MAKING THE GRADE

January 23, 2010

It's been a busy week, so not much layout progress to report on.  As a test, I raised the elevation of the warehouse track using a  Woodland Scenics 2% incline and 1/2" foam roadbed.  I like the visual contrast that the elevation difference offers, and it follows many prototype situations. 

I once saw a similar raised spur at a Georgia Pacific mill, with a low cut-stone retaining wall separating the tracks.  Perhaps I'll incorporate something like that.

Because the NCIR is a small switching layout, I can weigh my cars pretty heavy.  The additional weight helps the cars track better and nicely simulates the mass of the real thing.  Another benefit, as you can see below, is that cars will not roll when spotted on a slight grade.

If you look closely at the bottom of the photo above, you'll see that I began shaping contours at the front edge of the layout.  I am AMAZED at how much a slight upward slope draws the eye into the scene. 

Playing with the camera settings:-)

I'm working on a new post describing switching operations at a beverage plant.  Stay tuned...

BACKDROP

My backdrop is 1/4" Masonite hardboard screwed to a frame of 1" x 3" birch.  I ripped the strips from a single 4 x 8 sheet of birch plywood.

I painted my backdrop using Sherwin Williams "Soar" for the upper portion of the backdrop color, and "Sonething Blue" toward the horizon.  The resulting blend nicely simulates a muted November sky.

   

BENCHWORK

Hollow-core doors, $19.99 each from Home Depot, made benchwork construction a breeze.  I fastened the doors to a 1" pine ledgerboard along the walls and used knee braces for support.  I designed my benchwork to be portable in case we ever have to move.  The layout sections are simply lag-bolted together as shown in the photo.

The resulting benchwork is quite rigid and easily supports my body weight.

I used green foamboard insulation from Lowe's as a scenery base.  I initially used three inches of foamboard, which resulted in a track height of 53" off the floor.  Upon placing temporary track and structure mock-ups, I found that 53" was a tad too low for my taste.  I added another 2" layer of foam to bring the benchwork height to 55".  I'm 5' 10" and 55" is about armpit height.  I tested operations again before permanently attaching the additional foam layer, just to make sure that I could manually uncouple cars anywhere on the layout.  The resulting 5" foam base layer allows for plenty of scenery below track level.

I used a hand saw rather than a utility knife for cutting foam, cleaning up the edges with a drywall sanding block.

PL300 is a great adhesive for attaching foam.  

LAYOUT LIGHTING

I experimented with several lighting configurations before I found one that I was happy with.  I ultimately settled on a combination of 4-tube fixtures directly over the layout + a 2-tube fixture mounted slightly in front of the benchwork, close to the valence.

I placed Phillips Daylight Deluxe tubes in the overhead fixtures. This gives a great ambient light source for the layout. However, the Daylight tubes alone give off a very bright but cold-looking light. I needed something to soften the light, and at the same time, shine down at an angle so as to really bring out the detail and weathering on my rolling stock. I tried track lighting with halogen fixtures, but could not eliminate "pools" of light at the front of the layout and multiple shadows to the rear. However, I found a second set of fluorescents, with cool white tubes, to be the answer. The cool whites give a beautiful, angled light to the layout, replicating a late Autumn day (my scenery will be set in November) and the daylight bulbs overhead give everything a nice, seemless punch.

 












 
I could not use the same shadowbox style lighting above the Commerce Street district due to overhead ductwork.  The ducts and utilities also eliminated any type of recessed can lights within the drop ceiling.  So, I went with pigtail fluorescents mounted in track light fixtures attached to the valence.  

THE RAILROAD ROOM

The NCIR occupies two walls of my 10 x 25 railroad room, which is located in the basement of our home.

The previous owner used the area as a shop.  The before photos below are from  2007, when we first viewed the house with our realtor:

I wanted a dry, comfortable area in which to model, but did not go overboard finishing the room.  One thing I made sure of was to maintain easy access to all pipes and wiring.


 

I gave the block walls two coats of Dry-Lok paint and insulated with 1-inch pink foamboard.  I framed up new 2 x 4 walls (using pressure treated for the base plate), ran wiring and covered with beadboard.  I was going for a look similar to the interior of a railroad depot.

I removed the storage closet and used the area for my modeling workbench:




NCIR's reference library is located adjacent to the shop.  Reference articles from magazines are grouped by subject into binders for easy access.





I insulated the area above the main part of the layout, then installed tongue and groove planking.  The planking is in an area with no overhead wiring/pipes.
  

 

I then painted the planking white to help reflect light down onto the layout.

A drop ceiling conceals low HVAC ducts and water pipes above the Commerce Street section of the layout.   

Access to the utility pipes is still easy...one thing I wanted to make sure of!  Murphy's law you know.

Upon moving into our house, we found that the previous owners left us two wooden cabinets down in the shop.  These cabinets were not in the best of shape; having paint stains, screw holes, scratches and other various battle scars.  

My modest roster of O scale boxcars consists of beautifully weathered models by Don Smith, Tim Carlson and Jim Lund.  I needed a safe place to keep these beauties while they were off the layout.  So, I decided to go to work on the battered wooden shelves and attempt to transform them into display cases for my rolling stock.

I filled all holes and scratches with wood putty, then sanded smooth.  The cabinets had a polyurethane finish, so I used a white, non-sanding primer as a base coat before painting:

    

I painted my cabinets to match the railroad room.  Here is one set after 4 coats of brown and two coats of beige: 

After sealing the new paint with a couple coats of polyurethane, I added cut-glass shelving, sliding glass doors, and brass drawer pulls.

I plan to have night-operations on my layout, so I added under cabinet light fixtures to the shelves:

The cabinet lights work off this neat remote control unit I found while Christmas shopping with my wife.  For around $10.00 you get a remote control unit and a receiver that plugs into the wall outlet.  Simply plug whatever device you want into the receiver and then switch it on/off with the remote.