It's funny how small, seemingly innocuous things can open up whole new experiences. You never know what's around the corner.
Barry Silverthorn, producer of Trainmasters.tv, reached out via one of the Yahoo groups I belong to looking for someone willing to give a clinic or two on short notice, as he'd had a cancellation. Despite never having given a model railroading clinic before, it took me about half a second to decide that I should respond to him and offer my services.
I've had so much fun, and learnt such a great deal, in creating the Pine Street Spur modules as well as implementing Dead Rail, that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it with others.
Barry was gracious enough to take a flier on me, so I had three days to prepare my modules and models for the Quinte train show. Walking through the genesis of the Pine Street Spur would be easy, and I quickly cut some wood to be able to demonstrate the various stages of building the lightweight, "waffle"-type benchwork that I had used.
The second clinic was to be an introduction to battery-operated, wireless control of my locomotives, also known as Dead Rail. Being the perfectionist that I am, I decided to improve my battery car, but as things always seem to go, I also managed to short out my receiver. It just stopped working. Naturally, there was not enough time to get a replacement from Litchfield Station. Nothing like a little stress test before the big day.
In the end, despite Duncan McCree's best long-distance troubleshooting efforts (thank you, Duncan!), we could not get trains moving before the clinic, so we ended up just having an audience discussion, with plans to go back to the Trainmasters studio once I've installed the replacement receiver. I'm very much looking forward to it!
The show itself was everything I had hoped it would be. It was an eye-opening experience to watch Barry orchestrate the taping, and a true pleasure to meet some of the folks in the hobby that I've admired, learnt from, and enjoyed listening to. It was just plain fun to talk about what I'd created, how it had come to take it's present form, and to answer questions based on the experiences I've had building the Pine Street Spur.
If you ever have the opportunity, I would whole-heartedly recommend sharing your particular skills or accomplishments with others. In fact, make sure you seek out the opportunities. Getting out there amongst your friends and peers is the best way to improve your own modelling, help others, and experience that wonderful feeling that sharing with others gives. You know it from when you help someone in need, or give a present to a child, and it's really not that different when you stand in front of other model railroaders and talk about how to weather, build, detail, or conceptualize a portion of this great hobby that you are comfortable with. You don't have to be the best, because the simple fact of sharing raises everybody's game. So get out there!
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Now I have two spurs
It didn't take too long after moving in to our new home before plans were hatched on how to fit the Waterloo spur into the basement. Not just part of the basement, all of the basement. But one has to be reasonable and work in achievable chunks, so I started with preparing the pre-studded 14' x 12' room with electrical outlets, lighting, and drywall. This would be where the end of the branch, Elmira, will be located.
I couldn't get too excited about mudding the drywall, so the spur was hung up and I now knew where I needed to cut in bridge pieces required because the existing modules were not an exact fit into the new space.
I couldn't get too excited about mudding the drywall, so the spur was hung up and I now knew where I needed to cut in bridge pieces required because the existing modules were not an exact fit into the new space.
Next up, organizing all those magazines and hanging up the last couple of modules. Once they're all set, I'll stack them in the middle of the room and finish the walls. This will involve coving the upper portion of the corners and then completing the mudding and painting. I also have to figure out the layout lighting, valance, and ceiling tiles. This should keep me busy for a while.
A more difficult project will be going back to each module and re-laying the rail. I've found that ACC does not do a great job of holding the rail securely. There are stretches where the rail has completely popped out of the tie strips. I'm going to give Pliobond a try, perhaps reinforced with PC board ties at regular intervals. Certainly the turnouts are all going to be rebuilt the Joe Fugate hybrid way. And I think I will add PC board ties epoxied to wood risers at the module joints, based on my experience with the Pine Street spur.
Ah yes, the other "Spur" in my basement. It has found a home in the room on the other side of the wall from Elmira. I built supports to hold the Pine Street modules over a bookshelf that I had built to hold my model railroading magazines. Plans are to hang a stretch of drywall from the ceiling to form a backdrop, and to add lighting. More details will be forthcoming in a separate post later.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Starting up again - new home, second layout, Dead Rail experiment
It's been a while since I posted an entry, quite a while. Once we decided in January 2014 that we would move this year, all work on the layout effectively ended. Now we're in a new home in the model railroad mecca of Beamsville, ON (no, really, we have a fantastic hobby shop in town and some of the best modellers around), and work has resumed.
When we left our home, I had installed all the modules in our family room on a metal shelf bracket system and laid the track through most of Elmira. A lighting valance hiding T5 fluorescent bulbs was also installed. It looked very promising, as shown in this in-progress view:
However, I ran into problems with the trackwork, primarily related to the rail popping off the CV ties strips. We'll get into that issue in another post.
We moved into a home with an unfinished basement, so naturally I was paralyzed again reconsidering how to best adapt the track plan to my new space, even my choice of prototype was up for grabs. Over the summer I did make a set of three very lightweight modules to build a scale model of CN's Pine Street spur following an inspiration in Trevor Marshall's Achievable Layouts blog (http://themodelrailwayshow.com/LayoutDesign/?p=2070). Three turnouts in 12 ft and I could model the mill complex in exact scale length.
I'm still undecided on whether to complete that concept, but with a Tam Valley DRS receiver and transmitter expected any day now, I can always lay the track down held together only with rail joiners and a few tacks, and operate and experiment to my heart's content. I may still build this as something to take to shows, as Trevor suggested, if only to demonstrate the battery operation to the masses.
For now I'm putting up the drywall in the first basement room to be finished. Nominally it will be a guest room, but practically speaking it will become the home of Elmira, ON on the CNR ca. 1988. As it should be. Questions abound as to layout height (I'm thinking high, i.e. 60"), room & layout lighting (LED strip vs. T5), duckunders, how much to intrude into the room space (i.e. along three walls or go for all four) and the aforementioned question of reliable track laying. And I suppose also of whether to wire the layout for conventional DCC operation. All things to be considered in due time. If you have any thoughts and experiences to share regarding the above, I'd love to hear about and discuss them with you.
ttfn
When we left our home, I had installed all the modules in our family room on a metal shelf bracket system and laid the track through most of Elmira. A lighting valance hiding T5 fluorescent bulbs was also installed. It looked very promising, as shown in this in-progress view:
However, I ran into problems with the trackwork, primarily related to the rail popping off the CV ties strips. We'll get into that issue in another post.
We moved into a home with an unfinished basement, so naturally I was paralyzed again reconsidering how to best adapt the track plan to my new space, even my choice of prototype was up for grabs. Over the summer I did make a set of three very lightweight modules to build a scale model of CN's Pine Street spur following an inspiration in Trevor Marshall's Achievable Layouts blog (http://themodelrailwayshow.com/LayoutDesign/?p=2070). Three turnouts in 12 ft and I could model the mill complex in exact scale length.
I'm still undecided on whether to complete that concept, but with a Tam Valley DRS receiver and transmitter expected any day now, I can always lay the track down held together only with rail joiners and a few tacks, and operate and experiment to my heart's content. I may still build this as something to take to shows, as Trevor suggested, if only to demonstrate the battery operation to the masses.
For now I'm putting up the drywall in the first basement room to be finished. Nominally it will be a guest room, but practically speaking it will become the home of Elmira, ON on the CNR ca. 1988. As it should be. Questions abound as to layout height (I'm thinking high, i.e. 60"), room & layout lighting (LED strip vs. T5), duckunders, how much to intrude into the room space (i.e. along three walls or go for all four) and the aforementioned question of reliable track laying. And I suppose also of whether to wire the layout for conventional DCC operation. All things to be considered in due time. If you have any thoughts and experiences to share regarding the above, I'd love to hear about and discuss them with you.
ttfn
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Ideal (cottage) workshop
We are fortunate enough to be able to spend a couple of weeks as a family at a cottage near Parry Sound, ON. With that much free time ahead of me, I seized the opportunity for some major catch-up on track laying. Into the car went tie strips and switch kits from Proto 87 Stores, as well as a supply of paints and basic tools.
The first order of business was painting the tie strips. I followed the method Lance Mindheim outlined in his excellent book, How to Build a Shelf Layout. Before we left I had airbrushed the strips with Modelmaster light grey. At my outdoor cottage work table I tacked the strips to the sticky side of shelf cupboard liner and brought out a tube of raw umber oil paint and mineral spirits.
Lance's instructions are to thin the oil to the consistency of weak tea with the thinner. I washed the paint onto the strips, brushing in the long direction of the ties. To my eye the resulting color was far too light, so I applied another wash. Better, but still too light brown.
Referring to pictures I took of the trackage in Elmira, even though the tops of the ties are all different shades of brown and grey, the underlying dark creosote brown is evident on the exposed ends and sides of the ties. The question is, how do I duplicate that variety of color? I can try another coat of the raw umber, but I'm afraid that the details in the tie strips will be covered too much by the time I get a nice dark colour. And selectively painting the sides and ends will be difficult, or at the very least very time-consuming. Perhaps going dark and then dry-brushing the tops of the ties before gluing down the rail will be the way to go.
I'll have to figure I out, as I need the ties painted in order to be able to assemble the switches, which is the big goal to accomplish before going home.
The first order of business was painting the tie strips. I followed the method Lance Mindheim outlined in his excellent book, How to Build a Shelf Layout. Before we left I had airbrushed the strips with Modelmaster light grey. At my outdoor cottage work table I tacked the strips to the sticky side of shelf cupboard liner and brought out a tube of raw umber oil paint and mineral spirits.
Lance's instructions are to thin the oil to the consistency of weak tea with the thinner. I washed the paint onto the strips, brushing in the long direction of the ties. To my eye the resulting color was far too light, so I applied another wash. Better, but still too light brown.
Referring to pictures I took of the trackage in Elmira, even though the tops of the ties are all different shades of brown and grey, the underlying dark creosote brown is evident on the exposed ends and sides of the ties. The question is, how do I duplicate that variety of color? I can try another coat of the raw umber, but I'm afraid that the details in the tie strips will be covered too much by the time I get a nice dark colour. And selectively painting the sides and ends will be difficult, or at the very least very time-consuming. Perhaps going dark and then dry-brushing the tops of the ties before gluing down the rail will be the way to go.
I'll have to figure I out, as I need the ties painted in order to be able to assemble the switches, which is the big goal to accomplish before going home.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
More progress made than you'd think . . .
Quite a bit of work was accomplished on the layout shortly after my last post, it's just taken a long time to get around to writing about it.
The first bit of progress was made with putting down the track support structure. I chose to follow the advice of Jim Richards in the October, 2010 MR and use EasyMat, a foam underlayment available at Home Depot, instead of the more traditional cork strips. I purchased a 4 ft wide roll that came in considerably less expensive than purchasing Midwest cork roadbed. As shown in the article, I created a simple jog for cutting strips, but chose not to bevel the sides, figuring I could use caulking to more easily do that once the roadbed was installed.
My original plan had been to lay the track directly on the foamboard base, but I was concerned about how I would accommodate the profile of the terrain at the module joints where the foamboard is level with the top of the end joists. I was not looking forward to carving ditch profiles into the plywood.
In the July 2013 MR Tony Koester has an interesting article on using 3/8" thick foamboard to help shape the profile of the ground on either side of the track. The pictures got me thinking and I decided to cut slightly wider strips of underlayment to place under the main support strips (which are basically as wide as the ties), thus increasing the height of the track profile. This would give me the flexibility I was looking for in creating ditches on either side of the roadway to support the fact that the track usually sits above the surrounding terrain. Roads will be able to come up to the level of the track at crossings and then go back down the other side, just like you see out in the field. Where required, sidings could also easily drop down below the main.
In the pictures you'll see that I've laid the main and a portion of the passing siding in Elmira. I've stopped short in the corner until I've proven to myself that I can build a reliable curved turnout.
On the end closest to the steps I'm still undecided on the total length of the town. To maintain a passing track length close to my desired 8 ft (which scales out to about 3/4 of the actual passing track length, accommodating 13 55' tank cars instead of 16), I might have to insert a 3 or 4 ft section between the end module and current end of track at the doorway. This is necessary as I do not want every turnout on the south end of Elmira being on the curve leading into town. That seems like it's just asking for trouble.
In future posts I'll add the current trackplan and talk a little bit about the genesis of the plan as well as the construction details.
The first bit of progress was made with putting down the track support structure. I chose to follow the advice of Jim Richards in the October, 2010 MR and use EasyMat, a foam underlayment available at Home Depot, instead of the more traditional cork strips. I purchased a 4 ft wide roll that came in considerably less expensive than purchasing Midwest cork roadbed. As shown in the article, I created a simple jog for cutting strips, but chose not to bevel the sides, figuring I could use caulking to more easily do that once the roadbed was installed.
My original plan had been to lay the track directly on the foamboard base, but I was concerned about how I would accommodate the profile of the terrain at the module joints where the foamboard is level with the top of the end joists. I was not looking forward to carving ditch profiles into the plywood.
In the July 2013 MR Tony Koester has an interesting article on using 3/8" thick foamboard to help shape the profile of the ground on either side of the track. The pictures got me thinking and I decided to cut slightly wider strips of underlayment to place under the main support strips (which are basically as wide as the ties), thus increasing the height of the track profile. This would give me the flexibility I was looking for in creating ditches on either side of the roadway to support the fact that the track usually sits above the surrounding terrain. Roads will be able to come up to the level of the track at crossings and then go back down the other side, just like you see out in the field. Where required, sidings could also easily drop down below the main.
In the pictures you'll see that I've laid the main and a portion of the passing siding in Elmira. I've stopped short in the corner until I've proven to myself that I can build a reliable curved turnout.
On the end closest to the steps I'm still undecided on the total length of the town. To maintain a passing track length close to my desired 8 ft (which scales out to about 3/4 of the actual passing track length, accommodating 13 55' tank cars instead of 16), I might have to insert a 3 or 4 ft section between the end module and current end of track at the doorway. This is necessary as I do not want every turnout on the south end of Elmira being on the curve leading into town. That seems like it's just asking for trouble.
In future posts I'll add the current trackplan and talk a little bit about the genesis of the plan as well as the construction details.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Inertia is not on my side. Or, how to delay learning a new skill for a very long time.
It's amazing how long it can take to start something new. Take for instance airbrushing. Being shown how easy it is to spray track at the Nordel model railroad club in Hockessin, DE, I decided to finally build a booth to be able to put my Aztek to use. I combined what I liked from the information offered by various people in the Model Railroad Hobbyist (mrhmag.com) forums and built a fair-sized booth.
That was a year ago. With my shelf layout's benchwork completed and a desire to paint my Central Valley tie strips prior to gluing them down, I needed to get my equipment set up and start learning to airbrush. All that was holding me back now was fear of the unknown. So this past weekend I positioned the booth in my basement storage room next to the window, hooked up some dryer exhaust tubing out the window, and plugged my compressor in.
And there it's sat for the last 3 days. Not for lack of time for me to get out the Aztek and start practicing on some cardboard, but mostly due to that inertia that keeps me from trying something new until I'm 100% sure I've got all the angles covered. I feel like I need to now do a bunch of research on airbrush techniques, and how to clean the tool properly, and which air pressures and paint-to-thinner ratios to use, etc. You get the picture. Manufacturing myself a to-do list to keep from starting.
Well, my plan is to just get some paint, a piece of scrap cardboard, and some Windex as thinner/cleaner, and start messing about with it on Friday, as one son has baseball games the next two nights. Because after this airbrushing hurdle, there's several other things waiting to be tackled, including handlaying track and turnouts. Time to get going on this layout-building thing!
That was a year ago. With my shelf layout's benchwork completed and a desire to paint my Central Valley tie strips prior to gluing them down, I needed to get my equipment set up and start learning to airbrush. All that was holding me back now was fear of the unknown. So this past weekend I positioned the booth in my basement storage room next to the window, hooked up some dryer exhaust tubing out the window, and plugged my compressor in.
And there it's sat for the last 3 days. Not for lack of time for me to get out the Aztek and start practicing on some cardboard, but mostly due to that inertia that keeps me from trying something new until I'm 100% sure I've got all the angles covered. I feel like I need to now do a bunch of research on airbrush techniques, and how to clean the tool properly, and which air pressures and paint-to-thinner ratios to use, etc. You get the picture. Manufacturing myself a to-do list to keep from starting.
Well, my plan is to just get some paint, a piece of scrap cardboard, and some Windex as thinner/cleaner, and start messing about with it on Friday, as one son has baseball games the next two nights. Because after this airbrushing hurdle, there's several other things waiting to be tackled, including handlaying track and turnouts. Time to get going on this layout-building thing!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Why I chose to model what I model, part deux
I believe it didn't take very long after I decided in my early teens that model railroading would be my hobby for me to start planning a dream layout. You know, the one that would fill my parents' basement and then some, requiring an addition to the house (not to mention a Lotto 6/49 win). I've been carrying that dream around from country to country, house to house, for 30 years. Have I built that dream layout? Of course not.
Reality in the form of a fairly nomadic professional existence, a wife and four children, and the lack of free time that all of that entails, has limited me to starting several roughly 5'x9' layouts. Two ovals of track so that my sons wouldn't necessarily crash into each other all the time, and a chance to practice building benchwork, laying track, and wiring up a DCC system. Good experience to gather, but nowhere close to a dream layout.
So when we recently moved back to Ontario, I found myself once again in a rented home, no dedicated train room space available, but this time with two advantages that allowed me to start what I would call a long-term, serious model railroad. Firstly, I now lived closer to the prototypes that I've always wanted to model, which is a huge source of inspiration. Secondly, I happened upon first the blog and then the books of Lance Mindheim, and through his writings to other folks sharing many of the same thoughts.
Lance's philosophy that immediately caught my attention was that you didn't have to have a huge layout to enjoy the hobby. I'm a bit of a lone wolf modeller anyways, so I doubt that I would ever be able to scare up a bunch of people to run a regularly scheduled operating session. But I knew from being a member of the Nordel Model Railroad Club in Hockessin, DE, that operating was hugely fun. Operating what is basically a switching branch, following Lance's inspiration, should provide the ideal amount of railroading to fit my budget, inclinations, and schedule..
Budget: there's never enough money available for a model railroad(er). Narrowing my focus down to one branchline in a specific time period suddenly made it possible for me to shed all the interesting but now extraneous models that I'd collected over the years. In theory it should also keep me on the straight and narrow should I wander into a hobby shop or show. And the freed up funds would allow me to build a high-quality, highly detailed small layout. Bingo!
Modelling inclinations: I hold myself to very high standards. I want to build close to museum quality track, have very detailed & weathered cars, locomotives, and buildings, and really believable scenery. Frankly, the only person I trust to meet those standards is me. If I don't, I won't have a problem ripping it out and doing it better the second or third time. I'm a perfectionist, which means I frustrate myself and others as I strive towards perfection. It's unattainable, but in the striving comes the learning and improvement, and for me, the fun.
Schedule: I travel a lot for work and also have four small children, so my hobby time should be quite limited. Only by grace of an incredibly supportive, understanding, and patient wife am I able to devote as much time to my obsession as I have. A small layout means that I will better be able to balance family, work, and hobby, while living within my means and being more likely to achieve a certain degree of completeness in a reasonable timeframe.
With all this in mind, I was able to settle on a prototype (CN), location (Waterloo spur St. Jacobs & Elmira for now), timeframe (1988 - 1993), and layout style (sectional, around the walls on shelf brackets). That's pretty much the hardest part. 30 years on I'm ready for some serious modelling! Let's go!
Reality in the form of a fairly nomadic professional existence, a wife and four children, and the lack of free time that all of that entails, has limited me to starting several roughly 5'x9' layouts. Two ovals of track so that my sons wouldn't necessarily crash into each other all the time, and a chance to practice building benchwork, laying track, and wiring up a DCC system. Good experience to gather, but nowhere close to a dream layout.
So when we recently moved back to Ontario, I found myself once again in a rented home, no dedicated train room space available, but this time with two advantages that allowed me to start what I would call a long-term, serious model railroad. Firstly, I now lived closer to the prototypes that I've always wanted to model, which is a huge source of inspiration. Secondly, I happened upon first the blog and then the books of Lance Mindheim, and through his writings to other folks sharing many of the same thoughts.
Lance's philosophy that immediately caught my attention was that you didn't have to have a huge layout to enjoy the hobby. I'm a bit of a lone wolf modeller anyways, so I doubt that I would ever be able to scare up a bunch of people to run a regularly scheduled operating session. But I knew from being a member of the Nordel Model Railroad Club in Hockessin, DE, that operating was hugely fun. Operating what is basically a switching branch, following Lance's inspiration, should provide the ideal amount of railroading to fit my budget, inclinations, and schedule..
Budget: there's never enough money available for a model railroad(er). Narrowing my focus down to one branchline in a specific time period suddenly made it possible for me to shed all the interesting but now extraneous models that I'd collected over the years. In theory it should also keep me on the straight and narrow should I wander into a hobby shop or show. And the freed up funds would allow me to build a high-quality, highly detailed small layout. Bingo!
Modelling inclinations: I hold myself to very high standards. I want to build close to museum quality track, have very detailed & weathered cars, locomotives, and buildings, and really believable scenery. Frankly, the only person I trust to meet those standards is me. If I don't, I won't have a problem ripping it out and doing it better the second or third time. I'm a perfectionist, which means I frustrate myself and others as I strive towards perfection. It's unattainable, but in the striving comes the learning and improvement, and for me, the fun.
Schedule: I travel a lot for work and also have four small children, so my hobby time should be quite limited. Only by grace of an incredibly supportive, understanding, and patient wife am I able to devote as much time to my obsession as I have. A small layout means that I will better be able to balance family, work, and hobby, while living within my means and being more likely to achieve a certain degree of completeness in a reasonable timeframe.
With all this in mind, I was able to settle on a prototype (CN), location (Waterloo spur St. Jacobs & Elmira for now), timeframe (1988 - 1993), and layout style (sectional, around the walls on shelf brackets). That's pretty much the hardest part. 30 years on I'm ready for some serious modelling! Let's go!
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