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HO scale water

Craig’s been back in touch and has more details on his HO scale water scene:

“Al:

Thanks for the response from the readers. They asked for more pictures and a track plan, so I took some more photos. The guy who made the bench work took the plans from the Blackwater Jct in Model Railroader magazine, I don’t know the date or issue, but I think it’s from Maryland. And he gave me the book he made when I bought the track from him.

The first picture shows the overall track plan in that book and I have added the outside loop drawn in black. The area labeled Blackwater is the town I now call Hunter. I am still working on the engine servicing area, as you can see from the photos. The second and third pictures show the west end of the layout and the photo labeled East end shows the other end of the layout including the engine service area, the little town of Caelville and Cienna Lake.

It also shows a good view of the river. The river was interesting to model. I used Magic Water and believe me, it finds every pinhole and drips. Make sure the riverbed is sealed completely before mixing the two-part resin and pouring it. I poured it in two stages. After pouring the first level, I dry-brushed areas around the rocks to show ripples and sprinkled stuff on top like grit, bits of leaves ground really fine, not much just a little. Then when I poured the 2nd layer over this, it looked like stuff floating just under the surface of the water.

On the 2nd layer, when the Magic Water started to set, I teased the surface into bumps, then when it set completely, I used water effects on top of the Magic Water and formed waves and ripples. I dry-brushed these ripples with white paint as you can see in the picture of Cienna Lake.

The pics labeled Hunter 1 and Downtown show two views of the town of Hunter. There was a question of where I got the dimestore Indian. It came with the kit for that structure. A view of the mine and the busy crossing shows the industry that keeps Hunter alive and going. The view of the River shows the seam under one of the three mountains. I have yet to make this seam “disappear”. All three mountains are removable so that I can access the track under them.

The photo titled Bar B Que shows the company homes owned by the mine, and the families getting together for a weekend bar-b-que. I made the street lights out of some grain of rice bulbs and some spare plastic that I drilled and filed down to achieve the tapered shape mounted on skewers painted gray and weathered with sandpaper to achieve an “old pole” look. The wire still needs to be painted, but whose layout isn’t always under construction?

I’ll send some pics of the intitial stages of my construction and some more details of the river, rocks and the mountains later. Thanks much for the response from the other readers. I really enjoy this link, keep it up.

Craig”

Big thanks to Craig! If you missed Craig’s first post, it’s here.

I do love reading about your layouts and how you all solve different problems. Superb.

Adding water to your layout is always tricky. I’m reminded of Rob’s model train water post.

And Brian’s waterfront post too.

There’s Dan’s too: HO scale water ponds.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you grab the bull by the horns, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

HO scale lumber yard

Joesph has been back in touch with his HO scale lumber yard – he’s been busy adding power poles and other stuff to his layout:

“Hi Al; It’s been a while and I don’t remember where I left off but here goes. I know I didn’t send these.

Below is the Power Generating plant for the Saw Mill and Planning facility.

Saw mill

Overview of “San Juan Creek just past twilight

Inside detail of the San Juan Creek station.

A lot of action around the saw mill and planning facility.

Another look at the planning facility.

Looking westward to United Cold Storage, Ochs tank farm, the local church and Ochs Oil office. (Since this picture, power poles have been installed and the office has a light on the platform).

Another “touch’ was tp extend the background beyond the layout so it doesn’t mess up the photos as much. This is the west end.

This is the engine yard with lights installed on the coaling tower and looking at the the background extension to the east. (Power poles have been installed since this picture).

Another shot of the background to the east. This shot also shows the interior detail of the fire station.

“New” forklift at the Grants, NM passenger and freight terminal.

Downtown at night.

The San Juan Mountains area of NM has its own short line, the San Juan and Central. I needed to have a mainline pass through the area and the closest is the Santa Fe, hence, the depot at Grants, NM. I “re-branded” this Berkshire to Santa Fe 4113 (making all my own number board decals) as Santa Fe did use Berkshire locos for freight.

I also “re-branded” a Pacific loco to pull the Santa Fe passenger consist.

Another addition is “Sonny’s Texaco service station. Again, power poles and an additional sub-station have been added.

Twilight at the Grants, NM station.

Power poles serving the San Juan Coal Co. mine.

This is how I put the power poles together. Rix cross arms on 7/64” dowels.

Power poles installed at the engine yard

More poles installed.

And more.

The owner of “Ma’s Place” has a new, custom Chevy truck. It is larger than HO Scale but in the background, looks ok. And, yes, it IS out of era.

Jospeh”

A huge big thanks to Joseph.

If you’d like to see his first post – the very start of his HO scale, it’s here.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get stuck in, the model train Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Wiring DC and DCC

Jerry has been in touch with his thoughts on Wiring DC and DCC:

“I had not thought much about ‘difficulties” in wiring a model train layout until I read one of your recent publications.

Comments made to answer the question posed kind of developed into DC versus DCC.

A few comments did provide some advice as to wiring but no one bothered to provide any wiring diagrams for the questioner.

Wiring a model train layout can be a real challenge or it can be relatively easy. Ask yourself the question: what type of train operations do I want to do?

For me having a train go round and round on a loop seams rather boring, but very easy wiring.

My first layout I built was about 1956. It was a 4 ft x 8 ft piece of plywood and a oval track. Since then I have constructed a number of layouts.

When we moved to Utah, USA, a few years ago, we found that our home would not accommodate a train play area. So we purchased a 12 ft x 16 ft shed, Grandpa’s Train Room.

Like I said, having a train just go around a loop did not seem like a great challenge. So I chose the Atlas “Great Eastern Trunk” layout [with modifications] for my layout

I can run both DC and DCC on the layout. Electricity is electricity, whether DC or AC.

The layout as wired has 15 sections of track operated by DPDT [double pole double throw] center off switches.

There are 15 turnouts operated by SPST center off switches.

Also, since the turnouts are AC operated I have inserted one DPDT center off momentary switch (So anytime I use a turnout switch I don’t accidentally leave it on which could burn out the turnout mechanism).

This is the under side of the control panel.

Now I can run either [but not both] DC and DCC. I just have to remember to switch the track switches [all] to either clockwise or counter-clockwise position.

I do not operate the turnouts by my DCC controller only use the SPST switches [+ momentary switch.]

Below is the turnout switch wiring.