Expansion on the Cherry Hill RR

stevedenver

stevedenver

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Well, it’s been a very long year with many trials and tribulations. (Dealing with me mum, her estate, and other matters,( new interior painting, hardwood floors and shuffling the entire content of our house room to room to facilitate this ) and including a new hip.thank god for martinis..lol)

My wife and i Got tired of mowing a tiny piece of lawn on a slope. As a result, and void of common monetary sense,I decided to extend my raised planter area and expand my layout.

Am still in the, beginning steps of figuring out how to best lay the track. You will see my initial right of way, but I’m not sure this is going to work with as a little work as I wish to put in. I can’t envision Genesis going under or over this bridge, not to mention live steam.

I may simply have the track follow the perimeter as I have done and the other planted areas. Somehow having track on the ground gives me much greater comfort should a derailment occur. I’ll follow with a series of photos.
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This is where the old right of way did 180 degree back to the outer edhe on R3, to the left of the black river rock.
 
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Knee pads for my old arthritic body. You can see to the far right the elevated portion entering the bridge. My alternative route would simply be to abandon the bridge and follow the perimeter of the walkway. Boring but safe and quite likely to suffer less ice on the tracks during the winter.
 
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One more or two.
I plan a “play area“ to the far left, which would put the siding and townsite at about waste high. Obviously, with the present grade, I cannot join the siding to the main line easily. Another problem, is that the throttle is 30 feet away, and I am no longer able to simply hop up and crossover The planting area , but must walk all the way around to make any changes or adjustments.

A plus, is that the town area is mostly shaded…important as the UV at a mile high, in the summer, rapidly ages or warps some Pola g structures. Otoh, im assuming winter will result in a shady snow and ice packed area beside the fence, where i will walk to clear snow, and stand.
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What is the control system? - Perhaps you can fit a wireless throttle?

PhilP
 
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The overpass, Which obviously is in early, planning.stages of layout. The lower track sits in a trough, and with snow it will present not only a challenge to get literally under the snow, but may also present a steady drainage channel. I do have a drainage culvert at the bottom of the trough. Attempted to use this trough in order to minimize, the rise of the bridge over the main ground area. I am somewhat challenged at engineering, but more sorely, I am a lazy sot when it comes to Building, trestle bents, careful measuring, footers, ad nauseum, and intricate stone, bridge abutments. Simply building the wall and filling it with soil, with my arthritis, was an exercise and extreme effort and ….stupidity.



I’d appreciate any comments thoughts or ideas.

I spent the small fortune on the LGB risers. Boxes and boxes, just to ‘have every/anythingvreadily at hand…man did i over buy.

On the one hand, they are extremely convenient interlocking and completely weatherproof. On the other hand, they look like. *!! T , but, they were more convenient than me filling the back of my sedan with a ton or two of pavers, and countersinking each paver to the appropriate level now looks like I may put them all back in their boxes and simply follow the perimeter of the planting area.

One nice part is the layout is below eye level and is invisible, more or less from passers- by, a plus in these changing times.
 
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Control is a bridgework 10A straight analog throttle. Bridgework I believe makes a wireless control, basically a module that hooks into the full output 24 V DC and then controls it via small button. I’ve read about these, and they get very poor reviews in terms of performance and they’re not cheap.

I also have the LGB jumbo 10 amp throttle with its tethered remote. Unfortunately, this transformer has no off on switch, a slight hurdle, but has no AC output for accessories and lighting. The idea of running 75 feet of essentially telephone line to the to the handheld seems like one more PITA.

It is more likely that I’ll put in semaphores, the LGB isolation block style , which would allow me to stop or start a train manually while standing at the wall, and operating the switch machine/relays manually.



Ps
I used Dictation of replys…i am not brain dead, but the dictation resulted in some odd stuff, which ive corrected.

Ive discovered, after decades of fruitless effort, (and despite being a single malt lover,) ive acquired a taste for gin…. 2 olives, one onion, noilly pratt. Out of a lovely, sparkling clean, freezer chilled heavy crystal glass. Instant attitude adjustment. A wonder on a 99F summer day, at 5 sharp, like the cannon firing , time keeping , Admiral in Mary Poppins , with swmbo. There is much to be said for retirement and daily ceremonies.
 
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stevedenver said:
Well, it’s been a very long year with many trials and tribulations. (Dealing with me mum, her estate, and other matters,( new interior painting, hardwood floors and shuffling the entire content of our house room to room to facilitate this ) and including a new hip.thank god for martinis..lol)

My wife and i Got tired of mowing a tiny piece of lawn on a slope. As a result, and void of common monetary sense,I decided to extend my raised planter area and expand my layout.

Am still in the, beginning steps of figuring out how to best lay the track. You will see my initial right of way, but I’m not sure this is going to work with as a little work as I wish to put in. I can’t envision Genesis going under or over this bridge, not to mention live steam.

I may simply have the track follow the perimeter as I have done and the other planted areas. Somehow having track on the ground gives me much greater comfort should a derailment occur. I’ll follow with a series of photos.
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Click to expand...
High level looks good.
 
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