Thanks for the kind words. Would have posted this earlier but was busy watching the SF Giants knock out the Dodgers and the Oakland A's winning the AL West Division :teeth: Exciting times for Bay Area baseball! And my beloved SJ Earthquakes are leading the whole MLS league! Woot! Anyway, I finally finished some videos showing how I scratchbuild simple wooden structures. Here's Part I: [video=youtube_share;05gbRVOABgg]http://youtu.be/05gbRVOABgg[/video] And here's Part II: [video=youtube_share;8wt5WI9Iqsk]http://youtu.be/8wt5WI9Iqsk[/video] Hopefully the videos will help take some of the mystery out of scratchbuilding plank by plank and inspire people to build their own structures instead of building the same kits as every other layout. I built this shed very quickly (about two hours total, including drying times) to get it on the Silicon Valley Free-moN Effett Yard module before the GTE show a couple weeks ago, so it's not the most complicated structure nor the most detailed (the yard is called "Effett" for a reason!) But if I can do this in a couple of hours in N scale, imagine what you can do over a day or two! Also been building a new insert for Effett Yard: still 2' long and has the 15 deg. bend, but I'm sticking a turnout on the outer runaround to lead to a basic storage yard, so the new insert is a three-sided section: The 7-track storage / classification yard (we deal with unit trains for now, so it's pretty much one & the same) will be two 12" x 48" x 2" sections hinged together so it can fold up and fit in the last little space left in my car: Also building a "transition section" from the flat yard to corked main that can be swapped in for the storage yard and act as a junction. But we'll see how that works out. Anyway, thanks for looking.
I built a new insert for Effett Yard: same 15 deg. bend but with a turn-off on the outer track to lead to a storage yard or to connect to another module (like a junction). Custom-built the turnout to match the straight-then curve of the outer track with the diverging track beginning the curve to the single-track branch. I used a Bullfrog to throw the turnout / power the frogs, but didn't want knobs sticking out of the sides, so I cut off the end of a paintbrush, filed a notch at the base, then wood-glued it to the Bullfrog: Given the narrow (12") width of the insert, it's easy just to reach underneath and throw it. Lining up the tracks to the two yard sections is easy, but to ensure a flush-straight alignment for the single track I used a trick Steve Williams of our Free-moN group taught me: A small mirror is very effective in ensuring perpendicular alignment at the ends! (Had to remove the "Disney Princess" cover of the mirror, though. Sorry!) While building 40+ vines for my Shoo-fly vineyard I was able to finish installing the track, drop all the feeders and install & wire the Bullfrog, so we now have a new insert / lead to storage / junction: Some replacement ties, paint, ballast & ground cover & we're ready to rock n' roll! Thanks for looking.
Finished (except for some misc. trackside details) scenicking the new insert for Effett Yard: Yes, some of the tufts look like tribbles. But after the tacky glue dries I can thin them down a bit. Built the "benchwork" and legs for the 12" x 8' storage yard extension (folds in half to 4' x 12" x 5", which is about all the space I have left in my car). Here's the mock-up of the ladders: 7 #7s, with a crossover at the far side to create a runaround. Other 5 tracks are stub-end. Here's the whole assembly: [Tracks are just placed on the storage yard to show spacing] Hopefully, this will allow a few more trains to run on our Silicon Valley Free-moN layout. At our last show, some trains just stayed parked at Effett Yard, effectively blocking a few through tracks. Now operators or the designated Yard Goat can put some trains back in storage to free up more space on the through tracks. But somehow I think we're just going to have more trains If you build it, they will come! But that's not all! This is a Swiss Army Yard Insert. I'm also building a short (2') 15-deg. curved "adaptor" module to go from the track-flat-on-ply up to Free-moN Standard cork roadbed: It'll have a curved wooden trestle over a wetland / slough. That way, if we don't need the extra storage yard, we can use Effett as an interchange yard with a branchline. Always good to have the options! Now off to build some #7 turnouts! Thanks for looking.
Wow. You are really producing. Do you have any specific plan in mind? Or is this all happening as inspiration comes?
Necessity is the mother of perspiration. Effett Yard was born because at the first show I attended we had only 1 runaround / passing siding. At the last show (GTE 9/16-17) Effett Yard got filled pretty fast, especially as we have about 4 more members and their modules and their trains. So we need a storage yard. Thus, the new insert with the split. But not every show has everybody, and eventually I hope we have a proper 3-4 section Division Point yard, so Effett would become an interchange yard way down the line. Thus, the transition module. Flexibility is good. So is space in your car, of which I now have none
Thinking of hanging hooks on the wall for the two Effett Yard sections to hang on. But, otherwise, since I dismantled the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout, I've got PLENTY of room (like another 2'x4'!) It's all about the organizing!
All I got to say is wow! Your work is awesome. I don't do modules, but if I ever do, I know where to go for advise! I am currently redesigning my layout some for operations. I kinda left that out when I built it. I look at it this way. Its all a learning experience that never ends! I hope someday to be anywhere as close to as good as you are with modeling!
Thanks for the kind words. For the last week or so I've been building the curved module that transitions from Effett Yard's track-on-ply to the Free-moN standard track-on-cork-roadbed. Almost an excercise in futility, as we'll probably always use the folding storage yard off the wye instead of turning Effett into a branch interchange, but you never know. And it's been fun building a bridge again: You can see the jig I built to get all the bents the same. The "bar" across the center of the jig is the bottom of the shorter bents: I glued that in after I had built all the taller bents. In the above photo you can also see the PC board ties I GorrilaGlued in gaps I left when building the span. [And, ignoring my own advice, I forgot to gap the PC board ties BEFORE gluing them in, but it all turnout out ok with some mighty fine Dremeling later] The NBW details are a bit time-consuming to add, but very, very much worth it in the end. Just compare the un-NBWed bent on the left to the others. Those are HO 1" nuts and HO 2 1/2" square nuts from Grandt Line (which, I just found out, is located in the next town over of Concord, CA). I was going to run out of the square nuts, so I replaced the outer 4 with rectangular-washer NBWs (you'll see later). Pairing up the bents at where the stringers abutt is good prototypical practice, and saves abutt-load of NBW details! [cont.]
The module itself has a sheet of 1/2" ply under some scrap 2" foam. (so that means there's 3 1/2" of space underneath: perfect for the 1"x4" cross supports!) As I knew there was going to be water on this scene, I made sure to seal the edges of the ply & hardboard fascia with caulk. After shaping the foam, I slopped some sculptamold on to eliminate the foam seams and create the land portion of the slough: Remember that this is a transition module that's going from ply to cork, so I added cork only on one side and sanded it down at a slight grade. I also carved the shapes of the cribbing and retaining wall straight out of the foam. Painted the foam and slough bed, threw on some dirt, gravel and a little ground foam, then test-fitted the trestle deck: I'm doing things a bit bass-awkward here: usually I get the track in first and wired and running, but because of how I install the rails on the deck, I'm scenicking first. I want to make sure I have a lot of grass under the trestle, which is a bit easier before the trestle is installed. Put in the retaining wall and the cribbing, added some tufts after the static grass, and then installed the trestle: Spray-painted a piece of flex track Grimy Black, then installed it. I put the fixed rail on the outside & soldered it first, which made adjusting the inner sliding rail much easier: Don't forget to scrape the rail bottoms before soldering! [cont.]
Painted the PC board ties a mixture of Floquil Foundation, SP Lettering Grey, and Grimy Black so the blend into the wood. Ballasted the ends, and THEN poured the Magic Water. Finally followed my own advice about doing the water last!!! At the top of my workbench you can see some homemade tufts I attempted using hair planted in caulk on waxpaper. Makes decent watergrass. Water still needs a day or two to cure, and maybe another pour if it seeps too far under the scenery, but so far so good: [I placed a piece of black foamcore behind the scene, which is why it's a bit creepy] But soon trains will be ready to roll! Still need to place the guard rails in (got some C40 drying right now), but I can CA those in. Also need to put in some walkways / outer deck supports but those are easy. After the water stops seeping I can go back and touch up with some dirt and tufts along the slough. It's slow-moving, so I doubt I'll add any Modge Podge for effects, especially since MP seems to attract every dust & dirt particle known to man. Need to stick an old rowboat down there somewhere, too. But a fun project for something that will probably never get used at a show! At least it's groovy for a small photo diorama. Thanks for looking.
How many times have I used a couple of rolls of solder to hold down a project, as I see above.... They're great tools!
Thanks for all the kind words. I use Magic Water tinted with some Floquil BNSF Heritage Green & Grimy Black (need to use solvent-based paints for tinting). The Magic Water tends to creep a lot. Here's after one day: You can see where it's gone several inches up the ground cover on each side. It's almost cured, so I don't think it's going to creep any more than this. I'm not too worried about it, as I can plant more tufts and even spot-drop some dirt and static grass on the more offensive areas, but it's supposed to be a wet slough anyway [The sign is for those who love to touch modeled water such as my wife and kids, and neighbors who wonder over when the garage door is open, which it was all day yesterday because I burned my hashbrowns into cinders and smoked up the whole house and so had to do some heavy venting before the wife came home] Here's a shot on how it'd look coming off the Effett Yard insert: Upon reflection, I probably should have made the insert straight and had one turnout come off each side, then we could have the storage yard AND a branch-line interchange! Hmmm.... Thanks for looking.
