Changes made ...

I haven't posted within the blog it seems for a while. I have been making changes to the site as we make changes, move forward and try new things. We have moved our old forum to a new location as the advertising that was being shown on the "free" forum was not something that I nor David wished to be reflected upon the site. So with that I am in the process of getting the new one up and going. Hopefully we will get a few more to join as members and get it to be a viable option for us to discuss and ask our questions. We are working on 3 different things on the layout currently. We have come up with a new track plan for the Grain / Freight Distribution area and while working on that area we are trying oout something new for the roadbed of that area. I have also installed my first rotary beacon on a SOO SD60. Now the rest of the fleet are in trouble. My writeup of this is posted on the site. And the third project is completing the Old Grizzly Trestle. it is moving forward and hopefully it will begin to move at even a quiker pace. Thanks for visiting and see you soon!

Old Grizzly Gulch Trestle ...

I have finally started on the bridge and have made some good progress. Pictures will be posted on the website today. Due to the weather in western Washington (not spring yet for us it seems) it was a little chilly in the train room so I moved my supplies and bridge upstairs to work on. Why I don't do this more in the winter I am not sure. Here is my key learning thing from assembling the bridge deck last night. Measure once, Measure twice, Double check and then cut. I made a mistake and cut both of the runners along the bottom of the deck incorrectly. Thankfully model glue reassembled it for me and I think once all is assembled and painted it will be difficult to truly notice. I will be working with SculptaMold tonight to add to the cliff sides to that the timber bents will have a place to rest. I will also need to modify the middle supports as the river is a tad further away from the bridge than the kit would accommodate. Check back soon as the bridge closes on to completion (crosses my fingers).

A wiring we will go ... a wiring we will go ...

So for this week it has been wiring, soldering, and trying to make the underside of the layout something that can be understood. Though with the spaghetti of wires under there it makes it difficult at times. There has been a couple key things that have been accomplished during this portion of the construction. First we broke the layout into 7 power districts with short protection. We used 1157 automobile taillights for the short protection. An important note for this is to realize that all the feeders that are on the same polarity as the taillight needs to be wired into the taillight. This was something that we found out after scratching our heads a little bit. Once it is all wired correctly the system works very well. The only power district we did not add the short protection was on the lead in and lead out to include the pull out bridge of Old Grizzly Gulch. Our thought were that if a short happened at that point we would want all of the layout to lose power. In regards to Old Grizzly Gulch we added power on/off switches to power the bridge and the lead in and lead out. This will allow about 12" prior to the bridge to be dead if the switch is off, which will cause a runaway train to stop prior to diving off to the floor. The next item that we accomplished is that we added a power terminal box. With this we have one lead from the Digitrax booster and all of the feeders have their specific places within the terminal instead of 10 lead soldered together. I will be posting pics soon to show these projects. Visit again soon!

The bear awakens ...

After a long hibernation, i am dusting off the website and making a new run at it. I think some of my issue previous is trying to do stuff daily and when that didn't work things fell to the wayside. I am making a schedule to update the site at a minimum of once per week. This will give a good look at what we are doing or not doing and give a good look at the progress of the site and other projects regarding the J & C Western Railroad. Both of use have alot to add so we will be updated frantically to get everyone caught up on where we have been and where we are going. Thanks to every one for visiting!!! Check out the logo we are working on for our layout. I think it is beginning to come together. Let us know your opinions ... thanks again!