Terry's Layout

[Terry]

 I have Woodland scenics water. Bags of clear beads that get melted.

[Terry]

Here's the progress as of Monday night. I scraped off the material that did cure right and used a box of hydrocal from Hobby Lobby mixed with brown color to cover over the mess. I ran out of that so I mixed up a quart of woodland Scenics molding plaster and put that on.

I think the problem with these old boxes of plaster mixes is the ones with additives or aggregates like the woodland scenics and the Sculptamold seperate while stored over the decades. Then when I mix them up I'm not getting the plaster which would bond everything together. In  the future I'll just use the whole package unless it's pure plaster.

Here's the marsh area:


 

 

I also did the final strips  of grassy areas near the station.

 

 

[starfire700]

Very nice, especially the mountain area.

[Terry]

Here's yesterday's progress.

I laid most of the track where it goes, but I'm using the long extra tie sections I bought and trying to put shorter sections near the roads and where I want relays so I need to cut a bunch of track.

The outer circle of track is screwed down so I can place the bridges. The white areas will be painted concrete gray. That's just primer using paint I had left over from when I painted the garage.


 

 

I lucked out. I was going to make a pair of piers for the bridges out of wood. I didn't have any chucnks big enough to cut down, but it turned out a 3/4" slice cut off a 4 by 4 and then attached to the bottom made a nice looking pier. It needs another coat of paint to cover the woodgrain. The screws are just for holding it while painting.

 

Here's what the rest of the layout looks like with track laid in place.  I did the switche machines in the station, but still need to go thorough the others. 

 

 

 

I should be running trains by the end of the month.

I was trying to find a transmission dipstick to use for pulling wires. The one on my GM van is about 6 feet long. It turns out people loose them so the junk yards don't have them. I'll use a coat hanger.

[Terry]

I got the piers laid in the marsh area and did the color.

Here's the bridges set in place with the edging trim set up:

 

 

I didn't like it closed off so I cut down the trim board.

 

 

It gives it a much more open appearance and means I can put fishermen under the bridge.

The edging on that side of the layout won't need to come off so once it's painted and dry I'll put it on.  After painting the edging in the garage, I went back down and painted the water area.

I looked at the woodland scenics website and they said to paint the deep areas darker with raw umber, then use burnt umber around that and yellow orche in the shallow areas. Then I saw on the bags of water to use a hint of green, so I wiped some Rit dye in water over the darker areas to blend the last of the powders. That's the wet areas you see.

It looks like a mess, but I think it's a matter of just stopping because it looks good enough. If it's too dark a light wash of yellow once it's dried will lighten it up and then look good under the water.

 

I have 3 bags of the Woodland Scenics EZ Water. I should be using 5 bags, but unless I find some when I'm cleaning up it will have to do. You heat it and pour it into the area. I'll get a dollar pan at Goodwill and do it later.

[Terry]

I have 4 of the 6 switches for the middle loop cleaned up and working well. The other two are being picky.

One switch I rejected had a broken base and was flexing when the selenoid went. I have boxes of Lionel 022 switches that I don't need for the layout, and can't sell anymore I pick through for motors. I have a box of 24V screw bulbs that I'm using in the motors so I'm trying to just use the screw bulb motors.

I'll do a post on fixing switches.

I just noticed you can go to the top of each page (Click on number above author in upper left corner) and then open the first picture. Then use the arrow botton to flip through the pictures and you can see the progress. Most of my pictures are dated in the name in the lower left corner. The first page has pictures that were uploaded before I installed the image viewer upgrades.  You need to change pages to see the next group of pictures.

[starfire700]

A note on switches. I was having typical problems with some 711's, mainly sluggish operation and they do not completely throw, even with fixed voltage. All have been cleaned and tested on the bench. Anyway, I purchased some modern Lionel 072 switches for the tubular upper level, so I would not have any problems, Ha Ha......
The modern switches throw quick and smooth at low voltage, but are lightweight and the moving frog rails are not made to exact specs. They leave a gap that the wheels of a car or loco can pick-open and derail the train. So obviously not good for upper level operation. I will go back to Lionel 711 wide radius and make the best of sluggish operation.

[Terry]

I tried hooking a Ciruitron Snapper up to a switch but it had no effect. The Snapper is a fast discharge capacitor that fires 50 volts when the circuit is completed. You can't use switch controllers, and lantern bulbs must be rewired. (I just removed the bulb when testing.)

I had high hopes for the Snapper.

While I was writing this I realized I have a Variac transformer that will do 0-110V AC. I'll have to play with it.

I want to do trains alternating directions automatically on the middle line. To do that I need the switches to work off the non-derailing function 100% of the time. We'll see.

[Terry]

Here's the stone paper installed on the causeway behind the marsh.

 

With the bridge in place. Lots of loose black grit I used to fill holes that will sweep off.

 

After sweeping I decided I didn't like it being so bright under the back of the bridge so I painted the cliff and much of the floor underneath black and then blew the dust and grit I'd swept up back into the wet paint.

 

That's it, but I have a like new later bright red bridge with a decal I'll use instead of the brass plate early bridge shown.

This week I'll concentrate on getting the track laid and hopefully be running some trains soon.

[starfire700]

Your water feature looks great. One thing that I had planned, but never happened on my layout was a land or water feature "below" table level. This helps with a more realistic look when the landscape is both above and below table level.

[Terry]

As of tonight all the track is down, but for the station area and the two innermost freight yard lines. I found an apple box of usede and dirty 072 straights that allowed me to use 072 for the whole layout.  I got tired of cleaning switches so I didn't get the freight yard or the siding behind the coal and log loaders done.

I put the accessories out. I'll put a single train on each line as I wire it up. Friday night I'll put the transformers on. I decided to use 3  250 watt Z transformers and the handheld MRC unit. That will give me 1000 watts.

The next step is to wire the layout with lockons and run the trains for a while while I wire the station area.

Then I'll take up the few sections of track that get soldier connections on them while putting in the outside rails for the accessories.

I am amazed at how big the layout is. It's just over 13 feet by 27.5 feet.  It just swallows up the accessories and buildings.

Here's current pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[starfire700]

Looking very nice and finished. Something that most layouts never achieve. I don't remember if I asked before about the white 4x4 posts. Are they crowd-control for when you have visitors, or will you be somehow raising the layout onto these posts?

[Terry]

The standard gauge layout goes on those. I'm going to paint all the wood before I put it on, and wanted to wait until it's cooler. Also I need to get as much of the inner O gauge layout wired as posible so I can avoid beating my head on the standard layout.

[Terry]

I finally got back downstairs last night and got the trains running.

The track wiring is temporary with lockons. I'll go around and do each area with soldiered connections through holes.

Here's a video:



The dog doesn't think I should be running postwar locos on the layout. I think that is neat.

I think I need put something on the end where the crane is to block sight down the south side from where I was sitting. Maybe that Lionel Factory?

[Terry]

Here's a video of the 752W set I bought Saturday on the layout. There's a fourth car, but the vestibule only has one wheel.



The dog is getting used to the trains, but is still a little wary of the yellow ones.