Progress Continues

TOWN NAMES

It's been a while since my last post to the blog so, I'll dive right into what has been happening on the layout. I have decided on names for the towns on the layout including one town I changed the name of, that has appeared in earlier posts to the blog. Note: Besides Santa Fe, El Paso, and Yrbi, unless otherwise mentioned, it has not been decided as to the types of industries or the number of industries that will occupy these towns. I'm trying to focus on getting mainline track completed so as to have a continuous loop without having to reverse a train in the opposite direction. 

First, Santa Fe, NM, the northern most town along with Denver and Salt Lake City represented by long staging tracks near Santa Fe Yard. I have also mentioned these towns in earlier posts.

 

Continuing southward is Clines Corner, NM which is just a town name on the railroad with no services provided by the railroad. I thought it would be a clever play on the name since the track sweeps through a left hand turn in the corner of the layout room, in essence it's just a name of a block of track on the railroad.

 

Town names continuing southward are as follows: Encino, NM, then Duran, NM, which will have Yrbi Junction interchange for interchange traffic to the branchline town of Yrbi along with a couple other undecided industries. 

Next is Carrizozo, NM, which is the town I changed the name of. This town used to be called Summit. This town will have spur tracks for trains to pickup or drop off dummy helper locomotives to traverse the helix as to enhance operations along with other industries. 

Next is Oscuro, NM, which is located halfway down the helix or halfway up the helix depending on the direction of train travel. No services provided by the railroad.

 

Tularosa, NM is the next town's name and is on the bottom level to the right of the helix. This town will also have spur tracks for pickup and drop off of dummy locomotives to traverse the helix. This town will also have way freight industries along with a large industry on the left side of the helix underneath the upper level branch line town of Yrbi.

 

The next town is Alamogordo, NM, then Orogrande, NM, then finally El Paso, Texas. One project I would like to tackle is to make a map drawing of the railroad so that I have something to reference. When this is completed I will post it to the blog.

BOTTOM LEVEL CONSTRUCTION

Track construction continued with the beginnings of construction on the bottom level at the bottom of the helix in Tularosa, YAAAY!! Mainline track was installed with turnouts for the helper locomotive spur tracks and turnouts for the lead track around the outside of the helix to the large industry just left of the helix. There will be a spur for an industry along the west wall of the layout room. 

The double track mainline coming from the helix combines into one track via a turnout at the north end of Alamogordo. The track continues and reaches a curve at the end of the peninsula and starts to gain elevation to go over the mainline, and over the to be constructed southern end of El Paso yard.

Tularosa, at the bottom of the helix. You can see a jut in space in the wall just to the right of the mainline and just past where the sub roadbed turns from brown to a lighter color. This will be the location of a building front to represent an industry. This will be a lift out building front for access to the window which is part of the room construction. There will also be a storage spur along with the spur for the industry. Also seen is the lead track for the large industry that will be to the left of the helix disappear in the background.

Mainline curving to the right where it meets the turnout to combine into one track in Alamogordo. In this photo you can see the foam riser where the main will cross over itself.

Alamogordo with foam riser in the background. In this photo, El Paso yard will be to the right of the chair. Alamogordo is located beneath Duran on the top level.

End of the peninsula and the south end of Alamogordo.

Beginning of the foam riser.

More photos of the foam riser. This riser is a 2% incline riser by Woodland Scenics.

Foam riser at the point where the mainline will cross itself.

In this photo you can see how the mainline will proceed and just to the right of this photo will be where the main will cross over the open ended part of El Paso Yard and continue along the north wall of the room back down to bench work level via another set of foam risers. Note: The foam riser end in this picture was not glued in its final position thus making it look like it would not line up with the curve representing the curvature of the mainline.

Next for mainline continuation is to get some bench work modifications made before sub-roadbed can be installed for track work of El Paso yard. El Paso yard has to be installed before mainline continuation. Wiring for Tularosa and Alamogordo needs to be installed as well. One other project I want to tackle is installation of infrastructure for bottom level lighting.

OPERATIONS

Yes! I have been able to operate trains from Santa Fe to the branchline town of Yrbi. At present I have a grain train and a mixed manifest that runs between the two towns. I also have a local that switches out the Grain elevator and the feed supply store in Yrbi. I have timed the operation of these three trains and it has come close to three hours to complete, from make up in the yard to switching in Yrbi to breaking the trains down at Santa Fe and running the local in Yrbi.

This may be the reason why progress has slowed. Haha!

 One thing I have not as yet tried is running a grain train or a mixed manifest from Yrbi to the two staging towns of Denver and Salt Lake City. Future thought and experimentation needed.

 The one thing I have discovered after a few operating sessions, is the need to install turnout motors and supporting electrical for the entrance turnouts for the yard leads and arrival/departure track turnouts near Santa Fe Yard. This will enable the Yardmaster to operate these turnouts from the Yardmasters position. As it is now, I have to keep walking back and forth from the Yardmasters side of the upper peninsula to the opposite side in order to operate these turnouts when needed. 

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