2019-2020 Twelfth Annual International Winter Layout Party

Looking and coming along very nicely

 

no work yet still waiting on fundage to get more tree to cut and build

 

Reached goal of having the Kato Amtrak ASC-64 running with Kato sound box, (both of which I received for Christmas). Learned a few things the hard way. Argh. Next short term goal is to get the Kato FEF-3 running in sync with the sound card but have to wait so I can unwrap the card when 'step-daughter #2 is here as she is the one who got both items for me.
Note: The ASC-64s fly past my window just outside of Boston on the PVD Line. the FEF3s? Not so much. ☻

 

Welcome ! What a great room you have for your layout and looks like some really good quality bench work you are doing. Please don't be timid, we enjoy seeing layout construction at any stage.

 

Thank-you.

Room looks good, but there are many shortfalls in my opinion: low ceiling, sloping floor, irregular shape of the room, no walls (I had to build 1.5 walls). So, everything is a constant battle trying to McGuyver solutions around numerous problems. I hope it doesn't turn out looking like a dungeon with everything I mentioned.

My concern is that I wouldn't be able to level things adequately, due to sloping floors and lousy Home Despot plywood and all, causing cars to roll on their own without engine power.

Another small milestone, first domino is up on the wall and looks good (emphasis on looks). Despite that level showing "true", the surface bows up at the left edge a bit, meh.

 

Based on your comment on leveling things, I would guess you are using adjustable feet on the bottoms of all your benchwork legs? I have done that in the past using T-nuts and a standard machine bolt so I could just slide a wrench under the leg and adjust the foot as needed.

 

I did get up north to work on my layout space. Got the damaged ceiling tiles removed and discovered that the fiberglass insulation was undamaged, so at some time when there's not a lot of snow cover up there I'll go back again, vacuum out the cobwebs and replace the tiles.


Beyond that, arranging my work space at home has expanded into cleaning out the attic, so I haven't accomplished much of what I had planned....yet. Hopefully very soon.

 

Oh, I guess I can post my pic featuring re-purposing used K-Cups. I will need at least a hundred or more for the layout. Between my wife and i we should be able to supply the system at a rate of 4 per day.

 

@BNSF FAN

That's what I did, although I fabricated the feet out of this thick non-slip rubber mat I found at Lowers, since the bolt head alone would scratch the floor and slide all over the place.


@RailMix

Having spent a few weeks doing renovation myself in my layout space, I can sympathize with not getting things done as planned. Hope you get some nicer weather to carry on soon.

 

Bolts can also be bought with a nylon padded swivel head, although they are more $$$.

 

I can relate to the train room issues. No basement here but am using half of a detached garage. The concrete floor was so bad that I built up a raised floor. This made the ceiling height 7ft, 6 in. but I am not tall so that was OK and I still need a step stool to reach the cabinets I have above the layout. I don't think your train room could ever look like a dungeon with the good lighting that I see in the photos.

 

Made a bit of progress in the past week. Got a coat of primer on the fasica and have filled in the terrain along the front edge with insulation board and plaster cloth. I am finding that I enjoy working along the front edge of a layout more than the far reaches in the rear but need to get that back area done before any bridges or track can be put in.


Last night started applying scenery material to the hillside at the far right of the area I am working in. I start with an application of sanded tile grout sprinkled on over white glue. The will be followed up the applications of scenery materials from Arizona Rock & Mineral and Woodland Scenics.

 

Well, lots of little things this week like the recycle drop off.

At the start of the week, it was just this set out concept that I had been staring at for a week or so.


So, over the course of the week it went to this:


to this:


and finally to this.


Still a bit to go but good progress on that scene. Some other scenic material applied and testing a bridge to see if I like it as well. Will be more pics in the N scale JPT Sub thread. Now, here comes a new week to attach.

 

Looks great BNSF

 

Compared to my "plywood pacific", what you guys are doing is awesome. I hope to reach a point some day to make great scenes like that.

 

Loving the progress images in this thread... more inspiration to keep going myself. ^^
No visual updates yet here, as I've been out of town for the holidays, but I've got the basic track plan finalized for my yard module. I may still move around industry spurs to better fit buildings and adjust track spacing, but that's about it. Decided to make it a single cutaway 4x8 instead of two separate modules, as I don't relish the idea of cutting, filing, and aligning 12+ tracks. The only material change is I visited N Scale Supply's showroom and spent entirely too much money on rolling stock, scenery, and rail joiners. I also now have an EZ-Track DCC test strip with a bumper block at either end, as I nearly lost both engines I just installed decoders in off the edge of the table due to my previous test rig of about 12" of curve and forgetting about the 'slow brake' in TCS decoders.

 

Happy New Year, Everyone. Finally some progress. Got my makeshift work area done after a fashion and covered a 24" by almost 8' piece of 3/4" plywood with tracing paper Have started transferring the locations of track and structures from the CAD drawing. Yeah, I'm finding the usual run of things that have to be tweaked and outright redone, but that's to be expected. I'm using some old Tru-Scale turnouts I salvaged from a very old layout (old enough so the underside of the wood roadbed is marked "patent pending"). I hope I'm not asking for too much trouble doing that (yeah, the rail is brass, but my research says that can be dealt with). One thing I've discovered is that they have a curve through them, so the geometry is somewhat different from my drawing. Anyway, here's where I left off tonight.





The three structures located so far are, from closest to the camera, the Green River station (which also houses the railroad's offices), the freight house and LifeLike's Moore's Warehouse, which will house several different tenants over its 100 plus year history. I wanted a feel for how things will look, so I staged some vehicles and freight cars circa 1950, at which time the Moore's building would be occupied by a Roadway Express terminal. Yes, the solid orange Roadway tractor was a thing as nearly as I can tell from black and white photos, but there weren't many of them and they weren't around long.

There is still more to be done by way of locating track and structures on the near side of the yard, after which I plan to start building new structures and weathering/repairing some of my train show finds.

 

Nice update Dave. Lots going on there plus sounds like you have your plate full with all those convention duties. Good luck with it all.