Hidden Pass Junction RR < >

Lee,

 

Yes, the doors will stay as they are at least until I run out of things to do ()

 

The layout has a dual mainline throughout, with Ø108 and Ø99 curves spaced 4.5" center to center. The grades are 2% for the inner track and slightly less for the outer.

 

Thx!

 

Alex

 

 

Alex....

The doors turned out fantastic!!  I think they look fine just as they are....very nice job!

 

I will be getting in touch soon...

 

Alan

Very nice Alex. You continue to amaze me. Very nice quality work.

Alex, Thanks for your reply on the supports.

What size wood are you using for the supports?. Do you use the same width as the track support or have some relief? What are you allowing for width of the QB? Is the QBan 1" wider on each size? Thanks again Alex. Bill

Don, Alan -

Thank you for your kind words.

 

Popsrr,

Most of the supports were/are 3/4" plywood I had left over from other projects. Sort of an overkill, but a good place to use left overs, and they were stable. Others are 5/8" thick. I cut them the same width as the QB, about 8-1/4", as explained next.

 

The distance from outside tie outer end to inside tie inner end is 6-3/4” on my dual main. I cut the QB 1-1/2” over this, making it 8-1/4” wide. I angled the cuts 30° and that leaves about 7/16” from the tie ends to the QB edge on both sides.

 

A curved section: 

 

 

And a straight:

 

 

Hope this helps you, and do let us know how you end up doing it.

Thx.

Alex

Alex, Thanks for all the good info. Looking at your pictures is the "FABRIC" looking material sticking out past the tie a covering on the QB? What is your QG thickness? I never have seen it before. I assume Lowes or Menards would have it in saheets. Thanks for all your help.

"FABRIC" looking material" ??

 

That is just the QB surface, which I painted grey for the straight section, and left it black (as is) for the curved section.

 

The QuietBrace (a Temple-Inland product) is 1/2" thick. I have only seen it at Home Depot, but others may carry it. It is a sound-deadening material for buildings. It comes in 4' x 8' sheets and sells for $8-$9 per sheet. I couldn't find Homasote, so I used QB, and I am happy with it. (Ask Alan/leavingtracks about it - he has been using it for years.)

 

Alex

ALEX, THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP.

The Hidden Pass Junction Railroad has several tracks that join the two main sections of the railroad. These tracks are located behind the stairwell and hidden from the Control Center; hence the name of the railroad.

 

These hidden tracks can be seen and accessed from the service aisle (22 inches wide) and the lower level tracks are hidden from view for quite a span. The upper level tracks are readily visible, but I wanted to hide the short sections (about 4-ft) that are directly behind the stairwell, so I am building a mountain in this area.

 

The upper level tracks enter the mountain in two pairs from the west side, but all four are together on the east side and require a wide tunnel entrance. After considering several alternatives, I elected to use an eliptical-shape portal. NOTE: In the pictures below, North is down.

 

 The Hidden Tracks - Upper and Lower Levels:

 

Mountain location (red line) as seen from the west side. The three portals shown are for the lower level tracks.

 

The pink foam shows the location of the mountain as seen from the west east side.

 

The east side wide portal is done! Eventually, you will no be able to see as much of the far side through the tunnel.

 

Here you can see the stairwell closet.

 

 

This side of the mountain will be connected with the other side at the top.

 

As seen from a passenger riding the "L" train.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Alex

WOW Alex that is just awesome work,  I love the way that you built the mountain,

and the top above the tunnel portal is just beautiful. Alex you really should write

a how to book or make a video. You are a true professional,  and every morning when

I first sign on I look for your updates.

 

Thanks for sharing, Alex

Hey, Alex -

 

With as many pictures as I have been taking of the construction as I progress, your suggestion definitely is not out of the question. I would say that I post about 1 out of every 25 pictures I take, so there would be plenty to arrange in some sort of logical progress and to provide tips. But would there really be any interest?

 

Thx!

 

Alex

Finally finished the west portals and tied or connected the two halves of Hidden Pass Mountain. I like the west portals best.

 

 West Portals

 

East Side

 

West Side

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Alex

 

Alex It came out just beautiful.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Alex

Alex....

 

Got home to your e-mail with these pictures....your mountain and tunnels are very nice!  I like how you went with the concrete poured type of portals and especially the 3-D appearance of the West portals.  By the way, I will PM you either later tonight or tomorrow as far as what is coming up in June and the rest of the summer.

 

Alan

Thank you, Alex and Alan!

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

While I was waiting for the paint to dry on the mountain and tunnel portals (above posts), I started on Lake Chiemsee, which is the largest lake on the Hidden Pass Junction RR.

 

It is made of a piece of Aquatex glass (thank you Dennis Brennan) approximately 24” x 43” x 41” x 46” with just one right angle. I painted the bottom of the lake, the side of the glass with the most texture, Rust-Oleum Night Tide. I liked the Camouflage Green that Dennis and others have used for their harbor scenes, but since mine is a lake, I wanted a hint of blue, and the Rust-Oleum Night Tide fits the bill nicely.

 

Due to the somewhat trapezoidal shape of the glass (except it has no parallel sides) it is easy to slide it back about two inches out of the three-sided grooved frame, and lower it. I built two rails under the lake to rest the glass once it is slid out from its frame. The rails are about two inches lower than the glass.

 

[Click on pitures to enlarge] 

 

Lake Chiemsee almost finished (not done with details around the lake)

 

Another view

 

Glass slid out of the frame to become an access hatch

 

The 48X-size giant pops up to do detail work.

 

Frame detail and rail. The grooves on the frame are 3/8 deep and 7/32 wide (glass is 5/32 thick)

 

View of the frame at the front side.

 

Little by little, I'll get it all done . . .

 

Thanks for looking

Alex

Looks great. I really like Dennis Brennan's idea of using the aquatex glass to represent water, and I like the blue color you used more than the green color I've seen in other examples.

 

A suggestion for the details, to have some sort of small boat ramp to allow the canoes access to the lake. There could be a dirt road and a vehicle parked with a rack on top for the canoes, or even some people waiting and setting up a picnic.

trestrainfan -

 

Yes, I like this color too. And those are good suggestions for details around the lake. I have some Scenic Accents that I have used on my other lake, and will see if I can work similar details on this one, as well as what you suggested.

 

Thanks!

Alex

Added a few more "openings" on the East side. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

 

Made this timber portal out of left over pieces from the trestle.  

 

Steel H-Column reinforced 'hole in the wall' serves as observation point for O-Gauge operator, and as access for the railroad maintenance crew.

 

 

Road tunnel leading up to second level. Idea 'borrowed' from Alex Malliae.

 

Thank you for looking!

Alex

I love the tunnel portals!

Well done!

 

 

The use of the "water" as a "pop up access point" is fabulous!

 

Peter

Peter,

 

Interestingly, so far I have made eight tunnel portals (not counting the ones that consist of girders, beams and H-columns), and all are different!   I plan to make a video of trains running through these portals, hopefully starting today.

 

Yes, that access hatch (lake) has already come in handy a couple of times, and I suspect that it will be more so in the future.

 

Thank you for your nice comments!

 

Alex

Alex the tunnel portals look great and thanks for the nice comment

about the road tunnels. You also gave me so many idea's from your

layout. That's what makes this forum so great we all help each other.

Thanks very much, Alex

Alex,

 

"That's what makes this forum so great we all help each other."

 

Yes, I agree:  Like minds working together towards a common goal

 

Here is a more recent picture of Lake Chiemsee - not quite done yet, but looking better. 

 

Fantastic as usual my Friend!!

 

Alan

Alex, great pics, but you have to see it to believe it.  Thanks for inviting Rose and myself to see it in person.  Well worth the extra miles going to St. Louis.

Al

Al,

 

Thank you - you are welcome anytime!

 

BTW, I am just about finished with the Lake Chiemsee expansion and resort area - will be posting pictures soon.

 

Thanks again.

 

Alex

Alex, GREAT WORK!  You give me so many ideas, if I only use a small portion of them it will be a great benifit. You should do a how to video or book.

 Thanks for keeping us posted.

Mike,

 

Thank you for your nice comments. I have been taking pictures of what I do all along, about 2500 so far, and may look into what it would take to edit them and add some text to create a book.

 

Speaking of which, here are some pictures - four new ones and six from a few days ago. (Click on image to enlarge.) 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Alex

Alex, Great progress! I enjoy every post you have a super railroad.

Alex looks great. superb work.

 

Thanks,Alex

Ah yes...that last picture makes me want to jump in to cool off....it was 108 here today!!

 

Fine job as usual Alex....

 

Alan

Rich, Alex, Alan -

  

Thanks!

  

Well, I almost made it.

  

Yesterday would have been the first day since I started the layout 17 months ago that I would have not done anything to the layout, excepting the days I was not home, of course. All I had done up to dinner time was to run trains!

  

But after dinner, I happened to glance at the last area that was not ‘finished’, and just had to do it. It was another hatch that remained as an empty hole, it took a couple of hours to finish, and now I can say that all the ‘Heavy Construction’ is done.

  

All the track, basic wiring to the track and to the turnouts, (and a few accessories), all horizontal surfaces, all retaining walls and all tunnel portals are done. At least round one, that is.

  

Now I can concentrate on ballasting the rest of the track, adding the rest of the buildings, roads and ‘grassy areas; completing the street and other lighting, the train signals, and wiring the rest of the control panel.

  

When that is done – another year perhaps – I’ll get started on computer control.

 

 In the meantime, I’ll run some trains and take some videos.

 

 Thanks for looking!

 

 Alex

 

Alex, congratulations at reaching your 17 month checkpoint! Look forward to seeing all your updates.

 

Bruce

Thanks, Bruce!

I was planning on waiting until the 18th month, the year-and-a-half mark, to deem basic construction done, bit it came a litle sooner - probably because now I am retired!

 

Here are a series of pictures I took yesterday of the current completion of the layout. (25 pictures take a lot of room, so it would be just as easy to click on the first thumbnail, below, and advance from picture to picture.)

 

Next will be a video of a ride along the entire layout one time.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Alex

Looking mighty fine Alex!  I have enjoyed following the progress.

 

Steve A.

Impressive work Alex, especially the trestle span over land and water and all the different tunnel portals. Much to be  proud of.

Alex....a beautiful set of pictures of a world class layout!! 

 

Alan

How did I miss all this?? Amazing work sir!

 

Congratulations, Alex, on reaching this major milestone!  I can't think of a better way to spend time in one's retirement.  I only hope I'm blessed with the same opportunity in those years. 

 

I've got a HUGE project in the planning stages that I'll be soliciting feedback on shortly.  And watching your progress here (among a few other forumites as well) has been nothing short of inspirational.

 

Many thanks for sharing your adventures in O-Gauge trains with us.

 

 

David

 

P.S.  I think I recognized an Intermodal Crane from my forum sales earlier this year that made its way onto your masterpiece of a layout.  Glad to see it being used!

Steve, Dewey, Alan, SaabsndTrain –

 

Thank you for your comments; and as always, they are very much appreciated indeed.

 

David,

Yes, that is the crane I bought from you and it was a perfect addition. The Intermodal yard is one of the areas I have not detailed at all, but I will do so soon. I will have the crane operational, and plan to do an automatic cycle where it travels back and forth and raises and lowers a container, but will not drop or pick up a container; at least not automatically.

 

Thanks to all –

 

And Happy Independence Day!

 

Alex

I posted this video elsewhere in the forum, but it really should be here .



Thanks for looking!

Alex