Staging Yard Installation

Tonight, Andrew and I installed the staging yard. That is, we screwed down the plywood onto the window sill, and almost go to the point of fixing the track in place. It’s coming along nicely, and already looks more like a window sill than a staging yard. The most excitement was when we decided to […]

Feeding the turntable

To feed power to the staging turntable, as well as to fix its location, I’m planning to use some telescoping brass rod and tube. I want these controls around the front of the layout so operators don’t have to reach across the track to make the connection. The plan is to mount pairs of tubes […]

Staging turntable progress

Today, I shaped the hole in the staging yard that will take the turntable. This turned out to be harder than expected as I had somehow managed to cut it undersized with the jig saw. It wasn’t undersized enough to widen it with the jigsaw, and so, I had to sand it out to shape. […]

Recessed Ties

Yesterday, I finally mustered up the courage to pry the staging yard trackage up from the piece of plywood that will cover the window sill and form its home. Far from the mangled mess I feared, the track actually came off without much fuss, and even slid temporarily onto the windowsill so I could work […]

New Workbench

It’s been more than three years since I took down my workbench and started on the basement renovation. This weekend, I finally installed the table top on the new one, which is built into the cabinets beneath Pembroke. Here it is cleaner than you will ever see it again. I had thought I would get […]

Thoughts on the Staging Turntable

A turntable at the end of the staging yard will enable me to simulate the action of the Y at Golden Lake. The mixed train will break apart there, replacing outbound with inbound cars, and the engine will turn, before coming “back up the branch.” We will have to fiddle or switch the daily passenger […]

Pembroke:87.1 – A Stretch Too Far

The deadline for accepting the invitation to RAMMA next year is coming up at the end of October. So, I spent the weekend researching the travel, and thinking about all the other commitments we have in the year ahead. Finally, I decided that 2015 is not the year for us to travel to Europe. I […]

Track Planning in the Large

After we’d finished with the check rails for the staging yard last night, Andrew and I got out some paper and tried fitting templates around for the portable version. Bottom line: we think a 2×4 foot module is viable for the plan that I have in mind. So, now, I’m wondering if Prof Klyzlr was […]

I’d Like to Call a Friend

Work on the staging yard stalled for a couple of weeks. I got all the points installed almost two weeks ago, and then crickets. Well, it wasn’t actually stalled so much as waiting. In this case, I was waiting because I wanted Andrew to come and install all the guard rails. Of course, I could […]

Shapeways Turnout Control

Well, I finally gave up on Mitch’s FDM printer and went back to Shapeways. I tried a couple of different designs on the FDM printer, but they all came off the bed. Mitch has loads of success printing quad-copter parts, but they are substantially less complicated than what I am trying to produce. After the […]