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!

Extra RBF1

Yes, a revenue train was made up in the new 6 track (for now) Rutland yard! It made a trip around the layout and stopped at the Rutland Depot for train orders before proceeding to Bellows Falls, VT. The engine is B&M 4-6-2 Pacific #3713 (being used as part of a mileage sharing agreement), CN #117719 a coal hopper, C&O #63827 also a coal hopper - both being returned to the Penn. coal fields to be loaded again, NY,NH&H #30565 a 40' boxcar headed to Boston with a load of newsprint for the Boston Globe and bringing up the rear is Rutland van #14! Sounds good, don't you think?

The yard is coming together. There will be a couple more tracks for inbound / outbound trains as well as some sidings for industries and a van track to clean and store vans (cabooses in Rutland terminology) for their next assignment. There is a great deal of wiring under the table that needs to be connected. I have found a new method of connecting the track leads to the track bus but need to make a Radio Shack run to find the connectors - no more soldering! - I hope!

The crossover connectors leading to the yard are working well. They are 4" pieces of track that bridge the gap between the the main layout and the drop leaf yard. I soldered pieces of # 12 gauge wire to one end of the track so it "snaps" into place on the yard side. It also conducts the necessary power to keep the trains running. Gerry, the proprietor of my favorite hobby store, had told me of the technique so I gave it a try. I could not be happier with the results.

There will be pictures of the layout soon

It's about time!

It has been 4.5 months since I updated this blog. Sorry - I was not happy about the way things were going so rather than complain I just did not write anything. There has been much progress on the Rutland. The drop leaf shelf has been contructed and installed. A great deal of wiring has been going on under (within) the benchwork. DCC recommends that a power drop be installed about every three feet. I have put in power drops for each of the yard tracks, both yard leads, to almost every turnout, etc... Lots of wire and soldering! There do not seem to be any dead spots in the power grid. At present the layout is being powered by a DC transformer. I had some very bad luck with attempting to clean the power pick-ups on several engines. There was a ton of cat hair and other gunk all over so I took several engines apart to clean out the hair. Not paying enough attention I created several short circuits within the engines and numerous other mistakes when I put them back together. I took everything up to Maine Trains in Chelmsford, MA. The owner is a very patient man! He tested my entire DCC system (I brought it all with me!) and looked over the engines. The system tested fine! The engines on the other hand were not so easily tested. I left two for repairs and brought two home that tested OK on the Maine Trains in-house layout. I, however, have not switched back to DCC control as yet. DCC has not been a great change for me as yet. I still think it will be in the long run. Done for tonite!

Trackwork continues

The track on the balky curve has again slipped causing derailments - just like the real thing! Same unfortunate results - the railroad comes to a halt since it is the mail line. No room for a shoo fly so the pike is currently on holiday. So in utter frustration I yanked out all the Shinohara flex track between the two switches on either end of the curve and put in Atlas Assortment track pieces and some 1/3 and 1/2 curve sections from Atlas snap switches in the "track pieces" box. Not the greatest track but it is a guarantee to be a smooth curve when assembled properly. This track will need more cleaning than the Shinohara track but it is easily accessible and tried and true! The curve has been reassembled (for the upteenth and, hopefully, last time) and tested with Mikado #32 at higher speeds than previously tried and it was much smoother than any of the previous attempts to finish this section of the layout trackwork. As I write this, the glue is drying under the weight of a 2" by 3", the tenth edition of Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and a one gallon pitcher of bird seed. Gotta use what is handy in these delicate operations!




I cannot wait to begin the Rutland yard! The drop leaf is constructed and awaiting installation. It will, however, probably be a while before the yard gets attached and track laid. I am going to build Depot Park and Merchant's Row first. Then there is the engine terminal to construct with turntable, etc. So much to do - so slow the progress! It is paying off - taking my time - the track is smooth, the electrical connections are all soldered and easily traceable, switches are all free moving and the trackwork is straight and "gap" free. All in all - very cool!

Finally - Revenue Trains

Rutland-- On July 4, 2007 at 8:57 PM (by the Station clock) the New Rutland Railroad (or Railway - depending on the mood of the Blogger) officially saw two revenue trains travel the whole pike (20 feet or so) without stalling or derailing! It has been a long time coming. Thank goodness it rained and I am watching the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra performing and working on the railroad.

Vt. State Fair, September 1952

World of Mirth train being unloaded down the "runs". OK- so there is nothing that says "World of Mirth Shows!
It's a representation!!

There are Cole Brother"s flats, Pinder (Germany) trucks, a P.T.Barnum Shows trailer, a Reithoffer lighting truck, Royal American Shows cars, the "Wisconsin" - a restored Dining Car owned by the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin and a couple of flat cars restored by the Circus World Museum and used annually in the Great Circus Train that travels from Baraboo to Milwaukee. Each of the flats are painted for a different traveling railroad show of the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States of America.

The Midway train being switched in the Rutland yard.


World of Mirth train in the Rutland waiting to be off loaded. The train actually was unloaded south of the main yard onto Park St. and then the tractors and dozers pulled all the wagons and equipment across Park St. into the Fairgrounds. The kids who went to the Park St. Elementary School got an extra week's vacation each year as the school was across the street from the Fairgrounds.

Midway at the Rutland Fairgrounds.

The dining car "Wisconsin" is behind the Ferris Wheel and Sea Dragon rides. A generator truck is behind the Sea Dragon supplying the necessary electricity to power all the lights, sights and rides of the Midway.

Also in the picture - the Thunder Bolt and a kiddie version of the Octopus on the left. In the center are food concessions. On the right are game concessions - I never won much on these! In the bottom right is a permanent concession operated by the Lion's Club (I think) each year.

So the "New Rutland" is not doing so well. Still cannot get the steamers to negotiate the curve coming in to Rutland. I just got #401 RS-1 equipped with LokSound! It is amazingly realistic sound. However it shorts out on every turnout so all in all things are not so good on the Rutland.

I need to check the electrical pick-ups on the #401. It ran fine before I got the sound so I'm thinking there might be something there. I could also power all the tracks in each turnout but I'm not sure if that will make a difference. If anyone who reads this can offer suggestions or solutions I would be most thankful. Now on to some fun. I put together a diorama today of the Vt. State Fair held in Rutland each fall. It is a scene from the midway. I just took a picture of the diorama and added some photos from Layout #3 that I took of the midway unloading for the fair. The World of Mirth midway came to Rutland for many years. So here are my representations of the train, unloading and the Midway! Enjoy!