Entrance from staging

The staging yard is located in the closet and passes through a cutout in the wall. I worked this area up to look somewhat like the old Yard 5 tracks which were on the other side of Commercial street from Yard 8 the tracks ran between the hill that Portland was built on and several industries that by the 1970's were no longer served by rail or even in business. The tracks had a walkway and pipe bridge that passed over the tracks. I chose to put a pipe bridge to hide the cut and retaining walls and buildings. The building on the right will have the yard paved over the tracks for unloading building supplies. The loads will be concrete blocks , bricks and lumber that are received here. The building is a stand in for now that was used on a previous layout.

Yard 8 gets ballast

With a 4 day holiday I was able to put some time in on the layout, I ballasted Yard 8 and added a little grass in some areas.

Working 12 hrs a day 6 to 7 days a week has meant little layout construction time. I did manage to get the track on the trestle and finish all wiring for track power, all that remains is connecting up the switch machines.

Power is Back

I spent the day running bus wires under the bench work and then added the feeders to the Commercial Street Section.

I also built the removable section for the doorway before Vacation but never posted a picture. I will do the fianl track installation and power it next. This was my first time using the Woodland Scenics water. It took some of the paint from the base and made a very interesting murky water effect.

Electrical Hook Up

I had hoped to save re running all of the bus wire from the circuit bkrs to the layout. After connecting 20 + leads to the yard tracks I turned on the DCC system to test.

I did not test each section as I connected to the tracks and obviously there is something seriously wrong as all 4 block circuit brkrs tripped!

I should have tested each section as I connected them to the bus wires.

Sooooo, I guess the new plan is to pull all the bus wires completely out and run new wires to each circuit breaker protected block and connect 1 section at a time, test for problems and then correct if needed and move to the next section.

Did I mention this is the part of the hobby that I do not enjoy.

Additional Pics from the Trip

The 216 was power for the Notch trip a five hour trip, 2 hours up, an hour at Crawford station and 2 hrs back down. Commentary was provided on history and railroad history through out the journey. The 573 was powering the valley trains it is in a MEC / B&M Maroon scheme from the early diesel years when MEC and B&M were operated jointly. This locomotive is the engine operated under the MEC and Guilford before being sold to Conway Scenic. The bottom photo is our train at the Crawford Notch station ready to head back down to North Conway.

Visit to Maine and stop at Steamtown

Liz and I took a vacation to Maine to visit family and do some sight seeing. Took many photos along commercial street of the remaining buildings, I visited a hobby shop where I picked up a MEC S-3 and an HH600. We rode the Conway Scenic up to Crawford's Notch and had a nice lunch in the dining car.

Of note was the 252 in a MEC inspired paint scheme, only the wording on the logo changed. The Logo was "CONWAY SCENIC The Notch Train Route". The engine that pulled the Notch Train was a high nose GP-35 #216 also in the MEC inspired Harvest Gold Scheme.

On the way home we stopped in Scranton at the National Historic Site Steamtown. I enjoyed that also, but it was too much walking for Liz and here sister. I ran around every where but will have to make another trip and go by myself to really explore.

We rode in Lackawanna passenger cars behind a ex-CN 2-8-2 #3254.

I was very impressed with both operations.