Moving on to a larger version, version 4

     After awhile of working on #3, I kept thinking and thinking about staging and a continuous run option. I had the lumber required for the work I wanted to do, just not the track.

     After finding a good deal on cd80 flex track, and working the helix out in 3rd Plan-It, ( model railroad cad program) I was good to go.

     I have never really followed a track plan for any of the layouts that I have built, just went with the flow. That is not saying that I have not used 3rd Plan-It to work on ideas, like yards and throat design. Also by reading model railroad magazines I came up with ideas.

I decided to build a helix so I could have staging. After planning it came out to be 7.5 turns, 20" radius, 2,15% grade and 795" of flex track involved. I would say all in all took me about 5 hours to build.

 

I came up with the plan of having the yard right by the helix. The idea was to be able to run transfer and or trains to and from staging and not interfere with the other operators on the layout.

The yard was stub ended except for the A/D track. The two tracks against the backdrop were for the grain facility, each track was able to hold a 30 car train.



 This picture was my first experience using Helicon picture software, really easy to use.

 

The red and yellow rods you see are control rods for the turnouts. I made a home made control from a slide switch, aluminum angle and parts used for R/C plane control linkage.

 

Looking towards the helix in this picture, the rest of the layout is behind me.

 

Yes I know the picture is a little bright,,ok ok , alot bright. This is one of the parts from the very first layout. An 19"x96" industrial section that I like to call Fond Du Lac,is it actually modeled after Fond Du Lac, no, I just thought it "fit"

 

The more and more I think about it, I should stayed with version 4. Well we all live and learn everyday. Maybe if I would stayed with version 4 I would be closer to completion, but we all know a model railroad is never done.

 

I like the sweeping curve in this picture, flows real nice.

 

This section was also a piece from the previous layouts.  I just had to relay the track to make it fit with the other part that I connected with.

Version 3 of the WBTR

After moving to a new location in October of 2005, I had a new location and the 3rd version of the layout was about to be born. I had a two car garage to use,,but one draw back,,, No A/C, that is no good in the summer time in central Texas.

     Here are the pieces of the 2nd version, boy that is alot of work.

Kind of worked out that I built it in sections.Using 3/4" foam for the top made them real light to handle.

Here is what I came up with by using the old pieces, I had to re-lay some track. It came out okay,, it would do till I was able to work on new ideas and design.

You can see the other end of the yard and the stacks of lumber from the last version in the pictures.

Version 2 of the WBTR

Here are some pictures of the second version of my layout, I would say between 2003 and 2004. The room measured out to 18'x14', real nice size. I took the old layout apart first. Before putting the layout in the new room, I went ahead and installed backdrops which involved taping and floating the seams, and then primer and painting. After the room was done I was able to take the old layout pieces and temporaily install then to see where they would fit. Then I just filled in the empty areas with benchwork and trackage. Yard came out longer which was nice. This version was up for about a year and half to two years. Then I moved.

I decided to try some scenery, I really never have done that much scenery. I went out and did some research and read articles online, and took the plunge.

Doing scenery was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, I just followed step by step articles and tutorials. You can see the glue still not dried in the pictures, I guess I was in a hurry to take pics.

The first Wisconsin Belt Terminal Railway layout.

After moving to Texas in 2002 and after getting back into the hobby from a real long break, I decided it was time to get back to it.

After numerous ebay auctions and a couple of train shows my collection began to grow and grow. Then the light shown through the heavens and I found my second home,, Discount Model Trains in Addison, Tx.

So I decided to build the layout you see here in the pictures below. The layout was built to fit a space that is 4'x11'. I used Atlas code 80 track because I had a bunch on hand, and I did not feel like forking out dollars for peco track.

This is the layout that I cut my teeth on when it comes to DCC and wiring tortoise switch machines. After friends gave me help and further research, I was able to stumble through it and make it all work.

You can see the EASY DCC  by CVP command station to the left in the picture below. Real easy system to use and really user friendly, manual was good also. I now use Digitrax,,some days I wish I would have stayed with the CVP system.

For my first layout in years, it came out real good. I had fun with it and that is all that matters.