It’s been a long time. Today I moved my table. It’s going to take some time to get it set up again. I’m excited to get back into modeling.
On the Move
Photo Update
Updated Plan – Added a spur for a future train station
Here are some photos from this past weekend. My focus has been on laying track so the scenery needs a lot of work. I have a few more switches to wire up then I may begin filling in scenery.
I really like working with the curved turnouts, they add a lot of flexibility to my industry options. I find that using a curved turnout at the exit end of a curve allots the industry to be larger because space isn’t wasted by turnouts after curves.
All Aboard the Alaska Railroad
Sherry Ott, a freelance photographer, has some tips for taking photographs from trains. Check out the blog post here.
Well Laid Solder
Doing some wiring on the railroad today. I’ll attach the frog wires once the switch machine is in place.
A “container-boose”?
The Alaska Railroad has, in typical Alaskan ingenuity fashion, fabricated what appears to be a transfer car made out of a shipping container. These special cabooses are used in transfer service between yards or on short switching runs. As such, they lack amenities such as a bathroom and cooking or sleeping spaces. The ends of the car are left open and will include railings and chains to protect the rail-workers.
Source
Front-End-Friday
It’s a day late, I know, but here’s a couple photos of my newest engine:
This GP-38 will be used for light duty freight: a few box cars, a reefer, an open hopper, a couple tankers, log+lumber etc. I bought this Atlas engine on e-bay. It came with DCC+Sound and cost me $94, including shipping from Alaska.
Track Plan
Here is a look at my track plan. It consists of two outer loops and various sidings for industries. The spur on the left will be expanded down to a coal unloading dock on the coast. Industries in the center will include a sawmill where logs will be dropped off and lumber will be picked up, a liquefied propane unloading station and various shipping depots. In the upper right corner, the cut out shows the two loops traversing a mountain via a tunnel. There is a spare switch in the mountain for a potential helix. This helix may eventually lead to a future upper deck where passenger service will be managed. The layout is currently in one corner of my home office, there is a lot of potential for expansion.
Engineer
One of my nephews, Ben, came to visit today; and he wanted to run the trains! Of corse, for a six year old, this means maxing out their speed! I don’t have many sidings in my layout. Since converting from Kato Snaptrack, I haven’t invested in many yet. Maybe that will be a goal for this year: build up some sidings and industries to make operating a little more fun. Then Ben can do more than run the train around the loop as fast as he can…
Migration
I’ve migrated my blog over to WordPress. As a result, it may look slightly different but I feel its an improvement. WordPress will provide me with greater flexibility and more options in the future. One big feature I already like is the ability to share posts with multiple social media outlets. Google’s Blogger more or less limited you to sharing with Google+ only, which I didn’t care for.
Modeling Alaska 