So you thought this train would never come in.  Well, ran into a lot of wet leaves on the uphill grade and the coal in the tender was like Alabama swell belly.  Management sells the good coal and we get this "dirt".  Anyway, this post is not to tell you of the completion of the perfect track plan that will never have to be adjusted.  It is to tell you what has been done.

Continued the cleaning out of the storage room - some of the VHS tapes went into the trash.  Almost all of the film camera equipment and materials have been sold which freed up more of the storage room.  Doug Barry helped in disassembly of the "L" guider from the old layout and this wood will be used on the new layout.  Some HO engines and cars that are not time appropriate for my friends or myself have been passed onto eBay selling.  The shelving in the downstairs bath was completed and some G scale locos were put on display.

Comments on the lower level plan in the closet, which includes the yard, were provided by Keith Stillman and Dick Munnikhuysen - make sure there is aisle space.  

This plan is bad on two counts:

1.  A lot of aisle space is eaten up trying to put the turntable directly across from the yard.
2.  Reach to hand throw switches on the yard ladder is bad - reaching over tracks.




























This plan is better but the turntable still has not been located.  Bob Warren, Paul Dolkos and Doug Barry have all counseled "get cutting wood/buikding".  An excess 12" diameter turntable from a visit at Tony Koester's is providing the impetus to locate it on the layout at the end of the closet.  In the future I'll try to get plan photos that are easier to read.


Talked to Dan after Paul Dolkos's comment about "don't see the theme" and came up with "MINERALS".  So, in addition to the American Cyanamid plant at Piney River, VA, the Olin Mathieson plant at Saltville, VA, will serve as prototype inspiration for two major customers in the layout room. And it has since been discovered that the type of chemicals Olin Mathieson sold could have been used at the American Cyanamid plant. 

One of the "wet leaves" delays was reading about a now defunct short line in Kentucky.  One of the authors worked for the line and the book included an interesting description of switching a distillery.  Talking and emails with the book's co-author gave me incentive to look into including this.  With the location of the modeled portion of the V&T Rwy being in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennesse and Jack Daniel being located in Lynchburg, TN, in the dry county of Moore, the V&T may just have another major customer.

And there is still the connecting lines/branches/interchanges of coal and wood as well as a few local small businesses.

I started looking at space consideration in the closet.  Brackets for the lower level were put in place and shelving laid across the get a feel for aisle vs depth of layout.  This mess is a result of beginning to pull out and get an idea of track and switches on-hand.  Several sheet of plywood and Homasote have been purchased.  The screw-in connectors that go in the recessed lighting have been procured and initial information on track lighting obtained.  

From the last posting "FOR THE NEXT TIME" there is still much to do.

NEW:  FOR THE NEXT TIME

There is a 100 inch long piece of serpentine track from the old layout now in the basement for the checking of trains on different grades with specific locos.  ADDED: Set up Digitrax power supply to power test trains. Still need to do this.  It would REALLY help me to know if there is any advantage to use AC versus DC to power the Digitrax - your thoughts are solicited.

Drawing up scale drawings of track arrangement.  Still need to do this.

Establishing a line diagram for the modeled right-of-way and an "operating scenario".  Still need to do this.

Identifying the lighting for the train room and closet [probably fluorescent  or LED track lighting].  ADDED: Review electric current ratings supplied to the rooms.  Lighting identified but much work remains.

Clean out the train room that is currently totally full [this is from both Doug Barry and Steve Robbins - even the wife suggested a POD but it doesn't provide the humidity control that a lot of the "stuff" needs but some of it is going into the shed].

Thanks for reading - and Best of the Holidays to all.