New layout in the works.

[nolatron]

Made some more progress this afternoon:

First I secured all the track down for the GERN plant.



Then I cut and attached the fascia for the lower level lights.



Here's another shot of the corner tunnel I'm going to add. Couldn't really decide what to do with this area, so I thought a little tunnel cutting through the edge of a cliff would look good.


And lastly just a shot of how the wiring panel looks today with the turnout wiring RJ-11 Boxes.

[roch]

Sweet.

[tetters]

Looking good. Even on baby duty, you're still making some decent progress.

[nolatron]

Ordered a new kit from Pikestuff today to expand the GERN plant.

I'll build it up so it's about half as deep as normally intended so it'll be more of a backdrop building, and it'll go to the left of the kraft mill with an interconnecting pipe bridge. Not sure if I want to paint it to match the color of the mill building or go with some other color yet.

[Flyboy41]

Originally Posted by nolatron

Ordered a new kit from Pikestuff today to expand the GERN plant.

I'll build it up so it's about half as deep as normally intended so it'll be more of a backdrop building, and it'll go to the left of the kraft mill with an interconnecting pipe bridge. Not sure if I want to paint it to match the color of the mill building or go with some other color yet.

I built that kit for my little pike. It's a good kit, especially if you want to kitbash.

[nolatron]

I decided to go ahead and make all of my industrial siding turnouts manual controlled, mainly for cost reasons. No sense in spending, for example, almost $80 on turnouts and mounts for the 3 GERN turnouts that won't see as much action as the mainline turnouts will. I also feel manual control will just be easier to operate for quicker switching maneuvers, etc.. So I opted to use Humpyard throws. I already had two on had and got them installed on the GERN industry.

First I drilled a whole underneath the layout and ran up the two guide cables.



Since the lower level is mostly on 1.5" of foam, I needed to mount the cable above the plywood bench top, so I made some trenches to lay the cable in, and then assembled the throw mechanism.



I then used some hot glue and some Liquid Nails to fill in the gaps to secure the cable.



Well, now I needed someplace to mount the throws, so I finished up the lower fascia.



And then finally mounted the turnout throw to the fascia.



And tada!

[ScratchyAngel]

Nice. I was beginning to think with all the tortoise/wabbits/hares that you were made of gold

I like the look of the fascia in the last two shots. Good to see the progress.

[nolatron]

Originally Posted by ScratchyAngel

Nice. I was beginning to think with all the tortoise/wabbits/hares that you were made of gold

Heh. I wish

I like the look of the fascia in the last two shots. Good to see the progress.

Thanks. I still need to do some touching up with making all the corners flush and filling in with caulk to smooth 'em out. Then will eventually paint them all this midnight black color I got from Lowes.

[nolatron]

Thought I'd shoot a little tour video of the layout today showing the latest progress. Enjoy!

YouTube - layout tour

[AlBruAn]

I see where you've ordered both sets of Kato's new smoothside passenger cars. Mine arrived Monday and I'm very impressed with them; I'm sure you will be, too. I'm pulling mine behind a Challenger and saving the Big Boys for hauling freight.

[nolatron]

Originally Posted by AlBruAn

I see where you've ordered both sets of Kato's new smoothside passenger cars. Mine arrived Monday and I'm very impressed with them; I'm sure you will be, too. I'm pulling mine behind a Challenger and saving the Big Boys for hauling freight.

Yup. Just got mine delivered today. They look fantastic getting pulled behind the Big Boy. The lights on the observation car are a nice touch too, I didn't know it was going to come with those.

[nolatron]

Latest video:

YouTube - Athearn 4-8-8-4 Kato Smoothsides

[scubadude]

BAD TO THE BONE!!

[TrainNut]

Nolatron,
Lately, mostly because of you, I've been toying around with the idea of adding a helix and a second level onto a new layout I'm designing. If you see a spike in the amount of views to your thread, it's probably because of me as I have been visiting your thread often looking at your helix and how you constructed it for ideas. I think, if it becomes reality, I'm going to go with a 12" radius and a 3% grade. I still have not decided how much height I want to achieve - not too high but not too low either!

[nolatron]

Not a whole lot of changes since the last update. I finished the mainline on the lower level and began fiddling with the staging bridge. It works pretty well.

This weekend I'm gonna get some hobby pine board to glue to the side for protection againt stuff falling off. I also added a switch to turn power on/off to the staging tracks.