River Road - Part 2

I stayed up late last night getting more tracks laid at River Road. I was able to to finish the track work on the East side of River Road (G.T. Junction is to the East & Georgetown is to the West).   I still need to add the Washington Petroleum siding on the West side of River road.

Looking East - from left to right: Auto Body Siding, Hot Shop's Siding, Main Line, Briggs Filtration Siding.

Looking West you can see the Briggs Fitration building Flat on a small hill.  The building in the for ground with the box car next to it is a small industry that was across the track form the Auto Body warehouse that will be on the right side of the box car.

River Road - Part 1

What a day... Our well pump burned up this morning and I spent most of the day replacing it.  I am not sure why I had energy left to work on the railroad but here I am.

River Road had a few different industries over the years but the track that ran up Landey Lane seemed a constant.  Landey Lane started at the intersection with River Road and climbed uphill ending at the last industrial building.  The siding was about 900 feet in length, and served Briggs Filtration according to a 1946 Sanborn Map.  I was able to model about 280 scale feet of siding that rises above the main line approx 5/8".

In this first picture you can see the location of River Road and the intersection with Landey Lane. The street and track climbs uphill and levels out at the warehouse doors.

This pictures is from the warehouse looking back toward River Road.  In the background, on the south side of River Road you can see the beginnings of a siding for Washington Petroleum Products.  The other turnout near the rail cutter will branch off into 2 spurs. One will serve a Hot Shops Restaurant Supplies and feature a traveling crane. the other will serve a few small buildings and a contractors yard.

Next up is paint that pink landscape!!!

Turnout Control

What do you think of this manual turnout control switch mounted into the scenery at the front edge of the layout?

My last layout used DPDT slide switches mounted from below with control rods run to the front fascia.


This time I have no room under the layout and the fascia needs to be easily removed to access wiring.  Rods protruding from the front fascia would make removal very difficult.  I decided to try mounting the DPDT switch near the front edge of the layout with a control rod run through the foam to the turnout.


LED's could be mounted behind the fascia and plastic reflectors could carry the light through to the front of
the fascia allowing easy removal without disconnecting wires.

If fat fingers are a problem a small hole could be drilled in the top of the switch and a uncoupling pick used to throw it.