La Mirada, CA Industrial Switching Layout Progress

[Trucklover]

Hi guys, this will be the thread where I post my progress of building the small HO Scale switching layout i have been planning. It consists of 6 modules (each numbered in the attached trackplan), which their dimensions are as follows:

Module #1 is 78" L x 24" W
Module #2 is 45" L x 24" W and is at a 45 degree angle
Module #3 is 96" L x 24" W
Module #4 is 96" L x 24" W
Module #5 is 96" L x 24" W and is at a 45 degree angle
Module #6 is 82" L x 24" W

All track is Central Valley Tie Strips with Micro Engineering Code 83 Rail. Turnouts are Walthers Code 83 #6, #4 WYE's, #6 3-Way Turnout, #6 Double-Slip & Atlas Code 83 12.5 Degree Crossing. Minimum Radius is 24" throughout the plan

**The top Orange rectangles that cross the Blue Rectangle on Module #3 are bridges. The Blue Rectangle is the Drainage Ditch. The Top Orange Rectangle will be one of the BLMA Concrete Segmental Bridges, the bottom Orange Rectangle a Plate Girder Bridge.
**All other Orange boxes are Buildings (each building has the company that occupies the building in or next to it)
**Red Lines are the BNSF Mainline. There are 2 Mainlines that run through, I have only included one. The mainline will be Concrete Ties.
**Yellow Tracks are La Mirada Yard Tracks. The real yard has 8 tracks, mine has 5
**White Tracks are Run-Around's
**Blue Tracks are Yard Leads or other Leads for Switching
**Purple Tracks are the loco/caboose track


Industries

Ill start explaining the industries from far left to right.

Majestic Management is a company that does not see Rail Traffic. The siding next to the building will be used to store loaded hoppers for Spartech Plastics
Spartech Plastics is a company with 2 unload tracks. Each track will hold one hopper. This industry will have to be switched often pulling empties out then pushing loaded hoppers from the storage track in.
Complete Environmental Products is an industry that no longer receives rail traffic. The switch is partially torn out, which will make for a fantastic detail i think!
US Gypsum receives boxcar loads and has a large concrete loading dock. 2 Boxcars at a time can be spotted here.
Pactiv Advanced Packaging Solutions is another Plastics company. There are several boarded up cargo doors along the back of the building, and I believe they only receive hopper cars down at the other end of the building, which will not be modeled. The 3 storage tanks will be built but again, they are no longer used. Exterior Piping and boarded cargo doors will be modeled on this one.
Airgas is a company that spots tank cars. 3 Cars can be spotted here at a time.
Latex International does not receive any rail traffic
The Small Square Building next to the end of the Purple Tracks is the yard office
Rohm & Haas Co. is the long skinny rectangle next to Weber Distribution. The long skinny rectangle is a tank car unloading platform.
Weber Distribution can spot several boxcars cars at a time
Tropical Asphalt can spot several shorty 2-bay Covered Hoppers at a time.
Montebello Container Corporation can spot 4-5 boxcars at a time. The second Montebello building which is located directly across from Georgia Pacific can spot 3-4 boxcars at a time.
Gesma Enterprises is a industries that spots tank cars. 1-2 tank cars can be spotted here behind the boxcars for Montebello, which is how it is laid out on the prototype.
Italcal Trading does not receive any rail traffic
Leader Automotive Inc can spot 2 boxcars at a time
Georgia Pacific can spot several cars at a time on the track nearest the building. The second track nearest the building is used as a storage track for additional loaded boxcars that are switched in when the needed.
Estenson Logistic LLC can spot several cars at a time. This industry spots cars rather oddly, and each car much be spotted exactly. There is space between each boxcar spotted, so the cars must be tied down individually, which will make for some interesting details.

In my next post I will post the start of Module #4, which is the module I have chosen to start with

[Trucklover]

Its not much to show, but you get the idea lol

I used the all of the remaining Central Valley Tie Strips I had laying around. I will have to order some more of them. But I did have enough to get the right side of the yard laid out. The BNSF Mainline will run along the back, and will be up on roadbed so it will be slightly raised from the rest of the yard. The bottom track in the picture is the siding for Estenson Logistic LLC. The second track from the bottom is the yard lead (which is the blue track on the plan just above Estenson). This track was stopped short, and where it ends the first turnout will be placed.

Ill be ordering the turnouts as well as some more Central Valley Tie Strips and the Concrete Flextrack for the BNSF Mainline i need for module #4 tomorrow, and they should be in sometime next week.

[foulrift]

Nice job Josh.I like it a lot.Can't wait to see more.
Check your PM's.
Bob

[ocalicreek]

YES YES YES!!!

Looking forward to more!

Galen

[cnw1961]

Josh, it is great to see you really start to build your modules ... well, to be honest, after seeing all these fantastic track plans for different layouts you came up with, I almost thought this would never happen . I will eagerly watch you progress, my friend!

[Trucklover]

Thanks guys!!

Kurt, now perhaps you could help me out a little here. What do you use for your freight doors when building your structures? Im going to need a bunch of them, and for the most part from what I can see using Bing, most of the freight doors on the structures appear to be just standard roll-ups... Wondering what manufactures doors you use?

[Justinmiller171]

I'm pretty sure he used corrugated styrene sheets like this one: http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/product_p/pls-91509.htm

[Trucklover]

ahhhh ha! Thanks Justin, you are right

Kurt, another question for ya. I want to make some of the structures out of Hydrocal just as you did for a couple of yours. I think this would be the best and easiest way to go for some of the structures I need to make for this switching layout. I got this from page 1 of your thread:

To make it cheap and easy, I used styrene to make the molds. Before I poured hydrocal into the molds, I applied vaseline to the molds with a stiff paintbrush. It was no problem then to remove the castings from the mold.



The next picture shows three of the castings I made the big structure of.

Now when you did your plastic mold, did you start with one sheet and then just stack sheets on top of each other to get the raised features? How about the dock door? Did you make a box and then glue it to the sheet? What size styrene would you recommend that I make my mold out of? Would Woodland Scenics Lightweight Hydrocal work for casting?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is the first time ive ever attempted to make anything from hyrdocal lol

This is the first structure I am going to make. Its kinda hard to see, but this structure has the same vertical sections that stick out from the rest of the structure just a little bit

[cnw1961]

Josh, Justin is right. I am using corrugated styrene for my roll-up doors. You should have a close look at the corrugated styrene sheets. The both sides of the sheets I am using are different and the"backside" looks more like a rolling door than the "front".

To build some of my structures from Hydrocal was an interesting experience and the results are really convincing. They do look better than styrene structures, but Hyrocal structures take a lot more time to build.

Now when you did your plastic mold, did you start with one sheet and then just stack sheets on top of each other to get the raised features?

Yep, that is exactly how I did it and I also used this method to do the doors. As far as I can remember I used .040" and .060" sheets to make the molds. Better make some small castings and put them together than making one big casting. The wall sections in the pic from my thread are about 6" long and they were easy to work with. For my second Hydrocal structure I made a 1' long casting and that caused some trouble. The casting will bend upwards in the middle when it is drying. I had to break the long casting into three pieces and put them together again to get a straight wall section. You can put some heavy weights on your molds to prevent that, but I think it is easier to make smaller castings. 5 minute epoxy works perfectly to put castings together or to glue castings to a cardboard sub-structure. White glue works as well, but it takes much longer. The nice thing about working with Hydrocal is that you can always use plaster to hide joints, make windows fit perfectly or just to hide flaws.

Would Woodland Scenics Lightweight Hydrocal work for casting?

That is what I used. On the box it says that you should mix 2 1/2 parts Hydrocal with 1 part water – well, that did not work for me. The castings I did with this mixture were all very hard at the front (the bottom of the mold), almost like ceramics, and so soft at the back that it was impossible to glue them to cardboard. Air bubbles were another big problem. When I changed the mixture to 3 parts Hydrocal and 1 part water, these problems did not occur, but you have to work this thicker mixture into the mold using a stiff paintbrush.

I am not sure if building Hydrocal structures is the way for you to go. They do look fantastic, that is for sure, but they are definitely not the best and absolutely not the easiest way to go. If you want to get some good result quick and easy, use styrene. It is cheap, it is very easy to work with and you get good results in no time.

Another thing you should bear in mind is that you are building modules and not a permanent layout. Styrene structures weigh much less than Hydrocal structures and they are much easier to handle, as Hydrocal breakes easily.

[Trucklover]

Thanks for the reply Kurt. You raised a good point about the downside of Hydrocal structures, there fragile and heavy.

One thing I wanted to do with these modules is remove the structures when moving them around in order to make them lighter and so I didnt have to keep them upright. So this means that the Hydrocal structures will have to be removed and set aside.

What if I lined the back of the structure with Styrene for added stability? I really would like to do Hyrdocal Structures, at least for a few of them because they do look so great!

One more question for you Kurt, the corrugated siding, is the one you used the one that Justin posted a link to?

[Russ Bellinis]

Josh, don't use hydrocal, a 98# bag of hydro-stone will cost $31.80 from Aardvark clay & supply. Hydrocal is rated at 4500psi, they have a product called Ultracal that has a dry compressive strength of 6000 psi. They don't list the spec on Hydro-Stone, but Ive seen the spec sheet in the store and it is rated at 10,000 psi dry compressive strength. Any of them will shatter if dropped, but the Hydro-stone costs about $3.00-$5.00 more than the other products for a 98 lb bag, but it is twice as strong as hydrocal. To reinforce you walls, do it in two pours. Get some window screen material from Home Depot or Lowes. Cut it to fit about 1 inch shorter than your walls in all directions. Pour your mold about 1/2 full, and then let is just start to set up a little, then lay the screen material on top of the plaster. Mix a fresh batch of plaster and pour your molds the rest of the way full. The window screen will act like rebar in a concrete structure.

Their web site is <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.aardvarkclay.com/">http://www.aardvarkclay.com/</a><!-- m --> They are located on Pamona Ave just south of Edinger East of the 55 freeway between the 5 and the 405 in Santa Ana. I think the hydro-tone comes in a 98 lb bag which should be enough to last you a life time. I don't know what Woodland Scenics charges for their light weight Hydrocal, but I suspect it is probably $10.00-$12.00 for 3-5 lbs.

[Trucklover]

Not a bad price for a 98 pound bag of material! Im in that area quite a bit with my grandfather, ill have to swing by and get a bag of the stuff. Thanks!!

BTW, your idea of laying screen in the middle of the mold is brilliant and I would have never thought of that! But you are right, the screen will act like re-bar

Ive ordered some styrene and when it comes in ill make a mold for this first building and see how it goes

[cnw1961]

Josh, I don’t know what brand my corrugated styrene is. I don’t order it online, I get it at an architectural model supply here. But I guess this stuff is all the same, no matter where you get it from.

Russ had some good points there. WS Hydrocal is expensive and there are lots of suppliers that offer casting plaster that is better and cheaper. Next time I won’t use WS Hydrocal, I found a better source myself. To lay screen in the middle of the molds is another good adice. It will make the castings much stronger. Though it is not necessary if you build your structures like I built mine. I built a sub-structure from .120" cardboard and glued the castings to it. Makes assembling a structure much easier, especailly if you are putting long walls together from several castings. Structures built this way are quite sturdy, a real advantage if you have to move them often. You still have to be careful not to hit anything with your structure when moving it around. It is esay to damage hydrocal especially at the corners of the structure.

Here is an article you may find interesting. It shows a different approach to making molds. http://trainweb.org/crocon/pcoquet/scrat...ticle.html

[Drew]

This looks like the begining of another great project Josh!

Can't wait to follow your progress on this!

[Brakie]

Nice job making the building..

As featureless as those buildings are they are a very important part of a modern ISL.