The $500 Southern Pacific layout.....WORK STARTED!

From my blog (http://sopacincg.com)

So, Model Railroad Hobbyist E-Zine had a track planning contest to design and build a layout for $500. The $500 includes track, a power pack, motive power, cars, buildings and scenery.

I went to Lowes and I bought three 1x4 furring strips, trimmed them down to size, used a pair of sides from a broken Ikea dresser for a surface. The benchwork is a pair of 14"x37" boxes, the layout is now about 14x 86, the benchwork cost me a whopping $13.00 including the hardware. With my GP35R that was purchased used for $55.00, and has $14.00 worth of detail parts and a $35.00 power pack, I have already blown through $117.00 of the budget.

Five #6 Atlas code 80 switches and Caboose Hobby ground throws brings the total up an additional $77.00, add in another $22.00 in flex track, and $11.00 in 18 gauge wire (Wal-Mart sells 40 ft of 18ga wire in the auto section, only in red and black, for about $5.50) brings me up to $227.00, add in my bay window caboose, and I am up to $257.00. I have now used 51.4% of my total budget.

Now, if we look at the rolling stock that I have picked up, we are adding in an additional $169.00, meaning that I have $74.00 to add structures, paint, scenery and ballast my track. My house walls are already a tan, and must of the layout is going to be dirt (free and free). While I have ballast and ground foam, I have not removed them from my budget YET. I also bought a Walthers ADM grain elevator for $30.00 on a Walthers special will bring me down to $37.00......will I be able to build a warehouse and a liquid feeds plant, convert a pair of OLD Atlas tank cars to Micro Trains couplers for under $37.00?

Time will tell, and I still need to buy a little more paint for the fascia, I plan to paint that Southern Pacific Lark Gray. Hopefully, someone out there would send me an O Scale Southern Pacific loco decal.

 

This has me thinking about what it has cost me for creation and equipping of similar square footage. Yikes.

 

Sorry Boxcab...

Any was, step 2...

Today, I sodered wire to rail joiners. I then took some blue painters tape, laid turnouts on the tape, and covered it with ballast. This not to create finished ballast, but to get ballast under the points so when I do the real ballasting, I don't get glue there. If I do some serious photos of this layout, I will just add more ballast without glue.




To make it easier to see where the track will be, I used a pencil and a straight edge to sketch out the schematic onto the board, then glued down the first 2 feet of track on each end. I have assembled the crossover with the wiring in place, and that will be installed next.

 

It runs! Now I just need 8 more rail joiners…

I laid track for a siding, all 5 switches, and the main line. I mounted sprung Caboose Industries ground throws, they work great. I wired up the layout, and keeping up with the cheapskate premise of this layout, I used extra wire nuts that came free with a ceiling fan (I am my father's son, never threw away an extra part that can be used in the future)



I ran out of rail joiners, and no one has any in stock. I have two more planned sidings that need to be laid to complete the track. My 8 year old wanted to run a train tonight. She claimed an SD40-T2 and my Micro-Trains weathered Golden West bulkhead flatcar as her own.

[video=youtube_share;-UkRlyejDqw]http://youtu.be/-UkRlyejDqw[/video]



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Looks cool! Watching your budget rundown, it makes me shudder to think what I spent on my layout....:wideeyes::wideeyes:

 

Thanks Hemi! Well...only the 1x4's, wiring and bolts were out of pocket, the rest is my hoard. Well, except for the freight cars, which include a pair of FVM FMC double door box cars (SP), a BLMA PS-4000 (SP), an IM R-70-20 reefer (SPFE), a MT 40 ft high cube (SP), 60ft high cube (SP), 60 ft bulkhead flat (weathered GW), a PS2 (UP) and a 50 ft plug door box car (MP)....not hard to see where the money went...now if I added in my Kato U30C, Kato/Atlas U25B and my pair of IM SD40-T2's.....then my "budet" is shot

 

the look on my face when she hard coupled my GP35R to the floor was priceless all it lost were BLMA Shades....

 

Mike, she says that she doesn't!

 

double post

 

that they do....well, as soon as she got down stairs, she wanted to run trains today. I think that I might be buying her a loco and cars of her own...Trainman stuff might be what the kid needs.

Anyways, I found four rail joiners this mornig, so I laid the other 2 sideings this morning. They are shorter than I really wanted, but oh well. I think that I am done laying track on this layout. As soon as this glue dries, I am going out and finding out if my spray cans of Foquil rail brown and grimey black are still good...

 

All tracks function well, ready for paint. I so need a better camera.

 

I am PISSED off at Floquil Paints.I had a used rail brown,roof brown and grimy black spray can and a new rail brown and grimy black. All five cans had paint in them, you could feel the weight. All of them had no propellant. FIVE expensive spray cans that I have had for over a year and none worked. Testor's quality control is really poor to me.

 

Operating the layout was one of the main things that I wanted to do before building the layout. I really wanted something that I can operate realistically, and as a puzzle as well. The next to last plan that I drew up was basically a large Timesaver. By moving the switch that created the switchback of the Timesaver and placing it on the main, I still had the same number of sidings.

I also lengthened all sidings, so I could use the 2 sidings and the main on the East (left) end like an Inglenook puzzle. I can also set up a train with the same types of cars that are already spotted and switch them out. After I have buildings, I will be able to spot cars at the doors for more of a challange.

The south (rear) siding on the east (left) end will be a warehouse, and the north (front) siding will be a Walthers ADM grain elevator (re-letered to a local name) to help break up the view. On the west end, there is only one siding and it will be a liquid feed plant. These plants tend to have tank cars and covered hoppers. I will needto build an office, warehouse and tanks. I have placed a pair of Floquil spray can caps (at least those were useful) and a 35MM film canister as temporary tanks. I plan to put the tanks between the main and the siding and the other buildings on the other side of the tracks.

I only started this layout this week, and have seen a lot of progress. Until the layout and track is painted, I am stuck. After the track is painted, I can ballast the track. I am also thinking of a road on the west end with it leading into the parking lot of the grain company.

 

Lance Mindheim has built many great layouts. One of his tricks is to paint finely detailed track in lighter colors to highlight the details, and if you are using track with big, over-sized details (like i am with Atlas Code 80), to use darker paint. Well, as you might have read, my supply of Floquil spray paint was not good. Today, I drove down to ACE Hardware and picked up a can of Kryon Camouflage Brown, masked off the ground throws and the switch points, and sprayed the rails. I then let them dry, broke out a Walthers Bright Boy and polished the rails. I am happy with the results. Now I can start ballasting....