Justinmiller171's 2012 Resolution Challenge

[torikoos]

Looking forward to it Justin.

Don't feel pressured by us here to have to bash something together to get pics up. I'd rather see you taking your time laying the track so that you're fully satisfied with it, before you even take the soldering iron to it and solder the rail joiners etc...
Lay the track, eyeball it for 'straightness', see if your lightest car doesn't derail by pushing it along the various joints and switches etc, and then take a step back. Come back to it a few days later, do you still like it, or do you want to tweak something a bit more, re-lay a bit of track, keeping in mind that less is probably more. (Lance Mindheim's latest book about how to operate a switching layout demonstrates that you don't need loads of track to have realistic operations that can easily take up a couple hours) It also leaves more space to build scenery, if you enjoy that sort of thing. It's not a speed contest! I haven't progressed much with my own layout, I'm not in a hurry, and don't want to be either. :-)

good luck !

Koos

[ngauger]

The Re-store has foldable 36" doors that are made up of two 18" doors. The Re-store sells these for about $5.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the doors today, however I will be getting them in the next few days. I already have the track so it won't be much longer until I can get some pictures up

Nice - I never though of that. We call them bi-fold doors here.. and $5 is an excellent price!!!!

[Justinmiller171]

Here is the plan I have had for the last few days, I will probably be changing the spurs alittle bit once I start laying track



As you can see It is fairly basic, it uses only three turnouts and there is plenty of room to switch comfortably. I "borrowed" some of the industries from a few of FCIN's designs, these support about 90% of my rolling stock collection.

By the Deadline I hope to have track laid and have some basic mock-ups set up, If I get those done early I may have time to do some basic scenery also, but I shouldn't get my hopes up. I will try and take layout building slow this time so I can avoid frustration later, after my various layout attempts I have become decent at track-laying so I hopefully won't have any problems there.

I should be getting the doors in the next few days, once I get them put up I will be sure to take some pictures!

[torikoos]

Here is the plan I have had for the last few days, I will probably be changing the spurs alittle bit once I start laying track

That is a nice track plan, and the switches/turnouts all pointing in the same direction is a very good practice too , it will facilitate easier switching.
I know you probably drew a lot of cars on the spurs to see how many the could hold, but don't be tempted to fill every track during a session, you won't have any room to maneuver that way.

Looking forward you how progress this one. Take it slow, and enjoy it!

Koos

[FCIN]

Justin;

For Blommer Chocolates, you'll want to take some time looking at the facility in Union City, CA in both Bing http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=q7zj0k4...orm=LMLTCC and Google http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s...4&t=k&z=19 to get a feel for that industry.

You'll note that the rail siding is a bit further from the structure than what you'd typically find and that you'll need some room to move the covered hoppers of cocoa beans as they are unloaded. You'll also note by rotating the views, that at times they may have only covered hoppers of cocoa beans on spot or a mixture of cocoa bean covered hoppers, tank cars and Airslide covered hoppers. Since your track length indicates a capacity of 4 cars, you'd probably never want more then two or three on spot at any one time. One time you might have only the cocoa bean covered hoppers spotted - another time you might have a tank car and an Airslide. In other words, your car spots would be scaled down some from the prototype, but you can certainly duplicate the prototype mixture of cars that are spotted at various times.

The main thing is that with the rail siding further away from the structure, it makes it easier to couple/uncouple the cars that are spotted. When I had this facility set up on my ISL, I had no problem at all with spotting/coupling/uncoupling cars behind the structure mockup. May still include this as one of the main industries on my own layout.

[Justinmiller171]

I got the doors!

I should have the benchwork set up sometime tomorrow, I already have most of the benchwork set up from my last layout so I just need to make a few adjustments and then screw the doors down.

[Justinmiller171]

I have set up the doors and have began laying track, I am making sure to take it slow this time to avoid track problems. I currently have about 40% of the track laid and I have encountered no problems so far.

I promise to have some pictures up soon

[Justinmiller171]

Track is almost finished, there is a few more spikes to place, some tracks need to be straightened, and then I will have to clean the tracks.

I will try and take some pictures tonight.

[Justinmiller171]

A couple of pictures (Although they aren't very good)

First, my VERY basic mockup of the highway overpass:


And a view of the other end of the layout(Shot from above Bloomer Chocolates)


I still have some straightening up to do, but I think it looks alot better than my previous layout attempts.

I had taken some other pictures, but I noticed some layout problems in them that I want to get fixed before I show them.

[faraway]

Good morning Justin, looks promising to me. Keep on going

[Southern Tuxedo]

Justin,

Congratulations!

You’re off to a great start and everything looks awesome. Your challenge now will be to keep your interest up and the momentum going. Don't let frustration set in like your past attempts. If things aren’t going right walk away and come back later with a fresh start. Ask for lots of advice form the knowledgeable modelers here and most of all enjoy your new layout.

I’m looking forward to seeing your layout progress. Please post lots of pictures.

Mark

[Steamtrains]

Justin wrote....
"Track is almost finished, there is a few more spikes to place"

Good to see some "action" going on...

Are you counting on the spikes to hold the track in place..?? Spikes in foam alone won't do the job. If you're going to ballast, the glue/ballast mixture will do. If no ballast, then trickle diluted glue between the ties...That will also work.

[Tyson Rayles]

Good to see you getting started Justin!

[sailormatlac]

You're farther than me, you've got track! It looks promising so far and nice Airslide hoppers!

Matt

[Justinmiller171]

I went to the craft store yesterday and bought some more sheets of foamcore, I have already built mockups for most of the layout, and I also did enough wiring to run some ops sessions. In the next few days I will head to the hobby store and buy some scenery products, I am hoping by the end of the challenge I can have some basic scenery as well as all of the mock-ups built.