Weekly update #4:
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It is time for the plaster cloth to go on over the cardboard forms.
I build my scenery in the following steps:
1) Cardboard former strips
2) Plaster Cloth
3) Hardshell
4) solid plasters for final form
5) joint compound for a smooth finish
I am starting with the plaster cloth this week. The cardboard is barely strong enough to support the cloth, but it works.
I required four rolls of woodland scenics plaster cloth for this layout segment.
I cut it into shapes roughly 8" by 8", 4" by 8", and 4" by 4".
I barely got started when I realized I never built the support platform for the only structure that I will have on the layout segment. Stop the cloth!
I had to put away the plaster supplies, rearrange the garage, and get the woodworking tools back out and set up.
I made a quick riser to support the structure platform
Then I secured this riser into place on the framework.
I added the platform to the top. The structure platform was cut from 3/8" plywood.
After I finished the plaster cloth, this is the progress I have made so far.
I still did not make it to the Hydrocal Hardshell phase of contruction yet. I had a bad delay, and then I decided to put decals on a few train cars.
I will update again next week.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
gmpullman mending plates and joist clips.
The mending plates were used in a couple spots where multiple pieces of dimensional lumber came together. If I would have planned ahead a little bit better, they would not have been needed.
This is something I will need to watch out for when I build the real layout. For this segment they seemed like a quick and easy solution.
I certainly do not want a layout filled with concealed knife blades!
Very good progress, Kevin.
One item I might question is your use of the Simson galvanized mending plates and joist clips. Murphy's law tells me that you will be blindly reaching up through the benchwork to make some wiring changes and come away with a bloody hand.
I try to keep every screw point or sharp edge concealed anywhere under my benchwork. I still get nicked up sometimes but not too seriously.
Anyway... Nice Work! Carry On, Ed
Weekly Update 3:
Time to get down to scenery building! I love scenery. This is where the mechanicals get concealed and a model railroad appears.
First things first. I need to protect all that work I did to the trackwork last week. Masking the track is a must, and I am surely not going to let any adhesive touch my silver-gleamed rails. I make masks from manilla paper. I start by embossing the track onto the paper, and then trim the mask to the width of the ties.
Then I tape the mask to the roadbed. No adhesive from the tape will touch the rails or track.
The control panels were dropped back from the mounting openings and wrapped up in manilla paper also. I cannot let plaster get on them and ruin my graphics. I also removed the power packs from the layout.
I love the idea of the Chooch flexible retaining walls, but the self sticking adhesive of the walls is just terrible and it always peels away. I decided to try to secure one in place with wood glue. Hey, this is an experimental piece... I might as well experiment some more.
I brushed on a full coat of Titebond Wood Glue to the cardboard backer piece.
Then I clamped the Chooch retaining wall in place as best as I could.
When the glue dried, I removed the clamps. It seems like there is some hope for this to hold. It looks pretty good. I really hope I can find a way to make these work.
For the bridge abutments in the river area I am going to try another product that is new to me. This is a cut stone wall material from Faller. The stones are embossed into blue foam and painted. They look really good, and can be easily made into any shape needed.
The big bridge should look right on home sitting on this foundation.
The small deck bridge will look good too.
The rock castings went into place. I will fill in the gaps with sculptamold and blend everything together later.
Then I spent a couple days weaving the cardboard supports for the scenery together. This was sure time consuming.
The mountain on the left in taking shape nicely.
The river area is also starting to look like something.
I really thought I would get some plaster down this week, but things just took longer than expected. Maybe I am getting slow.
We should see some plaster very soon.
mbinsewiThat is an old quarter!
I bought that quarter at a flea market over a decade ago. It was in poor shape when I aquired it, but I sure have made it a lot worse.
Yep, now I see'em. That is an old quarter!
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewiNot seeing any pictures
I was having trouble making the "Insert Picture" function work for some reason.
They should be there now.
Not seeing any pictures ?? I can see all of your pictures prior to this last post.
Weekly Update 2:
There was no weekly update last week. I was too busy visiting train shows and hanging out with the family.
I finished painting the ties. Now I am ready to start scenery.
As we know, this is an experiment in layout contruction. I usually paint my ties a very limited pallet of dark gray and brown. I am going to try to exagerate the colors a little on this segment. If I like the results, I will do this on the real layout. We will not know the final effect until the ballast is in place.
I organized ten colors of my Vallejo paints and got the Masterson Wet Pallette ready.
I paint about 20% of the ties in the darkest gray that I have. In this case is it Vallejo Black-Gray.
On the turnout I paint more of the ties dark. It should look a little better maintained.
Then I Paint about 20% of the ties the next darkest gray. Now about 2 out of 5 ties should be painted. Be sure to keep the color distribution random.
I use an assorted pallette of 8 more colors for the last 60% of the ties. Only very few are painted the lightest colors. I used a mix of gray, brown, and dark red.
In this overall view the nice look of variation of color is evident and on full display.
The stock Atlas sectional track is on the left. The painted track and ties are on the right. It is easy to see the difference all this paint work makes on the inexpensive sectional track. The unpainted track will be inside of a tunnel.
Now on to Rail Gleaming. I clean off all of the paint from the top of the rails and remove any excess solder. Then I use 1,000 grit sandpaper to lightly clean the rails.
Then I get out the 4/0 emery paper. This stuff is awesome for rail polishing. You can sand rough plexiglas with it and make it clear again. It is an extremely fine grit, almost perfectly smooth to the touch.
The tooth is so fine on this paper that the nickel-silver removed from the rail actually looks like chrome on the paper.
Then I use a silver quarter to gleam the rails. I know most people use a stainless steel washer, but I prefer to gleam my track with silver. This Walking Liberty quarter has gleamed a lot of rails. You almost cannot tell what it is anymore.
There your have it, rail preperation is done. I test ran a locomotive on all of the sections to make sure it is all good. No problems.
I am looking forward to experimenting with Hydrocal-30 this week.
Stay tuned.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL I already have a ventilation plan.
It is good to plan for ventilation. My house will have the master bedroom opposite the garage when the remodel is finished, and I hope that helps a bit. Right now the master bedroom is right next to the garage, and when I come in, my wife can smell the paint fumes.
hon30critter ATLANTIC CENTRAL Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint. Last night I painted the walls of the Walthers roundhouse that I am building for the club. I thought it would be okay to do the painting in the garage and then bring the pieces into the house to dry. The garage is not heated so I couldn't leave them out there. I have done this many times in the past with Polly Scale paints and we never had a problem. Unfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy. My bad! I'll have to wait for warmer weather if I want to use rattle cans again. Dave
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
Last night I painted the walls of the Walthers roundhouse that I am building for the club. I thought it would be okay to do the painting in the garage and then bring the pieces into the house to dry. The garage is not heated so I couldn't leave them out there. I have done this many times in the past with Polly Scale paints and we never had a problem. Unfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy. My bad! I'll have to wait for warmer weather if I want to use rattle cans again.
Dave
I understand. This is one of the reasons I don not use rattle cans.
They create way more fumes/over spray than an airbrush, even using paints like Scalecoat.
I do most work in front of the spray booth, except for scenery obviously.
My wife sometimes comments on the smell, but it has never caused me or her any respiratory distress.
My old layout was not in the house, but my model building workshop and spray booth were in the basement of the house.
This time around both workshop and layout will be in the basement, I already have a ventilation plan.
Sheldon
hon30critterUnfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy.
You are 100% right Dave.
The red oxide primer I use is really bad on my wife. She knows if I spray it outside.
ATLANTIC CENTRALBeing in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
BMMECNYCModel Master 4708 Rail Brown is a close but not exact match to RR tie brown
Good information. Thank you.
There is a lot more painting and finishing on the track yet to come... stay tuned!
Kevin,
Model Master 4708 Rail Brown is a close but not exact match to RR tie brown.
Ive personally used Apple Barrel (craft paint) black paint followed by Nutmeg Brown on the rail and burnt umber for the ties. You might be able to figure out how to airbrush these paints, and they may not trigger asthma. Don't know.
Ive also used Rustoleum Camouflage Brown on piles of rail outside, but I handlay everything. Flex track ends up not flexing/you get little spots of exposed rail, so thats probably not a solution.
I need to stay aware of my wife's asthma triggers. I think if I paint the track before we go away for a week we should be OK.
It was so much easier I simply need to do it this way from now on.
Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
Sure, painting cars, locos, structures is done in a paint booth (mostly), but it is what it is. It's not like you are going to do this everyday.
Well the painting part is easy - build the big layout in sections, each section being built and painted in the garage before being brought in and atteched to the end of the previous section. Instead of one big monolith of a layout - which it could be, in the end, as you carry other scenery right over the gaps between the modules.
This is the approach being widely talked about over at the other magazine. No one says you have to maintain the ability to remove the layout piece by piece in the same manner it was built.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Weekly update 1:
This week I worked on trackage some more.
I assembled both of the Atlas 9 inch bridges this week and tested them in their final positions.
I made both bridge abutments for the through girder bridge from a cut stone retaining wall that I cut into two pieces. I think this will work just fine.
I make filler ties from cut pieces of 0.060" by 0.100" styrene strips. I cut these to length to match the ties from Atlas sectional track.
I primed these filler ties with Krylon oxide red primer from a spray can and let them dry.
The filler ties are installed in the locations where I removed ties from the Atlas sectional track. Ties were removed from the ends of each section, and where feeder wires needed to be attached.
I needed to fill the holes in the center of the ties that Atlast provides for track nails. I drilled holes for spikes in the proper places. I use Blue/Yellow Kneadatite epoxy for this job. It is easy to work with and is a product that Model Railroaders seem to have ignored.
The scuplted Kneadatite will look fine when it is painted. It sure look a lot better than a big hole in the middle of a tie.
I mixed up the paint for the rails. For those of us that miss Floquil "Rail Brown", I have found that Model Master "Dark Earth" is a very good match.
Then I masked off all of the trackage that I did not want to be painted. This is the trackage that is inside of tunnels.
Then I painted the ties and rails with my airbrush.
This is where working in the garage has a huge advantage. I have never been able to use solvent based paints and an airbrush to paint rails and ties before. This was much better! I need to work out a way to do this indoors when I build the real layout.
I carefully positioned the switch points mid-throw before I painted the turnout. This was to avoid painting the points and getting them stuck in position.
I will post another update next week. As always, comments are welcomed.
Day 33, Post 1:
This will be my last daily update post. I have completed all of the basic benchwork, tracklaying, and wiring. That was the point of this excersize, to try new ideas and learn as much as possible. I learned about Homasote, I tested my framework design, and I proved a couple of other concepts. This has been time very well spent.
There will be cabinets above the layout, so I added a 12 inch wide shelf to see where the bottom of the cabinets would be, and if there would be enough room to work on the layout with them in place.
I hung angle brackets from the "stud" locations.
I put up two four foot boards to become the "bottom" of the cabinets. I could have done a much neater job, but my finger is killing me right now.
This is the overall view of what I have accomplished so far.
Thank you to all the people that have contributed comments.
There will be more to come about this project. I will keep adding new weekly updates as I work on the scenery and take some pictures, but progress is going to slow down. I need to get back to work!
Day 32, Post 3:
I cut the molded-on rocks away from one of the Mountains In Minutes random stone tunnel portals. This will make the two of them I am using on this segment not look like twins.
I hooked up all the wires, and decided to run some trains.
This is the first locomotive to cross the big bridge:
I got out a Mikado (still no STRATTON & GILLETTE lettering on this one), and ran it real slow in both directions and routes through the turnout. There was no stalling or any operational issues.
A+ success, except for me nearly cutting the end of my finger off today.
Day 32, Post 2:
Well... Somehow I bought the wrong Bridge Flex Track by Micro Engineering. I bought code 70 and I wanted code 83. Oh well, I can make it work.
This will be the track for the long bridge on the left side of the segment. I trimmed it to length, and allowed about an inch extra on each end. I trimmed off the bridge ties from the part that will extend beyond the end of the bridge.
I clamped the track down securely and filed the ends smooth. Even the factory cut end on this piece of track needed to be trued and smoothed out.
I removed some ties from a straight piece of Atlas sectional track.
These ties were slid down the Micro Engineering Bridge Track, and it looks pretty darned good.
Now I could lay down the last track on the far left upper level.
The last feeder wires were fed through.
These feeders will all be in a tunnel, so there was no need to solder them to the bottom of the rails. They were all simply soldered to the sides of the rails.
Happy with the productivity so far today.
Day 32, Post 1:
I am going to finsih the last little bit of trackwork on this project.
This little bit on the left side of the big bridge is all that is left.
I have cut the homasote subroadbed, and now I am waiting for the glue to dry for a little while.
SeeYou190 ATLANTIC CENTRAL I don't use full size toggles with 1/4 terminals any more for model trains. . I prefer the tactile "feel" to throwing a traditional full sized toggle switch. As long as I can figure a way to get enough room for them, I will continue to use them. . I also like those old style stacked pancake rotary switches. . -Kevin .
ATLANTIC CENTRAL I don't use full size toggles with 1/4 terminals any more for model trains.
I prefer the tactile "feel" to throwing a traditional full sized toggle switch. As long as I can figure a way to get enough room for them, I will continue to use them.
I also like those old style stacked pancake rotary switches.
I like the tactile feel of real switches too, but I need the pushbuttons for the ability to have multiple control stations for the same task, and space is a concern.
Day 31, Post 1:
I am working on the lower level of trackage now.
Since this is the layout project for experimentation, I am doing it a bit different on this level.
On the upper level I put down Homasote, then used cork roadbed on top of the homasote. For the lower trackage I am carefully cutting the 45 degree bevel on the homasote close to the trackage. There will be no cork roadbed, the profile of the homasote board will be the roadbed.
I think this might be a better idea. I like the nice tall roadbed look. I can easily build up the scenery base from the bottom if I want a lower roadbed profile.
I muckered up the roadbed where it met the tunnel portal on the right side. Oh well, that is what Sculptamold is for!
This is really starting to look like a cool scenic setting in the making.
On the left side I have decided to model the tunnel portal as if it was once a double track mainline, but one of the tracks has been abandoned.
I added another section of plywood subroadbed mounted to the original section with splice plates to support the wider trackage right of way.
Actually, I had that wooden double tunnel portal in my junk box and had no idea what to do with it!
Yes those are very handy, I use them all the time......for stuff other than model trains.
Why not model trains? Because I don't use full size toggles with 1/4 terminals any more for model trains.
I use much smaller sub minature switches in the few applications where I am not using my LED lighted sub mini pushbuttons.
I only use toggles for few special functions, but toggles or pushbuttons, my panels need to be more compact than old fashioned full sized toggles will allow.
Day 30, Post 1:
Time to hook up all the wires.
Here is a super-handy time saver that I do not have any idea why it is not talked about in the Model Railroad press more often. It is a 1/4" spade connector with both male and female connections. It fits over a 1/4" spade connector, and lets you attach another 1/4" spade connector to it.
It sure makes daisy-chaining toggles a whole lot easier.
The whole control panel is wired up for the upper tracks and the 14 gauge bus wires are attached.
Before I would put a train locomotive on the tracks, I test the operation of all the tracks with this testing tool.
I have talked about this tool in here before. It is very simple made with an 1157 tail light/brake light bulb. This lets me test the wiring under a controlled dynamic load.
With just the tail light filament lit, the bulb draws about 1/2 of an amp in current.
When the toggle switch is moved to the ON position both the tail light and brake lamp filaments are powered. In this position the circuit draws 2 amps of current from the power pack. I use Troller 2.5 amp power packs, so the source can handle the load. I leave the load on for several minutes and check for any problems.
Everything checked out good, so I put a train on the track and ran it back and forth a few timed. Everything worked perfectly.
Electric trains are now running. Does this project officially count as a segment of a layout now?
Right, sitting right next to the 4x8 Bachmann track loop was the 8x12 donut layout, with every other joint soldered - one pair of feeders ran it no problem. Big difference between sectional track and flex. No way would I use sectional for a decent size layout. Once I learned to use flex, it was all over for sectional. The Bachmann stuff was an impule buy at a trains how - originally I had a simple circle eith one straight peice in two sides, on a card table just to test run my first locos - that worked with one set of feeders.
SeeYou190 rrinker I built a 4x8 test oval using Bachmann EZ-Track and it didn;t work with a DC power pack without adding extra feeders. Locos would noticeably slow as they got further from the power connection. . I notice the exact same thing when I set up a small layout with my Kato Unitrack. Even a modest loop requires multiple feeders. . -Kevin .
rrinker I built a 4x8 test oval using Bachmann EZ-Track and it didn;t work with a DC power pack without adding extra feeders. Locos would noticeably slow as they got further from the power connection.
I notice the exact same thing when I set up a small layout with my Kato Unitrack. Even a modest loop requires multiple feeders.
Well of course, rail joints every 9" not soldered. That is a big difference compared to my 30 feet of flex track with soldered joints.
Most all my trains are powered by 3-4 diesels on two steamers, no slowing down......