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I'm starting on the addition to my first ever layout. The bench work is done and laid out track for first look over just to make sure I'm on the right track for what I want. Everything seems to fit alright but let me know if it looks totally wrong.
First picture is the basic plan I have.
Second picture, green paper is a two stall engine house, orange paper in front of that is refueling station.
Third picture is of two background factories, the orange papers, the box in the corner is going to be a rock quarry, pink paper is crusher/loader.
Last picture is just looking back down over the yard area.
Looking good David. You'll be glad you chose not to go with the over/under configuration you presented back in January. Switching is certainly easier on flatlands.
willie
So it has been awhile since I've updated the work on the addition so I thought it was about time.
I have all the track layed down in place now and all the power and turnout wiring in done and working just fine at last. Had a few problems with that because I never used under table switch motors before. Have my control panel built and wired but I don't have any lights hooked up to it yet, haven't gotten brave enough to try that yet.
I have started on the scenery. Now working on the quarry/crusher, loading area first. I build a coaling tower kit but will use it as the loader as space is kind of tight. Yesterday and today I built the mountain/quarry from foam, have it shaped and ready for plaster cloth tomorrow. I also built my below ground cone type rock crusher( not proto but...).I used a rubber chair leg end for the cone and made the rest from balsa wood and some wood hole plugs from my wood shop for the motor. Have it in place and basically painted for now I'll weather everything more later on.
Here some pictures of the quarry area so far.
Thanks for putting up with all the newbie questions you folks have helped me learn a ton of info that was well needed on this first ever layout.
Well it has been a couple of weeks now and since I only have weekends to work I'm getting there little by little.
Last weekend got everything in place, final shaping, glued down in place and covered with 2 layers of plaster cloth and a coat of thinned plaster to smooth it out. I forgot to get a picture of that, sorry.
This weekend only had Saturday to work but I got the quarry painted up. I thought I'd try my hand at doing it with my airbrush instead of the wash system because I was concerned about it puddling on the ledges and not looking right.
Have you tried running any engines or cars over the track yet? Reason I ask is that the outer curve coming off the curved switch looks like it might be a little bit tight, where the radius really starts to curve? I've found from experience that sometimes in situations such as this, short sections of extremely tight curves can creep in without realizing it, until you start to run a train.
Well I was able to mostly finish the quarry/crusher/loading area today. I got hold of some chipped stone and sand from constructions site at work. Cleaned it up, sifted the bigger stuff out and baked it awhile to dry it beofre putting in on the layout. Also weathered the tower some to make it look dusty with my airbrush. I will weather the trucks and cars later along with making a couple of full and half full loads for the hopper cars.
Thank Otis for seeing that but yes I have run trains over the tracks quite a bit before starting the scenery. Because the rest of the layout is only 4X8 and not very large turns I am restricted to running only short engines and cars 57' or less but it is working out just fine.
Its been quite awhile since I have updated anything about work on the addition to my first ever layout so I guess its time to catch everyone up on the progress. With work and vacations, trips out of state its been over a month since I have been able to work on the layout at all. But this wekend I took the time to get somethings done.
The next part I have been working on is the engine shop, re-fuel point, interlock switch house and yard. Not really allot to say about all of it though. I made the fuel tanks from a couple of commercial size toilet paper roll centers and cut some sprues to make the pipes going under ground for the tank fill and out to the fill nozzles. Still have allot of weathering to do, bumper ends and some more ground cover. Right now just trying to finish the building up part then will go back and take my time weathering everything.
