Layout Construction – February 2012

Staging Track Rebuild
While filming videos for a previous post, I discovered that the staging tracks for Lewistown were badly out of alignment. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the them to align properly. Upon inspection of the removable section, I found that the wood had warped. There was only one way to correct this problem. Rebuild! To prevent this from happening in the future, I needed to find another base for the tracks. Plywood is definitely an option, more stable, easy to cut and easy to construct. I want to be able to add ballast to these tracks. Wood would have to be sealed in order to use water based glue. More work and I can not be sure that it still will not warp in the future. Thinking of a different material to use, I remembered a scrap piece of composite 1” x 6” that was taking up space in the garage. Perfect! Won’t warp, the right width, length and thickness. Now how to I strengthen the board? A trip to the big box and I came across the metal angles. Perfect! Stable, easy to cut, holes predrilled to attach to the board. The electrical connection to the track bus is almost the same as before. The photos below show the results. In the left photo you can see the old staging tracks leaning up against the wall

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Red Coulee Creek
During the constructing the bridge for Red Coulee Creek, I decided it would be easier to finish the bents if I had a better idea of how tall to make them. It’s not really that difficult to build the bridge bents with out the scenery base in. I just really wanted to finalize my ideas for the scenery and stop work on the bridge. The bridge construction is tedious and boring, so I escape to another project. Speaking of avoiding things, with the scenery base in, I of course had to complete the fascia. Now I should run to the big box and get some paint for the fascia or maybe I should start laying the road bed for Falls Yard or maybe I should…

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Layout Construction - January 2012

Wolf Creek Bridge
Needing to do something artistic, I decided to add more scenery detail to the Wolf Creek bridge area. With the addition of more static grass, tuft grass, small bushes, cattails and trees this scene is nearly complete.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

USRM Post Card
Another reason I wanted to enhance this area was an idea I had for a post card. I had taken a photo of the Wolf Creek bridge area just after removing the pink foam for the creek. The idea was to combine the old photo with a new photo showing the transition from start to end. While another design was selected for the actual post card, I thought it was still a unique idea.

Worlds Greatest Hobby Show – January 2012

Once every five years the World’s Greatest Hobby Show ascends on Utah. This years show featured displays from many manufacturers and regional vendors.

Layouts from the WGH Show
There were quite a few great displays of local modular layouts at the show. Including the Utah Free Mo group which is featured in the first to photos. Mike Nelson (top left photo) is a member of the USRM and gave a very interesting clinic about Free Mo modeling.

Treasures from the show
I can’t seem to go to a railroad show with out buying something. This show was no different. I found a three car set of Western Maryland box cars that I could not resist. I had been searching for the “speed lettering” car (Upper left photo) for a long time. The other WM cars were a bonus.

The USRM at the show
The Utah Society of Railroad Modelers had a booth at the show for recruiting new members. We were able to sign up 21 new members to the NMRA. Below are the business cards that I designed to hand out to people interested in joining our club.

A New Family - December 2011

The Utah Society of Railroad Modelers
While attending the Wasatch Rails 2011 show in November, I attended several clinics put on by the Utah Society of Railroad Modelers. The clinics were enjoyable and very informative. Part of the clinic included a recruiting message from the organization. I have been a “lone wolf” modeler for a long time. This fairly new organization looked like it had a lot to offer to somebody like me. The one thing that peaked my interest more than anything was how the “club” was organized. This is what I call a “non-club” club. What I mean by that is, there are no club dues (You need to join the National Model Railroad Association after three meeting), there are no club officers (Just a Chief Instigator and his assistant instigators), all positions within the club are volunteer and not elected. I have belonged to clubs in the past that became riffed with politics. This really takes away from the enjoyment of a hobby, something that is suppose to be fun.

My contribution to the group so far is helping to design a new logo. We needed something that was representational of a Utah club. After many possible ideas, a small group was chosen to be voted by the group. This is new winning design.

Layout Construction
With activities in the new club, work and the Christmas season, not much work was completed on the layout. I continued to the work on Red Coulee bridge. The bridge supports are very time consuming and I’m going slowly to try and do it right the first time.

Videos
I take the time to complete a few videos of layout. The first one is from a spy camera at the front of the train. I built a special car to hold the camera.

On board video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next video was shot in high definition with my camera phone. It is a Motorola Atrix 2 with 1080 video on board. Enjoy!

High–Def layout view.

Layout Construction – November 2011

Geraldine Area
I did manage to get some work done on the layout during November. I continued work on the Red Coulee Creek bridge. There is a lot of work that goes into construction of a bridge. Most of that work is not really interesting enough to photograph. What is more interesting is the work I did on the gravel dump at the west end of Geraldine. The first step was the construction of the truck dump ramp itself. This is a wood craftsman kit from Blair Line LLC. This was an easy and fun kit to build. Now that the dump ramp was built, I knew how high to make the scenery for this area. This dump ramp was actually used a grain loading ramp in the early 1900’s. I have updated the industry for the time period I model and to create an different type industrial siding for the railroad. The rest of the photos show the foam scenery construction for the area.

New Structure and Vehicle.
I assembled the Laser-Art Structures shed kit from Branch Line Trains to be used as a speeder shed for Denton. A Durango Press Fairmont speeder from J L Innovative will eventually sit in of this building waiting for its next run down the line.

No gravel dump would be complete without a front end loader to help load the dump trucks and move rail cars when the railroad is not available. This front end loader is a metal kit from Woodland Scenics.

Wasatch Rails 2011 – November 2011

The First Show of the Model Railroad Season
The leaves have fallen from the trees and the temperatures are dropping, but you really know it’s fall when the announcements for model railroad shows start to appear. The first show of the season is the Wasatch Rails in Salt Lake City. This year was a good gathering of fellow modelers. The show is sponsored by the Wastach Division of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). There was a good selection of layouts and vendors. A new feature this year were clinics sponsored by the Utah Society of Model Railroaders. The clinics included weathering, soldering, foam scenery construction and a Boy Scouts Merit Badge. I attended several of the clinics and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Show Treasures
As always, you can’t pass up some of the great deals you find at these shows. This year was no exception. Among the treasures were several more cars to add to my collection. A Milwaukee Road box car and a hopper car.

For the layout, I purchased a chain link fence kit which will be used for the oil depot at Lewistown and the Heath gypsum plant. I also procured several switch stands to be used in Falls yard when that area is finished. All in all, a very enjoyable time.

Vacation Time - October 2011

October is traditionally the time of year we vacation at our time-share condo in Island Park, Idaho. This month is mostly taken up with planning and preparation for the trip, winterizing the yard and a little time left for layout work.

Vacation Photos
Yes I’m going to bore you with the tradition photos from our vacation. Fall came late during our visit this year. Usually the leaves have all fallen and the temperatures are very cool. We have had up to 12” of snow during our visit. This year was spectacular for photos.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Layout Acquisitions
Part of the the vacation trip is a drive to Billings, Montana to visit a brother. No visit would be complete without a visit to one of the best micro breweries in the west. If you get a chance stop by the Montana Brewing Company for some good food and great beer. While in Billings a stop at Jims Junction Hobby Shop is a must. Visit their website here: Jims Junction. This a great shop, he carries a lot of Milwaukee Road and Great Northern merchandise and is very friendly. This year I acquired a few thing for the layout.

The toolshed will be used as a speeder shed for Denton. The Swift meat packing plant building will be modified to used a freight house for the Great Falls area.

Actual Layout Work
I did manage to get some layout work done during October. I completed the other bridge abutment on the Red Coulee bridge. Also managed to get scenery forms started to use as a guide for the bridge supports.