Yep, it's been a while for an update. I've been working on the home projects primarily, plus a week's vacation. I'm heading out tomorrow for the NMRA Convention/National Train Show with Darren. Stop by the True Line Trains booth to say 'Hi!' if you're there.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
I felt like working on the layout
OK, so I had a little time last night and decided to work on the layout a bit...
More pictures later!
More pictures later!
Monday, July 9, 2012
More planning
Well, that's the primary railroad activity right now. Other projects are keeping me busy at the moment, but as soon as I complete the big one (moving the laundry upstairs), then Chris and I will get started on additional benchwork.
So that's what the planning is about. I have a pretty good idea of how it will play out. Where the Whiting Street Yard is now will be the block between Whiting and Park Streets. This includes part of the Stanley Rule & Level division of Stanley Works with one siding, Fafnir Bearing (one siding), and the New Britain Gas Light Company, also with one siding. All turnouts will be to the right of the closet door this time so the lead will be visible instead of under the rest of the layout. The door itself will be removed, with the portion above the layout behind the backdrop. It's a small closet and not used for much so I can deal with it being a crawl-in.
I'm particularly excited about the Gas Light Company. Because of where it's situated it's a perfect place to flare out the shelf to allow more space to build the company.
Beyond this will be the swing up section to allow access to the basement, and the track will go into the utility room. The Whiting Street Yard will be rebuilt in a better representation. It will include at least 3 yard tracks, two house tracks, and two bulk tracks. From there it will head into staging.
That should all be pretty straightforward. It's the other major change that will be a bit more interesting. I want to lower the upper deck above the east helix. Clearance will be at the absolute minimum (2 5/8" is what I think I'll settle on). This will allow me to eliminate all but 3' of grade on the mainline for switching purposes, which will help a lot. In addition, the first 3-6' of the helix will also be level, and I'll be adding a (curved) crossover for switching moves. Of course, I'd like to do all of this while pulling up as little track as possible.
It also depends on my ability to reroute the Berlin Line enough to get the clearance there without resorting to a steeper grade.
I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get to all of this, but I'll probably start whittling away at it a little at a time. I can start removing the track when I get a chance, and remove the upper deck. We can build the new deck for the Berlin Line at that point. Then we'll see what we need to do to reconfigure the helix.
I've ordered some curved turnouts to see if they might work for the crossover. Otherwise I'll have to build it.
So that's it for now, I'll have to take some before, during, and after pictures once I get moving.
So that's what the planning is about. I have a pretty good idea of how it will play out. Where the Whiting Street Yard is now will be the block between Whiting and Park Streets. This includes part of the Stanley Rule & Level division of Stanley Works with one siding, Fafnir Bearing (one siding), and the New Britain Gas Light Company, also with one siding. All turnouts will be to the right of the closet door this time so the lead will be visible instead of under the rest of the layout. The door itself will be removed, with the portion above the layout behind the backdrop. It's a small closet and not used for much so I can deal with it being a crawl-in.
I'm particularly excited about the Gas Light Company. Because of where it's situated it's a perfect place to flare out the shelf to allow more space to build the company.
Beyond this will be the swing up section to allow access to the basement, and the track will go into the utility room. The Whiting Street Yard will be rebuilt in a better representation. It will include at least 3 yard tracks, two house tracks, and two bulk tracks. From there it will head into staging.
That should all be pretty straightforward. It's the other major change that will be a bit more interesting. I want to lower the upper deck above the east helix. Clearance will be at the absolute minimum (2 5/8" is what I think I'll settle on). This will allow me to eliminate all but 3' of grade on the mainline for switching purposes, which will help a lot. In addition, the first 3-6' of the helix will also be level, and I'll be adding a (curved) crossover for switching moves. Of course, I'd like to do all of this while pulling up as little track as possible.
It also depends on my ability to reroute the Berlin Line enough to get the clearance there without resorting to a steeper grade.
I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get to all of this, but I'll probably start whittling away at it a little at a time. I can start removing the track when I get a chance, and remove the upper deck. We can build the new deck for the Berlin Line at that point. Then we'll see what we need to do to reconfigure the helix.
I've ordered some curved turnouts to see if they might work for the crossover. Otherwise I'll have to build it.
So that's it for now, I'll have to take some before, during, and after pictures once I get moving.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Paints
I picked up some of the Tru-Color paints recently. From what I can tell, I really like their colors. They are a solvent (acetone) based acrylic. I've got a handful of other paints, but not many. I picked up a several Scalecoat and Scalecoat II paints, but found that I didn't care for some of the colors. Particularly the Pullman Green. Also, the majority of the paints I have are somewhat old, and I've found they aren't working as well as I'd hoped.
The Tru-Color paints are based off of the well respected Accupaint line. In addition, being a new paint line, I know that the bottles haven't been sitting on a hobby shop shelf for 10 years. In addition, they are releasing a whole series of box car brown/red colors, matched from actual color chips courtesy of Ed Hawkins.
Having come back to the hobby after painting RPG miniatures for about 20 years, one thing I have found that I don't like is paint pots. I had a full set of Reaper paints, and both they and Vallejo use small dropper bottles. Vallejo has released some railroad colors in the past, but they don't have a huge selection. Anyway, the dropper bottles make it easy to mix to specific ratios but just counting drops. There is virtually no clean-up, and the paints keep for a very long time in bottles like these.
So I've transferred the paint to the same kind of bottles. I was going to write up what I've done, but I found a great blog entry when looking for a source for the bottles:
It's from an RPG/War Gaming blog, but like the military modelers I find that there are a lot of things we can learn from the RPG miniatures guys as well.
Incidentally, it's vital that you use the LPDE bottles for Tru-Color paints since they contain acetone. It's not very expensive to do this, I highly recommend it. Since the bottles are only 1/2 oz, and the Tru-Color paint comes in 1 oz (supposedly) bottles. I've been able to make a second set for Chris. I have found that the amount of paint in the original bottles is somewhat inconsistent. I haven't graduated the dropper bottles to see if I'm getting the full 1 oz. Considering that for many colors I'll need very little, and others I'll be buying a lot more, it's not a big deal to me.
Now I've got to practice painting...
The Tru-Color paints are based off of the well respected Accupaint line. In addition, being a new paint line, I know that the bottles haven't been sitting on a hobby shop shelf for 10 years. In addition, they are releasing a whole series of box car brown/red colors, matched from actual color chips courtesy of Ed Hawkins.
Having come back to the hobby after painting RPG miniatures for about 20 years, one thing I have found that I don't like is paint pots. I had a full set of Reaper paints, and both they and Vallejo use small dropper bottles. Vallejo has released some railroad colors in the past, but they don't have a huge selection. Anyway, the dropper bottles make it easy to mix to specific ratios but just counting drops. There is virtually no clean-up, and the paints keep for a very long time in bottles like these.
So I've transferred the paint to the same kind of bottles. I was going to write up what I've done, but I found a great blog entry when looking for a source for the bottles:
It's from an RPG/War Gaming blog, but like the military modelers I find that there are a lot of things we can learn from the RPG miniatures guys as well.
Incidentally, it's vital that you use the LPDE bottles for Tru-Color paints since they contain acetone. It's not very expensive to do this, I highly recommend it. Since the bottles are only 1/2 oz, and the Tru-Color paint comes in 1 oz (supposedly) bottles. I've been able to make a second set for Chris. I have found that the amount of paint in the original bottles is somewhat inconsistent. I haven't graduated the dropper bottles to see if I'm getting the full 1 oz. Considering that for many colors I'll need very little, and others I'll be buying a lot more, it's not a big deal to me.
Now I've got to practice painting...
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Photoshop fun
Just playing around with the Sony camera and Photoshop Elements. Here's a picture converted to B&W in the camera with a Photoshop vintage photo filter applied.
This is with a 26mm equivelent lens. I should have the 24mm equivelent tomorrow. Part of what I'm trying to achieve is the same 'feel' as the prototype photography, not just the scene. Speaking of whick, no ballast or other scenery, and the Landers, Frary and Clark factory is still just the simple paper mock-up.
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