Running Again

The good news is that I have trains running again.

When I say trains, I really mean my Powerline 48 class loco. After laying the tracks and fixing a couple of spots the layout, the new track was wired up to the DCC bus . Next the layout room was cleared and the vacuum cleaner brought in.

I've been building layouts for years so I shouldn't be surprised that everything works but there is still that fist pump into the air when there are no problems. 

The Powerline 48 does a great job. It came DCC fitted and with a working fan. You had to take the body off and void warranty to switch it over the DCC. The fan was disconnected before the body was put back on. Bits are falling off it and it picks up track pins left to close to the tracks but it performs a sterling service on my track cleaning train.

During the week I started with the incline to the terminus. I'm using the Woodlands Scenics 2% incline set. I have found on the previous layout that you can put two tracks onto it. I use matte board (the cardboard used when framing pictures) as a road base on top of the incline. I found that this time on the incline from the bottom level that I wasn't quite perfect enough and needed to brace the side on the curves. 

For this incline I figured that I would have to brace it again so I am doing that before I put the track on. The inner track will be Hornby double fourth radius track with suitably spaced Peco flex on the outer. The reason for using the set track pieces is that I am not good at laying curves. I'm getting better but these cause me less headaches and make the parallel curves easier to lay.

I also had a look at the industrial area inside the balloon loops if the incline and decline. I reckon that I can get six industries in the space: an oil terminal (I've always tried to have this somewhere), steelworks (for my steel train to have a reason to stop somewhere), container siding (I had one on the last layout and I was given a Brawa gantry) cement works (once again I have some stock) wheat silos (from the old layout) and warehouses (built for my old layout when I was on the coast). The latter could be substituted for a brewery - I'm still thinking about things.

Before I start that, I really need to finish the incline, otherwise I am kneeling on track and that hurts the knees. While I'm working on the incline and waiting for some glue to dry I could start on the marshalling yard.

In the meantime here is an image of trains waiting to run from the Bega staging yard, underneath where most of the work was done this week.

See you next time.