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!

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.