Question for the Bach Man:

What sound system will the next group of Pacifics have? Soundtraxx sound value? Or TCS Wow sound?

That photo is how many of us first started with Trains back in the Jurassic.

Pretty low.  You must have good knees.

😂😂😂

Plasticville kits were an integral part of my very first 4x6 HO scale layout when I was 11 years old. I've had multiple layouts over my long life, but none really match the excitement and wonder of the town scene created by those kits back in those wonderful long ago days. I remember in particular a drugstore, a depot with a hip roof, and an interlocking tower. I still have the interlocking tower. It's been repainted, but still holds an honored place on my layout today over 60 years later.

I haven't looked at the catalog in a long time, but I would be sure that some of those kits are good starts for various kitbashing projects.

I quit listening to the pontifications of the Gods in Milwaukee a very long time ago, so I don't know what they're saying now. Anything you need to know about Model Railroading is on the Internet for free, so who needs them?

I know that a full size layout can be pushed up into a corner, but as you've said, it needs very careful planning and attention to avoid problems.

One of the best and most ingenious solutions I ever saw to accessing far reaches of a deep layout was done by a guy who had a lift out panel in the middle of the layout. He screwed a construction hardhat helmet to the underside of it so that when he had to get through that hole, he'd crawl under the layout, put his head inside the hardhat, and then stand up through the hole, with the lift out sectional on top of his head.

I laugh every time I think about this, but it really is a good idea.

Part 6 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - The meet at Donna Pass

Note:  all DCC references are for operation with an NCE pro cab running steam engines with tsunami 2–2 decoders.

The Midland Western is a subsidiary of the Gulf Coast Lines, operated by both the Missouri Pacific and the Frisco.  The year is 1940.

While Midland Western Train No. 3 is taking on water at the Donna Pass water tank, the conductor is in the telegraph cabin communicating with the Midland Western general office in Thunder Grove about the status of the line ahead.  He is surprised to find that an unexpected extra freight has just left 8-mile-distant Thunder Grove eastbound. He immediately sends a flagman west for protection and plans the moves needed to clear the line for the extra. Four more cars can be cut from the train and pushed into the team track behind the water tank, leaving four on the the train plus the caboose, which will fit into the passing track to allow the extra to pass.

The moves are completed and the mainline cleared just as the eastbound extra can be seen emerging from a curve about a half mile down the track.  It is proceeding very slowly, having been warned by the flagman from No. 3 who was picked up a half mile west of Donna Pass and is riding in the cab ready to jump off when No.3 is reached.

As the extra draws closer, the crew can see that the locomotive pulling the extra is Missouri Pacific 2-8-0 No. 185, one of five surviving members of the unique MP 180-class that was lost track of in an oversight by an incompetent roundhouse foreman, who accidentally wrote them off the books while they were over on the Midland Western. Everyone involved felt it best to leave well enough alone, so the engines remain on the Midland Western.  Even beyond this incredible occurrence, almost 60 years later a major Model Railroad manufacturer chose this very engine to be the prototype for their HO 2-8-0 model.  The 180-class engines are a little heavier than the decapods, accordingly slightly tougher on the track, and are usually a second choice for train service, although they are very good engines.

What the crew also sees is that Extra 185 East is only two cars long, which made all the switching to get No.3 off of the main line unnecessary.  The two cars are a rush shipment of LCL freight moving to the team track of Laskey for a preferred customer, having just been set off from a Frisco main line manifest freight at Thunder Grove only a couple of hours before.  Such occasional miscommunication does occur on the Midland Western, but it is such a lightly and slowly traveled line that no real danger ever is created.

Missouri Pacific Engine 185 slowly drifts past Frisco Engine 1632. The flagman from No.3 swings down from 185's cab.  As the engines pass each other, the hoggers salute each other with two quick little shorts on their whistles, as was customary on short lines long years ago.  The short eastbound extra trundles past, preparing to take an easy downgrade trip the 7 miles to Laskey.

Once Extra 185 has cleared the east end switch of the passing track by the water tank, No.3's crew reassembles the eight car train for the last eight uneventful miles into Thunder Grove, to tie the train up and hand it over to the switching crew to break it up and service local customers and the Frisco interchange track. 

A 4x8 layout with a scenic divider needs access on all 4 sides to work well.  But... a 4x8 all the way up to the walls in room corner... can you really reach across to re-rail something? Or solder a bad rail joiner? Or even get the scenery done?

The last time I had a 4x8 layout, I was 15 years old, and skinny enough to get around to the back through the 9 or 12 inch space to the wall, whatever it was, it wasn't much that's for sure.  I ended up cutting that board into two 2x8's and making an L out of them, creating the first Midland Western... essentially what I have now times two to make a U-shaped layout in two rooms. basically the the same basic track plan as today, just times two today. I've really been building the same layout for 60 years now. My Missouri Pacific branchline narrative has never changed since back then.

I'd like to see a track plan of the layout these 7000' long unit trains run on.

I am very interested in seeing the results of your steam locomotive tests on the 4% grade.  I don't have any diesels to readily compare with my steam engines.  I do know that my decapods and consolidations all haul 15 cars up a straight 2%, no prob.

I always thought that gradient percent was a factor of the rise at any given 100 feet of track.  I.E., 1' rise in 100 feet of track = 1%. 

I'm no civil engineer.  Is this incorrect?

Part 5 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - crossing the summit at Donna Pass

Note:  all DCC references are for operation with an NCE pro cab running steam engines with tsunami 2–2 decoders.

The Midland Western is a subsidiary of the Gulf Coast Lines, operated by both the Missouri Pacific and the Frisco.  The year is 1940.

The superheated exhaust chuff of 2-10-0 No. 1632 Midland Western is barking loudly as it struggles up the 2% grade with the Johnson bar fully notched, pulling Train No. 3 toward the summit at Donna Pass. Ahead at the summit the crew can see the water tank where they will stop for water to continue the trip to Thunder Grove some 8 miles distant.

Spotting the tender at the tank water spout will mean that the entire train behind the engine is still on the grade. With such a long train, the 1632 might not be able to start it again. The crew, though, having faced this before, knows exactly what to do. The Donna Pass passing track and team track lies just west of the tank and over the peak of the summit on level ground.  Without stopping at the tank, they pull the train partly past the last switch of the passing track. Then backing up, starting with with three shorts on the ATSF six-chime (F3), they set out the 5 cars of pea gravel ballast on the team track behind the water tank.  Then they move forward out of the team track starting with two forward shorts (F3), realign the switch back to the main, and with three backup shorts return to the tank with the other half of the train, knowing that they will be able to start eight cars on the grade again. 

The hogger cuts the steam (option key) as the train smoothly drifts to a stop, with the tender water hatch lined up with the tank spout.  The firemen, standing on the tender deck, gives hand signals to get the tender spotted correctly. He opens the water hatch, pulls down the water spout, and pulls a second chain to open the water valve on the tank (F16.). When the tender is full, he will return the spout up high and close the water hatch (F16 again.). During the water stop, the engineer is down on the ground walking around the engine, oiling around on the valve gear and rods, as is customary every time the engine comes to a stop anywhere. (automatic background sounds).

While the engine is taking on water, the conductor goes into the little telegraph cabin next to the water tank to check with Thunder Grove for any orders. This is necessary when running on dark unsignaled territory such as the Midland Western . Usually there are none.  He is surprised today, however, to find that an eastbound extra freight is just departing Thunder Grove, and that a meet must occur at Donna Pass. This greatly concerns the conductor, who does not yet know how long the approaching extra freight is, but does know that his now-eight-car No. 3 is still too long for the passing track.  Long ago the Midland Western decreed that no sawby meets be conducted at Donna Pass after a couple of runaways happened on the grade just to the east of the summit. The conductor knows that he will have to put three or four cars of his train on the team track to get No. 3 to fit on the passing track. 

Short passing tracks have always been a problem on the Midland Western, since it was built years ago when mostly light 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 engines pulled the short trains, but many limitations prevent the lengthening of them to truly accommodate the longer trains of more recent times.  The conductor advises the four passengers in the caboose to disembark and to have a seat on a bench next to the telegraph cabin while the train is separated and switched into sections that can be accommodated off of the main line at Donna Pass.  There's not a lot of time to get this done as the high pitched 5-chime steam whistle of the approaching extra is beginning to be audible far off to the west. The conductor sends a flagman out to the west for protection if needed.

Bruce Petrarca is Mr. DCC, one of the early DCC gurus. He posted the first information I ever saw about adjusting motor control CVs to achieve ultra slow speed operation. It was a real breakthrough for me. Before that, I thought that new plastic HO locomotives were just lousy performers, when all they needed was a little CV work that took about five minutes to so.  Especially the early run DCC Bachmann decapods which ran terribly out of the box, but could be turned into stars using Bruce's techniques.

I've actually done that on my point-to-point layout. The entire main line is EZ track which looks really good once you paint it and ballast it. The ties are very scale sized compared to some other track I used.

I hate wiring Model Railroads.  The only wiring I have is from my NCE command station to an EZ track re-railer about 1/3 away from one end of the layout. And that's it. Except for the one issue detailed below.

 A few years ago I started to have a noticeable voltage drop on the end of the longer 2/3 section of the layout. So I put a Terminal rerailer at the end of that long portion, and connected it to the first terminal retailer that had the initial feed from the command station. It took two 10 foot Bachmann cables to do it, but the solution was EZ!  No soldering! I hate wiring as much as I hate building bench work. That 20 foot power feed has been in service for 15 years now with nary a problem. 

I have thought about extending the layout another 10 feet past that remote point. The new terminal re-railer has a plug on the backside of that can use to still feed power even further, if I choose to do it.

Some people really like being electricians with their Model Railroad. Not me. I'd much rather run a train!  Branchline Railroading is perfect for simplicity, when you only have two trains out on the line at once at most.

Here's something the OP Might be interested in, to make a 4 x 8 layout appear larger.

https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/199869.aspx

Since the OP said he was going to use a foam base and the discussion went that way, I didn't say anything about the non-use of foam either.  My layout is only 17 inches wide, and doesn't have much room for any other scenery past the track. Some of my track is Bachmann EZ track, and the rest is mostly Atlas flex track and number six track switches on cork roadbed or cork sheet in the yard.  It is, however, 48 feet long, which gives me a nice long run between terminals on either end. The layout itself is three-quarter inch thick 8' long shelf boards, a 1x12 and a 1x6 next to each other except for one narrow run on a 1x6 only. They are adequately supported on metal storage shelf units.  I refuse to use power tools after nearly losing a couple of fingers when a skil saw bucked up on me a while back, and this layout has not one saw cut anywhere on it.