Looks Good

Beautiful work and coming along nicely. You know, you should have a Nickel Plate Road S-4 with caboose and interchange cars visit you on occasion. I worked at E55th Street and used to prepare switch/interchange lists with the ACY for NKP crews. Keep up the posts; interesting layout.

Excellent

Really nice job on the valence and backdrops.  Your patience and discipline to not build some benchwork and lay some track just to have some "railroad" are amazing.

Keep it up

Looks like you're making good progress, and exercising plenty of care in installation.  All this prep work will pay dividends later.

Hardboard Seams

Alan- Great progress- I think you are really going to be happy that you spent all this time getting the room prepared. One quick word of caution- you may want to consider sealing the hardboard prior to applying mud and tape. I've had problems with the seams cracking and separating on my backdrop where the two edges of the hardboard meet. For whatever reason this hasn't been the case where the hardboard meets the drywall in some of the coved corners. I read somewhere that the hardboard needed to be sealed in order to prevent the material from wicking the moisture out of the drywall mud prior to it setting up. If I recall correctly, the author used some type of varnish to seal the hardboard. Might be worth looking into, and perhaps some others here can shed some more light on their experiences. Tom Patterson And before I turn this iPad into a frisbee, can someone tell me how to get the tab to work so that the message has the same spacing and breaks that it does on the PC!?!?! .

I find it funny...

Looks great!

But I find it strangely coincidental that late last week I saw a guy leaving the hardware store with a pick-up full of 4x8 masonite and then you post your update today.

Unless you live in the upper midwest it's a coincidence but funny, cause I thought what other than backgrounds and fascia does that guy need all that masonite for.

Sealing hardboard

The article talking about sealing hardboard might be the one entitled "Cover Corners" in the April 2011 edition of the MRH magazine.

https://forum.mrhmag.com/magazine-feedback-was-ezines-891776

I checked out your blog and love all those curves - looks great!

Rick

Forward Progress

Dave - I have an interchange on the lower deck for simulating the very idea you suggest. Foreign power leaves staging, runs length of lower deck, spots at Akron interchange. The AC&Y interchanged with several railroads. Who knows what may turn up at Akron interchange!

George - Especially with all of my track already purchased. Neatly stored awaiting its day. All things in due time.

Tom - All seams are on 2x4 studs, none are unsupported. I doubled up the 2x4 studs anywhere there is a masonite seam so there is a full 1-1/2" contact surface on each panel where screws penetrate. Screws were put in on 4" centers at the seams. Up close it looks like a rivet line on a boiler. If shrinkage occurs then it will have to bend 12 drywall screws to move. Hopefully that will give me stable seams.

Jeremy - I do live in the upper Midwest! If it was blue Chevy one ton then it may very well have been me. 16 sheets I hauled home.

Rob - You set a high bar for layout construction quality. I want my layout to be like yours when it grows up.

Rick - Love your coved corners in the alcove. Would have done the same (because you have to admit it would have looked cool with the curved valance and backdrop) but am bound by a self-imposed rule - the layout must be able to be dropped to the ground with a screw gun leaving a room with nothing more than screw holes in the walls as the only evidence a layout was ever present. In other words my layout cannot modify the house walls, floor or ceiling. If we ever sell the house all I need to do is plug and paint a few screw holes and be done.

Thanks for looking guys. Hopefully progress will accelerate dramatically after the holidays. January, February, and March I fully expect to be rockin' on the layout work. Finished bench work before the spring flowers come up is my target.

Ready for Primer and Paint

Want to see how I spent my weekend? Dusty but done! Pictures all the way round the backdrop at blog post.

Looks good Alan!

Looks good Alan!

It's a Wonderful Wife

No, it isn't a Christmas story with a lisp. It's what my wife did while I was at work today. She primed the backdrop! Gotta love her.

Wow!

My wife is pretty supportive of my hobby, but dang....that's top notch. Of course you know that you have to up it a notch on her Christmas gift now Alan.

I was thinking the same as

I was thinking the same as Kevin, your wife is probably trying to get you buttered up for something...LOL

My wifes 7 1/2 months pregnant getting her to do anything outside her norm is not going to happen right now. 

Looking good Alan, I admire your patience not to have press with the next step until you complete the previous one.

Cheers

Roses are Red, Backdrops are Blue

The finished product. I am happy!

Alan your hired......

To come over here and finish mine! 

Job well done...

Jas.