The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[DKS]

Returning to trees, there was one species of tree I wanted to represent on the layout in an unambiguous way: paper birch. I spent over twenty summers in a cabin nestled in an enormous stand of paper birch, so I came to love the trees. To model them, I started with JJT gum trees, which I split apart, re-flocked, and painted, turning nine identical boring trees into 36 paper birch in the process.







Conifers presented their own problems: for starters, very few commercial pine trees are convincing. About the best are JJT's HO Scale blue spruce. But it would be costly to have large stands, so I restricted them to the Bearcamp camping area; it will only take 6-8 of them to populate the campground. Here are the first two:

[peteski]

Nicely done white birches. Not often seen modeled on train layouts.

[glakedylan]

yes...those white birch trees. super! as are the others. but my affinity for the white birch is that they are so very plentiful back home, where I grew up. it was as if they were the only trees that would grow in the coal saturated banks and vales. but, then, lots of good memories with regular birch trees. many in that surrounding area. it was a treat to pick off a small branch and chew the bark. good memories, thanks DKS for sharing!


sincerely
Gary

[DKS]

Thanks, gents. That's been on my always-wanted-to list since I got into the hobby.

[DKS]

Today I finished the control panel—including the throttles and power supply. Below, I've spilled the guts for all to see. The battery pack is held in place with a strip of Velcro.



The DB44 jack is mounted such that the plug neatly sits flush against the side of the box when connected.



The other end of the cable jacks into the layout.



I also continued work on the tunnel access. I didn't want to compromise the Gatorfoam trim piece that surrounds the whole layout by cutting a slot in it. So, I devised a series of panels that could be removed from above. They are labeled A, B and C, below.



To blend the panels into the rest of the scenery, I first placed plastic wrap under the panels.



Then I applied Sculptamold over the whole panel, working it up against the plastic wrap.



The Sculptamold is not especially strong where the edges taper, so I blunt the edges a little, then saturate them with dilute white glue to give them strength.



Above is the structurally finished A panel; below it's in place on the layout. Ground cover and other vegetation will disguise the edges, and (when finished) can be removed by simply lifting it up by a tree.

[CRL]

Have you considered adding a jack for a 3v wall wart power supply that could be plugged in for extended running that may otherwise exhaust the battery pack? If rechargeable batteries are used, may a little added circuitry could allow the wall wart to charge the batteries.

Just a thought… I’ll show myself out now.

[DKS]

Have you considered adding a jack for a 3v wall wart power supply that could be plugged in for extended running that may otherwise exhaust the battery pack? If rechargeable batteries are used, may a little added circuitry could allow the wall wart to charge the batteries.

Just a thought%u2026 I%u2019ll show myself out now.

It would be a little complicated. The layout requires four voltages: 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6, to power the various lights and animations in addition to the trains. I just use a four-cell battery holder and tap each battery to get the voltages. So, I'd need either four wall warts, or one 6V unit plus three voltage regulators.

[CRL]

[peteski]

It would be a little complicated. The layout requires four voltages: 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6, to power the various lights and animations in addition to the trains. I just use a four-cell battery holder and tap each battery to get the voltages. So, I'd need either four wall warts, or one 6V unit plus three voltage regulators.

That is a clever, yet simple solution, however I'm not a fan of it because the batteries discharge unevenly. Still, the simplicity can't be beat.

[DKS]

That is a clever, yet simple solution, however I'm not a fan of it because the batteries discharge unevenly.

The loads at the lower voltages are so trivial that, based on past experience, uneven discharge has not been a problem.

[DKS]

While organizing my prewired LEDs, I came across some unused warm white 0201 SMDs. These are the smallest commercial discrete LEDs made, and I really wanted to put them to use. Why not a car with working lights? I've done it often enough, except in this case the vehicles are early 1930s, so the headlights are all freestanding—a bit more challenging than normal.



I started by bonding a pair of LEDs to the faces of the headlight fixtures (above)—not ideal, but there weren't many options. Then I drilled #72 holes in the fenders for the wire leads, and bonded them right to the undersides of the fenders (below).



The single rear light is a red 0201 SMD LED (below). I had to special-order these from Germany.



Next, I wired the LEDs together with their resistors, so that I only had two wires leaving the car (below). The resistors just barely fit inside the carbody.



With all of that done, it was time to test the little guy.



Obviously the last step is painting the car, and that may prove more challenging than lighting it, given my shaky hands. As of this writing I have not yet chosen a spot for the vehicle.

[Chris333]

You're gonna need another plug going to the control panel 

[DKS]

You're gonna need another plug going to the control panel 

Nope. I'm using one of the building light circuits, of which I have 15.

[DKS]

Today I installed four lamps over doors. Clockwise, from top left: Augustine Passenger Station, Augustine Freight Station, enginehouse and yard office.

   

   

Still need to apply some touch-up paint. These things are tiny: warm white 0201 SMD LEDs fitted into Tichy N Scale lampshades.

   

[Point353]

It would be a little complicated. The layout requires four voltages: 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6, to power the various lights and animations in addition to the trains. I just use a four-cell battery holder and tap each battery to get the voltages. So, I'd need either four wall warts, or one 6V unit plus three voltage regulators.

Or, one 6V wall-wart and several rectifier and/or Zener diodes to drop the voltage down to 4.5V, 3V and 1.5V.