So back at it following a week off doing some NMRA visits. I have made it a goal to attend each of the clinics in the region over the next two years. We'll see if that's doable or too ambitious. Tonight was a light crew. Doug and Scott worked on the foam between the snowshed and the Maple Valley mainline. I wanted to give that area some depth to stimulate distance. Decided a steep slope valley might do the trick. Here is how it's shaping up: Mark continued his assault on the switches in the lower staging area. There's only 54 switches down there so it's a light task. Yeah right. I wanted to show you a clip of the double slip crossover. We wired the four switches with our control arm method and four tortoise machines. We used a single dpdt switch and control all four sets of points with just two movements; one sets for the crossover, the other mainline running. Here is how that looks: http://youtu.be/BVQh8Jxrkjs As for me, I worked on the new base for the snowshed pilings. As I have mentioned on here before, the scene is removable. I wanted to create a method to true up the pilings for plumb and level each time the scene was put back in place. My solution was to shape a block of wood to the curve, locate the tangent where the pilings touched the wood when plumb and anchor a small post in that spot. The pilings would then slide over the post, truing them up. Part one was to determine the tangent point, then part two was to drill holes for 3/32nd rod. Here is the curved wood support with the metal pins inserted at the tangent point. Next I cut 3/8th in lengths of styrene square beams and put them over the rod and filled the center with gap filling CA glue. The outer dimension of this styrene square is a perfect fit for the inside dimension of the pilings. Once it hardened, helped by a shot of zip kicker, we put it in place (see first shot in the post) and then set the shed on the posts: Success! Now we can affix the wood to the foam and feel free to remove the scene for painting and scenery. More later, night all. M
Last night's work party was one crazy night. Know how sometimes you get up on the wrong side of the bed, then there's the days you ought not to get out of bed at all? Well, that was my day and it carried into the evening. Doug and I spent the evening working on turnout controls in the lower staging yard. As we've mentioned before, there are 54 turnouts in this section. Last week Mark put in the 1/16 tubes. This week we put in the 1/32 throw rod. Another view: On our website we have a tutorial on this, but to summarize, the tube is put in place with epoxy and left to harden. The wire is bent into the hole in the turnout throwbar, then again into the tube. Underneath it is bent 90° in any direction. The bend keeps the wire from creeping up and out of position above the turnout. But the key is that the tube must be solid or the movement of the tube will negate the bend and eventually the wire will pop out of the hole in the throw bar. Not a real good situation for smooth operation. Here is where my fun began. I asked Mark to put in the tubes. He did exactly what I asked. I failed to tell him the epoxy must be above the turnout. He opted to epoxy under the table. As a consequence, and trust me I blame the owner, ME, the tubes moved as we tested the wire. Disaster! It meant we had to epoxy virtually every turnout tube. As a result, I got my dauber down and tried to get it done fast. I'm pretty sure I epoxied myself to varying objects at least three times in my haste. Then while under the table I decided the tubes were a bit too long, so I got out the dremel and cut them to a length I liked. Sounds simple enough right? Nah. Let's break multiple cutting disks because we're being sloppy. In fact let's go beyond that and cut Doug's forehead with flying disk debris. I'm pretty sure the guys wanted me in a straight jacket by evenings end. Ahem. On a better note, Doug started to add a "cut" in the SE corner: And Scott started stressing out one of our roads: Glad the night is over (pretty sure I heard that uttered at one point). Not because I wanted it to end, but I needed to just get the bad karma over with. More next time. Thanks for checking in. M
That should breathe a lot of life into the area. What other types of vegetation will be planted? If you do any trees, I'd be fascinated by how you represent maples and alders.
I have never tried static grass, but it looks superb on other peoples layouts. Looking forward to seeing that area on yours treated with vegetation
Another solid night working on the RGW. Light crew as only four of us made it, but the work got done and decent progress made. Ed arrived early and got to work on one of our most critical turnouts. It became apparent that something bent the point rail and the throwbar. Ed pulled up the rails and took out the throwbar. It was a painstaking effort and he took parts home to finish forming the point rail that replaces the damaged section. Doug continued his assault on the SE corner. Tonight he started the spackle process. As for me, I completed installing all of the turnout rods. It went a heck of a lot better tonight than last week. Following up on a recent post, I have been asked offline how I was sure the snowshed posts were plumb and level. I put together a little jig to accomplish that. I started with a short piece of L channel. Added styrene to the outside so that I could build a platform for a bubble level. The level is attached with small strips of carpet tape to two square styrene pieces on each side. To use it, you hold the jig against the post and adjust the post until the bubble in the level is in the center circle. It worked very well. That's it for tonight, thanks for checking in.
It's been a couple of weeks since we updated the thread, so here goes. Two weeks ago we took a night off and visited Scott's South Twig & Port Saginaw layout. It's his late 50's GN and Duluth Missabe 16x20 HO pike. Here is my favorite part, the coal dock: He used 6 kits to build the framework, then scratch built extra framing and supports. It's awesome. The following week was a slow one, only three of us and yours truly was on the mend from a bad back so I didn't see the need for a report. Last night was full crew and everyone made progress. Ed completed the fix of the curved turnout in lower staging. Using printed circuit board as the new tie. Cars ran through it perfectly. Doug completed the SE corner foam install and put the first coat on the entire area: Scott was out but made progress on his road scene before leaving: Wain added more ballast on exposed front table track: He and I also made some progress on the golf course scene, putting in the temporary photo backdrop (actual backdrop will go in later) and he started sculpting the green and the adjacent tee box. An excellent evening on the RGW. Thanks for checking in. M
I wish I had taken a picture of his scratch built bridge that controls entry/exit to the dock, it was very impressive.
The RGW was pleased to host Ross and Jenny Waters, owners, publishers and photographers for Trackside Model Railroading Magazine. TMR is an online, subscription publication that features two layouts per monthly issue and assorted modeling tips and techniques. Ross, called me a couple of weeds ago and asked to feature the RGW. After having seen his work, I immediately agreed. He and Jenny do amazing work; both stills and video. They arrived mid afternoon and started by setting up scenes and taking stills. Around 6, the guys started to arrive so we did multiple run-bys at scenes they wanted to capture on video. We had a great evening running trains, making new friends and we look forward to the future issue of TMR that showcases the RGW. Here is the link to their publication: www.tracksidemodelrailroading.com Thanks for checking in. M
Tonight was just Ed, Rey and me, so only a short post. Rey continues to build our well cars. Never seen a car have so many tiny add on parts. He's on his third cut of 5 and the swearing is getting noticeable! Ed is troubleshooting our Lower staging yard double slip crossover switch. There's a section of dead track in the crossover, but when we run a jumper, it shorts. So a lot of tinkering to find the culprit. As for me, it was back to the helix tunnel portal for more scenery. Here is how that looking after tonight's progress. I also played around with tree configurations to hide one end of the cut through. There's much more to do; including gluing down the lichen (you can see the t-pins). But first it needs to get coated with yellow ground foam to simulate the scotch broom. I put it in with the pins so I can decide if I like it or not. More pics once that's complete. Thanks for checking in. M
Thanks, but pictures don't lie and I may need to go back and lower the hill in the back now that I see it's way too high. From straight on you don't see the higher peak, only at this angle.
