January 28, 2006
One might think that the cooler high desert winter would be good motivation to be out working on the layout. I did get a few things done in the early part of winter. I rigged a floating valve from an evaporative cooler to keep the pond full, and I started working on trestling to hold up the track on the east side of Sidewinder Station. During my four week winter break from teaching school I started thinking about how to extent the pike into the west part of the yard between Black Widow Gultch and the fence. I really was not happy with any of the ideas that were coming. I found the yard is too narrow for the full loops I wanted to include. At the same time I had been dreaming of a patio surrounded with track in a raised bed with a water fall and a series of bridges in one of the corners. The result was a nearly complete redesign of most of the layout. I am pretty much done with the planning stage now and in the process of rebuilding the south end of the layout.
The north end of the layout will stay as is. The current pond and waterfall over the double tunnel will stay, as will the double curve out of the tunnel. The whole south end of the yard will be completely redone. I'll start by moving the patio five feet to the north and seven feet to the west and expanding it from its current 11'x11' to 12'x12'. Four bridges will cross the cascading waterfall in the south east corner of the layout. The top bridge will be 30 inches higher than the lowest track. Working down the "hill" will be bridges at 18 inches, 16 inches, and 14 inches. Black Widow Gultch and Chuckwalla Springs will move to the far west side of the yard.
The construction process will not be a quick one. I have made two decisions that will extend the time it will take to have the two inner loops functional. I will first have to build some short retaining walls and fill the raised beds with dirt. Of greater interest, at least to me in the construction process, however, is my decision to hand lay the track. Plans are to use 8' to 9' LBG or AristoCraft flex rails on redwood ties. To keep me motivated (a running train seems to do that), my first step will be to lay the westward expansion of the main loop first. I'll use purchased track with "American" configuration ties. This loop has minimum diameter turns of 11.5 feet and will be the line for big trains club members bring to run. The first inner loop will have minimum diameter of 10 feet so will still accomodate big trains. Ties on the hand laid portion will be "narrow guage" or "European" spacing. The smaller inside loop will have minimum diameter of 8 feet, and will be devoted to early steam.
November 14, 2008
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December 19, 2007
November 5, 2007
August 8, 2006
August 6, 2006
May 6, 2006
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