metro-red-lines-n-scale-blog

No, this isn't some sci-fi fantasy layout. But in building my N-scale pike (3 years and counting and I still couldn't run a train all the way through the mainline!), since it's taken so long, I figured instead of dismantling the layout, I'd want to expand it at some point, but aside from the yard at the far edge of the layout, the track plan is pretty much a closed folded dogbone, with no provision to run a train "somewhere else."

I originally planned a shallow "dummy ...

Welp, after much deliberation, and three long years since starting my first N-scale layout, I finally did it -

I finally put superelevated curves on my layout!

I began by making sure my ME concrete tie flextrack was properly curved, and the rail joiners were even. For (eventually-)DCC purposes I made custom joiners with black and red wires soldered on.

Now I'm ready!

1. The roadbed.

I first made sure my WS foam trackbed was free of ...

I continued the mundane, yet necessary task of gluing down the foam Woodland Scenics roadbed with latex adhesive caulk - a job that was last done in early 2007! Here the colored pushpins are finally gone, and progress on the mainline trackage finally continues!

...

Continuing my long-overdue layout construction, I spent most of this evening cutting my foam sheet into mountains:


BEFORE #1: The uncut sheet of blue extruded styrofoam, which will be cut for mountain-forming.


BEFORE #2: Future river/lake ...

To say "Long Time, No See!" is the understatement of the year! Like many people, my model RR time has been competing with my other endeavors in life such as community organizing, playing music, work, travel and other interests.

This past week I finally got back into model RR'ing as I made a trip to a local foam supplier here in the Los Angeles area, and ...

Trying to get back into the swing of things, I dropped by my "local" Michael's arts & crafts store (best place to find cheapo scenery items) and picked up some styrofoam glue. Also picked up some floral styrofoam, which looked like it had some potential. I posted something about it here.

Hope this gets me more active on the layout!

Forgive me, as I have been out of the hobby for a while. Things like this and this have occupied most of my time in 2007.

My last time at a Hobby Shop was waaay back in May, when I took a little vacation to Portland, Oregon and visited the nice folks at Hobby Smith, which was just a few blocks from a MAX light rail station and was located in, of all places, Portland's Hollywood District (I live in the Hollywood, as in Hollywood, CA). Anyway, I found them to be one of the best stores ...

I'm coming up with all these neat ideas in N scale!


N Scale Bolster Pin Application Tool!




Cheap N-Scale Flextrack Shaping Tool!

(February 19, 2007)
Last month (January) I sold about half of my old HO wares at the Golden Empire Historic and Modeling Society (GEHAMS) swap meet in Bakersfield, CA, about 110 miles north. People gobbled up my containers! I also met some great people there and was glad to know the remnants of my HO layout will be in good hands. There also was this dude who wanted to low-ball me for my entire collection. Hell no! I don't wanna see my stuff at his table in a future swapmeet sold for 3x the ...

I've gouged out a 20' wide flood control channel from the foam in my layout.

Some fictional historical background: It doesn't rain much in my layout town of Cortes, CA but when it does, runoff water from the mountains has flooded this fair town in years past, the last time in 1938 when the town was devastated. The State of California and the US Army Corps of Engineers built a flood control ...

Merry Christmas 2006, everyone!

In my family most of the activity is on the evening of Christmas Eve, where I spent singing and playing music at two churches. There was little to do during Christmas Day so I spent the evening "working on the railroad."

Layout update: The past few days I removed the test track, so no test trains have been running the past few days. I did re-align my track plan slightly (no major changes, just some more accurate aligning made). ...

A lot has happened on my layout since I've updated this...Let's go in order:

NOVEMBER 10, 2006:

I had started to draw up the roadbed outlines on the track. I know most people draw track centers, but what's the point when you can't see the centers, especially when you use the WS foam roadbed?

Being a former HO scaler, I made use of my available HO resources by using some of my old Atlas snap-track. Why HO? Because the outline of the HO track is exactly ...

November 6, 2006

I officially made the switch TODAY! I bought these:



Athearn N-scale UP and CSX boxcars, a piece of Atlas flex-track and a piece of cork roadbed, in front of their HO scale equivalents, which I already own. I also bought these off of eBay today:



Intermountain ...

November 4, 2006

This weekend three model railroad clubs in the Los Angeles area held open houses, I used this as an oportunity to perhaps generate interest and potential buyers for my HO scale equipment. The night before I made up a flyer with some pictures of my old trains and some of the accessories (I had to have a little photo shoot on the benchwork) and left copies of this flyer at the Glendale and Highland Pacific Railroad clubs. There was another club in Alhambra but I didn't ...

November 3, 2006

I'm proud to announce the first section of
benchwork has been built for my first N scale layout!



Pardon the clutter underneath. Half of it is my
bass rig/guitar and keyboard cases (I'm a
musician), the rest are my old HO equipment
packed in boxes and storage bins (ready to get sold!)

It will be a 4x8' with two 4x4' sections ...