I constantly get bitten on a daily basis by the railroad bug. This time, however, it came in the form of N-scale. I went to Lowe's and procured an HCD, table legs, 1x4s, and all the associated goodies. This has been triply expensive because being a college student I have very little in the way of a workspace or power tools. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment so this whole episode is occurring in my living area... who needs a coffee table when you can have a train layout? Regardless, I got the table constructed in a Friday evening and the foam glued down overnight. One on corner/side the foam isn't flush with the table, but it's rock solid because of the liquid nails. I am surprised that when you do a good job constructing the table, you can barely even nudge it. The checkout lady looked at me when exiting Lowe's and was like... "You know we sell tables right? You don't have to make one!" Some people will never understand. Anyhow, the box of Unitrack arrived and I have quite more left over than I expected. But of course, I know I'm short a road crossing so perhaps a trip down to the hobby store 45 minutes away is necessary to investigate their inventory and take note. As most of you will recognize, the track plan is Lou Sassi's Mohawk/Dave Vollmer's Pennsy in a Unitrack form. I'm not a beginning modeler, but the appeal of Unitrack (especially downgrading in scale...) was too hard to resist. I've messed around with it and will have no problem trying to improve it's appearance rather than dealing with the slightly-more-involved C55 switches. The story: ATSF won the well-known battle for Raton Pass. Efforts then focused on the Rocky Mountains... where in 1890 the railroad secured the Colorado Midland. Indeed, sensing that the rich mining and scenery would attract future passengers, President Allen Manvel double-tracked the route and leased trackage rights to the DRGW instead of selling them the trackage outright. Because it could handle the capacity set forth upon it by the USRA during WWI and post-war it never ceased to exist and became a primary northern route for the ATSF railroad. Therefore, the railroad is a snapshot of the double track mainline and wayside scenes in a fictional region of the Colorado Midland and sees heavy ATSF transcon traffic in addition to Rio Grande equipment. So far, I'm really enjoying the Unitrack. It does make it easy. You can see in the photo where I have the bridges layed out. I have not cut into the foam yet obviously... I think I will be pulling blue foam crumbs out from my carpet for the next few months. I know I haven't made much progress as of yet but I would love to hear some feedback! I am extremely hesitant to glue the track down but figure I will need to at some point. However, next step (luckily after a trip to Radio Shack have all the necessities for the bus/feeders where I will try using bryan9's solderless method) is to wire all the tracks. I know the 2" base does not provide much for mountain scenery, but it's all I really wanted to use at the moment and will create the illusions of dropoffs and steep mountains. Still debating a name for the town located at the junction and will have a small whistle stop on the other side by the siding. Still debating what I want the mountains/view block to look like. Definately a water feature however with some rapids by the bridges and that end will be covered by a tunnel to disguise the roundabout nature. I'm using Mike Danneman's layout for inspiration in addition to http://nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com/2011/01/rocky-mountain-subdivision-layout-photo.html Once past the wiring and filing the #4's (haven't given me any trouble yet), I'll be at the truly fun stuff. Rolling stock at the moment is a single F3, but an E8 is on its way in addition to 4-8-2 RG heavy mtn. I don't suspect much else will get done today... 3:30 kickoff. I think the photos give away which team I'm rooting for. Happy railroading and have a good weekend everyone!
Finally made some progress! All settled into the new flat in Pennsylvania (with a new K4 auto tag!) and had time to start construction. Below you can see the table with the foam grading for the mountain and stream, the mountain taking shape, where the waterfall will eventually go, and the rock factory I started. I am using one woodland scenics mold, I have a few rocks from my old HO layout, and I am using tin foil to use the rest of the hydrocal that doesn't fit in the mold. The aluminum foil rocks turn out pretty good... good for large swaths or background areas rather than scenes of interest. Also painted the tunnel interior black. Amazing how filed foam can look like the inside of a rock tunnel! Looking forward to making more progress.
Nice work, I tried the aluminum foail trick before and it's effective. I look forward to your progress!
BACK TO LIFE. Nearly two years later, I have finally settled down in Nashville, TN working here at Radnor Yard. The layout was built to move, and it surprisingly held up well after moving from FL to PA to MA to TN! Other than some electrical wiring, nothing was damaged too badly. Over two years of being mobile and having nothing more than track, being placed in TN means that I can finally resume construction on scenery and shaping up some Rocky Mountains. I did go on a slight spending spree acquiring some new ATSF equipment, notably a full 12-car SC Consist, multiple units in warbonnet, some Spectrum steamers, and some MT heavyweights. The front part of the layout/yard will be a sizeable train station for a small town to represent decent passenger operations. There is enough space with the current room configuration to have that expansion interchange track lead to a Denver Union or something... the ideas are already flowing. I'd welcome the feedback as I move along, and of course feel free to share any inspiration. The Marias Pass layout, Vollmer's layout (for portability/track plan), Paul's Grande Road, et al. have all been a tremendous help. Got the track wired and up and running again: Breaking in some trains - https://www.dropbox.com/s/79mp1p2yv4kfjoz/2015-02-19 20.27.48.mov?dl=0 Pride & Joy Super Chief on a local club layout - https://www.dropbox.com/s/h6x39y3hl2nd4q7/2015-02-21 13.08.17.mov?dl=0
Looks familiar...! Ironically, I now live on Colorado's front range along the BNSF/UP (former AT&SF/D&RGW) Joint Line. AND... I juts started a 2.5' x 5' model of the Colorado Midland circa 1905. Small world!
Hemi - Thanks! Dave - I noticed your recent pursuits when revisiting your webpage after getting some Penny inspiration pre-ordering one of BLI's new M1a. You're making great progress! That was my second trackplan, the loop with elevated branch line, had I not gone with a rehash of yours. As much as I like the vertical separation, with N scale I could not pass up the chance to showcase a mainline with longer passenger trains. Maybe next time! I used to work on that Joint Line by the way at the shops there on 6th (hence why I fell in love with the Rockies). UP didn't think through having their only access to their maintenance facility being over a BNSF line from North Yard, that's for sure. Hoping to make some progress this weekend and get the hills done on the flat side of the layout.
