Narrow Gauge

29 April 2009- Continue hand laying the narrow gauge track. Did the 18" radius and now I will start the up hill grade to the second level which will be 5" higher than the bottom layer. This grade might be a little steep than normal. I haven't decided how steep this grade will be. I am still playing with the idea of where this grade is going to end.

This is still under construction. The ideas will flow and new ones will come. I will keep you posted with the progress.

Standard Gauge

28 April 2009: The work keeps progressing. I have cleared the next section, by removing all of the HO track and laying a new sheet of homasote over the MDF board. I have laid a 26" radius curve of O scale standard gauge and a straight piece of track. I still need to install the feeder wires and test it with the SW8. I ran the 40 footers boxcars with success. I am still debating if I am going to cover the standard gauge with the town over it or just cover portion of the track. I am very excited how is coming and hopefully by this weekend I can accomplished the standard gauge portion.

Planking

Friday 24th, 2009. Went to the hobby shop and bought all the planking that they had (15 pieces). I went ahead and order a batch more. I went to get some Dio-Sol, they did not have any either, so I ask them to order it for me with the batch of balsa planking. Everything that I needed it they did not have it in stock, so I asked them to order it. i did get the I-beams that I needed to do the entrance post for the wharf and the chains to hang the sign.  When I got home I started to install more plankings. 

Saturday 25th of April: Continue installing more planks. Until I did them all. I have about 15 % more to do before the whole deck is done. Now I just have to wait for it to come. I weather a couple of boxcars, standard gauge ones to have on the layout.  Since I did not have any more materials to work on the deck I started to work on the removable section that goes across the closet door. I added and installed the standard gauge track and also hand-laid the narrow gauge track. At least I added 27 more inches of standard and narrow gauge track.

Decking/ Layout Plans

I am about 70 % completed on the deck. Only if the hobby shop had enough material at one time for me to get enough to finish it.

I was brainstorming with my fellow railroader friend, Jerry Diaz and we came out with a great idea on my layout of doing split level. Since I am doing an urban/city railroad. A railroad serving a particular city, we came up with the idea of having the standard gauge running on level ground while the narrow gauge will run on two levels. An upper and lower level. That would give me more running space and more city space. So the Standard Gauge will have room to run and serve industries on the ground level while the narrow gauge will serve on both levels.

So now that their is a distinctive plan, the work should go faster !

April 19 2009

Yesterday I bought some more strips of balsa and added some more plankings to the deck. The day before on Friday I installed new trucks to my UP Box car and weathered it. I am adding a small video of the wharf running the standard gauge train.

Third Day

Well I went to the hobby shop and picked up all their balsa strips that they had in stock. I got home and I was able to do and finish the rear end and also to cover the inside of the standard gauge. At least a little less than 2/3 is done. Now the only thing left on the deck is the area between the standard gauge and the front of the layout. Due to the limitations that I can get at the hobby store probably it will take me another 2-3 days. Otherwise it would be completed in one more day. 

Materials

Today after work I will be picking up poplar wood to make some more planking for the wharf. I will be picking up the custom dry transfer for the boxcar and getting everything for next week to continue the progress. Once I get home from picking the materials, I will be working on the removable section which is the next section right next to the wharf. I will install the homasote on top of the MDF table top and will be adding the tracks, standard and the narrow gauge. That will add another 30 inches of running !!! On this section most likely I will be adding the first standard turnout on the layout. This turnouts I got them from Old Pullman. They make great O scale turnouts. Real wood ties and done very well. Here with this post is a photo of their turnouts. All of my turnouts will be manually operated since all the tracks will be close to the front. The widest section of my layout is 2 feet wide.

Removal of Lettring

I bought this On30 Boxcar from AMS. But I wanted to remove the RGS letters and install the Home Road name. This was the project for this evening. Here are a couple of photos of the results. I need to clean it up a little more and tomorrow night I will post new photos with the new name on it.

Here is another view of the wharf. You can see closer the planking's between the rails. I ran out of material. So I have to wait for the weekend to pick up some more. In the meantime I have to work on a boxcar that I have to remove the lettering and replaced with the "Hometown" road name.

Here is a view of both gauges, the standard and the narrow gauge of 30 inches. This is the first 12 inches of the wharf. 

Here the photos of the work that I did last night, April 7th. Here is the photo of the standard gauge at the end of the wharf

Wharf

April 8: Last night I continued with the planking. I used all the materials that I had. This was my second night installing the planking on the deck. I've covered one foot out of the six that I need to cover. I figured out a system that it is quicker. Hopefully with this system I can finish this portion in four days.

I started this idea for this layout tthe 29th of March 2009. I started to rip off the old layout the 30th. By the 1st of April I had the homasote installed on the table top and by the 3rd of April I had the standard and the narrow gauge tracks laid on the wharf.

New Layout

This is something new for me, this blog. So don't know where to start. I am in the process of starting a new train layout. This layout is in O scale. It will have standard gauge trains and narrow gauge, being On30. This means that the track is 30 inches wide instead of the 4' 8.5" wide. This layout is in a spare bedroom the size of 12' x 10'. It is a shelf type. Two feet wide

and goes all around the room covering all three walls. The fourth wall is only one foot wide by six feet long. That is the wall that the entrance door opens to. And this section will be the wharf of the city. But the layout will be set up to run point to point. The entrance to the room won't be blocked nor it will have a removable section. The bench is made out of 1 x 4's frame and the table top is made out of MDF Board. On the top of the MDF I have laid a sheet of homasote.

The setting will be urban with industries and tall buildings. The main standard track will be on three sides including the wharf. The track will be mainly on the back of the layout while the narrow gauge will be the one going to all the industries throughout the city.

I am doing the first section which is the wharf. I have hand laid the main standard track and the narrow gauge track right on the homasote, since the wharf does not have roadbed and the track will be embedded into the planking's on the deck. . Last night April 6th I started to lay down the planking's on the deck. Now remember this deck is six feet long by one foot wide. So there is a lot of planking's to lay down.