2013 Layout progress review pics and video

Patrick,
I am trying to get an idea of the space required for your roundhouse & turntable area, including the surrounding track. Looking at the layout you posted on 07 August (that's when I moved into my new house!), it appears that the area is shown in the bottom right hand of the diagram. Is that correct?

Thx!

Alex

PS. BTW, the round house looks great. When I first glanced at this picture (below) I thought I was looking at a full-scale protoype you were modeling.

quote:

What did you use in place of your center rail here? What kind of wire is that?

Just to be silly a little guy in the pit with jumper cables to attach to the rollers would be right out there.

The whole layout looks great.

Alex:

The two tracks that go around the round house are O72 and 080. You can see that the inner 072 has a curved switch, it is 072/064. Originally i planned to do 7 stall roundhouse and have room. But i just felt it was overkill and want to do alot of different things in the service facility besides store engines.

The roundhouse in the picture is 38" wide and from the back of the roundhouse to the far side of the 34" turntable is 75"

Jim:

i am going to put a welding light in each pit.No jumper cables.LOL

Patrick, VERY COOL!!! Rick

Hope you like it Al,

Milhouse River Studios Turntable

Patrick,
Wow, what a great idea. How does it work? With such a small contact area on the roller I would think the wire would get red hot.
I think your idea would make a neat way to model a water trough for a tender scoop.

Thanks for posting…Keep up the Great Work!

J.P.

Thats some excellent heavy duty benchwork that you built. Nice carpentry and I applaud your choice of using all wood. That layout is huge and it would seem that you will need a number of people on your team to build and complete it.

JP: The steel rod is probubly equal to a 20 gauge wire, its only drawing one engine not an entire lighted passenger set.

OOOOOOOOH JP that was going to be my secret!!!!!! I am building two water troughs and a ash pit with the same idea. The only thing is you really dont want a thin rod like this cutting your rollers on the mainline.


Dennis:

how are you , My team has been working on the layout all ten of them ,
8 fingers and 2 thumbs. My 10 year old does occasionally paint something for me.She likes the lttile people.

Soooooorry Patrick,
When I saw your wire idea I had a total recall of a Tender Scoop thread started a couple years ago.
I wondered then, as I do now if it would work. If the roller rolls over the wire that would never hurt the roller or wire.
If the roller skids over the wire that could be trouble for the wire..

Thanks for posting all the great pictures.

J.P.

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick H:
Hope you like it Al,

Milhouse River Studios Turntable

Patrick, Great job, I like it! Just got a chance to check back on your thread. Do you mind if I use some of your photos on the website?

Patrick, your roundhouse is fantastic. I admire your progress. It's something to aspire for. Also you are blessed with a wonderful space to build your railroad empire.

Patrick,

No worries! I get to fly jets for "work"...

You may be building a model train "Mecca", your next build should be a B&B so people have a place to stay when they visit!

Vapor

How wide is the table that the round house is on?

Patrick, I sure have enjoyed seeing all the photos of your layout. It looks fabulous.
Regarding the earlier thread about dirt, it's too bad I didn't see it earlier because if there is one thing I can provide from West Texas it's an abundance of the finest dirt on the face of the planet. We're in plowing season and the dirt that's thrown up in the air settles back down all over the tractors and plows. I can rake off a bucket full of it in seconds. As you can imagine I find the idea of paying for dirt to be rather humorous.

quote:

Originally posted by davidbross:
How wide is the table that the round house is on?

David B:

If you go up on this page you will see the dimensions I gave Alex.


James:

I know !! 40.00 for 5 little bottles of dirt!! If it was warmer out ,Id go to the baseball field and get some of my taxes back.LOL

$40 for dirt!!! Seriously, I've got to get in the hobby dirt selling business.

Patrick
Your layout looks awesome, the whistle on your CC2 reminds me of "Noahs Ark" at Kennywood Park

Agree. Awesome!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Vapor:
Awesome Layout... One day when I retire from the military and can plan to live in the same house for more than 3 years, I too will build big!

Vapor:
Thank you very much for your service and God bless you to be be a good example to those you come in contact with.

I like the look of the track leading up to and alongside your turntable. I am talking about the track that has not been ballasted yet... I am assuming you completed the grass and are going to ballast? Or are you going to leave it as is?

quote:

Originally posted by Zett:
I like the look of the track leading up to and alongside your turntable. I am talking about the track that has not been ballasted yet... I am assuming you completed the grass and are going to ballast? Or are you going to leave it as is?

I am going to leave the entire yard dirt and mostly patches of dead grass. I think i like the look of all dirt alot better than the cinders.


That whole stretch is still underway. I am waiting for 2 more backdrop pieces and slowly working my way down to the corner.

Patrick,
Thanks again for taking the time to post and for the videos - they serve as great motivators. (Other than work-work, all I have been doing is working on my layout, and it still seems to be progressing too slowly!)

BTW, which train won the race? (Nice video!)

Alex

Patrick

I've been following this thread with great interest. Quite an amazing job. I am enjoying the ride! Keep the pictures coming!

Good morning Patrick

I know you spent some time looking at lighting and Tom Lee gave you a lot of useful information. What bulbs and fixtures did you end up using and where did you end up getting them from?

I am getting ready to install my turntable (Al-34 inch) and just want you to know how inspiring your pictures are. Your turntable / Roundhouse are incredible. Thanks so much for taking the time to post your pictures.

quote:

Originally posted by gsn1:
Good morning Patrick

I know you spent some time looking at lighting and Tom Lee gave you a lot of useful information. What bulbs and fixtures did you end up using and where did you end up getting them from?

I am getting ready to install my turntable (Al-34 inch) and just want you to know how inspiring your pictures are. Your turntable / Roundhouse are incredible. Thanks so much for taking the time to post your pictures.

Thanks Marty,
wont be long until you can come over to run some trains.

Alex:

Tip on thre turntable" the bridge lifts straight up off, it then flip it and trace.

thats how i did it. Earlier in my posting , i thanked the forum members for "feeding me" compliments, it makes a difference when other people are also helping and enjoying your build.



Thanks Gary,

In short:

From my big 7 day experience with lighting.LOL For your set up I would go to HD and get the 5000 kelvin 92 CRI 10 pack of flourecents for 38.00 start there.

Long story:

First Tom recommended a Kelvin rating of around 5000 and a CRI of 88 or better(see his post above) being for great "eye candy" and pictures in his words. At the time i had no clue what he was talking about. After looking into the lighting the lighting people , they made my head spin explaining the color glow of the kelvin and the Color rendering index, then recommended (basically what he said)5000 Kelvin and 92CRI (100CRI is the sun, I remembered that) is the range i would want.

So i ordered the 2x4 fixtures and the bulbs. (Then later seen the bulbs at Home depot ,a 10pack of 5000 92CRI flourescents for 38.00 .

When the fixtures arrived at the house from electic supply , my wife called me and said , what are your doing with those big flourescent fixtures?

Im gonna put them around the layout for taking better pictures and being able to see what im doing down there.

Oh no your not! You already have recessed lights. Your not mixing them.
Our guests have to walk buy that half of the gameroom to get to the bar etc..

I told her to go back up stairs this was my room. So i took down a few ceiling tile and planned where they would go. Well of course : there not gonna fit in some areas where the duct work is. How could i not thought about this. So iwent back upstairs and told the wife: Im sorry your right honey , ill take them back.LOL

So i loaded up my pick up truck and told the wife to get in.(like i was doing this to please her LOL) Off to the electical outlet we went.

3 hours later i left the store with with black track lighting(sliding adjustable downlighting) that holds up to 100 watt rating bilbs and also got spotlight bulbs 18.00 each. That use 23 watts but put out 1200 luemans at 94 CRI ( Blue max bulbs)


So , I was back to my original plan to use black track lighting to follow the contour of the layout. Luckily there are so many new good bulbs out there now, Its gonna be no problem that i have to use single bulbs instead of the longer tubes.

I m not out of the wood yet because after all that i found out there are even newer high CRI bulbs that can be dimmed. So this is going to be an ongoing experiment for me.

Awesome video of the J and the 1218. I was anticipating them coming out of the bottom tunnel and across the trestle but instead they continued across the top. It must be neat for visitors trying to track trains in a room that size. You better slow down or your gonna get it done and have to tear it all down and do it again. Nice work.

3 hours later i left the store with with black track lighting(sliding adjustable downlighting) that holds up to 100 watt rating bilbs and also got spotlight bulbs 18.00 each. That use 23 watts but put out 1200 luemans at 94 CRI ( Blue max bulbs)


So , I was back to my original plan to use black track lighting to follow the contour of the layout. Luckily there are so many new good bulbs out there now, Its gonna be no problem that i have to use single bulbs instead of the longer tubes.

I m not out of the wood yet because after all that i found out there are even newer high CRI bulbs that can be dimmed. So this is going to be an ongoing experiment for me.[/QUOTE]

Ok, so, I must be on the right track. I already have the track lighting following the contour of the layout. I purchased double circuit track and I have two switches, so one side could be on a dimmer. I guess I just need to educate myself on bulbs. Appreciate your input and will try to find some Blue Max Bulbs and check them out.

Take care and I am still anxious to come for a visit. Just let me know when you are comfortable with people coming over.

wow what an amazing layout

Well i am waiting for the last 2 pieces of backdrop for this stretch of the layout.
I am now concentrating to completely finish this stretch.
I started the skirting and power panel. This way i can finish the ballast along the edge and also begin to run all my drops from track and accessories back to panel and also determine my down lighting positioning.

So the scenery and down lighting is at a stand still until backdrop comes.

Dont want to detail it then destroy it . I wasnt sure of my exact finish height was gonna be, so this was sorta a self inflicted problem.

After seeing Gregs posting with the sweet wood floor it reminded me I had some oak flooroing left over when i built the house.

So i put it to good use.

Of course i still will eventually paint and stain this.

4" wide unfinished white oak flooring planks.

























Two of my old ZWs for variable power for the accessories. I plan to have 8 power strips under layout to connect various loads. 3,6,9,12,14,16 volts. I m pretty sure the Old ZWs start at 6 volt so ill have to figure something out for the 3 volt.
1 New ZW for conventional remote for bottom mainlines.
7 of the old 135 watt bricks (need 2 more hard to find)will all go to blocked upper mainline areas including the yard.
2 Powermasters (behind the cab1s) I will use for the lighting around layout.
2 SC-2 for accessories only.
1 -cab1 base(also behing cab-1 remote) for using cab1 with Legacy and to send data signal to DZ-2500 switches.

Awesome---You've given me a couple of ideas. Thx.
Joe S.

Patrick

This looks great, very nice job on the skirt. I like what you did with the power distribution area as well.

Patrick,
The skirting really finishes everything off nicely. If you have problems getting that base to bend into those tighter radii on the fourth picture, may I suggest trying Azek. You can read about it here if you don't already know about it.

quote:

Originally posted by gregj410:
Patrick,
The skirting really finishes everything off nicely. If you have problems getting that base to bend into those tighter radii on the fourth picture, may I suggest trying Azek. You can read about it here if you don't already know about it.

Rich,

thanks, im sure ill be adding to it as i go. Hows that valley coming along?

Thanks Joe

Greg,
Im gonna cheat when i get there, I am going to put a lake in there and cut straight across . I wanna run a track to the lake, but havnt worked out the scene in my mind yet. Thanks for lookin out. I will check out the Azek though.

Patrick,

That looks great! (Not surprisingly . . .)

The shelves give me food for thought as I may be able to do something similar in some areas. And the solid panels (masonite? 1/8" or 1/4"?) really make the layout look best. I was going to use some sort of curtains in some areas - - - but not anymore!

THANKS!

Alex

Patrick:

Looks awesome, When you get finished how about teaching a class on foam rock making. This summer I am starting the layout without fail! The honey due list is almost complete on my four year time frame fixer upper house.

Will you be at the LVRR layout tour?

How many MTH N&W hoppers are you up to?

Hope to get an invite to your open house.

Great work!
Mark
harleyhouse

Contact you soon on the block windows.

Patrick,
Really nice planning and execution!
I'm sure you are very pleased.

Enjoy-

Patrick,

Two questions,

1 you responded above regarding painting your rails, but do you paint them ballasted or paint them first then ballast. How do you keep the paint off of the ties?

2 how does your class A smoke so much? I have the same engine but it does not produce nearly the same effect?

thanks

Patrick, when you can not do the tubes recessed just surface mount them using the cloud cover.

The other route is to use the Otts light. Otts perhaps is the very best light and installed properly will not produce any shadowon the decking.

They install like high hats.



Example of Otts Lights in a layout room. Note lack of shadows below 9" from ceiling in photos 3 and on.

www.tomthorpecurvedbenchwork.com/6.html

This is Joe Giannovario's train room as of Aug 2009 while installing benchwork.

Hey Patrick,

I have to ask, maybe I missed it but I looked back:

Where did you get those very large full trees on your layout? they are awesome.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Tom Tee:
Example of Otts Lights in a layout room. Note lack of shadows below 9" from ceiling in photos 3 and on.

www.tomthorpecurvedbenchwork.com/6.html

This is Joe Giannovario's train room as of Aug 2009 while installing benchwork.

Tom asked me to add some comments here. My layout sits in a 14 x 22 space. I originally had 9 65W flood lights pretty much spaced evenly across the ceiling. When I decided to rebuild the OST layout I had a contractor come in and add 29 more ceiling pots, basically every 2 feet across the ceiling. I then put in 15W OttLites (these are special CFLs equiv. to 60W incandescents). OttLites are NOT like the CFLs you find at the big box stores. The light is clean, very white and bright. As you can see from the photos at Tom's site, there are virtually no shadows on the layout. I do not need any additional lighting for photography. The 38 OttLites consume 15W LESS energy than the 9 floods so no extra wiring was needed at the electrical panel. OttLites aren't cheap. They cost about $12 each but I feel they're worth the expense. My workbench is under one section of the new layout so the OttLites provide my task lighting as well.

You can see some photography on the layout here:
We've Been Working On The Railroad

Joe Giannovario

Where might one find these type of light?