Changes since March 2008

Hard to describe the number of changes on the railroad. Several buildings are now glued in place, the downtown streets are finished, all the street lights are glued in place and operational, the River Street bridge is complete and most of the streets are done on the hill up to the bridge.

The Car Shop, Roundhouse, and the Boiler Shops are all in place with all tracks secured to the turntable. The tracks are all indexed on the turntable so that it stops at each track automatically. The tracks to all these buildings are not yet powered but are ready to be. I need to move everything stored under the railroad to get under it so I can solder the track bus extension to the main bus and then solder each individual track to the track bus extensions. It is a lot of upside down work in a tight dark space. Oh, well - what is done in the name of progress!

The last trackage on the main layout table - the spur to the freight house and the Swift Premium Plant has been laid and is operational. The next step is to construct the Swift's building. Thus far I have painted all of the pieces in preparation for assembly. This building kit is a laser cut wooden structure. It is my second laser cut wooden structure - the first being the dairy barn I built a couple years ago. I am looking forward to constructing this building. It is the American Model Builders, Inc. kit "F. Bruckner Woodworking" shop but it is a very good representation of the Swift Premium building that was just south (like 10 yards!) of the depot in Rutland for many years.

I have begun to add the ballast (the stone used for drainage and to support the wooden ties upon which the rails are spiked) to the track. I have put a heavy coat of fine cinders in the area of the ash conveyor, a combination of fine mixed gray ballast and fine cinders around the coal dock and a light coat of fine light grey ballast on the passing track behind the Car Shop. I have also used some course grey ballast on the tracks leading from the turntable to the Car Shop and the roundhouse. It is meant to be a base to fill some very big spaces below the tracks as they come off the turntable. Course ballast is inappropriate for regular ballast in HO scale modelling but i happened to have a bunch around so I used it to fill the voids. I will cover it with the more appropriate fine ballast in the near future. Much of the yard and shop areas in steam railroading were ballasted with cinders from the coal burned in the locomotives. A suitable product for drainage and support of the tracks in these areas as they were not high speed mainline trackage. Best part was that the cinders were a free byproduct of the steam locomotives! Railroads - especially one as poor as the Rutland used everything until is was well past "used up'! Mostly I am experimenting with how to spread and attach the ballast. It has been years since I have had track that was worthy of being ballasted so it's all new - seems to be like riding a bike - you never forget, you just need to start riding it again!

Strongs Ave. and Wales St. to River St. Bridge

Construction has begun on the hill leading up to the River Street Bridge which spans the south leads to the Rutland yard and the main headed for Bellows Falls - the Bellows Falls Subdivision and the main headed to Chatham NY. - the Corkscrew Subdivision.

Layers of 1" polystyrene insulation glued together in the approximate shape of the hill. Then is is carved with a hot wire foam cutter. A new skill learned with the foam cutter. My son Jason did much of the initial carving - much more patience than his Dad! The carving is almost finished and the roadway has been laid in front of the firehouse on Strongs Ave.

Detail work begins: Depot Park, Streetlights, Bank Interior

The above photos show some of the changes to the Rutland. Top photo is of the new Walther's Built-up 90 ft. turntable. In a previous post I showed the old turntable salvaged from the last Rutland layout. Never worked well so I bought this one. Totally amazing craftsmanship. It is programmable for 60 stops.

The second and third pictures show Depot Park as it becomes populated with grass and trees. The white sticks among the trees and on Center and Washington streets are the locations of the streetlights. The lights have had their electrical connections lengthened and are about ready for installation. The bottom two pictures are of the bank building on the corner of Merchants Row and Center Street. Cannot remember the name of the bank but will research it. Many hours have been spent detailing the interior of the bank. Unfortunately the picture is very blurry but you get the idea. The structure has lights, shades in the windows and interior walls. It looks really good up close. I am not a great photographer but will endeavour to get a better picture of the bank. There are still two storefronts that need to be detailed. That's for another day.

Continued Progress - almost looks like a city!

Depot Park with the base coat of earth tone (covers the gosh awful pink layout foam base) and one section of grass with a couple elm trees. The color of the grass is a little too bright for October and the trees too green. May have to change the date to mid -September. Turntable is in place and operational! Engine terminal is looking better. Water tower has returned to it's proper position next to the coal dock. In the back ground is the workbench and the AFC Championship game is on the TV to the right of the chair . GO PATS!!
The interior of the roundhouse is way too clean but there is more to do here. The center track is in place but the two outer ones are awaiting attachment to the floor. The roundhouse workers are getting ready to service the big steam engines that will soon be coming in after their runs over the road.
Now it is time to run a few trains just 'cuz I can! Then it is on to completing the City Hall / Fire Station section of Rutland and build the hill that will lead up to the River Street bridge over the south end of the yard. Also to finishing Depot Park so I can get the yard raised and operational!

More to follow.

New York Football Giants are going to the Super Bowl! But still I say "GO PATS!!"

Progress on the Rutland

The pit for the turntable has been cut with rough placement of the car shop, round house and engine house (left to right) Notice the water tower on the concrete pad in front of roundhouse! In the background to the right of the cream colored building with the green trim is the beginnings of Depot Park. Merchant's Row is taking shape below. The roadway has been laid from Center Street(on left) to Washington Street (on right). The sidewalks are in place in Depot Park as is the driveway which will be in front on the depot. Covered station platform is at the bottom between station track and the Main Line. The blue tape is seven layers thick with lightweight spackle used as the "concrete" sidewalk. After the spackle is dried and painted - the tape will be removed and then grass, trees, streetlights, benches and people will be added to the park. Main Line is along the front edge of the layout. The Depot is resting on the edge of the drop leaf yard while construction of Depot Park continues. The engine terminal leads are the curved tracks above the Depot. In this view from left to right are the sand house, diesel oil tank, ash conveyor, coal dock and then the engine house...... Mostly this picture is to show the yard in it's "down" position. My son says the down position will never be repeated as I really am most interested in working the yard. His take is that I will not want to remove all the cars and yard buildings to lower the yard unless it is for construction / maintenance. He is probably right!