Laying Track

After many, many months of planning and building bench-work the first section of track has been laid on the Southern and Central. It's been an expensive month! I don't even want to total up what I have spent, but it's well over $500! Eek....shhhh, don't tell the Mrs.

The section in question is the main line leading into the (as yet unnamed) lower deck terminal. Due to the issues surrounding Atlas and their supply of code 55 flex track, I have been forced to use sectional track for now, which actually hasn't been the biggest problem in the world, though I do wish I was using Peco code 55 since it is available in large supply from nearly everywhere. Much of the track I have managed to get my hands on has come from the US; thanks to Ebay and NZ Post's excellent US post forwarding service that they offer.

Track and track-bed is secured using white glue, with pushpins used to temporarily hold the sections in place as you can see in the pictures below. Once dry the push pins are removed the track is nice and secure. In the past I have used track pins, but to be honest I found them more trouble than they are worth, and inevitable I end up make a fist of it. Glue is a little more permanent, but then I am not planning on moving anything (hopefully).

Track glued and held in position with pushpins.

I am wiring for DCC, which I will be controlling using an NCE Powercab (again, thanks Ebay, effectively half the price it would have cost me had I bought it in NZ).

I love the walk-around controller, and the face plate which I can easily plug it into! I will definitely get some more panels for the other modules. Because the controller is not hard wired, when I am not using it, it can be safely secured, an added bonus. I will eventually pick up a pocket that it will sit in and attach it to the fascia.

The uncovered holes on the fascias will ultimately be covered by small control panels for turnout control; I am going to use aluminium or acrylic panels and micro switches. I will detail that further when I install my first turnout mechanism, which is probably going to be a cobalt switch machine, since they come from Australia and are a damn site cheaper than tortoise. I am still mulling over whether I will use the DCC versions or just the standard versions. It doesn't seem practical to control these from the powercab, so the DCC version just seems like overkill to me, but for an extra $3 it seems a shame to not use those instead.

Desk fits snugly under module! Note the holes in the fascia.

My next post will detail the wiring process a little more, since by then my trains will be here and running! How exciting...

Completed Benchwork

After many weeks of bashing about in my garage, I can finally sit back and go ...phew!

All the benchwork for the Southern and Central (excluding the helix, which will be a project for next year) is now completed. Over the last couple of weeks I completed the 3rd module, which will model a fairly deep ravine and mountain side in the lower module and a bay in the upper module. 

Probably the biggest challenge was to get these modules to marry up, but with a bit of huffing and puffing they do, and pretty much perfectly, although I am not completely happy with the height of the upper valance, so in time I will add a wider valance.

The other issue I had to deal with was gradients. Because I wanted to get the lower deck main line as high as possible before reaching the helix module, thus eliminating some of the helix work, I used a gradient of about 3%, which isn't particularly high, but I didn't dare go any steeper than that. The branch line in the upper module has a gradient of about 4.5%, way too steep for any serious train lengths, but since it's a branch line I figured it would be ok. I plan for that line to connect to a coal mine or quarry.

While the plan is to now install these in the spare bedroom, I think before that I will start running the wiring beneath the layout, just because of the ease of access. I will be installing an NCE DCC system, so it's just a matter of running the bus wires underneath and adding suitable plugs and sockets between module. My next update will document how I've done that and hopefully will show the modules installed in my "train room"!

Backdrop

Sorry this is bit late, but took me longer than I had anticipated...that's becoming a bit of a theme I realize! My impatience to complete keeps writing checks that reality can't cash!

I am fairly happy with the completed backdrop, I think it came out well considering I have very limited artistic skills. All I can say is thank God for YouTube.

I thought I was ready to lay track, but my decision to go code 55 has bitten me on the bum, as Atlas have still not sorted out all of their manufacturing issues, in particular code 55 flex track is as scarce as hens teeth. I considered (briefly) going to Peco, but joining the pieces of Atlas that I have to Peco was going to be a pain as the rail profile is completely different.

So I guess for now I will probably start building the next module!

Short term I have some track, so I may start laying some of the yard track. I do want to draw out all the track and planned structures first, so that's something I will be doing over the next few weeks.

Better Late Than Never

Well it's been a lot longer that I thought between posts, but finally I thought it was time to report some progress!

I am still working in the garage which is not ideal, a bit too cold at this time of the year, so not as much has been accomplished, well not as much as would have liked.

The bench work for the first 2 modules of my layout is now largely completed. I say largely, because there are a couple of minor things that need to be done such as fit castors to the legs which I have been putting off!

I am currently working on getting the backdrop right and this has been an ongoing mission. You can see from the picture that I have some basic hill shapes and the little dots are trees, all individually stamped with foam rubber cutouts. I still have a lot more trees to do, and I would love to get some clouds up on there. My intention was for it to just be a basic blue background, but it was not at all satisfactory so I have been teaching myself some rudimentary painting skills. I think it looks ok, though the picture does not do it justice, so I will take a couple of close up images next week and post them.

The other thing which I have completed is the coved corners, after all the world does not have corners! If you are wondering how I achieved it, well it was easy in the end. Some think cardboard, glued with contact adhesive and plastered over to hide the seam as much as possible. I think it came out as best as could be hoped and certainly looks a hundred times better than it was. I found the corners cast weird shadows that just ruined the effect!

By the way, the gap in the middle of the picture is where the modules join, can't be helped!

Over the next few weeks I will get the painting completed, the castors fitted and make some adjustments to the base itself for where there is a slight gradient (which I really should have planned for a lot earlier). Once that's done, I should finally be able to sneak the whole lot into the house....though now I am thinking about building the 3rd module since I am on a roll!

My Rant

Time for a bit of a rant...and this is directed entirely at local hobby shops in New Zealand...though it might also apply to other countries.

I love this hobby, it's a lot of fun, but boy oh boy do I worry about its future. Every train show I go to I see less and less young people, of course what this means is there are less and less opportunities for products to be purchased, so hobby stores stock less, and ultimately manufacturers build less and sell at a higher price. It's a bit of a downward spiral.

So here is where the rant comes in. I walk into my local hobby shop, there are cars, planes and even boats hanging from the ceiling, but alas where are the trains? Well they are locked away from prying hands in cabinets and cupboards; there's no working layout, nothing, nada, zip....and I see this in nearly every hobby store I go into in this country. Hanging stuff off of your roof is fine when you want to put it somewhere after you've bought it, but pretty much useless if you're trying to sell it.

Wake up hobby stores! You are competing against Xbox, PlayStation and iPads! You are competing against a vast sea of competition online and most of all, you are doing the hobby a massive disservice. You need to make the products you sell more tactile, more exciting. Locking them up in cabinets is all fine and good to stop them being stolen, but then you might as well not unpack them at all from the shipping cartons!

My local store changed hands a few years back, the new owners clearly have little interest in model railroading...I know this, because whenever I visit, the owner is plonked down behind the counter working on (I assume his) remote controlled cars. I'm yet to ever see him actually out in front of the counter providing that invaluable thing called service and not once, ever has he smiled or uttered a single greeting as I entered. Is it any wonder then that I prefer to purchase online...not from them mind you, because this store (along with a good number of other hobby stores in NZ) deem the internet unworthy of their presence. Don't even get me started on the rampant overcharging...that's a whole new post in itself.

Before anyone says, "What do you know!", well I speak from experience. Before entering the dizzying, often confusing world of IT, I spent 20 years working in, managing and eventually owning my own retail stores and I now spend my days building eCommerce sites for retailers.

I, unfortunately, see a day when this hobby is but a distant relic of the past (as will be the little local hobby store) unless more effort is made to modernize and connect. Sadly, this is not a problem solely owned by hobby stores, but by nearly every niche retailer in existence. If you're going to run/own a retail store then you need to go and take a course at your local community college; customer service 101.

You all have this amazing point of difference...cool toys...every little kids dream! So use that point of difference, get the stuff out on display and get it working.

Heres a few ideas:

• Build a small portable layout. Kids (and adults) will watch trains running for hours!
• Hold regular work shops, designed especially for kids where they can come in and experience the real world instead of the virtual world. Show them how to build a model aeroplane, run a train, fly a plane...the options are endless!

... and lastly (and probably most importantly) stock some entry level stuff, cheap and cheerful, the sort of stuff that will pique interest without breaking the parents banks.

Painted Module

I ummed and ahhed, and researched and read a lot about painting the background. In the end I decided to go with a simple light blue with wisps of white, representing clouds. Long term I may continue to add to the background with photo images and building flats, but for now I am quite happy with the way it came out. I'm a big believer in less is more, and I don't really want people to be looking at the background scenery anyway, so low key and believable is what I want.

The baseboards received a coat of flat light brown latex paint, eventually it will be hidden under ground cover, and whatever else gets plonked down, so won't matter too much. I will use the same brown to make a wash with for use later on.

I gave the benchwork a coat of black semi gloss latex paint, mainly because I wanted to really frame the two levels, and I think it is very effective. I've seen greens and browns used, but for me black, really draws the eye into where the action is happening. Once flouro lights are installed above the levels I think it will look really dramatic!

One thing I will say...wow, the price of paint! So to keep the cost down, I scrounged old leftover paint (thankgod for people who paint their kitchens sky blue...yes, you know who you are!) and purchased test pots, which is a much more cost effective option.

Painted module.

I may not post much over the next few weeks as I will be building the second module, and this will largely be a duplicate of what I have already written. Winter is on the way, so it will be a mad rush to get done so I can spend the cooler months inside.

Completion of Yard Module Benchwork

So I got down to work this Easter weekend and have managed to get both the background boards and base boards into position. I've also filled the joints and given the whole thing a sanding, ready for some paint in the next couple of weeks.

I went with fairly lightweight MDF, 4.5mm for the backboard and 6mm for the base. It's a bit too heavy for the backboard, but I need the extra stability that it gives. That's going to cause some issues in the corners, since I want the backdrop to be curved, so I think I will end up using some card stock to provide the curve or find some other way of disguising the harsh edge, if I bother to curve it at all, seen some really effective backboards online that aren't curved, just well disguised, so I'm not 100% sure yet. I will experiment with some different materials and methods. The base is made from a heavier, 6mm MDF, although on reflection I could probably have easily gotten away with using the lighter 4.5mm stuff for that too.

Completed module.

I also made sure that I drilled some decent sized holes through the underneath beams on each deck, wide enough to hold the bus wires for track power and any other accessory power I am going to need. I haven't really planned that very well, other than knowing I am going to go Digital Command Control, track wiring is very much up in the air, so best thing is to plan for the unknown. Overall I am pretty happy with my efforts, considering my rather amateur woodworking skills!

hmmmm...I'm thinking I might make the second module, before the weather packs it in and it gets too cold for me to want to work in the unlighted, unheated garage, plus it will be a heck of a lot easier to ensure perfect alignment while they can be moved around easily. My next post probably won't be until next month, and hopefully it will be to display a painted (including backdrop....eeek) module.

Southern And Central Module One

I began the bench work for this module a couple of weeks ago, which I knew from the outset was going to involve a lot of trial and error, which was okay for the first module as it really was going to serve as a template for the next ones.

I wasn't sure what it was going to look like, other than some really rough sketches, or how it would behave structurally, since I am certainly no engineer. All I know is it has to be lightweight and look relatively professional. My carpentry skills are fairly weak, I know my way around a cordless drill and a spirit level, but when it comes to putting it all together it can be a bit hit and miss. My advice to anyone doing this, is not to get to bothered and just give it a go! Buy the cheapest lumber you can to start with, and be prepared to throw some of it away. Making mistakes is the best way to learn, and I'm damn good at learning!

This module will cover both levels for expediency, though only the bottom level will actually be modeled..I am going to use the top level for other "toys" in meantime. As an aside, the top level will have a harbor scene, hence the cutout in the front, this will be the quayside.

The lower level will contain the majority of the yard, there won't be much operational use to start with but it will be great for displaying the rolling stock I have and as a test bed for my modelling skills. I am looking forward to unpacking all of my equipment!

There are no names for yard or town yet, so I do need to start having a creative think about that. In the meantime my railroad is known as the Southern and Central, just because I liked the name and it's ambiguous! I don't want to get tied down to any particular geographical region.

The picture I have posted shows the module along with the size of the lumber...so I don't forget when it comes time to build the next module! What I have discovered is that at 1.3 m wide (which is how wide it needed to be to fit over my desk) is really inconvenient when it comes to buying pre-cut lumber!!!!

Layout Planning

When it comes to layout design, I work on the principle that plans are meant to flexible and changing, I don't like to be tied to them too much and after awhile I get bored senseless with the process anyway. As far as a layout plan giving me a sense of scope, and more importantly, an end goal, they are invaluable.

Knowing what I wanted and where I wanted it to go meant I would have to deviate from the layouts I had made in the past; no more square layouts, no more trains running in circles. I decided that a shelf layout would be perfect; it would minimize the amount of room I consumed and make portability less of an issue. Having said that I still needed it to be freestanding, and easily dismantled when the inevitable time comes for us to move house.

With my requirements in mind, I sat down with Atlas's model railroad planning software, Right Track and started playing with different layout configurations. I rapidly came to the conclusion that my shelf layout was not going to satisfy my sense of empire, sure there would be a nice main line run, and some switching action, but no real sense of trains traveling anywhere, and not much chance for long trains to run. I also wanted a number of different scenes:

1. A city or town scene
2. An industrial scene
3. A harbor scene
4. A yard scene
5. A viaduct scene.

All that over 2 walls of a spare bedroom, not much more than 12 inches wide...I don't think so!  I was going to need a least twice the space, at least.

The words "multi", "level", "shelf" sprang to mind, as did "terrified" and so I that was where my planning ended up, a two level layout, connected with a helix of some kind. The plan below is a pretty rough early draft of what I wanted to achieve. It's safe to say, since that draft the plan has changed a bit, and I will endeavor to get a shot of the newer plan up in my next post. I haven't done any planning of substance for the second level, since I figure that's quite awhile away, all I have is a rough idea.

What this does give me is plenty of main line running for nice long trains, some interesting switching and yard action, a turntable (which I've always wanted), a small branch line and scope for some scenic areas such as a viaduct i'm planning on building on the left hand side. With the second deck added i'll get some nice distance for my trains to run!

... so that's pretty much it as far as planning goes. In my next post i'll catch up to where I currently am, which is building the first modules (the yard area in the top right) bench work.

The Southern And Central: An Introduction

After many years of procrastinating, designing and redesigning I have finally taken the plunge and begun to build my N scale model railroad.

This blog will be my record of the process, stages and steps that I go through and with luck (and my motivation to write the posts) will go on for many, many years!

To start with I am going to briefly document the planning process. I say briefly because I don't recall a lot of it, it has taken so long! Once that's done my posts will reflect my current stages of work, so since I have a bit of catching up to do, I had better get on with it!

The planning stage really was broken down into a couple of different stages. I needed to work out where the railroad was going to go and therefore how much space I had and what and when I was going to model and then finally some rough (and I mean very rough track plans).

WHERE

This is not my first layout, and in the past I have been tied to my garage, which was always fine during the summer months, but not so good in the winter, also being so far away from the rest of the house, meant I didn't venture out to operate my trains nearly as much as I should have. So this time I decided I wanted to be indoors in the warmth and comfort. Surprisingly it didn't take as much convincing of my partner as I thought it was, and so with promises of keeping it small (yeah right) I pinched the spare bedroom.

There are downsides to this though.

1. It's a shared room and when we have guests they need to be able to sleep in it without banging their heads, electrocuting themselves or tripping over in the middle of the night and breaking a train..erm...their legs. Keeping the layout small and relocatable will prevent any major injuries.
2. Space is limited and needs to be flexible, so any layout will need to be relatively portable.
3. I have to keep the room in relatively the same condition I found it in, not only because it's a shared room, but because we rent the property and I don't think the landlord would be impressed if he was to find walls with huge holes in them and carpet with paint stains everywhere. Again making the layout portable so messy work can be done elsewhere seems like a good plan.

WHAT AND WHEN

As mentioned above, I am not entirely new to Model Railroading, my obsession having started when I was a boy and my father began the hobby. Over the years I have dabbled, having built a couple of not so successful layouts. I gave up on the whole thing a few years ago and am now coming back to it, a little older and hopefully a little wise. The one lesson I have most definitely learned from my experiences is that the most important ingredient to enjoying the hobby is to have patience. These are not train sets to be set up and run within 5 minutes of opening the box!

My past endeavors have always revolved around American equipment and scenery, mainly because here in New Zealand US equipment is readily available and relatively inexpensive, also its not that expensive to buy directly from the US and have it shipped here. I also lived in Northern California for a short period about 10 years ago, so I have an affinity for that part of the world.

As for when, well I don't want to get too tied down to any particular time period, but the obvious route is to keep it within the 1950's to 1970's, which I think is far more interesting that a more modern period.

What I aspire to create....

...my next post will cover off the decisions I have made about the layout plan.