Summer Shunting Shelf Project

[mcfunkeymonkey]

My nine-year-old daughter & I are building an N-scale shelf switching layout for the summer. Even though layout design is one of my trades, my daughter brushed aside my ideas & jumped on Byron Henderson’s “Alameda Belt Line”: a 1’ x 6’ shelf designed to fold in half for portability.

She does have good taste: the design includes a long runaround to facilitate switching an oil company, wharf, team track, and a large fruit canning industry, with off-layout traffic transferring by carfloat and an interchange with the Southern Pacific line.

She also likes the local: Alameda, near Oakland, California, is a short car ride away from us, so it looks like she’s picked up on Dad’s San Francisco Bay Area pride, too.

I redrew the design for Atlas Code 55 track & for the Fast Tracks templates I use to hand lay turnouts, added one more siding to service a brewery (Dad gets thirsty), and renamed the industries for fun or based on local lore:




Having moved on average once a year for the past 11 years, we wanted to keep the hinged design for portability, but we also wanted to have structures on the layout. My brilliant brainstorm (if I do say so myself), was to insert a 3” piece between two sets of hinges and a 3” backdrop / vertical support on the far left of the layout: now, instead of pancaking, the shelf wraps into a box with a 3” gap between sections, an interior space for structures & scenery.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Benchwork

The shelves are ½” MDF cut from one 2’x4’ piece. The three sections are not of equal width: the left (“base”) section is 12”x36”, the center is 11 ½”x3”, and the right is 11”x36”. This allows the permanent attachment of 4”-tall strips of 1/8” masonite (cut from scraps salvaged off a previous layout, but could come from a single 2’x4’ sheet).

Here’s the basic benchwork, stretched out:



There are 1” MDF strips under each section edge, with four adjustable 7/8” furniture feet at each corner of each 3’ section.

Spray-painted the backdrop flat dark grey primer, and the boards Krylon ultra-flat khaki.

I constructed a 6”x7” box out of scrap masonite & MDF to house the DC power pack:



A roof with detailed parts will fit over it for photography. A masonite front cover with DCC terminal can also be screwed on to the box.

The Oil Tanks are 4” & 2” ABS caps. The large tank, at 2 1/2” high, will be permanently attached to the layout. The two smaller tanks are removable, and serve the dual function to cover the front two pairs of hinges:



A removable power house will cover the back pair of hinges. Those three structures should be the only non-permanent buildings on the layout: all others are flats, low relief, or positioned to not get hit by the backboard or any other structure.

I laid a small section of track over both joints, and then cut the rails when the gorillaglue cured. The Dedeco ultra thin blade cuts as thin as a jeweler’s saw (or seems like it!), and having the hinges on top actually lifts the track up, preventing any crimping or squishing of rails.

I installed a handle on the bottom of the right section, and a latch on the left, so:



When folded up, it’s a 1’x3’x4” box that’s easily carried.

You can see the bus wire that runs the length of the bottom & through the end-strip supports. Feeder wires are connected with suitcase connectors. Should I want to mount this as a shelf, I will need to place foam (like for weather-proofing windows) on the brackets to take up the wire space & still support the boards.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Track

One of the goals for this layout is to do as much ourselves as we can, or at least use up much of the train stuff I’ve accumulated over the past couple years. We’re using Atlas C55 flex track and building our own turnouts using ME C55 rail on PC board ties. We use Fast Tracks printable templates as guides, but adjust to our needs. Given the close position of many turnouts, I tried to build as many as fixtures as I could:



The addition of the brewery required a crossing (between two turnouts) that started curving immediately after, so got to try out building a crossing for the first time:



Turned out pretty well. Did it rather quick with a lot of eyeballing (& NMRA gauging). I’ll build a better one next time.

In a great moment in father/daughter bonding history (no CA involved!)(except the state we live in!), I taught her how to use a soldering iron to build turnout:



For the first couple we used the jig I’ve had collecting dust for a couple years. Then she had to test it out with a truck:



So now she knows how things are glued or soldered together, about hard & soft metals, and why not to touch the soldering iron tip, even if it’s to show your daughter why not to touch the soldering iron tip.


[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Track (pt.2)

We gorillaglued the pc board ties of the turnout fixtures to the MDF base for added stability, but used caulk for the flex. Having no foam in which to push T-pins, we used canned veggies to weigh down the track while curing.

Drilled feeder holds, soldered to rails & used suitcase connectors underneath, and then took the SP NW2 for a spin:



There it’s on the wharf deck we built out of pcboard ties and 1/32” x 3/64” basswood strips. After that photo, we painted the pcboard ties to match the stained wood.

A thin layer of Magic Water coated the thin strip off the wharf as well as filled in the carfloat quay. After we install the permanent carfloat, we’ll use Modge Podge to create wave / ripple effects.

And the most incredibly exciting part of N-Scale model railroading: tie replacement!



The PC board ties are slimmer than Atlas flex or even the ties Fast Tracks sells, so I slip 1/32” x 3/64” basswood strips (after a dip in my “Big Jug O’ Stain”) under the turnouts. Tedious. Luckily, “family bonding” also includes a Chopper II, thin strips of white glue between rails, tweezers, and my daughter sharing the joys of tie replacement:





Busy hands are happy hands!

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

PAINTING

We masked off everything but the track, made sure the turnout points were covered, and then, working in thirds, we sprayed the rails with Floquil Grimy Black, scraped the railtops with bits of wood, and then brightboyed the heck out of it:



It was such a sunny, hot day that by the time we pulled off the masking, the paint was dry!



Right now, we’re going back and touching up the points & the ties around them with Grimy Black & a small brush.

That’s it for now.

Next on the agenda:
--building & installing the carfloat
--building, painting & installing the long “Bella Fonte” fruit cannery flats along the back left
--build the power-pack roof-cap
--start figuring out streets & ground cover
--keep practicing running those trains & shunting those cars!

Thanks for slogging though a bunch of posts & pictures.
Hope to have more before school starts in a couple weeks.
Cheers!

[mcfunkeymonkey]

School just started, but we've managed to get a little more done.

So we started putting together the "Bella Fonte Cannery" (based on the Del Monte facility on Alameda).
Bashing two Gripp's Luggages into a 25" long flat:



My daughter sprayed it "Red Oxide" primer.
It will have an awning & concrete dock in time.
As well as a mortar wash & weathering.
You can see the original here http://www.flickr.com/photos/40361283@N06/3708909019/.

Continued building the carfloat that will be fixed at the bottom right corner of the layout, representing traffic to Oakland.
It's two pieces of .8 styrene sandwiched together (we wanted the line between), with rails gorillaglued on:



Had the cleats & bitts from Seaport Model Works http://seaportmodelworks.com/index.php?cPath=35_37.
The round hatches are tabs off of Grandt Line NBW sprues.
The rails protrude because we'll join those up to the carfloat-approach turnout, then we'll cut the gap when everything's set to ensure alignment.

Gave it a once over with some Grimy Black and a "mist" of Scalecoat "Graphite" for just a hint of metal:





Will add some debris, including coal droppings, & then weather with some powders & maybe drippings from the "Big Jug O' Stain", unless people have other suggestions.

But so far it seems to float our boat

[faraway]

That looks very good! I love it.

[fondo]

Amaizing work!!!! keep posting!

[Doug from Michigan]

Also love it.  Can't wait to see more.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Wow.
It's been a minute since the last post.
Craziness of school starting and all, I guess.

Finished weathering the carfloat:







Drybrushed some light grey, brush some glue & put some gravel & coal droppings, drizzled some "Big Jug O' Stain" on there, and then powdered it up nice & good.
Might have gone a little overboard with the gravel & cinders. Oh well.

After this photo shoot, I didn't want to get the powder everywhere, so I sprayed it with Dullcote.
Then I remembered that Dullcote makes powder vanish.
Oh, well.
After it dries, I'll see what it looks like. Worse comes to worse I work the M.C. magic again with powders.

If anyone has any groovy carfloat weathering tips, I'd be happy to hear them!

Also got the float apron made & almost installed, so tomorrow, after a quick trip to the LHS, I should have picts of an almost finished carfloat scene (and thus all track installed).

[BroadwayLion]

Heh... She does better work than I do!

[Adrian B.]

MC, I'm a n00b here, other than lurking for a while here & there, but the past couple of days I've seen a lot of posts on a couple of your projects.

1. Wow!
2. Thank you for posting this particular project, because it is almost exactly what I want to set up, just with a different rail line, scene, etc.
3. It's really cool how you get your daughter very involved with your projects, including the soldering and building turnouts. I'm looking forward to getting my sons involved with my future projects.
4. Keep up the good work and keep giving us progress shots!

Thanks!

Adrian

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Finally got the carfloat & apron installed, water effects and some basic ground cover done.






Following some advice by David K. Smith, we ended up screwing the float to the layout to ensure rail alignment.
Still need to add some more details: ropes, more weathering on deck, dockside details, etc.
But it's nice to have the track 100% done, along with our staging / connection to the off-layout world.

[fondo]

great job! very very realistic!!!

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Didn't think anything could be as tedious as tie replacement, but I gotta say: painting window sills and door jambs has to be right up there.

Fortunately, I have helpers.

My daughter discovered the joys of painting around panes:



And then my 5-year-old son decided to pitch in by helping CA the windows:



The structure is two bashed "Gripp's Luggage" kits into something akin to the original Del Monte cannery in Alameda.

We're calling it the "Bella Fonte" after one of our fav singers (especially his appearance on The Muppet Show).

When all was washed & dried, we affixed some cardstock background buildings:



In the left corner you can see the planes flying over the Alameda Naval Air Station, which will have a chain-link gate to help the transition.

In the above photo you can also see the concrete street & pad for the freight house we poured, using thinned & tinted lightweight spackle.

When it dries we'll sand it smooth (the ties still show through a little), and then weather.

(cont.)

[mcfunkeymonkey]

CA'ed the black styrene backing to the backdrop, and then CA'ed the cannery to the backing:



(The window shades were "fun" to paint too dang if it isn't hard to get a straight line! Next time I'll try masking tape or manilla folder squares)

So here's the long view:



It's about 25"+ long and the docks can hold 5 cars (with 5 more on the parallel).

At the very end is a little jog in the building to help block off the end:



Just put some cinders on the roof to mimic a rough roof.

Next up:
The concrete loading dock, which will probably be made out of .06 or .08 styrene strips.
Still debating on having an awning: the original did, but we'll see how it goes.
Thanks for looking!

[steinjr]

 My compliments to you and your able young helpers - this looks really good!

Smile,
Stein

 

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks, Stein.
Remember: if they work for someone else its child labor, but if they work for you its "quality family time" ;)

Did a bunch of work to get the layout ready for a show / open house at my LHS today.
Bunch of quality SF Bay Area layouts were there in G, O, S, On3, HO and HOn3, but I was the only "Normal" scale dude there.

Put a building front on the back of the control box, where 99% of viewers will never see it:



Experimented with an ad poster, printed on regular paper, sanded thin & attached with diluted Modge Podge matte.
Sticks alright, but I should have sanded it a bit thinner.

Needed a 1/4 car to stick out of Doolittle Freight warehouse, so I sacrificed a Baby (-food car).
This is what happens when you calculate the correct angle but cut the incorrect direction:



Easily fixed.
Here's an overview of the left side of the layout:



Got the concrete dock in for the cannery, with Gold Metal industrial stairs at each end.
Weathered the road a bit.
Installed the chainlink fence & gate with barbed wire at the Naval Air Station entrance (it's a bit short, but will work).
Put in basic ground cover (dirt, a little fine foam of "weed" and "green blend", some fine gravel for under the tank & around the cannery).
Put cinder "ballast" for the SP interchange line.
Mocked up Doolittle Freight with DMP walls & carstock.
Installed an SP tank (bought yesterday at Great Train Expo in Richmond) at end of Oil spur to service the engine on the neighboring track.
Installed a wood grade crossing at the front-left.
One bush.

Here's a little bit more busy scene:




Things are coming along.
Things will look better when we get Doolittle Freight bashed together & we build a "roof" for the control box during photo ops.
Thanks for looking.

[steinjr]

mcfunkeymonkey

Thanks, Stein.
Remember: if they work for someone else its child labor, but if they work for you its "quality family time" ;)

 LOL :-)

 

mcfunkeymonkey

Here's an overview of the left side of the layout:

 Been meaning to ask you about the curve at the end of the lowermost spur (with the tank made of a tank car without wheels) - that curve just looks very sharp to my (admittedly used to H0 scale) eyes - can you actually get cars to couple automaticall at the end of that spur?

 But that's a minor detail - the layout a whole looks great.

 Smile,
 Stein

 

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Stein: the bend at the end of the oil refinery spur is a wee bit sharp, but the photo does make it appear a lot sharper than it is.

There's also more space at the end than it looks:

There's room for the trucks of the next car to swing over and mate up straight.
And if the coupler is slightly off, I have no problem taking my bamboo skewer and pushing the coupler into place, just like real life on the rails.

[By "real life" I mean hand-assisted coupling: real railroads tried using enormous bamboo skewers for uncoupling work but found them a bit awkward to store when not in use, not to mention the splinter issues that dominated labor talks ;) ]

[steinjr]

mcfunkeymonkey

Stein: the bend at the end of the oil refinery spur is a wee bit sharp, but the photo does make it appear a lot sharper than it is.

There's also more space at the end than it looks:

 You are right - at this angle it looks a lot less sharp. Cool.

 Btw - I love the effect you got with the industry on the side of the enclosure for the controller, with the (twice) cut baby food boxcar.

 Smile,
 Stein

 

[mcfunkeymonkey]

In the middle of karate, soccer, drama, American & Japanese school and morning runs with Dad, we got some things done this week, mainly the Doolittle Freight up against the control box, the rest of the background photo & building flats along the back of the left section and some more ground cover.

Here are some shots of Doolittle Freight:





Here's a wide shot to show how the freight building butts up against the control box:



Soon we'll be building a roof cover for the control box for photography, but until then low shots are alrighty:



Still need some signs and clutter.
When the globs of diluted white glue that cover the area to the immediate right dry we'll take some pictures of the rest of the week's work.
Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

The globs of white glue have dried, so here's the other end of the left section we worked on.
Mainly installing backdrop photos, flats, fence and doing some ground cover, bushes & (small) trees:



[The hinge at the upper right behind the gon will be covered by a removeable power house]

When trying to put some static grass on, we put the white glue down, then tried to push the grounding T-pin for our fly-swatter static grass applicator.
Took about 3-4 hard pushes to remember we used MDF, not pink foam, on this layout.
D'oh!

So just sprinkled it on with our hands, rolling it with our fingers whle letting it fall onto the white glue.
A few passes with the vacuum got some to stand up, but otherwise it turnout out ok:



At first the slightly-diluted white glue dried very shiny, to the point you could see the edges of the glue!
We took a tooth brush, dipped in dirt and scrubbed the grass.
This seemed to tone it down.
Then we sprinkled a little more dirt & "weed" fine ground foam around & through the grass area, then re-wetted with booze and diluted white glue.
That seemed to blend the grass, dirt & foam a bit better.

Here's the whole backdrop scene so far:



And here's a closeup of the photo-flat industry with gravel road and fence:



Was thinking of putting a photo of an aircraft carrier in there, but a bit cheezy (& already had the navy planes down at the other end), and I liked the color / contrast to the nearby brick structures.

Still need to build the oil-transfer shed and set up the oil storage tanks, but otherwise the left side of the layout is moving along pretty well.
Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

In addition to not getting much done on my "real" layout (Mt. Coffin & Columbia River), I also haven't got much done on this one, either.
It's a good 90 deg outside, so the kids disappeared to the swimming pool with friends, leaving me in a garage that's getting close to 100.

That's with the door open.

But I did get my 0-8-0 back together and weathered a little for some photo ops, rolling back the layout to Alameda in the late 1940s:





Hope to get more done when things cool down.
Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Whoa, can't believe it's been a month and a half since the last post for this project!
Been working on it here & there, but I guess the boxcab took over.
Well, got some stuff to show.

Started extending the scenery to the right section which, up until now, had only the carfloat and dock done.
Built the receiving building for the brewery, as well as the two removable structures -- the small oil tanks and the brick building that started as a power house but now is part of the brewery -- that hide the hinges:



There'll be a Traincat quonset hut somewhere in that front area, too.
The oil tanks are far from done: still waiting on some industrial ladders, railing & walkways to come in the mail to finish them.
Yes, they still look like the ABS caps that they are right now, but after I add the details & weather I think they'll look pretty good.

Still need to disguise the concrete berm a bit, but that, plus the larger brick structure across the tracks, are removeable, as they disguise the hinges of this "Alameda-in-a-Box" layout:





If my daughter & I had taken more care constructing the benchwork, you wouldn't be able to see the left joint line.
(It's difficult to see the right one, yes?)
Remember, the hinges, because they're mounted above the boards, lifts the sections out & up, so track & scenery can be nearly seemless when flat.
But the static grass & bushes I put in help disguise the crack when photographing down at track level.

I also built two Traincat tankcar loading platforms & stuck them together:




And soon will install the pipes & pump house.
I highly recommend Traincat's brass kits: he ships fast and they're high quality, relatively simple to build, and look great (the detail really sells the rest of the layout!)

Anyway, trying to finish this one up before the Layout Design SIG meet in January down in Mt. View, CA (you're all invited! great clinics & layout visits!), so will be putting the pedal to the metal for the next couple weeks.
(Though I also want to build the cannery for the Mt. Coffin layout, too, so we'll see how things go)
Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Slowly expanding the scenery to the right (east).
Put together the Flotsam Brewery main structure:



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

And here it is installed on the layout:



Still need to come up with a sign, weather the roof shingles a bit, throw some dirt underneath, and I'm still debating about adding posts under the dock or leave it cantilevered.

Here's a wider shot to show how it fits into the section:



Just got a dockside warehouse to build and then the background flats are done.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Finished up and installed the dockside warehouse, which is the last backdrop flat:





Basically pieces of Northeast Scale Model's Box & Crate factory trimmed & bashed, with a scratched loading platform.
Still need to workout the area between the brewery & the warehouse: that chimney will be removeable (so the layout can fold up), but need some weeds / bushes and junk around it.
Also need to add some more freight details & figures (besides the dude sitting up in the loft) along the platform.
But here's how it works into the whole scene:



Now to finish up the Oil Tanks and the quonset hut, and then add all the little details that bring a layout to life.
Thanks for looking, and Happy Holidays!

[gerhard_k]

mcfunkeymonkey

Finished up and installed the dockside warehouse, which is the last backdrop flat:





Basically pieces of Northeast Scale Model's Box & Crate factory trimmed & bashed, with a scratched loading platform.

 

Hey, M.C. -  

I looked at the picture of the original NESM Factory - frankly, it looks like one of those 1950's models that doesn't resemble any real building, and you have bashed those raw materials into a great-looking and believable structure. I have to admit, I could never have seen the potential in that kit the way you did. My envy and congratulations!

 - Gerhard 

 

[Blue Flamer]

Hey M C.

Congratulations to both you and your daughter on building a great looking model. It shows everyone just what can be accomplished in  "N"ormal scale. Keep up the great work and tutorials. Many thanks and

Blue Flamer.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks for the kind words.
The flats have been fun to build: making them fit in and be functional has been kind of like a Tetris game ;)

Detailed the big oil tank with ladder & railings, weathered big and small tanks, and finished a Traincat quonset hut:









The quonset hut has to be removeable, as there's not enough clearance over the large oil tank when the layout is folded up, so I need to add some bushes and grass around it to mask the (slight) gaps.

Next up, finishing the oil unloading platform, pipes & weathering the pump house.

Thanks for looking.