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Introduction

Welcome

When I started back into model railroading in 2016, I decided to keep a blog showing progress. I haven't always been so faithful at blogging, but I must say that the layout continues to flourish. My railroad is based loosely on the North Pacific Coast and California Western Railroads along the California north coast, the line stretches from the coastal town of Albion some 26 miles to the inland terminus at Laughlin in the Napa Valley, and an interchange with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. The date is set at September of 1928. The plan is a single track main U-shaped extended dog-bone.

Principal industries served by the PCRR are logging, passenger/tourism, fruit growers and seafood canners. The railroad occupies a space of roughly 11 feet by twenty feet in the basement of my home. Here the track plan (created in SCARM (Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeler).
Pacific Coast Railroad track plan produced using SCARM

3D Rendering of the Pacific Coast Layout created with SCARM  
 
Layout in January 2022

Track

I used Model Engineering code 83 flextrack throughout the layout. Turnouts are hand laid. Turnout control is via servos driven by Tam Valley Depot Octopus 8 servo drivers that interface to the DCC system with their Octocoder devices.

Control

Control is DCC (Digital Command Control) using an NCE (North Coast Engineering) PowerCab along with JMRI (Java Model Railroad Interface) software running on a PC. Handheld wireless controllers are ESU MobileControl II connected to JMRI through the WiThrottle server. he layout has a dedicated wifi network. 
 
Each district has it's own 5 amp Tam Valley power booster. They are protected and remotely turned on and off by DCC Specialties PSX1 circuit breakers. Its a hodge-podge, to say the least, but it all works.

District control is accomplished via 10" Android tablets that are recessed into each of the station manager's desks at the three towns on the railroad. From the tablets operators control turnouts, routes, water tank spouts and whatever else I can dream up. The control interface is updated constantly as I bring new stuff on line.
 
The station managers desk at Laughlin. The layout is controlled via the tablets recessed into the desks at each of the three stations along the route.

Benchwork & Scenery

Benchwork is light weight, constructed of a half-lapped 12" on center grid of ripped shop grade plywood. I started scenery using carved foam, but quickly realized how messy that was. I have transitioned to paper shell scenery.
 
For earth I use zip texturing. I use a variety of scenery materials including static grass, ground foam and natural materials.

Operations

Manifests are be created and printed using OperationsPro software which is included with JRMI. I hope to blog about all of this stuff as time permits so I can share what I am learning as I go.

Welcome!

So glad you stopped by and I hope you find something here that you can use to make model railroading an enjoyable hobby. If you live in Southwest Missouri and might be interested in helping me operate the railroad once I get it up and running, lease leave me a message on the blog.

Happy Railroading!
Scott 

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