All Day Train Extravaganza

The NCI group decided to have an all day July 3rd train extravaganza. We decided to work on three layouts over a one day spread, from 8:30 am to midnight. Boy did we get a lot done. Boy, am I tired!

I kick started myself with a Huddle House breakfast and four glasses of iced tea. We are going to do scenery work at Glue Bob's house, so I loaded up my new scenery storage systems, which fit nicely in the back of the suv. Off to Bob's!

Bob contemplates the backdrop while Paul hands Scott sheets of newsprint - Rick Wade Photo

In attendance were Glue Bob, Gator Scott, Packrat Paul and Reverend Rick. Rick was a surprise because we all thought he was going out of town. He's a great scenery guy, so it was handy and fun to have him here this morning.

Ms. Halina served us coffee on the veranda while we discussed the Ontario Northland and its scenery. Planning is the most important step for scenery. Looking at photos of the real thing is almost as important.
Learning is what model railroading is all about for me. Today I learned a new tip from Bob. Bob uses these inexpensive dress snaps as plug/socket sets for electrical wires. Brilliant!
Here you can see where he has attached the lights in the shell of the locomotive to the loco wiring using the snaps. The solder well and make great mini-connectors.

Gator Starts Mocking Up Scenery on the ONR - Rick Wade Photo

Today with start the scenery. I always like to mock up the scenery before I build it so that I can get a feel for the size and the shapes as well as planning for key scenic elements such as rock casting. Bob had a supply of newsprint paper, so we wadded it up and held it in place with masking tape. Using photographs of the area, we planned key scenic elements.

Backdrop and Temporary Tree Line - Rick Wade Photo

Bob said he could finish installing the backdrop, so we focused on scenery design. We decided that a cut and fill were necessary here at Swastika Junction. Swastika is a REAL TOWN in Canada and is pronounced differently than the evil German empire corruption of the good luck symbol. This is Bob's home town and he's chosen to model it. You can see the paper that is mocking up the fill area and the rock cuts at the wye. Looks good!

Scott is using digital photographs for further scenery design - Rick Wade Photograph

The back drop is removable for easy relocation of the layout - Rick Wade Photo

Bob and Scott move foam into place - Rick Wade Photo

We then removed the paper mock ups and prepared to build the stacked foam scenery. While I don't normally like foam scenery it fits the bill in this case. The layout was designed to be taken apart which means there are a lot of scenery breaks. This causes there not to be a lot of good places to attach scenery. So we are going with plates of foam. Here we are preparing to cut the base scenery plate.

Foam Cutting by Paul and Bob - Rick Wade Photo

We stacked up 5 to 8 layers of foam and secured them with construction glue, used very sparingly. The foam was cut with a sharpened utility knife. Then Rick loaned us his scenery foam cutting tools and we taught Paul an Bob how to cut. They were having a great time and Rick and I just sat back and inhaled the fumes. Sweeeeeet!

Scott coaches Bob to move slowly and to allow the cutter to do the work at its own pace - Rick Wade Photo

This scenery section is removable because there are some turnout linkages below that are still not mounted yet. Besides, it will be easier to shape the foam outside. The trees are from our tree night a few weeks ago.


To get a better feel of where the rock cuts were to go, Bob sprayed the crumbled paper to see the location. However, he did spray the blue wall a bit. Just a little. I'm still laughing.


Here you can see the rock cuts that will be located inside the wye, and the ever present coffee cups.

We'll keep this digital picture to remind us of the design.

The front section is now replaced with foam.

Here is the passing siding. The scenery on the left will have to be a lift out section as there is a hidden staging yard located underneath.

A bit messy, but there is method in our madness.


I took a picture of the paint can because I didn't have a piece of paper to write on. Rick gave me an excellent idea! Use ketchup squirters to apply paint to the layout! I'll try it on my layout soon.

We set the flats of trees on the layout just to get an idea of how tall they are going to be. We need some more small trees.


This is going to be a nice rock cut. Bob has pictures of the cut which is dark iron red.


Here Rick prepares to show Bob and Paul how to cut the foam.

Knowing where you want to go, helps you get there. Planning is required here otherwise you'll have to add back foam.

The small square cut outs are holes for manual tournout throws. They weren't big enough and Bob had to cut them out some more.

Here Bob is whittling down the hill.
Paul takes his time and slowly trims off the corners of the foam.

Slow work...but easy.


In order to not make a huge mess in the train room, Paul picked up the whole scene and took it outside through the garage.

Using s Surform tool, Rick shows the guys how to cut away anything that doesn't look like scenery. The foam form weighs almost nothing.


"Boys! Time for lunch!" Halina made us sandwiches and fresh salads for lunch! We enjoyed them under the fan on the veranda. She's a nice lady!


But we were late for lunch as we kept filing down the foam. Almost done!



Everyone got a hand in! After the foam and some lunch, we headed over to Paul's house.

Paul has been a busy beaver. He's already got all the floor down. I did the 280 lb test and walked on it.


This is a complex layout, and provides the team with a lot of engineering challenges. We worked on the design of the upper deck and I suggest that instead of a flat section that it be angled to allow for more eye space for the lower deck and better mountain slopes for the upper deck.


We spent a lot of time looking at the design of the yard. I'm still struggling to get the track plan in my head, and all the towns that go with it. I showed Paul how to make parrellel tracks on 3rd Plan It.

What fun! We all went up to the train store about 4:00 and bought $70 worth of scenery materials for Bob's layout. We all went home and took a dinner break and then met at my house at 7:00...

See http://swamplayout.blogspot.com/ for the rest of the story.