Follow as I build a Z Scale Christmas Tree Layout

OK, I am feeling better finally. I still have congestion, but not feeling ran down anymore, so I came out to the garage to continue. I don't have a Christmas tree until I get this one setup, so I have to make some progress.

First thing is to get all the electrical done, and that is a 2 part job in itself. The AC and the DC parts. I will need the Christmas Tree Lighting Controller, a spare AC outlet, and a 12V 2A Power Supply mounted to satisfy the AC wiring part of the project. I harvested a 12V 2A power supply from a wall wart that came from my obsolete DSL Modem. I soldered on my own heaver gauge wires:



I cut a piece of thin ABS plastic, and hot glued it in place for mounting the 12V power supply, mounted the Tree Lighting supply, it's a 30V nonstandard circuit, and although the board input says 3.5-36V, it did not work with my 12V supply, so I went ahead and used the supplied 30V wallwart to power the tree lights. Ugly, I know, but I need to make some progress, and am not going to buy a 12V to 30V Boost Converter because shipping is about a week out these days. I used WAGO Lever-Nuts for all the AC wiring, and hot glued everything down. At least it all fits underneath:




Next I tested the 12V supply output OK at 12.3V, and tested the Christmas Tree lights operational before moving on to the train controller:




Satisfied that the AC and Tree Lights are working, it's time to come up with a train controller. I had purchased a 2 pack of Mini PWM DC Motor Speed Controllers off Amazon, and a pack of DPDT switches for direction control, and then laser cut a mini panel box so I can control 2 DC trains independently. I figure my grand kids will be messing with the speed and direction of trains all the time. I had tested the PWM controllers working with the 12V supply just fine, by connecting a 6V motor to one of them, and running the duty cycle up and down, and the motor ran just fine, even though it is 12.3V getting to the motor. It's a Duty Cycle thing:




And the next step will be soldering everything together. I am at a stop point for the day, as I am still fighting this cold:

 

Yesterday I had a bit of a Cold Relapse, and stayed in the bedroom all day, but today I went back out the the garage, and made some progress. I wired up the 2 train PWM controller box:



I notched out a flat spot to mount the controller box, then marked where I needed to drill a wire tunnel, and drilled the wire tunnel and 2 mounting screw pilot holes:



After I test mounted the original box, made from .055" thick ABS, it was too tall and too flimsy, so I re-drew everything into a smaller box that is using the .120" thick ABS, and mounted the new box:



And I was not super happy with the original control panel, so I made a peel and stick sign from .004" Black on Silver sign plastic. I made the speed knob indicators segmented, and the direction arrows smaller, added a passenger and freight train graphics, and called it Christmas Express. I also added UV purple colored power LED's to the new panel, and verified operation OK. I like the look a little better, don't you :




I had drilled a wire tunnel through the table top, and drilled a smaller diagonal hole between the rails to the wire tunnel, and fished all the wires through, then glued the lid on the box. It's pretty tough, so should last a bit of grand kid abuse:



And here you can see the power wire coming out the wire tunnel, and that the box bottom is flush with the bottom of the table bottom. Since it's a PWM Motor Controller, the voltage in is what the voltage out will be, so I am going to add Diodes in series with the input voltage to drop the 12.3V down to maybe 7V, so the locos cannot go too fast. You know how Kids and NooB's are, if their Hello Kitty Shinkansen is not racing at 60 RPM's, it's not fast enough.

 

Yeah, those older type of steamers.

 

That control panel is LEGIT! Nice work!!

 

And today I started on the fun stuff, I started on the plaster hardshell. First I did a bit more carving to get the terrain as close to as I want it, then I filled my sprayer with warm water, and acrylic dyes, cut a bunch of sheets of plaster cloth, and went to town:



It's a pretty simple process, I just don Nitrile gloves, drape a piece of plaster cloth cut about 4" x 6" over the foam terrain, spray the warm dyed water on, and rub it in with my fingers. It dries to a hard shell which is a good base for scenery materials later. I made a spot for one of my NP Depot's down low, and it looks like it will clear the track, which I will start on tomorrow:




I included this overhead shot so you can see the terrain. I left a road all the way around, and a through the tunnel for the roadway. There are terraces for cabins, and of course the Train Depot. You can see how the legs of the tree stand partition off the quadrants, so I can have 4 different scenes:

 

The fun part! Looks great so far!

 

Today it's time to get some track down, but before I can lay the track I need a bridge over the creek. So I spent a while looking for small bridges over creek's and found an Northern Pacific concrete bridge built in 1902. It is just a huge reinforced slab of concrete with a support in the center. Well, if it worked for the NP, it will do for me:




I didn't spend much time drawing it up, and cut it from .125" plywood, then glued it in place:




Next I started gluing the track down. I just use Walthers Goo, as it holds the flextrack down great, has decent working time, and lets you re-position the track a bit after setting in on the roadbed. I used T-Pins to keep the track in alignment, and after 10 minutes, the Goo will have fixed the track in place well:




As usual, I soldered all my track joints. I just used some old Peco rail joiners I had, and they worked well with Atlas Flextrack:




It took about 2 hours to lay the track, then I took a break for some Fried Chicken and a Coke Zero for lunch. Gotta have a decent lunch now and again don't I?




After lunch I wired in three 1N5408 power diodes in series with the PWM controllers 12.3V power source, which dropped the voltage level to 9.3V, then I soldered the track feeders on, and tested operation good. These PWM controllers are cheap, and they work great for Marklin DC locomotives, and they only cost $6.59 for 2 of them!




Here is the PWM Controller test video. I just grabbed a Marklin BR89 logo out of a box, where it has been sitting for 10-15 years or so, and was pleasantly surprised. I did NOT clean it, lube it, or anything, it just ran great:

 

These PWM controllers are super easy. You can hook a 9V battery to the power in, and output to the track and you are ready to go with 4 wires total. Add a double pole double throw switch and simple crossover wiring to the track output, and you have added a direction switch. It's the same thing as those Snail Speed controllers, but you can build 2 of them for about $20 including case and batteries.

 

This morning I replaced the missing ties under the rail joiners, then started airbrushing the track Floquil Roof Brown. I had to crack my last bottle of Floquil Roof Brown because for some reason the previous bottle had dried out. The lid was on tight? Oh well:




The Floquil Roof Brown makes the Atlas Flex really look nice. It kills that toy train rail shine that you see on the sides of the rails, and hides rail joiners fairly well, don't you think?:




The Next step after lunch will be to get the ballast applied. I had to break into my secret stash of Arizona Rock & Mineral Copper N Scale Range Green Granite, the most highly coveted fine crushed ballast that best represents the Northern Pacific track West of the Stampede Pass, where moss and other fine grasses tend to grow in the ballast and give it that distinctive color of gray green. I have to conserve, as I only have 30 or 40 bags left, and it has to last me the rest of my life!

 

Well, the ballast went pretty fast. How I did it was to make a dam around the edge of the layout with Masking Tape, then spread the ballast, teasing it into profile with a Fan Brush, misting it with Wet Water, and drizzling on 50/50 Water to Mod Podge.



I used to use White Glue, but it started getting expensive, and the Mod Podge is actually close to the same price, and dries to a flatter finish. After I had ballasted all the track, I drizzled a second dose of Mod Podge over all the ballast for a bit extra hold. Now it's time to relax into a solid Youtube Coma, since it will be a day drying till I can continue.