Fond Du lac upgrade?

After about a month of layout non-activity, I am toying around with upgrading/changing my industrial area. Right now the trackage is all cd80 Atlas with #6 turnouts, laid right on 3/4" plywood.

  I came up with an idea using a combination of cd 55  #6 turnouts made from a Fast Tracks fixture, and #5,#7 turnouts from Atlas. The flex track is Atlas also.

  When I do attempt to do this, I will have to remove all the cd 80 track and then lower the benchwork by 1/2" to allow for the use of homasote.

 

I see some areas that can be fixed, in the picture below I could have used all RH turnouts to avoid the snake. I know the picture is not the great ,but you see what I mean 

 So I could either use the mixture of the different size of turnouts like I did in the previous pictures or I could use just one size. If I were to choose one size it would probally be the #6. Since I feel the #5 is too small and the use of a #7 would just be a space eater. The #6 would be fixture assembled seeing that I already have the fixture on hand.

 They would look like these. On the two turnouts you see here, the darker ones are the ones that I built my self. I used Krylon Camoflauge Brown to paint the quick sticks tie assemblies.

Here is one where the ties are not painted,the turnouts sure do operate smoothly.

Well that is all for now,, so we will see what we will see in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading!!

Weathering,,,if you really want to call it that

After reading forums, magazines and just talking to friends I decided to try my hand at weathering again. After yesterdays attempt, I think the WBTR is going to invest numerous wash racks and pressure washers,,,Then I won't have to weather anything!!! LOL

             These pieces of rolling stock were the first ones I ever weathered back in 2003, and you can tell it!! I mostly used a india ink wash, some oil pigments and some floquil instant weathering spray.

 

This is the first locomotive I did. The loco started out as a super detail project, but then after seeing that yellow paint did not match up, I decided to weather it with some Floquil paints sprayed from my airbrush, I also used weathering powders for the first time.

This was my first ever detail and weather job together. If you have go to the BLMA website, this loco is in the detailed models section, page 2. After Craig posted it, my head got so big,,, I could not wear any hats.LOL

 

 

 

These following models were done by using weathering powders, acrylic artist medium, and acrylic craft paints for washes.

 

The Milwaukee Road covered hopper seemed like a good place to practice. This is before I heard of fading the paint and distressing the lettering.

 

Here is a PWRS Covered hopper, once again before I new about fading and distressing the lettering and the logo. I think I came out ok. Some freinds of mine say it looks real good.

 

I did some boxcars while I was waiting for the washed on the covered hopper to dry. Nothing better than actual real sunlight for pictures. I was happy with the way they turned out.

Here is the current as of 10/10/2013 weathering project. I used acrylic craft paints, acrylic artist medium, and weathering powders by Bragdon Enterprises.

The fade wash came out ok. before I put on the fading wash, I took a pink eraser and distressed the lettering and logo. And then the fade wash. Some people apply the fade with a airbrush, I used a brush,, I wish my compresor was up,,but nope, it is sleeping with the fishes.

 

 

I next used acrylic washes and powders. Me thinks I should have waited for each phase to dry/cure, I bet it would have came out better.

I used raw umber on the trucks, looks alright. I feel once you have the right pigments/paints you can do anything. 

 

You can really see the "rust" weathering powders in these two pictures. I was trying to go for a scrape from the door, also a textured appearance at the track on the bottom where grime, dirt and rust would gather.

 

 Well there you have it, I am no artist, heck I did not even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

 I think my collection is going to be coming out of the wash rack/paint shop everyday.LOL

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Video tour of the WBTR

 Well one more post for today, a video tour of the WBTR, and some other videos. I hope ya'll enjoy!

                                                  Here are some other videos that I have.

 

Here is a video from version 4 of the WBTR. Boy that FP 45 sure sounds nice!!!

 

Just a short little video less than a minute of a CNW concrete train.

 

 And last video, this is a layout that I help a friend with. He is modeling the Indiana Harbor Belt. Great layout!!!!

 

  Thanks for watching!!!

The current version, version 5

     Well here we are at the current version of the layout. The staging and the helix have remained the same, but the visible trackage has changed.

     In this picture you are looking north or westbound. Like in previous versions of the layout I decided to call the area Fond Du Lac. Or I also thought of the Fond Du Lac Industrial Zone. Also in the picture you can see that I have the backdrop taped and floated. I also painted the backdrop a blue color that was matched from the photo backdrops that I use.

To the right in this picture is where the yard is going to go. I think I have plenty of room.

 

     Another shot of the yard area, this picture also gives a nice perspective on the distance between the real level and the staging level.

     This is where I originally thought about putting the helix, but plans have changed since that. I am going to come back to the opposite wall by 14'-6". So when the new addition is done, the layout will be in a "G" shape. So when walking between the helices to enter the layout, that will be a 4' aisle way.

    In version 5, I swapped locations of the yard and industrial area. So now the yard and engine facility are on the longest wall because I wanted a nice sized yard. So that required me to move the industrial area right next to the helix.

 

    The buildings you see in these two pictures are not in their permanent home. Some are, some aren't. Some days I just move them around and see how that works, some days I don't even go out to the layout. But since the weather is getting better, I will be going out there more.

While moving the pieces around and figuring out what was going where, I thought of a ops plan,,well sort of.  For example one train could depart from staging, traverse the helix then arrive in the industrial area. The train could either serve the customers or it could continue to the main yard. The train could also park on the passing track, pull the industrial yard tracks, then yard the train it brought up from staging.  I really have not thought about ops just yet, that is going to be a separate blog posting.

     I use photographic backdrop from Realistic Backgrounds . I purchased these back in 2003, and I still have them. Now there are more companies that are doing the same thing, bigger and different scenes. So you just have to search for ones that you like.

You can see the Realistic Backgrounds products in the picture to the left and behind the boys. I don't know how that cowboys jersey slipped by me,LOL The city scapes I cut with a knife and straight edge to see how well it worked as opposed to just leaving the sky attached as you can see in the steel mill scenes.

So now we progress with more pics

Here is the main yard. I can bring in an 11' foot train into the A/D track.

South end of the yard and the pocket track.

When I had originally laid the yard, I realized that the tracks were too close together. This picture was taken when I had re-laid the throat trackage. The track pictured by the backdrop is an industrial track.

Just a shot of the SOO local pulling out of the yard.

 

Here we have the yard power doing some classification work.

 

 

After re-laying the south end, I worked on the north end. I had posted a design thread on multiple forums about designing a engine facility and it morphed into a combination yard throat/ facility design thread. With other modelers and friends giving suggestions I came up with what you see here.  I used was the Santa Fe yard throat design from David Barrow's Cat Mountain and Santa Fe. All turnouts in  the picture are Atlas #7 code 55.

The engine facility.

A nice aerial view of the facility and throat trackage, came out pretty nice.

You can see the yard and facility in this shot looking south.

 

This is where I am now. Time to install turnout control and install additional track power feeders. I am also thinking about making a section of the front facility track the new programming track. There will be a toggle switch to switch from main track power to the programming track.

 

Right now I am just running trains to make sure the yard works flawlessly.

 

  Thanks for reading and following along!

Moving on to a larger version, version 4

     After awhile of working on #3, I kept thinking and thinking about staging and a continuous run option. I had the lumber required for the work I wanted to do, just not the track.

     After finding a good deal on cd80 flex track, and working the helix out in 3rd Plan-It, ( model railroad cad program) I was good to go.

     I have never really followed a track plan for any of the layouts that I have built, just went with the flow. That is not saying that I have not used 3rd Plan-It to work on ideas, like yards and throat design. Also by reading model railroad magazines I came up with ideas.

I decided to build a helix so I could have staging. After planning it came out to be 7.5 turns, 20" radius, 2,15% grade and 795" of flex track involved. I would say all in all took me about 5 hours to build.

 

I came up with the plan of having the yard right by the helix. The idea was to be able to run transfer and or trains to and from staging and not interfere with the other operators on the layout.

The yard was stub ended except for the A/D track. The two tracks against the backdrop were for the grain facility, each track was able to hold a 30 car train.



 This picture was my first experience using Helicon picture software, really easy to use.

 

The red and yellow rods you see are control rods for the turnouts. I made a home made control from a slide switch, aluminum angle and parts used for R/C plane control linkage.

 

Looking towards the helix in this picture, the rest of the layout is behind me.

 

Yes I know the picture is a little bright,,ok ok , alot bright. This is one of the parts from the very first layout. An 19"x96" industrial section that I like to call Fond Du Lac,is it actually modeled after Fond Du Lac, no, I just thought it "fit"

 

The more and more I think about it, I should stayed with version 4. Well we all live and learn everyday. Maybe if I would stayed with version 4 I would be closer to completion, but we all know a model railroad is never done.

 

I like the sweeping curve in this picture, flows real nice.

 

This section was also a piece from the previous layouts.  I just had to relay the track to make it fit with the other part that I connected with.

Version 3 of the WBTR

After moving to a new location in October of 2005, I had a new location and the 3rd version of the layout was about to be born. I had a two car garage to use,,but one draw back,,, No A/C, that is no good in the summer time in central Texas.

     Here are the pieces of the 2nd version, boy that is alot of work.

Kind of worked out that I built it in sections.Using 3/4" foam for the top made them real light to handle.

Here is what I came up with by using the old pieces, I had to re-lay some track. It came out okay,, it would do till I was able to work on new ideas and design.

You can see the other end of the yard and the stacks of lumber from the last version in the pictures.

Version 2 of the WBTR

Here are some pictures of the second version of my layout, I would say between 2003 and 2004. The room measured out to 18'x14', real nice size. I took the old layout apart first. Before putting the layout in the new room, I went ahead and installed backdrops which involved taping and floating the seams, and then primer and painting. After the room was done I was able to take the old layout pieces and temporaily install then to see where they would fit. Then I just filled in the empty areas with benchwork and trackage. Yard came out longer which was nice. This version was up for about a year and half to two years. Then I moved.

I decided to try some scenery, I really never have done that much scenery. I went out and did some research and read articles online, and took the plunge.

Doing scenery was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, I just followed step by step articles and tutorials. You can see the glue still not dried in the pictures, I guess I was in a hurry to take pics.