Musings on a 4x8...

Well, I test-laid the last bit of track tonight in the little two-track industrial area. So, now I just have to fine-tune things, solder the track and wire everything up. I also have to determine where I'm going to put the uncopling magnets and figure out what I'm going to do for switch machines.



I also have to offer very sincere word of thanks to the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology's Model Railroad Club (RITMRC) for donating a car to the collection of rolling stock for the RF&L. Here it sits on the spur, where the grain elevator will be located. THANK YOU VERY MUCH RITMRC!!! it is greatly appreciated!

I also figured some of you guys could use a laugh, so I thought I'd show you a pic of my security guard, who watched over the layout while I was taking care of business at the store...


I suppose I could have used Allan Pinkerton's "ugly mug," but I thought Mr. Hill was a more appropriate choice.

Incidentally...

If anyone would like to make a financial contribution towards building the layout, I have opened an account at my local bank for that purpose. Contact me via PM and I will give you the bank's contact info.

I love getting packages in the mail.

A few more donations... :D

MORE PRESS!!!

Got a blurb in the FILLMORE COUNTY JOURNAL (one of the local weekly newspapers).

http://www.fillmorecountyjournal.com/ma ... M=4172.377

I received a package from Becker's Model Railroad Supply in the Twin Cities today. I ordered a 40' modern Santa Fe boxcar and a 50', outside braced boxcar.

So, I think I'm doing good on boxcars. Also, two flats and two gondolas should be sufficient for the collection of rolling stock.

What I really need to get now are a bunch of grain cars and tank cars for the agri-buisinesses. A friend of mine, has suggested adding a stockyard, which I may do, which means getting my hands on some stock cars...

But, that'll be a little ways down the road yet. What I really want right now, is to get enough donations to partially offset the cost of the Digitraxx Zephyr system and the switch machines. That's the biggest expendature of the whole layout (and money I don't have at the moment), but one that would make the layout operational and would probably draw more attention to it while it was on display.

Hopefully these articles will put a few sheckles in the RF&L account...


Anyway, that's the latest from Lake Woebegone, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children... above average.
(- Garrison Keillor, "A Prairie Home Companion")

I also had another article written up. This one is from an interview I had with a reporter from the Republican - Leader (no, not a political rag, but the result of two, small-town newspapers, the Preston Republican and the Lanesboro Leader, merging a few years ago)...

http://www.hometown-pages.com/main.asp? ... leID=35043

Well, kids, what can I tell ya...

The busy Holiday Season had me busy with work and family gatherings, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to get any work done on the layout. So, I don't have much of an update this time around.

Badically, I still need to build my mock-ups of the structures I intend on using on the layout so I can figure out the layout of the streets and how I want to arrange the buildings, etc.

I talked to an expert on Milwaukee Road structures, so now I have the color scheme figured out for the railroad structures on the layout. They'll have the two-tone grey scheme that most MILW structures had in the late 70s, right up to the SOO buy-out. The only exception to this will be the Atlas passenger depot, which I plan on painting tan with maroon trim, just like the Minnehaha Depot in Mnneapolis. I chose the tan/maroon scheme because I think the colors will appeal to a broader audience and also because they come close to the Minnesota state colors of Maroon and Gold.


I recieved another package from ABC Hobbies about a week ago. I ordered a couple BLMA rubber grade crossng kits and a concrete grade crossing kit. I'm going to put the rubber mats o the double-track crossing next to the depot and am hoping to eventually get a set of cantilevered crossing signals and gates (a little "eye candy" to attract people to take a look at the layout the next time it's on display and/or at the auction).

But...

That's pretty much what I have to report at the moment. Donations have been slow in coming (which is understandable, given the economic climate), so I haven't been able to get the DCC setup, or the switch machines so I can get the trackwork finished and the layout wired up. But, I still have about seven months to go until the Relay, so we'll see how things go.


Anyway, that's the latest on the RF&L. I'll give you guys an update as things progress on my end.

Ordered a few more structures yesterday and they should be here sometime next week. Not that I'm ready for them, but if I can get a few of them here, built and ready for instalation, the further ahead I am in getting the layout done (and I really don't want to be down to the last minute working on things!). Not to mention Walthers had them on sale, so I figured I should get them before they went back to full price.

Something I am going to do, is to "tweak" the trackplan a little. Not that I really want to, but there are a couple things that just aren't working right that I'm going to remedy before I get too much farther down the road with that. Nothing too radical, but I just need to move a couple things a little, and change a couple things around.

This is one of the upsides to not having things soldered and wired yet... a maluable track plan. On the downside... construction is being held up because of no DCC setup, no switch machines, wires or soldering. Hopefully I can get a few more financial donations in the next month or so...

Anyway, that's the latest from the trenches.

More to come.

Called ABC again today.

Ordered a couple vehicles that were on sale (wanted to snap them up before they went back to full price). Got a combination funeral coach (aka "hearse") and ambulance that will be parked in front of the funeral home (I'm good friends with the local mortician, who also happens to operate quite a few funeral homes in Fillmore County, so I am going to put his business on the layout), a classic '64 Mustang (which will be owned by a classic car buff) and a 90s-era Chevy Caprice painted to resemble a Minnesota State Highway Patrol cruiser.


Something else I would like to have, but is not in stock at Walthers, is a black Peterbilt rig. 378, I think (whichever one looks like the one in Smokey and the Bandit), with a sleeper on the back. This will be mated to a silver trailer and parked next to a small trucking terminal. And, the reason I want to do this is to honor a friend of the family and a heck of a guy who was killed last year in a highway accident. His trucking friends made a memorial truck dedicated to him, with a black Pete and silver trailer. So, I'd like to have a scale replica that closely resembles that truck sitting next to the trucking company bearing his name.

So, if someone has a 1:87th black Peterbilt 378 with a sleeper, and is willing to part with it, I would be greatly appreciative (PM me).


Another thing I'd like to get my hands on, is an operating cantilievered grade crossing signal with gates. If you've got one that's gathering dust, shoot me a PM. I think it would be an eye catching item on the layout that would attract people to it (hey, moving gates and flashing lights...).

I suppose nother option would be to get a hypno-toad, but I don't know anyone who has one of those...


On a happier note (or two)...

I've received a financial contribution, or two, and have FINALLY been able to order the Zephyr DCC setup. I am VERY happy about that. I also have a couple local community groups that have expressed an interest in assisting with alocating funds to help purchase more of the electrical equipment (most notably, the Tortise switch machines). So, there's progress in that department.

I was also approached by one of the local businesses, who offered to display the layout in the window of their store! They're located on Main Street on a buisy corner across from the Fillmore County Courthouse, so plenty of people will walk by and see it. So, if I can get the electrical equipment and get the layout wired up before March, I can have a train running on the track and generate some interest in it and the Relay For Life (and hopefully generate more donations).

Other than that, I'm satisfied, for now. Progress is moving a little slower than I'd like, but once the layout is wired up, things will proceed more swiftly.

Anyway, Just thought I'd update you guys on that front.

One other thing I should mention, is that I've also settled on a name for the small town on the layout.


HOPE.


I though about using the German or Norwegian word for "hope," but they didn't really sound like the names of towns. So, I'll leave it in English. And, why Hope? Hope for a cure for Cancer, Hope for a brighter future without the disease...


HOPE.


It just fits the cause.

Just received the first few structures that will occupy downtown Hope...

* Walthers Merchant's Row II
* Walthers Al's Victory Service


And one of the first bits of an agri-business...

* Walthers Stock Yard (which will be part of a livestock sales barn)


The first house has also arrived...

* RIX small house with front porch.


I already have an atlas passenger station and two DPM or Smalltown USA buildings that will also be two other businesses downtown.

And there will be a few more to come in the near future.


But, that's all I have to report at the moment. Will update again soon.

More stuff came today!

I received 4-5 bottles of paint and some modeling cement (my last bottle up and took a walk... and I have no idea where it went...)

I also got another RIX house with a front porch and a couple more buildings for the businesses...

Pikestuff - Shultz's Garage and KB Tire.


I also picked up a set of Plaststruct horizontal storage tanks. I was going to use these as the fuel storage tanks for the engine servicing facility... but when I opened them up and saw that each tank was about the size of a tank car... yeah, no. Too big for what I was thinking.

So, they will be used for the bulk oil/fuel oil/LP/fertilizer dealer instead.

But, that's the latest on aquisitions.

I'm planning on making a run to LaCrosse on Saturday to pick up some more material. Big thing on my list is some scale lumber to custom build a new platform for the passenger depot. I think that will add some more visual interest to the depot scene. Especially since I want to exend the platform through the yard lead and up to the main line, similar to the platform at the Winona, MN depot. (The main line was relocated about a hundred feet, or so, from the station, so they put planks between the rails of the yard lead, like on a wooden grade crossing, for passengers to use when boarding the Empire Builder.)

Here's a photo of the Empire Builder at Winona, showing the lumber portion of the platform...
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews ... .image.jpg

... That should give you a rough idea of what I want to do.


Well, that's the latest on the RF&L project. More updates to follow as progress continues. More pics to come after I can get to Rochester and print a few off to make room on my memory card!!!

Well, this afternoon I pretty much tore up all of the industrial trackage that was inside the mainline "loop," because it just wasn't working for what I want to do.

The biggest annoyances were the two-track yard and one stub track that ran parallel with the switching lead. I tried to figure out a purpose for both of those, but space restrictions negated any of my Ideas. So, I decided to do a major re-vamp of the industrial track.

I've retained the switching lead, with the grain elevator track running parallel to it. Now, the local crew can do a run-around while working the grain elevator, instead of having to shove the cars down the previous stub arangement and drag them back.


So, that takes care of the grain elevator. However, I'm still toying with where I'm going to put the track for...

* The feed/seed dealer. I'm thinking about either adding a stub just for that track, or have it located somewhere on the existing track for the elevator.
* The creamery. One of the biggest agri-businesses for my hometown of Preston, MN, is the Foremost Foods creamery. Tanker trucks bring raw milk in from the local farms and haul pasturized milk out to various customers. From what I understand, when the Milwaukee Road ran through town, the plant had a contract to provide powdered, whole milk to the Hershey Co. So, I want to include a similar operation on the layout.
* Bulk oil/Fuel Oil/LP/Fertilizer Dealer.
* Engine Servicing Facility. I'm thinking I might run a spur off the main next to the passenger depot and then branch the stub to the engine house off the stub to the petrochemical dealer.

I know it's kind of confusing, but you'll understand what I mean after I get things figured out, and post pics of the remodeled track plan.


So, I've gone and made more work for myself, but I just couldn't make things work as it was and it was better to make it a more functional layout than to wait until after everything was soldered, wired and ballasted... and THEN decide to change it. Oh well...


But, that's it for now, I'll post more again soon.

The latest on the RF&L...

The roadbed for the grain elevator, feed/seed distributor, creamery and bulk oil/fertilizer dealer have been replaced, ready for track to be re-layed (to be done today).

I still need to figure out the track arangement for the engine servicing facility, which will branch off the switching lead by the depot. I'm contemplating whether to leave it a single track, or make it a double track (with the second track also used to serve Vander Plas Lumber Supply. (The brothers who run Preston Lumber LLC., and who have donated the boards to build this railroad are named Vander Plas, so that's my nod to their contribution to the layout.)

I also have strips of cardboard down on the layout and am getting the streets/roads figured out for downtown Hope, as well as the other streets/roads in and around downtown.

Also, thanks to the donations from one of my cousins and a local community organization, I have been able to purchase the Zephyr DCC controler. I am going to be a guest speaker for another local organization and they may make a minor contribution to the layout fund, which would then make it possible for me to purchase the Tortise switch machines. (As well as other electrical odds and ends to get the trains rolling!)

Anyway...

Just a short and sweet one. Hopefully, I'll be getting up to Rochester this week to print some pics so I can clear out my memory card and get some new shots up here for you guys. More to come...

Alright, so...

I had one of my friends dig out my copy of Model Railroader's "Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals" (I say "one of my friends," because my "library" is in storage while I'm remodeling the basement...) and I'm going to build Hope's engine servicing facility similar to the one that Marty McGuirk describes.

It will feature a Pikestuff small, modern engine house, and a custom built servicing pad with Woodland Senics' diesel servicing facility bits 'n' pieces, and a Stewart Hobbies sand tower and Snyder fuel crane. I'm also going to have a Stewart Hobbies diesel fuel storage tank as well. That will allow me to custom build a compact servicing facility for the Hope local (and, yet will also facilitate a six-axle brute, during the grain season). So, that's the basic plan for the servicing facility.

The only other news worth sharing, is that the Digitraxx Zephyr Plus unit arrived today and yesterday my order of DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) switches arrived from Radio Shack that will operate the switch machines... once I get those ordered.

I also have another order that should be arriving tomorrow, consisting of three grain hoppers I ordered from my supplier in the Twin Cities (Becker's Model Railroad Supply). So, I will get a shot of them along with the other donated equipment (I FINALLY got my pictures developed the other day, so I have an empty image card and can get some fresh pics posted of the layout!).

So, that's the latest on the RF&L. More to come shortly...