Seaboard Central 2.0

[davefoxx]

Dave,
Have you found a good way to do kudzu? Thankfully it's still rare in Baton Rouge proper, but I want to do one small area to suggest its infiltration!
Keep up the good work.

Philip,

I haven't gotten that far yet, but my first attempt will be with poly fiber and the appropriate color leaf flakes.  I'll keep you posted.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Made a little progress on the scenery around Crystal Lake.  First, I laid down a 1" layer of foam in the lake to raise the water level.  I had felt that it was too deep and raising the lake eased blending the hills into the lake bed.  I cut in some ditches along the right-of-way and did a little more grinding with my sander, before letting loose with the lightweight spackle.







If all of this dries this weekend, I'll put down a coat of earth-colored paint to get rid of the foam colors.

DFF

[GP38-2freak]

This looks great, Dave...had the chance to clean out the basement with my father-in-law...now I can start again..without water in the trainroom!

[conrailthomas519]

Much better!

[OaklandScottie]

Just want to say as a casual observer this thread will be something I come back to repeatedly when I finally build a 40"x72" layout. The whole process is really top-notch, and the latest pictures prove it. Very impressed and looking forward to seeing the progress!

Scottie

[GaryHinshaw]

That track has really nice, fluid lines Dave.

-gfh

[davefoxx]

I've been working on forming more of the hills and dales on the layout over the past few weekends, but there's not much to see yet.  I may post a pic or two here or over in the Weekend Update thread for anyone interested.  In the meantime, I did update my track plan to reflect construction on the HCD.  It's not 100% correct, but I'll save modifying the actual town buildings and roads on the plan for when they are actually laid out or constructed on the layout.  But, the track plan is very close and gives a reasonable idea of the modifications since the original design for a 3' x 5' layout.



As always, the resizing of the plan due to a screenshot being posted on the forum throws the scale off.  The overall layout is 36" x 80", and the grid is 12".

EDIT: I just noticed the plan still says "All turnouts #5."  This actually was changed slightly during construction, because of the code 55 shortage.  A few mainline turnouts, e.g., the crossover near the Aberdeen Packing & Produce is two #7s.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I've been working on forming more rolling landscape, as I want to avoid as many flat and level spots on the layout as possible.  This first shot shows how I tried to line up the hills, so it appears that the ridge runs down the length of the table (admittedly, more work is needed in the middle of the layout), and both the SBD and the A&R needed small cuts for their roadbeds at this end of the layout.  I'm trying to avoid the "loaf of bread lying on the layout" look:


Here, you can see how I tried to use the small hill to hide the fact that the A&R (track at right that is climbing) is really built on a ramp.  The cut helps bring the line down visually and is justified as if the soil from the cut was used to form the fill as the track begins its climb.  I'm trying to form realistic topography on the layout, and, again, that usually means little to no flat and level areas:


I also laid down a base layer of turf, just to give it some color (that is, until I ran out of foam turf).  Keep in mind that this layout will be infested by kudzu at some point.  Finally, here's an overall shot of the layout for perspective and it's current status of construction:



If I can figure out the final landforms at the table's edge, then I can install the fascia.  But, I have a lot of work to do in Aberdeen to figure that out.  Once I can install the fascia, I will be able to install the Digitrax UR92 radio transceiver and turnout controls.  I think M.C. Fujiwara has me convinced to go with Bullfrog Manual Turnout Controllers.  I also still need to install the DCC buss wires and track feeders.  That's keeping me from painting the track, which, thankfully, keeps me from ballasting.

DFF

[svedblen]

Great! The rolling landscape is really nice. And realistic.

/Lennart

[Jguess733]

Dave, that is one nice looking HCD layout.  Is there much of a learning curve to using Empire Express? 

J

[davefoxx]

Dave, that is one nice looking HCD layout.  Is there much of a learning curve to using Empire Express? 

J

A little bit, but not bad if you go through the tutorials, which do not take that much time at all.  In fact, I've gone back to the tutorials now and then when I haven't used the program in a while and need a refresher.  I don't find it too complicated at all.  Of course, the primary reason I went with Empire Express was because I have a Mac.

DFF

[Jguess733]

I have a MAC too, and I'm planning on playing with Empire Express on my upcoming deployment. Thanks.

J

[davefoxx]

This morning, after surviving my eight-year-old step-son's overnight birthday party with about nine or ten boys, I put together a Micro Engineering 40' plate girder bridge that the Aberdeen & Rockfish RR will need to clear the Seaboard System mainline.  As you can see, clearance doesn't seem to be a problem, in fact, my N scale NMRA template almost clears the bridge.



Now, I need to get to work staining the wooden parts, so I can begin planning the trestle that fills the gap.  This may be over my head, as it's on a curve and not level.  The summit of this climb will be approximately the left end of the trestle (just about the left side of the picture), where the grade will level off and head into staging one day.  I guess you could say it's a spiral curve both vertically and horizontally.  Also, I don't have a lot of play in the placement of the piers that will hold up the plate girder section, because, as you can see, the SBD main is also on a curve and not even close to perpendicular to the tracks above.

Dave Foxx

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looking good, Dave.
Can you stagger the bridge sides a little (create a parallelogram)?
That would put the supports more in line with the track below.

As for the trestle, I'm also building a curved span on a slight grade, so it'll be interesting to see what you do 
The late Wolfgang Dudler has a nice tutorial on building a curved span (in short straight stringer sections) on his Westport Terminal site:
http://www.westportterminal.de/trestle.html
Good starting point.

[Ian MacMillan]

  I also still need to install the DCC buss wires and track feeders.  That's keeping me from painting the track, which, thankfully, keeps me from ballasting.

Whys that stopping you!? Just put painters tape 1" where you want to drop your feeders and then start painting track and ballasting!  Its what I've done several times, and again on my new layout as I had ran out of wire in the middle of the night, but still had plenty of energy to do more.