Galesburg Railroad Days 2009

This weekend was Railroad Days in Galesburg, Illinois. The link below are a few photos of our day in Galesburg.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rrscott135/GalesburgRailroadDays2009#

Thanks for checking in!
Scott

First Train Run!

The Dragonfly Sub is up and running, if only for a few feet of track! We decided to hook up the good old MRC powerpack and test out a non-DCC engine... just to get something running! The kids and I had a great time. I think they were as excited as I was running the engine back and forth on 5 feet of track. We have come a long way in a short time. It wasn't the "Golden Spike" ceremony, but it was certainly a milestone!

Construction Update:
More progress has been made laying track this past weekend. The entire staging yard (Mendota) is complete. The mainline is progressing east from Walnut to the switch at the River Vally Coop spur. There remains a short section then from River Valley Coop around to the staging yard. Also to be completed is the lift out bridge section as well as the town of Prophetstown. I am having some second thoughts about the track configuration in Prophetstown. I am more inclined to have the mainline "continue on" (beyond the modelled portion of railroad) and include more industries for generating traffic. This piece of the railroad is back on the drawing board and will take some more study. The more I research the real operations for this branch, I am finding out that the railroad operated what was nicknamed "the Moonlight" job.

The Moonlight job ran from Mendota over the Tenth Sub to either Denrock or all the way to Barstow. So, my initial idea of basing a local out of Prophetstown is not prototypical. A yard did not exist at Prophetstown, at least in the sense of using it to sort/classify cars, which is what I was initially intending. I may have to tweak things a bit... but then again, that is all part of the fun of Model Railroading!

Scott

Pictures of latest trackwork

Below are a few photos of the completed trackwork in Walnut. The "other" track at the diamond is the CNW RR. It will not be powered, but I am hoping will add to the idea of a connection with the outside world.

The track that has the Rio Grande (brown) Hi-cube parked on it is the interchange track with the CNW.

 

I am now set to progress East (railroad east that is) from Walnut and continue laying track. More pictures as more track is completed!

Thanks for stopping!

Scott

Weekend Update

I had two very productive "late night" work sessions this weekend. The construction is to a point where most of the work can be done at night, after the kids have gone to bed. In other words, it is all quiet work! I tuned the radio to the local K-Love station to keep me company and got to work.

I have completed laying track in the town of Walnut. I even installed Caboose Hobbies ground throws for the turn-outs. Something that I have in the past, "left for another day".... but now I am going about this build more methodically. So far, it seems to be paying off. I am really enjoying the work and given that the railroad is of medium size, I can see real progress!

I will post some pictures of the progress soon.

Thanks for stopping by...
Scott

Track work is Next!

The cork roadbed is painted (at all turn-out locations and yards) and I am now ready to begin trackwork. Before I painted the cork roadbed, I used a drywall rasp to plane off and even up the cork. This is a little time consuming, dusty, and messy, but the pay-off for improved performance is well worth it!
I think my plan is the glue the track to the cork, using spikes only to hold it in place while the glue dries. Once I get some track installed, I will post photos.

I did post some photos of a railroad that was constructed at a previous house. Check in the Links section located at the right side of the page.

Thanks for stopping by!
Scott

Test Post

This is a test post to figure out how to post photos small and then allow them to expand when clicked.






I think I have it working correctly!

Scott

Let there be CORK!

After topping the benchwork with 2" Styrofoam, I began the process of laying the cork roadbed. I decided on cork roadbed for several reasons. I like the look of an elevated roadbed and the bevelled edges help when contouring the ballast. I considered using Homasote roadbed, but the cost was more than the cork roadbed.

I began by transferring the CAD drawn trackplan to the Styrofoam. I did this in several ways. I first determined key points on the alignment. For example, the beginning and ending points of a curve (PC and PT) or the Point of Intersection (PI) of a turnout. I then "staked" the PC's, PT's, and PI's based on dimension as measured in the CAD program. To construct the tangent sections was simply an exercise in connecting the dots!
The actual curve portion of the alignment was a little more complicated. I thought about using the old string attached to a secure board with a marker on the other end to mark the radius. Probably would have worked fine. But instead, I actually plotted out the trackplan 1"=1" scale and laid the plot onto the layout and scribed the centerline leaving a slight indentation in the foam. For clarity, I then went back over the indentation with a marker. After the track plan was transferred to the layout, it was just a matter of laying the cork roadbed. I used a liquid nail type product to secure the cork (held overnight with push pins). And let me say, that a little goes a long way when it comes to liquid nails. Lay a bead down for 1/2 of the cork and then spread it with a putty knife. Too much and it will ooze up between the pieces of cork.
What follows are more pictures... this time of the railroad with 90% of the cork installed. You will notice that there are a couple of areas that appear to have large sheets of cork installed rather than the typical roadbed. I did this in areas where there is to be a yard with several tracks/turnouts. I found the 12"x12" sheets of cork at Lowe's Home Improvement. The price was right, so I thought I would give it a try.

Next Up: Track Work!
Thanks for visiting!
Scott

On to Benchwork!

Since I am new at this Blogging stuff, I have a lot of ground to cover to bring readers up to the current state of the railroad. Over the next few entries, I intend to do just that.

Below are some pictures of the construction progress of the railroad. The benchwork is typical open grid using 1x3's. This time around I used wall brackets for the benchwork adjacent to the walls. I wanted to have room for storage and eliminate the tendency to knock into legs while working on the railroad. Up to this point the brackets have performed as I expected. The portion of the railroad that is the peninsula (Walnut, Illinois) is supported using 1x4's for legs. I figured if I needed to use legs, I better make them stout! I also added a shelf that helps to solidify the entire peninsula. One of the uses of the shelf will be to provide a place for the DCC equipment.

Thanks for stopping!
More to come!
Scott Stephenson