Friday, April 24, 2020

Making a minor change

While in the process of soldering the last few electrical drops on the layout, I decided to make a minor change in a couple of structure locations.
New locations for scrap yard (lower left) and engine
house (upper right)
I'm moving the engine house from its previous location near the wall to the outside of the layout near the harbor. The scrap yard that was in that spot replaces the engine house near the wall. Reasoning behind this move is that the engine house will have a detailed interior, more easily seen near the aisle, while the scrap yard will still be quite visible in its new placement.

Drops are nearing completion, with the final few connections to follow. I'm getting anxious to get that complete, so I can start on scenery and structures. For those who are interested in such things, the drops are 22 ga wire connected to 16 ga buss wires underneath the layout. Connections are made by 3M Scotchlock
"suitcase connectors". Track for the layout is all Atlas Code 100 Flextrack on Woodland Scenics N-scale foam roadbed. Turnouts are medium by Peco, and are operated by Caboose Hobbies ground throws. It's open grid, and all on 3/4" plywood, built just 30" off the floor so I can operate it from rolling around on an office chair. Virtually everything - bench work, track, turnouts, most rolling stock, two of the four engines, a few structures, and even some wiring were repurposed from my previous layout. Power for the layout is NCE Power Cab, and that is completely new and a change from Digitrax.