yeah, there will be a straight included in there....would have been nice to know the measurements of the crossovers since I need a few 3' pieces now, and the back loop right now is only 20" it will be 22" once i order some more tracks, and I need a electric bachman switch as well. Yeah, dad is having a ton of fun as well! A more complete vid will be done very soon.
B

Hope this works....the train set from Santa Claus was a HUGE hit, it's not the official layout but pretty close. All line working and operational! More pics and a explanatory vid to come! Hope everyone had a GREAT Christmas!
Best,
Bal

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151364234590731&set=vb.616120730&type=2&theater#!/photo.php?v=10151364234590731&set=vb.616120730&type=2&theater

Thanks M1, I plan to! Just wait till you see the Christmas load I got. =) hehe...ebay has been berry berry good to me! =) And just won an awesome NIB special edition set of Athearn IC's pwr and dummy loco's....man, can't wait to get them in and get them running! pic of them below! =) And found a great guy to convert them over to DCC with sound for just cost of parts! WOOT WOOT!

Benchwork done! Table measures 5'x16' Now all I have to do is wait for Christmas to roll around now! More pics to come!
Everyone have a wonderful and Merry Christmas!
Best,
Bal

Hi All,
Just curious about one thing. Is the switch in the DC set mannual or remote? I'm guessing it's manual since there are no leads on the EZ Commander to power it right?
Best,
Bal

@Ken G the favorite spot has those cars pretty cheap still!

nice one, Jonathan, what kit is that? would it fit the Bachmann EZtrack? I really do like that one alot..looks alot like one very close to me!

Are there any plans to do a SD40/SD40-2 in DCC with sound in the near future? Possibly with IC or ICG shell?

wow, got some very talented people here in the forum. I can't wait to start on mine on Christmas day!

Thanks, Jerry and Jim, noted and noted! Man, I can't wait till Christmas to get this baby rolling!

There is a switch there...backing it out on the track I would guess or I may add another switch on the other side.

Yeah you know where McComb is then! My next question is do I need more than one 8 pin barrier switch? Since I have more than 8 switches?

here is a little bit better pic of the diagram so all can be read.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/balrog21/TRAINLAYOUT5X16BETTER-1.jpg

yeah, Doneldon, this is with it all connected together, which after some serious thought I'm going to keep it that way. If i wanted to separate it I would take the x-over out at the bottom right, but after thinking about it it wouldn't be as much fun - too many swithching and fun hours would be wasted if I isolated Main 3. So, all will be connected and the DC power pack will only be used to run the switches. Main 3 will be elavated via tier or rock formation and Main 2 will run through it at the bottom.
a couple of other things I'm aware of as well that I've already taken into consideration.
I will have at least 2 feet of clearance all the way around the layout. Yeah, 5 feet is wide, but I'm pretty tall with very long arms so possible derails and reaching them really won't be a problem! =) I wish I had the luxury of having the whole room for my layout but this is what I'm allowed and my son will be involved so a shelf type layout isn't really in the cards atm (ah, but later!).

Now the fun stuff -
I'm from the deep south and we really don't have many rolling hills or mountains, but I do love mountains, so I'm adding a few for personal taste. My train yard will have some iconic buidlings that our own town's trainyard has. I can't model my home towns yard, it's huge. I'm from McComb,MS it was the only car repair shop between New Orleans and Memphis, TN and was a hopping place during it's day. But I can at least show a few golden nuggets in my yard to show the love. As a treat I'm providing two pics below. One is the offical partial layout of my town's yard, and the second is taken way back in 1976 when the orange and white's (ICG's)were constantly at work. Maybe one day I will add a line for the Panama Limited that ran through our town and had a stop here, but for now, the freighties win the day! Hope you enjoy the pics!

I do want to say thanks for all the advice and caution. Your help is GREATLY appreciated!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/balrog21/McCombtrainyard.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/balrog21/ICGdoingwork.jpg

can you tell I'm tired...the layout size is 5'x16' sorry for the repeated posts...

link so you can see it bigger!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/balrog21/TRAINLAYOUT5X16.jpg