Family Op. Session the other day

Decide I wanted to do a "modified" op session the other day with my oldest son Cameron who is 7.  He started off the session with the V100E out of Battlefield Yard with 8 cars.  A pretty health train.  He took the train out to Fredericksburg and started the switching.  He's not much of an switching engineer.  He just likes to run them, which my layout is not really set up for.  He switched out (me as the conductor) half the industries.  I ran 2 other trains to give him some clearing up to do.  My middle son, Camden who's 5 came in for the second trick and did quite well.  He picks up things quick and finished up the switching.  My daughter did make a guest appearance but did not stay long. 

Why are you taking pictures?  Cameron and Camden or "Bubba" in the background.

Bubba contemplating his next move.

Caroline checking out Bubbie's switching

The switching has just started

Industrial Drive during some action.

One of my favorite boxcars makes it's way into Specialized Beverage.

Two new videos and a possible expansion?

I recently made a nifty little I-phone holder to video trains on the layout.  I finally put it to work the other night.
All my videos and photos are from my I-phone.  It does an excellent job:

I also had a heck of an idea at all places, work.  For some reason expansion has gone into my mind.  I have not done much with the On30 layout under my HO layout.  It runs well but doesn't have scenery.  I even have lights directly above it.  So if I put a small helix in the garage, I could access that level.  It's only 9 inches and could be done in 2-3 rotations.  It would be a small helix and frustrating to build.  I do like challenges and if it does get built, the line would represent the line to Orange or another branch line.  Stay tuned!

Scenery rush and another dilemma

Spent the last week working on some scenery items on the layout.  In my last update, I replaced 2 turnouts that would help out the layout.  I finally got the Old Dominion Foods turnout installed and it looks great and more importantly it works great.  So after I got the turnouts in and wired, I was ready for some ballast.  I had a whole bag left and a little in another to work with.  I use real rock ballast and it looks great.  A lot better than the walnut shells Woodland Scenics has.  I used the little bag first and then opened the second bag.  It was not the ballast I needed.  It was super fine!  This ballast was bought from a vendor at local shows.  The vendor, Brazos & Pecos owned by Gene Browning, died earlier in the year.  I thought I had enough to finish the layout, but I did not since I bought the wrong bag last year at a show.   So I was at a stopping point.  I ordered some Highball ballast online last week and it arrived on Friday.  It was the wrong color and was not even close.  Hard to order ballast online especially when your trying to match what is down already!  So, on Saturday I was a vendor at the Lynchburg Railday train show.  I always do this show.  It's a great small show in the area.  Last time I was there, I bought the ballast from B&P.  After looking around the show, I found a vendor who's been clearing out in the last 2 shows there.  There and behold, I found not one bag, but 2 bags of the ballast I needed.  I got the 2 bags, 4 coal loads and a bag of granite loads for $9.  I was very thrilled!

Last night I finished ballasting all the mainlines on the VM.  I just glued it down a few hours ago.  It feels good to finally seeing this layout getting finished.  At least for the ballast!  I also put in an order to Scenic Express for a some grass mats and other items.  The only ballast I have left is two spurs that have no industries on them.

Add all my switch timbers last week while waiting on the wrong ballast.

The turnout at Old Dominion Foods works great.

Virginia Central trackage is drying.  Real stone ballast will always be darker when glued down.

The VM mainline is complete with ballast.  The spur to the right will be a pulpwood loading area on the VC.

Another view from the Battlefield Yard area.

I also did some work on the Battlefield yard crew house.  I used Monster Model Works concrete sheets for the parking lot,  Cannot wait to add the rest of the details.

Turnout replacement & track realignment

Ever since my last operational session, I wanted to replace the turnout into Old Dominion Foods and realign the Virginia Central trackage.  Well I got that going last week sort of.  The taking out of the turnouts was easy.  Both areas were ballasted in.  Warm water with some Dawn dish detergent dripped on the ballast lets the glue loose it's grip.  Then it is simply taking out the track.  I had to cut the track for the turnout into OD Foods using my Demel tool.  If you do not have one of these rotary tools, you have to get one.  Mine is a generic one I got from BJ's for $20 and came with a thousand attachments.  It's a must in track laying, or in my case track removal.

  Lets start with the VC alignment first.  This required taking out a lot more track.  I wanted this area to be more smooth to operate and a little more room in the spur trackage.  I also want to remove a turnout that was tight.  I used a Peco curved turnout to give me the most room.  I'm not total sold on it but it may look better when ballasted.

 The OD Foods turnout was a different story.  I also replaced this #4 turnout with a medium radius Peco turnout.  This spur gets mainly long mechanical reefers and they were ugly going through this turnout.  I wanted a bigger turnout to have these reefers flow into OD Foods.  It worked perfectly but I had a problem, the turnout was not DCC friendly.  So I worked on it, cut on it, and almost re-built it. I thought I had it but i did not.  I added some plastic shims to protect the frog from shorts.  I finally came to the point that I would have to put styrene in the top of the rail in the frog.  That when I said, OK I'm getting a PECO turnout that's DCC friendly.  Being totally flustered for 2 days in a row, a guy on HO- Interchange yahoo group was selling PECO DCC friendly turnouts.  A bunch of them.  He had what I needed and it's on it's way now.  The offending turnout is still in my trackage, waiting to be "ripped" out.  I got to the point where the turnout only short out when going straight through the switch.

Before shot.  Wanted to extend the spur and get rid of the turnout in the middle.

A shot from the other end.

 

New trackage in.  The curved Peco turnout gives me more options in this area.  The spur leads on the left leads to an unknown industry.  It maybe a wood chip loader.

View of the VC trackage on the other end.

The old turnout has been removed.  I believe I used a Atlas #4 turnout because it was the only one that would fit.  I mainly use #6's.

The hole is for the under the table switch machine.  I use the Atlas ones with push buttons and they work pretty good.  The Peco switch has automatic locking switch, so the switch machine will not be needed.  I covered the hole with a very thin piece of styrene.

The +$#*!@# pain in my butt turnout.  It looks good and provides smoother trackage into Old Dominion Foods.