Hi Hardcoaler, Is that a Troller Autopulse Twin Transamp power pack I see in your photo? I remember when they hit the market, here was a company that was going head to head with MRC and upper the bar for everyone. Do you still own that power pack? On a side note, I've been swamped on my end with work, taking care of my dads estate and life in general and have not been able to keep up with your thread. The layout is looking great. Also love the Reading Switcher, looks like a SW9 or SW1200? Is it a Life-Like model?
That is a big milestone sir! has to feel great! Congrats on getting that accomplished. Now you have to run more trains o celebrate.
Arrgh. Estate work is no fun, been there and am still there winding things down two years later. I hope your responsibilities soon clear away and you can get back to a more balanced life. I miss your posts here on TrainBoard. I'd borrowed the twin Troller pack from a friend, but still have my single knob Troller Autopulse Transamp 1, plus Troller's walkaround and both work well. I think Troller was victimized by a smear campaign, amplified by modelers lacking skills in critical thinking. You're right on the RDG switcher, an SW-1200 as branded by Walthers, but essentially Life-Like as you figured. It's a might noisy, but it runs well. A lot of my stuff has been boxed away for years, so I have a lot of locomotive maintenance ahead.
I have a question about forming scenery on layouts, particularly mountains and it's hard to explain. I'm having trouble envisioning what my mountains might look like. With curves and tunnel portals at different elevations at the layout corners, my imagination isn't strong enough for me to be confident in the final product and move forward with it. I'd like to avoid wasting time and money, and making a mess, only to tear it all out for another try. Is there some sort of way I can work something up? Something I can work and rework until I like the look and can take pictures of it to guide me with its final form in foam or plaster cloth. I think there's software that maybe could help, but I'd have to learn it, create my tracks and I'd quickly lose patience with it all. Thanks for any ideas.
As you know I also struggle with this and my layout is flat as of now and probably always will be Well I would like to add some tiny hill's I guess you would call them in some corners. I must say though I am learning a lot on my tiny diorama. Maybe you can do the same? Curious to see how you handle it and watch your progress I've had the plaster cloth stuff for over a year, just scared to use it Think I am going to try something in the garage over the Summer! But most of all, Good Luck! To all of us scenery challenged folks
Newspaper, glue gun and a bit of masking tape might be a solution. That is how I do it. First off is build out simple tunnels with styrofoam or cardboard and a glue gun. Make sure as you build the sub tunnel out you have all the clearance you need especially for turns with longer cars. Once you've got that start wadding up newspaper and tack to the surfaces from the base up adding more wads as needed. Adjust the size of the wads by tearing up sheets to get the sizes you want. Then when you think you've got the basic sub structure sorted start laying out masking tape in a grid pattern from the base to the top and such. From there add or remove wads to get the look you want. Once you are happy then lay down plaster sheets. I like to wait till the first layer sets before I overlap or add second layers. This way the base layer wont yield as I am trying to get the overlap to form to it without gaps. Not a huge deal as you can cover them up with hydrocal but a job well begun is 1/2 done
Dan, you sound just like me. I know the attitude in model railroading, with scenery, is supposed to be "just dig right in and redo later" but I have a hard time doing that. Doug
That's a perfect summary Doug. I'm someone who carefully plans, measures, makes drawings and then executes it all in lumber, track and wire, but none of that applies to scenery. I have some styrofoam blocks in the garage and maybe I'll use them as scenic fodder, messy and static-charged as they are.
I have not tried it yet, but it seems like extruded foam insulation sheets stacked up can be fairly easily rough shaped along their edges, ready for whatever covering you want on them. And if it does not work out, you can cut out the offending section and retry. One thing I have noticed is that sedimentary rock strata are rarely perfectly horizontal when exposed. So maybe putting a to-be-hidden spacer under one end/side of the foam sheets used for the elevated terrain could be used to create that slight slope for you, without having to hide the seams between layers so much. A lot depends on how much/what kind of covering you intend to use over your foam edges. Of course, what I eventually end up doing may completely change... I think a diorama sized practice project is a great idea!
I used foam to make the hills and mountains using a keyhole saw to cut and shape. Then use a rasp file with a handle to smooth out the rough spots. After everything looks good paint the foam earth tones and spread ground foam while the paint is still wet. It goes pretty quick and you can cover a large area in a few minutes. Also add rock molds for cliffs. Joe
Thanks for these ideas Oooo! A keyhole saw is a good idea for initial cutting and much safer than a kitchen knife. Thanks.
To go along with what others have posted. For rough scenery ideas, I use cardboard boxes cutting a silhouette of the mountain shape, then hot glue news paper to the silhouette. Crumple the newspaper a little to give it texture. A pair of scissors or cheap knife can be used to cut the cardboard and newspaper. Also be sure to bend the bottom of the silhouette over at 90 degrees to give it a foot. Once you've figured out how you want your mountains and hills to look like, your temporary mountains can be thrown in the recycle bin
Messing around with foam is a mess. Literally! I'm trying to do the worst of it in the garage. I'm pretty happy with my hot wire foam cutter (as shown in in this week's Weekend Modeling Accomplishments thread), but the larger pieces are a bit of a challenge. As a test, I found that foam cuts on a table saw very well (at least with an 80T blade), but it makes "foam dust" of course. I cut a piece to use as the rock wall on my Muleshoe Curve, then cut a zillion ribs in the back of it to make it easy to bend. I set it in place dry for the photos and will trim it to fit after it's glued in. I wonder if anyone makes a flexible rock wall? I left extra space on the wall side of the track for whatever I end up with.
Pretty sure Chooch made or still makes flexible rock wall castings. https://www.some train store.com/chooch-ho-o-8262-flexible-medium-cut-stone-wall-3-4-x-13-25/
Sure! That's over on aisle 3, right below the economy-size jugs of Unobtanium. Unless those jugs leaked... damn, that stuff is messy! Seriously though, someone might make a flexible mold for a rock wall, depending on how much relief you want on your wall. Or you could cast a wall out of flexible rubber-like material, using a rigid rock wall mold, then flex the wall to shape.
There are some videos on "casting" flexible brick and rock walls with latex paint but I'm pretty sure you want more relief than a cut stone wall. You can bend flexible rock molds to fit the curvature. Making molds is not hard and you can make any type rock formation you like.
Thanks y'all. After reading your posts, I looked around the Internet. It's hard to visualize some of the products from pictures, but it's nice to know there are some options out there. Meanwhile, I can continue on with my foamwork (is that a word?) and look at the products you suggest in more detail.
