4/10/2024

Reworked the trackage in the yard area. There's one small track that serves a small freight house, with the other track branching off to another freight house before passing through the Sprecher Brewery and entering a sawmill. The turntable moved a little farther inward, with the engine house now sitting in the front of the yard. There's also a coal tower and a sand house for locomotives. I plan to separate the railroad yards and the sawmill with thick foliage to represent different areas of the layout. 

Along the open mainline I'm recreating the Novi PM depot, in its current abandoned state, the other buildings around it, and the Grand River Ave. overpass next to the depot. This area will have foliage around the back to make it seem like its own area. Eventually I will make either a diorama or an entirely new layout representing the railroad in Novi, so I can make the passing track adjacent to the depot in its entirety.

Ordered some Labelle lubricants and some metal wheels on Amazon yesterday. The wheels should arrive either at the end of this week or the start of next week, the lubricants arrive next week or the week after. The wheels are mostly to make some old Model Power coaches run better. 

When I have time I will get some engines repaired and running. An AHM GP-18 may go on eBay sometime soon, along with a bunch of other things after I figure out how to ship stuff (with USPS)

3/11/2024

Added a small yard to my layout. Still unsure as to whether I'm adding roadbed to my branch line/yards. The yard contains three tracks, plus an industrial spur which leads to a Sprecher brewery. Most likely, only two tracks will be used for freight service while the third will be a caboose track. As far as freight houses go, there's one on the main and another in the engine facilities. To access it, simply align the turntable with the entry track and the spur (they're both lined up to each other) and drop off your boxcar there.

As far as wiring goes, the turntable/engine houses will be isolated, including the spur off the main line (there's a distribution center there which takes two 40' boxcars). The yard may be isolated, but since it's off a branch line, the only engine that will ever use it will probably also switch the yard (curves are 15" and 18", way too small for even some engines) so it may stay wired to the rest of that section.

Interchange was also moved to the yard/spurs area. Made more sense to put it there with all the railroad activity.

Since my layout is meant to "change eras" some parts are used in certain time periods. In the modern era, the turntable will not be used (I'll make a way to remove it and place it back so that the wiring still works) along with the old engine houses. The houses will be abandoned, used for storage, and the small yard will be "torn up" and turned into either a park or an apartment complex. The spur will stay in use. Any depot buildings will probably be removed.

About the layout

Dimensions: 4ft x 6.5ft

Line Type: Single

Scale: HO

Power Type: DC (DCC will be added later)

Era: Steam Era, Transition Era, and Modern Era

Notes: Two main loops of track with a small yard and turntable/engine sheds.