DanielB Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 With TVNAM looming on the horizon, I thought it wise to get my layout build thread up on the forum to encourage me to crack on and get it ready in time - plenty of time to go, and I am currently part of the way through the wiring. Whilst the wiring is ongoing I've been cracking on with other aspects of the project, including getting the buildings ready to be planted. The idea for the layout is as a slowly growing project along a similar vein to Sweet Home Alabama - start with a single switching layout and expand it further and further as time goes on. To start with I wanted to build something a little different to what I am used to seeing when out and about over here - we have plenty of cities and rolling hills out here just as they do in the States, so I wanted to go for a stark contrast to that. Arid desert or Bayou kind of immediately jumped out in my mind. Inspired by Nantahala Midland - a layout on another US forum - I decided on a Bayou setting, so opened up Google and started looking at images and maps of Louisiana. The more I looked the more interesting the state appeared, and as a bonus my two favourite railroads, both BNSF and CSX have trackage in the state. I like the look of Louisiana so much I've decided that when Cane River is finished to scrap my WIP home layout and have designed another one based around my new favourite state! Looking around the Shreveport area I found the town of Mansfield, which drew my eye as I live not far from Mansfield, England - and after a little further snooping around I found Cane River - name chosen! Though the area around Cane River has no actual railroad in reality, that doesn't stop me from coming up with a fictional shortline to base around there. So far, the basic track layout has been decided, the baseboards constructed and the trackbed raised up to allow for more flowing scenery. I've made a start on wiring in the power feeds and will go from there. I've included a 3 way point and all turnouts are all live frog - two things I've not worked with before - so this has caused me pause whilst I investigate how to wire them up. Seems relatively simple, so now it's just a matter of finding the time to crack on with that! In the mean time I've been busying myself at work on my lunch breaks making a start on the structures - starting with a small factory/warehouse design taken from a set of drawings in Model Railroader. I've also made preparation for the large amount of trees the layout will inevitably need and raided my local Hobbycraft which was having a sale on Woodland Scenics products. I came away with some dark green foam and 50-odd armatures for making trees. Once the wiring is complete and tested, progress should rocket along as scenery is my favourite aspect of this hobby of ours! Below are pictures of my progress so far. Layout images are taken from the operators position at the back of the layout. The factory will be built up in layers to provide relief to the windows and doors, and eventually covered in Scalescenes papers to add 'texture' to the walls. It's early days yet but I hope to have it finished by the end of next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 Quick update with a trackplan and a few ideas for the layout. Trackplan first: http://www.tvnam.co.uk/layouts9.htm Though after visiting the Mansfield exhibition I've decided to scrap the idea for a sector plate and go with cassettes instead - Neil Mason used them to excellent effect with Werrington Road there and as this is my first exhibition layout I want to keep it as simple as I can. On top of that, I'm thinking of making the two spurs in front of the fiddle yard on a removeable, scenic cassette so I can swap out what industries I have there. Should keep the layout interesting and allow for me to have a little fun with the scenics. Whilst at the Mansfield show I picked up an NCE Power Cab starter set as well as a hell of a lot of trees and ground foam so the scenics are pretty much covered now, I feel. I've also ordered a pair of replacement DCC boards for my SD70MAC/AC4400, so if they arrive on time I'm hoping I can test the layout by this weekend. Thursday this week should see the layout wired up and tested. I hope. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Well my lunch break today has seen some new DCC decoders fitted to my AC4400CW and one of my SD70MACs, and another order placed for a third decoder for my other SD70MAC. Good times! Tonight I shall hopefully be able to work on the buildings again tonight. We shall see! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Can't wait to see this in the flesh in June Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 Cheers Rob! Hopefully I will live up to your expectations! I had the day off work today to work on the layout but managed to sleep in like a numpty. As such I only managed to weather a couple of cement hoppers. Alas my camera phone is awful and I only managed these snaps: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Awesome weathering Daniel! It will be a joy to see it as I really do like NA N gauge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 So tonight at the club I put off working on our club layout and sat upstairs in the workshop soldering power feeds onto the track for Cane River. Next visit I shall be hopefully putting in the power bus and connecting the power feeds to it. Then all that will remain is to wire up the 3 way point and I'll have the electrics done. Then the fun will REALLY begin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 A quick update to show my purchases from the Mansfield show. A bag of 57 Deciduous tree armatures Another bag of 114 Deciduous tree armatures 2 packages of Foliage clusters - dark and medium green 2 packages of Foliage clumps - dark and medium green A pack of wire (for wiring! ) A pack of pipettes for when I'm ballasting 3 packages of "Rocks in a bag" - wood clumps which should make a nice cliff face or the like if the scenery is built up around it. Think I have enough trees? I also have about 6 bags of various colours of lichen in my scenery box, as well as 3 different types of static grass, some fruit tea granules that look like fall ground cover, and a mix of scatter materials, soil and sand, so I should be fine for most of the scenery I may need. Just need to sort out what matches the Louisiana flora and away I go! I can't wait to get to the scenics - can you tell! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 you can never have enough trees!!! that will keep you busy for a while!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 The difficult part will be getting the trunk of the trees to look like a tree and not a plastic model of a tree! Google Images hoooooooo! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 Quick update for now, my lunch break at work allowed for a small amount of work to be done on the factory. It's starting to take shape now! Once the basic shape is done I'll work on the details. Those windows will be painted out in black and some thin transparent plastic glued in there before some frames are added - I'm hoping to experiment with some glue that wont cause the windows to fog up. Once that's done, the loading dock will be constructed, then the details added - lean to, downpipes and guttering, chimneys, aircon units, etc. I'm starting to enjoy this now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 8, 2014 Author Share Posted March 8, 2014 So two of my locos are now programmed and ready to go. Me = giggling like a little girl. Downside is that my third decoder turned up bent. When I tried to straighten it, it plain snapped in half! I can only hope the shop accepts the return. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 10, 2014 Author Share Posted March 10, 2014 Good news! The shop are accepting the return of the damaged decoder! Fantastic! In other news, I've been doing some more work on the factory: More work to come later, as I'm hoping to get the power feeds wired up to the 3-way turnout tonight, which is the only thing stopping me from getting the wiring sorted and some locos running. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 Tonight saw the wiring soldered to the 3 way point. Hopefully I've done it right! Last night I made a start on one of the buildings for the lumber dealer. Basic shell atm but it was time well spent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Not one to let a lunch break go to waste, I've made a start on weathering some gondolas - these will be used more than likely for scrap traffic on the layout, as I feel a scrapyard might make a nice module for the inter-changeable industries planned for the front of the fiddle yard. To explain my weathering process, firstly I must mention that I don't use an airbrush so everything is done by various brushes, sponges, cotton buds, and fingers! To begin with I wash the wagon in a suitable shade of highly watered down paint for my cement cars it was white, for the gondolas it is brown. I experimented with watercolours for this purpose on the hoppers with mixed results. For the gons I used brown acrylic I got years ago from an art shop that no longer exists. Next I paint up in thin/light layers of varying highlight or rust colours depending on the effect I am going for. I always aim to go lighter than I plan on having the end result, as weathering powders tend to bring the overall colour back down to a much darker shade. On the D&RGW example in the photographs below, I used an very light orange to simulate rust, which will be toned down considerably once I have time to break out the weathering powders. If anyone would like to see it, I'll do a step by step guide on another wagon later this week. Please note these are very much WIP, the Southern gondola has simply had the wash of brown, the D&RGW one has had the wash plus the first highlight layer of rust. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Your weathering is great. Simple, but very effective. And in N too! Your buildings are coming along nicely too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Had a few hours behind a paintbrush tonight, inspired by Robatron and his repaint thread and got a little further on my road slug repaints. Progress is a bit slow at the moment as this week has been pretty busy, but I've also progressed the gondola weathering some more. Almost ready for the weathering powders. See what you think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Very nice Daniel. You've done an excellent job with the white cabs. You'll be needing decals soon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 I'm hunting them down at the moment! The Sidings in Tamworth has pretty much every set of Microscale CSX decals EXCEPT the ones I need! Boooooooooooo! Apparently MG Sharp in Sheffield used to stock a massive amount of Microscale stuff but I have no idea if they still stock US stuff, and their website says their email system is down and to call them but no one ever seems to answer! I'm pretty happy with the road slugs, the blue especially - I think it's a pretty close match for the YN3 scheme. For those interested, it's a humbrol grey primer base, with Games Workshop "Mordian Blue" washed over with "Asurman Blue" ink. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Ordering from Microscale direct is really easy. You have to spend over $20, and shipping is $12, but I had them in 4 days and had no further charges. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Yeah, but that's a lot of money just for a single sheet of decals! Need to see about fitting a decoder in the GP30 first - or else there's no real point getting the locos ready for TVNAM! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robatron86 Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 I bought 3 sheets, just to be on the safe side! I need to get cracking on North Valley, I'm way behind. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 I'm almost sorted with the wiring. As soon as the wiring is done and fully tested, I'll be 100% blitzing the layout. The layout will go from wired and tested to fully scenicked in about a month! I do want to get that GP30 DCC fitted though, as I'd love to see my slug set switching a couple of centerbeams into the lumber yard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 I had a spare 10 minutes at lunch so went to town on one of my two bay centerflow hoppers. Only this side has been done so far but I'll work on it some more later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Whilst waiting for my wife to finish work I've done a bit more on the centerflow. Found an image online of a truly abused one and had a go at replicating it. Just needs weathering powders now and it'll be ready for when the new trucks arrive. Let me know what you think: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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