Yet another Woodland Scenics Scenic Ridge layout… ^_^;;

[qwertyaardvark]

University of Screwston baby, Cullen Boulevard is where we ride 26s and sip that purple stuff.

 

lol~ sippin' the purple stuff~~ mmm delicious~~

[qwertyaardvark]

As i haven't posted any sort of track plan yet, here it is. Not too terribly different than what mudkip posted earlier, just drawn with the Kato track template; drawn to scale to make sure everything fits. The red '1' indicates where i will use double width tunnels and the '2' indicates where single width tunnels will be used. Buildings haven't been placed on yet since i plan on not using the bases provided and so the space they'll take up will depend on what custom sized lot i give them.

 

I figure there will be some modifications as soon as get a chance to physically fiddle with flex track and buildings later in January. I may reduce the radii on drawing by another 33+mm (minimum radius would still be a comfortable 11.1") and move the figure-8 portion farther away from the station to allow 1) a proper depth rock-face on the left side and 2) continue my attempts to lengthen the station, though i am okay with it being shorter than the trains i plan on running.

[disturbman]

Great thread! Love to see (read about) your progress.

 

Seing your shoping list I was thinking, maybe you should give Sankei's building kit a try. They are not plastic but they are great cardboard models. It's a nice change. I really like the end result and I think that, if I could, I would just build those instead of enjoying myself with the hassle involved with painting those damn plain plastic kits.

[qwertyaardvark]

Seing your shoping list I was thinking, maybe you should give Sankei's building kit a try.

 

I did notice the paper kits while i was shopping and admittedly my first reaction was "oh... must be flat and have no texture", but upon repeatedly seeing said paper kits and looking at examples of completed buildings, I must say their presentation must be growing on me; looks like they can hold their own against plastic models or they are simply awesome to look at through the camera lens. I guess I'll go ahead and buy a few of them when i make my order with hobby search later this january. Thanks for the idea~ 

[disturbman]

You're welcome and, in fact, I think they have a bit more texture and detailing than the plastic ones. But you really to think things through when you build them.

[Mudkip Orange]

Nice job squeezing it all in. I'd consider decreasing the minimum radius on the inside to 282mm - as it is you're going to have a lot of vertical concrete walls! Then again urban Japanese railroading is full of vertical concrete walls so it all depends on what you're goin' for.

 

You've probably read this elsewhere but definitely test-fit your track when you lay it all out *before* you start gluing down the Woodland Scenics inclines...

[qwertyaardvark]

Nice job squeezing it all in. I'd consider decreasing the minimum radius on the inside to 282mm - as it is you're going to have a lot of vertical concrete walls! Then again urban Japanese railroading is full of vertical concrete walls so it all depends on what you're goin' for.

 

I do plan on shrinking the figure-8 portion to allow for more believable walls/rock faces, namely concrete reinforcement walls or similar at an angle roughly 60 degrees from the horizontal. Probably will go about this with smaller radii and taking off the straight pieces on the ends of the '8'.

 

You've probably read this elsewhere but definitely test-fit your track when you lay it all out *before* you start gluing down the Woodland Scenics inclines...

 

Measure once, cut twice! 

[qwertyaardvark]

So my experimentation with rice fields continues...

 

For starters, I'm was beginning to doubt the feasibility of this particular decoration to my layout, but i guess at the end of the day, i figure what's to modeling if not for the challenges and stepping up to solving them; No pain, no gain, I suppose. With that being said, i'm almost entirely sure this decoration, for sure to be a painfully long tiring endeavor, will either end up well or end poorly. I'm hoping for the former. :)

 

Finally got around to visiting Hobby Lobby to get some paint to play around with the few rice plant modules that i made and below are some results with, not an airbush, but a simple aerosol can paint. I will retest this procedure proper once I have acquired an airbrush when I return to Atlanta in mid-Jan. Paints used were Model Master No. 28117 Sublime Green (aerosol can) and Createx Airbrush colors Dark Brown (applied with a normal brush).

 

In the first picture, you get a good close up of the individual modules on scrap foam they were painted upon. One of my first concerns is the fact that small drops of paint accumulate on the individual stems, which I dont want the paint to do. I did expect this to happen as I was using a spray can to apply paint and, relatively to airbrushes, applies paint in a very thick fashion. Any attempts to rub the paint down caused the stems to clump together. While my hopes are that the airbrush keeps this to a minimum, the paint did do its job of acting as a shell that (for the modules i did not try to touch) gave the stems some stiffness and kept the stems in a spread out fashion.

 

In the second picture, you see the modules planted into a small mound in a small test rice field made from some scrap foam pieces and covered with some WS plaster cloth (one layer only). I simply punctured the surface with some precision screw drivers to poke thru the plaster. I noted that the plaster was fairly easy to puncture so I'm sure the standard two-layer plaster cloth called for by WS will not be a problem when i get to my drill bit set and dremel, which are also in Atlanta.  I also noted to myself to ensure in the future that the module be pushed far enough so that the heat-shrink tube is no longer visible.

 

In the third picture, you see a wider view of the modules in the test rice field and the first layer of WS Realistic water that I have added. Seeing how the instructions say that you shouldnt do more than 1/8" depth at a time, raising the modules will only serve to waste more Realistic Water than i'd like. So the mound I made for modules will now become the walls to the rice paddy and the modules will placed directly onto the layout. Upon building more layers of Realistic Water sometime tomorrow, I will see for sure that the paint holds the spread-out shape of the rice plant modules.

 

Also, looking at the rice plants, it dawned upon me to find out what the heights of real rice plants are and what I've made. The ones I'm showing you are a bit too tall, since they come out to 5' n-scale tall when they tend to only reach about 4' tall. Plus, that's the height when the rice plants are fully mature and have leaves, something this field grass doesn't model well. With the field grass, I probably would be forced to model younger rice plants that's not much more than 2' tall. Will definitely look further into rice plant growth as well as rice planting techniques, to get details like row spacing, plant spacing within rows, irrigation, etc. for a more realistic looking rice paddy.

 

The closest to finding someone else doing what i'm hoping to acheive is here. I'm curious as to what he uses, but just scanning the post, it doesnt mention what material/procedure he uses.

[Bernard]

That was an interesting link you found on the Rice paddys and it looks like you are on a roll with yours. WS water is very expensive in my opinion and tried using other methods to offset the cost, but so far the WS water has the best results.

[qwertyaardvark]

Thanks Bernard! ^_^

 

Attached photo is the final result of the test rice paddy.

 

Progress on the test rice paddy though is going slowly as I'm finding the realistic water is not liking the cold and, by my own fault, having been poured a little over the 1/8" recommends depth. Despite some slow curing, I've gone as far as placing a third layer and the water surface has finally reached the bottoms of the rice plants. Fortunately, the modules appear to holding their fanned-out shape. The realistic water did manage to climb up the stems and pull them inward a bit, but the mishap is minimal the realistic water climbs to no more than 1/4" above the water surface.

 

So, for my purposes, paint sufficiently applied on the WS Field Grass is enough to keep the grass from being consumed by the Realistic Water and I get to have my, at least in my opinion, satisfactory looking rice plants. Based on the test rice paddy, I plan to space the rice modules along a row about 3/8" to 5/16" apart, and placing the rows roughly 1/2" apart. After making and painting at least 100 of said modules, they will be stored on plain insulated foam with the aforementioned spacing to ensure it looks right and any final adjustments in spacing will be made on the layout itself.

 

As far as the Realistic Water goes, I'm fairly happy with it since the rice field reference pictures I have looked at always have still, flat water in them. I haven't decide whether I will model the water as clear or murky, as I have seen examples of both. Experiments on what shade of brown to use on bottom of rice paddy, adding a murky look to the water, etc. will be continued upon my return to Atlanta next week. Does anyone have any advice for modeling murky water?

 

Update on rest of layout: Purchases on major components of the layout have been made. In the mail are 25-piece box of cork, 25-piece box of Peco Code 80 concrete tie flex track, rural station, rural platform and rural platform extension set, Kato girder bridge, Kato pantographs for double and single track, Greenmax concrete retaining wall sheets, and other non-layout related stuff (completed my 16-car 500 shinkansen, now needing Tomix 2864 for completing 16-car 300 shinkansen, and now only needing five OHANE 25-100 for my 15-car Hayabusa/Fuji 24 Series 25 Type Blue train). Further purchases of layout buildings, scenery, accessories will be considered being made as soon as next week, though no later than late January.

[Bernard]

The best thing about WS Realistic water is that it add a thickness (I just don't like the cost :crybaby2:)

As for Murky water I'm going to let other members advice you on that one.

 

There is one thing I see in your order that you are using the Kato Bridges with Peco flex track. That is exactly what I did on my layout. It is very easy to attack the 2 different tracks and you have 2 choices. First choice is to remove the Kato snap together rail joiners and replace them with standard joiners, which is what I did.

Or choice number 2, get a Kato Conversion track that has snap joiners on one end and standard joiners on the other: http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KAT-20045&CartID=2

But either way is very simple.

[qwertyaardvark]

@Bernard - I was wondering, and I have no idea if this was/is/will be prototypical, but I was planning on going a bit rogue and (carefully) tearing out the track on the bridge and replacing it with the Peco track running through bridge. My reasoning for this is continuity; I didn't want concrete ties everywhere and then sudden transition to wooden ties. I also realize this may be a very rash decision, especially since i havent taken a good look at how the track is placed on the bridge, but if it is indeed too difficult, then I'll prolly with the first option you gave me, and remove the unijoiners and add the standard joiners.

[Bernard]

There are a couple of options you can do. I believe Peco makes flex track with concrete ties also check and see if the Kato bridges offer you the option of wooden or concrete ties. Or Walthers makes a single track bridge that you have to build:http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/product_p/933-3820.htm

Personally I like the kato bridges. They look great and you'll have no problems with them.

[Mudkip Orange]

A lot of modern rail systems with use concrete ties for straight track and "bathtub bridges" (troughs filled with ballast), but use wood ties for other types of bridges, switches, and other pieces of track that are subject to additional stress/flexure.

 

For instance if you're still in Houston you can drive over to the Metrorail service facility off Fannin just south of 610... concrete ties everywhere except switches, which are wood.

 

Alternately if you check out the Northeast Corridor you'll find lots of concrete ties, on the ballasted track, but ALWAYS wood on the oldschool truss and deck girder bridges.

[qwertyaardvark]

Personally I like the kato bridges. They look great and you'll have no problems with them.

 

A lot of modern rail systems with use concrete ties for straight track and "bathtub bridges" (troughs filled with ballast), but use wood ties for other types of bridges, switches, and other pieces of track that are subject to additional stress/flexure.

 

I suppose I would be lying if I said that I didnt notice that nearly all train bridges ive seen used wooden ties (only in a few reference photos have i seen rail bolted what looks to be directly to the bridge) so perhaps I'll just stick with what most prototypes do and keep the Kato wooden ties that come with the girder bridge. Thanks for yall's opinions and observations :)

[Bernard]

After reading Mudkip's post about wooden and concrete ties I realized I should have known better. They been re-doing the rails on the LIRR and that is exactly what they look like, a mixture of both ties. I see this everyday in my commute. :BangHead:

[qwertyaardvark]

Update: Return to Atlanta!!

 

Now that I am finally back in Atlanta I can finally begin work on my layout. I got in around Sunday, and have been busy ever since with the start of classes and rearranging my room (including building a loft of my and a roommate's bed) and, at last, I have no class on Friday and a holiday on Monday, giving me a full four days to get started on the layout! *much happiness* Since arriving, alot of the stuff I have ordered over the christmas/new year's holiday have arrived. A lot of the items are for the early stages of the layout, such as track, joiners, wiring, track cutters.

 

Tonight I intend to prep the 3'x6' board i got from Home Depot by adding some rubber feet and laying on the first pieces of foam foundation for the layout. Tomorrow, I will begin to draw in the track plan and add the foam risers. If all goes well, plaster will be added to the risers, and cork roadbed and track will be laid. This is about as far as I think I will make it for the weekend since it sounds like a reasonable amount of time and I'm betting there will be kinks to work out that im not expecting since im completely new to this. :icon_pale:

 

Pictures will be taken every step of the way and will be posted, hopefully, sometime around Monday night when I hope to finish laying the track.

 

Beginning this weekend, I'll either forever be a fan of model railroading or forever be afraid of it. Wish me luck. ^^;;

[Bernard]

You'll have fun with it and take your time with it, don't rush. In most cases you can always fix any mistakes that you might (and I said might) make.  :icon_thumright:

[qwertyaardvark]

Having reached the beginning of the ballasting step, I now know why several of yall hate ballasting...  :icon_tongue:

 

Needless to say, I have been enthusiastically working on my layout in hopes of getting it completed before class workloads really starts eating up my time (around late March thru early May). I have completed laying track that will be hidden by the tunnel and have begun to ballast said track. Despite instructions saying to ballast only several inches around the tunnel entrances, I've decide to ballast all the track just as practice, and very glad I did as I've found several tricks aiding me to put down some satisfactory ballast. Unfortunately, I have not received my Greenmax tunnel entrances (by my own fault; I didnt buy them >_<), so those will come in around next or next next week. So any work on tunnel building, and consequently the layout, will be put on hold as soon as i finish ballasting.

 

Until the tunnel entrances come in focus will shift to the rural station bldg., platform, and platform extension that I have in my possession. This week will be geared towards learning and honing techniques related to airbrushing. I recently bought a very simple single-action Badger beginner's airbrush that will primarily be used (or rather can only be used) for coating or non-detail stuff. (i.e. killing the plastic shine off the kits). Work on the rice plant modules may also be continued as time allows.

 

And now, an ungodly amount of pictures!

183 - 3'x6' 3/4" board bought and cut at Homedepot

184 - Rubber feet added to the underside

186 - Detail of the attached rubber feet

187 - Styrofoam base (included with kit) added. plans on styrofoam ignored

189 - Using Unitrack and Kato re-railer/spacing guide, drew in my own plan on the styrofoam

194 - Risers being added. Blue border along the front shows where one side of station platform will go; will accommodate 6 blue train cars + 1 EF65

200 - Because i had two tracks running on one riser width, and said two tracks changed height differently than the other, I needed-half size risers. Before

201 - After

[qwertyaardvark]

198 - Method: pushing the riser's through wire foam cutter held at half-width height

203 - Example of half-width piece being used

207 - Used along the back side of the layout; being prepped for hot glue gun attachment to layout

208 - End of half-width incline

213 - Checking clearance of passenger car in trench

215 - Finished adding risers. Back view

216 - Front view

217 - Checking clearances

[qwertyaardvark]

219 - Side view of back end of layout

229 - Plastering of risers that will covered by mountain

232 - Roadbed placed on plastered risers

234 - Inside-mountain intersection detail

241 - Track added (pictured drying w/ foam nails holding them down)

246 - ballasting, top view. I've found it easiest to do the center first, glue, let it dry and then work on the flanks.

247 - ballasting, angled view

[Bernard]

Wow, you did a lot in a short amount of time!! :icon_salut:

I really like the look of the Peco track w/concrete ties. How did you like using the WS foam roadbed? I used it on a diorama and wasn't wild about it because of how it bends in curves but yours looks very good. You're going to find that when you apply the ballast with white glue, it is going to hold the track in place solidly.

I look forward to your next update! :icon_thumright:

[qwertyaardvark]

@Bernard: Having 4 solid days to work on a layout does wonders! 

 

As far as the WS foam roadbed goes, I too wasn't too impressed with it at first because of the same reason that it didn't curve well, but back then I also didnt realize there was a slight perforation in middle of the road bed that would aid me in splitting it in half just like cork and to curve it as easily as cork. After that, the tipping point of switching from the cork to foam roadbed was simply the cleanliness of the tapers on the sides. The cork had very rough tapers and in some part the tapers wasn't apparent. The foam was very cleanly cut and, as other railroaders say, "provided a clean ballast profile". As far as sound goes, I can't tell a difference between the two (comparing my layout and an in-store LHS layout).

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the foam roadbed. For future purposes, I would use the foam for mainline/branch purposes for neatness factor, and when ballast profile doesnt count, like in stations or yards, then I'll use the cork instead.

[Bernard]

What I like about the cork roadbed is that there is weight to it, the WS roadbeds are very lite. The weight really helps when splitting the cork when forming a curve.

[Mudkip Orange]

One of the things I do like about cork is that it's halfway decent looking without ballast. The WS is all shiny, so it really doesn't look right unless you ballast the whole thing.

 

One of the things I DON'T like about cork is the way little bits break off and create a bunch of dust and debris. The WS stuff is smooth, chunks don't fall off randomly.