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The Metro-Valley Lines Version 7.0
This page contains photos of my layout under construction. What can one say about a layout that's under construction? Aren't they all? Each time I rebuild the Metro-Valley Lines I try to use the latest technology I can afford, and make the new layout slightly different from the last one -- But not too different from the last one. It's sort of the way GM designs a Chevy pickup truck, except GM has millions to spend on design changes, and I only have a few bucks.. Over the years this building and rebuilding activity on the MVL has not happened by accident. Unlike some hobbyists who focus on locomotives, freight cars and layout operation, I get a lot of satisfaction from building things like bench work and scenery, and even get some satisfaction from disassembling my layout and starting over again. Each time I do this I try to save most of the pieces for possible reuse. I call this technique 'smart modular deconstruction'.
The tour starts here in Main Room. The robot construction worker lurking on the highway median there is named R2-D6; actually it's one of my CMOS spy cameras that monitor the action going on in the other two layout rooms. My 'new' HO scale Metro-Valley Lines is approximately 60-feet long and from 3 to 7 feet wide, depending on where you happen to be standing in my basement. The layout covers parts of three basement rooms. Each layout room is designed to present a different commuter rail scene to the visitor. Computer-scheduled trains enter a room, make a station stop, simulate the loading of passengers, and then exit to the next room. Not too exciting so far, huh! Wait. It gets better, but not much. All commuter trains operate on a simulated 24/7 timetable, which is stored in a Microsoft Access relational database which is, in turn, accessed by my custom train control software. The software reads the firmware 'fast clock' that's built into the North Coast Engineering DCC Command Station, and then sends out a bunch of appropriate 'commands' to the layout such as: "at 09:45:23 set locomotive #121 to speed step 7 and then if it's not doing anything more important, have it take the train it's pulling forward until the engine covers sensor #45; and then stop the train, and then, while you're at it, activate and switch to audio speaker #6, and then start sound file 17A.wav, which makes the little man at the newsstand at Union Station say 'Extraa! Extraa! Read all about it!"... etc. O.K. I know that last paragraph was probably so much techno-babble for most hobbyists, but it's music to my ears. Most of the MVL is designed to be watched and enjoyed, rather than operated manually. Hence, when the layout is in full automatic operation the operator becomes a spectator along with everyone else. If all goes well he can be just like the lazy Maytag Man. Because of the continued ill effects of Murphy's law, during the times when I invite visitors to see the layout operational reliability must be #1 priority. That's because depending on the time of day, up to ten commuter trains can be occasionally spaced a mere three scale minutes apart at any given station. Therefore:
All told, there are six individual scenes on the layout, each with at least one special animation, sound, or lighting effect. Pairs of audio speakers are positioned under the layout provide environmental sounds that are synchronized with the passing trains. _
Commuter trains exit the Main Room to the East Room through a 'pretty big' hole cut into the west wall, which is temporarily covered when the layout is not operating. What appears to a visitor in the Main Room to be a four-track mainline, is actually a two-track line that loops back onto itself via this room. Commuter trains use the East Room here to transition from being eastbound to westbound trains. The elevated tracks serve the Metro-City Virtual International Airport and Pizzeria, a scenery module that will eventually be placed in that huge 48 x 12 x 10-inch deep hole in the wall. The big box-looking structure there is the Metro City Civic Center; where my favorite rock group -- The Doobie Brothers -- performs a perpetual live concert via a huge rotating Leslie speaker I salvaged from my old Hammond B3 organ. The backdrop will be painted 'pitch' black, and then pricked with hundreds of tiny 'star' holes, and then illuminated from the rear to simulate an airport night scene. An overhead CMOS spy camera in this room allows the layout operator to see what's happening here on a TV monitor located at the Main Room. _
In this aerial view commuter trains now re-enter the Main Room on the eastbound set of main tracks (just pretend you see tracks please). The naked skeleton of the Airport High-Speed Elevated Line (AHSEL) can seen be at left hugging the eternal city skyline backdrop.
Eastbound and westbound commuter trains now diverge to follow separate paths into and/or out of the West Room. In case you've wondered, I never joined the photography club in high school. _
Some commuter trains enter the West Room here from the Main Room through another 'pretty big' hole in the wall. _
Trains then continue through the West Room on their final approach to Metro-City's Union Station, which is located just around the corner from here. Almost all of the bench-work is constructed of relatively inexpensive 1 x 12 x 8-foot pine boards that are MIG-welded together (just kidding). I change out these boards for new ones about every four layouts or so, and then use the old planks to build cabinets and lawn furniture; which I sell to the summer tourists to finance a new set of pine boards for the next layout. I call this technique 'smart and thrifty modular recycling'. _
Here in the West Room is the future site of Metro-City. All commuter rail lines tend to originate and end here at Union Station. If you look close at the very top of the photo above you'll notice the business end of a laundry chute that originates in the upstairs bathroom. So if, say, a layout visitor of the correct stature happens to be standing at just the right place at just the right time, they receive a special bonus:
A pair of my dirty socks to wear as a hat!
The DCC Command Station and associated electronic modules are also located here in the West Room. The RJ-45 DCC control bus provides walk-around plug-ins for manual DCC control everywhere on the layout. This is necessary because only the commuter trains are computer controlled. The MVL freight branch line is still operated the old-fashioned way. Work has progressed steadily on the table skirting, and the computers and DCC have also been installed and tested. _
Commuter trains then leave Union Station and exit back to the Main Room through yet another 'pretty big' hole in the wall. Roadbed and stanchions for the Airport High-Speed Elevated Line (AHSEL) are now in place, track is all but ready to be laid, and there's some dummy scenery setting around here and there. Hinged wooden 'flappers' block the wall openings when the layout is not in use to prevent frigid New Hampshire air from entering the warmer and cozier parts of the basement; where I huddle in wintertime, mostly to drink beer and reflect on why I didn't move to Florida when I had the chance.
Trains outbound from Metro City re-enter the Main Room here, where they pass the MVL trolley shops and PCC trolley yard (still located inside the model box). We're in the Main Room now; through the mainline merge again, and back where we started. The point-to-point Metro-Valley Lines freight branch line parallels the mains here via a long bridge shown here on the far left edge of the layout table. This long spur terminates at the MVL roundhouse, turntable and shops There'll be a total of 14-16 industries scattered around the entire layout for the MVL freight branch line to service, and an (as yet not constructed) interchange yard in the West Room.
The dispatcher's console was previously located in the Main Room as shown here, but has recently been moved out of sight into the West Room, where it's been permanently installed under the layout. The new layout will require a roving operator, but no longer needs a human dispatcher seated at the computer keyboard. Four wireless CMOS 'spy cameras' allow the roving operator to monitor the action at all points on the layout from here. In Remote Manual mode, the operator can control everything by clicking on things here with a mouse. But if the operator needs to use the bathroom or make a quick Bud-Lite run, he can simply left-click once, and the computer takes control of the layout until he returns. This technique is called 'being lazy'.
For the Geeks: The custom train control and layout sound software programs were laboriously written by yours truly in Microsoft Professional Basic 7.0 a few years ago. The computer is an elder HP Pavilion running Windows XP under a creaky DOS shell. The control PC here is also networked with my main-squeeze machine upstairs. This PC can contact the moon via 'delayed satellite morphing', and can also connect directly to the Internet.
1/1/2007 - Update
Some of the built-in CMOS spy-camera monitors in the Main Room. A couple of website visitors have emailed to say my layout wasn't all that hot, but they'd like to see a better photo of the coffee table in this picture. O.K. Flattery will get you everywhere. Here it is as close up as I can get without tripping over it:
I built this octagonal cherry wood coffee table diorama back in 1985 when I was stationed at The U.S. Naval Base, Newport, R.I. It's supposed to (sort of) depict the seaward entrance to Newport Harbor. Note the N-scale mansion on the right, complete with swimming pool, and filthy rich N-scale swimmers.
Update Update 1/12/2007
Work has begun this week on the Metro-City Beltway, a four-lane freeway located in the Main Room.
And no self respecting freeway would be complete without a busy truckstop where they still have chicken-fried steak, red-eyed gravy and a copy of 'Mama Tried' on the jukebox.
P.S. A few
That's about all the construction news for now. You are pleased to stop back soon for another exciting update update update. Thanks for visiting my layout. Click here to return to the home page
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