(No subject)

Step 2!

Step 2...

Today, I sodered wire to rail joiners. I then took some blue painters tape, laid turnouts on the tape, and covered it with ballast. This not to create finished ballast, but to get ballast under the points so when I do the real ballasting, I don't get glue there. If I do some serious photos of this layout, I will just add more ballast without glue.




To make it easier to see where the track will be, I used a pencil and a straight edge to sketch out the schematic onto the board, then glued down the first 2 feet of track on each end. I have assembled the crossover with the wiring in place, and that will be installed next.

It runs! Now I just need 8 more rail joiners…

I laid track for a siding, all 5 switches, and the main line. I mounted sprung Caboose Industries ground throws, they work great. I wired up the layout, and keeping up with the cheapskate premise of this layout, I used extra wire nuts that came free with a ceiling fan (I am my father's son, never threw away an extra part that can be used in the future)



I ran out of rail joiners, and no one has any in stock. I have two more planned sidings that need to be laid to complete the track. My 8 year old wanted to run a train tonight. She claimed an SD40-T2 and my Micro-Trains weathered Golden West bulkhead flatcar as her own.

hello...is this thing on?

all track is laid

I so need a better camera

Floquil spray duds

I am PISSED off at Floquil Paints.I had a used rail brown,roof brown and grimy black spray can and a new rail brown and grimy black. All five cans had paint in them, you could feel the weight. All of them had no propellant. FIVE expensive spray cans that I have had for over a year and none worked. Testor's quality control is really poor to me.

Floquil spray duds

Give yourself and them a break: contact them. Maybe they'll do something for you.

440 Blackhawk Park Avenue
Rockford, IL 61104
1-800-837-8677 (1-800-TESTORS)
customerservice@testors.com

Dick

Things are looking good.

Nice little layout going there, I wish I could get my daughter involved. Tough luck about the Floquil paints, sorry to hear that.

Michael

Operating the layout was one

Operating the layout was one of the main things that I wanted to do before building the layout. I really wanted something that I can operate realistically, and as a puzzle as well. The next to last plan that I drew up was basically a large Timesaver. By moving the switch that created the switchback of the Timesaver and placing it on the main, I still had the same number of sidings.

I also lengthened all sidings, so I could use the 2 sidings and the main on the East (left) end like an Inglenook puzzle. I can also set up a train with the same types of cars that are already spotted and switch them out. After I have buildings, I will be able to spot cars at the doors for more of a challange.

The south (rear) siding on the east (left) end will be a warehouse, and the north (front) siding will be a Walthers ADM grain elevator (re-letered to a local name) to help break up the view. On the west end, there is only one siding and it will be a liquid feed plant. These plants tend to have tank cars and covered hoppers. I will needto  build an office, warehouse and tanks. I have placed a pair of Floquil spray can caps (at least those were useful) and a 35MM film canister as temporary tanks. I plan to put the tanks between the main and the siding and the other buildings on the other side of the tracks.

I only started this layout this week, and have seen a lot of progress. Until the layout and track is painted, I am stuck. After the track is painted, I can ballast the track. I am also thinking of a road on the west end with it leading into the parking lot of the grain company.

...

Go down to your local Ace and pick up a can of dark brown, in the big can, it'll have the desired effect.

Benny, funny that youshould say that...

Lance Mindheim has built many great layouts. One of his tricks is to paint finely detailed track in lighter colors to highlight the details, and if you are using track with big, over-sized details (like i am with Atlas Code 80), to use darker paint. Well, as you might have read, my supply of Floquil spray paint was not good. Today, I drove down to ACE Hardware and picked up a can of Kryon Camouflage Brown, masked off the ground throws and the switch points, and sprayed the rails. I then let them dry, broke out a Walthers Bright Boy and polished the rails. I am happy with the results. Now I can start ballasting....

...

I have a can myself in my kitchen cabinet...ahem, shop cabinet!!  Ultra flat dark brown!

Once I realized the big cans can be used here and there, I'd used them with great success all over.  For instance, Bricks are now done with any terra-cotta/ruddy brown color, while my concrete is done with a satin fossil or other tan color.

One thing I have yet to try doing is to paint one color primarily form the sides and then come back with a second color and hit mainly from above.  The result should yield ties being one color and the rail being another...not yet, but some day - unless I get the airbrush arm running!!

ground throws

last week, I realized that I made a mistake in my alignment of my ground throws for my switches, instead of setting them up to where all of them point in the same direction to go strait, I set them for ease of reach around spotted freight cars. To make things easier, I took some green electrical tape, and cut some small squares to tape on the strait alignment....

so I have been looking for

I have been trying to come up

I have been trying to come up with things to do to my layout without spending a dime. I came across a site that has WWI airbase paper buildings in 1:144 scale. I figured that if I print them at 90%, they would then magically be 1:160! I also figured that Dollar Tree has white poster board that costs $1.00 for TWO! Today, I ran a test run with 2 sheets of printer paper and one of my daughter's glue sticks, I got TWO buildings for nothing! (well, basically nothing)




I can't really complain about my 5 minute buildings......now for the really cool, no-cost project! Henk in the UK who posts here offered a FREE Southern Pacific GP20 and a bunch of Micro-Trains couplers for free...he even paid for the shipping! Henk informed me that it was a parts unit, and it might run, and that it had some appearance issues.  Well, that is the best looking and running parts loco that I have ever seen. While it is not as quiet as a Kato and requires a high starting voltage, it is nice and slow!

The loco that Henk sent was numbered 4077 and had a winterization hatch added to it. 4077 was rebuilt into 4124 in 1978-79.4084-4087 had the winterization hatch, and the correct side sills like this model, all other SP GP20's had thin, GP30 style sills..... I applied a pair of Detail Associates lights to the nose, added a SP to the nose, and renumbered it to 4087 to match the details for this model.

Thanks again Henk!

Love the 'No Cost' Buildings!

Lookin good so far!  Love the SP, love N scale.  So naturally, I love what you're doing here  Small world, but I grew up 45 minutes east of Casa Grande!  I used to love 'getting stuck' at the grade crossings in Coolidge when one of SP's extra long frieghts rolled through.  Looking back, I now know that my Dad would see the train coming and slow the car so that we would 'get stuck'... just for me.  Just seeing the Red and Grey from your layout pics takes me back.  Keep it up and keep us up on the progress!

Would you mind if I added your blog to my blog's links?

Dave, thanks for the kind

Dave, thanks for the kind words, a lot of people seem to ignore my odd ideas, but hey, to each their own. Feel free to link to me, I don't mind at all!

Successful paper and card modeling strikes again

Glad to see another person using paper and card modeling techniques.  With all the kits and textures available for down load out there, you should be able to populate your layout relatively cheaply.

a little more progress, and a jump backwards

ah, the joys of ballasting

This morning I snuck into the garage, and started to place ballast onto the track. Keeping with the MRH $500 challenge, I am using a 35mm film canister to pour the ballast, the same paintbrush that I used to paint my girl's bedroom to spread the ballast, another brush for the finer detailing.  It took forever to get the Woodland Scenics gray ballast that I have had for years to look like a real roadbed.

As soon as I got it nice, I followed advice from two Model Railroader articles. I took an empty water bottle, and I filled it with a mixture (2:1) of water and 91% rubbing alcohol and mixed a 1:1 mixture of water and white glue. I punched a few holes in the lid of the water bottle, dribbled the "wet water", and I watched the ballast float and move around. I discovered that the ballast now clumps up. I now really wish that I went with a different ballast.

I'll post pictures after vacuuming up the extra ballast soon...

Well Known Failing of WS Ballast

If you are using WS ballast you need to coat the area to receive the ballast with their scenic glue and pour a very light coating of ballast.

a step forward

3 things...

1. I finished ballasting yesterday and took pictures of my work. Unfortunately, the computer that I am on is not reading the SD card, so I have to wait for the wife to get off of the lap top.
2. looks like I had a ground throw failure, it is sliding, and not closing the switch all the way
3. I Googled "Golden West Bulkhead Flatcar" and saw this under images....Glad that the wife has no need to search for that term

(No subject)

the pile of ballast is to hide wiring

"the pile of ballast is to hide wiring"

  Must be working as I don't see any wiring. I was thinking I might hide some of the feeder wires on my N scale layout with weeds. I need to get some of those extra SP lights for my GP20. Keep the photos coming....DaveBranum