Joey on Rails

I started laying out my track to make sure everything is going to fit together. That's the first picture. The second picture is my "finalized" track plan (I'm sure there'll be additions and changes along the way). I was pleasantly surprised to see how well everything went together. Kudos to the Xtrkcad team on the accuracy of their parameter files. My next big project is coming up with a wiring plan. All the turnouts are power routing and that's something I'm not too familiar with so it will be a learning experience. I'll post more when I get it figured out.

After much deliberation, I decided that the hollow core door layout wasn't what I wanted. So instead of hanging on to it, I pulled up the track and sent it out the door (in four dumpster sized pieces). What you see above is my brand new track plan. It's all Kato Unitrack, N scale, and waiting to be built. Actually, I started framing up the base this evening. I'm using a 32"x48" sheet of paneling for the base and I am framing it now so that it will have some stability. Then I'll place a 0.5" layer of foam on top and that will be my base. The rest of the benchwork will come later.

Here is my first attempt at scratch building. It is a municipal water tower, pictured here next to L&N Alco C630 #1432. It's basically made out of styrene and a wooden egg cup I picked up at Hobby Lobby. It's not finished yet, but it's turning out better than I thought it would.

Here is my first airbrushed and decaled rail model. The car is a Bachmann 40' boxcar. This is the car I've been using as an adapter car between my Rapido equipped locomotives and my MT coupled rolling stock. I used an Airbrush City airbrush and compressor. The model is NOT prototypical, but I think it looks nice. I need to work on positioning the decals, but overall I think it was a good first attempt. The paint used was Polly Scale Bar Blue and Polly Scale Flat Finish.

Here is a progress shot of my layout. As I stated earlier I have the track laid on the inner loop.

Work is now complete on the inner loop of my layout. I laid the last piece of track just a few minutes ago. The parts I have completed are in red. Next I'll tackle the turnouts at the upper left and the tunnel tracks.

While still difficult, track laying is becoming a bit easier for me. It was just a matter of working out a technique.

I finally got some more trackwork done. I completed the curve coming off the upper left of the crossing section all the way around to the next turnout. Then I completed the upper industrial siding and placed the turnout for the lower industrial siding. A few more pieces of flextrack and I should have enough track laid to make some decent test runs.

I also decided that I would replace the gravel pit with a large industry. I got the idea from an old CD case I had laying around. I think the CD case is probably too big, but I could scratch build something out of styrene or find a kit that would be the right size.

I'm most concerned now over the 2nd level of the layout. I still don't have a real plan as to how I am going to handle it.

I finally outfitted most of my rolling stock and locomotives with Micro-Trains couplers. I also decided that I want to try to do a little derailment scene on my layout (It'll be in the upper right hand corner if you want to reference the picture below). I have a Model Power ICG SD45 that is old and doesn't run very well, but I do want to have it on the layout. I figure it will be a small derailment with no visible damage and some machinery helping it back onto the rails, and maybe a fire engine or police car.

Additionally I added a new link to Nscale.net over on the sidebar thingy. It's a cool website and continues to get better as more people find it.

I've finally started the trackwork on my layout. It'll probably be slow going until I figure out what I'm doing. This picture shows a 30º crossing and a piece of flextrack. To the left you can see where I glued down some track and then took it back up and scraped off the glue. I'll just say, "Whoops!"

It's not really a train picture, but it is a modeling picture. This is the first model I have ever completed that I can think of. It is the USS Enterprise. Ths model is of the Enterprise as is appeared in the second pilot for the series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). There is also a small decorative stand that comes with it, but I'm still waiting for the paint to dry on it. I think I did a good job, but if you look closely you can tell it's an amateur job.

Here is my latest trackplan. It is based on the Blue Creek Railroad and on plans from John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation. I'm leaning towards the ??? becoming a dairy farm. I can drop off grain and empty tanks and leave with full tanks and empty grain cars. The green area is base level, the black area is at 2 inches and the yellow areas are 4% grades. Underneath the black area is a passing track and a hidden staging track. There is also room for expansion off the upper left and lower right

Here's a full picture of one of my track plan ideas. I think it would have been a pretty good plan, but maybe a bit boring to look at and operate. As you can see I got quite a ways into this one. It made it all the way into the trackbed laying phase. I did learn something though, cork roadbed is the way to go. I tried the Woodland Scenics foam roadbed, but it was much harder to work with than the cork.

Here's a picture of the extruded insulation foam being applied to the door. I cut the sheets until they were a rough fit, laid down the liquid nails, then weighed it down with books, clamps, and other heavy stuff. I ended up putting on four 1/2" sheets, but I think 2 sheets would have been enough.

I wish I could play the theme from Jaws on here. Check out the detail on this unit. It's a beauty.

Here's a picture of the benchwork for my model railroad. I'm using a 36"x80" hollow core door and plans taken directly from Marty McGuirk's book N Scale Model Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby. The plans are pretty simple. You need a hollow core door (they come in various sizes, mine is the largest), four (4) 1x4 boards with the same length as the width of your door, some drywall screws, liquid nails, and some folding table legs. I got all of this stuff at Home Depot (the official home improvement warehouse of NASCAR), although just about any hardware store should be able to get these things for you. As for tools I used a tape measure, square ruler, pencil, caulk gun, and a drill.

First I sanded the door to rough up the primer paint. In hindsight I probably could have skipped this step. Next I laid everything out on the door and marked off lines with a pencil. Then I applied the liquid nails to the first 1x4. I would recommend using good quality wood for this step. I bought the cheapest they had and it warped and split during installation (it still worked though). I then lined up the 1x4 and screwed it down with the drywall screws. The screws should probably be about 5/8" from the edge and I drilled pilot holes to help prevent splitting. Once the 1x4s are in place, I installed the folding legs using the manufacturer's instructions. Then I turned it over and set it up.

The working time for this project was about an hour and a half, but if you cut out the sanding and have decent carpentry skills it will probably only take about half that much (or less).

I'm working on building a small layout in my apartment. Here's a picture of one of my locomotives and some cars. Most of my other locomotives are L&N. I do not think that the BN ever overlapped into L&N territory, but it will on my fictional little layout. I'll be trying to model the 1970s and 80s era. that is the time of my childhood and the time of my fondest memories of the railroad.

My first offical railfan picture, this is a unit (SSW 9683) I caught in Taylor, TX on July 13, 2005. I thought it was of interest because it was an unpatched Cotton Belt unit. It is amazing to see some of these old units out there that have managed to avoid the paint shop.