Lighting fixes

 The other day, I noticed my streetlights in Johnstown were unusually dim. At first, I thought my low-voltage power supply had gone bad. However, after swapping it with a know good, that proved not to be the case. I ntoiced the PC board became hot within moments of current being applied.

I moved to the barrier strips that distribute power and noticed a small plume of smoke coming from one. Long story short, when my wife was stashing some of her stuff, she bashed to wires into each other, creating the short. This fix was dead simple. Now my N Scale motorists can stop treating the Busch traffic lights like a four-way stop!

Some more lighting in Gallitizin had glitched out on me. Namely a street light and the office light at the cement plant. The street light's wire had come loose, that simple fix. The office ultimatly required a new LED.

Unfortunately the Altoona end of the layout is pretty much dead in the water until all the stuff I ordered arrives. In addition to the structure kits, I've also ordered up a new urban backdrop from eBay. seller a.b.b.r_81 (link). More on this when it arrives.

Johnstown is Finished

 I finally sucked it up and tackled the last Johnstown project I've been dragging my feet on. I strung the rest of the the high-voltage transmission lines. I'd been putting it off because the lines runs through very difficult to access part of the layout. But, I persevered and got it done. 

I was going to run regular telephone polls too, but decided that would be overkill. It's reasonable that a smallish city like Johnstown would have underground lines. 

So that's it. After three long years, Johnstown is done. That leaves Altoona as the last bit of heavy lifting. Speaking of which...

I dug out my jar of raw umber acrylic and painted the Altoona end. As you can see I've relocated all the scenery supplies and assorted junk formerly residing there beneath the layout. 

As of right now, I'm still not entirely sure what the game plan is for Altoona. Since this yard will be used for operation and there will be a lot of reaching across, I will probably limit structures to the backdrop.  may even cut a hole in the middle of the loops to better facilitate switching. We shall see.

I am a Lineman for the County

After months of inactivity, I started a project I've been dreading, adding wires to the high-voltage towers. Started at the Johnstown substation and worked my way towards the outer edge of the layout. The procedure is dead simple, wrap some black thread around the insulator, squirt it with some CA, utter a few curse words and presto! High voltage lines.  Now I just need to do a set leading toward the wall.

Finished the Stormwater Catch Basin

Well, this project certainly took a while. Anyway, I started off by digging into the foam with my hot knife and then filling in all the "oopses" with patching plaster. When that dried, I painted everything raw umber.

After the paint dried, I applied turf to the slope and planted varying shades of Woodland Scenics field grass.

I also thought it would be funny to have drums leaking toxic waste. The drums came with one of my old Alloy Forms kits. I painted them Floquil "coach green" on the outside and "rust" on the inside. The leaking toxic waste is some luminous pain I got down at Walmart.

I painted the culver Testors "Flat Light Aircraft Grey" and stuck it in. My original idea was to place another culvert on the other side of the tracks and have it connected to a drainage ditch. However, I noticed most catch basis simply have an inlet pipe and that's it. So I eschewed the drainage ditch.

Lastly, I added some Woodland Scenics Talus to the culvert, used masking tape along the sides and poured some Mod Podge Gloss Medium for water.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty decent. All that's left for Johnstown now is utility poles and a few more trees. I am bound and determined to have it done by October.

Finished Painting the Backdrop

Not a whole lot to report here. Mixed up two shades of green poster paint, slathered it on the wall and it cooperated by drying. Not too shaby if I do say so myself.

I also finished building the high-voltage transmission towers. The next project is painting and installing the remaining utility poles in Johnstown. So after nearly three years, this end of the layout will be done.

More Streetlights for Johnstown

Now that we're most certainly in the postseason here, I went and knocked a huge item off my to-do list. I installed about 18 street lamps I bought from a Chinese seller last month.

The festivities started with running a new low-voltage circuit to Johnstown. From there, it was drill, thread, glue, and solder until the lights were in. Since the lights aren't ornate, I kept them to the industrial areas. Despite their size, I think they turned out alright.

Fixed the blasted Corssever!

Isn't it funny how minor problems can snowball into catastrophes?  Oh, wait, funny isn't the word I'm looking for. Infuriating is more like it. Case and point, I fired up the layout for some roundy-rounding the other night. ow, when the layout sits idle for a while, things can squirly when it's awakened from its slumber.

So, the first catastrophe, I noticed my T1 wasn't responding to the throttle. So, I placed it on the programming track and readdressed it. Unfortunately I forgot to flip the DPDT switch from the layout to the programming track! I suddenly found myself faced with the task of reprogramming every locomotive on the layout! This took me the better part of an evening.

With the decoder issue licked, I tried running trains. The trains on the inside loop stalling on the Peco double crossovers at the entrance to Johnstown.  After futsing with the point rails (the usual culprit with Peco turnouts) and getting nowhere, I dug out the multimeter.  I found the outside rail was dead as Dillinger. This was baffling since one of the two rail joiners was connected to a feeder wire.

I tried soldering the joint on the end opposite the feeder, something I'm always loath to do on a turnout. That didn't work. I soldered a feeder to said joiner. That didn't work either. So I decided to move the feeder to the turnout itself. So I drilled another hole through the layout, unsoldered the feeder wire and went to feed it through the new hole. It wouldn't go through. That's usually the case, so I grabbed a small dowel and pushed it through and "crack!"

I got out from under the table to see the crossover and part of the inside loop lifted into the air. I just can't seem to catch a break.  Long story short, I got the wire fed and solder, the track repaired and the ballast touched up. Thankfully, after all, that the trains are running fine again.

Done with the Crossing Signal

I know what your thinking, "crossing signals? What crossing signals?I don't see any crossing signals!" Well, you're right. I didn't get anywhere close completing the project, but I am done with it!

These NJ International signals were installed on my previous layout.  I tried putting them in this time last year. But I ran into a problem with the resistors. They simply would not stay sodered to the wires! After some frustration, I threw them in a drawer and forgot about them until today.

I dug the signals out, fired up my soldering iron and managed to get the resistors soldered back on. After a bench test, I set about installing them. Needless to say, on the first attempt at running the wires through the layout, a resistor came off. A bit annoyed, I calmly brought it back to the work bench and soldered it back on. Then I reinforced it with masking tape. It went in fine.

The trouble started when I tried installing signal number two. I tried running the wire and resistor came off. Okay, now I was getting pissed. I pulled the signal out and went under the table to retrieve the wires still stuck in the hole. I grabbed them and yanked. Then I realized I'd yanked the wrong wires. That was it; I blew a 50-amp fuse. I yanked the signal out of the layout, which I had just yanked common wire out of, and threw it across the room. I know, a very childish thing to do.

So yeah, total cluster @#$%.  But the sort of good news is, the common wire appears to be soldered to the signal itself, so it may very well be fixable. Maybe someday I'll be feeling sufficiently masochistic to try again. 

Finished With the Turf in Johnstown

This post's title pretty much sums it up; I finished the landscaping along the end of the peninsula. I brushed the area with a coat of matte medium, applied a line of cinder ballast along the outside edge of the layout. The I added a base layer of green fine turf, then patches of yellow fine turf and "burnt grass" course turf. I wet it all with 70% alcohol and droppered on more matte medium, which cooperated by drying.

With the turf done, I went ahead and added a few more high-voltage transmission towers. Intitially I planned to terminate them at the substation behind Water Street Frieght Terminal. But I really do love the look of the towers; they fit rather well with the industrial theme of the area.

I also decided to rethink the the whole drainage ditch next to supierior paper. I've seen many stormwater catch basins (or "sumps" as we called them on Long Island) in my area and most of them just have a pipe the empties into it and a tall intake structure.

Vis-

 

So yeah, I think just the basin itself is sufficient. That poject is nearly done. I planted a few more sprigs of Woodland Scenic field grass and all that remains is a few more details and pouring the water.

Repainted Johnstown Depot

A project that's been long on the Johnstown to-do list was is painting a Pennsyizing the depot. This building is a refugee from my last layout. It's a Model Power kit and obviously a knockoff of Lionel's Rico Station kit. The prototype is the former Rio Grande Southern Depot in Rico, CO.

The building looks nothing like the real Johnstown Station which, is a magnificent brick building. Anyway, it was already close to Pennsy colors. I simply repainted the bottom trim, doors and windows Floquil Tuscan Red. 

When the outside painting was done, the real fun started. Since I plan to light this building with an LED, I painted the inside walls black to prevent them from glowing. Well, back when I built this kit, I noticed none of the pieces fit together quite right. As such, there were plenty of gaps through which the black paint could escape. And it took advantage of every one of them! So yeah, A lot of touchup.

With the painting done, I really upped the anty and decided to lop off part of the structure base. However, the freight loading docks are part of said base. The result was a lot of precision razer saw work and a whole lot of hair pulling, teeth gnash and bad words. Good thing my kids have gone to bed for the nigt!

I fashioned a new platform out of another Model Power structure base resembling concrete. No, the irony isn't lost on me. I finished things off by adding a few figures to complete the scene.

Aircraft Warning Lights for Superior Paper

Two entries in one night after a long dry spell, talk about a 180! Anyway, I'd been kicking the idea of adding aircraft warning lights to Superior Paper for a while. I have a bunch of 3mm flashing red LEDs laying around and used them for the same purpose on other buildings. However, in this case, adding them to the tops of the stacks would have been too obtrusive and also a monumental PITA.

My bright idea was to run fiber optics through the stacks and under the layout, where the blinking LED would be located. I started out with running the fiber optics through the stacks and CA'd them on each end of the stack. Them it was simply a matter of drilling through the table and connecting the fiber to the LED. That was no easy task, but I got at least one stack blinking.

The effect is pretty subtle but I think it works and the fiber is nearly invisible when the room lights are on. Now back to that drainage ditch...

A Long-Overdue Entry

Wow, two and a half months since my last entry! I know I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth after December, but life has been crazy around here. That said, I have made quite a bit of progress on the layout. I just haven't found time to blog about it. So brace yourself for an extra-long post!

 First and foremost, I completed the small mountain in the back left corner of the peninsula. It was the usual procedure of building up a mountain out of styrofoam, cover it with plaster-soaked paper towels, paint it "raw umber" and cover it with lichen.

What made this project a challenge was the lack of accessibility. There no way to climb up on the layout to get to it. On top of that, the left side of the peninsula borders the stairs. What ended up doing was balancing precariously on the half wall between the layout and the stairs. I had about eight inches to sit on and do the work. Nerve-racking for sure, but I didn't fall and break my neck, always a plus. 
 

 Next up, I finished off the house on the hill.  This project was dead simple. I brushed the entire hill with Mod Podge matte medium and applied the various layers of turf.

The next step was to add some Woodland Scenics trees. And this is where the trouble started. See, I've never had much luck using WS Hobby Tack to affix the foliage to the armatures and I decided to try something different. While browsing the craft aisle at my local Wally World, I ran across some Gorilla Spray Adhesive and thought I'd give it a shot. Well, I tried it out on one tree and ass soon as I stuck the armature in the bag of clump foliage, one of the branches broke off. Undeterred, I tried out a second tree. Again, several branches broke off. 

After having several trees lose branches, I had to stop and scratch my head. At first, I thought I'd gotten a bad batch of tree armatures. But just to be sure, I went ahead and assembled a tree with Hobby Tack and guess what. No issues what so ever. As it turns out Gorilla Spray Adhesive is not safe for plastics. Good to know.

As I near the end of the heavy lifting in Johnstown, I'm starting to get going on the detailing phase. This involved purchasing a bunch of cars from eBay seller "Chuckthprinter," who offers not only a nice variety of 1940s and 50s vehicles but also a bunch of other nifty N Scale details.

The cars I bought were five packs with some assembly required. First, thing I did was glue the wheels on with CA, always a fun experience. Three of the four wheels would go on without issue but the fourth? The wheen and car would repel each other like two magnets, usually getting my finger stuck together in the process.

Once the cars had their wheels affixed, I took a pencil and colored in the windows. Then I used a silver Sharpy marker for the bumpers and other chrome trim. This being 1956, cars can't have enough chrome, right?

I've been slogging through Johnstown for nearly two years now. I can finally see the light at the end of that particular tunnel. I have only one really big project left to finish, carving out a drainage ditch beside Superior Paper. 

Finished the Rail Painting and Ballasting at Johnstown

As stated in my yearly progress report, one of my goals for the season was to get done with all the scut work. In service of that goal, I painted the remaining rails and ballasted nearly all the track in Johnstown.

Since the track in this area is visible from multiple angles, I had to paint both sides of the rails, essentially doubling an already tedious task.  I just cracked open a beer, put on an Alan Keller video and got on with it.

As for the ballasting, well, you've already read enough blog posts in which I bitch about Woodland Scenics ballast, so I'll spare you. In all honesty, it wasn't so bad this time around. I don't know what I did to make the gods so happy but hey, I'll take it.

 In other news, I decided to add some elevation to one corner of Johnstown. I laid a few pieces of white styrofoam packaging and cut it to shape with my hot knife. And yo, with the window open, the fumes from the white beaded stuff are nasty.

With the foam layers cut, I glued them together with some Elmers and painted everything raw umber. I decided the top of the hill would be a perfect place for my Model Power "Victorian House" kit. This was one of the first structures I built for this layout and for a while, it seemed like I wouldn't find a home for it. It just looked out of place to me, which is mind-boggling since this style of architecture is found all over this part of Pennsylvania. 

I'm toying with the notion of adding a sign reading "Historic Floode Mansion." Hmm, no if I recall correctly, there's some significant event in Johnstown's history that might make that in bad taste. We'll see how it shakes out.

With this done, I have some more mountains to build and a bit more ballasting at the far end of Johnstown.  Stay tuned.

Tree Experiments

I was reading fellow N Scaler Spookshow's blog and at one point he decided to add some larger trees to his layout to represent older ones. I read that and thought "a good idea's a good idea." But then, when I visited Altoona this past summer, I realized a lot of the trees near the tracks were on the small side, no doubt their growth having been stunted by years of steam locomotives dropping hot cinders.

With that in mind, I decided the smaller Woodland Scenics trees were appropriate for about 95% of the layout. However, I did pick up one large tree kit and placed them in areas away from the tracks. I placed a few in Johnstown, the farm area and in Gallitzin. And I must say, they do look quite realistic.

Now, I have to say, these Woodland Scenics trees are just one hell of a tedious pain in the ass to assemble. The prescribed method is the shape the plastic armatures into something tree-like in appearance, slather on the "Hobby Tack" and then attach the "foliage" (essential ground-up Nerf dyed varying shades of green). Well, this is what I did and I had one hell of a time getting the trees assembled. Turns out Hobby Tack is great for sticking foliage to your fingers. But for affixing it to plastic tree armatures? Not so much.

I assembled about five trees my first go around and was quite peeved to discover nearly all of them had shed their flocking a day later. So on the second time, I let the Hobby Tack dry a bit before adding foliage (another Spookshow idea). This worked marginally better but I still had issues.

On the last few batches of trees, I had tried Elmer's spray adhesive. It made for easier assembly but, it didn't last. I have a layout full of trees losing the foliage! So anyway, I still have 114 small trees to build and plant (God help me). Here's hoping I can unlock the ancient Chinese secrete to doing it right.

A Tree Grows in Johnstown

Wow, four months since my last entry. But it's summer and you know how that goes. Honestly, today was the first day I ran the trains since March. Now, on to what I actually did.

This project took all of about five minutes. In involved me going to Hobby Lobby, buying a 14-pack of Woodland Scenics prefab trees and scattering them about the Johnstown part of the layout. Now, I tried my best to situate the trees in odd-numbered groups. I read on Spookshow's site that trees tend to look better this way and I tend to agree.

 

Another project I'm in the midst of is making high-voltage transmission towers. They'll run from the Model Power susbstation back to the wall. When I needed transmission lines in Gallitzin, I opted to use HO telephone poles. But, I decided not to half ass things this time.

I bought some basswood dowels and square sticks at Walmart. These looked about the right size in the store. The next step was staining them with Minwax "Special Walnut." While the stain was drying, I built a jig to speed assembly. I fastened everything together Gorilla wood glue.

The wire supports and insulators came from my Model Power substation kit. They're held in place with some Testor's model glue.  

Here's the prototype:

In other news, I'm planing a trip to Pennsy country at the end of the month. I'll be staying in Altoona and visiting many of the places I've modeled. The last time my dad and I made the trip was 2010. So yeah, long overdue.

My dad and I basically came to the realization that it was now or never for making this trip. He's not getting any younger and my list of responsibilities isn't exactly getting shorter. With that in mind, this will most likely be our last father and son trip to Altoona for quite some time. So this is bitter sweet.

At any rate, I plan on shooting tons of photos and video while I'm there and I'll be making a full report when get back to the Palmetto state.

And that's a wrap for this season!

Well folks, after a short but busy construction season, it's that time of the year again. The weather is warming up, yard work is coming into the picture and I'm ready to shift over towards running some trains. It's the same thing every march. But this year is different. Most seasons end with me stuck on some major task that can't be put off any longer and I don;t have the energy left to take them on. This year, I managed to knock out those two last projects.

First and foremost, I plastered up the remaining roads and sidewalks in Johnstown. It took me the better part of two afternoons but I got it done. Once that was done, I went ahead and drilled the holes for the lights.I finished things off by getting all the plaster work painted.

emboldened by my success, I decided to go ahead and get all the lights installed and wired up. I started off with a pair of Busch operating traffic lights. Then I installed some incandescent street lights along the main streets in the Johnstown business district. The buildings are lit with a mish mash of LEDs and incandescent salvaged from my last layout, whatever was on hand.

For the industrial areas, I used LEDs except for Water Street Freight Terminal. I used a pair of Model Power highway lights for Superior Paper and a pair of Goosneck Lamps for the freight station.

Now, I had planned to use a pair of NJ International crossing flashers. I did start the process of stalling them. But wen I tried to untangle the rat's nest left over from the last layout, things got ugly. The resistors on each signal decided to come unsoldered. After a bit of fighting, I gave up and tossed the lights and PC boards into a box for next year, if I'm desperate.

The last thing I did was apply some turf to a few spots and then spent a few hours cleaning track and trouble shooting. The K4 and M1 needed only a few spots cleaned. But on my first attempt at running the centipedes, they went stumbling and stuttering down the track like a misfiring car! The I1 wasn't too happy either and there was a lot of work with the bright boy and alcohol and rag.

So that's it for this season. I'm sure I'll get the itch to tackle the odd project or two here and there, but the heavy lifting is done for a while. Before we know it, it'll be fall and I'll have the itch again. Until then, have a nice summer everybody!

Finished the Last Two DPM Buildings

Boy, I love these DPM buildings but painting them is a tedious PITA. But as mentioned in an earlier post, that's the trade off  for easier assembly. Anyway, I knocked out the last two.


First, I took on the "Corner Turret Building." I started by spraying all four walls with Testors "Flat Light Aircraft Grey." Next I brushed everything but the trim Floquil "Boxcar Red." I did the roof in my usual Grimy Black.

I committed the pointy witch hat-looking roof for he turret since my Cornerstone "Merchants' Row" kit has a similar roof. I installed more of my folded construction paper drapes in the ground floor windows and hit it with a coat of weather wash. I can't really call it done until I get more Dulcote, but that step takes all of two seconds.

 

 The last in my bunch of buildings was the Corner Apothecary kit. I started by spraying the walls with some cheap Wal Mart spray paint. Next I brushed the windows and trim Foloquil "Roof Brown." The roof was "Grimy Black" yet again. Finally, I touched up all my my hand brushing oopses with some Floquil "Reefer White."

"Why white paint?" You may be wondering. Well, back in the March 2017 issue of Model Railroader, Lance Mindheim wrote an article suggesting painting buildings shade of white, being that this is a common color in real life. Mr. Mindheim is an extremely talented modeler whose layout looks phenomenal. 

That said, I have noticed there are some drawbacks to white paint. First and foremost, it's very unforgiving of mistakes. If you've ever painted a DPM building, I don't think I have to tel you it's only a matter of time until you're painting window trim and "oops!" the brush slips. 

When you're using two dark colors like Boxcar Red and Roof Brown, those mistakes aren't nearly as noticeable. But a dark color on white paint? Yeah, that sticks out like a sore thumb. So unless you have very steady hands, I suggest not painting DPM buildings white. 

Painting issues aside, I'm just not believing it. The buildings done in "Antique White" look alright, but not white white. But as I was driving today, I really looked at the buildings I was driving past, and most of them were white or tan. But for some reason the brick colored buildings on my layout just look more realistic to me than white. I guess I find a more impressionist approach better than trying to force reality into where it doesn't want to go. 

Where the white paint does work though is in the industrial areas. Both the Ice House and Bralick building are painted white and they look right to me. They also show of weathering quite nicely. This makes total sense since Mr. Mindheim primarily models industrial areas on his layouts. 

So yeah, I'm not bashing Lance Mindheim at all. Quite the opposite actually. His layout is a sight to behold and the level of realism he achieves is unparalleled. I'm just saying I tried one of his techniques and it didn't quite work out for me. But it goes back to the paot I wrote about there not being a right or wrong way to do this hobby.

Finished DPM's "Otto's Auto Parts"

This was definitely not one of my better efforts. I started off by spraying the building with Testor's "Flight Light Aircraft Grey." Next, I proceeded to paint the brickwork Floquil "Roof Brown." I didn;t take me long to realize I'd completely screwed the pooch on the color scheme. On top of that, I had an unusually-difficult time keeping the Roof Brown paint inside the lines. The result was an ugly building that looks like it was painted by a three-year-old! Take an educated guess as to what color I painted the roof.

Once the building was assembled, I put in the window inserts and shades. Then I his the walls with some weather wash. The last step will be Dulcote, but I haven;t had a chance to get to the art supply store for another can.

At the end of the day, I'm not sweating things too much, since there are lots of ugly buildings out there in the real world. Also, the building is situated in a way you really won't see the front wall. At any rate, that leaves two more buildings and I can call Johnstown's business district done. Then it's just finish up the sidewalks, some turf and lighting.

Finished DPM's "Reed Books"

Yet another DPM kit down. I went with Krylon "Meringue" for the brickwork, Floquil "Tuscan Red" for the trim and bay windows and of course "Grimy Black" for the roof. I skipped the usual proceedure for the mortar lines since these bricks would have been painted. I also skipped the Dulcote because I ran out.

As far as DPM kits go, this one was a bit more challenging to put together. Each bay window is three separate pieces. I tried gluing them together before affixing them to the rest of the building but that didn't work as I managed to get the angle wrong. This resulted in a whole lot of glue shmootz on the front of the building! So I had to snap the bay windows apart and reassemble them and touch up the damaged paint!

At any rate, that's four down, three to go. I've already got Otto's Auto Parts painted and ready for assembly. I other news, Spring has started to, well, spring here in the Palmetto State. Usually this marks the end of moy model railroading season as my enthusiasm starts to peter out and yard work starts to enter the equation. But so far my enthusiasm is remaining strong this year. It's not like the layout turns into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight on March 1st, so as long as I feel like it, I'll keep on going.

Finished DPM's "Bruces Bakery" Kit

I knocked out another DPM kit, "Bruce's Bakery" this time. I decided I can't use "Boxcar Red" and "Roof Brown" on every building in town. That'd get boring in a hurry. I used Floquil "Depot Buff" for the brickwork, "Souther Freight Car Brown" for the windows and trim and of course, "Grimy Black." I don;t know what I'll do when I finally run out of that last one, but I digress. All in all, I think the color scheme works quite nicely.

It was the same basic procedure for the brick mortar lines and windows as the last two buildings, so no point in repeating myself. That said, I did go a bit further with the window dressing. First, I used bits of the white stryrene left over from the roof to create window shades on the upper floors. For the ground floor, front windows, I took pink construction paper, cut it into strips and folded it accordion style. This nicely simulates drapes. Credit where it's due, I learned that trick from Spookshow's blog.

I still have no idea which businesses will ultimately inhabit these buildings. I'm currently scrounging through my collection of leftover decals to see if any are usable. I would be nice if DPM included some, but since I only paid $6 a piece for these kits, I really shouldn't complain too much.