Fixed My Dad's Lionel 2035

 With the scenery on the N Scale layout done, I found myself in a odd position. I had plenty enthusiasm but no projects to do! Well that's a new one on me. I decided to tackle a little side project, my father's old Lionel 2035 steamer. He's had it since he was kid and it's never really run right. Today, I did something about that.

The problem was the locomotive's E-Unit. For uninitiated, an E-Unit is and electro-mechanical polarity switch controlling the direction of the motor. They can be quite cantankerous when they want to be. I took the locomotive apart, which is easier said than done. This thing is a total Chinese puzzle box. The I cleaned all the contacts. 

While I was in there, I rewired the headlight. The original, 70-year-old wire's insulation was disintegrating. That was an easy fix. Now this 70-year-old classic is running better than it's run, at least in my lifetime.

Finished with the Ballast and The Scenery

 

The title pretty much says it all, doesn't it? I got a bag of Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders ballast. It turned out to be just enough to finish the yard tracks and the area around the roundhouse. With that, every inch of track on the layout, save for Pittsburgh Staging, is ballasted. Yay!

Once the track was ballasted, I turned my attention to the small pond in the middle of the loop. I painted the bottom with a mix of navy blue and black acrylics. Once that dried, I added several sizes of Woodland Scenics Talus to a side that came out too steep. I used Woodland Scenics Field Grass to make reeds. The canoeing folks were salvaged from my last layout. The water, which is still drying, is Mod Podge gloss medium.

With the pond done, I channeled my inner Bob Ross and added some happy trees. These are Woodland Scenics large trees. I've assembled hundreds of these trees for this layout and I have to say, they can be a bit of a PITA.  You assemble them by twisting a flat plastic armature into something tree shaped. Then coat it with WS's "Hobby Tack" glue. My mistake was putting the foliage on right away instead of waiting 15 minutes. This time I waited and had much better results.

Another thing about trees is they look best in distinct stands even as part of an overall forest setting. Further more, said stands look best with an odd number of trees.

With the tree planted, I went back into ground cover mode. I have a jar of fallen leaves, which I ground up into a fine powder a blender. I sprinkled this under the stands of trees and added a few pieces of Woodland Scenics deadfall.

With that, I can declare major combat operations over as far as scenery. Suddenly, the to-do list is looking very empty. Up next is the fine detailing faze. Now, detail parts can be quite dear and are best picked up en mass at train shows from folks liquidating their layouts. Unfortunately, the show isn't until February. 

I think it's high time I finally get serious about operation. I do have a phone system and am planning to use timetable and train order. But What I don;t know about operation could fill the grand canyon! Time to get researching!

2021-22 Annual Progress Report

 

On Halloween of 2013 work began on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here we are nine years later and the layout is nearly finisher. Well, as finished as a layout gets anyway. Also of note, this layout now ties my old garden railway for title of my longest lived layout.

Anyway, last year's goal was finishing Altoona. I didn't make it, but I'm darn close. I wanted to finished all the ballast work. I manged to get the main lines and most of the yard tracks done. However, obtaining Woodland Scenics fine cinder ballast has been difficult due to supply chain issues. The good news, is I tracked some down and ordered it. It should be here next week.

As for scenery, I managed to get all ground cover finished. Not just for Altoona, but the layout as a whole. So no more fuzzy turf until next layout!

The last scenery items on my docket include finishing a small lake and planting some trees. That will round out Altoona.

With Altoona finished the final project will be wiring up Pittsburgh Staging. With that, It's major combat operations over and I begin focusing on operating the layout. 

Goals for next year?

-Finish Altoona

-Wire up Pittsburgh Staging. 

-Pop a bottle of Champagne and celebrate a job well done!

Finished With the Ground Cover

 

I'm finally back at it. Today I knocked out all the ground cover. With that, every inch of foam, save for Pittsburgh Staging is covered with ground foam. That is a major milestone. I can kiss all this fuzzy turf goodbye until the next layout!

While I was at it, I worked on the lake. I painted the bed a mix a navy blue and black. Next I painted the bank burnt umber. One side of the lake came out a bit steeper than I would've liked. Rather than dig into the foam, I added some Talus rip rap. The next step will be to apply some Woodland Scenics field grass around the edges.

As You may have seen from the above photo, the yards tracks still require ballast. That's on order. Unfortunately, Woodland Scenics Fine Cinder ballast seems to be unobtanium. I managed to buy the last bag off Amazon. The big shakers are completely unavailable. Gotta love the supply chain issues.

Anyway, I imagine the scenery should be done by spring.

Reading, Writing, 'Rythmatic and Railroading!

 I while ago, I wrote a post about attracting new blood to the hobby and how we can do that. Well, over the past few weeks I've been working on doing just that. Last month, my daughter's Pre-K class was doing themed days for each letter of the alphabet. T was Transportation, sensing an opening, I offered to bring in my O-Gauge equipment for the kids.

The day went well, the kids loved running the trains. The day was so successful, I set the trains up for my son's first grade class. Once again, the kids ate it up. Emboldened, I pitched the idea of a model railroad club to the principal. She liked the idea as it dovetails nicely with the school's STEM/STEAM curriculum. However, she said we would need to gauge interest before we moved ahead.

The second to last day of school was sort of a do-nothing day for certain grades and teachers would have a bunch of rambunctious kiddos. I volunteered to set trains up again and the principal loved the idea. One class at a time came in to run the trans. I counted the number of students interested and it was 88. That's 88 potential young railroaders! The principal came into the room and saw engaged the kids were and told me to start planning my club!

So I was excited. Now the excitement has turned to "Holy Moses, what did I just get myself into?" I started mulling which scale. I think I've settled on HO. It gives you the most bang for the buck. It's small enough to fit in a small space but also robust enough for kids. 

Right now, I'm thinking of having the kids start off the way all of us start off, with a 4'x8'. We can design and build the layout and hopefully operate it. 

My goal here is to get kids into the hobby. I'm tired seeing forum posts by grumpy old men lamenting the death of the hobby. Why don't you do something about it? Make YouTube video about scratch building! Welcome the younger members into the club instead complaining about them. Invite the local scout troop to see your layout. Be part of the solution.

More Structure Lighting

All but one of the town building are illuminated. Dang, these LEDs are night-into-day bright! The gas station roof is glowing despite the black paint. In addition to the building lights, I took a Model Power Y-Shaped street light and bent it to resemble a 1980s-style gas station light.

As for what's going on across the street from the gas station, that's going to be a used car lot. The office is an old Nucomp Miniatures trailer. I'll elaborate on this scene more when it's finished.

Next thing on my list is finishing a partially-completed Model Power house kit. That will do it for the structures on this layout.
 

Finished City Classics' "401 Crafton Ave. Service Station" Kit

 I scored this long-discontinued kit off eBay. It's too bad City Classics didn't expand their N Scale line because this really is nice kit with lots of interesting details.

I started things off by spraying the inside of the walls with some cheap black spray paint. This is necessary with structures to keep them from glowing when they're lighted. Unfortunately, some of said paint bled onto the front of the building. I sprayed the front walls with Rustoleum white primmer. The door and window frames are Floquil "Conrail Blue." The roof? You guessed it, Floquil "Grimy Black."

The structure base and pump islands are painted Testor's "Flat Light Aircraft Grey," my go-to concrete color. The Pumps are Testor's Flat Red and Floquil "Coach Green."

The next step is to pain the parking lot, add some lighting and details and then we're done. After this, I have only one more structure to finish.

Wired Up Some Buildings

 You ever have one of those days where it seems like all you do is spin your wheels and get nothing accomplished? Yup, that was me today. I came up to the train room all fired up to get going on the wiring project. Well hit the first roadblock when my drill battery died almost instantly. That delayed my plans.

Unable to drill holes, I took a whack at wiring up the turn table. I had pre-drilled the holes years ago, so routing the wires was no problem. And the turntable didn't work. Stymied, I came back later.

This evening, armed with a fully-charged battery, I drilled holes and snaked the wires through the table top, one of my least favorite tasks. I managed to get everything hooked up to a barrier strip and - nothing. I tired switching the polarity, no change. With nothing else to try I switched the polarity again, and tightened down the screws, this worked. 

One building is sitting on a wooden base so I glued it down. In very fitting end to this day, it warped! So yeah, today was a bit of a battle, but Altoona is one step closer to the finish line.

Finished With the Backdrops

 I knocked on item off the to do list tonight. I finished mounting backdrops. I took the section I'd mounted to foam core board last night and blackened the edge with a black magic marker. Then I stuck it to the wall. Next, I carved the final section of mountain with my hot knife, painted it and glues on the remained of the lichen. I added turf around Alto Tower and the area between the wall and tracks was done. 

While I was turf slinging mode, I decided to go ahead and cover up the area behind the roundhouse and the area where the two sets of tracks diverge. The upper photo really illustrates the difference between the new ground cover and the stuff that was put down in 2014 (on the left). The latter has become quite dusty, dull and lifeless looking.

Roads, Backdrops and Turf, Oh My!

 I've been stuck in this "I don;t know how to finish Altoona" quagmire for what seems like years. Oh, wait, it has. But I', turning the corner on it. For a while, I've been dreading finishing the roads, but today, I was determined to get it done. And wouldn't you know it? I found a much easier alternative.

In one of the massive boxes of crap under the layout, I found two sheets of brown Creatology foam I'd purchased years ago. Turns out these foam sheets are the same thickness as Woodland scenics paving tape! So rather than do my roads out of plaster, I simply cut them out of foam. I used this for the parking lot under the shop powerhouse and the the road leading out of town.

In the town itself, I really took the coward's way out. I painted the roads directly on the base. It definitely passes the "good enough for government work" test. However, I did use a foam sheet to create a sidewalk layer for the buildings to sit on.  

Doing the roads ended up crystalizing my needs for the town. I decided to add one more building, a gas station. and that's it. After all this supposed to be the outer fringes of the city. The city proper lives off the layout.

I also applied more turf to some areas around the shop complex. Since it's industrial, I went heavy on the dry grass turf.

The last thing I did was mount the final section of backdrop to a piece of foam core board. All that's left is painting the edges black and it's ready for prime time.

Despite the work I've done, there's still quite a bit on the to do list. to wit:

-Wire all roundhouse tracks and turn table

-Finished the remaining mountains.

-Mount remaining backdrop section.

-Assemble final building

-Wire building lights

-Install street lights

-Ballast remaining yard tracks

-Finish turf

-Add trees.

-Add details

Once this is done, I can declare major combat operations over for the layout. Stay tuned.

My Layout's Got 99 Problems and a Switch Ain't One

 Well hello there! I know, it's been forever since I've posted. But I've been working on the layout in fits and starts. As you can see from the above photo, I've gotten most of the Altoona yard tracks ballasted and am starting to apply ground cover. 

My most recent project involved my turnouts, chiefly, the double crossovers at each end of the layout. My trains were consistently stalling on them. Nothing kills my enthusiasm faster than balky trains, so I finally attacked the problem.

The Achilles heal of these Peco Electro Frog turnouts is their reliance on the points to ferry current to the rest of the turnout. If you point rails don't make perfect contact with the stock rails, your turnout becomes a dead spot. Painting the rails and ballasting, no matter how careful I am, tend to gum these turnouts up. 

It took a few hours of careful cleaning with Goof Off and tweaking, but now my trains run around flawlessly. It was well worth the effort. 

The main fruit of my labors was being able to teach my son Victor to run the trains with the DCC throttle. Talk about a proud papa moment!