This is going to come a a shock, and I almost can’t believe that I’m actually contemplating this: the removal of most, if not all, of the electrical wiring from my layout, and switching to battery-operated radio control. I’d probably also lose the servo-controlled turnouts in favor of hand-throws.

Deltang Tx21 Transmitter

I’m contemplating this after seeing first-hand the performance of the radio throttles and receivers from Deltang at an operating session on Steve Fisher’s layout this past weekend. A few locos had been stripped of most of the electronics supplied by the manufacturer to make room for the receiver and batteries. With the exception of one transmitter battery going dead, they ran all day! No stopping for shorts or mystery DCC problems (which did occur).

Deltang Rx41D-8 receiveer

The receivers are as small as 3/8″ square, and each 3.7V battery is about 1″ x 3/4″ x 1/8″ (one or two are required for each engine, depending on its size). Transmitters are about the size of a cigarette pack, and run on a standard 9V battery. The cost per loco is about $125 for a transmitter, receiver, batteries, and a power switch and charging plug — about the same as adding DCC and sound to a new loco!

The trade-off is that I’d have to give up sound and the dubious advantages of DCC. In return, no finicky decoder programming, reverse loop and frog wiring. In fact, no layout wiring at all.

Prior to about 5 years ago I didn’t own any sound-equipped locos, and very few of my friends had sound. I wasn’t originally going to have sound on my layout — I didn’t consider it to be worth the cost. At the time, one of my favorite layouts to operation on didn’t even have DCC — it still used DC cab control. And I was having more fun running trains than I do today.

Hmm… this is actually beginning to look rather attractive….

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As you’ve seen from the photographs of the layout so far, I’ve still not done anything about backgrounds. And for good reason. I’m a horrible painter. I’ve also commented in the past that I’m not necessarily fond of photo backgrounds. However, I’ve stumbled across a supplier with what looks to be a really nice product.

A page from the SceniKing catalog site. These four scenes can be connected end-to-end to create a background that’s up to 41 feet long!

SceniKing has a range of rolled backgrounds that are made to go together in various ways to form seamless backgrounds that are really long — examples in their catalog are as long as 55 feet!

While they’re not cheap, they’re certainly worth a look. They’ve got a set that looks like it will be just right to try stretching from the south end of Plymouth all the way through to Corinna.

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Some of you may remember that some time back, I was considering switching (no pun intended) away from Micro Engineering track and switches, almost to the point of considering hand-laying the rest of the layout. Today, I read about a really interesting alternative to other commercial brands that provides track that looks hand laid: Custom Trax.

Custom Trax On30 switch with switch stand. Image courtesy On30Insider.

It’s a little hard to find on their web site, but they really do sell On30 track. You can find it on their Order Forms page. The flex track is a bit more expensive than ME, but the turnouts are surprisingly inexpensive, and include beautiful operating switch stands! They’re nice enough, in fact, to make me consider not using the harp stands.

I’m really curious about this track — enough so that I may order a couple sticks of flex and a turnout to try.

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In a previous post, I gave a hint about what the mill at Corinna Mill would look like. The structure is based on two MTH Granary buildings, butted together. Today, I got up the nerve to cut into a pair of $65 buildings to see if what was in my mind’s eye would actually work — this would either be great, or a $130 disaster!

I started by completely disassembling the “right” half of the mill, removing all the detail parts from the sections that wouldn’t be used or seen in the completed model, and saving them for use in later projects. There are only a few major parts to the building. I was surprised by how much was molded as a single piece — the tooling for this building must have cost a fortune! For instance, the part in the foreground is, except for windows, doors and electrical bits, a single part.

I started each of the cuts by scribing a line with a square and a sharp hobby knife. After several passes with the knife to act as a guide, I switched to my trusty Dremel tool with a large fiberglass cutting disk to hack the end off the building. I had to cut into the end at an angle to avoid damaging the parts of the building I wanted to keep. The interior supporting structure was eventually cut away with a rail nipper.

In the shot here, I’m working on the top part of the building — also a single molded part.

The roof panels were marked and cut similarly. Once all the cuts were made, I snapped off any melted plastic globs, and sanded everything smooth using a large sanding block/foam shaper from Berrett Hill Trains. Then, I reassembled what was left of the first building.

The left half of the mill didn’t require such drastic cutting, as I wanted to leave the end wall in place to use as a support for the roof. It did still require a complete disassembly, to remove and cut the roof panels flush with the end wall. I also needed to sand the edges of the building smooth where the two buildings would be glued together.

The result of the project is shown above. I still need to do the final work on the seams in the roof. The joint in the stone wall is almost perfect, and will pretty much disappear when I repaint and weather the structure.

Obviously, the loading dock also still needs to be added. I had originally thought that a large wooden platform was in order, but the more I look at the buildling, the more I think a poured concrete affair would be more appropriate.

To get an idea of the size of the finished structure, here’s #4 pushing a 30-foot boxcar into the siding, and a view from the far end of Corinna yard, looking back at the mill.

This is gonna look really great once there’s a background in place!

Related articles

• Progress at Corinna Mill!
• Removing the Roller Coaster

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I mentioned the other day that I had been thinking about operations, and had determined that the area beyond Corinna had to exist in some form if the operations were to make sense. So, reluctantly, I decided that a staging yard of some sort will have to be built. After some fiddling, I came up with this plan:

I had determined that I would need three storage tracks to represent the various northern destinations, and a fourth track is provided as a run-around. While the turntable shown is certainly usable to turn locomotives and certain rolling stock, it’s primary purpose in the design is to reduce the length of the ladder required at the northernmost end. I considered designs with conventional ladders and one with a return loop, but the size was enormous.

Because this is considered temporary track, I’m planning to use Atlas track components — I see no reason t spend $25 per turnout and $6 per length of flex track for this project.

Corinna Turntable

A couple weeks back, my friend Kevin sent me a link to what looks like a lovely kit for a small turntable.

I have been less than pleased with the existing turntable since its installation two years ago.

As shown, this turntable looks a touch short (the manufacturer does indicate that it will turn a Forney), but I believe it could be pretty easily modified to gain a little length, and also to be a good match for several of the turntables on the Maine 2-Footers. It’s not an inexpensive kit, but it is complete, including not only the turntable and bridge, but also a geared drive and motor.

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New Locomotives

Based on some information received this past weekend, management decided to acquire two additional locomotives. A pair of inside-frame Forney type locomotives were financed, and the railroad has taken delivery of the two new locos. As delivered, the two locomotives are of the 2-4-4 wheel arrangement and have wood cabs, as shown in the “builders photo” to the right. Both locomotives will receive new cabs, pilots and other modifications prior to being placed into regular service. The new locos will be numbered 7 and 8.

In the Shop

Work continues slowly on #17, the outside-frame 4-4-0. The new cab is ready, and once some of the “plumbing” and running boards are relocated, it can be installed. A new boiler was also recently acquired that, along with some other parts on hand, stands ready to be worked into a shop-built 2-6-0.

That’s about it for now. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll relate the stories of this past weekend at the Spring Mid-Hudson On30 Meet.

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