives and rolling stock.

Now for a little bit of history of Frisco Texas. Frisco is located where the Chisolm Trail started in Texas in the 1860's. Cattle drives originated from this point on to rail heads in Kansas and Missouri in the late 1860's. A great motion picture to see about this part of the country is RED River starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift (1948). It is often on cable TV.

In the last two or three years The Museum Of The American Railroad now resides in the center of Frisco. They do have one of the last remaining Big Boys #4018 that has been fully restored. It traveled from Lake Park Texas to Frisco in the past six months on BNSF tracks where it is on display. It is a magnificent piece of equipment.

Photo # 1 UP "Big Boy" #4018 On The Way To Frisco Texas From Lake Park Texas. Photo Taken By Ken Fistgerald Of Dallas Morning News

Link For The Museum Of The American Railroad

http://www.museumoftheamericanrailroad.org/

Now onto the photo's of the new train room of the "new" JJJ&E. From July 2008 till February 2009, I traveled to Texas from Florida every three to four weeks to check on the build of my home. One of my daughters lives in Frisco, and she kept up with the daily happenings. The photo's I took of the train room during the build were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4300 for convenience. I normally use a Nikon D50 or a Nikon D5100 DSLR for all my photo's of the layout.

Most homes in North Texas are brick homes. I used eight high hats in the ceiling for lighting. I used 100 watt CFL natural light bulbs in the eight lights (5500K). This gives the train room uniform lighting with natural light. I keep the thermostats in the house at 77 degrees in the summer and 72 degrees in the winter. This keeps thermal expansion down to a minimum and I never had any issues with the track or wood bench work. 77 degrees might seem high to you folks living up north but you must remember summertime temperatures in North Texas can easily top 105 degrees on a constant basis.

I also use a fan in the train room and fans in all the rooms of my home. This keeps air circulating and the temps in each room actually feel cooler than 77 degrees.