October begins a new month and new challenges ...

Much time has passed since changes or updates have found themselves to the website. With the chill of the fall and winter months approaching, I feel that even more of an effort can be placed to this project. I still feel this is an endeavor that can help all that find themselves on the same path of this journey. Thanks to all that have continued to visit our site as it has set idle for some time. My goal now in the future is at a minimum to give the site updates no less than twice a week. I think that will give us time to bring together the information needed and also allow the normal activities of our daily lives to happen.We have continued to work on the layout. We have tested the entire layout as we have finally been able to run trains over all placed track. That was a long time coming; I think we were pushing 2 years since trains have run as such. We are trying to at least get the base of the bridge and the track layed on the pull out bridge section we have named Old Grizzly Gulch. With that functional we will be able to run trains in a larger loop. I have been working on putting the layout in a drawing so all can see where I am talking about as I talk about updates. I will be putting more updates on this week to get us and you caught up with our process.

The trains run to new places ...

This weekend was actually a very big week for the J&C Railroad. I have been saying that we have run trains within the Freight yard which was a huge step but it only wetted our appetite to do more. So on Friday night, David cleaned track and I installed the Auto Reverser on the Wye & built a temporary bridge structure within that curve on the Wye. With all of that we were able to run trains on the entire layout. It seems like it has been an eternity since we have actually run trains. We also were able to test the tunnels with a double stack well car. To our surprise there is only a few tweaks needed but the tunnels accept the extended height of these cars. It is truly amazing what happens when the track is cleaned and good power is run through the rails. We would like to at least now set the track and bridge on the drop in bridge section that I have labeled as Old Grizzly gulch. I have a Walthers Cornerstone Trestle that I am going to put in that place. Once this bridge is functional the only place yet for track will be the Lumber Yard facility. David will be working on the design of this during the week. I seem to keep putting off laying any ground cover. My main reason is that I have never done it and there is always the initial fear and nervousness of doing it. I know once I start, I will be saying “Why hadn’t I done this earlier. I am going to make a better effort of working on the site through the upcoming days so come back soon for updates. If you would like to receive an email when updates are posted email me your name and address. I will place you on the list to be notified of future updates. Thanks for visiting and we look forward to seeing you soon!

A new month and new progress ...

So it is a new month and new thing to learn. Our site has broken the 100 hit plateau and just as I enjoy watching our layout take shape, I am also happy that the website seems to be finding a place as well. I hope that the site is a welcomed stop for some as they continue their own travels during the building of their layouts. Please sign up for our free forum so that we can get to know you also. I have found the numerous forums out there to be a valuable asset and resource; I hope that one day ours will be as well. Currently, David and I are still working on the Freight Yard leg of the layout. David’s concentration as been within the Engine Service Facility. He is working on creating the Fueling and Service Pad next to the turntable. It is coming together very well and he will be posting his thoughts soon on this project. My attention has been on a background building. We have many building on the layout but are any completed? Not really. So I am working on getting this one to the done state and with that I am practicing my weathering and painting of the building as well. This is my first attempt at this but I am pretty happy on how it is coming together. Check out our gallery to see pictures of my progress thus far. I have also stripped away the paint and decals from the GP40 as I prepare it for the Tacoma Rail paint job. I am awaiting some specifications from Tacoma Rail on the paint scheme so I will give updates on this at a later time along with the review of the paint striping that I had done.

Rolling to 1000 hits ...

The site is now approaching 1000 hits. Granted for larger sites 1000 hits may not seem a lot but as a small site as our own this is a milepost as we travel. When we first started this we had expectations but this has far exceeded those initial expectations. I am looking forward to our forum to begin to gain members and for the crew members of The Roundhouse to grow with that. To gain those friendships, knowledge, expertise and humor at times is a valuable asset to anyone. It is a resource that money could not purchase. So we push the throttle forward and lay on the horn as we approach this crossing of 1000 hits. Thanking everyone who has visited and hope that the visit was an enjoyable one

Have returned finally ...

Sorry I haven’t been around for a few days. As life and the computer had different thoughts of what I should be doing. I think I am back in a forward direction now and am looking forward to some good work on the layout this week. I have started to work on the GP40 that I will be painting in the Tacoma Rail Paint scheme. I am trying to decide which red should be used for it. We were able to run some trains over the weekend which felt ... well very good. Upon doing so we have found we need to do some work on tunnels as they will not allow a double stack well car to pass. That will be some major construction items we work on this week. I am still continuing to work on securing the wiring under the bench and will be sealing them soon with liquid tape. Also I will be starting from the back wall and adding some ground cover to the ballast already added and test that application. Hmmmm ... and we will be also using the Weathering System from Bragdon Enterprises and the Rusty Rail System from Joe's Model Trains. Reviews to be posted within the next week on both items.

Found the short and packages arrive ...

I did find the short last night. The issue was with an Atlas Snap Switch in which the rails on the frog ended up touching. Maybe because of soldering joints? I am not sure. We have replaced the switch and all is well except for now putting every thing all back together. Thanks to everyone for their ideas and help to resolve this problem. We also received two packages in the mail today. One was from Walthers, which included two new projects, a GP40 that is painted Western Maryland and my goal is to create a Tacoma Rail GP40. The package also included the Rusty Rails kit for painting rails that we will be reviewing, so stay tuned for that. We are also excited that we received a package from Bragdon Enterprises including their Weathering system. This, as with many things, is the first try at weathering so we will be sharing our trials and reviews of this product as well.

To find a short ...

So I started to clean the Freight yard leg of the layout. I will be working on a drawing of the layout so that you will know the areas that I am talking about. But this is the area that we have been laying ballast in and painting. This section is disconnected from the rest of the layout and I wanted to supply power to it so that I could test the track and begin to run some trains. Well that is where I am stuck at now. My DCS100 keeps shorting out whenever I apply power to the section. It worked at one time and now doesn’t. The only things really that has changed is that we have added ballast, painted, and soldered joints but there is a short somewhere so I will be researching today to find it. So lesson learned. Ensure all track is functional before moving to any other phase. Also if we would have been running trains to this point we would have noticed when the short happened and maybe have a better chance of finding it.