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!

7 - Choo Choo Is A Rolling

The track pack, loco and scenery kit arrived late last week! I just set up a real basic oval with a turn out to get the party started. It's super cool!!! The scenery kit is not the actual layout kit it is a practice kit that will, hopefully, teach me the scenery techniques.


At least now I can run trains and practice the scenery stuff until the actual layout and buidling kits arrive. I ordered them last week. I just checked the order status and they haven't shipped yet but should be any time!

6 - Some More Stuff

Picked up a couple more things this weekend. The KFC will wait for another layout but I think I can find a place for the water tower.


Yesterday I ordered the locomotive and track pack for the layout. Should have a train up and running in a week or so. Once I get a better idea of the how the locomotive runs on the layout then I can start picking out rolling stock (freight cars, caboose, etc).

5 - Picked Up a Couple Items

Went to a train store in Seattle today. Their website made it look like they were the place to go for train stuff. However, they didn't really have all that much stuff. I think the one in Kirkland is way better. This is actually a blessing in disguise because it's about a 45 minute drive from our house. Oh well I did manage to find a couple items.

I got a trailer that says Seattle on it. I realize it's not actually a train car, but I can put it on a 50' (scale) flat car. I also picked up a pair of Woodland Scenics Gentle Grips.

This is the idea....

This type freight transportation is called intermodal freight transportation. Meaning that the freight is transported by mulitple transportation methods, in this case rail and truck. So the trailer could be loaded onto the flat rail car directly at a factory or warehouse and then transported by rail to a frieght yard where it is unloaded and picked up by a truck and hauled via road to multiple retail outlets.

The store didn't have any flat cars in the length I needed so I'll have to look at another store or online.

4 - First Phase Update!!

The Benchwork is now complete!! Oy what a chore! Ofcourse I had to choose the one day it's 75 degrees in OCTOBER!!! and I was in an upstairs south facing bedroom. By the time I was done I was sweating like a whore in church! Oh well all is done now!

I guess there's no more excuses now....gotta order the kit!!!

3 - Minor De-Railment

Not really. After some additional research I've come to the conclusion that my choice of locomotive will not work with the Grand Valley layout. I'm a little bummed out because I wanted to go with the Burlington Northern loco since that is what runs through my hometown of Yakima, WA. However, I also learned that BN was actually created in 1970 as the result of the merger of Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Spokane, Seattle, Portland Railroads. The new company operated until 1995 when it merged w/ the Atchison Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad to become Burlington Northern Sante Fe. Today it is only 1 of 4 transcontinental railroads operating in North America. Of the 4 remaining it is the 2nd largest in size, the 1st is Union Pacific. The new BNSF locos have different coloring than the good 'ol green and white BNs. Okay I'm getting off topic :-)

Back to the loco switch -

The Grand Valley layout has 18" radius curves and the loco I picked the SD40-2 is just too long to make that turn at normal speed. I've read that it can work but I'd have to decrease the speed to make the turns without fear of de-railment. The SD in the name is General Motors designation for a 6-axle "special duty" diesel locomotive. In checking out the forums at http://www.modelrailroader.com/ I determined that this will be too long to safely handle the 18" radius curves.

Instead of the SD40-2 I've decided to go with a GP40. The GP in the name is General Motors designation for a 4-axle "general purpose" diesel locomotive. This will give me better performance on the curves since it has 4 instead of 6 axles it is not quite as long as the SD. Unfortunately I could not just swap model numbers and keep the Burlington Northern roadname without a significant jump in price. Since this is our first layout I didn't want to jump the gun and go with an expensive locomotive to start out with. We're talking a price difference of around $150 more for the GP than the SD...YIPES!!

Rather than spend way more money just to keep the Burlington Northern roadname I decided to go with Union Pacific. This is still a railroad that runs in Washington State w/ terminals in Seattle and Spokane.


It looks like a more affordable GP40 w/ the Burlington Northern roadname will be available in May 2008. So I guess I'll just make do with the Union Pacific until then. :-) Oh well the way I see it - one small change now will save huge headaches later one. It would be so frustrating to spend all the time working on the layout only to find that the loco you have won't run on it.

Some good news I found the control system that I talked about in the first post at a local hobby store for cheaper than I could get it online...SWEET!! So I snatched that up.

2 - First Phase

Alrighty...sort of busy day today. We dismantled our home office and turned it into the guest room and turned the guest room into the train room. Unfortunately even completely empty with the closet doors removed in order to put my work table the room is just big enough with barely any room to spare. Actually it won't be too bad once the layout is finished, but while under construction the layout will have to be in the middle of the room so we have access to all sides. Once it's complete it can be put against a wall.

This is the where we're at today - the benchwork (what the layout will be built on) is almost complete. The support frames are built we just have to attach them to the piece of plywood and flip it over and we'll be ready to start buidling The Grand Valley!

1 - So It Begins

We've finally began construction of our model railroad empire. Well not really empire but a pretty good layout for beginners like us. Since this is our fist go round with railroading we decided to go with a kit. The Grand Valley layout to be exact.


Here is a picture of the completed layout (from manufacturer website)

We also decided on a fairly simple locomotive and control system.

Ofcourse we'll be adding freight cars and a caboose to the locomotive as soon as we pick some out!

Check back for updates!!!