New Station

Construction progresses.

Main line / passing siding / engine terminal lead. New station. note turnout at far end of station. it will be the Swift Meat, Diamond National Lumber siding. Curved black roadbed in upper right will be the yard leads. Be awhile before those tracks are laid. I have to get the Main working first. Probably will be tearing up a section of track and the two curved turnouts behind the Poland Springs bottle sinnce I cannot get any steam engines to stay on the rails in that section.

The "New" Rutland Layout - Conceptually

Today's version of the layout is as follows. Don't hold me to it 'cuz it changes frequently. The basics are as follows: It is October 1952 in Rutland Vt. The Rutland - MSJ game is four weeks in the future (Rutland will win. I should check this fact.) Anyway the air is crisp, clean and the sky is bright blue. The main layout is 4'x8' representation of Rutland Vermont downtown (as we called it). The Main runs along the front edge of the layout. The Station and passenger platforms are inside of the Main. To the left of the station will be the 90' turntable with the Boiler shop, Roundhouse and Coach / Car Repair shop situated around it. The lead from the station also has the ashpit, coal dock and water tower. There is a spur to the left also for the supply track (oil, sand, coal) and the diesel ready track. To the right of the station will be a spur with the Swift Premium meat plant, Diamond National Lumber (artistic license as Diamond was at the other end of town) and perhaps Duffy Coal (also at the other end of town in reality!). In the space directly behind the station is Depot Park, Merchants Row with the Service Building, the Bardwell Hotel and others whose names I cannot remember. To the right will be Washington St (30 degree angle to Merchants Row) with City Hall and it's park and the Fire Station. Center St. will be at the other end of Merchants Row. As for the railroad - it will travel in an oval around the 4x8 section for the time being. Let me say here that this layout is all about the main classification yard and shops in Rutland. The Main will leave Rutland to left going North and West and to the right going South and East. This part of the layout will be very similar to layout #3 - more detailed than #3 but very similar. I'll post a couple of photos of #3's downtown so you can imagine what the new one will look like.
The next installment will discuss the drop leaf yard and the North and South extensions.

City Hall park in center. Fire Station / City Hall around the park. Swift Premium is red building to the left of Diamond National Lumber Co.

Much of the new layout will be an enhanced version of these pictures.

Downtown Rutland Layout #3

The tall building is the Service Building. Bardwell Hotel to the right. City Hall park to the right of the Bardwell. Depot Park with the elm trees and baggage building along Merchants Row. Note REA truck in foreground. Street to the left is Center St.

Still the old pike. The new one is aggrevating me so I'm waxing nostalgic. This picture is of the shops area. It contains a bunch of stuff. starting on the right - water tower, coal dock with a load of coal in the Rutland hopper, a Mikado, the roundhouse (green doors), and the new boiler shop under construction, an RS-3 on the turntable, another in the boilershop, a red Rutland caboose in the tunnel and the marble company on the upper level. Last thing - that big lump on the flatcar on far left in front of the caboose - is an actual cinder that was used as ballast on the real Rutland Railroad.

Trouble on the "New" Rutland!

I really thought I would have a train running yesterday but no! I had to add several more power leads as there were several dead spots in the track around several turnouts. Then I tried an old engine that does not have DCC capability but it just hummed. Not good for the engine or my mood. So I decided to try one of the DCC equipped engines, RS-3 #208. It worked like a charm after a few times around. Lots of hesitation from so many months in storage! After a bit it was running smoothly over the turnouts and the crossover of the Main into the shop area from the north end of the "yet to be built" yard (more on this later). So I'm thinking this is great - let's try the Mikado with sound. It too needed some time to get the oils flowing but was "chugging" right along with bell ringing and horn blowing! Then the problem occurred. There are two curved turnouts coming into town from the south off a curved section of track. The Mikado jumped the track (derailed in railroad vernacular) every time it entered the turnouts. Anyone out there with a thought I'm all ears. I think the radius (too tight) coming off the curve into the turnouts might be the problem. I also wonder if the front of the engine needs more weight as it did not derail when I put downward force on the smokestack. All in all very disappointing. The initial running of a train will be awhile later - like Amtrak. Trust me - you will know when it happens because there will be two new pics - one w/ diesel #208 and modern Rutland Railway cars and one with Mikado # "32" pulling a passenger train with Business Car #99 and a couple Rutland Railroad coaches and Rutland Railroad milk car #335.
In case you are wondering, the #"32" designation is my way of saying the item has not been decaled as Rutland 2-8-2 Mikado #32 yet. In my equipment inventory - the " " designation also includes the words "under construction".

More to follow in the future. Future installments will discuss not only the new layout but information about structures, rolling stock (train cars) and lots of other things I want to share.

Layout #3

This was the last layout. It had lots of track and turnouts (switches). It was a representation of Rutland Vt. on a 4X8 train table. It grew and the track plan changed many times over the years. It was really a hodge podge of material from numerous manufacturers. It had a sags at the 2 ft. and 6 ft. marks with a peak in the middle at 4 ft. Numerous turnouts were across the peak. It all worked when I powered it with DC but the peak and sags caused many short circuits in DCC. There were many loose connections under the layout, several different sizes of wire in use, and all kinds of shims to try to make it level and straight. It was kind of a redneck operation in retrospect.

Once I figure out how to attach pictures I'll share the 3rd layout with you and also "builder" photos of the "New" Rutland Railroad.