Just finished gluing down the base coat of dirt on the layout. Next step is getting the ballast done. Wish me luck on not gluing the switches in one direction.
I like the setup for the engine house. I also like they way you boxed around the manual lever for the turnouts. I did a similar thing with mine. It helped me keep ballast out of the controls. Can't wait to see more. Trey
Nice ! the best part, besides *simple* scenery is the elevation usage (the track has varied heights). Can you bring that to the Great Train Show Nov 22-23 ? Would be great to start having some mini-layouts and BYOZ again. http://greattrainexpo.com/schedule.html
ZFRANK was asking in the Zedex 2014 thread about the GP20 I was running on Shasta. It was in the collection of basket case locos I picked up a few months ago and someone had already started choppin the nose of an AZL GP7. I spent a while trying to find a chop nose GP7 with dynamic brakes and only really came up with a Wisconsin Central one that fit the bill. However I chanced upon a picture of a Cotton Belt GP20 and realised straight away it was pretty close the cab has had the number boards spliced onto the front and I have still got to add the side windows, sun shields and the distinctive Espee light cluster but it looks O.K from a distance mand adds a bit of variety to the roster Seen here at Zedex heading three other Geeps cheers Kev
It only took me 3 weeks to get the ballast done. I used Arizona Rock And Mineral Co. N scale Pennsylvania ballast. Somewhere in there, like everybody does when blasting track, I promised myself I would never build another layout. Blasting roadbed track is a pain. Each turnout took about an hour just to make sure I didn't gum it up. Glad it's done. Now I can move onto the scenery, and make it look less like a desert.
You mean 'ballasting' track Looks really good. The Pennsylvania ballast is just the right color offset to the Arizona Rock And Mineral Co. terrain. The slight elevation changes is what makes it for me. Think I'll recycle my MTL turnouts into something similar for small, independent shows like Los Altos 'Train Days' or the PCR NMRA or 'National Train Day'. Yep, a good thing to run reefers and stock cars.
Pain yes but the results are well worth it. You have always had great trackwork. I have not started ballasting my new addition yet so I understand...I am putting it off for a bit, I appreciate what goes into it. very well done!
Unfortunately I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to proofreading, spelling, or grammar. Yes, ballasting, not blasting. The grade separation is very minimal, but it doesn't take much in Z scale to achieve a realistic look. The layout base was made out of 3/16” gatorfoam, and the difference between the highest and lowest level is only 2 layers of foam, or 3/8”. Grades calculate out to be 0.77% so I have very little roller coaster effect. Not sure what everyone else is using to lay ballast, but these are my Z ballast tools. Various brushes for smoothing the ballast, some home made micro scoops for applying small amounts of ballast. One is made from a 1mL syringe body cut down to make a spoon shape from the barrel. The metal scoop is made from half of a flat tweezers bent to shape. A real micro scoop can be purchased for fairly cheap. A glass bottle filled with ballast with a Testors Aztec (worst airbrush I ever owned) siphon feed cap for laying down a line of sand. And I use a syringe for precise delivery of diluted white glue so that I don't glue turnouts shut. Not shown, I also use a small keyboard vacuum to suck up any excess. This is where I hope some expert says "Why are you messing with all of that? Just buy this tool that does it all from ..."
Awesome job. I never would have thought of an airbrush siphon jar, that is very cool. I have a fan brush that I use that is very gentle and lets you move ballast around fairly easily. I also wet the ballast first with alcohol from an eyedropper. I get less surface tension that when using water with detergent. Anyway, nice work. I look forward to more pictures. Trey
It would save a ton of time if these guys made a ballast spreader for Z scale. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIBlFJK3gnI John
