Work Session

I am having a great Christmas break. Yesterday, Jack came back over and offered to work for his time running the trains. I gladly accepted - of course, the micro brew beers he brought just sweetened the offer! Anyway, we spent some time sculpting the hillside and tunnel area in Hermanie and talked alot about the way the mine is oriented. I had designed the track layout and built the module before I bought the Walthers mine kit and as the photo shows below, it's sort of backwards to the optimal orientation. The shift leading into the mountain is at the top of the rear structure, facing the viewer, so there would need to be at least a small hillside in the right front corner of the module. Also, the truck loading building (with the black base) blocks the view of the tracks and makes operations more challenging than necessary.

Since we had the skyboard down to work on the Hermanie hillside (just left of the photo view), we talked about moving the track (I really didn't want to do that!) and finally, Jack turned the mine around and we figured if shorten track WCC 3 it would fit pretty well. We took down the truck loading building and I think it will really open the module. Stay tuned for a new photo.

We did run trains and I say things went pretty smooth. Jack might not agree. I thought moving the IR port from the Irwin Yard to the Hermanie module would improve things so the yard operator (me) would not block the signals. According to Jack, I shift my position from the last operating session and was still blocking his path when he was wireless! The real challenge is that the Digitrax panels stop in the Irwin Yard, I still need to add the 2 remaining panels in E. McKeesport and West Staging. I told Jack the challenge I had creating the LocoNet cables and he said he would give it a try. Long story short, he was able to build the 2 cables, cutout the panel location in E. McKeesport and now we have control panels from end to end of the layout.

It was a very fruitful day!