The original Boston Line BACK on track!

[Ian MacMillan]

I'm doing black ceiling,  black carpet and black skirting on mine. Really helps create that museum / shadow box look.

[tappertrainman]

Yeah I bought dark green carpet once and now have to vac once every few days 

If the room is dark enough, who can see dirt on the carpet?   

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I'm not really worried about the room becoming too dark. It will have a massive amount of lighting - all LED. The space is designed to be easily repurposed as a home theater and gym if we move at some point in the future. I like my moves in the dark, and quite frankly, I much rather exercise in the dark as well.

Any black ceiling in photos can easily be Photo shopped out in post processing.

maybe a medium gray would be a good compromise?

[robwill84]

I've been thinking about this, it really struck me as a weird idea at first. However, as long as you have sufficient lighting, I think it could look really neat. I don't think you should compromise with grey if you decide to do it. Totally black, negative space would be best for really focusing attention on the trains.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Just a quick update. Not much to photograph, but the framing is up and the wires are being strung. I had a talk with the electrician about pre-wiring the valence area. After checking several commercial accent lighting strips, I was not satisfied with the results. Specifically both the Phillips and Ikea systems have major problems producing yellow and orange light (though they do blue and greens well). Since these are the colors I need to emulate sunrise and sunset, the systems just won't work for what I need.

I devised a work around: 4 circuits, one for each color or yellow, orange, white and blue. All of which will be on dimmers. The rest of the room is lit by 10 barrel recessed lights also on a dimmer. The panel will look but ugly, but I will probably add computer/remote control and conceal the switches in a flush mounted panel in the future.

We also took the opportunity to rewire most of the house. The circuit breaker panel was a mess and made no sense. Now rooms are arranged according to location, amperage is clearly marked and all lines have tag-outs. This will help me in the future when I add my own connections. In case you were wondering, this makes EVERY utility updated in the house within the last two years. A huge project, but something that needed to be done.

I will be keeping the color scheme I mentioned earlier. I will probably use a charcoal carpet tile as it will hide some dirt. I feel we have sufficient lighting to make the room usable, and the black will really bring out the layout which is the ONLY thing I want focused on. The F&SM has this style room and it works very well.

There may be a ton of supplies left over so back to Lowes they go. This will help pay for the initial bench work and tools.

[mcjaco]

In case you were wondering, this makes EVERY utility updated in the house within the last two years. A huge project, but something that needed to be done.

I think you and I might be in a contest on which house gets a complete makeover faster.  I've done AC, furnance, water heater, roof, siding, and oven so far.  Electrical needs to be done too.  Still has aluminum mains coming in.   

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I'm really starting to think my house is named Theseus. Almost everything has been replaced at least once! Of all the updates, I really liked the plumbing best. Its just a very good feeling knowing my pipes and sewer no longer leak.

OK now to some photos:

Looking south from back to the front of the house.


You can see the closet and stairs roughed in. The right wall is the only one I kept.


Same vantage point looking west. On the left is the closet, followed by the utility room access door. The door to the exterior on the right wall is also being redone. The Water you see is from a recent storm. We will need to put a rain guard on the chimney.


Northwest corner. This will be a hutch to house the sump-pump, aux pump and backup batteries. This now has its own direct connection to the panel and features its own circuit. Is the panel shorts and blows the main breakers, this will still get power.

[mrhedley]

Months ago I mentioned that I implemented a Miller Eng CITGO Sign.  I finally figured out how to post it.  This is an N-Scale Conrail layout.  "Beacon Park" is in the foreground.

Ah yes, I remember that sign.  It is just about at the 25th mile mark of the Boston marathon.  You can see it for almost two miles ahead, and it's a comforting reminder that the pain will end soon.  Turn right at the sign and on to Beacon Street/Kenmore Square before the final turns onto Boylston for the big finish.  That was a few years ago.  Couldn't get back there now, but I could still tear up a 1/160th version of the course (as long as I remain 1:1 scale that is).  Nice modeling.  I like the 3D background effects.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

A couple of updates.

Tools purchased:
20 gallon, 155 PSI air compressor with garage air line kit and moisture trap. Will be housed in the equipment room with quick connect air lines integrated into empty electrical outlet boxes.
Hand held router, table saw and miter saw. These will be housed in the garage.

Lighting:
I am testing LED rope lights now to see just how much I will need to light the layout. Right now I think I should be OK with 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 orange and two warm white.

Cash:
$4000 on hand for layout build out. This should help me get through benchwork, track and DCC, along with carpet tile. I think decoders alone will be about $2500 for my 180 or so engines. Ugh...

Benchwork: 3' in from the walls and 48-52" high. There will be one peninsula for Framingham yard. I really want to do something special here and standard wood 2x4s just doesn't appeal. I would love to do PVC: light, strong and won't expand. The only problem is finding proper fittings to join sections. Also, attaching the façade would be difficult with tubular supports. Anyone have any good ideas?

DCC and networking:
Still have not decided on a DCC system. I really like ESU equipment, but its hard to get here and expensive. I will not use Digitrax: ergonomic nightmare. NCE might be a choice but I really never liked their throttles. I have not really found a throttle app that I like a phone and tablet. Also trying to get a phone app, JMRI AND a DCC system working together just seems like a giant headache.

[C855B]

First update in a year????!??! Crimeny!    Pics of the finished or nearly-finished space?

For benchwork... try steel studs. I also looked into PVC, but that tubular thing was too difficult to resolve, and pipe sags under its own weight since it's not built to be structural. Here's a good discussion about steel: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=33002.msg390507#msg390507

If it helps, I'll mention again I'm going with Digitrax, JMRI and phone/pad throttles. Digitrax has the most complete "black box" system... just their throttles suck. Getting a JMRI server going is really not difficult... for that matter, it's probably one of the easiest things you can do with JMRI. Versus, say, building a dispatcher panel, where each time I try it after about 30 minutes of futzing with it my eyes have rolled back in my head.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

I use a Digitrax system with a PR3 and JMRI with JMRI Engine Driver on my phone and have had 0 problems. Set it up at home in 15 min. Took my laptop to the club and and set it up there as well and again 0 problems. With engine driver you can have 3 throttle controls set up on a phone. I asked some friends for old cell phones and now i don't need to buy throttles for $150-250 each. Never anything to plug in to acquire a loco. Best set up ever. If you don't like Digitrax and i don't know why you wouldn't it will work with any system just need JMRI.

[peteski]

First update in a year????!??! Crimeny!    Pics of the finished or nearly-finished space?

Not quite - look up at the several earlier posts (with photos) just before yours - they are from October.

[C855B]

My bad. This threw me off from the second post above mine:

Quote from: jbcz on October 08, 2013, 12:23:51 PM

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I use a Digitrax system with a PR3 and JMRI with JMRI Engine Driver on my phone and have had 0 problems. Set it up at home in 15 min. Took my laptop to the club and and set it up there as well and again 0 problems. With engine driver you can have 3 throttle controls set up on a phone. I asked some friends for old cell phones and now i don't need to buy throttles for $150-250 each. Never anything to plug in to acquire a loco. Best set up ever. If you don't like Digitrax and i don't know why you wouldn't it will work with any system just need JMRI.

What are you guys using for the Digitrax based station? Android or iPhone throttles? Thanks for the suggestions!

[C855B]

I'm using an old throwaway MacBook running JMRI with a Digitrax PR3. I've been mostly using WiThrottle on iPhones (two "scrap" iPhones plus my current iPhone 6), but I'm now playing around with Engine Driver on a couple of cheap ($30 on clearance) Android mini-pads. So far I like Engine Driver, and am probably going to pick-up a couple more of the Android pads.