The Trinity Sabine & Gulf RR and the Neches River Lumber Co. is an HO scale layout depicting a typical East Texas lumber mill and short line railroad sometime in the late 1930's, early 1940's or so. The layout will include a lumber mill complex, railroad shops, several support and related industries and a few town buildings. I started planning this thing almost a year ago and began construction about six weeks ago, so we're going to play a little catch up with my posts. First, the layout is constructed in four sections so that if we move, the layout can go with us and not in the dumpster... Second, I can move the wider sections around to make it easier to work on them. So, here is the basic track plan, which of course is subject to change...



The construction of the first two sections are 3/4" foam insulation sheathing on a 1x2 and 1/3 grid framework. I chose not to use plywood decking to keep the weight down. These two sections will be wall mounted on shelf brackets.





I prewired the DCC track power, 12vdc & 16vac accessory power busses.



For time being the sections are resting on top of shelving while I work on them, but they'll eventually be wall mounted on shelf brackets.

If you'd like, you can check out my blog - link in my signature.There's more photos and stuff there.

Your comments and critique are always welcome!
Thanks for looking!

This post will get us up to date. This past week, we began laying some track on the 1st two sections. The trackage is HO standard gauge, most of it handlaid ME c/55 rail on wood and PCB ties. A few stretches will be ME c/55 Flex-Track. The turnouts are all constructed on the workbench with ME c/55 rail, Proto87 frogs, and wood & PCB ties.









Also began building up ground contours with foam. No mountains in East Texas, just easy rolling hills...

Again, thanks for looking! C & C always welcome!

Nice looking trackwork!

I'll second the trackwork comment . A really great start all around. I can't wait to see some trains!

Yes, me three on the trackwork. Its good to see another layout taking off with all the development in front of you ...exciting times.
Without knowing anything about track planning I think you have some great possibilities with the interesting layout you have drawn up.

Jack

Michael, Kevin, Jack, Thanks for looking and commenting!

This week we worked on creating some ground contours for the first section of the layout. As this is an industrial layout, the majority of it will be fairly level, but as the East Texas region is well known for its smooth rolling hills, we wanted to include some. We built the base from two or three layers of foam, cut, carved and sanded into a basic form. We then covered the foam with Fast-n-Final Lightweight Spackling Compound (Lowes). Although a bit messy, its very light, dries quick, and sands well. We also carved out the channel for the creek.

Thanks Folks! Your comments and critique are always welcome!

Been busy the last couple of weeks but managed to get a little done on the first section. Ballasted some track and got some ground cover on the background hills.







We're sort of learning as we go, but still havin' a lot of fun with it!
Thanks for looking and commenting!

Len,

Very nice job so far on the scenery, I like how mych texture there is in the scene. So many people fail to have any depth in the ground cover I like how it looks alive. Sure has a nice ballast line for a logging operation, most of the ones I have seen are happy to have a trickle of dirt down the middle. I have just decided to change my plans around and focus on a smaller railroad wich featrues a variety of mills and interchange with two class ones.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to more of youy work.

Your trackwork looks great. I especially like the uneven tie ends and weathered look.

Great start on the logged-over hillside. Your basic groundcover is nice.

Galen

Greg, Galen - Thanks for the comments!

Got a little more scenery done. Still experimenting and learning...

Piney Creek & trestle...







The green goo in the creek bed is wet ModPodge with some green tint in it. It should clear up a bit when it dries and have a murky greenish look to it. Sort of looks more like West Texas than East TX, but we'll add more ground cover and greenery as we go.

Again, thanks for looking and your comments and critique are always welcome!

Nice job on the creek bed! I like how you disguised the end of it by curving it behind the landscape. A couple of other members here have used the same technique with great success. Your ground cover has some nice depth to it too... something I'm trying to do with my own scenery.

Hey LL, you're making nice progress. I like your benchwork, and the scenery is definitely coming along.

Although I grew up in Humble, Texas, a good portion of my childhood was spent in the Big Thicket and up around Lufkin. An East Texas logging theme is a great one.

To start, your modular construction looks impressively light, well built, and rigid. Easily carried and transportable. All very good qualities. You're brave hand laying code 55. I've heard that even code 70 flex can be challenging to work with. I'll be interested to see how the trains handle it. The layered scenery application looks pretty good so far. Curious to see that water when it's dry too. Thanks for the picture updates.

Tetters, Gary, Mr. Bill, Thanks for the comments!

About the c/55 rail and flex trak - no problems so far just have to make sure the flange ways are clean of any errant ballast. The ME flex-trak seems to be harder to get straight than to curve. I just kept working it into a curve. When the ties start bunching up on the inside of the curve I just clip one out every 5 or 6 ties. The handlaid stuff is actually a little easier to do than the flex-track. I used Pliobond to stick the rail down - no spikes, not yet anyway.

As for the ModPodge water... it doesn't look very encouraging :?

Added more scenery to the creek area this week and re-doing the water in the creek bed. The ModPodge worked OK but I put too much in at one time. This time using thinner layers and let it dry longer. The bare spot on top of the hill will get some trees and some sort of scene.


Again, thanks for looking! Your comments are always welcome!