Starting the new layout!

[Jess Red Horse]

First let me say that your progress is just great, I went back to the begining of this thread and followed the progress until the last post, I had one question, If you have a derail in that tunnel of yours how do you fix it, I can't see any access point, it doesn't look as though it lifts up and off the bench work and it don't look like you can get at the tracks inside the mountain with your hands?, Just wondering?
Great work and it is a layout to be very proud of.

 

[Myowngod]

First let me say that your progress is just great, I went back to the begining of this thread and followed the progress until the last post,...

That must of taken quite awhile. But thanks for the interest.

Thanks Jess. All the tracks are accessible either from pop-out sections or from underneath. There is one tricky spot, but there doesn't seem to be any derailment there... YET. I probably just jinx myself. I'll show you the pop-ups in one of the next posts.

 

[sparkyftw]

I have also been watching this thread. Great work.

 

[Myowngod]

Another project I worked one was the Walther's Double Track Warren Truss Bridge. This was a fairly easy kit to build but once together made a very nice bridge. This is just one part of what will be the High Line in Philly. It's located just west of 30th Street Station.

Here's a prior to painting shot.

And after I airbrushed it and weathered with chalks.

Another part of the High Line on the layout is built from Micro Engineering Double Track City Viaduct. This kit was a bit of a bear to put together. The 2 towers were not that hard but the girders were tough. You can never have enough little clamps... especially ones that square things up at the same time. I have not paint the viaduct yet so I ended up bring that home to airbrush and weather later.

I nice kit.

I still have a few stone arches to build to complete the full High Line. These will most likely be scratch built.

Here's a few shots of the real thing to let you know of the variety of this viaduct. It stretches 3.7miles along the west side of Philly. It allowed the PRR to bypass the freight trains around any of the passenger service near 30th St. Station. Originally it had catenary which has since been removed, but the towers still remain. Nonetheless it makes an interesting prototype and model... I hope.

I forgot to take some pictures of the area once the bridges were in place but I do have a VIDEO that includes the Klaiss Piano warehouse, the High Line area and also the cardboard mountain terrain that I had started. I'll show more of the scenery in an upcoming post.

 

[Myowngod]

The Fascia!

One thing that I did on this last trip was to install part of the fascia board. It really starts to dress up the layout once that thing goes on. It defines the layout, covers up that skeletal bench work and says...AAaaahhh. I only had to put it up on about 1/3 of the layout. And area that had lots of elevation changes and scenery that depended on where the fascia was.

To attach the 1/8 Masonite board I first need outriggers. I made these from extra 1"by stock that I had around. Use up all those short scraps you have lying around. I tried to keep them vertical of each other, and the pairs where spaced about 1-1/2-2' in tight radius areas and 2-3' apart at straight runs.
You can see a few in these pictures.

A video of the OUTRIGGERS.


Here is the masonite with the basic profile cut out. once it was installed and the scenery brought up to it, I later roto-zipped the edge to match the scenery.

I made a real handy jig to help hold up the fascia and keep it level while I screwed it into the outriggers. I used 1-1/4" drywall screws with #10 finish washers to attached it. The jig stood 36" high with a 1" square board on top to keep the masonite in place. I added a couple feet to help it stand up. they also made it possible to wedge the jig under the board and keep it tight against the outriggers. especially in the tight radius areas.

You can see the finished fascia in the next few pix.

Here is a videos of the complete FASCIA.

 

[grove den]

WHOW!! again..nice/great progress.
Ron your are "working" like a proffesional!!
Specialy like the "trick" with the big/huge warehouse!!

Jos

 

[Myowngod]

I completed a lot of the cardboard webbing for the rural mountain side of the layout. I'll soon be ready to start adding the plaster soaked paper towels over top to really make the mountains come alive. I can't wait!

Here is a bunch of shots of the Schuylkill river valley. I like how the tracks run along side of the river. If I only had room to model the deathtrap Schuylkill Expressway, it would look exactly like the prototype.

An overall shot of the river valley.

This will be a large rock cut, a familiar site along the expressway

Here is a VIDEO of the river area. I discuss some ideas for the scenery.

This is the upper track section of the layout. The highest point that trains can reach. It includes 2 pop-out section. One will have a small town on it and the other already has the base for a hillside attached to it.
The pink foam is one of the pop-outs. The hill hasn't been added yet.

Here you can see the hill added on, taken from the river side.

And this is from the outer fascia side, taken from the adjacent den.

Here's a VIDEO of the pop-out and upper track area.

Thanks for checking out my most recent projects on the layout. I hope you've enjoyed them... and found at least a small nugget of information useful. If anyone has any feedback or ideas, I'm all ears. Please share your modeling experiences.

 

[CanuckMark]

You're making great progress Ron! Great work. *thumbsup*

Mark

 

[RexHea]

Hi Ron! You're looking good. What you are about to start is always the exciting part for me. You will be shaping your layout's ground contours from the vision in your mind.
If you don't mind an opinion, I am a little concerned about the spacing you have in the cardboard webbing. Plaster soaked paper towels will droop a lot and will try to do this in all those big spaces. It is recommended (and I used) a space of no more than 2 inches square. This will not only support the drooping plaster towels, but will also add strength throughout the plastering process. Also and instead of a stapler, a hot glue gun makes short work of all this. Just watch out for the fingers!

 

[Myowngod]

Rex,
Thanks for the advice. After looking at the pix again, I see some spots I could add some extra cardboard strips. I have used this technique before and there were a couple spots that it did droop. On your point about the hot glue gun, I use a combo of 2 different staplers and a glue gun. I explain this a few pages back on this thread.

 

[Myowngod]

Here's a VIDEO of a GP-30 taking a spin around the layout. I'll try to get longer runs, but the battery zonked out just as it ducked into the tunnel. The model is a Bachmann DCC installed model I got off of Ebay for a great deal. I couldn't pass it up... especially when I low-balled the price and unexpectedly won.

 

[kherman]

What do the different colors in your plan signify? The tracks seem to have purple, green, blue and orange sections.

Also, what program did you use?

 

[Myowngod]

What do the different colors in your plan signify? The tracks seem to have purple, green, blue and orange sections.

Also, what program did you use?

Hi Kherman,
Welcome to the forum.

The program I use is Xtrkcad, a freeware program.
Try Here.
http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage

All of the colors are different layers of the plan. It makes it easier to work on the plan if you put different levels or area in separate layers.

BLUE= Mainline
PURPLE= Sidings and Spurs
GREEN= Branch line
PINK= Middle Staging
ORANGE= Lower Staging

I also have layers for the table edge, the backdrops, structures, room perimeter, pop-outs and bench work. Turn off different ones for viewing each. I really like this program. It takes a little bit practice, but once you get the different features it becomes a very useful program... and FREE!

 

[Myowngod]

I haven't been down to the layout in a while but my Dad got more of the fascia up and painted it the green color I chose. I think it looks pretty good so far. It really starts to finish off and dress the layout.

This is in front of the main yard area.

Here is the area of fascia that I put up back in August.(to the right of the red pole. He added the section to the left of the pole that wraps around to the main yard area.

And a wider angle shot of the whole layout. It's really coming together.

I can't wait to get down there and start working again.

 

[TrainJunkee]

I haven't been down to the layout in a while but.

I'd say it has been a while... Almost gave up on the thread! Glad to see some updates. It is looking really good. Going to see if you posted on UTube yet

Thanks for keep us posted or should I say keeping your railroad posted

 

[UP2CSX]

Nice job on that fascia board. That's one task I haven't tackled yet.

 

[Myowngod]

Nice job on that fascia board. That's one task I haven't tackled yet.

Thanks TrainJunkee and UP.

I actually wasn't down there but my Dad Emailed me the pix.
UP, putting up the fascia wasn't that hard to do. Go back a few postings in this thread and see how I did it. Or check out the videos I have on Youtube.

Never Give up on the thread... I'll never give up on the hobby!

 

[bauerrv]

How are you doing on the bridge project, I am hoping to see it on You Tube soon.
Rainer

 

[Myowngod]

How are you doing on the bridge project, I am hoping to see it on You Tube soon.
Rainer

I haven't done much on the bridge in the last few weeks. I got caught up in Phillies Phever. You know, the World Series Champions. We Philly fans don't have many opportunities to celebrate, so we take full advantage of it.

Actually tonight is the first time I'll be working on it in a while. I'll post pix as soon as possible.

 

[DakotaLove39]

Looks like you're doing excellent work.


I think I need to re-evaluate what I want to do for a layout now.. >>;


What era are you going with? I'm hoping to see some nice Pennsy steam on those rails.