layout New layout project: Sakuragi no yu sen

[cteno4]

In thinking on this some you could make your own custom ws riser to your exact grade.

 

a. Measure your track to the inside of the curve of roadbed and subtract a couple of cm. This will be your run or long measurement.

 

b. Take a piece of extruded polystyrene foam like your baseboard material like 3 or 4cm wide (double up thinner sheets and glue together if needed)

 

c. Clamp a piece of board on either side of there sheet that has the angle of your grade on it (ie like 5cm to 0cm over the length of your grade measured in step a).

 

d. Use a pull saw to saw off the long thing wedge using the clamped wood as a jig to keep the blade flat and perpendicular to the foam. You could also probably get aways with sawing by eye, but the foam is so soft it’s easy to rock the blade side to side and not get a super flat cut. You could also a circular saw and use a board as a guide jig and just rip it with the circular saw or hand cut it (again easy to wander in soft foam so board as guide helps a lot.)

 

e. Put a piece of duct tape on one vertical side of the wedge (this will hold it together later) on the inside of what will be your curve. Every cm or two cut in vertically on the other side of the wedge the duct tape is on (this will be your outside of your curve) about 95% way thru.

 

f. Bend the wedge to your curve, I expect it will sort of crack the last bit but hold together with the duct tape (ws uses a flexible foam in their inclines). Foam should hold together with the duct tape for adjusting and lifting it to glue. you can just use some white glue to get it placed well then drive some thin bamboo skewers (100¥ store, these are very handy to secure chunks of foam for scenery) every few chunks into your baseboard foam at a bit of an angle to hold in place. In a day or two the white glue will harden and all will be tight in place. Or if you are quick about it you can use your foam glue (but I expect that sets up faster) and some skewers to hold in place.

 

this way you can make an incline to precisely the custom grade % on your layout requires.

 

if you have some leftover foam give it a try.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Many thanks, @cteno4
And Merry Christmas to one and all!
I've had a very happy party at my Kumamoto home today, and my guests were thoroughly entertained by what now constitutes my Sakuragi no Yu Sen, and it's only just begun!
The turntable was used for the first time today, and it operated perfectly! Now having a turntable is real fun no matter the size of the layout! 

Here's to a better and brighter year ahead, and I wish great success with all of your endeavors and layouts alike! 
I hope to have mine in a more finished state with scenery and landscaping by the spring of this year, and maybe even take it on its first venture into the public with the help of 肥薩線again. I'd also like to submit it to, among other magazines, Continental Modeller, as other JRS members have published in it. 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

[SL58654号]

Hi guys,
It's been a while, huh?
Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are model railroad layouts, are they? I might have been slacking off, but the model railway bug has been buzzing in my ear again and tomorrow I'm setting off to make use of them leftover wood I've been stowing away on my balcony and intend to get more mileage out of my power saw and drill I acquired just for this project.
The aim is to use the discarded beam wood used for the table sides and set it attached adjunct to the operator's side, have it be removable (or semi-permanently fastened) via wood dowels or possibly bolts or screws I've been keeping for a rainy day. I'll want to drill holes for the wires of my power pack and turntable controller (and maybe the KATO sound box for the future) to keep them neatly tucked away. Lastly, it'll make a keen face for my layout's nameplate to be applied. 

[cteno4]

Layouts tend to ebb and flow. Trick is to not let it go to extremes. Too much and easy to burn out or go to fast and take a wrong turn or paint yourself into a corner.  Too little and easy to not get the steam up to get going again and/or loose interest.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

While not yet attached, I managed to make in one afternoon a simple adjunct table for my controls (power pack, point switches, turntable control) with enough room for further switches and possibly the KATO Sound Box at a later time. Though that's a low priority (for now!) 
There certainly will be enough surface space for the super cool Smart Device Controller as well! 
I cut two beams of wood, one of which was scrapped as it was a failed side for my table, to 70 cm in length, then clamped and drilled dowel holes in them to allow them to be removable. I measured twice and drilled once on both the workpiece and the table, but it's still just a bit of a tight squeeze. All that work compressed into a few hours gave me a headache, so I'll sleep on it for now. Even so, I'm certain that it'll do the job for holding my controls. I plan to use velcro to stick them into place, especially if I invite public spectators to drive when I take the layout with 肥薩線again. 

I screwed these discarded pieces of wood together. Waste not want not. And I still have plenty left.

Now the object is to fit the dowels in their respective holes on the table and have the control panel be nice and flush. I'll get there! I'll drill holes in this to conceal the wiring for my operating equipment. 

I felt more confident and able to get this done after months of this, but there's only so much that can be done in a day, and it pays to pace oneself.  
My motto with model railroading is; when you get a headache while you work, take a break and relax, before you make a mistake that'll make it worse! 

Edited February 28 by SL58654号

[SL58654号]

We can now say for sure, that whether or not I obtain the sound box soon, my layout will have the KATO wireless smart controller. I ordered one today as I couldn't resist being able to run my trains using my phone. It's not as if I don't already use my phone for usage regarding all things railways etc. 

[SL58654号]

Today I got some progress done on the control panel.
The dowels work so as to allow it to be removable like I had hoped. Later, I'll drill holes through for the wiring to go in, and maybe I'll add embellishments to the table, control panel and all, such as metal decorative angles and corners to contrast nicely against the natural wood, as well as make it more "built-to-last". I'm increasingly becoming more satisfied with myself for this project. I feel like the luckiest guy in Japan already for having this layout of my own that I have for my enjoyment in Japan. 

[SL58654号]

Today I had a good haul at the hardware store as I picked up these decorative corners and angles to enhance the appearance of my layout project.

I also bought the foam I’ll be using to construct the mountainous landscape on which the elevated tracks will stand and the tunnels will be. I’m sure that I have more than enough, and thankfully it wasn't expensive nor difficult to carry home on my bicycle.

Over and out. 
I just need the right screwdriver! 

[ED75-775]

@SL58654号 so, in other words, you're screwed... right?

I'll let myself out before the limes start flying...

[SL58654号]

1 hour ago, ED75-775 said:

@SL58654号 so, in other words, you're screwed... right?

I'll let myself out before the limes start flying...

Eh, no... Luckily there's another hardware store that's conveniently closer to my apartment.
They just don't normally carry materials I needed other than hand tools for my project.

 

And I think you meant eggs and rotten tomatoes! LET'S GET HIM EVERYONE! 

[ED75-775]

Eeeek! Mercy, sir, have mercy! (thinks quickly) Oh, I know... I’ll appease Mason with these!

 

 

 

Lame dad jokes aside, it’s already looking good. Admittedly I’m starting to think I want a layout of my own too after running trains on @Grant_T‘s layout, but space is the killer right now.

 

While I’ll also confess to being thoroughly indoctrinated in dad jokes by one of my colleagues (who recently resigned), the limes thing comes from my favourite IRL rail YouTuber, Mark ‘Hyce’ Huber. He’s done a whole video explaining it on his channel. Basically on Mark’s channel, you do a stupid or something cringe-worthy, someone throws a lime at you. Just don’t aim for the face...

 

Alastair

[SL58654号]

9 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Eeeek! Mercy, sir, have mercy! (thinks quickly) Oh, I know... I’ll appease Mason with these!

 

 

 

Lame dad jokes aside, it’s already looking good. Admittedly I’m starting to think I want a layout of my own too after running trains on @Grant_T‘s layout, but space is the killer right now.

 

While I’ll also confess to being thoroughly indoctrinated in dad jokes by one of my colleagues (who recently resigned), the limes thing comes from my favourite IRL rail YouTuber, Mark ‘Hyce’ Huber. He’s done a whole video explaining it on his channel. Basically on Mark’s channel, you do a stupid or something cringe-worthy, someone throws a lime at you. Just don’t aim for the face...

 

Alastair

*freezes with tomato in hand* STOP! Hold your fire! 

I'm pleased that you think so. These corners etc. where meant for antique Japanese cabinetry, and I think that they really add flavor to the table as it's meant to be as Japanese as possible. Plus it should add considerably to its durability.  

And you have good taste. Now I think I'll need the C58.

Likewise, to return the appeasement offering, here's a glance at a book I bought on New Zealand steam. Perhaps you might know this one?
I'm a fan of the Baldwin engines that NZ bought, such as this Vauclain Mikado, one of the earliest built after Japan's 9700 had been placed into service.

Edited March 13 by SL58654号

[SL58654号]

After adding the iron corners and angles to embellish the table's appearance, here came the next big step in shaping up my Sakuragi no Yu Sen: the landscaping.

At a later point I intend to place the wood-carved nameplate in kanji here on the control panel.

 

I chose to buy a large board of blue foam at Handsman that'll be glued to the main base of my scenery, and they cut it into six slices for me on the spot. I'll cut and shave away till I achieve the shape that I want to attain the natural-looking slopes for the upper track's elevation as well as the mountains and tunnels.
This'll be messy, but fun and rewarding.

Now to turn this.....                                                                                                                                    Into THIS.

Luckily two foam boards stacked together are the same height as the iron bridges. 
Soon, it won't be long till 58654 and DE10 (JR Kyushu color) can bask in the glory of the finished layout at Hitoyoshi Engine Shed. 
 

Over and out.

Edited March 14 by SL58654号

[SL58654号]

So today I began to make a pinprick in the quilt for the landscaping of my layout.

 

[cteno4]

Nice progress. Make sure you have a vacuum cleaner handy as you proceed into shaping the foam, the stuff is insidious as it gets statically charged and ends up sticking to everything. Small bits of very heavy grit sand paper (like 60 or 80) wrapped around your finger work well for final shaping and smoothing. Cheap serrated steak knife from the 100yen store is also a great fought foam cutting tool. 
 

also careful with your eyes with the foam dust as it’s really sharpe edged particles and super irritating to get in your eyes. Wear some simple safety glasses just to prevent you from itching your eye with some of it on your fingertip. I know by experience!

 

coating with plaster or plaster cloth is the usual, but easier and cleaner way (plaster is always a mess) is to use cheap wallboard spackle and/or cheap thick exterior latex paint (dirt brown). A few coats of thick paint usually makes a pretty smooth surface to do your various color textures and ground covers. Spackle is an easy way to fill gouges or build up a little, easy to work with, dries fast, easy to carve and sand (plaster is hard and not easy to shape), and not super different in consistency as the foam or paint so at interfaces you can make a smooth transition where needed.

 

again practice first. Take a hunk of your foam and just practice cutting, sanding, filling, painting to see how it works and get a good feel for it and get the results you are looking for. You can do some amazing rock formations like granite with just rough cut foam and a coat of dark grey paint and then mottle on some grays, black and white with a brush. Just some cheap black and white acrylic craft paint and mix up some grays. Can add some tiny tints to it with some reds or yellows as well for some dabs. Get some pictures of the rocks you want to work to have in front of you for colors and variations and textures. Flat paints are what you want.

 

have fun,

 

jeff

[Sir Madog]

11 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Make sure you have a vacuum cleaner handy as you proceed into shaping the foam, the stuff is insidious as it gets statically charged and ends up sticking to everything.

When I built my mini-modular layout more than a decade ago, I used foam to shape the landscape.  When we moved to our new home last yea, I still found bits and pieces of that foam hidden behind and underneath the furniture, and even in a closet.

[SL58654号]

@cteno4 Many thanks. I hope I don't wind up inhaling this stuff and polluting my home with it!
But I'm sure I'll be getting the desired result I want with this foam for my layout in no time. 

[Kamome]

Kato/Woodland Scenics sell a hot cutter too.

 

https://www.imon.co.jp/webshop/product/167762

[cteno4]

Yeah the bits are insidious once they get statically charged with the sanding process (even metal knife cutting gets some charge on the bits). Vacuuming every few minutes really helps! A dust mask couldn’t hurt, but the dust doesn’t really float up into the air (unless you are using a power tool to cut or sand), it just kind of sticks to your hands and then everything else! Dust mask just keeps you from rubbing your nose. Like sir Maddog at times I will pull a partial sheet of plywood or plastic tub out and find one side coated with foam dust where it found a good charged surface to settle on and the sharp little edges of the foam then make it hang on! But do watch your eyes and nose as we touch our faces so much not being aware of it at all! After rubbing my eyes and nose once I learned! But I do enjoy using sand paper and small rasps to shape foam a lot, nice feeling to it and I like the effects I get over a hot knife and just put up with the foam dust and vacuum a lot.

 

hot knifes get rid of the dust problem, but then it’s avoiding the nasty fumes. Main issue in working with hot knives is it’s harder to sculpt things as cleanly as you can with a few bits of rough sandpaper. Also once you make a cut it melts a bit of the foam onto the surface like a skin and can leave a thicker line of melted material at the try and exit points and any hesitation points. Sanding through this skin is a lot harder than sanding the foam so you have to be much more careful not to gouge into the soft foam. Most get around this by using hot knife to get a close shape then apply plaster cloth or a lot of plaster to create the final form/shapes. I did tons of full scale rock forms for some exhibit mockups and rock mould forms and I cut tons of xps foam this way, and it worked well for big full scale stuff, but for small stuff I never liked it much and much preferred sandpaper, steak knife, and vacuum method, then much less or no plaster. But scenery methods like this are very much an art that you need to judge in your own hands to see what works best with your hands and gets the results you want!

 

if you do go hot cutter I would suggest a rod or stiff wire cutter as they are the most versatile. Bow hot wire cutters melt a lot less but are hard to do much past cutting the initial shape due to getting the wire where you want it. Hot knife cutters as well are more limited in where you can poke them. Again YouTube is your friend, tons of Hotwire foam videos out there.

 

There are tons of cheap Hotwire cutter sets now. You don’t need a fancy one, they are pretty simple. Variable temp ones of course are nicer to dial in your cutting needs. 
 

again this is a tool to take some scrap foam and play with to get the hang of it before diving in on your scenery pieces. 
 

again really need to do this outdoors and with a little fan or wind if you can as those fumes are super noxious.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Yesterday I attended the farewell ceremony of the SL Hitoyoshi at Yatsushiro Station. All of my friends involved with 肥薩線again were there and I made new friends near and far away who all wanted to hear its glorious whistle one last time. We all shouted thank you and goodbye at the tops of our voices as it pulled away, carrying officials of the Kyushu Railway Company and others responsible for its upkeep in bringing joy and nostalgia to so many people for 15 years since its last overhaul in 2009.
But I felt happy despite saying goodbye to my most favorite train in Japan.
They say "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened", and no other foreigner has probably ever ridden on this train as often as I have! And I still have my N gauge SL Hitoyoshi and a whole layout that I'm working on just to remind me... 
Do you know who I met after the ceremony? Go on, guess!

[katoftw]

Been watching farewell videos for the past 2 days. And I am sad. But glad I did get to ride it to Hitoyoshi years ago.

[ED75-775]

Sad to see the Hitoyoshi stop running. I'm glad I got to ride it too last year. Wonderful train, hopefully it'll be back one day. My photo from Tosu last year after the train arrived:

 

 

Getting back to your layout, and if memory serves, Model Railroader magazine recommended using an anti-static spray of some sort when carving foam so the foam crumbs weren't as keen to go popping off everywhere. I'll have to dig out the magazine with that reference in it, I've had it since (I think) about 2005 when my parents brought it for me. It even came with a Worlds Greatest Hobby DVD too!

 

And yes, that Bill Stewart book is very familiar to me, as I have a copy myself. A nice book, even if some of the details are a little over-embellished or incorrect. I have another book that Bill co-authored, Cavalcade of New Zealand Locomotives, which deals with various NZR locomotives up to 1964 and even includes a whole page on WMR 17 covering its twenty-five year service life. I have a spare copy, PM me if you're interested and we can talk details. I may even be able to deliver it to you if you're keen... I'm in Japan in June for another round of train riding and buying.

 

Alastair

[SL58654号]

15 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Sad to see the Hitoyoshi stop running. I'm glad I got to ride it too last year. Wonderful train, hopefully it'll be back one day. My photo from Tosu last year after the train arrived:

 

 

Getting back to your layout, and if memory serves, Model Railroader magazine recommended using an anti-static spray of some sort when carving foam so the foam crumbs weren't as keen to go popping off everywhere. I'll have to dig out the magazine with that reference in it, I've had it since (I think) about 2005 when my parents brought it for me. It even came with a Worlds Greatest Hobby DVD too!

 

And yes, that Bill Stewart book is very familiar to me, as I have a copy myself. A nice book, even if some of the details are a little over-embellished or incorrect. I have another book that Bill co-authored, Cavalcade of New Zealand Locomotives, which deals with various NZR locomotives up to 1964 and even includes a whole page on WMR 17 covering its twenty-five year service life. I have a spare copy, PM me if you're interested and we can talk details. I may even be able to deliver it to you if you're keen... I'm in Japan in June for another round of train riding and buying.

 

Alastair

Thank you for that photo. I'll never forget her. These were taken by a friend of mine involved in 肥薩線again.

 

 

 

May the glory of the ethos of steam locomotives and their gallant sight live on forever... 

 

And @ED75-775 thanks for reminding me of that DVD. I had that when I was a kid, too! I didn't know New Zealand 🇳🇿 had that American 🇺🇸 hobby publication.
The techniques described in that are what I remembered and inspired me to employ those techniques for my layout's landscaping. 
Now that I've recently gotten new employment (which took my mind off the layout for obvious reasons) I'm settling back into business by obtaining a hot foam wire cutter from my hardware store. That should do it. But thanks for the anti-static spray recommendation.

I'd love to get a hold of Cavalcade of New Zealand Locomotives. First learned of it when I saw it listed in the bibliography of Railways of the World in Color by O.S. Nock.
Aw, memories... Of course I still have those, too!

Speaking of literature, here's what I hope will be a valuable treat to all fans of Steam in Japan here and elsewhere. A friend and I have been working together on making a Japanese/English dictionary of steam locomotive terms and related railway words.
He has dictionaries for Norwegian, Ukrainian and Russian thus far, too. I'm very honored to be a part of this project with him. I'm always adding more words which he's adding. Tell me what you think! 

[SL58654号]

I made another trip to Handsman to obtain an electric hot knife that'll be used to sculpt my foam mountain scenery and gradients more efficiently, neatly and with much less mess.
I also bought a few small iron brackets that'll be concealed but help to support my control panel (only clinging to the side of the layout table by four wood dowels) as I don't want it to be strained despite holding fine these last few months. 

[SL58654号]

I began to use my electric hot knife to start seeing what it can do on my foam landscape. It indeed cuts easily, but it takes a while to cool safely, and the fumes can be a problem. I hope that I'm not inadvertently contaminating myself with plastic pollution in my respiratory system with this method.