Basic Benchwork Nearing Completion

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The benchwork on the new layout is progressing quite nicely.  All five of the major sections have been completed.  Next I will be connecting a couple of the major sections with shorter “bridge” pieces, including the swing (or drop) section across the room’s doorway.  I also have to put in a number of angled pieces at intersections of the major sections, and I want to put in some reinforcement material in key places.

The framework is quite strong and is very light.  In fact, it is so light that it is easy to move by bumping into it.  I hope the added mass and weight of the (future) joists, risers, roadbed and scenery is enough to anchor the whole thing down.  The legs aren’t secured to the floor as I don’t want to drill holes through the carpet into the concrete.  I will be depending solely on layout weight to keep it in place.

I could probably wrap things up in about two weekends, however next weekend will be cut short while I take a break to do some railroading over at Lou Schultz’s C&O layout.  I’m looking forward to the operating session.  I also want to do one more evaluation of the roadbed elevations (heights above the floor) of his layout while there.  I’ve tentatively set the various elevations of my roadbed based on my experiences operating at Lou’s.  This will be my last chance to confirm my comfort with these elevations since my roadbed will likely start going in sometime in September.

The startling revelation has hit me recently that I need to start working on much more than the layout structure itself.  I have an entire fleet of locomotives that need to be cleaned, adjusted, lubed and have DCC decoders installed.  And only about 15% of my car fleet is assembled and ready.  Only one structure that I plan to use is ready, and that is a mere shack.  So much to do!

But the layout, after years and years of delay, is finally under construction.  And that is good and I am pleased!

-Jack

Some Thoughts About Roadbed

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As the basic frame of the benchwork progresses, my thoughts are turning to the next step which is the track structure: sub-roadbed and support risers, and the roadbed itself.  For the sub-roadbed, I plan to use a mixture of flat plywood (some of which will be installed “cookie cutter” fashion) and Masonite splines.  All will be topped by Homasote roadbed.  I’ve used Homasote for many years and I’ve always had good results with it.  I have a single sheet and also plenty of scraps from my old layout that will get used, but plenty more will be needed.  A friend has several sheets that didn’t get used on his present layout that he’s willing to let go, and the last time I checked, there was a lumber yard about 60 miles from me that stocked it.  Hopefully they still do.

The two major complaints that I’ve read about Homasote over the years are expansion/contraction from the humidity, and the dust generated when cutting it.  I’ve never had significant problems with it in the former even though I don’t bother to seal it.  As for the latter, I have never let the dust deter me.  I just vacuum the area immediately after cutting to minimize the mess.  I’ll try to do major cutting outdoors and I’m also going to try using the knife type sabre saw blades if I can ever find them.  I’m told that they greatly reduce the dust produced, although they cut a good bit slower.

On my former layout, after the track was down, I had gone back with a router and cut bevels on each side, creating the ballast shoulders.  I did the cuts freehand and they came out rather well, but the process was slow and tedious.  I’ve read an article from a fellow that makes his own Homabed (a commercial Homasote roadbed that has been planed down for consistent thickness, and has beveled edges) and I’ve thought about trying to produce some small amount of that to see if it’s worth the effort.  The commercial Homabed is quite expensive and frankly, is out of my budget.

For the yard areas, I’ll just laminate sheets of Homasote to the plywood sub base and the track will not have the ballast slopes.  I want the yard and industrial trackage set in a mixture of ballast and dirt, really buried into the ground.  I can cut some shallow ballast slopes or small ditches along the perimeter of the yard area using my router as I’ve done before.

I’ll post more comments when I get to that step in the work.

-Jack

Benchwork Progress Report

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Just a short post to give y’all an update on the layout.  Benchwork construction has been proceeding nicely.  Three of the five major sections have been completed (photos on the main website for those interested).  The two major sections left are the peninsulas.  There are also numerous corners to “fill out” with angled L-girder supports.

Overall, I’m pleased with the progress thus far.  Once this basic supporting framework is complete, I’ll turn my attention to the roadbed and supports, and of course, the track there upon.  I also have to deal with the bridge issue across the doorway.  Research continues on that project.

-Jack

Roundhouse Doors and Floors

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I enjoy thinking ahead about some of my model railroad projects that will be down the road a bit.  Frequently I try to work out all or most of the details way ahead of the actual construction.  Or sometimes I just think about concepts and mull over different approaches to the project.  And some things, I just think about how I would like it to function or look, but don’t go much further than that.

Recently on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum, there was a bit of discussion concerning roundhouse floors.  While I think most of us assume that their floors are concrete, the prevailing thought in the discussion thread was that back in the steam era, concrete wasn’t the dominant floor type.  Some of the things folks mentioned were dirt and/or cinder floors, brick or stone pavers and large wooden block pieces that were put down with the end grain facing up.  I had not heard of that type floor before.

I’ll have a small roundhouse on the Louisiana Central, and before reading that MRH thread, I just assumed I would be using a concrete floor in it.  But now I’m having second thoughts.  The roundhouse will be located in a small town in southern Mississippi (near the actual town of Gloster).  Any of you “old timers” remember seeing the interior of older roundhouses that were still in service in the 50s and 60s?  I’ve been in several roundhouses and rectangular engine houses, but with the exception of a few, don’t remember anything about the flooring.  I remember an engine house I saw up in north Louisiana that had a dirt floor in most of it, and some wood plank flooring along one side where some machinery resided.  And I remember the steam era engine house that used to be in the GSA depot at North Sharp in Baton Rouge (where the bauxite was stored for many years).  It had a concrete floor.

And speaking of roundhouses, I’ve seen a couple (down here in the South) that had no doors on the engine stalls.  Was this done commonly in the South, or was it somewhat of an exception?

Anyone?  Feedback would be appreciated.

-Jack

Bridging the Gap

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The benchwork is coming along nicely.  There is almost 60 feet of L-girder framework erected now.  Hopefully I’ll get another 23 foot section done this weekend.

One of the construction tasks is going to be the fabrication of a bridge section to span the doorway into the room.  I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time and had briefly thought about several different options: a swing-up section, a lift-out section, a lift-up section, a swing-down arrangement, and a swing gate.

I dismissed the swing-up section (a bridge hinged on one end) because the 4 foot length of the bridge is too tall and would hit the ceiling.  Then I dismissed the lift-out because of the inconvenience of lifting out, then storing the section.  The lift-up section (the entire bridge rising vertically) seemed outlandish.  I really didn’t think much at all about the swing-down approach (another bridge with a hinge on one end); it just didn’t seem sexy.   I finally settled on the swing gate.

Now I started planning what the bridge would actually become.  I decided early on that I wanted a low lying tract of land coming out of Monterey that would feature the track crossing over a marshy area on a long, low timber trestle.  The only place such a trestle seemed to fit in the trackplan was (you guessed it) right at the point where the track goes past the doorway into the room.  I finally decided that to model the trestle in this location I would have to build essentially a box with a depressed area in its top.  The box would be about 4 feet long, 12 inches wide and likely about 8 inches deep.  I figured the bridge would normally be open, but wanted the bridge to be capable of functioning as a duck under during a session.  As the design developed (and after studying every swing gate I could find on the internet), I concluded that trying to support such a bridge with a hinge or two on the side of one end would likely not work very well in the long term; there would likely be too much twisting and wracking in such a design.  So then I added structure to the bottom of the box to essentially make something more like a Dutch door.  Of course then I lost the possibility of a duck under.

But there was another problem bugging me.  There are five wall switches for lights and receptacles located right next to the door opening.  Going straight across the doorway with the bridge section would have had benchwork blocking several of the switches.  Hence, the bridged section is at an angle as it crosses the doorway (see trackplan on the website), allowing access to the switches.  With this configuration, there is an angled section of benchwork poking out to start the bridged area.  Because of this, and my desire to keep curved track off the swing section, I found that the required hinge point would not allow the bridge to pivot and come to rest flat against the layout when open.  It would instead be sticking out into the aisle, partially obstructing it.  I was becoming unhappy with the swing gate concept.

Next up was another review of the vertical lift bridge (the lift-up section).  I had seen something along that line on Charlie Comstock’s Bear Creek and South Jackson.  He uses that idea to provide an access pop-up on his layout.  It uses a pair of drawer glides oriented vertically and seemed simple enough to build.  I figured I could build a beefier version of this as a bridge.  Then a few weeks ago while erecting the first benchwork sections, a thought occurred (sound of hand slapping forehead).  There is insufficient clearance over this section of layout for a raised bridge due to the lighting valence passing overhead.  Bam!  Idea dead!

So that leads me to my latest thoughts: the swing-down section.  Wayne Robichaux had suggested this so I did a couple quick sketches, and it seems like the idea may be better than I first thought.  By using a rod within some bearings (something akin to an axle), and placing it an inch or so down and inboard of the bridge-box, the thing would swing down nicely and would tuck up under the layout when down.  My next thoughts are ways to latch it in the up position, and whether it will need assist in the lifting operation.  For the latter, I’ll have to figure out how much the thing will weigh, which will probably require me to at least gather some materials of the approximate size required to build the bridge-box.  Once I know the weight, I can more reasonably come up with a design for these other tasks.

So that is where I’m at.  I would like to figure all this out early on, as this bridge is essential to even the earliest operation of the layout . . . Monterey is inaccessible without this bridge.

Got any other ideas?  Comments are welcome.

-Jack

Benchwork Commences!

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Hallelujah!  Benchwork has started on the Louisiana Central.  After many delays, the railroad is officially under construction.  My able bodied assistant Wayne Robichaux and I got started Saturday afternoon with the first section, and today I wrapped it up.  I’m going to try making some progress at least weekly through this.  I posted a couple pictures on the web site . . . head on over there if you’d like to follow the progress (click the link over there on the right).

-Jack

Cloudy Weather on the Louisiana Central

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As you local folks know, this weekend has seen the end of the “mini-drought” that we’ve been having.  Friday afternoon saw the weather beginning to change over the Louisiana Central as well.  Late in the day several clouds started appearing on the horizon over near Whitcomb, and by Saturday afternoon the entire railroad was under cloudy skies.

Yes friends, the layout construction has officially started!  And it started by getting the clouds painted onto the backdrop.  I used old fashioned “rattle” spray cans along with the cloud stencils provided by New London Industries.  Here are a couple closeup photos to whet your appetite.

Photo of Clouds - View 1Photo of Clouds - View 2Photo of Clouds - View 3

In a week or so I’ll get several larger photos uploaded to the web site for your perusal (Edit:  they’re there now).  I tried to capture typical Louisiana weather on a summer afternoon, with bands of clouds popping up on the horizon and then rapidly moving over the area (where you’re at, naturally) as an afternoon thunderstorm.

It’s hard to see in these small photos, but there is a faint line near the bottom of each picture.  That line is roughly at track level.  Much (probably most) of that bottom layer of clouds will end up behind trees, buildings and other scenic features.  But where there is a wee gap in the landscape, I want the clouds to show through.

Next up is benchwork.  I’ll likely get a start on that next weekend.

-Jack

Practice Clouds

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Well, today I got a little more cloud painting practice in.  I had talked about my initial efforts a few weeks ago in the post Navigating the Roadblocks.  In that exercise, I had used white “rattle can” spray paint with modest success.  Today I fired up my new Paasche spray gun and put it through its paces.

The results were disastrous!

I was using acrylic craft paint for the test.  The paint was spraying with a very course pattern.  I tried about four different paint consistencies, from virtually un-thinned, to very watery.  With each consistency, I tried several different pressures, from about 15 psi all the way up to 40 psi.  Generally, the higher the pressure, the better the result, though none of my results were satisfactory.  At the higher pressures, the atomization of the paint improved, but the volume of paint became too great.  Also, the thicker the paint, the better result I achieved.  Problem is, I wanted a very light, translucent effect for the clouds to help imply distance at the low horizon (based on my observations of clouds these past weeks).  If I need a denser cloud, I can simply use multiple passes of the spray gun.  But I found that spraying a heavy bodied mixture at high pressure (giving an almost acceptable result) just put down too much paint in a single pass.

With this disappointing result, I decided to spray another panel using a recently purchased (therefore, fresh) can of white spray paint.  The results were much better.  No spatter like I had experienced in my first panels a few weeks ago.  The spray can (surprisingly) had a much finer spray pattern and I found it easier to control the paint volume.

Conclusion:  I will not be using the spray gun for the layout backdrop.

One of the primary reasons I had  purchased the spray gun was so I could mix some darker shades of blue and gray for cloud bottom accents.  I’m disappointed that I’ve only been able to find flat colors of spray can paint in white, black and gray primer.  Yes, I know that you can get those tiny little cans of Testors model paint in more colors, but it would cost a fortune in paint if I elected to use those little 3 ounce spray cans.

So, I’m going to buy another spray can of white and one of gray primer tomorrow, and I’m going to shoot another panel or two during my July 4th holiday.  Hopefully I’ll get a satisfactory result which I can then use on the backdrop in the train room.

In the meantime, I’ll be offering my spray gun up for sale.  Despite the course spray pattern, it does fine if one intends to actually put a solid coat of paint on an object (I tested it in a small area, and it did fine in that capacity).

Photo of Paasche Model 62-2-3 Paint Spray Gun

It’s a Paasche 62-2-3 spray gun, and it retails for $49.00.  I’ll let it go for half of that.  If you or someone you know might be interested, please drop me a line.

-Jack

Changes in the Model Railroad Press

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An Opinion by Jack Shall

Those of you that have been in the hobby for a number of years have no doubt noticed changes in the model railroad magazine industry.  It’s obvious that the printed magazines are struggling.  The number of pages per issue has been reducing for a number of years in spite of the hefty cover price increases over the same period.

But the content has changed significantly over these years as well.  Most of the popular magazines have tried to have a balance of content to appeal to the different skill levels and interests of their readers and for the most part, they did a good job at that.  That is, until recent years.

While I don’t consider myself anywhere close to being a fine craftsman, I do enjoy (in fact prefer) to read articles on scratch building, and advanced methods and techniques.  I’ve noticed less and less of this content.  Indeed, many of the magazines that catered to the higher level modeler (such as Mainline Modeler, for one) have long ago met their demise.  Sure, there are still good articles being printed, but they are becoming scarcer by the year.  Some have lamented that it’s a sign of the times, where one doesn’t need to spend hours and hours scratch building or kit bashing when there are so many exquisite models available that are either ready built or easy-to-assemble kits.

At any rate, I’ve dropped subscription after subscription, the most recent being Model Railroader.  I had been buying that magazine monthly since 1962, but the last two editors of the rag have taken it in an entirely different direction . . . one that simply doesn’t interest me.  I would dare make the statement that the magazine died when Andy Sperandeo stepped down from the editor’s helm.

That leaves me with one sole print subscription, that being Railroad Model Craftsman.  I’ve also been buying their publication since the early 60s, and yes, it has slipped somewhat as well.  However it still usually has something each month that interests me, hence I’ll continue buying it for the time being.

The new kid on the block is Model Railroad Hobbyist.  If you’ve not heard of these guys, you should take a little time to check them out.  It’s an online publication that’s been around for 3 or 4 years now.  It has grown into a monthly issue, and the content is getting better all the time.  They’re still experiencing growing pains, and they have a limited number of resources and contributors at this time, but that is steadily improving with each issue as well.  But what I really like about their magazine is the resurgence of the craftsman type articles.  I may not be up to that skill level, but the articles do tend to inspire me anyway.

I’m somewhat excited by this magazine simply because it is fresh and growing, and it seems headed in a direction that I like (quite refreshing considering what I’ve said above about their competition).  I hope their “subscription” base continues to grow because that will ultimately benefit all of us that read the magazine.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s free?  Yes, that’s right . . . free.  It is ad supported, and while advertisements usually aggravate me, in this case they don’t.  After all, the ads are all about trains.  To be fair, I read the ads in all model railroad magazines, not just MRH.  Also associated with the magazine is an online forum, which I’ve enjoyed reading for the past year.

Check them out and see for yourself:  Model Railroad Hobbyist.

You can read the magazine online, or download it to your computer as a PDF file.  The price is right, and the worse you’ll lose is a bit of your time reading it.

-Jack

Navigating the Roadblocks

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I haven’t posted anything since April so I thought perhaps I should report about what’s going on.  Unfortunately I’ve made very little progress since my last post.  If you recall, I was going to paint some scrap Masonite panels Sky Blue, then use that to practice some techniques for painting clouds.  Not long after my last post, I procured the paint and rolled it on the Masonite practice panels.  Now I was ready to start painting clouds.  Well, not quite.  I discovered that my old airbrush hose had dry rotted and was leaking, so I ordered a new hose.  I went ahead and ordered a 10 footer so I would be able to move around better.

In the interim, I had to get into truck buying mode as my old 1998 F-150 was definitely showing its age and I decided it was time for some new wheels.  I spent the next three weekends checking out the local car dealerships offerings.  I couldn’t find a single vehicle that even came close to being what I wanted, but fortunately my local Ford dealer was able to locate a new F-150 at an out-of-town dealership that was almost the perfect match for what I wanted.  A week later, I had my new ride.

I had arranged to be off work for four days during Memorial Day weekend, and I had planned to do my practice clouds that weekend.  Right before my vacation time, the next roadblock occurred . . . my back went out!  And it went out without any warning or provocation on my part.  I had a similar back “outage” back in late December through early January.  I had scheduled two weeks of vacation for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday and that happened on the second day I was home.  I was unable to do anything in the train room the entire time I was off . . . a real bummer.  To have this problem again during this, my very next vacation was extremely disappointing and aggravating to say the least.

But there is a little positive news to report.  I wanted to establish a baseline elevation around the train room to aid construction of the layout, so I built a water level to accomplish the task.  I picked up a 20’ coil of 3/8” clear vinyl tubing and found an old small plastic trash can out in the garage.  I drilled a hole in the side of the can near the bottom, then stuck the end of the tubing in the hole.  A liberal coating of GE silicone caulk around the joint on both sides produced a water-tight seal.  I set the can on a stool in the middle of the room, filled it with water, poured a bit of food coloring and a few drops of dishwashing detergent into the water, and I was in business.  The coloring made the water easy to see, both to verify there weren’t any bubbles in the line, and to see where the water level was when the tube was held up against the wall.  The detergent helped break the surface tension of the water so it stayed level in the tube (didn’t creep up the sides).  It worked great!  I made marks on the walls about every 8 feet.  Then at one mark, I measured 47” up from the floor (that was to be my benchmark elevation).  I measured the distance between the water level mark and the 47” mark.  Finally, I went around the room measuring this same distance above all the other water level marks to get my 47” benchmark all around the room.  The whole project went quickly and smoothly.  Yes!

And there’s more…

I had ordered some cloud stencils back in early May and after examining them, I determined that the cardstock from which they were made was just too flimsy to hold at the wall while spraying.  So I ripped some ¼”x1-½” strips from a 2×4 scrap, then stapled a strip to the top of each stencil.  That added the needed rigidity so the stencil could easily be held up near, but not touching the wall.

This past weekend I got a little cloud practice in.  I didn’t feel up to making-up the spray gun, hose, regulator and big, ole’ air compressor.  But I did have an old rattle can of white paint sitting in the garage, so I thought “I’ll just shoot some of that for the heck of it”.  And I did.  The first panel I shot came out so-so.  I studied it for awhile and decided on a few corrections I should make.  I shot the second panel with much better results.  A few things I learned from this:

  • Keep the spray moving.  Don’t hesitate even for a second, or you’ll get a “blob” of paint that will destroy the translucent look you’ll get from the moving can.
  • Don’t use the same stencil a second time anywhere close to where you first use it.  Don’t even use a little piece of it close by.  It’s amazing how quickly your eye will pick up on the repeating pattern, even if ever so slight.  Keep rotating through the stencils for each and every shot.
  • Don’t let the stencil touch the backdrop even in one place.  The resultant cloud will have a very sharply defined border at that point.
  • Don’t paint long rows of clouds, then move higher and paint another row, etc.  When you step back, you’ll see that you now have long parallel rows of clouds . . . not at all realistic.  This is something I’ll really have to work on when I do my next set of panels.  Even my second panel shows distinct “layering” of the clouds.  Much more randomness of cloud elevation will be needed.
  • If the spray can “spits” or sputters, even for a second, that section of backdrop is doomed.  Trying to spray paint over the specs just doesn’t work.  Maybe you could use blue and white paints with a  small artist brush and disguise them, but I didn’t try that (not much point since it was just a practice panel anyway).  I hope that my spray gun won’t have that problem.

Overall though, I’m relatively pleased at what I’ve done.  But I want to get in significantly more practice before I tackle the real backdrop.

As I write this, my back problem is still significant, but I hope I can at least take short and easy steps to keep things moving.  I have simply GOT to see benchwork and track this summer!

-Jack

And More Painting…

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OK, the view blocks have been installed and the overhead work is done!  I took a bunch of photos of the completed valence and view block installation . . . head over to the website if you’d like to gaze at them (the link is over there to the right).

So next up is my practice backdrop painting project.  This past weekend I dug out several hardboard background panels that I had used on my last layout many years ago.  I have about 32 lineal feet of 2 feet high backdrop to practice with.  Tonight I dropped by the Walmart and bought a quart can each of sky blue and flat white.  I’ll roll the blue on the panels at the end of the week and may even get some time to start spraying a few clouds on.

I’ll try a couple spray techniques using the stencils, and I’ll probably also try using an old paintbrush, sponges and anything else that I spy that may contribute to a credible cloud.  My plan is to just do a rather sparse sprinkling of clouds around the room; a group here, a group there.  I can always add more later if I decide I need more.  The main point here is to try to get some of the higher up painting done prior to putting up benchwork just to make things easier while painting.  I know I’ll end up sitting or laying on the benchwork later to do detailed painting such as hills, trees and such, so I plan to build a substantial framework to carry my portly self without fear of crashing through to the floor.

-Jack

Lighting Valence and View Blocks Complete!

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That’s right, they are primed and painted.  Actually, the view blocks still have to be re-hung, but that is a 10 minute task.  I will tend to that next weekend.

Next up is to paint some practice clouds on scrap Masonite and then use whatever technique works best to apply some clouds to the sky backdrop.  I’m chomping at the bits to get some layout construction going, so I may focus on the back wall initially and then I can start erecting the first of the L-girder benchwork.

I’ll be posting a few photos of the completed overhead work on the website soon (have to find time to take the pictures).  Look for them.

-Jack