New layout design, looking for feedback


For connecting the track sections, I'm soldering the connectors to the rails. For the flex track, I leave the last few inches of track unattached to the table. The relaxed track allows a straight connection to be made. If a curve is maintained through the connection point, the track ends up having a kink. This kink could be the cause of troublesome operations, something I dont want to deal with later.

Here's a picture of a connection on a curve. All 4 pictures are the same connection point from both directions and with the focus changed to make inside and outside views. Notice the solder only fills the OUTSIDE of the rail. This is done to avoid any potential interference with wheel flanges.
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After soldering is complete, the rail is attached to the table using same technique I explained earlier.

There is a risk doing this. If there is any inconsistency with rail direction, angle, height, or shape, that inconsistency will always be there. A file and some patience could fix those types of inconsistencies, but why destroy the track and add more potential for failure?
Wherever possible, I solder rail sections together off the layout on a completely flat surface. Placing some weights on the track sections helps make sure the top surface is smooth through the transition after soldering is complete. When connecting rails of two different makers (like Atlas to Pico), a shim may be needed underneath one side to create that smooth surface. The top and inside of the rail is priority, so whatever needs to be done to ensure those surfaces align properly should be done before even picking up the soldering iron.

What do you guys do to attach flex track sections? Straight sections? Turnouts? I use the same method for everything, I wonder if there's something better for different types of tracks?
 
This past weekend was beautiful outside, so didn't get too much done. During this quarentine, any time it's possible to spend outside, we do. We did manage to get the "hill" under our bridge cut out and glued down. Also put down a siding and took out some models to see what they look like in place.

Originally, I planned to use those bridge pieces, but then realized two girder sections fit perfectly in the space. So, two girders were painted and prepped to be put in place. Those girders were another used section find - 4 of them for $2.
I glued together a few pieces of foam and installed to the table. Then, the one area where the pylon stands was cut to be good height by myself, and I handed the shredding tool to the boy and turned him loose. I showed him a picture on my phone of a similar landscape and he shredded the hell out of those foam boards. I smoothed out the edges and it came out pretty good.
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I think we may put a water feature next to the tracks under the bridge, could be a good spot for a hiking scene later. Obviously I'm winging most of this, so no promises!

The models I put out are a freight house and an old brewery model (one of those kits from the 50s that are usually pretty expensive). Not all the little detail pieces are on the buildings, but I put on the table to get a feel for them. Asking my son what he thought went down a long and windy path that did not lead to an answer, so there's still no decision about this. But, it was really nice to see what could be.

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Thanks guys! Yes, its fast but let's not forget that we're stuck in the house right now!

I was able to get the last few pieces of track on the mainline put in place last night. I got super excited thinking the tracks just might line up perfectly, but then of course this happened.
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The tiny piece of track used to fill that gap is shorter than a rail joiner. Of course!

And so, one joiner with a small piece of track in the middle to close the loop.
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And now we have a closed loop. :)

I'm running low on rail joiners, so I'll slow down before getting to the coal run up the hill. That's "my" section of layout anyway, so we'll just worry about the boy's ROW for now.
 
Well, with the loop closed, what have we been doing? Running trains of course! So many trains. As long as our engine could possibly pull. And everyone wanted in on the action! It's a lot of fun watching the kids enjoy a train going in circles. Occasionaly, I just want them to get out of the way so I can fix something or get some work done in a specific area, but I see the excitement they have or break up a fight over who get's to drive the train, and I remember what it was like when I was their age. There are some nights I just sit there watching them get excited about the train coming around the corner, and that's just fine. :)

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A little bit of progress this past week.

I thought I had some tunnel portals already, but couldn't find them for the life of me. So, I entertained the kids one day by playing with sculpting clay and making my own portal. Of course there aren't any normal colors around, so the raw clay looked like a fun trip through the 60s. I rolled out some clay and carved brick lines with a tiny screwdriver. The random places where the clay didn't smooth out seemed perfect for brick faces. A little baking, primer paint, and some shades of brown, and we're in business.


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I did put the tunnel entrance in place to see how it looks, not too bad. Its not fixed, just kind of propped up for a picture. Some scenery around it and the imperfections will be hard to see (except for the rivet counters out there). Anyway, I'm happy enough with it. I may try to get a can of dull cote on it before installing.
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Well, with the loop closed, what have we been doing? Running trains of course! So many trains. As long as our engine could possibly pull. And everyone wanted in on the action! It's a lot of fun watching the kids enjoy a train going in circles. Occasionaly, I just want them to get out of the way so I can fix something or get some work done in a specific area, but I see the excitement they have or break up a fight over who get's to drive the train, and I remember what it was like when I was their age. There are some nights I just sit there watching them get excited about the train coming around the corner, and that's just fine. :)

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When my daughter was about five years old, she would sit on my lap while I was running trains. I had a figure glued in place on the platform of a waycar (CB&Q parlance for caboose) and she would wave whenever it came by. Those were the days!

Enjoy the time you spend with your kids. They'll be all grown up before you know it!
 
🌈 Regardless of what I've said pos/neg, you're doing a very very good job there !!
I've seen your input in other threads as well as this one, I appreciate your comments. I like the higher level that you bring, it's good motivation to try a little bit harder when possible.
Maybe some aren't good at it, but I'm okay hearing the critisisms.
 
Been a while since an update was put here. I've dug through the pictures I've taken and try to update as much as possible...

Quarantine is as good a time as any to pull out everything from the closet and see what I can accomplish. I had an old diorama kit from Woodland Scenics that I got as a gift 6+ years ago, plaster of Paris, hydrocal, and some random bags of differently colored grass and clumps. So, scenery work it is until I'm in need of more of that.

The kit came with plaster cloth, which is really nice to use but there's only a small piece in the kit. So, I saved that until I have an ideal space for that size piece. Instead, I recycle used dryer sheets by dipping them in plaster and laying over crumpled paper to make rock faces. My idea was to start in a small area that's not a focal point of the layout, and instead I went front and center. I worked in the area around the tunnel portal and used the rock faces that came with the scenery kit. Not too bad to start.
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I used a rough brush to put some texture on the surface before it dried
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I forgot how much of a mess this job can be. Happy I also found a roll of 2" painter's tape to cover the tracks!
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EDIT:
I can't believe I forgot to mention this part...
I told my son we can make some rocks, but there was a lot of prep work and we would get pretty messy. The messy part had his full attention, and he hung out for the entire process, even helped clean up!
 
There's more plaster on the layout, but I guess I didn't take too many pictures of those areas. I pretty much just followed that curve around about 3/4 of the way.

The tape was still on the tracks, so I masked off an area with newspaper and sprayed the gray Krylon primer paint. This is the base color which will get covered more later.

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On this section, I used a brown spray can standing far away, but I'm not really happy with the results. It won't get covered over, but I'll need to do something extra here.
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Since I didn't like the brown spray paint, I mixed a jar of acrylic paints with a drop of dish soap (well, too much soap for my small cocktail, bubbles were uncontrollable). It's very watery, and runs very well when mixed like this. Using a small foam brush, dip about 1/4 of the foam deep then squeeze it out and press onto the top edges of the dried plaster. The runoff fills gaps and crevasses, the places where dirt would normally land in a rocky landscape. After that dried for a little while, I mixed up some white paint with a hint of black just to get rid of the shiny-ness of white paint. Using a different small foam brush, dip and squeeze dry, then "paint" the brown construction paper nearby. This dries the brush pretty well so that when the rock faces are lightly grazed over, the rock points get a soft white applied to the top
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I wish I had a before and after of the white edges, it completely changed the appearance. Sorry about that, maybe next time!
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Over here, I want to make a small hiking scene. There's some good places for water, flat areas along the tracks for a trail and even a cave area.
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Some more scenery work this weekend, looks like storms for a couple of days.
 
Thanks flyboy. I agree, it looks like good sandstone.

After doing this (completely unintentional by the way), I thought about doing this side of the layout as western US (desert -ish), doing the opposite side as more of a rural mid-west town, and then the coal mine going up in the back could be Pennsylvania/West Virginia/Tennessee hills. That should pretty much cover all the types of landscape. Whichever one comes out the best and/or I enjoyed the most will end up being the next layout's setting :)

What do you guys think? Having no plan causes me to just stare at it sometimes. A recent staring session is what brought this idea to me, so I may go with it just to avoid more staring sessions!
 
Thanks flyboy. I agree, it looks like good sandstone.

After doing this (completely unintentional by the way), I thought about doing this side of the layout as western US (desert -ish), doing the opposite side as more of a rural mid-west town, and then the coal mine going up in the back could be Pennsylvania/West Virginia/Tennessee hills. That should pretty much cover all the types of landscape. Whichever one comes out the best and/or I enjoyed the most will end up being the next layout's setting :)

What do you guys think? Having no plan causes me to just stare at it sometimes. A recent staring session is what brought this idea to me, so I may go with it just to avoid more staring sessions!
One thing that is bothering me , is I don't see any expansion joints . Lack of expansion joints can be disastrous if the air conditioning fails. I've see it happen .
 



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