What did you do on your layout today? (N scale)

[chadbag]

On 1/27/2019 at 12:11 AM, gavino200 said:

 

I'd consider these test setups, a fairly important part of you layout build. "Figuring out the wiring" is far more than a minor detail. I think It would be a loss if you didn't include it. 

 

I'd like to include them under technical topics as they are not so much layout specific.  The layout specific parts would probably be ok under the layout topic.

[Welshbloke]

After watching this video, I decided to have a go:

 

 

Here's mine, using waste foam inserts from Casco cases as filler rather than 3d misprints. Currently waiting for paper clay and texture paint:

 

 

I don't plan to have telegraph poles but I will be adding catenary masts, and I'll probably bring the snow paint a little bit closer to the sleeper ends.

 

[gavino200]

4 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

I'd like to include them under technical topics as they are not so much layout specific.  The layout specific parts would probably be ok under the layout topic.

 

I don't think you need to worry too much about being this specific. The decoder discussion is a little different. Decoder installations are like little locomotive surgeries. A tiny difference in technique can make a difference between success and failure - your loco living or dying. That's the thought process behind keeping them separate. There will also eventually be an index with links to decoder install threads  that will be more comprehensive.

 

BTW I'm not telling you that you must do anything. I've been interested in this project of yours since you first described your vision about a year ago? I think it's an interesting project in itself. Currently I don't do any trainsponding or automation. But I'm interested in them and may want to try some in the future. So I'm, interested in seeing what kind of work and troubleshooting is involved. Dong a test layout to work out the bugs is a very wise approach. I'll be taking down my layout this summer as I'll be moving. I'm hoping to buy a house in April, so hopefully I'll know then the shape and size of the new train room and will be about to start planning the new layout. I may want to build in some extra features on the new layout but I haven't decided yet.

 

One thing I'm curious about is your method of block isolation. I originally wired by layout with isolated blocks for future detection. I replaced the isolated joiners with regular ones as they caused flickering of the interior lighting on trains. Have you found a way around that? 

 

Perhaps you could make a "test layout" thread in the projects forum or in the DCC forum. I think your detailed descriptions and the discussions they stimulate are wasted on this forum which is more of a "look I added a cool widget today" sort of thread. But it's completely up to you. I'm looking forward to following your progress regardless.

 

 

[Coromant]

Hi All!

 

In the christmas holiday I made the roof for Kawasaki station building from simple 1mm sheet:

 

The window from the kato 23-200 station (I use almost absolutly everything from this kit 🙂 it's a very good kit)

 

 

The sharps I covered with ribbed plate from kobaru, and made the station name boards:

 

 

Next step I spray the street lamps and put their place, unfortunatelly the left side first i use white glue and under the drying time the electric cable twisted a little 😞 the right side I used superglue so later I fix the left also. The bench from kobaru bus station set, I use this set for do the two bus stop. The traffic lights from Kato Diotown street lights set:

(I am thinking about, how can I do the traffic lights operation, but I don't know i want this really, it's very miniature 🙂 ) 

 

Here is the channels with the electric cables, i use shrink tube and made U profile from styrol sheet. I lead the cabels under the baseboard:

 

At now I started bending the mesh fences:

 

Best regards,

Coromant

[Pauljag900]

Superb detail work buddy👍😀😀

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, Coromant said:

Hi All!

 

In the christmas holiday I made the roof for Kawasaki station building from simple 1mm sheet:

 

 

 

Outstanding work Coromant. Thanks for sharing!! What was the base model for the "Kawasaki Station" That you used. Did you cannibalize a Kato 23-200 just for the front window? Or was that left over from a previous kitbash?

[chadbag]

Today I added decoders to 5 locomotives.   All used the TCS K7D4 (which has the same uses as the Digitrax DN163K4A -- Digitrax lists this as KATO N-Scale Glacier Express -- TCS lists it as for KATO ACS-64).  I upgraded an EF510-0 and an EF510-500, as well as two KATO Glacier Express Ge4/4 III  (Glacier on Tour and the normal Red One) and also the KATO Ge4/4 II Hakone Tozan Railway.  All were pretty much straight forward, only requiring minor light pipe trimming.  Time per is 5-15 minutes depending on comfort level 🙂

 

I also got my Digikeijs DR4018 switch control hooked up and I hooked up one KATO test turnout (a #4) and can now switch it for straight through or turn off using the hand throttles...  So next step is to get all the switches in and track that is not in my test oval and get them all working.  Maybe tomorrow night.

 

[Welshbloke]

The paper clay arrived, so this happened:

 

 

Planning to get the track and snow finished, then it'll be a few weeks until the masts arrive. Already vaguely planning another 248mm module which will be shaped to fit between these two, with a simple Tomytec single platform station

[Coromant]

17 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Outstanding work Coromant. Thanks for sharing!! What was the base model for the "Kawasaki Station" That you used. Did you cannibalize a Kato 23-200 just for the front window? Or was that left over from a previous kitbash?

Hi Gavino!

 

The part of the sides of the Kato station use to this building red line on the pictures, and the windows also, the other made from plastic sheet and tamiya styrols:

 

The south side of the station have a passage, i use the station stairs to make this:

 

And under construction the escalator from the other stair.

The roof is also usable other buildings.

 

Best regards,

Coromant

 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I like that station building. Really effective...

[Welshbloke]

I wasn't entirely convinced by Shigemon's approach of airbrushing the track with dark earth paint, so I've used a Games Workshop wash on mine. Makes it all look suitable grubby but without looking too uniform:

 

 

 

Next up will be dark earth texture paint to fill between the ballast and the foamboard, then snow paint to cover the clay and feather onto the earth paint.

[katoftw]

Your Space Marines will love it 😃

[Welshbloke]

They might be a bit big! The old Epic scale miniatures worked pretty well with N though, the tanks were the right size to use as wagon loads.

[Kiha66]

Replaced a main line turnout at the local club today, then had to replace the switch machine for the same turnout an hour later!  Took a few hours due to space constraints, but finally got it working.  The turnout itself had broken point rails, while the turnout machine seems to have had the internal contacts break free.  Unfortunately the loose contacts seem to have then shorted something they shouldn't have and now the auto reverser for that section is dead too (and shorting out the main reverse loop), so looks like I'll be back later this week to track down that issue.  Took some pictures of the inside of the machine in case anyone was wondering how a (now dead) tortoise switch machine works.

[MichiK]

15 hours ago, Welshbloke said:

I wasn't entirely convinced by Shigemon's approach of airbrushing the track with dark earth paint, so I've used a Games Workshop wash on mine. Makes it all look suitable grubby but [...]

 

That track looks beautiful!

 

I have, however, a slight problem with Shigemon's idea to combine a closed layer of snow with clear tracks. I quick search for KiHa in the snow (recommendable in itself!) shows that trackwork usually is coverd in snow up to about the railheads, too.

I.e., unless a jet powered snow blower/melter was used for clearing. Though there actually was such a vehicle in Japan (built up on the ToKi 17988), the test results were not satisfactory, and the experiment was given up quickly:

Quote

In addition to the above-mentioned practical vehicles, in 1961, a snowplowing car using a jet engine at the Noriko factory in Hokkaido has been prototyped. This is a vehicle with a jet engine on one side of Tokiki 15000 type freight car Tokei 17988 removed and a jet engine borrowed from the Air Self Defense Force Chitose Base mounted obliquely downwards and a control room on the other side, Was used to blow off the snow on the railroad and remove snow. As with other snowplowing cars, they can not self-run and are used in a form that is backed by locomotives. However, when actually carrying out the test, the pressure of the exhaust stream of the jet engine is too strong to blow away not only the snow but also the ballast on the railroad track and the railroad board of the railway crossings, and there are problems of fuel consumption and noise Development was abandoned shortly [14].
 

(Translated from wikipedia.jp)

 

But don't let my nitpicking get in the way, of your work - the result will be impressive, anyway!

[Welshbloke]

Yep, hence my plan to bring the snow up to the sleeper ends with the paint. I've seen video footage of track in that condition and it shouldn't be as glaring that way. I don't want to cover everything in snow paste as it'll invariably find its way into mechanisms.

[chadbag]

Once the sun comes out and the snow starts melting, you'll have more chance to have snow around open roadbed/track.

[Welshbloke]

The paints arrived, so here's the halfway point:

 

 

I may add more once both are finished, but I reckon this is going in the right direction.

[Welshbloke]

Finished the snow. It'll have to stay like this for a little while now as I plan to order the masts next week, and I'll look for some trees to add a bit of texture as well:

 

 

[MichiK]

There is this quite similar diorama by one Nishimura Yoshiaki (in H0, admittedly). I like his depiction of the long, dried grass even more than shigemon's shrubbery. A possible inspiration?

 

[Welshbloke]

I'll have a look. I definitely fancy adding a station module to them, probably one of the Tomytec single platforms with a well-stamped path in the snow leading off the module. I have track, plastic card and possibly enough foamboard left over for another. The platform would need to be lifted slightly as Unitrack is that bit taller than Tomix.

 

Are conifers common in Japan? I can get cheap ones easily which respond well to having white paint dabbed on them to represent lumps of snow.

[MichiK]

Probably more on Hokkaido than on Okinawa, but generally speaking: Yes, sure!

Pinus parviflora is one of the most popular trees for bonsai, for example.

[Sheffie]

On 11/27/2016 at 7:25 AM, bill937ca said:

Last night I cut the last of the balsa inserts for the tram layout and the larger train layout. After a busy few days on to other stuff...

Those buildings look promising. I want to see more of that!

 

For me, a slightly frustrating evening of redesign and rebuild, in order to try to ensure a fun and derailment/uncoupling - free layout. It seems that woodworking shims are really not a good way to support a curve that's going up or downhill! Also the Styrofoam ramps I've got will not follow a curve without being nailed down, which means a baseboard.

 

However, the end result is going to both look and run very smooth, I think. It should also offer good potential for freight operations, and a couple of likely spots for future rural platforms.

 

Apologies for poor picture quality. Hopefully it shows how it’s significantly revised from my last design. 

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Sheffie

[chadbag]

@Sheffie At least as a start, you might try "gluing" things down.  I use silicone (like you buy at the hardware store in squeeze tubes) to glue things down in a "temporary" fashion.   Easy to take back up as needed but seems to hold things down pretty well.   Allows you to try things out without "committing"

[Kiha66]

That looks great Sheffie!  Still need me to send you the extra crossing track with this plan?