Weekend Update 3/13/11

[ednadolski]

Lightened backdrop and a few trees:

Wow Chris, that is an incredibly well-done scene!    Fantastic!   

Ed

[Iain]

Working on my set of NS coaches.  I'd like to get one noice and purdy for Lee's Golden Spike train.

Right now I'm stumped with the roofs:

http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,23540.0.html

Once I get the coaches done, I've got a pair of 70 tonners waiting to be detailed to match the NS units used in passenger service.

[Dave Schneider]

This week was spring break in Alaska, so the kids and I spent a fair bit of time in the evening watching classic movies. In my spare time I managed to make some progress on the main Milbrew building. The track side is primarily windows and has a rough stucco finish. Here is a current photo from Google street view. The Beer Line tracks were located between the cars and the building and are now paved over.



I used the Silhouette machine to cut the window openings, and I don't think that  could have done this without this tool. The windows were made by cutting a paint mask as I described in last weeks weekend update. I had to compress the building somewhat but I am happy with the overall look. The bottom floor windows will be filled with concrete block.



Here is a closeup of the wall and windows showing the stucco texture. I used Liquitex Ceramic Stucco and Rustolem texture paint on the wall. I am also experimenting with Golden acrylic modeling paste and will post some results in a separate thread later this week. I have just tacked everything together with some tape at this point so everything isn't completely aligned yet. I will dust the windows with some black chalk which will accumulate along the edges of the window panes and provide the illusion of a shadow.



Best wishes, Dave

[Chris333]

Dave, You would laugh at my lighting. The layout is sitting on a box in front of my washer/dryer under a shop light.

Pretty soon you will have all of Google Earth modeled!

[up1950s]

Dave that is beautiful . I bet you could coat a oven pan with that , let it dry , then break it up like very small Peanut Brittle to mimic a cement street that has been ripped up and put in a pile .

[BCRail_FSJ]

This has been a milestone week on the layout in that the final trackage over the bridge is almost completed.  Prior trackage was sectioned at each girder and power transmission via rail joiners was abysmal.  Engines never ran smoothly.  To fix this I resorted to continuously soldered rail over the entire 10 ft length of bridge and its approaches.

 Due to difficulty in obtaining any Micro Engineering code 55 bridge flex I made my own bridge track by cutting out the webbing from Atlas code 55 and pushing the ties together on the track sections that were on the deck.  This took forever and may make me certifiably insane, but the result looks great.   The soldered 10ft section of track was unwieldy to position on the bridge but once in position it fit perfectly


Positioning 10ft of soldered flextrack


22 gauge solid wire feeders were soldered on the trackage at the north and south end of the bridge.  These were kept to a couple of inches in length then soldered to 18 gauge stranded extensions which are then connected to 14 gauge stranded bus wires running beneath the bridge benchwork


Feeders - Bridge South End


Feeders - Bridge North End

Right now the DC power back is hooked up to the 14 gauge bus wires.  I am happy to report that, even over 8ft between the two sets of feeders trains run smoothly and at a constant speed.

All that is left is to glue the track on to the bridge deck, fill in the missing ties at rail joins and start thinking about guard rails.

[Dave Schneider]

Dave, You would laugh at my lighting. The layout is sitting on a box in front of my washer/dryer under a shop light.

Pretty soon you will have all of Google Earth modeled!

Are you using fluorescent lights? What color temperature? You might get laughs at the set up but certainly not at the results. As for my productivity, I have a ways to go yet till I catch up to Google Earth. Luckily many of the buildings along my section of the Beer Line are still standing, so Google and Bing are great resources since I am 2800 miles away. I also met a really nice modeler at Trainfest this past year, and he bikes the Beer Line bike trail and takes pictures for me if I need them. I calculated that the area I have set aside for the Beer Line is about 8,640 square inches....so far the buildings I have built cover about 70 square inches! Maybe I should make an extra thick backdrop!

Dave that is beautiful . I bet you could coat a oven pan with that , let it dry , then break it up like very small Peanut Brittle to mimic a cement street that has been ripped up and put in a pile .

Thanks Ritchie. This is a good idea for making building rubble. Maybe spread it over cling wrap so that it is easy to remove.

Best wishes, Dave

[soo]

Howdy all,,, I actually did something....I am starting to put the layout back up. I am moving sections around so it is different than the last WBTR... Here are some pics..





  The helix never moved and was never taken down... I just need to build another one for the other side of the layout...

  There is no real track plan,,, just going with the flow. I do need to change the area I call Richfield,, I was thinking of a large mega industry in the corner,,sort of like Mead Paper in Wisconsin. Also I need to come up with a good yard design so I can switch from both ends so the layout can operate as point to point.

     Adios, Wyatt

[mark dance]

This week I designed and built 6 Train order panels for the fascia of the layout.  4 have been installed but none of the wiring has been done yet.  I will eventually power the TO semaphores as well but want fascia-mounted LEDs to assist visibility.  I also need a place to put the "acknowledge button" for crews to acknowledge to the Dispatcher they have picked up their orders.





Next step is to integrate the control of the panels through a Laptop computer via JMRI/Panelpro.  The basics of this interface are up and running but I still have work through the control details.

I also spent the week getting ready for the C&W's second Dispatcher-controlled Op session tomorrow evening.  Wish us luck!

md

[N_DaveS]

I managed to find three uninterrupted hours in which to install my preassembled turnout matrix for the yard/station/crossover trackage. (Lee would probably have finished my layout in that amount of time! ) Details here.

[SAH]

Interesting train order panel Mark.  I've been turning over similar ideas in my mind as I'll need the same kind of set-up someday.  Great to see someone has a working version.  Looking forward to seeing how it develops and how the crews interact with it.

I've been grabbing an hour here and there over the last few weeks.  Finally got most of a day to get some work done on the layout.  Fascia work, more curved turnout tuning and testing.  So far so good.

[BCR 570]

Mark:

After running on several fully signalled layouts down in Portland last week, I think that the LED repeaters down on hte fascia are an excellent idea.  I am looking forward to tomorrow evening's session - see you then.


Andy:

Glad to see the track gangs in action.  I look forward to running a train across your bridge in April.


Tim

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Not much from me this week. I prepped several parts for casting, and received a 2.5 gallon paint pot. The pot will enable me to start pressure casting which is very important when using shrink resins and making thin walled parts.

[chessie system fan]

Daniel, I'm curious what the psi rating is on the safety valve.  I got a 2.5 gal. paint pot from Harbor Freight and the safety went off at 40psi, quite a bit lower than advertised.  And safety valves in the wanted range are hard to come by.

[SkipGear]

No pictures, just a couple of video's.

I dug the camera out and took a few videos of the sound projects I have been working on.

PRR I-1 -

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FVM Hiawatha -

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