Free-moN Staging Yard - 16"x10'

[davidgray1974]

Always amazed at your work and how much you can accomplish in a relatively short period of time.  Great stuff as always!!!  Looking forward to your next update.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, guys.
Eric: I look forward to helping out (if I can) with your fab layout!

So the Great Train Expo is a little over a week away, and, until the Bullfrogs show up, I'm pretty much done with the staging/return loop.
 Added a bunch of tufts, some more trees and bushes, finished ballasting the main & cindering the passing sidings (I think I'll leave it like that for visual separation).
 The main thing was making two more oaks to fill in the background around the town of Devil Mountain:
 




Still need to add a few details like people, crates, a bench for the depot, redo the depot sign (too big & it bugs me), scatter some sandy grout, and find a place for the lone "holy freakin' cow".
 Maybe build an old wire fence somewhere.
 But pretty much done.
 
Also realized that this staging loop, when broken down, gives me 5 separate dioramas for photo shoots:
 


Will be easy to take outside on sunny days for some better photos than this one!
 
Also cut & drilled the plywood endplates that will allow me to "box" corresponding sections with scenery facing in for storage & transportation.
 So after today I can box these up and find someplace (?!?) to store them while I go gangbusters on the Effett Yard staging module and hopefully get back to the Shoo-Fly module and get a vineyard and bridge-building scene in there.
 Nothing like a show deadline to light a fire under your rear!
 
And, of course, a video:
 

Sorry about the whacky lighting.
 Hope to have better videos at the show next weekend!
 Hope to see you there!
 
Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Moocho more details, including peoples:
 


Under a hot California sun Dudes waiting for the train and a pair struggle to throw up a crate while Hank has no problem throwing up the crate of whiskey he drank at Bub's Saloon:
 


The lady's from Lucy Furr's Pleasure Parlor are taking a break from the heat inside and looking very lively next to Mr. Krypt's wares on display in front of his store:
 


[Look like Hanks still heaving]
 
And looks like the sun's going down but the train has yet to arrive, and passengers & crates just waiting to get out of Devil Mountain:
 


And waiting, and waiting...
 
[cont.]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Also tried out the endplate:
 




When I realized that I somehow mis-measured by about 4" [D'oh!] and left a lot of light between the sections.
 So tomorrow I'll chop off 4" and then the sections will be a lot closer together (9"x16" or so).
 
Those 4" on two modules will make a BIG difference when packing all this in the car next week!
 
And in my newfound quest to discover new uses for the miracle that is NeoLube, I think I got a winner:
 
Staining Trip-pins!
 
I don't know about you, but every time I toothpick some paint onto a shiny trip pin some always ends up in the coupler and makes it a bit sticky.
 
But NeoLube not only stains the pin dark, but helps keep the coupler action moving faster than Lucy Furr.
 


You can also see how I weighted down the Atlas gons as I replaced the Accumates with MT's.
 
All in all, a groovy modeling day:
 


Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Bullfrogs finally showed up, so I spent yesterday morning building 5 and the afternoon installing them.
 No foam on any of these sections, so, like Effett Staging Yard, there's 5 1/2" of space underneath and I use wood-block spacers to get the Bullfrogs down so the control rods pop out under the shelves.
 Can't clamp the spacers, so in the past I've tried tacking with a screw (which sometimes actually pushes the spacer up or to the side) or even holding it in place with blue tape while the woodglue dries.
 
But, in a flash of madness/insight, I thought of a solution:
 
Woodglue on the inside, with CA on the edges!
 


The CA would cure and hold the wood block in place while the woodglue dries (providing one of the strongest Bonds on the planet, and without steroids!).
 Would it work?
 Would the two glues touch each other, setting off a massive explosion?
 Would the bond at the end be enough for the constant pushing from the Bullfrogs?
 
So I pushed the block against the ply, held for 30 seconds, and:
 


Everything turned out hunky dory!
 
Woodglue dried well with blocks firmly pressed (held?) against the ply.
 Bullfrogs installed and firmly in place.
 
After this pict I installed all the control rods, so it's ready to rock!
 
You'll notice that the bottom Bullfrog is not wired up:
 That's the wye and doesn't need the frog powered from the Bullfrog as it's not isolated and so part of the auto-reversing circuit.
 
I did, however, install the microswitch just incase we wanted to install throwbar-controlled signals to remind operators which direction the wye is thrown.
 
Also very important:
 


I cut off all the screw tips that were sticking inside.
 As the modules get handled a lot, and not always by people who know (or remember) where the ouchy points are, it's courteous and nice to remove any possible causes of bloodloss.
 
And got all the endplates recut and bolted together:
 


I'm Gorillla Gluing the bolts and washers to the endplates to ease assembly.
 The bolts go right through the holes for the alignment dowels, so it's all good.

It's a pretty close match:


 
Takes up way less space on the workbench now!
 Though it's going to be quite a Tetris puzzle next week trying to pack it all in the car.
 
Well, off to help another Free-moN Friend with some scenery & static grass.
 
Thanks for looking.

[LKOrailroad]

So, just how do get the trains to stick to the rails on the upper section? 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

So, just how do get the trains to stick to the rails on the upper section? 

It's N scale.
No matter which way you flip it, "N" is still "N". 
(as opposed to the Horribly Oversized scale which would come out OH!)

[S Class]

You modeling the equator?
Or perhaps Australia in Sanoma? 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looks more like the Rings around Uranus 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Alrighty: all Bullfrogs installed & wired, sooooooooo it's pretty much "done".
 




I wonder if I'm forgetting anything...
 
 
Don't worry: I cut them off.
 
Everything works fine, so away this module goes (I found some space under the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout), and on to the others!
 
Here's a rare, rare view of a nearly clear workbench:
 


Don't worry: I messed that up soon after the photo.
 
4 1/2 days to go to the show!
 So which of the kabillion projects to do on the other two modules first?
 Hmmm....
 
Stay tuned!
 (And thanks for looking)

[mcjaco]

So, just how do get the trains to stick to the rails on the upper section? 

Magnetraction!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Running a layout like that would be like using both sides of the toilet paper: saves space but kind of a mess 

Before tackling Effett Staging Yard, I took a break from scenery work to finish a steamer project that's been sitting on my workbench for a year.
 Back at X2011 in Sacramento I found a 2-6-0 someone had built off a Kato 2-6-0 chassis:
 




Notice the Japanese three-axle tender.
 I wanted to turn this into the Effett Yard yardgoat, so I changed the tender to a slopeback, installed MT905 Z scale couplers front & back, steps, handgrabs and installed a DZ125 decoder (in the tender).
 
So here's what it looks now:
 


Not sure if it's an improvement, but at least I have my yardgoat!
 [More important: given the loco "graveyard" that is my workbench, this is the first loco project that actually works after taking one apart and attempting to "improve" and put back together!]
 
Still need to add some cab curtains to help hide the motor.
And thinking about removing the pilot to make it a 0-6-0.
 It's pretty heavy and runs pretty smooth (though a little faster going backwards on the same speed step), so we'll see how many cars it can shove this weekend.
 
Thanks for looking.

[kc9jts]

Excellent work!  I hope I can acheive that level of detail some day.

Nick
Omaha

[Guilford Guy]

MC, are you trying to pull off the Yosemite Valley look with the 2-6-0? In any case it's supah-slick!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks for the kind words on the loco: most of the detail was on the shell when I got it at X2011.
Someday I make the headlight work 

What happens when you don't screw the cap back on the NeoLube while it's sitting on your module while you're lubing up turnouts?
 


D'oh!
 Big Stain.
 Soaked it with alcohol and most wiped up.
 That area's scenicked with static grass and tufts now, so hardly noticeable.
 But a good reminder to keep a lid on it!
 
Spent the last couple days blowing out my eyes and back building a coaling tower for Effett Yard:
 






Not the most prototypically accurate (i.e. should have two chains & pullies on each chute, etc.) but it does the job.
 (and remember: it's "Effett" Yard)
 How do dudes get up to the door at the top?
 Well, until I get my ladders from Traincat, I guess I'll have to put a rope in there.

If anyone want the plans, here they are:


 
Alrighty.
 Almost time to schlup this stuff down to San Jose & set up for the Great Train Expo tomorrow.
 Still have to put in a water spout, sand tower, diesel facilities, and a MOW shed.
 Maybe some people too, but I can always do that at the show.
 
Thanks for looking and hope to see you in San Jose!
 (Do you know the way?)