Post #20

 Well the time has come to lay the first track on the baseboard. The concept plan has been worked out, the baseboard and frame have been made so I am making a start finally. Time flies and it has been over a year or so since South Coast Traction was first thought of.

I was always wanting to make the plan of the track layout as interesting as I could make a traction layout. I wanted to steer away from parallel running along the baseboard edge. I know most cities are laid out in this format but when you only have an 8' x 4' to work with it needs to be as interesting as I can make it for operation. As previously mentioned the invention of DCC in relation to a traction layout is certainly a game changer. A previous layout could only use DC and ran with a multitude of switching a DPDT switch up and down to choose between two controllers, well no more of that with DCC. The only downside of that is all my DC trolleys now have to be fitted with decoders.

On a previous post I mentioned that I like to lay out track and buildings on the baseboard to get a visual and feeling to see how it will look in the future. I have cut out 10" radius paper templates to accomodate the Electroliner which will then have trackage rights over the whole layout. A model exhibition and sale day attended recently resulted in acquiring a few more buildings and other useful items to go on the layout. A bonus was a box of buildings that included the Walthers Merchant row of buildings already assembled, although the painting was a bit rough but that can be fixed when I get around to that part of the project.

The above photo shows the track swinging away from the basboard edge to present a more interesting curve and add some character. This section may even acquire some centre street poles just for a difference. All the buildings I have so far are only up to three stories tall, I think that many multi story buildings would a view blocker type effect so I won't be using them.

Also to add some interest as can be seen in the above photo I am going to incorporate a standard gauge siding to a factory that will run from the edge of the board to just inside the board to a factory. I will place a loco and a box car on the line somewhere. Originally the line was going to dive down in a cutting under a road bridge but after attending a sale day I acquired two dummy crossing signals that made me change to a level/grade crossing. I am going to try and get the siding a dual purpose one and erect some overhead and use it for the traction layout as well. I have a freight motor and a PE model of Electra that can be used.

Next post I will start on the trolley barn tracks.