Albey25's blog

I know, I skipped another week, so shoot me. I have encountered one stumbling block after another in my quest for Shiretown perfection, but I guess my stubbornness paid off and I am now (finally) up to where I thought I was a few weeks ago. All sidings in the Beaufield freight and passenger yards are running smoothly, all the switches work, the Met still scoots about out of sight, appearing and reappearing as she winds her way beneath it all, and all the blocks respond properly to the commands of their various switches.

You may have noticed that I skipped a week of blogging, and you may have wondered why. The short answer is that I was making such good progress a weekend ago that I decided to catch up on the "finishing work". By that I mean that while B-Line construction was sailing along, I was sort of "temping" the wiring. That is, I had the post connections loosely wrapped in place, to make sure they were correct, then I'd move on and wire up another siding, but still only loosely.

Another week, another blog entry. The subway is really running smoothly and I have placed some of the "surface" above it and started to lay track. I know some guys think track laying is the epitome of model railroading, but to me it is tedium incarnate. I can't afford to DCC all my locomotives, so the whole layout has to be block wired. Who would have thought that a 6 X 8 would have so many blocks?

Ok I admit it, I am still a little bit in shock. My wife, Pam, and I attended the Amherst Model Railroad Show in West Springfield, Mass this past weekend. It was truly a case of sensory overload. For the first time in my life I was confronted with too much model railroading. We shot two hours of video, mostly of operating modular layouts and other selected points of interest. I suppose one gets out of any experience that which he seeks, and I was there for ideas and turnouts. I got some of each.

Dr. Shumway was a dentist here in America's Home Town back in the late 1800's. For whatever reason, he decided that Plymouth needed a rail connection directly to Middleboro, and so he rolled up his sleeves and got it done!

Here we are at the end of another weekend, so that means another blog entry. Wouldn't it be nice if I had something to talk about, rather than just prattling on about how little I got done?

Well the Met has a new concrete platform in the downtown station. There was some talk that Ebeneezer Hardstuff, owner of the concrete company was going to have the boys make the pour on Christmas day, but after some sort of intervention, in which he was visited by his former partner and a small group of rather questionable characters, he decided to put it off till after the holiday. Then he went to dinner at the home of his foreman, Bob Crockpot. He later claimed that the meeting the night before "scared the Dickens out of me", and decided to wait a day.

The Met lives! Thanks in no small part to my new friend Absnut, of this board, my subway line is running as smooth as good scotch! You may recall from last week that I was having problems with consistency, but those problems seem to be in the past. Our colleague rushed to my rescue and with some timely advice, and a spare part or twenty, The Met now travels its little route under my table with nary a hitch or a glitch!

Another week has passed, and I promised myself an entry a week, so I guess I have to write. I am currently stymied with the trackwork on the subway system. Before I can move beyond this point, the Met has to run flawlessly, and it just doesn't. It will make 15 perfect trips around the loop and then derail for no apparent reason on the 16th. I have mixed atlas with unitrack and that seems to be part of the problem.  I have placed a re-railer strategically after the point where it jumps the iron, and that helps, but only some of the time.

Another week has passed, and that means another blog entry. This week I continued to work on the Met. I laid out the track, changed it, changed again, tweaked it, added stuff and eventually went back to my original plan. I powered it up early in the week, but ran into problems almost immediately. The thing would start and stop, sputter and strain and come off the iron. Remember, this is going to be almost 100% out of reach so I cannot have any flaws. Once it is running, it has to stay running.

Well another week has passed and there was actual model railroad stuff going on here these last few days. After what seemed an interminable series of delays, I managed to get my benchwork up and have now begun laying track for the "Met", my subway system. All right, the subway is more for show than real model railroading, after all, there is only one station, and that is all that will be visible. I just thought that a city the size of Beaufield ought to have a subway, and so it shall. Otherwise, there is not much else to report.

Here's a rarity, a blog entry midweek. This is what happens when I get unexpected time off from work. I have finally settled on a bench design, so now I can finalize the actual track and layout plans. Phase one has to be the subway. Nicknamed "The Met". short for Metropolitan Electrified Transit, it will be built on a lower level (duh) and will reach far out into the space. This is mostly for time considerations. The only visible part of the line will be the area designated as "Subway Station" in the accompanying diagram.

Another weekend is just about over and while I did quite a bit of work in preparation for building my layout, I really didn't accomplish much. Let me explain:

Well another weekend has passed, and I don't have much to report as far as layout progress is concerned. I did manage to re-design it a bit. I also have begun to compose the "back story" of this layout. I wonder if I am the only hobbyist who feels that he needs to do this. Not sure I can explain this properly. To me, a railroad needs a reason to exist. Obviously getting goods and people from point A to point B is reason enough, but doesn't it go deeper?

Well, it has been a week and on the surface it appears that nothing was accomplished. I tend to grasp at straws, so I am pleased to report that the room has been nearly cleaned out. That might not sound like much, but it took three dump runs and several filled trash bags waiting for a 4th!

I have also managed to settle on a benchwork design, so when I do get started, I'll know where I am going. This is what I decided on:

 

 

Got more work to do in prepping the room, but one needs to crawl before once can walk.

 

This is the first blog entry, so I am not sure what is expected. I guess I get to determine that. since it is my blog. I am in the pre-natal stages of a 6 X 8 "L"-shaped layout. I haven't ever built an entire road before, so I am plunging in blindly. When I was in my teens, I adopted the name "B" Line for my road name, and I am sticking to it.