LAYOUT PARTY 2023-2024 Sixteenth Annual International Winter Layout Party

Thanks, this is not my first attempt at building this type of industry but it is the one I am most satisfied with.

 

On Thursday night I pulled the table saw out from inside the helix so I could clean the track in anticipation of running a local from the yard to the Fontana branch. Last night I woke up some locos that have not run in many years, consisted them and ran from West Colton to Fontana and back. Nice! I then pulled 14 cars from Fontana to the yard and back. Nice! I do have some fine tuning to do including turnouts a bit out of whack and cars that need weight.

Now to get to work and build more layout.

 

My goals and timelines are totally busted now.

I had hopes of getting more accomplished since the first of the year but 2024 has been a doozy already. We had a snow storm that dumped 20 inches of snow one weekend, before that we all had a pretty mild case of Covid (first time ever since it all started 4 years ago), then my wife had a stomach bug that took most of a week to get past…. Ugh. Then the discovery of ultra rare period photos of the rail line I grew up along caused a mid-layout crisis (i.e. tear it all down, sell everything and start over).

So I am resetting my mindframe and focusing on completing old projects and accomplishing anything achievable on this layout. In a couple weeks, I will start on benchwork on the last two sections and get those out of the way.

However, I did put down carpet tiles along the peninsula yesterday and finished decals on some coal hoppers. Nice to no longer walk on concrete.


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Oh, almost forgot… we didn’t have power for 4 days and had to throw out everything in the refrigerator.

Oh well, finally moving forward in a positive direction now.


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Sawmill Design Build -- Pt. 1

WARNING: The following might contain information that is quite boring for many. ….................................................................................................................................................................................................

I needed to ….



…. get the track roadbed through the tunnel, top left above, and on the other side of the upper level here so I could finish up the scenery on the other side of the backdrop. Doing that I ended up wanting to lay all of the cork on this side while I was at it. To do that I wanted to make sure the track where some of the sawmill's output would be loaded was in the right spot and that a sawmill would actually fit in this area.

While researching sawmill ideas …



…. I came across the B.T.S.'s Sawmill kit that is available in HO, S and O gauges. It is an unbelievable kit and if you are in one of those gauges and looking for a sawmill or sawmill complex be sure and take a look at their offering ( HERE ). Great detail, both inside and out, with lots of options one can choose from.



I did use there HO dimensions and sketched out their sawmill complex on some paper towels to see if it might work in N scale. My conclusion was that even though I liked their concept for a sawmill complex it was tool large to work for me in the space I had, especially since I also need to have room for lumber stacks for air drying. My plan is that the mill has a kiln and would kiln dry some of the lumber but not all of it. Some would be rough cut (I used that for posts/beams in our house) and some would be finished like the aspen that our interior walls are covered with.



To design this with Fusion 360 I needed an accurate image of the upper level that I could then design on. This way I would make sure that the sawmill design I came up with would fit in the space available.

I have 10 foot ceilings in the shop so got up on a ladder and took a couple shots. The high shot directly from above would avoid some of the wide-angle problems I'd get from shooting down closer to the layout. I took the shot, several, and then cropped the image to the area I wanted to work with.

I laid a 3 foot and 1 foot ruler on the layout so that I could calibrate the image in Fusion 360 to full size.



It is easy to bring an image into Fusion 360 and calibrate it to whatever scale you need. I calibrated the image full size in Fusion using the rulers. At the top of the image above I have the calibrated image showing as the background. I can then draw/design right on it and make the different areas (backdrop, foam board scenery and the one track I wanted 'solid objects'. This goes quick and once I have them designed the image/canvas can be toggled on or off at any time (bottom of the image above).

This is a great tool that I've use before. If you aren't commercial it is great to have a program this powerful available for free.



B.T.S. Has some great interior equipment that you can buy for HO, S & O scales. If you want to populate the interior you can buy the band saw, edgers and swing saws they make along with some other items (again if you are in those scales check out the saw mill and other items they have ( HERE ).

Their saw mill is configured for two band saws and a set of edgers and swing saws as shown above. Their layout is similar to how saw mills have operated for some time. The equipment now is pretty much laser/computer controlled and doesn't require near the man power as it use to.

I decide to copy some of what they are doing but not all. I went from two band saws to one. Kept the layout of having 2 edgers and 2 swing saws. I'm setting it up so that lumber could come off the band saw and move to rollers next to the saw and onto the green chain which moves the lumber out of the main part of the mill. This would be the larger pieces like posts and beams that wouldn't go through an edger.

If the lumber moved past the first set of roller it could go to the first set of an edger and a swing saw and move through them to the green chain. This would be rough cut (non-planed) lumber. The lumber could move past that to the second set of an edger and a swing saw. It could move from there as rough cut lumber to the green chain or move across and through the planner after being edged, sized and cut to length. It would move through the planner and over to the last set of rollers and from them to the green chain.

The large beams and posts that moved along the first set of rollers could go out a side door of the mill on that side to be loaded into boxcars or onto the green chain and to the yard to dry or be hauled off with a semi (how some of the lumber output will be transported).



Using Fusion rollers, edgers, swing saws were roughed in along with the band saw, log carriage and carriage track. I set up the roller lengths and other items where the mill could produce lumber up to 16 ft. long. Longer lumber could be cut it it didn't go through an edger or swing saw.

Not sure I'll ever make the interior equipment or not. Laying it out gives me the option that I could if I wanted and that the mill would be the right size to accommodate it.



I continued on mocking in the rest of the equipment and set up a single green chain that takes the lumber outside the mill proper to where it can be sorted off the green chain and put into stacks that can be moved into the yard for air drying or to a kiln if the lumber is going to be kiln dried.



Above is hopefully how the sawmill will be laid out. Time period is early'60's and this sawmill probably wouldn't of lasted as is much longer but some did like the Hull-Oakes Lumber Mill that is still in operation and was still partially run by steam until 2013. I'm actually going to use the Hull-Oakes as a model to some extent. I'm not trying to model it but use it for ideas. At the bottom of this page I'll put some links to Hull-Oakes as it is a great resource.



Logs will come in by rail and logging trucks and lumber will go out the same way. I'll probably add a kiln so that some of the finished lumber can be kiln dried.

A tour of Hull-Oakes ( HERE ).

A lot of pictures (new and historical) ( HERE ).

Also the mill shipped by rail also until I believe 2007 and there is a four part YouTube Series on that ( HERE ) by Ken Olsen who also created a small model railroad and Inglenook puzzle that goes to train shows based on the switching that goes on at the mill ( HERE ).

To be continued...........

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Temporary crisis, I put myself through that once or twice a year… long story short, I wanted to model the B&O through my hometown, but I couldn’t fit two critical yards in the space I have available. I was already freelancing with the whole KY&N prior to moving into this house and building this layout, so I stuck with it.

So realistically, nothing is changing for now. Just keep recording and storing these prototype discoveries… maybe the next layout in the next house (I’m 38…we only plan to stay in this house another 10-12 years)


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Underbrush for the wooded sections is largely done. Now to start adding a few details and then TREES!

 

Over the weekend I started working on the first of several structures that will line the far side of the road in Carlin. Recessed bases made from plastic panel had already been laid out before I installed the Carlin section into the layout. This first one is a 3D printed house that I had already started, and which houses the speaker that provides the sound for the nearby grade crossing. A pair of wires and a small plug from the speaker extend out of the bottom of the base and can be pushed through a hole in the base and plugged into a matching socket within the bench work. All of the work on this little diorama is being done on the work bench.




This house did not come with a garage and I wanted something different so I scratch built a car port. The house is from the 1920's and the story is that the original garage became too small as the cars got bigger and was falling down so the owners replaced it with this car port. After finishing up the paint job on the house and glueing it in place I added sidewalks, some bushes and flowers, and a TV antenna. I am also working on some Model Power picket fence for the front and some board fence for the sides and back. I have also ordered a batch of 3D printed details from All Scale Miniatures.

 

Took a small break from designing with Fusion 360.



.



Next up is spackling....

To be continued...........

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

I was going to post my ESU Loksound installation in my Kato ALC-42, but I fried it.

Epic Fail.

 

Sorry to hear that but we also learn from our mistakes and those of others. I can't remember if I've fried one or not but if I didn't I'm sure it was just by luck that I didn't. There have been other epic fails though over the years .

Sumner

 

That sucks, what happened? Never mind, sure you don't want to talk about it, sorry that happened

 

Sorry to hear this, MRL.

 

Not much to post right now -- ive been really involved in another project -- creating a 3d drawing of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron Ohio -- 65000 sq foot Tudor Revival manor that is now a museum -- im still here and reading -- just been a little busy the last couple days!

Have a great day everyone!

TIM

 

It's so pathetic it's almost comical.

It all started last year when I bought the new Kato ALC-42 when it just came out in early 2023. I bought an ESU LokSound 58741 decoder just for it but only installed the decoder and speaker and had it like that for almost an entire year.

But I wanted to do the whole thing right, which meant installing LEDs (always the hardest part of a sound install - not the decoder or the speaker!) for the various light functions that I wanted (flashing ditchlights, reverse marker lights). But I procrastinated for the longest time because I was afraid I'd mess up at some point.

I also found out someone made a speaker and 3D-printed enclosure for it so I finally ordered that, and I finally mustered up the courage to do the lights and complete the install.

Welp, I installed the lights, installed the new speaker and enclosure, everything turned out just great, I had to futz with JMRI a bit to get the light commands correctly (the decoder is designed to be installed backwards, and though programming the decoder to run reverse worked correctly, some of the lighting commands don't exactly comply). So I was almost ready to go...

Then when I put the shell back on, the bottom part of the frame didn't exactly snap on to the shell completely - the rear part of the fuel take was angled lower than the front part. I finally realized that the culprit was a tiny piece of speaker wire that was bunched up that kept the bottom part of the frame from locking even. So I re-soldered that and removed the wire-bunching.

I was like 98% finished. I felt proud of myself, I finally completed a DCC sound + lighting installation! So I put the loco on the track, turned the power on and...

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Ugh.

I turned my command center off right away.

I opened it again, and my first instinct was to examine those speaker wires. I added more Kapton tape as the back of the speaker and the wire contacts might have gotten in contact with the frame at some point.

I turned my command center on again.

The loco ran in reverse at full speed, even with the throttle fully down. I knew this wasn't good. I reset the decoder. No luck, no change.

So much for that courage, eh?

I was ready to throw my loco against the wall, but I realized that I'm a grown-up, so I stopped myself. The decoder was only 10 months old, and still under warranty, so I sent it back to ESU in Montoursville, PA with a copy of the receipt the next day in a bubble mailer envelope.

Three days later, it came back. Return to sender. The next day, I re-packed it in another bubble mailer and instead of using the Self-Serve Kiosk at the Post Office, I asked the PO clerk what I had done wrong to warrant a RTS. He told me I under-paid my postage as a bubble envelope is considered a "package" and not an "envelope" (that's news to me). The difference was about $4 in postage. But I wasn't done making mistakes yet! He told me if I had given them the original envelope labeled RTS, they would have credited my original postage for the re-send. I assumed the original envelope was invalid due to the markings and stickers the post office put on it, so I put it all in a new bubble mailer.

Anyway, I ate up that Humble Pie and paid for the postage and wasted the original $1.39 I sent the initial bubble mailer. Sure, it's less than $2 but wasted money is wasted money (plus I wasted over $100 in wrong car parts over the past month, but that's another issue. See? I'm soooo full of winning...)

Anyway, the good news is that according to USPS tracking, ESU already received my decoder. Now I sit and wait.

 

When I took down my last layout in Maryland 6ish years ago before we moved south. I saved all the trees. I never imagined I'd reuse them all in one scene, but as it turns out northern East Baton Rouge Parish is indeed rather woody. SO it is appropriate to have planted them all for the Winter Layout Party.



I am debating whether I want to procure more trees for the foreground, or just static grass it and be done.

 

I love seeing all of your work but I'm a little jealous I don't have a layout to work on and participate in this thread. I'm still in the very early stages of designing mine (been doing research and am getting ready to start drawing it up).

Y'all keep up the good work!

 

Hey Hoss, take a look at Rolling Line on Steam games -- not only will it scratch that itch for now -- but if done carefully, you can actually use it for planning your new railroad as well -- plus its cheap!