After reconfiguring my track work and replacing all my junk turnouts with Pecos, I now have a much better functioning track layout. The only thing I had left to do was ballast, paint the rails and add some other details.
Here are some shots of the newly renovated yard.
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A shot from the end of the yard. The X to the right was one of the track additions that now allows direct access to the moved fueling/sanding area and better connections to the turntable. It also provides another access point to the tightly packed Flats industries behind the roundhouse, which also allows me to deliver longer cars to a few industries. (The one curve is extremely tight and before the change, only 40' cars could navigate it.) |
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I kept the yard mostly gray ballast with the fueling/maintenance areas on much cheaper cinders. I added some scenery between tracks and also added some weeds here and there. |
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The fueling/sanding area. The bottom track is the permanent home of those two units -- forget what they are, GP30s maybe. They handle coal service from Cleveland to Chicago and pull a 15-car train up my 4% grade with ease (the normal max on my layout is 10 cars per train.) Still plenty of room for more details, and I also need to pain my wire connections black so they don't stand out. Engines cut off their trains come to the fuel/sand rack to get ready for the next trip. When this area fills up, I shuttle them all into the roundhouse and start over again. |
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Here you can see the caboose track and my utility switcher. All three tracks above go to the turntable, the upper two are from the fueling area. |
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A look down toward the fueling area from the turntable. |
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Another shot that shows the cinder/ballast usage. |
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The yard's true workhorse, my PRR VO-1000. |
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The tufts I made myself |
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The yardmaster shack. Decided to leave some of the old ballast from the original layout as a hint that something was there before |
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Not new, but that guy has been standing in the doorway for like 10 years now. |
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An overview. |
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