Layout Construction – June 2011

Major Changes in Denton
June has been a busy month. I added dirt as the first layer of scenery to this area. Grass, brush and trees will be added in consecutive layers to complete the scenery.

Creating Wolf Creek
The biggest challenge was to add water to the creek. Time to try a new technique, at least new to me. This began with gathering very small rocks for the creek bed. I then added larger rocks for the sides of the creek along with sand to represent the bank. I then painted the the creek bed with a dark green paint wash to give it some depth and color. Finally came time to pour the water. I used EnviroTex purchased from Michaels.  EnviroTex is a two part epoxy that you mix and pour. After about 72 hours it dries to a hard, smooth, glossy surface. To simulate moving water, I painted the surface with acrylic gloss medium which dries clear and will give you the appearance of ripples. to emphasize the ripples you then use white paint to give it the appearance of frothing water. Overall, I am very happy with my first attempt at this technique.

Static grass
To create a more realistic grass, I built a static grass machine from a battery operated fly swatter and a metal sifter. The “Grass-a-nator” contains an ion generator that creates a static charge between it and wet surface of the layout. To use the “Grass-a-nator” you apply paint or a water/glue mixture to the layout surface. A small metal pin that is connected to the “Grass-a-nator” is pushed into the wet surface. The “Grass-a-nator’s” screen is then loaded with small colored fibers called static grass. You hold the “Grass-a-nator” close to the surface and shake gently. The fibers fall to the wet surface and stand up because of the static created by the “Grass-a-nator”. The effect is very realistic.

New Building Construction
Two new building were built for the Denton area. These are wood craftsman kits. The first is a chicken coop for the farm scene. The other building is a small house that is common for farm communities. On the house, I created curtains on the computer and added them to the windows.

Dirt Roads
I tried a new (again, new to me) technique for making dirt roads. After gluing down a layer dirt for the main scenery layer, you rube the dirt with a stiff brush or as I found out, a finger to smooth the dirt layer. Repeatedly rubbing the dirt changes the color and the surface of the dirt. Wow, just like in real life. Now that really is art imitating life.

Layout Construction - May 2011

More Work on Denton
This month included more work in the Denton area of  the layout. Work completed included painting the ground with an earth colored paint, ballasting the tracks and adding roads with crossings.

New Buildings and Weathering
The newest structure for Denton is “Design Preservation Models Shultz’s Garage” that I purchased at the train show in January.  I added a metal roof for variety. This structure will be an automotive/farm implement repair business. Additional details like old cars and junk will be added after the scenery is completed. The stock yards received a paint job to simulate weathered wood. I tested a technique using chalk to simulate rust on one of the silos. The same technique was used on the barn.

Layout Construction–April 2011

Continued Work on Denton
I have continued working on the scenery in the Denton area. This time I added a base board for the roads and some building in the area. The base board is 1/4” foam core. Using the foam core will bring the level of the road up to the same height as the track. In the first photo you can see an overall view east end of Denton showing a major road crossing and elevated areas for a gas station, repair shop and local watering hole. The second photo shows closer view of the crossing with inserts between tracks for the road surface. This road will be a paved two lane road.

In this view, I have added a small country crossing to a local farm house. This will be a one lane dirt road. I also assembled a concrete silo to help hide the squared corner of the back drop.

Operations Planning
Most of the month was spent working on a program to enhance the operating scheme of the layout. I came across a freeware program from the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum. The program is called “Easy Model Railroad Inventory”. You can check out Bob Langer’s website here. This program allows you to inventory all of your rolling stock, locomotives, buildings, library and much more. This is a very intensive program. As a benefit from inventorying your equipment, you can create waybills and car cards for operating sessions. Below are a couple of screen shots of the program’s inventory input sections.

Creating Car Cards and Waybills
One way to simulate real railroad operations is with car cards and waybills. Each car you own has a printed card with a photo of the car, car number, type of car and who owns the car. This card is folded to create a pocket to insert a waybill. Waybills describe what type of merchandise the car is carrying, where it came from, what its destination is and the type of car that is required. Below are examples of a card card for Milwaukee Road hopper #100285. The first photo shows a waybill for the car with no load (EMPTY). The car will travel from the staging yard in Harlowton to Montana Elevator in Geraldine. Once the car arrives at Montana Elevator and is loaded, the yellow waybill is moved to the back to reveal the next waybill. This waybill (which is actually the wrong one) shows the car destined for the Cargill grain export in Seattle, Washington.

The main idea is that every train will have multiple car cards showing the destination for those cars. As the train reaches that car’s destination the car is set out at that industry and waits for the next train to come along to pick it up. This creates a realistic movement of cars across the layout. In the first photo below you can see how the cards are clipped to the front of the layout next to their destination. The second photo shows the box used to store car cards and waybills that are not currently on the layout.

Layout Construction–March 2011

Helix Rebuild
If at first you don’t succeed, it maybe time to try again. The helix worked great for awhile. No problems. Trains ran smoothly after a lot of tweaking. With the change in seasons and humidity, the wood changed and trains did not run as smooth. After spending a lot of time looking for a solution, I decided the swing bridges would have to be redone. The most reliable solution was to change the swing bridges into drop bridges. I decided on using a pin system for reliable alignment. Wood dowels were inserted into the bridge and matching holes drilled in ledges in the layout. Shims were used to raise the bridge to the proper height. A benefit has been access into the room is now little easier. I again used an extension cord and receptacle to connect power to the helix.

Continued Work at Denton
While looking at future scenery possibilities for Denton, I originally had the creek going straight back into backdrop.  I tried using a small mirror technique to give the perception of the creek continuing on beyond the background. The angle needed for the mirror to work, made it impossible to hide in the scenery.  For the second time, if don’t succeed, you need to try again. This time I changed the course of the creek bed to bend  out of sight to the right.

BEFORE

AFTER

I also added the foam contours for the tunnel entrance and positioned the concrete portal and wing walls.

Train Show – March 2011

The Hostlers Model Railroad Festival is the largest show of the season. This year was better than ever. There were more vendors and displays then in past shows. New vendors from outside of Utah included Colorado, Nebraska, Idaho and more. The manufacturer, Exact Rail from Provo, had a small display both to answer questions about their products. We spent all day at the show looking at everything and I attended one clinic. If there was only enough money to match the products I was sure that I needed.

An short video about some interesting animation of a dump truck. Might be something I’ll use.

Here I am attending a clinic about the proper weight for rolling stock. Free and very informative.

I made out like a bandit with all the products available from vendors. Or, did they make out like a bandit from me? We were able to cross off several things off our “Scavenger List” and add things that were never there. The last photos of the painting truck and crew will make a nice story scene for the farm house.