So now we seem to have Molbileman44 and Reggie posting their progress threads (with photos of course)
I... MUST... NOT.... FALL..... BEHIND!
I was not so happy with the wobble.... I therefore installed some levelers on the test bench. WOW, what a difference.
This gave me a good 1/2 inch of play to stabilize the bench. And come to find out the floor was a bit out of level, that didn't make me happy. I ran the six foot level along the floor I found there was a bit of a dip, nothing major, but still.....
I then put it on the bench and squard up the legs:
I then set (didn't screw it down yet) some 1/2inch plywood on the top to get an idea of the lighting sitch.
I set up a small train with a few colorfull boxcars so you all could get an idea of the lighting. Now this photo was with HALF of the cans on. Also, I set the train about two inches from the back....and I didn't really angle the cans at all or use the cans on opposite track for better angle. Very happy with this result - and keep in mind these are using "Daylight" bulbs which have a high blue temp.
What ya think?? I might not have to put ANY addional lighting under the top deck at all!!!!
LOL... Your thread was the inspiration for my thread!
But now you have to go back and read the whole thing for details :P
great work you have done it is motivation for me to get to it on my layout. keep it up and cant wait to see more progress. i must have missed it in the beginning but how big is your trainroom again.
It's not going to be freestanding.... so it's good to hear your comments about tacking it to the frame. I'll be using deck screws (they are much more robust than dry wall screws).
The blue, well... humm... yah, just a starting point to cover the room with a basic sky. It's just a hard thing to photo, check out some of the other photos and you can see that color change all over the place. And I've not done any shading or clouds yet. So we will see how that whole thing takes shape. It is overwhelming, but getting more bench work in and such should take up some of that over powering blue....
Don't worry about the wobble. A few DW screws fastening the benchwork to the wall studs will more than solve the problem. If this is to be totally free standing for some reason, you will need considerable bracing.
Is that blue just a base color? It appears very bright even as a starting point for the backdrops.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Here we have a "leg" of my test bench work. I wanted to get a good feeling for the height of a mulity deck setup, the spacing, reachability and such. You can read all ya want, but at some point ya just needed to build it and KNOW how it's going to interact with the room and the specific sitch.
1. These are some in work photos. The length is 14 feet. Yah, rather long, but I wanted to see and test the 1x4 runners to the max. The top deck is 20 inches wide. The bottom is 24 inches wide.
2. I used ripped 2x4's to make the legs. Which are bolted on with 1/4 inch bolts. The 1x4's are screwed in with 1 5/8ths dry wall screws
3. The two decks are just bout all finished being put together.
4. The height from the floor to the top of the bottom deck is 23.5 inches. From the top of the bottom deck to the bottom of the top deck is 19 inches. From the top of the top deck to where the ceiling slopes in is 14 inches.
One thing I did was make the whole thing to high and had to take off two inches after setting it up. And a "few" other minor mistakes that are all part of the learning process.
I will be putting 1/4inch plywood over the decks and then using foam on top of that. This should narrow the deck spacing a bit and allow for some terrain variations. I also have to install leg levelers which will just about give me 1/2 inch more. Going to drill holes in the 1x4 cross members for cables and thinking about painting the underside the same color blue to match....
Yes, she is a bit wobbly!! But I hope it will become more stable once I add on additional bench work. I can also put in more legs on the back and then I also plan on running some decking screws into the frame work of the wall. This should really make for a SOLID platform.
For now though, my main goal was to get the height and spacing of the decks where I wanted - or at least have a jumping off point to play with. I also needed to see how the whole lighting system will work. And hey, lets not mention I've never built bench work before so it was good practice!! (( Thinks back to his pop's old saying: "measure twice, cut once." )) Hehehee, let just say I re-learned this!!
Interesting about the track lighting effectiveness.
I'm curious as to how it will perform when more than a single deck is involved. It may end up being the cheapest and easiest to use/reposition lighting set up.
I'm still quite a way off from that, but it's good to be able to plan ahead during the room finishing stage (which seems endless at the moment, in my case!).
I will try my best to keep posting AND motivated!! But there are other things that need tending too ((as we all know)) especially when ya got kids!!! :O) Finances are always a consideration and with my move from CA, getting a solid job has taken a lot longer than I would have thought and naturally building has been at a bit more reserved pace. That being said, we all forge ahead and keep on keeping on!!
Lighting! Some of my thoughts. The kit comes with three fixtures and is a complete set-up with a four foot track. So I just bought enough kits to run around the room. Keep in mind that just because I HAVE 33 fixtures, don't mean I LIGHT all of the them. In fact, I currently only use about half at any given time. But they sure do come in handy for taking photos or when I work at the bench - I just reach up and pivot them to the location I need, then tighten up the bulb in the fixture. I can "At Will" put a ton of light on spot! I think I mentioned that you can buy smaller CFL wattage bulbs than the 60 watt that I have, BUT, they were more expensive.
Over the months since I've installed the track lighting I have be come more and more satisfied with set-up. The versatility is simply outstanding. Very little heat and a wide spectrum of light too. Now for the dimming effect, I've yet to look into it. But at some point I'm sure it will.
Another thing to be concerned about with lots of fixtures is heat output. That was the original reason I went with CFLs--my 18 x 9 room was going to get quite warm with 60 incandescent bulbs fired up. Sort of like a big Easy Bake Oven! Jamie
CLICK HERE FOR THE CSX DIXIE LINE BLOG
Just a couple of electrical comments/ With that many fixtures, CFL's may be the only way to put 30+ fixtures. Incandescents that run 60 watts, times 30, is 1800 watts, which is really more than you want to put on a single 15-amp house wiring circuit. With the CFL's using about 1/5 as much current, no problem.
For effects, 2-circuit track lights are an option - the fixtures can be switched to hit either of the hot conductors, so, for example, you could have effect lights on a dimmer for "night," side-by-side with the regular day lights.
The link is a random example from a google search, no endorsement of the vendor or product.
I'm surprised that your wife hasn't taken it over at this point. . Better get some of that bench work up before she makes it a meeting room for her women's club. .
Springfield PA
It's good to see you're back at it, so please keep the updates coming! These in progress things are very inspiring and helpful for firming up my own plans.
Hey all, been a bit since I've posted.... Softball is over (was coaching my daughters second grader team) and I've been thinking I REALLY need to start hitting the train room again. So I went and bought some 1x4 to build a section of bench work to get a better feel for how this is all going to work. After seeing how much room a 24 inches bench really takes, I think I'm going to keep the width a bit more narrow for the upper level. This 14 foot section in the photo is 20 inches wide. This will make more room for walking which was snug in many places. So many changes and revisions have taken place in my head after actually seeing the physical realities that happen from a CAD drawing to the real world.
This was an in-work photo, the cross members will be every two feet ;o)
My latest thinking is to use the alcove for the permanate working area and not use it for track. With the window it makes for some good natural light. Plus, as you can see, I set up my spray booth this weekend and with this location I'll have some excelent ventalation. I might have to plan a small duck under but I think I can live with that.
The spray booth is a PAASCHE Model# HSSB-22-16 22". It set up easy and will let ya all know how it works when I get the ventilation all hooked up. Looking forward to that as I've not done this in the past and, well, I'm sure I've killed a few brain cells....lol
The air compressor is from Airbrush City - big thread on this if you want to check it out: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/81464/967912.aspx#967912
No worries Doc, glad you took a moment and stopped by. And just to let you know, it's taken 25+ years to get a train room! LOL.
Trainsrme1, very cool area you choose to model. I've seen (and have) Joe's DVD's of his Coos Bay area and that's just a beautiful part of the country.
One reason I went with this type of track lighting is that it uses regular type screw in bulbs. That means you can swap out any color ya want. It's been mentioned in the thread that using a dimmer for CFL style bulbs will warrent some investigation. I've just not looked into to it yet. But it's on the list. If you use "normal" incandecents, then just about any dimmer will work fine. With the way I wired things up on one circuit, wattage was a concideration. As well as heat generation being the room is upstairs. I'm already very pleased by the whole track lighting system. I've moved the cans as needed for taking photos, my desk area, and even having half the room light off when I don't need the extra light. At first I was a bit apprehensive about using so many, but very glad I did.
Probably should have ready the entire thread first. duh
Anyway looking very, very nice (jealous of the available dedicated space you have, I have to fit mine into a corner of a basement).
Best of luck with it.
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
Loco,
Your train rooom is coming along fine. I'm in the 1st phase of turing my garage into a trainroom, we are getting rid of alot of junk that we do not use anymore,and so on, My layout is also going to be on the Union Pacific, running a subdivision from Eugene Oregon to Coos Bay, BNSF has a branchline running from Whisram Washington thru Bend Oregon to Coos Bay, and the 'NEW" Southern Pacific has a branchline from California to Coos Bay, That's our story and we are sticking to it!!!!!!! I like your pick of tracklighting, I was thinking of useing the same kind, I also want to have nightime scenes, so I thought about having blue lighting for that, By uesing a timed dimmer What do you think?? Anyway, Good luck on your trainroom it looks great, I will hopfully post pic's of my progress soon
Take Care, Trainsrme1
Well, as much as I hate to admit it, this project is going to take a while.... which is cool. But during the times when I can't really do much on the overall scene, I wanted to start in on the other million items that need-a-doing (also funds are somewhat limited). To that end, I set up a temporary area as my work shop..... Complete with a little T.V. :O)
Naturally I dove right in with a little modification to my ore cars. I caught a few good deals on some Walthers four packs, but the thing was, they all had the same road numbers. So I grabbed some 70% iso, and using a tooth pick I lightly scraped away the last two numbers. The tooth pick worked really well - high control, let me use some pressure, and soaked with iso let the number I wanted to come off without messing up all the other markings. The cotton swab just mopped up the extra. I then used a "nip-bit" of dulcote to remove the slight shine.... I think it turnout ok. And after doing some weathering, should be just find - Yah, it's not centered.... but I'm not at that stage of rivet counting.... YET :P
Thanks for that nugget Jamie. I guess I'll be doing some addional reasearch and such. Might be a good idea to get this item locally so if needs be I can return it.
Loco It was good to hear about the use of a dimmer. I believe there are digital dimmers that can be used for the CFL's. A bit more spendy, but I will most likely be getting one at some point - especially after seeing your work.
It was good to hear about the use of a dimmer. I believe there are digital dimmers that can be used for the CFL's. A bit more spendy, but I will most likely be getting one at some point - especially after seeing your work.
Loco, Just one quick note on the use of CFL dimmers. They can be very quirky, be sure to go to a lighting store where they have some on display so you can make sure they actually work as you expect. With just about all of the ones I have seen, they do not work very well at all. Our church had a very pricey CFL dimmer system installed and we had to stop using it. Many of the CFLs when dimmed would simply go off and then flicker on and off while dimmed. It was like having a lightning storm during Sunday morning services (which in retrospect I could have used for effect during preaching of the message ). Just wanted to let you know to get a good evaluation before you buy because you are correct in that CFL dimmers are high dollar items. Jamie
Lee, some very impressive shots. As to fading the blue, I'm undecided. Once I get an idea of the height of the main (upper) level I'll have a better idea.
It was good to hear about the use of a dimmer. I believe there are digital dimmers that can be used for the CFL's. A bit more spendy, but I will most likely be getting one at some point - especially after seeing your work. I really like how you got that "storm approaching" shot in your second photo. (thanks for adding $80 to my list ) I just went and got a tripod as I'm in process of taking photos of all my rolling stock so as to put them on car cards using Dallas Model Works web site.
http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/myrailroad.asp?ID=7
(select the rolling stock link)
I printed a few out on card stock and it just looks outstanding. At least they did after getting the tripod! One can in no way hold a camera steady enough when getting tight close ups. And if you click on the photos to enlarge, you can read most all the fine print on the cars.
And as to the paint drops.... lets just say that floor is more than worth every penny.
Thanks for all ya comments and I'll be sure to post up when things progress. Which may take a while as funds are limited - as well we all know. Still need to work on my layout design... that's still a daughting task. As well as a million other little things that need doing.
I like. Will you be fading the blue to a lighter blend as it comes down the wall? I used a lighter shade, and have found that the lighting provides much of the gradation I needed without a lot of fussy painting...
As you can see I have a similar situation with the sloped ceiling. The biggest drawback I have is the inability to use an upper deck to extend the run, but I love the way it works as back drop.
I've got track lighting also, but I have incandescents on a dimmer, which helps adjust things for taking pictures. I noticed you have those flourescent "twist cone" lights... That would be a great energy saver, and I must say, my room does warm up a bit (there's 12 cans up there!) but I'm hesitant to give up the ability to adjust the lighting.
Here's a good example...
This was shot on a long exposure with very low light. The sky in the background has that late summer/impending thunder storm look.
The other thing I like about the sloped ceiling is the way it creates a backdrop all around the layout.
In this shot, the "sky" is about 8' away from the back of the scene.
Looking forward to seeing more progress shots. Oh, and I can't tell you how many paint drips I've got on my floor!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Well keep up the good work. Keep us posted on how things are going. Always good to have a good supervisor and assistant helping.
John
Hey all, Been a while since I've been able to post. But I've not been totally derailed!
I've finished up with the track lighting and also finished putting a few coats of paint on the room. Just went ahead and painted top to bottom (except the bay window alcove - still not sure what I'm going to do with that).
This first one is looking north. You can see how going around the room with the track lighting makes the center darker.
Looking south:
And looking south east with a 4x8 section of ply wood over the stair well. I just placed one there to get an idea of how much room it would take up, head room clearance when coming up the stairs, get a feel of my reach limitations for planning, and having a heck of a place to stack everything our of the way!!
There is plenty of head room which was a nice surprise. I'm 5'10" and do not have to duck in the least. And the thing is, that level is to low as it sits on top of the banisters. Not to mention the reach factor.... four foot is to wide. So that's one worry I don't have to deal with. :O)
There are 33 cans on the lighting track. I'm running 60 watt day light CFL's. I think I could have went with the 40 watt, but they where actually more expensive... and least for now. I've been seeing sales and the price of them has been coming down. I messed around with placement and even unscrewing every other bulb, but that just didn't cut it. Having multiple cans reduces the shadow effect, also angeling them up a bit to bounce the light off the walls/ceiling helps too. I figure I might put a dimmer in to give a greater degree of flexibility... but for now that lighting really makes working up there much better!!
Over all I am very very pleased with how things have been turning out. Even painting a few coats made a big difference, and it really needed it.
This last one is taken just outside my neighborhood and was what I used for reference.
Oh, and I ran a cable outlet up there with the help of the Dish guy - he was very cool and only charged me for the splitter! I just wanted to make sure I got the right unit as running the signal to far can really degrade the HD signal.
What a neat trainroom space!
It is good to see how your layout now bridges the stairs for a ton of new operating options. Perhaps two more room planning possibilities:
[1] A desk and/or workbench with part of the layout apx. 24" above the desk will all be in the same room as the layout.
[2] You could even snuggle 1-2 reading chairs beside bookshelves in one of the room corners. Again, the layout at that point can snake a little above the bookshelves. How about a small 12" TV and/or Home Entertainment Center on one of those bookshelves?
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
You will find that the color of paint will influence your lighting, too. Paints with cool colors will reflect light better for photos.
Looks like you have great help.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Thanks for the comments Sue and U.P. Fan. Was beginning to wonder..... So I dug up the old Dio and thought it would be interesting to see the difference with the new lighting vs just the flash and incandescent.
Old:
New:
As a side note, I again want to thank Marklin and everyone for there great customer service. These are three of the 10 box cars that where converted to two rail.
LocoNow I just have to figure out the track plan.... That's going to be a huge undertaking for me. I'm really going to need some input from ya all.
how about modeling north platte nebraska?? hump and all!! LOL.... looks good so far....