After a busy weekend sent shifting boxes, unpacking boxes, repacking boxes and taking boxes to the charity shop... I finally cleared enough space in the man cave to start sorting out the rolling stock which has been accumulating over the years.
First order of business was to get Godinez up and running again, this time with some Rock Island rolling stock instead of the random roadnames I usually run with.
I found I had put together a pretty respectable stack of Kadee rolling stock from various second-hand purchases and ebay auctions, these gave me enough to run a pretty decent branchline train.
The short Kadee hoppers are more suited to cement duty but a full-size grain car would dwarf the short spur track on the layout.
Once I was able to find my Proto GP9's one of them spent a good few hours testing the layout this evening. The layout runs pretty well, aside from a slight connection problem that seems to affect the GP9 on one section of track.
A GP30 handles the same section without any trouble, so I suspect the scenery is fouling the GP9 and causing it to lose pickup.
The good news is that the various accessories and crossing signal lights and audio still work, as do all the points. The barrier gate and searchlight signal have given up the ghost and will need to be repaired.
I will strip and repaint the backdrop this summer while the weather is still dry. It was originally covered in paper and the surface has bubbled over the years, a few coats of paint and some fine sandpaper should get the backdrop looking good as new.
I will also need to refresh the trees and groundcover as some of it has seen better days. I have plenty of woodland scenics in appropriate shades so I will be able to spruce things up without spending any extra cash.
After over a year of procrastinating I still hadn't got around to actually starting work on my home layout, I started looking into the possibility of buying something ready made and even bid on a couple of different ones on ebay.
I got talking to one of the chaps at the club and discovered that he had a layout in storage there which was in need of a new home, so after a bit of negotiating, I finally have myself a home layout, and not just any layout - this one is rather special.
I am now the proud new owner of Godinez, Iowa - a compact exhibition layout based on a fictional Rock Island branch line in the mid fifties.
The layout was originally built by Peter North in 2008 and has been shown at several exhibitions as well as appearing as layout of the month in Continental Modeller magazine.
It's a beautifully detailed layout and packs a lot into a very small space, with an entire small town and grain elevator crammed into its five feet length.
The layout has been in storage for the past couple of years, so it needs a little bit of tlc and some minor repairs, I will also need to repaint a few locomotives for Rock Island as I don't have anything suitable in my roster.
I've started a dedicated blog here to track the progress of the layout as I get it up and running again and hopefully attend a show or two.
