Yay!!

Great to see you're underway on the "expansion" Joe!

for anyone interested, Joe's trackplan can be found in the trackplan database.

Generally there is some set

Generally there is some set up to get any tool to cut square and to have gages dialed in for accuracy. But now that you have discovered the way to adjust things life will be better for you where your tools are concerned. Almost forgot to add great news that you are working on the layout and that you are posting your work. Thanks for sharing.

Rob in Texas

the first bench work I've made that's actually square

good thing you aren't trying to build an Ian rice track plan this time then :> )  Remember only the rails have to be nice and fair, ground cover and goop can hide lots of ugly ness.

Ethanol Plant Extension

Very nice! I was thinking the same thing - an Ethanol Plant extension as I modeled an Ethanol plant on my last layout. Great idea of having your extension fold up. Thanks for sharing. 

Summer Progress

Progress over the summer has been slow, but I did manage to build the bench work for the ethanol plant, bridge and some of the staging. The module in the middle (white backdrop) is floating to improve storage underneath. This took about two full days in the backyard.

Adjustments

As you can see from the photos above, I am no longer concerned about making small adjustments to the existing track. Once I got started on construction I realized it wouldn't be as difficult to make changes as I originally thought.

Fall Progress

Due to the need for some extra storage space in our basement I won't be building any more of the bench work until we move next year. This will give me some needed focus to really push the ethanol plant and river scene forward. I'll also be away for several months this fall but hope to make quick progress in the winter when I'll be stuck indoors more often.

Holiday Progress

Took a long break over the summer and fall from railroading due to work. A long holiday at Christmas has been productive and I hope to make a few more improvements before going back to work in the new year.

I installed handles on all of the modules. I also installed T-nuts on all of the leg bolts and module connecting bolts. This will make disassembly and moving of the layout a lot easier (the legs have to come off to get out of my basement).

I installed and wired track from the new track plan for the ethanol plant and staging (up to the module with the bridge).

I shortened the length of the staging tracks in the plan to create a smooth transition of the front backdrop with the rest of the layout. (The paint is the right color, some of it isn't dry yet making the front backdrop stick out).

I updated the control panel (I removed the stained hardwood border. It looked out of place and I think this is cleaner). This drawer serves the entire layout but the panel is only for the ethanol plant. I used labels from an office label maker for the lettering but the edges of the labels stick out, even when using clear labels. Does anyone out there have an inexpensive or easy way to make better lettering (The panel is 1/8" hardboard surface painted egg shell white. It is easily removed if required to update)? I also added latches to hold the drawer shut when moving the layout.  

I added foam tape to the ends of the tracks at the ethanol plant extension and staging to keep the couplers from breaking in an accident.

It'll be nice to get out of hardware mode and switch to scenery and structures for a while. My next tasks are to weather the new track, detail paint the back drop, and rough in the land forms with foam. Hopefully I can get some of this done while I'm still on holidays.

A plate girder bridge with abutments is in the mail so I can move forward with the bridge scene soon.

I also have 9 PROCOR 30,000 gallon tank cars arriving soon. I'll order some grain hoppers in the spring and start realistic operations.

Holiday Progress Continued

My holiday railroading binge is coming to an end in the next couple of days.

Finally though, for the first time in four years, I've begun scenery work. This is my first attempt at painting a backdrop. I was nervous at first but I think it turned out fairly well. A couple of You Tube videos, some local photos, and a read through of "Painting Backdrops for your Model Railroad" were very helpful. Some additional details will have to be painted as the ethanol plant progresses, such as a thin concrete pad extending into the backdrop.

I'm very happy with the way the hidden staging has turned out. Thanks to Bill for initially suggesting it. You can see the front backdrop in this photo below, marked by the obvious color change in the sky about 6 inches above the sub-roadbed. It's less noticeable from different angles. In this photo you can't see where the front backdrop merges with the rear backdrop. Nor can you see the joint between the two modules along the backdrop. The trees are less defined in this area as they will be covered by 3D trees in the future.

The plate girder bridge kit from Central Valley and bridge abutments from AIM Products finally arrived. The bridge and river scene are also completely new territory for me. My next task is to figure out the details of creating this scene.

The PROCOR 30,000 gallon tank cars by Athearn also arrived. These look great out of the box. I think I'm going to wait a long time before attempting to weather or modify them. With the addition of these cars its starting to feel like I have a model railroad and not a pile of benchwork.

I weathered the rest of the new track on the layout and increased the bulbs in the pot lights to 23W and all white light, greatly reducing shadows and improving color.

Lastly, if you've read this far, does anyone have suggestions for cutting the ethanol storage tank in the foreground in half? I was thinking about modeling two half tanks as low relief structures, similar to the DDG storage shed. Would it be better just to buy a second tank?

Cutting the tank

I don't have a suggestion on how to cut the tank , just where. If you cut it in half and use it as 2 tanks it is very hard to convincingly hide the point where the tank hits the backdrop. However, if you cut off less, say 1/3rd the joint with the backdrop is behind the tank and there fore less visible.

lettering

Looking great!!

I agree about cutting the tanks - cut 2 of them and only cut about 1/3rd off and they will look better against the backdrop.

The best way I can think of to cut them would be to make a square block with a hole in it to fit the tank snugly and then run it through a bandsaw with a fence. The square block five you something to run along the fence.

Tanks

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look at purchasing a second tank in the future. The band saw seems to be the recommended way to go. A friend also mentioned using one.

Awesome progress!

Bridge Piers

Everything is a first on the layout now as I move into scenery. Painted and weathered the bridge piers for the plate girder bridge over the river that crosses the ethanol plant spur. I'm pretty happy with the results.  

The bridge is assembled but not painted or weathered.

I used Marty McGuirks technique for painting bridge piers with a sponge from the Oct 2011 MRH magazine. I mixed Model Master acrylic Reefer Grey, Concrete, and some Titanium White from Liquitex Basics, on a piece of wax paper. I got the idea to use chalk to model the efflorescence you see in concrete caused by moisture after watching a Mike Confalone video weathering pavement at the paper mill on his Allagash Railway.  I used micro paint brushes and pastels for the rust.

The mirror at the end of the river is now recessed in the backdrop and some foam carving has begun, but that's all a mess so no photos for a while. The bridge and piers are temporarily in place with sliding rail joiners so I can enjoy operating the layout over the river while I continue to complete the scenery.

Abutments

Hi Joe, Those look Good! I hope mine turn out as well as yours did!

Andrew

Super Bowl Weekend

Had nothing scheduled this weekend so we could watch the Super Bowl. I took advantage of this lazy weekend and actually worked pretty hard to get a number of things done.

I wanted to upgrade my rolling stock for electro-magnetic uncoupling and to meet NMRA standards so I built a test / programming track for a shelf. I then subsequently upgraded my rather small fleet of cars in short order.

There's a little glare on the food scale and standards gage from the window in the photo below.

Once I started operating with the electro-magnetic uncouplers at the ethanol plant I realized I wanted to put a few more uncouplers closer to loading / unloading points, so I did a little surgery on the layout.

To do this, and for future wiring of the rest of the layout, I built a wiring caddy with some scrap pine, dowels, and balsa wood.

I also edited the top of this blog so that the track plan and initial intro is the only thing that shows up at the top. Apologies to anyone whose post no longer make sense in the absence of my post about building the ethanol plant extension.

Now time to watch the big game! Go Pats!

Prepping to Move

Soon I will be testing the mobility of the layout. Its time for work to move us again. The hunt for a house made me realize that I should keep the layout at 12' x 11' to increase the number of suitable houses in our price range. Taking that into consideration, and the fact that I never did like the 'extension' to the ethanol plant, I decided to do without it and adjust the track plan yet again. I'm even happier with this arrangement, especially because I added an acrylic glass fence last year (just in time for my nephew to come over - it turned out to be a good investment as the height of the layout is only 43") and the 'extension' looked awkward without its own fence. Now everything seems to fit nicely inside the layout boundaries.

I was able to salvage most of the track and turnouts. Still need to touch up the track weathering.

Cleaning Things Up

At the same time I adjusted the track plan I was inspired by the clean wiring on the JL&T and a thread about laminated cardstock control panels, so I decided to update the wiring as well. I increased the number of feeders and soldered connections under the layout. The drawer housing my command station was cleaned up and a new panel for main / programming track power was created, and a jack installed on the fascia that can connect to my test track shelf. The ethanol plant control panel got a touch up as well, although I left the turnout controls mostly alone to avoid breaking LED leads. Although my layout is small and simple, I added clean labels to most of the wiring underneath to improve sorting out any future problems. All that's left is to extend LocoNet. I'm waiting on some RJ12 connectors to complete this process.

The control panels are laminated cardstock glued to the drawer fascia using 3M spray adhesive. Holes were pre-drilled in the 1/8" hardboard by taping an un-laminated control panel to the hardboard as a drilling template. Holes were cut with a hobby knife after the control panels were glued in place over the drilled holes. The switches were then attached. From up close the texture around the laminated boundaries looks ugly, but looks fine when operating at a normal distance. Some sanding and repainting the face of the drawer may be in order at a later date.

Starting Scenery

A while ago I attempted to start scenery at the bridge scene. I got my acrylic glass fence cut in 8" strips by the supplier before thinking about the river scene, so right now there are two pieces attached to the fascia creating an unsightly line. Eventually I'll replace it with one piece. The backdrop and terrain do not blend well and the vegetation doesn't look appropriate so I've taken a step back and I'm going to spend some more time researching scenery. I think I'm missing some yellow and brown highlights in the leaves of the background trees. Some different brush strokes might also increase the realism.  I deliberately put off adding water to the river and the bridge is still un-weathered and not fully installed so I can still make changes.  This will be a fully wooded scene except for the right-of-way when its complete so I can do a lot of covering up with trees and bushes if need be later.

Shadow Box

After spending some time researching how to make realistic scenery I realized that a consistent light source will be important to match colors on the layout with those in real life. So I've held off adding any more scenery and begun modifying the existing bench work to turn each section into shadow boxes lit with LED strips. Now the lighting will be the same wherever the layout goes.

I'm waiting for the LED power source  to arrive before I do a mock up and some testing. Right now each section has the supporting framework for a shadow box without the valance and top.

I had to spend considerable time removing 4" from the frame of the 6' section with the control panel to make it slim enough to fit up my basement stairs. On the upside it now conforms with the other two 'newer' sections with an 8 1/2" tall fascia. On the downside, in the process I managed to damage one of the turnout circuits and it will only throw the turnout to one direction. I'll have some troubleshooting to do.

I also raised the layout 10" to facilitate better viewing angles once the 5" tall valance is installed. The top of the sub-road bed is now 50". I much prefer this height to the previous 40" both for viewing and operating the controls.

Shadow Box Progress

Here's some more progress with the shadow box design and LED installation. I still have to put the roof on each section. They will be painted sky blue like the upper part of the backdrop. The LED strips are 4.4W/Ft 5100K LEDs from LED World. One strip is very bright. These photos are with them dimmed slightly from a Canon PowerShot Sx40 HS set to Auto.

With no other light coming from, or into, the room:

Rooms lights on:

Mounting:

I really liked how this turned out and glad I wasn't afraid to mess with the benchwork again and raise the layout. With a black skirt (likely from landscaping fabric now) and the rest of the layout filling the room when its built, it should have a museum display feel.

A few more things to touch up on this project and then I'll be on to attempting to repaint the backdrop scenery with increased realism.

Looking Good

Joe,

I really like the way the modules are coming together, I am a big fan of the shadow boxes, they really make a layout look completed.

I also wanted to say that the track plan looks very interesting. It looks like you could easily keep a couple of operators busy.

Thanks Greg

The benchwork and track plan have come a long way. I think I fiddled with the track plan for 500 to 1000hrs on XTrackCAD, even after I said I was finished with it. It's one of the cheapest parts of the hobby to keep me occupied and I kept thinking of new ways to arrange the track and new operating schemes; one of the pitfalls of choosing to freelance I guess. This current iteration has lasted the longest but the sooner I build the rest of the layout the better.

Haven't settled on the name in mind yet either. It used be called the St. Lawrence River Railroad (SLRR), and I think I might go back to that, now that the track plan is a shortline again and not just a series of spurs off a mainline.