NTS&B Merry Christmas 2012

Another year has passed, and the layout has not progressed much. I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and Happy and safe New Years.  This year we had family down in shifts, so celebrated multiple Christmas's.  Here's a couple pics of the grand-elves at the Lights Of Life.

NTS&B 2012 Third Piedmont Pilgrimage Open House

My third Piedmont Pilgrimage turned out to be just as enjoyable as my other two. Kathy was not able to be home, so I had 4 full time helpers, and 2 additional club members came about half way through and helped.  All told, I had 57 people plus myself, which is the biggest crowd ever.  We had 2 families come back for the second year.  The furthest visitor drove 67 miles, unless you count the couple from PA (700 miles), which was already in town visiting family.  Snacks consisted of pre-Halloween candy and drinks, and very little of that was gone.

A good friend who helped also brought me a nice addition to the train room.  One of his hobbies is carving pumpkins.  He carved this pumpkin for me using a Dremel tool.  I believe he said it took him 8 hours, and his hands were still vibrating !!!  Its even more special since its a picture (sculpture?) of the Polar Express, which is the main train reserved for the helix loop.

I also took a little time the week before and worked some more on the new bridge.  Its not complete yet, but it looks a little more like a bridge with the moorings attached, and the NTS&B letters applied.  I've been told I may see something similar on another layout in the near future.

 

NTS&B Starting Year 6

Its hard to believe that I started the first (non helix) module of the actual layout 5 years ago. Last year didn't see a lot of progress due to finishing the other room. I mainly worked with adding buttons for lighting, adding controls for the Spring Loop, building 2 power stations, and shelves and controls for remainder of upper loop. This year I'd like to finish up ALL of the subway and new upper loops scenery and lighting, and get the some more bench work done. Below is some recent progress on new upper loop bridge.

Track Inspection Train on the NTS&B - Updated

A screw came out of an engine I recently purchased, so I had to search the Helix Loop trying to find it.  After looking for a while using a ladder and flashlight, I decided there must be an easier way.  The camera car that I helped Train Dr Ted build worked well, but did not shed enough light close up, so I had to add another light car to the mix.  I had to use a TMCC engine so I could stop and start it without affecting track power which also powers the camera.  Although I still didn't find the missing screw, it was sure a lot easier this way than lugging a ladder around and crawling all over the layout.  Here's a couple pictures to demonstrate the process.

TMCC Controlled GG1 pushing search light car and TV Camera Car

Me diligently searching for the missing screw

Since I hadn't found the screw I decided to revisit Plan A to find the part, which was to use a magnet on attached to a train car.  My original idea was to set the big magnet I had on top of a flat car.  The car was too high, and it would not pick up anything.   I then looked for smaller magnets that I could mount underneath the car, but didn't have any.  I was discussing my problem with a friend, who mentioned that it was too bad I couldn't hang a magnet off the front of an engine.   Although I wouldn't hang one off an engine, it did give me the idea of hanging one off the back of a car.   Although it was very crude and I had to make adjustments so it would clear the helix, it turned out to be effective and I found the screw.  After that it also dawned on me that I could have used a depressed center flat car. 

NTS&B Phase 3-A Little more progress

After working all weekend, finally got the shelves all cut out, painted, holes drilled for telephone poles, and most of the wall brackets up.  The top picture shows what the new bridge will look like (without the clamps).  Not sure it's really what I was hoping for at this point. Might have to do some more figuring.  Still have a long way to go before I even can lay track.

NTS&B Phase 3 Started

 Phase 3 is finally started.  It is very significant, since the last bench work was completed in July 2010.  It currently doesn't look like much, but I spent about 12 hours doing the unseen work, like taking down the G Scale track, running power up to the top, changing the helix power control so the helix feed in track can be selectively operated by the new Ceiling transformer, and putting up a couple shelf brackets,  More to come next weekend, I hope.

NTS&B M&M Home

Last year my daughter gave me some M&M people for the layout. They appear to have been off a sting of Christmas lights. Although it may take a while, I always try to incorporate gifts form the kids into the layout.  At the time, I had an idea of making them a 'home' next to the Underground Lego Station.  I forgot about it until this weekend, when I was working on some other wiring in that area.  Here's a couple pictures of the results.  Although their room is quite big, the door is small so its' heard to see them all in it from 1 angle.  The room is lit by a push button controlled light, which makes the yellow M&M appear to be wearing stripes,  Still need to put the door casing on to finish it up.

NTS&B Spring Section Controls

Worked most of last weekend setting up the switch track and track power controls for the Outside 2 loops in the Spring section.  The big toggle switches over the transformer are used to select the ZW power, or the 1 extra Remote Track Power Controller that can be used for debugging track problems, or just running a train remotely.  A similar module was created for the Subway when I first started out, bit this one is much simpler to create and hang.   Eventually (hopefully in the near future), the Subway one will be replaced, and one will be added to the Heliz/Winter loops also. Here are some pics of the control panel, and the latest overall layout.

NTS&B Spring Power Stations

I finally got time to build a couple new power stations for the 'spring' section. Actually, the one on the right is for the 2 outside loops.  The one on the left will be for the center most loop, and the newly planned ceiling loop that will be above it.   It took most of the 4 day weekend to get them painted, assembles, and placed.  

NTS&B Rolling Stock Paint Scheme Started

A couple years ago, I  picked up a couple box car shells with the idea of someday coming up with a color scheme for the NTS&B rolling stock.  Also, a while back, I screwed up and made my depressed center flat car, which I had been using for my digital camera, into a permanent TV Camera car.   The depressed center cars work great for the digital camera, since they sit lower than a regular flat, so you see more of the buildings instead of just the roofs.  Since the depressed center cars seem to carry a premium price, I recently picked up a plastic ($1) and a long metal ($2) car (no trucks), so I purchased wheel sets for them while in York.  Since these cars needed painting, I decided to come up with the paint scheme and paint all of them now..  2 9020 flat cars that I paid $2 each for donated their trucks for the box cars, and I still need to find doors for them, which will be painted red.  After that I will have to make some decals with the NTS&B logos.   Below are the results so far

  3 of the new 4 cars

The plastic depressed center car

One of the 2 box cars painted, still needing doors

Metal Depressed Center Flat Car.  After I put it together, I discovered that the car was sitting higher than a normal flat car.  It had extra height where the trucks mounted, so I ended up trimming almost 1/4 inch of them. The center now sits slightly lower than a normal flat. I had also purchased 2 trucks with long shank couplers, since the coupler mounting pint was in father than normal.  They turned out to be too long for the car, but were the perfect length for my wooden test car, so these trucks were used on that.. The trucks from the  6017 caboose (see previous post) fit perfectly on this car (maybe a smidgen short, but not a problem).

The other box car, still needing doors

The long metal car, with the camera.  Notice the camera has plenty of room, but still sits a little high

The plastic car sits lower, but the camera has to be on an angle.  Note, the last 2 pictures were taken in a mirror, since I only have one digital camera.

NTS&B Caboose/Search Light Project cars

While at the York Spring Eastern Division TCA show in April, I picked up a broken, filthy 2357 caboose for $2 to use the trucks on another project car (depressed center flat car) I had going..  Then  I found a short spotlight load, that looked like it would fit perfectly on a caboose frame, do decided to use the caboose frame for that, and bought a couple extra trucks for the flat car. .  When I got it home, the caboose chassis cleaned up so good, that I decided to use it on a nice 6017 caboose.I had (unlit) that Jen had bought me for a birthday present, then use the unlit chassis for the search light. Now the 6017 is lit, has a smokestack, chimney,  ladder, windows, and tool boxes, and looks sharp

After several missteps, I finally came up with the right combination of trucks and power picks for the search light.  The 6017 had plastic trucks, so the power pickups I had purchased wouldn't work.  I purchased some modern power pickups, and discovered they wouldn't work on the 1960s model caboose trucks. I then swapped the trucks with a 9020 flat car, and discovered that had plastic wheels.  I finally discovered that I had a set that would work on my wooden clearance checker car, so robbed them for the searchlight. Here it is, finally finished and lit up.  The searchlight looks a little funny being so short, bu should go really well with the rest of my snow train

NTS&B BIg Snow of 2012

We had a surprise late spring big snow storm in March on the NTS&B this year (actually, sheet rock dust). We have to vacuum every train and part of the layout now, because the dust is very abrasive. So far we've spent about 10 hours with the vacuums, and probably have another 5 or 6 to go. Some pictures below on a part that we haven't cleaned yet.

NTS&B more subway work

Its been a slow layout year so far. I've been concentrating on getting the other half of the basement ready to finish. I thought I finally had a weekend to play, so I decided to try to finish the subway level. Got all my tools out, cut 3 pieces, and then unexpectedly had to quit that day to get back going on the other side. I started at the Bigville Station, and was working my away around to the big Lionel Arch Bridge. Here is what I finished so far. I also put some maintenance lights in, but haven't had a chance to wire them up yet.