I like the difference in height between mainlines and sidings. I wonder if there were 3 levels... a noticable difference in the prototype rails and ballast depth between the highest BN main, the medium height Terminal RR industrial leads, and the lowest separate industry sidings? (obviously there couldn't have been a difference between the prototype BN and TRR tracks where the crossovers were or where you're modeling street running, but how about farther south or north...beyond the last crossover near Ryerson and Bulk services and beyond Lange Stegman? This is a relatively confined layout space. Would there be any advantage to using the 3 differences in rail and ballast heights to add or magnify a sense of separation or distinction between the 3 types of tracks? I'd think the main would be cleaner, newer, and better maintained than the well-worn industrial leads, but the industrial leads will see a lot less daily traffic so they may have more debris and weeds. And the industrial lead ties will be more worn and less easily seen...especially toward the south end of the industrial leads where locos only venture for a run-around movement instead of the frequent back and forth traffic on the lead just outside of the Bremen Yard or near the crossovers. The industrial sidings could be heavily covered in weeds, garbage, dirt, etc and almost impossible to see because of all the dirt and crud that builds up and eventually covers the tracks--OR--spotlessly maintained by a successful industry. I'm guessing there's a railfanning trip in your future, or some long hours surfing Google images for pics of industrial sidings and mainlines. You will probably get a ton of replies if you start a thread in the Inspection Pit seeking pics of tracks in industries comparable to what you want to place on your layout. If, by chance, you already have some prototype pics showing some of what you're looking for, it might help narrow the field of replies a little so you get the most useful or relevant responses.
Thanks for the replies on the line levels, yes I do plan another trip to the area. Have my digital ready to go for the pics. I need some good shots of many of the buildings and area I plan to try & model.
I got most of my switchs in Friday. Went out of town for the weekend to KC for a Tae Kwon Do tournament. Wife took first place in her division for sparring. Had to wait untill Sunday to start laying the track. I'm still trying to deside on cork or not under the track, anyway, printed out my XtrkCad file & taped it down. Set out my switchs and laid out some track. Nothing set down firm yet, all of it is held down with track nails so I can pull it back up. Looking up the main line. Laying out the switchs. South to North View. North to South view.
That's looking really good. I like the way you blew up the plan and laid it out full size. From what I can see there, I'd probally not put any cork under the track. I don't think that you'd have alot of ballast in this type of area anyway. Maybe if you want some definition from the mains to the sidings, try some styrene or someting else that would be about half the height of z scale cork (and I've got no idea what that measurement would be). That would give you some of the height difference I'd mentioned before adding some character to the trackwork but not make the rails so high that it would be unbelievalbe. My biggest suggestion is that you complete the layout as soon as possible, then store it at my house here in Texas for safe keeping. I'm really serious about what I said in an earlier post of making sure you document the process of building the layout and submit an article on it for Great Model Railroads or at least to one of the N scale publicaitions. It's going to be unique and lots of people are gonna like it when it's done. But again, my biggest suggestion is completing it so I can bring it to my house and run trains on it!
This whole geographic area is a good candidate for the Google Earth Yard Contest. There is a big classification yard across the river. All-in-all, a great place to model. Good choice for a layout! :thumbs_up:
Ron, you're such a character. We gotta meet sometime, if you're up this way let me know. I'll have to dedicate a boxcar or tanker with your username on it, that way I'll laugh every time I move it. Dave, I'm stunned. I don't think I have ever seen a shorter responce from you. Flash, thanks for the kind words. Tonight I'm heading back up to the hobby shop to grab some more flex track. DonG
Hey Don....Any more progress? I've been makning up switchlists and dusting off my rolling stock. Gettin' itchy to run some trains!
I started pulling up sections of the paper and gluing track down. Then I remembered that I need to put in some uncoupler devices. Luckily I only glued down a few of the tracks. I plan on using rare earth magnets for the uncoupling. I'll post some picks of this when I get the magnets.
You might want to reevaluate the use of magnets. Recently I built my son a 16"x6' N scale switching layout and we used magnets. The darn things were causing a host of unscheduled uncoupling problems. So I took them all out and we are now using yarn needles with 100% success. You just take the needle, place it between the two couples and twist. I am going to do the same thing with my HO layout. Give it a try, I think you'll be pleased.
Pics Added! I got all of the track on the left hand side of the layout laid down & glued. As for power divisions, does two sound okay? One for the switching side and one for the yard & fertilizer side or should there be more? Should the sidings also be separate power? This will be a DCC system. I wanted to make sure that the track had good connection throughout due to some of it being under a roadbed. Since the layout is on foam I do not think foam expands or contracts with weather changes so I’m not too worried about expansion. So I took to the task of soldering the joints. It is not a hard process with the correct tools. A few things that you need: Soldering iron with a wattage rating of 100 or above. Lower wattage take too long to heat the joints & tend to melt the ties. (mine is a Weller 100/140 from Home Depot - $29.96) Rosin core solder, thin gauge, not what you use to solder or sweat your water pipes. DO NOT USE ACID CORE SOLDER! Flux Strongly suggest a headband magnifier - $12. Dremel tool Jewelers files 600 grit sandpaper Practice on some spare track first. Use a small stiff brush and dab a little flux on the joint, lay the iron on the joint, with the larger watt iron it takes only a couple of seconds to heat the joint. Use only a little bit of the solder. If you use too much you will have some very teeny tiny filling to do, ask me how I know. Once your joints are soldered. Recheck all of them, don’t know why but I missed two of them. Then when you have all of them soldered. Recheck them for solder globs. These you will have to file down so that the wheels of the cars & engine can pass without jamming or jumping. Lastly use the 600 grit on the rail tops to help smooth the scratches. Last picture is showing the finished rail. Next task is dropping the feeder lines for the power. DonFG
N-Scale Mag In the November/December 2007 N-Scale magazine, mine is the second letter. WOOWHO! No offense to anyone, directed more towards the published layouts. Also I thought it very considerate that the editors posted an apology to Pete Nolan. Keep up the articles Pete! DonFG
Don - thanks for posting the steps in your process from good to better to best. Please do that with dropping the feeders so beginners like myself will not cry at our first results
It's been awhile since I've read this thread. Did you go with the double-ended yard or did you convert some to stub tracks? Just curious.
My Hand at Mold Making I wanted to get the look of my own design so I jumped into the mold building process. This is the building I want to model (Pic 1). Just so happens that the Northern Light & power Powerhouse is very similar(Pic 2). I looked at the available brick wall material for N-scale & I have to say, they suck! I tried designing my own from stryene, no luck, N-scale is to small for me to draw & cut bricks. I didn't want to swipe someone elses work by molding their product. Luckily inside the Powerhouse kit are 2 internal brick walls. One of them meet up with an Xacto-knife to come up with this wall design (pic 3). I added a .40 piece of stryene to the back of this to thicken it up. The layout & cutting took about 3 hours to get as close to perfect as I could. Pic 4 is the wall I used. Now for the molding material (Pic 5). Product is called Smoth-On Reoflex 30. Actually you pour it. I bought some LEGO's to use as my forms, rubber does not stick to the LEGO's. Built my forms on a sheet of plexiglass. Smooth-On price plus shipping was $29, pretty good investment.
Pic 1 and 2 is the form around the mold. The mold material is a 2 part mix, use 2 paper cups & measure equal amounts. Pour into a plastic container & stir gently for 3 minutes. Make sure the part you are molding is flat on the plexiglass and secure to it. After mixing is done, paint on a coat of the mold material, this helps keep the bubbles out. After that slowly pour the mold material into the mold. Now the hard part, you need to wait for the mold to dry, about 16 hours the paper says. I cheated & used a window frame to see how it would work in a mold (pic 3). Both molds came out very good. Pic 4 is the wall mold. and Pic 5 is my first casting. I trimmed the flash up on it and the walls are very straight though you cannot tell that from the pic. In the picture you cannot see the individual bricks, they are there. The detail it shows is really amazing. Once I paint the wall section, they will show up better. Also have to puch out the window sections and remove the flash on it. The small mold of the window will not work with plaster, it is way to thin. I'll keep posting the progress as I go along. the next part I will be designing is the front & back of the building. DonFG
