Y_Rail

Wendell and F-UnitMad, Many thanks for your kind replies! I really like California as a theme as you can understand . As for the real-estate, i tried to put more weight on the downtown area since the urban environments are one of my favorite elements in layouts. Having said that, it is true that shelves and front-only / low-relief structures are VERY effective and convenient and i am using such solutions in one part of the layout.

Late at the party... but better late than never. Great layout and impressive weathering. I really like the whole atmosphere that it has! Will be following with interest.

Thank you very much Daniel for the kind words. Yes indeed the trackwork is seemingly off reach at the back of the downtown scene/area. For this reason, the entire downtown area module is on wheels and is able to easily roll out of the way when i need to access tracks for cleaning/working etc. There are no tracks on this roll-out module, just scenery. I hope this makes sense.

Thank you very much Paul! Will sure update with more modelling results (hopefully) soon!

Impressive and inspiring work!!! Very realistic. Thanks for posting this!

Fascia & Control Panels Fascia is made using tempered hardboard. The turnouts are operated using tortoise switch machines. I have designed and built fascia control panels out of styrene for mounting the toggle switches and leds for the tortoises. The switch-guards are stainless steel, 3mm leds and dpdt switches. Labels are also made out of styrene. The panels were painted using hammered-effect paint. This was heavily brush painted in order to simulate the industrial look of dashboards and panels seen in EMD F7 interiors. The silver art-deco details were airbrushed. Primed panel and Panel after a first coat of hammered-effect paint Panels everywhere!!!!! Finally on the layout. The final result I hope you liked it and thanks for stopping by (and for your patience going through this sequence of posts ).

Backdrop construction: Made using insulation EPS boards and PVC sheets for the coved corners. Following careful sanding and priming, i used acrylics for the sky and mountain. Several shades from blue to almost white were used in order to get to the final result. The final atmospheric haze was done using my airbrush and acrylics. The mountains and respective hue were done based on several photographs of the actual San Gabriel mountains as seen from the Pasadena depot area looking north.

Construction of the lift-gate. I used spring loaded ball-roller catches in two different orientations. These, in combination with a couple of brass barrel locks, ensure proper alignment in XYZ axes. The barrel locks also double-up as kill-switches for the main dcc-power. This ensures that i won't be having any flying trains if the bridge and locks are not in place. The hinges are placed with their axis higher than track level. This ensures that railheads are not binding when the gate opens and at the same time the gap between the two rails is minimized when in closed position. I did experiment with kitchen cabinet hinges but i could not make this work.

Hi all, After a few months of work involving tearing down my previous layout I managed to build a new one up to a point of being able to run trains. I am uploading the track plan and a few photos of the benchwork construction in this opening post. I will follow up in subsequent posts with updates so that i don't cram all the photos in this post. I hope you like it and thank you very much in advance for your time and replies. The theme of the layout: ATSF operations in eastern LA, focusing on Pasadena from 1968 to 1970/71. The current layout is made up of modules most of which make up a larger more complete layout for a future space. Bringing back the focus to the present time and layout, it is a point to point layout around the walls, with staging in between representing points east/west. Dimensions are circa 17' x 18.5'. A lift-gate is used in order to gain access into the layout. Track specs: Peco code 83 track / turnouts. Min radius 30-32", #6,#7,#8 turnouts on mainline/sidings and #5 on industrial spurs. Trackplan: Starting clockwise from staging (going east), we pass through the industrial area south of Pasadena / East LA, where we got in sequence, a warehouse and a brewery, fruit distributor and a printing house. Then we reach the Pasadena main depot and it's freight house. Leaving the depot we cross Colorado boulevard (route 66) and snake through the urban area. Exiting the urban area we pass through a plastics factory east of downtown and then we are off to staging. Benchwork: Baltic Birch plywood construction, using pocket holes. A few photos of the stacked plywood in day one, and aspects of the tables/modules framework.

David amazing prints and crane!!! Mind if i ask you a few specific questions on the D7?

Roundhouse many thanks for your detailed reply. I suppose you only use the digitrax throttle as hardware and the consisting is done via DR5000's method? What i mean with my consisting question, is that via their GUI, either the Z21 or the ECoS 50200 do speed-matching and consisting in an easier way than working with CV's. Hence my question on how the DR5000 handles this.

Hi all, I have been doing some reading lately prior to getting a new DCC system. So far i have narrowed it down to 3 options, the z21start, the Z21 and the Digikeijs DR5000. US style layout, consists of 2-6 locomotives. For now Tortoise-analog control of switches and signals. Might go to automations in the future. Plan is to use an android device for programming/settings and a Multimaus (wifi) for operating. I think i got a grasp of how things go in the Z21/z21 system. What attracted me to the Z21 among other things is the way you make up consists and more importantly how you speed match locomotives. I also saw the DR5000 as an alternative. I cannot understand how the DR5000 works in some aspects (read the manual and most threads here...). So i got some questions on the topic from people that have used it. 1. Can i use it w/o a computer? In other words, unbox it, connect it, do setup via android and run trains (plug n play) 2. Can i use it with a linux-only computer? 3. How do you speedmatch locomotives and how do you make up consists? 4. Can i use a Multimaus and an android controller as i would with a Z21? Many thanks in advance for your time and replies and apologies for the many questions

With respect to the autoblade feature mentioned (that it adjusts automatically...) i suppose this only works when the cuts are made using the Studio software right? I am using inkscape on linux for the whole process and i have to manually select everything (unless i am missing something).

Excellent progress and very nice shelf layout! I really like the shadow-box construction. Many thanks for posting and looking forward to its progress.

Hi all, I just unboxed my new Cameo 3!!! I setup the machine, plugged it to the linux-laptop and even though i have inkscape 0.92 version installed, and i do see the dialog with extensions export/send to silhouette, when i try to send something i get the following message: "Inkscape has received additional data from the script executed. The script did not return an error, but this may indicate the results will not be as expected." : Traceback (most recent call last): File "sendto_silhouette.py", line 122, in <module> from silhouette.Graphtec import SilhouetteCameo ImportError: No module named silhouette.Graphtec When i did connect the Cameo to the laptop, Linux Mint popped up a message about printer with missing driver. Any ideas? I suppose since i do see the export to silhouette dialog, i did install the plugging for inkscape correctly. Many thanks in advance for your help! Update, i did originally copy the required extension files to the usr folder instead of the home folder... this made all the difference for not being able to work (linux). I now have sorted it out and i have it working perfectly on inkscape v0.92. Copying to the usr folder did make the dialog appear but it did not make the machine operable. Copying them to the .config directory in the home folder did make it all work! Out of curiosity, the settings on the export dialog have various types of media and settings for speed and pressure. I tried custom media with speed 3 and pressure 33 but it was not enough for 0.25mm evergreen styrene sheet. I got the autoblade that comes with the Cameo 3 by the way, should i change the blade settings manually? I must also find the trick to lift / un-glue material/papers from the cutting mat without tearing them, it is too sticky. Needless to say, a whole new world has just opened up, and i now hope to contribute more practically to this thread!!! Yannis

Thanks Robin, much appreciated answer. I was thinking along the lines of many tiny rectangles for the grill (like a radiator grill). I ll read around on the link you mentioned. So far i was a bit put off brass etching since i thought it can only be done with special lights, chemicals etc... When my silhouette arrives i ll give it a go trying to get the grill made out of styrene (Farr type grill for EMD locomotives).

Robin, did i get this right? You can prepare sheets for etching with 12V DC using the silhouette?????? I need to make at some point some PE grills / screens and i wonder if that would work. Bgman, again inspirational work!

Very nice scenic work there! I really like desert-ish scenes.

Grahame, amazing work on the car! Waiting for my Silhouette to arrive here.

Great photo there (the French layout) JAMO, very convincing and realistic! Congratulations for your craftsmanship. Yannis

Mike excellent work there! I wonder if 0.13mm evergreen sheet would work instead of paper there.

Ktundu, many thanks for the info on this autoblade. Yannis

I ve been back to page 58 and done some reading about cutting depths etc. Thanks for the heads up about that page containing cutting depths etc I noticed that the new Cameo 3 comes with what they call an autoblade. Would that work when trying to cut directly from inkscape without the Studio program intervening or should i buy a non-auto blade like a deepcut or a premium blade instead which both have manual adjustments? Silly question but i want to make sure i order all i need with the 1st go. I assume that aftermarket engraver tips / etching tools do work with a Cameo 3 (and not only Curio or older Cameo machines) right?

Ok, i just added the inkscape extension in Mint 18.1 and the "export/send to silhouette" appears as it should in the menus. I just need to buy the Cameo now . Thanks for the links Robin! Silly question, do i need anything more to get me going apart from the basic package of the Cameo 3? In other words do i just get the Cameo and a sheet of styrene and i can get started in cutting/scribing? Are there any essential extras (for the Cameo 3) that i need to buy as well? For example any extra cutting mats etc (the 12" by 24" for example...) Many thanks again, (this thread is like being in a friendly pub and having friends explaining how things work on a new topic/issue... much appreciated!)

Going with the spectacular quality that this Alco has, i am so looking forward to seeing this layout progress! Congratulations Jack and thanks for posting!