La Ciénaga Switch - my entry to TVNAM - set in a low-lying area of Miami that has seems to have been missed by both Lance and Google, largely on backfilled land, though it still gets waterlogged in heavy rain (the name means "the Swamp") It is (mis-) pronounced by local rails as LACKINGAH SWITCH(I love bi-lingual puns) and has no switches - only two sector plates. Left hand sector plate feeds all three tracks - the right hand one feeds the centre track only. Based on Tom Lloyds 13th Avenue, Miami from MTI, it has gone up a scale from N to HO, and grown an extra spur feeding Miami Waste Paper at the back - it may still be a work in progress at the show but I hope it will be more or less complete scenically - photos taken this morning - the weather has not been kind this year - six weeks to go!


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It is no secret, 2 weeks ago, I was in quite a slump. The club layout isn't very exciting in its half destroyed look right now and I needed I new project to try a few ideas and scenery technics. I was reading GEC's post about his actual feeling toward the hobby. I could have written all that myself! I see this new project as a way to cure my perfectionist disease which caused many exciting projects to die too soon. With the new project, I follow one motto: try your best but move forward if achieving perfection will halt the project.

Blog address is http://theendofsteel.blogspot.ca/



For this reason, the layout is loosely based on typical small time rail-served town that can be found anywhere on Quebec South Shore, particularly on Drummond Sub and between Charny and La Pocatière. A mainline, a siding for a feedmill and some disused team track. No need to search a prototype because it's so prototypical! However, it is inspired by real life place I went, so call it protofreelanced. I named it St. Pamphile because it was supposed to be a South Shore town that was to be linked to Quebec Central Railway but these plans were folded because of WW1 and the 1930s Depression.



Inspiration is various, mainly modellers doing New England roads (Confalone, MikeC), Trevor Marshall, Chris Nevard (UK) and many others like Jon's Sweethome Alabama (looks like we are many to follow these folks). I'm trying to go for very low track density. In Quebec City area, track density was never very high except in the downtown, everywhere else, it is mainline running throught fields and woods (euh, Canada!).

The concept was quickly pinned down using tracks and buildings I already had on hand. In fact, those buildings were my first try at scratchbuilding when I was about 13 to 16 years old. Thought they are quite old, I still like these structures because they are based on local industries I liked back then. They also have a very local flavour that help to set the layout in Quebec and not in the Prairies, New England or Midwest.



The track plan is nothing more than a runaround and a feed mill siding. Trains emerge from a highway overpass. Beyond there is a single staging track, merely an extension of the mainline. The concept was to model a end of line spur. A semi-abandonned branchline turned into a simple industrial siding. The scenery is very generic and can fit a vast array of era from the mid-50s to the mid-90s, only needing to replace rollong stock and vehicles. The goal is to fit my tastes has they evolve and give me a nice diorama to shoot my locomotives and cars. That means New England roads, CN, CP and others.



The layout is built on two modules of 18" x 80" (hollow core doors with a 1" thick styrofoam board). Track is PECO 83. I prefer their products, they are easy to work with and even if they have small details, they are quite sturdy which isn't the case with Atlas.

Power is supplied by a NCE Powercab DCC throttle to simply things.

So far, I like the experiment. In less than 2 weeks, I have achieved to reach scenery. In fact, after 1 day, I was able to operate. Operation sessions last between 15 to 45 minutes depending on how many cars I switch. That's fine with me.

The layout height is 39" because my office room is located in a gable. But that's just fine because I can operate sitting on my chair at eye level and when I work on the layout, it's quite comfortable.

This new layout should be an excellent practice before rebuilding the club layout (Hedley-Junction) into something nearer to our intentions. In that regards, a fellow club members found dozen of pictures recently and that could be a key to plan a new track plan.

Enjoy!

Matt

On the way home the other night, my wife and I stopped to watch the following in downtown Canon City:

Four UP diesels came clanging through town towing 3 tank cars and one battered empty gondola.

The proceeded to switch the three tank cars onto a yard siding, and then backs the gon onto the Canon Quarry (a former brick factory and now a rock and gravel supply) siding. That's all four diesel units backing the empty gon.

They then proceeded to head back east the way the came. :?

No explanation was offered by the two ground crew handling the switches for needing three locos too many or such a simply task.

Here we go again...... what is wrong with people???? <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Fatal-Train-Accident-in-Verona-256899331.html">http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Fatal-Tr ... 99331.html</a><!-- m --> You know whats really creepy... me and the wife walk down by there as its only a mile away and my step-bro is a vol fireman for them and was was at their BBQ and got the call to respond to scene and 1st thing he done is called us to make sure hock: ok I admit I have cold chills.

I avoided the Broadway Limited GG1 and haven't looked at the MTH version. I have a Rivarossi stashed away someplace waiting for decals, but I don't think it will ever be anything but a static model in a motor storage facility. I also have a Lambert brass one that I haven't even test run and will be a bear to paint if I ever get around to it. However the introductory discount prices on the Bachmann version were something I couldn't resist, and I ordered one in the single-stripe. This was a feature of my earliest railfanning days, as I was younger than 10 when they started repainting them from the 5-stripe. I saw them growing up in NJ and then rode behind them when I got older, eventually commuting the whole length of the NEC back and forth to college. I especially remember them accelerating southbound out of Newark, although I think the AEM-7s were even quicker.

The first thing I did when I got it out of the box was take off the body (4 screws over the power trucks) and spray the chassis with a mixture of Floquil Rust (last of my last bottle, I'm afraid) and flat finish:


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(The masking pulled off some of the black paint on the frame, no biggie.)

The guts are easier to get to than on the E33 (GEC/Chris, do you know how to get the body off those? @#$%%&!!!) Here is the DCC plug and a switch for the catenary pickup:


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One thing I'm finding harder than I expected in installing DCC is that while the plugs are sorta standard (except some want 9-pin), but the places you can mount the decoder definitely aren't. Bachmann has left good room in the body/chassis here. I'm using a Digitrax with the short 8-pin adapter. It looks like it can just flap in the breeze.


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Here are the LEDs lit with the body off. At least with the Digitrax (I don't know if this is a Bachmann or Digitrax feature, or whether this can be configured with CVs), the headlight is dim in reverse, full in forward:


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And here it is, chassis weathered, body back on, headlight lit:


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A comment on another site says the keystone lettering should be white instead of yellow. I've been checking color photos and so far have seen both PRR and border white, or PRR white and border yellow. Jury is still out as far as I'm concerned, but this is an easy fix with a decal if you want to do it. So far, it seems to run very well.

...The video doesn't continuously run..the trains do!

Just a short video of non-ops running on my layout when I just feel like watching trains go by.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTZGAqwuc4U">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTZGAqwuc4U</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9516994">http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?secti ... id=9516994</a><!-- m -->

At Peter Lumber

Bruce

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Didn't take me long to get a few pics!!!!

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I like the idea of running pooled power with my two connecting roads, but despite some online reading I'm really not grasping the concept or understanding why railroads would do this. Can anyone give me a layman's explanation for why two roads would share power on a train?

Thanks!
Ralph