Wires and buildings

Its been a while since my last post, and it feels like not much has happened.  I've been working on wiring.  To prepare for DCC, you have to run two bus lines around the layout with drops, preferably for each piece of track.  So that's what I've been doing, drilling holes, and soldering wires.

As you can see from the picture to the right - this is what it looks like.

This is one of those things, I can't tell if its fun or not.   I enjoy electronics, and soldering, so its not a chore in that aspect, however, I'm so anxious to get to work on the scenery, I really want this to be done :)  I only have about 1/8th of the mainline completed, so I have a lot to do still.

Also since my last post, a neighbors father-in-law was contacted to see if he wanted some 'old train stuff'.  He collects O scale and went over to see what stuff there was.  It was all HO.  He told me I was the only one he knows who does HO, so he gave me the box.  I told him, lets keep it that way (that I'm the only one he knows).  It was a box of assorted Tyco cars, and older plasticville structures.  While these structures are pretty toy-like, I think I'm going to have some fun either kit-bashing them, or using them for parts for other things on the layout.  The cars are in various order of working condition, but what a great opportunity to learn weathering!  So check back to see how well I do :)  I figured with some weathering and new trucks, couplers and some weight added, they'll work for me.  Especially since they were free.  You can't beat that.

I've saved the best for last.  My parents came down from New York to visit this weekend, which means I took delivery of 6 new structures he scratch built!  My dad brought down the Canandaigua Hotel, A farm including Farm house, Barn and Silo (tractor and old truck), a hobo shack with hobos, and the Ontario County Court House- with Ms. Justice on top - just like the real deal in Canandaigua.
I've created separate pages with the structures on them.  I'll add more history about the buildings as time goes on, as well as pictures during the 'planting' of each building.

We had a nice time working on the layout.  Dad completely built the structure for the hill, Styrofoam and sculpt-a-mold.  I think he enjoyed getting messy.  Tonight I added some ground foam - the first real scenery I've done.  In the picture, the Court House isn't planted yet, its just sitting on the hill.  The cutout is for a set of stairs and landings dad will build to match the others on the building.  He took measurements, we're hoping with little effort, they can just insert into that opening.

Its great to finally get some green on the layout, although its making me want to forget wiring for a while and work on Canandaigua.  Since that track through Canandaigua is already wired, I could focus on that town for a bit.  Its a nice distraction from soldering.

A MILESTONE!

Today (er .. last night) marks a milestone in the layout.  I've completed all of the benchwork AND laying all of the cork roadbed.  What this means is that I can pretty much put away the all of the saw(s) I have out.  Yes John I can return your chop saw now :).

I'm pretty excited, with the cork done, all I have left is to lay the track for the upper level.  Yea, I know, its not really an upper level, its only 4 1/2" higher than the lower track, but upper deck isn't proper either since its not really a deck, and its not technically a shelf, elevation it too long to type... so I'm calling it a level. Anyway, its done, complete, fine'

I'm pretty psyched.  I cleaned up that area so I could lay the cork, and it looks really nice cleaned up.  So I can clear off the rest of the layout, vacuum it off, organize the crap.  At this point that might be more work than went into the layout.  I have tools and pieces of track, cork, and foam everywhere.

So back to the actual layout.  The only part of the layout I'm slightly worried about is the left wall coming off the curve in the back corner.  As the track straightens out, its pretty close to the wall.  Right now, that's not a problem, but when I get to putting the masonite back there for a backdrop, it may be super tight, so I might have to get creative, maybe have it run into a 87' (scale) wooden landslide tunnel or something - keeping me from having to put backdrop in that location.  We'll see what I come up with.  I'm not too concerned and like the rest of the construction, I'll roll with it.

New Pics are here

Rochester Exit and back loop

Progress has been made!  Haven't written because I've been diligently trying to get the exit-fold-down-bridge working and I've finally done it.

One major goal for the layout was to have a way to loop the trains for constant running in the event people came over to watch trains.  "Normal people" aren't that excited to watch yard work (go figure).  I also wanted to have that wonderful sound of a running train going while I'm working on scenery or other items.  My track plan allows for some light switching and yard work, but to get a nice long run, I ended up with two 'duck-unders' and a loop back around the room at a higher elevation than the rest of the layout.

Everyone I've talked to about layouts and track plans always warned - DON'T BUILD A DUCK-UNDER.  Technically I didn't ... I built two.

That said, I've made 1 (so far) collapsing. The "fun" part of this was how to get the track aligned so when it folds back into place the train doesn't derail and fall to the floor.  Dealing with the track leaving the bridge was easier to setup because of how the bridge folds down.  At this end, the track decends onto the track on the layout. I created some self-seating rail joiners and when the bridge lifts back into place, the rails decende into these joiners and fit perfectly (pictured here).  The other end is a bit more menacing.  I ran a piece of track right across the joint and pumped it and supporting benchwork / cardboard / wood with liquid nails to solidify everything and let that set.  I came back later with my Dremel and cut-off wheel and cut through the track, cork and wood.  This separated the bridge from Rochester, now allowing it to fold down.  Folding it up gets the rails close, but if its not exact - my test car will derail.  Some tuning and guides will be added to massage the track where it needs to be (more on this in a later post)

Since the loop around the room is at a higher elevation - and I didn't have room for (or the desire to build) a helix, I have to get the track up about 5" from Rochester to the back of the room.  A 2% grade is probably the max I want, and that equates to a 2" rise over 10 feet.

The exit from Rochester is on an incline and starts immediately after the yard throat, and goes to about 1/2" before it hits the bridge out to the back loop. (there's photos to back this up if I'm not making sense).  The bridge inclines up about another 1/2" and hits the right wall, and keeps chugging. Buy the time the track hits the center of the back wall - we're at the 5" mark.  I ran a train up this with track just tacked together, and it seems perfectly fine.  So I think we're good.

The next step will be to lay cork and track around the back loop to the final bridge back into Canandaigua - which will be a good time.  I think that one will be static, not 100% sure yet.

Latest photos of the construction

Photo Gallery Posted

It took a while to get this blog up, not because it is difficult, but because I'd rather work on the layout when I have time, as opposed to posting to the blog :)  That said, last night I made some amazing progress laying track and benchwork, so I wanted to share.  This drove me to create a Picasa web album of the layout progress, structures, and research for it.  If you're interested in following the building of the C&AR feel free to check out the pics on the link below.


PROGRESS NOTES :  I think I've determined that the left wall of the layout will be Pittsford (maybe?).  I'm not going prototypical with it, but I needed a name, and since that is the last major stop on the rail before Rochester, it seems appropriate.  In my world, Pittsford will be a rural scene, maybe some light industry like lumber or something, not sure yet, might do some research and see if anything looks good.  I have track laid with a small yard here so Pittsford track is complete.

Last night I laid out Rochester.  I have the 2 main lines leaving Pittsford and cornering into Rochester.  They pass through and connect to some industry sidings, as well as round house access and the yard throat.  The two tracks leave Rochester to do the back loop around the room to come back to Canandaigua.

If all of that is completely confusing - check out the pics for Rochster in the gallery below.

Canandaigua and Auburn Road Railway Photo Gallery

New Structures for the C&AR : The CDGA Station

So my dad has gotten into building structures for my layout.  Since this is Canandaigua, I needed to have the Canandaigua train station.  There are a few old pictures online - and through some information from my dad - I was able to find it via google maps.  Dad also found out coincidentally the same day that the station was still standing, albiet 'updated'.  He drove into town that weekend, took a bunch of photos and measurements.

Well for Christmas, I received the Canandaigua station - which is awesome and is the focal point of the layout. As you can tell, really nothing other than track has been added to Canandaigua, (or anywhere else for that matter) so there's no backdrop yet, no balast or other ground cover.  I threw people and a couple trees next to the station just to get a feel for the area and decide what I want to do around there.

You can see original pictures from the 1900's on the Canandaigua Station Page and he's done a great job.  He used the colors from the colorized picture and I just love it.


Since I'm modeling the New York Central, he also gave me this as a Christmas gift - an authentic New York Central System Time Table, which includes the Auburn Road schedule - very cool.  This will get unfolded and pressed between plexiglass plates so you can see both sides.  I'll mount it on a frame that will allow it to rotate and mount it somewhere in the layout room.

I'm pretty excited about both of these gifts, and its given me some momentum to get things rolling.

Greenberg Train Show @ York Expo

So I went to the Greenberg Train and Toy show at the York Expo close by in York PA.  I was pretty disappointed.  I would say 70% of the vendors were O Scale, 20% had N and HO and the rest were toys and other train related items, collectables, paintings, etc. I'm modeling in HO, so 70% of the place was essentially useless to me.

Of the 5 or 6 layouts, only 1 was HO, although there was a really cool S-Scale Traction layout.  I talked the guy for a bit, and he confessed that his wife is a better wire-puller and solderer than he is, too funny.

I found a few HO dealers and spent most of my time looking through their collections of stock. Scanning 1000's of boxes for NYC or New York Central stamped on the end.  I managed to come out with one purchase, a 59' Express Refrigerator car- pictured to the right.  Its is perfect condition considering the papers in the Roundhouse price list in the box says September 1970.  This is the first of my NYC rolling stock - yes I chose to model NYC and own 0 cars or locos at this time.  I think I'll be trolling eBay, auctions, and yard sales this summer.  I guess since I spent a whopping $10 on this car, it was a good day considering, but I had higher expectations.

The C & AR has its own blog !

After some thought and nagging by some friends, I've finally decided to get a blog together to chronicle and somewhat organize my research, planning, construction, and operation of my layout.  Having grown up in Canandaigua, I remember as a kid, train tracks running through town, but never cared why there were there.  I thought it was neat to watch the train go by on my way to school.  I've been known to walk along the tracks coming home as well.

I had a layout as a kid, but unlike many, many other model train geeks, did not have the Lionel O scale set.  My dad had an HO layout set up for me to play around on.  Just an oval with a figure 8 inside, I would go down there and just run trains in circles for hours.  Back then, the only option was DC power, so I had 2 transformers, one for each track, and would run a little steam engine around one loop and a diesel passenger train around the other.  There's just something about the sound of a model train, and the smell of the motor working hard.  I was a kid after all, so I would push the engines to their limits, either pulling all the cars we had, or just cranking up the throttle to see how fast they'd go (or both).

Anyway, after getting married I built my own layout, still more loopy, than point to point, and never came close to finishing it (about 6 years) before we moved.  We're settled now (I hope) and I've dug out all my magazines, and started listening to podcasts, watching You Tube videos, googling for various things to start planning.

In my things, I found an old newspaper from Canandaigua that my mom sent me when I was in College.  It was an article about John Armstrong's Canandaigua Southern railroad.  I read that and realized THAT was what I was going to do.  I was going to build HIS layout in HO.  I found the issues of Model Railroader where his layout was featured, and realized - I didn't have the room to do it, although it was freelance, so if it wasn't 100% identical, who cares, right?  Well after trying to make it fit in my space, I gave up on cloning his track plan.  However, I stayed with the Canandaigua theme and started researching that.

I finally discovered, after probably 30-ish years, what those tracks were for in town.  I found the New York Central, history about the same rails I saw as a kid. I saw the charter, and many documents and controversy about the start of that railroad.  I now had a purpose and a plan, and that is how the Canandaigua and Auburn Road came to be.