Model Railroad Plan 2

I've let the track plan simmer for a couple of weeks here to see if I still like it, and so far so good. The other thought that I had simmering was where the layout should be based. I knew it would be somewhere here in the midwest to ease construction. I know the area is not exactly plywood flat, but with a few creative cuts in the foam here and a few small hill's there, I could create the illusion of rolling terrain without having to try and make actual hills for the trains to go up and over.

I also know that I would like to have my main line be for the CB&Q and or BN/BNSF. I also wanted to interchange with the Chicago Northwestern/descendants and the Santa Fe. I would also like a short line interchange.

My candidates for locations are as follows:

Saginaw Texas
Galesburg IL
Minneapolis to Omaha line

I'll go over the pros and cons on following posts. Stay Tuned!!

Diet Adjustment 3

The best of plans rarely surivive the first contact with the enemy...

This has been my week so far. I had been doing pretty good on avoiding snacks, until Monday when someone at work dug out their Girl Scout Cookies from the freeze and strategically placed them in the lunchroom. The ones with the lemon goo on the inside are really tasty. That shot that day to hell. Then yesterday, I ended up having Chinese for dinner, scratch that day.

Today went a lot better, no snacks, no out of the blue high calorie meals....

I also started on my secret project against the chub... stay tuned

Diet Adjustment 2

So I've been at the adjusted diet here for a couple of weeks, and very slowly it's working. Cutting out the snacks was the key, and now I'm down about 3 lbs.

I managed to dodge most of the Halloween candy around the office last week. The challenge this week was choclate cookies w/ melted Andes Candies on top at work. Luckily they were basically under lock and key, so I only had two. Today we had a trip to Cuver's with Bobi's mom and niece. I was still on track there, until I had the "Minneosta Wild Sundae", with choclate ice cream, hot fudge, and brownie chunks. Mmmm, surgar overload. Well, there's always tomorrow.

Model Railroad Plan

I've always had a soft spot for model trains ever since I was a little kid. Me and my brothers had a 4'x8' layout that our dad bought for us to run our trains on.

The ravages of time, and a move led to the scrapping of this plywood wonder. Over the last several years, I've collected various engines, cars, and building kits for a future layout.

I built a 2'x8' module after college, but it didn't get much past the "Styrofoam
Central" stage. I've come up with some plans over the years, I think I was trying to bite off to
much with these, both in size and complexity.

A couple of years ago, I came across a plan for a better beginners layout. Not quite wanting to admit that I was a beginner, I placed this one in the proverbial mental file cabinet. I continued to bash my head against the wall trying to come up with a plan that I could manage.

A few months ago, I was digging in my Yahoo Groups account, and found the group for this layouts plan. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOGRR/ The original plan is called the "Heart of Georgia", after a real short line in Georgia. This layout is 8'x9' open pit design. It has a couple of passing tracks, a small yard, and several industries and interchanges. It could very easily be operated by one person when the desire for a quicky operating session arises. The layout shelf is also only 1' wide all the way around, so it's fairly easy on the materials.

For my 12'x12' room, I took this plan and scaled it up to 9'x12', keeping the basic elements, but slightly re arranging them. I also added a track to the yard, and also left open the posibility of an expansion branch line.

I'm hopinng to start construction later this month, once I get my back yard cleaned up, and a design for the benchwork solidified. Stay tuned....