I had a few hiccups while working on the substation. The first problem I had was with my application of the pavement. I mixed too much bonding glue into the mix and when dried the glue stuck out like a sore thumb, so I had to rethink the application and print a new platform. The second issue I had was one of my 1-2-3 blocks was standing on end and I bumped it with my arm causing it to fall over onto my front piling, smashing it but good. So, front piling had to be reprinted. After many hours of fusing, I was able to start weathering the substation. As of now I have some weathering in place, but I will soften up a few areas. The fence has also been painted and I am expecting a headache when I start to mount it to the platform. I have my fingers crossed, hoping for an easy application.
That looks as good as the commercially available products. Curious - is your prototype green or grey? We have Grey down here.
Philip, thanks for taking the time to view my progress The color is a German military RLM Grey/Green. It looked to be a good match to what I see in our area. I have noticed the power box covers around here tend to be green, so I ran with it. It truly doesn't matter in the long run because I am building a fictious city (Spiral City). My railway stations will also be green, so green will be a theme on the board.
So our local junction boxes - when on the ground - are green as well. But all the hardware in the substations and the pole transformers are light grey. I have however seen both green and silver substations in other parts of the US. Hence my question. Thanks for answering.
Since I lack KWE's considerable talent (not to mention a 3d printer), I will have to use the "commercially available" N scale model. And be envious every time I look at it. Thanks a lot!
Hi Jake, thanks for taking a look and adding the kind comment. I am sure you have the skills to take care business.
So, I am on to the final stages before laying track. I have the foam applied to tabletop; I am waiting on the remaining air hinges to arrive so I can mount them. Once the hinges are mounted, the track laying will begin. What a process this has been. I needed to redo everything, including the train room which still needs more paint and shelves.
A quick update: The rest of my hinges arrived, and I began mounting this morning. A few observations about these hinges 1. They do not have mounting instruction. 2. The weight rating seems to be generous. 3. The hinges appear to be heavy duty, but the mounting brackets and screws seem a bit flimsy to handle years of use. I mounted 2 hinges to my smaller table. I am estimating the tabletop clocks in at no higher than 50lb. These hinges are rated at 30 lbs. per strut, so 2 should be adequate for easy open and close. Well, with two I can get the top to go to full open once I lift the table at least 3/4 of the way, the hinges do the rest at this point. With only 2 hinges I do not get a soft close, I am guessing the table will need 4 hinges to perform as advertised. I think the true rating on these hinges is around 15 lbs. per strut. No big deal, I'll just order a few more.
Since you are using track that has no attached roadbed, you may want to put down some roadbed under the tracks, at least for main loop trackage. Industrial tracks may not need substantial roadbed, especially if they only receive a few, slow railcars anyway, and big, long, cuts of heavy railcars and locomotives are not rolling over them at speed. Speed is what accentuates the hydraulic movement of wet soil under the railroad. A compacted, crushed-gravel roadbed spreads out the weight of the train and tracks to the wider roadbed base, which can then better support the train. Importantly, the compacted crushed gravel remains pervious to water, allowing it to drain away quickly, rather than collect, only to be squished out at high speed (taking earth with it) as the train's wheels pass over it repeatedly. Think of how a pothole forms and enlarges on a highway, as car tires press down onto the roadway, ejecting water and soil from beneath, trough a crack, then a small hole, finally enlarging it into a large pothole. I remember, as a boy on a road-trip with my grandfather, him (a former pointing out the poor maintenance of railway roadbeds alongside the highway as we drove by. He said the weeds, brush, etc. growing on the roadbed slopes traps dirt and moisture in the gravel roadbed, making it susceptible to the hydraulic erosion from the weight of train wheels passing repeatedly over the rails and ties above. Of course, roadbed is purely decorative on a model railroad, and especially on a foam base, serves no physical function at all. On a rigid base like plywood, HCD, etc., then cork or foam roadbed will substantially dampen the noise of the train wheels rolling on the tracks. But I'm not even gonna touch on the merits of metal vs plastic wheels on our model trains!
Jake, I am only test fitting, once done I will spray the tracks that are on place leaving an outline of where roadbed will go. Thanks for looking. I will keep progress pics going to clarify my process. I am using the same process used on my previous layout. My video a couple posts back explains exactly what the process will be.
This was how I prepared my first layout. Pin in palce and line it all up, then spray with rail brown Clean rails with bright boy, then remove track. Lay bedding, paint and add texture to work surface
Good afternoon, folks. I have a question dealing with a truss bridge. I had an idea to take 3 sections of bridge (3 section of 6-inch straight track) combine the side rails into one big arch instead of 3 arch sections. I hope this makes sense. I am just not sure if this would be a prototypical look. The idea is to mke the bridge look like one long expanse instead of 3 bridges combined. Any ideas, or thoughts on this? All comments are welcome. so please feel free to chime in folks. thanks in advance, Kevin
Have you looked for any real bridges that are like what you are talking about? If so maybe post a picture (link) so I (and maybe others) could take a look to get a better idea of where you would like to go with this. Sumner
