This channel will document the building of my HO Scale modern era CSX model railroad layout. This is being built in a garage at my home in North Wales.
Hi Lee, I was going to email you but I couldn't find the email you gave me. I'm at a one day show on Sunday 23rd of June in Crewe. If you were going you would be very welcome to help operate. If you do come at 10am, or later, just let them know on the door your with me and you'll not have to pay.
If your McBain foods is the Walthers cold storage kit, you certainly got a lot of mileage from it! That’s a great looking industry. PS - what brand are the jersey barriers I see in the video? I need a few. PB
Thanks Paul. The jersey barriers are made by a guy here in the UK. They're £4 for 8. He also did the wheel stops. He's a member of the NMRA British Region and has a small business doing 3D printed parts based on those small bits and pieces that are really difficult and expensive to get shipped from the states.
Thanks, Paul. Even though I've been involved in electronics since I left school at the age of 15, 55 years ago, I still feel worried every time I take the body off of a loco. 🙄
Great video and really useful. Luckily my GP38-2 was one of the ones that only had front ditch lights and it doesn't have step lights sadly. I too have standardised on Soundtraxx Tsunami 2 decoders for my fleet. I do think that the way Athearn set them up is wierd but on some where I use lots of light functions I have remapped them to how Athearn do it and I am getting some good results.
About to start my first Scalescene kit and found this really useful so thanks for posting. Also good suggestion using self adhesive paper, can you let me know what paper you are using?
The good thing is if you run the 2mm wire from one side to the other, you could have a knob at either end and operate the switches from either side. Lee
I really luke this idea. I went all out with point motors because it's something I've always wanted to do, but with hindsight I wish I'd just done this. Great idea, works well, low cost. Thanks for sharing how you do it.
I've always used point motors before this, even on a 2 switch layout. I decided not to go that route this time but still didn't wanted to actually move the switches directly. Cheers Lee
Clever idea with the tape! Great video. You’ve come up with a brilliant solution that I may copy! Currently I use all PECO code 83 #6 unifrogs as you do, but I move the turnouts by hand with a small bamboo skewer. PS - I love PECO track. Made in the UK and work flawlessly. A bit fragile but once they are installed they are solid. Cheers Lee.
Thanks Paul, glad it was of use. Peco track is just about universal here in the UK. Pretty much every layout you come across uses it. Have you ever visited Pecorama at Beer in Devon?
Thanks very much for your kind comment and encouragement.I see that your username is SimRacin14. I used to be an avid simracer. Grand Prix Legends, Nascar Racing 2003, rFactor and iRacing. I gave up a few years ago due to my reactions getting slower and slower as I headed towards 70 :)
I think you nailed it. As someone who has been operating on layouts for a few years now I feel you did a great job. Your track plan and operating scheme are very well thought out and executed. Looking forward to more videos in the future and can't wait to see the scenery come to life.
Thanks very much for your kind comments. I really owe it all to all the authors of the various books and magazine articles and all the RU-vidrs who take the time to share their knowledge.
Hi there, I've been a subscriber to your channel for quite a while so it's nice to see you here. I hoping to be at the Warley Freemo meet on the 6th April. Lee
Nice editing and well narrated. I like how the train comes out under the overpass. Also like the red turnout levers you have on the fascia. On my layout, I just use a small bamboo skewer to throw the turnouts. Levers would be nice.
Very nice layout, looks very typical for US railroads. You could probably automate this to make 1 "roll" and figure out all the industries at once by a random number generator and a series of nested If statements. Doesn't change the outcome, but does speed up the switch selections. You could also add a random generator to indicate whether cars on spot will be picked up or not.
Thanks David. That's the next thing I think I'll look into. Orginally I was just going to use real dice but decided at the last minute to add the random number generator. Lee
Great job, Lee! Excellent track plan for interesting work with adequate space for switching and marshalling. I also like your software's ability to be adjusted for density of cars per industry and so forth; you can keep it fairly light or tighten down the screws as you and guest operators gain experience... Shoving a cut down the main street trackage is perfectly prototypical. Either you may use a transfer caboose, a caboose, or simply require a brakeman or conductor to ride on the leading end of the first car. That person would be equipped with a radio or use hand signals to communicate with the engineer (engine driver). Speed on that portion of the trackage would be "yard speed" or "restricted"--capable of stopping within half the distance of any obstruction. Looking forward to your next video! Could you also include a diagram of the overall track plan, including staging, etc., drawn to approximate scale or scale if possible? Best wishes, LvB
Thanks very much for your kind comments. Good to know that I'm on the right track (no pun intended). Need to look at adjusting the train length though! I'll defintely look at getting out a track plan. Lee
Mate, impressive session and layout considering you’ve not been to the US. I don’t see any problems with the session. In fact, what you are doing with the industries and op’s is very prototypical of US railroading. I like how you show the layout track plan on screen before the session so we can follow what the trains will be doing on the layout. It’s often hard to visualize it when people just show the layout. I’ve heard good things about op’s buddy so may have to try it. I developed my own Excel program for my sessions which I’ll feature in a future video. Looking forward to part 2 Lee! Cheers
My layout has 2 inbound tracks toward the front on the right side (essentially a small regional yard). Each of these tracks can hold 5 cars and an engine (for pulling the cars out for switching). Basically, at the beginning of each op session, I pretend the cars on the 2 inbound tracks were placed there by an inbound train for subsequent switching. So, phase 1 of the operations involves taking the first 5 cars from 1 of the 2 inbound tracks and switching out 5 cars in the industries. The cars that are exchanged are then backed into the inbound track for the next days session. Then, phase 2 of the op session (either the same day or the next) involves switching the second set of 5 cars from the second inbound track. There are a total of 10 cars staged at my industries, so between the 2 phases, I can switch out all cars on the layout. Then the cycle repeats. Sometimes I mix up the cars to make it interesting, but I really don’t have to. To do both phases even with a second operator, it takes a good 2 hours to switch all the cars. Maybe 3hrs if it’s just me. Hope that makes sense.
Great update and review. Love the layout, industries, and track plan. I also like the light valance and those turnout levers. Looking forward to the operating season video. I’ve been wanting to do that with mine as well. Thanks for the post.
PS - make a list of items you need from the US and when the wife and I are there in June we can bring them. Alternately, when we send things in our daughter’s next care package. Also, you’re modeling the US so they’re trucks not lories ;)
@@HartfordWhalerHi Paul, firstly thanks very much for the compliments about my layout (and the correction 😀). Thanks also for the offer of getting me some bits. One thing I have been after is a some of the self-adhesive reflective stripes from Smokebox Graphics as they don't ship to the UK, Lee
Frustrating that they won’t ship. It’s the cost to get things there and all the taxes and reg’s. I just ordered a set for you. It was $4USD and $5USD shipping. I can send it or put it in a package to my daughter and have her send from there. Do you have an email in your YT profile?
Great story! Thanks for taking the time to tell it. Several years ago my job took me to the UK for a couple years where I fell in love with Hornby diesels. Still have them now that I’m back in the States. I’m back to modeling US railroads, but all my track are UK-made Peco. You’ll see on my channel that I also have a shelf switching layout. I’ll never go back to oversized run-in-circles layouts. It’s all about prototypical operations for which you don’t need globs of space. Here’s to Wales. My grand mum and her parents were Pritchard’s from that great country. Look forward to more of your posts! Cheers.
I did wonder whether I'd been looking in the wrong shops. :) Thanks for taking the time to comment. Just taken a look at your channel and envy your ProtoThrottle. Unfortunately they can't supply them to the UK which is a shame.
The throttle is great. Have you reached out to them to see if they have a timeline for international sales? It’s a challenge with model railroading… All the best or newest innovations are hard to get your hands on. We have the same problem here. It took me quite a while to get the UK-made Peco code 83 (American style) turnouts because of inventory issues. You may have to come the the US and grab one to bring home 🤷♂️ Gives you an excuse to look at CSX.
I've used both your videos to help me with my first attempt ever... It's been a great help thanks, Made a lot of sense to me how you've explained it after me trying just follow instructions ! Here's to many more videos and from my part trying to get a bit better !!
Thank you very much for that. I'm really glad that they helped. As you can see I've not had a RU-vid channel for my railroad for very long and they were my first go at 'How to' videos. It's made me appreciate even more what other channels do. Lee
This is always an interesting question to answer. I spoke about this recently on the Around the Layout Podcast. We all different paths as to how we get to where we are 👍
Bruce Chubb and Lance Mindheim work for me as well. That and the fact most UK stuff ran like 3 legged dogs, where as blue box Athearn ran like a charm (I had not got to Kato at that time).
New sub to the channel...just out of curiousity...what spurs a Brit to model an American railroad? If you've already explained this in another video, please share the link and I'll be happy to watch and learn!
Thanks Adrien, I fitted a Tsunami 2 decoder and have set the top speed to 30 mph using an Accutrack Speedo. Because of the type of layout I've set all my locos to 30.
