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MarkF
Engineer
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 11/26/2014 : 4:55:37 PM
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James, that has turned out to be a very nice looking scene! Well done!
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Mark |
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 11/30/2014 : 08:38:01 AM
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Thanks, Jerry & Mark. Before I switched to Tour de Chooch cleanup, the Little River bridge area got a lot closer to completion:

This angle doesn't show the 'beaches' at the edge of the marsh grass, which I did with sand from Hampton Beach. But it does show the 'sea wrack' which gets floated by spring tides into a layer above the normal high tide line.
No more pictures till I get the camera thoroughly cleaned.
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Country: USA
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Orionvp17
Fireman
   
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/30/2014 : 11:00:29 AM
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Nicely done, James!
May the Tour go well, and may all involved have power and warmth!
Pete in Michigan
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 11/30/2014 : 6:21:59 PM
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Wow. I didn't have anything on hand to be a guestbook, and didn't think to ask my friends who were guiding visitors in/out to count, but I'm sure I had more than 100 visitors. And I talked to them all. The layout behaved pretty well. A couple of my cars derailed a few times, which I'll investigate this week. Ron's locomotive hit some condition which got it blinking its headlight 3 times, then pausing, then repeating for a minute or two and then going on normally. He needs to get the decoder manual to see what it was trying to tell us. Nobody who operated really knew the interlockings, so most of the day two trains were chasing each other around the main oval. But no smoke, no broken bits and everything's in place for the next op session.
So now off to dinner & a beer.
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Country: USA
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Orionvp17
Fireman
   
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/30/2014 : 7:08:50 PM
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Sounds like Dinner and a Beer is indicated! Good Plan.
Congratulations on a successful day!
Pete in Michigan
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/03/2014 : 11:44:16 PM
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Although it warmed up later in the day, it was gray & damp out, so I gave myself a RR day. I ordered the last PSX-1 I need. Then I replaced a marginal homebrew turnout control at Newburyport West. Then the track gang went around with gauges & lining bars and fixed several glitches that had manifested after I started heating the house. In late afternoon, I decided it was time to do this:

The library card file is my main parts store and also holds a number of unbuilt car & loco kits. When I'd first got it up there, I'd located it to keep people from falling into the attic stairwell. But it made an unnecessary radio shadow for my MRC throttles, and I'm going to need the space it was in anyway when I start on Newburyport's City RR. peninsula (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmrr/Newburyport_1950.PNG).
So I moved it, built myself a sound but not pretty railing, then spent the rest of the evening cleaning and organizing. And as far as I can tell from this picture (Rowley on the right, Bexley behind the chimney), the cleaning I gave my camera & lenses worked.
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Edited by - jbvb on 12/03/2014 11:48:18 PM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6694 |
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Dutchman
Administrator
     
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/04/2014 : 08:47:57 AM
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James, it is great to see your layout area. That is a large central chimney. What year was your house built?
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Bruce |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 33022 |
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/04/2014 : 09:14:57 AM
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The house appears on the 1800 tax rolls, so it was built in 1799. Some of the story behind it is here:
http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/ae_house.html
By 'large', do you mean the visible chimney, which is 3x5, or how large it is at ground level (the four visible posts are roughly the footprint, 8x9)? It has seven functional flues, but I've got stainless pipes in three of them for two woodstoves and the furnace. One of the two original beehive ovens is usable, the other needs minor brick/mortar work.
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/28/2014 : 11:55:21 PM
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One aspect of having gotten the layout this far while being active in the Hub Division is that I now have nearby model railroading friends. Most of them don't have layouts, but want their equipment to run well when they take it to a Hub Module Group setup. Thus:

Victor C. came over this afternoon with his new Bachmann NYC S-1 4-8-4 and a bunch of bargain freight cars he'd accumulated at various train shows. He'd brought a Kadee coupler height gauge and some tools, I got him started with the NMRA gauge and supplied a bunch more tools, washers etc. Then I cleaned wheels, leading to dismantling/reassembling the coupled drivers of my 2-8-4 and various other variants of 'yak shaving'.
After about 5 hr., we assembled the train and observed as it ran all the way around the main line without a glitch. I made several more loops so Victor could make phone videos.
Bachmann did pretty well, but one driver and three tender axles were slightly broad-gauge. Luckily, I budged the drivers with finger pressure, avoiding shaving an extended family of yaks in order to bring my NWSL Puller to bear. I really liked the way the engine drifted/coasted when you shut off the throttle. I hope the various DCC fiefdoms will agree on which function keys should be apply/release brakes; WOW chose F7 & F6. Lots of SOUNDS, ALL AT TRAIN SHOW VOLUME. This can certainly be changed, but the dogs I was sitting needed dinner, as did I.
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Country: USA
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MarkF
Engineer
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/29/2014 : 12:09:55 AM
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Sounds like a fun and productive afternoon. That over view shot of your layout looks great too!
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Mark |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13755 |
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BessemerBob
Engine Wiper
 
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Posted - 12/29/2014 : 3:22:07 PM
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James,
In the photo above what radius curve are you running?
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"the sleep of a laboring man is sweet" |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 133 |
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/29/2014 : 3:41:20 PM
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Thanks, Mark. I last did a photo tour of the layout in January 2013. I've started an update, I'll post a link when it's on-line.
Bob, my nominal minimum radius is 36" with #6 switches. Since I use a spline to lay out curves and handlay switches, it's possible there are a few local excursions down to 34" or 32".
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Country: USA
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Orionvp17
Fireman
   
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/01/2015 : 1:14:16 PM
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James,
You have some really nice scenes there, and progress is evident. Bravo!
Thanks for sharing these.
Pete in Michigan
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Country: USA
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LynnB
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 01/01/2015 : 1:45:02 PM
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James your layout photos look great.
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Country: Canada
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