New Engine and Structure

So a while ago I decided to switch the primary carrier on my layout to the New York Central instead of Southern. One of the factors was the availability of modern items. It is subjective, but I felt that there just wasn't a lot of Southern equipment out there on the market. I actually had more NYC cars than Southern as well.

So as part of this I decided that I would stop looking for a Southern GP and get something in NYC colors. Today my first NYC engine arrived. It is a GE UB25 by Atlas/Kato. Its wheels were a little dirty but after a good cleaning it runs marvelously. As I type this it is crawling along. It has only made it halfway around the layout in the type I have spent so far. I am very happy with it.

I also scratch built a little electrical shed to sit by the tracks in the yard. I made it out of styrene sheets and matchsticks. It is probably a bit too shiny but I will have to take care of that later once I get more proficient at weathering. Speaking of weathering , I did weather the tracks a little bit. I brushed diluted black paint down the center of the tracks to give the appearance of oil drips and grease left by frequent traffic. Not very noticeable but I like the effect none the less.

Hills and Multi-Engine Action

I added in two small hills around the interchange track at the back of the layout. They provide a small view break and enhance the impression that the tracks continue off the edge of the layout. They were made with cut chunks of the pink insulation foam that was used to make the base. The hills are covered with strips of paper to smooth out the gaps between the blocks of insulation foam.

The ground throw switches arrived earlier in the week and I installed them today. They work just as planned allowing the turnouts to the interchange and engine tracks to be power routing. Now I can have two trains on the layout at the same time. Moving an engine on one of the previously mentioned tracks and changing the direction of the turnout allows me to park the engine there while I use the other engine to switch the layout.

Currently one of the engine tracks is always live since the switch only alternates power between the two routes and does not allow the to both be shut off simultaneously. I would like both to be shut off somehow so I can bring in a train from the interchange track while both engine tracks are occupied, but that is a project for another day.

Trains are running!

I finished ballasting the majority of the yard. It still has a few spots that I need to touch up but they are not that noticeable unless you are scrutinizing it. I also did some landscaping around the freight house.

To celebrate the completion of ballasting the yard tracks, I took the layout out to the living room to run some trains on it. The tracks needed a good cleaning before I was able to start using it but I had a lot of fun once it got running. The scenery really adds to the layout.

The one thing that I realized is that I don't want to have a separate control panel for all the blocks that I wired into the layout. There are only 3 areas so far that I have think I want to have control over: the two engine tracks and the interchange track. What I really want is to do is have the track power tied to the orientation of the turnouts. So if the turnout is aligned to the interchange track, the interchange track should receive power. If it is aligned to the main, then the interchange track is isolated so that I can have a train waiting there while another train uses the main. To accomplish this I ordered two Caboose Industries 220S ground throws that have integrated SPDT switches. This also means that I only have one switch to throw that controls both the power and the turnout orientation.