Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Layout Construction. Sýna allar færslur
Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Layout Construction. Sýna allar færslur
fimmtudagur, 22. janúar 2015
Rethinking a few things
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| Some things work, others don't about the White River Junction yard. It remains the only layout section that hasn't been rebuilt�yet. (White ruler is for size reference!) |
But I'm not.
I could never actually "over plan" anything - we've all known modelers who are trapped in "analysis paralysis." My approach is a little more "Ready�Fire�.Aim!" but hey, it works for me.
After spending several years and lots of hours building, rebuilding, and rebuilding again I'm finally happy with the "middle" of the railroad - basically the long peninsula down the center of the room.
They say the sure-fire way to tell if something isn't satisfying shows in a distinct lack of progress. And any visitor to the basement can immediately identify where that area is on my layout - the main yard area.
Here's a run down of the issues:
1. The White River Junction station is tucked into a reverse corner - and a portion of the platform is actually poking into the south end staging yard in the utility room.
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| Issue #1 and #2: The position of the WRJ station. Note how the platform canopy actually ends up under the "hole." |
2. The south end staging yard itself - a stub ended yard that juts into the middle of the utility room. It's always in the way. Since it's an unfinished part of the basement where I do a lot of sawing and sanding and the ceiling is unfinished dust and dirt rain down on the track and the equipment in the yard. It drives me nuts. Enough said.
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| Issue #3 and #4: Center of turntable is beyond arm's length in the corner. So operators don't use it since it's hard to see. Also, no room for even a "bas relief" roundhouse. |
4. Because the turntable is shoved in the corner there's little room for a roundhouse or any kind - let alone a decent scale model of one.
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| Issue #5: A little hard to tell here but the north yard throat is confusing to visiting operators - and the guy who built it! |
The next two issues are much more aesthetic/design related than the previous two:
6. To access that staging yard I ended up with a huge slot in the wall - effectively masking and screening it is proving elusive - there's no easy way to hide something so wide. Adding a highway overpass would destroy the composition of the prototype scene. I've tried various ways to "soften" the transition - they work in photos but in person, well, it's tracks going through a hole in the wall.
7. And this is much more aesthetic - there's lots of "countryside" and "small towns" on the layout - what's missing is a city-like element. Something that contrasts with the pastoral nature of much of the rest of the layout.
Not sure I have the solutions to these items worked out in my head quite yet, but I've hired a consultant to provide some professional solutions to these problems. Luckily, as the treasury is plenty bare he works cheap!
Stay tuned.
mánudagur, 20. október 2014
The Layout-At-A-Glance
Prototype: Roxbury Subdivision of Central Vermont Railway
Locale: White River Junction � Richmond, VT (not all towns modeled)
Period: September, 1954
Scale: HO (1:87.1)
Layout Size (roughly): 15 x 48 with a stub ended staging yard in the utility room
Style: Around the walls with center peninsula
Benchwork: Open grid
Roadbed: Cork, trimmed to width of ties
Track: Primarily Micro Engineering Code 70 w/#6 turnouts � with some Peco Code 83 curved turnouts
Mainline Run (approx.): 150' (north staging entrance to south staging entrance)
Maximum Grade: 0%
Minimum Radius: 32� main; 24� industrial sidings
Power & Control:Easy DCC (CVP Products) DCC, manual point-thrown turnouts
Backdrop: Handpainted on drywall (on walls) and 3/16" Masonite on center peninsula
Scenery: Combination of cardboard lattice and plaster cloth or pink foamboard in open areas with Florist foam in heavily wooded areas
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As this blog closes in on 170,000 unique visits I'm amazed that so many are so interested in what I'm doing. I only hope the readers of this blog get some inspiration and ideas for their own modeling efforts - even in those cases where I provide an example of what NOT to do!
For my part I learn a little about the layout, and some things about myself, from each post I write. Reading through each line in the above offers some interesting insights hidden just behind the rather terse descriptions.
For example, when I started building this layout I thought I would handlay most of the turnouts - over time I've found I prefer using prefab track wherever possible. I have some handlaid turnouts and they work fine, but I don't relish the thought of handlaying turnouts, so I don't do it. At this point I think there's two or three handlaid turnouts on the layout - all in White River Junction.
I also find it's easy enough to transition from code 70 to code 83 that I've been happy with installing Peco code 83 turnouts where needed to match the track geometry. When I started I was hung up on having everything code 70 since it "matched" - some paint and ballast and I find I have to look for the transitions between the various rail sizes to find them.
Writing the "Scenery" description was the most telling - I use any of several scenery methods depending on the scene, the material I have on hand, and what I feel like working with at the time. I'm pretty sold on florist foam for areas that I know will be heavily forested - but otherwise it doesn't matter much whether I use plaster cloth or pink foamboard. A coat of paint and some ground texture and the results look the same.
This list was prepared strictly for the blog. At this point there's no plans to do a "layout visit" type article on the layout - the layout simply isn't far enough along and, frankly, I'm not sure it would be worthy of such publicity. My efforts on the layout tend to show up from time to time in my Getting Real column in Model Railroad Hobbyist. That seems to be enough exposure. Besides, I'm having too much fun sharing my efforts through this format.
miðvikudagur, 3. september 2014
mánudagur, 14. október 2013
MER Open House and Layout Status Report
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| Running at track speed north of Williams Creek. |
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| Everett in all of its mocked-up glory.... |
Of course, the weeks prior to the convention open houses were spent mostly in the basement getting the layout ready. As anyone who has hd their layout on a tour can attest, often times more progress is made in the month before the open house than the six months before!
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| Current state of the "front door." It's getting there - many structures to scratchbuild. Completing this scene is very high on the agenda for the winter! |
I started with a long list of things I'd like to get done - I'd say I managed to finish about 75% of them. I wanted the trains to run fairly reliably, and for the most part succeeded. For my part I made a real effort to get rid of all the visible foam, plaster and plywood by covering it with a coat of earth-colored latex paint. I also got a fair amount of track painted and ballasted. It's amazing how much those two simple things blended everything on the railroad together.
While I wanted to get the "Foreign road" power we've been operating replaced with CV/SNE/CN etc... power I wasn't quite as successful at that!
We did have issues with some recently ballasted track - and one particularly troublesome set of Proto 2000 FAs. All these issues were fixed "on the fly" during the open house. I'm more than a little thrilled to report that we had zero issues with the wireless throttles over two days of almost constant running.
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| The "back aisle" had been raw plaster, plywood, and pink foam the week before the open house. Some paint, ground foam, and some extra trees made it look presentable if not "Finished." |
My crew (Stic Harris, Jeff McGuirk, Ben Hom, Norm Wolf and Bob Warren) did a great job. My parents manned the upstairs. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I didn't get any photos of people gawking at the layout, but here's a few pictures showing how the railroad looks today.
With the layout up and running it's time to turn my attention to some actual modeling projects. More on those to come in the weeks/months ahead.
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| "Yes, I know the station hangs over the edge of the benchwork!" Don't know how many times I had to say that! One thing we didn't get done was the alterations to the benchwork at Essex Junction that will accommodate the station. |
föstudagur, 26. júlí 2013
Planning the Next Step
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What's next? Seems like I'd get a lot of "bang for the buck" by getting rid of the pink hillside in the distance. View from Williams Creek towards the White River yard leads. |
With the test session out of the way, and the �front door� to the layout looking passable, I�m at a wonderful phase of layout construction � where I can choose to do anything.
I currently have one deadline hanging over my head. The layout will be open for tours and operating sessions during the NMRA MER convention (our local Region) this October. So, I want it to be as presentable as possible for that. I could focus on rolling stock, or scenery, or structures, or further perfections to the operating scheme prior to that weekend. But I can�t do all of it at once. I know the old axiom that much of the work on layouts gets done in the name of layout tours. But I don�t want to enter the �model railroad season� of the fall burned out! Nor do I particularly want to rush anything just to get �something� in place for the convention tours. I�d rather showcase my best work, with most of the layout remaining unfinished.
So, I�ve gone back and forth with this for the last couple of weeks � until it hit me. The layout has to be operational for the weekend in October. That�s still more than 10 weeks away.
A logical approach is to work on the layout until Labor Day weekend finishing up another structure or two, or getting the �basic� scenery installed around the White River yard lead area so photos taken of Williams Creek or Everett don�t show a ridge of pink foam mountains! (see photo above) I also plan to have at least one more work session before Labor Day.
But I need to leave myself time to tweak the layout. After Labor Day I plan to spend a week or two of evenings getting the railroad ready to operate and show off � clearing out the layout room, cleaning track, staging trains, checking decoders and the like. Then I�ll host another Sea Trial session in late September that will give me time to address any issues we uncover in plenty of time for the convention op session.
If the layout doesn�t need a lot of tweaking I can spend the my modeling time prior to the convention on the rolling stock. Frankly, I�m sick of the assortment of WM, C&O and Erie lettered locomotives we�ve been running � I�d like a lot more Central Vermont and Southern New England power on the layout! But the last four years have been spent building, and rebuilding the layout � with little or no time for locomotives and cars. It�s time to address that � but first one more big push to dress up a little more of the layout.
þriðjudagur, 11. desember 2012
Let There Be (more) Light!
Quick work session this evening. Pete, Mat and Tom stopped by to help finish hanging the additional lights on the ceiling above the peninsula. Here's Pete and Tom peeking out over the backdrop!
We added three more four-foot light fixtures to the center of the peninsula - the difference was immediately noticeable. Next project for the lighting crew is to install extra lighting over the White River Junction yard. While the light installation was ongoing, Mat soldered the feeders to the rails in Essex Junction. Here's Mat working on the north end of Essex Junction yard.
I went back and added the buss wire to the underside of the layout after everyone left.
After a lot of distractions over the past few weeks things are starting to get done!
Read More..
We added three more four-foot light fixtures to the center of the peninsula - the difference was immediately noticeable. Next project for the lighting crew is to install extra lighting over the White River Junction yard. While the light installation was ongoing, Mat soldered the feeders to the rails in Essex Junction. Here's Mat working on the north end of Essex Junction yard.
After a lot of distractions over the past few weeks things are starting to get done!
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