to run trains! Spent last night dropping feeders and running bus wire to the staging lead so it’s now operational. I then broke some rolling stock and began running a few trains to see how it all worked.
Here’s an double stack pulling out of Yard Track 1 onto the bridge and then making it’s way up the incline on the staging lead.
So far everything has been running on the trackwork great except my autoracks. But I’ve always had problems with the racks derailing for no apparent reason since my first layout. It’s like they are my “problem child” of the layout. So I need to do a little pinpointing on the track to see if there’s anything in particular causing problems.
Everything else though (coal cars, double stacks, amtrak cars, hopper train, etc…) ran great throughout the yard and lead.
Next up I need to tidy the island and install the upper deck for the staging lead so I get the final staging turnout installed and connected to the wire panel. You can see the staging lead track and very top right of the photo, running off the currently installed upper deck below.
You can also see the foam incline right in the middle there that’ll bring trains between levels.
Shaun Track
Between all the holiday hoopla from Thanksgiving and to upcoming Christmas and a week long vacation, I managed to get in the garage a couple times since my last post to work on the staging yard. Happy to report the staging yard was completed today.
All tracks are bus wired, occupancy detection and switch control is fully operational on the control panel, and the track has been cleaned and “No-Ox’d”. Woohoo!
Next up is to install the feeders and bus wire for staging lead on the other side of the room that I installed about 1 months ago.
Shaun Track
This week I started running staging bus wires attaching staging feeders to them. I used up all my suitcase connectors so I hit a roadblock until I get more. But I did manage to wire up both Rail A & B to the left and right sections of the Mainline so I had to get an engine on the rails.
Still to need to clean the rails at the solder points and some dried caulking at spots, but the engine ran great on the track that had power. The control panel occupancy lights worked great too. I’m going on vacation next week but I’ll probably place an order mid-week for more suitcase connectors so they’ll arrive just after I get home. 
Speaking of bus wires, here’s what I’m doing for my bus connections between modules.
These are Anderson PowerPole connectors. I really like these for two reasons:
1) They are genderless. So there’s no worrying about needing to have a female and male to make a connection (cause I know I always ended up with more of one than the other somehow). If you got 2 connectors, your good! Just crimp down, flip on over and connect.
2) They are interlocking. Each connector can slide into a grove on another, so you can easily build block connectors of several wires. Need to add another wire? No problem, just slide it on any existing connector to add it to the block.
So what to do the rest of the week? I’m working on the mainline on the peninsula right now. Sub-roadbed plywood is mounted in place. In the process of laying out track for the rough-in, then I’ll install the risers for the track, cork roadbed, and finally track.
I originally planed on placing the paper mill here on the peninsula, but I’m leaning towards simply having this be an hillside scene or something because the track is all on a grade here. So we’ll see.
Shaun Benchwork, DCC, Track
