Deciding On A Layout

Knowing that I wanted to use KATO Unitrack for my model railroad track I went and visted the website at katousa.com to see what kind of layouts they have. I wanted to use as much space as possible on top of my bar, yet if need be, be able to move the layout and re-use the bar. I brought my youngest son (now 12) down to take a look and get his opinion. I was not into just doing a switching layout, I wanted to enjoy watching the train go around, but also play with some switches occasionally. I came across a layout called “Manning Oaks” and thought it would be perfect. The layout was designed to fit on a 36”x72” board and that would fit perfectly on my bar. It provided 2 full loops where I can watch the trains go around and some turnouts to be me more involved with the layout.

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METX #163 EMD F40PH Locomotive

First off, Merry Christmas to everyone... When I first wanted to get (back) into Model Railroading, the one locomotive that I knew I really wanted was a Chicago Metra locomotive. Growing up on the West Line and riding the Metra into the city, I always loved this locomotive. So last night on Christmas Eve, my youngest child, wife and I opened presents. To my behold, my wife got me a KATO EMD F40PH in the Chicago Matra liverly along with it being the “City of Elmhurst”, Elmhurst is the suburb I grew up right next to on the West Line. Since I knew I wanted one for my collection, I already had a TSC DCC K5D7 decoder ready for it, so this morning I followed the directions and got the decoder soldered into the locomotive and then programmed on my layout. It really is a Merry Christmas!

C&NW #928 EMD SD40 Locomotive

Well the last couple of days I have really been giving our USPS lady a workout, packages and packages arriving for my layout. I added another diesel freight locomotive to the roster with a KATO Chicago & North Western #928 SD40. This model I had purchased used through a Facebook Group and already equipped with DCC. The following is borrowed from Don’s Depot . 928 was built in September 1966, #32099, FN 7912-8, as CGW 408. It became C&NW 928 in 1968. It was retired on September 25, 1987 and sold to Washington Corporation in November 1989. It was rebuilt for Corporate Leasing Inc as 3001. It then became MRL 3001 and was later renumbered 220. It was later transferred to I&M Rail Link as 220 in 1997 and sold as Iowa Chicago & Eastern 220 in July 2002. It was retired in February 2007 and scrapped by Jabco Industrial in March 2007.

Starting The Benchwork

I am not much of a woodworker and I knew cutting plywood and 1x4’s with my limited tools would be very tedious. So I needed to come up with another way to build my benchwork. I remembered back to one of my previous layout attempts and that I purchased a hollow door from store. That door back then was only 30” wide so I needed to see if could find one that is 36” wide. Sure enough my local Home Depot sells 36”Wx80”L for around $38.00, I thought that would work perfect and save me some time. So now the trackboard is set and I needed to think how I was going to wire the layout. Having the board sit right on top of the bar would not allow me to do my wiring underneath the board. I decided to purchase a 1x4 abd cut 4” blocks to use as legs. I figure the blocks just being used as legs my cuts do not have to be perfectly straight, a jigsaw would work. My next issue is my bar top is made of tile. I thought the wood block would probably easi...

Coloma Rails - N Scale Model Railroading

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