Addressing a Lingering Mistake - Part 1

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the opportunity to be part of the LDSIG tour during the 2014 NMRA National Convention held in Cleveland, OH.  As part of the tour, layout owners were asked to report on what they would have done differently during a discussion session after the tours.  While I didn't have the opportunity to participate in the discussion directly, it did get me thinking or maybe it actually solidified some thoughts I had been having while constructing and operating the KLR.  One of the last things that I wanted to admit was that my design on the south wall of the layout had to sharp a curve in place.  Sure it could handle 40 and 50 ft boxcars OK, but I knew that I would be running some larger woodchip cars and centerbeam flatcars, as well as the daily passenger train.  However, I didn't have a yard in this area as yet, so I kept telling myself it was OK and never tested the curve with larger equipment.  However, fast forward to present day and the small staging yard is complete, connections made to the adjoining track and I've been running trains.  Well, I thought I was running trains until I tried some of my longer cars, including my nice Rapido passenger cars.  So tonight I bit the bullet after many weeks of thought as to what I could do. Maybe it was trying to run my passenger train through the curve that finally got me to act.  So instead of the barely 22 degree curve that was in place, I opted to rip out track and scenery to accommodate a 30 degree curve.  The choice of the 32 deg was based on this was about the smallest curve I could handle without a major reconstruction of the model and use some of the existing trackage nearby to reasonably make a connection.

Ripping out the scenery from two modules was sort of bittersweet. I never really liked that corner, something always bugged me about the scenery. While I liked the rock outcroppings in the background, the lack of any clear way to get to the N scale cabin that I had placed there bugged me.  So with my handy multi-purpose tool and hammer, I removed everything to the base foam layer. Boy was that hydrocal that was used tough to remove. Even the adhesive glue I used back then was tough to remove, as pieces just didn't want to come off. But an hours work, and here's the result, a new canvas to work with. I was able to save all of the rock outcrops, as I had built them to be removable.

Next to be modified was the old Eel's Creek module, which is actually the lead to the curve. In order to accomodate the change in track radius, I needed to add some new real estate and the only way to do so was to modify the bridge and surrounding scenery.  I had originally used a resin material to create the water, and while the effect was good, it was never really deep enough and I wasn't quite satisfied with the bank edges.  So it had to go too, which was no big loss, although I did try to save the bridge piers to no avail.

Prototype bridge over the Otonabee River

Not to bore you with the details, but here's a quick recap of what changed after the tear-out was completed:

• Increased the track radius to 30 deg  
• Re-shaped the topography of the western bank of Eels Creek
• Carved a new river channel
• Added a new river base via adding several coats of ModPodge
• Added a new bridge section
• Re-routed my track as it came to the creek and immediately after the bridge
• Ripped out the area behind the curve; the final scene in this area as yet to be determined
• Added many more rock castings

Most important thing, the curve now accommodates larger rail cars although it still is a fairly sharp curve.

Loon Lake Country Store

One of my summer projects was to work on the placement of buildings and roads in the town of Pembroke, Ontario.  Pembroke is my only real town, but that I mean other industries are located in various spots on the layout and represent actual town or city locations, but I have made a conscious effort not to include any other buildings than the industry itself. My other towns are simply depicted by photo backdrops.  For a review of Pembroke, see my earlier discussion in a posting entitled Modeling Pembroke.

As I began to finish the Pembroke area, I still had several vacant spots which were marked with only a 3x5 card to tell the type of building to be placed.  One of those spots was reserved for a country general store, which can be found in various sizes and shapes throughout rural Ontario.  For this building, I chose to use the American Model Builders Corydon General Store/Post Office as my base building.  It's a very nice laser kit, which takes about an evening to build and with painting, was finished in about two evenings. Add some signs and decals, and you see the result.  While this is just a support structure, when I have the time, I'll add lighting and other details to make this a stand alone and make the structure really blend into the countryside. 

Uncoupler Tools - a modification worth stealing

I’ve had the chance to operate on layouts which used both magnetic uncouplers as well as some sort of physical uncoupling tool.  For my money, a simple and cheap tool is better than investing in pre-made plastic or metal tools, or installing magnetic uncouplers in multiple spots.  A wooden skewer, poked between the couplers and twisted to uncouple your cars, is the easiest, simplest and cheapest method available in my opinion.  Wooden skewers are easy to pickup at the grocery or craft store, cheap (my bag of 100+ cost a little less than a dollar), easy to use, and if someone accidentally walks off with your uncoupling tool, you have an entire bag still waiting for you.

The other advantage I found with wooden skewers is that they are long enough to make it easier to work with and they are cheap.  I can locate them all around the layout so there's always one within easy reach, and if one gets damaged I don't care if it needs to be discarded and replaced.

Recently I was watching a YouTube video of an operating sessions and I noticed that the Bamboo skewer was enhanced with a Twist-on wire connector screwed onto the blunt end. This allows for better grip.  In order to keep the wire connector from accidentally falling off and onto your layout, I simply fill the cap with hot glue and twist it onto the skewer, thereby making it a permanent attachment.  The cost for the caps, about $1.50 for 14 at the local hardware store.

Almost Completed ...Sawmill Module

With the coming of fall and colder temps here in NE Ohio, it's time once again to head to the basement and put some serious modeling efforts into the layout.  Throughout the year, I keep a notebook of potential projects and what particular work and details may be needed to get the project started and more importantly, move it towards being finished.  So this fall, I looked at the sawmill area and decided that it would become my major effort for November.  The sawmill is a 2-ft by 6-ft module located along the backside of my paper mill and connects to the Niagara Distribution scene.

Starting the project meant I had to put away all of the other diversions on my work bench, such as weathering some rolling stock and assembly of some vehicles, so that I could concentrate on the module and what was needed to complete the scene. I had already assembled the walls of the various buildings and laid out the track, so I had a decent start on what I thought it would look like. Here's the way the project went:

Man down..looks like all of the workers have been overwhelmed by something toxic (or I'm trying to find out where to place them). I'm really happy with the way the weathering of the roofs turned out. An evening with three colrs of Pan Pastels was all it took.

View looking towards the log conveyor.  This will be where trucks are unloaded and logs placed into the yard or onto the conveyor.

Week 1 - finished assembly of each of the buildings and began the painting process. Only problem with using water based colors from the craft paint department is that it requires several coats of paint (3 in my case) to get full coverage.

Week 2 - all structures built and painted, now comes the time to test fit them into place.  I usually like to place buildings and look at the potential rail traffic patterns for off-loading as well as truck movement on the scene.  After several nights of looking at buildings and just not happy with their placement, I decided to consult some photos I had taken from Bob Mitchell's Algoma Central layout from this years HOMES tour in Hamilton, ON.  Bob's scene is similar to mine, as it is located at the end of his layout room and takes up a far amount of space along his wall.  I'm not sure what the length of his scene actually is, but it's a little deeper than my module, as he has a mainline running behind it.

Week 3 - opted to remove the log pond and tepee burner due to space restrictions. I had roughed both of these features into the scene but decided that they just were too much clutter.  Decided that the space previously occupied by my control tower could be altered to hold the wood chip truck equipment.  This means ripping up all of the previous scenery and starting new.

Week 4 - home stretch.  Buildings are in place and completed installing the concrete pavement around the planer building, including the truck loading area.  Began to weather the rooflines of all buildings with Pan Pastels.  Installed piping runs from the planning mill building out to the sawdust collector for rail and truck. Scavenged the back yard for small pieces of branches, which will become my log piles.  Still need to place the workers, cut dozens and dozens of twigs to represent the logs and then add some of the smaller detail parts.  But that's another day when the snow is flying and I have a few evenings to catch up.  Now it's on to the Niagara Distribution and paper mill modules for some intensive work. Maybe hold an operating session or two to check my car card system.

View looking bottom part of module. Left track is for loading centerbeam and other cars while right track is for chip loading. The lumber piles are there to show that logs will be dropped and stacked alongside the rail.  Still need to take the vacuum and remove excess scenery and other materials

Over the next few months I'll continue to add scenery elements, such as workers, lumber piles, finished goods, etc.