Grand Trunk Southern

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The third area requiring some scenic attention was the gap between the northbound main and the helix yard.  Troublesome job because I only had about 2 1/2 inches of horizontal space to work with and about 3 1/2 inches of vertical space.  A challenge to be sure.  This photo shows some rock castings sitting in place to give me an idea of what I might be able to do.  Also, if you look in the upper right of this photo you will see a number of black and white photos taped to the wall.  This is how I begin constructing a backdrop.  I didn't want to replicate the one I had used since I had utilized is entire length and seeing the same rock face again wouldn't work.  I found another LARC backdrop that I thought I could blend in.  Step one is to print each page in black and white.  I only needed 4  1/2 of the 12 pages of this particular backdrop but I print all 12 and then find the 4-5 consecutive ones that blended best.  Once I have them selected I will get only those ones printed in colour at the Printers on my full page Avery Label sheets.   In the second photo you can see the colour labels attached to the wall and I'm happy with the ones I selected and the manner in which I blended them in.    In that corner you can also see the beginnings of some scenery to fill the corner behind the yard.

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In this post the photos will show the area between the yard and return loop and the backdrop and how  finished it off. 

The photo below shows the staging yard with the new backdrop on the wall bumpout behind it and the scenery I placed in front of it to blend them all together.  I was only working with between 1 inch and 2 1/2 inches of horizontal space so creativity was the order of the day.  The narrowest portion, just under 1 inch of space is where I utilized the Chooch retaining wall.  I had started to fill the corner with green space when I remembered I had a bunch of houses I wasn't using and I placed one of them in trees.  I quite like the effect.  Once all of the scenery is finished I will be putting a finished piece of wood on top of that half wall. 





This next series of photos show the remaining parts of the space between the track and the backdrop and how it was scenicked.

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Two photos showing the scenic treatment of the small gap between the northbound main and the staging yard.





Moving past the narrow areas we reach where the return loop is circling back to the wall.  This will be a farm scene.  At this time it is occupied by base scenery and nothing else.  I have a number of thoughts including a cornfield when Buford Shops runs there green corn fields again this fall. Grandson #2 Nathan is going to be an active participant in this scene. 



If you remember that photo of the pull out scenery section which was a wall of pink foam, this is how it is beginning to look with some static grass. rock castings, and trees.



In this photo we see Train #263 northbound on the mainline while Erie Lackawanna northbound transfer waits to enter the main from the Helix staging yard.

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This overall view shows how the new staging yard fits into the layout. 



I also started work on the area between the yard and the backdrop at the south end of the Clarion staging yard throat.  This was done recently and it is a work in progress.  Here are a couple of photos showing progress to date.  You can also see from the pink foam that I am moving into the yard itself with scenery.  My philosophy with scenery is to work from the backdrop forward so my goal right now is to get all of the scenery in the background finished. 

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As a finish to these posts on the new staging yards, here is a photo of the engine terminal that is being constructed a the south end of the yard.  It is under construction and while the engine house will remain, most of the other structures are just stand in stuff I had laying around.  It has enhanced the operations of the yards considerably.  As you can see from all of these photos there is a lot of ballasting in my future.

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Having made some headway on the staging yards, I decided I would tackle the small town of Gavinsport.   When I laid this out I hadn't given any thought to how I would get buildings into the mix.  The trackplan was to all intents and purposes a switchback leading to a large industry behind the bridge.  Uncoupling cars while leaning over a bridge wasn't one of my brightest ideas.  A full rebuild of this town was necessary.   The photo below shows the original track design as it existed around 2020.

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I didn't take any photos of the new track layout unfortunately, however, I changed the plan to provide for 5 small industries in the town.  One of them would be located on the far side of the main and would be a coal dump.  This would necessitate changing the contour of the existing hillside.  What will follow is a series of photos illustrating how that was accomplished.

The photo below shows the roughing in of the coal dump.  Pink foam build up.  The wall was created from flexible Chooch walls glued to 1/8 inch hardboard to give it rigidity. 



Behind the coal dump, the contour of the hill was changed by using bits and pieces of foam that were left over from other projects.  Like most model railroaders I never throw anything out, I've got a box full of bits and pieces.



In this section and old piece of cardboard is added to the build up.



I added some cardboard formers and more small pieces of foam.  A rock casting has been put in place. 



I fill the gaps with any handy including pieces of foam or scrunched up newspaper.

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My next step is to cover everything with masking tape, which also gives me a good picture of the contour that has been created and if I'm not happy, now is the time to make changes. 



Plastering and adding any additional rock castings takes place



I started to form the back wall for the coal dump



The plaster is covered in a base coat of latex paint.  Quite often while the paint is wet I will add an additional coat of dirt or grass.  In this case I chose not to.



My next step was to start applying washes to the rocks. 

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The road to the coal dump would be a dirt road.  The subroadbed was created using cork roadbed glued in place and then covered in plaster.





The road was painted with the latex paint.



The next step was to apply a sandy coloured grout to the road.  Finish the scenery around the edges and install the grade crossings.

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In this photo I have covered the backdrop with sheets of paper and I have been putting static grass on the hillside.  I installed the rear retaining wall and am in the process of adding some trees and shrubs.  You can see where the trucks have dropped coal in the dumping area. 



In this photo we see the installation of greenery on the hillside and 3 cars in the loading area.  In the background you can also see that I installed the bridge abutments.

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With buildings removed, this shot gives you a sense of the new trackplan.



In this picture you get a sense of what it will look like with buildings in place.  Again, I am doing scenery from the background to the front so the next step will be to do the area on the front side of the tracks. 

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Continuing on the trend of of addressing issues which I wasn't 100% happy with, I decided to confront the problem of control panels.  There were some problems with the way I designed the panels I was using.  I had contacted cemented the triangular sides of the panel to the hardboard fronts and over time, 4 or 5 years, I found that the sides either fell off of their own accord or they could be easily knocked off if someone hit the panel.  The easy solution was several screws on each side to hold the sides in place.  No one ever remarked on it but I saw them and felt them to be unsightly.  You can see them here.



On the one positive note about this panel design, I was extremely happy with the process of designing the panel on my computer and then having it custom printed, again on Avery 8X11 labels and attaching them to the panel.  They had stood up reasonably well and allowed for multi-colours and easily readable printing. 

If the sides following off had been the only problem, I would probably have left the panels alone since goodness knows there is enough to do when you are building a layout.  However, I also had occasional problems with one of the wires attached to the switches being knocked off if someone hit the panel.  The quick release attachments I use are pretty tight on the switch posts so I am not entirely clear how that happens but suffice to say it did. This raised the final and most troubling problem.  The design of these panels required you to lift them from the bottom up making working on them very difficult and requiring a contortionist.  Here is a view of one of the panels lifted to work on it.  You will also notice the panel to the right where one of the triangular sides has fallen off and I haven't replaced it yet.



It was time for a new design.

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In looking at what issues I had to address with the new panels, I had the following requirements.  One, they had to be more robust than the previous iteration.  i.e. better constructed.   Two, they had to be easier to work on.  I wanted to be able to sit in a chair and do any wiring or changes to a panel.  Three, the wiring of the panel had to be such that wires could not come lose, but I still wanted quick disconnects not soldered wires.  Four, I wanted to continue to use computer generated track plans for the panel.  In that regard, my operators had complained about the need for 4 panels in the yard.  This was mainly due to the restrictive size of the labels I was using to print on. I went and talked to the printer and explained what I was trying to accomplish.  They told me about this "plastic paper" which came in a 16X20 size and could be cut to whatever size I needed and that I could print multiple panels on the same sheet to reduce waste.  The total cost per panel was in the $3 to $4 apiece range.  This was a product I'd never heard of so I was tickled to discover it.  That brings me to my new rule, if your working on something you know nothing about, talk to some who does.  It's amazing what you find out.  Sounds simple but we forget it so quickly.  Anyway, I digress.  Job one, build the structure of the new panels. 

The new panels are constructed of #1 pine with 1/2 inch plywood on the rear.  The panels are in two pieces with a base attached to the layout with bolts through the fascia and then a front panel attached to the base with a piano hinge at the bottom.  To open and close the front panel there is a latch and chain system.  If someone bumps into these panels it will not be the panel which is damaged. 

The photo below shows the prototype for the base and the front panel.  This one subsequently was used since you one triangular side had been cut accurately, but it does show what the construction looks like.



In this next photo we see the front panel to which the track plan has been attached.  This panel represents the north end of Clarion Yard and replacing two existing panels.  You will notice the drilled holes for the switches.  This turned out to be the one challenge when it came to dealing with the "plastic paper".  Next time I am at the printers I will find our exactly what this product is called, in any event, the young lady who recommended it said it was durable, washable, and when I enquired about punching holes in it she said it was pretty indestructible so that could be a challenge.  I had them print up a couple of panels and asked to have the scraps from the cutting so I could experiment with putting holes in it.  My first thought was a leather punch.  They would compress the paper but it took a lot of effort, wiggling and sometimes damage to punch through.  That wasn't the solution.  With the labels, I had used a drill bit and that worked well, so I tried a drill bit, it too would damage the paper.  My son in law is one of those individuals who can fix, repair or build anything so I talked to him and asked for suggestions.  His recommendation, try a Forstner bit.  I'd never heard of one but went and purchased the 1/4 bit and voila, we had a winner.  Using a soft finger on the drill the Forstner bit went through the "plastic paper", and the hardboard, with  nice clean cut.    The "plastic paper" trackplan was attached to the hardboard with spray glue. 

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This photo shows the panel put together with the hardware attached.



It was time to move on to the actual wiring.  In the previous panels I had wired directly from the tortoise to the switch.  I thought that tension on the wires might partially be to blame for the odd detached connection.  This time I wouldn't cut corners and I would install terminal strips in the panel and wire from the tortoise to the terminal strip, then from the terminal strip to the switch.  You can see this in the photo below of an installation in progress.  You can also the bolts attaching it to the fascia.  Importantly, as I was doing this wiring job I was sitting in a chair not on the floor with my neck cranked around looking up.  You can also see how the latch and chain system works.



In this final photo you see the completed panel installed and fully functional.  As an interesting aside, this photo angle makes it look like the panel is resting on the benchwork of the staging yard.  In actuality there is 6 inches between the bottom of the panel and the benchwork of the staging yard.  All in all I removed 9 panels and replaced them with 6 new ones.  The panels have now been in operation for around 18 months and the operators for the most part are happy with them.  I still am having some confusion issues with the one yard panel an so I am considering adding LED lights to indicate which track you are throwing the switch to as a way to alleviate that.  I'll keep you updated moving forward.

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Last week I was impressed by Bendtracker1’s photo’s of the weathering of his Rock Island units on his The Little Rock Line thread.  I commented on his post and he was kind enough to drop me a line and in that conversation it came out that he was using PanPastels for weathering.  Interestingly, I too had begun to experiment with using PanPastels for weathering and as I do this series of update posts, I was going to do one on using PanPastels to weather some of the cars in the fleet.  Due to the usual fears of screwing it up, I had been shying away from weathering my locomotives,  however, on learning that Allen had got his impressive results with PanPastels and realizing that they had a lot of forgiveness from my experiences with freight cars, I am going to give it a shot sooner rather than later.    So far I have weathered in the range of 100 cars or so, about 20% of the fleet on the layout.  I also upgraded the entire fleet to MicroTrains trucks.  I was tired of Accumates separating in the helix.   The photos below are some examples of the outcome of the weathering process.

In this photo we see 7 different types of cars used in a variety of services.  These were all weathered using PanPastels.  The GT covered hopper is in loose cement service while the LNE boxcar is in bagged cement service.



In the photo below we can see two GT hoppers that are used in cement service.  The hopper on the left has been weathered. 



Again in this photo we can see the difference between a weathered and an unweathered car.  The car on the right is in the midst of the weathering process.



This photo compares commercial weathering to self done.  The GN car on the left is a factory weathered Microtrains car.  The car on the right was done by my eldest grandson Ethan.