Light At the End of the Tunnel

More work completed this weekend. I got the tunnel walls up.

Things are starting to take shape. Finally starting to get some dimension into the layout.

The next steps are to install the profile boards. These will make the perimiter of the layout. In the photo above you can see the line on left that runs along the entire edge of layout. Once the profile boards are up it will essentially turn the layout into a big box with no lid. Then it's time to make the contours of the scenery with balled up newspaper which will create hills and valleys. Then the whole thing gets covered with plaster cloth and paitined. Sounds simple, but actually will probably be a few weekends of work. I need to a roof on each of the tunnels and then build several platforms in various locations around the layout. This is where the town areas will be located.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Chugging Along

You probably thought I forgot about this whole railroad thing. Nope....I've been a-working. I finally finished ballasting the track that will be visible from the tunnel portals. Ballasting you say?? That is the little rocks in between the ties and along the side of the track. Why did it take so long??

This was a pretty tedious process. I used a plastic spoon to initially place the ballast and then used a small dry paint brush to push it around. You have to make sure that you don't have any on the track or the ties, only in between and along side. Once I had it all placed I sprayed it with a 50/50 mix of water and rubbing alcohol. This allows the the 50/50 water and glue mix that I applied with an eye dropper wick down through all the rocks. If you just try to glue without using the alcohol mix the glue with just lay on the surface and not soak down and glue all the little rocks together.

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it's actually one of those things that once you start in and get in the groove it's not all that bad. Once this dries I can start putting up the tunnel walls and start working on the rest of the scenery components.

That's it for now.

12 - More Practice

I'm still working on the practice scenery kit. With it being so close to Christmas I'm having a hard time finding the time to work on the practice kit or the layout. The last time we saw the practice kit it looked like this.

I have to apologize dear reader, I've failed to document some steps. More than a few I'm afraid. I let the plaster cloth dry for a few days and then painted assembled and installed the culvert in the lower left section. Then the rock castings were installed and painted. Once the paint dried I "fly specked" the rock faces with a little Woodland Scenic "fine soil". I let that dry and then installed the track roadbed and then the track. After the glue dried I ballasted the track and gave the whole thing a coat of WS "Earth Undercoat".

That leads us to the next couple of pictures. Once the paint had dried then I started "planting" ground cover. This is just the first dusting. After this layer dries then there are 3 or 4 more shades that I'll salt 'n pepper on.

The above photo shows the culvert and the rocks. The lower left where the culvert is has had one dusting of WS "blended green turf" applied.

Now I have the the culvert and rocks masked so I could break out the "scenic sprayer" and give the rest of the diorama a dusting of blended turf. After the scenic cement, which is really just watered down white glue applied with a sprayer, dries then I can continue adding some more turf colors, some under brush and a couple trees.

As for the big layout. I haven't been able to get too much done. I did get plaster cloth laid on the portion of the risers that will be inside the tunnels. After that set up I got the track reassembled and the plaster sanded and evened out. Now it's time to lay roadbed and track that will be inside the tunnels and then actually build the tunnels. It will be after Christmas before that gets done though.

Last weekend I got my first boxcar kit. A 40 foot Burlington Northern boxcar. I even upgraded the trucks and couplers...the ones that come with the kits are garbage, i.e. plastic. Even after buying the extra couplers and trucks the cost of the kit is about 50% less they buying the ready to roll one. It only took my about 15 mins to put it together. I think if I can find a kit version of a car I want I'll go that route...way cheaper!!!!

11 - The Risers Have Arisen

Finally, after another trip to the store for more glue sticks, got the all the risers installed. The foam pieces were actually pretty easy to deal with. They were very flexible and curved easily. Also, the reference points printed on the base really made it easy.

Once the risers were all in place then it was time to get the track back out and run the train. We ran the train in both directions to find all the "hitches". What we were looking for was high/low spots that aren't noticable to the naked eye. It's a sure thing that the train will find them everytime and sure enough it did! This was a tedious taks of sanding, shimming and shaving...Oh my! There are still a few little spots that aren't perfect, but I think that once the track bed is install and the track is glued down it will fine. Right now it's hard to get it perfect because the track isn't attached to anything so when the train goes around a corner it pulls the track a little and so the alignment gets off.

The trains....they do run though!!!

10 - Some Progress

As mentioned in the last post the box for the layout kit is huge. We decided to buy a cheap shelving unit to hold all the parts and supplies otherwise we'd be tripping over that box for months. Here's a photo of showing said shelf and a peek at the layout so far.

Yes, as you can see, I've taken over part of the closet. This shelf only holds the foam core elements of the layout and some various other items. On the other side of the room is another, much smaller, bookshelf that has all the scenery items....clump foliage, grass, road tape, etc.

Below is the track plan laid out for the first time. This is just to make sure everything fits and all the track pieces were included. This was actually a breeze to do. In the picture you can kinda see some writing on the white foam base. The foam base has the track plan pre-printed on it as well as numbered starting points for installing risers and track piece list, as well as, measurement reference points at certain spots. It made it super easy to slap the track together.

When the layout is complete it won't be flat like this. See the picture of the finished layout in the first post. The two pieces of curving track on the left will actually be in tunnels. The point, almost in the middle of middle picture, is the only point the tracks intersect. The spot more toward the upper left that that looks like they intersect actually don't. The inner most curve to the left will be elevated and the outer curve will pass under it.

Actually that is the next step to remove the track and start installing the risers that will elevate the track. It's a pretty ingenious system. In the olden days modelers would actually pencil out their track plan on the plywood and were it needed to be elevated they would actually cut the plywood and have to use complicated math to figure the rise and run so as not to create too steep an incline...NO WAY!! A hobby that involves complicated math is no hobby for me. So these foam risers make it super easy. There are flat pieces that come in various heights and incline pieces. All the pieces are notched so that you can bend them around a curve.

Stay tuned for more pics after the riser install.

9 - It's Here, It's Here

The layout kit has arrived! Holy moley it's huge!!

The buildings pack arrived too. Believe it or not this little box has 15 building kits in it. That's alot of gluing, painting and detailing!

8 - Practice Makes Perfect

Well, I don't know about perfect but we'll see. As reported in my last post, the scenery kit arrived, so I cracked it open! Since it arrived and this post I have put the basic "box" together and installed the track sub-roadbed. After I let the glue dry for about 24 hours I used wadded up newspaper to fill in the empty space and create the "topography".

Once all the newspaper was pushed, prodded and shifted around it came time to create the lay of the land, so to speak. I must tell you it was a bit messy but not too difficult.

The kit came with a roll of plaster cloth. I cut five 14" pieces, dipped them in water and draped them over the newspaper them starting on the left to right and back to front. Once the plaster has completely dried I'll be ready to start painting.

Oh yeah...on Saturday we went to The Great Train Expo in Puyallup and picked up a caboose, a boxcar, a flat car and a hopper. We have a "real" train now...well it's still pretty short but it's a start! There were a couple cool layouts to oogle at but other than that it was actually kinda disappointing there was a lot of junk for sale there. Maybe not junk, maybe collectors were excited about some of the stuff, but a lot of it looked like stuff people just didn't want anymore. We bought our stuff new from a Tacoma train store that had a booth. We got pretty good deals. Normal prices were $20-$25 and they were marked down to $13-$18. They're nice cars, metal wheels, lots of detailing, the only thing is they have cheap plastic couplers. I'll have to replace them with metal ones with spring actuators like the ones that are on the locomotive.

The actual layout and buildings kits are supposed to arrive on Tuesday to that will be exciting to finally have all the stuff and actually get started on the real deal!