workbench update

Illuminating my first city building

In between making points, I've been playing with some of my recently acquired buildings. I decided to tackle a small one initially to get the feel for things. First step was to dismantle the building, something Kato have made fairly easy. I dug out some LED strip tape, which unfortunately had green LEDs. It was a simple enough job however to desolder them and solder on some tiny replacement white LEDs.

While at it, I put some blue LEDs into the end spot so that the stairwell would be a different colour. Then I drilled holes and made space for the lights and mounted a row for each floor. Some more holes at the back to run the wires down.

City scene takes shape

It's official: the long-rumoured, oft-hinted, city scene has finally started to take shape.

Trackwork

The Utrainian Workshops have been busy churning out points for the complicated yard ladder trackwork; that is, the tracks that will route trains from two main lines onto one of eight platform lines. To further complicate matters, the station trackwork is all located on a curve to maximise the available space for the station platforms.

For the first set of points, I drew out the plan full size and used pieces of flexi-track and a length of metal to trace out the curves and track centrelines. I then traced these onto other bits of paper and painstakingly built up the points over these rough outlines.

My first scratch built turnout

Relations between Utrainia and the United States of America have recently taken a turn for the worse. Aggressive foreign policy against Utrainia has seen stiff economic sanctions put in place, which has forced the Finance Minister of Utrainia to acquire vital railway equipment from elsewhere. The Kato Corporation of Shinjuku, Tokyo have become a leading contender of motive power, passenger equipment and building supplies, and the Utrainia Rail workshops have been tasked with the remaining construction projects.

In case none of that made any sense... I have been buying model railway supplies for many years from the US through Modeltrainstuff.com. While finalising my latest order from them a few weeks back I was absolutely gobsmacked by their shipping changes; $US50 for $150 of products! Their shipping charges have always been high, and I often had to pay $20 to $30 for a large order, but now their shipping charges start at $40 for a single item. For a loco, a third ...

Installing the rockfall shelter portals

The rockfall shelter is continuing nicely. Yesterday I spent some time cutting slots in the rock to accept the end walls of the shelter. This involved lots of slow sawing with a broken hacksaw blade, and lots of plaster dust everywhere.

Today I did a test fit and all went well. So I mixed up some "super concrete" which is pre-mixed patching plaster and PVA. The PVA makes it stickier and easier more pliable. I filled the slots with a generous helping and then pushed the portals into it. Hopefully when the plaster dries the PVA will help hold the portals in place. Any gaps I carefully filled with my "super concrete", and I added a good thing seam to the inside edges.

A machinist's square helped keep things nice and square, and a selection of overly large wagons helped check clearances.

Rockfall shelter progress

Some more progress on my canyon scene. The rockfall shelter is the focus of my attention this time. During the week I used some premixed plaster to make little foundations for each leg of the shelter. With the shelter roughly in place it was time to make some ends for it. I made a rough pattern out of cardboard and then made a matching mold. Poured some plaster, strengthened it with some balsa splints, and clamped it between two plates of glass.

I then did the opposite for the other end of the shelter.

While studying some photos of the prototype I noticed how uniformly coloured the scenery was, so while waiting for that to dry I started working on blending the rocks into the rest of the scenery. I'm trailing using a medium-gray base coat on the scenery that I'm dry bushing...

Ballasting the canyon scene

Progress continues on the canyon scene. Today the hard working Utrainian railway crews laid down not one, but two, main lines.

The tracks have been carefully curved and aligned, and clearance tests done to make sure even the largest Utrainian trans will be able to pass with ease.

A quick test with the start of the rockfall shelter. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished scene, I think there are going to be a great angles.

On a roll, the hard working Utrainia engineers added some superelevation to the curves. Superelevation is where the outside edge of the curve is sli...