The Granite State Industrial Layout Build Thread

With the frame of the shadowbox completed, I was ready to start on the backdrop. The backdrop is made of 1/8-inch hardboard and will be painted a sky color. I have watched Boomerdiorama on YouTube, and he has been an inspiration to me on the construction of my layout and allowing me the peace to acknowledge, that it's okay to have a small layout as your primary or only layout. One of his favorite construction methods for joining two similar pieces together is by cutting 45-degree angles into each end thus keying the two pieces together. Cutting two 45-degree angles into adjoining pieces hides the seam that much better. After careful measurements, I cut the two panels that would make up the rear back drop and the two sides of the backdrop.


The rear panels both had a 45-degree angle cut into them as seen here. One will have the angle facing down while the other will have the angle facing up and "keying" in the two pieces of material. While this is not 100% seamless, it is a much cleaner fit with less filler and sanding needed when it comes time for paint.


With all the backdrop hardboard cut and dry fitted for fit, it was time to adhere them to the inside of the shadowbox. Here you can see the right-hand side of the rear backdrop has been attached to the frame. Only yellow carpenters glue was used to affix the backdrop so as to keep filler material to a minimum. The backdrop top is flush with the upper valance stringers and fits in between the corner and middle support. The small area between the bottom of the backdrop and frame is open allowing me to clamp the backdrop both top and bottom. One can never have too many clamps. The gap seen here is of no concern as the modules once placed inside will cover that area up.


Using the carpenters glue did slow progress however I will save time in the finishing process. In the span of an afternoon, I was able to secure all four backdrops. Here you can see one of the modules that makes up the layout seated in place. That space between the bottom of the backdrop and frame are hidden once the modules are placed in their respective places showing just the backdrop.

Up next, I'll cut the material that will finish the exterior of the shadowbox which will be the top, sides and upper vallance and fascia. Early calculations estimate I can get this accomplished with just two pieces of 2X4 1/8-inch hardboard. A few design considerations I will need to take into account before I completely cover the frame include:

• Concealment of the wiring for the lighting.
• Entrance/exit for the northbound and entering trains to the cassette.
• Will I really use hardboard, or will I use thin plywood and stain?
• Consideration for a courtesy curtain.

More to come...

 

Thank you for the encouraging words. I hope to get the shadowbox portion of this project completed in the next few weekends so I can return to the track. When I left track work back in April, I had installed all the main line, half of the turnout controls and had only spurs to install. I'm looking forward in painting and weathering track.

 

A recent visit to my somewhat local Menards allowed me to find two lighting sources for the shadowbox. The first was a small and compact under the counter LED light bar. These bars were available in various lengths of 10, 24 and 36-inchs. I was able to find a 48-inch as well as a 24-inch that together would span the width of the shadowbox. The nice thing about these lights is that they are modular and can be plugged-in into each other to form one large light. Perfect! The next light source I picked up was the flexible color changing LED set that I plan to use for "early morning" and "evening" lighting. With the main LED light installed, I needed a way to allow both wires of both light sources to exit neatly from the shadowbox.


I started on the top of the right-hand side valance that is made of 1X2. I drilled a 1-inch hole parallel with the wires from the LED lights. Once drilled I checked the exit and found that my measurements were spot on. I could have simply left the wires this way, but I wanted a neater appearance and since I still had to place the outer finish panel, I figured I would route the wire between the skyboard and outer finish panel. Normally I would have cut the wire channel on my table saw with my slide table, however the crossmember was on shadowbox. Fortunately, I picked up a small saw attachment for my cordless drill a few years back and after some measurements cut the channel you see here.


Likewise, I wanted the wire to exit the bottom, so I needed to cut a channel into the lower 1X4 support. The good news is that my little saw attachment has no issues allowing me to make multiple cuts to create a channel. The bad news is that it was set too deep, and the blade depth is not adjustable. Fortunately, I had a few pieces of scrap 1/2-inch plywood. As seen here, I clamped them parallel to my guidelines.


And as seen here, I was able to better gauge my depth. Deep enough to allow the two wires to pass through, but not so deep to cut the crossmember in two!


Here is the finished work. Now the wires pass out of the shadowbox top and straight through the bottom, concealed by the cavity created by the skyboard, 1X2 and 1X4 frame and finally the finish panel. While all other outer panels are glued, I ended up cutting a piece of 1/8 hardboard to fit, drilled and countersunk four holes and attached the panel with four wood screws. Gluing this panel would ensure that the lights would stop working. A maintenance panel is a must!

That leaves only a few more tasks to this part of my layout:

• Cut, and install the front upper valance pieces.
• Cut and install the two-front trim pieces.
• Cut and install the front fascia.
• Spackle and sand all hardboard inside and out.
• Cut and install corner trim.
• Paint the skyboard.
• Paint the outer valance, fascia and panels.

Once those tasks are complete, I should be able to resume trackwork on the modules, just in time for winter.

More to come.

 

Nice work! And good thinking for future access.

 

Picking up where I left off last May. YIKES.

It's been a little over two months since any work has been done on the layout. As is always the case, the Holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years take over all aspects of life and one usually has to put aside such aspirations of model building. I did cut the upper and lower fascia from the 1/4-inch furniture ply just before the cold came but that was as far as I got. With winter now firmly in place, I would have to change gears and set the fascia project aside until warmer weather arrives again in late April.

The last of the track work I had done was getting down all of the mainline and siding. I had installed the two Tam Valley servo turnout controllers on the south module, the north module needs it's three installed next. After some experimentation, I had found an easier way to mount these servos using small stand offs and screws. I'll illustrate this later in the thread. Once all three servos were installed, I next mounted the Tam Valley Servo board controllers.


The servo is seen at the bottom of the image. The white and blue wires are connected to the DCC bus line, and the green wires are to the turnout frog. You will notice the micro switch connected to the side of the servo and the arm that sweeps across it allowing activation. This allows the turnout to be thrown while powering the frog without causing a short. The control board is seen above the servo and here I am measuring the distance I wish to mount all five boards from the front of the layout (top orientation of image) The main DC power line will run close by and power all my servo turnout controls. While the layout is small, I would rather have a dedicated DC power line for accessories and a pure DCC line for motive power.


I elected to mount the board about 2.5 inches from the front of the fascia. Seen here is the board mounted on the underside of the layout with four plastic stand offs and four screws. This board can be run manually with a momentary button, or you can take advantage of the decoder on the board, and fire it from your controller. A quick break down of how this board is wired for throwing the turnout:

• The black plug you see with three wires is the plug of the servo that throws the turnout. The three wires are, Brown = Negative polarity, Red = Positive polarity, Orange = signal
• Next to the servo plug you will see space for another similar three wire plug. This is for the manual button to select. This button is nice as it includes two bi-color LEDs that signal the route of the turnout and can be easily mounted in a CTC style board.
• The two prongs seen on the opposite side control the overall travel of the servo. Open as seen here is maximum travel, while placing a small jumper on the prongs limits the servo throw. This is handy for fine tuning but generally since I'm working with N scale, I don't need a lot of throw or travel on the servo.
• Finally, the blue box on the board that is facing the front of the layout, opposite the servo plug has two contacts for the DC power. I'll use two pieces of 22-gauge wire color coded red/black here to connect to the main DC power bus latter.

With all five servo turnouts installed it was time to go on to the next portion of the layout, track wiring.

 

Track feeders, a bus line and to pack a suitcase, or not.

Track wiring is typically not everyone's cup of tea. It can be tedious at best, and downright frustrating in some cases. Fortunately, a small layout like this is easier to work on as each module can simply be taken over to the work bench and worked on with all tools easily within reach. I'm going to start with my supply list to get you all acquainted with the GSIs wiring protocol.

• 12-guage stranded wire with silicon insulation blue for (north)
• 12-guage stranded wire with silicon insulation white for (south)
• 22-guage solid wire, one blue and one white
• European style terminal blocks
• A quality soldering iron with a small tip and able to deliver 750 degrees.
• solder
• solder flux.
• cup of Early Grey with a spot of sugar and milk
• favorite podcast or suitable Led Zepplin, or Rush album

Please note, this is not the "end all" of track wiring, just my personal preference. I like order and color codes when working with layout wiring. I like colors to mean something not only for a neat look but more importantly for easy trouble shooting down the line. A quick rundown of my wire colors and what they represent:

• Blue = North or "Negative" of the DCC line
• White = South or "Positive" of the DCC line
• Green = power wire for all turnout frogs
• Black = Negative DC power
• Red = Positive DC power

Pretty simple but if followed, with a simple explanation anyone can trouble shoot the layout.


Let's talk about the feeders. I get my wire for the feeders and servo controllers in a roll of doorbell wire. Doorbell wire has 22-gauge solid wire with white, blue, green, red, and yellow insulation. I can cut off a piece of doorbell wire, cut the outer brown insulation and have my feeder wire as well as frog wire and more. The technique I use is not of my own but rather one I learned from Rons Trains N Things YouTube channel. Seen above are the finished results of step 2. Because this is a switching layout, I installed feeders on every single piece of track. Don't trust those little track joiners to do the job of feeders. Additionally, I like feeders on all three diverging routes of my turnouts. I did not do this on my former Galesburg City Job and regretted it latter.

• I first drill a small 1/16-inch hole between two ties as close to the rail as possible.
• I then cut a small amount of insulation of the feeder wire, clasp the wire in some needle nose pliers and squeeze the wire flat whilst bending the end at a 90-degree bend.
• This is where your colors come in handy. Remember white is south, blue north.
• Now bring the wire down to the rail head. You want the wire to hook on to the side of the rail not on top. Cut, file as needed. You want a firm grip here.
• Use a small amount of solder flux to the area of the rail that will have the wire attached to it and hit it with a tinned soldering iron and just a small amount of solder.
• Now tin your feeder wire with flux then solder.
• Slide the wire down to the rails side, nice and snug.
• Bring the tip of the soldering iron to the rail and allow the solder on the rail side and wire to melt, hold wire still until it solidifies. Honestly, this takes some time and technique. You want the solder of both the rail and wire to melt and complete a good electrical connection. Hold the iron too long and your ties will melt. Too short and you will have a cold solder joint that will break apart easily.

At this point it is time to install the bus wire and connect all those feeder wires.


As mentioned earlier, I prefer a 12-gauge wire with flexible silicon insulation. I'll cover how I set up the bus line later, for now we'll concentrate on the feeder wires. When it comes to attaching the feeder wires to the bus, one can use suitcase connectors. I have used them in the past and they will work fine if installed correctly. They are certainly handy if you are upside down under your layout and you don't necessarily relish the thought of hot solder dripping on you. However, since I have the luxury of working on this layout on my workbench, maneuvering everything to an ideal alignment is much easier. Above you will see how I connect the feeders to the bus wire.

• I bring the wire up in this case to the bus wire and place a 90-degree bend that is parallel to the bus wire.
• Next after a few millimeters, I bend another 90 degrees bend up towards the bus wire. From this bend, I strip the feeder insulation.
• I carefully cut a small section into the bus insulation and remove.
• Now I carefully wrap the feeder wire around the bare bus wire.
• Flux is added to the assembly then solder again, ensuring a good connection.
• Now a small amount of blue in this case heat shrink tubing is slide over the connection. No bare wires show because of that first 90-degree bend of the feeder.

With a module like this, I can easily measure, cut and slide the heat shrink down the bus line, one at a time. Just don't forget the heat shrink before going on to the next feeder otherwise you have no way short of liquid electrical tape to cover the wires. Another thing I do is I test each set of feeders before moving on to the next. That ensures I have good electrical connection on each section. This is easily done by setting up a low voltage DC power pack on the DCC line and using a bulb with two wires to test for continuity.

Now to deal with those pesky customers and get the spurs laid down.

 

Thank you sir.

 

Going online before the internet or laying the spur tracks for online customers.

As mentioned earlier, the mainline and passing siding are Micro Engineering code 55 track. I had the opportunity last year to pick up some Micro Engineering code 40 track and wanted to use it for my spurs. The reasoning was based on a few personal observations. For one, I had never worked with this fine of track before, I also reasoned that this would look more prototypical, I have not seen a lot of N scale modelers use it and finally, going back to my first reason and coming about full circle, I wanted to push myself as a modeler and get out of the comfort zone. The worst that could happen would be me ripping out the track and simply using code 55.

Since the rail and even the ties are so much shorter than code 55, I needed a way to create a gradual incline from the 40 to the 55. In the real world, there are special joiners, and the grade can be adjusted. We don't have that luxury since the terra firma is five ply plywood and cork. In the end, the answer was simple if not a bit fiddly.


I first sanded the bottom of the ties to remove any imperfections then turned to my attention to the Evergreen .010 thickness styrene strips I had. I cut these out at about the same length of the ties and used Plastruct liquid cement to attach them to the first six ties. Now the fiddly bit. The first two or three ties required two of the .010 styrene strips while the last of the six only one. It was then a matter of using a fine sanding stick to carefully remove enough material so that both rail heads would be on the same level. It took me a bit of experimenting, running different freight cars over both rail heads, feeling for high spots with my finger. Soon however I had a nice smooth transition from code 55 to 40. I next, carefully used a track radius tool to help with the diverging route from the turnout then a 10-inch long Tracksetta gauge to form the track into the desired trajectory. A note of caution. Code 40 is very flexible and can easily bend the wrong way and produce an impromptu roller coaster style track, so I took my time forming what would become the spur for Central Paper. Once I was happy with shape of the track, I measured a line 15 scale feet from the center of the mainline and drew a center line for the spur. Why 15 scale feet? According to what I read from the class one roads, this is the minimum distance, center line to center line a spur can be set from the mainline. Is the prototype spur for Central Paper that far or close to the mainline? I don't know, while the building is there, the spur was taken up in the 1990s or early 2000s. I can tell you however that it is perfect for a small layout such as this.


And here is Central Paper's spur installed. With the centerline drawn on the layout and the judicious use of the track tools, I used a very thin layer of Loctite brand Power Grab adhesive which is safe for plastics. Before the glue permanently set, I tested the section with a number of brands of freight cars and did not have one derailment. The white shim ties will disappear once I paint the track and fill this spur with New Hampshire vegetation.


And here is the end result with all customers, Central Paper to the extreme right, Sweetheart Plastics to the upper left and the transfer / team track to the left bottom. I now need to add feeders to the Sweetheart Plastics and transfer / team track but most of the wiring is behind me.

As I write this, I'm now getting ready for the big show in Massachusetts called the Amherst Society Railroad Hobby Show. It is not all pleasure however as I work for Athearn but if you do go, do stop by and say hi. I always enjoy meeting fellow Trainboard members at shows.

When I come back, I'll finish both the DCC and DC bus lines, fine tune the turnouts and finally be ready for painting and weathering the track. I'll cover more of that in February. So, until the weather warms up, track work is the theme in which I still need to:

• Install the feeders on the two remaining spurs.
• Finish the main DCC bus on the south module.
• install the DC bus on the south module.
• Connect the two Tam Valley Servo controllers to said DC bus line.
• Repeat the DCC and DC bus line and feeders on the north module.
• Construct the Anderson Powerpole connectors for both the north and south DCC and DC bus lines.
• Test and adjust all turnouts for ideal operation.
• Install leads that will eventually connect to the NCE panel.
• TEST! Run a locomotive on all parts of the layout and maybe run an impromptu operating session.

It is indeed slow going but hopefully very reliable operation with a realistic look will be the reward.

More to come.

 

Thank you. When I get back, I'll share more views of the wire management system I devised. While not perfect, it works for this little layout.

 

Thank you, I was hoping my posts were helpful to others.

 

It's terminal, but in a good way.

It's been a little over a month since I last posted an update on the layout. I, like a few folks who attended the Amherst Society Railroad Hobby Show in January, came down with what I like to call "Creeping Crud". I was down for most of the month of February and March was busy with surprise Birthday parties, Holidays and more, however I did make some progress. When I last left you, the southern module needed its last feeders hooked up and I needed a way to manage the bus lines. Enter Radio Shack stock from well over 20 years ago.


Before Amazon, there was the local Radio Shack and picking up these barrier blocks was easy. Fortunately, I still had some in my supply. Here you can see the terminus of the DC and DCC lines into the strip and on the other side are the short pig tails which have Anderson Power Pole connections for the north module.


Likewise, I installed another on the opposite side of the south module. I did this as I can add pigtails in the future should I wish to add another module and enlarge the layout. Both ends sit on a block of 1/2-inch plywood, so the mounting screws do not go through the top deck of the layout. It also works well as a standoff. Future planning has its rewards.

Yes, the south module with the exception of one turnout and entry to the siding is scale to an actual location in Manchester NH. Should I someday have a permanent residence and room, I will simply add to the layout by building these small three-foot modules as a shelf type layout modeling the Northern of the B&M and will include Manchester, Concord and my home, Boscawen NH. For now, however the shadowbox layout is all it will be.

 

Get on the bus, we'll wrap this up...

I then started work on the north module. Most of the feeders were installed before the Amherst show, but two sidings were in need of installation. With a fresh cup of coffee and a new podcast in play, I set out to finish the task at hand. I wanted to show how I typically wire both my DCC and DC bus/feeder lines for an optimum performance and neat appearance. I started doing this with my NTrak module I built a few years back and it has proved successful. Is it 100% bullet proof? No, very little is. Is it reliable? I've yet had trouble with it. Is it labor intensive? If you mean compared to a suitcase connector, then yes. Is it better than a suitcase connector? Your mileage may vary, and should you choose to go that route, I won't judge. My father was a TV and home Hi-Fi repair man for 30 years before switching to computer repair in the late 1980s. One thing he drilled into my head was solder and good wiring are better than simple connectors. For those who wish to see how I do this, I submit the following:


For this example, I'll illustrate with the south or white wire of the DCC bus. Here we see the bus line with the feeder behind it. You'll want to leave one end of the bus line unattached at one end to successfully install the shrink tubing later so keep that in mind as we progress, we'll be working from one end down to the other in a line.


Using the feeder as a place holder, I carefully cut a small section of the insulation away from the bus line. Use sharp hobby knife for this. Cut on either side around the wire then a line between the two cuts and remove the small section of insulation.


Next make two 90-degree bends as shown, removing the insulation as seen here. The first bend needs to keep its insulation.


Next, using needle nose pliers, I carefully bend the feeder in a hook and wrap it around the bus. Flux paste is added and then solder as seen here. Typically, the bend with insulation is bent parallel to the bus line for the next step.


Finally, a small piece of matching color heat shrink tubing as slid on and shrunk. One down, we move on to the next in a line until we get to the end.

 

This of course can also be done with more than one feeder at a time as seen here. These wires are from the three routes of one of the turnouts.


In cases such as this, larger diameter tubing maybe required as seen here.


In this overhead, or under, shot, we see the wiring has been completed for both the DCC and DC lines. While I used European style barrier strips on this module, should I expand, I'll switch to the standard ones we say on the south module. With all track wiring done, it was time to install the turnout throws which I'll cover next.

 

I so need to hire you to clean up my wiring. By wiring, I mean birds' nest...