Back to working on the bench work, tracks and more.

Latest update.

Yes, I'm still working on my layout. I want the last spike to be placed by year end at the latest. So here are some updates.

Been working on finishing one part of the layout. This is the Canadian Pacific workshop, it will have lights on the inside and outside and will have two arc welding lights (one inside and one outside), everything will work on an Arduino mini. I still need to do the chain link fence and a bit of finishing touches here and there.

FINALLY finished the reversing loop of my staging area, well I still need to install 3 tortoises. But I did run some trains back and forth and it ran like a charm.
 

Since I was in the mood to finish my staging area, I continued and installed the rest of the tracks in my yard. I also did the bench work for the extension which will house my turn table and 6 stalls. I had to play around to make the tracks fit because I miss calculated the room in the aisles, I only had 18". So, I shrunk the extension by 10" to give me an aisle of 24", but that complicated the track work leaving the yard to the turn table because I already had glued the road bed. So I had to add roadbed (some places 3 wide) to fit the tracks because I wanted to keep my 30" radius, which is the norm on my entire layout.
 

I've also been working on one of my two trestle bridges. Now I need to finish this one, work on the other and then carve the styrofoam, add plaster, paint and do the scenery, but for now it's on pause so I can work on finishing building the layout.

What's next:
- More bench work and more track laying.
- Will install a few more tortoises (still need to install about 70).
- More wiring.
- Working on buildings.
- More Arduino stuff (speedometer, weighing station and other stuff).
- Gyprock workbench area and finish the workbench with dispatcher area.
- Will be doing my first attempt at weathering and it will be a box car.

Just a little info if anybody is interested. I'm also part of a group called YouTube Model Railroaders. We have many live shows such as Fine Scale Building, Tech shows, Arduino basic, layout tours, etc. Lots of us meet every night live to discuss techniques, ideas or just watch others work on their layouts. We can be up to 12 at the same time live (video and sound), it's lots of fun. We use the appear.in to communicate.

Later all.

Work as started on one of the trestles

For the last few days, I’ve been working on one of my trestles which will go in the back of the gorge.

Someone suggested I use my flex track and remove a few ties and glue wooden ones which are longer. Once dried do it again until all ties are replaced with wooden ones.

I also did the top of the rails with two platforms for the water barrels and the guard on the edge. I still need to install the inside guard rail.

All the bends for the first trestle are done. All that's left is the painting and weathering.

In the next few days I will be assembling the first trestle and working on the next one.
I'll also be receiving my order of super trees which I will try out.



I finished the floors where it was going to show and I'm now ready for the roof.
Still need to do some small details and some weathering.

I'm also getting ready to install one section of my backdrop.

 

Later everyone.

Scratch build engine house

I said I was going to post pictures of my engine house, so here's where I'm at.

I've put the engine house on a frame so that the base doesn't warp until I'm ready to put it in place.
I need to install the tracks inside and wooden planks on the floor.

I'm waiting for some shingles from Laser Art and also need to install roof vents to complete the roof.
As you can see, I have wooden planks that runs along the length of the roof.
I still need to do the corners of the walls and the doors.

I've put retaining plates to hold the bricks.
I need to put some tar around the fixed roof.

Weathering on the missing bricks and on the building needs to be done.

This building is all done from scratch. The material used are, Balsa wood, 1/16 cardboard, styrene and embossed paper brick.

Later 

More scenic work done

Got my static applicator from China.
Got my static grass from Scenic Express.
So I went to work on a section of my layout and here's the result.

Still working on some buildings
- Engine House
- paper Mill
- Brewery
Will post pictures next time

Later

Latest update with Engine house

Hey everyone,

I was due for an update, so here we go.

I started work on finishing my Hawkesbury yard but stop so I could work on an old engine house which will house passenger cars and a steam locomotive, which will be behind the Hawkesbury train station.

 

Here’s the story about the old engine house which of course is fictional. 

In the 1930’s or so, this building was used as an engine house for CP steam locomotives and was abandoned with time. The city of Hawkesbury bought the building for $1 and fixed it up to house four vintage passenger cars and a steam locomotive.

During the week, the FP-9A and B will be pulling 1970 passenger cars on a tour and will be replace by the Royal Hudson pulling vintage passenger cars on Sundays (mainly during operating sessions).

As for the construction of this building, everything is scratch build. Walls are made of foam core board with embossed paper brick to give its 3D look, the roof is made of styrene for one and shingles for the big roof (to come) and the inside is balsa wood planks for what we can see inside and balsa for reinforcement.

I’ve been working on the building for now 3 weeks and still have about 2 more weeks of work, that’s why I don’t have much to show for the last month.