Building a New Layout

[Jhanecker2]

To Jonathon :  Just to start off the discussion  it looks like something that fits into a frame and could be part of a lighting device .  It appears to have considerable weight from the thickness of the glass . I am wondering  when gimbals  lights  were installed aboard ships ?  John2.

[Ken Clark]

  Jonathon

   Would you believe a Deck Prisim, used to pass light to lower deck.

   Have one myself.

   Ken C
    GWN

[jonathan]

Oh man. Thought I had a hard one. This audience is much too clever. Ken is exactly right. 

Gonna have to work harder I guess.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jbrock27]

The layout is looking good

[jonathan]

Thanks, Jb.

Well, the bucket is back.  I'll pull some trinket out of a box to spice things up, soon.

Anyway, I've decided to lay the track for the entire layout, before taking out the soldering iron.  I figure I'll be at wiring for quite some time... might as well do it all at once, just like laying the track. I have knelt under the layout and drilled 1/2" holes for the bus wires.

Here is the locomotives storage/service side of the layout.  I'm starting to like the way it looks.  Though, setting up a turntable and roundhouse is no picnic.  Measurement and alignment seem to be very crucial.  I will have to complete the turntable and roundhouse build before I can move on to the freight side of the layout.

I've also begun to design the command station.  Yes, this layout will stay DC.  I'm old fashioned at heart.

Enjoy!






Regards,

Jonathan

[WoundedBear]

I can't wait to see your finished roundhouse. Who made the kit?

Sid

[rogertra]

Nice work Johnathan.

Cheers


Roger T.

[jonathan]

Thanks, Roger.

Sid, the kit is a Walthers Cornerstone Roundhouse... the big one.  The smaller kit would be more correct for B&O, but I like this one.

The main kit comes with enough materials to build a 3-stall roundhouse.  There are add on kits (3 stalls) that come without the exterior walls.  I'm adding mortar to the brickwork right now.  That's a bit time consuming. 

Regards,

Jonathan

[Jhanecker2]

Just bought the smaller cornerstone  roundhouse and their older un-powered turntable .   Motor to follow  later .  My biggest worry is how to glue in the rails properly and to wire them .  I will be using  DC Controls  as well  , going to have to locate the books on wiring and track planning . Round houses seem a good way to store  Diesels though  Dedicated  Engine house seem to be a better way to service them .  I  read something about about round houses having cranes internally but that must have been on the larger newer houses  .   I would suspect that  heavy crane- ways and cranes would have been much easier to construct in rectangular  buildings .   My Dad and I  actually  built one  in the new addition to his shop  in Chicago  back in the 70's . That addition was actually designed around that crane  and we left it there  when he sold the shop .  One of the things  I am too old to even considering doing again .  Nice work on the layout .
John2

[jonathan]

JH2,

I used Superglue to attach the rails.  They seem to hold fine.  I plan to solder feeder wires, to the rails, just outside the front doors.  On my last roundhouse, I pre-soldered the ends of the rails (inside end), then glued in the rails.  Either way, one will have to drill through the deck to set up on/off switches for the rails.

I bought the unpowered turntable as well.  I already have the motorizing kit.  I took apart the motor housing, then re-lubed the motor with some grease for the gears, and super light oil for the gear axles.  Motor seems to run very well.  I haven't built the turntable, yet.  That's next, after the roundhouse.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jonathan]

Roof pieces are not glued down, so I can detail the interior:







...Getting there.  Still a bit of work to do.  Then it's on to the turntable.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jonathan]

My Spectrum Heavy Mountain, with long Vandy tender, is the longest loco that will run on this layout.  It barely squeezes onto this turntable:











Finished the painting and weathering.  Next is building up the motorized mechanism, and praying that it might actually work.

Regards,

Jonathan

[J3a-614]

My Spectrum Heavy Mountain, with long Vandy tender, is the longest loco that will run on this layout.  It barely squeezes onto this turntable:

This also undoubtedly explains, at least partially, your choice of the larger roundhouse!   

[RAM]

Well the UP ran the 4-6-6-4's to the east end of  their line and turned them on a tt that was not long enough for them.  How ever I don't know how you would do it in HO. 

[J3a-614]

Well the UP ran the 4-6-6-4's to the east end of  their line and turned them on a tt that was not long enough for them.  How ever I don't know how you would do it in HO. 

The B&O itself normally ran its 2-10-2s and later its 2-8-8-4s no further east than Brunswick, Md.; double-headed 2-8-2s were typical from there to Baltimore.

Part of the reason for this--perhaps a large part--was that the main locomotive terminal in Baltimore, Riverside Shops, had a roundhouse and turntable in a cramped location that couldn't handle anything longer.

However, operation of the bigger engines could take place there, but it wasn't terribly convenient.

The alternative to that too short turntable was a wye in the vicinity.  The big problem was that one leg of the wye was the busy, double tracked main line to Philadelphia and New York!  You could turn a Yellowstone on it, but it took a lot of planning or a lot of time to make sure you had track authority between all the other trains racing past, including Royal Blue passenger trains with President class 4-6-2s!