February Layout Party? I cheated...

Gary S.

Senior Member
Those pictures of my backdrop make me want to give it another go. I need to get more of a blending from the blue on top to the lighter color at bottom. Shouldn't be too hard to do.
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
I went ahead and added all the cross bracing under the 1/4" plywood yesterday. If it ends up that a brace is exactly where a switch motor should be, I'll chop it or drill it out.

This evening, I started painting everything, using waterbased primer.
 

Attachments

  • painting frames.JPG
    painting frames.JPG
    38 KB · Views: 91

Gary S.

Senior Member
Here is the 120v AC electrical supply for the layout. The switch turns all the outlets on and off. There are 13 outlets total, will be used to plug in the digitrax power supply, the power supplies for the infrared panels for the throttles, a 12 volt DC, 7 amp supply for the switch machines, and another for the electromagnetic uncouplers.
 

Attachments

  • outlets.JPG
    outlets.JPG
    39.6 KB · Views: 94

TomPM

Another Fried Egg Fan
Looking better and better Gary!

BTW I answered your glue question over in my layout party topic.
 

zedob

Member
Gary S. said:
Here is the 120v AC electrical supply for the layout. The switch turns all the outlets on and off. There are 13 outlets total, will be used to plug in the digitrax power supply, the power supplies for the infrared panels for the throttles, a 12 volt DC, 7 amp supply for the switch machines, and another for the electromagnetic uncouplers.

Question. Why did you use two conduit joints between boxes?
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
Tom, thank you for the glue info.

Zedob, I was wondering if anyone would ask about the conduit. Because I mounted the conduit to the vertical shelf tracks, the boxes are about 3/8 inch away from the wall. Instead of using spacers with toggle bolts or drywall anchors to support the boxes, I am just letting the conduit support the boxes. The extra conduit is only used to keep the boxes from twisting when stuff gets plugged into the outlets. The hot and neutral are both in the lower conduit, the upper conduit is empty.

Yes, the NEC requires the boxes to be supported seperately, but in this case, the AHJ has ruled this to be acceptable. (wink)
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
N Gauger said:
Neat :) Looks like you're having fun :)

Well, I finally finished priming the layout sections. Still am going to put a coat of exterior paint on everything.

And as for fun: after having primed 150 square feet framing and plywood, I am thinking this is more of a necessary evil than fun.
 

Attachments

  • MVC-006S.JPG
    MVC-006S.JPG
    38.7 KB · Views: 136

Gary S.

Senior Member
more progress:

Got all the shelves primed and painted 2 coats underneath, and am playing around with track arrangements and running some trains.... experiments.

I am just laying the track on the plywood for now, trying to come up with a good arrangement. I'll glue the 2" foam on later and get started for real.

Yall have seen pics of my shelves, if anyone has any thoughts on a layout to fit it, I'd be grateful.
 

Attachments

  • 00 playing 2.JPG
    00 playing 2.JPG
    54.5 KB · Views: 132
  • 00 playing 1.JPG
    00 playing 1.JPG
    56.5 KB · Views: 126

Gary S.

Senior Member
also, I went to a train show this weekend, not a real huge one but a real good one, lots of stuff for the "real" hobbiest, old engines, old structures, boxes of old cars, all that kind of interesting stuff that you don't see in the typical LHS.

I bought a big box of structure detail parts, LBPs, flat car loads, tractors, junk piles, towers, 2 flat cars, all kinds of stuff for $40 and well worth it in my estimation:
 

Attachments

  • 00 show box of stuff.JPG
    00 show box of stuff.JPG
    65.6 KB · Views: 130

Gary S.

Senior Member
and, 9 pieces of rolling stock already equipped with metal wheels and most had kadee couplers... for on average 3 bucks each. They need some cleaning and TLC to make them fully operational, but that is half the fun!


I really like the Texas Central covered hoppers.
 

Attachments

  • 00 show cars.JPG
    00 show cars.JPG
    64 KB · Views: 126

Gary S.

Senior Member
Update on my layout and party:

Started gluing the 2" blue foam to the shelves. The water-based contact cement is not working as well as I had hoped, it doesn't want to stick the edges of the foam down. I don't have enough clamps to clamp everything down, so I improvised with some 1x2s and some 3" sheetrock screws. I placed the 1x2s in the middle and around the perimeter and then ran the screws down into the plywood shelf to clamp the foam down.

I'll get some pics done this weekend.
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
Woohoo, the blue foam stuck! Took the clamp boards off today and everything looks great. Here's a photo of one side of the room. Still have 7 more sections to do, but it's cold and damp outside today so will have to wait.
 

Attachments

  • MVC-023S.JPG
    MVC-023S.JPG
    37.3 KB · Views: 110

Gary S.

Senior Member
This Layout Party idea is great. I love looking at all the layouts and all of the work being accomplished. It also gives me tons of ideas. Thanks everyone! However, seeing all of the great stuff you guys are doing leaves me with the feeling that all of my plywood and blue foam is pretty boring to you guys.

But it's all a part of it, right? I'm really pleased with my progress. We had PERFECT weather down here on Sunday, I finished glueing all the foam to the shelves, and can say that the benchwork portion of my layout is COMPLETE!!!

Now to finalize the track plan and REALLY get started on making something happen.

Andrew: I had some more ideas on my layout this weekend, will get my thoughts together and post them sometime in the next few days.
 

Attachments

  • MVC-025S.JPG
    MVC-025S.JPG
    36.7 KB · Views: 96
Top