My G-guage Empire...6' at a time!

Well, more work done, more track, more videos!
First, the maiinline was extended about annother 10' or so off the "West" end, giving me about a 110' run or so, into the area that will eventually be Frankenstein Trestle.
Then, painting my new caboose red, then weathering it and the rest of my freight car fleet. Now all I need is MEC decals!
More stone, general trackwork and realignment, improvement on the lower bridge's abutments, and coupler work on some of the cars,
...and THEN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj06f2nRKKk

SUCCESS!!!

I have more vid I'll post later.
ENJOY!

I have just found your thread and it is an impressive layout. Haven't seen any posts in close to a year. I have a question. All of your video shows the train starting at the lower right and ending at the upper right. Doesn't it go in a circle?

Later!
Mr. Ed

Not yet. I'm working on that.
Funny you should post this question just now as I was JUST outside surveying my yard and concidering what to do next.
Most likely I will temmpororily close the loop until I get enough mmatrial together to go all the way behind the house. At some point I plan to have a long, single track line connecting two reversing loops, and possibly a shorter loop near the middle for continuous runninng.
I just got RT-4 in the mail, so if anyone's interested I can eventually produce a diagraam of what I have now and what I plan for later.

Right now it is snowing (AGAIN!) so asside from clearing the "winter-debris" from the line and test-running my new 2-8-2 (AMAZING machine!) I haven't done much this year. Hopefully when the warm weather arrives I'll be aable to get closer to completing thw initial loop for continupus operation.
STAY TUNED!

slashmaster wrote:Hi Cosmo,

I see you're a G-scaling man! I use to have a battery powered bachman set I ran outdoors. I used aluminum rail spiked to oversized wooden ties to give it the narrow gauge look. Then one day a vandal took a rock from the stone wall and kept dropping it on the tracks so I threw in the towel. Have you ever thought about Live steam? I just ordered an X3 mill I'm still waiting for so playing with the idea of that. I figure if someone does the same thing to the tracks at the steam club I won't have to fix it.

Really...Somebody actually ruined your hand-laid track?? People are truly ridiculous these days.

UPDATE!!!
Thanks to the $2k I spent on a new porch, I now have a surplus of booth old and new lumber to "recycle" into my layout! The plan is still to "close the loop" for now. I got quite a bit done on the wooden sections last week before the "Early Monsoon Season" set in. Now that things are drying out a bit I plan to continue construction.
I'll get videos posted once the loop is finished, hopefully by next week.
STAY TUNED!!!!

Still working on completing the loop,...
BUT, I got thee decals for my 2-8-2 in the mail!

Have a look:


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Fc ... directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_U ... directlink

Here's the latest & greatest from my tiny slice of NH in CT,
The upper bridge is Glenn Falls and the lower is the Sawyer River.
ENJOY!

My latest video is now on YOUTUBE!
Type in "Cosmo706" in the search box and you'll get ALL my stuff.
Also: much of my equipment, including my now famous (thanks to LSOL) 2-8-2 will be running in the basement of AMATOS Toy & Hobby in Middletown, CT, Thursday evenings and weekends 12-5pm. This is a great chance for "shakedowns" before SPRINGFIELD! :D
Oh, and I now have my SECOND MEC locomotive, a USA Trains GP-9! (Ok, so it carries a GP-7 road number, but "hey,... it's G gauge!")

It has arrived...
...the FUTURE of Mountain Division motive power...
..the ULTIMATE WEAPON in the fight against 2.5% grades!

The ARISTO LIVE STEAM 2-8-2 IS IN DA HOUSE! :O

Now,...
...if only I could find enough TRACK outside to RUN the thing on!

Updates, updates, updates...
Just got the Aristo 10-AMP p/s system last week...
WOW! What a difference 10 amps makes! The GP takes right off up the hill with 8 or 9 cars no problem. Can't wait to get the (electric) 2-8-2 back to the house (still in Middletown at Amato's toy & hobby) to see how she likes the extra amperage.
Meantime, I got some heathers and some junipers to plant along the line, (to add some color in the bleaker months )
Still need to close the temporary loop by the house. I'll probably try to get that done this week before my time gets soaked up by my new job at VRR.
What else? OH! Al the neat stuff I got over the past few months for rolling stock!
I was gifted a modern MEC caboose (to go with my GP) and picked up two pulpwood flats (one B&M+ one MEC) 'cause it wouldn't be Northern New England without em, as well as 4 USAT boxcars with New England roadnames, so now I'm pretty well set for freight equipment for the time being.
Ok, time to get some z's so I can place my new plants tomorrow.
Cya!

Ok, here she is, in her new lettering and numbers, with her sister, "the electric"







and from the other side:







And in other news, the plants are in the ground now:




[


and on yonder hillside:







Ok, that's all for now. More later, I PROMISE!

As promised:

HURRICANE DAMAGE!


Now, on to more recent times:

The embankment beneath the train is all new,...

....it replaces a trestle-span that extended to the left where the train sits now.


Look closely...

...at the ballast!

Hint-hint!

It's CINDER!

That is one NICE railroad you have there, Cosmo! Awesome!

Thanks! A lot of "sweat equity" tied up there.

Ok, first things first:

*BUMP!*

...ok, now that THAT's out of the way,...
"Spring is the mischief in me..." says Robert Frost, and so true with me as well.
I decided to rework the mainline curve at "Sawyers"...
...which meant:
1) Ripping out the old mainline, including
2) the passing siding and switches associated with it and
3) the yard throat and sidingss...
...in short, the entire area got a "Spring makeover.

Before:

Passenger sta. at Sawyers, (train is on the mainline.)



Curve at left will be replaced



Overhead view of the same curve, opposite direction.

SO... after 3 days of work, I now have:

A whole new yard area!


The main is still to the left, now on a re-aligned, sweeping curve.
The passing siding is now on the right, along with the freight house, and the passenger station is now to the left of the main.



Looking from the opposite direction, you can see the more "sensible" arrangement of the freight hose and station.


Things look better now with the wider radius curve.

And one more:

...now, to do something about that day-gone S-curve to the left!

Compare all this to the pics above from right after the hurricane!
Now... that's still not "done," as of yet.
There's still room for me to add another "industry" with a siding or two coming off the spur.
Originally, the spur was "Mill Siding," but I'm thinking... coal trestle?
Like I said, there's room enough yet to come off from there with a "proper" Mill Siding (using some of the all-too-numerous LGB turnouts I have.)
Ohhh the possibilities!