Guess I'll start this edition of WPF...gotta full plate tomorrow
Had some good times at this month's ops sessions last week. A couple of minor issues reported with several turnouts were really signs I needed to go over them. Of course, these were in tough places to reach, like where the line pretzels itself around a water heater behind the "metal mountain" to get to Snowden.
This is what things look like back there...
It is a little hard to reach, but things now move with a satisfying clunk when a turnout is thrown.
Another pair of turnouts looks easier to get to, but that's an illusion, it's a lot like building a ship in a bottle. Here, the points needed reworking, so got that squared away, only to have the tiny switch used to throw the curved one fell apart just as I was finishing up. That's the Radio Shack 275-0409. These aren't flimsy, but they can only take so much abuse. It's also the case that this curved turnout needed a bit more throw than provided. The Shack has carried bigger slide switches, but they're rather oversize to be credible and blend in in HO. I found that RS now has the 275-0033 slide switch, which is a happy medium in size, has a bit more throw than the -0409, and comes pre-blackened, helping it blend in, all improvements over the -0409. Here's a pic of the carnage as I was finishing up.
With a little ballast, things look good again and operate better than ever.
Here's to everyone having a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Looking forward to seeing what you've been up to, too.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks for the kick-off to another WPF, Mike! Last for November, and another Holiday edition for many of us!
That first photo looks like a space alien has invaded your layout, or maybe a siamese cousin Itt? In the second photo is that Union Junction or Cold Water Flats? Lately I have been poking my head up into places around my layout that are not part of the normal view. Darned if the camera isn't on the other side of the room! That's a great idea, the seldom-seen angle.
Little did I know that I'd be spending the last few days on my knees! It all started a few weeks ago when I started finishing some of the bare drywall beneath the benchwork.
Then... I stumbled across a source for commercial carpet tile remnants on Amazon. Tuesday the UPS truck arrived with nine of the ten cartons, No. 10 is still somewhere between Georgia and Ohio!
Here is a before shot:
And this was just a few minutes ago...
(Shoulda' moved that caulking gun!)
For a little over a buck per square foot I think it is really looking swell. For years I've had a "dog's breakfast" of hodge-podge carpet scraps and finally got tired of it!
The random patterns kind of remind me of flying over the plains or a farmland.
I still have some trim work and cleanup to do, but only after the ibuprofen kicks in! Managed to get my new "yard office" put together and located near the new caboose track. Neat little Cornerstone building. One of the yard offices here in Collinwood on the NYC looked somewhat like this, so that was my inspiration.
I hope everyone has, or had—if yours was 10 October, a great Thanksgiving and a safe and enjoyable weekend.
On to more great photos!
Best to all... Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Mike:
So your track work isn't perfect eh? I hope I can do as well as you have.
Ed:
The carpets must make things a lot more comfortable under foot.
Bear:
The buoy boat is excellent! I love the details on the hull. The prototypes were obviously built to take a pounding. Did you start with a hull or did you build the whole thing from scratch?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter Did you start with a hull or did you build the whole thing from scratch?
Bear!
Well done! The proportions are perfect!
A friend of mine from Japan sent a British outline narrow gauge steam tramway loco to me he had scratchbuilt/kitbashed using a Tomix N gauge "Percy" and a Kato N scale drive mechanism.
The scale is OO9, that´s OO scale running on 9mm track, representing roughly the many 2 ft. narrow gauge lines found on the British isles. The loco is extraordinary well built, has an immaculate paintwork and lettering and even sports a fully equipped cab interieor with all the gauges and levers a steam loco has!
I really feel honored to have this loco, which will get a place to run soon!
Ed,
That carpet looks great! Been wanting to get something more flexible than concrete underfoot for some time and hoping the budget allows in the new year. As for the pain, take care of yourself (said he with a sore back and a tooth that's bothering me at the biggest eating holiday of the year
Bear,
That load is real eye-candy! Looks great as that special load the crew wants to keep watch on from the caboose. Fine looking track cleaner, too.
hon30critterMike: So your track work isn't perfect eh?Smile, Wink & Grin I hope I can do as well as you have.
Well, it's trying to be perfect. I won't kid anyone, there's always something that comes up across a basement floor in terms of shifting, etc. Even when you get it down right to start with, I've found it takes a year or two for everything to settle and stop moving -- or at least start moving predictably so that the adjustments needed take effect. I'm probably my own biggest critic, because everyone that operates remarks on how well things run -- and generally they do because I'm a fanatic for following up when they don't.
Ulrich,
That's a fine-looking loco and sure to inspire you to create a suitable environment for it to show its mettle.
Been doing some baldwin work, getting rid of the molded screens and putting a flat nose on a VO 1000 for a specific engine.
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60361449@N02/
Anthracite Modeler - YouTube
Happy Thanksgiving everybody ! ... Lots of great photos have been postedalready.... Keep it up !
The Thanksgiving holiday means travel by train on my layout.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Mike, Thanks for getting the holiday edition of WPF rolling. Always enjoy seeing your photos and reading your words. Must be some law of physics that put troublesome turnouts in difficult spots.
Wow! and what a great holiday edition with the really, really great postings so far.
Couldn't resist posting this local newspaper photo of a Thanksgiving Day parade long past.
Thanks to all and Happy Thanksgiving! Regards, Peter
scratch built buoy boat load
Pardon the off topic. Bear, Fabulous job with the boat! How might I ask did you acheive that nice looking tarp covering the top of your boat?
Thanks and regards, Peter
Garry,
Nice photos. Great layout.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
Mike, thanks for opening up and as usual more great pictures of your layout.
Bear, that boat is awesome, not only a great model of an unusual prototype but a great load on the flat, although I might have used a 52' flat rather than a 40' flat. By the way the Wabash 40' Boxcar was built by ACF in 1960 and was a later iteration of the 1944 AAR 40' Boxcar design.
Garry, Love the passenger trains, always like the look of a nice set of matched or unmathed passenger equipment.
Casey, isn't that blasphemy modeling a diesel instead of your usual steam engines!
I did not finishing anything this week, but have started work on a pair of Exactrail PS 4427 Covered Hopper kits. A lot of work but I like the resulting cars!
Installed the reinforcing plates, slack adjuster and brake line on the underside of the cars.
Added sill steps to the bolster plates and installed them on the ends of the car.
Thanks for looking!
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Nice work here so far. I just finished up my most recent project- another Wheeling SD40-2 unit.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
dti406 Casey, isn't that blasphemy modeling a diesel instead of your usual steam engines!
I have been called a heathen haha, but they will be joining 9 in the slowly growing New Hope and Ivyland tourist line of models. 302 a DS-4-4-1000 and 101 a very odd VO 1000.
HO-Velo How might I ask did you acheive that nice looking tarp covering the top of your boat?
I hope everyone had an awesome day yesterday... here is South bound empties crossing the North fork of the Kentucky river and going through the town of Lothair..
Tony
EK Sub in HO Scale
A trio of Geeps crossing Hammer Creek.
This afternoon I completed repainting and detailing a G scale bobber caboose for the Boothbay Railway Villege lobby loop. It is painted in the pre-1955 MEC caboose color scheme
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I'm not sure about your application technique mlehman, but I don't know too many people that have basement floors or flooring shifting. You state, " I won't kid anyone, there always something ....." Where are you getting this information? Can you be more specific? And if your using a floating type flooring in basement layout room that is a no no if the layout posts are resting on that flooring. I've used tile, carpet with double back tape and linoleum, never experienced shifting as you state. My latest flooring is laminate, hasn't moved yet. It's been five years. My room is dry and humidity controlled as well, maybe that helps some. I have a friend that is going to lay some flooring I would like to pass your advice along to him . Thanks
bigiron:
I may have misunderstood Mike Lehman's post about things shifting, but I believe he was talking about benchwork, not the concrete floor itself.
Great work and photos again this week guys. Thanks for sharing.
The extremes of New York Central passenger trains.
Keep the photos and ideas coming everyone. Thanks to you WPF is always the best thread of the week.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
hon30critter bigiron: I may have misunderstood Mike Lehman's post about things shifting, but I believe he was talking about benchwork, not the concrete floor itself. Dave
Dave and bigiron,
Actually, I'm talking about both the benchwork and the concrete floor.
The benchwork is obvious. I tend to use wood that's sat in the shop for a while after purchase, since I keep a small stock of 1x2 and 1x3 on hand. Even once "dry" outside, bringing it into the climate-controlled house in the often humd Midwest helps "settle it down." So that's one factor, which usually takes a year or so to become stable. This particualrly affects the later part of my layout, since many of it's turnout controls are the cheap but effective ones made from household three-way switches. The receptacle box the switches goes in, as well as the mounts for the rodding that throws them and the pivot upward to the throwbar (in some case where it's not possible to mount the box directly underneath) all provide multiple points of contact that can move in relation to each other.
The concrete is a little harder to understand if you don't live in the humid Midwest. I knew I'd found the right house when I went shopping for this one by the smell in basement -- it was a dry smell, very unusual in Urbana. The house is circa 1920, but was moved onto the basement built in the mid-60s when the house was moved a few blocks from downtown to make room for the shopping mal that went in there.
The basement is a solid concrete slab with concrete block walls. It did get water in from several spots where the walls joined the floor due to some drainage issues, mostly caused by settling of the backfill around the walls that was never remediated after the basement was finished. Adjustments to the gutters and building a paved patio with a drainage system underneath helped on one side and solved much.
Effectively, the floor slab floats on the high water table we have locally. Depending on the season and how local rainfall has been, this can result in shifting in itself that affects benchwork, as it isn't even when it happens over the ~24'x28' area where the layout is.
When I started in on the Cascade Extension in 2013, I decided to deal with the leaks that still came in on occassion on the utility room side where it went in. These could amount to a couple of buckets in the middle of the floor from seepage in heavy rain (> ~1"), never more than 1/4" deep or so, but still an issue I wanted to address. After adding more fill dirt so that there is a continuous slope away from the basement walls there, too, water intrusion is down to about a quart in 1"+ rains. So I've managed to finally exclude most of that as a factor, leading to less and less movement as I made these changes in the layout's environment. Still, the basement is basically a large boat sitting in a pool, something which you can adjust to, but not really eliminate.
I know there's folks who believe you can build a layout, get it 100% right, and never have to touch the track again. I'd suggest most of these are smaller, so less affected by the longer lengths over which things can shift on larger layouts -- or just not located in a basement at all. I'm not OCD enough to worry about making any 100% good track or derailment-free claims, even if that could be achieved. I simply fix problems with the track and ROW when they come up, just like the prototype, which faces a similarly changing environment on a much larger scale
I've been able to get a start on my layout's backdrop this weekend. Here it is with the background layers in place:
Now with the foreground hills painted:
I'll be doing the foreground detailing (trees, mostly), today. I'm aiming for an effect similar to this photo: http://www.hulloakes.com/images/HullOakesEntry.jpg.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
Mlehman,
Your situation sounds unique in regards to the basement floor shifting. Most homes , including mine, have a bearing wall or floor joist posts. I'm not an expert here, but this is a substantial amount of supported weight distributed onto the floor. This leads me to believe that any type of floor shift would not be able to take place. A complete slab move? Before a high water table or poor drainage would move a slab wouldn't the water seek out a path of least resistance and find a place to leak?
tbdanny:
Your backdrop is taking shape nicely! I'm looking forward to watching it progress.
bigironYour situation sounds unique in regards to the basement floor shifting.
Not around here and I suspect more places than you realize. The worst of it happens where there are reinforced columns of block located at the midpoint of the walls, where the pressure has the greatest chance of moving stuff. The benchwork isn't attached to any of the outer walls, but the south end has tallish rock formation scenery that is continuous down to the becnhwork. While there is some Sculptamold, it's rather stable stuff, and of minimal thickness over pink foa. But that column can move enough to shift the track and roadbed right next to the column.
While not attached to the outer walls, I do have a divider in place roughly in the middle of the basement that does have the Cascade Extension benchwork attached to it, which moves up and down with the floor. Then you get to the stretch past the water heater. Consider that it heats and cools regularly. yep, probably not the best place to put turnouts near, but I did, so need to live with it. No point in putting my head in the sand and pretending it doesn't happen. You know it does when things work fine for months, then the season changes and all of the sudden there's issues.
This is rather common and my basement is actually rather stable compared to many. My wife's rental house is an older home with a hand-dug basement. The older part of it doesn't have full height walls; there's a large ledge that goes halfway up that's been concreted over.
Its basement stays rather damp...or at least it did until we put central air in a few years back. We ran it, as did our first tenant after we moved out. Then we had a tenant who is European and uses the AC minimally. The chimney is in the center. The difference in dampness due to these changes caused the chimney to move up and down enough it opened up the sealed flashing around the roof penetration to pull loose where we had it repaired a few years back.
Plenty of other similar examples locally. One shouldn't assume because a house is sitting on top of it that foundations are locked in place. Water is a powerful if often hidden force. The movement usually isn't much, but it does move, then it will move back. If the movement was one-way, it might be settling only, but the place has been here too long for that to be the case now.
The basement discussion doesn't even address the place where I have the most irritating problem with this, our garage. The initial problem there was due to the backfill settling under the part closest to the house, which skewed the door opening (16x7). But the remaining ongoing movement is due to seasonal moisture changes at the end away from the house, which happens to be the north end. Depending on how much snow we have, it can build up along the outside wall there, causing change in that end of the opening. The door tracks attached to the inside of the opening move with it...and sometimes it's enough so that what was tracking up and down fine last month is now jumping the track. Installing new helped a lot with that by replacing the track worn over the 20+ years since I put the first one up (which fixed the inoperable one that came with the house). But now six months after the new door was installed, I've got enough shifting to again cause troubles. Glad no trains come through there...
hon30crittertbdanny: Your backdrop is taking shape nicely! I'm looking forward to watching it progress.
tbdanny,
I'll second Dave's motion, things are taking shape nicely. Looking forward to your next steps, as backdrops really take on great character as the layers build up the scene.
Dave and Mike,
Thank-you .
It's now finished. After looking at the photo in my previous post, I realised that most of the tree trunks weren't that visible. All you could really see were the leafs. So I decided to just paint it to give the impression of a tree-covered hill.
Unfortunately, the full effect doesn't really come through on a phone camera, but here's how it looks now: