Alaskan Interior Railway: Tok Branchline

[AKNscale]

Not too much to report on the layout. First I changed out the ties on all the track endings:



Then I decided to do some wiring. I finished almost all of the main bus power wiring:

[AKNscale]

Nothing done on the layout tonight, however, some paint work happened. Thanks to great coaching, an awesome new tape, and me taking my time along with being picky, the black on my SD35 long hoods is done!







Next should be the cab and nose. And hopefully more wiring on the layout itself.

[milw12]

SD's are looking good! You'll have to share your secrets for masking, it's something I've never had much luck with.

Lucas

[AKNscale]

Thank you!

The secret is Tamiya tape(What worked really well this time was Tamiya's 3mm WHITE tape, it's more stretchy than the normal yellow which I believe helped it form better. The yellow is great too though because it changes color when "sealed" well.), a burnishing tool(I have a woodland scenics one), and what was taught by my excellent mentors, to take your time and make sure everything is sealed well and to your liking. Once you start painting, make sure you spray at a tiny bit of an angle upwards, it will prevent the paint from getting under the tape where it's not perfectly sealed(This is especially helpful when you've taped across details like doors, hinges, number boards, and the aggravating box that sits right behind the cab on the conductor's side.). What also helps is that you have a good mixture of paint to thinner as it can seep in under the tape if the thinner is too prevalent.

By no means am I an expert, but this is what I've learned since I was taught how to airbrush.

[AKNscale]

Hey y'all, I forgot to post last night. I did a little wiring, I almost finished the main bus:





Next I'll finish the last part of the main bus then move to laying the track permanently so I can wire it to the main bus.

[nickelplate759]

It looks like you're just screwing the terminal blocks to the underside of the foam. If so, how are you anchoring the screws?   
Or did you glue the terminal blocks to the foam and just use the screws to hold them in place while the glue dries

[AKNscale]

I did the latter, I used the same silicone I was using to lay roadbed to "glue" the blocks to the foam, then used the screws to help hold them in place.

Very little to report tonight. First I finished the last two wires of the main bus:



Then I added some roadbed to fill in where the throwbars were overhanging:



Once all of the support pieces are done I should be able to start securing track. I was originally going to use Atlas powered track connectors, but decided that making my own would be much better as I will make sure the wires are well hidden.
I also received my switchpilot and servos, so I'm pretty excited for when I'm done securing track!

[AKNscale]

Got a little bit done on the layout today so far. First, I drilled the holes for the switch rods and started securing track:



While securing track I put a set of drops in and tested the entire circuit and everything works beautifully:



The drops are under those joints.

[nickelplate759]

I'm having the dickens of a time trying to drill switch rod holes through 2" foam neatly.  The drill wants to wander all over the place.  Any pointers?

[AKNscale]

I've just been doing it by hand. I push the drill bit in the foam by hand probably 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch then start turning it with my fingers. It's been working pretty well so far.

I feel like I got some good progress in today considering I've been learning as I go. I have about 1/4 of the main and about 1/2 of the yard siding/lead secured:



I forgot to post this earlier, here are the servos I'll be running:



And the rest of the goodies for my switches:

[AKNscale]

Got back to it today! Not too much progress, but we'll see what I can bang out by the end of the day.

[AKNscale]

Ok, a little more progress while I've been sneaking away from family at random.

The first mainline curve is finished and power drops are wired in under the rail connectors. Now half of the 2nd main curve is done.



Here you're looking down the main by the yard(with the loco on it) which is secured, and to the right is the yard main siding and most of the yard lead which will be finished once I finish wiring the power drops.

[chuck geiger]

Can't wait to see the scenery. I've not seen AK RR modeled with prototypical scenery. It always looks
like ON3 Colorado. Best rep is how Dance does BC.

[AKNscale]

Me too, hopefully I'll be ready for scenery by next summer. The plan is to take a road trip to Tok right before I start so I can get some great photos and can hopefully model accurately.

So today I was able to get some more work in. Here's the curve heading into the Tok industrial area.


Here's the main and siding at Tok


This is where I stopped tonight. I finished curve 4 and am halfway through curve 3.


Once I get these 2 sections in the main will be complete!

[AKNscale]

Since I had some extra time waiting on my ride(We're driving out to an ops session) I figured I'd work on the layout.







And the main is complete!