Tonight I finished soldering the feeder wires for main and branch line up to the bridge, this included connecting the feeder wires to the bus. I also install the Hex Frog Juicer to three of the five turnouts. This allowed me to run my first maiden voyage on the layout with DCC. I am hoping tomorrow the painting for the bridge track will be complete so the remainder of the branch line track can be wired and ready for painting and ballasting. One thing I noticed with my Bachmann 2-6-0 tonight is it doesn't play nice with Atlas turnouts. It stalls on every one so I am seriously thinking of scrapping the Atlas turnouts for Peco turnouts.
John
One thing I noticed with my Bachmann 2-6-0 tonight is it doesn't play nice with Atlas turnouts. It stalls on every one so I am seriously thinking of scrapping the Atlas turnouts for Peco turnouts.
John, I have the same problem. I read somewhere (unconfirmed though) that they are only powered on two wheels. Currently my solution has been to only run Diesels. If you come up with a solution that enables you to keep the Atlas turnouts, I am all ears as at the moment I have a paperweight.
sjhenry One thing I noticed with my Bachmann 2-6-0 tonight is it doesn't play nice with Atlas turnouts. It stalls on every one so I am seriously thinking of scrapping the Atlas turnouts for Peco turnouts. John, I have the same problem. I read somewhere (unconfirmed though) that they are only powered on two wheels. Currently my solution has been to only run Diesels. If you come up with a solution that enables you to keep the Atlas turnouts, I am all ears as at the moment I have a paperweight.
John, I have the same problem. I read somewhere (unconfirmed though) that they are only powered on two wheels. Currently my solution has been to only run Diesels. If you come up with a solution that enables you to keep
the Atlas turnouts, I am all ears as at the moment I have a paperweight.
Steve, I found this link on the Bachmann forums on how to improve the electrical pickup of small steamers.
http://www.55n3.org/cars/tender_wipers/
JohnB. sjhenry One thing I noticed with my Bachmann 2-6-0 tonight is it doesn't play nice with Atlas turnouts. It stalls on every one so I am seriously thinking of scrapping the Atlas turnouts for Peco turnouts. John, I have the same problem. I read somewhere (unconfirmed though) that they are only powered on two wheels. Currently my solution has been to only run Diesels. If you come up with a solution that enables you to keep the Atlas turnouts, I am all ears as at the moment I have a paperweight. Steve, I found this link on the Bachmann forums on how to improve the electrical pickup of small steamers. http://www.55n3.org/cars/tender_wipers/ John
Gentlemen,
I don't have a Bachmann 2-6-0 and I use Code 100 but as an alternate to the tender wipers have you considered fitting a "stay alive" to your decoder?
Here is one example but there are many different options depending on what decoder you have:
http://www.esu.eu/en/products/accessories/powerpack/
Regards,
Mick
John,
Thanks for the link. I'll disassemble the unit and see if this might work.
Mick,
I have the 2-6-0 with the Soundtraxx Sound Value in it, so something like this might be an option as well as I think the decoder is in the tender where there may be room for another component.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi All,
Another update on the N&W. I have finished framing the main scenery elements and have covered in plaster cloth. Now starting on the minor space fill in and rock detailing.
Looking good!
To what extent did all of you use plaster or sculptamold and the flat surfaces of the plywood? Years ago I made a simple layout and , boy was it flat. Did you plaster in the areas where buildings are and leave the train yards flat?
Moses, I have tried to have contours almost everywhere there is not a building or a yard area. The hills and mountains take up a considerable amount of space on this layout. That leaves mainly the outside edges of the layout that are flat. What I have done there is cut out several small pieces of 3/4 inch foam around 2 or 3 inches long in the shape of a hill maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inches high and paste these intermittently around the outside of the layout. I then used sculptamold to smooth it out, painted it, and the textured it. You can see these small undulations in my pictures near the Cullen station, although I should have had one directly across the tracks from Cullen (mine is Madison) station. I am in the process of working on the area around the trestle and have included some of these small hills there. I will be posting pictures of that area soon.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Roger
Edit... I just looked at old pictures I posted and they do not clearly show those hills. I will try to take a good of those and post them soon.
My Layout Pics
Here are some pics showing those small hills along side of layout:
This pic shows 3 of the the foam cutouts pasted along the side of the layout to make the hills.
This pic shows the hills from the track side.
This next pic shows the area coming out of tunnel where I created another small hill.
The real world doesn't have miles of flat terrain, so why should our layouts?
Really nice Roger. I think the mistake we first make (at least I did on my first one years ago) is to make our layouts too flat. Your layout is great example of what some gentile rises can do to make it all look real. I think even slight changes in elevation are perceived by the viewer and they help "sell" the layout. Thanks again.
I have been working on creating a dedicated train space in my basement. I have finally got it to the point that I can again work on the layout. I still have painting to finish, a door to install and some trim work to do. In the meantime I have started working on the scene under my trestle. I installed cross supports between the trestle bents, created the waterfalls, planted cattails in the pond, and made the first pour of WS Realistic Water this morning. I still have not created and planted all of the trees for this area or planted all the scrub brush. Here are some pics.
Great pictures Rogerthat. Love some of the modifications.
Garin,
Thanks for the compliment. I have strayed a lot from how David Popp did the magazine's version of the Virginian. Before I even decided on this layout I had a list of things I wanted included and one was a wooden trestle and one was a waterfall. As they say around here, there is one rule in model railroading, and that is that it's your railroad and you can do whatever you want.
I hope if you decide to build this layout that you post lots of pictures in this thread showing your progress.
Good luck,
Wow...that's some nice work there Rogerthat! Very inspirational!
Don.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
Rodgerthat, I love those cattails how did you model them or did you purchase them? Adds a very nice to the scene.
Thanks for the compliments both Don and John. Much appreciated. The cattails are from a German company named Busch. The package came with 120 plants, of which I have used 60 of them in this scene. Walthers Botanicals also has cattails, although from what I read there is some assembly to them. The Busch cattails came as sets of 3 cattails tied together. I simply painted the tops (flowers?) brown and then I dry brushed some yellow ochre around the roots and dry brushed a light tan on a few of the leaves to make them appear as dying. You have to look close to see this. If I get around to it, I will add some other grasses in among the cattails.
Thanks for looking.
Roger,
I really like the way your rock faces have come out... So much so, that I think mine need another session of dry brushing and maybe a few small bushes...
I will of course post pics in here. Do you have any plans to add the Turtle Creek or Thin Branch lines to your layout?
Like I mentioned in a previous post, I now have dedicated space to expand my train layout. The room is approximately 14' by 17' but only 14' x 12' will be available for the layout. The remainder of the room is needed to allow access to the utility room and space for modeling work area. Here is a diagram showing room layout with possible future expansion of layout. So yes, a version of the Thin Branch or something similar is definitely a possibility. Startup would probably be this winter..
Here are some additional pics of my waterfall/trestle scene.
Our layout spaces are very similar. Great shots!
For those looking back through this thread, who may have questions to ask me concerning my building of the layout, I do have a place on my website's blog page for questions, so feel free to ask! I don't get on this site often anymore, but do on my website, where I have photos of building the layout, how I built certain things on the layout, operating the layout, and prototype history and photos of the area modeled. Hope everyone will pop over and take a look! Have a friend currently editing one or two videos of trains running, that I hope to post soon......
Airborne,
WOW, great layout! I have the same idea that you have in operating a different railroad on the same layout (NS in my case).
Do you have any intention on adding to your current layout? Bookmarked your site, lots of good reading...
Garin
Thanks much for the compliment!
I decided to build a branch off the old NYC/PC instead of the Virginian as I model NYC and PC, mostly PC, However, with my "interchange" being at DB Tower, on the front right corner of the layout, I can simulate the far westernmost end of the old Virginian where it connected into the NYC there if I desire. Or, in PC years, DB Tower can remain there with an N&W connection. I also chose this prototype branch, as I have railfanned and traveled through the area modeled which I believe always helps when modeling, and the fact PC and NYC used small power on the branch proper (plus NYC an RDC at one time), and finally, the branch had two coal mines on the dead end branch, which fit right in...
I don't have plans at this point to expand, as quite frankly, I just don't have room at the moment, as the layout is in our townhome garage. If room does someday become available, I would I believe build an extension, but not the Thin Branch exactly.....
Thanks for bookmarking the site! I think I've added a lot of extra material, and plan to add an operating video soon of a work train on the layout with my equipment and a friends kitbashed, custom weathered work train cars. I am also trying to gain permission to use a current day video taken from a NS engine, as it leaves the now West Virginia Secondary at where DB Tower used to stand, and starts off heading down the old Virginian across the Kanawha river down to Vaco Jct., to show what the area looks like, plus some more prototype photos from NYC/PC days.
Finally, halfway down my blog page I have a blog post area for questions, so hope you'll check that out! Thanks again, and hope to see some photos here of your efforts soon....:)
I haven't finished The Virginian yet, but I have designed a plan for an addition. The blue square is roughly representative of The Virginian. This extension is based on CB&Q, Lacrosse division published in the magazine in December, 2012. I designed it to have a continuous loop for long running freights. I also kept it narrow enough to be easily accessible. Because it is all flat this should keep construction time and cost somewhat lower.
Moses,
Looking forward to seeing your plan. Did you forget to attach it? One of the issues I am having with coming up with a plan is to figure out how to have large continuous loop. The Virginian becomes a dead end.
Sorry Roger. I thought I had attached it. I am new to Photobucket, so bear with me.
Sorry about all of my bumbling. Here is an updated plan that is easier to see. A rough representation of the Virginian is in the upper right corner. I have included tabletop surfaces also.
Wow, this thread slipped to page 3. Can't have that! Here are some pictures of my latest progress:
What is a mining site without an actual mine entrance?
Added an office building at the truck dump site. This is the AMB LaserKit Grand Ave Yard Office kit. I followed Steven Otte's latest video on Video Plus when painting the structure to make it look like peeling paint.
Rodgerthat, Once again your layout progress and modeling are amazing. The mine head is a nice touch and I like the effect you achieved on the peeling paint. Keep up the great work.