CN Yellowhead Division

[garethashenden]

What's that step doing?

[Scottl]

The Jasper yard will be laid out directly on plywood as it is a flat area (with roadbed, of course).  The rest of the layout requires scenery below track level so I have a 2" offset in the benchwork to build up the track level with 2" foam and have lower areas for water and underpasses.  I have a lot of foam board (2, 3, 4") that a friend in construction gave me, probably twice as much as I'll need.

[Scottl]

The roadbed is down outside of Jasper and I'm doing the foam scenery work first as it is very messy.  Park Gate and Windy point starting to look like something.  Lots of rock castings to install.

[kevlarcat]

Wow you move fast.  Is that foam for the mountains painted grey or it came like that?  I've only seen xps in pink or blue before, is that something special?

[Scottl]

Thanks, I have the time so I am plowing forward.

I had not seen black foam before either but my friend in construction gave it to me.  It is Styrofoam branded and comes in 2, 3 and 4" thicknesses and was intended for putting under sidewalks at a commercial building site.  Otherwise, it is just extruded foam like blue and pink.

[GaryHinshaw]

^^ A master of the landforms! Putting your professional training to good use.   

[Cajonpassfan]

The roadbed is down outside of Jasper and I'm doing the foam scenery work first as it is very messy.  Park Gate and Windy point starting to look like something.  Lots of rock castings to install.

Great progress! What do you do to slice and dice?
Thanks, Otto

[Scottl]

Thanks both!  This foam was thicker than I had used in the past so I it required different tools.  I used an old hand wood saw to grossly cut and shape it, and I recently purchased an oscillating saw for finer work and shaping.  The latter is a great tool for foam (and many household chores!) but all of them produce a lot of foam debris and "saw dust".

Now that the bulk contours are done, I'm turning my attention to track laying.

[GaryHinshaw]

If you still have any foam cutting to do, get yourself some of these blades.  Beautiful cuts with zero dust:

https://www.festoolcanada.com/accessory/204345---s-155w3#Overview

[Scottl]

Those look great.   I still have lots to do so I will pick some up to try.  Thanks!

[Scottl]

Track is going down nicely.  I'm about half way through laying the Jasper yard and moved on to the rest of the layout.  I like using one half of the HO WS roadbed for mainline track, it is the right width and goes a lot further with a package than the N scale version.

[basementcalling]

I really like that you have a realistic slope above the tracks, and enough vertical clearance to let the hillside rise to height in a prototypical looking fashion. I'm not sure if you'd stuck with the double deck idea the roughed in scenes would look so good because of the artificial ceiling the second deck puts on mountain scenes.

[mark.hinds]

That looks promising.  One advantage of the black foam is it gives you some preliminary scenery (more so than pink...). 

[Scottl]

I really like that you have a realistic slope above the tracks, and enough vertical clearance to let the hillside rise to height in a prototypical looking fashion. I'm not sure if you'd stuck with the double deck idea the roughed in scenes would look so good because of the artificial ceiling the second deck puts on mountain scenes.

Thanks, I went with the single deck, in large measure due to the vertical limits a second deck would have imposed.  I also have a nice space below this layout to tinker with other ideas like a On30 layout when I feel the urge.

[basementcalling]

Thanks, I went with the single deck, in large measure due to the vertical limits a second deck would have imposed.  I also have a nice space below this layout to tinker with other ideas like a On30 layout when I feel the urge.

NOOOOOOOOOO. DO NOT be like @Ed Kapuscinski. He barely resisted that Kryptonite.