This is the first time I’m posting a progess report on the layout that my Dad and I have been building over the past 1-1/2yrs. For a complete report from the very beginning check out my signature. Granted it is another forum, but unfortunately I can’t move the whole thing over here. So I’ll just pick up where I am now.
It is the PRR Schuylkill River Division, mainly near the Philadelphia region. We chose this area because my Dad was born in Philly and we are both familiar with the areas features. The plan is from a John Armstrong book. I slightly modified the plan to fit our wants and space. But it is pretty true to the orignal JA plan.
At this point the bench work is complete and 95% of the track work is done. I just started some of the scenery over the past few visits. I mainly build the structures at my house and transport them to his layout. Oh yeah, by the way… the layout is 2hrs from my home. Not and easy commute for a day trip… especially with work in the way and a family to hang out with.
I think we’ve accomplished quite a bit in just 1-1/2yrs. So I hope you enjoy the future postings and by all means please critique and share ideas with me as I will with you.
Here is a plan of the most recent version of the layout.
Back from a long vacation. I got a lot accomplished.
quick run down.
-finished building, painted and weathered the large warehouse in the yard area.
-built, painted, weathered and installed a Walther’s double track warren truss bridge.
-built the Micro Engineering double track city viaduct and started to install
-made mountain terrain from foam and cardboard.
-installed 1/3 of the fascia to the front of the layout (needed for above)
-installed some wiring
-RAN some trains [:D]
I’ll post the project individually because of the time factor. So look for them over then next day or two.
This is a warehouse that I’ve been working on and finally had a chance to install it on the layout. The name is from a family relative that had a piano company in Philadelphia in the early 1900’s. I’m not sure if the company ever grew this big, but it makes a nice relationship connection to some business on the layout. I plan on coming up with some more names for future buildings with “Family Ties”.
Here’s some pre-painting and weather pix.
A little bit further along in the process…
Here is the completed building. For the b/w sign I first painted the area with Polyscale Aged White. Then I used stick on letters to mask off the name. I also masked the boarder of the sign with blue painters tape. The I tapped on and dry brushed Grimy Black over the whole area. After pulling the letter and tape off i had a completed sign. With just a very light dry brushing of the aged white under each letter, to represent running and fading, the sign was done. I add on a bendy drink straw for the vent pipe. My daughter wanted me to use her straw for something, I can’t pass up her cute face and say no. The grey conduit was made from some bent styrene and CA glued in place. At the ground level of the conduit I made a simple meter box from scrap styrene and painted it grey.
This is the area it is installed against the backdrop.
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Looking good Ron! And thank you for posting the trackplan here, I was the person who asked for it on youtube. (Though I found that link on your profile)
Another project I worked one was the Walther’s Double Track Warren Truss Bridge. This was a fairly easy kit to build but once together made a very nice bridge. This is just one part of what will be the High Line in Philly. It’s located just west of 30th Street Station.
Here’s a prior to painting shot.
And after I airbrushed it and weathered with chalks.
Another part of the High Line on the layout is built from Micro Engineering Double Track City Viaduct. This kit was a bit of a bear to put together. The 2 towers were not that hard but the girders were tough. You can never have enough little clamps… especially ones that square things up at the same time. I have not paint the viaduct yet so I ended up bring that home to airbrush and weather later.
I nice kit.
I still have a few stone arches to build to complete the full High Line. These will most likely be scratch built.
Here’s a few shots of the real thing to let you know of the variety of this viaduct. It stretches 3.7miles along the west side of Philly. It allowed the PRR to bypass the freight trains around any of the passenger service near 30th St. Station. Originally it had catenary which has since been removed, but the towers still remain. Nonetheless it makes an interesting prototype and model… I hope.
One thing that I did on this last trip was to install part of the fascia board. It really starts to dress up the layout once that thing goes on. It defines the layout, covers up that skeletal bench work and says…AAaaahhh. I only had to put it up on about 1/3 of the layout. And area that had lots of elevation changes and scenery that depended on where the fascia was.
To attach the 1/8 Masonite board I first need outriggers. I made these from extra 1"by stock that I had around. Use up all those short scraps you have lying around. I tried to keep them vertical of each other, and the pairs where spaced about 1-1/2-2’ in tight radius areas and 2-3’ apart at straight runs.
You can see a few in these pictures.
Here is the masonite with the basic profile cut out. once it was installed and the scenery brought up to it, I later roto-zipped the edge to match the scenery.
I made a real handy jig to help hold up the fascia and keep it level while I screwed it into the outriggers. I used 1-1/4" drywall screws with #10 finish washers to attached it. The jig stood 36" high with a 1" square board on top to keep the masonite in place. I added a couple feet to help it stand up. they also made it possible to wedge the jig under the board and keep it tight against the outriggers. especially in the tight radius areas.
You can see the finished fascia in the next few pix.
I completed a lot of the cardboard webbing for the rural mountain side of the layout. I’ll soon be ready to start adding the plaster soaked paper towels over top to really make the mountains come alive. I can’t wait!
Here is a bunch of shots of the Schuylkill river valley. I like how the tracks run along side of the river. If I only had room to model the deathtrap Schuylkill Expressway, it would look exactly like the prototype.
An overall shot of the river valley.
This will be a large rock cut, a familiar site along the expressway
Here is a VIDEO of the river area. I discuss some ideas for the scenery.
This is the upper track section of the layout. The highest point that trains can reach. It includes 2 pop-out section. One will have a small town on it and the other already has the base for a hillside attached to it.
The pink foam is one of the pop-outs. The hill hasn’t been added yet.
Here you can see the hill added on, taken from the river side.
And this is from the outer fascia side, taken from the adjacent den.
Here’s a VIDEO of the pop-out and upper track area.
Speaking of videos here’s a VIDEO of a GP-30 taking a spin around the layout. I’ll try to get longer runs,but the battery zonked out just as it ducked into the tunnel.[sigh] The model is a Bachmann DCC installed model I got off pf Ebay for a great deal. I couldn’t pass it up… especially when I low-balled the price and unexpectedly won.[:O]
Nice work on the bridges, I built that same Walther’s double track bridge, it’s a nice model.
I’m amazed at how fast yours is going up, I’ve watched your youtube vids, and I’m impressed with the speed of your construction. I can’t wait to see those hillsides covered up!
I haven’t been down to the layout in a while but my Dad got more of the fascia up and painted it the green color I chose. I think it looks pretty good so far. It really starts to finish off and dress the layout.
This is in front of the main yard area.
Here is the area of fascia that I put up back in August.(to the right of the red pole. He added the section to the left of the pole that wraps around to the main yard area.
And a wider angle shot of the whole layout. It’s really coming together.
I can’t wait to get down there and start working again.
I know you don’t have scenery done yet, but the work you have done is very good. Lots of good pictures and looks well grounded in the prototype! Impressive, Most Impressive!
Yes, wow! And, I really like the SIZE of your piano factory!! I like big buildings on my layout. I think they make the trains look more realistic in an urban setting.
Got back from my Dad’s house on Saturday with some great progress photos and videos to share. I’ve been very busy this week, even though I’m on “vacation”. I’ve been putting in 8hrs a day working on a clients layout, a Marklin HO scale 13’x17’ layout. I’ll share photos and videos later on a separate thread.
Onto the progress report.
The main project that I worked on this trip was laying out the control panel schematics on the installed fascia areas. The first panel I did was for the main yard. I used 1/4" white pin striping tape for the lines. The fascia was 17" high and I have 14 tracks to lay in. I used 1" centers on the schematic, that left just enough space on the panel at the top for future names and yard tech info.
Here is the start of the panels. These are the 2 main lines with the crossover and station siding. You can see the laser line level I used to get the tape dead on straight. I put dots on each side of the fascia at 1" centers and lined up the laser for perfect lines. easy and worked like a charm.
After a few hours of work, lining up dots, laying tape, cutting 45 degree angles, and cursing a couple times… here’s the results.
The right side of the yard near the roundhouse. The black square is the Walther’s 90’ turntable control. A very nice kit, works perfectly.
Here’s a close up of the TT control.
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Here’s the video I made of an Athearn F7A/B #9673 pulling 6 AHM(I think) PRR passenger coaches. This is my first attempt at editing a video of many clips. Please give me some feedback or pointers. A couple of things I know I’m going to do next time is to run the trains slower, and get more low angle run-by’s with a steady camera. But I like the results so far.
