Progress in the Basement

Long time, no post. Thought I would share a little of what I have been working on lately. The layout room isn't done, far from it, but I do have the studs up all the way around, the ceiling installed in about a third of the room, and lighting operating in that portion as well.

I could no longer resist the siren call of an operating section of track, and so I have knocked together a bit of benchwork and started on a backdrop in the hopes of putting together the beginnings of a paper mill scene. The grand plan is for this to play a part in the larger layout, so it's not wasted effort. Here's a look at what I've accomplished to this point:

The theory this time is to use Code 83 track and turnouts for their better appearance. Having grabbed a handful of Walthers/Shinohara Code 83's some time back at what I thought was a great price ($10 each, new in box) I was a bit dismayed upon realizing that they were the old style power-routing turnouts, and not at all DCC friendly. Following a bit of internet research and toying around with an ohmmeter, out came the rotary tool, styrene, and super glue. It didn't take long to cut gaps and fill them with strip styrene, then file the plastic to the shape of the rail.

I think this will take care of the DCC issues. Basically I am creating dead frogs, which shouldn't be much of a problem as the Atlas turnouts I normally use also have dead frogs. We will see after I get some track down and feeders installed. These don't feed past the frog after surgery, so I will need to press the soldering iron into service before I can make any final judgements.

All for now, soon I will try and get some track plans posted and describe the operating scenario I have developed.