Weekend Update 4/24/11

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Put an offer in on a house Friday. Will find out today or tomorrow if they accept.

The S.

Nice! I know it's been a real journey. Good basement potential, I hope?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I haven't been making a LOT of progress lately, but there's been some movement on the NCR Shelf.

I came up with a mounting for slide switches in foam using old Atlas freight car box lids:



I also finally finished carving foam, and am now frosting it with joint compound. The next step is sanding that down nice and smooth.

Here's the one end loop, looking at the I83 embankment:


That's 83 up top:


And looking down the long straight:


I'm hoping to have this operational for when Chulvis is in town on the way to the N Scale convention.

[S Class]

I haven't been making a LOT of progress lately, but there's been some movement on the NCR Shelf.

I came up with a mounting for slide switches in foam using old Atlas freight car box lids:

right well now that someone else has done the hard work I am so stealing that idea for my layout (when in the next decade I get to lay turnouts)

[Puddington]

right well now that someone else has done the hard work I am so stealing that idea for my layout (when in the next decade I get to lay turnouts)

Ed; that looks rather interesting - you wouldn't have a drawing or tutorial now would you ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I don't yet, but it's actually quite simple. However, let me get one fully assembled to really prove that they work first.

[Denver Road Doug]

OK, posting a little late, both in that it's not the weekend and that I actually got to this point over the past few weekends.   But, I gave up the forums for lent and this is my first opportunity to do this so here goes...

My new layout:


Business End


The Loop


The Trackplan. (Slight Changes From This Rev)

[Philip H]

Pretty sweet Doug, though treading dangerously close to an Ed K special in terms of benchwork.   

What's the setting and your Givens and Druthers?

[Denver Road Doug]

Pretty sweet Doug, though treading dangerously close to an Ed K special in terms of benchwork.  

What's the setting and your Givens and Druthers?

Philip, thanks!   Ed K is my hero.  

Settiing....well I guess it very loosely represents BNSF (and some UP) in Saginaw, TX, circa 1999.  But it will be pretty generic overall.

Regarding Givens and Druthers, I figured I'd avoid topic creep and post an entry in the Layout Engineering Reports area.  So, here ya go...
http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,23792.0.html

[chuck geiger]

Ed - grand work, turnout control and core landscape.

[Bangorboy]

<Quote>  I also finally finished carving foam, and am now frosting it with joint compound. The next step is sanding that down nice and smooth.  <Quote>

May I suggest "sanding" with a wet sponge?  If you use regular sandpaper or a drywall sander, you'll have copious white dust all over everything.  Before you get into that mess, try using a small square cellulose sponge kept damp, not dripping.  It'll soften the surface enough to smooth it very nicely.  You will load up the sponge with some of the compound, but that's a lot easier to control than the dust.

Bill B
South Okaloosa N Scalers

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks Bill, I did that before, and it worked nicely. I actually use a combination techniques. A quick hit with sand paper to take off all the "ridges" left over from application, then the sponge for the final job.

I know what you mean about that dust, it's a real mess.

[lashedup]

Mid-week entry of Kato's City of Los Angeles for fun...




Getting some of those fun Helicon artifacts here and there.

-j

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Damn, Kato should be paying you to shoot their ad photos.

[bbussey]

A little late posting, but this was done over the weekend.  A while back I removed most of the P&LE lettering from a stock Athearn GSC flat, body-mounted MTL couplers, filled in the end sills with styrene, painted the new parts Deepwater green and applied PC decals.   Now, I've replaced the plastic deck with the laser-etched wood decks, rough-sanded and distressed the deck by picking at it with an X-Acto blade, then re-scored the board separations on the surface and the edges.  All that remains is some touch-up on the green where I filed down a punch-out mark, and the staining of the decks before final weathering.  I can't find my calligraphy inks so I'll have to head out to Pearl Paint this weekend and buy some more.  I'm debating replacing the plastic brakewheel with a brass one.  I'll add an ACI plate after the car is weathered.

[nscalemike]

Mid-week entry of Kato's City of Los Angeles for fun...



-j

I thought the prototype photos were supposed to go in a different section!!!  That is some outstanding modeling and equally impressive photo shooting!

Also, Looks like I joined railwire a little too late, those wood decks you guys are showing off adds a real nice touch!

Again, great work everyone.