Working near the notch

Working on the road, river and landscape between Orpington and Bucksport. I had some trouble getting the road to dry, but it got there finally.

Decals

It was time to start decaling rolling stock with my road name. First up was two CB&Q cabooses that needed the decals removed. Once that was complete, I added decals to those cars. After that there was an East Coast RR Caboose that was painted, but no decals. That was a bit easier than removing decals first.

Next up was nine cabooses that never had decals and some had lost their smoke stack and some of their ladders. I had purchased the extra parts earlier, so that I would have them when needed. I still think I should paint the ladders and railings yellow.

It appeared that the RR Herald might be a little small for the boxcars and it just happened that when I had the decals made we included four that were slightly larger. I liked the looks of these better, so I used them. Unfortunately there will be no more boxcars done until I get more of the larger herald.

I have been in contact when the guy that made the decals originally and he saves all his work so getting more won’t be too bad. Some thing I will change to this is a set of black numbers, smaller lettering that says Casio Bay Northern, for fitting onto the sides of shorter diesels and of course more heralds of both sizes.

Last Piece of the Portland puzzle

When. First made the plans for Portland it included another wharf track. It never got put in because of restrictions to the control panel. I have been working on an acceptable solution and finally came up with the modified plan. I moved the turnouts to the Piggyback tracks to left and placed the missing the wharf track to the right and used a crossover. My tracks ended up being longer than original.

The below picture shows the wharf track in place. This track will eventually curve out toward the aisle.

Each track for Chase Transfer is about 1 1/2 cars longer than before and will give me some room for scenery.

The new panel ready for installation. The main difference is spacing and the one new siding.

Checking the barge track

Loading the barge and checking the track work. Everything seemed to be fine. I loaded 17 cars but it was very tight. Considering that I only put two 50’ cars on there I should plan for less, just in case more 50 footers showed up.

Sea wall Installed

Now that most of the scenery is complete behind the barge area, I started working on the barge area. The first part was to take out the temporary barge and fit the sea walls in with the car float apron.

On to new and exciting issues

I have decided to delve into the various keep alive circuits that are available. I got one of each type except ESU, wince I don’t have any idea what could fit into my locos. I may try ESU later, but they are on th expensive side.

Now I must learn what I need to know about how to install these in my locos.

Radio throttles were a success Now on to keep alive

Finally after all these years I had a good radio day.

Now I must go on to new challenges. I think I’ll try and figure out this “keep alive” or whatever it is called these days. I ordered a few different types of keep alive capacitors for trying out on various situations. They come in many sizes and power levels. Now to figure out how they work and if they can be interchanged with other brands of decoders.

Radio Issues Fixed....One can only hope

I think I actually solved the problem. Mike Pennie came to help, but we were only just moving the antenna’s around. This was not working.

I got on the NCE group site and got a few troubleshooting ideas.

Short version of the story is it was a plug in transmitter for my XM radio in the basement. I’m now connecting in 4-5 seconds in the train room. With the transmitter plugged in it jump to 10 seconds to never.

Longer version was turning off all the breakers in the basement and turning on the layout and powering up every breaker one at a time and going into the train room and testing. One breaker in the middle was the culprit so I turned it off and tested everything else. I looked up at my XM radio and it said no signal, which leads me to the long forgotten transmitter. I checked that receptacle and is was powered down. I unplugged the transmitter and closed the breaker and tested and I was still good.

I originally had the RB02 and two repeaters. Now the repeaters are disconnected.

Now I’ll try not to hold my breath until after Tuesday‘s op session.

Finally making lumber

Finally have enough done to bring out some of my old loads. The decals are for “Ellsworth Building Supply”, which is also on the layout, “Fraser Paper” and “Moose Lumber” (not shown). These came from the Eastern Maine Model Railroad Club many years ago.

More detailing on upper level

The river needed a fly fisherman.

Some cars and more trees.

Grade Crossing

Bangor updates

Earlier the road wasn’t here. I felt the original road ended to abruptly, so it was added

Love the scene here. Looks like passengers getting ready for a trip.

Looking south in Bangor

Station

Dairy

Start of a grave yard

The grave yard and the trees and roads between Staging and Portland.

Work near Portland Yard

Starting the buildings for the alley way behind the yard

The paved yard.

A little scenicing work behind the yard.

Starting Portland

Finally getting to the lower level. I had three industries along the backdrop with space in between them. I put picture flats between them. These flats reminded me of the downtown area in Portland. I will probably put a few more trees in front of them, because they are not meant to be part of the industries just background.

Katahdin

Katahdin got an extra track while I was working the area. The two tracks are for pulpwood and logs.

Bangor Proper

Finally getting to the middle of the upper level. All previous work was on the two ends of the area to be covered.

 Front side of Jack Browns Barrels 

Backside of the barrel company.

The end of Main Street.

Start of the station and and building backdrops.

More sawmill improvements

A little more work and some minor detailing 

Weathering happened along the way.

Little more work in the country side.

You can see early asphalt work.

Then with a little more weathering

Bridge installed over the river

Making more trees

You can never have enough trees

Working on the sawmill

Putting down the gravel base

Trying to decide if I should use the old logs or the newer bigger logs

The pond after several pours of envirotex lite.

The pond after logs placed.