March Break Project (Model Train Build)

Chako · **Reply #30 on:** April 24, 2011, 08:29:33 PM

I am starting to plaster. Now things are starting to look a little better.

Vladimir · **Reply #31 on:** April 24, 2011, 08:40:32 PM

I enjoy watching this thread, excellent job you're doing there Chako!
Can't wait to see it finished.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #32 on:** April 24, 2011, 09:45:36 PM

Quote from: Chako on April 24, 2011, 06:31:25 PM

Easter Monday is a good time to do a little more on the project.

Uh, you do realize it's still Sunday, right? Maybe you should open a window- it sounds like the fumes may be getting to you!

Def

J-sews · **Reply #33 on:** April 24, 2011, 10:05:09 PM

Your mountain is beginning to look mountainous

Chako · **Reply #34 on:** April 24, 2011, 10:20:23 PM

Oh yeah. I gained a day!

Threeme2189 · **Reply #35 on:** April 25, 2011, 12:18:02 AM

If you plug the tram into a 220 volt socket will it go twice as fast?

Just kidding, nice work Chako!

Chako · **Reply #36 on:** April 25, 2011, 03:32:01 AM

Well, I just finished plastering the whole thing with one layer. That took a long time.

That is it for me tonight. It was a good day of progress, and it wasn't on a Monday at that.

Chako · **Reply #37 on:** April 25, 2011, 11:41:58 PM

Finished a second layer of plaster. Now the whole thing is easier to pick up and move, as that plaster surface gives the whole piece some much needed structural integrity.

nuphoria · **Reply #38 on:** April 26, 2011, 05:54:59 PM

You've made some great progress.... looking forward to the next bit

Reinier · **Reply #39 on:** April 26, 2011, 06:22:08 PM

Looking good!

Chako · **Reply #40 on:** April 27, 2011, 12:34:49 AM

Well Nuphoria, not sure if the next step is all that exciting.

After work today, I trimmed the plaster cloth to fit the 4 tunnel caps. Now they look a lot better, not to mention they now fit.

I also mixed 7 Oz of water with 2 1/2 cups of hydrocal. I poured this into the rubber rock face moulds after wetting them with some soapy water to prevent bubbling.

Now all I have to do is wait a full day or so to see if my castings are successful.

Chako · **Reply #41 on:** May 02, 2011, 12:33:18 AM

Another busy day on the build. The rocks turned out great. I haven't installed them yet, as I am sure that will take a lot of fitting to make them look good. However, today, I finished gluing down the track bed and track.

Here is one of those rock castings...the largest of the lot.

Here, I am using some heavy glue containers to keep the track in contact with the track bed. The instructions tell to use foam tack glue, and that is what I did. The glue is slow drying and becomes very tacky after a few minutes. Great stuff to work with as it allows you to make corrections 10 minutes later with ease. The glue needs to dry overnight.

NutSAK · **Reply #42 on:** May 04, 2011, 09:59:09 PM

I hadn't checked this thread in a few weeks. Awesome progress Chako!

Chako · **Reply #43 on:** May 04, 2011, 11:12:05 PM

Thanks. I wished I was a lot closer to being finished, but slow and steady usually gets me there in one piece.

Chako · **Reply #44 on:** May 06, 2011, 05:06:30 AM

I just received something in the mail today, and I am stoked. A little back-story is in order first.

Several months ago, I decided that I would like a DCC controller as I would like a train engine with sound. Well, I bought a Bachmann Dynamis IR system for that purpose. I then looked online for any N scale engines with sound. I was lucky enough to have found one and placed a winning bid on it. Well, because the seller soon got his eBay registration revoked, I was very worried I wouldn't get the engine. That and it did take its sweet time getting to me. So long was the time, that I had a PayPal case on the seller.

While I was worrying about the sound enabled engine, I did some reading and found that Backmann had an N scale Amtrack Acela with lighted cars that was DCC enabled out of the box. I bought that off of eBay. Well, the Acela came in before the engine, and I quickly found out it would not fit on my tight curved track. And I thought I had done my research. While puzzling this one over, and quickly realizing that I only had a few DC only engines, and no DCC, the sound enabled engine came in.

After quickly testing the engine out, and canceling the PayPal case against the seller, I really liked the engine and was quite happy I had went this route with the train. I placed the engine in storage while I continued my build of the display.

Well, a few weeks ago, I decided to try the engine with some of my rolling stock, and quickly found out that the Kato coupler is not compatible with the Bachmann couplers. Argh! After digging around on the net, I found out that the Kato couplers are for Kato passenger cars. I could replace the couplers, but that would mean opening up a very expensive engine. I had originally wanted a passenger train anyways (remember that Acela), so I looked once again on eBay and found a 10 car starter set that matched. I bought it...and it just came in today.

Well I must say, I am super impressed with the quality and details of the cars. I think the Southern Pacific Daylight colours are the nicest on a train. I tried it out on my track, and it all works great.

Photo time.

The engine and 10 car basic set is long. Interestingly enough, there are a few articulated cars in this basic set.

Here you can see a pair of articulated cars. The details on this Kato set is astonishing. The rear observation car even has rear lights and a lighted name panel. Very nice touches.

The colours are very nice.

As for my Bachmann freight, I guess I can either buy a DCC enabled engine for my bachmann rolling freight, or leave it as part of the decoration. Not sure what I am going to do just yet. I know I have another Southern Pacific Daylight engine coming it that I will convert to DCC so that I can have a consist, and I just pulled the trigger on 4 sets of articulated cars which will give me the full train, along with enough passenger car lighting kits to do 12 cars. But enough of that, here is a single track shop that I will be installing at the front. I have to trim some of the track bed to get a better fit. I just placed it there to get an idea of what it will look like.

So the lesson here is to delve deep into the research aspects before you buy. This hobby had a lot of gotchas if you're not careful. I am just happy that I now have something I can run on this display. As for the Acela, well I have a plan for it later after I finish this build.

ryan1835 · **Reply #45 on:** May 07, 2011, 11:40:39 PM

what size is N? i was at a railway today that had 45mm gauge track running outside and i got to drive a 10 and a 1/4 inch engine

Chako · **Reply #46 on:** May 08, 2011, 01:33:20 AM

That would most likely be G scale. These trains are commonly used in gardens.

N scale is 9mm wide.

In fact, here is a good guide to track gauge and how it relates to the various gauge designations. Just follow the link and look at the chart midway on the page.

http://www.thestorefinder.com/rr/library/gauge-FAQ.html

I managed to do a little more today. I started off by masking the tracks.

Then I mixed 2 oz of earth pigment with 16 oz of water, and used a foam brush to apply the wash to the white plaster.

Hmmm...looks a lot better than that white.

ryan1835 · **Reply #47 on:** May 08, 2011, 01:06:04 PM

yeah, this was in a garden. looking good, think you need a steam engine for the track though

i take it the track will have working points?

Gareth · **Reply #48 on:** May 08, 2011, 01:10:35 PM

Looking good Dan.

Can I ask what happens if a train derails under the hill though?

ryan1835 · **Reply #49 on:** May 08, 2011, 03:00:07 PM

lots of shaking i presume

Chako · **Reply #50 on:** May 08, 2011, 05:42:59 PM

No worries.

There is a series of 3 access hatches cut in the back for that purpose.

As for steam, I do have a pair of steam engines, but not DCC compatible. I have found that these little steamers tend to be lighter then Diesels and have a bit of trouble pulling several cars up an incline...and this layout has a lot of incline. There is a fairly large steam engine made specifically for the Southern Pacific Daylight...but I already have a 50/60s era diesel engine with sound, and a sister KATO unit on its way that I will convert to DCC with the right DCC daughter board. I figure a consist of two should have no difficulty pulling 18 passenger cars around this layout.

Here is the Daylight Wiki for more info on this beautiful train.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Daylight_(SP_train)

ryan1835 · **Reply #51 on:** May 08, 2011, 05:52:40 PM

cool, yesterday someone had a 45mm canadian style train they were driving on the track unfortunately when it got to a tunnel it made it through but it scratched the paintwork on the cement, clever idea having the hatches though. Looking forward to a video of it running when your done

J-sews · **Reply #52 on:** May 08, 2011, 09:15:35 PM

The Daylight scheme looks good, but for some reason I always liked the SP Black Widow pattern better.

(especially the Cotton Belt engines)

I suppose though they didn't run those on passenger trains did they $:-\$

Chako · **Reply #53 on:** May 09, 2011, 12:59:09 AM

I haven't posted any videos lately because youtube won't let me. They keep wanting me to make another account or something to access youtube. Something about Google...I say no.

Chako · **Reply #54 on:** May 13, 2011, 01:57:30 AM

Not much happening on the build. The nice weather is here and I am dying to get my motorcycle. I figure next weekend and I will have it. But enough of that. What I did do was to upgrade 6 Kato Southern Pacific Daylight coaches with interior lighting. Man oh man...talk about a super easy procedure made super tough by crappy instructions. Worst part, most of it was in Japanese. There was only a few curt sentences in English.

Anyways, I did manage to get them done with minimal cursing. Once you figure out what to do, it is a very easy procedure. Now I have another package of 6 interior lights on its way to me hopefully. Oddly enough, I had ordered these before the ones I just installed.

To wrap things up, I also decided to convert my other KATO diesel to DCC. This was easy enough except for one major thing. Once you get the power rails off, just try to get them back on and place the DCC decoder board on both of them all lined up. Even more swearing ensued. I just finished wrapping it up and testing it on the track. For some reason, it wants to run backwards...but that is ok...as I will be running it backwards...so I figure I must have done something wrong...but it turned out right in the end. I strongly suspect I could easily tell the loco which is front and which is back with a little programming. To keep things in character, I did use my Bladeless Fuse to cut the back LED light off of the decoder.

Here is a link for the curious that I found...oddly enough...it's the same loco in the same colour using the same decoder. Now that doesn't happen often.

http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/N_Scale/Kato/EMD_E8_9A/EMD_E8_9A.html

Chako · **Reply #55 on:** May 14, 2011, 05:10:29 PM

Not much so far to show...but there is some progress. I just finished cutting out some foam board that I bought at a local store because I wanted to incorporate the Tomytec moving bus. The problem being the track is a bit thick, and I needed the foam board to place the buildings at the right level. I haven't yet coloured the foam board yet, but I did place my buildings on the layout trying to get a good placement.

Chako · **Reply #56 on:** May 15, 2011, 06:04:07 AM

Well today, I finished giving the foam board a base coat of grey, and more importantly, I finally installed some of those rocks. I haven't coloured them, but at least they are installed. I had been looking at how to do this for some time now, and figured just doing was a lot better than getting all clever about it. Because I had to blend them in using plaster cloth, I have to now wait for that to dry before blending the new pieces with some earth tone pigment.

Silly photo time...

I opened up one of my static tram models with the plan of gluing a few villagers in there. My idea is to have it as a dinner.

Seeing that the vast majority of the buildings are Japanese Tomytec N scale items...I figured it was time to add him in there somewhere.

You know, I just might add him to the display. There is just something so Japanese about this...

Chako · **Reply #57 on:** May 15, 2011, 09:17:06 PM

Well today, after helping a friend load a trailer full of manure for his garden, I wanted to get a little further ahead on the build.

The original kit came with 2 culverts. I installed them today. Here is a photo of one before I painted it grayish black and permanently installed it in place.

While I was at it, I also painted the base coat for the tunnel portals.

I also finished the foam board underlay for the factory area. I will try to blend it in with the surroundings somehow. All the buildings are still not glued down yet...thinking that should be the very last step after doing the vegetation.

I also decided to fit my train maintenance building . To do that, I had to trim the foam track bed on each side as the building is a tight fit around the track.

I just finished installing all the rocks on the cliff faces. This involved cutting into the plaster cloth, fitting the rock piece, and covering it back up partially with some new plaster cloth. Once it dries, I will earth tone the new plaster to blend it in...and possibly colour the rocks...but that will be for a later date.

Well I am almost to the point where I can start laying down some vegetation. I still need to plaster the outsides, and then pain the whole thing black for a good finish.

Screwtape · **Reply #58 on:** May 15, 2011, 09:52:39 PM

Very impressive project Chako, I don't think you'd even started this last time I took a good look though Break Room the forums. I'm really lookin foward to seeing what you do next

oh and is that a classic sneaking into that last photo?

Chako · **Reply #59 on:** May 16, 2011, 12:58:17 AM

Dang...looks like I got a repeater. Here is the photo for the second repeat in my last posting.

Thanks. Having a lot of fun doing this.

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March Break Project (Model Train Build)

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