Rolling Stock

I'm still waiting for an order of turnouts before I can lay more track, so in the meantime I assembled some kits my brother Marty gave me for Christmas:

The three boxcars are by Branchline Trains, the hopper is a Walthers Proto 2000 kit. The detail on these kits is impressive compared to the old Athearn Blue Box kits we used to have in the 80s (some of which are in the background). Especially the Proto 2000 model--I had to put on each grab iron individually.

It's also great to have some local Florida railroads represented on the layout. Thanks Marty!

First Spike

Here's my first attempt at tracklaying. I thought I'd start with the staging tracks since they are essentially storage tracks. So far it's turned out pretty well, all the joints and curves are smooth.

I've also started laying cork roadbed for the mainline and siding. I'm using N-scale roadbed for the siding so it will have a slightly lower profile. It's pretty cool so far, actually starting to look like a train layout.

Timetable

I took off work yesterday with the idea of spending the day laying track. As it turned out I spent the day laying down the trackplan for Chattahoochee yard--getting turnout angles and curve radii to line up turned out to be an all day job. Making one small change required adjustments throughout the yard, sort of like typing a letter on a typewriter rather than a word processor--one error means starting over!

I thought I'd work out a schedule of tasks to be completed to give myself some goals and see how things will progress over the next few months. This schedule may seem like a slow pace, but I tried to be realistic based on my train budget and time constraints.

1. Lay track on lower level - February/March
2. Construct remaining subroadbed - March/April
3. Lay remaining mainline track - April/May
4. Wire mainline & install DCC - May/June
5. Complete tracklaying/wiring - June/July
6. Fascia & backdrop - July-September
7. Scenery/buildings etc. (fun stuff) - September onward

Pretty slow-going, but based on my progress so far that's pretty reasonable. My big goal is to be able to run a train on the complete mainline (with DCC) by my birthday, June 10th.