Lance Junction - 6/10/23

Life changes but still love my trains.  What a great statement, that is probably true for all of us.

I think considering the times we live in now, you made a good choice to go ahead with a small layout in the small room.  That has been the story of my life! 😄

I’ll look forward to seeing what you come up with!  👍🏻

Housing market is definitely a strange place at the moment. Anytime is a good time to start yourself a layout haha can't wait to see what happens!

Got some wood picked up today. Come to realize you can only do so much with looking at computer drawings and just better to build it and go with my instincts. Plus I have most of the Atlas track already anyways lol.

Good plan…get started building!

Regarding your question to Mark concerning grades over on his page .... it's all a matter of how many cars you want to pull and how heavy they are.  I prefer freights of 15ish cars, as that's the capacity of my arrival/departure tracks.

I just became able to run trains on my layout-under-construction in April.  It has 2 grade segments in the 3-3½% range, depending on specific location and variations inevitable in construction over a slightly-sloped floor.  Both have curves (104 & 112 diameter).  Track is GG & Ross.

So far, engines lacking traction tires are the most-challenged.  A Lionel 6-18064 Mohawk is limited to about 8 cars in order to avoid slipping when going uphill.  I have only two other such engines, the 6-18005 Hudson and the 6-18009 Mohawk, which I haven't tried yet.

In contrast, the newer 6-35083 L2a Mohawk, with tires, hauls 15 cars with aplomb, as does my 6-14553 scale F3 and a 1990s Weaver Baldwin Shark.  My 3rd Rail Dreyfuss Hudson handled 6 K-Line 18" aluminum cars without issue, but I suspect that longer trains may prove challenging for it.

Excellent information on your layout grades, Karl.  I haven’t had mine operating long enough to get that specific!

Lance, I really think these engines built in the last couple decades do far better pulling on grades than folks think.  Also, I don’t think the grades around 4% look that bad either.

That would be sweet if Gatorade sold track.  I was trying to figure out what track system you were doing, saw the box and got thirsty.

My vision must be worse than I thought. I did not see the box of Gatorade. 😛

Today we started the benchwork, a little bit to go yet with some bridge clearance cut outs but liking it so far!

Started to roughly lay out track. The table is getting moved into the train room next weekend.

Looks great, Lance!  We will look forward to seeing it in the train room!

Got a lot accomplished this weekend. The tables are now in. Have some more bracing to do but this is a big step forward!

Nice!! You're ready to start laying "test tracks" which we all know is just the track that goes down if you're too impatient to wait for enough track to establish the actual track plan, like me

Great stuff though! Looks good and level too!

The benchwork looks great in your room!  If I built mine in the basement or garage, it would be 3 inches too big when I tried to set it up in the train room.  I can measure thrice, and still cut it wrong!  😄

@Eddie in FL posted:

My vision must be worse than I thought. I did not see the box of Gatorade. 😛

It must be that brown box lower right side with "ZERO" printed on it :

Now I see it.  Thank you, Dave!  😄

@Mark Boyce posted:

The benchwork looks great in your room!  If I built mine in the basement or garage, it would be 3 inches too big when I tried to set it up in the train room.  I can measure thrice, and still cut it wrong!  😄

Mark, that's how my stuff ends up as well! I end up using a big hammer to "custom fit" the pieces together!

Waiting on some more switches to come in but starting to mock up some track. I know it’s not big by no means but used most of the available space I could for the time being. Outside is Atlas 063 and inner will be 054. Should be able to run a majority of what I like to run.

Looks great, Lance!  I used 054 throughout.  I could have gone with larger on the outside loop, but not as large as 072.  Everything I have can run on 054 as well

It's exciting when the puzzle starts to come together. Looks good so far.

@Lancer posted:

Waiting on some more switches to come in but starting to mock up some track. I know it’s not big by no means but used most of the available space I could for the time being. Outside is Atlas 063 and inner will be 054. Should be able to run a majority of what I like to run.

Lancer,

The bench work looks great and the fact that you are already able to start laying track is a good thing. You have a very manageable space and can pack in a lot of detail and still get to "almost" done status before it's time to leave this earth. Also, if you ever plan to have a larger layout you can build your skill level nicely with this set up. I'm anxious to see what you do with it. Keep it coming.

Dave

Thanks for the kind words everyone. The switches showed up so have had some more time to tinker with layout ideas. I have a pretty good idea how I want to do things. Just gotta check clearances and be sure to not get carried away with track and rob myself of real estate for buildings and scenery.

Looking good!

Peter