Making an exhibition of myself

I am now returned (and recovered) from the Granite City Train show where a great time was had by all. Those of you who follow my other blogs know that I can't speak highly enough of the show. It's always a pleasure to attend and this year was no exception. Ed Olson, the organizer said that this was the most successful show to date and I can believe him. I came away from the show with a very sore throat which means I must have been talking a lot. I did a lot of explaining of the difference between Z and T.
We were sited next to an N scale layout so that made for a very effective demo for the punters of the relationship of the differing sizes of the scales.
After I arrived and set up I made a quick trip over to the Perrys Hobbies stand to see if he had any Z scale for sale he had one piece, a Micro Trains TTX flat car so I bought it and quickly added it to the layout. Luckily for my wallet Perry had left his Z scale cases at the shop.
When the doors opened it was relentless for about 5 of the 6 hours of the show. Talk, talk, talk. It was all a blur at times, especially the first couple of hours. I made my regular appearance on local station W-JON hopefully putting across a positive image of the hobby.
What can I say about the running of the layout.
Perfect. I can't say any better than that.

Here's some film of the layout running.

It ran like this for the whole six hours of the show. I would run the consist one way for an hour and then the other for an hour. It was perfect. I'm really really impressed with the running quality of this set. It certainly spurs me on to do a little more with Z.
I just want to close by once again giving out a big thanks to Ed Olson and the crew for putting the show on. It is always a great time.

Exhibitable

Here we are, ready to show. It didn't take all that long to get this stage. Five or six days perhaps. There's a few things that I could put right if I had more time but I think (I hope) that people will enjoy taking a look at it.

Above: An overall view. The overall size is 30" x 20". There's lots of different types of trees some Woodland scenics trees, Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage and home made pine trees.
Above: A close up of the bridge. Overall I'm really really pleased with the bridge. I'm still not totally comfortable with the self adhesive qualities of the stone material but the effect of it is well and truly worth it.
Above: The "accidental" rock face. It's just a rough cut expanded polystyrene painted with Woodland scenics Earth ground colour. It looks really quite convincing.
Above: Another view of the bridge. Alas, you can see a section of handrail dropped off whilst I was handling the layout for the photos.

So far constructing the layout has been a very rewarding project. I think I have a "feel" for working in Z scale now. I have to say I like it so far. I'm curious to take my adventures further.

Trains run!

Exciting day day today. Not only did I watch Ishant Sharma take 5 for 12 for Deccan Chargers against Kochi Tuskers in the IPL but I had trains running on the Knife River model. To prove it here's some film.

The layout is coming together nicely.

Meanwhile it snows outside..

Bridge comes together (layout progress 5)

Today was a grey, wet, horrible day. Hardly worth having the day off work to be honest. Then again if the weather had been nice I probably would have been out in the MGB now that it is out of winter storage. So the weather forced me on to getting the bridge closer to completion. Here's a few photos via the iPhone and Photoshop express...

...I reckon it looks the part.

the grass is greener... (Layout progess 4)

This week I booked the time off work to prepare both layouts for the Granite City Train show. With Gonou already working I can devote the time to completing the Knife River Bridge display.

A bit of ground cover first. Nothing too detailed yet. Some earth coloured Woodland scenics ground cover followed by a coating of a mixture of different greens. Kind of like an impressionist painting. All fixed in place with Woodland Scenics scenic cement.

So, onto that strange pastelly, fawny, browny streak in the middle where the Knife River should be. Hereabouts the Knife River is actually very shallow and beautifully crystal clear with lots of stones on the bed. So a deep blue is out of the question. My thought is to create a sort of impressionist painting (there's that phrase again) of the river bed. Then paint some gloss medium over that and then scatter some Woodland Scenics (there's that name again) Talus of varing sizes into that. Hopefully that should re-create the effect I'm after.

Yes it is that easy!

A couple of posts ago I said that I was going to have to slice up a couple of sections of MicroTrains track to fit on the layout. I was going to use these instructions on the James River website. It seemed easy enough and I can report that it is.

1. Cut out the middle section so that the roadbed forms the length of track you'll need.

2. Nip off the fixing pins.

3. Slide the 2 sections of roadbed together and glue them.

4. Fit the track and rail joiners.

Bingo! Shortened track!

No point in posting pictures because the finished sections of track look just as they do on David's website.

The snow has gone (layout progress 3)

The "Minnesota winter" stage of layout building never lasts very long. Significantly shorter than an actual winter. A coating of my favourite Woodland Scenics Earth colour soon kills the white and starts to make the ground look like ground.

Layout progress (2)

This one of those "I love it when a plan comes together" sort of posts. Things are definitely beginning to look up. Things are progressing well. The polystyrene landscape formers have been hacked into some sort of shape and are being covered with lightweight spackle. The scene really does start to resemble a Minnesota winter scene!

Here's the bridge talking shape. The abutments are clad in the Chooch flexible stone sheet and the handrails are fitted.
Here's a closer look at one of the abutments. This Chooch sheet is a super material, quite possibly the most convincing stone material you can buy "off the shelf". Superb relief and texture. It's easy to work with, though being flexible you have to be careful cutting it as you can stretch and bend the material as you cut it. I'm in two minds about the self adhesive quality though. Like I said in a previous post it's "tacky" rather than "sticky". The recommended substrates are Masonite, Pink foam and thick card. I used a thick card on these abutments and the material still slides around on that and isn't fixed in place as such. The instructions say you can also apply adhesive to the backing paper if you have problems. But that really obviates the need for the self adhesive backing, doesn't it?

This is the only downside to the material though. I really do like it. They need a little colouring to look more like the native North shore stone and to also hide the cut edges but the instructions cover that too.

All in all a worthwhile product.

Layout progress (1)

After Fridays "blocking out" it didn't take long for some tangible progress to appear. I started to slice away at the white foam with my new hot wire cutter and the landscape began to appear. The picture below shows the "typical Minnesota winter" stage of layout building; i.e. everything is white. You can see how I have quite literally been hacking away with a knife and hot wire cutter to give the ground some shape. The roughness is of no consequence as the next stage will be to cover it in lightweight spackle once I have added a little extra to the river bank, finished the bridge abutments and bedded them in.

What you will also notice is that there is a big old gap between the end of the bridge and the beginning of the curve. Sixty-seven millimeters of gap to be exact. The shortest length of MicroTrains roadbed track is 110mm (what kind of knuckle-head thinks that 110mm is a good shortest length of track). So I need to shorten a couple of sections of track by 43mm to fit them in. Not a difficult task as there is a step-by-step guide here on David K. Smith's James River Branch website. I knew I'd seen this in my previous trawlings through the site and it only took a few minutes to find it again. The process looks pretty easy to do. I've got a pack of 12 straights so I should be able to get two short sections out of those.
Finally a view of what the layout is about. The train running over the bridge. In this specially posed shot you'll see a new item of rolling stock. A weathered Railbox from MicroTrains.

I like Railboxes as readers of my other blogs will know. This one is a gem and looks like a pretty good representation to me. Perhaps I'll write more on it another day. But right now dinner is almost ready, so I'll bid you all adieu, 'til next time.

Shopping (a bit of a soapbox)

Just got back from a day trip to St. Cloud, MN this morning the Minnesota MG group had an open house for the members being as I own a 76 MGB I went along to introduce myself. I showed them pictures of my baby. Which they were all very nice and complimentary about and I lusted after some of the other attendees cars especially one members 1961 MGA. But my total adoration was reserved for a wonderful E-Type Jag in the workshop. But I digress...

After that I went over to Bakers Hobby Supply in Waite Park. A true local Hobby shop. Carrying something for many types of craft and hobby with a growing model railway section so I picked up some trees and fine leaf foliage for the layout. I can't say enough about supporting your local hobby shop. Yes the internet offers you great deals and cheap prices but sometimes it's just better and more fun to go to your LHS and talk and buy. Talking to the owner today he expressed an interest in me displaying Gonou, my T scale layout in his shop. I would certainly be interested in taking him up on that offer. If that could get more people interested in the hobby then great. People today need creative hobbies instead of playing with their X-station-Playbox360's to my mind.

Next trip was to Michaels, the craft superstore. I needed a new hot wire foam cutter the one I bought from them 12 years ago died a death recently and I needed a new one to shape the foam on the layout for the ground.

Twelve years ago I paid $1.99 for a cutter in a closing down sale. It was no more than a cardboard tube to hold the batteries with a cutting frame attached. This one cost me a whopping $9.99! But at least it has a plastic tube to hold the batteries and a proper on-off switch. Better than paying $40-50 for the woodland scenics mains powered one.

There were are lots of stuff bought and lots to do. I still have to catch up on todays Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket yet too...

Visualising the layout

Here you are then, after the bad news of the flexible stone material. Some good news.

A first look at the blocking in for the layout.

Just an oval of track with a bridge going over a river scene. There will be lots of trees around to cover the exits to the rear and a nice sweeping sky backdrop hiding the back of the loop.

Should do the job quite admirably I think.

I'd better get a move on its only 2 weeks to the Granite City Train show.

One step forward...

... two steps back.

Well probably no more than one step back, perhaps just a trip and stumble but I digress.

The other day the Chooch flexible stone arrived. Just one look at it and I was really impressed. I was fired up and wanted to get it on the bridge abutments there and then.

But as things progressed with the material I began to realise that perhaps things wouldn't be all that perfect.

The finish on the material is excellent, there is no doubt about that. But the flexibility and the adhesive on the material bothered me, and as I began to cut and stick it to the styrene my worries grew. The material is flexible yes. But It didn't want to go around all the right angled corners and steps on my abutments. Then there was the adhesive. Sticky, no doubt. Tacky might be a better word. It didn't want to hold the material in place. It slid about a lot and sure enough when I went back to the abutment I'd covered the next day. This was the sight that greeted me

Not good.

Perhaps If I'd put a coat od primer paint on the styrene...

Not to worry. I'm currently building new abutments out of card. The material seems to stick better to that.

Those are currently setting at the moment I'll probably get to cover them this weekend.

At last!

Pictures!

My temperamental modem has started working again (perhaps because it knows that at the earliest opportunity we will be changing internet provider) So here's some pictures of the progress so far.
Above: This is an overall view of the bridge sans central support pillar
Above: The styrene shells of the abutments this will be clad in some embossed stone material of some sort.
Above: The deck of the bridge. The inset between the rails is some 4mm "U" channel
Above: A test fitting showing a section of the Plastruct handrail HRS-2 in place

Carrying on

I might not be able to upload pictures but I can at least report on the progress on the model.
So far so good. I think it's heading in the right direction.
The girders are in the right place underneath the bridge deck which is also in place.
I've built the shells of the abutments and the centre pier as well thtose these might be subject to change when I get the sheets of stone material they will be clad in. I've ordered a pack of N scale Plastruct dressed stone embossed sheet and a sheet of a material that really intrigues me. It's from Chooch enterprises. It's a flexible stone sheet. I hope that I'll be able to cut it to size and shape to fit it on the pier and abutment shells. I think I'll be making new abutments probably because of how thick the material looks, we'll see. I've also ordered 4 packs of the HRS-2 Plastruct handrails. Cut down a bit they should also do the job.
All the materials are in the mail and should be here shortly, meanwhile I sit and twiddle my thumbs...

Quick Question

Anyone know where I can get some Z scale handrails suitable for this bridge?
I thought I had something suitable from plastruct in my spares box, but I was wrong.
I suppose I could piece something together out of evergreen strip but an easier option would be nicer...

Technical issues

Not with the bridge building project. Oh no that's proceeding very nicely thank you. My technical issues concern the modern technology of the internet. For some reason my home Internet connection has been rather spotty and I can't spare the time off work to wait around for AN ENTIRE DAY waiting for the repair man so all I have to blog with is my iPhone. So if you are after a photo filled report - Sorry hope to get to a wi-fi connection with my lap top soon. Blogging on an iPhone is no fun..,