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The S-Size, Dual-Gauge Zilwaukee

Okeechobee and Tremungus

- - Surface Cover - Track Operational - -

Overall The overall view provides a look at the entire operation. The lake is to the right where there will be a car ferry and support tracks. That area is all S-Gauge. What sort of label goes with it? The track is American Flyer and Gargraves tubular profile. The ties are big. The flanges will be big. The couplers will be big. Is it Hi-Rail or tinplate? Tell me what you think. The left side is served by the S-Gauge tracks and by the 3-rail O-Gauge tracks.	Left End Zilwaukee is home to a passenger station with double-ended sidings for both O-Gauge and S-Gauge track. The inner loop is O-31 track which means a radius of just 15 1/2 inches. The reverse loop presents no electrical problems because of the 3-rail track. However, the turns are tight and there are the dreaded S-curves. So far, teh locos and cars that handle it best are the full-sized MTH trains. I really don't want to run them, so, I will be looking for a way to reduce the size of the superstructures and maintain the running gear. It may be that NMRA RP weights will assist the tracking of the rolling stock. Time will tell.
Left Center The Passenger Station will be centered in this area near the front. The intermediate range tracks are the inner O-gauge loop and the outer O-Gauge loop. There is a crossover between the two loops here to allow transfers from one to the other. Since the inner loop has a pair of reverse loops, a train from the outside can enter, run a trip and exit without reversing the direction in which the loco operates. At the back you can see the outer loop of S-Gauge track and a siding. Some sort of business will be located there. The turnout is a Gargraves unit powered by a Circuitron Tortoise. I use one set of the Tortoise contacts to provide power to the moving frog and the other to control the aspect of the signal.	Left End Running out of town and into the mountain you can see the MTH and American Flyer switch machines. Barely visible at the bottom, you can see the controls. The MTH controls are normally gray plastic. I painted them black to match the Flyer controls. I also acquired some of the MTH switch control light lenses in red and green. They are being mounted on the Flyer controls. The light bulbs in the Flyer controls are replaced with bright, screw-in, E10 LEDs. That way, all of the controls take on a family appearance and they don't get too hot.
Left Corner Tremungus Mountain will be a raised area with lots of rocks and stuff. On top, there will be a loop of track - probably N-Scale - around a castle. That castle will be styled in the manner of the Western Railway lodges. The fun part is that it is the home of Hogwarts New World Institute. The location is not precisely known since it is unplotable. Rumor has it that the location is near the intersection of the US-Canada border and the Continental Divide. That is not as close to a Great Lake as I would like, but, its my layout. That loop of track is on a lift-out section so that I can rise up through the interior of the mountain and work on stuff like the AC unit just above.	Center Rear Approaching the mining town where ore can be loaded into dump cars. It will be a place for a passenger destination as well as a source of loads. I think but cannot prove that it is copper ore they dig. The town will hopefully have a touristy sort of feel and be a good place for passengers to stretch, buy lunch, enjoy the view and buy souvenirs.
Right Rear Approaching the Harbor from the area with the mining town is temporary home to a few of the buildings the tourists will be begging to visit. They started as HO kits. The ground floor was increased a bit to make S-Scale structures. The upper floors are still HO. It works for Disney so I hope it will wotk for the ZOT.	Right Center The Ferry Slip is in the middle distance and awaits the existance of the lake. The near side are the pair of S-Gauge loops and the yard that serves the car ferry. In the distance are the two mainline tracks and one end of the S-Gauge reversing loop. This one is more trouble to wire than is the O-Gauge because of the necessity of wiring a DPDT polarity reversing switch. Current plans also call for an indicator light of some sort to show green when the polarity matches and red when a switch needs tending. You can see a Flyer steamer and an SHS Diesel near the row of crossbuck signals and the Miller Engineering Christmas tree.
Right Front A New Great Lake will take shape where that hole is now. The joist has been deepened prior to having the top cut off to make room for the lake bottom.	Short video of 4 tracks running