Forward Progress

No doubt the fascia adds a whole new look. It must feel good to hit another milestone. Is the terrain flat throughout the area shown in the photo? If not, are you going to contour the top of the fascia to match the terrain?

Potential

I see a lot of potential. I am guessing industrial with a small harbor?

Great Guess!

Hi Guys-

The layout doesn't have any grades as it's a waterfront operation  (and that's a great guess Bob!).  It's a terminal switching railroad served exclusively by carfloat.  I hesitate to say it's based on any real life railroad as I choose to depart from the prototype whenever it suits me (this is a "learning layout") but it is most closely patterned after the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal. 

I've been doing a lot of odds and end tinkering lately (i.e. playing around with brick painting techniques and the like) but I had a nice chunk of time Friday and was able to bang out a project that has been hanging over my head for a while.

Thanks for your kind words!

~rb

I'm liking what I'm seeing Richard...

 Richard,

I think this is the first photo that I have seen thats shows a substantial amount of your layout.  The fascia looks fantastic, and so does the backdrop.

Is that going to be a water front in the drop down section on the peninsula?  I like the look of the trackwork around it.

Keep posting photos your going great guns!

Cheers,

Jas...

Thanks for the kind words

Thanks for the kind words Jason!  You haven't seen much of my layout of late because...well...there hasn't been much progress on it in the past year or so.  I had the same "distraction" you just had but 18 months earlier (but luckily, and without Dad pushing the matter seems to be a big Thomas fan!) so my time was limited to smaller projects, experiments etc. as I didn't have a ton of time and when I did I wanted to be sleeping! 

 Fortunately there will be a 2nd "distraction" coming my way in August so I'm trying to get as much done as possible before #2 as I'm sure work will grind to halt yet again.

To answer your question that lower section is part of the water section of the layout.  In fact,  the two tracks furthest to the left are stand in tracks for my carfloat.  The water will continue under there as well.  The 6 tracks to the right will be the carfloat loading/unlaoding yard. 

I'm actaully having a friend come over tomorrow who does the demos for Scenic Express who I'm hoping will help me strategize on how to start tackling the scenery.  I'm not afraid to dive in but I'd like an experienced eye to give me an idea of where I should start first.

~rb

facia

Dear Sir: Good job on the facia. I would have liked to see rounded inside and outside corners. I make it a rule when building layouts for others or myself to avoid 90 degree corners. Not only does that look better but it allows you to install a curve on those inside corners. Keep up the good work and have fun. Yours Elvin Howland/Layout Concepts, The Ferroequinologist1

Looks good

Looks good, Richard. The next milestone will be when you paint it. Just did mine and what a difference it made. Will be watching for future pic's.

Roy

Looks Great Rich!

Looks great Rich! I can't tell you how envious I am - I really miss my wood shop!

What color are you going to paint it?

Thanks!

Thanks guys.  Again, it's nice just to feel like this thing is going somewhere, you know?  I'm not sure on the paint yet because I want to see what color makeup of my finished scenery will before I picked something.

My initial thought was a dark gray color since my tracks will be ballasted with a dirt/cinder mix and the area will have a run down, industrial look to it.  I though a color similar to Rustoleum's Dark Gray Primer (although not that specific color) would be a good fit to complement my "industrial gloom". 

The only challenge is that I'm going to build some car card sorting shelves (I'm still trying to figure where I want to place them, hence the movable car card boxes) out of dimensional lumber and some floor trim on the edges (to keep the car cards form falling off) and I think the lighter stains may make for a funny color combination. 

I'm hoping to get those done tomorrow.  My wife is having some friends over for a play date for my daughter and hopefully I can sneak out into the garage and get some work done.

Car Card Shelves

This has been the most productive train weekend in months!  Two card sorting shelves were completed today and I have them temporarily installed on the layout.

I thought the trim would be nice to give the shelves a bit more of a finished look and would also keep the cards from sliding off my shelves.  I also like it because the width of the shelf allows the card to tilt up a bit making it visible to the operator without them having to step back too much blocking the aisles.  I experimented with a few extra business cards (a little smaller than the CC/WB will be but pretty close) and they were very readable at this angle.

Baseshoe

It is called baseshoe, not sure if it is one word or two.

I am jealous

Your layout is going to have a very finished look. Like cabinetry.

Yeah...so about holding off on painting the fascia...

I've gone ahead and made a liar of myself (I'm quoting myself up there).  I decided to go ahead and paint the fascia as I had the time and already knew more or less the color I was after.  It's been a relatively small time commitment so I figured why not just get it done. I took the top of the primer can with me to the paint store and found a color that worked for me in Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron (2124-10 if anyone wants to use it).

Fascia paint color?

Rich,

In the top picture, your fascia paint color looks like black. In the bottom picture, it looks like gray. Which one is more accurate?

Al

--

Hi Al-

As I mentioned above I think the 2nd picture is a better reflection of the real thing.  The first picture was without flash, the 2nd with but it seemed the capture the color a bit better I think.  Also, here's a link to the color on the Benjamin Moore site.  It's a dark gray, but definitely doesn't look black.

Nice Choice

Love the color...of course I'm partial to it already.  (Check out the lead photo on the rotary turnout control article in the Feb issue for an example).  I didn't have it in mind before painting the fascia, but it was merely what I had on hand - trim paint that came with the house.

Looking forward to seeing how the layout develops.  Nice shelves, too.

Galen

Looking good

Looking good. Progress, what's not to like.

Roy

The Paint Dried

I'm glad we share such refined taste Galen!  I just went down to get a few shots with the paint dry and I have to admit the paint dried a touch darker than I wanted but it still looks pretty good.  It's definitely not black but it's pretty dark.  Still, I think once the layout is together and sceniced it shouldn't take away from things.

Here's two shots from the same spot as last night.  These were taken without a flash.  The fascia in the foreground appears darker than it actually is while the color farther away while still dark is a bit closer to the real thing.  The 2nd picture also highlights a major backdrop separation problem I'm getting.  This was a VERY cold winter and my panels shurnk quite a bit.  There is at least 1/8" of space there now.  I'm apt to leave it at this point I think.  I can probably mask most of them with building flats down the line. 

Here's a shot with the face of an NCE panel in place.  You can see the paint color is lighter than the panel.  This shot was taken with the flash however and it makes the panel appear lighter than it should be.  The color is somewhere in between.  Sorry, no pro here with the camera by any means!

I'm hoping to get the DCC panels, holsters, and my shelving back in place tonight and then maybe this weekend steal a little time to try and figure out where to start on scenery.  That, along with getting my Car Card system in place are my two big projects.

Thanks for reading!

Great progress

I appears you are moving right along. It pays to do a little every day, rather than attempting to everything in one long day. Now if I could only follow my own advise.

Nothing wrong with a dark fascia.

The "star" of the show should be the layout,  It is an old stage trick to make everything dark on or around the stage except the actors and props so that the viewer's attention is drawn to the stage,the action, and not the surroundings.

I like the dark color

I like the dark color actually.  I had briefly mulled over the idea of the dark green that i see is so common but since my layout is in an urban setting and trees and grass will be at a minimum I thought a color that would complement the cinder ballast and urban environment would be the best bet.  The more I look at it the more I'm liking it.

I like darker colored fascias too

See this thread: https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/fascia-and-skirting-12187264

-Al

I like dark fascia also

Unless your building the scenery from floor to sky I would rather have a Black Satin Finish then any other color.

Gloss is too shinny and Flat collects dust and plaster marks Satin can be cleaned and doesn't show streaks

Dan

Hard Luck & Bankrupt RR

Welcome to Model Railroading and Welcome to the Model Railroad Hobbyist Forums.

1/4 inch thick and 3/16 inch thick Cork sheeting can be found at Michale's Craft stores, Lowe's Lumber and Hardware, Ace Hardware stores, and many other Lumber and hardware stores around the U.S. and Canada.

Best thing to do is call the stores near you and ask if they carry and stock rolls of cork sheeting for making bulletin boards for some reason they tend to go blank if you ask for cork for model railroading. They just don't seem to be able to put the two together, unless they know someone or are model railroaders themselves. Many craft stores & Office stationary stores carry Sheet cork, I bought a roll from Staples Office stores a few years back but haven't checked them lately.

Having no idea where you live that's about all I can advise you to look for cork sheeting.

There is another product made by "Woodland Scenics" called "Track Bed Sheets". It comes in packages with 6 pieces 5 mm thick X 5 inches wide X 24 inches long. Once glued down it will cover one of the following yard areas :

5" wide X 12 ' long

10" wide X 6 ' long

15" wide X 48" long

20" wide X 24" long

The down side of this product is the cost of around $15.00 per package.

The up side is you can buy it on line and have it delivered to your home.

The other place I know that will carry Cork sheets is one of our sponsors "Scenic Express" use e following link to access the web site and gi MRH credit for using them   http://www.model-trains-universe.com/cheker/cheker.php?idmk=345 

The cork Sheet they sell are made by "Midwest Products"  and they also carry the above mentioned Woodland scenics products.when you get to the Scenic Express web site look for "Track Roadbed & Ballast" also sign up for a free 260 page Catalog. They carry everything you would want for building scenery and I meen EVERYTHING.

once again welcome to the MRH forums and make sure you down load the first 12 Issues of the MRH Magazine located here click on URL   http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/back-issues

Rio Grande Dan