Paper Mill Sidings

The track arrangement for White Mountain Paper. I was able to add two sidings more than the old layout had. I have separate sidings for tank cars and covered hoppers. This used to be a single siding before. I also added a siding for the power plant so for the first time coal will be delivered to the paper mill.
The coal track is in the foreground and could support 4 hoppers. Next up and going into and next to the building will be the warehouse tracks. Each track can hold 3 cars.

Behind the Warehouse will be the Kraft Mill. It can hold 2 covered hoppers. Right next to the tanks will be the tank dock unloading. 2 cars can be spotted there. In the middle is the pulp tracks and 2 cars can unload there. Finally going around to the right behind the main line is the wood chip track. This track can hold three to four cars.

You'll notice some space in the foreground. This may be a small holding yard for the papper mill. We'll have to see how this goes, before I decide to put it in.

Mainline track in Orrington

I finally got back to the layout after a nice vacation, but it is now time for the push to Bangor.

The sub roadbed has been completely connected throughout the whole empire. The mailine roadbed and track has been installed just past Orrington. The mainline turnouts are also installed. I'll need to work on the paper mill sidings next.

If you are familiar with the layout, that means the upper level track is now above Freeport. There is only one town left to go and it is just a single siding off of the mainline

The second picture shows the end of the installed mainline in the lower right corner. Just to the left of the box in the background is where the last siding needs to go.and to the left of this is where staging is located. The staging tracks are already installed.

Radio and Network updates

I had to get ready for an Op session today, so I had to limit some of my improvements to things that wouldn't upset getting ready for the session. I spent time putting in the last of the I/O boards, occupancy boards and detectors.
Right now I only have 1 electrical block without occupancy detection. I am talking about the whole layout. I am 1 motherboard short. I am a little short on detector cards, but I have tested all of the blocks with good boards so I know the computer sees it all.
I put all of the I/O boards in the other day and today we got them all wired up and the programs changed to recognize them all. They are working with no errors. Thanks to Dil Huey and Gordon Miner for that. They came before the session and helped to finish it up.
I have been wiring up tortoise machines for installation in the paper mill and upper staging. They'll be installed in the near future.
I think I finally got the radio working correctly. It took a lot of time an effort, but I didn't hear a complaint from anyone today. Things are looking up.

This is no April Fool

I went down the the train room to do a little file updating on the dispatch server. The C drive went belly up and wouldn't boot. I'm no network guru so things weren't looking up. Not only was updating files not going to happen, but now fixing the server was high priority.
I emailed my computer genius (no not me)and he gave me things to think about. I have a couple of old computer boxes that were supposed to work, but I never had a chance to test them. The worst part was digging into the deep recesses of my brain. Way back to DOS.
I decided to change out the hard drive first and I was able to get the computer to boot up, although it needed the right files. I then decided that possibly the first drive had a stuck arm and decided that I would whack it a couple of times and maybe it would come up as the D drive.
Sure enough the hard drive came back to life. I quickly figured out all of the files I needed (I hope) on the backup drive and copied them over. Now I'm back in business and with another hard drive if needed.
I then went and updated the files to include some new additions.

I've got my sights on Orrington

This is the area north of the new bridge in Bucksport. The scenery was something from my old layout I called the notch. I had planned to put this piece in this spot and I'm glad I finally got to it. I had to try and match the track work with the scenery.

 

 

 

White Mountain Paper in Orrington is the biggest industry on the layout. I am laying out track to see if the planned arrangement is going to work. This track work is similar to what was on the old layout. This time there will be a passing siding which wasn't on the old layout. It looks like I'll have two new sidings. Coal for the power plant and an extra track to separate the tank cars from the covered hoppers.

Track connected past Bucksport

I finished the bridge north of Bucksport. I was able to get the track installed approximately two feet past the new bridge. While I was working I went ahead and laid the roadbed about five feet past the track. The roadbed is now halfway to Orrington, the next big town. The Paper Mill will be located in Orrington. It is the major on line industry. Of course the electrical still need to be done.

I even went back and put the roadbed and track in between Acadia and Bucksport. I had a piece of scenery from the old layout I would like to try and reuse, so once I had its location figure out I could lay track in the now affected areas.

One town, one siding and approximately 50 feet to go.

The picture shows train NP1 waiting for track so it can get to Bangor, ME.

One more bridge to cross.

Started work on the bridge across the water heater. The hardest part was coming up with a way for it to be sturdy and easily removed in case of the water heater going out. Hopefully I have achieved what I was trying to achieve.

I have a section of scenery from the old layout that I hope to incorporate. It is kind of reminisant of Crawford Notch in New Hampshire. I placed the foreground scenery with the river on the benchwork and started work on the sub roadbed to see if it would work. The benchwork that I used the last time was the same width as this time. The track approach is just a little different.