Meadow's Lumber: HO 1930's Geared Steam Layout Refurbish & Expansion

[LIRR]

This is excellent work, the dilapidated track looks great.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks for the kind words.

Almost finished laying down all the town / yard trackage:





Still have the turntable pit to "dig" and the track that goes down to the big sawmill by the pond.

I left off the final 9" of track before the edge because I want to build the drop-down bridge first, and then lay the track over the gap (a trick I learned with Free-moN sections to ensure alignment):



I also want to wire up that last 9", the bridge and 9" on the other side to momentary contact buttons on either side of the layout so the track stays dead until button actively pushed.
Maybe connected to a flagman or signal for visual affirmation that the track section is live/dead.
Hopefully that will prevent any spectacular flying leaps into the concrete canyon like in Back to the Future III.

Instead of using the PECO plastic insulators, I was thinking of just threading the rail onto clipped plastic tie sections:





Maybe secure with CA (9 inches away the rails will be soldered to the PC board ties), maybe slip in some styrene & shape to rail to act as buffers/fillers.

Thoughts?

Well, Silicon Valley Free-moN has a Great Train Expo show this weekend at the Alameda County Fairground (in Pleasanton, CA):
http://www.greattrainexpo.com/shows/2014Pleasanton.html
Peninsula N-Trak and the Bay Area Z dudes will have their fab layouts as well, so hope people can come on down!

Thanks for looking.

[davefoxx]

Instead of using the PECO plastic insulators, I was thinking of just threading the rail onto clipped plastic tie sections . . . .  Maybe secure with CA (9 inches away the rails will be soldered to the PC board ties), maybe slip in some styrene & shape to rail to act as buffers/fillers.

M.C.,

That's what I did last night to create the insulated section on the reverse loop on my layout.  I cut the gaps with a razor saw and then glued 0.010" styrene in the gaps, secured with CA.  Once dry, I whittled and filed the styrene down to the rail profile.  By the way, if you use black styrene, your insulators won't stand out as much.  I used white styrene (it was all that I had), but it's only 0.010" thick in N scale rails.  Once the track is painted, that shouldn't be too visible.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, DFF

Usually I let the gaps be gaps (it's California: very little humidity), but as this layout will not be my own work in my own possession, then I might slip some styrene in there just to make one more aspect of the layout "trouble-free."

Alrighty, laid down next-to-last track, at the big lumber mill

Looks like it's time to carve, shape & finish the low hill with shacks that as visual scenic divider in the middle of the peninsula.

Multi-purpose loading / storage tracks:



One stick of Peco extends a few inches into river / logpond, so will model old dock with some leftover bents:



Not terribly useful to ops, but looks cool and can be either older disused dock or allow the few inches to work a car-longer cut of cars on the siding.

Will wrap with old wood & make to look like a real dock section.

Right now refurbishing a pre-made turntable.
Will continue rocking on the Monday!

Thanks for looking.
Cheers!

[mcjaco]

Concur with Mr. Foxx.  I used styrene on Father's HO layout for all gaps (back in the old block days).  Once filed and painted, it goes unnoticed.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

I tried cutting the iso gaps with the sooper-thin Dedeco 0.009" separating disc, thinking I wouldn't have to use a styrene spacer, but it just looked too narrow a gap for HO.
(As in any change in temp could close the gap, though now I'm thinking maybe letting paint drip down into the gap... Nah.)

So I used the regular thin Dremel disc, which allowed enough space to insert some [0.030"?] styrene strips:



(Didn't have any black styrene, but will stain with a Sharpie later)
Secured with CA, trimmed and then shaped with a triangle file:



Seems to work alright, though in some situations there appears some vertical shifting in the rails on both sides of the gap.
Probably should have just used the plastic rail joiners.

Next time 

Spent a day dropping feeders and soldering up jumpers, inserting replacement ties to fill the gaps, and then spray-painted the track:



Used dark-grey primer with spritzes of light grey and rusty brown.

After paint dried, I finished shaping and sculptamolding and rockcasting the low hill in Town:





With a few shacks and some trees, will make for a partial viewblock between Town and Woodmill:



[cont.]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Also been working on some structures.
Wanted to refurbish a freighthouse my friend left unfinished:



And underneath:



So I rebuilt the deck supports:



[and finally trimmed / finished the roof on the depot!]

Added a "stone" foundation:



Tried some roofing textures printed on cardstock:



I found spraying a thin layer of dark grey primer on the back helps keep the cardstock from wrinkling when gluing down (which I did with spray adhesive on the cardboard and thin-spread whiteglue on the white strip]

Stained the roof paper edges, then stained the deck & supports to create a more weathered effect:



Finished up by weathering the roof with powders, staining the walls with a wash, and slightly streaking the deck with a felt pen.
In place:



Looks tight, but seems to allow all cars & locos so far.
(Not glued down, so can always move / trim)





[yes, still need to put in some bumpers!]

And depot in place:



Now off to build the Fuel Dealership and refurbish the turntable.
Thanks for looking.

[Baronjutter]

Always a pleasure to get updates from you!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, Baro.
Been keeping a close eye on your groovy work as well!

So I sat down to finish a turntable my friend started X years ago:



After popping off the C100 rail to replace with with C83 and repairing the handrails, I realized that the pit has warped slightly--too long in sun or ?-- enough to throw off the action and pinch the bridge.

So looks like I get to bash a new TT 
Might be able to use the same pit, but will cut/file back the bridge a bit, and use a hybrid design (see previous scratched TT) with an audio jack & weights to help with stability (as-is was wobbly).

Happy weekend!

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Try to soak the pit in hot water and then work the warp out. I know we do that with 1/24 car models that have warped and it works well. Give it a try before you rebuild.

Jeff

[Baronjutter]

I built an ollld kit years ago that had a big single-piece roof.  It was a bit warped and would not sit right, but I just hit it with the blow dryer and sort of worked it back into shape.  Worked ok for a kit, but with something like a turn table that needs to be perfect I'm not sure...