A new layout for the new house!

[Joe323]

Looks good Wiley.  Just wondering have you considered using a relatively new line of Menards buildings on your layout?

[wiley209]

Looks good Wiley.  Just wondering have you considered using a relatively new line of Menards buildings on your layout?

I'll have to consider that... maybe the Starbucks.


The Christmas train passing through one of the town railroad crossings. Imagine the drivers' surprise to see a train with a steam engine roll through the crossing instead one of the usual diesels!


The stream coming from the logging mill.


I got my Walthers Cornerstone/Scenemaster traffic light up and running as well.


Rail travel gets pretty busy during the holidays!


Another railroad crossing action shot.


The freight train now pulled by my Walthers BNSF "Fakebonnet" Dash 8-40BW, with the TYCO ATSF wide-vision caboose at the end.


An overview of my three trains currently on the layout.

[wiley209]

Some more updates...


Since Christmas ended, I've got my Baldwin 2-8-0 steam locomotive in revenue freight service now! Smaller freights, and it may be anachronistic with the rest of my layout, but so what? It looks cool!


Said freight train stopping at the logging mill...


Loading logs...


The steam-powered freight passing a more modern (and longer) BNSF freight train.


I'm going to get a Logic Rail Tech Grade Crossing Pro controller and detection system for this railroad crossing, and will soon wire up the signals to it!


This part of the road still isn't finished yet, so I thought I'd close it off until I do! At least the train station can still be accessed by passing through the Pizza Hut parking lot.


The Amtrak train passing through the downtown station.


The BNSF freight dropping off crates at a TYCO Prestomatic bin...


It's pretty busy at this train station right now...


An overview of the residential area with the Amtrak train stopped at the nearby station.


Giving my tracks a once-over in an anachronistic but cool manner!


A nighttime action shot at the residential area and the Skyview drive-in theater!


Another action shot in the dark. Looks a lot more like a real city or town this way!


The Skyview Drive-In is still doing well on my layout! Sorry for the crossbuck on the road; I was still positioning things.


For this run, I put my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay-window caboose at the end! It does look neat, but I find I like the look of a caboose with the cupola on top better.


I've tried applying a couple of the included decals to this Walthers Cornerstone water tower. Working with decals is actually pretty tricky, and I need a bit more practice and experience before I begin to get ambitious with them...


Double Dash-8s! For pulling an HO-scale freight train with more than ten cars, I find consisting to help quite a bit, just like the real thing.


Trying some repositioning. I removed the TYCO lighted colonial house, as the interior lighting was broken anyways, and made a bit more space for the high school. I even put it right across from one of the elementary schools, like I've seen in some towns (the neighboring town of West Bridgewater, MA has both its' elementary schools and the middle/high school in one general area so they are close to each other.)


But I DID get a neat new structure: the Walthers Cornerstone Hole-In-One Donut Shop! Since it's molded in three colors and they recommend some painting for it, I thought I'd paint the decorative prop donut up like a Simpsons donut! I moved the Cornerstone newsstand over to a different, next door to the post office now.


The Exxon gas station now has an illuminated sign, made by Life-Like Trains.


An overview of this part of the layout, with new positioning of the high school with an added garage. This looks a bit more realistic now, especially with the TYCO freight unloading depot being so close to the high school originally. Maybe I'll put up a fence between that and the school parking lot.


The current setup on this side of the Main St. area of downtown, with the new donut shop and relocating the newsstand.


Disaster strikes! One of the turnouts apparently malfunctioned and opened by itself, leading to this head-on collision! At least the locomotives didn't blow up in the wreck, like in the movies or TV.


Some time after the train wreck. I disguised this leftover unused turnout wire with some lychen, as I often see shrubs growing next to railroad tracks in real life. (Because the turnout is right next to my control platform, there is no need for me to operate it via remote.)


I've provided a booster terminal connection to the inner loop, replacing the regular rerailer next to the downtown train station with a terminal rerailer. I've read in a few books that it's wise to provide a booster connection opposite or away from the main terminal connection on a large layout, especially if using DCC with multiple locomotives.


An overview showing my current freight train consists. After that head-on train wreck, when cleaning and repairing them I decided to switch around the rolling stock. I also unhooked the TYCO ATSF wide-vision caboose from my main BNSF freight as I decided it looked a little too toylike, and put my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay-window caboose at the end of the train for the time being.


Plus, having my hoboes ride in a freight train pulled by a steam locomotive looked a bit more appropriate.

[Ken Huck]

Wiley, this is getting to look like quite an empire !  I always look forward to more photos.
Thanks for sharing.

Ken

[Len]

Wiley - If anyone asks, tell them the steam locomotive is part of your roads off layout "Heritage Museum" program. And like UP's #844 is still maintained for Class I service.

Len

[Ken Huck]

Hey Wiley, you still working on your railroad ?  I know you got a lot of stuff crammed in there, but it was
you that got me started on my long trestle and water features.  We'd sure like to see what your you're
up to.  How about checking in ?   

[wiley209]

Hey Wiley, you still working on your railroad ?  I know you got a lot of stuff crammed in there, but it was
you that got me started on my long trestle and water features.  We'd sure like to see what your you're
up to.  How about checking in ?   

Well, here's a video I shot early in the spring. Not much has changed with the layout, except I do have "water" under my blinking bridge now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvWexsXOO7M

[jonathan]

Well that was a nice trip down memory lane! I had some of those Tyco motorized structures when I was a kid. Thanks!

Regards,

Jonathan

[Ken Huck]

WOW ! ! !  I just scrolled through the entire thread and was able to see "ALL" the pictures that I
wasn't able to see when they were first put up.  I even commented a few times that I wasn't able
to see them.  And the video you just posted is pretty much the "icing on the cake".

Getting back to that 'blinking' bridge...that's what motivated me to get into a water feature on my
layout.  Nice to see you got your water.  Looks good !

Thanks Wiley, keep those picture coming.

Ken

[wiley209]

I'm gonna try and see if this works for images.

The following photos were taken in March:

Spring comes to my town, with the snow melting! (In reality, the decorated styrofoam snow pieces were removed and placed in storage until next Christmas.)


There was still leftover bits of foam and "snow" material from the removal, but I left it there for a month to create the realistic illusion of the winter-spring transition, combined with the barren trees.


The freight train rolls over a small pond and river underneath the Bachmann E-Z Track blinking bridge.

The following photos were taken in June...

Now the transition from spring to summer is happening on my layout! All the snow is melted away, and I swapped out the barren trees for spring trees!


That couple is back up at the Lover's Lane, even with the new billboard for the Skyview Drive-In being there!


The swimming pool behind the Plasticville Suburban Split Level has been reopened, and the family next door are having barbecues again!


My town is NOT being affected by the current coronavirus crisis, and everyone is well and businesses and schools are thriving. But many of the residents here that work as doctors and nurses have to frequently commute to the big city via Amtrak to treat and test patients during the crisis!


Even the Skyview Drive-In Theater is reopened and doing pretty well!


Another family gets ready to go on a picnic, like in the olden days!


The freight trains are still busy here, like this one unloading logs at the TYCO Prestomatic bin. One of the boxcars is also loaded with toilet paper to ship during this crisis

[wiley209]

Here are some more recent photos. This batch is from August...



Recently I took a couple of spare Life-Like diamond road signs and customized them to warn motorists that a side road they are approaching has a railroad crossing shortly after the turn, just like the ones in real life. I assume this modification could also be done with Bachmann's "SLOW" diamond sign.


Drive-in movie theaters are enjoying a healthy business thanks to the pandemic, and the Walthers Skyview Drive-In is no exception! The Android tablet's Wi-Fi connection is getting flakey, so I downloaded some drive-in theater intermission videos as MP4s onto a micro-SD card and loaded that into the tablet.


Just a nice shot of the farm on the layout.


An overview.


The main BNSF freight passes my Walthers DCC-equipped BNSF GP9M pulling the TYCO crane car and boom tender.


Another railroad crossing accident on the layout! Luckily the driver got out of the car in time.


The main BNSF freight unloading crates from the TYCO operating boxcar.


The Amtrak train stopped at the TYCO Arlee Station. It does make for an interesting sight seeing the Bachmann Amfleet cars next to the building like that.


The main freight having passed through the railroad crossing protected by Bachmann's non-operating Plasticville railroad crossing they've been making since the early 1970s, posed in this picture with the gates rising.

Here are some pics I took last week, with September starting...


Summer has ended on my train layout and the kids are actually going back to school! Like I said, my town is safe from the pandemic.


Another view of the schools. I might soon add an expansion to the high school.


The hobos still hanging out in the railroad yard.


The Center Street School (a TYCO kit) back in session.


I find a railroad yard like this a perfect place to put older operating accessories like the TYCO Prestomatic bins for my operating boxcar and log dump car, the Life-Like coal tipple and lighted yard tower, the TYCO lighted factory and the AHM freight carrier. The Pola trucking terminal (Walthers Trainline version) also looks good there too.


For now I've switched to GE power for my main freight, with a pair of BNSF "Fakebonnets" (Walthers Trainline Dash 8-40BW with TCS decoders hardwired into them) hauling the freight cars.


During this operating session, when I was running the Amtrak train, something went wrong and the second Amfleet car ended up uncoupling from the first car and the F40PH locomotive (a Walthers Mainline model). Luckily I noticed what happened before a wreck could happen, and set up so that my little BNSF work train would push the uncoupled Amfleet cars back to the rest of the train, similar to real-life railroad operation.


Another shot of my BNSF work train pushing the Amtrak cars, consisting of my Bachmann DCC-equipped GP40 that came with my E-Z Command unit pulling the TYCO crane car and boom tender, the Santa Fe versions of course!


The Amtrak train all together again pulling into the downtown station, only a little late.


The GE Fakebonnet-led BNSF freight rolling past the Skyview Drive-In Theater, now with a playground! (The Bachmann playground set, of course!)

[wiley209]

Some more new pics, especially since I now have another locomotive I installed a DCC decoder into!


My Walthers Trainline BNSF "Heritage II" Dash 8-40BW heads up the main freight, with a slightly patched Santa Fe Warbonnet behind it.


To go with the two Walthers Trainline Dash-8 engines, I pulled out my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay window caboose.


The freight train passing by my farm again.


The freight passing my short BNSF work train consisting of the Bachmann "Heritage IV" GP40 locomotive and TYCO Santa Fe crane car and boom tender.


After the last set of pics were taken, I rearranged my main freight a bit and had my Walthers Trainline BNSF "Fakebonnet" Dash 8-40BW locomotive be up front with the "Heritage II" behind it, based off how I've seen some real-life configurations, even done to this day (though real-life "Fakebonnet" locomotives are rare nowadays, with many having been repainted in the orange BNSF colors.)


I also added a driveway to my TYCO Lighted Ranch House with a diagonally-cut styrofoam piece painted black. Now the car can get in and out of the garage easily!


A nice shot of the main freight stopped so a pipe section can be unloaded from the TYCO Freight Unloading Depot.


A shot of the Unloading Depot itself in action.


An overview of the layout.


The main freight switching onto the inner track loop, passing the work train.


The freight train unloading crates from the Operating Boxcar.


A neat shot of the Amtrak passenger train approaching the Arlee Station with the Skyview Drive-In theater in the background.


The BNSF freight train passing through the TYCO Operating Crossing Gate.


A nice shot of the TYCO Drug Store, with a little newsstand (a Scenic Accents pack from Woodland Scenics) in front of the store.


The BNSF freight train rolling past the Skyview Drive-In on a busy evening.


I installed a second light inside the concession/projection building to create the illusion of a movie projector coming out of the openings!

[momotrain]

oh wow! what an exciting project and incomparable final result. Thanks for taking us along with you!
It makes you want to start your own project.