Running Trains

Had family over for the Thanksgiving holiday and my nephew Conor was anxious to see "Uncle Tommy's Trains". Did managed to get temporay wiring up for the staging loops, so were able to get some trains running! This first "operating session" was not much but we did have fun. We ran a BR 50 with two silverfish coaches and a BR 103 with three TEE coaches. We were only able to run them from staging into Enkenbach and then reverse out back to staging, but everything ran smoothly for the most part. With Conor running the throttle, I forgot to make sure the switches were always aligned so we had a collision with the TEE running into the rear of the silver fish and a ran through a few misaligned switches putting cars on the ground. By the end communications were better and things were running well. Unfortunately, in the excitement of it all forgot to get pictures :(

Conor requested that I have more track laid by their next visit so we could really run trains. Using that as an excuse, I went to work on Friday and Saturday finishing the switches for the south end of Enkenbach. The only thing left on that end is the siding for the Gesellschaft. Ran a few trains into Enkenbach to check track lengths etc and played around laying out the switches for the north end of town. Since I needed more space between tracks for signals then was planned for, the switching complexes also take up a little more room. The end result is Enkenbach being slightly longer than planned which will move Neuhemsbach down and possibly make the space needed for Langmeil to tight - we'll see what creative ideas I can come up with.

Photos of the south end of Enkenbach:

Books and Signals

Picked up a new book on railroads in the Pfalz from a message I saw posted on Drescheibe online . The book is "Von der Ludwigsbahn zum Integralen Taktfahrplan - 160 Jahre Eisenbahnverkehr in der Pfalz" by Fritz Engbarth and put out by Zweckverband SPNV Rheinland-Pfalz Süd. I emailed them about sending cash to purchase it since at 10 Euro's the fees for a bank transfer (about $40 US) makes such a purchase unreasonable. To my surprise they wrote back and said that after considering it, they decided to just send me a copy for free! The book is about 6"x 9" in size, but has 127 pages. It is chock full of photos (both black and white) from the 1890's to present day. Included are many photos of Enkenbach, Hochspeyer, Weidenthal and Neustadt - a wonderful reference for my modeling.

Also finally got my order from Reynauld's that was placed back in August. All the semaphore signals from Viessmann that I ordered and the digital controllers came. This should be enough signals for the south end of Enkenbach. Along with the long delay in delivery was another shock - a significant increase in the price as the dollar has dropped substantially since August when this was budgeted. Given the poor communication with me about the order, the significant delivery delay and the increased costs, I think all my future purchases will be from German vendors (most likely LokShop).

No photos today, but have finished laying all the track for the staging loop. Ran a BR103 and some passenger cars to test and had to "adjust" one of the Atlas switches to put it in gauge and stop the derailments on the diverging route. Wiring is just temporary - still need to put in the detection module and DS64 controller for the switches. Hopefully can run trains for guests on Thanksgiving. Who knows, if I keep at this rate might have to have the ETE folks over in January to see the completed phase I track work!

Train Show, Tracks and Wiring

Well the train show last weekend went off well. We (ETE-CNY) wound up in the same spot as last years, but with the modular layout it felt a bit cramped. Hopefully next year we can get more room. The layout it self was a hit. The modules ran the mix from well detailed to bare bones, but the trains were able to run. Ran solid both days with a mixture of mostly German stock from Era III and IV. Unfortunately Peter's DR Diesel unit overheated and melted the front journal box! Charlie has a small loop of Thomas stuff that drew in the kids, and Peter's excellent card buildings were a hit with other modelers.

With the train show over I can get down to some serious work on the layout (hopefully!). Laid a bit more track, starting with "Kaiserslautern" temporary staging. Roadbed is down, switches laid out and wiring planned. The approach tracks are down and should be able to finish today or tomorrow (long weekend for Veterans Day).

Also been working on the wiring. Built a small shelf under the staging to hold the digitrax command station (I will also be able to put a short programing track near the staging so this is a good location). Hooked up the wiring and ran a loconet cable out to a newly installed UP-5 access point for Enkenbach. Printed up a new customized faceplate for the UP-5. The throttle pocket is from MicroMark - Jen got me a bunch or them for my birthday.