Benchwork Complete

Today, I attached the last fascia to the peninsula that represents Herminie PA and the Westmoreland Coal Company Mine No. 4. I put this last piece off for a while because I wanted the fascia to be contoured to match the hillside to the left of town. This hillside has developed with some help from Jack Newton and I think it's about as good as it will get. Yesterday I marked off the profile, got out the scroll saw, cut it and painted the board green.

While I was outside painting, I decided to give the B&O railroad bridge that crosses the PRR mainline just east of Irwin yard a coat of black. Most railroad bridges are black with varying degrees of rust and dirt. I like how it turned out for the most part but I ran out of spray paint and I need to touch up a couple of the beams. Also, it's a little shinier than I hoped and I still want to weather it to blend into the scenery. Once I complete this bridge and the PRR mainline area under it, I can complete the Vic's  Bait & Tackle scene. My plan is to have a B&O freight train heading away from the viewer so there will be a couple of cars and a B&O caboose on the bridge.

Here is how the scene looks right now. More progress!

A&N Railroad: The Next Generation

Way, way back, I joined a local N-Trak group (DaytoN-Track) with a typical 2' x 4' module. I met some fellow railroaders, gained some insights (like N scale is REALLY small) and had some fun. I eventually dropped out because it was hard making the weekend shows but my module did appear in the DISCOVER N '92 convention in Columbus OH.

A year or so ago, I pulled it out and rebuilt a simple loop with a few sidings for Nicholas and Adam to play trains. They would run trains around a little then move on to some other interest. It was a challenge for me to work on the N scale layout when I had so much work to do on my HO basement layout. Recently I was showing the boys how you move trains using car cards & waybills and mentioned switchlists. Nicholas especially was interested in this so I created a custom switchlist for the A&N Railroad. Last night I showed the boys how to set up the trains and use the switch list for a purpose - set out and pick up cars.

Hooked! They loved it! The engine struggled a little with the dirty track and lack of use so after they went to spent I spent time taking it apart, cleaning the wheels and lubricating the gears - did I mention N scale is REALLY, REALLY small?! I put the engine back on the track and it sailed around the loop.

I can't wait to show the boys the improvement. Who knows, maybe we'll even make some time to work on some scenery this weekend!

HI HO A Ballasting We Go!

After completing the ballasting project, I started to mull over the next project to tackle. Complete the scenery around the Rt 30 bridge? I have to fix the edge into the fascia and not sure how to do that yet. Complete the scene around Vic's Bait & Tackle? Well, that's under the B&O bridge which I want to detail a little more and finish the hillside first. Detail the LAS Fabrics Co building or some of the taped together building mock ups in downtown Irwin? Well, first I have to clean off my work bench and find some place for all the tools and parts I have. I want everything organized and when I do try to that, I am never satisfied.

Finish ballasting? I hate ballasting. OK, so this was the lamest of all the excuses, and therefore the new project. Cody Grivner's Scenery Step by Step: Ballasting made easy in Model Railroader January 2007 has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I've tried it a few times in little efforts but still not real happy. I dusted it off again, read it closely - including the two tips I missed the other 3 times - and in one night I finished ballasting between the ties on the entire mainline. Tonight, I started with the first layer of ballast on the sides of the roadbed and I am pretty happy. I completed the mainline through Irwin, the interchange track with the P&LE, the P&LE siding and two other spurs. Sweet!



Except, now I WILL have to clean off the work bench...

Lighting Complete!

Last night, I finally finished the lighting project around the layout. This has been a several months long process but I am very satisfied with the end result. The fact that this combines both carpentry and electrical skills - I am only slightly worse at plumbing - and I was still able to complete it makes it all the sweeter. Here's a quick tour.

Here is the west staging yard which represents the outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA. Just beyond is East McKeesport where the PRR has an interchange with the P&LE railroad. As the road curves to the right (east) we are entering downtown Irwin.

As we leave downtown, we go past the Irwin Yard which besides sorting incoming cars for local deliveries, handles the Heinz, Duquesne Beer, and LAS Fabrics Co. factories. It also has a lead to the Westmoreland Coal Company (WCC) Mine No. 4 in Herminie which is the peninsula on the far right of the photo. The PRR mainline runs behind the yard and under the B&O bridge, taking the trains off the visible layout.

 Here we are, just east of the B&O bridge at the east staging yard.

Now I can concentrate on scenery ... wait! My art skills are much worse than carpentry. Oh, well!

Operating Session with Eric

Last night, my friend Eric Dilger came over to run trains for the first time. We are both in Scouting with Jack who had told Eric all about running the trains. It was the first time with the new lighting which was great - there were no shadows on the layout. Eric jumped right in and quickly got the knack of the Digitrax throttles. I had all the cars positioned for the session and had even made up a train sequence ... which I promptly forgot to follow.

The session really did run surprisingly smooth for Eric's first time. As we went along, I was making mental notes of some adjustments I need to make, like mounting a map since I live in Dayton where most folks don't know the specific geography of the modeled Pittsburgh area. Also, it would be good to pair a new person up with an experienced brakeman to help walk them through the paces. I was doing this in between jobs as yardmaster in Irwin. Of course, I need more throttles and a couple more locomotives would be nice too!

In the end, we managed to run all the scheduled trains (albeit out of sequence) and service all the sidings. A heck of an accomplishment since I had not run any trains for a couple of months. I still need to work on the car card system. We followed the waybills but in the end, the west staging was full, there were only 2 cars in the Irwin yard and 2 tracks in the east staging. I want it to be a bit more balanced so I can flip the waybills, turn the engines and run the next session.

Herminie Lighting & Shopping

I was very busy at the end of last week and over the weekend. First, I finally finished mounting all the lighting around the layout with the final valence place over the mine area in Herminie. Joey was a big help as we had to lift several 8-foot sections and hold them against the vertical supports, level the valence and quick clamp it so I could drill the holes for some drywall screws. There is not a dark spot on the layout now and I can't wait to finish painting the 10" masonite fascias sky blue and mounting them on the valences so you won't be able to directly see the lamps.

Also this weekend, we took a trip to Pittsburgh for my family reunion. We had a good time and, as I always try to do, I was able to stop at T&K Hobbies. I love this store! They have a huge inventory and very reasonable prices. Adam, Nicholas and I spent nearly an hour browsing around and came out with a collection of supplies for both their N-scale and my layouts including plastic scratch building supplies, trees, telephone poles, his & her outhouses (for behind Vic's Bait & Tackle), more J&L detail parts (see the blog post More Awesome Finds), Scenic Cement and an N-scale billboard. Nicholas was especially excited about working on the N-scale layout again and both of the boys want to learn how to run trains with Dad!

My immediate next project, besides the sky valence fascias, is to finish ballasting the layout and then building some more building mock-ups to help operators locate the businesses and drop off or pick up cars. I have a new operator, who also is named Eric, coming over tomorrow to learn how to run trains and I need to get the track and cars up to specs!

Jumping Back In

I have definite ebbs and flows with the hobby and I typically take a break over the summer. First, who wants to be in the basement with the weather is so nice outside? Add to that our oldest son's graduation from high school, the annual church festival, a couple of family trips, a couple of business trips and Webelos Residence Camp with the twins ... who has time for trains!

Even the magazines were piling up on the reading table - Model Railroader, Rail Model Craftsman, Dispatcher's Office and Model Railroad Hobbyist. The great weather just kept calling me outside. Last week, I picked up one of the magazines and it became my inspiration to get back into things. I read all my back issues and then started some planning for the weekend. Besides painting the porch railing, I cleaned up some of the scenery in the west staging yard and added ballast down the center of the tracks throughout East McKeesport and continuing around to Irwin Yard (still have to ballast the sides of the roadbed).

The big change, though, was finally finishing the light valance around the layout. Over the weekend I installed 2 eight foot valences, each with 2 four foot fixtures. Below, you can see the fixtures as the pass behind the Irwin Yard. After I took the photo, I removed the old hanging lights and I really like the even balanced light around the whole layout.

I have to install 2 more valances, one over the east staging and one over Herminie. Next, I'll paint the masonite fascia sky blue and it should blend in very nice. I hope my interest and enthusiasm continues for a while!