NP Lester WA T-Trak Z Module Set Project

Those switch machines look great Walt! I have been scouring the web for traces of more structures to add, but found little. I did find an aerial view of Lester today, and there is not much. Here is the area I am modeling on the 3 leftmost Lester modules and you can see what is left. There are few traces of the train servicing, but I highlighted the general area of stuff:

 

OK, it's been 30 days from module base, through track laying, electrical wiring, structure designs and construction to this point. I guess that makes me a lot slower than the average guy, as most would have a whole running layout built in that time.

The house to the left of the hotel has been placed today. It still needs it's roofing applied and then I can wire all the structure bases then work on base scenery:

 

Today I finished installing all the point throw linkage covers, and masked everything for the first layer of scenery base:




And then I applied a layer of Great Stuff expanding foam. After it cures for a day it will get carved to shape to create undulating scenery base, and then I can apply the plaster cloth layer:



And for some reason it is 60 degrees outside, so I am going to the patio for the rest of the afternoon, enjoy a brewed adult beverage, and smoke a turkey breast for dinner: Cheers

 

Today I started by carving some basic terrain to match photos of the area modeled. The foam cuts easily enough with a steak knife, but I have never tried a hot knife on it. When cut with a steak knife it opens the micro-bubbles, and plaster cloth sticks very well to it:




I always add paint to the water so the plaster cloth takes on a light earth color when dry. I feel it's looks better than the snow white of plaster:




Once applied you can see the earthy tint that the plaster cloth takes on:




Next I paint on dilute Mod Podge matte medium and sprinkle on a generous layer of WS yellow turf:




When that is done, I mist everything with wet water then drizzle on a lot more Mod Podge to really saturate the base material:




Once it's really wet I sprinkle some WS Weeds foam, then go heavy with 2mm light yellow static grass:




The static grass, once applied makes the base scenery look pretty thick of summer weed growth, just the look I want, to match the other modules:




And while everything is still wet, I peel up all the masking tape and tuck any peeled up plaster cloth terrain, then blend in ballast along the track and yellow foam around foundations, mist again with wet water, then drizzle on more Mod Podge. Now I just have to let everything dry a day before I can scrape away any excess material to mount the structures. I got done early today, and it's warm out, so I will go mess around in the backyard again and enjoy this record 60 degree heat wave we are enjoying:

 

I made a bit more progress today, starting with wiring up all the structure bases:



Next I did a quick test to check all the structures light up:


Then I blended the ballast into the scenery base with Arizona fine powder to represent the area's dirt:



And sadly, my camera messed up a few progress photos, so I applied the roof shingles, garden fences, and the lawn to the residence left of the hotel. I also added the trees, and placed the module in my set for a completed railyard. All these modules need to be detailed, but that comes later, as I still have 1 more module to add to the right side:



Here is the module showing today's progress:

 

I'm gonna dirty it up over time, lots of debris and junk. After all it is a small town and 60 years old at the time I am modeling so there should be lots of junk cars and stuff by then. Also needs power and telegraph poles, and small sheds and stuff.

But before I get to that I need to build the 4th module, as I only have track down on 11 of 12 modules so I still cannot run trains yet.

 

You masterfully blended your turf, static grass and the track. Nicely done!

 

So here's the deal. When I started on the first Lester module, I had all these idea's on how I wanted the format to be. But this was in 2019 when I started, and since then I have really improved my methods for wiring, magnetic pogo pin electronic connections, and I left a long standing problem, how do I wire the Rokuhan turntable to autoreverse, since it is controlled with a slide switch on the Rokuhan controller.


I mounted a tortoise / hare module under the turntable module, and still need to connect the linkage to the turnout, and I am going to rework all the structure mounting pads like I did on the Hotel module, with stronger magnets and pogo pins on the structures. Also I made a new combination track diagram / turntable indexing panel, and added the bi-color LED for turnout indication:



And I came up with a simple plan to deal with the turntable bridge power autoreverser problem. I just pulled the Orange and adjacent Blue wires (to turntable track rails) out of the connector to the Rokuhan Controller, and will connect them to a DCC Concepts Dual Frog Juicer which detects shorts and automatically changes track polarity so fast that the DCC system cannot detect a short. This should not reset or glitch the Rokuhan controller, because it is no longer part of their circuitry. Also you can see how bad my wiring looked back in the day, something I will try to never let happen again: