Corner Treatment

There's nothing worse than square corners on a simulated sky backdrop.  I know that there are several schools of thought on how to round out the corners of the layout room, but I was looking for a simple yet effective means of doing so that didn't involve curving drywall.  I saw an article in Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine that used PVC flashing secured with cove base mastic, and I thought that I would give it a try.  The PVC material comes in a roll and is 15-mils thick (0.015") and can be readily found at  most home improvement stores.  The rolls come in varying lengths up to 24-in. and as long as 50-ft.  I purchased a product called Dura-Flash from Home Depot and was able to find it in a 20-in. long roll.  Here's a photo of one of the corner roundings installed:

In this view the 20" width is in the horizontal and the length of the sheet was cut to extend to the ceiling (or at least where the drop ceiling will be located).  The cove base mastic had been applied on the wall where the edge of the PVC was to go and afterward the sheet was placed on the wall. The mastic grabbed instantly but there was still time to tweak the panel if needed.  Any excess mastic can be removed with a wet sponge or damp cloth.

After the panel dried a day or so, I applied drywall compound to the edges and sanded it smooth to make the edge of the panel disappear.  When that was complete the rounded corner could then be painted the same color as the rest of the sky backdrop.

The Model Railroad Hobbyist article can be found on their website at: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com  The download is free.  Just search for the December 2013 issue.

Here's a photo of one of my finished corners:

More work on Seeley Creek

The north bank of Seeley Creek has begun to take shape.  In the distance you can see the green florist foam where trees will be planted.  In the middle is the embankment and abutment for the Seeley Creek Bridge and in the foreground is the transition down to the creek bank.  On the embankment the rectangular structure is the foundation for Kendall Tower which controlled much of Southport Yard, the connection to the Erie RR, and the controlled siding to the south at Nypenn.

Except for the exposed areas of green foam shown, some of the green florist foam and all of pink extruded foam has been covered with a layer of Cell-U-Clay colored with real dirt to form the scenery base for the ground cover.  This will all get covered with a coat of brown latex paint before the ground cover is installed.  The Cell-U-Clay is great to work with but takes a while to completely dry as you can see from the above photo taken the day after the application. It's a good idea to keep the mixture very stiff with low moisture to avoid this issue.

More Work on Seeley Creek

A sheet of Masonite secured to 3/4" plywood forms the base for the stream bed  Once that was in place, I began shaping the terrain with pink extruded foam secured with a hot glue gun.  No trees will be on the foreground slope, so the pink foam will work out rather well.  On the back slope I plan to use green florist foam which will work better for "planting" trees.

Most of my scenery ideas come from Mike Confalone's articles and videos featured in Model Railroad Hobbyist's series on Mike's Allagash Railway set in Northern Maine.  His scenery methods are also compiled in a series of books he has written about building the Allagash, a proto-freelanced HO model railroad.  His railroad is set in early Spring and I plan to model late Fall so his scenery concepts will work well for me.

The north abutment and fill slopes are taking shape in this view.  The flat bench area to the right of the fill slope is where Kendall Tower will sit.  The void area to the left of the fill slope is where the green florist foam will be placed and will be shaped to the profile of the the adjacent pink foam.  I also need to create a curved fillet in the corner to eliminate the the sharp edges of the inside corner.

On the wall in the distance is a sample of a photo backdrop that I've been experimenting with.  I plan to use photo backdrops throughout the layout and will need to photograph late Fall scenes in the coming weeks.

This photo shows a stand-in bridge structure used to span the gap until I can complete the truss bridge. This will allow me to operate the yard and beyond in the interim.  The bridge is from a left over display shelf that I made years ago from hardwood shelf material once sold at Ikea.  The display shelf track was already ballasted and if you look closely, you notice an extra rail at 3-ft gauge from when I used to model in Sn3 as well as S.

Beyond Southport

At the south end of Southport Yard, the Elmira Branch mainline crossed Seeley Creek on a single  track, through-truss bridge.  All of the yard tracks converged at this point and the truss bridge was literally a few yards beyond the point of switch.  This was also the location of Kendall Tower which controlled movements through the yard.

My next extension of the layout includes the Seeley Creek crossing.  This is where the layout construction gets interesting because until this point, the rest of the layout was flat table-top topography and now the grade needs to dip below track level to accommodate the stream.  For this effort, I used deeper sections of framing material cut to the profile of the descending stream bank.  Seeley Creek is not a particularly wide or deep stream, but because of flood potential in the Chemung River Valley the abutments were set widely apart, and required a clear span without a center pier.  The distance between abutments is 23-in. in S-scale in order to accommodate a 120-ft. span.

I began constructing the bridge some time ago (see my May 2012 post), and now the need is growing.  As I mentioned previously, there is a real void in S-scale when it comes to through-truss bridges, and scratch-building one has been a real challenge.  Finally after considerable time spend fabricating the individual truss elements, I now have the floor pieces and one of the two trusses assembled.

I needed to complete the floor system so that I could set the abutments both horizontally and vertically.  Next, I set the completed truss in position just to get the feel of how the finished structure would look on the layout.  I must admit that it was quite impressive and it will certainly be a focal point on the layout.

The bridge is a 6-panel Pratt Truss Bridge and while visually similar to the Pennsy's Seeley Creek Bridge, it's still a compromise. The prototype structure is a 7-panel truss and three of the bottom panel chords are pin connected.  As much as I wanted to make it a 7-panel truss, there was no way that the layout could accommodate it without sacrificing the curve radius that will occur just beyond the south end of the bridge.  I did not want any mainline tracks dipping below 48" and now it appears that I can hold at least 52" at this point.  As for a pin connected bridge, I did not want to attempt that in styrene.

Seeing the bridge come to life is now giving me incentive to complete the other truss.  Making the laced girders is the most time consuming and tedious part.  And as much as I would like to call this effort done, I'm probably going to build a stand in structure out of laminated plywood until the final bridge is ready.

Some folks have commented previously that I should have considered using black styrene instead of white because painting it black will be difficult.  Yes, that's true.  Painting all those nooks and crannies especially the interiors of the laced girders will be difficult.  But, unfortunately black styrene is readily available in sheets but dimensional pieces are hard to find.  There was no way that I wanted to, or could accurately cut the black sheets into the dimensional strips that I needed.  Maybe some day Evergreen will offer dimensional strips in black, but when this structure is complete, I won't be too anxious to build another.

As Trevor Marshall frequently says in his S-scale Port Rowen blog, "It's time to enjoy an adult beverage."

Around the Corner

Now that the Southport Yard portion has been placed against the wall, benchwork has progressed to the corner of the room.  The corner will contain the Southport roundhouse and engine terminal, which is a good location for an engine facility.

The corner section includes a turntable pit which I installed before positioning the table into the corner of the room.  The pit diameter is 120-ft, which is more than 19-inches in S-scale.  I need a pit that large to accommodate an I-1 with a long tender.  Behind the turntable I plan to construct a 6-stall round house.  I do plan to add a curved section of backdrop to eliminate the square corner.

I was using Homasote as roadbed, principally under Southport yard with disappointing results.  I've had to rebuilt much of the track because the Homasote was uneven and the plywood underneath was too thin.  So, my latest benchwork practice uses thicker 3/4" plywood with cork roadbed. The corner section was built with Homasote over thin plywood.  It was cut from a single sheet of Homasote so unevenness wasn't a problem.  I added extra stiffeners under the plywood to prevent it from warping.  But, from here on out, I'm done with Homasote.

With the engine terminal in the corner, it allows me plenty of space for the mainline track to curve toward the front edge of the layout affording me a generous 60-in. radius curve.  At this location, two main tracks extend from the yard and will converge to a single track before it meets with the double track Erie mainline.  I will attempt to simulate the Erie tracks though Elmira though replicating the multi-span bridge over the Chemung River and viaduct through downtown might present a challenge.

Southport is technically in the middle of the layout which means that the benchwork extends in both directions.  For the time being I'll only work on this end of the layout enough to access the engine terminal.  I'll advance the mainline south from Southport first and return to the Elmira end at a later date.

Here's a view of where the corner section connects to the rest of the layout.

Unwrapped

I received many helpful suggestions on the issue of layout lighting, and it seemed that the overwhelming suggestion was to use fluorescent tubes to eliminate the hot spots from incandescent spot lights. Specific scenes can be lit with spots and using the two in combination may achieve even better results. I removed the track lighting system shown in my previous post and installed single tube fluorescent fixtures along what will be the edge of the layout or about 3-ft from the wall. Though not shown in the photo, I cut 6-in wide valances from Masonite to eliminate the glare on the aisle side of the fixture. The valances are attached to the side of the fixture with sheet metal screws.

With the ceiling and lighting well under way it was now time to unwrap the layout.  The layout had been covered in heavy plastic for more than two years and as I thought, some much needed maintenance was in order.  In addition, I wanted to complete as much of the back of the layout before securing it to the wall.

The biggest problem that I discovered was that some of the sections of flex track had popped loose most likely due to expansion.  The original track was laid when the basement was much cooler though I believe that had I used a stronger adhesive, there wouldn't have been an issue.  The flex track manufacturer recommends that the track be affixed using silicone caulk spread into a thin layer under the ties. But, my experience with the silicone caulk did not go well especially in areas where the silicone was spread too thin.  On the other hand, if it's spread too thick, then there's not sufficient depth between the ties for the ballast.  So, I had to find another alternative.

Here's a section of the flex track that had popped loose.  It's difficult to remove the old silicone caulk (another reason not to use it), but with some persistence it can be removed with a single edge razor blade.  The adhesive that works best for me is a product called Power Grab made by Locktite.  It comes in a squeeze tube and can be spread in a very thin layer.  It dries relatively quick (about 15-30 minutes) but not fast enough that the track can't be nudged into its proper alignment when placed.

Here's a photo of the Power Grab.  I spread it to a thin consistency using a piece of card stock cut to he width of the track base.  An old business card also works well.

This is a photo of the flex track secured in place with push pins until the Power Grab sets up.

Getting Closer

The layout room is really starting to take shape.  The walls are all finished and painted in a sky blue color, and I'm currently installing the suspended ceiling.  My first choice in lighting was to install track lighting, but with the first sections of lighting track installed, I decided to try out the lighting fixtures.  I recycled the fixtures from our former house when we updated the track lights.  I soon discovered that the fixtures were designed to hold spot light lamps instead of flood lights, and they created the harsh lighting conditions that you can see in the photo.  My next step is to try flood lamps and see if that helps the situation.  If that doesn't work I may just rip out the track lighting system all together and go with florescent fixtures.  I never realized how important lighting is in the layout room.  I just naturally assumed that focused light would highlight the trains and model scenes.  Perhaps for photography purposes, that might be the case, but under normal conditions, I might have to rethink that one.

This is another view of the space with the Southport Yard section of the layout covered in plastic. (I need to quit using it as a catch-all for tools and stuff)  I do like the 2 x 2 ceiling grid and the sand finish that I've chosen.  It makes for a nice finish without looking cheap.  I'm hopeful that I can soon get the benchwork positioned against the wall and start working on finishing this portion of the railroad instead of finishing the room.  Painting the raw concrete floor is next on the agenda.

Please comment on the lighting aspect.  I could really use some help there.

Progress on the Coaling Tower

WOW! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything on this blog.  Some folks have even emailed be to ask if everything is OK, to which I'm happy to report - Yes, all is well.  Sometimes life just gets in the way, and by nature I'm prone to bite off more than I can chew.  And, couple that with a full time job, a part-time business, five children and a couple of grandkids, it's no wonder that I can accomplish anything.

Enough with the excuses though.  As I have repeatedly posted, most of my free time has been absorbed by finishing the layout room. And, I'm happy to report that it is going well.  Most of the drywall work is now behind me and this week I actually applied the finish coat to one of the walls.  I can actually see myself securing the benchwork to the walls in the upcoming months.

So you're probably wondering why the title of this post is "Progress on the Coaling Tower".  I did take a little time recently to work on the coal chutes, which is something that had been troubling me since the project started.  At the big Amherst Railway Society's Train Show in Springfield, MA this January I purchased some HO coal chutes from Tichy.  I was hoping that they could be adapted to S scale and the short answer was "no way".  But they did serve as a pattern for developing the S scale version that I needed to scratch built.  Also, the Tichy chutes are different than the ones used at Southport.  If I was modeling in HO, I wouldn't think it was a big deal, but since I had to scratch build them anyway, I decided to make them as close as possible to the Pennsy chutes.  I had no drawings or dimensions to work with, but there are very good photos of the Southport chutes in a photo by Jim Shaughnessey in Bill Caloroso's book on the Elmira Branch.  It's a night photo but clearly shows the hinged chute in enough detail to create a reasonable model of it.  With that and the dimesions from the Tichy HO chute, I fabricated the two part chute shown here:

I was pleased with the end result and felt that it represented the scale and proportion of the Southport chutes.  But I needed to install them on the tower to see how they looked and make sure that there would be enough clearance under the chute (when raised) and that it was sufficiently clear of the tower.  Here's a photo of the chute attached to the tower:

I think it looks pretty good.  And though it's hard to tell from the photo, there's more than 19-ft. of vertical clearance when the chute is horizontal and the horizontal clearance from the tower compares well to the Southport photos.  What do you think?

Now I just have three more to build and then I can go on to the next challenge of building the hoist mechanism.  Fortunately for me the hoist faces the back of the layout and would not be seen under normal circumstances. 

I'd really appreciate hearing your comments.  For now I have to run off to Home Depot and buy some more wall paint.