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Photo Update

NScaleLayout Grampy

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.

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All Aboard the Alaska Railroad

Sherry Ott, a freelance photographer, has some tips for taking photographs from trains.  Check out the blog post here.

 

 

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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.

ARR%20Caboose

Source

 

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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.

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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.

NScaleLayout Grampy

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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…

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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.

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Box Car

Picked up box car # 8019.  Like with the refer, it got new wheels.  Almost every car I buy needs a wheel upgrade.  The factory flanges are tall and ride on the railroad ties.  Such was the case with this car. #code55problems

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