Jim's layout topic/blog

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Jim, enjoying the process, how many hot glue burns, so far? Looks like some Priority Mail boxes in your cardboard work. Ive used a ton of them...

Your work continues to look great, the coating part can be messy, I used mostly Sculptamold for most of mine. Have fun, cleanup is always a joy with that stuff, too.

Doing well, thanks for letting us all in on the project.

KScrib

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

" I need to pick up some Quikcrete color to color the plaster."

Suggestion, test a section first with the color I buy "earth" paint and mix it in with my sculpamold with success.

[riogrande]

Since I'm doing desert, Buff looks like the color I need. I do have a couple of bags of Scultamold too.

[riogrande]

Interestingly, I played with the Zip Texture powders (Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna) and looked at online photo's of the walls of Ruby Canyon.  They were quite orange.  I used one of the crude cheap brushes from Home Depot to paint on a very sloppy soupy plaster over the plaster gauze to cover it and this was the result.  Unfortunately you can still see the shape of the layers of plaster gauze and  the cardboard stripes so I will need a thicker coating.




As you can see in the photo above, too much of the vertical cardboard strips pattern can be seen, as well as the horizontal lines from where the layers of plaster gauze meet, under the colored plaster I painted on.  Plus there are a lot of paint brush marks.

The sandstone of Ruby Canyon is what we geologists refer to as massive sandstone (meaning it lacks layering or stratification.  I've decided to revert back to the easy to use Drywall Mud to apply over the top in thin layers to cover over those patterns and sand smooth.  It will probaby take a couple layers and then I'll end painting over it with an appropriate latex paint color.





I will add a bit of the raw sienna to the plaster in horizontal areas, even if I color over it.  It makes it easier to see the irregularities to have a bit of color in it.

[riogrande]

Here is a photo where I started applying plaster over the plaster gauze. I probably have about 1/4 of the plaster gauze covered at this point. It will get a coat of latex paint later.

[riogrande]

After putting the plaster down, I added a base color latex painted and then while it was wet, sifted sanded grout onto it. I did wet the sanded grout hoping the grout in it would fix it down but it is still deformable to the touch, so it looks like I'll need to apply some wet adhesive fixative, such as dilute white glue or matt medium. Any suggestions on what would be the most economical way and can it be sprayed on (as using a eye dropper would take a very long time to cover the area)?

[tillamook]

I guess a spray bottle might do the job. There are also those with a lever to apply air pressure in the bottle which can be reused if cleanded directly after the dilluted glue.

[Christian]

May 2, 2024 6:13:41 GMT -8 riogrande said:

so it looks like I'll need to apply some wet adhesive fixative, such as dilute white glue or matt medium.

Matt medium remains flexible and is water-resistant. White glue can be chippy, but also wetted and removed. Mod Podge is a common brand of matt medium available almost anywhere that carries craft paints. Dilute either glue or medium at least one to four. I add a couple drops of dish detergent to every diluted pint. I use cheap spray bottles - the lever sort - and toss them when they clog. It will be whitish for a day or so until cured. If there is white residue after a week, dilute the next go around further. Some folks first lightly spray with cheap isopropyl alcohol and follow with the glue/medium mix. The alcohol is a wetting agent and ensures that the glue covers completely.

[riogrande]

I ended up mixing up some matt Mod Podge I had on hand a bit less than 1:4 and used the ear syringe bulb to drizzle it onto the sanded grout last weekend. I only had enough to cover about 1/4 of the entire layout area, so will continue when I get more. After a day of drying, the sanded grout seems pretty well locked in place now. I added a few drops of detergent to help it soak into the sand, which it did pretty well.

Once I get the sanded grout all glued down, I'll start looking at adding vegetation, such as scrub brush and grass tufts etc.

[riogrande]

I've nearly finished getting the sanded grout glued down and have been peeling up the blue tape I covered the track with.

Since the river is drywall mud, I had to paint it to stabilize it. I'll have to go over it again now.



One thing I forgot to do was to paint the track so I've been masking and painting with Camo Brown



Here the rail and tie has gotten painted and the rail surface cleared of paint.

[Christian]

May 29, 2024 15:02:51 GMT -8 riogrande said:

One thing I forgot to do was to paint the track so I've been masking and painting with Camo Brown

Wow! That makes a big difference.

[riogrande]

It does, main things left for that stretch is ballast and vegetation. Eventually a little high lighting / weathering the track would help it stand out better.

I am planning on a backdrop as well, but until then sky blue is there.

[riogrande]

As time consuming at it is, I spent time this weekend gluing in ties between sections of flex track and anywhere along the mainline where there are gaps in the ties. I also did some masking and spray painting the track with Rustoleum camo brown so the rails and ties have a basic coating of paint. after that, main job will be ballasting.

I also covered the side of the tracks along the canyon walls that hadn't gotten any sanded grout yet.

Here is a stretch that got the camo brown



The stretch off screen to the top that goes around and oxbow in the river also got camo brown. I'll have to get another can of camo brown as the current one is getting low. Looks like it will take at least two cans to cover the entire mainline.

[hudsonyard]

Progress! I've found the camo brown produces a nice neutral weathered look thats good enough for an operating layout, and it gives a nice base for going back to add more weathering later.

[riogrande]

I wouldn't mind it if the camo brown were a tad lighter. Ideally I'll need to go back an weather the track later.

[Christian]

Jun 2, 2024 14:31:33 GMT -8 riogrande said:

I wouldn't mind it if the camo brown were a tad lighter. Ideally I'll need to go back an weather the track later.

Put down some ballast. It will look a lot different.

[riogrande]

Jun 3, 2024 8:02:25 GMT -8 Christian said:

Jun 2, 2024 14:31:33 GMT -8 riogrande said:

I wouldn't mind it if the camo brown were a tad lighter. Ideally I'll need to go back an weather the track later.

Put down some ballast. It will look a lot different.

All in good time.

[riogrande]

Been filling in ties where the track is joined in the main yard, about a 2/3rd done.



Added sidings for the grain elevator.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

It's been awhile since I dropped in. Things looking good, Jim. Camo Brown was my go-to but the Rustoleum version was way to odiferous for the room mate... Airbrushed Vallejo brown from a weathering set and it worked well.

Drybrushing the ties a lighter color and adding ballast makes a great change.

[riogrande]

I expect weathering should help. The Camo brown is pretty dark, and that's with the LED ceiling lights at full brightness.

I've got just about all the ties filled in in the yard. Pretty soon time to start checking the wiring to be sure there are none crossed and no shorts before test running engines.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Jun 27, 2024 6:49:19 GMT -8 riogrande said:

I expect weathering should help. The Camo brown is pretty dark, and that's with the LED ceiling lights at full brightness.

I've got just about all the ties filled in in the yard. Pretty soon time to start checking the wiring to be sure there are none crossed and no shorts before test running engines.

Turn those LEDS off and watch the light show….;-)

[riogrande]

Continuity testing using a DC power pack to make sure tracks are all energized before hooking into DCC.

Working on wiring the Tam Valley Frog Juicers in. Did 6 for a hex juicer at the right end of staging and another 12 at the right end of the main yard.

[riogrande]

Have most of the Peco electrofrogs wired to where the Hex Frog Juicers will be located. I had forgotten that I had pre-wired some of them which are at hard to get to way in the back near the wall in staging.




I think I have nearly all the drops tied into the bus. Maybe a couple left - I keep finding them! XO

Getting up after sitting on the floor twisting wire and soldering - the bones really hurt for a bit!







Masked and painted a bunch of track as well.

[riogrande]

Since the last update I have painted nearly all of the mainline with the Rustoleum camo brown. I removed the masked areas today and after than cleaned all the rail head of paint and also polished with the Peco track cleaner eraser.

Here is what the river looked like until today:



Then I went back over the river that had gotten splotchy while doing the plaster and sanded grout and gave it a second coat so it's about ready for the Mod Podge gloss coating to give the appearance of water next. I bought some rafts to put in the river. I plan to put some figures in them with at least one mooning the train, which happened when I was riding the Amtrak California Zephyr on the Rio Grande many moons ago.



I had removed the ExactRail Rio Grande bridge while I was painting the track and repainted the river so I restored the bridge. I still need to add cement abutments below the bridge on each side of the embankment.



Here is the river with a fresh coat of acrylic paint. The white specks are just dust I'll need to vacuum up.



After that I got out a Stewart F7 and began running it around the mainline slowly to check for dead spots. I did find some so added more drops to and connected them to the bus.

The Stewart F7 stopped between the heal and the break in the rail on one Peco #8
Electrofrog turnout so it looks like the points were reliably passing power from the heal to the half of the turnout on the left side. I may have to add feeders there to give reliable power to that part of the turnout. The F7 ran through all the other Peco #8 turnouts with no hesitation.

[riogrande]

I'm back from Texas and decided to see what would fit in a siding so pulled out 30 Exactrail quad coal cars - which fits with 4 SD locos and a caboose:

[jonklein611]

Aug 16, 2024 11:24:57 GMT -8 riogrande said:

I'm back from Texas and decided to see what would fit in a siding so pulled out 30 Exactrail quad coal cars - which fits with 4 SD locos and a caboose:

What's the rough radius on that curve?

[riogrande]

The inside radius is 32 inches (my minimum) and the outer is 34 1/2 inch Radius.

[riogrande]

I decided to get 14 autoracks out of the boxes and onto the layout as I was testing track continuity and shaking down the layout. I have to replace plastic couplers, wheels and adjust height as necessary. Here is the test rain with 14 autoracks and filler freight on the rear. The first is one of two 32" minimum radius curves and the 2nd is on a 46" CURVE.

[riogrande]

I pulled out ten 86' auto parts boxcars to get them layout ready, at minimum tossed any plastic couplers and wheels, adjusted coupler height and do 3 point tuning on the trucks to prevent rocking. To get a typical mix, a couple Thralls and a couple Pullman Standard mixed in with the Greenville's from Tangent. Can you tell which are which?



The siding can fit probably 4 more. The models on the head end are 50 and 60 foot auto parts cars.

[riogrande]

Been working on getting the wiring and DCC Specialties PSX breakers set up for DCC - plan on working on it this coming weekend.