"Kung Hei Fat Choi! Congratulations and be prosperous!"

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Congratulations and be prosperous!  Another year has past and today a new lunar year starts!  Unfortunately it starts with me coming down with a double whammy of bronchitis (or as those of us who attend the big Amherst Railway Society Show each January call it the dreaded Springfield Plague) and conjunctivitis (pink eye)  so let's say I'm not off to a stellar start for the new year.  But as the Dr. (who is Chinese) put it today, this will be the first and last time for me being sick this year.  Let's hope she's right. ;)

Anyway, from our family to yours, we wish you Happy Chinese New Year!  Kung Hei Fat Choi! Congratulations and be prosperous!

Shakedown?

Happy New Year everyone!

I've been working on fixing a lot of "little" problems on the layout that would add up to be big problems during an op session, with an eye towards having a shakedown op session (or as Marty calls them "Sea Trials") to see what other bugs pop up and need to be fixed.  One thing that was a consistent problem was a lot of the sidings had slight grades on them.  Unless I leveled them out, I would need some kind of "hand brake" system to hold cars in the sidings.  So, I've spent the last week going over each siding, testing with a torpedo level and a free rolling car, and fixing the siding when needed.  Mission accomplished on that job.

It took quite a bit of sanding and or shimming to get each siding level.

Another one finished.

The Knisely Coal siding needed some shimming to level it out.  You can see in this picture just how bad this particular siding had become.

As I found problem sidings, I marked down there location and once done, marked that they were OK.

Success was not only measured by the torpedo level showing level, but also by parking a car or two on the siding to make sure it didn't roll away.

Another problem found during some test running was two turnouts had rail that let loose from their PC ties close to the frogs.  So I used my NMRA gauge and spiked them down to fix the problem.  I was afraid if I tried to heat up the PC tie up to re-solder the rail, the other rail might let loose.

Spiking down the problem rail.

Another thing that needed to get done was to paint the fascia on the helix, install the sign for Yoe, and the throttle plug.

Last thing accomplished this week was to lay the track on the portable active staging modules.  I just need to devise how I'm going to attach them to the layout during op sessions and build some detachable legs too.

One finished, one to go.

Both staging modules with all track installed.  I just need to put in feeders, bus wires with a plug to connect power to the main layout, and detachable leg system.

I'm hoping to schedule a shakedown op session for sometime in February.  I can't wait to see how it goes! :)

Merry Christmas!

"I knew I should have used a Woodland Scenics tree instead."

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours! 

 

This latest delay in construction has been brought to you by...

I've been to busy getting married to my best friend and soul mate Amy. ;)

Me and the Love of My Life!

Layout progress will resume.. Sometime.. ;)

Dressing up the Helix..

The latest progress made on the layout has been to finish up installing the last of the fascia and valance, which needed to be installed on the helix.  A couple of problems were causing me to put this off: I had some 3/16th Masonite that I had cut down and spliced together to form the fascia, and I tried to install it one day when a few of the guys came over.  But the stresses from the bend I was trying to make the pieces go around caused the joints to fail, much to the amusement of my helpers.  I had to rethink what to do here.  Eventually I settled on going with thinner Masonite and this time I managed to get it installed (without any help from the peanut gallery). 

Here is a the helix with the fascia, valance and backdrop installed and painted.

The valance presented another problem:  How do I get the valance up without support from up above?  The solution was to buy small angle brackets and attach short pieces of 1x2 wood to them, then secure them to risers that support the backdrop.  I then used left over pieces of curved plywood from helix construction to form the proper radius to match the bottom deck fascia/valance and attached that to the 1x3 angle bracket combo. 

Here we see the curved plywood/angle bracket combo used to form the valance radius.

Next up was to figure out how to get the black foam-core to bend smoothly.  The answer was to lightly score the back of the foam-core at one inch intervals.  That created enough flexibility to bend the foam-core smoothly to the desired radius.

The valance came out good and the curve looks very smooth, no kinks at all.

 Last up was to paint the previously installed vinyl flashing backdrop.  I used the same method used on all the other backdrops. 

Blue hazy skies.

With some black paint for the fascia, and signage installed, the helix will look as good as the rest of the layout. :)

"Action is the foundational key to all success."- Pablo Picasso

The dust has settled and I can say without a doubt the rebirth of the NJ Layout Design/Operations Sig joint meet was a great success!  Over 100 people attended the meet and everyone had a great time!  To think it was conceived and started to be planned just 3 months prior is amazing.  Check out the website for a wrap up and some pictures taken at the meet.

http://www.hansmanns.org/ld-op-nj/index.htm

Now, as for progress on the layout:  Nothing spurs you into action to get stuff done like a hard deadline.  My layout, along with 10 others, were to be on the day two layout tour, and I pushed to get some major things done to make it look better.  Valances, the Sign-O-Matic signs, and the remaining LED lighting were installed. 

Keeping with my mantra of using lightweight materials to build non-permanent parts to the layout, I bought 3 of these black foam-core tri-fold project boards from AC Moore and Michaels.  Using their 40-50% off coupons I got these for around $9-$10 each and had more than enough material after separating the 3 boards for all of the valance.

I fastened the short section valance to the low hanging ceiling (there is duct work at that spot) using 3M Velcro Command Strips.  The LED strip was attached to the ceiling.

For the main section of the layout I used 1x3s fastened to the studs.  I used small pieces of 1x3 to make a "T" at the edge where the foam-core would be fastened.  I used black drywall screws to fasten the foam-core to the "T" sections.  Above shows how it turned out.  Furring strips were fastened across the the top and the 5050, 300 per meter LEDs were attached to them.  

Here we have the Ma & Pa logo and direction arrows installed.  Direction indication is crucial since the Ma & Pa was a North/South railroad.  Couple that with the change in direction once you travel from the lower level to the upper level and you can see the potential for confusion if the direction isn't indicated.

Here is part of the layout showing direction and town signs installed.

Lastly, I test fit my Walther's turntable.  The turntable at York was 80' but the Walther's kit is 90'  It's a compromise but once I modify it to resemble the York version I think it will look good.

I've also been working on more backdrops, this time on the helix, and will post photos on the next update.

Things are often not what they appear to be...

Yes I've been quiet.  Things are getting done, but not on the layout per-say.  We are less than one week away from the re-launch of the NJ Layout Design/ Operations Sig Joint meet this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 2nd and 3rd.  

http://www.hansmanns.org/ld-op-nj/index.htm

Between last minute preparations for the meet, and getting the layout presentable for the Sunday tour, I haven't had much time to write the blog.  I promise pictures and an update about the meet and the progress made to the layout next week once the dust has settled. :)