Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Keep on trucking M.C.! Keep it up and you'll be your own one-man FreeMoN club!

Oh, I already am:



Thing is, the 2-hour set-up (by myself), running trains for an hour or two (by myself) and then 2-hour take down (by myself) isn't as much fun as:



All of us working together can break the layout down and leave within an hour!

Good thing we have a show next weekend for a proper motivational kick in the 

[Greyryder]

The Bridge of Wonder is Kaput: victim of a flying shoe 
(I'll let Nils share the story or not)

I really want to hear this story.

[basementcalling]

Oh, I already am:



Thing is, the 2-hour set-up (by myself), running trains for an hour or two (by myself) and then 2-hour take down (by myself) isn't as much fun as:

Good thing we have a show next weekend for a proper motivational kick in the 

You need a bigger garage, and a forklift. 

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Oh, I already am:



Thing is, the 2-hour set-up (by myself), running trains for an hour or two (by myself) and then 2-hour take down (by myself) isn't as much fun as:



All of us working together can break the layout down and leave within an hour!

Good thing we have a show next weekend for a proper motivational kick in the 

It looks like there is room outside for the cars. No need to put them in the layout room. 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

It looks like there is room outside for the cars. No need to put them in the layout room. 

Your feedback is important to us.
Your comment will be passed on to management for further consideration.
 

[already lucky to take up 2/5th the garage with workbenches!  Will work in a standing layout soon, but don't tell anyone!  ]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Voice of Experience says: anytime creating a scene with foam, seal off the seams with caulk even if you don't anticipate a water feature (keeps the diluted white glue from dribbling down yr legs like an old drunk):



Installed the 1" foam in the insert mirror module:



Will allow for some ditches and depressed water features.

On the Effett insert, laminated some more ply on the extension side to reinforce clamp and alignment pin areas:



Feeders go in gaps in flex before replacement ties get shoved in.

Tested out various FT templates to see what fits best: #7 wye at "top," though customs will be needed on insert proper:



Will build one, adjust, ensure smooth (cool?) running, and then build the mirror for other side.

The #7 wye at top was an easy way to get back in the swing of handlaying:



[every time I start handlaying after a sizeable break I find it takes a turnout or two to get back in the swing of things]

Intentionally curved the diverging routes a little wider than needed, as will be easier to bend back into "natural" postion after finishing the other two turnouts and laying in the flex connectors.
Made sure the area up through the frog was smooooooooooooooth and slightly curved, with ties reinforced so I could reposition the curves later.



Two more custom asymmetric wye turnouts to build and install (along with the PSX auto-reverser), as well as cheering on the GS Warriors tonight, Man U on Tues, and Chelsea and Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Good times.

[Philip H]

Real Madrid??????????????   

EVERYONE knows that Zaragoza is the up and commer . . . and frankly Seville has a better farm system . . . . 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This thread is always such an inspiration when I haven't seen it in a while.

But it begs a big question. Where is your strategic Atlas 55 reserve, and what are the defenses around it like?

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Real Madrid??????????????   

EVERYONE knows that Zaragoza is the up and commer . . . and frankly Seville has a better farm system . . . . 

Ha!
I had a friend named Zaragoza (Mexican, not Spanish, though) who was very sad-then-excited 4-5 years ago when Zaragoza got relegated then promoted.
Guess they could be "up and coming" now 

But hey, Zaragoza, Sevilla, whomever: if they're in the Champions League and playing the beautiful game like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich (and, occasionally, Liverpool, Juventus and Barcelona), then I'll cheer for their quality football as well.
Just like I had to give props to Olympiakos' win over Manchester United's no-show today 
(And with Rooney earning $2.2 MILLION PER MONTH now: that's $500,000 per week / $50 a minute!)

Anyway, exciting times this year: end of soccer seasons (April), then Champions League (May) then World Cup (June-July) in a bar-&-work-friendly time zone (earliest game will be 8am, but most between 10am-4pm).
Good times!

Ed: I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.   

No: some dude returned a box of C55 flex to my LHS a year ago and I stocked up for my own projects, but now Free-moN necessity is flupping up my flex reserves.
(Damn that communal and enjoyable modular model railroading that benefits the greater good and own sense of satisfaction and fun!)
I handlay me own turnouts so the dearth of those don't bother me.

I tried ripping some flex off the old yard insert but even after soaking in 91% iso booze it was still poopoo.
As William Carolos Williams penned: Make it new!

[nscalemike]

What's your preferred method for carving out foam ?  Do you use anything special?

[eric220]

What's your preferred method for carving out foam ?  Do you use anything special?

I can speak from experience that it goes something along the lines of, "OK, let's cut this turkey!" and suddenly you have a piece of foam nearly perfectly sized. I think there was a knife involved and possibly a straight edge.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

What's your preferred method for carving out foam ?  Do you use anything special?

For straight cuts a utility knife and straightedge work fine (go slow and more up-&-down across the grain or it'll bunch up).

For carving into shapes I use The Force.
Or, at least, The Physical.

Basic shapes can be hacked down with a utility knife, hobby saw or old serrated steak knife.
Then for smooth hills I use a forming tool:



If you pin a bag to the front of the foam then you can easily sweep all the pink poop into it and thus less to vacuum.
The shaping foam with the forming tool is quite a workout and easy to build up a sweat, but be careful of crossbreeze or fan as the pink poop can fly everywhere!

Use lightweight spackle to create some rock faces / cover the horizontal wedding cake lines.

Don't forget Evert has a whole series on working with foam: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA1378DF426F2C713

Hope that helps.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Alrighty, to build the custom kinda-curved asymmetrical wye turnouts I coated the top of some reclaimed flex with black ink (not sharpie):



Turned the flex over, lined up one route at a time, then pressed the rails down onto the cardstock to create the template:



Sprayed with adhesive and then attached PC board ties:



(There's two inches of straight at the start of all the insert tracks, and that's where the throwbar is, as well as the start of the curves in either direction)

I prefer to build turnouts at my workbench, so first installed the stock rails:



And then went back to visually check things were at least in the realm of okie-dokie-ness:



I say "installed" but really I soldered the stock rails to only 3-5 PC board ties so I could adjust as I built.

Frog and Points and Daaaaable-Check:



Guard rails and throwbar and Tripppppppple-Check:





As the PC board ties are a wee bit thinner than the GapMasters and the Atlas plastic ties, I've found CA'ing 0.010 styrene under the ties brings everything up to level.  Don't need a whole sheet, just a few strips under the sections of PC board ties.

The great thing is to make the mirror-image turnout for the other side I can just repeat the ink-&-press-rails-on-paper trick with the turnout I just built.
At least, theoretically 
We'll find out today!

Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Installed the wye and slip switch (slightly carved out space around the switch so the lips sit flush):



No need to wire up the wye slip switch as the PSX auto reverser will take care it, but I did install wire and cut a whole for the frog just in case we wanted to adjust later.

Wiring up the frog while installing the turnouts and slip switch involves a little do-se-doe: wiring red & black wires to switch, solder green frog wire to turnout, install turnout, thread green back up to switch, wire green on switch, install switch.



For the track crossing the section gap I installed two pairs of GapMasters using Gorilla Glue tacked with CA for quick hold:



Then used the regular Dremel cutting disc to gap:





Installed the flex and cut the iso gaps in the turnouts:



Used music wire to hook up the slide switches and (my favorite job!) slid replacement ties under everything:



My fancy masking job:



Spray bomb!



Really wanted to get some basic scenery on it, but it was late and I still needed to wire the who kit n' kaboodle up.

Did I get it done before the show?
Stay tuned to the next exciting episode of Free-moN: At Home And On the Road!

[cont.]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Tah-dah!



No scenery, but it works!
Adds another foot to Effett Yard, too.

The Toy & Model Train Expo http://www.trainexpo.org/ is in the huge Santa Clara Convention Center (free parking! yeah!).
We have a largest layout yet!

Nils resurrected the Bridge O' Wonder:



Now silver, and repaired from the Deep Impact where the errant Flung Shoe took it out:



And made more progress on his industrial module with structures and LEDs:





He even cut a cool little periscope with mirrors to see into the freighthouse:





Still needs to detail the interior, but a nifty idea to peak inside!

Rick added a fun playground to the CalTrains module, including a small play train as well:



Good layout setup with nice balance of passing sidings, industries, and scenes that flow from one to another:



Tomorrow the show ends at 2, so we'll have a couple hours to actually run a private party and attempt to put some various ops options into play.
Video shoot tomorrow morning!