Layout Tours: Reno 2009

Reno Layout Tours 2009:

 

Happening Friday through Sunday this week around Reno/Sparks/Carson City in Nevada, the 2009 layout tours sponsored by High Sierra Hobbies, could not have had a better fall weekend.  Crisp weather in the 60’s, sun, and lots of model railroad fans out to see the layouts and have fun.

 

Living more than 100 miles from Reno, going to all 3 days was not in the cards.  However, a friend and I did drive up to Reno on Saturday to see layouts, and we managed to fit visits to 6 layouts in.  While I’ll cover each one in separate posts as I go through my photos, I thought I’d share with you one thing from each layout that I liked and intend to incorporate into my own layout.  You’ll remember, I’m just in the early stages of construction, so doing this kind of idea-borrowing is important now.

 

First was a visit to a massive layout under construction by Jim Price.  This massive layout will eventually depict the Southern Pacific from Oakland, CA to Reno, NV.  At the moment, the Oakland area is nearing completion.  Jim and his wife actually live ABOVE the layout.  (I tried, but my wife wouldn’t go for the same idea).  While Jim’s layout is massive, and early in construction, there was still something to learn here.  The picture is of a portable programming track, on top of a case.  There are plugs on one end to attach to a computer running decoder pro.  This setup allows Jim and his crew the ability to program any locomotive, anywhere, anytime, and not have to include a dedicated programming track.  On a small layout, or even on a layout like mine where locomotives will be all over, this idea is something I can see myself borrowing and using.

 

Next, we visited the outdoor layout of Fred Twigge.  This G scale layout is complete and running.  It is a beautiful example of G scale garden railroading, and it is built to do what I feel G scale layouts do best… run.  A three times around design with only two turnouts on the whole layout, makes the need for turnout maintenance minimal.  What could an HO scaler learn from a G scaler?  I learned an important lesson in display of a layout.  You need to have your most reliable locomotive on the track, tested, running, and ready to roll before you open for tours.  While we visited, Fred had to troubleshoot a new locomotive that was going to break in that day.  While he got it running, it showed me again the need for reliable motive power.

 

Now later in the day, more layouts were opening.  Our next stop was Kevin Caldwell’s N scale layout depicting Southern Pacific (and adjacent railroads) in 1984.  This bedroom sized N scale layout is quite well done.  In the middle stages of scenery construction, the code 55 track is beautifully installed.  I was impressed with long run that Kevin managed to get for his trains in a 10×10 bedroom.  The thing I’ll take away from this layout to use myself is the high standards set for the rolling stock.  Kevin has made incredible progress on his layout, and it is noticeable that no freight equipment hits the layout without being properly weathered to his standards.

 

Before lunch, we stopped at Jim Petro’s for a visit to the D&RGW Joint Line.  I’ll have a detailed report on this beautiful layout another day, but Jim has done something that I found amazing with his turnout controls.  As you walk along the layout, the controls are all recessed into the facia of the layout.  This method of installation makes it possible for controls in tight spots to avoid being snagged on clothing of operators.  That is something I will be using on my own layout.

 

After lunch, we visited Charley Lix and his atic-located harbor terminal.  Showing that you can build a railroad in just about any space you have, Charley’s layout demonstrated to me that my plan to have the bottom deck of my 3 deck layout sit at about 30″ from the floor will work as operators sit in chairs.

 

The last visit of the day was to the layout built by three persons in the Kuczynski family.  This nicely sceniced 13×15 layout located in the garage was a great way to cap the day.  The scenery on this layout, done with plaster cloth over packing peanuts, is simply amazing.  It captures the look of the area around Tehachapi that they had hoped to capture.  My learning experience here was the recipe for the rolling hills.  Needing some of that myself, we’ll look at the technique later in a trial I’m planning to do for my own layout.

 

Most of these layouts, and many of the ones I didn’t get to see, will be open for the NMRA Pacific Coast Region convention in Sparks for 2010.  I hope to make return visits and see the progress everyone has made!

 

-Jeremy

Painting the G scale Engine House

Now that almost everything is attached and glued together, it’s time to seal it with a layer of primer and begin the final process of painting and adding door hardware. The process was pretty straighforward and can be done a number of ways. We choose the most professional way, using a compressed air sprayer with lightly thinned Benjamin Moore outdoor flat house paint. Next we went in and painted the roof with brushes and the white trim with smaller brushes.

About 3 coats of primer had the wood sufficently sealed to be left outside on the garden railroad.

2 coats of Spanish red had the engine house looking really nice.

The Roof was painted carefully with flat brushes in a nice dark brown.

White trim adds a touch of class and sharpens the overall look of the building.

In our final installment, we’ll add the doors and place it on the layout.

Adding a Roof to our G scale Engine House

So now that the walls have been built, it’s time to add a roof to the frame we built in the first installment. We’re using 3/8″ plywood for the roof, held with Titebond and finishing nails.

Once both sides have been glued on, there will be a gap in the center of the building, this is on purpose as we’ll be adding a clerestory roof to this building as seen in the cover photo.

Fill in the cap of the roof with small lumber cut to fit, filled with wood filler and sanded flush.

Now that the roof cap has been built on BOTH ends with a 1/4″ interior overhang in the clerestory, it’s time to actually build the clerestory.

Figure out the pitch (angle) of the roof and cut two end pieces to match them, then cut the sides and bevel the bottom edge to match the slope of the roof.

Now attach the two roof boards you cut and beveled the interior edge to the clerestory roof frame. but we’re not done yet, the final step can be done in a number of ways.

To prevent direct water/snow contact you need to cap the roof to prevent the building from water leakage. You can go classic and shingle the roof and use split shingles to cap the roof. You can roll tar-paper over the top of the roof. You could do the entire roof in scale corrugated metal and cap the roof with some copper, or you could carefully cut a piece of 1X1″ lumber into an “L” shape and mount it on the roof like we have here.

Stay tuned for priming, painting and the addition of hardware.

Let’s Build A G Scale Engine House & Carbarn

This remarkably beautiful structure could be your next G scale structure. A building like this could easily be a car barn or engine house depending on the type of details you’d want to add to the basic structure.

This particular engine house is built to last, utilizing high quality lumber and plenty of titebond, screws and nails to keep it together for years to come. It also has recieved two layers of primer and 3 layers of state-of-the art housepaint. (We’ll discuss paint later).

Our building here is sparsely detailed to allow the future owner to detail it to fit his needs. With the addition of normal sized doors and windows along the side it could look even more impressive. Spend some time adding some board-and-batten woodwork, and some victorian architectural detail and you could really make it stand out. Add some G scale smoke jacks and rigging wire and you’d have a top-notch engine house.

Based off of plans found at a train show, I modified the drawings to fit the space I had, which was roughly 2X4 feet. The building itself is 19 5/8ths inches wide and 44″ long, with an inch roof overhang all around the structure for drainage and improved looks.

So Follow along in the next couple of posts as we build this fantastic engine house!

First we cut the front & rear walls out of 1/2″ plywood with a Jigsaw. The 2″ round hole in the front was cut with a drillbit hole attachment.

Next we cut the walls from more 1/2″ plywood and NOTCHED the top of the board to match the slope of the roof, which is crucial.

Make sure to cut the holes for the building out carefully, as you’ll need to use them for snug-fitting doors for all three stalls. We cut the 1/2″ thick pieces in half and filled and sanded them smooth.

Next we cut the roof framing from recycled 1/2″ lumber and notched the roof peaks in a special fashion, as seen below, for extra strength.

Follow the arrow to the roof brace mounted about an inch below the roof line, so the roof frame, when lowered into place, will sit flush against the beveled side walls for a seamless fit.

IF you want one just like this, we have decided to offer it to “Interacting with Miniature Railroading” readers for just $450 plus shipping.

Stay Tuned For Part Two!

SVLS Spring Meet 2009

From 5/16/09 – 5/17/09 RailfanHunter’s club, the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers (SVLS, had the annual spring meet. This year was one of the rare occasions that the steam locomotives actually outnumbered the diesels! I also had my first steam locomotive operating experience when I got to opertate a 9-car Southern Pacific Daylight consist. I spent most of my time operating the club’s SW1500, it is my favorite locomotive on the club’s roster. I would say I spent a good 6 hours operating the SW1500, over the 2-day period. Of course you still need time to BS with the other guys, and I did that too. one of the funnest things that I have ever done at the club also occured during this meet, when I and three other people operated a 26-car train, and each of us worked a different part of it. I got to work the end of the train. When almost everybody went home, I had the task of collecting all of the club owned freight cars, and switched tham back into storage.

All and all it was a very fun weekend, and I can’t wait for the fall meet.

Folsom Valley Railway Doubleheader, November 2008

In November of 2008 the Folsom Valley Railway’s first engine, the 12″ gauge “Cricket” did it’s first major test run. It ran light for a few laps, and then hooked up to the other engine, a 4-4-2 Atlantic numbered 3001. They ran four trips as a double header before the Cricket was put away, to have its final work done.

Here are two short videos I took that day:

Start Researching Railroads Today!

IF you’re new to the hobby or just getting back into the fascinating world of locomotives, railroads and history, be sure to check out these awesome websites. They are indispensable to the beginner and advanced modeler or historian alike.

To learn all about steam locomotive and find surviving locomotives all ’round the world, look here:
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/

Love geared logging locomotives like the Shay, Heisler and Climax, or want to know what a geared steam locomotive is? Check out http://www.gearedsteam.com/index.html  

Switching Locomotives
http://yardlimit.railfan.net/ They have some of the most obscure and famous (practically all North American Switchers) listed with photos.

With excellent photos of nearly every type of rolling stock or locomotive pictured somewhere on this extensive site, you can’t help but spend hours looking through all these photos!

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/

Want to learn about the big four locomotive builders? (Baldwin, Lima, ALCo, EMD) or some of the most obscure American and world locomotive companies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Locomotive_manufacturers

For mainline Diesels, check out the locomotive manufactures listings on Wikipedia (It’s actually a pretty reliable source nowadays)
For GM EMD products, like the SW9, look at the bottom of the page for the manufactured locomotive listing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-Motive_Diesel
http://www.sdrm.org/roster/diesel/emd/history/

If you like those smoky Alco’s check this out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ALCO_diesel_locomotives
http://alcoworld.railfan.net/specindx.htm
Or if you’re a Baldwin Fan, check this out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Locomotive_Works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Baldwin_locomotives
http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/contents.html

To research a specific railroad, find the Yahoo! group that corresponds to your favorite railroad and join that. For example the “Espee” group os the better of the two Southern Pacific RR groups, and the ATSF group is the Santa Fe oriented ones.

You can even join a group that talks about modeling a specific industry, like the “Citrus Modelers” yahoo group.

If you want to know accurate information about freight cars, visit these two sites:

Steam Era Freight Car Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/

Modern Freight Car Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFCL/

Weathering in G scale.

Here’s some things to consider before weathering any of your G scale equipment:

-I can weather any of your rolling stock affordably, visit ” The Weathering Man ” website in my links. (excuse the shameless plug, but it’s true.)

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-If you choose to Dullcote your rolling stock, which would take A LOT of dullcote, make sure that you NEVER leave them out in the sun for multiple days, the dullcote will yellow, ruining your car.

-Chalks blow away in the wind, don’t use them unless you seal them, but see above note.

-Acryllic paints will work just fine on G scale equipment HOWEVER, you cannot run them through snow, or rain without considering that unless it is sealed, it will re-activate the paint, and there goes your weathering job.

-Latex paints will work fine, and they’re water resistant! Get some paint samples in the 2oz. Jars from a paint store. They use them in the actual world for testing out small patches of color on your wall before you paint them all over. The brand I have handy is Benjamin Moore. You can also buy large cans, but it’s overkill unless you plan to do a fleet.

-When possible, use real wood, because it weathers like real wood. Make sure to stain it with either canned stain or India ink to get that finished look or the creosoted look.

-Rust can best be accomplished with Sophisticated Finishes 2-part rust solution. It’s good for G scale equipment, and best of all, it’s real iron, so you’ll have REAL rust.

-Charcoal Briquettes pulverized with a rubber mallet (INSIDE A PLASTIC OR PAPER BAG) will make EXCELLENT soot. Sprinkle atop your freight car roofs if you have a coal-burning fleet of steam locomotives. Seal with Dullcote, but heed the warning at the top.

-Rough up your wood using a razor saw (as I did in the boxcar in the above photo) by dragging the blade horizontally down the wood in a quick, slightly wavy fashion.

-For wood rot at the bottom of my boxcar, take the razor saw and attack the bottom of the wooden slats by running the blade VERTICALLY in grain with the wood. Be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m not responsible for your self-inflicted injuries, so always be safe.

-As always, EXPIRIMENT. If you discover an ultra-flat, non-yellowing, water-resistant sun-proof clearcoat, send me an e-mail and let me know; “the(at)weatheringman(dot)com”