Both work and family took me away again from the layout room. I was barely able to complete ballast on the Callender siding and spurs, but no static grass nor vegetation yet. Here some shots of ballasted area and partially hidden horseshoe curve with basic vegetation layer only:
DiezMon, just a normal jigsaw, but I went REALLY slow There are a few waves in it, but for the most part, it's even. Denny, wow, nice shot! -Mike
Denny, I agree with Mike that is a very slick photo of that meet. Mike, Wait until you see my dropdown gate post--there are a few "straight" cuts I could have used your help on Jamie
PROGRESS!!!!!! I finally got the lumber for my layout(s). A friend offered to take me up and get the supplies, so I jumped on the chance. Here, after years (literally) of planning, is the lumber... in my garage.... and next to it, the new toy I picked up to make benchwork building easier.
Denny, great shots there and the ballast looks superb. Well done! :thumbs_up: JKD, nice table saw - great for ripping but can it be configured for cutting to length? Oh, be prepared for copious mess! I have a batch of material ready for backdrop construction, too. Don't have the trick looking rug, though. Mike, the benchwork adjustment looks very professional. :thumbs_up:
Yup. It'll do both ripping and to-length. If it's an easy cut, I have a circular saw (not pictured) ready too.
I was going to start putting some buildings up, but noticed my asphalt area has been bubbling up.. Looks like the liquid nails didn't hold well enough. So, I'm going old school.. plaster roads. With some wall tape for stability. I also started in the sidewalk for the first block I'll be building. I had a chance to hit a local flea market today.. where I found some great deals! So while I wait for plaster to dry, I'm doing some weathering on my new purchases
Well guys, the improved drop down is done. =) After alot of cutting and fitting, she's in and works great. I can now walk in and out of the layout room comfortably now. Still need to finish that last little chunk of track and homasote. Here is the "after" pic, compared to the "before" pic: -Mike
Very nice. I bet it keeps snags to a minimum if not eliminates them completely. Great work. :thumbs_up:
That worked very well, Mike. Excellent work. Tim, I think the plaster will work for you. Even if it cracks you could weather it to suit.
Track Plan for the "Grey and Grandure IV" The Intent was to be able to: Run freight and not have to share the yard with passenger Use the Kato banked set to run passenger Have a base for expansion when time and money permit Simple enough that I can do it. Justify hyper-modern sky scrapers - ok, I don't need a justification Have lots of trains running - at the moment 3 could run un-attended I'll start a thread tonight - I hope.
Mike, I think that your cut nears perfection! I could never do that with a normal jigsaw, you have to teach me first Glad you guys liked the photo, it's another Helicon Focus super depth-of-field.
Very well done Mike. These are kind of fixes that are worth the extra effort! Just one question: where has the home-theater gone? tongue:
Ok, more asphalt work today. First mixing in the ink to make it a black/grey. and some initial building placement. Wouldn't want to wait until the plaster is actually DRY LOL
Well two weeks later after my first post and not near the progress I had hoped for. During the two weeks over the holidays I was sick with a cold, plus I had to work at the "Trains at Northpark" holiday display which is probably where I caught the cold in the first place. I didn't get any backdrop painting done but I DID get more foliage and trees planted along the Arkansas River area west of Ozark. Also I DID get the train room cleaned up for the Plano train show layout tour this weekend. Here are a couple of pics of the starting point with some foliage in place. Oops, sorry about the light cord dangling in the pic. And the after results Maybe I can get back to the original goal now that I have the layout tour behind me. The rest of you seem to be getting a lot done with fantastic results. Keep up the good work.
A - little more progress - which for me is huge: Most of the support for the top (passenger), level is done. Short term goal is to get the rest of the supports cut, glued in place and painted off white / concrete. ------------ The trapezoidal support is a crude mock up of a temporary support just to get the proportions right. I will use these until I have the skill and daring to attempt my "Trapazoidal Bridge" - see below. Trapazoidol Bridge with Thrommer Locomotive: This may occure this winter along with a powered Thrommer passenger train.
Whew, I have been away from TrainBoard for a few days and I see I have a lot of reading to do to get caught up on the forums! Anyway, I believe today I actually completed my last project on my TODO list for the First Annual International Winter Layout Party. I completed the dropdown gate across the doorway into the train room, and as an extra bonus project, I put together a video showing the gate in action. This is my first layout video so be kind HAHA it is sooooooo overdone! Jamie [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HmOXRa6sOg"]YouTube - CSX Dixie Line in N-Scale: Dropdown Gate Demo[/ame] Jamie PS: It is a good thing I completed the projects a bit ahead of schedule because I am about to go into crunch mode at work again. May not be trains in my future for several weeks.
Woh Jamie, I thought I was about to watch a CSX commercial :tb-wink: Very Pro. You totally kicked my butt at the drop down, I just showed some pics.:tb-wacky: Looks very nice thou!:tb-biggrin: Do you think you might have any expansion/contraction problems with it? It looks pretty tight in the video, that's why I ask. I have had mine go from touching to about an 1/8" gap throughout the year. -Mike
Denny, it's just outside the train room. just one more project that needs to be completed. I have some white speaker grill cloth that will cover up the speaker enclosure. Just need to run the wires down to the floor and under the carpet and mount the projector. Hopefully by summertime. http://www.owensvalleysub.com/OTHER/thx 002.jpg -Mike
Great video, Jamie! The drop down gate looks like an excellent idea! I visited the Bloomington Illinois N-Trak charity fund-raiser this weekend and saw the swing gate module they use to pass into the center of the ring of modules. They can hook up power to the modules on either side of the gate module so that the power in the adjacent modules goes off whenever the gate is opened. Do you plan to have a similar electrical fail-safe for your gate? Would you please post a pic of the hinge arrangement, so anyone considering a similar arrangement can see how you did it? Do you have any "lessons learned" to pass along, so others can benefit from your experience?
