Status from the layout on 29.11.02:
Not so much have been done on the layout last days, but last night I created a testtrack so I could bring it to the local H0-club,(Drammen MR-Club) on the "train-run"- night. When the rest of the drivers were running their train on the mainlayout in H0-scale, I was sitting with my small trains and had a good time.
The testtrack is a double track oval, with connecting turnouts and a few yardtracks. No landscape and no fancy, only the necesarry thing to build it and use it. Actually, the inspiration to this trackplan, come from the discussion on the Z-scale group on Yahoo, regarding "Track for Work". A lot of people reported how they had taken small layouts to work and invited people on work to watch the trains during lunchtime. |
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| The left picture shows the testlayout, running the AZL E8 A+B on one track with some MicroTrains box cars behind, and the Märklin 88604, Atlantic Coast Line F7 A+B and the 6 passengercars, Märklin 87846, on the other track. On the right picture, the driver and the owner of all this "nice little things". Look at the small part of giant-track to the left in the picture. It is big, it is H0! |
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Status from the layout on 19.11.02:
| More work has been done on the mine. It is near finished, and a lot of trees and bushes have been installed. It is not so easy to see, because it has been dark. Tonight also the lights inside the mine, and a few lamppoles outside, have been installed. Near all rails have also been painted tonight. |
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| The lights inside and outside of the mine helps create this night scene. Two F7 can be seen, one arriving soon on the station and the Santa Fe is moving a car from the mine. In the background on the right picture, you can see the factory above the station. |
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Status from the layout on 11.11.02:
| The mine has been build near complete. The first layer with paint is dry, and the work to install the mine on the layout is also near completed. As you can see from the status on 08.10.02, the area has changed very much since the mine has been installed. A little kitbashing on this nice brassmodel from Micro Structures need to be done. Because of the lack of space, the mainbuilding need to be rotated 90 degrees. The transportbridge between the buildings need to be rebuild, to fit the new version of the mine. Lighting and glass in the windows shall also be installed. After some more work and weathering, I hope this model will be a "top spot" on the layout. |
Status from the layout on 06.11.02:
Finally it is possible to let a train run completely through the whole layout and the final Golden Spike has been installed.
The helix in the closet and the connections between the different sections are now in place, so it is possible to run a train completely through the layout.
The painting has also started on the mill and its near finished. It would be a great model. On the right you can see a picture of the harbour area, where the sea is painted flat black. Some other colors, a little lighter near the edge, coated with a layer of clear glossy paint, will finally create the water. May be some waves also? |
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Status from the layout on 28.10.02:
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The work has started to connect the helix in the closet with the rest of the layout. Its not much space, so it takes some time to finish. But tonight all the wood are in place, waiting to dry. After that the track can be installed. The left picture shows the entrance to the helix. The right picture shows the helix in the closet.
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The last weeks I have been busy with planning a new section on the layout. It will be inserted between the old section and the new in work. One major scene on the section will be the crossings on the lower level, that should be very bussy and hopefully a typical spot on a american railroad.
After I got the AZL Diesel, I found out that my grades was to hign, so I decided to create a hidden helix between the levels, that could be used as the track up to level 2. The grade should be as low as possible, so the AZL E8 diesel could come up the 150 mm between the levels. The trackplan also give flexibility to the plan, so the helix will work for all directions.
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Status from the layout on 13.10.02:
| Finally my new AZL E8 A+B arrived in the mail from Ztrack. What a beuty! In Santa Fe war bonnet design. The best design in the world i thought when I was a child. And I still love the design. This is a very nice model, that runs very smooth and have a lot of details. Here you can see them in front of a passenger train on the new layout. |
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It runs very good, but it has not very good adhesion, so it very easy start to spin on the track. I may need another powered A-unit to fix this problem. (That is not cheap) It will run very good, if the track has a low grade or 0 grade slope. The same problem is often on other 6-axle engines, compared to 4-axel engines.
More detailing has been done on the layout. Trees, gras and bushes. More track ballast and other details have also been added.
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Status from the layout on 08.10.02:
| The last weeks not so much have been done, but the last couple of days, some more landscaping and coloring has been done. Ballasting of some tracks has started and the painting is close to finished. |
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| 2 trees and some bushes has been planted |
More bushes and grass |
Same view as previous, but from a birds level |
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Status from the layout on 11.09.02:
The last days a major step have been reached: All tracks are in place, expect for 2 short tracks on the siding on level 2. The tracks have also been tested with diesels and cars. It runs very smooth and are a good base for the ballasting.
The basic landscaping are very close to finish, so very soon can the ground foam and coloring be completed(+ all the dirt, trees, etc). The layout has a new nice frontboard, and the harbour are near finish. |
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| Here you can see near all the tracks. |
The layout is filled up with trains |
The station area, where the station building should be. |
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Status from the layout on 07.09.02:
| Some major changes has been done the last days. To create some more vertical action, one of the factorybuildings are moved between the two mainlevels, in the rockside. Then a hill on the flat frontarea is created, and a bridge is set up from the hill and into the factory. I guess this gives a much better model. And the scene will also be more interesting, as you can see in the right picture. The harbour is also set up(back right, lower level), with the harbourfront, It is soon time to paint the water. |
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Status from the layout on 28.08.02:
The first tracks are installed and the first train run tonight. All cork beds are now in place, and 2 lengths of Peco flextrack have been installed in 2 different curves.
On the picture you can see some yellow under the track. It is a wire put under one of the rails, so the curve is superelevated. Superelevation has been set up on the curves, the view looks much better
Watch also the video, it should start to stream; if not, the file is 1.6Mb, so it will take some time to load. You need to have windows media player installes. |
Run Video:
FirstTrack
(1.6Mb)
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Status from the layout on 27.08.02:
Some days without much activity again, but today the work to lay the trackbed cork on the layout have started. I use 3mm cork, and cut it into shape. Near all tracksbeds are now finished, so soon I can start laying the actual track. Some trackpieces and turnouts are placed in their final position as a test.
You can also see the layout, with the station and the helix. |
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Status from the layout on 21.08.02:
| Tonight I have started the building of one of the major buildings on the layout, the Milestone Gravel Co. mining building by Micro Structures. It is an excellent model and will be a very nice spot on the layout. All major parts have been finished, and next step is to paint them. Each major part will have only one color, so it will be an easy job. Then all windows and the other parts shall be painted and glued in place. This is my first brass kit using glue and not soldering it. It works great. I think the final result will be good. |
Milestone Gravel Co
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Status from the layout on 20.08.02:
Tonight some parts of the layout have been painted and some areas are even covered with green groundfoam. There are still areas that are not covered with plaster and rock molds. Some areas also need plaster between the rockmolds, so they blend together nicely. Some more groundcolors will be added later.
This way to make my layout; painting and finishing parts of the terrain before one inch of track is laid, is not normal. I need to see if it works ok. Soon I need to start tracklaying, I guess. I must mold some more rocks also, it will take some time to finish all molds I need. |
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Status from the layout on 18.08.02:
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| The foam begins to be covered with a thin layer of plaster and rockcastings, to create the landscape. Between the rockcastings and on areas that should not be open rock, there are a thin layer of plaster. In the second picture, over the brown brickwall in the middle of the picture, the foampart can be removed, so it is possible later to lay the track inside the tunnel. The foam shall be covered with rockcastings. In the right picture, you can see the foam tunnel portal, carved out with a ballpen. |
Status from the layout on 16.08.02:
| The helix in the closet are now near redy to lay track. Only some work with the connection between the two parts need to be figured out. On the left picture you can see the different parts, and in the left picture, the helix is ready to be installed in the closet. |
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Status from the layout on 11.08.02:
Some more work has been done on the industrial area. The whole area was a little low, so the elevation has been increased with 10-30 mm, using 10 mm sheets of foam covered paper. Different levels for some areas. The grade of the maintrack was also a little high, so when increasing the height on the track by 10 mm, it will probably give a better track. There will be 2 tracks coming into the area from the maintrack, one will enter the Märklin enginehouse to the left. There will also be some roads on the area.
The industrial area now start to find the final form, and I guess that all buldings will be placed where you can see them on the picture. The main track will run between the long and the short factory buildings and to the left of the green boxcar. This boxcar and the orange boxcar, is placed on the two turnouts in the industrial area.
The work to create the tunnelportals and to cover the track below the industryarea, has also started. When this is finished, the layout will look much better. |
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Status from the layout on 03.08.02:
| The left part with the two tunnels going to the helix in the closet. All the trackbeds are in place, and the connections to the old layout are aligned. Soon I can start to lay track. In the meantime the mountains have been started to be build, using styrofoam. Some plaster rock castings are also glued in place. To give the possibility to connect the rails to the rails from the helix, the two tunnelopenings are carved out together in a "plug" that can be removed in one big piece, so the rails can be uncovered. The tunnelportalstones are carved out in the styrofoam with a pencil. |
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| The tunnelportals carved in styrofoam |
The tunnelportals "plug" removed |
The tunnelportals "plug" made in styrofoam. You can see the carving in the portals, made by a ballpen. |
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The industrial area start to line up. Testing of the positions for the big area with all factorybuildings. In an earlier design a turntable with an enginehouse was planned for this area, but I have decided to build a factory with some tracks here instead. The factory is based on 2 Kibri factory kits. One of the mainbuildings are double the normal lenght, because the long sides are glued together. The back of the building is out of the visitors view and is constructed using a sheet of styren, painted with brickcolor. The maintrack will divide the area in two and hopefully create an interesting spot on the layout. A road will cross the track. The Märklin enginehouse will be shortened and 2 tracks will enter the area.
The area below, will be the port, with a track and a boat. The maintrack will be partly in a tunnel under the factoryarea. |
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Status from the layout on 11.07.02:
The old section on the right. The new section on the left. The "bed" for the tracks are in position. On the very left part of the new section, the tracks continue into a helix hidden in the closet.
The trackplan for stage 1
Status from the layout on 16.04.02:
| Some testing on the layoutplans on an actual plot in full scale of the new layout. Shown is the helix that should be in the closet, and the new small section with the station and harbour area. On the second picture, you can see the Kibri factory building, expanded to the double length, using the backside on the front. |
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Status from the layout on 09.04.02:
| Some more work have been done on the framework. The horizon has been cut and the old section is aligned to the new one. |
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Status from the layout on 01.04.02:
Before this first statusreport and pictures, a lot of work has been done in planning the new layout. Some cutting and gluing have been done also, but I have only photos back from this date, so it is not documented from prior to this date.
| The work with the new part has just startet. The framework is glued and screwed together, and reinforced with the solid styrofoam in the bottom of the section. In the back, you can see the old section with the bridge, the only part that is saved from the old layout. |
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