Free-moN Staging Yard - 16"x10'

[mcfunkeymonkey]

I do love wax paper!

Probably one of the most useful household items for model railroading!
I use it a lot for scratchbuilding: lay it over the plan I drew on cardstock and then build the wooden structure over it so the woodglue doesn't stick to the paper.

Wax paper might work between sections while scenicking, though I find just remembering to unclamp the section right after scenicking works well, as then you can wipe the drips off the section plates.

Of course, remembering to unclamp is the key, and wax paper would help while scenicking after the 2-3 beer :)

[Bikerdad]

I stand in awe, and am humbled by your industriousness, creativity, attention to detail and problem solving.  I'd like to make a small contribution that could help simplify a recurring complication.

Wax paper.

When you're clamping two modules together for scenicing, you're always worried about gluing the two together.  before you clamp 'em, put some wax paper between them.  It's very thin, and will prevent the modules from becoming too fond of one another.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks for the kind words, BF.
And glad you find the videos helpful.
They're fun to make :)

Here's the other 45 I'm scenicking.





Same deal: needs bushes, tufts, etc. (that's today) but you get a sense of the scene.
Think I'm going to leave the creek dry, though I can always put some water in later.
And at some point I might cut the concrete culvert out and install an old A-frame trestle.
We'll see.

Now to figure out where the short is in the storage yard!

[Blue Flamer]

M.C.

Thanks for all the tutorials and video's. You make it much easier for we mere mortals to follow along with what you are doing and how it will look with trains rolling through the finished scenes through your excellent video's. Keep up the great work. It is greatly appreciated.

Blue Flamer.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

On the 45's, I installed pockets for single legs using my patented "no screw" method of spreading wood glue in the center of the surfaces and CA at the edges. 
The CA cures quickly and holds everything in place while the woodglue emulsifies and cures.



As single units, the 45's don't need legs: clamping to a larger module with legs on each side is enough.
But if you use two or more 45's in a row (as either a curve or a snaking straight) then the legs take the pressure off all the clamps to hold it up.

Originally I was envisioning one 45 to have an abandoned crossing across the rails, but then I remembered all the structures and trees I have left over from Mt. Coffin, and so built this little wayside stop:







For now the water tower is removable with two long spikes holding it in place, but that might get perminantly affixed, depending on packing space on Sunday.
Still needs bushes and tufts and details, but it's nice to see Mt. Coffin live again (or at least pieces of it, like the Creature in Frankenstein).

Only a couple of days until the Coast Div. meet and lots of tasks to finish before then.
Today will be dropping feeders and wiring up the folding storage yard.
Woot!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Took out all the 1/4" bolts & t-nuts ("Mr. T" nuts?) I had been using as levelers on all my modules, chopped 4" off the ends, and installed Rockler levelers:





The Rockler levelers require about 2" sq. space for install, thus the cleats around the bottoms.
[screw split one (D'oh!), which is why it's still being clamped]

For anyone doing modules, I highly recommend the Rockler levelers.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5217&site=ROCKLER
At $17 for a set of 4 they're bit more expensive than bolts, but man are they awesome and make height adjustment a snap (or twist).
MUCH easier than bolts!
And as we're doing more shows in the near future, ANYTHING that makes setup easier is easily worth the money.

Also finished building the endplates for Effett Yard:





Which makes the module much easier & safer to transport, as well as occupy a smaller footprint in the car (YEAY!).
Can also stack things on top! (Yeay!) 
So more room for more modules!

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Also been building the small but very handy 45 deg. modules.
At 2' across at the widest, they just fit a 22" radius curve with a couple inches of straght at each end.









That last pair will have industries along the spur, so when connected it's a short runaround and large industry, but if separated there'll still be an industry on each end.

We'll see how it works in practice 

 

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Been working on the 12" x 8' folding storage yard that attaches to Effett Yard. Some progress picts over the last week:











All the turnouts will be controlled by slide switches.
The slide switches for the cross over (end of runaround) needed to be fitted partially under the track, as there's not much space.
Tracks are at 1 1/4" centers.

Here's the clearance when folded up:



Ar 5" wide, should fit in the car 

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Finally finished the transition module scene with trestle.
Added walkways, bushes and a bunch of miner's lettuce near the banks (helps break up the line created from the Magic Water creeping into the groundcover).

So here's some outdoor photos with the new Bachmann 2-6-0 (straight out of the box, no weathering or MT905 coupler replacement or anything yet):









I think it turned out alrighty, but any suggestions for improvement are always appreciated.

Now on to building more turnouts for the storage yard!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks, Mr. B.

I'm sure we'll find a way to use it, if only as a nice photo diorama :)
(The bigger issue is finding space for it in my car!)

Well, it's cured.
While the Magic Water creeped a couple inches to each side, after curing it's not as shiny as when wet.
Actually makes a nice slight contrast with a slightly darker "ground" around the banks.
To cut the shine that remains, I remembered an old trick I figured out a long time ago: sprinkle some dirt on the shiny area under the grass and then use an old toothbrush to rub it in.
After vacuuming up the wayward grains:





It's actually a lot less shiny in person.
So a few new tufts and adding some watercress leaves (brush grass tops with white glue and sprinkle AMSI light green fine ground foam), I think we'll be good to go.
Time to attach the guard rails!

Thanks for looking.

[MisterBeasley]

That is too nice a module not to use.  I think you should make another module, perhaps a foot or two in length, that would bring the track-on-plywood level up to roadbed height.  Then everyone could see that beautiful trestle, regardless of how the layout gets configured that day.

Just don't make it so dang nice.

Again, thanks for showing us all this nice work.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

I use Magic Water tinted with some Floquil BNSF Heritage Green & Grimy Black (need to use solvent-based paints for tinting), and the Magic Water tends to creep a lot.
Here's after one day:



You can see where it's gone several inches up the ground cover on each side.
It's almost cured, so I don't think it's going to creep any more than this.
I'm not too worried about it, as I can plant more tufts and even spot-drop some dirt and static grass on the more offensive areas, but it's supposed to be a wet slough anyway :)

[The sign is for those who love to touch modeled water such as my wife and kids, and neighbors who wonder over when the garage door is open, which it was all day yesterday because I burned my hashbrowns into cinders and smoked up the whole house and so had to do some heavy venting before the wife came home]

Here's a shot on how it'd look coming off the Effett Yard insert:



Upon reflection, I probably should have made the insert straight and had one turnout come off each side, then we could have the storage yard AND a branch-line interchange!
Hmmm....

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Painted the PC board ties a mixture of Floquil Foundation, SP Lettering Grey, and Grimy Black so the blend into the wood.
Ballasted the ends, and THEN poured the Magic Water.
Finally followed my own advice about doing the water last!!!



At the top of my workbench you can see some homemade tufts I attempted using hair planted in caulk on waxpaper.
Makes decent watergrass.

Water still needs a day or two to cure, and maybe another pour if it seeps too far under the scenery, but so far so good:



[I placed a piece of black foamcore behind the scene, which is why it's a bit creepy]

But soon trains will be ready to roll!



Still need to place the guard rails in (got some C40 drying right now), but I can CA those in.
Also need to put in some walkways / outer deck supports but those are easy.
After the water stops seeping I can go back and touch up with some dirt and tufts along the slough.
It's slow-moving, so I doubt I'll add any Modge Podge for effects, especially since MP seems to attract every dust & dirt particle known to man.
Need to stick an old rowboat down there somewhere, too.



But a fun project for something that will probably never get used at a show!
At least it's groovy for a small photo diorama.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

The module itself has a sheet of 1/2" ply under some scrap 2" foam.
(so that means there's 3 1/2" of space underneath: perfect for the 1"x4" cross supports!)

As I knew there was going to be water on this scene, I made sure to seal the edges of the ply & hardboard fascia with caulk.
After shaping the foam, I slopped some sculptamold on to eliminate the foam seams and create the land portion of the slough:



Remember that this is a transition module that's going from ply to cork, so I added cork only on one side and sanded it down at a slight grade.
I also carved the shapes of the cribbing and retaining wall straight out of the foam.

Painted the foam and slough bed, threw on some dirt, gravel and a little ground foam, then test-fitted the trestle deck:



I'm doing things a bit bass-awkward here: usually I get the track in first and wired and running, but because of how I install the rails on the deck, I'm scenicking first.
I want to make sure I have a lot of grass under the trestle, which is a bit easier before the trestle is installed.

Put in the retaining wall and the cribbing, added some tufts after the static grass, and then installed the trestle:



Spray-painted a piece of flex track Grimy Black, then installed it.
I put the fixed rail on the outside & soldered it first, which made adjusting the inner sliding rail much easier:



Don't forget to scrape the rail bottoms before soldering!

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

For the last week or so I've been building the curved module that transitions from Effett Yard's track-on-ply to the Free-moN standard track-on-cork-roadbed.
Almost an excercise in futility, as we'll probably always use the folding storage yard off the wye instead of turning Effett into a branch interchange, but you never know.
And it's been fun building a bridge again:





You can see the jig I built to get all the bents the same.
The "bar" across the center of the jig is the bottom of the shorter bents: I glued that in after I had built all the taller bents.
In the above photo you can also see the PC board ties I GorrilaGlued in gaps I left when building the span.
[And, ignoring my own advice, I forgot to gap the PC board ties BEFORE gluing them in, but it all turnout out ok with some mighty fine Dremeling later]



The NBW details are a bit time-consuming to add, but very, very much worth it in the end.
Just compare the un-NBWed bent on the left to the others.
Those are HO 1" nuts and HO 2 1/2" square nuts from Grandt Line (which, I just found out, is located in the next town over of Concord, CA).
I was going to run out of the square nuts, so I replaced the outer 4 with rectangular-washer NBWs (you'll see later).



Pairing up the bents at where the stringers abutt is good prototypical practice, and saves abutt-load of NBW details!

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Finished (except for some misc. trackside details) scenicking the new insert for Effett Yard:



Yes, some of the tufts look like tribbles.
But after the tacky glue dries I can thin them down a bit.

Built the "benchwork" and legs for the 12" x 8' storage yard extension (folds in half to 4' x 12" x 5", which is about all the space I have left in my car).

Here's the mock-up of the ladders:



7 #7s, with a crossover at the far side to create a runaround.
Other 5 tracks are stub-end.

Here's the whole assembly:



[Tracks are just placed on the storage yard to show spacing]
Hopefully, this will allow a few more trains to run on our Silicon Valley Free-moN layout.
At our last show, some trains just stayed parked at Effett Yard, effectively blocking a few through tracks.
Now operators or the designated Yard Goat can put some trains back in storage to free up more space on the through tracks.
But somehow I think we're just going to have more trains ;)
If you build it, they will come!

But that's not all!
This is a Swiss Army Yard Insert.
I'm also building a short (2') 15-deg. curved "adaptor" module to go from the track-flat-on-ply up to Free-moN Standard cork roadbed:



It'll have a curved wooden trestle over a wetland / slough.
That way, if we don't need the extra storage yard, we can use Effett as an interchange yard with a branchline.
Always good to have the options!

Now off to build some #7 turnouts!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

I built a new insert for Effett Yard: same 15 deg. bend but with a turn-off on the outer track to lead to a storage yard or to connect to another module (like a junction).



Custom-built the turnout to match the straight-then curve of the outer track with the diverging track beginning the curve to the single-track branch.

I used a Bullfrog to throw the turnout / power the frogs, but didn't want knobs sticking out of the sides, so I cut off the end of a paintbrush, filed a notch at the base, then wood-glued it to the Bullfrog:



Given the narrow (12") width of the insert, it's easy just to reach underneath and throw it.

Lining up the tracks to the two yard sections is easy, but to ensure a flush-straight alignment for the single track I used a trick Steve Williams of our Free-moN group taught me:



A small mirror is very effective in ensuring perpendicular alignment at the ends!
(Had to remove the "Disney Princess" cover of the mirror, though.  Sorry!)

While building 40+ vines for my Shoo-fly vineyard I was able to finish installing the track, drop all the feeders and install & wire the Bullfrog, so we now have a new insert / lead to storage / junction:



Some replacement ties, paint, ballast & ground cover & we're ready to rock n' roll!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Mr. B: we have no idea what we're doing or what modules will show up until the day of.
We try to organize a little ahead of time, but we're a pretty "loose" group, so we figure things out as we go along.
Only a few modules have passing sidings, so we try to space those out.
Other than that...
Of course, we've only done a couple shows with more than 6-7 modules, so we're figuring it out as we go.

 

Would have posted this earlier but was busy watching the SF Giants knock out the Dodgers from the playoffs and the Oakland A's winning the AL West Division
Exciting times for Bay Area baseball!
And my beloved SJ Earthquakes are leading the whole MLS league!
Woot!

Anyway, I finally finished some videos showing how I scratchbuild simple wooden structures like this:

Here's Part I:

watch?v=05gbRVOABgg&feature=plcp
 
And here's Part II:

watch?v=8wt5WI9Iqsk&feature=plcp
 
Hopefully the videos will help take some of the mystery out of scratchbuilding plank by plank and inspire people to build their own structures instead of building the same kits as every other layout.
I built this shed very quickly (about two hours total, including drying times) to get it on the Silicon Valley Free-moN Effett Yard module before the GTE show a couple weeks ago, so it's not the most complicated structure nor the most detailed (the yard is called "Effett" for a reason!)

But if I can do this in a couple of hours in N scale, imagine what you can do over a day or two!

Also been building a new insert for Effett Yard: still 2' long and has the 15 deg. bend, but I'm sticking a turnout on the outer runaround to lead to a basic storage yard, so the new insert is a three-sided section:



The 7-track storage / classification yard (we deal with unit trains for now, so it's pretty much one & the same) will be two 12" x 48" x 2" sections hinged together so it can fold up and fit in the last little space left in my car:



Also building a "transition section" from the flat yard to corked main that can be swapped in for the storage yard and act as a junction to regular modules.
But we'll see how that works out.

Anyway, thanks for looking.

[MisterBeasley]

Thanks for the video.  I waited to watch it until I had some free quiet time in my office at home, so I could turn on the sound and enjoy the full effect.

Does the group have a "standard" configuration for the modules, or do you set it up differently every time, depending on the space and which modules show up?  Do you do the arrangement as a team, or is there a "module boss" who just has it all together and knows what works with what, and which modules just don't play nicely with each other?  As a side note, do you have pairs of modules that don't play nicely with each other, for some reason?

This might not be appropriate for your locale, but I like to break the monotony of flat yards with small rock castings and ditches filled with dirty water.  The ditches give you an excuse for a small spot of grasses and weeds struggling against the grimy ballast of the yard.  Small rock castings, placed horizontally, look like ledge rock.  Placed appropriately, they can give a "reason" why a turnout is placed where it is, and not just a bit further down the line.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

A few short trees around the steam service:



A long view of the trees & tanks:



Not sure: I kinda liked it without trees. Made it seem older & more industrial.
But does tie it in with the other modules more.
And, realistically, most of those trees are going to be victims of 0-5-0 accidents after the next couple shows, so I'll have time to decide if I like them or not.
(And rebuild them with wire & solder if I do)

Wide view of the diesel service & machine shop:



And steam service end:



Looking more & more busy & real.
Fun to put all the little details in.
Any suggestions for more details appreciated!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Always kind of a let down after a show, going from frantic building / scenicking to coming home and taking a breather.
Good time to clean up the workspace, take stock of projects, and just focus on some smaller detailing easily accomplished in a couple hours or so.

On Effett Staging Yard, I added a hoist crane to the MOW shed:



A water spout for the steam service:



[made from metal sprues from a Stewart Diesel Service kit, wire, and tender weight as a base]

Speaking of diesel service: got most of it in, and behind a fence, too.



Still waiting for some Traincat walkways and railings for the service platform.
Also still need to put in some bumpers!

Got some trees in, too, so the loo isn't out stark naked as a full moon in a... well, fertilizer field.



Need to get a lot of scraps, trash, bushes, etc., as well as an office for the tanks in, but the trees do bring in a lot of "world."

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

We're definitely going to have to come up with some kind of operating plan now that we have more trains and operators on the layout.
All of Effett Yard's tracks were occupied pretty much all of the time:



In addition to a few trains parked on the passing sidings of the Devil Mountain return loop:



But through both days, trains were running and people were having fun!



And, of course, a short (5 minute) video:

watch?v=8hQdzJVDn4g

Thanks for looking & hope to see you at the next show!

[mcfunkeymonkey]

GTE was a blast.
With a second return loop and four new members' modules, including a junction, we had over 120 feet of continuous running!
(double that, if you count going both ways one circuit!)

Not only that, but we were able to break down, pack up & leave in 40 minutes!
(Even more amazing: everything fit in all our cars!)

It was great to run long trains over long distances.
It was also great to meet so many people from the forums as well.
Trainboard vet Ryan Wilkerson even brought his two young sons from Sacramento (two hours away) for a day of running trains:



[Ryan's the dapper dude on the right, whle the scruffy Santa-in-training in the center is our own beloved Dave Falkenburg]
The kids Cade & Cort were awesome: they brought their own smart phones to use as throttles and turned out to be better engineers than most of us adults!
They ran scale speeds, even yard speed, actually listened to the dispatcher, and made sure to line the turnouts and watch of traffic.
We'll need them back at the next show to teach us how to run trains!

So we went from 3-4 operators yesterday to over 8 today, and man the layout got crowded quickly!
Luckily the new return loop can stack about 6 long trains around it, and Murph's Junction has a long passing track, so there are plenty of places to pass: quite a change back in April when we had only one passing siding on one module!

In between running trains we had other projects to work on.
After a couple of hours, Scott & Steve finally got my Kato NW2 consisted with Scott's Arnold S-2, and that pair could out-pull almost anything on the layout:



Here they are waiting in front of Devil Mountain on the return loop.

The layout was so busy the wreck train never got a chance to run (even though there were plenty of wrecks), but looked nice parked in Sonoma by the Shoofly:



And Steve demonstrates why it's not a good idea to wear open-toed sandals when dropping metal objects on your feet:



But he didn't admit "da feet" and soldiered & soldered on.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Here's Murph's junction:



He's got a couple modules that go from single to double track, which is groovy as another passing place.
He just laid some of the track and wired it up morning-of-show, so we'll work on it some more today.

Here's from the other end of the layout:



Steve's car boxes provide the scenery and viewblocks on the wye/return loop.
Ignore the big mess in the middle.

The staging yard quickly fills up:



I'll have to build a new insert that branches off to a proper storage yard to free up this space for through trains.
Rick Brodzinsky stopped by with his Cab Forward and some heavyweights to roll around the layout.
Quite the eyecatcher!

Since we don't have the cab bus hooked up everywhere yet (today's project), it's great that our iPhones work well as throttles!
Here's Scott checking the turnouts before heading out of Effett Yard:



I'll get better photos and some video today.
It's amazing how fast time flies when you're running trains and talking with a lot of people.
(note to self: bring cold drinks today!)

See you soon, and thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

First day of the GTE show at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds went pretty well.
It's amazing how a totally unorganized group (that is us, Silicon Valley Free-moN) can get together and put up a large layout in a few hours!
Here's the one "set up" pict:



Murph and Eric are putting together our "Ring of Fire" that we ignite and have jump through every time someone says "Why are the trains going so slow?"
No, that's really the return loop / double wye Eric built in about three days for X2011.
Gotta say, it was nice to finally have TWO return loops, one on each end of the layout!

Here's the other one:



Having the extra two tracks on the new return loop was awesome: amazing how many more trains you can run when you have more than one place for them to pass!
It was also a good spot to set trains up so not everyone was crowded around the staging yard.

Our set up is basically a big "3", with the return loops on each end and Murph's new junction module in the center to lead off to a branchline.
Turned out to be a nice big fortress, though a little linear: a couple more curved modules will allow a bit more undulation.

Here's a shot down the long middle:



All the modules with passing sidings (Devil Mt. return loop, Effett Staging Yard, Steve Williams' Lockhart) are pretty evenly space out, so timing is pretty good for meets & passing.

Here's a look back to show the distance between the yard and the return loop, with my Shoofly & Dave Falkenburg's Alviso modules in between:



[cont.]

[MisterBeasley]

Ooooh, please post some videos of the whole thing set up with other modules.  It's great to watch these modules going from lumber to layout, and then seeing a train traversing the whole thing brings it all together.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

sakel

Why the Z-scale couplers?

Looks better (and more proportional) than N scale couplers, which can look like The Thing's fist sticking out of a loco.

 

What happens when you don't screw the cap back on the NeoLube while it's sitting on your module while you're lubing up turnouts?



D'oh!
Big Stain.
Soaked it with alcohol and most wiped up.
That area's scenicked with static grass and tufts now, so hardly noticeable.
But a good reminder to keep a lid on it!

Spent the last couple days blowing out my eyes and back building a coaling tower for Effett Yard:







Not the most prototypically accurate (i.e. should have two chains & pullies on each chute, etc.) but it does the job.
(and remember: it's "Effett" Yard)
How do dudes get up to the door at the top?
Well, until I get my ladders from Traincat, I guess I'll have to put a rope in there.

Alrighty.
Almost time to schlup this stuff down to San Jose & set up for the Great Train Expo tomorrow.
Still have to put in a water spout, sand tower, diesel facilities, and a MOW shed.
Maybe some people too, but I can always do that at the show.

Thanks for looking and hope to see you in San Jose!
(Do you know the way?)

[sakel]

Why the Z-scale couplers?

[mcfunkeymonkey]

No U-haul for me.
I'm pretty sure I can Chinese-Box everything, especially after unbolting & taking out the back seats ;)
Fingers are crossed!

Before tackling Effett Staging Yard, I took a break from scenery work to finish a steamer project that's been sitting on my workbench for a year.
Back at X2011 in Sacramento I found a 2-6-0 someone had built off a Kato 2-6-0 chassis:





Notice the Japanese three-axle tender.
I wanted to turn this into the Effett Yard yardgoat, so I changed the tender to a slopeback, installed MT905 Z scale couplers front & back, steps, handgrabs and installed a DZ125 decoder (in the tender).

So here's what it looks now:



Not sure if it's an improvement, but at least I have my yardgoat!
[More important: given the loco "graveyard" that is my workbench, this is the first loco project that actually works after taking one apart and attempting to "improve" and put back together!]

Still need to add some cab curtains to help hide the motor.
And thinking about removing the pilot to make it a 0-6-0.
It's pretty heavy and runs pretty smooth (though a little faster going backwards on the same speed step), so we'll see how many cars it can shove this weekend.

Thanks for looking.