Seaboard Central 2.0

[wm3798]

If your viewing permissions are set to public, no one should have a problem seeing these.  I can see 'em fine.

I've been hunting for that setting since I got my new laptop.  Their help desk is silent on the subject, and there's no direct, intuitive way to get there from my 51 year old brain.

If there's guidance to be offered, I'd welcome it... but please, let's not clutter up Dave's layout with more of this conversational kudzu...

[davefoxx]

Well, that didn't go according to plan . . .



The railings came off easily enough, but I couldn't free the sidewalk/curb material.  After fighting with it, I damaged the styrene road surface beyond repair.  So, I then chose to try and get the girders free from the bottom of the damaged road section, but then I was left with a chunk of road that wouldn't release from the girders.  Oh, well.  Since I hadn't installed girders on the first bridge that properly represented prestressed concrete girders, I decided to peel the "steel" girders away, leaving what you see above.  The piers cleaned up easily enough, and, although its more work than I had hoped, I have a nice clean slate to build a better bridge.

DFF

[mu26aeh]

You have more gusto then I would have.  Looked good enough for me, not touching it. 

[sirenwerks]

Since you have to start over, I will speak up... one thing I noticed about the old bridge were the railings were too high.  I noticed it in the pic with the Fairmont in it.  The rule of thumb for bridge engineering seems to be place the railings at just around window height to kill the view from passenger cars, and yours seemed a bit high.  It was a beautiful bridge though and I know V2 will be even more fantastic.

[davefoxx]

Thanks, guys. Unfortunately, I can't go much farther this weekend on the road bridge or station projects,  because my order from MBK won't arrive until Monday.  Part of that order included Xacto blades, and I used up my last one yesterday.  Oh, well, that minor problem led to me looking for something else to work on.  How about some paint and ballast?

So, I finished the last six or seven feet of track on the A&R line between Aberdeen and the top of Bethesda Hill (near the trestle), including the siding:



I also didn't pay as close attention to neatness, since the A&R is not a Class 1 railroad.  I threw some fine ground foam in there for the weeds in the ballast and alongside the right-of-way.  This means that almost every lineal inch of track on the original HCD portion of the layout is painted and ballasted.  Progress!

DFF

[conrailthomas519]

Nice progress Dave!

[160pennsy]

Absolutely incredible!  You do such nice work.  Thank you!

DFF

davefoxx,

Additional progress has been made on your pine trees over the weekend. Some are in what I refer to as the "smurf stage" at the moment. Next updates should show them spray painted and with final steps - gluing on the static grass flock or ground foam...stayed tuned !

[Chris333]

Modeling Pandora?   

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dave, I want to say thanks for posting about ballasting, since it got me off my butt to start doing it myself.

[GimpLizard]

FYI...it's called a dial or digital caliper (all the cool kids  , n-scale modelers  & scratch builders  have em) ...Order online or pick one up while running around doing your other labor day sale shopping errands 

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-Digital-Caliper-with-SAE-and-Metric-Fractional-Readings-68304.html

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200629284_200629284

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-2-in-3-Mode-Digital-Fractional-Caliper-1467H/206007130

http://www.lowes.com/pd_190130-56005-1433_0__?productId=3138565

Okay, I know this is a rather late response, but I just got back from a weeks vacation. (Planned on going camping, but the weather sucked... of course.)

Anyway, I have a lot of experience with Dial/Digital calipers, having worked as a QC tech, and then a mold designer, for over 35 years. I would strongly suggest paying the money for a good one. Starrett, Mitutoyo, Brown & Sharp. Something along those lines. They may cost upwards of a $100, give or take, but they're well worth the money. They'll last a life time, if taken care of. Oh, and stay away from the cheap plastic ones. I've tried a couple. In my opinion, they're crap.

[160pennsy]

davefoxx,

Status update: I had a little spare time after work, so the "smurf stage" was short lived. Three of your sample pine trees have been spray bombed using big box store Rust-oleum brand....(**Click on the pictures to zoom in**)







The late afternoon sun shining in on my balcony allowed for some nice detail shots of the bark texture. I could have done a little better job applying the WS fine ground foam texture but hey, they're only samples right?







Now it's time to finish up the three newly painted pine trees with various shades of green 2mm static grass flock. This last step can get a little tricky and the trees end up looking like crap if the colors aren't right...patience !

[Iain]

@160pennsy I may try to make it back to NC for the Neuse Valley show; would like to see how you do the armatures for those trees.

@davefoxx I take it you're doing spring?  It's not brown enough for August.

[davefoxx]

@davefoxx I take it you're doing spring?  It's not brown enough for August.

@Iain,

Yes, I've decided to model spring.  However, all of the scenery installed so far, with the exception of the kudzu is merely a base coat and is not the final ground texture.  I intend to build or buy a static grass applicator at some point.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Over the last week or two, I was held up working on the styrene station and bridge projects, because I was out of #11 blades.  I bought some new blades last week, but I wasn't motivated to work on these projects.  This lack of progress, of course, was mitigated by actually running trains this week.

While operating the layout, I've come to the realization that the A&R's staging yard wasn't working out too well as planned and built.  Because the trains on the A&R usually average only six to seven cars, I had tracks that were too long and ended up as too much capacity.  The real problem was that the one stub track at the back was underutilized and the whole yard was inefficient.

Today, I had an idea that hit me from out of nowhere. If I took the two turnouts that created the crossover and rearranged them to allow for three double-ended tracks, I could switch A&R trains in the staging yard better.

Here's before: the yard at issue is the three-track upper yard.  Much of the track at this end didn't get used for storage.  The runaround worked well, but the other stubs were wasted track:


This afternoon, I tore out the track and cork roadbed far enough to create the new alignment.  The two turnouts are temporarily placed to calculate the length of the single stub track to be used for runarounds:


The cork roadbed is in:


The track is in:


Ta da!  Since this photo was taken, I even reinstalled the two slide switch turnout controls.  Finished!


What you're seeing in the following photo is the capacity needed per A&R train: approximately two locomotives and six to seven cars and a caboose.  That might seem like a lot of power, but remember that eastbound A&R trains, like the prototype, must climb the 3% Bethesda Hill out of Aberdeen:


Now, I will be able to take a train into staging, runaround, switch cars, and build a different train for running back westbound to Raeford and Aberdeen.

I'm sure that anyone following this thread is probably shaking his or her head at my constant reworking of track.  Unfortunately, despite my best planning, I learn best by actually operating the layout.  Sorry to once again clog up this thread with yet another track realignment project.

Have a great week,
DFF

[crrcoal]

........I'm sure that anyone following this thread is probably shaking his or her head at my constant reworking of track.  Unfortunately, despite my best planning, I learn best by actually operating the layout.  Sorry to once again clog up this thread with yet another track realignment project.

Have a great week,
DFF

I for one am enjoying how your are constantly reworking and improving the layout. Very cool how you are problem solving and making a great layout even better!