Some Scenery

Had to take a break from the layout for a while so progress has been limited to an hour stolen here and one there. The twins and I went to the train show in Springfield and I bought an interlocking tower and the end track bumper for Herminie. I am (sortof) taking a couple of weeks vacation over the holidays and last night I spent the evening adding some grass to the Irwin Yard and Herminie.

Irwin Yard getting some landscaping

 Today, I added some people, trees and stumps to help bring the scene to life.

Westnmoreland Coal Company Mine No. 4

Tonight, Adam and Nicholas can into the train room to run trains and make sure we can fit 3 operators inside the layout. It worked out pretty well. My enthusiasm to work on the layout is so we can have some friends from St. Helen come over and see the trains - their son is a huge train fan!

Adam (background) and Nicholas running trains with Dad

Busy Thanksgiving

Hope all my friends had a good Thanksgiving, I sure did. Turkey, stuffing and all the fixings spending time with Lisa's family and a couple of days with Dad, Cathy and her family. In between, I got a lot of work on the railroad.
First, I put all the fascia back up, this time permanently. I had thought of cutting new fascia since there were a lot of screw holes from the old but I decided it was OK. I did have to paint 3 pieces of lighting valances that I reused for fascia. With the front of the layout having two sides I needed more green masonite than previously and likewise, with the train against 3 walls, I needed less sky blue ones. I mounted all the throttle and waybill holders as well as the Digitrax UP5 and UR90 panels.
Most of this was done before we headed to PA to visit Dad. On the way, I was able to stop at T&K Hobby in Bridgeport OH with my shopping list. I did not get the fine ballast I was looking for but a few things I was not able to find at the train shows this fall - rubber tipped tweezers, a Zona saw and 2 soft handle XActo knives. I also stocked up on a few Polly S paints (including Aged Concrete) and the last rail stop for the supply track at the mine. It's heavy timbers in a pile of ballast. Will look great.
Finally, I was able to rough in the mountains around the tunnel portals in Manor and Herminie. With different portals - one concrete and one stone - it looks like 2 different tunnels. Things are coming along very nicely. I even have a plan for operations where the city will be E. McKeesport for west bound traffic from Irwin servicing two sidings and Jeannette for east bound traffic servicing one spur.

Tnnnel portal at Herminie

Manor tunnel portal passes behind Dailey's Coal & Fuel and Keystone Sand & Supply

Dad...how long did you spend on the last layout?

Adam recently asked me that question as I was showing him the progress I had made ballasting all the track. It was a fair question since most of his pre-teen years were spent watching the previous layout come to life and in less than a year, I have gone from benchwork to running trains.
Our last move was in 2000 and I had originally planned to build a train in the entire basement. Four kids and limited time to work on it meant that was impractical. Bruce and I had lost touch so I was on my own to create a trackplan which took about 3 years and ultimately was a pretty simple point-to-point with staging yards. Another year or two for benchwork, a few years for cork and track, etc. To some degree my interest (or availability) waxed and waned and I needed to invest in almost everything brand new, I had a couple of locomotives and a lot of rolling stock but had not taken the DCC plunge yet (I knew I wanted to do this layout in DCC). I had some track but had to piece a large number of switches so I broke the purchase over time. I remember thinking each stage as being difficult - benchwork (I am terrible at measure twice cut once), electrical, ballasting, etc. Every step I did some reading and research, figured out how I would do it (sky backdrops comes to mind), try it, get frustrated, walk away for a while and then try again.
I had my first in September 2011 - yes, eleven years after we had moved it. We had a few problems but it was the first time I really tried to "run trains" and use car cards and waybills. It was a blast! We had a few more operating sessions but I did not get much more done on the scenery. In about 6 months I was tearing out the layout in sections for the new house.
It took a little over a year to come up with a trackplan for the new space - Bruce was a huge help in cutting down the track planning time, since it's his design! I also dabbled with multi-deck options and staging yards in the main part of the garage before setting on the current loop layout. A couple of weeks in December 2013 of lighter-than-usual work allowed me to get the benchwork pretty much done. I had a lot of the track I needed so an order of some cork and a few flex track and I was on the way. I realized I had a lot of materials - wire, DCC, ballast, scenery, freight cars, engines - that I was making steady, and sometimes amazing - progress, Of course this kept me motivated.
I had not had an official operating session yet but I am close. Somewhere between 2 and 3 years in the new house and I will be running trains again. A whole lot faster that the 11 years at the last place!

PRR Irwin Branch Schematic

There are really only a few more jobs to do on the layout and I can seriously run some trains. There are two remote switches that need to be installed, a little more ballasting, trimming out the liftout, installing the last scene divider and completing the Loconet. Of course, I need to have SOME idea of how I want to run trains, so it was time to develop a schematic of the trackplan.
I dabbled with this once before a couple of months ago and I did not get very far. I had created the last layout schematic using Excel and this one was more complex than I realized as I tried to visualize how to make a double tracked loop plan into a linear schematic.
Finally, I got smart and in 10 minutes I had sketched 5 separate schematics which I then used Visio to create and cut and paste them into an overall master.
Too easy!

Irwin Yard

Manor (in previous posts I called this town Penn Hills)

Herminie

East McKeesport

Was was known as the bridge section, now Hannahstown

The entire layout in a linear schematic

Vic's Bait and Tackle now open

The first business on the PRR Irwin Branch is open and it's Vic's Bait and Tackle.
I could go on and on about Vic's and how it has been servicing the Lake Keystone fisherman since the 50s...but I would be making it all up! Vic is a coworker at IBM and we worked a project together a few years ago. It was one of the most successful projects I have been on and I made many great friends - Vic, Paul, Bhupendra, Alfredo and others. Vic lives in the Boston area and loves to fish so when I found this cardstock kit, I just had to name it after him.

If you look carefully, you will see a girl drinking a coke on the porch

Complete with outhouses for men and women!

Compare this scene to the one on the last layout here.

The lift out...lifts out!

One of the projects I've delayed is cutting the lift out so I can walk in and out of the layout area without ducking. Very useful when I am just working on the train...not so good when it's running.
There are 2 problems with a lift out. First, ensuring it fits well enough to stay in place and the trains run well across it. Second, the electrical connection. I fitted the liftout pretty well as I was building the benchwork and then ran the track across it. Now I only had to cut the track (I had cut the cork after the glue had dried) and I finally did that today.

The liftout removed so I don't have to duck while working on the layout

For the electrical connection, I had thought of something rather complicated - brass or copper plates under the liftout that would make the connection when in place. Instead, I found a stereo plug and wired the two tracks to a terminal strip, then the terminal strip to the plug. Had a bugger of a time trying to figure out how I added a short circuit. I removed all the wires, one by one and still had a short. Turns out, inside the plug the wires were touching!

All track has ballast between the rails

Another project I finished - or close to it - was the first part of ballasting the track. All the track on the layout, except for the 2 feet of the liftout, has ballast between the rails. Much of the layout also has the sides of the roadbed ballasted and I only have to finish the West Yard, mainline through Irwin and a few feet of the mainline past Irwin and entering E. McKeesport from the west.
Looking good! I have two simple projects to finish this weekend - mount the remaining scenery divider behind E. McKeesport and ... well, the other one is a surprise!

Full Disclosure ... the real look behind the scenes

I thought I should share how the train room typically looks as I am working on the layout. Many of the photos show the layout uncluttered, the room relatively neat and clean. Not true.

How the train room usually appears as I am working

You can see 3 projects I am working on in this view of E McKeesport and the peninsula. First, I completed the rough ballasting on all the tracks in Hermine so I am starting to add more scenery details starting with painting the green insulation board with a burnt umber. In the far background is my tray of ballast, glues and tools. Right in front of it is the scene divider that I need to place between E. McKeesport and the 2 hidden tracks that run along the wall. Behind the peninsula, under the Irwin Yard, you can see my work desk which is rather cluttered but actually pretty cleaned up for a change. Finally in the very foreground you can see some of the scene detailing I have completed for Vic's Bait and Tackle shop, I am hoping this will be my first complete scene and I might even finish it this weekend.
The next photo shows the Irwin Yard side of the layout. Here I am almost done ballasting the sides of the roadbed in Penn Hills and I am beginning to rough in the mountain and tunnel that will pass through the scene divider running down the peninsula. Only a little of the mainline in this section remains to be ballast. I have a pretty good idea how I want this section to look so it may be the next scenery I tackle after Vic's and the WCC Coal Mine in Herminie.

Work on the Irwin Yard part of the layout

I have all 4 yard tracks in the East Yard (farthest away in picture) center ballasted. One track and the cabin track closest to the edge already had side ballast and I finished the other 3 tracks shortly after I took this photo. The engine track is completed. I need to do both the center and sides of the mainline through the yard and the spur behind the yard. If you look in the top right corner, you can see the scene divider I mentioned above leaning against the layout.
What you don't see in these photos is the work I am also doing on the electrical. I am still trying to make 3 remaining Loconet cables but right now I am working on the plug wiring for the liftout bridge.
Many projects keeping me busy!

Ballasting Track

I follow the same basic steps as Cody Grivno has explained in the Jan 2007 issue of Model Railroader. The first step is to spread the ballast between the tracks. I use a plastic spoon to sprinkle a spur or 4 feet of mainline, then carefully spread it between the ties so very little is laying on the rail sides or top of the track.

Spreading ballast between ties

Next, I slide a pipette along the inside rails to wet the ballast with straight rubbing (isopropal) alcohol. Others recommend 70/30 diluted but other than the odor, I'm fine with full strength and you can get economical quart bottles at the drug store.

Apply alcohol as a wetting agent.

The alcohol acts as a wetting agent to help the glue, next step, seep into the ballast and firmly adhere it. Once I let this set for 5 minutes or so, I come back with another pipette and apply Woodland Scenes Scenic Cement.
After letting that dry overnight, I run a bead of white glue along the side of the track and use a small flat brush to evenly coat the side of the cork roadbed. I have tried 50/50 glue water mixture but I find the glue right out of the bottle works best for me. I come back with the plastic spoon and sprinkle the ballast along the glue line.

Spreading the glue to the side of the roadbed

I try to be a little sparing with the ballast here since anything that does not directly touch the glue will get sucked up in the shop vac. I go over this section with a 1" foam brush and tap along the top of the ties to push the loose ballast into the glue and then pull along the side to get the profile.

Pressing the ballast into the glue along the roadbed

Again, this dries overnight and the final picture below shows the result. The final step is to go back and dress up any gaps but I will complete this rough texturing first around the layout before I come back to that.

Basic ballast - I will eventually come back and fill in the gaps

Weekend Efforts

Well, I had a busy weekend and was not sure how much I could accomplish. First, there was the NMRA Div 3 Train Show in Dayton which Bruce and I managed to get to Saturday morning. I managed to find a couple of the progress-stopping items that I needed but as usual came home with about 1/2 of what I was hoping to find. I plan to scrub through my wish list and shopping list and maybe make 1 or 2 more mail order placements to get me through into next year.
Part of what I need to plan for is that fact that I am moving into the scenery phase of my layout. Over the last week or two I managed to lay ballast between ties on about 1/2 of the layout. This weekend I was able to ballast the sides of all the track in Penn Hills and Hermine. My next blog post will be describe the 3 step process in more detail.
The big thing I did this weekend was install the first - and the anchor - scenery divider which runs diagonally down the peninsula to separate Penn Hills (left) from Hermine (right). There will be another scene break hiding the mainline tracks along the back wall next to Penn Hills.

All track on peninsula ballasted and scenery divider installed

First Open House

I had my first open house last Friday evening...sort of. Lisa and I had some friends over for a rather chilly bonfire. Since many of our friends know that I "play with trains" in the garage but have never seen what I have been building, I decided to clean things up a bit and make the layout as presentable as possible., After all, it was on a direct path from the beverage refrigerator to the fire pit!
I decided to treat it as an open house, so in the afternoon I spent some time tuning two opposing trains running around the layout.

I had one minor accident when I forgot and left one of the crossovers,,,engine to engine meet! But otherwise, the running went well and my friends enjoyed watching the trains. Success!

A little too fast

I am at a stage of the layout building that I really enjoy. Most of the work so far has been very focused on a specific aspect of building a model railroad: paint the room, install lighting, build the benchwork, add the foamboard subroadbed, lay the cork roadbed, and lay the track. In most cases, I really could not go far without finishing the previous step.
Now I can begin to do things in parallel which keeps the tasks small and interesting. For example I can wire some of the rails while painting the scenery breaks. I can rust some rails while adding individual ties where there are gaps, etc. But, there is still something of an order.
I decided I would start ballasting and cover at least the ends of every spur. Why? Because if the ballast is down, then I can install the concrete or Hayes bumper to prevent any rail cars from taking that last great leap! I did one track in Penn Hills and decided to do all of Hermine since their are 3 colors of ballast - light for the mainline interchange with P&LE, medium for the spur leading to the coal mine and coal cinders for the tracks under the mine. I had 2 sections placed waiting for glue when I realized I had not rusted the rail, which I now have to do without painting the ballast rocks.
Remember - step one comes before step two....

Pulling things together - a peek

I am now doing several small,  but somewhat time consuming jobs to get the layout ready for some serious operational runs. Electrical is complete and I need to create 3 or 4 more LocoNet cables for the DCC wiring to be complete. Last week I painted some foam board for the scene dividers but was a little disappointed - they all curved when the paint dried! Well they will do for temporary and I think I have an idea for a more permanent solution, but that can wait.
Last night I spent some time "rusting rails" which is a pretty simple step where I drag a paintbrush along the outside and inside rails where the operators can see them. This dulls the shine and with proper ballasting I  think makes the track look pretty realistic. I mentioned I reused many pieces of track from the last layout so naturally I installed a lot of them backwards, so the 2 rail sides I rusted before are facing the wall instead of the aisle. Too many details to worry about while I was laying track.
The other thing I am doing is installing the Caboose Industries Ground Throws (I used the 202S). This is actually a 3 step process where I glue a short piece of cork, then a piece of .040" plain styrene and finally the ground throw with a piece of piano wire for the actuator. Once I get into a groove, the install goes pretty quickly although there are a couple of switches I have to get a little fancy with. I finished the first one last night on the inner mainline across the bridge and hope to finish the rest of that section of the layout tonight.
While I was waiting for super glue to dry, I put up a couple of the scene breaks and I have been placing some buildings on the layout as well to determine what industries are located where. It is really coming together very nicely.

Irwin's West Yard in the foreground, Penn Hills on the left side of the peninsula

WCC No. 4 Coal mine sits at the end of the peninsula's right side

E, McKeesport, bridges are the scenery breaks here

Electrical Complete

One of the projects I was not looking forward to was running the feeder wires to the rails. I remember crawling under the last layout, soldering every rail and complaining about the task, my knees and my back. Since this layout is about 4" lower than the previous one, I was not looking forward to it.
When Bruce was over last Sunday, I mentioned that soldering the feeder lines to all the rails was the next task. He asked why I had to do every single rail and I got to thinking ... he has a point. Why not soldering at least one connection to every power district and add additional drops in areas where I notice the trains slow down. This means I would only need 5 or so drops and the electrical would be done.
I installed terminal strips at points around the layout (one per power district plus one) and ran the 16 gauge bus between them. I use the convention of RED wire is the rail closet to the aisle (south rail) and BLACK as the rail closest to the wall (north rail). I did about 1/2 of this wiring Friday night and Saturday morning I started to drop some feeder wires. I crawled under the peninsula and discovered I had very methodically connected the RED wire to the BLACK terminal strip and the BLACK wire to the RED terminal strip.

I can mess up even carefully labelled connections!

So much for labeling! Actually, I saved myself a short later down the road because it was so obviously wrong. I finished the bus wiring and all the feeders by Sunday night and was running 2 trains in opposite directions on the inner (south) and outer (north) track. Great progress!

DCC Installed

When Bruce was over Sunday, we used alligator clips to attach an old MRC power pack I have and run a train around the track. Because I had already installed the insulators to create 5 separate Power Districts (PD) we could not run on the inner mainline nor onto the peninsula but it was neat seeing the train finally go around.

Finished trackwork on the peninsula, coal mine is left foreground.

I was a little hesitant to install the DCC right away because I wanted to build a support shelf under the layout - one under the Irwin Yard where I would initially place the DCC booster and one under E. McKeesport for later expansion. I spent some time yesterday wiring in a master ON/OFF switch to turn off the lights over the layout lights and on my workbench as well as the DCC components. It was remarkably easy thanks to some advice from Eric D. I began moving things around the under layout storage and realized one of my drawer units would make a perfect shelf and within an hour I had wired DCC to the layout and ran the train again, this time under DCC.

Master ON/OFF switch above white drawer unit. DCC sitting on gray drawer unit.

Obviously, I was pretty excited. Two more major items crossed off my too do list during my work break. I installed terminal strips around the rest of the layout and the next step will be to run the 16 gauge bus wire around all the terminal strips and install the UP5 and UR91 throttle connection panels so I can install the LocoNet.
Too much fun!

Tracklaying Complete

What a productive weekend! I spent a few hours in the trainroom Friday evening and laid most of the cork roadbed on the peninsula and then all day Saturday finishing the track. Done! I even placed a scenery divider on the peninsula so I could get an idea of how things would look running.
Bruce came over Sunday to check out my progress. We walked around the layout and I pointed out the slight modifications I made from his plan - added a spur at the mine for a boxcar of supplies, and another track in the East Yard. I also pointed out where a few of the curves were less than the planned 21" including the lead into Herminie which I ended up just using the Atlas 18" rail pieces I had on hand - looks just fine.
We were looking at the trackwork in East McKeesport when he said, "I see you took that one siding out. Looks good."
"What? What are you talking about? I did not leave out any spurs.!" I replied.
Except for the one he pointed to on the diagram, Oops.
Flow the instructions Eric.
It almost worked out, as I have one extract Atlas #4 switch (the standard on this layout) but of course it's a left hand and I need a right hand. Good thing the Cincinnati NMRA Div 7 Train Show is this coming weekend!
A old MRC powerpack, 2 alligator clips and we ran PRR 8805 GP7 around the track for a while. OK, not perfect but still progress!

PRR Irwin Track Plan in XTrakCAD

Well, it took some real struggling, nearly a year of messing around and some fudge this week but I finally put the trackplan that Bruce created on paper in XTrakCAD. I am pleased with how it came out and since I determined the various power districts I wanted, I was able to put each one on a separate layer so I can see the whole track plan or show just a power district.

Current layout in XTrakCAD

The door to the backyard is in the upper left and across, upper right, is the door to the garage. Walking in from the garage, you encounter the West Yard which has 3 tracks and the RIP (repair in place) track. Another step into the room and this is the liftout to get into the train area (although I have not cut the track yet so can't remove it!).
I use the convention that when you are facing the layout (inside the layout), you are facing North so West is left, East is right.I will go into more details on the Power Districts once I finish some research but basically I am create some isolated blocks so a short on one block will not affect the rest of layout.

Thinking and Planning

Since I can't work on the layout this week, I have been spending some time trying to draw the layout in XTrakCAD. I am getting close and really I just want a reasonable representation to share electronically as well as to annotate with comments, like where are the electrical blocks (for isolating shorts in the DCC). I am hoping to complete this by the end of the week - it has only taken about 18 months!
Also, I am making some plans for the coming few weeks. I will have several free evenings - and possibly even a vacation day or two - to do some serious work ON the layout. I figure it will take 2 evenings to complete the track laying - one to glue down the cork roadbed and the other to lay the actual track. Then next step will be to create the gaps in the rails for the 5 separate power districts for isolating any shorts. I set up the following:

• Irwin Yard
• Mainline 1
• Mainline 2
• Herminie
• Penn Hills (not sure if this will be the name of the town yet)

With the track laid, the power districts set, I can them work down my list as far as possible before work interferes again.

1. Run the bus wires.
2. Build a shelf for the future DCS-200 Command Station under Irwin Yard
3. Build a shelf for hte DB-150 Booster under E. McKeesport
4. Feeders from all the mainline points
5. Feeders from all the yard spurs
6. Feeders from all the E. McKeesport spurs
7. Feeders from the remaining spurs on the peninsula
8. Rust any rail
9. Ballast the mainline
10. Ballast the yard
11. Ballast the spurs
12. Mockup the scene dividers

Of course, what is cool about all of this is I could do some things in parallel. Once I drop feeders for a particular section of track, I can rust the rail and ballast it. While this is a long list to complete when I only have 2, maybe 3, slow work weeks, I will have so much more done than today thanks to the plan.

Oh, and the Cincinnati NMRA Div 7 and Dayton NMRA Div 3 trains shows are coming up. Time to make more lists! 

Finally!

I needed 5 switches, 8 pieces of flextrack and 9 pieces of cork to finish the track laying phase of the layout. My normal mail order supplier did not have the switches and I wanted everything together so I would only pay one shipping & handling charge. I had to research several places before I found one that had all 3 items and were at least partially discounted from the retail price. I placed the order which was immediately confirmed and then later marked "Awaiting Shipment".
Then I waited two weeks. The website said shipping would take 3-4 days. My credit card was charged within 48 hours of the order. Finally, I sent an email (they do not have a phone to lower costs) asking what the delay was and when I could expect shipment.
The next day I received a shipment tracking number and the package is on the way. I really hope it is everything I am expecting. My typical work week is going to be significantly lighter soon, for about 2 weeks, and I would love to be able to complete the tracklaying and at least start the electrical. I have a general idea but need to work out some specifics before then.
Getting exciting!

Ran out of track

I was very busy this past weekend. I knew my extra free time from work during the previous week was coming to an end, and I had a vision of what I could complete before Monday. I completed the second mainline through the Irwin Yard and the entire West Yard which had not been started. I also finished the passing track in East McKeesport and laid the final section of track from East McKeesport to the Irwin Yard.
Then I ran out of track.
Specifically, I ran out of switches. Fortunately, I planned things carefully enough that the mainline is complete (except for a small section from East McKeesport to the far track along the wall and the peninsula. I placed some old Peco switches and determined that 5 left hand switches, 8 sections of flextrack and 9 sections of cork roadbed would complete the track laying phase.
Then I can start wiring!

Passing track and front mainline complete

West Yard (foreground) complete with a long RIP track

Yeah, but...

As with most activities, the more you do, the more you learn. Sometimes that learning is constructive. Other times ... well, it's just learning.

Soldering the rail joiners on my last layout provided solid, electric connections.

• Yeah, but it sure is a pain to unsolder all those connections to reuse the track for my new layout!

Keeping a list of lessons learned is a great idea for the next layout - things like sanding the cork and painting it a ballast color, painting rust on the rails before I place them on the layout, etc.

• Yeah, but it's only useful is you ACTUALLY remember to review the list before you begin building!

A detailed trackplan is great to get the maximum track or maximum operations from the layout area.

• Yeah, but its a good idea to check it BEFORE you lay the track and forget to place the critical crossover! 

N scale cork on top of a sheet of cork is the perfect transition from HO cork mainline to the yard and provides the illusion that yard roadbed is shallower than the mainline.

• Yeah, but the cork sheet is a bear to glue down with bubbles and ripples plus it takes 3 N scale strips for an HO wide trackbed, 3 times the gluing and 3 times the pins to hold it in place!

There is nothing like a shop vac to clean off the pieces of solder, cork roadbed crumbles and scraps of plastic from shaving roadbed ties.

• Yeah, but that sucker will vacuum up the pieces of rail, rail joiners, tack spikes and small tools I thought were safely laying far enough away!

Rare Opportunity

This week, I found myself with a rare opportunity - work slowed down a little to afford me some personal time AND motivation to use that time to work on the layout. So far I finished the second mainline through Irwin yard and am almost done laying cork for the west yard - about 1-1/2 tracks to go. I also finished the mainline cork in East McKeesport and I hope to lay track to complete the entire mainline which is really just the connector from Irwin Yard to East McKeesport.
I've also been giving some thoughts to the operations and I started to sketch a schematic (linear diagram) of the layout so I can figure out the train movements. Irwin Yard, East McKeesport and Herminie (the coal mine) have been set for some time but the other side of the peninsula from Herminie was going to be Irwin proper but I think I will make it a separate small town near where I grew up. More on that to come.
The layout is coming along nicely.

New or used

Earlier this year I was on a roll, laying cork and track pretty much as fast as I could. Then I hit a snag. I had been using (or re-using) Altas #4 switches from the last layout. I had a lot of success with these. I found them reliable and easy to add manual Caboose Industries ground throws which I prefer over switch machines. Then, I ran out. I calculated that I needed 11 more switches to complete the layout and 8 of those to complete the mainline with switches needed in both Irwin and McKeesport.
I pulled down the box of Peco and Shinohara (now Walthers) switches that I had. These came the layout I built in the basement of our first home. At the time, I had read these were excellent switches (and they are) and of course I was building the layout to last a lifetime. I had 2 or 3 of these on the last layout and was disappointed in their performance. Because they were not isolated frogs, they would short on my DCC layout. I read a couple of techniques to fix this but I could not get any to work. Fortunately, these switches were only on sidings so they had little impact on my operations.
The question I pondered ... for several weeks ... was whether or to use the Shinoharas or buy more Atlas. To compound the issue, I needed 3 left hand and 8 right hand switches and it seemed most suppliers only had right hand in stock. Strange but true.
I finally decided to stick with the same switch - Atlas Code 100 #4, for the reliability, consistency (the other switches are slightly larger even though they are #4 too) and DCC friendliness. Yes, it was a little expense to buy new switches when I had several leftovers but in the end, I think I will be happier.
Now I can finish the second mainline through Irwin, connect it to the mainline leading to Herminie and finish the West Yard.

Weekend Progress

Made some serious progress over the weekend. All the roadbed in the east yard is down and I only need to add 2 track sections. Started laying the cork in the west yard. Most important, finished the mainline all the way around back to the east end of the yard. Only need to install the first switch on the south track through the yard and a short connector and I will have a complete loop.
Need to start thinking seriously about how I plan to wire the layout.

West yard is the foreground, east yard in the background

East McKeesport - the two tracks along the wall will be hidden behind mountains

Crossover Fixed

I am not known for my accuracy in measuring or cutting ... probably something to do with my poor depth perception. So I was hesitant to cut into the mainline to insert the switch I forgot. When I tackle it, the job only took a few minutes and I was able to splice it in so well, it looks like it was there originally!
Definitely making progress. I even ran an engine and box car around the outer loop today.

Splicing in the missing switch

The Track Formerly Known As Flexible

I reused a lot of materials from my old layout. The 2' x 4' modules were mounted along the walls and off course I reused all the Atlas #4 switches. The Shinohara ones are in a box because they are a bit longer than the Atlas versions and I don't like the insulated frogs.

Then I kept a lot of flex track. After all I had 2 staging yards and an online yard on the old layout. Should have scrubbed off the old ballast over the winter so they would be ready to use. Instead, I am cleaning them individually as I need a piece. Slow. And, they are no longer flex track. Some I can wiggle and loosen but they are NOT the same as flex track!

Rights and Wrongs

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I had a flash of insight. I have been trying to figure out how to finish the Irwin Yard with the cork sheets I had laid. Originally I thought to have each yard track decline from the mainline to the spur but realized this would be difficult to create the right slope. Struggled for many weeks before I hit on a solution - N scale roadbed. I happen to have several pieces and discovered 1-1/2 pieces are just wide enough for HO scale. Perfect!

Using N scale roadbed in the Irwin yard

You can see how well this works as a transition from mainline to yard in the next photo.

Instead of lowering the yard below the mainline, I have a shorter profile roadbed

So that was great. My next trick was not so awesome. With this dilemma behind me I attacked the mainline track laying with zeal.  Saturday I ran both tracks onto the removable bridge (stuck in place until I cut gaps into the tracks later). Sunday I had a little time to run the tracks across the bridge all the way to the next curves. Monday I briefly extended the outer curve to the hidden staging. 

The mainline across the duckunder in the foreground to the curves leading into the hidden staging in the background

Tuesday, I was looking over my great work and ... what the heck!!! The very first part of the track coming out of the yard is a crossover and I only placed one of the two switches. DUH! Easy enough to fix but would have been even easier if I had remembered to place it in the first place.

You need 2 switches for a crossover!

May Update

Wow, May already...and it's almost over. A couple of challenges stymied my enthusiasm but I think I worked through them in my mine. First, the Irwin Yard. I placed some cork sheet down and had planned to have the yard slightly lower than the two mainlines passing through but I was concerned about both the grade and how to make it.I did some testing and discovered that 3 strips of N-scale cork (1 and 1/2 roadbed) would be just about the perfect height and would still leave the yard at a different elevation than the mainline with the surrounding ground higher. Sweet.
Next I laid some cork for East McKeesport but realized, once I laid a turnout on the mainline, that it was connecting with the mainline at too sharp an angle. Disappointing, but I was able to easily pull up the diverging cork and aligned it better. I love cork + white glue on extruded foam sub-roadbed. Below is a video of a test run on the new alignment.

Picking back up

Took a break from the railroad for a while - not much time and a little disappointed in how the cork roadbed was lining up. I started back up placing the switches for the Irwin yard and just generally putzing around. Slowly, I will get there!

Overcoming disappointment

With the benchwork finished, I began planning to lay the cork roadbed. I would need quite a bit so I mail ordered a box at a good price. Shipping was pretty hefty (about 1/2 the price of the cork!) so I added a couple of things on my wish list to justify the expense. It was due to arrive Thursday when I was back from business travel. I learned this morning it would be delayed until Monday due to weather, even though it arrived in Dayton at 2 AM this morning. Thank you US Post Office.
Well, it's not really their fault. Weather delays. I decided I needed 10 pieces to get me through the weekend, but I could get by with 6. Went to a local hobby shop and bought the 4 they had. Four. Ugh. I laid out all the pieces I had and realized I would run out of push pins to hold the cork to the insulation subroadbed while the glue dried. Coincidentally, Lisa was at JoAnn Fabrics at the same time so I sent her a text message with a photo of the pins I needed.
She came home with a box of 500. Yeah, that should work!!

Cork & Hopeful Railroad

I did make enough process tonight that I can lay the sheets of cork for the East and West yards so it all ended well. And next weekend, I can lay some serious roadbed!

Lighting and learning

I decided today to fix the light valance. Not sure why I did not do this months ago before I installed the benchwork but I knew I wanted it done before I had too much track installed.

Before - 3 light cords and a dangling power strip

I used the existing wiring from the old layout and mounted the light bars with 3 power cords that I temporarily (some 12 months) plugged into a dangling power cord. Well, convenient but ugly with the extra cords tucked up sort of behind the sky valence. A couple of hours today while listening to the Bengals lose and it looks a lot better.

Light valence complete

 Now I plan to wire the one cord at the entrance of the room to a light switch so I can walk in an turn on the layout lights. Very pleased with the outcome.

Single cord powers the light valence

I also learned today that the standard NMRA HO gage that I have had for about 15 years is exactly the width of 2 parallel tracks ... nice. Now I can really get the trackplan transferred.

Connector and yard plan

First, here are a couple of photos of the finished connector track with the liftout bridge.

Duckunder bridge in place - not too bad of a duck!

Bridge removed, showing the supports

Tonight, I laid out the yard track according to the plan but the farthest track (in the West yard) is too close to the wall (and outlet) so I moved that switch further down the mainline and I think everything still fits well.
This plan has the added advantage of allowing some building flats for scenery.

West Yard is in the background left, East foreground and right

Two mainline tracks through yard curve over the lifeout

Goal Met

Just before the Christmas holiday break, I had planned a few things on the railroad to work on. Actually, I came up with a pretty aggressive list that I hope to accomplish. Well, four days before the end of my break, on January 1st 2014, I completed all the benchwork, including installing some temporary fascia, and replaced the single ceiling light with two lights for more lighting over the peninsula. (I had two extra single 4' fluorescent fixtures from the old layout hence why I did not install a double fixture.)
I have to say, I am very pleased with how everything turned out. The layout fills the room without be cramped and there is more walkaround space inside than I thought there would be. The benchwork is level, the liftout fits nicely and is not too bad as a duckunder. I have a plan for how to start transferring the trackplan (from the yard to the crossover on the liftout) and then where to start laying the track (again, in the yard, likely the mainline and passing track).
What an accomplishment from just having some modules on temporary legs this summer!