Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
My Railroad
My Youtube:
Graff´s channel
The track plan for my new model railroad.
6.5 x 4.5 meters in size.
This is the inspiration for the city on my layout:
Pre war years were bad, great depresion still on the forefront.
Hello all,
GraffenThis is the inspiration for the city on my layout:
The photo looks like Central City in the 1870's to 1880's.
My wife's Great Grandfather was born there. The Great Fire of 1874 destroyed many records including his birth certificate.
He had to petition the state government to prove he was born!
In the link I provided take a look at the census data on the right side of the page. Unfortunately these numbers contradict your perceptions of the polulation growth in Central City and many other mining centers of Colorado.
The town we live in; which was based on hardrock mining- -gold and silver, went from a population of 297 in 1900 to 127 only 20-years later in 1920, according the U.S. census data.
Today, Central City has survived by adopting limited-stakes gambling. The downtown area has retained it's original look with the casinos taking over the abandoned store fronts.
A photograph taken today of Central City would look almost identical to ones taken in the late 1800's and very much like the town you are modeling.
Keep up the great work and keep posting photos of your progress!
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Central City is one example of how the architecture outlasted the population, unlike other boom to bust towns in the gold country of Colorado, which I believe is what you are modeling.
My wife and I visit Central City frequently. There are few if any dilapidated buildings within the city center.
The placement of your structures evoke the feeling of walking down these streets today.
In a freelance pike there are no constraints. The purpose of my feedback was to give a first-hand perspective of some of your premises, not to constrain you to historical accuracy.
Visiting areas like this, along with other locations in Colorado, are amazing and provide great modeling inspirations.
Keep up the great work!
Finally some progress!
I've actually managed to clear out the space for the layout.
The room as it looked...
Insulation and moisture barrier installed.
Sheetrock... We all love to do some sheetrock and mud and sanding, and mud and sanding....
I rounded two of the corners. I made a backing from two layers of 1/8" hardboard.
I used 1/4" sheetrock that I wetted and bent to shape in the corners.
The backdrop is now the next step (almost..)
I need to install the lighting first.
I painted a test piece just to see the colors and tonal values.
It needs to be toned down a bit though.
More like this test:
I've ordered the carpet and all the LED light fixtures, so it's finally getting there.
Let there be light!
First LED strip in place in the train room. There'll be double rows, the other angled 20 degrees to the wall.
Fill lighting will be with LED spotlights. Can be okay in the end.
The switched power supplies I use are from Mean well, 12 V and 18 Amps.
They are adjustable between 11.4 V and 12.2 V.
The LED strips are rated at 12 Watt per metre and are 5 metres in length. 4800 K in temperature.
Installed the second LED strip today.
The light level will probably be okay when I can install the outer LED strips as well.
I have to build the valance first, so it'll be in the right places.
My plan is to have the valance about 2-3" outside of the layouts edge.
The LED strips has a 40° light angle and will be mounted 20° inward so it will light straight down at the front, and towards the backdrop.
Started the backdrop painting. One wall is sky painted with clouds.
The backdrop is 60' long and 4'6" tall. I use regular wall paints.
I will wait a bit to paint the landscape until after I've started the benchwork.
I have started the benchwork.
It's 1/2" construction Plywood that I had the lumber yard rip for me in 5" widths.
I have glued and nailed the modules together.
The longest sections will be 8' and no one wider than 2'.
That will make it easier to move if needed.
This is the first two sections:
Your layout is coming along quite nicely!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks Dave!
Finally some creature comforts.
Carpet laid and trim installed.
It made the room much more comfortable.
Progress!
The first benchwork is up. The plywood construction makes it both light and strong.
And here is about a third of the benchwork up:
I selected to use 2x2 standing legs because if I'd used wall mounted brackets, it would have been difficult to match the wall studs.
In any case it's very sturdy.
Decisions, decisions...
I'm planning the subroadbed, and the stations, yards etc. will have 3/4" plywood. But what about the lines then?
I haven't decided yet if I should use spline or ply subroadbed.
If I should build with spline, should it be 3/4" x 1/4" pine, or 1/4" hardboard?
How to fasten it on the risers? And how should the risers be constructed?
Any thoughts on this? Pros and cons?
Graffenthe stations, yards etc. will have 3/4" plywood. But what about the lines then?
Our club used 3/4" plywood for all the sub roadbed and it was relatively fast and easy. The biggest challenge was getting the edges even on the single and double track sections. Some of them are a bit wobbly but they will be hidden by scenery so it really doesn't matter.
We also installed 1/2" Homasote on top of the plywood. Bevelling the edge of the Homasote to increase the depth of the ditches was fairly easy as long as we used a sharp blade.
The following is a bit off topic but the information regarding how we drew the sub roadbed sections on the plywood might be useful to some people:
Drawing the patterns on the plwood was fairly easy. I used my 3rdPlanIt cad program to draw the sub roadbed outline on the track diagram. Then I divided the sub roadbed into sections between 6' and 7' long. I was then able to take each section and fit it onto 4' x 8' sheets to create a cutting plan. It took a little bit of experimentation to get the sections positioned in order to get the most use out of each of the plywood sheets, but ultimately there wasn't too much waste.
The next step was to position each 4' x 8' cutting plan on the cad grid so one corner was at 0"-0" on the coordinates. Then I put points about 12" apart on the outlines of the sections. The computer allowed me to click on any one of the points and that would give me the vertical and horitontal distances from 0"-0". We transferred the coordinates to the full sized sheets, connected the dots and then cut out the pieces. Note that we cut each of the sections a bit long so we didn't have to worry about getting the end cuts exact. That was done as the sub roadbed was being installed. We also used flexible a 3' aluminum ruler on edge to help draw the curves evenly.
Once we had all the pieces labelled and cut, I went back to the 3rd PlanIt track diagram and plotted the positions of the ends of the pieces on the plan. I placed one corner of the whole track plan at 0"-0" on the coordinates and then measured the horizontal and vertical positions for each section relative to one corner of the layout room. You can actually put the 0"-0" point anywhere you want on the diagram. It doesn't have to be in a corner. Just pick a point wherever it is convenient. You can even use different 0"-0" points for different parts of the layout.
Things fit together pretty close to plan. We did make a couple of adjustments as we went, but we didn't have to re-cut any of the sections.
Plotting the track position in the large areas like the yard was done the same way.
This is a typical plotting sheet for the position of the sub roadbed and the track:
What is the maximum distance you plan between supports?
Model railroaders have a tendency to build the benchwork for their layouts so it can withstand an H-bomb explosion or an earthquake of the magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale.
3/4" or 19mm plywood for subroadbed is, IMHO, oversized. 1/2" or 12mm does the job equally well, weighs a lot less, is cheaper and better to cut.
In one of my layouts, I even went down to 9mm and had no warping.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Thanks for the input.
The plotting idea was great.
I will have my supports at 2' c-c. Would 12 mm (1/2") be enough?
Graffen Thanks for the input. The plotting idea was great. I will have my supports at 2' c-c. Would 12 mm (1/2") be enough?
I´d say yes! I recommend grade A birch multiplex plywood, which has more layers or "plies" than ordinary plywood. It is therefore much stronger and less prone to sagging or warping.
To my knowledge, multiplex plywood (MPX) is largely unknown in the US.
I can get Finnish aircraft quality plywood.
A tad expensive, but the very best.
Alway enjoy seeing your work, and your backdrops are stunning, thanks and regards, Peter
GraffenI can get Finnish aircraft quality plywood.
I think the whole issue revolves around stability. You need to use something that won't warp or expand and contract too much. One of the reasons that we went with 3/4" 7 ply G1S plywood is that we just moved into a big renovated factory and we didn't know how much variation there would be in the year round environment in the new clubhouse. So, we decided to not take any chances. We have experienced some minor expansion and contraction in the benchwork and we have had to adjust some track, but nothing serious has happened. FWIW, I wanted to use 3/4" 13 ply Baltic Birch furniture grade plywood for both the sub roadbed and the framing, but who knows if the Baltic Birch would have made a difference? It certainly wouldn't have caused any problems other than the hit in the bank balance.
I'm assuming that you are in an environment that you can adjust fairly precisely by controlling the temperature and by using humidifiers and/or dehumidifiers as needed. If that is the case then you can use thinner materials. Depends how much of a gambler you are!
Some more progress on the layout.
Almost 80% of the benchwork is ready. The ones left to do are the curve sections.
I've also added the first 5/8" plywood roadbed.
I will use plywood roadbed on the stations and yards. The inclines and upper tracks will be spline roadbed.
Spline raw material made from1/4" MDF that I sawed into 1" strips.
Tracks and turnouts. I laid out some Peco turnouts to make sure the roadbed will fit the plan.
Laser cut sweep sticks for HOn3. These are invaluable!
I got these made by a friend in the US.
It might be possible to lay the first tracks this weekend.
Graff:
Your clouds are very well done!
I admire your fortitude for having chosen spline construction. You are setting your standards high as usual!
hon30critter Graff: Your clouds are very well done! I admire your fortitude for having chosen spline construction. You are setting your standards high as usual! Dave
Thanks Dave.
Some more progress today.
I've glued the cork. It's standard HO cork that I cut off a 6 mm (1/4") wide strip to make it fit HOn3 (16.5mm - 10.5mm = 6mm).
Now I have to order more cork .... I need about 40-50 yards.
I've begun on the Spline roadbed.
I'm gluing it with "No more nails" from Pattex on cartridge (I guess it's like liquid nails?).
The splines are 6 mm (1/4") MDF, which is cut in 25 mm (1") wide strips.
There is a need for huge amount of clamps though. Have to find some more, I know I have some...
Time to make all the curved and Y-turnouts as well.
More progress. I've finished about 2/3s of the subroadbeds.
I had to check my inclines to keep them under 2%.
I've started the work on the landscape painting on the backdrop.To make a representation of the Colorado rockies isn't as easy as it sounds....You want them to be tall and imposing, and have the color variations of the real thing.On top of that I have to find a level of detail that I'm satisfied with.I use regular artist acrylics for the painting.