Facia

The facia is made of Masonite and had round head screws that protruded so would often catch on clothing. Lately it looked as though this are was getting moldy as well so it was time to make some changes. 

The screws were replaced and spackled and sanded: 

The whole thing got a coat of primer:

And then some tan paint (along with some landscape touch-up):

The drop cloth has gotten me thinking that a cloth skirt wouldn't be that hard to add and will conceal 25 years of accumulated "stuff". At this point, however, I am inspired to keep working on the row to the lower left of the photo to extend the line toward the end of the plan and create the wye needed to turn engines as well as a future cattle pens and pineapple loading areas. 

Neil

Aloha Neil

Thanks for sharing your story and photos of your layout.  Looking forward to seeing the progress!!

Dave

Oahu Railway & Land Co in Trains mag March 1947

Neil

I have a copy of the March 1947 Trains magazine. Ten pages are on the then soon to be abandoned OR&L. Lots of picture but most are very small. One is a two page (the centerfold! WOO WOO!) spread of a doubled headed train pulling away from a station and water tower. I assume from the discussion a trainload of pineapples.

Having been born in Honolulu in December 1946, I had to buy the magazine when I saw it in a thrift store. I think I paid $.50 for it a year or so ago. The cover price was $.25 in 1947. I suppose I saw the OR&L in operation at some point... but I was 18 months old when we left Honolulu for San Francisco by ship. I have no interest in selling it, but I would scan the OR&L article if you are interested. 

OR&L

@Ken - YES! That sounds pretty amazing and if love to see it. On Oahu right now is the elevated light rail going in and completely ignores the existing 3' grade (much of the track still exists as a National Historic site but is threatened to be lost by actions of developers

@Dave - Thanks for dropping by. I have a day off tomorrow so hope to make the most of it. 

Neil

@ Neil

PM is on its way... I hope 

Expansion

.. or in the words of the late Verne Niner "Ah the smell of plywood in the morning!".

I thought I'd mock up some batts to see what might work for a wye at the end of the line:

 

                             This is called a scissor wye. 

The tail only left me with about 9" which is ok for a Shay but turning a passenger car or caboose as well may be a challenge. So I did some head scratching

I decided to cut a hole in the drywall ceiling to extend the tail about 7" to give me about 16" total. I cut out some plywood and temporarily put it in place. It has been hot and raining so humidity is about 110%. My homosote is burried anyway so may put this off for a few hours. The whole thing will come down to the patio where I can glue the roadbed and ties at a more comfortable height. The yard is at 62" above the floor (the line above is 65" but felt too high). 

This are had me stuck for a long time as I wanted to add some active staging below (the 1x frame is visible in the last picture) but tearing out the balloon loop to add a switch and bi-pass track just couldn't get me excited. It may never happen but I have been thinking about a removable facia in this area, at least in part, so I guess the jury is out. At least I have now committed and moving forward again. 

Neil

Nice!

Looking good Neil. It's amazing how work like fascias' change the finish of the layout. They just seem to clean and dress it up; almost like looking at a museum piece. I was in Hawaii a couple of months ago. The narrow gauge sugar cane train by Lahiana on Maui wasn't running. Crying shame!

Motivation

@Rick M - The Maui line is being contested by all the new condo owners that don't like the railroad there (although it was there way before they came). It would be a shame to lose but the land has become valuable so ...

I agree about the facia. It really forces me to look at the rest of the layout now with an eye of how to get everything up to a similar standard. The end of the line is progressing (below) but I have a wharf area that will be beyond reach once the engine terminal goes in so that is next. 

Roadbed action:

I couldn't couldn't resist setting some cars out for scale:

Neil

Hi Neil Good to see you

Hi Neil

Good to see you making progress on your layout, I look forward to following along.  So do you have a track plan drawn up and is this going to be following a prototype.  I can only begin to imagine the fun they had laying track on the big island.

Track Plan

Aloha Peter! Yes, the track plan is on a 2103 post and can be found here  http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/sites/model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/image_17.jpg

There have been a lot of changes but this was the inspiration. There is a three track staging area below Haleiwa (Muley Gap Junction on the plan). Red Mountain is becoming a port town (Hilo but called Waikea) to allow me to model a coal barge and a steam powered sternwheeler!

The wye has changed as well and this will be cattle country of Kamuela or Waimea (Red Water ironically) - my current project.

Neil

Your layout

Like what you are doing with your railroad. Moving from Colorado to Hawaii hasn't hurt the plan at all 8)

I will have a 9' x 20' space and have looked at the plan many times to see if I can make it work for me. Want to get at least 26" radius into the big curves but start running out of width with only 9' wide room.

Bill Uffelman Ocean View Delaware

Funny you'd mention radius

@Bill: I have been working on compromises (as usual in On30) at the end of the line. The tail of the wye just seemed way too short to easily turn a engine and passenger car without a lot of running around. The compromise was to make the one "scissor" leg a much tighter radius than anywhere else on the layout (26" min radius). Even though it eases into the curve from both ends it is about 18" at the right spot. 

My Forney has enough problems on 26" radius but this looks ridiculous when viewed from above:

Fortunately this section is at 63" above the floor - eye level for most. I've posted a test video as this was a concern so used a piece of HO flex to try it out.  

BTW - haven't been to Colorado but hope to make the trip to the NNGC (next year?).

Neil

Hey, Neil

Did you get the PM I sent? I never got the copy I was supposed to receive. I do have the PDF of that Trains article to send. 

The last couple of PM's I tried to send haven't worked. Has worked in the past.... sigh.

Ken, I have had trouble with

Ken, I have had trouble with pms not working as well from time to time.  I also know of at least one other that has been having issues with them not working. This seems to have been happening since some time in 2016. Not sure if they are just being rejected at the server level or what. I do know that conventional e mail seems to work if you already have the e-mail address. So it tells me it is somehow tied to this site and not my computer.

PM's

Ken & Rob:

I have gotten pm's from both of you but not sure about whether my replies are received. Thank you though in any case. If the "Contact" feature seems broken then please feel free to write directly to my other email account at neil_c_e@yahoo.com

Neil

@Neil

Im enjoying your construction log (blog) for your ON30 railroad. You have mad skills for solving your construction problems. I am green with envy...I wish I lived there instead of Illinois but, oh well I'll survive.      John

Mad skills

@John - Don't feel too badly as my problem solving is just a way to get around the lack of materials available! Living in Hawaii has drawbacks but makes for doing your own thing easier.

@Ken - What a great article! Thank you, thank you, thank you. What always impresses me when looking at the older "plantation days" is the lack of foliage. Aside from the towns the surrounding areas were windswept, or sand, or planted. Now there are so many invasive species that I live in a jungle if left up to nature taking it's course.

Oh, John, I bet you don't have to mow the lawn 52 weeks a year! Hardly a worthy complaint I suppose.

1:30pm here so three more hours to get some work done. This evening hopes to be laying ties and starting some turnouts  

Neil

looking good Neil

As you know, I've been crazy busy at work lately. So not a lot of time to peruse the pages of MRH. Glad I found your blog though. Looks like you've got the beginnings of a great layout. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

P.S. I'm hoping next week I'll have some time to deal with switch stands for you.

Work

@Rick : No hurry. I took a couple days off and did projects as well as worked on the railroad. 

Today I took my nemesis, the 2-4-4 Forney, up to the layout to run a train about but realize that the humidity has been playing up there too and soldered rails have popped, roadbed heaving and causing vertical curves. This little engine also finds all the narrow switch points and frogs- grr. Instead of laying ties this evening (or building turnouts) I find myself pondering the several spots of consternation. 

The new section got a coat of spackle to fill in the kerfs in the Homosote and make for some dead level turnouts. I will not go through this at 5'-3" above the floor! 

Las a side note, I called Erik from Kappler who quickly cut me some ties and USPS said it was shipped today. We chatted about his trestles under the name Black Bear but it looks like an On30 version is not in the wings. Oh well. He did say that a lot of his orders were from us O scale skinny gage guys so, with enough encouragement ....

@Tim from FastTraxx uses Mount Albert ties and I do like them but wanted to support a US manufacturer. I do use Tim's point and frog tools, and gauges, so would encourage anyone interested in handlaid track to check these guys out. 

Neil

Neil, I am not sure about

Neil, I am not sure about your support structure for your layout as to type of lumber. If things are moving so much due to humidity and temperature swings it might be time to consider a rebuild. I know that is drastic but what ever caused this due to seasonal issues is likely to continue.

Some possible solutions. Dehumidifier for the railroad room so as to cut down on the shrink and swell. Add a bit of heat in your space as well although I suspect the temperature is fairly constant for you unless you are really high up in the mountain. I do know it snows in Hawaii. My brother-in-law worked at the big telescope before he passed away.

If those things can not stabilize the bench work you might need to consider steel studs for structure and plywood for decking that is sealed on all six sides to combat the shrink and swell. Plywood would also work for your support structure as well as it has less expansion and contraction due to the alternating grain and the glue holding the veneers together.

Hope you find a working solution for your layout that will keep these things in the tolerable range.

Well,

At fault of mine most of that clutter under the layout has been cleared away LOL

It's wet over there, Hilo Side!

Aloha Neil,

Your ka'aahi looks sweet!

I have a part-time home on the "dry" side - South Kona. I don't model in Hawaii for various reasons - saving modeling for the Mainland makes being there more palatable, for one thing - but I'm nevertheless curious about your experiences with humidity (and salt air?). Whaddaya get, 100 inches of rain per year? I note that you started on the outside patio, then moved indoors. Do you use a dehumidifier? Also, how many gekkos reside on your RR? (-: - Ed Gibson
 

Steel, rain, & lizards

@Rob (& TM24/7): After watching trains undulate about the layout it appears the real problem areas are in two spots. These occur at the ends of my wood trestle section where the box meets the framework. I don't think that the layout needs to be rebuilt - yet (although Den has gotten me interested in HOn3 again but that is another story). 

As E.O. Has pointed out, it is dry on his side of the island - really dry - and we get at least 180" a year. No joke. One of the reasons I build on the patio is to get the plywood and roadbed acclimated so when installed it is less likely to change dramatically. The trestle box (see previous post under Hakalau Bridge of Makekane Gulch, dead man gulch) is made of a finished plywood cabinet rescued from a remodel and is probably 30 years old and is SOLID. The result is that the ends are tight against the benchwork so there is no give and the adjacent plywood is bowing. The result is a dip at the joint. More head scratching to do. 

I told TM247 that I have an auto reverser (somewhere under the layout) so have been cleaning up this area and a fix should be easier to try. The railroad is battery powered so the rails are "dead" and continuity is not a problem. BTW the whole house is battery powered with photovoltaic panels, charge controllers, inverter, and ac/dc panels below the train room. A dehumidifier is not in the cards. The temperature is fairly constant but the rain ...

Since you ask about geckos, basically Hawaiian lizards that seem to be everywhere, yes, everywhere. They don't like the train room since I seldom work up there late at night is he lights are not on - no flying food so no geckos. When they do get close my cats like them

Neil

One step back and one forward

Some progress today. Driving to our office on the other side of the island, and back, gave me plenty of time to consider a solution to the vertical curve issue. The trestle module was built on a cabinet that I added casters to work on during construction. It now seems as though these may have "sunk" into the carpet of the train room. Although possibly destructive, it seemed a worthwhile try to simply jack the cabinet up and add a shim of plywood to see of the issue would be resolved. Here are before and after pictures:

I added some epoxy to the rails that popped while doing this so will try an engine tomorrow. Hope springs eternal!

Back on the patio:

May as well do the tough part first!

Neil