Ceiling layout is done and operating, main (table level) is done and operating as are half the accessories, and just finished building the elevated level. 
Attachments
Images (6)
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Looking good! I see you used a very similar method for building your ceiling railroad as I did. I will have to get some photographs on here to compare once I get home to the PC. Your room is so much brighter than mine. Mine is in a basement family room with dark brown paneling. What is the overall size of your layout?
Very nice indeed!
Looks great!
Mark Boyce posted:Looking good! I see you used a very similar method for building your ceiling railroad as I did. I will have to get some photographs on here to compare once I get home to the PC. Your room is so much brighter than mine. Mine is in a basement family room with dark brown paneling. What is the overall size of your layout?
Mark - thanks. This is a bedroom that became available when our eldest moved out and our 3rd daughter went off to college. All 4 of them wanted the space in the basement for socializing, so I tore it down in exchange for the bedroom. The around-the-ceiling is 11' x 14'. The table top is 11' x 8' (same width as ceiling, just not as deep to allow for walking in the front of the room.
I'm looking for suggestions on wrapping the elevated level supports with some sort of paper to make them appear more realistic than wood. Not brick, but something concrete/cement-like other than gray paint which is my fallback.
raising4daughters posted:I'm looking for suggestions on wrapping the elevated level supports with some sort of paper to make them appear more realistic than wood. Not brick, but something concrete/cement-like other than gray paint which is my fallback.
I haven't ever done this, but would some 600 or maybe even 1000grit sandpaper achieve the look you want? I recall buying some grey colored sheets of 8.5" x 11" sheets of 1000 grit from the auto paint store that may work. Or maybe you could even do a light spray paint on top of the sandpaper to get the color you want?
Just an idea...
There are cut stone wall photos that you can print.
it's a little, but there is also, Design Master Quarry #862 spray paint.
Modeltrainsoftware - brickyard - for printable stone or brick
you get the idea
Fantastic layout!
R4D,
Great Train Room Congrats!
Now save your money and invest in some bigger Transformers, say a ZW-L or a couple Z4K's with side receivers.
PCRR/Dave
Pine Creek Railroad posted:R4D,
Great Train Room Congrats!
Now save your money and invest in some bigger Transformers, say a ZW-L or a couple Z4K's with side receivers.
PCRR/Dave
Yeah, I hear you, but they have sentimental value. The 2 LWs, 2 RWs, a 1033, and a TW were my grandfather's. He died in 1985 and I remember him most running trains in his basement Thanksgiving thru January. I got his sets, accessories, etc. in 2002 when my grandmother died. It was actually cheaper for me to just buy the Power Masters for about $25 each than to invest in the big transformers you mention. I do need to clean up my wiring. The Williams came with a set.
I did buy a reconditioned PW ZW for our Christmas layout. I keep it strictly conventional with my grandpa's old trains and my daughter's WBB girls set other than her Thomas LionChief.
You could use sanding sealer on the wood (you basically put the sanding sealer on, sand it with wet dry, then put another layer on), used to use that on balsa wood I used on model rockets so they didn't appear to be balsa, came out looking like metal. Once you did that, then you could use a grayish/brown matte spraypaint to simulate concrete, maybe paint it that color then use sandpaper to roughen it a bit, you also could try something else I did that worked okay, dilute wallboard compound in water to make a kind of paint out of it, and put that on with a brush, may be rough enough to simulate concrete, then you could paint that a gray/brown color. Will take some experimenting on scrap wood to get the look you want.
raising4daughters posted:Mark Boyce posted:Looking good! I see you used a very similar method for building your ceiling railroad as I did. I will have to get some photographs on here to compare once I get home to the PC. Your room is so much brighter than mine. Mine is in a basement family room with dark brown paneling. What is the overall size of your layout?
Mark - thanks. This is a bedroom that became available when our eldest moved out and our 3rd daughter went off to college. All 4 of them wanted the space in the basement for socializing, so I tore it down in exchange for the bedroom. The around-the-ceiling is 11' x 14'. The table top is 11' x 8' (same width as ceiling, just not as deep to allow for walking in the front of the room.
That's a little larger than my family room Ceiling Central RR. It was my wife's suggestion when both daughters were still living at home and no other space was available. Now I have an adjacent room our older daughter vacated a year ago. It is 11' 6" x 11' 4". I will build a regular height layout there. Here are some of the photographs of the CCRR I wrote of yesterday.
