Summer Shunting Shelf Project

Should have thought about a foundation for the quonset.
Tried bushes & gravel. If I don't like it after a couple days I'll probably build up a foundation.

Got more done on the oil unloading platform / complex, as well as some scenery doo-dads here & there:









Really could use some 4mm dead grass for some better textures.
Problem is that it's difficult to do static grass on MDF (sticking the grounding pin in is a PITA, and doesn't seem to conduct very well, even when thoroughly wetted).

Anyway, things moving forward.
Will be working on the cannery for the other layout, but starting to figure out the detailed roof & faceplate to cover the control box.
Thanks for looking, and happy New Year!

Would like to share my first published article in Model Railroad Hobbyist.
2012 is off to a good start!
Thanks to all who gave feedback during construction!

Been adding little details here & there while I build the cannery for the Mt. Coffin layout:







Next up: wiring a Stonebridge Models e-Z throttle to take a wall wart and using it to replace the current power pack brick.
This will reduce weight and give a mobile, tethered throttle to the layout, and 9 volts should be fine for a layout this small.

Thanks for looking!

McF - your achivement is just amazing. All that detail!

Thanks, Ulrich!

It's been a lot of fun to build.
Having the space limited small (1'x6') really allows you to spend time on the details.

Just like your modules: seems like just yesterday that you were debating about which HO long switching layout to build, and now you have an amazing set of highly-detailed Normal scale masterpieces!

As one who's lived in Japan, I applaud your work!
(Needs more gaggles of giggling high school girls, though: they're everywhere!)

It seems that one of the biggest issues for model railroaders is space, so it's great to see your work, and to also be able to contribute myself to showing how N scale can provide satisfying scenes & operations!

And, since every post should have a picture:

Cheers!

mcfunkeymonkey

As one who's lived in Japan, I applaud your work!
(Needs more gaggles of giggling high school girls, though: they're everywhere!)

 

How true! I spent some time in Japan back in the late 1980´s and remember seeing high school girls in their uniforms all over the place. There is still a lot of room left on the platforms of my station, so I will populate that with a flock of school girls.

Its turning out great M.C.  Nice work.  (I'll keep an eye out for "flock of school girls in uniforms" figure sets;)

erik

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Getting closer to "done" here:

"Sacrificed" a Fine N Scale 36' boxcar to build the yard maintanence shed:





Tried a salt-weathering technique for the first time, but the weathering powders over it seem to have obliterated the effect.
Boxcar still seems too new, so will hit with some more weathering soon.
Probably should have done some dry-brushing ahead of time, but oh well.
Will come out okie dokie in the end.

Some wider shots of the right 11"x36" section of the layout:





Still working on the building "cover" for the powerpack (which, because we use the e-Z throttle, now is a storage area).
Should have that done pretty soon: trying to get the layout done for show-&-tell at the NMRA Coast Division Meet March 11.
It's free and you're all invited!

Thanks for looking.

Finally got some signs up on the buildings, so everyone (especially the engineer) knows what is where.

Doolittle Freight & Bella Fonte Cannery:



(Jimmy Doolittle of WWII fame was from Alameda, while Bella Fonte sounds similar to the real Del Monte cannery and plus we all love Harry Bellafonte, especially on The Muppet Show)

Flotsam Brewery:



[motto: "First you flotsam, then you jetsam!"]

Rosie the Riveteer hangs out at Doolittle Freight waiting for the loco to finish the "Banana Boat" job at the Bella Fonte Cannery:



She's getting a little impatient because daylight comin', she wanna go home

We also finished the big building that covers the powerpack space (you can see a little of it behind Doolittle Freight in the first photo), but I'll need to get some photos of it tomorrow in some good light.
Untill then, thanks for looking.

I've been following the progress on this small switching layout with interest, as it demonstrates just how good N scale can look if executed properly. At first glance you could almost mistake it for HO. It is a superb little layout, obviously built by a modeler with a good eye for setting a scene and having the necessary skills for pulling it off convincingly. To everyone out there who says they don't have room for a layout, take a look at just what can be accomplished in a limited space. Well done!

Frank B

Dorval, Canada

Thanks, Frank.
There's always room for a layout, I say!
Much of this layout was built by my ten-year-old daughter, so I'll pass on the complements.

Hauled the layout out onto some tables in the sun, which was playing peek-a-boo behind some clouds, so somewhat iffy photos.
Continuing the sign-a-polooza, The Woodstock Warehouse and Morrison Pier got labeled:



[Woodstock is an early name for one end of Alameda, and Jim Morrison of the Doors went to high school in Alameda]

A closer look:



The motto of Morrison Pier is "Opening the Doors to the World".

A sunny day at the yard office in front of Flotsam Brewery:



And the completed cover for the now-defunct powerpack space:



[cont.]

So this area was going to house the powerpack, but since we switched to the e-Z throttle, we don't need access to it during ops, so it became the throttle storage area.
Since much of the layout is so flat, we wanted a little height and depth:



We stuck a cabinet magnet on the far side & gorillaglued a small plate under the styrene base, so it's firmly attached but also pops off easily.



So now there's a bit of "heft", and the layout moves from three-story left to pier/carfloat flat right, hopefully making things more interesting than straight across.

Here's the backside:



In terms of visual elements & composition, not too bad.
But it does bring the total of structures to remove before transport up to 5.

[cont.]

But what to make of this non-rail-served industry building?

My daughter is in the 4th grade which, in California, is the year students start to study California history in earnest.
The layout is set in Alameda soon after WWII (1946-9).
So we turned this project into a mini history lesson / tribute.

We large building we labeled "Fujiwara Trading Company" and tried to make it look older (with fire damage) and unoccupied:



[hmm... need more / grainier soot above fire-damaged windows...]

Then we found some U.S. wartime posters and put them on the walls of Doolittle Freight:



Left to right, the posters read: "Jap... You're Next! We'll Finish the Job," "Jap Hunting Licenses Sold Here Free" and "Remember Pearl Harbor: Buy War Bonds Now! Or Else...."

As this layout is after the end of the war, we wanted them to look older and faded, with the "Hunting License" posted scratched and torn.

Next to the Fujiwara Trading Company door we posted the U.S. Government "Executive Order 9066" sign declaring "Instructions to Persons of Japanese Ancestry" to be ready to be removed to Internment Camps within the week:





After Pearl Harbor, many Japanese-American citizens living in the Bay Area put up signs on their stores to remind others that "I am an American," so I had it painted on the door. Didn't matter to Roosevelt or the Supreme Court, many Americans were stripped of their rights, locked up, and then forced to fight for the U.S. in WWII (the 442nd).

[Here's more info on Japanese-American Internment, if you'd like]

So instead of making the building another generic industry, we took the opportunity to do a little research and create something that has a lot of significance for us as a family:we have relatives who fought & died on both sides of the war, as well as friends who were born or lived in the Internment Camps.

The best moment was when my daughter realised that, if the same situation happened today, that she would be sent off to the camps with her brother and Mom (who'd actually be deported back to Japan) while Dad would be drafted into the army and out fighting against the Japanese (or Germans, which we're also part). She looked near tears and proclaimed "That's stupid."

Yes, yes it is.

And all this is next to the "Rosie the Riveteer" boxcar waiting to unload at Doolittle Frieght, which is next to the Bella Fonte Cannery, which is down the tracks from Morrison Pier, so I guess at the end there's a "Peace Frog."

Model Railroads are certainly teachable moments, well beyond the solder and plaster!
Thanks for looking.

On the lighter side, here's a sunny day in Alameda:

Thanks for looking.

Well, the growing number of Free-moN modules and the desire to actually run trains prompted me to finally build a shelf for the "Alameda-Belt-in-a-Box" layout.
I was going to put the shelf in the bedroom until my daughter reminded me that my wife goes in there too ;)
So out in the garage it goes!

Rubbermaid shelving with 1"x4" framing top & bottom:

Had to mount it tall enough to clear the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout (18" tall) on the table below, so I think the rail height is about 54".

Added 4" of 1/8" hardboard fascia to the front and sides, painted everything flat black, then installed two packs of Ikea "Inreda" LED pucks along the underside of the valence framework:



I got some 0.06" styrene in a 18" x 8' strip from Tap Plastics, then cut it down to 76" to fit behind the shelves. After notching out the spaces for the upper supports, I spray painted it grey primer, then slate blue, then mist with flat white (all at once). Came out a bit greyer than I wanted, but easy thing to pop out it out and paint it again.

Just the LED's make an interesting lighting situation:



But here it is with the "house" lights on as well:

So it gets plenty o' light, and photo spots can take up the rest.

I'm thinking the valence is a few inches too high for such an "intimate" layout. I'll sit with it for a couple days, but I'll probably cut the styrene backdrop down 2-3" and then lower the valence brackets the same.
Might look odd in the pull-back pick, but it's plenty of light for operating the layout, and even for some photography (with a real camera, which this is not):



As you can see, there's a little gap between the front fascia and the actual fold-up layout benchwork.

There's a little wiggle-room, so I can push the layout right up next to the fascia if I want, which leaves more room at the back. I want to create a removable low-city backdrop that I can slip in between the 3" layout backdrop and the grey sky to help break up the flat skyline (though Alameda is pretty low, especially in the late 40's).

But it's nice to have the layout up & out & ready to go & play with. And, if I want to take it anywhere, like outside to photo or to a show, I can just pick it up, fold it up and away we go!

Thanks for looking.

To give a better idea of how the Ikea "Inredia" LEDs look, here's some shots with only the LED's on (no garage lights / door open / etc.). Just LED's and the layout, surrounded by darkness:






In person, operating just under the LED's is pretty cool. Gives it a Ray Harryhausen kind of feel to the layout. But having the LED's an inch or so set back in the valence plus angled towards the back does create shadows up front. Here's pretty much the same shot with the house lights on plus a CFL spot:



So for everyday operating purposes, the LEDs plus the regular garage lights do the trick. Now I can reposition one of the overhead garage lights away from the wall, which will better light the layout from a further angle (and better light my workbench).

Fun to run trains again!
Thanks for looking.

Wow: over 650 views and not a single comment / suggestion.
Hope it wasn't something I said.
I do like to hear others' suggestions on ways to improve / alt methods.

Well, no worries: here's the last post until I get around to installing more people / details /etc., which, given all the Free-moN modules I'm working on plus Mt. Coffin & Columbia River, probably won't be for awhile.

As a last detail on the shelf construction, here's probably the most important addition:



A small right-angle bracket securing the shelf to the wall! There's another on top of the valance.
The fascia on the shelf sticks up a couple inches to come even with the layout, so that should keep the layout on the shelf, and the right-angle should keep the shelf on the brackets.

California occasionally has an earthquake or two ;) so I want to make sure the shelf, which is just sitting on the brackets, doesn't slide off.
Will it hold during "The Big One"?
Probably not, but during that time I'll probably be more worried about other things (like my family, or whether the house is still standing, fires, or availability of potable water, etc.).
But it should help out during anything up to a 5 or 6 on the Rock 'n' Roll scale.
(Anything under 6 is "meh" here in the Bay Area ;) )

Now onto the other projects (right after I run some trains ;) )

MCFUNKEYMONKEY:
   I wouldn't worry too much about the views/comments ratio.Personally,I feel a little silly telling someone of your skill "good job",or worse,offering advice.Your work speaks for itself. Sometimes,after viewing the latest from you,or Dr.Wayne,or Graffen,or a handfull of others,I find myself thinking about selling off my trains,and learning how to fish! (Well,maybe not...but you do set the bar pretty high...)
I thoroughly enjoy these threads,and I hope you will continue to post your progress.

Mike (Still in Denver,CO)

There's not much to say outside of "Incredible work."

-Ed

Oh, I'm not that worried, and I'm not fishing for compliments, either.
Most of the time I think people don't comment because I'm doing N scale

But the last couple posts have been about lighting and valences, and I know many here have done great work, and I'd love to hear people's experiences with different lighting and thoughts on the LEDs or even tricks to light the front of the layout better than the house lights, or ???

But it's all good.

Turns out, wasn't the last detail

As I was making some angled shelves for the Free-moN staging loop module, I stopped, slapped my head, and said, "D'oh!"
What was missing from the shelf layout?
How about a place to put the throttle, bamboo skewers for uncoupling, and any future car cards?
So I whipped up some hardboard angled shelves for this, too, using some 45 deg wood triangles as braces and moulding as the lip:





Why are they both 30" long?
Because that's what length hardboard I had lying around.
I actually attached both units to the fascia using Gorilla "Super" Glue (as opposed to the regular GG I keep pontificating about).
Squirted some on the three triangle supports, and held the unit against the fascia: 30 seconds later it was stuck.
As is, not going anywhere for a looooong time.
That stuff rocks!
Even still, I put a 2" screw through the hardboard, triangle support, and into the shelf framing itself.
Pretty sturdy.

I dunno: the shelves seem to take away from some of the simple framing that was nice before. Maybe filling in the holes with some spackle and repainting will help.
Or maybe gold sequins.

But it is nice to have a place to put things!
A couple more picts? Why not?





Now to start making some car cards with photos on them!

Thanks for looking.

Wow, really good looking layout!

I've read this thread end to end now and I must say that this is SO good!

Thank's for sharing! Very enjoyable!

(I'm honored to see my name mentioned in comparison with you and Dr Wayne in a reply as well...)

All I can say is WOW!!!!!

What a great project ,very nice work .Also a nice way to get your daughter involved in your hobby.. I went through all the post and found it very interesting to follow.

Again NICE WORK!

Ron High

Hi mcfunkymonkey

Only just read this thread.

Not much I can say really its all been said before it really is a top job

I bet it's real hard asking the daughter if you can play with her train set

Good on yah for showing her how to do things.

regards John

Wow.  Another absolutely incredible project.  I love how you involve your kids.  I am showing this to my daughter; even though she is 16, she'll love it! 

jeff c

Some Great Old-Time Groundhog Day Goodness showed up on the shelf layout:





Cases included the slim stacks as well, which I'll probably swap in.
Running-wise, it seems that a wee bit o' weight in the tender and cab will help with the electrical conductivity.

Very excited to play around with them more!

Speaking of the 1800's: Go Niners 

Sorry MC, the 'Niners are going down...

M.C., told you the 'Niners were going down, and go down they did. Sorry for your loss.

Almost 2 years ago (2012):

"When I put up the shelves / valence with fascia, it looked alright (though I still think I need to lower the valence a couple inches)."



That's 14" of space.

Well, finally got around to it a few weeks ago (4/2014).
Just took out the layout, pulled out the styrene, scored-&-snapped it 4" shorter, placed the bottom shelf brackets 4" higher, and:





For N scale, 10 inches is plenty of space for a 1'-deep shelf switching layout.
(Heck, with this layout could have tightened another 2" or so into a nice frame)
And the 4" gained underneath is double-plus good as well!

The long and short of it: you don't need more than 16" of vertical space--if upper & lower valence is 3" each--to have a quality, well-lit layout!
(and in reality the 14"+ of your IKEA shelves will do fine for everything!) 

No space excuses for a layout!

mcfunkeymonkey

(Heck, with this layout could have tightened another 2" or so into a nice frame)

GEE MC, I think you've set a new record!!!! Thats the first time I've ever heard  someone say they could do with less room!!!! 

Cheers, the Bear