Passaic River & Western RR

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Well, digging through my parents basement a few months back got me back into building a layout after 15 some-odd years. Pretty simple little layout using something I thought I'd never use, Kato Unitrack! But, I'm lazy and don't really want to be bothered with trackwork with a 10 and 7 year old breathing down my neck to run trains. I started with a 2' x 4' loop about a month ago and last week added a 6" x 40" addition with a spare piece of plywood I had.
The gist of the plan was to make a roundy round for my kids to run on, and also have switching operations for myself. The premise is based on the Black River & Western operations between Ringoes and Three Bridges, but in a freelance theme. The track plan isn't 100% yet so I'm open for suggestions. My biggest gripe with Unitrack is that it's near impossible to construct a useable runaround track on a 2' x 4' space. Something I can live with for now. It'll give me an excuse to throw a caboose in for shoving operations.
So that's that. I'm back in the game. Now to finish digging through all the stuff that was packed away for all these years...

[Philip H]

Welcome back @Cory Rothlisberger. 

Your track plan certainly allows for a decent amount of switching and roundy round as well.  Should be fun.

[wm3798]

Good to see you back in the fold.  You might consider including a TTrak interface for quick expansion and bite size goals.  The urchlings can also be engaged with some scenery on their own modules as well as demanding that you run the trains on time...  Just a thought.

Lee

[dem34]

Cool little setup and even bare bones I can get the Jersey vibe.  My mediocre advice.
Couple highway overpasses would help break up the scene a little, and are slightly less cliche than mountains and tunnels.
Little nubs of disconnected scenic track could also imply things like truncated Wyes and disused connections. Track up North can get a little nutty between the overbuilt nature and the subsequent pruning to the point a loop might not seem out of the ordinary.

  You'll also need a lot of GP9s. The state Fauna.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hell yeah my man!

It's great to see you back in the mix.

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Got some foam laid down and started playing with some elevations. I plan to use some hilly topography and trees to mask the loop vs. highway overpasses. Reason being is that I want to somewhat keep to my locale in regards to landscape (old EL lines Morris County NJ). So hills and trees. Lots of trees...



The biggest elevation will be the route up to the interchange. I want to separate the main part of the layout with the interchange spur the best I can. Figured the elevation change will help. I started with a full inch incline but I'll probably drop it down to 1/2" or 3/4".

[Cory Rothlisberger]

@Ed Kapuscinski, am I doing this right? Probably the only part that's been holding me up with progressing on this layout is trying to bury some of the Unitrack in areas.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@Ed Kapuscinski, am I doing this right? Probably the only part that's been holding me up with progressing on this layout is trying to bury some of the Unitrack in areas.

Yessir! Isn't it handy that foamcore is the same height as Unitrack roadbed?

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Jager Lumber is nearing completion. I need to finish weathering the pavement and the structures, but I'm overall happy with how it has taken shape.

I built a border around the paved area in order to keep the "pavement" relatively level with the tops of the rail heads.






Just missing the wooden fence at this point. I added a shortened version of Walther's State Line Supply to stand in as the store/warehouse, kind of similar to the actual Jager Lumber I'm basing this off of.

[NorthWestGN]

Looks great Cory, can't tell it's unitrack at all...like the way you raised the yard lead as well, cookie cutter foam elevation.

Brent

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Proof of life update on the PR&W. I've been making headway on the main part of the layout. Going to finish the 2x4 section before moving on to my interchange yard.


Groundcover is probably 75% down. I'm relatively happy with how the tree covered hill/scenic divider turned out. Those GTT trees were a good value.
Then my son insisted we put in a river. So, we're currently working on that. Was always trying to figure out what to put in this corner without trying to overcrowd the layout. My son and I went to the Passaic River and collected some dirt, sifted and baked. I think that part has turned out better than I imagined it would. There's just no replacement for using real dirt (only if I listened to that when using WS ballast..) Only now having troubles with the Woodland Scenics Real Water. I have some air bubbles that won't go away, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to rip it all out and start again. Going to give it another day to cure.





Lastly, the "main drag" on the layout is taking shape. Jager Lumber, a gas station and a small business/apartment building. Not sure the DPM kit is my final choice (its from an old layout), but it's growing on me.



I'm proto-freelancing the area around me and we have a bunch of brick & mortar businesses on the first floor, and more house like looking 2nd & 3rd floors. So I might end up kitbashing something. I am enjoying daydreaming of what this scene will be when it's done through...

[Scottl]

That dirt looks great, only suggestion would be to pick out the seed shells that are visible.  Those don't scale well

[Cory Rothlisberger]

That dirt looks great, only suggestion would be to pick out the seed shells that are visible.  Those don't scale well

Too late. They're already buried under "water"!  Guess we'll apply the "3 foot rule" for this situation...

[Cory Rothlisberger]

After not touching the layout much over the past few months, I've been hammering away on a few projects that I've had on my list. The first was completing the facia so I can stop procrastinating working on scenery on the edges of the layout. With the facia came creating a couple of control panels and neatening up wiring to go along with that. I used 2'x4' 1/8" hardboard which I have to say, I like working with much more than MDF.


I drew up and 3D printed the control panels. Figured they'd look cleaner than anything I could mask off and paint. That and it's so much easier including lettering on the panels.


Also included bosses on the backside to allow the toggles and LEDs to not stick out too far from the panel.


And some grade crossing protection for Valley Rd.



My other big project was replacing my cardboard mock-up road bridge with something more permanent. This is the first attempt at 3D printing it. There are a few design changes I want to make to improve the print, and I'm not completely happy with the concrete color (too brownish to me), but not bad for the first try.