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Layout Update - Trackwork & Lighting

Written by Ian MacMillan

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

There is just too much snow on the ground to do anything outside and that has helped kickstart me into working on the layout as much as I can. Over the last few months I have been spending about 21+ hours durring the week to get a 20' section up and running with some basic scenery.

Track Update:
Since laying all the track in Blair I had run out of ME Code 70 rail and that pretty much brought trackwork to a halt. After Christmas a box from FastTracks arrived with several packages of new rail and ties so that progress could continue. Since the last update the benchwork progressed to Mountainview, and the sub roadbed was ready for the rail.

The ties and rail was then laid from the West end of Blair to Mountainview. Aside from a rail crossing that leads to the White Mountain Power plant, all of the track is down so switching operations can begin between the two towns. Scenery has also progressed in these areas, including the Atlas signal system. All of the scenery contours are done using 2" builders foam and a Woodland Scenics hot wire foam cutter. I found that in some situations the hot wire foam cutter was taking too long , or not being able to cut certain angles because of the metal "U". I picked up the Hot Foam Knife, which does not have the restrictions of the hot wire foam cutter's "U" and does a great job to taking out large slabs, or steep slopes.

Benchwork:
Framework for Blair and Mountainview was finished in December and the upper and lower fascia boards were installed last week. The fascia boards are made using 1/8" Masonite that is curved on the corners. The lower fascia board is generally 2' in width, and follows the contours of the scenery. The upper fascia board is attached to the ceiling joists with hangers made out of 1/2" plywood, and is 18.5" wide. The upper fascia board creates a shadow box effect helping the viewer to focus only on the layout as the rest of the room is dark. Both fascia boards are painted black.

Lighting and Electrical:

I had read in several model photography articles that GE's Chroma 50 tubes were the best to simulate natural lighting and would match the color spectrum of film and digital cameras without any additional filters or lighting. I'd been looking in several local stores to find someone who carried the tubes, and thought that I would have to resort to ordering them over the internet. While wondering around the new Lowes in Rochester I was suprised to see that they readily stocked the Chroma 50's in all of the tube sizes. At $6.29 for a two pack, the price was reasonable, and I purchased a handful for the section of benchwork that has been completed.

Last week I ran the wiring and installed the ceiling boxes for the fluorescent fixtures, spacing the 8' lights about 18" apart. With the Chroma 50's installed the lighting is nice and even, without any harsh shadows on the backdrop. The lighting wiring is on a separate circut so that the load on the system is reduced, and easier for switched wiring.

Shortly I'll be installing the Tortoise switch machine's in the two towns and hooking up the wiring. These two branch line towns will not have any turnouts controlled by the dispatcher so they will not need to have wiring to the CTC board, but they will be wired a tad bid differently than a normal Tortise instalation. I want to force my crews to slow down to a realistic pace, so all crews will have a "switch key" that will activate each towns control pannel to use the Tortoise toggles. The switch key is made out of a 1/8" TRS microphone jack and plug. When a conductor wishes to thow a switch he will need to put the switch "key" into the plug, which will then activate the power to the toggles, allowing him to throw the switch.

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