Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - Printable Version

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Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 01-05-2010

Did a quick and dirty mini-test with a 4" piece of track. Didn't have any black tile grout in the house, but had some gray wood putty (the stuff you use to repair screw holes in a normal wooden wall before sanding and repainting).

So I put a little on a piece of foam and then pressed the ties down into it, and used my finger to add a little smeared over the ties (but not completely covering them).

Consistency wise it looks fairly earth-like, but the color of course is fairly light - it would need to be mixed with a little paint before application to give a darker earth color:

[Image: earth.jpg]

Not so sure I would want this stuff anywhere near the moving parts of a turnout, though.

How did your test go, Tetters ?

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - tetters - 01-05-2010

steinjr Wrote:...How did your test go, Tetters ?

Smile,
Stein

Heh...not quite there yet. :? :oops:

I was planning on picking up some charcol or black grout this weekend and trying something out. Try some samples and mixtures, only grout, half grout half Woodland Scenics cinders, and something, something else... Big Grin . I know part of the issue of mixing the grout with other mediums is that you loose the adhesive properties of the grout, however I was going to ballast any mixtures as I would regular ballast anyway so, we will see how it goes.

I have been primarily focused on getting my own track work down before anything else. However, I am getting close to the ballasting stage. I will see what I can up with in the days ahead.

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - CAR_FLOATER - 01-05-2010

Regarding ballast tests - I'll take some photos tonight when I get home of what I have down using the grout.

BTW, you do know that Woodland Scenics ballast isn't really rock, right? it's ground up Walnut shell, which is why I am told it is hard to deal with when applying the old glue and water adhesive method. I would suggest a company like Smith and Sons (there are many others) who use real rock in their product.

*** UPDATE - Found some photos of my previous ballast experiments here on my work computer. I posted them in my layout thread at - <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2277&p=37578#p37578">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2277&p=37578#p37578</a><!-- l --> ***


RAH

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - doctorwayne - 01-05-2010

While I knew that it wasn't really rock, I've had no issues with the WS ballast when using the white glue and water method for bonded ballast. Wink

Wayne

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - tetters - 01-05-2010

doctorwayne Wrote:While I knew that it wasn't really rock, I've had no issues with the WS ballast when using the white glue and water method for bonded ballast. Wink

Wayne

The doctorwayne method of ballasting is utterly foolproof. I'm convinced his tutorial saved me a ton a heart ache. The key is to mist your ballast first by pointing your spray bottle of water and whetting agent (dish soap or alcohol) straight up into the air and letting it fall like rain onto the dry ballast until its damp. Then you can thoroughly whet it without fear of little bits of ballast chunks flying everywhere. Thumbsup

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - CAR_FLOATER - 01-05-2010

True enough guys...I guess my biggest beef with Woodland Scenics ballast (though I don't think I have ever used it personally, come to think of it!), is that once I saw the WS stuff up against the real rock product at an NMRA clinic, I was convinced to never use WS product.....Though I certainly do like their ground cover! (But that's another topic, ins't it now?!)

RAH

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - doctorwayne - 01-05-2010

Speaking of the WS ballast, I prefer the appearance of their "coarse" grade - trouble is, for HO scale it's football-sized. Eek I have used it as "fill" at the lower extremities of the ballast shoulders, though. WS is the only brand that my LHS stocks, and I hesitated to try something different without actually seeing it firsthand. As for the WS ground cover, I wish that they'd come out with some blue/grey colours for use as distant foliage - it would save having to airbrush to get that effect.

Shane, thanks for the (unsolicited) testimonial. Wink Goldth

Wayne

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 01-16-2010

Finally the cold snap is over. We have had it pretty cold for a couple of weeks, making it too cold to work in my layout room. Not anywhere near freezing, but just too cold to keep the room at a temperature where it was comfortable working down there.

I've started cutting tracks to size for the warehouse district. After I took some pictures and looked at them, I decided that I needed to squeeze in one more track between the warehouses and the main - moving the warehouses a little closer to the wall.

This is how my initial plan looked on the table:

[Image: DSCN6120.jpg]

After adding an extra track here, the track plan looks like this:

[Image: warehouse66d.jpg]

I also had second thoughts about that team track - I may put a low warehouse there, since I have the one I originally intended for the barge terminal available.

Testing, it looks like this looking right along the warehouse district:
[Image: DSCN6147.jpg]

Looking left:
[Image: DSCN6140.jpg]

I'll try to get back to wiring tomorrow, after we are done with our monthly scouting expedition (my kids are both scouts, and I go along as one of the adults).

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - foulrift - 01-17-2010

Looking good Stein.When I ballasted my layout,I first used a mixture of WS medium and fine ballast.I think it was a 70% to 30% mix.Once I had done all the track I went back over the areas that I wanted to show dirt between the rails and used WS fine cinders.I was happy with the result. I also added some weeds between the rails.
Keep up the good work.
Bob

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 01-31-2010

Typical - it took me 14 days to get back to what I had thought I would do "tomorrow" on the 16th.

Anyways - I finally got the main line around the room wired up and got to run a "small" test train. Well, small is a relative term - my RS-3 pulls pretty good, so in the end I hooked up fourteen 40-foot boxcars and ran it up and down the main, both pulling and pushing the cars up and down the inclines around the curves at the upper left hand corner and lower right hand corner by the door.

Seems to work okay. I then let my youngest kid do a round, before he backed the car into the warehouse district, and conductor dad went back to uncouple the rearmost three cars and signal for him to pull forward again. Worked like a charm.

Here is a picture of the first train on the rebuilt layout on it's way up the curve and over the cassette across the door opening.

[Image: DSCN6165.jpg]

I have to tell you that it felt pretty good to run a train again. Next step - more wiring, both in the warehouse district and at the barge terminal.

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - faraway - 01-31-2010

steinjr Wrote:...I finally got the main line around the room wired up and got to run a "small" test train....
Congratulation Cheers

That is usually the point when my "construction performance" drops but I have a good "play time" daily Big Grin

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 01-31-2010

faraway Wrote:
steinjr Wrote:...I finally got the main line around the room wired up and got to run a "small" test train....
Congratulation Cheers

Thank you! Cheers

Quote:That is usually the point when my "construction performance" drops but I have a good "play time" daily Big Grin

Good thing my construction speed is already so slow that nobody would notice if it slowed down even more, eh ? : Icon_lol

Grin,
Stein, who had to sneak down and do a few more rounds on the layout ....

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - Ralph - 01-31-2010

That's a milestone as you know Stein! Smile Nice to get things running isn't it? Looking forward to more!
Ralph

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - doctorwayne - 01-31-2010

Congratulations on getting to the "let's run trains" stage, Stein. 1990_dancing
I think that it's probably just as well that it slows construction, as it gives you time to see if it works the same way in reality as it did on paper, and gives you the opportunity to fine-tune anything that requires it.

Wayne

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 02-14-2010

Finally got a little more work done on the layout. Got some more track wired up. In the process I mucked about a little more with the plan. I decided that I wanted to use those two tracks closest to the bottom wall for hidden staging after all. So I needed some yard tracks - back to the three track small yard along the aisle along the upper wall.

I might change my mind yet another time about the crossovers to the warehouses along the upper wall - I thought I had made up my mind, but I keep looking at it and wondering whether to make changes so two of the industries are on a switchback after all. I'll have to play more with those tracks before I caulk them down and call it good enough for now.

Current plan (warehouse 66h):
[Image: warehouse66h.jpg]

Barge terminal scene, with tank car track, dock track (with mockup of grain unloading shed), and crane track:
[Image: DSCN6193.jpg]

I need to add some feeders to the tracks in this scene to test run it.

Here is the yard tracks by the warehouse district:
[Image: DSCN6192.jpg]

The yard tracks and the double ended siding are now wired up and works.

Smile,
Stein