The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[wazzou]

It warms my heart to see that you have two crossings for an entry and exit.   
Plausibility in scenery execution is a pet peeve for me. 

[davefoxx]

It warms my heart to see that you have two crossings for an entry and exit.   
Plausibility in scenery execution is a pet peeve for me.

Thanks, Bryan.  This area is still going to be real tight for tractor trailers, but I did the best that I could.  Selective compression is not always kind.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Last evening, I watched a video on Trains.com by David Popp and Gerry Leone about JMRI’s Operations Pro.  This seemed perfect for my use, and, thankfully, the video gave me the basics.  I don’t do well with JMRI typically, as it’s not intuitive to me.  But, after watching the video a few times, I downloaded the software and dove in.

The hardest part of ops for me is figuring out car routes, lading, and industries/destinations. Operations Pro makes that easy. All I had to do was create the car roster of what rolling stock was on the layout, measure sidings and yard tracks, make up the routes, and designate the trains.  Operations Pro then does the calculating to determine what cars will be moved.  I stayed up late running trains.  I created one train for each of the railroads on my layout and let the software tell me what cars needed to be moved.  Here’s the manifest for the first four trains that I ran overnight.  Note: no car cards.









As I gain experience, I can then expand into more minutiae of the software, but Operations Pro allows you to start basic.  I like it.

DFF

[John]

Welcome to the Dark Side ... thats what I use on the M&O ..

[davefoxx]

Welcome to the Dark Side ... thats what I use on the M&O ..

I remember that.  Specifically, that there were no car cards during ops sessions on your layout, which I really liked.

DFF

[John]

I remember that.  Specifically, that there were no car cards during ops sessions on your layout, which I really liked.

DFF

Start simple -- don't worry about all the options .. like schedules, etc .. there are a lot of things you can do with this, but for now stick with (L)oad or (E)mpty

All your industries should be spurs. Interchange tracks (even in a yard) is where trains trade cars .. Yard tracks are storage .. the staging are places for the trains to go ..you will have a lot of fun ..

[chuck geiger]

It warms my heart to see that you have two crossings for an entry and exit.   
Plausibility in scenery execution is a pet peeve for me.

Exactly, you see this on videos and pictures all the time

[davefoxx]

I worked on the next section of fascia this past weekend, which is moving around to the Aberdeen side of the layout.



However, a huge problem occurred in that the framing behind the fascia had voids once I cut the recesses for the turnout throws.



A little brainstorming and an Amazon purchase later, and I had me some 1/16” thick basswood, which I installed behind the fascia to cover the voids behind each throw.  This section of fascia had seven throws.



Worked great!  Just needs paint (in addition to the fifteen or twenty feet of fascia I have left to install).  These turnout throws (there’s many more on the Aberdeen side of the layout) are what has made me procrastinate the installation of the fascia.  I had to take them apart to install the fascia.



DFF

[wm3798]

Boobies!

[davefoxx]

Boobies!

Or “5318008,” for the middle school math nerd. 

[davefoxx]

The next section of fascia went in today. First, I started by fitting the piece for length, so I could figure out where to cut off the top edge.  This piece came out of the eight-foot scrap left over from the fascia that I installed a week or two ago.



After marking the top of the fascia against the table’s edge, I made the final cut and rehung the fascia for the final time.  All of the turnout controls had to be disconnected to allow me to bore the holes and install the backing plates to hide the ugly voids in the framing.  It’s all back together now and looks good.  The turnout controls are reconnected and functioning again.



The great news is that the remaining fascia to be installed on the A&R’s shelf will not need to have any turnout controls through the fascia, so that will save significant time and effort.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Lightweight spackling and a little terraforming to fill the gap behind the fascia.  I cut up some scrap 2” foam to fill the larger gaps, so I wouldn’t need to apply a ton of spackling.



DFF

[davefoxx]

Continuing on with the fascia on the A&R’s shelf, I built and installed the final three pieces this morning.  Let’s see- I’m over five years into this layout construction and almost 200 pages in this thread- yeah, that seems about the right pace.   

Anyhow, I started with the first piece around the water main and meter.  I need to keep access to those shut-offs, too.  So, the fascia is not as deep on this side of the aisle.  But, it doesn’t need to be, because the shelf’s layout framing is not as thick, and there are no under-table switch machines.  The plan is to have the A&R go through a cut, not only representing the road’s climb out of Aberdeen and up Bethesda Hill, but to scenically disguise/separate the short main line run and the staging yard from Aberdeen.  I’ll use trees to further hide the plumbing, so it’s somewhat less obvious.  I’m just making the best I can out of a bad situation, but the alternative would have been no A&R extension.  That’s not preferable, and, honestly, when I’m operating the layout, I don’t even think about that plumbing.  Well, until the babbling brook sound effects from the drain pipe happen when somebody upstairs flushes a toilet. 



Piece #2 seen below roughed into place.  This allowed me to start figuring out how to fit this piece to the planned end cap.



I’m leaving some fascia above the shelf-top to keep trains from going to the floor in the event of a derailment.  I tapered the fascia up at the end to provide some extra protection at the really shallow shelf’s end where the tail track is.



The last piece- not only on this shelf, but the whole layout.  The T-pin that protected the end of the tail track has been decommissioned.



The plan is to paint the fascia a green that comes close to the color of the SuperLeafs used on the layout.  The paint was purchased a couple of weeks ago, so as soon as I finish all of the patching and clean up a couple of corners on the fascia, that will be the next step.  Hopefully, soon.

DFF

[Chris333]

Well when the crapper breaks you'll have the shut off valve handy. 

Adding fascia always make s a instant dramatic effect. Like now when you walkout of the room you look back at the layout.

[davefoxx]

Adding fascia always make s a instant dramatic effect. Like now when you walkout of the room you look back at the layout.

This is true!

DFF