I’m a few days late regarding my last thread. But better late than never! Comments, questions and useful suggestions always welcome! Alot accomplished but such a waaaays to go! Track needs painted & weathered, approx. 75 structures to be built, backdrop painted and installed, control panel and fascia to be started, wiring, switch machines, turntable re-built, bridges to be built/weathered, turnout controls and ground throws…geeze! That’s just the short list! What should I do next? Hmmmmm (ain’t it fun?!?)
It is looking really good. The progress you are showing is much better than we are. It seems we jsut can get over the hump and see daylight at the end of the tunnel … but the trip is well worth it. Looking at your to do list is really close to ours. I look forward in seening more pics as you progress.
Thanks Jay! I’m the GM of a restaurant and work about 65 hrs a week, however I spend a couple hours every morning working on it. My days off are usually during the week and the family is off to work and school so I do quite a bit while I have the house to myself. (Then when it reaches the time of day when my wife is about an hour away from coming home is when I’m pushing either the mower or vacuum around! LOL) I noticed in your reply you said “we”. So I thought-- “hmmmm” “we?” “multiple personality?” “Naaah” [:-^] Then I checked out your website. Very Neat!
Thanks guys! No mrr this weekend though. Finally got a couple days off with my family at the same time. That rarely happens so we went out of town chasing ghosts on battlefields! (Of course had to stop at a LHS for a couple DPM kits and more rail joiners.)
Thanks for the kind comment Canazar. Structure building is in my top 3 faves of the hobby.
Since I work bout every weekend and can’t post in the WPF threads…Here’s another batch with a bit more progress. As always helpful comments and suggestions welcome!
Let me know if I’m beating a dead horse and everyone’s sick of a pile of OSB,pine & ply with buildings and track all over it. I’ll wait till backdrop and scenery construction is underway before going nuts with the camera!
Keep the pictures coming. Great to see that someone is making progress. My layout is slowly progressing, but it has a long way to go. One of these days I’ll post some pictures.
I personally love seeing pictures like yours. I find it neat to see the imagination other people have. By seeing your pics without all the outer shell, I can see where all the tracks go and where they are located, and I can just imagine what the final result will look like. I say keep shootin pics… And keep up the hard work.
can I ask some questions? In the pictures of the corner is that 3 levels and what kind of grade do you have on them?I see you have a large yard your planing,are you able to reach all the wat across it to get to a car on the back? now I don’t think your betting a dead horse because I didn’t see the dead horse yet(ha ha).thank you for your time and pitures gives me some ideas for mine.
Trust me, there are a lot of folks that for whatever reason haven’t been able to “pull the trigger” on building their own layout, and will study your progress, while picking out things they would like to try. I posted my CUMBERLAND EXTENSION update progress pics back in February, and there have been over 300 “views” since then.
I would advise you to try and get some of that backdrop done before too long.
Thanks guys for the encouragement and comments! I’m doing this thing solo and it ain’t easy when sometimes you need 3 or 4 arms. Because of that, the benchwork may not seem like top quality carpentry but it is solid and level. It’s also my 1st attempt at l-girder construction and I highly recommend it. I’ve always used open grid on previous layouts and the flexibility that l-girder allows is amazing once I began to understand how it works and makes the sum of the whole. To answer a couple questions. Ed: The layout is essentially a 2 level dog bone style. The “3” levels you see is the bottom track being eventually hidden from view and the other (2) tracks you see are one and the same as that track crosses under itself. Kind of hard to explain as my drawn trackplan has hit the ole trashcan. I devised a trackplan using the curve radius I could attain in the space given. (minimum mainline radius is 28") Once the yard, engine terminal and major sidings were planned out and a couple big geographic features were dreamt up, I ditched the plan and just went with the flow. So I don’t have one to post! Grades are approx. 1.5 pct. Yes I can reach across the yard area. I’m 6’3". That helps!
And lastly, Fifedog: You were reading my mind! I have begun the backdrop framework that will support the Masonite. I’m using furring strips with 1x2 crossbraces. The backdrop will curve on the corner. Sky and clouds will be painted before being installed and the detail painting will be done by hand with acrylics once I’m certain of the final geographic features and their location.
Thanks again guys and BTW, Ed: Stay tuned to see the dead horse!
