Thursday, 25 May 2017

Trainspotting ...

I saw northbound Train 12 at Davis today:

A short while later a pair of F7s rolled through town with a string of empty box cars. They were probably headed up to Kansas for grain loading.

I chased the freight to Wynnewood where I got some more video:

Regards,
Ron


Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Rebuilding Gene Autry (final)

I've completed the wiring and done some test running, and I can now report that Gene Autry is again open for business.

Here's the revised track schematic diagram that will be installed in the fascia:


















The turnouts for the air base and the passing siding are located the wrong way around, in that the siding ended north (to the left) of the air base siding, but this arrangement gave me more room for the air base.

I still have to install the pushrods for the Peco points, and then wire power to their frogs. However, I've done some testing and the current situation does not present any problems for operation.

Regards,
Ron

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Rebuilding Gene Autry (part 3)

I spent Tuesday laying the track at Gene Autry, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. My photos really don't show the result very well, but here they are:

Gene Autry from the Ardmore (south) end, with the airpark in the distance. The main track is the centre track,
and is sitting on 3mm cork roadbed. The passing siding on the aisle side and the house track on the wall side
are both on 1.5mm cork roadbed.
Gene Autry looking generally south. The flatcar is located at the 'team track' area and the covered hopper
is at the feed mill.

This is the revised trackwork at the airpark. The box cars are sitting on one of the two sidings.




































































The next step is to complete the wiring. I soldered droppers to every section of track as I fitted it, and intended to complete the wiring yesterday. However, an unplanned trip to the hospital emergency ward yesterday afternoon put an end to that idea.  I'm still not running on all cylinders, so that job will probably now have to wait until next week.

I also have to construct and install the push-rods to operate these points, but it may be a few weeks before I can get around to doing that. These Peco points have been modified to make them "DCC friendly" so their frog rails will be unpowered until I install the push-rod mechanisms. I'm hoping that they'll work reliably enough without powered frogs that I can host an operating session in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for looking.
Ron