A few pictures

Just a few quick pictures of what has been going on this week.  Lights, snow, and details.

 

 

 

Snow experiments

The track is down, wired, tested, and painted.  Switching each spot a few times with various length cars has shown all the clearances and the electrical is all good. 

 

 

 I have been trying out a few different types of materials and methods to model snow.

 

Plaster of paris seemed to yellow through badly and required multiple coats of white latex to not bleed through into the final snow material.  Pre-mix sheetrock compound dries a very bright white, is a lot easier to work with, and it cleaner.

 

I have been using Woodland Scenics snow as the top coat.  I have some other products on the way from Heki and Arizona Rock and Mineral that I am excited to try out.

 

 

That's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

 

modules progress

Got all the track down and wired up on the modules that I am building inside the house.  Tested the track and everything seems to work great. 

 

Placed out most of the structures to double check clearances and ran a few cars around to be sure.

 

I had plans to hand lay all the track on these but, once I started to develop a plan for the winter scenery, I realized that none of the track will be visible below the railheads. 

 

Next up is the lighting bus, which will require a trip to the hardware store. 

 

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!





 

Handlaid turnout and track

Its too cold to be in the layout working on deconstruction so, I spent some time at the bench the last few days getting started with laying super detailed track and turnouts,  I am thinking of using all hand-laid track and turnouts on the new modules.

 

The modules are in and the backdrop supports are up.  Waiting to start laying track to make the decision between the commercial track that I have tons of sitting around or to hand lay everything using the super detailed track system from the pictures above.

 

 

That's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

 

getting started in the office

I have the modules for the office layout in place and ready to lay out the track.  One of my big concerns on building anything in the house was how to deal with our furry children.  I have a lot of rescue animals and our cats are climbers for sure.  My back wasn't turned for 5 minutes after putting up the modules and this!

This is my lap cat.  If I am in the house, she is within arms reach so, of course, she wants to be on the layout when I'm working on it.  I am thinking about a hinged piece of ply that will fold up and cover the modules or maybe just putting an 18 inch piece of Lexan on the front. 

 

I have also managed to get my work desk back inside.  Won't be long before I will be settling down to do some major work on the new show modules.  Let the hand-laying of track begin!

 

 

The main layout is about 1/3 demolished now.  It's sad work so, I am not working on it much.  The thought that it will be a lot bigger after it's done keeps me at it though.  That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

 

The begining of an end and a new begining

Now that all the rolling stock is carefully packed away, I started stripping trees and structures.

I have already filled a 3' tote with trees and have barely stripped 1/4 of the layout.  I didn't realize that I had made that many.  That will be good news when I am ready to start over. 

 

I did take some time away from deconstruction to do something constructive.  I am almost finished with the latest boxcar to woodchip hopper conversion.

 

I have also started on the module benchwork for the small layout that I will build to tide me over until the layout building is renovated.

 

 

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

 

 

 

Update

Sorry that there hasn't been much here lately.  The packing of the my rolling stock has commenced.  The bus has been removed, the buildings pulled up, and the unsoldering of rails continues. 

 

I realized that I will need more totes.  I filled a 3' tote to the top with trees yesterday and realized that I had only deforested one of the short ends of the layout....  Most can be saved, the track, trees, structures, details, but I guess the water scenes will have to just be cut out and tossed.

 

I am hoping to figure out a way to save all the cattails that embedded in Enviro-Tex.  The stuff is practically un-cuttable so, they may be a loss. 

 

 

I have a tentative track plan for the office.  It's pretty small, but it should keep me busy until the layout room is finished.  I am building it in two modules that can be transported if needed and maybe just taken out and put into the big layout later.

 

 

That's it for now.  Demolition pictures coming soon.  Thanks for stopping by.