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Crandell's (Selector's) New Layout Progress Thread

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  • Member since
    March 2008
  • 258 posts
Posted by J.Rob on Saturday, July 13, 2013 8:40 AM

Hi Crandell

Great to see a post from you again. I have 4 of the 2-10-4s from broadway limited and have added about 5 0z of lead to the locomotive. The tracking is much better and they pull well with out traction tires. Recently and this is not the maximum 50 coal cars and a caboose up a 2% grade no problem. The other thing I may do as well will be to slip a bit of thin lead one the lead and trailing trucks to give them a bit more weight so they stay on the rails over rough track better. I have noticed that even with our 36 inch curves the apron from the loco to the tender will occasionally bind and cause issues so I have removed it. The locos look really good double heading a coal train of 125 coal cars and are really impressive with the sound units going in and out of synchronization.

  My next Steam project will likely be adding decoders to either my Alleghenies, I have a tsunami heavy steam with a synchronization kit  and speaker for one of them, or my old Rivarrosi 2-8-4s that I bought real cheap. Still need to decide if I want to do Sound decoders for them or if I want to go cheap and just do decoders with out sound.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for posting.

Rob

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Thursday, December 26, 2013 12:03 PM

Goodness, it has been a while since we saw this thread.  I will be continuing with my layout completion over the next three months or so and will post more frequenty.

During this last summer, it got quite warm in the heat of the day, and the adhesive I used under the Eco-Cork underlay let go in some places.  I had used DAP Alex Plus that dries white, and it is insufficiently sticky to keep ahold of the plastic sheet adhered to the underside of the Eco-Cork.  In the heat, the rubberized cork expanded and lifted.  Even now, in places, it is easily depressed where it shows slight hills.  I spent part of last week slitting the middle of the hills, and removing very thin strips of the product to allow for heat expansion.  I then resorted to the tried and true PL300 construction adhesive to glue the cork underlay back down so that it would lie mostly flat on the large yard module's surface.  Luckily, the A/D track, currently sitting on a single layer of Eco-Cork roadbed, does not seem to have lifted.   I may have used something else under that strip.

So far I have found that the DAP Alex Plus with silicone that dries clear (goes on creamy white) is a very good and reliable product.  It adheres much better than the stuff that dries white.  Don't know why...

I intend to work on the yard over the coming weeks.   The final push will be the industry area across the aisle.  I am going to build a stub turnout, maybe a wye-type, as access to a switchback to two industries.

-Crandell

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Heart of Georgia
  • 5,406 posts
Posted by Doughless on Thursday, December 26, 2013 10:55 PM

selector

 

So far I have found that the DAP Alex Plus with silicone that dries clear (goes on creamy white) is a very good and reliable product.  It adheres much better than the stuff that dries white.  Don't know why...

-Crandell

I have noticed the same thing, and my layout is in a cool basement.

 

- Douglas

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Wyoming, where men are men, and sheep are nervous!
  • 3,392 posts
Posted by Pruitt on Friday, December 27, 2013 11:59 AM

I'm glad you're resurrecting this thread, Crandell. I'd given up hope of seeing any more of your new layout.

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Weymouth, Ma.
  • 5,199 posts
Posted by bogp40 on Friday, December 27, 2013 2:35 PM

Nice to see the thread back, OK where's all the new pics?

Modeling B&O- Chessie  Bob K.  www.ssmrc.org

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Eastern Shore Virginia
  • 3,290 posts
Posted by gandydancer19 on Friday, December 27, 2013 4:59 PM

bogp40 - Go back a couple of pages for the start of the new pic's.

Crandell, What are you using for your Ground Goop?  And how thick do you apply it?

Nice work by the way, and I am enjoying your posts too.

Elmer.

The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.

(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Friday, December 27, 2013 8:29 PM

Elmer, I am using the formula mentioned by Joe Fugate when he was a regular on this forum eight years ago.   I like it because it is very easily drilled to size for tree armatures and utility poles.   It is hygroscopic, though, being plaster-based, and absorbs immense quantities of diluted glue when you want to adhere ground foam and shrubs.  So, the smart and organized modeller, which I am on occasion Tongue Tied, gets on to the scenicking part right away where a patch of the stuff is drying.  A week later and you'll have to spray and spray before anything will stick.

The formula comprises three parts plaster of Paris, one part Portland Cement, and four parts finely ground or sifted vermiculite.  However, that formula dries very white or bright.  I add about a tsp of a blend of masonry dye powders to make the dried terrain more tan in colour.  I mix 'brown' and 'mesa', with the latter being ochre.

Thickness varies, but I try for at least 3/4", often closer to a full inch.  Where I want to carve a rock face, and it does carve nicely, I make it as thick as seems sensible.  I use a dam of some kind, slop it in, let it set, remove the dam, and start carving.

-Crandell

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Austin, TX
  • 1,752 posts
Posted by Don Z on Sunday, December 29, 2013 12:48 PM

Crandell,

I just spent an hour or so reading this entire thread from the beginning...I'm now firmly entrenched with your fellow members, rooting you on towards the completion of your layout.

I'm still doing without a layout; helping friends by working on their layouts and searching for a piece of property that will allow me to once again get my creative juices flowing by starting my next layout.

Regards,

Don Z.

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • 258 posts
Posted by J.Rob on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 9:23 PM

Crandell, it is good to see your posts again. Right now I am working on renumbering a bunch of coal cars. we have a train show coming up this weekend in Plano, Tx and I have some duties to perform for my club, open house, dealer entry etc. I am really enjoying your layout and your efforts.

Rob

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 9:47 PM

Many weeks have passed, alas, and I have accomplished nothing.  I have had other demands on my time, and more are looming during most of May.

However, I have commenced, at long last, the industrial spur.  The access is afforded by the diverging inner route of that really long handlaid custom curved turnout I built for the last layout.  I had seen Wolfgang Dudeler's (RIP) work when he did a blog of his stub turnout project about four years ago, and wanted to try my own hand at it.  He did his using rail lengths cut to length and PCB ties if I recall, much like the Fast Tracks system.  I decided that I wanted to make mine mostly out of flex track.  What I reasoned was that if I overlaid a length of flex over an existing spur, but curved the overlay to match the centerline giving access to the minor track to the eventual sawmill, I could just use a cut-off disk and make the break in the rail at the desired angle.  I could grind and file the fixed end of the fixed rail to form a frog, and take a length of rail to form the point of the diverging route and the guard on the other end...just like Fast Tracks.  Except it isn't a sharpened point with angled guard, but a stub end...flat across it.

I curved that length of rail, and laid its point end tight against the spikehead details of its mate, but inside that rail.  I used clear drying DAP acrylic latex caulk with silicone in little daps atop the black plastic ties as an adhesive.   Works.  Once I sever near the frog to prevent shorts, I'll have to feed that point.

The sliding rail of that minor track flex track curves and extends along side the other stock rail of the first track, but this time tight against the black spike heads on the outside.  That gives me the guage, and the DAP does the same trick.  It's pretty firm for slow sleep and a light switcher.

A photo is worth a 1000 words, so here is a poor one hopefully showing how it looks at present.  I still have to cut, shape the ends of, and plant a guard inside the stock rail on the diverging route.

  • Member since
    August 2011
  • From: A Comfy Cave, New Zealand
  • 6,233 posts
Posted by "JaBear" on Thursday, May 1, 2014 5:03 AM

selector
Many weeks have passed, alas, and I have accomplished nothing.  I have had other demands on my time........

Well as long as those demands were not of too serious a nature, besides Rome wasn't built in a day.Smile, Wink & Grin

Cheers, the Bear.

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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