New layout getting underway

After finishing our move a couple weeks ago, we've mostly been busy unpacking and organizing, but we're slowly getting to the point of being able to enjoy a little downtime.  Which means I've been able to start devoting more time to the new layout.

Last Wednesday our contractor built the new wall to partition the layout room off from the rest of the basement.  It's still a mess, but it feels like a major accomplishment for the layout room to finally be an actual room. 

The electrician is supposed to be out tomorrow to give us the numbers for wiring that wall and a new lighting circuit for the room, and once that work is done and the drywall is finished on the new wall, my plan is to get busy painting, which I hope to complete before the new year.  Here's the latest version of the layout plan:

I want this layout to have a more spacious feel than the last one, so no valances and no skirt.  Benchwork around the walls will be on steel shelf brackets, hidden behind the fascia.  I plan to paint the walls above the layout my sky color, which will be a bit brighter than I'd previously used, while the portion of the walls below the layout, and the visible legs under the two peninsulas, will be painted the same dark olive green color as the fascia. 

Backdrop corners will be coved using vinyl following Bernie Halloran's instructions in the December 2013 MRH -  https://forum.mrhmag.com/magazine-feedback-was-ezines-891776 .  I should be able to do all three corners, plus the entire Wiota/Anita peninsula, with a single 50' x 24" roll, but will likely need a second roll, 30' long, for the Atlantic Spur peninsula and the backdrop segments in front of both ends of staging.  All will be 24" high, which will fall a bit short of ceiling height, but since the walls will be sky blue all the way to the ceiling, that doesn't concern me.

Can't wait to get started on the fun stuff!

One Santa parade wasn't canceled this year!

 Greg

GN Cabooses

 Fresh off the workbench.

Caboooses

Great looking cabooses Steve.

GP 38-2

Lightly weathered fairly new SP GP 38-2, Prototype about a year old in 1982 (?)   Athearn Genesis.

Pan Pastel Weathering Test

I decided to test out my Pan Pastels on a couple of 35 year old boxcar models (Just in case things went terribly wrong..) These two are not up to current acceptable standards but until replacements are available they are still in service.

It was quite an enjoyable experience and I will definitely move on and use them on some of my current models. 
 

Ross A

Archaeological dig

 Been seeing a lot of layouts being torn down and new ones going up. It must be a 2020 thing. So I got inspired today and tore a giant hole in my layout to expose the old benchwork. Ta Da! 

Rick

I would have just looked at the old benchwork from underneath.

Paul

kjd

Good point. It sure would have been easier!

MRH Late Night

I know it's late, but I sure didn't expect to see nekid layouts here.

What's the story behind the Visalia Electric's state of undress?

It's never winter on my layout...

Another sweltering summer day along Stoney Creek, in 1943...

Depot at Cornhill Completed

 Just needs some details added and the Jordan baggage wagon kit is underway 

The road to Blackwater

Bouncing around different scenery projects in this general area and the Hotel still needs signage but this scene gets a little closer to complete every day since I've been back working on the layout...

Work on the San Luis and Rio Grande

Heres some pics of the beginnings of the beginnings on my layout -- I actually got engines running back and forth on the layout, which for me is a HUGE step

TIM

Hey Joe!

Nekid layout.....yeah, hopefully no young'uns were exposed to the spectacle.

Well, I've been procrastinating on this project for way too long. Several years ago I decided to change my method of structure modeling after a particularly painful lesson learned where I had to heavily modify how a building was sitting on the site allotted to it. With the layout surface consisting of 1/2" plywood with 1/2" homasote glued on top of it.........well it took hours/days to work that building into that site. That bitter pill forced me to make a big decision to cut out the top of the layout where buildings were being planned and replace it with removable dominoes that could be brought to the desk, entire scene completed (often months in the works) and then simply placed back in position on the layout. This has been a game changer but the bitch is removing the plywood/homasote sandwich and the underlying supports. The Exeter section was the first to go under the knife and it is now finished. Even with all the protections taken I still had the worst dust storm ever seen at 1:87.............consequentially I have waffled on taking on this section knowing that it could be another near disaster. So far the dust is more manageable but I had two vacuums running, an air purifier and the paint booth heavy duty exhaust fan on all day. 

 This morning I'm going on a search for more special bags for the shop vac and just just learned they are now triple the price of when I bought them last and rare as hen's teeth.

 enough bitching. Time to get out to the layout room and assess the situation. 

Be well,

 Rick

Dirt Roads

Been building some dirt roads. Originally I wasn't going to have any roads on the layout, I didn't want the competition for the railway. Somehow I have managed to build a number of era appropriate vehicles and needed someplace for them to go.

Tried to create some mud puddles, but didn't really work out...

Brent

Rick's dust storm

If you have more benchwork to unearth, I would consider one of those oscillating saws.  I cut a hole in the bathroom wall (not model railroad related) with very little mess.  It doesn't throw the sawdust around like a jigsaw or circular saw.  Or maybe use a knife to cut a trench in the homasote then the saw for the plywood. 

The oscillating saw I'm familiar with (it's not mine, I borrowed it) also has sanding attachments so might find more uses than just cutting.

I admire your bravery and quest for improvements.  I'm looking forward to the changes, I'm sure they won't disappoint based on previous photos.

Paul

traditional bench work modded into spider web bench work

Big timber getting trimmed and removed in spots and the new "mini me" lumber is starting to take shape. It looks pretty random....and it is, with the important exception that it is establishing a level point 25 mm below current layout ground level.

kid

I appreciate your post on the oscillating saw. Could you give me some details on which one you used?

Thanks,

 Rick

"Dog food box bldg." is coming along

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need... ROADS"

Those really look good, but I gotta ask, where do they go?

The first shot looks like the road just ends at the crossbucks (with no way to get around it) and doesn't cross either track. The other ends at the business, but do trucks have back all the way down there? There's no sign that a vehicle has ever turned around there.

Didn't wanna pick nits, but that's the first thing that popped out immediately when I saw both photos.

Roads

You can’t see it in these pictures, but the road goes across the tracks and up the hill to town. That engine is blocking the crossing, those rotten trains! The other direction goes over to the station, or at least it will whenever I get the station built. You actually can’t view it very easily in person from this angle, you look across the roads, so it isn’t so obvious that the roads are too narrow! There is a bit of a turnaround in front of the packing house, but I don’t allow much truck traffic to compete with the railway.

@ rick, oscillating saw

   Hi Rick,  I have a cheap one of these saws, a craftsman ,got it on sale years ago when sears was still in business.  I find it very useful for certain tasks .It can plunge cut and give square corners to the cut( no left out half circles at ends of cut like a skil saw) . There are quite a few blade options and the arbor is a universal pattern so blades from different manufacturers can be used. These don't cut very fast so would not be a replacement for a skil saw and saber saw but are nice to have at times. Last time I used mine was removing  some damaged boards on a redwood deck. I used a skilsaw set at 1 1/2 " to cut across the boards then used the oscilating saw to finsh the ends of the cuts leaving a nice square ended gap , ready for a replacement board. Given the expected light use and apparent reliability of the cheaper saws I wouldn't spring for a high end model if I was buying one of these, a basic model should be fine...DaveB

Oscillating saw

The one I used was by Fein, the original maker, but pretty much every tool manufacturer has one now, probably with varying quality.  

Paul