Oct 11 Road Crossings, Stone Wall and Power Drawers
It has been a while! I enjoyed the BRHS convention in St Louis last weekend, and especially enjoyed meeting @CB+Q Bill at the event. It has been a beautiful summer and I am intimidated by scenery, so my progress has been slow. I enjoy the carpentry and wiring and laying track - but a lichen tree to me is like garlic to Dracula. Hopefully by plowing ahead and making the requisite mistakes I will get over it and some day enjoy the scenery process. But if not at least make a more natural background to the trains, which I think really does enhance the fun ultimately.
Below shows roads made from Durham's Water Putty mixed with flat black paint - the color is not consistent which I'll mute later; crossings inside the track from black foam board painted grey and cut to fit, and preparation for trees along the back walls. I plan to put trees and lichen filler in front of the brown painted areas.
Next photo shows the paper stone wall on the incline leading to the double track tunnel / up to St Joseph. Keep in mind all of this will be limited view angle - Marceline above will result in 14" overhead clearance. I need to get scenery done in the deep pockets of the Industrial Park so I can put up Marceline and get the Disney loop operational before Christmas! I can go back later and add scenery to the easier-to-reach areas of the Industrial Park.
Next photos show a homemade Power Drawer for transformer and power controls. I cut 3/16" wide x 1/2" deep slots in 1x2" boards using a table saw, then trapped a piece of hardboard in the slots. Glue and 18ga brad nails secure the frame joints. There will be a Power Drawer for the Industrial Park (shown), Marceline, and then larger Power Drawers - one each for the upper and lower levels in the main layout area. The thought is they won't need to be touched that often if running 14V and remote controls - but if I want to run conventional then I will isolate a portion of the layout and be able to pull the appropriate drawer out and vary the voltage to the track using the local transformer. Each Power Drawer will be supplied by its own power strip plugged into a dewinwils remote control outlet. (Thank you @gunrunnerjohn) Also shown is a dimmer switch next to the transformer - to dim the LED light strip that will be mounted underneath Marceline to shine on the Industrial Park.
Hope to have more updates soon! Progress will be interrupted on Oct 25 for the building of "Gobblin' Gulch RR at Lava Falls" - this year's log-dump-car-candy-delivering-temporary-model-rr in the garage. Then interrupted again because I'm putting together an around-the-tree Lionel display for my 84-yr old father-in-law, whose trains were sold by his father without his permission or knowledge. Until next time!
