The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.22.14

This morning and this evening, I worked on the layout.  I glued down the turnout for the yard lead as well as the actual yard lead.  Last night, I thought I only had to create one extended turnout ground throw (to run under the trackage).  I was wrong.  I have three that need to be completed.  Glued up the other two and installed later this evening.

I laid out all the tracks for the yard.  They haven't been cut and shaped yet.  This was more for determining rough track spacing and get a visual of the overall yard.  With the key turnouts installed on the east end, I should be able to make some serious progress now!

My goal is to complete all trackwork by the end of this weekend!  If I'm really gung ho, I have numerous other projects that I hope to complete too.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm expecting a great update blog report with photos by the end of the weekend.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.20.14

This evening, I worked on the layout for a short time.  I removed the turnout, drew out the new track arrangement and applied plaster to make the appropriate transitions from mainline ballast height down to the OSB plywood flat top (in the yard).

I also plastered (over a styrene sheet) bridge over the creek in Ottawa Yard.  I'm hoping to start laying track again tomorrow or Wednesday of this week.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.19.14

I apologize for the lack of reports lately.  I have been quite busy with work and other stuff.  Plus, my wife and kids were involved in a car accident last week the consumed all my attention.  All are ok though.

Since receiving the last turnout (the double slip) last week, I have been spending very brief moments in the layout room checking the alignment of the yard ladder with the double slip.  I quickly found that the double slip was too long and caused issues with the yard ladder alignment and the yard storage capacity greatly shortening the yard tracks.  

This was disturbing to me as I wasn't sure how to rectify the issue.  I only have so much space here.  Last night, I spent a lot of time staring at the track configuration, moving turnouts around, etc until I finally found a layout I like.  I was surprised later when I found I had been working this out for two hours!  

Here are two quick pictures of the revised track configuration.  One turnout will need to be pulled up at East Ottawa Yard.

The bad out of this...I don't need the double slip.  I checked to see if it could be used elsewhere, but no dice.  I will hold on to it until I complete the trackwork for the entire layout, but it appears it will be going up for bid on eBay.  I should be able to move it though.

In other news, I have seen some photos on eBay of the RI sand hoppers with a large billboard logo.  I really like it and think it will be an easy logo change for the Athearn Rock Island airslide hoppers.

Here's a pic of the prototype I want to re-create.

The Athearn airslide hoppers that I have in stock.

The Microscale 60-19 Decal Sheet required to make it so.

I hope to play around with this soon.  I'll post pics of my progress.