The Union Pacific Soggy Bottoms Subdivision (HO scale)


flyboy2610

Loveably weird
(X Edit 5-6-2018 X: Thanks to Photoscrewit (being polite here) I lost most of the pics for this thread. I have them saved on my hard drive, so I plan to slowly go through and replace the pics. It may take a while, so be patient.)
Well, I guess I should start a build thread. Might help me stay motivated.
(Copied from another thread I posted in)
The Union Pacific Soggy Bottoms Subdivision is a protolanced line of the UP. Soggy Bottoms, Ne. is located on the Nebraska-Northern Colorado border, just up the line from the Denver-Cheyenne split. It is so named for the wetlands located about 5 miles outside of town. The town motto is "Welcome to Soggy Bottoms! We Luv to Pamper People!"
The town is a stopover and and division point for passenger and freight traffic. It is also a termination point for the Soggy Bottoms-Alliance local passenger train. There is a lot of traffic on this line, both passenger and freight. Ranchers from northern Colorado and western Nebraska ship a lot of livestock across these rails as well. The veranda turbines make regular non-stops from Ogden to Council Bluffs (gotta love those 22000 gallon bunker C fuel oil tenders!).
The town is known to be located in the middle of a space/time vortex, though, so periodically a modern diesel has been known to show up to startle the local populace.
The time frame is the somewhere sorta kinda halfway close to the mid-50's, give or take 5 years. (Except for when that space/time vortex acts up.)
Most of the work is still done by steam but the growlers are beginning to make their presence known as well. Eventually, North Platte and Denver will take over most of Soggy Bottoms responsibilities, but those days are still in the future. For now, the town is prosperous and thriving.

The track will be Atlas code 100. It's easy to work with and I can run all the loco's I have, including the old pizza cutter wheels. The turnouts will be Atlas for the #4's, and Peco Insulfrog's for the 6 and 8's. They will be thrown by Caboose Industries sprung ground throws.The real focus will be on switching and yard work, with one train at a time making the roundy-round. As for room orientation, the industrial area is to the south, the town on the north, the yard on the east, and the river/wetlands on the west.
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So far, I have finished up the benchwork, and built the swing gate. The benches are 1x4 sides with 2x2 legs and cleats. None of the cross pieces have screws running into the side of them. The shelf boards are 1x4's, and the deck is 3/8 plywood.
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Then I was ready to build the swing gate.
And that's when the headaches began. I knew that the swing portion could not be built as a square or rectangle. One side must be angled to allow for swinging without hitting the stationary portion. Getting the angle correct was trial and error. (Mostly error.) I learned that the side of the stationary portion that is next to the benchwork needs to be about twice as long as the short side that sits on the shelf. Otherwise when the gate swings, the corner of the swing portion will hit the stationary side.
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I also learned that the cut angle on said long side must be in a straight line with the cut angle on the short side. That little wooden triangle you see in the previous pic was a real pain in the neck (among other bodily locations) to make!

I made shelves for both ends of the swing portion to rest on. These were made out of 1/2" plywood with a 2x2" cleat glued and screwed to it. The cleat was then screwed to the benchwork from the outside, and the plywood was screwed to the benchwork side from the bottom.
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The upper edge of the shelf was given the router treatment with a 1/4" round over bit, and the same was done to the bottom of the 1x4's making up the swing portion. This helps things slide a bit smoother. I also installed a length of 1x4 along the side of each shelf to act a stop for the swing portion.
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I installed a gate latch on the swing portion and drilled a hole into the benchwork for the latch. I couldn't use the metal keeper portion of the latch set because It would have interfered with the gate. I am going to try and find some metal tubing that will match the latch diameter and install that into the benchwork as I am concerned about the hole eventually getting wallowed out and allowing movement.
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I used a piece of 1x4 as a backer for the hinge screws, to give them more to bite into.
The hing that I used has a bit of play in the pin, allowing the swing gate to drop when not on the shelf. So I attached another shelf for the gate to rest on when not in use.
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I have some spots I want to hit with the sander, and then I can install the foam.
 
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That is looking really nice. The area seems much too clean for having done woodworking in it tho,,haha. Love the name of one of your industrys, Rust-eze,,,great movie. Keep up the good work and will look forward to seeing progress pics.
 
Today I started gluing down the foam. I'm using 2" pink extruded foam. This will be topped with1/2" Homasote panels. There are a couple of spots I'm using corrugated cardboard strips under the ends of the foam to bring it nice and level with the adjoining sheet. For adhesive under the foam I'm using Liquid Nails for Projects, based on some things I've read here. Home Depot had it for only 20c more per tube than the cheap latex caulk, so I went with it. I will be using latex caulk to glue down the Woodland Scenic foam roadbed that the postman was nice enough to bring me today. :)
When I do the Homasote, I will be overlapping the foam joints to help get everything nice and level.
The track will be fastened down with some nice long nails through the roadbed and into the Homasote. When doing it like that, always be careful not to drive the nail too deep or the foam will partially buckle and pull the track out of gauge. I find it easier to rearrange track if needed than if the track is glued down, but that's just me.
 
Well, I got the all the plywood, foam, and Homasote in place. Some of my measurements were'nt quite spot on, but after the fascia is on nobody will know.
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I overlapped the joints between plywood, foam, and Homasote as much as possible to try to get as smooth a final joint as possible. Some places I had to use cardboard as a shim.
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As you can see, I had to kind of patch together the Homasote for the narrow part.
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I then took a sander to the joints and got them as smooth as possible.
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Warning: When sanding Homasote, it makes very fine dust. You do NOT want to get that dust into your lungs! At the very least, wear a good paper dust mask. I have a good dual cartridge respirator (Craftsman, if I recall correctly from 20 years ago) that I purchased when I had to remove plaster and lathe from house i used to live in. Since this is a power sander, hearing protection is also a must. And safety glasses.
I was going to go ahead and use some drywall mud on the joints, but when I opened up the container I had, it was growing a batch of penicillin. So I need to get some new mud. And some self stick joint tape. I might get to that next weekend.
After I get the joints nice and smooth, I'll lay down a couple of coats of primer, then some light brown latex paint.
 
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Thanks for the kind words! It'll just be our little secret.
That last pic was about 20years ago. I'm pretending to be Dart Vader's little brother, Barf Later.
Removing plaster and lathe is something I don't ever want to do again!
 
Well, I splurged $4 and got a quart of drywall compound from Home Depot and found some self stick tape I forgot I had, (still have another unopened roll!) so I got the joints taped and mudded. I'll let the mud dry for 24 hours, and then sand it and put on a light skim coat and feather it out. It's supposed to be a bit warmer next weekend, so maybe next weekend I can lay down some paint.
You can see that the mud is already starting to dry. That's the white areas around the edges.
That track in the corner is 2 sections, each composed of 3 24" radius curves, 1 9" straight, and then 1 section has a 30" radius curve from Walther's, which will get cut down, and 1 section has a curved turnout, inside radius 30". These will go in the upper left corner of the layout, the 30" curves providing a nice easement into the 24" curve. I will be soldering the curves of my layout, but leaving the flex track unsoldered.
I should have a loop of track in place in couple of weeks, so at least I can watch a train go roundy-round!
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Good call on building in the shelves under the layout! Wish I would have done that now.

Steve

It is a good call, until you keep whackin' your shins and knees etc into it, or maybe I'm just clumsy :)

flyboy, looks like a good job on the joins and was interest to read that you are going to have 30" and 24" radius curves, is that right? From memory, and from looking, I don't think your bench work is going to be big enough to accommodate these size radii for your loop area in the bottom right and left of the picture. Or are you just having that radius for the top left and right curves?

Sorry if you have explained this before.

Okay, I'm an idiot - forget all that I just asked forgot it was going to be a full loop duh!
 
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No problem. On the upper left, the outer loop is the main and the inner is the siding to the passenger terminal. I wanted to use a curved turnout to represent a line going out of town (and maybe through the wall someday). The best fit I could find was a Peco with a 30" inside radius, so I got a piece of Walther's code 100 30"as well. I plan to use the curved turnout and part of the Walther's piece as easements followed by 3 sections of 24" radius curve. Then straight along the back and 4 pieces of 24" radius on each line. The curves in each corner will be 24" radius, I'm just using a 30" section as an easement in that one corner. I've rough fitted everything, so I know it'll fit.
 
You are a really good carpenter, and your swing gate is clever!! I am curious to see how it works with the track, probably be just fine.

Thanks for posting--lasm
 
I sanded down the drywall mud on the joints, then put on a very light skim coat, much like spackling. I just added a bit of extra water to the mud. After that dried, I sanded it down by hand, feathering the edges to a nice smooth edge. I used a hand sander with a 3M screen attached to a small shop vac. Very little dust that way.
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Then I put some painters tape around the wall, and the front of the layout. I am hoping to keep the primer and paint somewhat contained to the top of the layout. Everything on the lower shelves will be moved out before painting begins.
Here you can see how nicely the edges feathered out. These joints should be very smooth.
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As I was taping around the edges of the layout, I realized I had forgotten to fill in one side of my swing gate with Homasote strips. I mis-measured for the top in that area and cut it 1/2" too narrow.
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So I cut some strips of Homasote, used some Liquid Nails for Projects and some foam track nails and filled in the gap. I'm not going to tape and mud this area, as no track will be there. I will sand it flush and just let the primer and paint fill the gap.
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I had hoped to have the first coat of primer on this evening, but it looks like that has been delayed till tomorrow.:(
 
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I got two coats of Zinsser Primecoat2 primer/sealer on yesterday.
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The Chief Financial Officer of the family corporation says I have to wait until next payday (1-23-15) to buy a gallon of flat brown latex paint in the shade I want, though.:(
I have part of a gallon of brown but it's got more tan or gold color in it than I'd like to have for this. So..... I wait.
 
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I applied two coats of cheap brown latex paint. It doesn't look like the North Pole anymore!
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I have a few spots that need a little touch up, then I can start laying down some track.
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I plan to lay the track directly on the Homasote for now, held down by track nails. I'll run for a few months to make sure everything is how I want it, then mark the track center lines, pull it up, and reinstall it with foam roadbed.
Time to start saving up for some turnouts!
 
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I have officially started laying down track. So far it's just two turnouts back to back, but hey it's a start right?:)
I though it best to start in the industrial area and build out from there. The straight through section is going to be the mainline, while the turnout on the right will lead into the industrial area. The left side turnout comes from the yard/engine servicing area.
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"Someday, this will be MINE!" ALL MINE!!
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"Wanna bet?" The Soggy Bottoms-Alliance local.
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"Hey, I get a turn, too!" The Rock Island excursion train (in memory of my father, who worked for the Rock Island.)
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The UP 4-8-4 #806 in the second photo started out life as a train set engine in Bachmann's 'Overland Limited' set. I converted it to DCC and sound using a Tsunami Soundtraxx decoder. http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=12752&highlight=4-8-4
There was an actual UP 4-8-4 #806, it did spend time in the Greyhound scheme, and it did have yellow striping, as this chart will confirm:
http://utahrails.net/up/ttg-northerns.php
The cars are Walther's heavyweight passenger cars.

The Soggy Bottoms-Alliance local (yes, there is a town named Alliance in western Nebraska) is pulled by a Bachmann UP 0-6-0, cause that's what I have in Greyhound scheme. I have the DCC version of the pictured loco, but it's torn down right now. I'm planning on an N scale Tsunami decoder, just as soon as I figure out how to wire it all up (and get the decoder.) I have a UP 4-6-2 Pacific, made by Mantua that I want to convert to DCC, but it's black. Anybody know a good painter? The cars are Roundhouse arched roof coaches.

The Rock Island excursion train is pulled by an IHC 2-6-0 Mogul. I also intend to convert this to DCC and sound. The cars are Roundhouse arched roof coaches.
 
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