WOOHOO! Good weather = time to build

[jglfan]

Wow, I never thought I'd see someone else use plywood for a building core, pretty handy, heh? Nice job with it too!

[Gary S]

Thanks JGL, I do like using wood as the core.

Had some visitors yesterday, Tom from the LHS and some of his buddies stopped by. They are accomplished modelers themselves, one of them has an 1100 square foot area with a layout. Amazingly, they use electromagnet uncouplers with a time delay circuit similar to mine, so they were familiar with that. They jumped right in, ran some trains, and I enjoyed their company, and apparently they liked what I have so far.

   

[Russ Bellinis]

Nice Gary! Whats not to like? Your railroad features what most model railroad operators like to do without needing to worry about blocking the mainline and stabbing an express or passenger train.

[faraway]

The size and the open space is very impressive. It is especially impressive because you are not going to fill it up with tracks.
One question, do you expect no problems handling trains (coupling etc.) close to the wall at the left side (in front of the gentleman in the blue coat)? The layout is exceptional wide to be handled from one side only.

[Gary S]

Hey Reinhard, theoretically, the only place that trains will be handled is at the interchanges between operating sessions. All uncoupling will be done with magnets and will work perfectly, there will be no derailments, no unwanted uncouplings, and the locos will never stall. 8-)

At the front left of the photo, the layout is 30 inches wide. Back where the gentlemen is standing on the left is 24" wide. The shelves are quite high, 58 inches, which does affect the reach distance. Since I am 76 inches tall with a wing span of around 80 inches, I can still reach the back of the shelves. Whenever I am working on the layout, I'll typically be standing on one of those "step stool" two rung ladder things.

[tetters]

Looks like the boys were quite happy/impressed with your work and progress. Then again who in their right mind wouldn't be?

[mountaingoatgreg]

Gary,
You should not be so cheap and pay for heat...all those guys still have their coats on!!!

I am glad you were able to have some people come over and play with trains!!! I hope one day I will be able to come and run some trains on your pike.
HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[Gary S]

Tetters, thank you!

Greg, believe it or not, I was in shorts and a T-shirt. It was actually very comfortable in the room without the heat on, and I do remember thinking about that very thing, why they didn't take their coats off. It was rainy and nasty outside, I suppose they were so engrossed in the layout and trains that they didn't have time to take off their jackets.

I would really enjoy a visit from you, so anytime you are ever down this way, you let me know. Also, bring Tetters with you!

Over the past few weeks, have been thinking about the backdrop, and of course, when you are involved in the conversation, backdrops just pop into my head. I ran across an article in an old MR that showed how to take slides and project them on the wall to sketch the trees and buildings and such, then it went into some detail how to do the paint. I am thinking that I can borrow a multi-media projector from work, and with a laptop, project beckground images on the walls and go from that. I'll use photos taken around the industrial areas here in Houston.

[nachoman]

Over the past few weeks, have been thinking about the backdrop, and of course, when you are involved in the conversation, backdrops just pop into my head. I ran across an article in an old MR that showed how to take slides and project them on the wall to sketch the trees and buildings and such, then it went into some detail how to do the paint. I am thinking that I can borrow a multi-media projector from work, and with a laptop, project beckground images on the walls and go from that. I'll use photos taken around the industrial areas here in Houston.

I saw a projector at an office supply store - Christmas special - less than 100 bucks (!!!). I'm always amazed at the way the price of technology drops about 50% every year.

[faraway]

Gary, I hope you have build your southern Texas model railroad building to cope with the weather expected next week?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metr...65898.html

[e-paw]

Looks great Gary. Seams like you had a lot of fun, Congrats to you on the Layout, Your craftsmanship really shows.

[Gary S]

Hey Reinhard, looks like we are in for some very cold weather for a few days. Not to worry, the walls and attic are well insulated. May need to run the heater a bit though.

E-paw, thanks for the compliments. I need to get back to work out there, I got involved in the SLC refrigerator cars project and have been engrossed in that.

[Gary S]

Although I haven't been posting much on Big Blue, I have been getting a bit of time in on the layout. Moved some of the shelves around as follows:

   

   

   

Wanted to get a bit more distance between the industrial areas, just so they would feel like two distinct areas. It wasn't too hard to do this, and I already have all the track and wiring and turn-outs and magnets redone, and ran trains for a few hours last week.

[doctorwayne]

Never mind just "parting the waters", eh? Just move 'em. I guess you were pleased to find that you'd created a modular layout, even though it wasn't built as such.

While you've lost the continuity of the prototype's consecutive bridges, I think that the change is a good one and accomplishes your objective.

For anyone contemplating changes to their layout, this is a good demonstration that "just doing it" doesn't have to be something to be feared.

Wayne

[Gary S]

Hey docWayne... on the prototype, these two bridges are actually a couple miles apart, and the Hobby Industrial Park is located between them. So, moving the bridge actually made the layout more like the real thing, and was one of the reasons I decided to make the change. Gotta admit that the way the shelf layout is built made it real easy to make the change. Of course, I did have to redo some of the conduit underneath, and I had to add another j-box in the area where the track bus comes out of the wall.

On another note, the reason I call this industrial district "Hobby" is because it is right beside "William P. Hobby" Airport, which is one of the two major airports in Houston. Willian Hobby was the governor of Texas back in the the early 1920s.