Building the Walwynn and Western layout

[waltr]

The weather is now warm and daylight lasts later so less time to work on the layout.

The photos are:
1- The current Fascia with a DigiTrax LocoNet Panel temporally attached to a leg. The panel will go on the fascia once I am sure of the location. Note the cord.
2- Same area of fascia but with the controller draw pulled out. This rolls back and up under the layout to be out of the way when not in use. This holds the Digitrax Zephyr with space behind for some support electronics. The the right of the Zephyr is a UT2 hand controller and space for a toggle to switch a section of track from 'main' to 'programming'.
3- Underneath view the the controller draw. The draw guides is a box that can be removed with four screws from the layout. It mounts the the 1x2 stringers.
4- Trying out some track lighting. This is a 3 ft length with two fixtures mounted (comes with 3 fixtures). I am thinking of 3 tracks (9 lights) each on a separate switch and dimmer control.

[waltr]

Got the sub-roadbed down for the front left section of the layout. First picture is all the cans of paint etc holding down the 1/4 luan while the caulk dries. Then without the paint cans. Last is the turnouts roughly in place and some of the Homabed. All this track will be HO standard gauge with the left most track in the pictures dual gauge. Some of the narrow gauge track and its elevation can be seen.
Next pic is the narrow gauge turnouts and the current control rods. There is 6 inches of foam under the turnouts and it has been a problem working out a simple and reliable method to control the turnouts. What is currently working is a 'torque rod' in a tube (bearing) through the foam.
Last pic is the bottom of the 'torque rods' and the push/pull control attachment. A piece of 1/4 in thick plywood in glued to the foam to provide a surface to screw on the cable clamps. The two largish holes in the foam was an attempt to use a different type of mechanism. The Yellow/Blue wire feeds the frog on one turnout.

[waltr]

The roadbed (Homabed) is now down on the front left section of the layout. Pictures from the east and west showing the roadbed with the turn-outs set in place.
In the first picture the narrow gauge is on the left, upper level. The left line on the lower level is a dual gauge line to the passenger & freight station (exposed plywood at bottom of picture). The track on the right is the standard gauge interchange with the PRR.
In the second picture the station is at the far end. The near turn-out slits off the interchange traffic to the left and dual gauged to the right.

Third picture show how the Homabed was pieced together for the turn-outs. The Homabed cuts fairly easy with a copping saw or a razor saw the cleaned up to fit with a 100 grit sanding block. I use Titebond wood glue to glue the Homabed. Once all the pieces are in place I used the 100 grit sanding block to level and smooth the roadbed top surface.

Next is to position the turn-outs exactly and glue down the wood ties. A set of turn-out ties can be seen in the top-right, held together with masking tape. After these are glued down the tape is removed. Then the remaining ties are laid, sanded and stained (I'll try to remember to get pictures of this process).

Before spiking the turn-out in place, a wire is soldered to the turn-out frog and fed down though a hole drilled under the frog. All the turn-outs have frogs powered from "Frog Juicers". These really work great as the "juicer" detects a short and switches the polarity to the frog. Also, powered frog are great when running small/short locos that tend to stall on insulated frogs.

Last picture is on the upper level narrow gauge tracks. There was a gap between the sub-roadbed and roadbed of the two tracks. I filled in the gap with Lightweight Joint compound, using a wet finger to create a slight gully between the track. Then brushed in a ballast mixture and set it with diluted Mat Medium mixture (1/3 Mat Med, two drops dish soap, 1/8 alcohol, and water).

I still have some experimenting to do (I have a couple of short test pieces of track for this) on weathering the ballast. I am thinking of a combination of light washes and airbrushing. I also think that a finer ballast could be mixed in with the medium ballast.

The rails are also painted is this last picture using PolyScale Roof Brown, Rust, Boxcar Red and modifed with D&H gray(lighter) and CSX Blue(darker). This is a tedious process as the rails (code 55) are painted with a small brush. I put a few drops of the colors on a small white plastic plate then randomly mix as I paint to get a variation in the color.

I used Code 55 rail joiners cut in half then soldered to each rail (seen in the upper right of picture). Power drops are soldered under the rail before it is spiked down.

That's about it for now. Please leave comments and ask questions. If anyone would like to see how a process to done let me know and I'll do some pictures of that.

[waltr]

Ok, some ties are glued down. The turn-outs are not spiked yet, just set in place. The two turn-outs in the first picture are soldered together. It'll take more than a few nights to glue down the rest of the ties.

I checked on the turn-table I ordered and it was promised to ship tomorrow. Once that comes I'll be putting it together and working out the mounting and finishing the track grades to the turn-table.

[waltr]

All the ties are now laid on the left side. These were then sanded with a block to even out the heights. Since this section of track will be closer to the viewer each tie has texture added.
First pic- using an X-Acto knife and tops are scored and the ends split. Since this RR is in good operating condition the effect is keep to a light touch.
Second pic- The ties are gone over with a steel wire brush to bring out the grain as seen in the third picture.

Bonus pic is a small scenery experiment. Its a chunk of foam glued to a piece of cardboard. The foam was carved with a steak knife then coated with Lightweight Joint compound. After it dried washes were layered on.
Then Woodland Scenic Blended Turf and Coarse Turf sprinkled on and fixed with diluted Mat Medium.
An HO scale figure was placed behind a clump to give the scene scale.

[waltr]

Now to stain the ties.
I use Acrylic artist paints and squeeze a glob of each onto a plastic plate.
The colors on the plate are, starting on the upper right and going clockwise:
Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue.

The brush is fairly stiff, an oil painting 'bright' works well. The colors are mixed on the brush and on the ties. The third pic shows the start with dabs of Burnt Sienna on some ties, This is followed with burnt Umber and a little yellow Ochre. Ending with Raw Umber and a touch of Ultramarine.
Then wipe off all excess paint with a paper towel.
I do only about six inches at a time because I do not want the paint is dry before wiping. This stains the tie to keep the wood look.

[waltr]

The next step on coloring the ties is to apply a light grey for the sun bleached weathered look. This starts by mixing yellow orchre and burnt sienna with a touch of ultramarine blue to make a slightly brown grey (dark) then add white until it is light enough. First picture is the mixed greys on a plastic dish.
Very little paint is put on the brush and is then scrubbed onto the tops on the ties. Not all ties get this since the RR does replace ties so the new ties are darker. This also helps bring out the cracks that were scoured into the ties.
Picture are from the same point of view as earlier pictures. Last picture is a close-up of one of the turn-outs set in place.

[enjineerbill]

Nice work and pictures Waltr. Good teaching thread. Thank you.

[genetique.techno]

With the improved lighting I can really see the detail in the ties. Looks great.

[waltr]

Thank Johnny and genetique.

The next step getting all the track and frog power feed holes and turn-out control holes drilled. Then I can start to ballast the ties before laying rail.