Also love it. Can't wait to see more.
Amaizing work!!!! keep posting!
That looks very good! I love it.
Reinhard
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
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN
PAINTINGWe 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!
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.]
TrackOne 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.]
BenchworkThe 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.]
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.]