ZoCal was invited to the Poway All Train Scale Club's little get together 7/31- 8/1 2010 in Rancho Bernardo, CA. The "southern" contingent of ZoCal was there. First video here: http://vimeo.com/13897655 We had nine modules in the layout with FIVE modules in various levels of construction - none usable - yet! My 2' x 2' end module was about twenty minutes away from being usable at the end of Sunday. "Newby" Jeff got his four modules delivered by Don F. and was working on them off and on. He actually got the cork installed on two of them. He was watching me attach my track and solder the feeders to the rails. More on my new module later. The church hall had four layouts ( HO, N, S and of course Z) and Saturday was also an "Ice Cream Social" - I think I had three (small) servings of ice cream myself. I was running a sixty-four car train behind two BNSF SD-70s and Don was running a fifty plus car train behind two GP-9s, one GP-35 and my UP SD40-2 in the lead (breaking it in). Other videos coming soon.
Oops... No GP-35 but another GP-9 behind the UP. Oh, yea. One more thing. Kevin or Ryan. Do you happen to have any extra cars from the show? I seem to be missing about 8 - 10 cars. Glow in the dark paint on one bolster pin of each car .
David great job on that video Sorry I missed you Guyz looked like Fun! So how about some pic's of your New Mod???
Here ya go: Finished the wiring last night. Soldered the joiners on the ends again. Still have to fill in the missing ties. The circle in the middle will be cut out and a quarry will be there with a road spiraling down. I got the idea of having something go down below track level instead of above.
Another video: http://vimeo.com/13924944 This time you see all FIVE modules under construction and all four layouts that were in the room. Had some fun with the out-takes - sorry Don, I could not resist the last shot. Music from "O Brother Where Art Thou" again.
Thanks for the videos Dave. Great job. Is the module with the train on top of the white mountain the fifth module in progress? Do you have any more footage or photos that show more of it? BTW, did you find those runaway cars?
The "snow scene" is Gary's mini layout. He runs a DC Markiln train up there and we were letting kids run that train with the snail controller hanging out the side. In the last video, you see a kid climbing up a step stool so he can run the train. I have separate video of this train running. Last we saw of those "runaways" was in Pomona
Here is a short video called "Just for Gary". http://vimeo.com/13971638 See the small train go around and around. Bobby McFerrin music.
I like the fenced in are Dave. I cleared off my odds-n-ends work table and wrenched my End module up on it. HAVE to get that Autorack area done, then it's on to the little structures. 9 months to NTS Sacramento module space submission. .
Dave, What brand of fencing did you use? What did you make the hardtop area of the container yard from and how did you embed the track in it? John
Miller Engineering makes the stainless steel security fence. I rubbed it in a box of rust powder before installing - too shiny out of the package. The deck was concrete paint with a cover of aged concrete on top of that. Then smeared with black powder. Where I work has 15' squares of concrete. I measured out 15' and simply drew lines with a black ink pen. The inlaying of the track has already been covered but is simple. Figure where you want your track and actually assemble/solder it together. Place your track on your plywood and draw a rough line around the outside about a 1/4" away from the track. You will need to extend the line almost a foot toward where the track comes up to give room for the climb out of the upcoming hole. Remove the track and get out your router. Whatever size bit you want does not matter, but you want the cut to be just slightly deeper then the height of the rail/ties combination. Get the wall patch from your local home improvement store. The container that when you pick it up you would swear the container is empty the filler is so light. Smear some into the bottom thinly about the thickness of the ties. Place your track into your recess and place some heavy weights to hold the rail tops even with your table top. I used some flat weights that could bridge the recess and then I knew the rail tops would be even with the top. If some extra patch squeezes out into the rails, just remove it. The rails must be kept clear of the filler. Let this dry for at least a day. Just make sure it is dry. Then simply fill in the whole recess track and all with more filler. Use a putty knife wide enough to once again bridge the recess and level all the filler so that everything is filled in. A ruler could be used also. The point is to try to replicate the appearance of a flat area with just the rail tops showing. When satisfied, grab a train car and push it through the rails several times to clear the flange area. Some filler may stick up after this but just leave it alone. Let it all dry and then sand the filler smooth. If you find low spots, just repeat the filler/clear the flange process again. When finished paint your filler with what ever color you want to copy. This could be painted with black paint to look like asphalt. This process would work great to have the old main line down the middle of town or trolley rails also. I'm having a slight problem getting the concrete paint off the rail tops. I should of wiped the rail tops after painting, but it is hard to do with the filler right there. I'm going to hit the rail tops with a bright boy to get the paint off. Try to keep the grade not too steep going down. Solder the rails together with all the track flat and then push it down into the recess/filler so the there will be no kinks in the rails. Try your track work out first before the filler part to make sure the track works right. You can't fix it when it is "buried". Hope this helps.
