Well, after a somewhat long period of anticipation, my two home road units and caboose arrived in the mail today from Kendall at The Blue Caboose custom painting service.  I must say, while I liked the pictures that he had sent me previously, I actually LOVE the way the units look in person.  They are a deeper color than I first thought and look the part much better than I'd hoped.

Both of the GP38's have RC antenna stands on the cab that Kendall installed for me.  These units are numbered to reflect being part of a larger fleet of probably 12-15 units in the WestRail fleet.

The caboose looks great as well but I think I need to remove the running boards and trim the ladders to just the roofline.  Otherwise, I'm thrilled with this "shoving platform" as well.

I think it is very ironic that the units arrived the day after I installed my track.  I ordered these over two years ago and so the timing is pretty interesting.  I guess he knew better than me when I'd be needing them.  :-)

One total sidenote, and quite a bummer, is that the switch from the main to the stub end siding in the last picture above (with the grey hopper leading) somehow got Liquid Nailed shut.  I tried to be super careful not to get the adhesive under the moving parts of the switches but this one got messed up. When I tried to "loosen it up" to see if it would throw, I ended up breaking a key piece off.  Ugh.  I'm going to have to somehow pry up the track and put in a new switch (if I have one - haven't looked) but I can still serve everything but the transload yard so it's not a total disaster.

I'm going to try to get it wired up this week and break out the PowerCab and see how things go.  :-)

We finished our move to a new home and I have finally gotten back to trying work on my railroad.  It'll be altered from the plans at the previous home but I think ultimately it will be simpler to build and operate.  Not a bad thing.

My premise stays the same for the line, except that now instead of including the UP (ex-SP) main east out of Phoenix, along with an interchange "yard", I'm simply going to represent the interchange with a runaround track and 0-5-0 staging.  I'll set up the day's interchange from the UP on the runaround track, then pull my train up the "main", uncouple the units, pull ahead, then reverse onto the interchange cut and proceed down the line for the day's switching.

I got the track pretty much laid today, though the switches are floating for now and there is one spot where two modules connect that are uneven due to getting beat up during our move.  I will need to put some shims under the track there.  Otherwise, I am ready to connect some power and see how everything works

One note:  My track isn't perfectly straight.  Some of that, such as a bit of a dogleg mid-layout, is by design, but some of it is just because my viewing angles will make it fairly inconsequential.

My new layout is 9.5' (16" wide) X 7.5' (6" wide - staging).  I could probably extend the staging end around to a third wall, but I'm not really interested in doing that right now.  Maybe in a few years.  For now, just getting trains running will be a great start.

Pic 1:  Looking at the interchange/staging tracks from the end of the layout.  The wye switch in the foreground is the last piece of track and represents the wye leading to the UP line.

Pic 2:  Side view of interchange.  

Pic 3:  Overview of the Sunland Industrial Park 

Pics 4 and 5:  Offset view.  Other than the track, everything is just mock-ups or just sitting in place.  

Pics 6 and 7:  Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS)

Pic 8:  Maricopa Beverage or possibly another business

Pics 9 and 10:  Looking towards Sunland Foods and the transload area

Pics 11-13:  The transload track is in the foreground.  Behind it is the "main" which will continue another mile or so in my imagination but will stop behind the office.  Next is a stub-end set out track used for cars holding for spots.  Finally, in the rear is Sunland Foods.  

Pic 14:  This is the corner that connects the interchange/staging track on the left with the industrial park setting on the right.  I'll ultimately put a viewblock of some sort in to block the sharp curve view.  Probably either an overpass or warehouse.  

I'm always behind at work and go through spurts, so we'll see where I get this time around.  :-)

-Dave