Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
The last blog post reviewed the new layout lighting that has improved the general room environment. Back in April, the workbench lighting was upgraded and I just didn’t get around to posting the details. Since it ties in well with last week, let’s take a look at the workbench lighting.
Good lighting is a key to enjoying our hobby. We create scenes, add details, and expect crew members to read car numbers. Without decent lighting our efforts suffer. The El Paso layout room had a ceiling fan with five light fixtures as a central light source. This was augmented with a couple of clamp-type shop lamps on temporary poles for operating. The light was just above average. The new Tennessee hobby room has poor lighting in comparison. I’ve set out to improve the situation in this rental home. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
After working through the layout adjustments noted in the last blog post, additional issues have turned up. There are two locations on the Wheeling Freight Terminal where curved track crosses layout sections at an angle, as can be seen in the lead image. One or two tracks have been problematic but now the problems have increased after setting up the layout in a new home. Click on any image here to review larger size.
The Wheeling Freight Terminal layout sections have assembled easily in the new space but there are a few adjustments to make in order to operate again. One adjustment was noted in the last blog post where four inches of a section needed to be removed in order for all to fit into the space. A survey of the layout has revealed the need for additional adjustments. Thankfully, no other sections need to be shortened.
I almost titled this post as Moving Along – part 3, but we are beyond the moving phase. The Wheeling Freight Terminal layout sections got onto their legs this week! Well, not all of them are on their legs as a problem was discovered. The layout is slightly longer than the space. I will admit, I did not measure the room before we committed to the house rental but I also did not know the actual long dimension of the layout. Yup, I did a job on this one. Click on any image here to view a larger size.