No...its not a wreck. This is the train you send in to clean up the wrecks. A diesel switcher pulling a heavy crane, a floodlight and some cars to cart the scrap and service the crane.
The wreck train headed up by a Baldwin S-12 Switcher
The operating floodlight car - it really does light up when the track is powered!
The Brownhoist crane car. This is a heavy piece of rolling stock with 6 wheel trucks.
The crane work car. Its a combination caboose and flat car. This is the companion piece to the Brownhoist crane. As you can see they fit together as a nice unit.
My new American Flyer car arrived today - A Pennsylvania mill gondola with coil covers. It is a good addition to the two other gondola's with coil covers that American Flyer has produced - the Bethlehem Steel gondola and the EJ&E car from the NASG. Its not a bad car, but the overall tuscan red paint job is sort of...boring.
Here are some photos of the new car.
New out of the box!
The coil covers don't quite cover the entire gondola.
Close up of the coil cover showing the detail of the brackets and grab wires.
Well okay...technically, its videos of all three loops. But these are the first videos out showing trains running on all three tracks. The C&O diesel switcher pulling the mixed freight is on the new inner loop. The Burlington Northern U33C diesel hauling the string of Gunderson container cars is on the middle loop and the American Flyer 4-4-2 Atlantic is on the outer loop.
Laid the last of the inner mainline track today. Following that I ran temporary power leads to the bridge and successfully ran locomotives around the track. There is one turnout that the Gunderson well stack cars don't like - the cars hit the turnout throw - but otherwise the look works well. I kinda suspected the Gunderson cars would not work on the inner loop with the tighter radius curves. Fortunately, I can still run the cars, it'll just be more of a challenge to get them in and out of the main yard.
No pictures today, but both the SW-9 and an 4-4-2 Atlantic traversed the track.
The only fault...I forgot to install the automatic uncouplers on two sidings. Fortunately, its a relatively easy process to backtrack and fit them to the track.
I'm starting to work on some of the landscaping forms on the layout. I needed a little background on creating hills. Fortunately, I found this nifty video on Youtube from Woodland Scenic on creating detailed hills with rock formations. Well worth 10 minutes of your time.
I've been busy installing roadbed and track on the inner loop. Its almost ready to run a train on.
Its actually working out pretty well. The 'east yard' has a main line and two passing sidings. One will serve the passenger station while the other will be a place to stash extra cars not currently in use, or serve as a passing siding if the passenger station track is full. The interlocking tower is positioned to observe all the activity on the east side including both the middle and outer loops. I may install a floodlight tower near here to through some light into the yard area.
Pardon the mess - its a work in progress.
Another challenge was the northwest corner. I ultimately decided to install a tight inner turnout to service the west yard (and to use the original bridge layout). Problem was that the curve of the tracks actually crossed the inner corner of the layout and would be hanging in space. Soooo...I added a bit of table to fill the corner.
You can see the proposed track line done in red.
The corner is a piece of board with a 1x4 frame under it. On top of the is a piece of styrofoam. It was too tall for the surrounding terrain, but the foam cutter knocked down the edges to a reasonable slope. I used Woodland Scenics foam putty to smooth out the irregularities and fill the seams along the edges. A little sanding and it is good to go!
I was able to complete my testing of various locomotives traversing the outer loop of the layout today. Both the American Models 4-8-4 Northern and the American Flyer U33C successfully traveled the outer loop including the rebuilt 'ridge' in the back of the layout. Each locomotive hauled the same consist - 4 freight cars and a heavy caboose (the new Lionel Great Northern caboose). The Northern had a little trouble - as to be expected - but the U33C cruised up the grade and around the layout.
Want proof? I actually shot some video of each train. Not the best footage, but it shows the trains in action.
Here's some overview shots that show the new 'lay of the land' on the ridge. Formerly, I'd planned to locate coal loader on top of this hill, but the revised track plan no longer supports that concept. So...I'm thinking that this space will become a neighborhood of small tract type homes with a small church. Sort of a typical lower to middle income area with small homes along a street with the railroad running across their back yards (not too different from what I grew up with back in the 70's).
Overview of the ridge community showing the tunnel for the middle loop.
Oriented more to show the tunnel and how narrow the ridge has become.
The buildings will be the classic Plasticville Cape Cod homes.
Here's a show of the future 'East Yards" still need to lay the road bed for the sidings
And a shot of the "East Fork" of the river. The inner loop's roadbed in the foreground.
On a related note, I stopped by Wally World the other day and found a neat addition for the scenery - an Austin London Taxi. The model is labeled as being 1:63 scale, so you can drop this in to your layout with little worry. (and you can drop it into your 25mm games as well - who doesn't need an unmarked black sedan to wish your VIP out of harms way).
