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.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.12.14

I have been fighting off a cold and then a stomach bug which kept me out of the layout room lately.  Tonight, I went back in for a little bit.  I trimmed up the turnouts for the west yard ladder in Ottawa.  I had to remove the turnout out on the mainline.  I laid that earlier before starting to lay out the yard tracks.  I didn't like the angle that it was coming into the yard.  With the custom built turnouts, these are extremely straight.  I love looking down the line of turnouts to see a perfectly straight line.  The last turnout where it enters the mainline skewed my "straight line" view.  It wasn't hard to pry the turnout up.  I will secure it back down after I get all the yard cut and shaped.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.06.14

Tonight, I worked on the second BLMA signal bridge kit.  This is the early style double track bridge.  The kit went together really easy.  BLMA did an excellent job designing this.  The result is a very high quality bridge.

Here are photos...

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.15.14

This evening, I worked on my first project on the new family project table in the layout room.  I assembled the BLMA Cantilever Bridge kit.  This is an etched brass kit.  I have never built one of these before.  I must say it wasn't too bad.  BLMA did a great job designing this kit for easy assembly.

Here are photos...

Here is an example of the etched brass parts in a kit.

Here's the completed project.  I will add LED searchlight signal heads from BeNScale.

Another view of the completed structure.  It will need to be painted a flat black.

Here's a penny next to the signal bridge to give you a reference of size.

Back in the day, my friend Marcus and I as well as a few others would get together one evening to work on model railroad projects.  We would all gather around the card table, put on some cheesy 80s movie, work on projects, laugh and have a good time.  I'm hoping with the newly built craft table, that we can do this again.  Those were some great times with friends as well as being quite productive.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 01.04.13

Happy New Year to all my fellow ROCK fans.  I was out of the modeling scene over the holidays due to traveling, spending time with family in Illinois and fighting off various bugs running through the family.  I'm ready now to focus back on the layout.

Today, thanks to the help of my cousin Roger, I was able to procure the 3/4" birch plywood for the family craft table that will be in the middle of the room.  Wow!  The new desk really sets off the room.  All four of us can work at the table on various projects at the same time.  With the chairs pushed in, there is sufficient walkway room for operating the layout.  The side aisles are 30" wide and the area in front of the yard is 38" wide.

Here's a photo of the desk installed.  Little by little, the new and improved layout room is coming together.  I couldn't be more pleased!

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 12.25.13

This evening, after an awesome day spent with family and lots of food, I worked on wiring up the signal board for the Utica Interlocking while watching Duck Dynasty.

I will use 2 pole (two leads in (+ & -)), 6 position (only using four) rotary switches. I can turn the rotary switch to one of four signal indications for each signal.  I'm using custom built dual head searchlight signals.  The aspects that I can set are:

Clear - green over red

Approach - yellow over red

Stop - red over red

Approach Diverging - red over yellow

Here are pics of the wired board and rotary switch.

It's expensive to buy the logic boards to control the signals.  My layout is small so I chose using a simpler control method.

- Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all the ROCK fans!  I hope everyone enjoys the day with family and friends.