Progress report...

I have been slowly working on completing the upper-level roadbed thru the laundry room and behind the furnace. That area is now nearly complete, and the cork sheeting was installed this weekend over the entire Ridgway yard and staging areas. The upper level around Rico is also complete now, and cork sheeting is being installed there. So - track laying in both Ridgway and Rico can begin next! With only a little more benchwork to be completed near Vance Jct, another huge section of the mainline has been readied for laying track.

Currently, the mainline is operating from the Durango cutoff (approx) to just below Rico. There's no sidings yet, so I just have a test train that runs forwards and backwards over the line. This section includes nearly all of the hidden track, and I've wanted to make sure that was operating well before covering it. I had a little trouble over the winter with wood contracting, and despite my expansion joints the track did pop out in a couple of areas. Those were reworked (more gaps were cut), and they seem to be ok now.

Here's a few pictures of the real use of the Durango yard area (the upper level is raised while I complete work on the lower level). Sometimes I think the layout just provides a roof for all the forts and tunnels being created below it!

Turntable at Ridgway

I'm still working on the Ridgway yard area, and realized that before I add the cork sheeting I really need to complete the roadbed all the way thru the laundry room (the lumber sizes and tight clearances mean I need to install the benchwork behind the furnance first, then work back thru the bathroom to Ridgway. This weekend I was able to start prepping that behind-the-furnance benchwork piece. I also built another small section of benchwork to cover the Ridgway turntable. I decided on a 105' CMR turntable and cut the appropriate 15" circle. Of course 105' is far larger than Ridgway's actual 50' turntable, but my focus is operation, and since this is both std-gauge and an alternate-history version of the RGS, I selected a turntable large enough to handle any type of power I might someday want to use, or that guests might want to run. There's no space here for a track running straight over the turntable to the roundhouse, so the turntable needs to handle anything that wants to get into the roundhouse.

I used 3/4" plywood here, instead of the usual 1/2", to ensure everything is solid. I don't know how long it'll be until I actually purchase and build the turntable, but I needed to cut the opening now, which forced the decision. I plan an identical 105' table at Durango (also very different than the prototype 65' table that's really there, but oh well).

The benchwork for the roundhouse itself should prove very, er, interesting. It's going to have to a hinged section of benchwork that can swing into place over the basement sink. My wife is VERY gracious with the basement, but she rightly insisted that the sink be fully accessible, and actually I agree. The benchwork will sit about 2' above the sink, but when you have to wash paint brushes or fill large 5 gal buckets, we'll need more than 2' of space. So - the plan is to hinge the roundhouse section itself and let it swing off the sink area, folding back along the Ridgway yard's edge when not in use. This is going to be rather trick, what w/all the alignment issues and mechanical stuff. But - I don't need to build that until I actually want a roundhouse, probably a year or two into the future, at least.

Guardrails, underground lights, hidden track, stairs & more

This weekend I've started focusing a little on the fascia... went out and purchased a pile of 1/8" tempered masonite. A huge boon was a really nice guy at Home Depot being willing to cut 6 sheets of the stuff into various widths; saved me a lot of cutting & dust!

I've also been installing guardrails on the hidden mainline portions. For some of this, I'm using the plastic cloth-like stuff used for weaving yard furniture chairs and such; it's bright yellow and pretty easy & cheap to run. I used this mainly along the back sides of the hidden runs. The front sides need to be accessible from below for cleaning and rerailing, so I needed something just high enough to catch derailed rolling stock, but not so high it'd block my hand coming up from below to clean the track.

Under Rico, I experimented with more of the chair stuff, screwed into the 1/2" plywood subroadbed - it actually seems to work ok. It's flexible, but should be plenty strong to prevent derailed stock from hitting the floor. In other areas, I ended up using very thin strips of masonite, again just screwed into the plywood subroaded. I found that as a little as 1/2" edge above the top of the plywood seems enough to prevent crashes - it just has to catch the trucks of derailed stock. At this low height, it's pretty easy to reach over it (from below) to clean the track.

I also realized that before installing the upper level plywood, I needed to add some lighting, so I could see the lower levels for cleaning and other access. I purchased a bunch of ropelight from Mernards, and installed this along most of the hidden track. I'm not permanently connecting this lighting - if I need the service lighting, I'll just plug in the strings with extension cords or to nearby outlets, as needed. Below are some photos showing both guardrails and lighting under Ridgway, where the lower track sneaks thru the stairs and then tunnels under what will be the Ridgway yard (someday!).

Here's a view of the rope-lighting along the hidden mainline under the Enterprise branch, and the ones below show the line under Rico and (lastly) under Durango.

And then, finally, I've started on the areas above the hidden track. The first is the upper-level connection between Ridgway and Durango, going thru the stairs. I got part of the subroadbed for this stretch installed. Below are some photos of the lower and upper tracks going thru the stairs, during install of the upper track. I created the upper track roadbed and laid cork on that, then installed it.

These two photos so the upper level track emerging from the stairs and entering Ridgway. Anchoring the upper level roadbed as it emerged proved a little tricky, as the lower-level track is right below it.

Wiring and the 1156 lamps

More wiring... I'm installing 1156 lamps these days, to provide some short-circuit protection. There's a lot of discussion on this method in various places - see this entry from Wiring For DCC for some background. So far, the Dolores panel is done (7 lamps), and the Durango panel is 2/3rds done (9 out of 13 done). A good deal left to go.

Anyway, the issue is how exactly to install these buggers. I'm just soldering directly to the lamps since they should last pretty much indefinitely, but that's a little tricky. The final plan I came up with was to feed one side of the main track feed to a terminal block, then to a wire soldered across the tips of a line of 1156 lamps anchored to the benchwork. Then, wires soldered to each brass base of the lamps is fed back down to the terminal blocks feeding each section of track. Yeah, I know - I really need a picture of this... eventually I'll try to add one.

There's one lamp for each section of track, basically each block, or each group of service or yard tracks; I'm trying to minimize the number of these lamps I need to solder and install. Actually, I'm trying to arrange it so each locomotive would always be protected by its own lamp, so tracks are divided based on how many locos I think will be active at any one moment. BTW, I've been buying these lamps at Walmart - they're only about 98 cents each there, in the automotive section.

A bit more of the mainline is laid now - it's extended from the laundry room, through Dolores, under Rico and Enterprise, and nearly into the south end of Rico. I finished up soldering feeders this weekend, and working on the wiring for those sections right now.