CSX Dixie Line in N Scale

Layout Progress as of 1/2/2012

2012-01-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

I have constructed a temporary bridge over the Etowah River. This structure will serve as a stand-in until the actual bridge can be constructed at a later time. The temporary bridge will allow the mainline track to be completed on the lower level and was constructed using the recycled section of spline roadbed that previously spanned the river. Eventually, seven ballasted deck girder bridge spans will rest on concrete piers in this scene.

» Photos

This photo shows how a 42" length of the existing spline roadbed was cut out where it spans the river. I have also installed 1/4" plywood to support the river bed:

This closeup photo shows how the left (north) end of the temporary bridge roadbed is supported on a cleat temporarily screwed to the permanent riser:

This closeup view shows the right (south) end of the temporary bridge roadbed with the first layer of cork roadbed installed across the gap:

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Layout Progress as of 12/21/2011

2011-12-21T18:44:00.001-08:00

I have decided to go with the full length seven-span Etowah River bridge as discussed in the previous update. With the bridge length determined, I had to add support to the roadbed at the north end of the structure. Eventually, the spline roadbed will be cut away and replaced with a 42" length of aluminum channel. The deck girder bridge will then be built in place around the channel and cast plaster piers will be added below.

» Photos

This "before" photo shows the original roadbed support before the bridge length was determined:

This "after" photo shows the additional benchwork constructed, including the riser that supports the roadbed at the north end of the bridge:

The additional benchwork will also support the 1/4" plywood that will make up the river bottom.

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Layout Progress as of 12/18/2011

2011-12-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

While working on the Etowah River scene, I realized some additional benchwork needs to be added around the bridge before track can be installed. Before adding the extra support, however, I needed a way to see exactly where it has to go. To do this, I created some full-size mockups of the bridge scene. The actual bridge is comprised of seven deck girder bridge sections supported by concrete piers. I will eventually be using Micro Engineering 80' ballasted deck bridges supported by cast plaster or cement piers. The following two photos show the mockups I did. The first photo shows the complete non-compressed bridge (seven sections), while the second photo shows a compressed version of the scene with only six sections (one section over the river removed):

I wanted to try out the compressed version because I believed the full size bridge would be too big. Also, six 80' deck bridge sections comes out to an even 36" in N-scale, which means I could use one 3-foot length of aluminum U-channel to be the supporting backbone of the bridge. However, when looking at the two photos the river just seems too narrow in the compressed version. I am also considering using a compressed bridge with the full-size river; in this case, the road would be eliminated. This option is probably not going to be selected because that road is one of my first ever railfanning locations and is a significant reason why I chose to model this area in the first place.

Whatever option I choose, the mockups are a quick way to visualize a completed scene without too much effort (time or money).

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Layout Progress as of 12/7/2011

2011-12-07T12:22:00.001-08:00

A significant milestone was reached on the CSX Dixie Line this week when the final mainline roadbed was installed on the lower level of the layout. There is now continuous spline roadbed from Emerson, GA at the south end of the lower level all the way to the helix at Tilton, GA at the north end of the lower level. This clears the way to finish designing and intslling roadbed for the remaining sidings and industry tracks on the lower level.

» Photos

Looking north from the dropdown gate (far right) to the Etowah River bridge:

Etowah River bridge:

Looking south from over Calhoun, GA to the Etowah River bridge (distance):

Looking south over the entire Calhoun, GA scene:

Looking north over the entire Calhoun, GA scene:

Looking south over the Tilton, GA scene towards the end of the aisle. The north end of the Resaca passing siding is in the foreground, while the siding itself curves around and ends (for now) before reaching Calhoun:

Looking north over the Tilton, GA scene towards the Helix. The Etowah River bridge can be seen in the distance beyond the helix:

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Layout Progress as of 12/4/2011

2011-12-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

My current project is to get all of the the lower level track installed. Trackwork has been in place for almost two years on the Emerson, GA scene, which is the southern most scene on the layout. The following photos show all of the new spline roadbed that I have been working on moving north from Emerson.

» Photos

The first scene north of Emerson is Etowah River. In this photo, you can see the completed spline roadbed along the long curve connecting the dropdown gate across the doorway to the train room (far right) with the Etowah River bridge (far left):

Here is a straight on view of the bridge. This will be a five span deck girder bridge when completed:

North of the Etowah River is Calhoun, GA. I have not yet finalized the design in this scene; you can see in the photos where I have risers temporarily clamped in place so I can move a spline around to experiment with different track alignments. This view looks south with the Etowah River bridge in the distance:

Looking north at the same scene with the temporary track alignment:

Just to the north of Calhoun is Tilton, GA. This is the final scene on the lower level before the track disappears into the helix on its way to Chattanooga, TN. Spline roadbed construction is well under way in this scene:

Looking north at Tilton toward the helix you can see the newly completed spline roadbed in the foreground leading to the double track helix. The completed track connects the helix to Emerson; you can also see the new spline roadbed at Etowah River in the distance:

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Layout Progress as of 9/28/2011

2011-09-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

I have started work on the bridge where the CSX W&A Subdivision crosses over I-75 in Emerson, GA. I will be building this bridge in place; in other words, the bridge will be built around the existing spline roadbed. The only work completed so far is the removal of the scenery base where the bridge abutments will be installed:

Below, I have included a few pictures of the prototype structure courtesy of Google Maps and Bing Maps. The scene on the layout will be simplified compared to the prototype scene in that there will be no off ramps modeled. Instead, there will be two three-lane interstate roadways and three bridge piers.

Looking northbound from the on-ramp from Old Allatoona Road to I-75 northbound:

Looking southbound from the off-ramp from I-75 southbound to Old Allatoona Road:

Overhead view looking northbound:

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Working Grade Crossing

2011-09-24T07:31:00.001-07:00

To spice up the scenery and add operational realism along the southern end of the layout, I added a working grade crossing where Allatoona Road crosses the tracks at milepost WA 39.6 on the CSX W&A subdivision. As the above video shows, the grade crossing functions just as it does on the prototype: as a train approaches, the lights begin flashing and the gates slowly lower across the roadway. After the train clears, the gates slowly raise and the lights go dark. The process repeats itself every time a northbound or southbound train passes through the scene, keeping the imaginary N-scale inhabitants out of harms way.

The signals used in this project are NJ International #2164. These signals are almost an exact match for the ones used at the real crossing and feature large modern "bug eye" flashers in both directions, crossbucks, and moving bar-arm gates with red stripes. The signal flashers on the signal upright are LEDs pre-wired with dropping resistors; however, the lights on the gates are molded on and do not operate. These signals, which are molded brass, come packaged as a pair and are super nice models. Plus, at about $30 they are also a great value.

» Flashers

The flashers are driven by a Digitrax DS-64 quad stationary decoder. The DS-64 is commonly used to operate turnout motors, but it has a nifty feature that allows the outputs to alternate at a rate that is ideal for crossing flashers. The DS-64 can also be connected to the Digitrax Loconet, which means it can operate in conjunction with Digitrax block detection so the signals will activate when a train occupies the crossing.

I strongly recommend testing the flashers before installing the signals on the layout since it will be much more difficult to replace a set of defective signals later on. To do this, configure one set of outputs on the DS-64 to alternate/flash when activated (refer to your Digitrax instructions for the steps necessary to do this).

Connect the signals to the DS-64 as indicated in the Digitrax instructions. Using your throttle, open and close the switch address for the appropriate set of outputs on the DS-64. The lights should flash and then go off as you open and close the switch. In this photo, you can see one of the signals being tested with the DS-64:

After mounting the signals on the layout, simply connect the wires to the DS-64 below the layout just as you did when you tested the flashers before installation. When wiring the signals, be sure that both signals flash with each other and not against each other. In other words, when approaching the crossing in a vehicle on the road, both flashers should be flashing in unison: the right flasher should be lit, then the left, and so on. To see this in action, watch the video above and pay close attention to the flashing pattern of both signals as the gates are lowering. If your flashers are not doing this, simply reverse the connection to the DS-64 for one of the signals.

» Signals

As packaged, the gates have a short actuating wire attached to them. You can see these wires in the photo above where the flashers are being tested with the DS-64. I needed a much longer actuation wire, so I replaced the factory wires with some longer handmade ones. I removed the factory installed wires with a small pair of clippers. WARNING: These signals are very delicate, so use care when using the clippers to removing the actuating wires.

Drill a pair of holes at each signal location: a large hole for the base of the signal and a smaller hole for the actuating wire attached to the gate. To locate the smaller hole, I placed the signal in the larger hole and marked a spot below where the actuating wire attaches to the gate:

Mount the signals in the larger hole using your glue of choice; I used white glue. Be sure to use care and not get any glue on or around the moving parts of the signals.

With the signals mounted, I went ahead and installed the new actuating wires for the gates. To create the actuating wires, I cut a piece of .025 steel wire to about 12" in length. Don't worry about the exact length, you just want enough so that it reaches the Tortoise actuators that will be mounted below the layout. I made a small 90 degree bend in one end using a pair of needle nose pliers:

To install the actuator wire, feed the straight end down through the hole in the layout from above and carefully slip the bent end through the hole in the end of the gate:

With the actuator wire attached to the hole in the gate, it is now basically hanging down through the layout down below the benchwork. You should be able to reach under the layout and move the actuator wire up and down to make sure the gates lower and raise as they should.

» Gates

By far the most complex and difficult phase of the signal installation is getting the crossing gates to actually work along with the flashers. In fact, the installation of the gate mechanism was probably the most tedious and frustrating time I have ever experienced on the layout. There were several times I considered replacing the signals with ones that did not have crossing gates. However, patience eventually prevailed and I can now say that the outcome was well worth the effort. Watching the gates lower and raise each time a train passes really brings the whole scene to life.

There are a few components that you need to buy to make the crossing gate magic work:

(1) Circuitron 800-6000 "Tortoise" Slow Motion Switch Machine

(1) Circuitron 800-8100 Remote Signal Activator (RSA)

(1) Circuitron 800-8101 Extra cable & actuator for RSA

The best advice I can give for working with the RSA is to read the instructions from beginning to end. Then read them again. And again, and again, and again. The first time you will be saying "What the...?" but after a while something will click and you will realize the RSA is a brilliant little piece of hardware.

Basically, the Tortoise is attached to a slider on the base of the RSA which in turn is attached a pair of cables that fan out to a pair of remote pivots mounted below the crossing gates on the layout. These remote pivots are connected to the actuator wires that we previously attached to our crossing gates. When the Tortoise moves, the slider moves back-and-forth, causing the cables to extend and retract, which makes the pivots rotate, which cause the actuating wires to lower and raise the crossing gates. Magic.

To begin, select a location under the layout where the RSA will be mounted. You want to pick a location out of the way from the crossing gates as to not interfere with the mounting location of the pivots, but close enough so the cables from the RSA to the pivots will not need to be excessively long. The cables are flexible so they can curve, but don't make the curves too tight or the cables will bind when operated. Consult the RSA instructions for the specific limitations of the cables. Be sure to allow enough room to accommodate the Tortoise motor.

Mount the RSA below the layout according to the RSA instructions.

Mount the pivots below the crossing gates according to the RSA instructions. The actuating wires hanging down from the gates will determine where the pivots must go.

Connect the cables between the RSA and the pivots according to the RSA instructions.

Clip the actuating wires (hanging from the crossing gates) to an appropriate length and attach to the pivots according to the RSA instructions.

Attach the Tortoise switch motor to the RSA according to the RSA instructions.

Wire the Tortoise to one of the sets of outputs on the DS-64. Consult the Digitrax instructions for the specifics of this step.

Using the switch address of the DS-64 outputs, use your throttle to operate the Tortoise switch motor. The entire apparatus should function as described above.

The pivots have adjustment screws that allow you to control their range of motion. If the crossing gates do not raise or lower to their correct positions, play with the adjustment screws until the gates end up in their desired positions.

The following photos show the overall Circuitron RSA installation, looking up from below the layout. In the first photo, notice how a 1x3 crossmember has been added to mount the RSA base and a 1x2 crossmember has been added to mount pivot #1:

RSA base details:

Pivot details:

Pivot side view:

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Layout Progress as of 4/12/2011

2011-04-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

It has been over two years since any trackwork has taken place on the CSX Dixie Line, but that changed over the weekend as work started to extend the roadbed through the new Etowah River scene. The CSX W&A Subdivision crosses the Etowah River just to the north of Emerson, GA, and this prototypical arrangement will be represented in the same fashion on the layout. Over the next few weeks I hope to have all of the lower level roadbed in place so I can extend the mainline beyond its current terminus just north of Emerson.

» Photos

This photo shows how the spline roadbed is joined to the dropdown gate by inserting a short "key" section of spline into a slot cut in the deck of the gate. You can clearly see the northernmost extent of the mainline where it ends on the gate. The first spline to be attached to the "key" spline can be seen against the backdrop:

The first spline has been glued to the "key" spline and clamped in place:

Somehow, a few of my risers were a full 1/4" too low. This problem was corrected by gluing some small sections of 1/4" stripwood to the tops of the risers. The nail is centered on the riser and provides a surface for clamping the first spline in position:

The second spline has been glued and clamped in place. You can see the dropdown gate at far right and the future location of the Etowah River bridge at far left. The aluminum angle will keep the splines perfectly straight across the bridge:

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Layout Progress as of 3/27/2011

2011-03-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

Over the last week or so I have been in the layout room working on laying out the remaining mainline on the lower level. Just as i did in the existing area of the layout, I started by tacking down sheets of 3/4" thick blue extruded foam. Next, I grabbed some leftover Masonite splines from the previous trackwork and, using T-pins and mini clamps to hold things in place, laid out the centerline of the main track. I find this to be a great way of designing a track plan, since it is real easy to make changes by pulling up some pins and moving things around. Once I am happy with a track alignment, I will transfer the track centerline to the tops of the benchwork, add risers, and then install the spline roadbed. This makes it very easy to achieve trackwork that has smooth, flowing curves that look like they belong in the scenery that they pass through.

» Photos

This photo shows where the mainline currently ends on the dropdown bridge that crosses the doorway to the room (lower right of photo). Beyond there, you can see where I have placed the first spline for the future mainline. The straight track in the distance is where the crossing over the Etowah River will be located:

This next photo shows the track as it continues northward beyond the Etowah River. You can clearly see the special construction of the benchwork in this area to accommodate the depth of the Etowah River scene in the distance; the terrain will slope upward towards the foreground where the "regular" height benchwork resumes. The large feed mill located at Calhoun, GA will be placed between the tracks and the backdrop in the foreground of this scene where the level is resting on the benchwork:

This next photo was taken in the same location as the previous one, except the camera has been rotated and is pointing in the opposite direction. The town of Calhoun, GA will be located in the foreground. Although the details of the town have not been established, there will be a depot, a small yard, and a few industries. A local freight will originate in Calhoun and switch all of the industries on the lower level. You can also see the approximate start of the Resaca passing siding, which is represented by the flex track tacked in place to the right of the mainline. In the distance, the Dow Chemical industrial spur will branch off of the siding and terminate at the backdrop:

This photo shows the tiny town of Tilton, GA, which is the next scene to the north of Calhoun. You can see where the Resaca passing siding ends. I have started mocking up Franklin Industrial Minerals along the backdrop. The mainline will cross Swamp Creek at the very bottom of the photo before entering the helix and traveling to the upper level:

This photo shows how the main track will enter the helix. I will not construct the double-track helix until work begins on the upper level of the layout. Until then, the inner track of the helix will function as a return loop (as indicated by the dotted line) while the outer track will serve as a staging track:

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Layout Progress as of 11/30/2010

2010-11-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Over the long holiday weekend, I added the remaining grass, bushes and trees to the area around the South Emerson turnout on the layout. Although there are still some details to be added, this scene is pretty much complete.

» Photos

Looking north at the South Emerson turnout:

The next photo is the same area as above but looking in the opposite direction:

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Layout Progress as of 11/25/2010

2010-11-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Aside from consuming mass quantities of turkey and all the trimmings, I did some additional scenery work around South Emerson on the layout. I am mostly adding vegetation behind the tracks to the north of the rock cut and in front of the tracks between the Allatoona Road grade crossing and the I-75 overpass.

» Photos

Looking north at the South Emerson turnout, I have added gravel in front of the tracks where the signal relay shed will be located. The line poles can still be found along most of the right-of-way despite the fact that they were taken out of service sometime in the early 1990s. They are a prominent feature above the rock cut on the prototype as they are on the layout:

The next photo is the same area as above but looking in the opposite direction (south). The newly added scenery includes the cluster of trees and grassy hillside to the left, bushes and vines, and the ballast around the signals:

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Layout Progress as of 11/14/2010

2010-11-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

Recent progress on the layout includes adding additional layers of vegetation to existing scenery, adding new vegetation to bare scenes, and adding a few details here and there. The photo above shows a good example of what I have been working on recently. Some of the new "little touches" that really impact the realism of this scene include:

The electrical box that houses the circuitry for the grade crossing signals

Additional bushes and shrubs around the base of the hill

Small tufts of dry grass in a few places

I still have to decide what to do with that bare patch of grass in the foreground. On the prototype, there is dense brush with a side street angling away. While the dense brush would obscure most of the scene, I am still contemplating adding a driveway and a few mailboxes to represent the street that leads to a few homes.

The next photo shows the same scene looking north towards the recently added rock cut that I described in another post. I have included a prototype photo to show how the modeled scene compares to the real thing:

Some of the work I have done in this area includes:

Adding static grass to the hill above the rock cut

Adding bushes, weeds and vines between the tracks and the trees

Adding static grass down the center of the access road

Adding the CSX "No Trespassing" sign from a digital photo

Adding tress and bushes in front of the tracks

While this scene looks complete, if you look closely you can see bare ground extends past the grass covered areas. I still have lots of vegetation to add to this scene, plus I am working on a concept for adding high tension power lines that cross the tracks at the rock cut.

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DIY: Hand Carved Rocks

2010-11-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

At the south switch of the Emerson passing siding, the CSX mainline follows the side of a hill that includes a small rock cut that was carved many years ago in order to make room for the roadbed. Staying true to the prototype, I decided to model this rock cut. When I was shaping the basic terrain in this area, I allowed a bit of extra clearance to allow room for the rock cut. I initially planned on using plaster rocks cast in rubber molds, but could not find anything that was an appropriate fit. I then turned to one of Joe Fugate's scenery DVDs which includes a chapter on hand carving rocks. This video series has proved invaluable to me as I have created the layout, and the chapter on hand carved rocks was no different. I have never before done any kind of hand carved plaster work, but armed with the knowledge gleamed from the DVD, I decided to give it a try. The steps below show how I created my very first hand carved rock.

» Steps

Step 1 To get started, I scooped three globs of DAP pre-mixed patching plaster into a plastic cup and added a few shakes (about half a teaspoon) of black tempera powder paint to kill the bright white color. I then used a putty knife to smear a layer of the plaster mix onto the bare rock face. I first sprayed the surface with water so the old plaster would not rob the new plaster of its moisture. I also used a plastic painter's knife (shown) to carve some grooves into the wet plaster that simulate the layers of sedimentary rock:

Step 2 I used a metal painters tool (shown) to pick at the plaster as it setup, creating nicks, grooves and other random gouges in the rock face. If you begin carving before the plaster has setup enough, it will crumble rather than flake. If you get crumbling, stop and come back later to resume your carving. IMPORTANT: Patching plaster contains retarder to extend its working time. For my batch of plaster, it took 8-10 hours before the plaster setup to the point where it could be carved! It was then about another four hours before the center section had setup to the point where I could finish carving. In this photo, taken 12 hours after the plaster was applied to the layout, you can see an area that is still too soft to be carved (the smooth area at the lower left-center side of the rock):

Step 3 Finally, after about 16 hours, the carving is complete. Before the plaster is completely dry, lightly scrub it with a stiff plastic-bristle brush (shown in the previous photo) to give the rock a realistic weathered look. As I scrub, I use a soft paintbrush to clean any small particles off of the rock face so I can see how things are progressing:

Step 4 I begin staining the rock face by using a medium gray acrylic paint thinned to a wash. You will find that the plaster really soaks up the paint, so be sure to give it a few sprays of water every now and then to keep the paint flowing:

Step 5 After the initial gray wash has dried, apply a second dark black-brown wash. In the second photo, notice how this second wash settles into the grooves and cracks--for the first time, this rock is starting to look like the real thing:

Step 6 At this point, I began to blend the rock in with the surrounding scenery by applying my homemade dirt to the painted, textured scenery base. I also dry brushed on some varying shades of grays and browns to introduce some variations into the rock coloring:

Step 7 All done! Well, almost done, since there will be some additional weathering done with pastels as the surrounding scenery is added. Here is a close-up view of the (almost) finished rock and a few wider shots showing how the rock cut fits into the overall scene:

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Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Layout Progress as of 10/29/2010

2010-10-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

Trees, trees and more trees. This week I found out that you can crank out a lot of SuperTrees while watching Monday Night Football and the 2010 World Series. As a result, I added a significant section of forest (about 18" long) behind the tracks at South End Emerson. I also installed working grade crossing signals (above), which will be covered in detail in an upcoming HOWTO post. The photos below show an overview of the progress made this week.

» Photos

Before:

After:

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Layout Progress as of 10/19/2010

2010-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

I recently finished some scenery work that I started way back in...July? Can that be right? Three months away from the layout? This was a busy summer. Anyway, while looking at some prototype photos of the Old Allatoona Road grade crossing, I noticed the road actually travels through a slight cut after crossing the tracks. Although the cut is low, it is quite noticeable (as you can see in the Google Maps imagery below) and modeling it would be a nice way to tie the layout to the real thing. The photos below show how I modeled this feature.

» Photos

I began building the hill behind the tracks by shaping some plain old green floral foam. I carved the hill to shape before affixing it to the layout using Loctite construction adhesive. I applied the hill right over the top of the existing scenery base, which had already been covered with dirt and some static grass:

I then covered the hill with Sculptamold to blend it in to the surrounding terrain. Since all of the hill except for the cut face along the road will be covered by foliage, I didn't spend too much time on this step:

Next, the hill was painted using my standard textured ground color:

Finally, the usual treatment of ground cover, bushes and trees were added. I rubbed most of the ground cover off of the cut face of the hill to reveal the red Georgia clay just as it appears on the prototype:

This small change resulted in a big improvement to the look of this scene.

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DCC: Block Detection

2010-10-16T08:38:00.001-07:00

One of the primary design goals for the layout is to have a fully functional Computerized Traffic Control (CTC) system. Looking even farther into the future, some degree of layout automation is desired. To meet these objectives, a DCC system with fully functional block detection is a must. Since my DCC system is a Digitrax Super Chief, the Digitrax BDL168 was a natural choice for block detection. This board provides for detection of 16 individual blocks and reports block occupancy via messages over Loconet. A personal computer can then be connected to Loconet and receive these messages. With appropriate software, a complete operational CTC system is possible. My software of choice is JMRI, which I will describe below.

» How it works

The following diagram shows how the Digitrax BDL168 is connected to the layout:

The above diagram shows the connections for a typical passing siding track arrangement on the layout. Each turnout is a separate detection section, as is the mainline and the passing siding. Therefore, a passing siding on the layout will consume four of the 16 total detection sections on a BDL168. I anticipate the need for three BDL168 boards on the layout (one for each of the three levels). Only signaled track will be detected; non-signaled tracks such as spurs and industrial sidings will bypass the BDL168.

The following photo shows the first BDL168 installed on the layout:

Astute viewers may note that the BDL168 is connected directly to the DCS100 booster below, which differs from the diagram above. The diagram shows a Digitrax PM42 between the two, but since I only have about 30 feet of mainline in place, I have yet to justify the expense of a power management board.

Digitrax supplies a handy worksheet for you to record information on how your BDL168 boards have been configured. Here is one that I have filled out for the first block detection board installed on the Dixie Line:

In the above worksheet, the detection sections highlighted in yellow represent track that has already been installed on the layout. Other detection sections shown in the worksheet are planned for future use. Basically, the Emerson section of the layout is the proving grounds where I can work on ideas that will eventually be expanded to the entire layout.

I have set the address of this BDL168 to 101. By default, the board is shipped from the factory with an address of 1. I changed the address to a higher number so that there will be no conflicts with other devices such as turnouts that will be in the lower address range.

» JMRI

I have begun to use the Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) software to control the layout. The computer is connected to Digitrax Loconet via a LocoBuffer USB, which in turn lets JMRI talk to Loconet. JMRI receives messages from Loconet that tell the software what is happening on the layout, and JMRI sends messages to Loconet to make things happen on the layout such as changing a turnout, setting a signal, or controlling a train.

In JMRI, I use the PanelPro application to setup communication with LocoNet. In PanelPro, block detection is facilitated by using objects known as sensors. A sensor is active when a block is occupied and inactive when a block is clear. In JMRI, you can define a sensor for every detection section on all of your BDL168 boards. The following screen shot shows how I have setup the sensors for my first BDL168 in JMRI:

Ignore the first line in the table; that is some fast clock sensor that JMRI automatically created for some reason that I don't yet know. However, the remaining entries show the 16 sensors that correspond to the 16 detection sections on the BDL168 board that I described above.

Earlier I mentioned that I set the address of the BDL168 board to 101. The board address determines the address for the corresponding JMRI sensors. The formula used to calculate the address of a BDL168 sensor in JMRI is as follows:

(board address - 1) * 16 + detection section

JMRI also requires the sensor address to be prefixed with LS when using Digitrax Loconet, so the 16 detection sections on the BDL168 will be represented in JMRI by sensors LS1601 to LS1616. A second BDL168 with a board address of 102 would be represented in JMRI by sensors LS1617 to LS1632 and so on.

Notice that two of the sensors, LS1606 and LS1607, are shown as active in the above table because there are actually trains sitting on those tracks. Moving one of those trains to another track will cause the appropriate sensors to activate and deactivate accordingly. This is super cool stuff, albeit in a super nerdy way!

OK, so we have Digitrax DCC block detection installed on the layout, we have JMRI talking to Digitrax Loconet, and we have sensors setup in JMRI that are obviously working. This is all fine and dandy, but how do a bunch of invisible computer bits turning on an off as trains move around the tracks actually contribute to the operation of the layout? This is where JMRI Panel Pro really pays off: the ability to build fully functional panels that allow you to operate the layout. Here is the CSX Dixie Line panel so far:

The sensors in the above panel are represented by the red lights: illuminated lights show occupied blocks while dark lights show clear blocks. I added the sensors to the panel by selecting the appropriate entries from the sensor table in the panel editor window. The sensors on the mainline above from left to right are LS1609, LS1608, LS1607 (the siding/lower track), LS1606 (the mainline/upper track), LS1605, and LS1604. Notice that the sensors LS1606 and LS1607 are illuminated since there are trains sitting on both of those tracks.

The graphics are based on the old USS CTC panel designs; although they are quite retro looking and I model the modern era, I actually like they way they look and am sticking with them for now. JMRI provides a graphics library to use when creating panels, so it should be fairly easy to switch to different graphics if I ever desire to do so. This particular panel so far looks very simple since I only have about 30 feet of mainline and one passing siding installed. However, the small size of the panel makes it easy to use and is an ideal learning tool. Plus, there is actually a lot of stuff on this panel, including two turnouts (that I want to control remotely via the panel) and six blocks. A lot of stuff to play around with but still small enough not to overwhelm a novice JMRI user such as myself.

Eventually, this panel will evolve into a fully functional CTC panel. For now, I can run trains and watch the sensor lights turn on and off. Although it seems quite simple on its own, this block detection implementation is actually the foundation that will be used for all future CTC and layout automation.

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Layout Progress as of 7/8/2010

2010-07-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Scenery work continues at the Old Allatoona Road grade crossing at the southern end of the layout. With the wooded area behind the tracks mostly completed, I turned my attention to the hill between the tracks and the fascia. I added static grass, bushes and weeds, then trees. The photos below show the scenery progress in this area.

» Photos

Static grass has been applied along the road and the tracks (short 2mm fibers along the road and medium 4mm fibers along the tracks):

Next, bushes, weeds, vines and other undergrowth was added to between the grassy area and the wooded area:

These prototype photos show the actual scene being modeled. Note the crawling vines that have crept down the hillside and up to the ballast:

Finally, a handful of Scenic Express SuperTrees finishes off the scene. From normal viewing angles, these trees mostly obscure the opening in the backdrop:

One day that family in the red Explorer may actually make it across the tracks!

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Layout Progress as of 7/3/2010

2010-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week I began adding vegetation to the Old Allatoona Road grade crossing scene at the southern end of the layout. I applied static grass fibers in varying lengths using a homemade static grass applicator. I then added trees to build up the woods behind the tracks. Finally, bushes and saplings were added to smooth the transition from grass to trees. There is still more vegetation to be added to this area (a few smaller foreground trees, in particular), but the overall scene is now starting to nicely take shape.

» Photos

In this photo, you can see where static grass has been added to the scene along the road and the railroad ROW. I used short (2mm) fibers along the road and medium (4mm) fibers along the tracks. I chose the autumn grass color because it is almost a perfect match to the prototype photos I took of this area in June 2007:

The static grass fibers look absolutely terrific when applied to the layout. With the texture and depth they provide, the fibers really do look just like tall grass growing on the layout. However, my point-and-shoot digital camera does not do justice when photographing this effect. The following photo is about the best I can do to convey the height and depth of the static grass--look at the far end of the scene where the track passes through the opening and you can clearly see how the fibers stand up in contrast to the dark green background trees painted on the backdrop:

Finally, a quick look at the trees that the family created prior to planting on the layout. These trees are just SuperTrees plant material painted gray, dipped in diluted matte medium and covered with Woodland Scenics coarse foam:

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DIY: Static Grass Applicator

2010-06-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

When it comes to static grass, I can think of no other innovation that has contributed more to the realism of model railroad scenery. The texture and depth provided by static grass fibers really make scenes "pop." The only drawback to using static grass is the limited availability of commercial static grass applicators and the high price of the ones that are available. The NOCH GRASSmaster, for example, has a street price above $175. That's a lot of green to spend on making realistic green on your layout. Fortunately, several modelers have published plans for homemade static grass applicators that will only set you back around $30. That's more like it!

The static grass applicator I built as described in this post is a hybrid of the Ztrains Grassinator and Joe Fugate's own homemade applicator. Of course, as with most hobby projects, I threw in a few of my own variations where I felt certain parts or procedures would work better. The applicator pictured in the photo above shows the results of the steps I have included below.

» Parts List

These are the parts that I used to construct my static grass applicator:

Enercell™ 12V/500mA AC Adapter (Radio Shack #273-357)

Enercell™ Adaptaplug™ M (Radio Shack #273-344)

Size M Panel-mount Coaxial Power Jack (Radio Shack #274-1582)

SPST Rocker Switch (Red) (Radio Shack #275-694)

Mini 1-1/4" Alligator Clips (Radio Shack #270-380)

75-Ft. UL-Recognized Hookup Wire (20AWG) (Radio Shack #278-1222)

Negative ion generator (Oatley Electronics #IONB)

8" long 1 1/2" diameter PVC sink tailpiece (Ace Hardware #4224218)

PVC plug that fits the flange end of the tailpiece (Ace Hardware)

PVC plug that fits the non-flange end of the tailpiece (Ace Hardware)

Rubbermaid TakeAlongs 1.2 cup container (Rubbermaid #7H99)

Metal window screen (Ace Hardware)

» Steps

Step 1 To get started, cut 2" off the sink tailpiece to make it 6" long. Be sure to cut from the end of the pipe without the flange, since the flange will be used to secure the grass cup to the pipe in a later step. Do NOT discard the small 2" long piece that you cut off of the tailpiece since this will also be used later on to secure the grass cup to the pipe.

Step 2 Drill two holes in the tailpiece: drill a 21/64" hole 1 1/4" from the end of the pipe, then drill a 1/16" hole 2" from the same end of the pipe. Measure from the cut end (not the flange end) of the tailpiece when drilling these holes. Also, drill these two holes in line with each other; the seam of the tailpiece makes a natural guideline for doing this.

Step 3 Drill a hole in each of the two tailpiece plugs: drill a 3/4" hole in the plug that will cover the cut end of the tailpiece, then drill a 1/8" hole in the plug that will cover the flange end of the tailpiece.

The following photo shows how all of my parts looked after cutting the tailpiece and drilling all of the holes:

Step 4 Using a sharp hobby knife, carefully cut a large hole in the bottom of the Rubbermaid container. The hole should be just large enough so the container will slide down over the cut end of the tailpiece and snug up against the flange end:

Step 5 Run a bead of super glue along the back side of the tailpiece flange and pull the grass cup snug against the flange to permanently fasten it to the tailpiece:

Step 6 Make a vertical cut through one side of the small 2" long section of tailpiece that was cut off in a previous step. This cut will allow the short piece to expand and slip over the cut end of the tailpiece like a collar. Slide this collar all the way down against the grass cup and super glue it in place. The grass cup will now be permanently locked between the collar and the flange. Disregard the two wires shown here; I attached some of the electronics before I realized I forgot to attach the cup and sleeve:

Step 7 Solder a 4" long piece of black hookup wire to the negative (-) pin of the power jack. Solder a 4" long piece of red hookup wire to the positive (+) pin of the power jack. Solder the other end of this red wire to one pin of the toggle switch. Solder another 4" long piece of red hookup wire to the other pin of the toggle switch:

Step 8 Insert the toggle switch into the hole drilled into the plug that will cover the cut end of the tailpiece. Secure the toggle switch using the nut provided:

Step 9 Insert a 2' long piece of black hookup wire through the smaller hole drilled into the tailpiece. Pull the wire through the cut end of the tailpiece:

Step 10 Attach the black hookup wire from the previous step, along with the black hookup wire from the power jack, to the black wire of the ion generator. Use a small wire nut to bundle these three wires together. Using another wire nut, attach the red hookup wire from the rocker switch to the red wire of the ion generator. The white wire of the ion generator with the small brush should not be attached at this time:

Step 11 Cut the small brush off of the white wire of the ion generator and attach it to a 2' long piece of green hookup wire using a small wire nut:

Step 12 Push the ion generator down into the cut end of the tailpiece. The white/green wire should go in first; pull this wire through the flange end of the tailpiece (remember, I forgot to install my grass cup before installing the electronics so the grass cup does not appear yet in my photos):

Step 13 Remove the nut and washer from the power jack. Push the power jack down into the cut end of the tailpiece, then push the threaded end of the jack through the larger of the two holes drilled earlier into the tailpiece. Secure the power jack using the washer and nut:

Step 14 Push the plug with the rocker switch down into the cut end of the tailpiece and secure it with super glue or some other adhesive. Since my plug did not have a very tight fit in the cut end of the tailpiece, I used a bead of LocTite Power Grab construction adhesive to hold it in place (in this photo you can see that I finally remembered to slide the grass cup in place):

Step 15 Insert the other plug (the one with the small 1/8" hole drilled in it) into the flange end of the tailpiece, feeding the green hookup wire through the hole. Secure it with super glue or some other adhesive:

Step 16 Using a sharp hobby knife, carefully cut a large hole in the lid of the Rubbermaid container. Using a pair of scissors or snips, cut a round piece of window screen about the same diameter as the lid of the Rubbermaid container. You want this circle of screen wire to be small enough to fit inside the lid, but large enough so that you can "snap" it in behind the threads of the lid:

Step 17 Drill two small holes through the Rubbermaid container lid and the screen wire. Insert one 4-40 x 3/4" screw into each hole and secure each screw with a 4-40 nut. Solder an alligator clip to the end of the green hookup wire extending through the plug in the flange end of the tailpiece, then clip the green hookup wire to either of the screws:

Step 17 Solder an alligator clip to the end of the black hookup wire extending from the small hole in the side of the tailpiece:

Your static grass applicator is now complete!

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Layout Progress as of 6/23/2010

2010-06-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

This week I completed the Old Allatoona Road grade crossing at the southern end of the visible layout. I blended the road into the scenery by adding ground cover and ballast up to the edges of the road, including the small strip of road between the rials. Finally, I weathered the road using chalk pastels. The next scenery step in this area is to apply static grass along the road and track, then add bushes and trees. Afterwards, the grade crossing will receive functioning crossing signals and small details such as signs, equipment boxes and telephone poles.

» Photos

Layout Progress as of 6/15/2010

2010-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I described how I started building the Old Allatoona Road grade crossing at the south end of the visible layout. Once the road was glued into place, there was a lot of work to be done to blend the road into the surrounding scenery. After this blending work is done, the road should go from looking like it is sitting on top of the scenery to looking like it was graded and paved with an N-scale highway crew. This post describes the initial steps of this project.

» Photos

I used Polly Scale Steam Power Black to paint the tops of the ties and spike heads between the rails at the grade crossing. This will hide the underlying trackwork once the roadway is installed between the rials:

Next, I installed a small strip of plastic between the rails to act as a spacer so that the roadway height between the rails will be correct. I used a small strip of plastic from the same FOR SALE sign used to build the roadway sections. As it turns out, two layers of this plastic are the perfect height for installing the roadway between the rails. I beveled the ends of this plastic strip to simulate the profile of an asphalt road surface. I also painted the outside edges Polly Scale Steam Power Black to hide the otherwise white plastic:

After the "spacer" strip of plastic was installed between the rials, I installed the top strip that is the actual road surface. The strip also has bevelled ends and has been painted Krylon Primer Gray to match the other road sections. You can also see where I had to shave down some of the roadway along the near rail that was interfering with wheel treads as trains crossed the road:

With the center road section installed between the rails, I turned my attention to building up the shoulders of the road leading up to the grade crossing. For this, I used Sculptamold applied with a wood craft stick:

Finally, I used paint to hide the stark white of the Sculptamold:

Next up is adding the actual ground covers and weathering the roadway. This seems like a lot of steps for such a simple project, but I hope this attention to detail pays off with a realistic looking modern grade crossing.

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Layout Progress as of 6/12/2010

2010-06-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Scenery has found its way to the CSX Dixie Line layout! In general, I have been working from the south end of the visible layout towards the north. On the southernmost visible area of the layout, the track emerges from the helix and crosses Old Allatoona Road at grade before reaching the turnout at South End Emerson. Before any scenery materials could be applied, I first had to install the roadway and grade crossing. With the roadway in place, scenery materials can be applied in the form of dirt, static grass, bushes and trees.

» Photos

The first step when installing Old Allatoona Road was to draw the outline of the roadway on the layout using a Sharpie marker:

I then transferred the road outline to paper and used the paper as a template to cut the roadway sections out of sheet plastic. I used the same method I described in detail in an earlier post about making roads from sheet plastic. Here are the two sections of painted roadway; one section has been striped using Microscale decal stripes and a band of dark gray paint has been sprayed on to represent fresh asphalt at the grade crossing:

I used LocTite construction adhesive to affix the roadways to the layout. I still need to install the small section of roadway between the rails and weather the lanes using chalk pastels. I will also build up the roadway shoulders using Sculptamold to blend the road into the surrounding terrain:

With the road in place, I was able to begin adding scenery materials to this section of the layout. For the first "layer" of ground cover I am using homemade dirt that was created by collecting dried leaves and grinding them into a fine powder using a coffee bean grinder. The small bits and pieces of leaves left behind in the powder look like small sticks and twigs and makes a great looking base ground cover.

I am using a variation of Pelle Soeborg's wet-in-wet scenery method that he describes in his book Essential Model Railroad Scenery Techniques. This method begins by adding a thin layer of diluted white glue to the layout and sifting on some of the dirt.

After this layer has dried, you sift on more dirt and drizzle the area with wet water. For my wet water, I use a 50/50 mix of tap water and 70% isopropyl alcohol:

Once the entire area has been wetted, you drizzle on diluted white glue. My white glue mixture is a 2:1 mix of plain tap water and Elemer's white glue:

At this point, Pelle Soeborg adds other layers of ground cover such as ground foam and static grass. However, I plan on adding some tall static grass to this area and since I do not yet have my static grass applicator, I stopped after adding the dirt:

In this photo, you can see the difference between a fresh area of dirt that is still wet (to the left of the road) and completed areas of dirt after they have dried (to the right of the road). You can also see a lone tree that has been planted to help me determine the size and color of trees that I need to build for this scene:

Once the dirt layer has dried completely, I will build up the road shoulders using Sculptamold and touch up any ballast and dirt as needed. Then, it will be time for the tall static grass followed by bushes, saplings and trees.

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Layout Progress as of 5/9/2010

2010-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Signaling has arrived on the N-scale CSX Dixie Line! I recently completed the initial installation of Digitrax block detection and signaling at South End Emerson on the layout. This control point protects the interlocking where the switch is located at the south end of the Emerson passing siding at milepost WA39.9 on the CSX W&A Subdivision. The following photo tour shows the brand new CTC system in action.

» Photos

Arriving at South Emerson, we find a green signal indicating the CSX "AC" dispatcher in Atlanta has cleared an approaching northbound train:

Shortly afterwards, we hear the growling sound of diesel engines and a southbound train appears, rounding the curve on the siding as it emerges from the cut just across I-75. CSX A706 (the "Cartersville Turn") crawls across the overpass and stops short of the ground signal protecting the south end of the siding:

The ground signal is displaying a "Stop" aspect. Since the signals at South End Emerson are absolute signals, a train may not proceed beyond a red signal:

A few minutes later, the northbound we have been anticipating comes in to view from the south. This train is CSX G201, an empty unit grain train returning a long string of covered hoppers to the Midwest:

G201 knocks down the signal at South End Emerson as it rolls towards a meet with A706:

After the grain train clears the switch, the dispatcher clears the local to pull out of the siding and onto the mainline towards Atlanta. "CSX A706 has a medium clear at South End Emerson. Out.":

As the local enters the interlocking limits, the ground signal automatically drops to red:

With both trains well on the way to their destinations, all becomes quiet as the red signals stand guard at South End Emerson:

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DIY: Build a Modern Highway

2010-03-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

The CSX W&A Subdivision crosses I-75 near Emerson, GA. Before modeling the actual overpass, I modeled the divided roadway that passes below. This stretch of I-75 consists of a divided highway, with three lanes of traffic in each direction. The results of this project can be seen in the photo above; the detailed step-by-step instructions are included below.

» Steps

Step 1 The highway is constructed using a common plastic FOR RENT sign that can be found at just about any hardware store or home improvement center. The following 18" x 24" sign was purchased from The Home Depot for less than $3.00, not bad considering a similar size sheet of styrene at the hobby shop would easily cost much more:

Step 2 Although the front of the sign has multi-colored printing on it, the back of the sign is plain white. This makes the sign an ideal material for modeling projects such as roads and highways:

Step 3 Each side of the highway has three lanes of traffic and an emergency lane on the right. I decided each lane would be 1" wide and the emergency lane would be 3/4" wide. With an additional 1/4" along the left side of the roadway, this resulted in a total width of 4" per each side of the highway. The depth of the highway underpass scene is 12", so I cut two 12" x 4" sections out of the plastic sign to use as the roadways. I painted the surface of the roadways using Testors Dark Aircraft Gray flat spray paint. This color was suggested by Dave Vollmer and is what he uses for his roads on his N-Scale Juniata Division layout. Here is one of the roadway sections after painting:

Step 4 The following photo shows the tools I used to add the traffic markings to the painted roadways:

Woodland Scenics MG760 Dry Transfer Stripes (white)

Woodland Scenics MG763 Dry Transfer Stripes (yellow)

Ruler

Hobby Knife with sharp blade

Paintbrush with blunt handle (or burnishing tool)

Reading glasses (this is the first time I have ever used this modeling tool)

Step 5 I begin applying the traffic markings by applying the solid yellow line along the left edge of the pavement. A solid line denotes oncoming traffic is to the left of this line, so be sure the side of the roadway with the yellow stripe is adjacent to the highway median. I applied the stripe 1/4" from the left side of the roadway. I used the 1/64" wide stripes on my roadways, which is a bit too narrow for the 4" wide stripes used on the prototype but looked best to the naked eye. Here is the first section of yellow stripe applied to the left side of one of the roadways:

Step 6 On the prototype, the dashed white lines separating the travel lanes are 10' long and spaced 30' apart. In N-scale, this scales down to 3/4" long stripes spaced 2.25" apart. The length of the stripes looked good, but the spacing was way to much when viewed with the naked eye. I settled on 3/4" long stripes spaced 1" apart. With my 12" long roadways, this allowed six stripes to be placed between each lane. This photo shows the results of applying the first row of lane stripes. As with the solid yellow stripe, I used the blunt back end of the paintbrush to burnish the stripes to the roadway. After applying the stripes to the roadway, I place the sheet of translucent backing paper (that comes in each pack of dry transfers) over the stripes and perform a final burnishing to make sure the stripes are affixed properly:

Step 7 Here is a finished section of roadway after applying all striping. The solid yellow line is placed 1/4" from the left edge of the road, the two sets of dashed white lane divider stripes are placed 1" and 2" to the right of the yellow stripe, and the solid white line is placed 3/4" from the right edge of the road:

Step 8 Before adding the roadways to the layout, they must be weathered. Unless it has recently been resurfaced, any busy road or highway will have dark oily streaks running down the middle of each lane that have been deposited by the thousands of vehicles that have travelled down the road. This detail is critical to the realism of a modern highway and is easy to reproduce using simple weathering techniques. Compare the two roadway sections in the following photo to see how the weathering adds to the realism of the modeled scene:

Step 9 There are several techniques that can be used to apply the weathering to the roadways, such as airbrushing or the use of commercial weathering powders. However, I prefer to use simple chalks to do my weathering. I purchase inexpensive chalk pastels from a local art supply store for about $1.00 each and use the edge of a hobby knife to scrape the side of the pastel to yeald chalk powder. For this project, I used two shades of Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks: Black (229-P) and Burnt Umber (223-P). I scrape off about twice as mutch brown as black and blend both powders together to yield a nice dark oily color that looks just like real road grime. A little powder goes a long way, so I just scrape a very small amount of powder off at a time:

Step 10 I use art sponges to apply the powder to the roadway.

WARNING #1 As I mentioned above, only a tiny amount of powder is needed to waether the roadways. Always start by barely touching the sponge to the pile of powder and then applying it to the roadway by streaking it down the middle of each lane. You can always apply more powder to darken the weathering, but taking off powder that has been applied can be difficult. Which leads us to...

WARNING #2 I have heard zillions of modelers describe how plain powdered pastels and chalks are poor choices for weathering because they come off so easily. However, while this may be true for others, it is not true for me. In fact, I have actually submerged weathered models into water and scrubbed them down, yet the pastel powder did not go away at all. This is probably because I always apply the powder after applying a flat coat of paint such as the Testors spray paint used for this project. Anyway, keep this in mind as you go and everything will be fine. In a pinch, I have found using a plain pencil eraser will remove any weathering that has gone awry and must be redone.

In this photo, two of the lanes have been weathered so far. The package of sponges contains about a dozen art sponges and costs about $2.00 at a local art supply store. I like to streak the weathering powder on with one side of a sponge, then use a swirling motion with the "clean" side to even out the weathering. I discard the sponge after each lane is done. The lighting in this photo makes the weathering appear much darker than it appears in person:

Step 11 The completed roadways have been temporarily placed on the layout with vehicles to see how they fit into the overall scene. They will eventually be glued to the foam layout base using caulk or construction adhesive:

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Layout Progress as of 3/21/2010

2010-03-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

I have successfully completed the first ballasted section of track on the layout. After selecting the right ballast (see photos below), I ballasted the mainline, turnout and siding at South Emerson. This is the first step towards my goal of completing the scenery at the extreme south end of the layout.

» Photos

The following three photos show the ballasted trackwork that has been finished at South Emerson. You can see where the ballast ends just before the I-75 overpass:

This photo highlights two features of the trackwork: the superelevated mainline curves and the tall ballast profile. Both are hallmarks of a modern well-maintained, heavily-used Class 1 mainline:

I also painted the rails of the South Emerson turnout. The Micro Engineering code 55 flextrack I am using comes with weathered rails, but the Atlas code 55 turnouts do not. The shiny rails of the turnout have stuck out like a sore thumb for quite some time now; painting the sides of the rails and the tops of the guard rails worked like magic to blend the switch into the rest of the trackwork:

This photo shows the turnout at North Emerson before the rails have been painted. Compare the shiny rails to the painted rails in the previous photo. I use Polly Scale roof brown and a 000 (3/0) paintbrush to do this work:

I had planned on using Woodland Scenics fine ballast on all of the layout's trackwork. In my mind's eye, the Woodland Scenics light gray color would be an ideal match to the ballast on the CSX W&A Subdivision. Before I permanently ballasted the track, I thought it would be a good idea to do some sample sections by temporarily applying a bit of ballast (no glue) to a few sections of track.

Here is the Woodland Scenics light gray fine ballast on a section of mainline and siding. While I really liked this color, I thought it made the concrete ties of the mainline virtually disappear, even though it looked great on the siding:

The Woodland Scenics medium gray ballast solved the problem of the vanishing concrete ties, but I did not like the looks at all. Even though this color of ballast looks great on many other layouts I know of, on my layout it looked way too blue and certainly did not look anything like the ballast in my prototype photos:

Finally, I remembered at one time I had purchased some ballast from Arizona Rock & Mineral for one of my many previous layouts that never got off the drawing board. I found six bags of this ballast in two different shades of gray--along with a receipt from N-Scale Supply dated 2001! One of the shades, labelled #138-2 CSX/Southern Pacific/Wabash, was a perfect match and is what I settled on (as shown in the first set of photos at the top of this page):

I used about half a bag for the first section of track ballasting. My next task is to contact Arizona Rock & Mineral and try to order several more bags of their excellent ballast. I have heard the company is up for sale and may be closing any day now, so I have my fingers crossed that I can find more of this ballast or a suitable match.

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Layout Progress as of 2/21/2010

2010-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

The basic scenery has been completed at Emerson!

The video above and the photos below show all of the work that was completed as part of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard.

» Photos

A trio of six-axle units lead northbound autorack train Q210 through the turnout at the south end of the Emerson passing siding:

Here is an overhead view of the same autorack train at the same location from the previous photo. In the distance, a very short southbound local is holed up in the siding:

The two trains meet on the bridge over I-75. The local is led by a pair of GP15-1 locomotives, including an ex-Conrail unit still wearing the full colors of Big Blue:

Q210 winds its way around Emerson Curve. This area will be almost completely covered by kudzu once the vegetation scenery layer is added:

Continuing around Emerson curve, Q210 is passing the future location of the US 41 overpass. Old US 41 / current GA 293, officially part of the historical Dixie Highway, will run along the tracks in this area:

Q210 is stretched out through the town of Emerson:

Here is an overview of the current Emerson scene:

For comparison, photo showing the same area before scenery work began:

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Layout Progress as of 2/14/2010

2010-02-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

I have now completed week eight of nine weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Just one more week to go! Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below. This week I completed the final terrain contours by applying a thin layer of Sculptamold (1/8" to 1/4" thick) over the hardened plaster cloth. I then began painting the final textured dirt color over the scenery base.

» Photos

This photo shows an area where Sculptamold is being applied over the dried plaster cloth hardshell. In the foreground, you can see the bare plaster cloth and how it visibly has sagged a bit into the gaps in the supporting cardboard web. Sculptamold has been applied in the distance, resulting in a more natural ground contour while still retaining a roughness that is ideal for the final terrain base:

In this photo, I have applied the base terrain color at South Emerson. Compare the beautiful red Georgia clay in the foreground to the stark white plaster scenery in the distance:

Finally, here is the newest addition to the Dixie Line locomotive roster, a hot-off-the-presses Kato SD70ACe wearing CSX YN3 colors and road number 4842. Aside from the yellowish lights (visible in the photo below), this unit is an excellent runner and yet another superb N-scale release from Kato:

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Layout Progress as of 2/7/2010

2010-02-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have now completed week seven of nine weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. I just realized the WLP is nine weeks long this year instead of eight, which is excellent since I still have a good bit of work to get done in order to meet all of my stated goals. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below. This week I finished all of the hardshell terrain using plaster cloth and actually applied Sculptamold to about 1/3 of the entire scene.

» Photos

My daughter applies Sculptamold over the completed hardshell terrain at North Emerson:

The next three photos show the completed hardshell terrain at South Emerson, Emerson Curve and North Emerson. Sculptamold has been applied to the entire South Emerson area:

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Layout Progress as of 1/31/2010

2010-01-31T19:04:00.000-08:00

I have now completed week six of eight weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below. This week I finished painting the distant hills and foreground trees on the backdrop. With this done, I can move on to the actual hard shell terrain using plaster cloth and Sculptamold.

» Photos

Here is a look at the completed backdrop at South Emerson:

Completed backdrop at North Emerson. The backdrop behind the flat town area in the middle distance has been left blank because I am not sure at this point how the actual town scenery (structures, roads, etc.) will be laid out:

A local freight led by a Conrail GP15-1 is holding the siding as a northbound vehicle train passes on the mainline. I-75 passes below both tracks in this scene:

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Layout Progress as of 1/24/2010

2010-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have now completed week five of eight weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below.

» Photos

Before continuing with the scenery around Emerson, I finished installing the house track. I had previously built the house track roadbed as described in an earlier post. The house track is laid directly on top of the spline roadbed, so before laying the track, I first had to build a transition ramp down from the turnout off of the siding, which is laid on a single layer of cork roadbed. I built the ramp by installing a short section of cork roadbed and sanding a smooth transition from the turnout down to the house track roadbed:

Next, I installed the house track using a short section of Micro Engineering code 55 weathered rail flex track and acrylic latex caulk:

As with every other piece of track installed on the layout, the Emerson house track had a pair of feeder wires soldered to the rails at the workbench prior to installation. After the caulk had dried and I wired the feeders into the DCC bus lines, a pair of CSX engines decided to try out the latest rails to come online in the CSX Dixie Line system:

While waiting for the caulk to dry on the house track, I started work on painting the distant hills onto the backdrop. In the following three photos, you can see where I have pencilled in the hill profiles using actual prototype photos as a guide:

I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to redo the pencil line hill profiles several times. When I was satisfied with the distant hill shapes and proportions, I painted them using a light blue-green color that I obtained by mixing a small amount of my dark green foliage color into my light blue color used to paint the sky on the backdrop. I experimented with the hill color on a scrap piece of hardboard, taking sample photos with my digital camera to determine when I had the green-to-blue ratio just right. I then had a gallon mixed at the local home improvement center. The following three photos show the results of painting the distant hills:

I am not happy at all with the distant hill profile in the last photo above because I feel the middle hill looks way too "lumpy." This should be a simple fix using a bit more of the light blue-green color to smooth out the profile during an upcoming work session. Once that is done, I will paint the foreground tree line onto the backdrop below the distant hills.

Finally, I completed the cardboard web and masking tape layers of the scenery base in the town of Emerson. The gaps between the tracks will need to be filled with narrow strips of foam or some other suitable material:

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Layout Progress as of 1/17/2010

2010-01-17T18:40:00.001-08:00

I have now completed week four of eight weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below.

I had originally planned on using 2" thick extruded foam board in the town of Emerson, including the roadbed for the Emerson house track. However, after some foam board experiments did not yield satisfactory results, I decided to stick with my spline roadbed/cardboard web combination. This meant that before I could continue the cardboard web in town, I had to (finally) build the roadbed for the Emerson house track. Up until now, the diverging route of the turnout from the siding to the house track was just floating in space like a track to nowhere.

When I went to start work on the roadbed for the house track, I noticed about a foot of the passing siding track had popped loose from the roadbed and was just floating about 1/4" in the air. For most of 2009, the Atlanta area was innundated with record shattering rainfall. However, for the last several weeks, we have been having bitterly cold and extremely dry weather. This has caused the benchwork to dry out and the resulting "shrinkage" has caused a lot of track pops. Usually just a few drops of super glue will tack the track back down nicely, but this particular section of the passing siding near the house track was extreme and required some special attention.

» Photos

Here is a profile photo of the siding track that has popped up in Emerson. The cutting mat in the background shows the scale of the deformation:

Here is a wider angle shot of the same track with the cutting mat removed:

Fortunately, this section of flex track terminates at a turnout and I do not solder any rail joiners on my turnouts. This allowed me to slip the rail joiners back, lift up the flex track, and nip a bit off the ends of the rails. This allowed the track to conform to its original alignment. I then placed the track back down and slid the rail joiners back into place. I have left gaps between the ends of the rails here to allow for more expansion in the future:

After shortening the track and joining it back to the house track turnout, the track gang laid a bead of super glue and placed some clamps to get the track attached back to the roadbed:

A test train crawls across the newly repaired trackwork:

To prevent track pops from happening, I gap every section of flex track. However, in this closeup photo, you can see that the extreme benchwork shrinkage has completely closed the gaps in both rails (just to the left of the feeder wires), causing the track pop that was repaired above:

With the popped trackwork repaired, I moved on to building the roadbed for the Emerson house track. Here are the first few splines clamped in place:

Spline roadbed goes together quickly. A few hours after starting, the spline roadbed for the Emerson house track has been completed:

The Emerson house track is used for setting out defective cars and has a capacity for three 50-foot cars:

Finally, I completed the cardboard web between the tracks and the backdrop all the way to the north end of the Emerson scene. The flat area in the middle distance is to accomodate a residential neighborhood that borders the railroad:

Here is the same area looking north:

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Layout Progress as of 1/10/2010

2010-01-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

I have now completed week three of eight weeks of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below.

» Photos

Starting at the southernmost end of the mainline, I applied strips of 2" wide masking tape to the cardboard web. I learned this method from watching Joe Fugate's excellent DVD series on layout scenery construction at Model-Trains-Video.com. Although this is an optional step, it allows you to get a very good idea of what the final terrain profiles will look like before the actual plaster layer is applied. If something doesn't look right, it is pretty simple to redo a section of cardboard web and masking tape.

This photo looks southbound towards the south end of the Emerson passing siding with the southern end of the visible mainline in the distance. You can also see where I have begun to pencil in the treeline and distant hills on the backdrop:

Same scene looking in the opposite direction:

I trimmed some cork to use as shims under the headblock ties of the turnout at South Emerson. I made sure the cork did not interfere with the actuator wire coming up from the Tortoise turnout motor before I used a few carefully placed drops of wood glue to secure the cork:

Farther north along the mainline is the turnback curve at the end of the aisle. I have completed most of the masking tape in this area as well. I have also setup some prototype photos of the area so I can get the correct treeline and distant hills pencilled onto the backdrop:

Here is a current view of the town of Emerson and the north end of the Emerson passing siding. In the distance, I have started roughing in the terrain for the U.S. 41 overpass, but there is still a lot of work to do in this area:

Before I could finish roughing in the terrain around the I-75 underpass, I had to cover the gap below the backdrop. To do this, I used a 2.5" wide strip of plastic that I cutout from a 19" x 15" "For Sale by Owner" sign purchased from ACE Hardware for a cool $3. I secured the plastic strip using Pliobond, a contact cement-like adhesive that stays flexible:

After the adhesive cured, I applied a coat of the same sky blue paint used on the backdrop:

In the previous photo, you can clearly see the seam between the backdrop and the plastic strip. However, this seam will not be visible in typical viewing angles:

The highway in the I-75 underpass scene will be supported on a 3/4" layer of blue extruded foam. Here is a mockup of the completed scene:

Finally, I carved the shoulders and median into the foam and affixed it to the benchwork using latex caulk. I then attached the cardboard web to the foam and covered it with strips of masking tape to finish the rough-in. The openings around the ends of the bridge are to allow the abutments to be placed when the time comes. Two strips of black construction paper are standing in for the highway:

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Layout Progress as of 1/3/2010

2010-01-04T17:06:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

As we start a new year and a new decade, I have completed the second week (out of eight total weeks) of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below.

» Photos

The mainline and the siding cross I-75 just south of the town of Emerson. Some additional framing had to be completed to support the bridge, highway and any surrounding scenery. I used some scraps of 1" x 3" boards and a small section of 1/8" hardboard to do the trick:

The following photo shows how a small piece of 3/4" blue foam board will be used to support the highway. Using the foam will allow me to easily carve features such as the road profile and drainage ditches into the terrain. The actual highway surface will probably be constructed using sheet styrene cut to size. I have mocked up the scene using construction paper for the highway and added a few vehicles to verify the bridge clearance is appropriate. Notice how the cardboard web will be extended right down to the shoulders of the highway:

The cardboard web has been extended around the turnback curve at the end of the aisle. The elevated track roadbed and the cardboard web make it easy to build terrain that drops well below track level as you can see in this photo:

Here is an overall view of the entire Emerson scene showing all work completed so far. I have used the framing of the upper deck to support a gallery of prototype photos that will help guide me in reproducing this scene as faithfully as possible:

Finally, this last photo shows a simple Digitrax UP5 panel that I installed and wired this past week:

While this is an an insignificant detail on the surface, it has great meaning to me because I have seen these in use on so many layouts over the years and I can't believe I finally have one of my own. It was a very good feeling the first time I plugged in a throttle and ran a train.

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Layout Progress as of 12/27/2009

2009-12-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Today marked the completion of the first week (out of eight total weeks) of the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. Progress continues on the Emerson, GA scene of the layout as shown in the series of photos below.

» Photos

I am using the cardboard web method to support the hardshell scenery. This is the first layout I have ever actually added scenery to, and I have found I really like this approach. It goes together very quickly, allows you to see what the final terrain contours will look like, and is easy to modify if needed. This first photo was posted last week and shows the initial section of cardboard web installed on the layout:

However, after looking at prototype photos of the area, I realized that the hills behind the track were a bit too high. So, I simply ripped out this section of cardboard web and redid it. This photo was taken from the same angle as the first one--notice how the hills behind the tracks have been lowered:

Here is another photo of the same area looking in the opposite direction. There will be a rock cut in the middle distance, adjacent to the turnout for the south end of the Emerson passing siding:

This final photo shows the extent of the cardboard web so far. The void in the foreground is where the I-75 underpass will be. I need to add some framing to support the highway and the overpass, then I need to cut the appropriate profile in the fascia:

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Layout Progress as of 12/23/2009

2009-12-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

This week I have continued working on my to-do list posted on the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party on TrainBoard. I have included a series of photos below to show the progress that has been completed since the last update. This is my first real model railroad layout (to go along with the dozens that I have completed inside my head over the years), and I am really starting to be amazed at how it is coming together, especially when I see it in photos. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the numerous modelers who have helped out along the way. I will have to stop and give due credit at some point, but for now...thanks everyone!

» Photos

Painting the fascia the same color as the room walls really makes this part of the layout "pop." The old plastic drop cloth hanging down below the layout will soon be removed and black skirting will be installed in its place:

Here is a low angle shot of a northbound train entering the layout from south staging. You can see where I have begun to install the cardboard lattice that will support the hardshell scenery. You can also see one of the fascia mounted rocker switches used to control turnouts, in this case the one at the south end of the Emerson passing siding:

Here is a higher and wider angle of the same train shown in the previous photo. The scraps of blue foam have been glued in place protect the spring wire coming up from the Tortoise turnout motor to the throw bar in the turnout. I have also begun to build up the area around the throwbar with cork roadbed so it will no longer be suspended in midair:

This photo shows the current extent of the cardboard lattice. The lattice follows the background hill profile, which has been drawn onto the backdrop using blue chalk. This chalk line is very difficult to remove, as you can tell by the smudges left behind by an earlier failed attempt to draw the hill profile. I will need to paint over these smudges with the standard sky blue backdrop color:

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Layout Progress as of 12/20/2009

2009-12-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

This past week, TrainBoard announced the Second Annual International Winter Layout Party. WLP 2009-10 is an eight week program where model railroaders get together and publish their goals for the eight weeks. Each week, members post updates and comment on other member's progress. It is a lot of fun and a good way to get motivated and get some stuff done on your layout. WLP 2009-10 is a follow-up to the very successful First Annual International Winter Layout Party. I have been a member of TrainBoard for a few years now and have found it to be one of the best online model railroad communities, especially for N-scalers such as myself.

For the new layout party, my goals are to complete an extreme transformation of the Emerson, GA scene:

Prime & paint fascia.
Replace temporary turnout controls with permanent ones mounted in the fascia.
Frame out the supports needed for the I-75 underpass.
Install hardshell terrain (cardboard web + plaster cloth + paint + texture) on the ENTIRE scene.
Extra Credit: Paint tree line and distant hills on the backdrop.

I have already started working on the task list above. Today, I primed the fascia that I installed last weekend. I have included some updated photos of the layout.

» Photos

In this photo, you can see how I prepped the fascia for priming by filling in any abandoned screw holes leftover from when I was experimenting with positioning the fascia. This photo also shows one of the three 3/4" holes that I bored into the fascia to accommodate the rocker switches that will control the turnout motors:

Before priming the fascia, I also installed vinyl panel molding along the cut edges of the fascia and in the seams where two sections of the fascia come together. This molding gives the fascia a nice finished look and does a good job of hiding any imperfections in the raw cut lines:

Here is the fascia after two coats of primer have been applied. Applying primer to the hardboard used to construct the fascia and backdrop results in a smooth, even top coat and vibrant colors when the top coat is applied:

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Layout Progress as of 12/13/2009

2009-12-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

After an extended time away from the layout due to work, family, and a bout of temporary insanity while I considered switching locales, railroads and eras, construction has resumed on the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. I have decided to move forward with construction in the town of Emerson, GA even before the trackwork has been completed on the rest of the layout. This weekend, I completed all of the fascia in this section of the layout.

Before installing the fascia, I had to add some supports along the front of the layout where the scenery will extend a bit into the aisle. While the construction worked out just fine, I discovered that extending the layout in this manner really encroaches on aisle space. Even though I only extended a mere 3" into the aisle at two points, I found that my aisle that was comfortably wide at 30" is not so comfortable at 27". While I never had a problem with aisle width before, now I find myself brushing against the new fascia from time to time in the two spots where it bows out into the aisle. All of my controls will be recessed so I do not anticipate any problems, but I have learned my lesson well and from now on the aisle boundaries are off limits for expansion.

» Photos

In this picture, you can see how I used 8" wide strips of hardboard screwed to the front boards of the benchwork. The hardboard extends 1" below the front boards. You can also see where I have drawn the profile of the hills using blue chalk:

These two views show how the fascia bows away from the benchwork in two locations where the layout was extended into the aisle. Note the special brackets used to support the fascia in these areas:

Finally, I used a sabre saw fitted with a metal cutting blade to cut the hill profiles on the fascia:

The gaps in the fascia where two pieces of hardboard meet will be filled by panel molding strips and will blend in nicely once everything gets primed and painted. I also need to go back and redo some of the screws holding the fascia on to the benchwork. A few of these are not in a straight line as you can see in one of the above photos.

The cutting activity caused a lot of vibration in the layout, as I rattled an autorack right off a staging track a good 8 feet away from where I was cutting. I also found a few sections of track that separated from the caulk holding it to the roadbed. Also, the fine sawdust managed to gunk up the track and fouled a Kato locomotive, even after I thought I had removed all of the dust with a Shop Vac. For future cuts, I will remove the fascia boards after drawing the hill profile in chalk and make the cuts in the workshop.

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Layout Progress as of 7/26/2009

2009-07-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

This week I completed laying the mainline track from the North End Emerson switch across the dropdown gate across the entrance to the layout room. With the installation of one Tortoise turnout motor and a bit more wiring, all of the trackwork in the Emerson area will be completed. This will allow scenery construction to begin in Emerson while track planning and construction progresses northward.

Before laying any additional track between North End Emerson and the dropdown gate, I had to superelevate the curve using strips of masking tape:

The first piece of Micro Engineering concrete tie flex track is affixed using latex caulk and held in place with several clamps carefully screwed down as to not damage the track:

While laying track on the gate, I temporarily screwed this scrap piece of 1x2" in place to make sure the gate could not be opened until the appropriate gaps had been cut in the rails:

The second section of flex track reached just a few inches short of the end of the gate roadbed for a near perfect fit:

This closeup view shows how both rails were gapped using a cutoff disc in a motor tool to allow the gate to be opened. The two sections of flex track have been soldered together (crudely since it was hard navigating the soldering iron around the gate rails!) so only one set of electrical feeders are needed along the span of the gate:

Here is the gate in the open position with the track in place:

I also applied Velcro patches to hold the removable end panels in place:

The lower level benchwork at the end of the aisle was modified to make the shelf 8" deeper. This will allow room for additional scenery to be built to disguise the non-prototypical horseshoe curve along the Emerson passing siding. The following two pictures show a before and after view of the benchwork addition:

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Layout Progress as of 7/19/2009

2009-07-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

After a long layoff, I have continued construction on the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. First off, just for fun I photographed some new purchases that I recently made:

The locomotive is the brand new Atlas Dash 8-40CW lettered and numbered for Conrail #6150. I'll eventually patch this out for CSX when I get some spare time over the next decade or so. The N-scale community has been grumbling about poor quality control and the high price of this model, but I think it looks and runs great even though I have a few tweaks to make. This locomotive is very expensive (street price of about $120 for the DCC version I purchased), but I wanted to try out the new NCE decoder equipped loco with operating ditch lights. Like I said this is a great model, but at this price, I won't be stocking up anytime soon. The two Union Pacific autoracks were picked up to beef up my vehicle train roster, along with a set of Kato BNSF doublestack cars & containers (not shown).

Now to the layout progress...

I lowered a section of front board near the south end of the Emerson siding to accommodate the I-75 underpass. The scenery will drop down here to accommodate the interstate and the bridge will be built in place around the existing roadbed:

Next, I cut some end panels out of some leftover 1/8" hardboard and painted them the same shade of light sky blue used on the backdrop:

These end panels serve as scene dividers that separate the visible areas from the hidden areas of the layout. They will eventually be secured to the benchwork using Velcro so that they can easily be removed to allow for photography. The following three photos show the southernmost visible area of the layout before and after the end panels have been installed, along with a clearance check for high and wide equipment:

Here are the same three photos, but this time showing where the Emerson area of the layout adjoins the dropdown gate:

Finally, a wide view of the Emerson area showing both end panels in place:

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Layout Progress as of 5/13/2009

2009-05-12T22:58:00.001-07:00

I have been making slow but steady progress on the trackwork on the N-Scale CSX Dixie Line layout. I recently completed laying the passing siding and the turnout at North End Emerson. With both tracks in place, I shot the following video of the first actual meet ever to take place on the layout:

I also snapped a few photos showing an overall view of the Emerson area and a closeup of the newest track leading up to the current end-of-track at North End Emerson:

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Layout Progress as of 4/26/2009

2009-04-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I received an order of Micro Engineering code 55 wood tie flex track to use for the Emerson passing siding. In this picture, a southbound coal train is holed up in the siding waiting for a northbound mixed freight to pass:

In the above picture, you can clearly see the difference between the concrete tie mainline and the wood tie siding. You can also see how the siding is at a considerably lower elevation than the mainline. Both of these traits are based on the prototype practice of the CSX in Emerson, GA.

The following picture shows the same area from a wider angle. You can see the turnout at South End Emerson and the temporary slide switch used to control the Tortoise turnout motor:

This shows the current end of track for the Emerson passing siding. The turnout for the Emerson house track spur will attach to the ends of the rails in this location:

This shows the current end of track for the mainline through Emerson. The turnout at North End Emerson will attach to the ends of the rails in this location. You can see the current end of the siding track in the distance:

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Layout Progress as of 4/24/2009

2009-04-24T17:12:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days I installed the first Tortoise turnout motor on the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout:

This is also the first Tortoise that I have ever installed, although this particular one has a bit of history. When my wife and I first moved to Atlanta in 1993, I immediately began building a layout in a spare room of our apartment. Although the layout never got farther than some L-girder benchwork, I actually purchased a Tortoise from a one of my favorite all-time hobby shops, Gandy Dancer's in Chamblee, GA. Well, fast forward 16 years to 2009--Gandy Dancers has been closed for almost a decade and the Tortoise finally comes out of its shell! Yes, as strange as it sounds, I just installed a brand new 16-year old turnout motor. Eventually, the computerized CTC system will be controlling all of the mainline turnouts via DCC, but for now the first one is controlled using a plug in 12-volt DC power supply and a simple DPDT slide switch.

Photos

The spline roadbed is not wide enough to mount a Tortoise, so I used a 3" x 3" piece of hardboard as a mounting surface. Here are all of the parts, including the hardboard showing the holes that were pre-drilled according to the template that came with the Tortoise. The two beveled holes are for the pair of #8 wood screws that will hold the mounting plate to the bottom of the spline roadbed:

The next two photos show the mounting plate attached to the bottom of the spline roadbed:

This photo shows the details of how the Tortoise is wired. I am using one set of contacts inside the Tortoise to power the frog of the Atlas #10 turnout. I used green 20-gauge solid wire for all of the Tortoise wiring. You can also see the bottom of the DPDT slide switch that is being used to control the turnout until a permanent DCC solution is installed. The heavy red & black wires are the track bus; the white wires running off to the right are the leads from the plug in 12-volt DC power supply:

Overview of the Tortoise installation from above:

Closeup showing the .025 wire coming up from the Tortoise fulcrum, through the pivot and the hardboard mounting plate, and through the end of the throwbar on the turnout. I had to bend the wire a bit at the top to keep the throwbar from rubbing against the adjacent ties. Before scenery begins, I will protect the throw wire with a piece of blue foam that will wrap around the wire:

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Layout Progress as of 4/20/2009

2009-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Trackwork continued on the CSX Dixie Line layout over the last week. The mainline has now been laid from the helix all the way to the turnout at the north end of the Emerson passing siding. Here is CSX Q210 stopped at the current end of track--I am afraid the crew will go "on the law" before the track gang will enable them to proceed any further:

Bus Wires

You can also see in the above picture that I have removed the temporary feeder wires and installed the permanent bus wires and attached all of the track feeders. I am using 14 gauge stranded wire for my bus wires and the flexibility of the stranded wire really paid off when pulling cable around the layout. All wires are attached using wire nuts at the end of a run or soldered joints in the case of a wire splice. All of the bus wires run back to this panel where the DCC components will be installed:

A Digitrax PM-42 power management board and a Digitrax BDL-168 block detection board will be installed on this panel in addition to the DCS-100 booster. In the meantime, the booster will take up residence on the wooden TV table. All of the bus wires are temporarily spliced together and tied into the booster via a pair of good old alligator clips.

Joining Flex Track

This section decsribes how I join two sections of Micro Engineering flex track. This technique was suggested by Jim Reisling on TrainBoard; he uses the method on his N-scale BNSF Oakville Sub layout. Rather than using rail joiners, you cut the rails short on one section of track and cut off the ties from the end of the adjacent section of track. You can then simply slip the rails into the empty ties and you will have a perfectly aligned joint without rail joiners. The following photos show how this works:

I leave a small gap between the rails to allow for expansion/contraction. This requires a set of feeders to be attached to every section of flex track, but I was planning on doing this anyway to increase electrical reliability.

Completed Track So Far

The following photos show the completed mainline beginning where the track emerges from the helix all the way around to the north end of the Emerson passing siding. You can see the turnout at North End Emerson that has been temporarily set in position at the end of the mainline:

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Layout Progress as of 4/12/2009

2009-04-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

This week saw a major milestone reached on the N-Scale CSX Dixie Line layout as the first pice of track was laid on Sunday April 7, 2009. Construction of the layout began on July 24, 2008, so it took just a little more than eight months to get the first track installed. And with track installed, how could I resist running an actual train? I attached some temporary bus wires to the permanent track feeders and fired up the Digitrax system to run an intermodal train I threw together. Of course, the occasion called for a video so I manned the camera while my four year old son grabbed the throttle and ran the first train over the newly installed track:

I also accomplished a few other significant tasks this week. First, I settled on a method for superelevating the mainline curves on the layout. The technique I am using to superelevate curves was published in Model Railroader and recommended by several members on Trainboard. I posted a detailed step-by-step article on how I superelevated the first mainline curve on the layout. Next, I devised a near goof-proof method for soldering feeder wires to my flextrack. Considering that each piece of flextrack will need a pair of feeders and my soldering skills leave much to be desired, this was a very important accomplishment. Again, I posted a detailed step-by-step article on how I solder the feeder wires to the flex track. Finally, I decided to use Micro Engineering flex track for all of my trackwork. I have always used Atlas flextrack in the past and really like their code 55 offering, but I purchased some Micro Engineering track because it was the only product available with concrete ties. After working out some kinks with the Micro Engineering flextrack (literally!), I have decided that I really like the stuff and will be using it entirely on the layout, not just in the areas where CSX employs concrete ties. The upcoming weeks call for completing the trackwork in the Emerson area of the layout. This will require a lot of soldering, track bending and caulking, but after running that first train, I can say the results are well worth the effort!

Photos

First section of Micro Engineering code 55 concrete tie flex track installed immediately south of the turnout for the south end of the Emerson passing siding. All track is attached using grey DAP acrylic latex caulk. The clamps are very loosely secured just enough to hold the track down while the caulk sets up:

Laying the Atlas code 55 flex track in the temporary staging area built where the future helix will be located. The first picture shows the bead of caulk laid down, the second picture shows the track pressed into the caulk and held in place with T-pins. These pins are probably not necessary since the caulk has a lot of grab to it. In fact, the entire section of springy flextrack (which is along a tight 15" radius curve here) was held in place just fine by the caulk alone, but I added the T-pins just in case:

Here is the first turnout to be installed, which is an Atlas code 55 #10 turnout at the south end of the Emerson passing siding. I will be using a computerized CTC system, so each turnout will be its own detection block (aka a control point). As such, the turnouts will have insulated rail joiners all around and needs its own set of feeders. You can see where I have soldered the red and black feeders at the frog end of the turnout; the green wire is used to power the frog and will get the appropriate polarity from the auxiliary contacts of a Tortoise turnout motor. You can also see where I have glued strips of .020" styrene to the bottoms of some of the ties on the turnout. This is necessary because the height of ties on the Atlas code 55 track is about .020" shorter than the ties on the Micro Engineering track:

On this photo of the photo of the installed turnout, you can see the temporary bus wire that I installed so that we could run a train over the new trackwork. The turnouts are affixed with the same latex acrylic caulk used for the flextrack. Notice how no caulk is used anywhere near the moving points of the turnout:

Finally, a few overviews showing all of the completed trackwork. Including the temporary staging area, about 16' of track has been permanently installed. Here is the completed visible mainline at South Emerson:

Completed temporary staging track:

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DIY: Solder Track Feeders

2009-04-11T09:20:00.001-07:00

This post describes how I solder the feeder wires to the track on my N-Scale CSX Dixie Line layout. My soldering skills have been horrible in the past and are still not great, but I think I have devised a method that is almost completely goof-proof and results in feeder wires that will be completely hidden once the track is ballasted. The following photo shows a finished example of this technique:

The key to the success of my feeder soldering method is the use of Micro Engineering flex track with pre-weathered rail. I was not happy with this track when I first started using it, mostly because I am used to "springy" flex track like Atlas. However, the more and more I use the Micro Engineering flex track, the more I like it. In fact, since this track enables me to solder feeder wires without damaging or destroying the track, I have decided to switch completely to Micro Engineering code 55 flex track for all of my track with the exception of turnouts. I will continue to use Atlas code 55 turnouts.

Step-by-Step

Step 1 I solder my feeders three ties in from the end of a section of flex track. I solder feeders to every piece of flex track because I will be leaving gaps between each piece of track to allow for expansion/contraction. When I solder the feeder wires to the bottom of the rails, I want to make sure they are soldered to a spot between a set of ties so that the tie spacing remains constant; the weathered rail makes it easy to mark the right spot. To do this, first cut away any plastic between the third and fourth tie in from the end of the track. This will allow access to both rails from below between the ties:

Step 2 Next, using a small jewelers file, file the bottoms of both rails between the ties to remove the weathering:

Step 3 Finally, slide the three "outer" ties completely off of the piece of flex track. You also want to push the adjacent "inner" ties inward so they will not be affected by the heat of the soldering iron. I cut gaps between the adjacent four inner ties and pushed them inward, away from the spots where the feeders will be soldered:

Step 4 Next, tin the feeder wires and the spots on the rails that were filed away in the previous step. I use 20 gauge solid wire for my feeders and strip about 1/8" of insulation off one end of each wire. I use black for the inner rail and red for the outer rail--be sure to be consistent throughout the layout to avoid short circuits. As for the rails, the use of weathered rails pays off big time with regards to tinning. Solder will only stick to clean metal, so in our case, the solder will stick to the filed away spots and will not stick to the weathered rail. This is perfect because it will allow us to slide the plastic ties back onto the rails right against the soldered feeders, keeping the tie spacing exactly as it was before.

I apply a tiny amount of flux gel to the filed spots in the rail and the bare wire ends. I then use a Weller 40-watt soldering iron with a flat chisel tip to heat the rail and apply a tiny bit of solder. I do the same thing with each feeder wire:

Important: The key to this step is to be quick. I hold the tip of the soldering iron to the rail and immediately apply the solder then quickly remove the tip from the rail. The whole process takes bout two seconds; any longer and you risk melting the nearby plastic ties. By sliding the ties away from the spots on the rails to be soldered, you get a nice safety margin and I have yet to damage any ties when soldering track this way. I also found that by using the Weller 40-watt iron (which is a blowtorch when compared to the typical 25- or 30-watt soldering iron you get off the shelf at Radio Shack), you can heat the rail/wire very quickly and get the solder to flow within a second or two. This means you can get out before the heat reaches the plastic ties.

Important: You can see where I made black marks along one edge of the ties. This is to remind me which rail is to have the black feeder wire soldered to it. It is very easy to get the rails reversed when you flip over a piece of track, so I always mark one side of the ties before I start soldering.

Note: You can see a few drops of liquid and some areas that appear wet in the above photo. This is actually the residue of the flux gel that I use when soldering. The gel turns to liquid when heat is applied and the soldered areas can get a bit messy with this goo. However, cleanup is very simple as I just use an old toothbrush wet with 70% rubbing alcohol to scrub the area after all the soldering work has been completed. This removes all residue from the soldering process.

Step 5 Once the track and wires have been tinned, it is a piece of cake to solder the wires to the rails. Simply hold the tinned end of one wire against the tinned spot on one rail and apply heat until the solder flows. Repeat with the other wire:

Step 6 Finish the process by scrubbing the work with the toothbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol and sliding the plastic ties back in place:

You now have a piece of flex track with feeder wires that is ready to be installed on the layout:

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DIY: Superelevate Track

2009-04-07T19:18:00.001-07:00

All mainline curves on the CSX Dixie Line layout will be superelevated. Superelevation is the prototype practice of elevating the outside rail to combat the centrifugal forces imposed on a speeding train as it rounds a curve. Model railroads do not need to worry about such forces, but the visual impact of watching a modern locomotive lean into a curve is just too much for me to resist! To see what I mean, take a look at this photo taken of two eastbound trains waiting for a signal on the CSX Kanawha Sub in St. Albans, WV:

The train on the left is on the flat siding track while the train on the right is on one of the superelevated main tracks. I believe superelevating curves on a model railroad is one of the simplest ways to boost realism on a layout. I am using the technique published in Model Railroader and documented by Michael Highsmith on his Ranier Great Western model railroad website. This technique uses narrow strips of regular masking tape placed under the outside rail of the curved track. I tried this technique out on my test layout and found the results to be outstanding, as you can see by this video I included in a previous post. The following steps show how I superelevated the first track installed on the actual CSX Dixie Line layout.

Step-by-Step

Step 1 Just as you must use easements when laying out curved track on your layout, you must also include vertical easements between the flat/level track and the superelevated track. The layered tape approach allows you to easily build these vertical transitions. First, you need to mark both ends of the superelevated curve on your roadbed. Then, starting at the ends of the curve and working in, make additional marks every one inch until you have eight marks on each end of the curve. This will indicate where each of the eight layers of tape should begin. In this picture, you can see where I have marked my roadbed (the curve starts at the #1 mark and continues to the right):

Step 2 I also marked a series of dots 3/16" from the track centerline along the superelevated curve. These marks indicate where the outside rail of my track is located and will be used to align the edge of the strips of masking tape:

Step 3 I then cut lengths of ordinary 1" wide painters masking tape into strips 1/4" wide. I selected a high tack masking tape so there would be good adhesion to the cork roadbed:

Step 4 I then began laying the strips of tape along the curve to be superelevated, starting at the #1 mark and with the inner edge of the tape aligned with the dots that denote the outside rail. Continue laying the first strip of tape until you reach the #1 mark at the opposite end of the curve:

Step 5 Start laying the she second strip of tape at the #2 mark and end at the opposite #2 mark, then repeat the process with all eight layers of tape. The staggered starts of each strip of tape are what creates the vertical easements. Here is a closeup of all eight layers at the start of my superelevated curve:

The tape continues around the curve:

The tape ends at the opposite end of the curve:

Step 6 The track can now be installed with the outside rail aligned with the inside edge of the layers of tape. The excess tape will be trimmed away after the track has been permanently fastened to the roadbed:

Here is a side-by-side comparison showing a train on the curve both before and after the superelevation that was performed in the above steps:

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Superelevated Track Demo

2009-03-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

I superelevated the mainline on my N-scale test layout to see how I am going to superelevate the track on my CSX Dixie Line layout. This video shows a train on the non-superelevated siding, then on the superelevated mainline, then one train on each track for a side-by-side comparison.

To superelevate the track, I cut eight (8) strips of masking tape each 1/4" wide and each the full length of the curve to be superelevated. I then pulled the track nails out of the Atlas flex track and raised the track so I could lay the strips of masking tape below the track under the outside rail along the curve. For the first strip of tape, I used the entire length of tape. One inch of is cut off of each successive layer of tape and the shorter length is laid right on top of the previous strip. This staggering of the ends of each layer of tape results in a nice smooth transition between the superelevated and flat track. I will be superelevating all of the mainline curves on the big layout using this same technique.

One word about video quality: filming model trains is nothing like filming the real thing. Getting the focus and lighting correct is aespecially tricky. In fact, I just used autofocus because it proved better than manually focusing on a certain spot. However, because of this you will see a lot of focus hunting as the camera tries to find the ideal focus. Hope to get better at this as I find the time!

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Layout Progress as of 3/22/2009

2009-03-22T12:07:00.001-07:00

This week I installed all of the cork roadbed in the Emerson area of the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. Rather than purchasing a commercial cork roadbed product, I chose to make homemade cork roadbed since I could customize the height & width of the roadbed. I have posted a detailed HOWTO article on how I did my homemade cork roadbed.

Here are some photos of the cork roadbed atop the laminated spline roadbed. Notice how the beveled edges have been carved and sanded into the cork roadbed:

Since the sidings are 3/16" lower than the mainline, I had to sand a transition ramp down from the mainline to the siding. In this picture, notice how the roadbed slopes down from the turnout in the distance to the siding in the foreground:

The double-thick cork roadbed continues across the dropdown gate that crosses the entrance to the layout room. I used a hacksaw blade to cut diagonal gaps in the roadbed that lineup to the diagonal gaps in the bridge deck. This allows the gate to swing down freely while still having a solid roadbed to be used for laying track across the gate:

I also cleaned up the end of the spiral temporary staging track roadbed built atop the helix base. After track is laid here, I will attach a small block of wood to keep trains from overrunning the end of track and vanishing into "the gulch":

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DIY: Homemade Cork Roadbed

2009-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

This post includes a detailed step-by-step account of how I made my own cork roadbed for my N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. I chose homemade cork roadbed over the commercially available products because I wanted to vary the thickness of the roadbed on my mainlines and sidings. I considered using two layers of standard N-scale cork roadbed for my mainline, but that would have been too thick. I also considered using standard HO-scale cork roadbed for my mainline and N-scale cork roadbed for my sidings, but I did not think that would not have been enough of a difference between the heights of the two roadbeds. To give a visual reference of what I am trying to accomplish, take a look at this picture that shows the mainline and siding of the CSX W&A sub through Emerson, Georgia:

In this photo, notice the much higher ballast profile of the main track at the far left compared to the siding track in the center. The house track to the right does not even have a ballast profile. This is the effect I am trying to duplicate on my layout.

For my custom cork roadbed, I purchased The Board Dudes #268 Hobby Cork Roll from Hobby Lobby. This package contains a solid sheet of 3/16" thick natural cork material 2 feet wide by 8 feet long. I also found rolled sheet cork at Michael's Crafts and Ace Hardware, but the product at Hobby Lobby was the ideal size and also had the lowest price. Since my cork roadbed will be 1 inch wide, this roll will yield 24 strips of roadbed 8 feet long, or 192 linear feet of 3/16" thick roadbed. Even when stacking two strips of roadbed to produce a 3/8" height, you will still yield 96 linear feet of roadbed--not bad for a $15 roll of cork!

Aside from wanting to vary the thickness of my roadbed, I also wanted to customize the width of my roadbed. I found that commercially available N-scale roadbed--both cork and foam--is just way too wide for my liking. When I place a piece of flex track on a piece of store bought cork or foam roadbed, there is a really wide shoulder between the outside of the ties and the beveled edge of the roadbed. By contrast, most of the prototype photos I reviewed shows that the ballast begins sloping down immediately outside of the ties. Of course this arrangement is not always the case, but it certainly seems to be the practice along the lines I am modeling. I could just narrow down the commercially available roadbed, but if I am going to make all of these cuts anyway, why not just start out from scratch?

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1 As mentioned above, I first cut the 8' long roll of cork sheet into three equal lengths (32" long each). This made the cork easier to work with when cutting into strips. Although my roadbed is 1" wide, I cut 48 1/2" wide strips out of each 32" long sheet of cork. When laying the roadbed, the 1/2" width makes it much easier to fit the roadbed around curves. I cut my cork on the kitchen table, first laying down a scrap sheet of Masonite hardboard to protect the table. Spring clamps helps to hold the cork in place:

Step 2 I used a standard utility knife to make the cuts along a metal ruler used as a straight edge. The 1/2" wide strips of cork will curl up since they have been rolled tightly:

Step 3 Once all of the strips have been cut from the sheet of cork, I placed them together in a bundle and set the entire bundle in a spot on the layout close to where I will be installing the roadbed:

Step 4 For fastening the cork to the top of my spline roadbed, I used DAP ALEX Plus acrylic latex caulk. I used the Easy Caulk variety that comes in a spray can and eliminates the need for a caulking gun:

The Easy Caulk is more expensive than the cartridges that go in a caulk gun, but I found that the "caulk in a can" gives much better control and the tip is much easier to clean and reseal. To begin, I cut the nozzle along the smallest score line and laid a bead of caulk about 3 feet long where I wanted to start installing my roadbed:

Tip: You may want to practice laying a bead of caulk on some scrap material to get a feel for how to control the flow of the caulk. If you press too hard on the nozzle, the stuff will squirt all over the place. This happened to me, but fortunately the goop missed my backdrop (just barely!) and landed on a scrap piece of foam board.

Step 5 Using a regular putty knife, spread the bead of caulk so it covers the entire surface of the spline roadbed (or whatever your cork will be sitting on). Try to spread the caulk as thin as possible while maintaining even coverage--this step is a lot like icing a cake:

Unless you spread the caulk perfectly, you will get a lot of gobs of the stuff on the side of the spline roadbed. This is not a big deal since it is easy to remove once it has dried. In fact, we will shave off any of the dried gobs of caulk when we come back later to trim down the width of the cork.

Step 6 Lay down one 1/2" wide strip of the cork into the caulk on top of the spline roadbed. You want to make sure that the inside edge of the cork follows the track centerline, which in my case was the center of the middle spline in my roadbed:

Don't worry if the outside edge overhangs the outer spline; this will get trimmed down later. Just start at one end of the strip of cork and keep the inside edge following the track centerline until you have the entire strip laid down into the caulk. I had planned on using push pins to keep the cork in place but found that the caulk had plenty of grab to keep the cork right where I laid it, even around my tightest 15" radius curves.

Tip: Remember how the strips of cork are curvy from being coiled up on the roll? When laying the strip of cork into the wet caulk, be sure to place it curvy side down. If you do not do this, the ends of the strip will want to curl up and you will need to secure each end with a push pin or a weight. When laying strips curvy side down, I never had to use anything to keep the edges from curling.

Step 7 Lay another strip of cork into the wet caulk, using the previously laid strip to align the new piece. When you have done this, the seam between the two adjacent strips of cork will provide a perfect centerline for laying your track:

Step 8 When encountering a turnout, lay and spread the bead of caulk beyond both legs of the turnout. When laying the pair of adjacent cork strips, lay one along each leg of the turnout being sure to keep the inner edge of the cork strips aligned with the track centerline:

Step 9 Finally, starting from the far end of each leg of the turnout (where the previous two strips ended), lay two more strips of cork back towards the turnout. Fill in the remaining "bare spots" with triangular pieces of cork cut from a scrap strip:

Step 10 For any mainline track, add a second layer of 3/16" cork over the first layer. This will give your mainline track a nice high 3/8" ballast profile. For the sidings, you will need to lay the double layer of cork a short distance into the siding. I laid the second layer of cork a full 12" beyond the end of the turnout for the siding:

Step 11 Using a sanding block loaded with 150 grit sandpaper, I sanded a transition ramp into the short section of second cork laid into the siding. This provides a nice, smooth transition in the track from the lower height of the siding to the higher height of the mainline. In this picture, you can see how the cork roadbed has been sanded to provide a nice smooth transition from the higher mainline at the left down to the lower siding at the right:

Step 12 After the caulk has completely dried (I allowed 24 hours), the outside edge of the cork roadbed needs to be trimmed to be even with the outside edge of the spline roadbed. The cork roadbed is 1" wide while the spline roadbed is only 15/16" wide, so there will be a bit of overhang to trim away. I use a single edge razor blade to do this trimming. I hold the blade vertically pressed against the outside of the spline roadbed as a guide, then trim away the excess cork using a sawing motion:

Step 13 The edge of the cork roadbed needs to be bevelled to match the shape of the ballast profile. For this cut, I use the same single edge razor blade and the same motion as in the previous step, except that I hold the blade at about a 45 degree angle:

You want the bevel to begin just outside the ties of a piece of track. I have set a piece of Atlas code 55 flex track in place to show how this should look (notice that the cork roadbed in the distance has not yet been bevelled):

Step 14 Using a sanding block loaded with 150 grit sandpaper, I very gently sand the top of the cork roadbed:

Important: Remember that the natural cork material is very soft, so it is easy to overdo the sanding. All you want to do here is knock down any slight bumps or ridges so the track will have a nice flat, smooth mounting surface.

After installing, trimming and sanding the cork roadbed, you will have a nice sturdy, smooth and quiet surface that the track can be mounted on. When the track is ballasted, you will have a realistic high ballast profile for the main track and a lower ballast profile for any sidings. Industrial tracks and spurs will be laid directly on the roadbed where appropriate for an even better effect.

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Layout Progress as of 3/14/2009

2009-03-14T15:53:00.001-07:00

This week I finished the spline roadbed in the Emerson area of the layout. After completing the roadbed, I used a handheld planer/scraper to scrape the dried blobs of glue off the top and bottom of the roadbed. I was not going to scrape the bottom of the roadbed, but all of those blobs of glue hanging down was bothering me. After scraping the bottoms, I realized it was a good thing to do since I would need a flat surface for mounting Tortoise turnout motors. Here is a view of the finished spline roadbed in North Emerson:

Completed spline roadbed in South Emerson:

Overall view of spline roadbed in Emerson and onto the base of the future helix:

I was going to build a temporary return loop around the helix base, but decided instead just to coil the end of the mainline around the base and terminate it where it meets itself. This coil of track will act as a temporary staging track. By doing this, I don't have to put any temporary track in the visible area and don't have to worry about building scenery around any temporary track. Here is the temporary staging track coiled around the inside of the helix base. The roadbed that has the clamps on it will be the end of the line:

Finally, here are two views of how I built the spline roadbed for the turnout at the south end of the Emerson passing siding:

In the previous two pictures, you can see how I drove a drywall screw down through the center of the roadbed to permanently fasten it to the riser. I did this in every location where the roadbed was resting on a riser.

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Layout Progress as of 3/10/2009

2009-03-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

With a single spline clamped to the risers all around the Emerson area of the layout, I began adding the first permanent splines. Before attaching a new spline, I cut the 8' long spline in half so it would only be 4' long. This way, the joints of the splines are staggered and there will not be a weak point where all of the splines join in the same spot. I vary the lengths of the splines as I go to make sure no two splines end at the same location.

To get started attaching the new splines, I first ran a bead of wood glue along the face of a spline and spread it evenly using a cheap foam brush:

Next, I attach the new spline to the first spline on the opposite side of the nails that the first spline is clamped to:

I continue attaching along the length of the new spline until the entire length is attached to the first spline. After the new spline is attached, clamp the new spline in place. Lots and lots of clamps:

The spring clamps I am using came from the local Harbor Freight Tools. If you have never been in one of these stores, they are a model railroader's dream come true. Discount tools priced low, low, low. These spring clamps usually sell for $0.99 each but can often be found on sale for $0.33 each--what a bargain! I purchased 40 and I wish I would have got 40 more:

During the process of gluing on a new spline, a lot of the glue will get squeezed out during the clamping process. Be sure you protect the floor of the room or whatever else is below your benchwork. I kept my plastic sheeting in place that I used to keep the carpet safe when I was painting the backdrops. Here you can see just how messy this can be:

Where two splines come together, I just butt their edges against each other. When the adjacent spline is installed, this will permanently secure the butt joint. In this picture you can see a butt joint in the first spline that has been secured by the installation of the second spline. During the drying process, there is a clamp on this joint that has been removed so I could take this picture:

In the South Emerson area, there is a fairly long straight section of track. To make sure the roadbed is straight, I purchased a 3' long section of aluminum angle:

I then clamped the aluminum angle between the splines and the finishing nails as I built the roadbed along the straight section. Without this aluminum angle, the roadbed could have slight curves in it. Here is a view of the aluminum angle used to keep the splines straight at South Emerson:

One final view of the clamp party as I began to install the third spline:

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Layout Progress as of 3/8/2009

2009-03-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days I continued working on the laminated spline roadbed that will be used on the layout. As mentioned in a recent post, the helix will serve as a temporary return loop while the track is being laid on the lower level. This means I had to install risers on the helix base so the spline roadbed could continue from the layout to the helix base and back uninterrupted. I made risers out of a mix & match variety of wood scraps. Her are the risers installed on the helix base with the risers throughout the Emerson area visible in the background:

With all of the risers in place, I went ahead and installed a short strip of 1/8" thick spline into the end of the dropdown gate/bridge that crosses the entrance into the train room. Although I am using 3/16" thick splines for my roadbed, the slot cut into the deck of the bridge accommodates a 1/8" thick spline since that was what I planned on using at the time the bridge was constructed. This short piece of spline--the "key spline"--will provide a gluing surface for the first "real" spline that gets installed:

Here is the first 3/16" thick spline temporarily clamped into place onto the key spline. Note that the 3/16" thick spline (the lighter color) is actually 3/4" tall and rests on the ledge made of scrap 1x2. The key spline (the darker color) is shorter since the 3/4" plywood that it is inserted into is not quite 3/4" thick. The important part is making sure the top of the roadbed is all at the same height. Once the spline roadbed is finished here, it will be screwed in to the ledge:

The first spline temporarily clamped in place around the entire Emerson area from the dropdown bridge/gate to the helix base:

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Layout Progress as of 3/6/2009

2009-03-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Today I installed the risers that will support the laminated spline roadbed for the track in the Emerson area of the layout. I had already cut about two dozen 3/4" wide strips of 1/8" thick Masonite for the splines. However, after doing some tests with the strips of 1/8" thick material, I realized it was going to take seven strips to make the roadbed the appropriate width. Instead, I decided to switch to thicker material. Lowes carries 3/16" thick Masonite, and this seemed like a better solution. With the 3/16" thick material for splines, I will use five splines laminated together to make a roadbed 15/16" wide.

I picked up an 8x4' sheet of the 3/16" thick Masonite and had the store rip it into two 8x2' sheets for easier transport home. I then ripped the Masonite into 3/4" wide, 8' long strips. Here are the first 20 strips:

You may have heard that cutting Masonite produces a lot of dust, and here is visual proof that I will be spending some time with a broom and the ShopVac this weekend:

I needed a way for the spline roadbed to join to each side of the dropdown gate/bridge across the entrance to the train room. I cut a groove in each end of the bridge deck to accommodate a 1/8" thick spline since that was the thickness I was planning to use at the time the bridge was built. I will still use a short piece of 1/8" spline to join the roadbed to the bridge, but the 1/8" spline will just provide a gluing surface and alignment point for the 3/16" splines. I also built a small "shelf" for the splines to rest on where they end at the bridge. The shelf will keep the tops of the spline roadbed aligned with the surface of the bridge deck. Here you can see the shelf, which is built out of a small scrap of 1x2":

For singe track roadbed, I used scrap pieces of 1" wide strips of 3/4" plywood (basically a narrowed down 1x2" board). I marked a centerline on the riser and temporarily clamped it in place on a joist, making sure the centerline on the riser was lined up with the mark I had previously made on each joist to identify the track centerline:

I then made sure the top of the riser was level both horizontally and vertically:

I then secured the riser to the joist with two screws (into pre-drilled & countersunk holes). I also drilled a small hole into the top of the riser and tapped in a 6d finishing nail that will be used to hold the splines in place while they are being laminated. Here is the first completed riser with the gate/bridge in the background:

I then repeated the process with the remaining risers in the Emerson area. I used scrap pieces of 1x3" for the risers in the double track area (main & siding). Here is a look at the finished risers in North Emerson:

Completed risers in South Emerson:

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Layout Progress as of 2/21/2009

2009-02-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

In the last two posts I described how I mocked up the track arrangement in the Emerson area of the CSX Dixie Line layout by temporarily laying the track on sheets of 3/4" blue foam. The track was held in place with pins so it could be moved around to find the ideal arrangement. However, once I settled on a track arrangement, I needed a way to transfer the track centerlines to the benchwork below the foam. I thought about just tapping some finishing nails through the foam to make holes in the tops of the bracket arms, but I also wanted to make sure I could somehow capture the entire mockup in case I needed to refer back to it later when actually laying track.

To do this, I purchased a 75' long roll of 24" wide art paper and cut two 12" wide strips long enough to cover the track mockups. The benchwork is only 11" deep on this part of the layout, so the 12" width of the paper worked out great. I then pinned down the paper and made a few registration marks on the paper and backdrop so I would later know where to place the paper in relation to the benchwork. Finally, I used a black crayon to make a full size tracing of the trackwork. I then removed the foam, pinned the paper directly to the top of the benchwork (using the registration marks as guides) and marked the track centerlines on the bracket arms. These marks will be used to locate the risers for the laminated spline roadbed that will support the track.

Photos

The Emerson area with the completed track mockups on a layer of blue foam:

A long sheet of art paper has been pinned down over the South End Emerson area:

I used a pencil to make registration marks on the paper and backdrop:

I used a crayon to trace the track layout:

I marked the location of turnouts:

I repeated the process for the North End Emerson area:

Next I removed the paper, track and foam, revealing the bare benchwork:

I then used push pins to secure the paper track plan to the benchwork:

I tapped a finishing nail into the top of a bracket arm along the track centerline:

I peeled the paper back and used the crayon to make a distinguishing mark on the bracket arm across the nail hole:

The track centers have been marked on top of all of the bracket arms in the south and north Emerson areas:

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Layout Progress as of 2/18/2009

2009-02-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week I completed the track arrangements in the Emerson area of the layout. In the previous post, I described how I came up with the final track arrangements along the south end of the Emerson passing siding. This post shows the track arrangements along the north end of the Emerson passing siding, which is where the actual town of Emerson is located. All of these new track arrangements are represented on the latest version of the CSX Dixie Line track plan.

North End Emerson

As with the South End Emerson area, I used a single layer of 3/4" blue foam over the top of the benchwork to use as a sandbox for experimenting with various track arrangements. I used two 8 foot long lengths of 1" wide strips of 1/8" thick Masonite to form a long spline that I used to locate the mainline in Emerson.

This photo shows the spline placed where the mainline will be located through Emerson, with the siding in the middle (with the train on it in the distance) and the house track to the right:

This was actually the first experiment I tried while attempting to find the best location for the house track turnout. Thanks to great feedback from the N-scale community at TrainBoard, I ended up moving the turnout farther back so it would fall along the straight section in the middle of the S-curve in the distance:

This is the same area looking in the other direction (north). You can see the turnout for the north end of the Emerson passing siding in the distance just before the track crosses the gate across the entrance to the train room:

Here is a great example of the benefit of doing these track mockups on foam. The track is held in place using T-pins, so it is very easy to move things around and try different arrangements. I was not happy with the location of the turnout at the north end of the Emerson passing siding so I moved it farther south towards the actual town. Here is a look at the relocated turnout (the house track has been removed to keep things simple):

In the above photo, there will be a street crossing the tracks at grade halfway between the turnout and the row of houses, or right about where the seam is between the two pieces of blue foam. Here is a prototype photo that I took while standing on this grade crossing looking north towards the turnout:

I think the reworked track arrangement does a good job of matching this prototype scene. Here is another view of the reworked track looking south, with a coal train sitting on the siding strung out under the US 41 overpass:

And finally a prototype photo taken from about the same location as the previous layout photo. Notice the tracks pass through a cut where the overpass crosses over:

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Layout Progress as of 2/15/2009

2009-02-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

15 days until my first post in February? Too many hours at the office! Over the last week or so I decided to put some sheets of foam down in the Emerson, GA area of the layout to experiment with some track arrangements. This is the southern most point on the layout and will be the first area where track will actually be laid. I got this idea when I found several sheets of 3/4" blue foam hanging out in the furnace room of the basement. These sheets were purchased over 10 years ago for a hollow core door layout that never came to fruition.

I cut the sheets of foam so that all of the layout shelves would be covered plus a good bit of overhang into the aisles in the event I need to increase the depth of a particular scene. With 30" wide aisles, I can afford to eat up a little bit of aisle space at the end of an aisle if I need to.

South End Emerson

The first section of track laid out is the area along the south end of the Emerson passing siding. I started the track mockups at the helix, which is at the end of the peninsula. Upon exiting the helix at the lower level, the inner track goes to the Emerson scene and the outer track goes to the Cartersville scene. I placed the location of the helix-to-Emerson track centerline using a section of Masonite spline that will eventually be used for the actual spline roadbed:

Let me take a second to explain the above photo. In the foreground is the 36" diameter helix base. The inner track of the helix will have a 15" radius--the end of the spline closest to the camera (bottom center) is aligned where this track will be located and follows its path about 1/4 turn counterclockwise where it exits the helix atop the other small block of blue foam (middle right of the photo). The track/spline then exits the helix and enters the Emerson side of the peninsula, bending out of site behind the double sided backdrop that runs down the middle of the peninsula. The Cartersville side of the peninsula is to the right where all the junk has accumulated. The small blocks of blue foam are to make sure that the spline is at the same height on the helix and the rest of the layout.

My goal for these track mockups is to produce a full size trackplan on the blue foam. I will then need to figure out some way to transfer this plan to the tops of the benchwork after I remove the sheets of foam so I can reproduce the track arrangements using Masonite spline roadbed. In other words, the foam is my sandbox where I can play around with different track arrangements until I find the most ideal solution (with regards to both looks and operational possibilities).

To "place track" on the blue foam, I used some 8' long scraps of 1" wide strips of 1/8" Masonite left over from the backdrops and fascia to form some splines. These splines work great because they are sturdy but flexible and form nice flowing curves with natural easements when bent. I clamped two of these splines together using cheap 1" spring clamps so I could have a nice long strip to work with. I held the spline in place using 6d finishing nails pushed into the soft foam using my fingers. If the placement did not look good, it was easy enough to pull out the nails and try a different arrangement.

This photo shows the long spline used to locate where the mainline will be placed in the South End Emerson area of the layout:

A closer look at the same area from the previous photo. I have assembled a #10 LH turnout and a couple of sections of flextrack to get an idea of where the Emerson siding will be located (all track used in these mockups is Atlas code 55):

When satisfied with the track arrangement, I used a Sharpie marker to place marks on the foam where the track centerline was located by the spline. I then removed the spline and assembled actual pieces of track to make sure the "real thing" looked as good as the spline placement:

The previous photo shows the same location as the first photo of this post. The spline has been removed, an extra piece of foam has been added for support, and actual track has been placed to check alignments. The track is attached to the foam using cheap T-pins that make it very easy to shift track around as needed to find the ideal fit.

In the above photo you can see that the inner track of the helix actually splits via a #7 RH turnout, with the through route going to the Emerson side of the peninsula (to the left) and the diverging route going to the Cartersville side (to the right). This latter route will merge with the outer track of the helix in Cartersville at a junction, making this short piece of track a reversing loop that will greatly enhance operational flexibility. This new track arrangement is now shown on the most recent version of the track plan.

This #7 turnout is in a tricky location with regards to the helix. To mitigate this, a return loop will be built in place of the helix until upper deck construction begins far down the road...months? years? ever? This insures lots of trains will run through this turnout over a long period of time, allowing any bugs to be ironed out well before the helix is ever built.

A wider view of the same area with the temporary track in place:

A closer look at the south end of the Emerson passing siding. The siding will actually begin about 12" closer to the camera, but I did not want to cut any flextrack just to place temporary track:

Finally, just to put things into perspective, two prototype photos showing what will be modeled on the South End Emerson area of the layout. The first photo is a panorama that looks at the extreme south section of the visible portion of the layout. Using your imagination, try to picture that #7 turnout at the end of the helix just out of sight to the right of this photo and the south end of the passing siding just out of view to the left:

This photo shows where the two tracks cross I-75. In the layout photo above, this bridge will be placed between the turnout for the south end of the passing siding and the far end of the peninsula where the tracks begin the 180 degree horseshoe curve around the end of the aisle:

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Track Plan v3.0

2009-02-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

There a few significant changes in version 3.0 of the CSX Dixie Line track plan:

(1) The helix has reverted back to a circle from the oval that appeared in the previous version of the track plan. I have become convinced that the circular helix will perform just fine based on feedback I have received from owners of other layouts. I can always go back to the oval (apace is available) in the event the circular helix experiences problems.

(2) The K&A Subdivision track has been added between the helix and the Cartersville area. This track will serve as a reverse loop section and greatly enhance operations. Trains running between Atlanta, GA and Knoxvile, TN 9and points north) will now enter and exit the layout on this track. The will basically go from south staging-to-staging while only appearing on the lower level of the layout, which is prototypically correct.

(3) The Emerson area of the trackplan now shows track arrangements as they will actually appear on the layout. This arrangement was laid out using actual track mockups on the layout.

Lower Level

Middle Level

Upper Level

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Layout Tour

2009-01-31T10:54:00.000-08:00

This page shows all of the layout design elements (LDEs) included on the CSX Dixie Line track plan. An LDE is a scene featuring a specific location on a model railroad; multiple LDEs are placed adjacent to each other to create a complete layout. You can click the links below to go to a page describing all of the details of that particular LDE. Take note that all of the LDEs shown on this page are included in the same south-to-north order that they appear on the CSX prototype, one of the main reasons I selected this area to be modeled.

Layout Design Elements

Coming Soon!

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Layout Progress as of 1/29/2009

2009-01-29T06:57:00.001-08:00

Layout progress has slowed to a crawl as I hunker down at work to finish another major project deadline. Although I would like to have more free time to work on trains, I have to say I am very thankful to be employed given the state of the economy right now. In the little time I have had to work on the layout, I started doing some structure mockups that I will be using when I go to layout the trackplan. I purchased the N-scale Atlas Kim's Classic American Home kit (photo from Atlas website):

I then took measurements from the parts of the kit and drew a template in Microsoft Visio (this template will create two houses):

Click here to download the PDF template

I then printed the template on plain old 8.5" x 11" paper, glued the paper to poster board using 3M spray adhesive, cut out the pieces and assembled them by locking the tabs together and securing with tape. I then placed a few of the houses on the layout in the town of Emerson, GA with a few other "props" to see how things will fit together:

And finally, to have a bit of fun I digitally inserted a background from the actual Emerson area to give a better idea of how a finished scene would look:

After reading a few articles in Model Railroader highlighting the use of photo backdrops and playing around with them in digital images, I am really starting to lean in that direction. Next I plan on making some mockups of actual structures in Emerson so I can begin to layout the actual town scene.

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Layout Progress as of 1/18/2009

2009-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I completed two projects for the N-scale CSX Dixie Line. First, I completed the dropdown gate that crosses the doorway to the layout room on the lower level of the layout. I have included a detailed step-by-step account of how I built this gate in a separate HOWTO article. Here is a picture of the completed gate and a video showing the gate in action:

Finally, I overpainted a section of the backdrop with a solid light sky blue color:

This section of the backdrop had previously been painted with two shades of blue to simulate the lighter sky color at the horizon, but I subsequently decided I liked the solid light blue much better. I may try airbrushing white on the lower half of the backdrop to simulate the horizon, but that will be another project for another day.

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DIY: Install a Dropdown Gate

2009-01-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

This post takes a highly detailed step-by-step look at how I built the dropdown gate across the doorway on the lower level of my N-Scale CSX Dixie Line layout. The gate will provide two functions: 1) allow trains to get from one side of the doorway to the other and 2) allow people to enter and exit the layout room easily. While the upper level can be ducked under fairly easily, asking a person to duck under the lower level would just be too much to ask!

Step 1 Looking back at an earlier picture of the layout, you can see where the gate will go. The distance across the doorway (between the wall bracket arms on either side) is 43.5", so the length of the bridge will be 46.5" to accommodate for the 3/4" width of each wall bracket arm and an additional 3/4" cleat on each bracket arm that the ends of the bridge will rest on:

Step 2 The bridge span is constructed of three 1x3" boards ripped from 3/4" birch plywood and cut to a length of 46.5". The three boards are held together temporarily using three drywall screws on each side so the assembly can be test fitted on the layout:

Step 3 A closer look at the end of the bridge span reveals the sideways I-beam arrangement of the three 1x3" boards. There are a few reasons I chose this construction for the bridge span:

1) The horizontal bridge deck will provide a nice wide, level surface for mounting the roadbed and track.
2) The vertical sides will prevent sag of the bridge deck.
3) The vertical sides will act as guard rails to prevent a derailed train from "taking the plunge."
4) When the vertical sides rest on the wall bracket arms, the surface of the bridge deck will be 1.5" above the tops of the wall bracket arms, which is an exact match to the top surface of the spline roadbed that will be used on the lower level of the layout.

Step 4 The backdrop on the right side of the doorway bends forward so the wall switches to the room lights can be accessed. This required the back side of the bridge to be notched so it would fit on the layout as far back from the front of the benchwork as possible. The track in this area runs quite close to the backdrop to accommodate the turnouts for the siding and house track at North End Emerson:

Step 5 The vertical sides of the bridge span rest atop the wall bracket arms on either side of the doorway. However, I had to build some "piers" on both wall bracket arms so there would be a good place to fasten the bridge ends and add support. I built the piers using scraps of the same 1x3" boards used to build the bridge span (this picture shows the left side pier; the right side is identical):

Step 6 These pictures show how the bridge span sits atop the bridge piers. I have fastened the bridge span to the pier using a pair of 2" angle brackets. The angle brackets hold the bridge span in place and also resist the downward forces on the cantilevered section of the bridge span when the gate is opened (these pictures show the left side pier; the right side is identical):

Step 7 I cut notches in the bottom of each bridge side so that the 4" gate hinge could be attached to the bottom of the bridge span using eight 3/4" #10 wood screws. Note that the square side of the hinge is actually screwed into the bridge deck and the bridge sides. I used a jigsaw to make these cuts, which explains why they are so ragged and the top of the notch does not line up with the bottom of the bridge deck as it should:

Step 8 I marked the locations of the diagonal cuts on each board of the bridge span and made the cuts using a chop saw. As I was about to make the cuts, I remembered to mark each board so I would know how the pieces would go back together:

Step 9 I reassembled the bridge assembly and held my breath as I put it in place...everything fit correctly!

Step 10 I used a sliding door bolt as the locking mechanism on the gate. The next few pictures show how this was installed. Note that the sliding part of the bolt actually rests on top of a drywall screw on the other side of the gap. This is needed to keep the bridge deck at the same height on both sides of the gap. Note how the diagonal cuts in the bridge sides do not line up with the diagonal cut bridge deck--this results in the bridge deck forming a "tongue" that fits between the bridge sides when in the closed position to maintain side-to-side alignment:

Step 11 A second door bolt was required to keep the bridge deck level when the gate is locked closed:

Step 12 I used 4" mending plates strengthen the attachment of the bridge piers to the wall bracket arms:

Step 13 I am using laminated spline sub-roadbed for the layout. After the gate was completed, I realized I failed to notch the ends of the bridge deck so a center spline of the roadbed could be attached to the ends of the bridge. I disassembled the bridge and cut 1/8" notches 1.5" deep into each end of the bridge deck. Since the splines will be 1/8" wide and 3/4" tall, these notches will keep the bridge and the sub-roadbed in perfect alignment:

Completed Gate Finally, a few shots of the completed gate in the open and closed positions:

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Layout Progress as of 1/14/2009

2009-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week I started construction of the dropdown gate that crosses the doorway on the lower level of the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. I decided to go with a dropdown style gate rather than a swing in/out or lift-out style because I felt it could be easily built with minimal addition to the existing benchwork. So far, I have only managed to assemble the actual bridge. This is just a temporary assembly, since it will need to be disassembled for cutting and adding the hinge and bolts that will make the entire assembly work. By doing this temporary assembly, I was able to test fit the bridge on the actual layout and determine the best position.

The bridge is constructed out of three 46.5" long 1x3" boards ripped from plywood assembled in a "U" shape. The horizontal board serves as the bridge deck that the roadbed and track will be mounted on, while the vertical boards prevent sagging and warping of the assembly:

A closer look at the basic "U" construction of the bridge assembly. The vertical members also serve as guard rails that will prevent a derailed train from "taking the plunge":

The bridge has been set in place to test the fit onto the layout:

The next steps will be to cutout the movable portion of the bridge, attach the hinge to allow this portion to swing up and down, and attach the door bolts that lock the bridge into the closed position.

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Layout Progress as of 1/11/2009

2009-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week I installed the fascia on the front boards between the lower two levels of the CSX Dixie Line layout. Although this could have easily been deferred to a future project, I went ahead and did it now because the glare from the visible layout lighting was really getting to be annoying, especially in photography. It is also much nicer walking around and working in the train room without having to stare directly into 31 lighting fixtures.

The fascia is made of 5" wide strips of 1/8" tempered hardboard fastened to the front boards with drywall screws and finishing washers. I used vinyl paneling molding between all vertical seams to yield a nice, clean look. When completed, the fascia will be primed and painted to match the color of the room walls.

The following two photos show the dramatic improvement from installing the fascia. The two photos show the helix base taken from basically the same angle, but the first was taken before installation of the fascia and the second was taken afterwards. Notice how much more "pleasant" everything looks with the lights blocked out by the fascia:

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Layout Progress as of 1/8/2009

2009-01-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

In my previous construction update from Januray 5, 2009, I described how I built the base for the future helix. While I was happy with the way the helix base turned out, something was just bugging me about it. After some thought, I realized it was just too darn big and taking up too much space in the layout room. I noticed this a bit as soon as it was completed, but it became more and more obvious as I reviewed photos of the room with the new helix base in place. Plus, every time I had to turn sideways to squeeze past, I felt like I needed to install one of these signs:

Originally, I planned a 36" diameter helix but switched to 48" at the last moment when I thought the extra size would not make a difference (wrong!) and the added circumference would reduce the grades from about 2.5% to about 1.5%. I have now rebuilt the helix base according to the original plan using the 36" diameter base, which yielded an additional 6" of aisle space on each side. I made this decision based on two tests:

(1) I moved the previous jumbo helix base (48") over six inches and could walk comfortably past it without turning sideways or brushing against it or the benchwork across the aisle.

(2) I broke out some track and rolling stock and determined I can go with a 2" separation between levels of the helix instead of the planned 2.5" separation. This change will result in about a 2.0% grade in the helix, much better than the originally planned 2.5%. With 2" spacing between levels, there will be at least 0.25" of clearance between the tops of my tallest cars and the roadbed above. Not an abundance of space, but should not be a problem because I have full access to both tracks from inside and outside the helix.

I started the rebuild by cutting the new top and bottom rings out of the circles of plywood leftover from cutting the rings for the old larger helix base. Since I could do this, no additional materials needed to be purchased. Plus, as an added bonus, the lines were already drawn across the circles from the previous cuts! All I had to do was mark the inside circle radius and make two cuts (one per circle):

The old inside radius of the large helix base rings was actually 18.5" and the new outside radius of the smaller helix base rings should be 18", but since the difference was minimal, I did not cut off the outer 1/2" of the rings. This saved two long circular cuts with the sabre saw, which was just fine by me! You can see the actual 18" radius drawn near the outside edge of one of the new rings:

Finally, a few different views of the completed helix base. Be sure to take a look at the previous post for a size comparison to the old "jumbo" helix base:

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Layout Progress as of 1/5/2009

2009-01-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

On New Years Day and the following weekend, I framed the base of the double-track helix that will allow trains to move between the three levels of the CSX Dixie Line layout. The helix base was constructed out of a base and top cut from 3/4" A-C grade plywood and seven 2x6" studs. Finally, the outside was sheathed using 1/8" tempered hardboard. Only three fourths of the exterior is sheathed, leaving the remaining one fourth to be used as an access opening to reach the track and wiring from the inside of the helix. Eventually, the helix base will be primed and painted to match the train room wall colors (as will the layout fascia) and a black curtain will be hung across the access opening. The helix itself will be built using 16 3/8" threaded rods attached to the base using tee nuts; the track roadbed will be two layers of laminated 1/8" tempered hardboard. The following photos show how the helix base was constructed.

A template was drawn on two 4x4' sheets of 3/4" A-C grade plywood. The circles that make up the bottom and top rings of the helix base have an outside radius of 48" and an inside radius of 42 1/2". The 5 1/2" width of the rings was chosen to accommodate the actual width of a stick of 2x6" dimensional lumber. The lines radiating out of the center point of the sheet of plywood indicate where the studs will be mounted to the rings:

After the rings have been cutout, the bottom ring is placed where the helix will be located to obtain a test fit:

Next, the first three studs are attached to the bottom ring using angle brackets and screws:

Then the top ring is placed on top of the first three studs and secured using a pair of drywall screws driven down into the studs. The remaining studs are then added to fill in the gaps. The missing stud at the front is actually omitted intentionally to allow access to the inside of the helix:

The outside of the helix base is sheathed using 1/8" tempered hardboard attached with drywall screws and finishing washers:

Here are a few overall views showing how the completed helix base fits into the layout. Although the aisles narrow down to about 20" wide to accommodate the helix, this is still ample aisle width to allow a single operator to easily slip past:

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Layout Progress as of 12/28/2008

2008-12-28T18:10:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend following Christmas, I managed to get all of the remaining backdrops painted in the light sky blue color. In a previous post, I described how I completed painting one section of backdrop using two shades of blue blended together to simulate the lighter sky found at the horizon. However, I was not completely satisfied with the results of this effort, and after seeing how good the solid light blue sky looks, I have pretty much decided to paint over the previously finished section with the single shade of light blue. I was not terribly dissatisfied with my earlier effort, but the solid light blue just looks much better to me.

If I do decide to forgo the darker shade of blue, I will try one final experiment to simulate the horizon: spraying the lower half of the backdrop white and feathering it into the light blue at the top. Hopefully my airbrush skills will be better than my brush painting skills!

I did not take any photos of the completed backdrops using the solid light sky blue, although you can see the results in some of the photos included in the post describing the helix base. However, I did grab a shot of this Red Caboose Burlington Northern autorack that I found under the Christmas tree with my name on it. Thank you Shelley, Hannah and Ryan!

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Layout Progress as of 12/25/2008

2008-12-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

After a long layoff due to several end-of-year project deadlines at work, layout construction has (finally!) resumed on the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. After we opened presents on Christmas morning, I headed into the train room where I managed to get the final six lighting fixtures installed on the lower level. There ended up being 31 fixtures--the same number will be required when the upper level is eventually built out. I have also posted a HOWTO article describing how I installed each of the lighting fixtures.

Here is a view looking down the peninsula showing the completed lighting. The newly installed lights are in the aisle to the right above the plastic storage bins that have managed to take up residence in the train room:

Looking up the back aisle towards where I stood to take the previous picture. The new lights are to the immediate left, and you can see the two sheets of 4x4' plywood that are scheduled to become the base of the helix in the next few days:

Looking up the front aisle towards the future helix location. The backdrops on the lower level here have been painted with two shades of sky blue; the backdrop in the distance has some light blue on the lower half of the backdrop and will eventually be coated with both shades of sky blue as well:

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DIY: Install a Light Fixture

2008-12-25T17:10:00.001-08:00

This article shows how I install one of the light fixtures on the lower level of the N-scale CSX Dixie Line layout. There are 31 of these fixtures on the lower level; the same number will eventually be installed on the upper level as well. At about $6 per fixture (including a compact fluorescent bulb), the cost of the lighting is about $180 per level.

I have included highly detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of photos. Although many of these steps may seem quite obvious, I have included them with the hope that they may be helpful to future modelers.

Step-by-Step in Pictures

Step 1 The following picture shows the materials used to install one light fixture including (clockwise from top):

-- Hemma cord set (Ikea)
-- nVision 60-watt Daylight CFL Bulb (Home Depot)
-- 3/4" #14 screw (Home Depot)
-- 1 1/4" Conduit Hanger (Home Depot)
-- small strip of craft foam

Step 2 Begin by marking the location of the light fixtures. For the geometry of my layout, I found that a 2' distance between lights worked great. I mount the fixtures inside the 1x3" front boards of the layout bench work. The first thing to do is to drill a 7/64" pilot hole for the #14 screw that will hold the fixture to the front board:

Step 3 Next, use a 3/4" #14 screw to attach the 1 1/4" metal conduit hanger to the front board. Note that the square hole on the hanger should be towards the top, so that the bolt used to grip the socket is pointing down. This may seem like a minor point, but after the upper deck is installed, access to the nut on top of the conduit hangar may be difficult in the event the fixture needs to be replaced. As this picture shows, I installed the conduit hanger "upside down" (you can see the square hole on the bottom; I had to go back later and swivel the hanger 180 degrees before installing the socket):

Step 4 I cut a small strip of craft foam and place it inside the conduit hanger before installing the socket. The foam acts as a "gripper" between the hard surfaces of the hanger and socket and insures the socket will not move around after final installation:

Step 5 Before installing the socket, the 15' cord must be run behind the backdrop...

Step 6 ...and behind the power strip along the bottom of the layout (the clear plastic sheeting stapled to the bottom of the layout protects the carpet from drips when the backdrop is painted):

Step 7 Insert the socket into the conduit hanger and tighten the bolt. I only finger tighten the bolt a few threads so that I do not damage the socket. You may need to pry open the hanger a bit to fit the socket inside the hanger and the strip of craft foam. You can also see that I have correctly rotated the hanger so that the nut for the bolt is at the bottom of the fixture for easy access:

Step 8 I use a plastic cable tie to secure the cord to one of the bench work members. This will prevent the cord from hanging down into the visible scenery. I attach the cable tie using a staple gun...

Step 9 ...then trim away the excess with a pair of wire cutters:

Step 10 The CFL bulb is then screwed in to the socket:

Step 11 The excess cable (there will be a lot of excess since the Hemma socket comes with 15' of cord) is then bundled up and secured with the wire tie that came with the socket:

Step 12 Now simply plug in the cord...

Step 13 ...and let there be light!

Step 14 The entire fixture is rotated downward so the light bulb "peeks" out below the bench work. This allows light to reach the upper areas of the backdrop more evenly:

Here you can see the bulb when viewed from the front of the layout. The bulb will be hidden from view when the fascia boards are eventually installed:

Here is a wider view of the entire area lit by the fixture we just installed. This area will be brightened considerably when the adjacent fixtures are installed:

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Prototype Tour: Emerson, GA

2008-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Emerson, Georgia is the southernmost modeled area on the CSX Dixie Line layout. Northbound trains departing Atlanta (south staging yard) enter the layout at Emerson. The following aerial map shows some of the features of the CSX W&A Subdivision that will be modeled in Emerson:

Emerson is a city about 40 miles northwest of Atlanta. It has all the feel of a typical north Georgia small town, although over the last few years the long reach of the developer's bulldozer has resulted in huge expanses of red Georgia clay being exposed that will soon be covered by rows of homes and businesses. The city is surrounded by small mountains that dot this part of the state, which gives the community even more of a feel of isolation from the big city to the south that is getting closer every day.

Emerson is also the location of a 7,975 foot long passing siding. The length and location of this siding makes it a popular spot for the CSX AI dispatcher to coordinate meets. With the volume of traffic and the presence of the siding, there is seldom a dull moment for railfanning in Emerson. Emerson is also along a steep southbound grade for trains coming up out of the Etowah River valley just north of town. Southbound trains are really grinding as they come through town, making for an even better railfanning experience.

Let's take a look at some of the prototype features that will be modeled on the layout, starting from the south and moving north.

South End Emerson Siding The south end of the Emerson passing siding is not accessible to railfans without trespassing. The following panoramic view was taken just south of the control point at the Emerson-Allatoona Road grade crossing. The signals and switch are just out of view to the north (left) of this photo, while Atlanta is to the south (right). Trains leaving this scene to the right on the layout will be entering the helix headed for the south staging yard (click photo to view entire panorama):

I-75 Bridge Both tracks (main and siding) cross Interstate 75 on a ballasted deck girder bridge. This bridge will be the focal point of the first 8' long section of the Emerson scene. I-75 will be modeled passing under the railroad, with an exit sign and overhead billboard adding to the details. Here you can see a long range view of the railroad bridge:

Emerson Curve Between the I-75 bridge and town, the pair of tracks form a long sweeping s-curve simply known as Emerson Curve. This curve will be fitted into the layout as a horseshoe curve at the end of the aisle that divides the Emerson scene. The following panorama shows Emerson Curve in its entirety, with the U.S. 41 overpass just out of view to the left and the I-75 bridge just out of view behind the hill at the far end of the visible track. This hill will provide a view block to break up the continuous view of trains through this part of the layout (click photo to view entire panorama):

Here is a video showing a loaded CSX coke train grinding uphill through Emerson Curve:

As you head north along the tracks from the curve, you enter the actual "downtown" area of Emerson. The following map shows a closer look at this area and some of the features that I would like to model:

U.S. 41 Overpass At the north end of Emerson Curve, the "new" U.S. 41 passes over both the CSX tracks and the "old" U.S. 41/Georgia 293 on a pair of two lane bridges. These bridges offer great modeling opportunity, as well as the cut the tracks pass through beneath the bridge (and those red clay embankments!), the Dixie Highway (Georgia 293) passing beneath the bridge, and of course the abundant kudzu. Here are a few photos of the U.S. 41 overpass from the south and the north, taken on 6/16/2007 when a CSX manifest train was holed up in the siding awaiting a meet:

Sunoco Station "The Slush Puppie Store" There is a Sunoco gas station between GA 293 and the tracks that serves as the general store for Emerson. This spot has earned the nickname "The Slush Puppie Store" by my kids for the cool icy treats they always demand every time we stop in. Somehow I have managed to not get a photo of this store, but here is a loaded coal train grinding its way up the grade through downtown Emerson; the Sunoco station is just out of site to the left:

Old House with Big Tree This old house with this massive oak tree would sure look great on the layout, especially without the Dollar General store mucking up the scene:

Flashing Yellow Light & Grade Crossing The crossroads of beautiful downtown Emerson is marked with a flashing warning light; it is as close as you will get to a traffic signal in this city. Here is a shot of the intersection of GA 293 and Westbrook Avenue looking west towards the old church that now serves as the City of Emerson municipal buildings:

The same intersection looking east showing the Westbrook Avenue grade crossing:

Doug's Place Emerson features exactly one restaurant, and it is Doug's Place right in the middle of town. This building is screaming to be modeled, although I will have to be very creative to fit in the space available. In fact, Doug may have to find a place on the other side of the tracks in my modeled version of Emerson! This great big oak tree in the parking lot for Doug's could be used to obscure the opening in the backdrop that the tracks will pass through just north of Emerson.

North End Emerson Siding The Emerson passing siding ends just north of the grade crossing. Just south of the grade crossing is a set out/repair-in-place (RIP) track where cars are setout that have been flagged by the defect detector about four miles north of here in Cartersville. A few things can be noticed in this photo, all of which I hope to incorporate into the Dixie Line layout: the main track has concrete ties, the siding track has wood ties and is significantly lower than the main track, the RIP track is on the ground and covered with vegetation, and the WA43 milepost marker is next to the bush across the tracks from the tank car sitting on the RIP track:

Looking north from the grade crossing, the switch and northward absolute signals of the North End Emerson control point can easily be spotted:

On the layout, just past this control point the track will disappear through a hole in the backdrop and cross the removable bridge the spans the doorway into the layout room, leaving the Emerson section of the layout and moving into the Etowah River section of the layout.

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Prototype Tour: Overview

2008-11-29T15:58:00.001-08:00

My CSX Dixie Line layout represents a small section of two CSX subdivisions that run between Atlanta and Nashville via Chattanooga. The CSX W&A Subdivision runs from Atlanta to Chattanooga while the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision completes the journey from Chattanooga to Nashville. The following map shows the overall route and the two modeled areas on the layout (click map to view full size):

There are three reasons why I chose to model this particular piece of the massive CSX Transportation rail network. First of all, there is an incredible amount and variety of traffic along this route, particularly the lower portion of the W&A Sub from Cartersville down to Atlanta which has been labeled the busiest section of single track Class I mainline railroad in the United States. Secondly, the lush scenery in the hills and mountains of northwest Georgia and south central Tennessee provides an ideal setting to watch mile-long trains wind their way along the rails behind the modern marvels that are today's locomotives. And finally, the southeastern railroads seem to be severely underrepresented in the world of model railroads. Hopefully my layout will do justice to all three of these elements!

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Prototype Tour

2008-11-29T15:50:00.001-08:00

A station-by-station tour of the prototype CSX that the Dixie Line layout is based on. Hope you enjoy the tour!

Overview

Emerson, GA

Layout Progress as of 11/5/2008

2008-11-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

This evening I jumped in and started painting the sky on the backdrop of the Emerson, GA area of the layout. I started off practicing on some scrap pieces of Masonite backdrop that I had primed, with the intent of perfecting my technique before moving on to the actual backdrop. While I did get the practice pieces looking OK, frustration began to set in as I tried to get every stroke just right. After about 15 minutes, I decided that I had enough of stressing out over picking the perfect sky color and developing the perfect paint technique. I decided the time had come to just jump on in and let it rip. Hey if it looks like garbage, I can just roll a solid coat of blue over the whole thing right?

So jump in I did. Using 4" foam rollers, I rolled on the light blue color over the lower 2/3 of the backdrop and a band of the darker blue across the top 1/3. I only rolled the paints on to about a 2' section of backdrop at a time so that the colors would still be wet for the blending step that follows. Next I used a cheap-o 3" nylon brush to blend the two wet colors together, first using diagonal strokes and then smoothing everything out with some horizontal strokes. Everything looked pretty good, except somehow my transition between the light and darker blue colors was happening right about halfway up the backdrop. This meant that most of my foreground scenery would actually completely hide the lighter blue area, making the whole "two blue" process a waste of time.

To fix this, about halfway through the project I changed the technique a bit. Instead, I first rolled the darker blue along the top of the backdrop, making it no wider than the 4" roller. Then I filled in the entire lower area with the lighter blue, even overlapping the darker blue by about 1/2". I then did the same blending using the 3" wide nylon brush, this time being careful to keep the blended band to no wider than about 4". I then smoothed it out with the horizontal strokes and made a few passes with a foam brush to remove any brush strokes. For whatever reason, this raised the blue-to-blue transition zone to about 4" from the top of the backdrop, which is right where it should be. Other objects such as clouds, hills and mountains will be painted on after the track is in place so the correct placement and perspective occurs.

Here are some photos of the completed sky painted on to the backdrop in the Emerson, GA area of the layout (lower level). These pictures also made me realize I need to actually work on my layout photography skills, since the default settings of the camera lose a lot of the detail and depth of the scene:

A closeup of the backdrop with the two shades of sky blue applied:

The tools used to paint the sky on the backdrop. The 4" foam rollers take a little getting used to, but produce a super smooth finish:

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Virtual Layout Scenery

2008-11-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

As I recently reported in my post titled Choosing the Right Sky Color, I have been trying to decide on the correct paint colors to use for painting the sky on my backdrop. Last week, I settled on two Behr shades of blue to use for my sky. While I am probably worrying a bit too much about this, I feel this is an important decision because the backdrop has to set the mood and frame the scene while managing to stay in the background and not distract from the real stars of the show: the trains and foreground scenery.

Thanks to the wonders of computer graphics, I have a way to simulate my backdrop sky using real paint colors on an actual prototype photo. Since I am trying to stay as low-budget as possible, I decided to use the flat latex paint available at Wal-Mart for $8 a gallon. So I took my Behr paint samples to Wal-Mart and had the comparable colors matched and mixed. Using these colors in my simulated sky, I found them to be a better match (on the computer) than the Behr colors I originally settled on:

In the above photo of a CSX train on the W&A Subdivision crossing the Etowah River near Cartersville, GA, the left half of the sky has been digitally created using the two shades of blue paint I purchased at Wal-Mart; the right half is the original sky from the photo. The match is nearly identical, especially the lighter blue in the lower sky at the horizon. For those keeping score at home, the colors I finally selected are:

Darker Blue (upper sky): Wal-Mart ColorPlace #91444 Cornflower
Lighter Blue (lower sky): Wal-Mart ColorPlace #92442 Blue Pearl

And just for fun, I took a few photos of my benchwork and overlaid them with prototype photos of the same bridge scene. This gives a pretty good idea of the scene I am trying to create and how it will look on the Dixie Line layout:

Original photos are from RailPictures.Net and are copyrighted by the photographer as indicated at the bottom of each photo.

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Layout Progress as of 10/29/2008

2008-10-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Progress has literally rolled on the last few days as I managed to roll on two full coats of primer to all of the Masonite backdrops. It is amazing how much brighter the room becomes when those panels go from dark brown to bright white! Next up on the agenda is to get all of the basic sky colors painted on the backdrops, then it should be time to move on to the helix and the gate across the room entrance lower level.

Here are a few closeup views of the Emerson, GA area on the lower level with only the layout lights on. With the backdrop now brighter than the benchwork and room walls, you start to get the feel of the "museum effect" produced by this type of construction. Note the plastic sheeting stapled to the underside of the lower level that protects the room carpet from paint drips. Also note the semi-gloss sheen of the primer; the top coat will be flat latex interior paint to eliminate any glare or reflection:

A few more wider shots of the layout showing the primed backdrops:

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Choosing the Right Sky Color

2008-10-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

As the construction of my benchwork neared completion, I started to put some serious thought into what would actually go on the 1/8" hardboard panels that make up the backdrop. I originally planned to use photographic backdrops from Backdrop Warehouse. However, I have almost 150 linear feet of backdrop to cover and these photo backdrops run about $20 for a 40" strip, so it did not take long for me to realize this option would be cost prohibitive. Instead, I decided to use the tried-and-true painted sky for my backdrop, with perhaps some generic hillsides added in for scenic interest. But after visiting a few paint departments in the local home improvement stores, a new problem emerged: which color would I choose from the seemingly endless shades of sky blue available?

This photo backdrop from backdrop Warehouse would be ideal on my layout, but the prices are "sky high."

The first step I took in researching this problem was to hit all of the model railroad forums I frequent, such as TrainBoard.com and the Model Railroader forums at Trains.com. By searching existing threads, I was able to find posts--many with numerous photos--describing how other modelers crafted their backdrops. Another reliable source for scenery information is Model-Trains-Video.com, which contains an entire video series available on DVD or dowloadable MPEGs that details the scenery techniques used to create Joe Fugate's HO-scale SP Siskiyou Line layout. After visiting these sites, I settled on a sky painting technique that basically involved applying a sky blue color to the entire backdrop and then airbrushing in some white along the bottom of the backdrop to simulate the lighter sky color at the horizon.

Right after I settled on this technique, I saw an advertisement in Model Railroader for a new book in the Kalmbach Publishing how-to series titled Painting Backdrops for Your Model Railroad. As luck would have it, I found this book in stock upon my next visit to the local hobby shop so I purchased a copy. The book was written by Mike Dannemann, who is currently constructing an N-scale layout depicting the Rio Grande in the Colorado Rockies. His backdrops are spectacular and he shares his techniques in an easy to understand step-by-step format. Even better, each chapter focuses on how to paint a backdrop for a particular region in North America, including the hills and mountains of the eastern United States that will be included on my layout. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it, both for its highly informational content and its inspirational "eye-candy" format. After reading this book, I made two decisions. First, I now plan on painting specific features such as clouds and detailed tree covered hillsides on my backdrop, something I would not have previously considered. Second, rather than airbrushing white onto the lower backdrop, I will use a lighter shade of blue paint feathered in with a brush to simulate the lighter horizon.

This book is an excellent resource for model railroad backdrops and has dramatically influenced the way my backdrop will be painted.

Although all of this research managed to refine my backdrop strategy, it still did not answer my original question: which shade of blue do I use for the sky? In fact, not only did I not settle on a single color, but I now needed two colors of blue to complete my sky backdrop! To pick these colors, I first collected lots of paint samples from the local paint departments. I then took these outside on a clear sunny afternoon and held them up with the sun at my back. This allowed me to eliminate all but a few shades of blue, and I took these remaining samples to the basement and viewed them under the layout lights. I also brought down prints of several photographs that I have taken while railfanning my prototype railroad, the CSX in north Georgia. This allowed me to settle on a single shade of blue for my primary sky color: Horizon Haze, which is available in the lineup of Behr paints from The Home Depot.

With the primary sky color finally determined, I now had to select a lighter shade of the same blue for the lighter sky along the horizon. This would be a much easier process, since you can pretty much just go to the rack of paint samples at The Home Depot and pick the card that has the lighter shades of colors in the same color group. For example, the shade named Horizon Haze is on the paint card numbered 540B: the 540 is the basic color group and the letter B indicates these are the second lightest shade of colors in the group (A would be the lightest; Z would be the darkest). So I picked up the 540A sample card and looked at the colors. But out of the three colors on sample card 540A, which one would be best to use for the horizon color? I wanted to make sure I picked one that was not too light, but light enough so there would be a noticeable difference between the two shades of blue.

To make this determination, I did a search to see if I could find samples of the Behr paint colors on the web. Sure enough, the Behr website has a nifty little feature called ColorSmart that allows you to explore and play around with all of their colors online. Using this feature, I was able to get swatches of my colors into my Macromedia Fireworks graphics application. Using these colors, I was able to select a color that best complemented the Horizon Haze shade of blue to produce a nice sky. The color I chose as the lighter blue is named Niagra Falls. To make this determination, I made a mock-up of a sample backdrop scene using Fireworks.

Backdrop Mock-up

I started with a photo that I took in north Georgia (where my prototype CSX is located) on a clear sunny day:

Next, I used Fireworks to remove the sky from this photo:

Using Fireworks, I created a plain sky background using my darker shade of blue (Behr 540B-4 Horizon Haze) at the top blended into my lighter shade of blue (Behr 540A-2 Niagra Falls) at the bottom along the horizon:

Finally, I overlaid the foreground scenery from the actual photo over the simulated sky using my selected paint colors and--voila!--I had my perfect sky:

If you look at the original photo and my mock-up side by side, you will notice that my sky colors are a tad lighter than those actually photographed, although they were surprisingly pretty darn close. This is because every commentary on backdrop sky colors I have read recommends choosing a shade or two lighter than what looks ideal, since latex colors will dry darker when they are actually applied to the backdrop. Overall, I am very happy with the selection of these colors and feel confident moving forward that my backdrop will have a realistic appearance, even if I just stick with the basic wild blue yonder.

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Layout Progress as of 10/23/2008

2008-10-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

The last several days have been busy on the CSX Dixie Line, although most of the work involved a tray full of drywall mud and several finishing knives. Many people do not even consider this type of work when planning a layout, but it is an essential step in the construction process if you plan on having a finished backdrop made of sheet materials such as Masonite hardboard. In fact, my two scenicked levels have about 150 linear feet of backdrop, so the process of covering and sanding all of the joints and screw holes was not a trivial one. However, the process was helped by the fact that my backdrops are only 12.5" high on the lower level and 9.5" high on the middle level. It was still a good bit of work, although this kind of stuff is always fun for me when I think of how the finished product will look. Plus, it can never hurt to brush up on the ol' drywalling skills.

My backdrops are constructed from 1/8" thick sheets of Masonite hardboard. This material comes from the building supply store in standard 8x4' sheets, so unless your backdrop is less than eight feet wide, you will have joints where two sections of the hardboard butt together. These joints need to be filled with drywall compound and sanded to a smooth finish so they will not be visible on the completed backdrop. The screw holes need the same treatment. If done right, the result will be a continuous smooth surface upon which the backdrop can be painted. For a detailed post on how I finished the joints and screws on my backdrop, take a look at this detailed HOW-TO article that I have posted.

Photos

Looking down the left aisle you can see how all of the backdrop joints and screw holes have been filled and sanded prior to applying primer and paint:

The Cartersville/Etowah River area showing two joints on each level. You can see how the edges of the mud covering the joints have been feathered out so that they will not be visible one the backdrop has been primed and painted:

Another view of the finished backdrop joints, this time focusing on the middle level as it crosses the doorway. Notice how the middle level will travel across the doorway uninterrupted while the break in the lower level will feature a swing-out gate to allow access into the layout room:

I finally installed padding along the bottom edge of the middle level benchwork where the nod-under allows access to the layout room. This padding was badly needed, but unfortunately came about 20 head injuries too late. Or maybe it was only 3? The brain damage is hampering my memory:

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DIY: Finish a Backdrop

2008-10-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

This do-it-yourself article describes how I finished the surface of the hardboard backdrop on my CSX Dixie Line layout. It includes all of the steps that I performed after the backdrop was installed and before the backdrop was primed and painted.

Joints

Here is a typical joint on the backdrop where two 1/8" hardboard panels come together. The panels are secured to the wall brackets with five 1 1/4" drywall screws along each side of the joint:

This closeup view of the joint between the two panels clearly shows how the screw heads are countersunk below the surface of the hardboard so the holes can be filled with drywall compound and finished to a smooth surface. The vacant hole at the bottom right is where a screw was protruding above the surface of the hardboard. A new, properly countersunk hole was drilled immediately above the bad one and a new screw was driven. Also note that I have made a pass over the screw holes with a sander because the drilling creates a small ridge that must be removed before the hole can be filled with compound:

Before applying any tape, any gaps and screw holes should be filled in to provide a stronger finished joint. I allow the "prefill" to dry overnight before moving to the next step:

After the "prefill" has dried overnight, I make a pass with the sander to smooth out the joint area. I then apply a piece of fiberglass mesh joint tape to the seam. When covered with drywall compound, this tape will cause the joint to resist cracking as the panels expand and contract throughout the seasons. This particular brand of fiberglass joint tape is extra thin, which I thought would be a good idea since I will also be using paper tape over the fiberglass mesh tape:

Here is a closeup view of the fiberglass mesh tape applied to the joint between the two panels. In this view, you can clearly see where the ridges caused by drilling the pilot holes for the drywall screws were sanded down during a previous step:

To apply the paper tape to the joint, I first applied a thin layer of drywall compound (mud) to the length of the joint with a 6" knife. I then embedded the paper tape in the mud by hand, lightly pressed in into the mud with my fingers, and then made a few passes with the knife to securely embed the tape in the mud. I tried to feather out the edges between the knife and the hardboard as much as possible, although it can be difficult maneuvering the knife around with all of the benchwork framing close by:

After allowing the tape coat of mud to dry overnight, I came back the next day and applied a second coat. There will be a significant "hump" on the surface of the panels from the tape coat--the goal of this second coat is to add more mud along the sides of the tape (where the hump is) and feather it out as wide as possible so the joint will not be noticeable when painted. For this second coat, I moved sided to side with the same 6" knife used during the tape coat. I am not concerned about the ridges that were left behind because they can easily be scraped and sanded down later:

After letting the second coat of mud dry overnight, I came back and scraped down any ridges and blobs of dried mud and made some light passes with the sander to smooth things out. In typical drywall finishing, a third coat would be necessary. However, after sanding the second coat, the joints were smooth enough to be ready for primer and paint. This is probably because the horizontal strokes I used to apply the second coat of mud (necessitated by the benchwork framing) resulted in more mud being applied than if I had used the usual vertical strokes:

Here is the finished joint with the first coat of primer applied. Because of the dark color of the hardboard, a second coat of primer will be required for complete coverage. However, you can clearly see how the joint appears completely smooth, with no evidence of the joint, screw holes or tape visible:

Screws

This closeup view shows a screw head that has not properly been countersunk below the surface of the hardboard backdrop panel. Since we want the backdrop to appear as a continuous, smooth surface, this screw will need to be redone:

To fix the screw, a new properly countersunk hole is drilled immediately above the old location, and a new screw is inserted in the hole. You can see how this screw head sits well below the surface of the hardboard panel when the hole has been drilled correctly. Both holes can now be easily filled and sanded so they will be invisible on the finished backdrop:

The screw hole is filled with drywall mud. After drying overnight, the surface is sanded (I used a Black & Decker "mouse" sander) so the edges of the mud are feathered nicely into the surrounding area:

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Layout Progress as of 10/12/2008

2008-10-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

Progress on the layout has been limited the last few weeks since the air conditioner in the basement decided to stop working. Although the outside temperatures in north Georgia have only been in the mid- to upper-70s, the humidity has been high (even in the middle of a drought--go figure!) Because of this, I have had to run the dehumidifier constantly, which works great to dry things out but also raises the temperature about 8-10 degrees. Needless to say, 80 degrees and muggy are not great working conditions.

Today I did manage to get down there and make some pretty good progress. I cut and installed all of the backdrops for the middle level. I also went ahead and redid a bunch of the screws holding up the backdrops on the lower level that were not countersunk deep enough. I originally thought that having the screw heads flush with the Masonite would suffice, but after finishing a few screw holes with joint compound, I realized that the screw heads had to be sunk just as if I was installing drywall. I'll do a special post in the next few weeks detailing how I am finishing the seams between the sections of Masonite.

Here are a handful of pictures showing the new middle level backdrops:

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Layout Progress as of 9/24/2008

2008-09-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

After making good progress during the first two months of construction, I decided to take a two week vacation away from the train room. After getting my fill of college and NFL football, I came back to the layout and managed to finally finish all of the 120-volt electrical work that powers the layout lighting and DCC components. While I enjoy electrical work, I have to admit I was very happy when I completed this project--running 14-2 cable and wiring 35 dual-outlet receptacles gets just a bit tedious after a while! I have included a few photos of this finished electrical work and a diagram to show how the whole thing fits together. It is funny to think that one day in the not too distant future, all of this work will be out of sight behind the skirting that will hang down below the fascia of the lower level.

Now that the high voltage electrical work has been completed, I can complete installation of the layout lighting on the lower level. I also plan on installing the middle level backdrops before doing the finish work on the already installed lower level backdrops. This way, I can do the finish work on both levels at the same time and I will not have to worry about drywall compound or paint dripping down onto a completed lower level when I finish the middle level backdrops.

Here is a diagram of the entire 120-volt "power strip" that runs below the benchwork:

Looking down the Emerson, GA aisle:

Looking down the Cartersville, GA aisle:

Looking back up the Cartersville, GA aisle towards where the helix will be located:

Looking at the short wall where the Etowah River valley will be located:

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