Few more pictures of the covered bridge

Only the roof needs to be done and will be able to start on the other bridge.
Hope you like.

Later

Covered bridge will fit nice on the layout

     This week I've been working on my covered bridge and some roadbed. The covered bridge roof, walls and track platform are done, but not without a major problem found just in time. Nothing is assemble yet, that's why I build a little jig so that the walls could hold in place. Everything fit perfectly, checked the inside height with a locomotive and some freight and everything was ok......... until I tried a car carrier....... OH NO, I need to raise the roof by 1/4 inch, glad nothing was assembled. I was able to add an 1/2" extension which fits very nice.

     What's next for the bridge, front and back top wall, touch ups, paint, weathering and then assembling.

     As for the layout, all I did was installing more roadbeds. For the coming week, I'd like to finish the roadbed and elevation work on the sub roadbed just past the village (before the peninsula). I also want to start work on my next bridge which is a trestle bridge. The covered bridge is for the passenger train while the trestle bridge is for freight.

Later

A bit of everything at the same time

Latest update,

      I'm so anxious to get trains running that I've started working on installing some roadbed. In reality I've divided my time on frame work, roadbed (tracks soon), and structures...... so much to do.

      Here's my Sunrise Feed Mill almost completed. I still need to do some touch ups here and there. I had planned to install some lights in and out but went to fast in building and forgot about it. I need to build a schedule of things to do so I don't forget......age does that to you...lol. Also 3/4 of the way through I also forgot I wanted to take pictures and videos of the build.....oh well, got to remember for the next structure.

     When I was building the structure, I had taken the base to measure where to put my track on the layout so that I would have enough room for the building. I then went ahead and installed my roadbed. Well my first mistake of this layout occurred. The overhang of the building prevented the boxcar from going through. I had to remove the roadbed which was glued down and install it a little further, now everything is honky dory.

     My next structures are 2 bridges which are going to be build from scratch. One is a covered bridge which is mainly going to be used by the passenger train near the wall and the other will be a trestle for the freight train.

     By the end of the year, I would like to have all the elevations and roadbed done, just pass the peninsula, so I can start installing some tracks in the new year.

      For now, back to the grind on the layout.

Later

More work as been done

     It's been a week, so it's time for a new update.

     Only got my wood Friday so it was a slow week, but a busy weekend.

     

     While waiting, I decided to work on the the track framework elevations. Even though the design showed a flat track, I wanted to put some elevations, so needed to do lots of calculation to keep the slope at a max of 2%. Also the design is a double track, but I wanted the tracks to spread out before they each hit the bridge, so I can put a rock outcrop between the tracks. Even with these changes, the rest is still intact................for now.

      On the weekend, I finish the length of the back wall for the framework under the tracks.

 

     I'm printing my track plan in sections, here's the first peninsula.

     Working on the second peninsula. This one is a long one, measuring about 16' long and between 4-5' wide. Once this is done, this whole part of the layout is what I'll be working on till my wife moves out of her office in May. Then I will start on the second half of the layout.

     So I've got plenty of work waiting for me. So far 70 1''x4"x 8' and 900 screws. I pre drilled before every screw so that the wood wouldn't crack. I've got this useful drill bit/screw bit flip, saves lots of time. Oh and everything is level and sturdy.

     Will try to make a video next week explaining the layout.

Later

A bit more work done

     Manage to do a bit in the last 3 days. I've got about 20% of the frame work done and about to run out of 1x4, should be getting some next week. The peninsula you see, still needs to be secured to the rest of the layout, than I will be starting on the long peninsula. This layout is so much better than my first try, I have lots of accessibility everywhere on the layout, there's no place I can't access.

      To diversify my work, I'll be working on buildings (in a box) and bridges (from scratch), will post when I get started

Here's a video of what's been done so far.

 

Later

It's been a while, but I'm back

      Went on vacation and came back with a man's cold which lasted a bit more than a week, therefore another delay. BUT, now that all the walls have been painted, wood is in, work as now began on the new layout. I'm only 52 days of my supposedly starting date, but things should be on a roll now.

      Little things left to do, but nothing urgent. Still need to put molding along the ceiling edge and my wife will still use her space till till April/May, besides, I have lots to do before reaching her area.

Here's 3 pictures to get you started.

     This is the area I will be concentrating to start with. I know I should be starting with the first level (staging level), but since it's at the other end and includes my wife's office, it can wait.

 Later

Latest update of the NEW layout

Latest update:

      I'm a bit off schedule due to a few unforeseen problems, but will be ready for November.

      This is the before picture. I had to take all the wall boards down, the brick wall and brick floor.

     The after picture. Next week will be the painting. I'll have so much work to do in building the layout, that the office you see in the second picture, is my wife's office which will move upstairs probably at the end of April, unless the building of the layout goes fast.

     The following week I'm on vacation for 10 days and when I get back on the 4th of November, I'll be starting on my new layout. In the mean time you can all enjoy this little video of my new layout.

     

     See you all at the beginning of November for the start of my new layout.

Later.

Bad news, but Good news

It's been almost two months since my last post.

     For the past two months, I've had a furnace installed plus all the duct work and a new hot water tank which are all connected to propane. Electricity is very expensive in Ontario versus Quebec. I also took down my entire layout .............. yes, everything is gone, but I did manage to save about 90% of it.

     Why? The main reason was that it wasn't an operational layout and access was limited. While building the layout, I found myself working off the layout since I couldn't reach areas. Another reason is that with time we all get older and having to go under the tables everyday is not easy.

     During those two months, I had plenty of time to think about that decision. I contacted someone I met in model train forums, he's known as the Track Planner (Bill). We had back and forth conversation on the ideal track layout, such as access, operations, logistics and he will be designing my NEW layout.

     There's so much to learn about this hobby. I was told by model railroaders who've been in this hobby for a long time that a layout is always work in progress and that by your third layout, you should of accomplish a satisfying layout. Since I'll be working on my second, I hope to prove them wrong and stop at my second try.

     Here's part of the mess, my storage and part of the basement that still needs to be redone (removing the brick wall on the right, redoing the walls in gyprock and removing the ceramic tiles to be replaced by the same type of wooden floor)

 

I'll be starting a new section in the blog once I get started on my new layout

Hope to see you all later

Later

More pictures for now

I was having fun taking new pictures of my layout and wanted to share them with you. Sorry, the pictures are a bit to big, but enjoy and don't hesitate to comment, I promise to not get upset.

The first 3 pictures is an overview of the entire Phase I of my layout.
The next 2 pictures shows my box car freight yard.
Freight yard viewed from the container yard access road.
The container yard office building and storage shack.
View from the staging area looking at the container yard.

The freight office is being worked on, was waiting for the glue to dry and wanted to see what it would look like.

Like I said, any comments or even suggestions are welcome.
Later

More mountain scenery done

     Just finish working on 12 feet of mountain in my workshop and installed it on my layout. Now I need to do the finishing touch such as the joints between the module and the layout.

     I have one more section to do, it's a small one, just 14 inches long. Then I'll need to finish the joint between all three sections of the mountain. I don't particularly like the trees as they seem fake, but until I can do my own, these will have to do.

   

     I'm also working on 2 videos, one is a how I made these modular mountains and the other is on my Canadian Pacific fleet of diesel locomotives (13 different ones ranging from 1943 and 1968)

Rock walls coming along

     I just finished or should I say "almost finish" my first section of the cliff. I've glued with a hot gun the little rock formations to the main wall and finished the joints by adding plaster to smooth things out. I've now painted my first section with three different paints diluted with water 1:16.

     I then added a some fine turf, shrubs and trees to make it look natural.

     I now need to let it dry, then will have to make touch ups to remove stuff I don't like and add more scenery before installing it on the layout.

Slow going

     It's been a long time, well almost four weeks.

     It's been very slow moving as real life took over, you know, spring cleaning, outside work, etc etc. I still managed to do a bit of work here and there on the layout, such as wiring and ballasting, but I did realize a huge mistake.... ok not so huge, but pain staking work.

      When I designed my layout, I had measured a 30" reach from both side of the layout making it 60" wide total and I was ok with it. But now I realize that it's NOT ok. I need to do some cliff, mountain work and will have a hard time reaching it because on one side of the layout, I have two different levels with a total height of 10" as you can see from the pictures.

  

     So, I will be doing the mountains away from the layout and then inserting them when done (painting included).

     I've build the frame work on the layout and then brought them in my workshop. I then added plaster cloth to solidify them in one piece and now I'm working on making little rock formation to be installed on my major piece.

     The picture you see in the background is the look I'm going for

Hawkes HO Layout preview video

     It's been 6 months since I've started this new hobby and I love it

     I finally made the first video of my Phase I layout. I had to delete the sound because I had music in the background and YouTube doesn't seem to like copyright songs even though I was narrating the layout and the music was the radio.

     I took out 9 of my 13 locomotives which were all build between 1947 and 1957 (except the steam) and 1 of each rolling stock I have (except for the ones that will be in Phase II and III). I've reach the 100 rolling stock (locomotives included)

     I'll be very vague and explain the layout. The section you seen at the beginning will be connected to Phase II. On the left is my container yard, sorry for the blur as the video was taken with my Canon T5i camera. The main line will continue through the tunnel and re-appear in the back of my box car yard. The top road is for the container yard, while the bottom road leads to the box car warehouse and office.

     As you can see from the box car yard, the warehouse was scratch build and has 3 platforms and on the right there will be a 2 story office.

     As we come out of the tunnel, we have the entrance to the container yard and will connect to Phase II.

     The two top level are for passenger trains. At the far end you can see some old passenger cars and a steam locomotive. They will replace the other passenger train on special occasion. The steam locomotive is the only locomotive out of 13 that is not a Canadian Pacific, because there is none to be found, so we'll assume that Canadian Pacific bought a steam locomotive from NY.

     On the left of the staging will be the train station. The passenger train will go through the tunnel and appear by the small winter town and work it's way around the town to be seen. Here you see the entire town, a gas station will be on the other side of the track, opposite of the church. The run will then connect again to Phase II.

     Now we conclude with an overview of Phase I of the layout. I still have lots of work on my plate. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks for watching

Utility poles and some scenery

     Been a while since my last post. I've been researching utility poles and with all the information I gathered, I was able to scratch build poles with hydro and bell with guy wires.

     I've also did a bit of scenery. Took a container and rip it open and added a few growth. Since this shack is on the container yard, I thought it would be a nice fit. I also installed a light inside the shack.

     This is an overview of my shack and my poles. Still have to finish the poles, such as adding power lines, the bell line and the drops going to the buildings.

Progress on the container yard

     This week, I've been working on a commercial link fence and at the same time taking pictures of the progress so that I could make a video of "How to". Here's the final result of my first try at making a video.

     I've done some scenery such as drain pipe leaking water, junk in the ditch, ivy growing along the fence and I still need little final touches here and there.

     The container yard office as been weathered and I had my first try at making an autumn tree. It's starting to look like a train layout.

A bit of everything this week

     This week was a bit of everything.  I worked on a guard rail from a kit, worked on an 8' industrial link fence from scratch, added rock formations to my winter village, looked at what I could do with Spiraea Japonica as winter trees and finally got around at taking my first attempt at ground cover.

     The industrial link fence is made of styrene, steel mesh and thread. This was a test, now I need to build 36" of it. The fence will protect the container area. The guard rail is also 36" long.

     This is a view of the entrance to the container area and the road leading to the box car area. The check in office building was equipped with 2 lights on the outside and one inside and the security gate was scratch build.