December 18, 2008

I don't have much to report yet, but I do want to take this opportunity to show the first piece of S-scale, code 83 rail installed on my layout. Ties, ballast, and weeds have already been installed here. The rail is painted, soldered to a feeder wire, installed on tie plates, and spiked into place.

In this close-up photo you should be able to see the tie plates and the spikes. Not too bad for a first-time effort.

December 27, 2008

Most of the O'Brien siding track is now down (about 3 feet). The pre-Christmas delivery of the S Helper Service PRR NW2 really helped to keep the excitement high. I only have three feet of track, but it is better than nothing!

I had a bit of a problem with keeping the rails straight (just in front of the engine), but the rest of it came out OK. I guess it is not too bad for a siding. I follow the prototype and use (scale) 39-foot sections of rail, each is individually wired to the DCC bus wire (clearly visible in this next photo).

In this close-up photo you can see some of the weeds I "planted". These were installed before the ballast was added so that they truly are growing through the ballast. I only added them near the end of the siding, which, presumably, doesn't get as much traffic.

The other detail I added after the rail was down were the Hayes Wheel Stops by Tomar Industries. In general I prefer these over bumpers at the end of sidings, because they don't touch the couplers and so are a bit more forgiving. Our scale couplers don't have much play in them, and when they hit the bumpers, they may actually break off. I placed mine such that the couplers don't touch the left side of the layout's backdrop.

January 15, 2009

The O'Brien siding track has been completed. This is the track visible in the upper, left-hand corner of the next photo. I have also completed the turnout leading from the branch line to the siding. This, coincidentally, is my first S-scale #4 turnout, completely built in-place. The Tortoise is hooked up, and it controls the turnout's throwbar (made out of PC circuit board). In the photo the Digitrax DS44 is connected to the Tortoise, but the power routing to the turnout's frog had not yet been soldered to the Tortoise. The bottom of the Tortoise is mounted somewhat below the scenery "horizon". The plan is to build a model of the Washington, PA passenger station in this location, so the Tortoise will be hidden inside the building.

My branch line is a busy place, so even though the track is not finished yet, the crew of #5912 is busy moving an empty hopper on the O'Brien siding.

January 21, 2009

The photo below shows the completed track from the O'Brien siding in the back, where the engine sits, to the main line up front. This is about six and a half feet of track. The unfinished side of the turnout is the rest of the main line. It will eventually lead to the side wall of the layout, to the left of the engine. I plan on cutting a hole through the side of the layout there and build an engine servicing facility in the closet (seen the background). The open area where the Tortoise sits will eventually become the Washington, PA passenger station. In the real world that building sat on curved track, just like what I am modeling here.

October 19, 2009

I am back to working on the track in Washington, PA. This photo I'm getting started with laying ties for the remaining section of track for this area.

November 3, 2009

As the photo below shows, I have installed all the remaining ties in this last section of the layout.

Looking at the same area from the other angle, this photo shows the ties stained.

After about another week I completed the ballasting, and weathering the ties and ballast. I am now ready to start laying rail. It usually takes me about two weeks to build a turnout and its associated track, so I am still on track for completing this job before the end of 2009.

December 6, 2009

I am making good progress. The mainline track that swoops from lower right of the photo to the upper center is almost finished. I am just wrapping up the construction of the turnout at the end.

Looking at the same area from the other angle, you can see that only the last section of track, including the one remaining turnout, still needs to be built. After the track has been built, I need to install the three remaining Tortoises, and hookup the programming track, which will be the tail of the spur of the track that still needs to be built.

December 25, 2009

I am happy to report that today I formally completed the track work on the PRR Chartiers Branch! It was a nice Christmas present to myself. This photos shows the entire Washington, PA area. I finished the track itself about a week ago, but it took me the rest of the time (given all the Christmas activities) to finalize the three remaining Tortoises. I was able to run the NW2 and the two freight cars shown in the photos around the entire area with no problems. I love S-scale, because I just don't have any problems with the running qualities of the equipment.

December 30, 2009

This area has a special situation, in that I wanted to have the end of one spur serve a dual purpose as a programming track. However, that spur is on a different module from the one under which all the electronics is stored. I needed to have wire come up from the cabinet under the layout, up to the second module. To maintain the ability to easily disconnect the modules, I decided to have some bridge wires between the modules. Similarly, the Digitrax DS44 stationary decoder resides on the second module but it needs to control two turnouts on the first module. Again, more wires that need to cross between the modules. I installed two six-position barrier strips, one on either side of the modules. I then connected them via some bridge wires. These will be easily removed when it is time to take the layout apart. I will hide them under scenery or a structure in the future.

The other side of the barrier strips have the more permanently installed wires hooked up in the next photo. I labeled each pair of contacts above the barrier strips so that I know which belongs to what.

As I mentioned above, the programming track started this all. I will be installing a switch in the cabinet under the first module. This switch will determine whether the rails of the spur are connected to the normal DCC bus or the programming wires. I didn't plan for this adhead of time, so I had to drill two holes to guide the programming track wires behind the layout and to the cabinet underneath. For a continuation on this topic, see the Utility Panel page.