Troy's Midnight Abbey Mythical RR 3rd Edition

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troyphoto said:
Good ideas.

I was going to add some cloud cover, and perhaps shadows along the bottom. The former in towns and areas with some light pollution, and the latter in the more rural spaces between places areas. But I'm not sure where those will be yet.
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That sounds about right. You've got some wash of (non-directional) moonlight since it's purplish and not near black as on a moon-less night, and it otherwise sounds about right. Not knowing yet dark vs. light pollution makes sense too: You develop it as you go, obviously.

Moonless, lightning free nights on the ocean would tell you, and I gather you've been doing that recently. On land, if there's one place in particular that's as dark as any, also without moonlight, for my money it would be Canyonlands NP up on the Island in the Sky. Last time I was there at night there was one very small (and very annoying) light about ten miles off and one largish campfire (not so annoying) about twenty miles out. Otherwise, as near black as you can get it.

But the Milky Way...wow. Rarely seen that way anywhere else in the lower forty-eight or that isn't otherwise wet and deep.
 
I know... I know

I said I was going to give it a rest, but I had to

figure out the rudimentary track plan.

I'm not a CAD user. Those programs make my brain hurt. RailModeler Pro is the one that's out for Mac. No, I don't want to get a Windoze license to run 3rdPlanit or SCARM on my Mac. So it's back to Paper and Markers.

And by paper, I mean BIG sheets.

Or, rather, a roll of 12 inch wide craft paper taped together.

As a reminder, the benchwork resembles the letter E, but with the open ends facing down. If on a map, we'd call the open ends South. Below is the East leg of the layout. The back wall is North. The Yard is on the far West Leg.

Screenshot 2026-04-05 at 5.24.53 AM.png

The Wing of the E shaped layout above already has some foam risers to make a raised plateau with an incline (2%) around it I believe this is where the Midnight Abbey will be located, high on the plateau. The supply train will have to make it through the Zombie hordes to get them resupplied.

As the loco leaves the abbey it will proceed toward the top, then curve left, descending from it's peak of +1 in. However a turnout will offer up a branch line that will climb in elevation. The branch line will wind along the middle peninsula to a height of +3 in.

Back on the mainline, it will return to "bench level" and cut through the back of the backdrop. Once through the "tunnel" of about 2 inches, it will pass under the bridge where the aforementioned branchline takes the curve and heads toward the far Yard end of the E.

Below is the W side of the center peninsula. The tunnel to get to the E leg is visible.
The branchline is the Pink/Red line and it roughly curves near the purple template.
the Main line (the loop) is in purple ink. It comes through the tunnel, and curves to the south. There will be a turnout after the underpass for the leg to the yard.
Screenshot 2026-04-05 at 5.24.19 AM.png


I expect that I'll need a way to get out of the yard, and back onto the main loop. I'm planning for a stub-ended yard on the W leg. Right now I'm considering adding a Wye connection into the main loop from the Yard. It would curve into the mainline at about where the green tape is above.

I'll probably work on cutting the elevations in foam board to make sure my gradient math was correct. I need to get the branchline up 3 inches to clear the main loop after the tunnel.

If the layout still looks good in a few days, I'll get a ponce wheel and start transferring the design to the benchwork.
 


Well... I had a couple days of glueing things to other things.

And I found a ponce wheel in my grandmother's old sewing supplies that my wife inherited because she's the only one who seriously sews in the family.
i-tmNZz34-X2.jpg


Roll the wheel over the centerline of where you want the track, and it indents. roll the paper diagram back, and there are marks! I'll find a cool marker color not used elsewhere, and run over the line on the foam.

I laid out the foam odd cuts and cut offs to get the terrain roughed in, the glued it down. Then glued the foam incline risers to the foam on foam:


i-VsZWJGQ-X2.jpg



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That's PL 300 foam adhesive from Loctite. It seems like they changed the formula slightly, and it's taking longer to dry with this tube. Old tube used to have a darker blue for the log and highlight. This one is more of a pastel blue on the label.

660093658_18567683542035711_6516157722059516682_n.jpg


Yes, I had to break out the faithful soldiers for weighing the foam down while the PL 300 dried. A bit of an international edition today.
 
It's time for another update!

Fascia was cut from the leftover 16" tall backdrop tempered hardboard sections previously used for the old upper deck.

The backdrop from the LOWER section (24" tall) is what I used the current backdrop. So the upper deck sections of the backdrop were just begging to be used. And they became the new fascia.

Here's most of the sections cut down to size.

i-twm8VhP-X2.jpg

I did have to cut up one sheet of 2x4 ft tempered hardboard I had in storage. Otherwise, everything was repurposed from the upper deck stuff.

After getting it installed - with hard corners, no coving - everything got painted battleship grey.
battleship grey.jpg


Here's the finished look:

i-hGG2sFD-X2.jpg


all of that took about three days. This morning I ran out and picked up 80 clothespins with springs.

thus began, Operation Clothespin
i-wr8SK66-X2.jpg

Blue tape on the fascia is where we'll have a split in the skirting. Green tape is the section number.

Wife said she'd cut and make hemmed edges so it won't look bad. We ordered a bolt of black broadcloth which is an inch or two longer than needed, so I made sure to shove the clothespins up under the fascia as high as I could take them
i-TSZ9Prx-X2.jpg
 


You going to put a small bead in the top edge of the curtain for the clothespins to grab onto? Just a couple of folds and sewn together or something like that.
 
Kusojiji said:
You going to put a small bead in the top edge of the curtain for the clothespins to grab onto? Just a couple of folds and sewn together or something like that.
Click to expand...
Nope. Keeping it simple so the wife is willing to help.

All I asked her to do is to run a hem on the edges. The selvedge along either edge will be the top and bottom.

However, it's 45" in width, and most of the layout is 43" off the floor, so we'll have a roll along the top for the clothespin to grab.
 
And another update:

First, I did the last of the incline gluing for the raised branch line. Got the loyal soldiers out to weigh it down again...
i-QCRL5Z4-X2.jpg


Then, with my impending cutting and re-apportioning the 4x6 ft gaming table into three smaller tables, I knew I needed to make some minor changes to the layout's benchwork.

You might remember that the benchwork along the back wall extended about a foot beyond where I wanted the West end of the E to be. So I cut it off at the nearest joint.
i-nCkF4r9-X2.jpg


That left a three-ish inch overhang there. I finally decided I'd move the West Leg down flush with that. So I did. That edge of the layout is now flush across the west edge.

Then I started looking at the other side of the West leg where I want to put the yard(s). I should probably not have a right angle there at the inside corner.

i-Ds2V764-X2.jpg


So I cut some angles, then added some bracing to rest the foam on. Then cut and glued the foam in place.

I juggled the fascia boards around, and had to cut one piece of it down. Too long still. Take a saw's blade off the width. Too long. I'll take two blade-widths off. GAH! too short. Screw it. If I cut more fascia, I'll make a new piece. Until then, I used touch up paint to mask the gap. There might be cuts for terrain coming up in the landscaping and terraining. So it can wait until then.

i-T6MXc6z-X2.jpg
 
Also about the loyalists: I can't help but note that the level in the bottles is heaviest at the left, but reduces as they drop (and the need) for weight drops to the right. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's spotted this.

Heavier where the supports are higher...lower in weight where they are lower. There is a theme here............
 


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