September 5, 2006

This date is the earliest data that i can find form this layout.  By this time, the benchwork was done and bay and large all the major construction was done as well.  All that was left would be scenery work...

One thing I would like to note is that this room has much better lighting.  I also purchased a nice new camera when I went to field camp [it was HIGHLY recommended on the checklist, so I got one - a DSLR to boot, the Canon Rebel XT.  I filled up the micro drive at least twice before I moved to a new drive...good times.

Looking back on these pictures, I realize this was a rather nicely conceived railroad - and it would have been fun to play on if I had ever added to a larger system... which, incidentally enough, is what I eventually did.

It may be strange how I laid out these tracks, but they're done so out of necessity.  The track closest to the rock face is a siding.  The Middle track is the mainline, and then there's the spur servicing the Freighthouse.

Here I have suspended two tracks where the bridge will go. 

December 16, 2006

We come back a few months later in the progress of this layout to find progress has been slow.

I'm also still experimenting with the settings on the camera.  You can really change the character of the photo with the flash - and often times, not in a way I like.  I have since learned how to turn down the flash temperature, but it was a learning curve up to that point.

The bridge may look like it's set, but in all reality, it's floating.

What is evident here is the fact that the hill has been blended between the orchard and the mainline.  The roads have been cleaned up a bit, and the underpasses each framed.  And you may also notice I added a road bridge made out of a Rix Overpass kit.

My Workbench

There was one major flaw to my library layout, aside from the fact that everyone who walked through the front door could see my work, or lack thereof.  This is the fact that my workbench was upstairs, in my bedroom.  If I wanted to do anything, I had to run down stairs.  And then if I forgot a tool, I had to run back upstairs again.  It was not fun.

I will say, though that in this setting I really maxed out the carrying capacity of my room - it was fun, but my, was it cramped!!

On this windowsill you might notice my alarm cock, my nokia cell phone with "we wish you a merry Christmas" ringotn [and I NEVER changed it!! ] on it's charger, my Camera battery charger [which I haven't been able to locate in a couple years], A Boley truck I intended to build into a cable puller, an Imex Peterbilt cab on an Athearn frame along with a scratchbuilt dump bed, an Imex cab appended to an Athearn tandem tractor [to make a long tractor], A $3.00 Boley crane which you might recognized from the Junkyard series, an Imex Ford truck with a dump bed, am Imex peterbilt cab on a Athearn frame, a stack of wheels from the Lifelike dumpbed loads, a Busch Ford Model AA truck, and a trusty Tech DC powerpack.  It worked very well for my testing purposes!  But anyhow...that's just one sill.  the rest of my room flowed like this, one project after another, simply waiting for me to have time to engage. And when time came, I engaged...or moved onto a more meritorious project as it came. 

I made full use of my shelves.  I still have this little unit, and it makes a great weekend project.  The end legs extend to the floor; the table in front effectively keeps the unit wedged against the wall.

No, your eyes do not decieve you.  That is indeed a Mantua Pacific in highlighter pink. My goal includes Allied's Helix Humper drive, .DCC sound, and a number of other things.  And it has it's own colorfull passenger train.  I call it my Cactus Blossom Special; it will run on the future layout between 70 and 90 miles an hour, the running speed for a PROPER steam era passenger train!  It's still being reworked...when I stopped, it was because my trucks under the tender needed pickup.  Yech.  Today, it looks like Bachmann is the best source for trucks already ready to go.

My workbench contains a wealth of good projects...now will I ever get any of them done?  And this next year is scary after march, because that was the month I got a girlfriend.  scary business when building a layout is your main free time passion!

January 15, 2007

It was apparent that I needed to finish the landings for the bridge - and this meant plaster work. It was another tedious day on the layout...

Once I had the first foundations formed up and poured, I then made up a second level of forms using these results as a foundation.

I then put in the bridge on the lower level - it's basically an N scale truss bridge, cut apart for the appearence of a short, single track and thus lightweight bridge.

The moment of truth: I now put in the upper bridge: Success!

Granted, I misplaced the lower bridge sides during this later ops shoot, but oh well...

Now that I have my bridge footings in place, I guess what I really need next is bridge track!

Bridge Track

Now that you've seen my workbench, let me show you one of the more tedious projects I have ever done.  The bright light and ample space on the front side of my workbench made this all possible.  You might thing 12"x24" is not that much to work with on that desk,but it was three times over what workbench space i ever had in the Apartment.

You may recall I have a double tracked bridge on the layout.  I needed bridge track.  now yes, i could have bought the track out of the Walthers' catalog, but I decided I could make it just as well as buy it.

The main problem with the walthers' version is the fact that it is code 83, and in this day and age I was firmly rooted in code 100 rail.  But I wanted better looking ties on the bridges.  So I elected to do some experimenting.

It turns out the rail in Atlas code 100 rail has the same bottom profile as the code 83 rail.  Do you see where I'm going with this yet? That's Right!!

I bought two 3' lengths of Atlas code 83 and one length of code 100.  I removed the code 100 rail from the code 83 ties and slowly, meticulously threaded on the code 83 ties, removing the spacers so as to draw the ties closer together for a more "bridge track" appearance.  And then, once done, I took the code 83 rail and made guard rails, first bending them to shape, soldering them together, and then spiking them to the previously formed ties through predrilled holes in the plastic ties.  [In the background you may see a section of Code 83 track I turned into Panel track for a bulkhead flat...nothing was safe from being turned into load fodder!!]

The final results were then painted and weathered.

I then put the track into the bridge...

End result, all done!

Today, I am a code 83 man...so somebody may snag a real deal when I sell these tracks!!!

March 21, 2007

So this would be in the week after that fateful weekend in which I ended up with a girlfriend... things just happened.  And while I can't find other files, and I know more files exist, this will be the last picture set in this series until I find more data on my doings back around this time.

You might remember my mentioning two projects earlier in this blog.  Well, believe it or not, some of the projects actually got built! 

Here you may see the layout through the caricature of this dump truck, which would take one trip through this layout before going off to one of my friend's layouts as a gift.  And in the background you may see a bulkhead flatcar that has been transferred into the MOW dept for use in wreck and washout service.

My camera was simply not cooperating this nght...le sigh.

The Rix Bridge to the left, and on the right, the control panel for my blocks is back in place.  I never did get to wiring, though...

And that's about it...

The end of this series....