"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks Dave, Ed and Bear!
Ed, you should post pictures of that block structure when you get it done. I'd like to see how using screws works to put it "in" the scenery.
9 October 2021
I've started building the area into Powder River. The skyboard went in a couple days ago. Splicing in the new section was bit tricky, but I got it done:
Here it is after smoothing the splices and refreshing the paint. The paint's still wet in this shot.
And in the last couple of days I've extended the pink foam subroadbed a bit and installed some new cork roadbed.
In this "aerial" view you can see the new roadbed curving off to the right, and you can also see how it used to curve to the left behind the roundhouse when Casper was part of version 4 of the layout in New Jersey.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Well, it only took 8 hours, but I got caught up on your last year of posts and videos. My only consolation is that it took more hours for you to make your videos than it did for me to watch them--not that was a great chore or anything. I actually enjoyed the journey.
It almost made up for the lack of progress on my own layout--almost.
Good work. I look forward to see more--albeit in smaller chunks.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouseWell, it only took 8 hours, but I got caught up on your last year of posts and videos. My only consolation is that it took more hours for you to make your videos than it did for me to watch them--not that was a great chore or anything. I actually enjoyed the journey. It almost made up for the lack of progress on my own layout--almost. Good work. I look forward to see more--albeit in smaller chunks.
Thanks for the kind words, Chip! I hope you managed to get some decent rest watching all those videos. They're a good cure for insomnia!
20 October 2021
I was out of town for most of the last two weeks, but I did manage to get a few things done before I left, and after our return Monday night.
More foam subroadbed went down, and late October 9th I placed roadbed leading from Casper and into Powder River siding.
Yesterday I laid the track...
...and today I wired it up and ran one of the Casper switchers out and back with a boxcar in tow to test the new alignment.
Seems fine to this point!
Looking good, Mark. The 'train of cans' is rather unique.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
28 October 2021
Work is progressing. I extended the subroadbed past Powder River and towards Shobon, transitioning from foam to 1/2" plywood subroadbed.
My friend Nate also finished weathering an additional three steamers. Here's my newly aged Santa Fe type. I added a layer of Bragdon's weathering chalks - dark browns - to dust up the loco a bit more.
I also built the first section of benchwork for the Wind River Canyon and Thermopolis. There's something exciting about pristine new benchwork just waiting for more railroad, isn't there?
Here's a plan view of the benchwork for the entire peninsula. The section in the photo above is on the right - the roughly 89 inch long section.
Finally, today I finished laying the Powder River siding. It's long enough to hold eight stock cars. That should provide for a decent sized set of stock pens, and also make small but not ridiculously short trains.
3 November 2021
I just uploaded my latest layout update video on YouTube:
Hi Mark,
Another great video and lots more progress! I appreciated the part on laying cork for the turnout. That will be part of my next step on my layout (that is - whenever I get the gumption to go back to work on it). I have never done it before. You made it look quite easy.
Do you cut your own plywood strips? I couldn't handle a 4 x 8 sheet of 3/4" plywood these days if my life depended on it. I used to pick up 4 cyl. engines! My how times have changed.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi Dave,
And thanks!
I do cut the strips myself. I get my wife to help me put the plywood onto a couple of 2X4's on saw horses, then use a Kreg circular saw jig to cut all the strips to the exact same size. After that they're easy to handle!
I know what you mean about times changing. I'm finding that my ability to move heavy things isn't too impacted as I age, but everything protests a lot louder for a couple days afterwards.
9 November 2021
The last few days I've been busy building the rest of the Wind River Canyon / Thermopolis benchwork.
In all the shots above, the canyon, with benchwork-to-ceiling scenery, will be on the left side. Thermopolis will be on the right.
Here's a view looking the other way from the Shobon end. It shows how the peninsula fits in with Casper. Closest point is the curve around the roundhouse. There will be about 28 inches of aisleway there.
There something innately wrong with clean benchwork, isn't there? I'm going to have to hurry up and start adding track!
You sir have all the right ideas, I love your creativity.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
[EDIT] Well this is weird. All the images are showing up as broken links in the thread, but if you click on them the picture opens up just fine. It wasn't doing this yesterday, but now the entire thread is like that. Is anyone else seeing this? Any ideas as to why?
18 November 2021
The last nine days I've been busy working mostly on the Wind River Canyon side of the new peninsula.
I've installed subroadbed for the CNW line through the turnback curve at the end of the peninsula and part of the way back towards the far wall. Roadbed also is going in. In this shot, taken a coule days ago, the roadbed has almost reached the turnback curve.
The roadbed has now been extended around the curve.
I also started laying track for the CNW line. It starts out at the Shobon turnout with Peco code 70, and after it goes through the first curve and is out of sight it switches to Atlas code 100, of which I have a healthy overabundance (as in nearly eight scale miles of overabundance!). Here's the Shobon turnout and the CNW line going off on the diverging route.
Here's the transition point from the Peco code 70 (on the right) to the Atlas code 100. This was pretty easy to do. I was wondering if I'd have to go through a double transition, from 70 to 83 to 100, but it wasn't necessary. The test train runs over this just fine.
After adding feeders to the new track, of course I had to run a train over it! Here's a short train at the Shobon switch:
And here it is partway up the hill. The loco had no problem at all with the grade. BTW, the track looks squigglier than it really is because of the camera's position. I'm only worried about functionality of the track here, since all this will be hidden (someday).
And today I started plotting out the alignment for the visible Burlington track through the Canyon. The curves the rulers are clamped to are 70" radius.
I'm beginning to repeat myself, but your progress is amazing!!
hon30critterHi Mark, I'm beginning to repeat myself, but your progress is amazing!! Dave
23 November 2021
I posted a short video on the first trains on the newly laid tracks through the Shobon turnout yesterday...
Excellent, Mark. The real Shobon doesn't look as good.
NorthBrit Excellent, Mark. The real Shobon doesn't look as good. David
Rich
Alton Junction
The superelevation looks great. Well worth the effort you put in doing it. Your videos are always entertaining and informative.
Ray
Thanks David, Rich and Ray! I appreciate the comments.
Ray, I think the superelevation adds a lot to the overall appearance. Using layered masking tape makes it easy and pretty quick to do. The long curve at the entrance to the canyon (the first curve after the Shobon turnout) was the longest, and it probably took all of 20 minutes to add the tape.
30 November 2021
Things are continuing to move along. A few days ago I pulled the Burlington power district buss wires into the peninsula.
I added subroadbed for the Burlington's turnback curve at the free end of the peninsula (that's the lower one):
Then I laid new track almost up to that curve. I had to stop because I need to extend the subroadbed and roadbed into Thermopolis in order to superelevate the turnback curve, which means I have to detail out the track arrangement in Thermopolis, which I haven't done yet. I may take a road trip to Thermopolis in the next few days (it's about two hours from here) to look for ideas.
Meanwhile I completed laying the CNW turnback curve track, and ran a train from Casper to the end of track to test it out.
And today I finished running the buss wires and feeders to all completed track. Red and green wires are for the Burlington power district, while white and black are the CNW district wires.
3 December 2021
I just posted my latest layout update video:
Another great update video! Thanks.
Just a suggestion: At my old club we used landscape fabric to form a temporary net along the open roadbed. It's cheap, quite strong and easy to install with a staple gun. Of course Murphy's Law dictated that the one engine to fall to the floor did so where there was no landscape fabric. It also had to be a brand new loco that had run all of 20 ft. before it hit the floor.
Get well soon!
Mark, your craftsmanship is to be admired. And, you're smoking along at a pretty torrid pace. Maybe not fast enough for your liking, but I think you're being sensible and patient about it, and it shows. Really nice work.
When you show the latest cork roadbed over the re-graded length, if you don't mind a suggestion, I think it would look more natural if you 'wound' a bit, or had even a slight concave curve there...if possible. I don't have a good handle on the terrain around there, but you show yourself using the straightedge, and that isn't going to be likely on a grade. Just my a suggestion.
Edit - Okay, you explain later that it's hidden, so you're right down the...umm..pike.
Mark,
Question regarding how you make your YouTube videos. What do you use for recording the actual video? An IPhone? Some other camcorder? I'm curious what equipment you use as I want to learn how to do this also.
Thanks!Chris
Thanks Dave, Crandell!
Chris, I use my Samsung Galaxy S21+ phone to do all the video recordings except for the occasional cab-ride views, for which I use an Osmo Pocket (the first one, not the 2). I have a standard camera tripod that I mount the Samsung on (I bought a mount for it for about ten bucks) when I'm doing most of the recording.
All the editing is done using the free version of DaVinci Resolve (currently version 17). It's very powerful, and doesn't stick a watermark in the middle of the video. It's also not limited in terms of number of effects or anything. All the titles and special effects are done there, as well as adding background music and mixing all the audio together.
19 December 2021
I was under the weather the last couple of weeks with a cold. Until about Wednesday this past week I did very little on the layout. Once I was feeling better I got started again, though...
I was about to the point where I needed to connect the CNW subroadbed that was climbing behind the scenes of the Wind River Canyon peninsula to the visible second level that runs along the wall above Casper. So it was time to finish planning out the Riverton and connecting benchwork in detail. Here's what I came up with:
The track at the bottom of the image is on the peninsula. Orange is benchwork framing members.
Unfortunately Riverton is a front-to-back mirror image of the real town. I'd initially planned to have it closely match the prototype (except for compression), but that would put the industries on the front edge of the benchwork. With the benchwork at my shoulder level, this was just asking for trouble every time the town was switched, so I flipped the town (vertically in the plan) to place the industries behind the sidings.
Once the benchwork details were fully planned out, I got to work actually building it. Here the wall-side stringer is placed:
And in the shot below the aisleway stringer is mounted. I had a problem with how to support the protruding corner of the benchwork, and the best I could come up with was to suspend the corner from the ceiling using a threaded rod. I certainly didn't want to install a leg up from the lower level.
Here's a bit better view of that area, taken from near the ceiling.
Just two bits of benchwork left to install for Riverton - the stringer in the tapered section you can see missing just beyond the threaded rod, and one more cross joist out of frame to the right.
Here's an overall view of the area, showing the CNW line connected in to the upper level benchwork at the far end. I had to go back and re-grade the line across part of the peninsula in order to get a good fit to the second deck. That wasn't a surprise - I expected to have to do that. Took all of about an hour.
Next step is finish the subroad across the peninsula, then lay track. There's an outside chance (very outside!) that I'll get the line connected into the existing track above Casper by the end of the year, allowing me to run a train all the way from Casper to Hudson.
Pruitt Next step is finish the subroad across the peninsula, then lay track. There's an outide chance (very outside!) that I'll get the line connected into the existing track above Casper by the end of the year, allowing me to run a train all the way from Casper to Hudson.
Next step is finish the subroad across the peninsula, then lay track. There's an outide chance (very outside!) that I'll get the line connected into the existing track above Casper by the end of the year, allowing me to run a train all the way from Casper to Hudson.
I also think this great work Mark. Love seeing the western most end of the CNW come to life.
Scott
I just want to say thanks for all the photos and videos that you take the time to produce. The whole process has been very interesting and it is fun to watch the layout develop.
hon30critter Hi Mark, I just want to say thanks for all the photos and videos that you take the time to produce. The whole process has been very interesting and it is fun to watch the layout develop. Cheers!! Dave
I agree with Dave. A wonderful layout progressing really well.
Rich, Scott, Dave, David, thanks for the kind words!
Rich, the goal is in sight! All I have to do is build two turnouts and lay about 15 feet of track and I'll have the connection done. I'll still need to connect feeders and such, but for the short term alligator clips will get me power to run to Hudson on the 31st.
28 December 2021
A few days ago I finished the framework for Riverton with this area:
Then I cut and laid the plywood subroadbed for the town of Riverton.
A couple days ago I glued down the cork sheet, then yesterday I laid out the track arrangement for the town.
Today I laid track into the end of Riverton, to the turnout for the siding. Tomorrow I'll build that turnout.
Track has been tested all the way up. Trains run smoothly the entire way, but the grade is a challenge for the Ten-Wheeler! With six cars and a caboose it loses traction in a few spots. I need to refresh the Bullfrog Snot. Not a big issue though - trains were very short on this line, and they moved rather slowly. Four or five cars plus caboose behind the Ten-Wheeler is about right. A Consolidation handles seven cars and caboose with no slipping. Since that's the absolute maximum train length for this line, everything looks good to go on the climb up to the second deck.
Finally, I installed the first section of fencing at the base of the CNW line, beginning where it will dive out of sight into the mountain. Right now there's nothing to prevent equipment from falling all the way to the floor (nearly six feet at the top) if there's a bad derailment. The fencing will run both sides of the track all the way up, to prevent such a disaster. I'll have to test clearances with a passenger car (a Doodlebug with trailer - a passenger car - is the typical passenger equipment for this line).