The Mainline Yard is 3 feet wide and 18 feet long, constructed from three 3'x6' sections. The three sections of the yard were prefabricated with the rear legs attached, and the front legs were attached to the front of the Storage Yard. With the help of a good friend, Wayne La Forge, the sections were moved into place and secured, as shown in this picture. The legs still need to be crossbraced, but they support the weight on top of a set of 1/4" masonite plates. |
The hole for the turntable was located and cut into one section of the tablework before the sections were erected. The turntable pit and bridge, still under construction and unpainted, are shown here. The short length of track and cork roadbed were used to verify that the additional spacers placed under the rim of the pit were sufficient to bring the rim to the height of the 1/4" cork roadbed. |
Starting to lay out the main classification tracks. The centerlines of the tracks are marked in greasepencil, then the tracks are laid using these lines as guides. The track disappearing into the bottom of the picture is the beginning of the main line trackage which will form a large loop around the room. |
The classification tracks are pretty well along, and turnouts have been roughly spotted where other ladders and tracks will be installed. The right-most track, near the edge, is the mainline bypass around the yard. The next track in is the arrival/departure track. |
The long track on the left enters a depression cut into the table to begin its trek to the helix and thence to the storage yard. |
The diesel facility tracks are almost completely in place with their Tomar track bumpers. The main line is at the rear of this view, starting to rise on its climb to Flora and the Interchange area. Next to it is part of the switching lead for the classification tracks. |
Most of the West end of the yard has been spiked in place. The classification tracks are to the right center. A caboose track parallels the near ladder track. The next track to the left serves the diesel facilities. The large piece of paper in the center of the picture is the plan for the yard. This was printed out from images exported from the 3rd PlanIt CAD program that was used to design the layout. The track disappearing into the bottom of the picture is the beginning of the main line trackage which will form a large loop around the room. |
Track laying is nearly complete. A few tracks remain to be located and installed, but most of the yard is in place. The track is all spiked into place, not glued, so that changes can be reasonably be made to track alignments as structures are added and other changes become evident. The last thing that will be done, after all of the yard facilities are in place, will be to ballast the yard and make the track alignments "permanent". |
In this photo can be seen the tracks for the steam end of the yard. The three tracks parallel to the near ladder are planned to be used for coachyard tracks, but this may change if tracks at the far end prove to be better suited for this job. The track to the far right, just past the turntable, will be the access to the mainline for the passenger trains. They will depart from a station located in the gap near the far end of the layout. |
This is an industrial switching annex to the Mainline Yard. Constructed of a 3'x3' deck attached to the side of the yard, it will also have a narrow gauge siding located at the rear of this area, several inches above the mainline track height. The front portion of this area will be a small urban switching area with a few industries served by the three tracks in this vicinity. The cars spotted on the tracks give an idea of where the industries will be located. A backdrop has been provided for by the two panels of 1/4" plywood attached to two sides of the deck. This will be painted to create a backdrop, or will be covered with a commercially made backdrop. |
Track power wiring has been completed. This is the underside of the Mainline Yard showing the feeders and the terminal blocks used to route power to the tracks. The two terminal blocks closest to the camera, for example, will be wired to the turntable and the six roundhouse tracks once the roundhouse and turntable are installed. One pair will also carry power to the turntable motor. |
Each section of flex track and each turnout received a pair of feeders, as seen here. All of the feeders were soldered to the rails using a resistance soldering tool, which allowed the connections to be made quickly and cleanly. Also visible in this picture is an under-track uncoupling magnet. Both Kadee and McHenry uncoupling magnets (whatever I could get my hands on) were installed at various points in the yard. |
The next step is wiring pigtails to all of the Tortoise switch machine motors, as shown here. Then the Tortoises will be mounted on 4"x4" 3/4" plywood plates, which will then be mounted to the underside of the yard deck. Another web page details the construction and installation of the switch machines. |
This photo shows the underside of part of the yard deck after the switchmachines are installed. The wiring was lightly bundled under the layout, but remains accessable for changes. The red/black pairs are power wiring for the rails, while the green/yellow pairs are Tortoise motor power wires. At the right hand side of the photo can be seen a Miniatronics terminal strip. All of the track feeders home on one of these three terminal strips which are then connected to the power busses. Also visible in this picture is the back of the control panel. |
This is a closer view of the rear of the control panel. The wiring is clustered as it enters the rear of the control panel, but is loosely contained to allow access for future changes. |
This is the inside of the Mainline Yard control panel with the track power and Tortoise switch machine wiring hooked up. Only the blocks of track that will be controlled by an ON/OFF switch are brought to this panel. All other blocks are wired directly to the main power busses. The front face of this control panel is under construction. It will contain the switch motor controls, the turntable controls, and switches to turn off power to some portions of the track. |
An addition has been made to the East end of the yard deck to accomodate the roundhouse and an industry (or two). This is the farthest extent of the layout to the East. To make sure the track layout will not have problems with the placement of the roundhouse, the floor of the roundhouse has been constructed and set in place next to the turntable. The mainline track can be seen on the left slowly gaining a bit of elevation. |
Here is a closer view of the turntable, now completed and installed. |
In this photo the roundhouse is farther along in construction. Note the use of the angle blocks to keep corners at right angles, and to serve as weights to hold parts in place until the glue sets. |
At the opposite end of the yard the diesel house has been assembled and installed. It is not yet fastened down permanently, so it can be removed for detailing and weathering. |
More progress on the Roundhouse. The Walls are up and it is ready for a little bit of weathering and touchup paint work. Tracks need to be laid between the turntable and the Roundhouse. |
The control panel has just come out of the paintshop and the masking tape has been removed, revealing the track diagram. The panel was constructed of 1/8" hardboard, given a couple of coats of glossy white paint, then taped with 1/4" masking tape and given a couple of coats of glossy black paint. |
The Mainline Yard control panel mounted to the side of the yard with the block power and turnout control switches installed. LEDs have been stuck into their holes in the panel. Wiring the panel to the barrier strips inside the enclosure is underway. |
This is what the inside of the control panel looks like. The power block toggles have been wired for the few tracks that I have decided I want to be able to kill. Wiring of the turnout control toggles and LEDs is now underway. |
The Mainline Yard control panel is now completed, including lettering for each of the track identifiers. More LEDs were added during the wiring of the panel to give better indications of the turnout settings. A couple of switches were removed when I discovered that I had installed switches for turnouts that are controlled by the setting of another turnout. The holes in the panel were filled with slices of dowel stock. |
This is the inside of the control panel with all of the switches and LEDs wired. The red wires are connected to SPDT toggle switches to allow power to a few selected blocks to be turned off. The corresponding black wires are multed on the barrier strips. The green and yellow wires run to DPDT toggles to control the Tortoise switch machines. Some of the yellow leads go to the barrier strips through LEDs or LED/diode combinations to give visible indications of the turnouts' positions. |
Construction work on the Roundhouse has been completed. Some tracks between the turntable and the roundhouse need to be added, then this portion of the layout will be operational. Now that this project is done, other structures to support steam powered engines will be added in the vicinity. |
The tracks between the turntable and the roundhouse have been constructed and wired -- and they work! Short lengths of scrap track were cut to size and glued into place. The feeder wires were then attached to the track pieces, and the joints between these tracks and the rails inside the roundhouse were soldered to make a permanent bond. After track cleaning and electrical testing, ballast was spread around the tracks and glued into place. Other areas around the roundhouse will be detailed and sceniced as I figure out what I want to do in each area. |
Ridgely/Springfield Yard now has a Yard Office. This is a small resin structure kit by Main Street Heritage Models, decorated using Delta Ceramcoat and Polly Scale paints. The sign was generated in Open Office, then glued to a thin cardboard backing before being glued to the roof of the building. |
The Yard Office, Springfield Passenger Station, and Springfield Freight Station have been installed. The two stations sit in the midst of the asphalt parking lot they share, and the Yard Office has a small gravel parking lot for the convenience of the Yardmaster and his staff. The tracks nearby have been ballasted and some of the spaces between tracks have been invaded by a few weeds and other plants. |
Ballasting the yard is slowly proceeding. A small amount of dirt and greenery is being added in the wider spaces to cover the cork underlayment. Many small details need to be added, but the yard is starting to look better! |
The steam engine service facilities are now installed. The Coaling Tower is a plastic Walthers kit that has been weathered with weathering powders then oversprayed with a light coat of Dullcote to protect the powders. The Sand pile and drying facility is an old Campbell kit that was built years ago and stored until it had a place on a layout. The Water Tower is a pre-built Walthers structure that was weathered lightly with colored pencils. The installation of the coaling tower required slightly relocating and elevating an existing track in the yard to create the track on which hopper cars dump loads of coal to be raised into the coaling tower's bin. |
