The 8 turnouts are built so now the first 8' section of staging is on the workbench. I hope to have the track down and wiring complete by the end of the weekend.
Nearing the finish of the CR-8 series Plymouth switcher and have started another. This time I have got rid of the extended vents at the front hood on the latest edition, and once again I have laminated the front of one cab to another to get matching windows at both ends and now have to create the 4th window on each side. One again I am narrowing the hoods and have made a jig to allow for a straight cut down the middle of the hoods. Have already designed the frame and sill for the newest one and you can see it already test fitted to the mechanism. 100_0019-1 by John Moore posted May 1, 2023 at 1:58 PM
I finally decided to attack a corner of the rescue layout. So below are some before and after and then a wetted down pic. I will post an update once everything is dry. So this is after I scratched off most of the ballast and cut back the foam a little to make a nicer contour. Starting to lay ballast. I gave my ballast hopper a try and it worked pretty good, it left a nice contour, but it needs slightly deeper rail grooves. Nice to know! Here is another view of ballast laid down by the hopper. It took a little bit of brushing in the center to clean it up but I’m happy with the results. Here is the new scenery before I wetted it down with the glue. All wetted down… and you can see just how bad the old scenery is and how much better it’s going to look.
Went back to a pair of F226 TTDX flat cars that I created last from undec M/T 89ft flat cars. Am now working on what is underneath. The coupler arms are removable from the trucks and I am body mounting some M/T passenger train couplers that I had. A .030 spacer between the bottom of the deck and the coupler seems to get things at the correct height. Also painted the frame and truck side frames and replaced the stock wheels with low profile metal wheels. Also working on some more modified HUMVEE loads for these cars and some alternate methods to model the tie downs as I have not had much luck with the etched metal parts that come with them.
Those vehicles look really nice. I wish MT would sell the chain they use on their log cars separately or at least include a length in their kits as an alternative to the etched pieces that they currently come with. I've been holding off installing my payloads hoping to find a good chain solution. I have some "anchor chain" for a 1/700 ship which looks to be the size of what you are using (24 links per inch?). It looks pretty good with what you've done so I may just use it for this purpose after all. I did find some 45 link per inch brass chain on the interwebs and your post reminded me of this so I'm going to get that ordered to see how it looks too.
Thank you. The chain on the Bradley is 20 links per inch from Clover House. The HUMVEE tie downs are .015 brass wire. I would also be interested in trying out that 45 link per inch chain. Got an internet link for that source?
Nice ballast work! I've often looked at Scenic Ridge kits (at least the terrain) and thought about how I might do it. Do you plan to add structures, or sell the layout without them, letting the buyer add their own? One thing that has always caught my eye with Scenic Ridge is that, depending on the era, a water supply for that elevated site on the left might not come from the town. So a small water tower might make sense there. It could be fed by a nearby well, or a spring up in that ravine behind the site (something had to cut that ravine,) with a small equipment shed. And if the site dated to before electricity was available there, it is very likely water was their power. While those structures may be long gone by the modeled era, the water supply would not. It would have reverted back to a ravine/creek bed, or diverted into a culvert under the site, dumping out in front, into a ditch or creek bed there. The bottom line is, the site needs a reason for being there, and a water source would be a very good reason. If the water tower were big enough, it could actually be the water supply for the town, too. I've also wondered why most Scenic Ridge examples turn the road to that sight straight up the mountainside, rather than continue across the front of the site, cut into the slope at an angle, to reduce the road's grade. The road could be angled further over to the left, climbing along atop the the rising ridge in front, before crossing the track further left. I've always thought that would be more realistic. Also, the tunnel portals often look forced and unrealistic, not cut back in a trench into the mountainside, until their is sufficient natural roof thickness for stability. There are places where natural rock overhangs provide for un-trenched, even completely natural portals, but they are the exception, rather than the rule. Please note that I am NOT critiquing the OP's splendid effort to restore and flip this layout, but just airing my thoughts on many Scenic Ridge layouts in general, including the layout constructed and photographed for advertising the Scenic Ridge kit. Note, the latter's tunnel portals are more realistically modelled.
There were several buildings that were included with the layout. Just about the whole set of the DPM buildings, but not all of them were suitable for recovery, and honestly I didn’t feel like restoring them all. I will be including those buildings that were in good condition. There is a water feature that runs down the mountain, and I’ve currently put some gravel there for a new creek bed as the original builder just poured the Woodland Scenics quick water (clear yellowish plastic pellets you melt and pour) over the “grass” and that flowed into the creek bed. It looked horrible and I pulled it up easily. Now there are rocks where the water will flow and I plan on using Enviro-Tex. Due to my furry monsters I do not plan on putting bushes or trees on the scenery, I will leave that to the new owner, but I have some to include for them to use. It took 2 days to dry out completely and once I get some better light in the room I will take a couple pics and post them. It looks good, and I’m going to start another section here soon.
The lighting is about as good as it’s gonna be today. So here is the layout after everything dried. I did find one area of ballast that didn’t get glued down. I discovered this after I cleaned stray ballast stones out of the switch and tried to blow them out of the way. I ended up blowing an inch or so of ballast out from between the rails… ok something to fix… here is a helicopter view of the layout. You can see the huge difference in old and new scenery. So far the mountains and left side are new, everything else is original. Here is a view of the newly worked on area… before blowing the ballast away. And this area is next.
Hopefully tonight is for the best, as I wasn’t able to do what I set out to do. As I started cleaning up the area I was planning on working tonight I ran into a slight problem. So if you look at the last pic in my last post you will see the area I was planning on working. Next to the road up to the creek and under the overpass. Well the bottom track has always been a little strange. It was a couple mm above the roadbed but trains wouldn’t derail on this area so I left it be and figured it was just some ballast under the ties. WRONG! As best as I can tell sometime in this layouts life this area was damaged (duh) and the track crew who fixed it was made up of a bunch of underpaid, under trained good for nothing non Union idiots. So I discovered one rail just past a rail joiner popped out of the spikes, this was likely causing derailments and the crew named above just filled the area under the ties with Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement which is why the area was raised above the roadbed. I’m guessing to hold the ties back to the rail? I dunno… There is like 2 or 3mm of the stuff right in this area. So to get into the area best I removed the bridge and discovered the track both before and after the bridge are damaged from getting too hot from soldering. So now I know why I couldn’t back a train into the industry on the upper level, and why some trains would occasionally derail after the bridge. Oh, did I mention that there were blobs of solder on the INSIDE of the rails? Yea… so this weekend I’m headed to PnP Trains for some parts! So since my original plans were ruined by the above mentioned track crew, I decided to remove some more of the ground covering, level the city and scrape out as much of the old ballast as I could. I may be able to salvage the damaged switch, the rail will pop back into the spikes and it looks like if I put some CA under the rail it will hold well enough. I cleaned all the scenic cement off the underside and found a bit of it in the throwbar which is most likely why cars would pick the switch when backing into the area (or the rail being slightly off the ties). I will replace the missing section of track with some flex track and that should just about do it… er… repair some of the wiring too! The aftermath of the night’s work.
Must be like flipping an older house. How much do you fix, and how much do you paper over? I think you are making the right compromises, fixing the mechanical stuff (it's gotta run, after all), and choosing those cosmetic areas that you want to fix, and passing on the rest. When looking at the lower track tunnel entrance, right next to a creek that, if it were in flat-land would be a slow flowing ditch, but coming down a mountain it will continue to cut. The result is a forced creek location that compromises the tunnel wall. And then the creek even has to take an abrubt jog to avoid the bridge abutment. In real life, blasting that tunnel would have collapsed that wall, moving the tunnel entrance back to where it had a thicker wall. All-in-all, I think you are making the very best of it, and not everyone thinks like a (civil*) engineer (I'm an electrical engineer.) We all have to suspend reality sooner or later (like who would route a for-profit, non-scenic railroad in a folded dogbone?) But that's precisely my favorite track plan! *Rules of Civil Engineering: If it moves, it's broke. You can't push on a rope. Water runs downhill and stands in low places. F=ma. Dirt plus water makes mud. If in doubt, increase the safety factor. #1 and #4 can be combined into: "If it moves, reduce F and/or increase m until it doesn't."
There are several things about this layout that are unrealistic, but it was built to Woodland Scenics plan. The creek isn’t my favorite but the amount of work required to change it, is outside the scope of this project. Yes I will make the layout mechanically and electrically sound, but the fine details like lighting, automation and trees/shrubs will be for the new owner. The main reason is my furry terrors (cats) who love to play with my trains. I have taught them to stay off when I’m awake, but they understand I can’t go after them when I sleep. I also have too many to know which one did it, and I don’t believe in disciplining one that didn’t do the offense… so….
OOPPPSssssssssssss !!! Bought this CMX Track Cleaner used at a decent price on TB Swap Meet with one caveat. It has a broken truck !!! Time to dig out the ' Old Micro Trains Trucks' box.
I have quite a bit more on this in the DCC section on here ( HERE ) but though a number of you might not frequent that area much so thought I'd post a couple images here also. This is a WiFi throttle one can make that put together for well under $50. WiTcontroller is WiFi wireless throttle software designed by Peter Akers of EngineDriver fame. It is a standalone wireless WiFi throttle that can connect to a wThrottle Server (JMRI, DCC-EX and many others). Peter has written the software and lists the parts needed to build the throttle but it is up to you to come down with a case. I set about designing a case that hopefully fills my needs and will post the print files soon. So a couple pictures of the case.. Sumner
I agree, you are doing the right thing. You could keep pulling string from this ball of yarn 'til the cows come home, but leaving the last details to a future owner to finish, while giving them a nice, reliable layout to make it their own, is a smart move. I am SO GLAD my wife is allergic to cats! Yes, our little Chihuahua-mix gets yappy at the the front door, if anything dare move out front (including fall leaves in the wind), but at least he can't climb! He's our organic, pre-doorbell, and he reliably announces when the Post, pizza, Amazon, UPS, or FedEx delivery cometh, or when the toddler across the street is playing in their front yard, all with gleeful duty. But at least the only thing he jumps up onto is the sofa, the recliner, or an occupied bed at night. Once, when by brother and his wife were visiting us, he unknowingly to us, jumped down from our bed in the middle of the night, went down the hall, and jumped in bed with them, where he burrowed under the covers, down to the foot of the bed, curled up and went to sleep. Add bed-warmer to his loyal duties. Or maybe we are his bed warmers...
