CN Blackwater division

[cnrglen]

Thanks for the input but I already have figured out my ballasting technique. What I was asking about was the ballast itself, which I'm probably going to use.

[cnrglen]

Speaking of ballasting, I ballasted most of the meadows yard this past week:
   

I masked off the roadway, townsite and future oil depot beside the tracks with the paper/ masking tape roll that I used previously.  Then I applied WS fine gray ballast, same as the other yard. The rest was almost the same as Wayne's technique, except that I use diluted Mod-podge instead of white glue.

   

   

The other project I've been working on is the office/garage for my scrap metal dealer. 

   

It's inspired by Bar Mills 'Bulls Salvage' I like the bar mills structure except that it has a strange wrap-around addition on the side/back that doesn't make sense to me. I also would perfer the have garage doors in both the front and back of the garage. I spent a bit of time studying pictures of a few built-up Bulls before drawing the plans for mine. I originally made the garage larger but shrank it back down again.

   

Then I made a mock-up out of cereal cardboard. 

   

This is approximately where it will be placed. there will be a fence around the scrap yard and the track leading into it. I'll probably be getting into scratchbuilding it shortly, but I have a few projects for other model railroaders coming in and they'll be taking priority for the next couple weeks.  
I did make one larger purchase today though:
   

A sneak peak into the upcoming engine facility.

[cnrglen]

I have an open house coming in about a week so I figured I should make the layout a bit more presentable by adding the fascia:
   

I'm using some fine grade 1/4" plywood, cut in 6" widths to do the job. It's fastened with #10 screws with snap button covers for the finished look.

   

I made this drilling jig for predrilling the mounting holes. The left and right holes are for the ends of the panels when they join.

   

And the finished (sort of) product. I'll be adding the Cab bus panels (UPT), throttle holders and maybe some cup holders. 
I'm wondering about the colour. I do like the natural wood but have been toying with painting it either black or Pullman green.

[cnrglen]

Two more things I added to the fascia.

   

I found some wood corner moldings at my local home improvement store. I glued it onto the outside panel only so I can remove the fascia if I have to.

     

and I installed a grab handle on the other side of my duck-under. This way I have a grab to help me (or anyone else) get back up from crawling into the center pit without grabing the scenery on the layout by accident.

The last thing I did, before cleaning and tuning the layout up is add some filler pieces where my girder bridge will go:

   

My plan is to add girder sections right onto the roadbed sides to simulate a ballasted girder bridge. That meant the roadbed side would have to be straight.

[FiatFan]

I would consider staining the wood. A while back I needed a scrap of wood to make a dam to pour some plaster and grabbed a scrap piece of stained wood. Really dressed up the appearance. Then maybe some black fabric to make curtains that cover the area under the layout. Just my thoughts.

Tom

[tompm]

Looking good. I wish my wood working was half as good as what you have done.

[cnrglen]

Getting back to the layout after finishing a few side projects.
   

After completing Schaake's Machine shop, I decided it was time to start figuring out the layout of the town of Blackwater. I pulled all my buildings from my earlier layout and a few others that I collected and started to arrange them. 

   

What I'm thinking of is a main street that parallels the  track and runs past the station. Across from the station is the M. T Arms Hotel with two streets running from the station of either side.
The Hotel is from the previous layout but I cut the original building down width-wise to accommodate it in it's original spot.    I'm planning on replacing it with the same kit, without modifying it.

   

   

The road will run past the corner cafe' with the blue trim, to The Machine shop and to the local Gern plant. The Gern Plant was a modified DPm Scissor's Cutting Co. I have a second kit that I will either add to this one or replace it. 
I was also going to have  the road continue around the back of the Machine shop and cross the track to the other industries but I think I'll make the road access to that area off-layout.

     

The triangular building is a Furniture shop from the previous layout that I scratchbuilt. It looks like it will fit nicely between the two tracks. At the back you can see where I'm halfway through tracklaying the last siding, just need to start spiking some rail.

     

Last thing I've done is to fit the scenery formers to the Narrow gauge section of the layout to bring the edges up to it's track level. this will also form the tunnel that the standard gauge main line will pass through under the HOn3. I'm looking forward to hooking the wiring back up the the logging line soon.

   

[tompm]

Sweet! Looking fine.

[cnrglen]

Thanks Tom.

I finished laying the last section of the city industrial track:

   

It seems as though every time I start handlaying again  I misplace the drill bit that I use to pre-drill the spikes. This time I got a extra bit and left it in the container with the spikes. (I may not be fast but I'm slow)
This was originally going to be a team track but it will be the Gern distributor's track instead. 

      

After that bit of tracklaying, I turned back to the Narrow gauge logging line. With the outside perimeter boards in place, I extended the one track 7" to the edge of the layout. This will give me a it more room as well as an option for extending the layout in the future (every inch counts) I'll be spiking the rail down in the next day or so. After that I plan to add the fascia to the outside so I will be able to mount by control panel the wire the Logging branch back up. When I built this into the previous layout, it was straight DC. I don't find it necessary to wire it into the rest of the layout's DCC system.

   

The last big change this week was the acquisition of a better turntable. I found this on Ebay for 15$. This is a diamond Scale turntable that was salvaged from another modellers layout. It needs a bit of work but structurally and mechanically its an improvement over the Walthers Turntable I bought  a few months ago.

[cnrglen]

I spent the last couple weeks finishing the fascia and wiring in the Narrow gauge section. 

   

I used the same high-grade plywood. The side was a simple rectangle and the rear piece that is partly covering the shelf was reused from the previous layout. 
On the front I had to make the facsia in two parts. The lower strip to match the rest of the fascia, and the upper to cover the scenery former.

   

I had to shim the lower part of the upper fascia to match the lower but it worked out in the end.
After that I started some wiring. I had last added the final siding the the Blackwater industrial park. I then needed to add the feeders to it and another length of track that I had previously forgotten.
   

Wiring with DCC is so easy when compared to DC, as I was soon reminded. Here is was probably only 15 minutes to add the four feeder wires. You can keep your DCC wiring neater as well.

   

On the other hand,  I had to re-wire the small control panel that I had made for the DC branch line. I had originally used single-strand telephone wire to wire the panel and the return terminal block. This time I used some 22 gauge multistrand that's a bit more flexible.
   

Then I installed it back onto the layout. All of these components were removed from the previous layout and boxed up 2 years ago. 

   

Then I routed the wires through and soldered them to the track. 
   

The common return wired were also replaced and routed through another home-made terminal block. The tricky part of this operation is that the narrow gauge is just overhead of the standard gauge mainline (the curved piece of roadbed) I had a hard time routing the wire in a way that it won't drop down and interfere with the track below. That and asking a 6'9"   body the work in a confined space is rather difficult.

     

With that done I added the transformer and walk-around throttle. The transformer is an old Athearn Road-race unit. I has a standard 12 volt output and a 'drag-race' output of 16 volts, with a flip of a switch. I'll probably tape over the switch so there won't be any accidental locomotive drag races!

        

The throttle is an old unit from pacific pike.  It was wired up to a telephone cord with the wall connector so I can remove it quickly. 

   

After that I turned it all on and tested it with my Athearn 'mule' I found that I had to repair some of the track that had gotten knocked out of gauge during the dismantling/storage/ reinstalling process, and I has wired two sidings backwards, both easy fixes.
Next is the spiking of the short extension and maybe starting on the scenery.

[Tyson Rayles]

I need to check in more often, quite a bit of progress since the last time I was here!

[cnrglen]

Thanks Mike.

Just a little bit of progress since the last post. 
   

I finished off the last bit of narrow gauge track and ran the engine over it a number of times. I do think I might CA a tie or some wheel stops to the end here as it's now a 4'4" drop to the floor.

I started to work on the turntable. I need to make and adapter plate to mount the turntable flush with the top of the layout. As it is now the mounting is on the bottom of the turntable's pit. The outside diameter of the pit is 14" so I need a square piece of 1/2" plywood that is 16" square with a 14" hole in the middle. Fortuently I have all the tools I need at work:

   

Our wall/panel saw. I've been using this for a number of layout projects, from some of the benchwork, to the backdrop and the Fascia.

   

After cutting the plate out, we used a small router with a spiro-cutter adapter to cut out the hole. I was going to do it but my over-enthusiastic  co-worker grabbed the project before I could object.
   

   

And the almost finished adapter plate. Just after I finished this, I got a message from the fellow I bought the turntable from. I apparently left an important component of the turntable behind but I don't know what it is. I'll be going to pick it up in the next couple weeks. With my luck it's the original adapter plate from the layout the turntable came off of.

[cnrglen]

The turntable project is delayed for just a bit while I'm waiting to see what I left behind at the sellers place. I should get over there later this week. In the meantime I've been working of some rolling stock projects:
   

Starting from the front I'm working on a Walthers work flat in CN, a Proto2000 gondola in PGE, a front Range boxcar in CN, a Proto2000 50' DD boxcar in CP, an Acurail boxcar in CP, and I believe a branchline 40' boxcar already lettered in CN.

     

And a Branchline 50' boxcar in Grand Trunk.

I'm doing a whole batch because they will almost all be in boxcar red/ Freight car brown and it's easier to paint them all at the same time.

[Amalynn]

This has been a really interesting thread to catch up on. I have been wondering for some time how that style of benchwork is done and then scenery and the like applied. All the handlaid track looks amazing and it’s really cool to see the basics steadily come together. How did those kits turn out for you?

[cnrglen]

Thanks. Sorry I haven't been doing anything with this thread as I've been busy with a free-mo module.
The kits turned out fine, they have their own thread in the HO scale.
I have a couple projects to finish up on before returning to the layout build.