The wife's HO Atlas layout...

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A Mile Stone has been reached!!!

I don't remember when I began this layout but it seems like a life time ago. Changing track plans, changing track make and generally going from one thing to another in an attempt to achieve some sort of positive progress.

This evening, well, this morning I have achieved one goal - my inner track is down, fixed and ready to be connected to power!

Placing the final length of Flex proved to be a bit challenging, not in locating it so much, rather getting the length correct to neatly join the track together as one. After three attempts at perfection, I had to settle on pretty close. One end of the final piece of track has feeders attached while the other end joins into a turnout. The end result is gaps at the joins a little larger than I would like but am hoping that wont cause an issue with the inclusion of the feeders at one end.

Later today, I Might connect power to one section and see what happens. That is going to be a nervous time and am hoping with everything I know that all will be well.
 
Your right, it is time. Keep your fingers crossed that I have everything where they need to be and connected properly, joiner wise. The only area I am a bit iffy on is where the two turn outs join each other. What I have done looks like the diagram you sent me so it all should be good.

To be honest, I am more worried about my soldering than anything and am expecting to have a few little hiccups, especially as the track hasn't been cleaned and has glue residue, dust and probably some grime on it. I'll give it a wipe over with alcohol BEFORE I do run anything though and once having the power confirmed, will clean the wheels and the track properly before laying the outside track. At least with the outside track and the track to the lake, it is only going to be about 4 lengths of flex so that will be quick and easy.

That being said though (sigh) I do have some extra turnouts and am thinking about putting in a siding for the lake depot, room pending. Just thinking about it mind you.

I am on my way out right now but will run some this evening when I get home. Hopefully the news will be good!
 
The Roads ...

Morning all,

Amongst other things, I have been working on the road system for the layout. What I want to do is try to replicate, as closely as possible, the road surface outside my home as shown in the following photo's:

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As can be seen, in the last photo especially, our road/s are not black or even a dark grey. They are a very light grey made up of a combination of various stones. The stone color ranges from grayish to white and a tan looking color. Additionally, they are not "smooth" but fairly well textured compared to a black topped surface.

The problem I am having is two fold; firstly, how to get the coloring right and; secondly, how to get the texture even close. I suspect, due to scale, I will have to forget about the texture and just focus on the color.

Do any of you "Painting/Weathering Guru's (or anyone at all) have any ideas for doing this? Anyone want to try to replicate and then let me know how they did it?

I have been trying to do this for a month or more and nothing I have done has even come close, hence my "cry for help, advice and suggestions".
 


An airbrush would probably be the easiest way. First get the base gray coat down. Then the spray could be adjusted to just speckle the area to get the texture look. Then adjust again for the dark strip down the center.

OR, you can ge g the base gray coat down and sprinkle some model dirt (the woodland scenics stuff). This would give the look and add some actual texture.

Personally, I think the airbrush would be easier. And you would be able to practice on something else first without much wasted besides your time and a few drops of paint.
 
Thanks for that. Hadn't thought about using an airbrush for painting Scenery, more or less got a mind set on it only being used for trains. Gotta start thinking more out side the box, circle, triangle, sphere adinfinitum (or however it is spelt) I guess.

Failing that, I could just scale down the over head picture I took and glue that to the road base :) Just kidding!
 
Looking at our "real road" and comparing that to how Grey Ballast looks, color wise and texture wise, I'd say that there wasn't too much difference. I use Medium Ballast though, which is going to be way too "big" so was wondering if anyone uses Fine Grey Ballast and how much Finer it is to the Medium grade.

If Fine Ballast could look good, then I could also add a "sprinkling" of fine Black ballast for contrasting color. If people think that using ballast is going to be too "heavy" or obviously nothing like to scale, I wont bother making the trip to my LHS an hour or away, even though is going to be a great day for a "ride" :).
 
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Thanks gator do 65, that would make it much much easier and quicker. I'll take a look at it when I go up town later today.
 
Just got back from up town looking for the Krylon paint. They had every color BUT the grey I was wanting so no joy there. I have also looked at the Arizona Rock site and have bought some sample packs of "N Scale" Ballast, Dirt and Sand, Powders and gravel. If I can't get something close to what I am looking for from that, then the road will probably just be painted a light grey and flecked with black using the air brush. Either that, or I'll just say to hell with it and spray it with Krylon Black Primer and go from there.
 
Severe Storm hits Tootsville!

Morning All,

This evening, an almost deadly storm struck "Tootsville" in Up State New York. While there were no reported human casualties, property damage was extreme to say the least.

All evening, clean up crews have been out and concentrating on reopening the only road in and out of the small town. Their work has been incredible, considering the surrounding destruction:

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Word from the local authorities suggests that crews, mainly volunteers, will be concentrating on the town and surrounding area clean up shortly after first light. Property owners have inundated their respective Insurance Companies and those companies have reported record numbers of claims.

While this event has greatly impacted, and emotionally devastated this small community, their resolve to rebuild is unyielding, no matter how long or at what cost.

These aerial photo's were taken by a local pilot shortly after the storm passed, clearly showing the massive task that confronts the work crews and residence:

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Meteorologists, after analyzing satellite imagery and surveying the area, seem to be of the opinion that the cause of this massive storm was, in some way, significantly contributed to by man. One meteorologist, who cannot be named for credibility reasons, went as far as to state that this phenomenon was an entirely man made one. Federal and State Investigators will be in the area late tomorrow as a result of these claims.

:)
 
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One more verbal update. I have finally completed getting all of the main line track in and most of the holes through the benchwork for the feeder wires. Only bit of track to be put down is the 3' - 4' running down to the Lake Depot. That, I am hoping will be a quick 5 minute job, as soon as can find that side of the layout :)

Over the next few days I will be completing the ballast work and will be starting on the "dreaded" wiring, at least getting the Bus Wires in if nothing else. I will also be looking for a way of connecting the Feeder Wires to the main Bus without having to strip 1" long sections out of the Bus for the Feeders to be soldered to. I don't even know if such a beast exists, but will find out no doubt.

As that is going on, I will be trying to finalize the road system through the area designated as the town. That will help determine the exact positioning of my buildings. OR, maybe I'll do that the other way around ... soooo many decisions and so little time!
 
Thanks guys and good to know their various names too. I don't know if these connectors are super special or not but I can't seem to find them in a store any where around where I am. Looks like I'm going to have order then on line. While that isn't such a bad thing, it means I will have to wait to do the wiring which is annoying as I finally got the incentive and courage to do it.

Last night I spent, oh so slowly, doing more ballasting on the track. Gee, where else would you do it??? I think I am getting close to having it 1/2 done but aren't 100% certain as I have been doing various sections of the track. I mostly focused on the back sections of track where the majority of my turnouts are.

Have also cleaned up some of the "mess" from the lakeside of the layout ... it really does exist! :)

I'll possibly take some pictures later today, although they probably wont show too much as most of what has been done has been fairly subtle.
 
Suzie,

Considering the possibility of having unreliable connections, I am now thinking that perhaps I will simply solder the feeders (droppers) to the main Bus. Obviously more work and "operator" dependent, but I think I would rather that than the take a chance on unreliable connections.

The main problem seems to be the male connectors that the feeders are connected to, fitting into the T-Connector properly. I am assuming that I would need to solder the feeder wires to the Male Connector. If I am right, then (and despite the feeder wire gauge) couldn't I use the appropriate Male Connector for the T-Connector (suitcase) and still solder the feeder wires to that connector? Wouldn't that eliminate any incompatibility issues that may cause unreliability? Or am I on the totally wrong track.....

The more practical ones for railway modelling that I linked to above are a bit more specialised and will most likely need to be ordered from a specialist supplier of all things Skotchlok
Click to expand...

Just re read your post Suzie - are you saying that the ones used for model railways are different to those sold by automotive outlets and lowes etc?
 
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I could never find the uneven wire sized ones here either. Model Railroader seems to have used them on all of their project layouts for some time now, might be some info in a mag as to where they get them from.
 
I thought this was going to be an easy fix to what seems like an awkward task. At the moment I am thinking that the ones Suzie has provided a link to are the uneven wire sized ones you are referring to Toot'n. The more I think about this, the more I find it hard to believe that you can't buy a T Connector that accepts a standard size male push blade connector, say 8 mm, then be able to buy 8 mm blade connectors that accept 12/14/16/18/20 etc gauge wire.
 


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