With the larger layouts temporarily on hiatus, I am planning to keep my skills going on the workbench with a little something I'm hoping to make as a portable display layout
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/Large%20Scale%20Pizza%20layout_BTS_2008.pdf
A 3'-0" square "micro" layout, a pizza layout by definition, utilizing the old xmas tree base layout I've had for a couple years now. The old plywood base with its hand bent rail will become the portable Borracho RR display, with handlayed track, blue foam "mountains" and a small town of very small, detailed structures climbing the hill over the track. It will have detachable legs and felt pads so it can either be freestanding or set on a tabletop. It will be based on a very small HOn30 micro-layout I built a while ago.
If it comes out like I hope it should be a nice draw where ever its set up...progress pics when I can
Some current pics
Overall view, ties are 3/8 x 1/4 basswood cut down, to be stained after placement. the tunnel portals are from the indoor layout.
Close up of track and ties, I'll be using Micro Engineering 3/8" spikes and I will spike every tie, I have an Aristo track gauge and will use the max gauge setting as the ultra tight curve tends to need additional wiggle room for the wheels. Nothing is glued down except the corkbed; I'll begin gluing down the ties tonight.
I have blue foam for my "mountain" and the portals need some reworking, but first comes track laying!
Have fun with your trains
Hi Vic
Any chance of a rough sketch of the odd shaped building in the corner next to the caboose
in roughly "G".
I have a sheet of foam core board cluttering up the place.
that looks ideal for an indoor foam core project just the sort of thing small interesting to look at.
Now you have mentioned the christmas tree bases do know if they are till available and from where G of course.
Seeing your tunnel mouths will have to find the GR article on making them and the tell tail did you use coffee stirrers for the boards.
regards John
John all the buildings are modified HO Woodland Scenics white metal building kits, that building you questioned is cobbled together from different parts left over from the original layout. There no real plan, I'll try to sketch something for it.
The "x-mas tree base" was something I made from spare plywood and some 1x2s, and the track was hand bent down to the 36" radius using an el-cheepo home-made track bender from a back issue of GR a few years ago. Can't remember what issue it was in.
And yes, the portals used popscycle sticks...although I'm going to have to use a bit of modeling putty to fill gaps when I rebend them down to fit this new layout and then repaint them.
All the ties are glued down and begun spiking outer rail down, its the guide rail, and the inner rail will be gauged off it once its down tightly. Spikes are Micro Engineering medium 3/8" long, and they go down very nicely. Pics to follow.
Hey Vic,
As usual...another cool project from Smoggy L.A. ! I love seeing the pics of course. Hand laid track...I'm impressed...haven't tried that one myself. A layout that size would be a cool display no matter where you set up. Keep it up pal. Later eh...Brian.
Its the smallest big railroad around! Ain't it cute?
-Brian
Well I found that spiking a curve is a tricky business, just because it was in guage when you spiked down a rail at ties #R, S, & T doesnt mean the rails at ties #R, S, & T will STAY in guage when you spike down the rail at ties #X Y & Z.
Had to respike two short sections when the track guage pulled apart to create too wide a gauge in the track. Hopefully thats done now and I can finish up the track laying tonight.
Progress pics:
Track under testing:
Ties stained:
Well lets see, its been about a year, maybe I should try to finish this stupid thing BEFORE this years BTS. I work better under pressure anyways...
I started building up the blue foam "hills" last week, getting near the top now, be ready to start carving the foam into rocks pretty quick here, lets see...
...I got 47 days to go!
Starting with the foambackside viewfoam topped off
Now gotta wait for the glue to dry, then I can start shaping.
Vic, thought you already had finished it, guess I am seeing doubbles.... And if your going to call it "a stupid thing" you can send it all to me! Engine and rolling stock too, you can have caboose. I think my mom would like it much.
William
I have to finish the darn thing first ya know...
Scenery like this has never been a strong point for me, I'm a styrene butcher by trade. Blue foam is brand new to me, but if it works well I'm doing the indoor layout with it. Very light stuff, perfect for this type of layout
Really cool. Would be perfect to have on a a deck or porch. You can sit outside and relaxe. As soon as I get my outdoor layout set I am thinking about a small indoor set. You might have started something.
You have all these indoor layouts so Whens the outdoor layout coming????
Someone mentioned Garden RR had an article about building tunnel mouths. Does anyone have that link. I have to build some on my RR and not sure how to go about this.
Vic:
Your pixes and info are very much appreciated. I never thought of the problem of laying curved track and keeping it 'in gauge'. It's little tidbits like that that are very welcome to me.
Why couldn't one 'notch out' several pieces of say, 3/8 x 3/8" wood as 'keepers'? The notches would be just the width of the rails (light press fit) and would lay over them as the gauging and nailing went on ahead. It seems like it'd help relieve the stress on the rail as it was spiked further up by distributing it across both rails. When they were pulled off, if one or two 'hung', it'd alert one to an area of possible problem. Or perhaps I'm drinking from a bad batch?
Two steps closer to benchwork up: old drafting table in trash and reject kitchen table cut to stock size and put aside to await The Day. (The day I can start building benchwork).
Very much appreciate the pixes and tips.
Les W.
One evenings carving, not bad, starting to look like southwestern sandstone:)
Still need to sand some of the rough spots down and carve the back side a bit but this was very very fast!
hoofe116 wrote: Vic:Your pixes and info are very much appreciated. I never thought of the problem of laying curved track and keeping it 'in gauge'. It's little tidbits like that that are very welcome to me.Why couldn't one 'notch out' several pieces of say, 3/8 x 3/8" wood as 'keepers'? The notches would be just the width of the rails (light press fit) and would lay over them as the gauging and nailing went on ahead. It seems like it'd help relieve the stress on the rail as it was spiked further up by distributing it across both rails. When they were pulled off, if one or two 'hung', it'd alert one to an area of possible problem. Or perhaps I'm drinking from a bad batch?Two steps closer to benchwork up: old drafting table in trash and reject kitchen table cut to stock size and put aside to await The Day. (The day I can start building benchwork).Very much appreciate the pixes and tips.Les W.
What you say could work, what I did was to spike down the outer rail, then using the gauge spike down the inner rail. I did this cause I figured the inner rail would be easier to adjust or trim off excess rail if needed.
Vic, looking good man!!!
You going to hand brush or air brush it? (color) What is the foam stuck with liquide nails?
Toad
Just standard latex house paint with a brush and ground cover added while its still wet. Its called "Zip Texturing" in HO I beleive.
I used standard carpenters glue to glue the stuff together, cheaper than Liquid Nails but I have to wait a day for it to dry, but what the heck, if I glue it down the night before by the time I get back out there the next night its dry.
PS I watched this on Youtube very helpfull.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1D4KBB_GC4&feature=related
Thanks Vic! He sounds like the Dark Knight at first
Had to keep him in my fav's folder.
Guess I will have to look through u-tube more for good stuff like this! You think they have some on fireworks
Toadster
vsmith wrote: hoofe116 wrote: What you say could work, what I did was to spike down the outer rail, then using the gauge spike down the inner rail. I did this cause I figured the inner rail would be easier to adjust or trim off excess rail if needed.
hoofe116 wrote:
I'll be building strap-iron on wood (actually copper strips) rails. I'm going to try using cut-to-scale furring strips, boiling and forming and letting 'em dry and 'take a set' before putting them down. I have some suspicion the furring stripwood rails might 'writhe', even w. glue and nails at every tie. They may not: I'll coat 'em with linseed oil right after I figure the glue's dry, it might help. The copper strips will go on next, soldered and spiked.
That's where the idea of removable 'keepers' came to me, as a way to hold things in place for a bit but be easy to remove.
Keep posting the good stuff.
Saw your railbus--wish I wasn't in the pre-IC era!
Les
Small test area for scenery, Woodland Scenics stuff, guess it works for large scale, no ballast yet, gotta get some stuff without the blue "ore" in it.
Photo came out too bright, it doesnt look this washed out in person
What about something besides a town up top. You could add a little ho track and have it go off the side, and model that to a "mine dump" scene where the HO cars are unloaded on the top of the mountain, then the ore is brought down by wheelbarrow or donkey-carts to the large scale trains at the bottom of the hill?
Or, why not model a piazza up top (an open area in a city) and presume that the buildings are all "out of sight." You could have lots of vendors with carts of fruits and vegetables and wares... all brought up to the town by the little road from the train looping below. A sort of "piazza pizza." (My own little play on words)
Or, what about a desert scene with a bunch of people surrounding a camp fire (you could incorporate lighting and smoke effects) and maybe some cattle, and maybe a wagon or tent or throw-together shack. The cattle could graze up top and then be brought down the mountain to be loaded into the train for shipment to the city.
Just ideas, but none of them would require extensive buildings to be constructed.
Modeling the D&H in 1984: http://dandhcoloniemain.blogspot.com/
Vic,
Why are the ties so far apart? All I have for a frame of reference is the plastic track I've picked up, but even as a kid walking the MOPAC tracks, the ties were less than a normal stride apart.
Could it be because you're in a hurry to finish? And, it doesn't matter at all to me if you have just 3 per section, ala Lionel 027. I'm curious, is what I am.
Cheap, is what I am.
Bought the basswood stock , thought I had enough, cut it down and was short, it was late, on a weekend and I didnt want to wait to get more, so I just spread'em a little wider...
Its not unprototypical for poor tram lines, besides you should see in the back, theres a reason theres a tunnel, hides where I ran out of full ties and had to use sections!
A tad more progress I added highlight colors to the bluffs on the layout above. Going to go with 3 facades at the top with the watertank as shown, and the "house of relief" next to the water tank (eeewww!) Got a bag of "Ballast" in the pet aisle of the local Theftway.... dam stuff has pink "scent control crystals" in it, another had blue ones, geez well at least pink looks more southwesterny than blue. I think if I had one full day I could finish this, fat chance I'll have that kind of free time
A tad more progress
I added highlight colors to the bluffs on the layout above. Going to go with 3 facades at the top with the watertank as shown, and the "house of relief" next to the water tank (eeewww!)
Got a bag of "Ballast" in the pet aisle of the local Theftway.... dam stuff has pink "scent control crystals" in it, another had blue ones, geez well at least pink looks more southwesterny than blue.
I think if I had one full day I could finish this, fat chance I'll have that kind of free time
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