| Have
you ZZeen it?
Expandig my Z-scale model
railroad with new sections
Up to end 2003
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Last update:
17.04.2006 21:32
Status from the
layout on 29.12.03:
| Tonight I have had some
visitors on the layout. They all, me included, had a
good time running trains on my little empire. On left,
Tor Olav(7) running train, and sister Anne Marit(5)
waiting to take the trottle. Father Gunnar, who is
employed in Norwgian Railroad and repairing
trains, is supervising the action. |
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Status from the
layout on 28.12.03:
| The last Christmas days
have given me some time to continue the work on the
layout. The bridge is now installed, and the foundation
for the different part of the landscape is started to be
installed. There are still some testing going on about
which buildings that should be used and the final
configuration of the whole scene. I need some more
buildings, to create the brick/city/industrial feeling
that I want. |
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Status from the
layout on 15.12.03:
| There is very little done
on the layout in the last weeks. Christmas is soon coming
and I was checking the
old Christmaslayout, but it was all destroyed stored
in the attick since last Christmas. The warm summer had
melted the old house, so I created a new small layout
tonight, that could be used for Christmas. It is only a
length of Peco flextrack, soldered together and glued to a
capafix board. Very small radius and a nice little scene. |
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Status from the
layout on 21.11.03:
Slow progress,
but the turntable is now installed and near all wires have
been soldered to the different pieces of track and
connected together on some centrally placed solderpoints.
Here the wiring to the controller equipment will be
connected.
On the top left picture, you can see 2 of the Hoffman
switchmotors and the turntable from below.
On the two lower pictures, you can see 2 typical scenes
from the layout. When the layout is finished, it will be
even better, with buildings, trees, etc. On the turntable
the AZL E8, with a Märklin steam engine and a F7 in the
enginehouse. On the right track, the F7 with many cars is
running through the station. |
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Status from the
layout on 27.10.03:
| The new tracks are
completed, expect for the track to the tourntable and the
roundhouse. The tourntable is installed. Some kitbashing
has been done on the roundhouse. Because of small space,
three of the sections are made shorter, one of the roofs
are removed on each section. You can see the difference in
the plasticcolors, so all need to be painted and weathered.
All turnouts are Wright tournouts, expect for one new
curved turnout. Now I need to upgrade the drawing of the
layout, so the drawing is "as built". |
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Status from the
layout on 25.10.03:
The development of the
layout is a dynamic and never ending process. After
my visit last weekend to
Eurospoor 2003 in Holland, I bought 2 roundhuses and
an used turntable on the exhibition. Originally I planned
to use onle one roundhouse with 3 doors, but now I have 2,
with 6 doors. But not enough space, so I need to redesign
part of the layout so I can fit all items into the limited
space.
I need to redo some of the tracks. I also got an idea from
Jeffrey Machan, when I saw his great layout on
Eurospoor last week.
(See the
album
here) He had narrowed his roundhouse, so the
roundhouse will fit closer to the turntable. I cut of 6 mm
on each side, a total of 12 mm. That brought the front of
the enginehouse 45 mm closer to the turntable.
The left picture shows the tracks already in place. 2
hours later, the right picture, new roadbeds and some
testtrack to see if everything fits together with the
partially build roundhouse and the turntable. |
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Status from the
layout on 16.10.03:
The planning
of the layout continues. The schematics for the
interchange are revised to be simplified. It turns up to
be only 2 major circuits, with the position of two of the
turnouts giving the polarity for the different parts of
the track. Turnout 2 sets the polarity in the interchange
track and turnout 4 set the polarity for the right part of
the diagram. The number of gaps in the tracks are also
reduced by one. The new diagram can be seen to the right.
All 5 turnouts have also been set up with motors from
Hoffmann. The mechanical testing are not finished, but
it looks good. The electrical connections are not complete
yet, but the wiring is under construction.
One system to use to control the layout, is
WinDigiPet. I have created the first version of the
trackdiagram with this product. Here you can see the total
numbers of tracks and turnouts on the layout. A demo of
the product can be found on the site for
WinDigiPet. |
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Status from the
layout on 06.10.03:
Now I have
installed the interchange and glued the ballast on all
track in place, so it start to be ready. You will also see
a similar scene on the top right picture, as the one I
have created in 3rd planit and
put online on 25.02.03. The
bridge has been set up to test the placement. Some
buildings have also been set up to test how it could be in
the future.
I have also included a copy of the schematics for the
interchange. The text is in norwegian on the drawing, but
you will see all the different connections necesarry to
get this complicated interchange to work properly.
In total there are about 30 connections and 14 gaps/insulations
in the tracks. Turnout 2 will control the power on the
interchange rails and there will be 4 different routes to
select, each route will set the correct polarity on the
different pieces of track and set the turnouts in correct
position. The actual controller for this need to be
developed a little more. I have not decided to use
pushbuttons or other hardware to set up the routes. A
small PIC-processor could handle this very easy, so that
may be the solution?
A few days ago I installed one turnoutmotor from
Hoffmann in Germany on one of the turnouts. I ordered
only one for a test and it seems to work very well. They
are very samll and much cheaper then the Tortoise motor.
This cost only about 10$ each. I have ordered 10 more and
I am waiting for the turnoutmotor MWA02 to be received in
the post in a few days. I will come back to the
installment of this motors and give you more info later. |
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Status from the
layout on 16.09.03:
| Tonight
the first run on the interchange has been done. See the
short video from the layout here in Windows Media Format:
The first run on the InterChange
The interchange is now
near finished. All wires are connected, all rails are
painted, and it was time for the first testrun on the
interchange. Both tracks works fine, in the video you
can see the curved track with some action.
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Status from the
layout on 08.09.03:
| Tonight I have near
finished the interchange. Near all pieces are in place and
its soon ready for painting and electrical hookup. The
trains are running well over the interchange, so it seems
to work. A peace of a printed circuit board, is the
basement for the tracks. They are glued to the baseplace
with epoxy. All tracks are soldered together to keep good
electrical contact. The basement copper and the rails are
cut on different places where it should be no eletrical
contact. The current routing will be handled with
switsches on one of the turnoutmotors, so the correct
polarity is maintained on the different pieces of track. |
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Status from the
layout on 07.09.03:
Status from the
layout on 05.08.03:
| Tonight I have finished
the hidden station because I have got the Peco tracks from
England. 3 turnouts are also installed. Now I am waiting
for the
Wright Turnouts to arrive, so I can finish all
trackwork on the section. On the right picture you can see
some new cars from MZZ I have got: The green Chevrolet and
2 Ford Eiffel's. Between the F7 and the cars, one of my
newest models, the nice Märklin #88812 Chesapeake & Ohio
steam engine with caboose. |
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Status from the
layout on 18.07.03:
| Finally some more work
have been done on the layout again, after a long time
without any progress. Today I have started to lay tracks
and turnouts after near all the corkbed were installed. I
have ordered 7
Wright Turnouts and some Peco flextrack from
The Signal Box in UK today. I hope I will receive this
soon, so I can complete the layout. All visible turnouts
expect for one curved turnout, will be Wright Turnouts.
All hidden turnouts are from Märklin. Some curved tracks
are Märklin sectional track, all other are Peco flextrack.
All Wright Turnouts will be driven with Tortoise motors.
The right image shows the part of the layout that are
under construction. |
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Status from the
layout on 26.06.03:
| In the
development of the crossing and the layout, I needed the
dimensions on the different tracktypes available. Here
you can see my measurements for Märklin, Peco and
MicroTrains track for Z-scale.
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Status from the
layout on 18.06.03:
| I have
just put together a short video from the layout that you
can watch here in Windows Media Format:
My
little Z-scale Empire
The original shooting
are from february 2003, but there have been few changes
on the layout since then.
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Status from the
layout on 02.06.03:
On the new
part there will be a scratchbuild crossing. I need to
find out how to build this crossing, one rail is
straight, the other is curved. This part of the layout
will be one of the most interesting parts, with 4 lines
going in different directions. But the progress on
the building is slow.
On the right you can see the detailed drawing of the
crossing, using Märklin track. |
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Status from the
layout on 03.03.03:
Tonight
all plywood for level 0 mm and 35 mm are cut are glued
together. All necesarry girders are in place. The only
missing plywood now is the single line track on level
150 mm going from one end to the another on the section.
The room was also cleaned tonight, after a busy saturday
and sunday working on the layout. On the picture you can
also see the section with the big trestle, staying on
the floor in the lower left corner.
The buildings set out on the plywood are only an example
of buildings that could be used. Multifloor brick
buildings will be the majority of bulding in the
downtown area on level 35 mm. The tracklayout has also
been changed a little. To reduce the grade from level 0
to 35, the track between the levels was made longer. The
height for the second level was also fixed to 35 mm. |
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Status from the
layout on 27.02.03:
The
framework for the third section begin to find the final
shape. Tonight the zero level plywood was cut and
installed to the framework. Alle major parts are now
mounted. Next step will be to install the inforcement
from front to back.
Over the new section you can see the near finished
section 2. |
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Status from the
layout on 25.02.03:
The last weeks have been
used to redesign the last section, the middle part not
build yet. I would like to create a downtown scene, with
many big brickbuildings, creating a skyline type of wall.
Because of the high difference between the mainlevels,
150 mm, I created a new level, between 0 and 150. This
new level will contain a new mainstation, and hiding
behind and under the 150 mm level, there will be a big
storagestation. On the drawing to the right, the light
green part is on level 0, the major scene on this level
is a complicated crossing making a nice scene. The brown
part, the middle level, with the new station and the
hidden stationarea.
Today I bought some plywood and started to cut and glue
the plywood together. Very soon you will see some more
pictures, showing the progress. |
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A scene from 3DPlanit, showing the
complicated crossing on level 0 and the high
bridge in the background on level 150 mm. It is
low detail, but show how the scene will look like
when it is finished. |
Status from the
layout on 05.02.03:
Status from the
layout on 26.01.03:
| Today my
Little Empire RR, my wife and myself, have been pleased
with a visit the whole way from Spring, Texas, USA, when
the President & C.E.O of Golden Blackhawk &
Central City RR, David
I. George, came for a short sunday night visit. Also
Mr.
Heine Pedersen, the president of the "TableTop
RR" joined us, for a very interesting and
inspirational evening, discussing z-scale, looking at a
lot of photos from David's layout, running trains on the
Little Empire RR and to eat a wonderful dinner created
by my wife, the queen of the Little Empire RR. A
very tasteful trout with chocolate pudding for dessert
and apple pie and ice for the late coffe. |
From left: The empiror himself, and
David and Heine, in front of the Little Empire RR.
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The queen of the Little Empire RR,
Torunn, has joined the group for coffe, applepie and ice. |
David
arrived into Oslo yesterday, with a group of 160
skientusiast from Texas, heading for 5 days in
Lillehammer on monday and some wonderful days with
downhill skiing in the Norwegian mountains. I was glad
that he found time to visit me and also that Heine was
able to join us.
We met through the z_scale
group on yahoo. These email groups are wonderful to
get new friends and to get together. I have the great
feeling that I have friends all over the world because
of this Z-scale hobby. |
Status from the
layout on 24.01.03:
| Tonight I setup the train
to take a few picture of an area that is near finished.
On the left picture you can see the PennZee hoppers on the
lower track, entering
the station and the mine with a single MicroTrains F7 Union
Pacific in front. On the upper track, the Union Pacific
freight with an Märklin F7 A+B+A, is soon entering the
tunnell and the helix in the closet. Some detailing are
still to be done, but the layout start to look as I want.
Hope you also enjoy it. |
Status from the
layout on 21.01.03:
Tonight I
have finished all the six trees and planted them. Also
the area in front of the station is finished with road
and grass. Some detailing are still to be done.
I guess that the trees have not been so bad, specially
the right tree in the picture. In the back, you can see
the Santa Fe E8 A from American Z Line, and to the left
you can see a small piece of the Micro Structures
station.
I will take some more pictures when all are a little
more finished. Tonight, you can only see the new trees
because I save something for later. |
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Status from the
layout on 17.01.03:
Tonight I
have build trees from scratch for the layout. It take
some time, so I only finished 6 trees. They are made
from lamp copperwire, soldered together. In the picture
you can see them painted, the brown is finished and the
white should also have some black color. The boxcar is a
Micro-Train Z-scale car. The trees can soon be finished,
only the green parts are missing.
Some more painting has been done tonight on other
buldings on the layout. Slow progress, but a little at a
time. |
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Status from the
layout on 15.01.03:
A new year
and new options. There has been slow speed on the
building last months, but finally I have build the
stationbuilding for the layout. Its the brass kit #1010
from MicroStructures. It will be a nice little model
when it is finished. Final painting is still to be done.
Since last report I have done some detailing, with
plants, etc. More pictures will follow soon. |
Kit #1010 Train Station |
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Continue with page
for 2002 or page
for 2004
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