T-Trak The N scale Pennsy Juniata Division 2.0 - T-TRAK!

[N Scale Train Boy]

A thought on attaching those signs more permanently - maybe countersink some magnets in the fascia and the sign? Same lack of damage if they get knocked off, and easy to reattach them if they do without needing to worry about the state of the tape or paint? You probably even paint the magnets black so if you want to display the module without them, you still have a clean fascia. IDK, never tried anything like that, but it popped into my head and I figured I'd share. They do look phenomenal on there!

[Dave V]

Those signs do look good.
Maybe that double-sided tape could be the "permanent" solution. My train of thought is that since those signs have some thickness, and sit on the surface of the fascia they can be subjected to getting ripped off while handling and transporting the modules.  Well that depends how exactly you do that.  With double-sided tape, even if the sign gets knocked off it can be easily reattached, hopefully with no damage.

Exactly, that's kinda how I'm leaning. The other piece is I'd want them to be at least semi-removable in the event I do more scenery work on the front end so they don't get messed up with running glue.

They're light as a feather, so the double-sided tape seems more than adequate for all but the roughest handling.

A thought on attaching those signs more permanently - maybe countersink some magnets in the fascia and the sign? Same lack of damage if they get knocked off, and easy to reattach them if they do without needing to worry about the state of the tape or paint? You probably even paint the magnets black so if you want to display the module without them, you still have a clean fascia. IDK, never tried anything like that, but it popped into my head and I figured I'd share. They do look phenomenal on there!

That's another great idea! In fact, magnets are how I plan to mount the catenary poles for the Lancaster County end cap for those very reasons.

[arbomambo]

Exactly, that's kinda how I'm leaning. The other piece is I'd want them to be at least semi-removable in the event I do more scenery work on the front end so they don't get messed up with running glue.

They're light as a feather, so the double-sided tape seems more than adequate for all but the roughest handling.

That's another great idea! In fact, magnets are how I plan to mount the catenary poles for the Lancaster County end cap for those very reasons.

Double sided tape is just fine. Adheres very well, and is removable (with care) if you need to do any upkeep on the fascia.
I’ve been using it for over 13 years on my module plaques and no issues at all.

[Chris333]

The trim on the side of your car is held on with double stick tape.

[davefoxx]

The trim on the side of your car is held on with double stick tape.

Nothing that a hair dryer and some dental floss can’t fix. 😉

DFF

[wm3798]

That's another great idea! In fact, magnets are how I plan to mount the catenary poles for the Lancaster County end cap for those very reasons.

That's how I deploy my cat poles when it's Metroliner Night...


To create the base, I simply drive a roofing nail into the scenery.  You can get them down to 7/8" and they have a nice flat head about 3/8" in diameter, so you have a stable, solid and flat mounting point.  Slap a little concrete paint on it, and voila!  Adhere a 1/4" square earth magnet to the base of the pole, and you're set.  When you remove the racks, you're left with a little concrete circle that the eye will interpret as an old footer for some old hardware that's no longer there.



No Ollie.  I said "Cat Pole"  not Polecat!



Lee

[MK]

Tell me that cat didn't cause any damage to the layout?   

[wm3798]

Tell me that cat didn't cause any damage to the layout?   

That was several years ago, and I'm happy to report that I still have both the cat and the layout.  He's much bigger now, and is thus disinclined to leap up to the 42" layout height

Lee

[robert3985]

I used to let my cats into the layout room while I was working/operating on it.  But, I missed one of them (Chessie) one evening, and shut the door behind me as I though they were all out.  She spent the night there, and managed to chew the tops off of about 35 scratch-built UP style wooden and brass telegraph poles I had spent many hours constructing, but she missed two of them and three more were repairable.  However, I never got around to scratch-building any more...but, on THAT day, the door to my layout room was closed and cats were no longer allowed...no matter how loudly they protested and hooked their paws under the door!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Dave V]

I've never had a border collie intrusion onto my layout, nor do I expect to...!

[eja]

There is a reason those wires are called "cat in ary"

[Lemosteam]

All of my structures, Cat poles and watercraft are located and held on with magnets.  Two drywall screws into the foam, and on magnet in each corner of a building.  Makes vacuuming them easier too, just leave a hole or connector for lighting.

The nameplates look great- if you go with magnets, go to Ace and buy a small package of flat glazing points (small, thin triangles) and glue them to the back of the sign.  You could  also attach a fishing line to the back that goes through the fascia so if it does get knocked off, it wont fall into foot traffic or get lost during transport.

[wm3798]

You can tell John used to work for the Department of Redundancy Department!
Lee

[Dave V]

I've been in a mad rush to weather rolling stock prior to this weekend's show, but a clogged airbrush kinda put the brakes on that. I got the airbrush cleaned out and working again, but I'm going to relax a bit on the weathering rush. I also use pan pastels...for example, cement load spills on a red Pennsy covered hopper are easy to do with pan pastels. Subtle is better IMHO.

The other thing I did is try to standardize the coal loads in my hoppers (though that won't be completely done for the RPM either). There's very little that kills realism than a molded plastic coal load. In the past, I've used the @davefoxx black art sand technique, glued directly over the plastic load. It works in N scale, though it's pretty fine even in N. Don't think it'd work in HO. But in N it looks more scale sized (and glistens more) that your typical crushed real coal product from your favorite scenery company. That said, I prefer the Hay Brothers coal loads, and I had replaced more than half of the loads in my hopper fleet back in the old days, so I ordered a ton of Hay Brothers loads for all my new hoppers. In the meantime, the black sand trick will hold down the fort.

I've also started rehabilitating a bunch of Bowser Berwind GLa hoppers I bought from @OldEastRR .

My recent PRR steam locomotive purchases (an M1, a T1, and a K4) all got the black sand coal treatment. I'll weather them another time...I refuse to rush weathering a locomotive.

[Dave V]