There is a Free-moN group building a little momentum in the Puget Sound area, Haven't heard much from them recently, but the group that seems the most interesting is the OmN-Rail group that recently formed. There are now 5 N-Scale portable Clubs operating in the Puget Sound Area. The previously mentioned OmN-Rail. Operations orientated, all types of module compatibility. Not sure if any members are on here. 4D nTrak DCC operations, nTrak and oNetrak modules. Greg Amer is bound to chime in with info. United Northwest has 2 layouts. One Ntrak division and the Legacy Layout. unwclub.org Allen and Ryan are on here. Mount Rainier N-Scale. We use that 3 track Crap (actually 4) and have a oNetrak Division. Also the only club still using both DC and DCC on any of our tracks. mrns.org If you would like more info or contacts for any of these groups, PM me. Or contact any one of us at the upcoming UNW Show in Monroe on the 1st and 2nd of Feb. (Shameless Plug) Absolutely great stuff MC, several of us up here have enjoyed following your progress.
Added two more ventilated boxcars to the roster: Was about to finish them when I realized that I had run out of MT905 Z couplers ("D'oh!") So the cars will be fully operational next week. The wooden grabs are rather fragile and some popped off while brushing weathing powder on, so I replaced them with some brass wire. "Adds Character" as we call it. There's also some lead weights over the trucks in the darker ventboxcars. Ran out of Allen/California archbar trucks (mainly because I broke two: "D'oh!") so one ventboxcar has wooden beam trucks. More "character". On to the stagecoach loads and the conductor car!
Really like the Flotsam Brewery and "A taste to Die For"...nice touches. Really nice fine detail work. As my sons said "It looks much bigger than N scale".
MC, as far as the decal 'framed' by the film here's a method I have had some success with on wood cars. After the car is dry and one setting of micro-sol has dried, use a new sharp #11 blade and scribe down the joints between the boards lightly, very lightly. Then a new dose of micro-sol. it may take another dose and this will get most of it down and hide the 'frame.' Excellent looking cars!!
Thanks, guys. Badlandnp: that's pretty much what I envisioned doing, though I was thinking of use the back of the hobby knife blade to "groove" the decal and so I don't end up with decal confetti I'll let you know how it goes when I give it a go. Cheers!
We have a WGH show March 2 & 3 in San Mateo, CA so Nils and I have been working on updating and scenicing the other return loop. Fellow Free-moNster Eric built this double wye / return loop in about 3 days before the NMRA X2011 convention in Sacramento: And it's looked the same since. Very cool concept: each of the 4 center sections are true Free-moN modules in themselves and so can be used individually, as two separate wyes, or a double return-loop/passing sidings o' wonder. Given the hasty construction, there were a few bumps in the track that was giving us problems, so Nils and I volunteered to spruce it up for the show. And by "spruce up" I mean add three industries, two towns, a couple passing sidings and all the scenery. Nils is working on a side module with a Sierra Nevada tunnel & rock shed on the outside and a rail-served quarry scene on the inside, while I'm working on the other three modules building a long passing siding, coal tipple that can serve 32 gons, a Company town & freighthouse and the mountains they're tucked into. Most of the butt joints are great, but I had to refurbish a couple. Before: After: Also built up background mountains, installed a styrene backdrop fascia, and built & installed about 9 custom curved turnouts: [cont.]
Yesterday I got all the Bullfrogs installed and track wired, so here's a video of the first train: [video=youtube_share;9s5fLuAo1ww]http://youtu.be/9s5fLuAo1ww[/video] The mine along the Eggel River will look something like this one up in the Pacific Northwest: After running I realized we really needed another crossover from the main to the tipple-side siding before the wye: as otherwise trains have to go around 2-3 times the whole loop to serve some industries (not sure what I was thinking when Nils and I were planning it out). So it's back out to the workbench to build two more turnouts, install them & wire them up. Have to drop off the Wye Knot modules at Nils' place this Sunday, so I'll be lucky to get track painted & ballasted and some basic ground cover down before then. Then I'll build the mine tipple, engine shed and Company Town Freighthouse over the next week and install them the morning of the show [Note to self: take good measurements before dropping modules off!] But it will be nice to have some more industries to work and to have some scenery on the Wye Knot. Fortunately, I have a lot of pine trees left over from the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout. Thanks for looking.
Thanks! I know over on nScale.net some people were talking about forming a non-NTrak club in Lancaster County, PA. I'm not very good with distances past the Sierra Nevada mountains (everything past them is "East" and "very far away"), so not sure how far away Lancaster is from you. From talk on Railwire it seems that oNeTrak and Bantrack is more popular than Free-moN on in the East, but I'm sure that will change But really, if you build it, they will come (or group will grow). Silicon Valley Free-moN started with two guys in an HO club who wanted to run N scale stuff. When I joined it was about 4.5 members and 3 modules. That was last year. Next week at the WGH show we should have about 10 members, 20 modules and around 300 ft. of mainline running! Woot! All it takes is one or two dudes with the energy to do it! And you can always build your "home layout" out of Free-moN modules, just like me! Side note: Just realized I'm now a "Trainboard Senior Member". Wow. Guess I don't need an excuse for all my "senior moments" now
Congratulations on your surpassing 1000 posts. Keep 'em coming! Great information, excellent modeling and a lot of fun to follow along with your progress.
Thanks! Though I have a little ways to go to get to your 35,800!!! Yesterday I built two more custom curved turnouts and today I installed them. A bit tricky on the curve and over a module joint, not to mention the main is on cork and the siding directly on the foam (1/8" difference over 5"ish). First tried some Fast Tracks templates to see if any were in the ballpark, and it turned out that #10 30"/20" were pretty close: The main alteration is the the diverging route out of the mainline curved turnout needed to be pretty straight out of the frog. I just sketched the changes on the template and built them like the others. I didn't feel like using cork for the ramp down to the siding, so I tried styrene: The grade down is only on the left module: didn't want to mess with carving the wood endplate "bumps" right next to the track already installed. Works fine. Used a Dremel to cut out the existing track sections, inserted the turnouts and cut a piece of flex to connect: The grade isn't as extreme or abrupt as I thought it would be, and long cars can glide through and down rather smoothly (though we'll see tomorrow after the caulk has cured). I've been using Bullfrogs for all the turnouts, but the new one on the mainline would put the Bullfrog too close to where the leg slides into place, so this one turnout has a slide switch: If Eric decides to replace all the Bullfrogs with Tortoises then the slide switch could come out too. So I sacrificed a day of scenicking to build the crossover, but I think it's very much worth it, as now trains don't have to circle all the way around to both enter and exit the tipple tracks, which would clog up this toilet-seat-looking module faster than.... well, a Loose Caboose. But I learned with the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout that if your trackwork isn't good and smart and all that, it doesn't matter how nifty the scenery is. Tomorrow: replacement ties, paint track, basic ground cover & ballast. Oh yeah, and build and install the last Bullfrog. Thanks for looking, and happy weekend!
Free-moN Standard: all frogs are powered. Plus, after what I learned on the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River Layout, I'll never have a dead frog again (sounds like an Edgar Allan Poe story ). On a #10 curved turnout like this, the frog is almost two inches long, so a dead one will bring even a SD70MAC to a halt.
OMG!!! Wow alwayz great work MC. I really like the bridge construction scene and curved side buildings and concrete parking areas.......The video clips.....the....the.... EVERYTHING!!
Thanks, guys. It's crazytime right now trying to build 20 kabillion different things at once and under a deadline. Drove to the other side of the Bay to hook up with Nils and pick up the 4th section of the Wye Knot module, so now I have a "complete" layout in my garage: Nils built a very tall mountain in the middle of the module, with a quarry scene on the inside: and a gorge scene with a tunnel & rock shed on the other: So I've got 4 days to do ground cover, ballast, water, and as many buildings as I can get done before Friday morning. (Well, Saturday morning: I can install them morning of if I have to). But if everything doesn't get done for this show (and it won't) then good thing there's another show next month at the NMRA/PCR Iron Horse Express Convention!
As we're in the middle of "the Big Construction Mess" and photos are a little confusing, so I had to explain it on another forum so I thought I'd share the design process a little here, too. Here's the original Wye Knot module as designed by SVFMN member Eric: Where it gets wacky with the Wye Knot module is that each of the four center sections are also modules: each is 5' long (from point to point) and have 12" endplates on both sides of the 45 deg "point". The idea (and a very cool one at that) is that: --each individual module can be used as a separate 90 deg. curving module; --two can be put together as a 180 curve (or three for a 270 curve); --with the wye sections (those are not modules, as only the single-track is a standard endplate) attached you have two separate wye modules --four center module sections and one wye section create a single return loop --add the other wye section to the "top" and you have two overlapping return loops (one from each side) as well as a big curved passing siding for through traffic. Here's what Nils (who I see has now joined RW finally!) & I came up with: The scenes are based on similar one in the Sierra Nevada Mountains here in California. Even with all the new trackage, the module can still be arranged in all the variations mentioned above, though if each center module is used individually there'll be a lot of "dead, abandoned track" and industries that can't be served. However, buy splitting the whole thing down the middle, you get two wyes, a big 180 deg. curve, and the ability to serve all the industries: And the only thing that is really changed is the that the long passing siding / runaround on the left becomes a stub-end siding. But really we expect to use this as the second return loop for a long time coming, so it'll probably almost always get put together in this way. The "top" wye section is not operational yet and so won't be used at the show this weekend. Nils and I also designed the scenes with viewing angles in mind: when you look at the tunnel / rock shed scene: you cannot see the quarry behind it at all, and the mine tipple and Company Town will be shrouded in trees in addition to the low rise you see in the background. The quarry, operated from the pit, can be viewed clearly from across the coal tipple storage tracks (trees on the low ridge, along with the road, will direct the eyes left to the quarry scene): [Note: those picts are two days old, so things look a bit better now] When viewing the quarry you cannot see the tunnel / rock shed scene. Both the tipple and the Company Town have higher hills and trees that will act as a partial viewblock of the quarry, thus increasing the "distance." Remember that Free-moN modules are at 50" high, so even a 4" of mountain plus a few inches of trees becomes an effective scenic divider! Alrighty: two days to go, and much more to do! Definitely not going to be anywhere close to "done", but it would be nice to get some trees and at least the tipple on before the show, as it becomes very tiring to keep explaining: "So, there will be a tipple here..." Thanks for looking.
Awesome tunnel scene, M.C.! I hope the rest of the module goes accordingly, as well. Sounds like it will be a great addition to the layout from an operations standpoint. Alex
Thanks! Nils did the foam and rock work on the tunnel scene. He also built the rockslide shed. He's quite the styrene superman (wait until you see his 24' module with a scratched cement plant and lumber mill!) I just throw dirt on things. Speaking of which: Basic ground cover done. All track ballasted / cindered / dirted. Static grass dynamically dumped. Grade crossings crossed off. Magic Water mixed and tinted. Forgotten dock built and installed in pond. Magic Water poured in pond and river. And first structure built and installed: The Eggel River Mining Company industrial switcher shed! Tah-dah! Ok, it's not that exciting, but not bad for a couple hours o' work in between doing all that other stuff and starting the mine tipple. Also my first time working with I-beams. Eggel River Mining Co. will probably have a dedicated 70-tonner (if it can push cuts of 16 gons) or an older RS-1, -2, or-3, but the shed will accommodate at least a SD-9: The Company was in such a hurry to put up the shed that they forgot to check clearances with the neighboring siding that services their store and freighthouse (D'oh!). That and they forgot to clean the tracks before installing (D'oh!). Both were fixed in the cheapest way: with a saw and an alcoholic q-tip. Next will probably be the IWW Hall on the Hill: After I fix it up (it used to be the Mt. Coffin Cannery Co.), add some details & weather and install it. An ok start, but still so bare! Tomorrow will be the mine tipple, Wobbly Hall, hopefully some shotgun shacks, as well as starting to add trees and bushes. Very much hoping the water will cure in a day and not the 3 days it took last time Also got to make the endplates at some point. But now it's time for dinner and then bed. Thanks for looking.
