Now the basement is tidy(ish), I can now make a start on the new scenic board that will hide the right-hand fiddle Yard, increasing the scenic length on the layout to 27ft. I've already built the Walthers asphalt plant, an industry which is quite common in Alabama, so the buildings are pretty much ready. I also intend using the new board to try my hand at building some Central Valley #6 turnout kits, and porer them with Traintronic turnout motors, instead of the Tortoise motors I've used before. The Traintronics motor is more expensive but comes with an integral accessory decoder. Before I can start building the new board, I have to move the fiddle yard back a few inches and move the sector plate to a more central position. I'll also use the opportunity to increase the number of FY tracks from 4 to 5, to bring it into line with the other fiddle yard. Here are the first photos of the new fiddle yard alignment, temporarily attached with grips Jon
I started on a couple of the Central Valley turnout kits last night. I've glued the CV tie-strip onto a sheet of thin Plasticard, making the ties the same height at their Peco Code 83 equivalent. I intend using Peco code 75 flat-bottom rail for the CV code 70 #5 and #6 kits, but use Peco code 83 US-outline tie-strip, instead of the British-outline ones that come with the code 75 flexi-track. Next job is to attach the CV tie-strip to a piece of plywood with double-sided tape and ballast the ties, before moving on to kit assembly. Here are some photos of progress on the workbench Jon
The Central Valley tie-plate has been temporarily fitted to plywood with double-sided tape. Medium brown Woodland Scenics ballast has been added with a teaspoon and diluted white glue sprayed on. They have now been set aside to dry. Jon
I have rebuilt the sector-plate fiddle yard, and moved it back six inches to accommodate the new asphalt plant scenic board. This new scenic board will sit in front of the fiddle yard and bring the overall scenic length of the layour to over 27ft. The fiddle yard sector plate was re-positioned with a new central pivot point, allowing the number of tracks to be increased from 4 to 5. The drop-down extension board allows each track to easily hold a loco, caboose and up to 5 50ft freight cars. This board folds into the sector plate for easy transportation and is electrically 'dead', to avoid accidental run-offs. Jon
The sector plate, which resembles a car-float, aligns to the yard lead by means of custom-built bolts. The rails have been soldered to copper-clad PCB strip after which brass square-section tubing is also soldered. Brass wire 'bolts' slide into the tubing to both align the track and provide the electrical contact. I found it easier to use square section tubing instead of round section, as it is easier to solder accurately and the brass wire finds its path through the tube much easier. The bent wire bolts are finished off with plastic toggle-switch covers. Now, with the fiddle yard rebuild out of the way, I can get on building the asphalt plant board Jon
With the fiddle yard moved back and modified, I could make a start on the actual scenic board. To keep things light, I made a frame to hold the plywood trackbed. Integral legs with 'uneven floor' adjusters will be fitted, but for now the new board has been clamped to the fiddle yard frame I found some off-cuts of plywood which should suit and will be trimmed, once I work out the final trackplan Jon
As part of the yard improvement the track leading to the new scenic board had to be re-laid. This was quite messy and the plaster had to be carefully chipped away to keep the sponge sub-roadbed intact The track was then laid on the cleaned-up surface Jon
With the new track laid in the East Yard I could make a start on laying the tracks into the Asphalt plant and test fit the buildings for best placement. I started as usual by soldering the rails to brass screws and cutting at the joint between the two sectional baseboards The track was then glued down and the buildings tried out in position Jon
Over the last couple of evenings, I have been ballasting the East Yard and painting the rails rusty Now to make some progress on the scenery for the asphalt plant board Jon
I'm always slack jawed when I see your work. Learned a neat trick too. those brass screws for keeping track aligned are a nice trick. I may have to use it on my layout with my next line that's going in.
On Saturday, I made the basic scenic shapes for the new board by cutting and gluing foam-core board to the plywood benchwork. This helps to keep the board as light as possible. I used white carpenter's glue to attach the foam-core layers I also made a retaining wall from Wills 'random stone' plastic sheets Jon
I've made a start on the scenic cover today. After covering the scenic formers with plaster bandage, I painted the plaster with acrylics - this helps to prevent the white plaster colour from showing through the scenic cover if the board ever gets knocked in transit. When the paint dried I finished ballasting the track and sprinkled on the basic ground cover and sprayed it all with diluted white carpenter's glue. It's all busy drying now, before I start adding the grass. I've also made a start cutting the building/machinery signature shapes into the plaster Jon
I've added the grass, trees and a photo backscene, but I'm not too happy with the colourful, washed out effect that the backscene gives, so I think I might change it for the same one I used on the rest of the layout. I think I'll end up changing the backscene Jon
