Merry Christmas Everybody

Hi Everybody,

A Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.

And now back to the important things, my railroad. Back at the beginning of the month I placed an order for 13 CFI's for layout lighting. They arrived last weekend. Having forgotten about them, I was quite surprised when I found the package at the back door.

I purchased from Valley Model Trains http://valleymodeltrains.com/ a kit by Brennan's Model Railroading http://www.brennansmodelrr.com/ for chain link fencing. I was confused when it arrived because it rattled when it was moved. The kit is quite neet. It comes with a 4" x 13 " piece of 1/4" peg board which strips of wood are glued vertically between the holes. Into the holes are 1/4-20 slotted screws which are held in with hex nuts.

As you can see in the photo I put one of the 1/4-20 screws in a hole. The slot in the screwhead is used to holed the wire for making the fence system. I bought this kit because it has the makings for gates which I'm going to put across the sidings at the mill.

When I started designing the railroad, I did not include reefer's. Not sure why, just came out that way. For operation, I'm going to use the old tried & true car-cards for car routing. And because of the space I am using, staging tracks really aren't an option. So to get the rolling stock on and off the layout is by using a cassette. The cassette is basically a long ended box with rails on the bottom for the cars. Each will be long enough to hold two 50'ers. The rails in the cassettes will also be powered so the cassette can also be used as a switch lead during operation. On the closed end will have a face plate on it to make it look like a drawer. There will be a rack under Hopedale to hold the cassette. Looking at the plan shows were the cassette is located at the end of Hopedale and it extends across to the wall were a structure will be located to hold that end of the cassette. Ian Rice developed the idea. I changed it for my application.

I found this site http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/about/sign_inz.asp?accessdenied=%2Finterchange%2Fmyrollingstock%2Easp which has a car-card system which I will use to pick the cars to go on the railroad. For the system to work you need to insert information, rolling stock, industries, etc. Two such industry are a team track and a freight house. And at both I've listed receiving shipments for grocery stores. So this last week I got off eBay is this Intermountain reefer for frozen meat.

As you can see a little work is needed before it goes to work.

For control, I will be using the EasyDCC system with wireless throttles. It has a receiving station which can be placed anywhere you can get the best reception. Looking at the layout plan, the best place for the receiver is at the corner between Hadley and Hopedale. The command station and all the additions needed will be located under Claremont which is about midway between both ends of the railroad. In reading the installation instructions, the receiver can be placed further than 7' by using an extender and coaxial wire. So I bought an extender which arrived this past week.

I'm on vacation this coming week and I have projects lined up to work on. Don't know how many I'll get completed, but then I'm in no hurry. So I'm going to go get started.

See ya next time.