Hey guys! I have decided to build a mini layout for the holidays. The idea just crept into my head last night so I started playing with track, a GP38-2 and a couple of cars as a test. I also decided to purchase this year's Micro Trains Line X-Mas set with the robots. That will be here later this week. For now here are a couple of pics and a video teaser. I’m planning on leaving the bottle brush trees and prolly adding a few more for a whimsical look. The tunnel portals were created and printed by me, and I’m working on sidewalks and other misc items now too.
This is a fun project, Massey. I will enjoy following your progress. What size is this layout and what size curves are you using?
Massey inspired the kids and I to set up the tree today. Standard 7' plastic, fold-out variety and HO 22radius, for a simple circle, seems to work best . . .
Not sure of the exact measurements of the board, it was a piece of scrap from my last project. I do know the track pieces though, the end curves are 150mm and the wobbly part in the back is 315mm 15 degree. Then a couple straights to finish up the front. So far all my box cars and hoppers I have tried on it work great, but passenger cars don’t. If I had some mini passenger cars it may work, but not full length ones.
My old Christmas tree layout was some Bachmann 22” and 18” (for a passing siding) nailed to a piece of ply that was cut out in the middle for the tree. I would run my On30 Bachmann steamer I got from Hawthorne Village on it. Pretty train! Now when we have a tree I use an O scale Polar Express. No tree this year so I am building this little gem.
Not a lot going on tonight, but some work got done! I put some drywall compound on the layout where the road meets the rails for the grade crossing, the center between the rails is going to be a 3D printed piece of "concrete" I had to work over one of the pieces a little and it will take a little more because it is on one of the curved pieces. Last night I 3D printed some sidewalks of my own making which line up perfectly with the sheets of styrene I purchased to match the sidewalks for the buildings to sit on. My sidewalks are 12mm deep but I need just a fuzz more to clear the street lamps I plan on using. No biggie here either. I will post some pics tomorrow after I sand away some of the drywall compound to make my grade.
Grades are done, the initial coat of paint is almost dry and now I’m waiting on the glue to dry on the mountain so I can carve it to it’s final shape.
Ok, done for the night. I got quite a bit done today. The mountain is carved, the roads are painted (not striped yet) sidewalks are installed as are the pads the buildings are going to sit on. The trees are in their approximate location as well. I need to paint my skinny building, install windows in 2 buildings, and get them set up for lighting. I have street lights that are going to be installed as well. Sculpt-a-mold will be applied to the mountain to give a rock appearance and fill the holes, but that’s for tomorrow. For now I’m listening to my favorite music and enjoying watching a little train go round and round. Here is an overall bird’s eye view. The neighborhood. Street view #1 Street view #2 Tunnel entrance and the wing walls/retaining walls I designed and printed on my 3D printer. Oh and the sidewalks and “concrete” pad inside the rails are also designed and printed by me. I am very happy how they turned out.
Massey, Your layout looks amazing! Your 3D sidewalks came out really well and match up nicely to the store bases. I am also impressed at how fast you work. - Tonkphilip - “I am very happy how they turned out.[/QUOTE]”
AMAZING where are they hiding? Surely you had help . . Spoiler: Click to see where . . "Workshop Elves"! As a strict beginner Appreciate all for descriptions of HOW you do things/the materials used! Found this-> 1:87 Scale, HO Scale Elves (on backorder?)
It would seem I didn’t really do much yesterday on the little layout… and well, I didn’t. I had to watch plaster dry. I have ADD here people, watching plaster dry is TORTURE! I was ready to start painting as soon as the plaster hardened, but having painted wet plaster before, thinking it would still dry and wouldn’t be an issue (remember I’m ADD) it turned into a mess where the paint stayed gooey for weeks. So lesson learned when I was 10, and here we are today almost 40 years later with me going stir crazy. It wasn’t that yesterday was a total loss, I did get work done on my main layout, and I build another mini layout (2 x 4) base, and laid some track on it for a small switching layout that I’m going to give to a friend for Xmas. He even helped me build it, he just doesn’t know it’s going to be his yet. Anyhoo back on to my mini layout. Here is what is looks like now, and I should be able to paint some brown and grey for dirt and stone by the end of the day… oh, and black inside the tunnel.
Well that went well… or not… so I keep my paint out in a shed/shop and when I went to retrieve it and use it on the layout I discovered it to be in the consistency of oooblix, so there went that idea. I did move it into the house and it is warming up and becoming a liquid again but it’s a slow process. Tomorrow will be better. And since I didn’t want to lose a day of work on it, I made the facia and trimmed it to fit. I will be hiding a battery pack and some wiring underneath and this will also be stained when finished.
The paint was just fine once it warmed up. So I painted the rocks and ground and tomorrow I will work on the details, base scenery and lighting. Then putting the buildings down for the final time. Oh, yea, still need to paint inside the tunnel black. Yea that too!
I have discovered that even though some locomotives would seem to be a great engine for this layout… they simply are not. I know my curves are really tight, I did that on purpose, but I also had the intention of running a Micro-Trains FT locomotive on it. I mean why not, it has a really short wheel base, 4 axles, it would be perfect… right?… well no, it wasn’t. It would do it, it would make the corners but you could hear the flanges scrape on the curves, and after only a few minutes of running the loco was getting warm. I’m guessing from the strain on the motor from the sharp curves. So I stick with my GP38-2 that I have been using. But I also decided to try my other GP’s out and discovered the GP35 needs help (maybe it will make the curves but it needs me to put on my mechanic hat first) and the 2 GP40’s I have also didn’t like the curves. All my GP’s are Atlas. I was really wanting to run the new Robot Christmas train on this cute little layout, but then I remembered I have a Kato Operation North Pole set from 2019 and the locomotive for it is short wheelbase 4 axle… will it make the curves? Yes, yes it does, smoothly just like the GP38-2 does. But the ONP passenger cars do not oh well. I did kinda figure the Metra cars would be way too long, and yes I was right, but you never know until you try! I’m thinking I need to find some shorty passenger cars, or make some for this layout in the future. Maybe even paint a holiday F40PH for the occasion. I would prefer an old F unit to power it though. Anyway, just a bit of a ramble while I wait for something to break at work. Next up is the base scenery and some lighting, stay tuned!
It has been a few days since I have been able to get any “noticeable work done on the little layout. But even now, it’s not really that noticeable… well maybe… I forgot I hadn’t posted any pics of the street lamps, so I guess that’s noticeable. I changed out one building and one house. The building on the end of the left hand side of the street was actually part of another layout and I was just gonna finish a half built building I have, but I decided I would try building a Woodland Scenics structure instead. I got the Fresh Market for the job. The White House was replaced with a little red one. Mainly because with the plastic being white, and thin, the base being glued on with a lake’s worth of glue, the house would glow with lighting, and it wasn’t possible to paint the interior walls. Oh well, the little red house it much cuter. Part of the work done that you can’t see is the buildings all have lights now. One building has both floors independently lit and there will be a control for it in the tunnel… actually all the lighting will be controlled from in the tunnel. I also drilled the holes for the light’s wires and mounted the light controller. I went with Evemodel for the controller and lights inside the buildings, it gives me more flexibility than the Just Plug system does. The controller is mounted, but the barrel jack socket won’t be here until tomorrow so I will show off all those goodies when I’m finished with that part. I did mount the plug for the throttle on the outside of the layout, good to go there. New House. Street View showing the new and unfinished building, you can also make out the street lights.
I have that new house! It was part of a two-pack from Heljan (and, I'm sure, other brands). I like the idea of the houses right up against the edge of the layout.
So today was not so good... I am pissed... I was wiring up my lights and got everything done, (minus 2 buildings that are not finished and one that needs a switch) but when I powered everything up only the street lights came on. So I checked the voltage and it was under 3V. Ok so I moved the voltage pot to the lowest setting, and switched to the adjustable voltage mode. Powered it back up and still below 3V. While using my multimeter I slowly raised the voltage right around the 3.1V mark my meter flipped out and the numbers on the screen went wonky and I heard a crackle sound. I didn’t think much about it at first. Then I checked the layout and all the buildings were on, but the street lights were off. The voltage spike killed the street lights. And…. Yea it took forever to find the same lights, and it won’t be here for about 2 weeks. I was hoping to have all lighting finished here by the weekend… guess not. I also ordered a power distribution module that will allow me to limit the voltage to the street lamps so we don’t get a repeat of this. Here are a couple pics of the wiring work. Here is the Evemodel lighting board Power in from the outside. The lighting switch is hidden inside the tunnel.
