# Magic's Reno Nv. layout.



## Magic

PHOTOBUCKET GOT ME. PICTURES SHOW UP ON PAGE 3
Don't think I'll update the ones here as all this has been replaced by a new layout starting on page 7.

Magic 7/24/2017

New guy here with a new layout. 
Ho scale doing the Southern Pacific in the fifties, Southern California, San Fernando Valley to be exact. 
I'm 2 years into this thing and am just now getting all my trains to run in circles, I've made every mistake in the book. The biggest one being a double crossover on the main line. (Northwest corner) Nothing I did would work for all trains so I took it out and used 4 #6 turnouts, this is working so far but necessitated redoing most all of my grades on that side of the layout. 

The second bad idea I had was when I saw the Southern Pacific Daylight on E Bay and had to have it. More relaying track but I did get it to run on 18" curves. Actually the 18s weren't the problem but my bad track laying skills, had to relay almost everything. The Daylight is pulled by MTH PA and PB. Freights are pulled by Athearn Genesis GP-9 A and B units. I'll look into steam a little later on. 

No way in the world this thing is prototypical, I've taken liberties all over the place. 
I'm into running trains and yard operations and not so much scenery and the like. 
I've seen the work some of you do here and there is no way I have the time (72 years old) or the patience.

I had a layout back in the '80s and keep all the rolling stock, all Athearn blue Box 
and have added some more from E Bay. All the track and turnouts are new code 83 DCC.
Lots o' money. 

I'll post a track plan, oh wait I have no plan.  just winging it. 
Well I had a plan but it didn't last a week. 

Here's what she looks like so far. The Magic Railroad. :appl::appl:


North wall looking West. All the scenery is just temporary just to get ideas. The track is hopefully done. There is no ballast or ground cover, just paint, I hate the look of pink foam. The buildings are more or less what I want. 


North wall 2 Where the little barn is sitting is where the double crossover was, the hardest place to get to, about drove me nuts. 


West wall looking South. Putting in a passing track for yard operations. The pink foam is covering up the Tortoise turnout motors, had to lay them on their side off center because of the bench work braces. I've got 5 of them like this. Not good planning. The long bridge to the left will be replaced with a wood trestle. 


West wall 2 Start of the passing track.


Yard head. Again the Micky Mouse bridge is just temp till I can come up with something better, Plan What plan? 


Main yard looking East


Yard looking South. might redo some of this, don't know yet. 


Center Island. Trying to figure out what to do with the meat packing plant, it's a little big. Already cut off the fourth floor. I certainly don't like the way Walthers has it laid out. All the rest of the track is just an idea, plan what plan? I put things in and take them out on a regular basis. 


It's not very realistic but it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. 

Magic


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## The New Guy

I like it. If it's fun for you everyone else can pound sand, right?

Thanks for sharing.


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## wvgca

good sized layout, i like the big yard, nice


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## Magic

Thanks guys.
It should be interesting to run, that's what I'm after. That is if I ever get done laying track, keep coming up with new ideas and changing things. Running out of ideas and space so maybe I can get some run time in. 

wvgca The yard is really two yards with two entrances. Sort of a East bound, north bound kind of thing. There is a crossover so it can be one big marshaling yard. 
The stub on the East wall ends at a bathroom door and once the trees in the back yard get bigger I may just cross that door and make a pull through yard. 

Magic


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## outlaw bill

Your layout looks good. I've just started on mine. Keep up the good work and post more pics.


Bill


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## trains galore

That's an awesome layout
Have you got lights in the buildings yet, that would look pretty cool at night...


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## doorman29

Sure looks good to me. As long as it's fun it's a great layout!


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## Magic

trains galore said:


> That's an awesome layout
> Have you got lights in the buildings yet, that would look pretty cool at night...


No lights yet, the buildings are all lighted but no power to them till I get things set in stone. 
Plan what plan. 
They are all 12V but thinking of going with Leds.
Another idea I've had is to set up 4 lights one in each corner and put each on on/off switches and dimmers so 
I can change how much and where the light comes from. It looks kind of crappy right mow with two florescent lights. 

Magic


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## Magic

trains galore said:


> That's an awesome layout
> Have you got lights in the buildings yet, that would look pretty cool at night...


I just noticed you're here in Reno. :thumbsup:
Maybe we should get together I might not be able to give you some GOOD advice but there is a very loooong list of things NOT to do.  
I learned everything the hard way. 

Magic

Edit quoted the wrong post   this was meant for outlaw bill.


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## Magic

doorman29 said:


> Sure looks good to me. As long as it's fun it's a great layout!


It should be fun, I made the yard some what complicated so it will take some work to make up consist, I draw the cars out of a hat.  It's fun digging them out and putting things together. 

I guess I really should learn how to use the multi quote button.

Magic


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## trains galore

Um I'm in Western Australia not america I think you quoted the wrong person
Would have been awesome though to meet each other and do some model railways
I'm kind of learning everything the hard way too, I only have a shelf layout but still loads of things to do


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## Magic

trains galore said:


> Um I'm in Western Australia not america I think you quoted the wrong person
> Would have been awesome though to meet each other and do some model railways
> I'm kind of learning everything the hard way too, I only have a shelf layout but still loads of things to do


Yep quoted the wrong post but if you feel up to it I'll leave the light on. 

Magic


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## trains galore

Sure!
If only I was in america:laugh:


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## gator do 65

As a kid I caught the train flu in down town San Fernando! Oh the memories!
Sorry about that got lost in my childhood! Lol!!
Magic that is one nice layout! I also prefer to do things the hard way, it's just more fun that way!


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## Big Ed

Magic said:


> New guy here with a new layout.
> wait I have no plan.  had a plan but it didn't last a week.
> 
> All the scenery is just temporary just to get ideas. The track is hopefully done. There is no ballast or ground cover, just paint, I hate the look of pink foam. The buildings are more or less what I want.
> 
> Magic




I like your plan. 
I plan the same way. 

I think your scenery is coming along great, once you get your "plan" down you can fine tune the scenery. Add some bushes & trees, make the sides of the ledges more like cut rock a little. Add a boat in the water, maybe a small swimming area with swimmers? You got to add a bunch of people here and there too.
The scenery and and details will make the layout come alive. 

Once you get the track down to your liking you can run the trains and work on the scenery some more.:thumbsup:

Looking good. :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Magic

Seems like I'm not the only "Man with a plan." 

I think I'm done with track for now, got to do the center island yet but that's easy.
Just this morning I decided that I have to re due all the electrical, a total mess and I've got a short I can't track down. 

big ed; I've got a big box full of scenery stuff, cars, people, trees, etc. Hoping to get to it soon. Electrical mess first and I'm getting to it right now. 

Magic


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## trains galore

show us the wiring, we might be able to see what's wrong
The underneath of my layout is total wiring mess so I got some curtains to hide it.
If you are getting a short you probably wired the point wrong. Is it electrofrog or insulfrog?
If it is electrofrog, make sure you connected the feeder wires to it the right way (so you have positive on one side of the rail and negative on the other, otherwise if the point blades touch and one is negative and the other positive you get a short.


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## Magic

trains galore said:


> show us the wiring, we might be able to see what's wrong
> The underneath of my layout is total wiring mess so I got some curtains to hide it.
> If you are getting a short you probably wired the point wrong. Is it electrofrog or insulfrog?
> If it is electrofrog, make sure you connected the feeder wires to it the right way (so you have positive on one side of the rail and negative on the other, otherwise if the point blades touch and one is negative and the other positive you get a short.


No pictures, I though you were on your way over. Heck 18,000 miles or so is nothing if you get the chance to fix a short and the wiring nightmare alone would be worth the trip.

All the turnouts are Walthers DCC friendly and are OK. I added a new crossover to the center island and must have messed up there. Got two sidings into the center island now. I had to disconnect a bunch of stuff, no doubt got something mixed up. 
I need to re wire the layout anyway so I'll find it when I get to it. But thanks for the offer. 

Spent all day crawling around and made some headway, got most of the turnout wiring tided up and am running another buss, one for the outer oval and one for the inner. Circuit breakers on each. About 1/4 done. Bought a label printer so am labeling everything. 
Should be finished in a couple of days.

I'll leave the light on. Magic


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## trains galore

Haha just need a private jet
Well dcc wiring is quite different to dc wiring so I don't think I could help much:laugh:
Sounds like your going in the right direction with it though
Good luck!


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## Magic

Private jet huh.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
I'll leave the runway lights on. :laugh:

Magic


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## outlaw bill

What area in Reno do you live in? I'm in Sun Valley.


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## Ray Haddad

outlaw bill said:


> I'm in Sun Valley.


. . . and I'm in snowy wasteland. Quit bragging.


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## outlaw bill

:laugh: We could definitely use some of that here. Not laughing at you. I know yall have gotten more than your fair share of the white stuff. We need the water.


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## Magic

outlaw bill said:


> What area in Reno do you live in? I'm in Sun Valley.


I'm in "sunny" Sparks. No brag just fact. 

I'll PM an address if you'd like to come over and see the layout, simi complete with wiring mess. I've got most of it cleand up now. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:
Should be able to run trains in a day or two. :thumbsup:

Magic


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## outlaw bill

That would be cool. I'd like to see a layout in person, for more ideas. And I do have questions. Besides,,,,,I'd like to meet other modelers.


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## Magic

Sounds great Bill PM on the way shortly.

Magic


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## trains galore

There doesn't seem to be any other Australians on here...
Anyway a jet isn't THAT expensive :laugh:


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## DonR

There are several Austraiian members of the Forum.

Seek and ye shall find.

Don


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## outlaw bill

Magic,
Tried calling you but the person that answered said there was no person by the name Magic there. Shoot me a PM again with your number. Thank you.




Bill


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## Big Ed

DonR said:


> There are several Austraiian members of the Forum.
> 
> Seek and ye shall find.
> 
> Don


Yes there are, they even had a flag added to the icon pick in the posting box.


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## trains galore

Oh really? Better have a look


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## Magic

*Hoooooray!!!!!!!!*

Got the wiring mess straightened out yesterday. :appl::appl::appl::appl:
Added some more feeders and the second buss, also had to shorten up most of the feeders as they got too long because of changes in the "no plan" plan.
Had to solder some rail joints as well but now everything is running super. 
5 days rewiring was all I could take so what I got is what I've got. 

Here is how the passing track worked out, once again operations won out over scenery.
It is now a part of the main yard instead of an entrance siding. I just backed a 20 car consist down it and it went ok. Since it's part of the yard very low speed here.




Here is the other end, near the main yard.


Here is how the Tortoise machines are laid over because of bench work problems. That and I'm trying to minimize the work under the layout, too old for that stuff, rewiring almost killed me. 
Two operate the main line crossover and the other two the Y siding. 



Here's two others, same problem. 


And how they look covered, got more to do on that hill, it was someplace else. 



Here is a blank wall to show that my photographic skills aren't any better than my wiring or track laying skills.  



Had this kicking around the house and since I'm doing 1950s it added a nice touch and a phone in the train barn. 



I think I'm done with track laying and electrical for now so I can actually operate the layout instead of just running trains. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:
Got a ton of scenery and clean up to do so that is next.

Magic


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## trains galore

Well done:thumbsup: that's looking great!
I like how you've done the point motors, just make sure you have a little door or flap so you can access them if something goes wrong
Nice phone too


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## RedManBlueState

trains galore said:


> Well done:thumbsup: that's looking great!
> I like how you've done the point motors, just make sure you have a little door or flap so you can access them if something goes wrong
> Nice phone too


I think you mean "WHEN something goes wrong." Of course, if he makes it accessible, it will never break.


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## Magic

RedManBlueState said:


> I think you mean "WHEN something goes wrong." Of course, if he makes it accessible, it will never break.


Yep Everything is easily accessible so I hope you're right. 
Everything else has gone wrong so I deserve a break. 

Magic


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## outlaw bill

The layout is looking real good, Magic...:appl:




Bill


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## Magic

Well I did something really smart (or stupid ) a few days ago. I downloaded Yard Office cataloging program. Spent the next 3 days sorting out all my receipts from E Bay, Model Train Stuff etc. I've saved all the E mails for everything I've bought on the internet. 

Got 120 pieces of rolling stock so far. Most everything is newly purchased so I had prices to put in as well, Afraid to pull a report of the cost, 

I think I got everything (95%) entered. Pretty nice program, if you registered it you can do lots of stuff with it. Can keep some of your DCC loco stuff in it, addresses, CV settings, etc. Can even add pics, which I'm going to do tomorrow. Gotta learn how to use the GOOD camera I borrowed. 

I'll be using it to print out cards which will go into a hat and draw out for consist orders.
Makes for some challenging switching. 

This also gave me a reason to clean up the train barn, put boxes away and sort them out, get all the rolling stock I'm not using stored properly, etc. 

Magic


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## trains galore

What is the little grey electrical cap in the wiring used for, I got some but they don't have a screw, do you just poke the soldered wires in?
Thanks!


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## Magic

trains galore said:


> What is the little grey electrical cap in the wiring used for, I got some but they don't have a screw, do you just poke the soldered wires in?
> Thanks!


They are just standard threaded wire nuts, you just screw them on. Haven't soldered any wiring yet, Not till I'm sure I won't be changing anything. I've got them all over the place.

Being in Australia yours are no doubt upside down, try turning them over. 

I'll leave the light on Magic


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## trains galore

Right ok!
The ones I normally see have a screw you turn that bites into the wire, I'll have to try these


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## Magic

Well I got my next project finished. I just had two florescent light fixtures for lighting.
Things look really crappy with florescent lights so out they went. Well almost, I keep them for work lights.

What I did was picked up 4 ceiling fixtures (Lowes), each has a pull chain on/off switch and two bulbs. 40W/60w is what I'm using. I put one in each corner of the room and they are controlled by a dimmer. This way I can simulate sunrise, noon or sunset by which lights I have on and how bright I set them. Worked out really good, gonna look super when I get lighted buildings, etc. Picked up enough bulbs to last my lifetime as well. 

The layout looks much better than those crappy pics I posted, shot with a cheep Casio camera and with the lights almost looks respectful.

Magic


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## trains galore

Sounds great, especially if you can simulate different times of the day
Any pictures?


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## gator do 65

Pics, pics and more pics!
Please.


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## trains galore

When you wire up the lights in the buildings make sure you have a switch so then you can only put them on at 'night time'


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## Magic

Holy megawatt Badman, this lighting thing works great. Ran trains all evening and put in a full day, sunup to sundown. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:
Only problem is the SP Daylight would look so cool if it were lighted, maybe a future project. 

Tried to take some pics but don't know enough about the camera, might get the kid over to take them. Might need a tripod to get the low light levels to look right. 

Will most defiantly put the layout lights on a switchable circuit as suggested. 

Need to find some nice backdrops first. Mr. no plan  didn't leave enough room between the track and the wall to do anything fancy like some of the stuff you see on this forum. Some beautiful things done here. Well beyond my skills and time available but I love to see them.

Magic

Edit Hay I'm not a hobo any more, still a bum just not a hobo.


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## Magic

Just when you think you're done laying track something else comes up. 

This is the ladder yard on the West wall that I added earlier but really didn't have access to it. 


So added this to give more access to both South and West yards.
Had the #7 curved turnout laying about, not only do I not have a plan but don't know right from left ordered wrong one earlier.  Took out that silly tunnel thingie I had there, didn't like it much anyway. The geep 9 is on the main line. 



Most be getting better at cutting in turnouts because this one went perfect.:thumbsup:
A little flex track to hook up the new section and all was good to go. 
That silly thing for the upper mainline has got to go but I don't have any idea what to do with it.  Mr. No Plan here.  Maybe I should change my screen name? :laugh:


This was the old set up. Put in that tunnel thingie to mount a turnout motor on it but have since moved the turnout, Ah what a plan. :thumbsup:


This gives me much more flexibility for switching long consist. 

Also got all my new locos addressed and those that are MUed speed matched and tuned up some of the rolling stock, steel wheels and adjusted couplers. 
All in all a good 3 days. :thumbsup::thumbsup: 

Magic


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## trains galore

I thought I got the award for mr no plan:laugh:
Looking great:thumbsup: nice tunnels


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## tr1

*no race to finish........*

Well your certainly of to a good start. It takes a long time too put all together, have patience.my friend 
Regards,
tr1


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## Magic

Well I got stupid again. 

Just for grins I hooked up two trains with 20 cars each and ran them around for a time and than put them into the yard, didn't fit, couldn't get the locos out nor really switch cars.

Great idea (new plan ) make the yard BIGGER. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

Started ripping out the old yard. All but the first 4 tracks were eventually removed. 









Everything on the tail end will be redone, going to rap 4 or 5 tracks around the corner and put in a ladder to connect them all. 
As soon as Johnny on the Spot delivers the Sani-Hut I can cross the bathroom door with the ladder. Got a shed in the back yard that a garden hose will make a good shower. :smilie_daumenpos: 
Note the well planned position of my new Digitrax radio control throttle. Not much of a control panel as most turnouts have their controls located near the them. Hence the new throttle.  








Waiting for my new track and turnouts to get here, no hobby shops here so everything has to be ordered on line. 
A little bit better pics than before, got a new camera, still learning how to use it. It's smarter than I am. 

It's so great when a good plan is executed to perfection. :appl::appl:

Magic


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## raleets

No hobby shops in Reno, NV.......wow! And I thought Flint, MI was backward.


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## gator do 65

Magic,
There is nothing wrong with "Build first plan later" it's just like building your first model without the instructions = FUN!
I built my layout (12'x7') 9 inches at a time by leap frogging piece's and tracing Duh! It was fun and a challenge trying to get a circle completed! Wish I had known about scarm at the time.


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## Magic

Well here's what's happening with the old Magic RR. 

Since I was redoing the yard I decided to go all the way, ripped everything out from the main crossing. Painted the whole thing, was looking kind o' ratty with all the changes I've made. 
Start with a fresh canvas.   

Pulled up all this track, painted and relayed as before. 








Same deal here.








First painted everything a base brown than followed up with a couple of cans of brown and white spray stone. Came out pretty good.
Put in the first siding and will work all others from this one. 








Wrapped it around the corner. 








Top of yard with new tack. 








Bottom section, new track








The 4 loose ends will go across the bath door but I need a #7 curved turnout to make it work. It's on order. Kinda like those things saves a lot of room, this will be the forth I've used. 








Got started on the bridge across the bath door, will post pics when I get it done. 

Magic


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## DonR

Magic

Old worry wart here. Did you isolate a short length of track
on either side of your bridge so that it goes dead when
the bridge is 'open'? This is an insurance policy against
expensive loco high dives onto an unyielding floor. The
electrical device can be micro switches, or simply a strip
of brass or copper on the bridge bottom and support top
wired in such a way that when open no power goes to the
isolated tracks.

Don


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## trains galore

That's a VERY good idea
Probably just a strip of metal wired to the controller and the other to the track would be easiest, you could just put a nice big isolation switch there but what happens if you forget to turn it off:laugh:
I did once have my favourite train nose dive off the layout after it hit something near the track I was devastated luckily only a broken coupler couldn't believe my luck


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## Magic

DonR said:


> Magic
> 
> Old worry wart here. Did you isolate a short length of track
> on either side of your bridge so that it goes dead when
> the bridge is 'open'? This is an insurance policy against
> expensive loco high dives onto an unyielding floor. The
> electrical device can be micro switches, or simply a strip
> of brass or copper on the bridge bottom and support top
> wired in such a way that when open no power goes to the
> isolated tracks.
> 
> Don


Dear Old Worry Wart;

Well the no plan plan is to either do as you suggest or just use quick disconnects on the wiring. 

This is a dead end bridge so I only have to worry about the one end. 
The whole ladder track will come out. I built a shelf under the center section and can slide the bridge thingie under it. 


Here's what I've got so far.








Straight and level. 

















Glue drying, got tired of watching glue dry I took this pic and loaded it onto the computer and I could watch glue dry in comfort. 








Old sand sock, built this years ago and found it most handy for all sorts of things.
Works great holding flex track when cutting it with a Dremel. Note the patch, might be where I got the idea for my shoes which by the way are holding up nicely. :thumbsup:








I think I'll use the locating dowels and build a slip on piece for when the bridge is removed. It will slip onto the dowels and extend above the track and inch or so and I'll pad it with egg create foam to stop and errant locos. It's low speed yard so that should do. 








The #7 curved turnout installed and the leads to the bridge








This is where I've got problems. How to lay the track and than cut it at the joint.
Got a couple of ideas but "No Plan" yet. The wood for the bench work my be a problem.








Magic


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## DonR

Magic

Would it work to lay the track completely across the bridge, then
determine exactly where it should be cut and use the Dremel
to cut it in place?

Don


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## trains galore

Rather than having the joint right over where the two pieces connect, what if you made some joiner rails that you can just slide in? Then you don't have to worry about the two tracks lining up perfectly.
Just a thought anyway... I'm sure someone who knows more can help you on that one


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## Magic

Thanks guys.  good ideas.

Looking at what I've got to do and the way it is now I just might go with the removable track sections, With three tracks my chances of cutting all three perfectly are slim and none. That's the one thing that bothered me about this whole operation. That and I have no extra track left. hwell:

I've done the sliding rail joiners before and it's not too much trouble. The bridge isn't some thing I will have to put in or take out all that often, I always have the Sani hut in the back yard.  

Interesting thing about the #7 turnout. I ordered it Friday morning from Model train stuff.
Monday when I got up I checked my E Mail to see if they had shipped, nope. 
Went outside and there was my package on the porch   Later check my E Mail and there was the shipping notice, Package got here first. 

Here is how it came out. 








Tested it today and all works good so far, will give it a real workout tomorrow.
Those are both 20 car trains, back then both in and out all the way to the main line with no problems. 
The entire yard is held down with T50 staples so if I need to change anything it'll be easy to do. 








Believe it or not the entire yard is powered by just two feeders at the very head of the yard. Got many more feeders installed but not hooked to the buss yet. 



Magic


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## FarmerJim

That is a sensational layout Magic. You are too modest mate. I will be very happy if I can do anything like that. Notice the polystyrene above your base board. I am unsure whether to apply this or not!


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## FarmerJim

Just a new member guys and gee this stuff is starting to scare me. I haven't a clue yet about wiring, however it guess I just need to start. I have a 10'6" x 8'7" space and thinking about a 'round the room' shelf, 30" wide with opening to get in on the shorter side. Bench height I am still unsure about. How does that sound?


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## FarmerJim

Should I perhaps start a new thread on this?


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## trains galore

Yes that would be a good idea


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## FarmerJim

Ok thanks


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## Magic

Well things pretty slow on the Magic RR, seems like the entire crew call in sick and all expect the illness to last through the Stanly Cup playoffs. 

However the purchasing dept was busy. Gasoline being cheep and plentiful in the 1950s, 25 cents per gallon +/- and you got Green Stamps as well, it seemed logical to have some way to ship gas at least purchasing though so. 

All Athearn BB new in box kits. Installed Kadee #5 couplers and Intermountain wheels until we ran out. Another 100 on order. 








Guess who forgot to re-size the pic. :dunno:

Will be adding an oil terminal to service the tankers. 

The track, bridge and the lake are undergoing some up grades, more on that when the crew gets well again.

Magic


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## Dirtytom

Wish I had a crew?

DT


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## Magic

Well I got some of the crew back the other day, those San Jose Sharks fans, they were very hungover as they recovered from the Sharks suffering the fourth greatest playoff series loss in Stanly Cup history. 

Decided to do some road work, new paving.
It looks much better than the pics, too much light for the camera, guess I'd better learn how to take time exposures and also how to focus a pic.   Maybe read the manual? 
























Paving equipment








Did a little clean up on the campground as well, my first attempt at ground cover.
The lake needs more work, maybe when the effects of over drinking ware off. 
















Magic


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## Magic

Well even the most die hard New York Ranger fans are returning to work after an embarrassing 3 0 shutout loss at home against the LA Kings and trailing the series 3 games to none. 

About 5 years ago I applied for some Obama "Stimulus" funds for shovel ready infrastructure improvements.  

Well this week we started that project. :smilie_daumenpos:
It's important to note that no shovels were hurt in this operation. 

Project # 1 ballasting all the track and repairing dilapidated bridges. 
Under table wiring is at the top of things I hate but ballasting is a close second, at least you're standing up. 

Bridge repair.








The pink area above the bridge is for a culvert I'm building now. 
Gotta re-due the lake, looks Ok in bright light but too dark for the light I run trains in.








Ballasted track.
Didn't come out as good as I had hoped, think I used the wrong ballast, Woodland Scenics, the course is too course and the medium a little too fine. I think something in between would be better and it does float. I will try something else next time. 











Lots of clutter getting all this done. The little spray bottle in the foreground is very good for wetting and gluing, puts out a nice fine spray. Best I've found so far and it's Alcohol. 










Magic


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## Hutch

I think it looks great.


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## Magic

New rolling stock for those unfortunate folks that can't take the train. 
All mini metals except the green and white car, Woodland Scenics, and the little roadster is a Ricko limited edition, I had one just like it, even down to the flames way back then. 









Making a mole hill out of a mountain.
Had originally planed (no plan) to put a mountain here but decided I didn't want a tunnel here so made a mole hill instead. 
Base coat of stone spray, pretty much a wast of time and paint as I ended up covering it all up anyway.  
















Came out pretty good but looking at the pics I made it too symmetrical, may need to add a bluff to it or offset some more trees? 

















Magic


----------



## Hutch

This is a great thread Magic. Keep up the good work and posting.


----------



## trains galore

Nice ''greyhound'' bus!


----------



## Magic

trains galore said:


> Nice ''greyhound'' bus!


Ya, I've been wanting one of them since I first saw one. Problem solved. :thumbsup:
If you're traveling to or from LA or San Fransisco you would pass right through my neck of the woods so I use to see lots of those when I was a kid. The front destination board says " San Fransisco".

Only other problem is I don't have very many roads to put these on.  :dunno:
I love it when a good "no plan" works out. :smilie_daumenpos:

Got a Diner to build some place so I just might park it there. 

Magic


----------



## trains galore

Haha get a couple more and you could have a bus station Where did you get it from? I might get one for my layout


----------



## Greg903

Looking good. Lots of good ideas in here. Like the speckled/hammered paint as roadways.


----------



## Magic

Greg The spray stone roadways look much better in real than in the pics, too much light.
I used the Valspar but Rust-oleum has a lighter shade for the more weathered look.
A little black paint will make cracks, patches, etc. for more weathering.

Trains the bus is a Classic Metal Works Mini Metals #33108. I got it from Modeltrainstuff.com but anyplace that carries Mini Metals should be able to get it for you. 

Magic


----------



## mustangcobra94

that's a great idea with the spray paint for the roads. i watched all kinds of u-tube videos on making roads and that is so easy and looks good too.


----------



## Greg903

mustangcobra94 said:


> that's a great idea with the spray paint for the roads. i watched all kinds of u-tube videos on making roads and that is so easy and looks good too.


I wish I would've seen this a week ago. Looks like I have a return to make. Bought some roadway kit where the 1/2" double sided tape costs like $10. ( even though I could've went to Home Depot and got it for $1)


----------



## Magic

One word of caution, that spray stone is a powerful spray and over sprays a lot.
So mask off everything even remotely close and spray downward as much as possible.

If I was to re-due my layout (which I'm not)I would use this stuff as ballast. Paint all your cork roadbed with it and than put it on the layout, when dry it stays flexible and goes down just the same as unpainted but there is no need to ballast later unless you want to. Another word of caution, just a light a spray don't over do it or the roadbed will warp. If it does it's still usable but you'll have to tack it down much more securely. It will straighten out. 

It's certainly not for the high realism guys but for someone who just wants to get a nice looking layout up and running it's very good. Looks better than that fast track or what ever they call it and has all the versatility of cork roadbed. If you need to make changes later you don't have to mess with ballasted track.

I just set this on the layout. Looks better if installed. 








In the lower right is some track with some not all that great hand laid ballast.
















Magic


----------



## Magic

Well the "No plan" plan just struck again. 

Saw this on fleebay and just had to have it, wanted a Shay since I first saw one. 
Of course it's HOn3 and I don't have any track or a place to put any, so I bough it. 
It really needs a coat of paint, it's just flat black now.


















It don't fit HO track.










Want to paint it up like this only more weathered. I have neither the skills nor the equipment to do so, will have it done by someone who does. Any volunteers?








Now for the "No plan" plan (#22c), A place to put it. Decided on a small logging transfer area, from trucks to rail cars. Will be a static display as I have no room to run anything. 

Cut in a gorge. It starts no were and goes no were.  








Started making a mountain out of a mole hill.  








The track (which I don't have) will run across the gorge into the tunnel thingy.
Anyone have about 36 or so inches of HOn3 track they would be willing to part with, can be short pieces as the train won't run anyway. Hate to buy 5 sticks of flex track for just 3 feet.








A logging road will do the same on the left side. 
A couple of wood trestles will go very nice here.  










Magic


----------



## Magic

Well the No Plan ™ plan is at it again. 
The cliffs on the South and West walls have been problematic since I first put them in (No plan ™) All efforts to get them to look reasonable have failed. Tried paint, rock molds, most everything. Nothing looked good at all. 









Well I just found out that Cotton Balls is not some sort of male affliction  but rather a very handy tool for hard to do something about areas on the Magic RR. 

Just stick em on the cliff with plenty of glue and I mean plenty of glue. 
Not much room to work with here so I just need something to give a little definition to the cliff. 

















A little paint, some greenery and trees and voila a decent looking cliff.  








Certainly not some thing you'd write home about but from a distance not too shabby.
It's beyond the crawl under (too old to duck under) and in the back corner so nobody will be looking at it up close and personal anyway. 








The green area will be a display and museum for the little SP 4 6 0 steamer. 
Got a kit of the Sparks NV. SP station we have here in town so am modeling that. 
The station in the pic is gonna go. Might also think about moving the green shed that is sitting ON the upper main line, may be a problem later.
The mountain in the corner is a work in progress. 

Magic


----------



## Hutch

That looks great! Whoda thunk it! Cotton balls.


----------



## Biggie

Nice Shay loco  Great found!


----------



## trains galore

Great work! Never thought of trying cotton balls, might have to give it a go


----------



## Magic

More of your Federal Cotton Balls at work. 
The upper level came out so nice I decided to do the lower level the same way. 
Cotton Balls to the rescue. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: 
Not much room here and this was the only thing that seemed to work. 









A little paint. Used Woodland Scenics Earth Colors washes and some artist acrylic paint.








Some ground cover. Looks pretty good for a problem area that has troubled me from the start of my No Plan™ plan. Once I get some more bushes and trees built I'll add some here.








Decided to dress up the curve on the other end of the layout.








Adds a little definition to the hillside. Touched up some of the orange with a little yellow after this pic. Looks better. 









Magic


----------



## trains galore

Nice work 
You could make a cotton ball mountain


----------



## Magic

Well I just debunked the Plate Tectonics Theory and discovered how mountains are really built. 
White and pink foam with a few cotton balls thrown in for good measure. I'll bet if you dig into your local mountain that's what you'll find. 

Raw materials delivered to the job site. 








A little plaster cloth to hold things in place








SP 5114 brings in more cotton balls from distant cotton plantation.
Trucks bringing them in from local Fruit of the Loom tee shirt factory, gonna be a tee shirt shortage soon. 








A trackhoe carving out the logging road and a steady supply of cotton balls. 








Magic


----------



## Fire21

Gotta love a story that goes along with the construction!! :appl:


----------



## Conductorjoe

I first saw the trucks, then saw the glue bottle,and my first thought was, I always clear the layout before the glue and plaster come out. Then after a closer look I saw what you were doing and read what you said . hahaha Nice :laugh: :thumbsup:
Very nice. I like to have fun when I am working on mine too .


----------



## Magic

Well the building and reforestation of Lookout Peak is complete with delivery of the last tree. :appl: Given the limited space I have it came out pretty good. 

A class C Shay brings in lumber and a turnout for the logging RR 








Work has begin on the tunnel 








Magic


----------



## gator do 65

Magic,
What are using to cover the cotton balls? Details please!


----------



## Magic

Well first I tried Elmers white glue, that worked pretty good but I found several tubs of Spackling compound around the house, must have bough a new one for each project. 

This works better, I thin it down with water till it's about like pancake mix and put a base coat down with a paint brush. I than pull the balls apart till I get a some what flat piece but with some lumps. Stick on the cotton balls with the Spackle and let it set hard. Next I go over the balls with more pancake mix (Spackle) and a very wet paint brush and smooth things out and shape in rocks where you see fit to put them, It's kind of a let things flow thingie and see what you get, The no plan™ plan. 

You can use Hydrocal or plaster of paris etc. but I like the Spackle or joint compound better than the others as it will keep forever, one of the tubs had about an 1/8 inch of dust on it, a little water and as good as new. I also use this for ticking up tree trunks and adding a little texture to them, some sand works well for this. 

For Lookout Peak I used cotton more to smooth all the rough edges from the foam and not much rocks so I smoothed things out and put down plaster cloth and more thin Spackle, than sprayed brown and white stone paint on the whole thing and when dry I started coloring it all with various paints and ground cover etc. 

For the hill by the Shay I just molded rocks with a small wet paint brush and Spackle, you can add small pieces of cotton to get the shapes you want. You color (That's colour for Trains Galore) the rocks much the same way you would plaster molded rocks. I filled in between them with a small detail brush, glue and ground cover.

This doesn't look too good in the high light level for a pic but in the low light I run my trains it isn't too bad. Haven't figured out a way to get that shear granite rock look yet. 
I'll probability redo this if I ever figure it out. At this time I don't see any better way to do it and have too many other things to do. 

















On the left is my one and only molded rock face. Problem I have is all my cliffs are on curves so molds don't work so hot. 








Magic


----------



## gator do 65

Magic,
Thank you for the details! I found by using several different colors of the stone paint ie; black/white, tan/white & brown /beige combined with crumpled heavy masking paper (crumple into a ball and stretched back out) makes for some pretty realistic granite. This photo was taken before ground cover (someday) so I feel it's a little over bearing and bland but you should get where it's going.


----------



## Magic

Crumpled paper just might be the ticket for the wall in my last pic, thanks. :smilie_daumenpos:
I'll look into it. A little Spackle might give it some texture???

Well it was a black day on the old Magic RR, the entire crew (me) went on strike 
Over worked they say lugging trees, cotton balls, paint and other pieces of scenery around. 

So management, (me) had to clean up all this mess. 








Got everything cleaned up and decided to really run trains for the first time in weeks. 
Made up consist from what ever I wanted, ran them to where ever I wanted and spotted cars on spurs at industries that don't exist yet. Spent the whole afternoon just having fun. :smilie_daumenpos: 
No crew to give orders to, no responsibilities, no scenery, no train orders, nothing. It's good to be King. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

I'll say one thing having some scenery, even if it's not all that great, sure makes the trains look better. I'm just about done with the major scenery for now so I can get to work on smaller projects and put in some more detail. Just need to take a break and clear my head.
If that is possible. I stopped to think one time  and never got started again. 

Magic


----------



## Big Ed

The cotton hills look great. :smilie_daumenpos:
Scenery makes the layout come alive huh?

Some of the pictures of the cotton before you painted them would make a good snow banks, just paint them white.

How do you ever clean the window in the back?


----------



## Magic

I don't do windows.  :cheeky4: and the window washer went on strike with the rest of the crew 
I'm going to cover most of the window up with a back drop. 

Magic


----------



## Big Ed

Magic said:


> I don't do windows.  :cheeky4: and the window washer went on strike with the rest of the crew
> I'm going to cover most of the window up with a back drop.
> 
> Magic


I do windows. 
I have all fairly new windows and like to keep them clean. Once a year at least. With the tilt in type it is a breeze cleaning them. As with most of my chemicals I get free cleaner at stops too.
A backdrop? Most of the window? Going to look like "heck" when your looking in from the backyard. 
Look how dirty it is!  Unless that is a foggy day when you shot this picture.
( I do the kitchen and bathroom floors too. Call me Mr clean, they are new and nice and shiny too. Add my new corian counter to the list, nice and shiny also. Might as well add in the hardwood floors.:smilie_daumenpos








Cotton balls would make for some nice snow drifts, tanks for the ideal.
Looking good man.:smokin::thumbsup:


----------



## Chet

I am new to this forum. Happened across it on Taptalk and you have a very interesting layout. I was in a bit of a fix years ago when I started my layout. I had a plan on what I wanted to do, but had no track plan at all. I chose to model the area where I live in the transition era. My layout is a short line/branch line connecting to the Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road. This gave me the opportunity to have power from both roads to show up on my layout. It is also a point to point with a yard and engine facility at each end. There is also hidden staging that will allow continuous running. 

It was interesting to start without a track plan and see a layout evolve. That's why your layout interests me. 

I haven't figured out how to send a private message yet, so I have a question for you. Are there any model railroad shops in your area? We get to Reno once or twice a year for bowling tournaments and I have tried a few times to locate a hobby shop with no results. I live in Montana and have absolutely nothing for model railroading up here. We do travel quite a bit and always search out hobby shops to stock up on supplies but like I said, we couldn't find a thing in Reno.


----------



## Big Ed

Chet, Just click on the members name you will see an option to send a private message.
I think you may need 10 posts first?


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## Chet

big ed said:


> Chet, Just click on the members name you will see an option to send a private message.
> I think you may need 10 posts first?


Thanks


----------



## Magic

Welcome to the forum Chet.

I just viewed your video for the third time. What a beautiful layout. :smilie_daumenpos:
If my set up ends looking half as good as yours I'd be a very happy camper. You do some beautiful work. :thumbsup:

Interesting :dunno: maybe but difficult for sure. 

No hobby shops in Reno, have to do everything on line. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Big ED Well those are new windows. They're tinted and what ever they used attracts dust like a magnet.

But now thanks to you I'll have to give in to the washers demands.   or be known through the model railroad world as a poor housekeeper. As for floors you can eat off my floors, there's dozens of things to eat down there, of course you have to pick out all the little pink foam balls first. 

If I could get you and Chet over here I would not only have a great looking layout but clean windows as well.  

Magic


----------



## Big Ed

Magic said:


> Big ED Well those are new windows. Their tinted and what ever they used attracts dust like a magnet.
> 
> But now thanks to you I'll have to give in to the washers demands.   or be known through the model railroad world as a poor housekeeper. As for floors you can eat off my floors, there's dozens of things to eat down there, of course you have to pick out all the little pink foam balls first.
> 
> If I could get you and Chet over here I would not only have a great looking layout but clean windows as well.
> 
> Magic


I would do them if I visited, but I would have to walk on the table. You think it would hold my 240 lbs?
Unless I bring my tools and take them off the house to clean. 
Do you have nice counter tops that shine when you clean them? I will do them too, I love a shiny counter top.

Floors....I only do my own floors, No dishes ( unless there is a lot of grease under my fingernails from working on a vehicle), I don't do laundry either.
A mans got to have limitations you know.:smokin:


----------



## Magic

Well after some hard negotiations I settled with the window washers. 
Work on the Magic RR will now slow down as I'm now missing an arm and a leg.  

As the sun rises SP 6005 Daylight brings in the window washers, takes a lot of 1/87 scale people to do that big a window. 








They did a pretty good job.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: I hope Big Ed approves. 
Lower right some trees I working on. More. 








Just starting to play with a new idea.  More on this later. 









Also had to relay some track in the yard, too close to the edge for comfort.
Lowered it down below the fascia. Also reinstalled my programing track, gotta reprogram some locos. 








Magic


----------



## Big Ed

WOW, they look like new windows now. :thumbsup:
Now you have to do the floors.

And you need to take that 20 min ride and harvest some sagebrush for the trees.:thumbsup:
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=24753


----------



## gator do 65

Big Ed,
If you keep having Magic doing all those chores, When is he going to have time to tell us about his new idea?


----------



## Magic

big ed said:


> WOW, they look like new windows now. :thumbsup:
> Now you have to do the floors.
> 
> And you need to take that 20 min ride and harvest some sagebrush for the trees.:thumbsup:
> https://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=24753


I'm saving the floors for a winter project. 
The windows are a big improvement, not as foggy in Reno as I through. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

More on the trees. :appl:

I didn't like the store bought armatures nor the ones I was building.
Someone (I'll get his name later) posted that he used 18 gauge stranded wire. 
Though this might be the answer. This was pre sagebrush, more on that later. 

What I did was use 12 gauge wire. It has 19 strands in it for plenty of branches.
I striped the insulation off and than took 4 wires and twisted them together, continued till all were twisted, than took two of those and twisted them together to get to get forks in the branches. 








Next I started covering everything with Spackle to add some thickness. Sprinkled some sand on the wet Spackle to speed up the tricking. Do this several times till you get the look you're looking for. 








A little paint and you have a pretty decent looking and workable armature 








This was my first attempt, not too bad but with practices I'm getting better. 








On the ones I'm working on now I took a piece of plastic drip line hose and slipped it over the insulation for the trunk to give a bigger trunk for bigger trees. One good thing about this is even after the Spackle you can still bend the trunk or branches if needed.

If you don't have anything else this works pretty good and doesn't cost a lot. You can make them any size or shape you need. 
That Woodland Scenics foam foliage is kind of expensive and I don't have all that much so I tried some cotton balls, not very successful. 









I did however get out to the sagebrush fields and brought home a trunk full of the wrong kind of stuff. I didn't know what I needed but do now. Will go out again. 

This was the only one that worked, It would have made a perfect O scale tree but cutting it down for HO was not as good as it could have been. 







Oops I knocked the steamer off the track. 

Not too bad for the first attempt. 








If I can find the right stuff I just might replace every three on the layout, they look that good. Nothing I've seem even comes close. 

THANK YOU CHET. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## Chet

Nothing wrong with that. Looks good. :appl:


----------



## Magic

Thanks Chet, I'm still learning. 
I guess you can teach an old goat new tricks. :laugh:

Magic


----------



## DonR

Very nice.

You even got the effect of individual leafs.

Don


----------



## Magic

Thanks Don. I'm enjoying all this, experimenting with different things. Maybe someone will benefit from all this. 

The wire tree armatures seem to work out pretty good, better than store bought.
One good thing about the wire is that you can build any size or shape you want, would make an excellent pine tree.
The last one I did came out real good. I've tried all kinds of stuff, cotton balls not too bad, even lichen but too hard to work with. I've got tons of the stuff.
Ran out of the foam stuff.  More coming. :thumbsup: 

Cotton ball tree might be OK in the back of the layout. Glued the Cotton on and than covered it with ground cover stuff 








Cotton ball tree in the center and Woodland Scenics foam stuff on left. Both on my wire armatures. 








Smaller wire makes excellent bushes and I'll be using those. On the far right. 
Can even make them much smaller.

Magic


----------



## Chet

Looking good. Pretty soon you'll have a forest.


----------



## Magic

Well A banner day for the Magic RR, all labor disputes have been settled and work has proceeded on schedule. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

We took a big bit out of our "Obama's shovel ready infrastructure improvement" funds from the Department of the Interior and as a result have officially opened:

LAKE LACK O NOOKIE. :appl: :appl: :appl: :appl:

























Skeeter's Bait and Tackle Shop and the Lack O Nookie Lodge.








Festivities at the Lack O Nookie Campground. 








A busy day for the grand opening. SP 5114 picking up a load of fresh citrus from the packing plant. 








This is a top secret NSA satellite image, leaked by an unnamed source, in it's bid to find terrorist and other anti BIG Government activist. 
The unknown "fisherman" in the boat is known only as Tooter. :dunno: The man on the left bank is an NAS operative. :smokin:








He is being watched very closely by the crew of the UP 1983 time warped in from the 21st century.  It is after all the Magic RR. 








Magic


----------



## Chet

That is one major improvement, looking good ! :appl:


----------



## gator do 65

Magic,
Awesome layout and narrative! Love it! One question, What did you use for that fern looking bush just above/right of the NSA dude?


----------



## mustangcobra94

very cool :thumbsup: I think tooter will get a kick out of it if he ever leaves union station and checks out other threads.


----------



## Magic

gator do 65 said:


> Magic,
> Awesome layout and narrative! Love it! One question, What did you use for that fern looking bush just above/right of the NSA dude?



I got the stuff from Walthers. It's from Scene Masters and called Stinging Nettles.
It's laser cut colored paper. Looks pretty good but a bit spendy. 


Thanks Chet. The biggest improvement is your sagebrush trees. :smilie_daumenpos:

Mustang the latest report I got from the NSA is that the boat sank and "Tooter" had to be rescued by a Liberal.    

Magic


----------



## trains galore

Looks great, amazing job on the water scene:smilie_daumenpos:
Who is the figure on the right bank though?


----------



## Magic

We are not really sure but he was later seen following the NSA guy and than talking into his shoe. Our best guess is Control agent 86 Maxwell Smart. Another clue was that Agent 99 was seen sunbathing under the big tree on the lower right. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## gator do 65

Got any pictures of 99?


----------



## Big Ed

Looking good, you need a hot dog wagon or ice cream stand there too.:smilie_daumenpos:


Some older members who have been here a while know I like blue water. 
Why the dramatic difference in the water colors? One side looks almost black and when you go under the bridge it turns to the blue?













Rivet, rivet, You going to clean up this bank with some brown or is that just the picture making the bank look blue?









That has to be Tooter in the boat as I see no pole, he wouldn't need any,  as the fish probably would just jump into the boat anyway.:laugh:
And I think that is Jack on the bank casting 15 oz sinkers towards him.


----------



## Magic

I never did get the water color right. 5 tries on the big part and three on the smaller part where the canoes are, wanted that area to look like shallow water. It's a blue green but looks too dark in the photos, looks good in real though. 

The bigger part is too bright but in the low light I run trains in it's not too bad, I may redo this later but for now I'm tired of messing with it.

As for the blue bank, I posted the wrong pic, it's been fixed. (As soon as I saw that pic)
Hot dog cart sounds good, Lack O Nookie Foot Long Dogs. 
Got some more people for that scene but darned if I can find them. 

15 oz sinkers may explain the numerous large welts. 

Sorry Gator the racy photographs of Agent 99 are classified Top Secret. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## gator do 65

I'll get on that freedom of information act right now!


----------



## Magic

Well here we go again. Latest updates on the old Magic RR. :smokin:

I hate  it when real life interferes with my model railroading but stuff happens. :dunno:

November was lost to various things, none serious, but time consuming.
December brought on the worst head cold in human history. :goofball: Thanksgiving to Christmas. When the crew was informed they said "Sorry about that boss. Email us in the Bahamas when you feel better." 

Got real stupid in January, February and decided, since winter miss us completely this year, I would remodel my rental house. Called the crew back form various vacation spots around the globe and set out on the remodel. They all showed up tan and well rested except the poor soul that went to Boston. Looked very much like a Smurf and spent 3 days under a heat lamp before was able to go to work. 

I did find out that 1/87 scale crew with pink foam and cotton balls are not real handy around a 1 to 1 scale house. Place came out pretty good. New windows, siding and trim, 
roof, paint inside and out and some carpeting. Looks so good I'm in danger of losing my status as a "Slum Lord". 

Once I ran out of real money I got to work on the trains. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: Digging into the "Stimulus Fund" I got started. Had one spur and an open corner of the layout that needed attention. The spur was too close to the edge of the table and as I park expensive locos there some safety measures were needed. Couldn't find anything really exciting for the small corner as well so deciding on some mountain building. :appl: :appl:. the crew being well rested were up to the task. 


Some pink foam and plaster cloth got things started. 
























Some cotton balls to add some rocks, etc. The brown is real dirt.








The edge is just high enough to keep a car or loco from going over the side. 








Some ground cover.
















Added some of my wire armature trees and bushes. :smilie_daumenpos:
More on this later. 








Some coal cars waiting for delivery. Going to work on the logging camp next, just some ideas. :dunno:








Please note that I comply with all safety standards and the lumberjack is securely safety belted on top of the logs.  








Magic


----------



## Magic

Found some good stuff for ground cover and wire armature trees and bushes.
12 gauge wire for trees and 14 or so gauge for bushes. 

Here are some bushes. Used this hair spray for stickum and applied real dirt for the trunk and branches. Sifted and cleaned with a magnet. Spray the armature with the hair spray and sprinkle on some dirt, repeat as necessary till you get the look you want. Sticks good and dries fast. 2 bottles for $3.00, nice and cheep. Once you get the armature right it's great to add the foliage, Spray the armature and put on foam foliage and let dry some, add some loose stuff or other color ground cover if you want by wetting the foliage and sprinkle on what you are using. Hold the pump a distance away and mist a little spray on and let dry some and than move in close to put on a good holding coat. Works great. :thumbsup::thumbsup: All the trees and bushes in the above post were done this way as well as the ground cover. 








Better pic of the pump spray. 








Since its a pump not a spray can you can regulate the amount and power of the spray. Works great on ground cover. Just spray the area and apply the ground cover and let dry a bit. You can than go over it again with a little more from a distance and stick the cover that is still loose without blowing it away. Move closer as it dries and really stick it down. You can get the ground cover just the way you like it the very first time.

Got some new rolling stock, trying to catch up with Chet. Would be nice if they had a place to go.  :dunno:  The "No Plan" plan strikes again.
By the way Chet if you see anything that looks familiar I have written receipts from the guy in the 1960 Chevy with the dice hanging on the mirror. Doesn't speak much English but looks honest enough. And those were pack rats you heard the other night. 








Magic


----------



## Chet

Looking good. I had no plan but got things got done. things are moving ahead, and that's what is important.


----------



## gator do 65

Magic, the layout is coming along real nice! Thanks for the early morning LAUGH!

P.S. I checked with my lawyer on the FoIA, he's running into some red tape, but rumor has it that her body is some sort of secret high capacity double barreled assault weapon!

Hmmm, I wonder where those barrels are and where does the magazine go?


----------



## dsertdog56

Nice job on the new scenery. I appreciate when folks explain what materials they use and the technique(s) involved.


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## Magic

Thanks Chet, guess you didn't miss the cars. :smilie_daumenpos:
This area is the first thing you see when you enter the Train Barn so I'm trying to get it right. 
It's also where most people stand.

gator This is the best I could do. :dunno: :cheeky4:








Thanks desertdod
I do things different that a real human does. 
If I find something that someone else might be able to use I'll post it.
The wire trees and bushes came out great and very easy to build.

Magic


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## Magic

Presenting the NEW Magic RR.    :dunno:


















Holy GP-9 Batman 
What happened to the ol' Magic RR?
Has Magic lost all his marbles?
What is to become of the Magic RR?
IS THIS THE END?

Tune in next time.
Same Bat time. 
Same Bat thread.

Magic


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## Chet

Starting all over from scratch ??? Wowzers !


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## Magic

Well you miss a couple of payments to Dewy, Cheetum and Howe and they come and repo. your stuff. Didn't take unimportant things like the car or furniture but my layout.:smilie_daumenneg:
Left all the locos and rolling stock. :thumbsup:

Talked it over with the crew and they were upset to say the least.
"We have the technology"
"We can rebuild better than before". 
"We have Model Train Forum". :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:
So begins the new Six Million Dollar Rail Road. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

On the serious side of things. I was having so many problems.
Track too close to the walls, no room for scenery, etc.
Too many derailments, all started because I first laid in a double crossover that didn't work for me. It was the first thing I did and taking it out caused all kinds of problems with grades and such and it all ended up with some poor track work I haven't been able to overcome. 

Things ran OK till I ballasted the track and then nothing seemed to work right. 
Don't think it was the ballast itself as it was pretty good but something else. 

My SP 6005 daylight wouldn't run at all, the PA&B locos shorted on both crossovers and the cars just started falling off the track for no reason I could see. Never did this before.
The Geep 9s would run fine as singles but as an AA set derailed as well.
The F7 AB also started acting up the same way on a different turnout. 

Had some electrical issues to workout as well. The two main lines were supposed to be isolated but weren't. A short on one would kick both breakers.  

All attempts to fix these problems failed. I needed to re-due most of the grades and there is no way to do so without ripping them out. Once you rip out so much you have to go all the way. The only way I could see to get it right was to start over from scratch. If you have a bad foundation you pay for it later. 

I've been thinking of doing this for sometime and all the recent problems just sealed the deal. The main yard is trouble free so it stayed.   No doubt will have to re-due the head end but for the most part it's good. 

The "No Plan" plan new plan. With a plan.  








NSA satellite View. The big yard is on the south wall, the small one is west








As it will look if you're standing in the closet on the north wall. 








Over 100 feet of mainline. The yards and lead in tracks are about 175 feet.

Played for several days with SCRAM trying to come up with a better No plan plan but I didn't see anything I liked better, so I'm going back in with pretty much what I had but fixed some of the things I didn't like. Unfortunately The upper main still goes across the 4'x 12' north section at about 3 1/2", no way around this so I have to live with it. 

Tried to save what I could trees, some mountains etc. but the track was a near total loss, ballasted too good. Am going with code 100 anyway so saving track wasn't a big priority. Code 100 may not look as good but as far as I'm concerned it much easier to lay. Atlas flex track with Peco turnouts. I hope the Peco turnouts are as bulletproof as everybody says because I need all the bulletproofing I can get. 

Model Train Stuff just got a big order.    Woodland Scenes 2% inclines and some risers, etc. 150 feet Atlas flex track and cork roadbed. 9 new Peco turnouts. Various track nails, 18 and 22" track gauges and misc. supplies. 
Was thinking of using Peco switch machines but that involved too much rewiring so staying with the Tortoise,much as I hate mounting them, think I have a better way.  :goofball: I'll let you know. 

The whole project is off to a bad start, when I went to Home Depot to get the 1" and 1/2" pink foam board, they didn't have it, don't carry it any more. Lowes never had the blue stuff in the first place. Spent a day and a half trying to find some and there is no one in Reno that has it in less than 2", won't do for me. All I could find was some 2 foot by 2 foot squares and was forced to use them.   Cost twice as much. 

If you're planning to use foam board make sure you can get it before you get too far. 
It's not on Home Depot's web site anymore here. 

I hope my two plus years experience and all the good advice here on Model Train Forum will help me get it right this time. I do know one thing, I'm not going to do anything else till the track is perfect and I mean perfect. 


Magic


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## Chet

Looks like you may have learned a lot, unfortunately, the hard way. Hopefully this time things will work out better. The plan looks interesting. Hopefully it will work out for you. 

I we end up in Reno for a bowling tournament, I will be looking you up to see how things are going.


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## Fire21

Best of luck to you, Magic. It looks like a courageous layout to start on!! 

I tore apart my 4x8 N-scale just awhile back, because the no-plan plan wasn't working. I don't envy all you have to do on your big layout!

Get the crew settled down, and get them to working...it'll come together before you know it.:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Magic

Thanks Chet. That would be great, I'll be here laying track. 
I don't know how much I learned that is right but I've learned a lot of what not to do. 
The one thing I did learn is if you have grade changes "That's good enough" is NOT good enough. All my problems started right there. 

Thanks Fire. It's basically the same as before so I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing. The hard part will be getting the two mainlines right, the rest is pretty easy because it's all on flat ground or very low speeds.
When you start to No Plan plan you next layout try SCRAM Super easy program to learn and use. 

Got an Email from Model Train Stuff today and my model train stuff is on the way. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: 

Going to move my 5 amp booster tomorrow, put it in a more central location, got some long runs where it's at now. 

Magic


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## Magic

Well things are going not so good on the Magic RR.

Got most of the stuff I'll need OK 150 feet code 100 flex track, 150 feet cork roadbed and a fist full of Peco turnouts. A lot of Woodland Scenics inclines and risers. 








First set back was no pink foam board available in Reno, had to use 1x24x24 squares.
Worked Ok for the base board but suck when you try to stack them to elevate track. 
When they shear then into squares the shear compresses the foam along the edges and they resemble a rocking chair more than track base. Totally unusable. Had to go with all Woodland Scenics risers and inclines. Had to order more stuff. 

Second set back was when I was working on moving the booster. Built a shelf for it and than started to set up the wiring for the busses. My left leg got so sore I had to quit after about an hour. Could hardly walk for the next two days. It's OK now but I haven't been under the layout again. Don't know if it's a one time thing or a recurring problem.
If it happens again this thread will turn into a "How to wire a layout on top of the layout" thread. Got some ideas already.

The old layout had a buss for the upper mainline, one for the lower and a third for the yard. Made for long runs, didn't have any issues so far but I decided to shorten things up and run a buss for the yard, one for the left half and the third for the right half.
Much shorter runs and if I have to do it on top of the layout it will be much easier. 

Next issue, ordered two boxes of 25 pieces of cork roadbed. Opened the first box and saw roadbed like I've never seen before. Very dark brown almost black. Very course material used in it. When I split it the beveled edges were as rough as a corn cob, looked awful. This is the same stuff I've used for years Midwest Products. 
I usually sand the bevels smooth with a block sander but this stuff won't sand. What to do? 

The crew came up with the answer. 







Used the razor blade to cut them apart. Put them in to my little fixture and ran the wood rasp over the bevel at a 45° angle, cut off all the mess in a couple of strokes and then hit it with the sanding block, came out great. Nice smooth bevels and it only took a few seconds, had 55 pieces to do so speed was important. The second box was the same old roadbed that I use to get, much smoother bevels but since I had everything set up I did them the same way but much quicker. 

Next order of business was to ballast the roadbed.   "Before you lay it? asked the crew. "Yes I replied. 









The tool.







One can did just about one box of roadbed, you don't have to put it on very heavy just enough to cover. 

It looks pretty good and now I don't have to ballast till much later, I hate ballasting.  It will be one of the last things I do. 

I've started on the actual track laying and will update once some progress has been made, waiting on the new risers I ordered. 

Magic


----------



## Chet

Any kind of progress is progress. Apparently you have learned. Good enough doesn't work. It can cause a bit of frustration. Just take your time and do it right. 

Waiting for updates.


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## vwrabbit

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'll be following along. Good luck!

Tim


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## Fire21

I had seen in another post sometime back that they had used that spray-on stone finish. When you said you ballasted before laying, I figured that's what you'd done. Looks good!


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## Magic

Thanks guys. Everything on hold till I get more risers. 
Going to try some wiring tomorrow, that will tell a lot.

Magic


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## Magic

Well "They" say that "No plan survives the first contact with the enemy". and the Magic RR No Plan plan is no exception. 

The new plan didn't last 3 hours.   

First change I made was changing the height of the mainline crossovers, were at 2" but I decided that 1 1/2" would work better. :smilie_daumenpos: By doing this I could lower the upper mainline from 3 1/2" to 3" as the lower level gets to zero much sooner and I can cross it a 3" instead of 3 1/2. I now have a ton of extra 1/2" risers. 
The two mainlines came out almost dead even at about 600 inches each. Total main runs are at 100 feet. The yards and spurs (gray) came out at all most 200 feet of track. These will stay with code 83 track. 

The second major change came about by more labor problems. "We are tired of packing all those foam risers all over the place and it being Stanly Cup playoff season we're thinking of getting sick again" said the crew. 

To forestall this and after trying several different things I decided to run the upper main across the center section instead of around the 12x4' east section. Like so. I now have even more extra 1/2" risers as well as some one and two inch ones. 
The crew was delighted with this change but were concerned with not seeing the the Stanly Cup playoffs. Simple solution to this, I just set up my I phone to stream the playoffs and set it on the layout. Looks like some sort of super jumbotron to them and the cheers and smell of popcorn fill the air. 








The yellow is the upper mainline and the green the lower. This opens up the 12x4' section and gives me more freedom there. :appl:
The real problem area is the southwest corner, everything is very tight there and I have little wiggle room left. Sure wish I had made that bench work 30 or 31 inches instead of 25. Standing on a box I can reach 30" with ease. 

Laying out the crossovers. Used sectional track and a track gauge to insure that I keep 18 and 22" radius curves. The new Peco turnouts. 








I had a ton of code 83 track I used for this and laid out all the important elements for the entire layout this way

Once I had the risers and inclines the way they needed to be I started covering them with plaster cloth. I put the cloth on dry and then soak it with water and a paint brush, added a little glue as well to give a firmer structure. Worked great. Note I took the closet doors off, got tired of sliding them back and forth.  :smilie_daumenpos:







The big draw back to this plan is that the upper main runs right along the edge of the bench work. Going to have to put in some sort of errant loco catcher to keep them from high diving into the floor. 

This might turn out to be a problem spot, got an S curve with only a 6" straight section in between???? It's 22 inch turns so might be OK.  Am going to check this out before I glue it down. I'm sure the shorter freight cars and locos will handle it OK but the SP Daylight might be a problem. 








This is how the pad for the crossovers came out, very straight and level. I'm hitting all the plaster cloth with a sanding block to keep every thing smooth and also to add an easement at the tops of all grades. 








Got some paint drying now, hate the look of white and pink foam. Will start laying roadbed tomorrow. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:
So tune in next time for another thrilling episode of the Magic RR.
Same bat time, same bat thread. :appl::appl: 


Magic


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## Chet

Looks like you're getting off to a good start and doing the proper planning. Looks like a bit more room for scenery, but with the tight walking clearances, bwtter stay away from the donuts. 

Keep the pictures coming.


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## Fire21

That looks awesome, Magic! I envy you the room and resources. Like Chet said, keep the pics coming!!


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## Magic

Chet The walkways are 23 or so inches so plenty of room for me, after my last visit to the doc's he took me off food  so the walkways are getting roomier with each passing day. :goofball:. 

Besides roomer walkways the no food plan also leaves more money for trains. :appl::appl:

I am being much more careful about getting everything right, not going to go through this again. I'm pinning or nailing everything and testing it all before I glue anything. I've got half the crew on quality control now.

Fire; ya it's nice to have some room to work with :smokin: and since this is my main hobby I can devote all the resources to it I need. :appl::appl:

Magic


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## Chet

Getting things right is so important. When I was building my last yard, I took my time and tested everything before moving forward. I was pushing 20 cars trains or longer through all of the possible routes through the yard to make sure I had no derailments. The track was fortunately put down right and the only derailments I had was when some dummy didn't have a turnout thrown correctly.


----------



## Magic

Well work has continued on the ol' Magic RR. 

Got most of the North wall 4' x 12' done as far as track and power goes. 

Overall look, the 180° loop in the very middle will go, not working out like I "No Plan" planed.  Haven't decided where to end the inside spur off the upper main.








The Northwest corner. 
Upper and lower mains and the entrance to the west yard.








Cut this corner a little thin but it'll work out. Turnouts for the west yard and the spur going into the center, Code 83 track used here. Mains are code100.









Laying the crossover and the switch machines. This will all be hidden once I start scenery. I'm trying to minimize work under the layout. I'm putting as many switch machines as possible on top. Also all buss wiring is on top as well. 








Turnout motor wiring and the heavy gauge wire pair is buss wiring. 
















I want the wiring mess on top for all to see  :smilie_daumenpos:
Once everything is set in stone I'll cut groves and cover it all up. I hope. 
Used this box car for polarity checks. Saves a lot of shorts and head aches. 








If you have ever wondered what the inside of a Tortoise looks like? Wonder no more. 








A lot of gear reduction here, didn't count the teeth but looks like each idler gear is at least 2 to 1 maybe more. Got one more to open so I'll count teeth. 








Well it's bed time so I'll post more later. 
Stay tuned same bat time same bat thread.

Magic


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## Cycleops

Nice one Magic! If only I had all that room, sigh.


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## Chet

Looking good magic. Looks like yo took a bit more time putting down the track. Excellent looking track work. 

Keep the updates coming.


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## Fire21

Boy howdy, most of us are jealous of all that room! Looks like you're doing a good job, though, and having fun with it. That's what it's all about!


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## Magic

The one problem with having all that room is, if I do this than I can do this, this and this.
If I do that I can than do that, that and that or if I do the other I can do the other, the other and the other. 
Of course I'd complain if hung with a new rope.  It is however a nice problem to have. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Just a few things I've noticed so far. 

First, other than looking kinda of crummy, code 100 is far easier to work with than code 83.
It's a lot stronger and for some reason much easier to put cars or locos on the track, maybe the extra height and more space between ties. 
I messed up a few Walthers turnouts and pieces of flex track by pulling the rails loose from the ties, mostly because I relayed the stuff so many times. Wont happen with code 100.

Second Atlas track and Peco turnouts are a much better fit as well, in code 83 the Peco lower rail flanges are much smaller than they are in code 100, 
the rail joiners just fell off the Pecos but in 100 it's a pretty good fit. Peco code 100 turnouts are much different than code 83.

One nice thing about the Pecos is the end ties are made so you can just slide a joiner in, they call them sleeper ties. 
No cutting needed and so far they seem bulletproof. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Been test running the locos a fair bit and no shorts and no derailments. 
:smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

I do like painting the roadbed with spray stone first, looks pretty good and does not affect the the laying of it one bit.

I defiantly had some sort of electrical issue with the old layout. I use DCC Specialties PSX-1 circuit breakers and they had two red lights lit and I though that was normal 
but that's not the case, should only be one red light lit. It ran OK with two but some strange things would happen at times. Don't know what the second light is for.
Everything is working just perfectly now so whatever it was has been fixed. :smilie_daumenpos: 

Also wiring left and right halves is a big improvement, much shorter buss runs. There was no real advantage to running upper and lower levels on separate buss runs. 
The big yard is on a third buss and breaker. Not using those plastic rail joiners just leaving a small gap in the tracks, looks much better. 

On track laying one thing I'm doing different is I'm using a 6 or 9" piece of Atlas sectional track leading into and out of each turnout. 
Making sure there are no kinks anywhere near a turnout. It's working out great so far. Also using Walthers code 100 to 83 transition tracks where needed. 
The WS risers (used finishing nails), roadbed and track are very securely nailed only, no glue so far.

It was very painful to rip out over two years worth of work when I tore down the old Magic RR but so far I like what I've done and it's been worth it. 
Don't have to hold my breath every time I run trains waiting for something bad to happen. 

Working on the problematic southwest corner now, will post pics when I get it done. Things pretty tight there. 
Once that is finished the rest will be pretty easy. :appl: :appl: I'm taking my time and making sure everything is straight, level and solid. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well a few updates. 

I had another Tortoise switch machine open today and counted the teeth well most of them. The three idler gears are a 3 to 1 reduction each so 27 to 1 there. I didn't count the final drive gear, too many teeth but it looks like about 4 to one or so. Total gear reduction at around 100 to 1, maybe more. The reason I took them apart is I got ballast grains in them when I took the old layout apart. Only takes a grain in the gears to stop them dead with all that gear reduction, so if you mount them sideways like I have make sure you keep them covered. 

You can see some of the ballast grains in them by the center post. If any gets in the gear teeth all stops. 








I hate working under the layout, spent all my adult life crawling around under heavy equipment, trucks etc. don't plan on spending my retirement doing the same for a train layout. 
So I'm finding ways to avoid that. I have shown the 5 tortoise machines I mounted on the side for the crossovers etc. 

Here is my way of minimizing under the layout work for the rest of the turnouts. 
First I mounted the Tortoise on a piece of wall floor molding I had laying around. 
Second I drilled a 3/8" hole in the molding, other holes are from something different, a screw and a couple of washers and you're all set to go down under. 








I marked the turnout draw bar hole with a small piece of .032 wire and than removed the turnout and drilled a 3/8" hole through the bench work. 
I than re installed the turnout and dropped a long piece of .032 music wire down the hole, a piece of tape to keep the wire from falling through. 
I centered the arm of the Tortoise and removed the slide adjustment. 








Now you can line the machine up with the wire keeping in mind the direction of the turnout and mark the edge of the mount with a marker pen also mark the center of the 3/8" hole. 
Drill a starter hole and run the screw in and out a few times to get good threads. You don't have to be perfect just good and close.
You can see the red marker lines, re install the slide adjustment and run the wire through it. Line the mount up with your marks with one hand and start the screw into the threaded hole, you can do this with your fingers. Snug the screw but not too tight.
Now you can do the fine tuning, because there is a 3/8" hole you have some wiggle room to get the switch machine lined up perfectly by just tapping the mount a little. 

Bend the wire so you can hook it up to the lever on the Tortoise and set the screw.
Trim off the excess and you're all done. Much less work under the layout, all the small holes and tiny screws are done on the work bench. Takes about 5 to 10 minutes to mount them this way.









Now if you laugh :smilie_auslachen: at this next one you will be banished from the Magic RR thread for life. :smilie_daumenneg:

This one lined up dead center with a cross brace. What to do 
Instead of going through a lot of linkage under there I came up with this. 























Got to put the shingles on the roof yet but this shed is the perfect size to cover up the "No Plan" plan turnout motor.


Magic


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## Magic

Well with all the summer activities work on the ol' Magic RR has slowed a bit but we are still making progress. :smilie_daumenpos:

Began work on the Southwest corner, went through several options and eventually got things worked out pretty good. 

Upper main turnout for the parking spur for the SP Daylight.








I now have three entrances into the main yard, adding the third opened up a much simpler yard layout and increased capacity. 
Temp cover for the above laid down Tortoise machine.
















The track turning off to the right is the lower main. Upper main crossing over yard entrances. 
Have some ideas on how to make this look respectable but open to suggestions from some of the pros here.
A tunnel would be good but with the attention span of a lump of coal or in my case a gallon of diesel, I have far too many 
senior moments and forget to aline turnout points correctly. Too many turnouts here for a big tunnel. 








South Yard looking east. Got rid of some of the crossovers here with the third entrance. 
Still have two passing sidings or runarounds so operations won't change all that much.
Tracks 2 and 4, 11 and 12 are runarounds.








Working on hooking up the last sections of mainline and may get to run trains in the near future. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## Chet

Looks like you've made some good progress, looking good. Waiting for more updates.


----------



## cosmos2002

Hi. That tortoise tip is pure magic :appl:and it comes just in time for the beginning of my yard.:smilie_daumenpos:

This will save me a lot of time crawling. Well done on the progress too. Looking good.:appl:


----------



## Magic

Ya Chet we're getting there. It's all working good so far. :thumbsup:

Cosmos. Sure beats the other way and it's very forgiving.
I had one in a difficult to reach place and must have move things when I made the marks because it was off just a little bit too much to get it working right. 
Just dropped the mounts down and drilled a 1/2" hole and all was good. :smilie_daumenpos: 

Should have the mains done tomorrow, I hope :dunno: so update is in the works. 

Same bat time, same bat thread. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well work has proceeded on schedule and way over budget. 

The new crossover from the West wall to the center section.








The lower main curves onto the center section.








Lower main to the right, spur to industries on the left as they pass under the upper main.









THE GOLDEN SPIKE.

With the completion of the last section of track for the lower main we decided to recreate the Golden Spike ceremonies.

All did not go as planed.   :smilie_daumenneg:
Police and fire units responded as well as our heavy equipment, which wasn't enough and are waiting for SP crane to put things right. 
There were no serious injuries except to the engineer of SP 5114. He received a rather large lump on his head. (But not from the incident.)









In spite of the above mentioned incident the party commenced at the section house the crew talked me into. 
Section house my foot, more like a frat house most of the time. 

The crew from all over the layout showed up, ALL WORK STOPPED.   
The Rath Black Hawk Meats van brings in yet more party supplies.
Burgers, dogs and cold cuts by the ton and more cases of beer than I could count. 








Filling the swimming tuna can with Woodland Scenics water did not work out so well, it did however make a good skating rink. 








Testing of the new Magic RR will begin promptly at 8:00 AM tomorrow or whenever the hangovers clear up. :goofball:  

Stay tuned same bat time, same bat channel. 

Magic


----------



## gator do 65

Magic,
Thank You for the laugh! Some how I believe I was at that party.... my hangover is killing me!!


----------



## Chet

Looking good. You have plenty of good items left over from your old layout and have probably learned a lot from it. One always learns from their mistakes. I know I did. 

Waiting for updates. 

I was hoping to get to Reno for a bowling tournament, but it ended up being in El Paso. Maybe another time.


----------



## Magic

Gator, I though that was you unloading supplies from the pick up. 
Nope couldn't be you that guy is still standing.  

Chet As they say in football "There's always next year." Not much to see yet just some track and lots of foam board. 
About the only things I lost in the rebuild was track, most everything else was saved even some of the mountains. Don't know if I can reuse them or not yet, we'll see. 

Got some testing done today with mixed results. :dunno:
Started with my SD70ACe, figured the six axle loco would work better with the possibility dirty track. Worked great, ran it around both mains to check electrical and no problems. It's about the only thing that will pull my CMX cleaning car so cleaned the track.
With the track clean I took the SD70 and ran both mains at different speeds to see what happens. NOTHING :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: ran like a champ and at full power as well. Much faster than I'll ever run trains. Full power even through the crossovers.

Took the F7A&B locos and put 10 than 15 and finally 20 cars behind them, did the same with the GP9 AAs. Ran perfectly, even backed them in and out of the main yard, not a single derailment. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: and some of those cars are a bit iffy. So it seems like relaying all the track and the Peco turnouts did the trick. 

Now for the mixed result.  
The SP Daylight looks like it's going to be a display queen for a time.
It runs the mains just fine even the lower 18" turns. Problem comes backing it onto the parking siding. With truck mounted couplers it just won't back around the SW corner curved turnout.   

Next problem for it is, as a PA and PB unit it shorts out on that turnout, doesn't kick the buss breaker but just looses power, MTH must have a breaker in the units :dunno:
It would also do the same thing on the #6 crossovers if I left the curved turnout set to the siding and had a sound loco on the that siding. :dunno::dunno::dunno: Isolated that siding better and fixed that problem. If I run them as separate units all is good. :dunno: just when I couple them it is a problem. Got too many thing to do to spent time with this so it'll have to wait.

Magic


----------



## Chet

You had better get the shorting problem sorted out or it will bug the hell out of you. 

Truck mounted couplers are a pain. Have you thought about changing tham out to body mounted couplers. I have a number of different passenger cars ranging from old Roundhouse heavy weights to Walthers streamline and a couple of old Riverossi cars. The Riverossi cars, old ones were the only ones that presented a problem. Yhe had truck mounted couplers and they got changed to body mounts, and the wheels were the big problem. All of my track is code 70 and the flanges on the wheels were too big. The trucks wouldn't accept Kadee wheels either the way they were built. I little time with a Dremmel tool fixed that problem, but I have no problem at all backing them through yard tracks. I do feel fortunate that my minimum radius is 32 inches, but broader in most cases.

Here's a video of a passenger train run. The cars sure look good on the broader curves. My son gave me this little Bachmann 2-6-0 that has DCC and sound. I run DC only. The problem is that it is a wimp on grades and can only handle about 4 box cars on my grades, but can pull a couple of passenger cars, so it will be relageted to either switching or passenger service. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7zO8kdjGGA


----------



## Magic

Thought about body mounting the couplers, that would most likely cure the backing problem but very little chance they would run on 18" turns. The Athearn cars are a scale 72' not the full 80' or 85' of the real cars. Never designed the layout for passenger trains in the first place, they were just an after though. I got more to do than I can handle as is so the SP Daylight will have to wait. 

As for the shorting thing it's just the PA and PB that do it. My SD70 has a very similar truck arrangement and it runs just fine, it might be the electric coupler in the PA that's causing the problem. :dunno: :dunno: Or maybe not.  This got me thinking and I uncoupled the PA & PB. The PA goes fine the PB seems to be lifting on the turnout, just a little but enough to short out, Maybe a little adjustment will solve the problem. The curved turnouts are very touchy, have to be darn near perfect. 

Nice video Chet. That is such a nice layout, can only hope mine comes out half as nice. 
I'm working on it though. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well things not going so good on the ol' Magic RR. 

The 12x4 north table is just not working out like I had hoped. 









You'd think that in all this mess there would be an idea but alas not. 









What I wanted was to reproduce the look I had on the old layout but in spite of all efforts I just couldn't come up with what I wanted. Problem came when I decided to run the lower main across the lake instead of the spur line. Moving the main 10" west left no room for all the other elements. I tried several things but nothing worked. I had to move the lake east 10" and this meant a major change in the bench work. The last 2 foot section on that end was added later and was 2 inches higher than the rest of the bench work. To correct this I had to remove all the track and cut a low section into the the bench work. 








The lake is at table height or -1", the grade moved up to where the citrus packing plant was at +3" The only way to get this was to cut into the extra bench work. 

The crew didn't find this idea appealing at all. :smilie_daumenneg: :smilie_daumenneg: :smilie_daumenneg:

Guess who this is? 








They really did it.   But it was at least a NEW rope. :smilie_daumenpos:








Actually the whole thing went pretty good. The track and roadbed were nailed not glued and I had a lot of new risers and inclines left over so didn't have to buy anything.

Upper main all set and lower a work in progress. Should have made my cut a little bigger. 









Magic


----------



## Chet

Thanks for the update. Problem solved. We usually always come up with some sort of solution. I noticed that this new area doesn't seem to be as cluttered with track as the old one was also. 

I had a problem years ago trying to make things fit and ended up having to put in a double crossover to get things to work properly. It had been there for over 20 years and has been operating flawlessly. 

I would definitely body mount all of your couplers. Truck mounted couplers are a nightmare when it comes to backing a train. I have no truck mounted couplers on anything. 

I have a number of different passenger cars ranging from Walthers 85 footers, a couple of ConCor 72 footers and even some old Roundhouse heavyweights whick have had the truck converted over to Central Valley trucks. I can back any combination of these cars through double crossovers and through a yard with no problem. 

I haven't been able to do anything on my layout for months. We are doing major renovations to the house and just have no time. Haly of the new flooring is done as well as the kitchen. The first bath should be on line this weekend which leaves tiling the entry foyer , master bedroom and bath. Hopefully by fall I can get back to the layout.

Keep the updates coming.


----------



## Magic

The north table has less track as I didn't run the upper main on the Great Wall of China and that opens things up. Makes for a less interesting upper main run but worth it. 
The trains run so good on it that I may just put in a tunnel. :dunno:

Paint drying tonight so I should have the lower main in tomorrow. Once the crew sobered up from the neck tie party they got busy and things are going pretty fast. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Got the spur into the area started but need to finish up the mains first. 

The problem with all the elevation change is that it's hard to fit in buildings and mostly roads. It's looking like a more open rural type thing rather than a city or town. That will go into the center section. 

As far as the SP Daylight goes, that's for another day. Too much to do before I get to body mounting couplers. 

Good luck with the remodel, it's a lot of work. 

Magic


----------



## DonR

I have those 72' Athearn passenger cars and they have body mount
Kadee # 148s. They don't have any problem with the less than 22"
curve they have to traverse to get to my central station...backing
and forward both are smooth.

Don


----------



## Magic

Thanks for the info Don, sounds like I could give it a try. 
The way I was running the Daylight was to use the upper main for the most part, 22" curves there. I would only come down to the lower main (18") for the passenger terminal at low speeds and than back up to run. 

One question though, can you mount the couplers directly to the undercarriage or did you have to use shims or something?

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well with the paint dry the crew commenced laying roadbed and track, got started bright and early at 12:00 o'clock (That's early for them) but work went fast and we got everything laid and tested. Ran super smooth. The crew wanted to have another Golden Spike thing but as the 2 GE 70 ton switchers have not recovered from the last time  we decided on just a simple BBQ. :thumbsup:

Since they did such a fine job I rewarded them with this.







BLI 4-6-2 Heavy Pacific DCC and sound, no smoke for some reason. :dunno:

"Gee thanks boss we always wanted some steam" said the section boss.
"Sorry we hung you now, here's some ointment to help with the rope burns."

The Pacific runs super and does well on 18" curves, not a single problem.
Pulls pretty good as well, 12 40' cars up a 2% grade, no problem. 
Good detail and lots of sound thingies to boot. 
Over all I pretty happy with it and might get another steamer, maybe a bigger one.

Gave it quite a workout today and ran it at higher speeds than I should have, all OK. 
Even backed it into the yard.

With the mains done I can start again with the 12x4 table and hopefully with more success. :smilie_daumenpos:

Stay tuned.
Same bat time
Same bat thread. 

Magic


----------



## DonR

Magic said:


> Thanks for the info Don, sounds like I could give it a try.
> The way I was running the Daylight was to use the upper main for the most part, 22" curves there. I would only come down to the lower main (18") for the passenger terminal at low speeds and than back up to run.
> 
> One question though, can you mount the couplers directly to the undercarriage or did you have to use shims or something?
> 
> Magic


Yes, they are mounted direct to the body. But, I don't recall whether
I had to use shims or to file the area. If you have the Kadee height
gauge, it has a factor that indicates whether the body mount point
is correct or needs shimming or filing before you mount
the draft box. That takes away the guesswork and your coupler
thus has the correct alighment.

Don


----------



## Magic

Well here's the latest form the ol' Magic RR. 

First a few tips. 
If you're going to lay over the tortoise switch machines here is what I did to keep dirt and ballast from getting into the works. Just slides with the arm, seems to work pretty good so far. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:









Second if you're laying plaster cloth over WS inclines like this, spray a little Alcohol on first.
Than brush on a water/glue mix to get it to set good. The Alcohol makes it penetrate good and helps to dry faster. 








Now on to the layout progress. :appl: :appl: 

I wanted the lower main to cross the lake but it's problematic because it's a 2% incline as well as a 18" radius. Trying to keep both right over a 20" (145 scale feet) bridge was not easy and I needed to get something going pretty quickly. 
Laid the risers and plaster cloth.








I cut out the lake bed and lined it with plaster cloth and Spackle, next painted it with Acrylic paint to seal it. 








I cut a piece of 3/16 plywood and cut the curve and tested the idea, mixed bag here it worked good till the plywood warped. Plywood was out.








I'm not all that handy doing these kind of things but I am creative.
Next idea was to use N scale cork roadbed   It's just the right width for HO track. 
Glued 18r sectional track to one layer of roadbed and let dry, put on a second piece of roadbed to get some thickness. Used a lot of wood glue and a lot of weight to really set things up solid. 
Added 4 balsa wood strips for added strength.








Came out pretty good, the track fit good and it's pretty strong as well. Not bad for a quickie. Some pink foam cut to look like bridge piers and it was ready to go. 







This gets me going with a serviceable bridge till I get time to do something better, if ever. Got so much to do and so little time. 


One odd thing did happen when I tested it with the 4-6-2 Pacific, on the incline leading up to the bridge the loco would short out, kicked the breaker. I looked and tested but could not figure it out. Only the 4-6-2 shorted all others were fine. 

What I found after much time was that when the loco started up the incline in the curve the rear pilot wheel on the inside was hitting the front drive wheel and shorting.  Problem was the track had a little too much super in it leveled it out and all was good. 

Stay tuned for further updated.
Same bat time, same bat thread.

Magic


----------



## Chet

Looks good Magic. At least you have some trains running. Keep posting the updates.


----------



## Magic

Well been getting some work done on the ol' Magic RR. 
But first the Magic tip of the day. 

If you're one of the lucky ones that can still get pink or blue or what ever color foam insulation here is the best tool I have found for cutting it. 
I've had this laying around the house for centuries. A simple holder for hack saw blades. 
A fine tooth blade cuts foam cleaner than anything else I've used, can even cut curves or slopes in foam without all the crumbs. 
Ground a point on it to help make deep cuts.








After much running to test the electrical, I decided that it's all good and so I started burying the wiring. 
Cut a grove into the foam, inserted the wires and covered with masking tape. Ground cover will hide all this. 
There are plenty of places to tie into the main buss should I need to add more feeders etc. 








Well on to the layout. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:
No matter what I tried the 4x12 north section was not working with all the elevation changes, used up too much valuable real estate. 
I just decided to make it level and put in more things.
Stripped everything off and am starting over. I have no problem ripping things out that are not working. 









I needed to get a road into the section so this is what I came up with, problem solved. 
It was putting roads in that caused all the problems with the elevation changes. 
I think this will work out all right. Needs more work to blend it in but it's a start. 








The one place that has a big elevation change is the area above the lake.
Started the tunnel for the logging rail road. 








And a tunnel for the upper main line. Trains running so good I decided to put a tunnel here even though there is a turnout right there. 








Testing with UP 1983 SD70ACe.
Biggest thing I've got, if this make it everything else will also. 








Got all the foam work done, just needs details.








Did make provisions for derails etc. the whole top comes off.
The tunnel cut.








The top.








That's it for now stay tuned for more updates.
Same Bat time.
Same Bat thread.

Magic


----------



## trains galore

Wow! Lots has happened since I last logged in here about 9 months ago! Haven't been able to access the site for ages after it locked me out for no apparent reason, but it seems to have fixed itself now! 

Great work on the layout, elevation changes sure can be a challenge to work with! 
It's hard when you have to take apart your own work but it always works out better in the end and you never quite know how something will work out until you've done it! I've had to redo plenty of things on my layout!


----------



## Chet

You've been busy I see. Nice progress, keep the photos coming.


----------



## Magic

Good to see you back Trains, :smilie_daumenpos: was wondering what happened to you.
Get some pics up of your progress. 

Magic


----------



## Chet

Magic said:


> Good to see you back Trains, :smilie_daumenpos: was wondering what happened to you.
> Get some pics up of your progress.
> 
> Magic


I haven't done a thing with the layout Magic. Since early summer we have been doing major renovations to the house. All new flooring throughout the house, a totally remodeled kitchen and totally gutting and rebuilding 2 bathrooms. 

We were looking at new cars and come to find out that everything we were interested in came with a touch screen "infotainment" system and way too much technology that I'm not interested in and therefore refuse to pay for. We were ready to pay cash for the car, so we ended up using the money for remodeling instead. 

Things are starting to cool down up here in Montana so renovation projects will be coming to an end soon and then I'll have time to get back to work on the layout.

Hopefully next year wa can get down to Reno for Nationals and maybe get to meet you. We ended up going to El Paso for nationals this year instead. I much prefer Reno. This was the only time we took off from the work all summer.


----------



## Magic

I've done a little remodeling here, nothing that major, and it sure eats up a lot of time and money. You're better off with the remodel. 

I agree about the new cars, too much tech for me. I want buttons and knobs not screens. I'm going to try to nurse my truck and car for as long as I can, both low mileage and in pretty good shape. I don't travel as much as you do so I'm looking pretty good on that front. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well here it is, what you've all been waiting for, the latest updates from the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

With the north section cleaned off and with a pretty good "No Plan" plan planing where to put things in full force I came up with a plan. 
The one thing I did wrong before was not putting in roads that made sense. 
Going to correct that this time. Came up with an idea for three roads on the north section, two running lengthwise and 
one across and under the upper main onto the center section, that's the one from the tunnel. Looking good so far. :thumbsup:

Problem came on the center section. As I'm going to paint the roads with gray spray stone paint, I need to do them now. 
Problem is the top of the center is too crowded to put in decent roads. What to do.   :dunno: 

Being a Tim the Toolman Tayler fan the sloution was obvious "More power", or in this case make the layout BIGGER. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

This is the area causing all the problems, just not enough room to do what I need. 
But BEFORE I told the crew that I was planning to take out the animal house, the swimming tuna can and the mainline I hid the rope. 
No need to repeat the neck tie party. 
Note the turnout control switches on the left side. Not enough slack in the wiring to move them and I did not want to get into all that wiring at this time. 








The crew was not over joyed but being unable to find the rope we set out on the redo.
The loggers came in and remover the trees and bushes. House movers relocated the house to another part of the layout and the swimming tuna can was rolled away. 
The bull gang removed the track and we were all set. :appl: :appl:
A 5 1/2" x 22" angled extension was the answer, clears the switches. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:








Adding the foam board.








The final product. The pink strip is where the old main line was. 
It gives me some more room to put in a small town thingie where the house was.
With roads. :smilie_daumenpos:








51/2" doesn't sound like much but what a difference. It gives me much more room to spread out things farther down stream. :smilie_daumenpos:








Getting some ideas, an oil loading dock goes where the tankers are parked. 
The only good place I've found for the green citrus packing plant.
The red brick building I'm not so sure about. :dunno:








A couple of diamonds here will give access to the rest of the center section. 








Tune in next time.
Same bat time, same bat thread. 
Magic


----------



## Chet

Looking good Magic. From these photos, things don't look as crowded as the previous layout. This will leave you more room for any possible industries and for scenery.


----------



## Tomule

Thanks for the updates. The Magic railroad is looking better all the time.


----------



## Magic

Thanks Tomule we're getting there. :smilie_daumenpos:

Chet from that stand point things are a lot more open and I'm starting to get ideas. 
Think I'll have enough room for a small town by the SP bridge, some shops gas station etc.
Maybe 8 or 9 small buildings, and streets. :appl: :appl:

Spent most of the day trying out roads and where buildings will go, with some success. 
Gotta add another 5 1/2" extension on the opposite side for a little more space.

Problem with putting in a town is I really don't like the buildings that are available.
What I want is single story shops and stores etc. Most stuff is two or more stories high and brick. 
I don't like brick buildings, just weren't very many in the area I'm doing. 
Most of the buildings in my area were stucco, guess I could stucco over the bricks if I have to.

Well back to planing the "No plan" plan. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well it's the same Bat time and same Bat thread so here is the latest from the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

Got the center section going pretty good so far. Got the two diamonds installed.








After several attempts here is what I think will happen to the center section. 
Best arrangement I've come up with so far. Am looking to see if I can find some industries to fit.








The red brick building is a barrel factory to be supplied by the lumber yard.
It's a built and ready Woodland Scenics model and the detail is most impressive.
Much better than I could do. I just don't have all the little stuff nor the skills to do this.
















Here are two new shops, the gas station is my build from a WS kit. Came out pretty good, The store is another WS built and ready, again such great detail.
Got a few other kits in the works now but none finished.







Most of my cars and trucks are Classic Metal Works or Oxford, good high quality stuff.
However the little Corvette is a Wiking from Germany. Not as good as the others but pretty good. I'll get more if they have something I want.


The big news is all work on the layout has come to a complete halt.

THE CREW IS ON STRIKE AGAIN.   :smilie_daumenneg:

It all started when I told them a big redo was in the works, 600 feet of upper main line has to come out. 

"That's IT they said, we're going on strike."
"It's baseball playoff season."

"But you're not Baseball fans." said I.

"We are now". Was the reply. "Go Cubs."

Negotiations are in full swing but all attempts to settle this have failed, higher pay, shorter hours (if that's possible) and adding a bar to the section house went nowhere.
Bribes, campaign contributions and other skulduggery have at least gotten them to talk and a settlement may be close at hand. 

Tune in next time.
Same Bat time.
Same Bat thread.
Magic


----------



## Chet

Looking real good Magic. A lot less cluttered than the last layout. Gives you more room for towns, industries and scenery. 

Well done.

Nice to finally see something on the HO part of the forum. 

Hopefully I'll be done with renovations for the year in a few weeks and can get back to working on the layout and posting again.


----------



## DonR

Magic

I really like that track scheme. Oh my, the need for careful
operations. That's the kind of design that offers a lot of
interesting challenges to the engineers. I really tried, but
failed, to work a crossing into my layout and there you have
2 a foot or so apart. Aaargh.

Don


----------



## Magic

Chet, I'm putting in much less track this time. Sometimes less is more.

Biggest problem I'm having is I can't fine the type of buildings I'm looking for.
Everything available is too east coast or mid west for me. I really don't like brick buildings, they just didn't use brick in my part of the country. Stores were for the most part single story and plaster siding. (Stucco) They were build more like one of today's small strip malls. Factories were two stories at most.

Don I got real lucky with the crossings, worked out pretty easy. Move any of those tracks even a little and things would have been a different story. Flex track saved the day. :smilie_daumenpos:

The barrel factory will probably be a team track as well. Should prove interesting. 

Magic.


----------



## Chet

Try scratch building. Using sheet styrene ot matte board will give the effect of a stucco finish. This build is a kit I built over 25 years ago and it's still in good shape. 



















Matte board, what they use for framing pictures is a great material. It's easy to work with and should be easily available in hobby shop starved Reno. You could easily order windows and doors on line. You can build what you want. 

This building is built out of Evergreen styrene sheets. This has the clapboard wood siding, but you could use a plain sheet of styrene and get the stucco effect. 










The windows and doors are from Grandt Line. They were what I had on hand at the time, but many varieties are available. 

Don't be afraid of scratchbuilding. It's not really that hard. At first I was really intimidated but after getting a couple under my belt, I was looking forward to the next one. You can build anything you want. 

This freight station was one of my early attempts. I couldn't find any kits tha twould fit or work in the area where I wanted a freight station. In the transition, freight stations were extremely important to smaller communities. Got a hold of some scribed wood sheets and went to work. 



















Give it a try, you might suprise yourself.


----------



## DonR

I'm right there with you Chet. Scratch building can certainly be
enjoyable. Everygreen, Plastruct and others make so many
usable scale construction materials, even steel beams of various
shapes, stairways, ladders, railings, and even the round safety
ladder you climb through inside.

In addition, ordinary card stock is very useful for walls, floors and
roofs. 

But the first tool to get for scratch building is a scale ruler. You can
take real measurements in feet and inches then using the ruler mark and cut your
materials in, say, HO feet and inches.

Don


----------



## Chet

I always keep a scale ruler right at the top of my work bench. It's over 30 years and still used on a regular basis. Another thing to keep handy is a good supply of Xacto blades. 

Here's another scratchbuild. Went into my box of wood pieces and put this together. With the exception of some figures ad a few metal castings, everything was scratchbuilt, including the windows. Some times you just have too much time on your hands. 




























Like I mentioned before, at first I was a bit apprehensive about trying to scratchbuild, but the more I had under my belt, the more I looked to build unique and different structures. It's quite a lot of fun.


----------



## Magic

I've got four or five more kits to put together and maybe my skills will have improved by then.

Scratch building seems to be the only option for getting what I want. 
Problem is I've looked at every hobby store and on line and haven't found any "scratch" yet.   
I ran into the same problem trying to bake a cake from scratch. 
Who woulda thought that HO scale buildings would be made of cake baking supplies.  :laugh:

Chet your Ed's Market is just the kind of thing I'm looking for. That and a row of stores and shops in the same building. 
I can only hope that anything I do comes out half as nice as that.

Got the Xacto blades, saws, ruler and a new miter box and am looking at Mirco-Mark for other ideas on what I might need. 
Will be hitting you and Don up for some advise when I get there. 
I have done a couple of small laser cut craftsman kits that came out pretty good so maybe I'm ready for the next step. :dunno:

Got the crew back from their strike and work on the main line redo is progressing.
Once that is done I'll start on the building kits again.
Scratch buildings will have to wait for some time.

Magic


----------



## Chet

If you need windows and door for scratchbuilding, look at Grandt Line. They have quite a selection and I usually have some on hand. There are other suppliers also. I know Reno is a pain to try to find anything for model railroading, but for matte material, check out a shop that does picture framing. Matte material also comes in a wide variety of colors. This is where I got some of my materials.


----------



## Magic

Thanks Chet, I just bookmarked their site.

In your first pic posted above what did you use for the curb and sidewalks in front of Ed's market? 
I doing a small town scene and need curbs and walks. Also what did you do to keep the market on the right grade with the sidewalk? 
Inquiring minds want to know.  

Magic


----------



## trains galore

Nice work! The two track crossings look like a great operating challenge to keep things interesting!


----------



## Chet

I use sheets of styrene, the cheap way. Here are a few photos of my layout expansion. I went to the hardware store and picked up some plastic "For Sale" type signs. A little cheaper than trying to use Evergreen sheet styrene and they come in larger sizes. I'm like you, no hobby shops at all in my area. You have to be a little creative. 

For the streets, I used the thinner signs and spray painted them either a concrete color for concrete or used a grey primer for the darker gray to look like asphalt. 










For sidewalks I ised a heavier gauge plastic sign. It was cut to the area of the "city block" and spray painted a concrete color and alley ways were painted the darker primer color for asphalt. Any entrances from the street to the alley was filed down to look like and road coming over a sidewalk. 



















I used contact cement to lay down the plastic sheets for the streets. The city blocks were then set on top of the streets. I used a fine pencil to draw in the seams in the sidewalks and concrete streets and also for a few cracks in the concrete streets. 

I used black chalks applied with a stiff paint brush to give the streets the oily look that you will usually see down the center of a driving lane where any fluids leaking from vehicle will appear. I should have used a dark gray chalk, but I didn't feel like making a 30 mile round trip to town. Before gluing the streets down, everything was given a coat of clear flat spray to seal the chalk and pencil lines. I usually buy the clear flat at the hardware store instead of using Testors Dullcoat. A lot cheaper. About 4 times as much for the same price. 

After grass and trees were added, this is how it looks now. 










Ed's Market was set on a piece of styrene from a heavy sign. Hope that answers your question.


----------



## Magic

Question answered, just the kind of info I was looking for.
I picked up some Evergreen Styrene sheets and it looks like .040" is about the right size.

I'll check Ace Hardware and see what they have for signs. 
Thanks for the help.

Magic


----------



## Magic

This is a Model Train Forum news alert.

BRAKING NEWS.

Model Train Forum staff has just learned that vandals have destroyed a large section of the Great Wall of Reno. Over 450 feet of the wall is missing. 
Our news crew brings you exclusive pictures and interviews. 

The missing wall and some of the vandals at work. Larger sections hauled off by rail and trucks removed the scraps. Police are investigating the indecent.







One anonymous worker was quoted as saying "We only do what the BOSS says, go talk to him. That's his fancy convertible over there next to the pay pickup." 
In an off camera interview the man know as Magic the Boss said that "We have tons of unspent stimulus funds left and need to spend them soon."








Paving has begun on the new downtown section of the ol' Magic RR.
When I said that the spray stone paint over sprays a lot I mean it Plenty of masking here. I think that Lee (porno doll) Willis will enjoy the masking paper top center.
















With the sewers, electric and other utilities in work has begun on the bridges. 
3 Walthers 150 foot truss bridges. 








New businesses moving in. :smilie_daumenpos: as SP 3778 test the new track.















Magic


----------



## Chet

Looks good Magic. So much less crowded than the last layout. Well done. Waiting for more updates.


----------



## Fire21

Your narratives of the activities are as interesting as the accompanying photos!! :appl:

Looks great.


----------



## Magic

Thanks guys but in all modesty I must say that.......

We interrupt this thread with some; 
BRAKING NEWS.

Major train derailment on the Magic RR. 
The indecent occurred at the site of the new rail overpass.

A unnamed NTSB spokesman was heard saying "Some idiot built the bridge to low. Not enough clearance for a locomotive to pass under."







When contacted the chief engineer said "I misses it by that l.........l much."
We polled the crew and by a vote of 87 to 1 they agreed that the boss was an idiot.
Magic is quoted as saying "Hay that's HO scale. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos: Good thing I hired my nephew, he doesn't do much around here but I can count on his vote every time." 

The locomotive went into the scrap yard along with several rail cars.
Repair work began as soon as the NTSB finished their investigation and placed the blame on stupidity. 

Work on the repair was soon completed and the two main lines were opened to traffic before the day ended. 








When I figured the clearance I used the south end of the bridges, completely forgetting that the replaced section was on a +1% grade from north to south. 
A few shims under the spans and a small grade change on the approach fixed it up OK.
Hay we're all entitled to one mistake aren't we? 

Magic


----------



## Fire21

The important thing is that no-one was hurt!!! 

Does the chief engineer till have a job?


----------



## dsertdog56

Hilarious! Other than the oops at the bridge things seem to be moving along.


----------



## Magic

Fire21 said:


> The important thing is that no-one was hurt!!!
> 
> Does the chief engineer till have a job?


Well he is still working (civil service)  but I did cut one foot off his tape measure :smilie_daumenpos: so I'm expecting a better result next time. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Thanks desrtdog we're getting there. 

Magic


----------



## Chatelet

Great layout and funny thread. Well done !


----------



## Magic

I just checked out your pizza layout.
Kind of cute but did make me hungry. 

Magic


----------



## Chatelet

Unfortunately, My Boss (my real boss just after God if you see what I mean  ) said:
"Stop playing like a child. Go back to work...NOW !". 
I am waiting for Christmas...


----------



## Owl

WOW Magic, what a project! Its fantastic... Really inspiring stuff. Now that I've found your thread, I'm looking forward to following along 

Al


----------



## RonthePirate

I'm jealous! You get to play with your trains and I can't yet! 

But my time is coming!! 

You have a really nice setup here. I read your entire thread, have seen how you plan.
Kinda like me. 

Put it down, work it out. 
If it don't fit, throw it out! :laugh:

May I ask for a drawing of what your track setup looks like now? I'm looking at the pics, and I like its general style.
Of course, I don't intend to copy it, just use it as a general guideline to redo into my personal work.


----------



## Magic

Ron Here is a pic of the "No Plan" plan track plan. 








Feel free to use anything that may help. Yellow (upper) and blue (lower) are mainlines and 
gray spurs and yards. Mains are Atlas code 100 flex track and Peco turnouts.
Yards etc. are Walthers code 83 turnouts and flex track. 
I drew this up using mostly Atlas sectional track and when I laid the track use flex.
The room is 13'x13' with a small entrance hall in the north east corner. 
The closets give me another 3' for walkway on the north side.

The south yard came out much different as I added a third entrance.

Warning this plan is subject to change without notice and Magic is not responsible for any damage that may result from using the "No Plan™" plan, 
including but not limited to, sudden loss of hair or insanity.

Magic


----------



## Magic

In other news work on the Magic RR has come to a slowdown.
A little more than a week ago I started feeling some pain when I stood for a long time and it has gotten worse. 
Just found out today I got a Hernia on my right side. 

I just told the crew about it and they said "That's a bad break, no doubt happened when you were doing all that thrashing about at the end of the rope when we hung you."
"We feel a bit responsible, why don't you let us fix it? We just got in a new order of Xacto blades and saws and with some
duct tape, a few track nails and some cotton balls we should be able to fix you right up." :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

I respectfully declined and told them I was going under the knife on the 13th.

"That's Friday the thirteenth, only an idiot would schedule an operation on Friday the thirteenth." They voted 87 to 1 that I was an idiot. 
Thank heavens for my nephew, only cost me a two week paid vacation in Bakersfield Ca. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

Looks like I won't be doing much on the layout for a time but I have a few building kits to put together so something will be getting done. 
Magic


----------



## Fire21

Magic....sorry about the diagnosis, but know that your docs will sew things back up right and proper. Best of luck for a quick recovery! :smilie_daumenpos:


----------



## Tomule

Hope all went well with your surgery. Did you have to lay the crew off or were you able to get them temporary positions while you are recovering?


----------



## Magic

Thanks for asking Tomule and Fire, everything went pretty good according to the doc :smilie_daumenpos: but I'm pretty sore and not doing much. 

Lay them off, are you kidding. They hung me for just ripping out some track, no telling what would happen if I laid them off.   

I'm sitting here in agony and the crew took the SP daylight to San Francisco and are living the high life all on my dime. 

I've got some kits to put together and some rolling stock that needs work so I should be 
able to keep busy for a time till things stop hurting.

Magic


----------



## Tomule

Glad to hear all went well and that your recovering nicely.
Once the crew gets a taste of the high life, it might be difficult to get the to want to come back to work.


----------



## Owl

Hi Magic, how you doing? Any news?
Happy New Year 
Al


----------



## Magic

Hi Owl. Thanks for asking.  Happy New Year to you. :smilie_daumenpos:

Haven't done too much on the layout since the surgery, It all went well but I have three crawl unders and I didn't want to push things till I was completely healed. 

Finely getting some stuff done the last few days, holiday festivities keep getting in the way. 
Getting ready to paint my roads and since I have done things and than redone them the foam board was getting pretty ratty. 
Had to paint and putty the roadbed to get it smooth again. Started taping it all off today and should be able to paint the spray stone in the next couple of days.

Assuming that this cold I just got goes away soon. Way to start a new year, sick.

Magic


----------



## dsertdog56

Magic, I hope your year gets better soon. Getting old is mandatory but the journey can be painful. 

Perhaps random testing, combined with armed security (for yourself) would settle your rowdy crew down a bit.


----------



## Odyknuck

This has been a very enjoyable read. Hope your doing better. I recently got the bug to get back to my HO railroad design an picked up a lot of tips off your thread. I am 60 now and retiring at 62 , so it's time to put they gray stripe hat on again.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


----------



## Magic

Welcome to the insanity. :thumbsup: Glad you found some of the stuff helpful.

This stupid cold just won't go away, still feeling poorly.  but getting better today.
Might get restarted by tomorrow. I hope.

Magic


----------



## leadsled

Hope you get to feeling better Magic, I have also enjoyed this thread alot!


----------



## Magic

Well it's the same bat thread but a much different bat time.
Turned out that my cold was much more serious than I thought.
A couple of doctor visits and some meds the size of footballs and as expensive as Superbowl tickets have gotten me feeling better. :smilie_daumenpos: 
Some RR work has commenced. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Got way behind on real life stuff and it took some time to get things straightened out but we are finely there. :appl: :appl: 

First problem was to get the crew back together again. Bigger problem than I first thought.  
Part of the crew was still in San Francisco and others took the Super Chief to Las Vegas. 
Easy to find the ones in SF as they were all in the same jail.

First thing I had to do was call our dear friend Eric Holder in Chicago and see if using Obama shovel ready infrastructure improvement funds 
to bail out my shovel ready crew was legal. "Sure it's OK we're using the same funds to keep Hillery OUT of jail."

A trip to Frisco with a box full of stimulus funds and we were soon on the Daylight back to Reno. 

Tomule we were both wrong, it was easy to get the crew working again.
"Living the high life is tough and we're ready to get back to work, with all the bar fights and jail time it's not worth it." they said.

We decided to get all the roads and foam work done at this time.
Built 6 grade crossings like these. 








Checked them out like so. A single truck is good for sorting out all sorts of track problems.








Prep for paving. Lots of over spray so lots of masking. The crew though that the crossword puzzle near the grade crossing was a strange checker board.   








Couldn't find the right color stone paint I used before so had to use a blend of too dark of a gray and one too light mixed. Harder to do but it came out pretty good.








This will be the housing area.








They came out pretty good. The Ruth Black Hawk Meats truck on the way to the section house with dogs' burgers and cool ones.








Working on some hills and cleaning up cliff faces next. Sure feels good to be able to get something done on the ol' Magic RR.

Stay tuned for the latest updates. :thumbsup:
Same bat time .
Same bat thread.

Magic


----------



## outlaw bill

Glad to see you back, Magic. Layout is looking pretty sweet.


----------



## Fire21

If I wasn't already into model railroading, I'd sure get into it just to follow your construction narrative, Magic. What fun! :appl:


----------



## Chet

Looking good Magic. This is a big improvement over the last layout. Looking forward to see the layout move ahead. 

Nice work.


----------



## RH1

Looks great Magic!

Problem with this forum is that keeps inspiring me to get more done on my layout. Hard to get any other work done at home because of that...


----------



## dsertdog56

Good to see you're back at work. Looks good as always.


----------



## Magic

Well it's that bat time again. Latest from the ol' Magic RR.

First I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is I got my crew back from Vegas, all rested, dead broke and ready to go to work. :appl: :appl: 

The bad news is that they showed up for work in this.  
Asked where they got it the engineer said " We were dead broke and didn't have a way home.
This was just sitting in the Vegas yard and nobody was using them so we just took them home."   








Police are investigating the incident, I seem to be saying that a lot lately.
Perhaps as suggested by dsertdog I should start a random testing program.

A not so good attempt to disguise them seems to have fooled the local police.
"Nope these aren't them, the ones we are looking for are Santa Fe units." 
The cops are apparently related to my nephew.







MTH F3A & B. Great sound on these and the detail is good as well.
Good runners at low speed. Didn't even have to speed match them, were perfect.

Did have one issue with them however.
I had two 20 car trains on the layout and so I didn't have too much room to test these so I moved the train on the upper main to the north wall after the first test runs.
All of the sudden nothing works, a dead short. No sounds on any of the 6 locos.
Took the F3 b unit off the track and that restored power. Put the B unit back on and things ran OK.  
When I turned off power and restarted power same thing happened. After several tries I lost sound to the F3s. Took a factory reset to get sound back. 

Great I said to myself, got a problem with my brand new locos. I wounder what MTH's warranty is on stolen Santa Fe F units?  
Why did they run the first few times I tried them and now they won't. What did I do differently? 
Than it hit me I moved the upper main train to the north wall side. That put six sound locos on the same circuit breaker and the breaker won't take the start up load. 
Removed a set of GP 9s and all was good.  :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:


Well it's on to the layout work. Couldn't think of anything to do with the upper main where it crosses the yard leads so I decided to build a mountain and some tunnels.

Made the tunnel portals from foam and cork roadbed for trim. They don't make portals this big so no other way to go.








Foam and plaster cloth.
















Forgot to take pics but use my patented cotton balls to smooth out all the rough edges and build some bluffs. 







Needs all the detail work done yet but it's a start. :appl:
Also painted the walls a darker blue sky effect, the silhouette mountains in the background are a work in progress, got some new ideas for them working now. 

Magic


----------



## dsertdog56

Magic...I read your posts and nearly shot coffee out my nose...hot coffee mind you. 

Thanks for the laughs! A sense of humor with ones hobby should be a requirement.


----------



## cosmos2002

:laugh::laugh::laugh::appl::appl:


----------



## RonthePirate

Well, you're light years ahead of me, Magic!  But that's OK, I'll catch up. 

No, just kiddin', it ain't a race. I finally took the time to go through all the pages on your thread. What a metamorphosis. You changed plywood and foam to land and rock.
And the way you put it into pics for every step.........yours is practically a manual in layout building.

I will remember this thread when I get stuck on something. And I'll come back to see if you had the same trouble, and how you got out of it.

Cheers and kudos to you! See you later, RonthePirate


----------



## Magic

Well it's that bat time again so here is the latest from the ol' Magic RR. :appl: :appl:

I have some good news and some bad news.
First the bad news, all of my writers have been shanghaied by Milton Berle and until those I stole from Jack Benny arrive this thread will take a more serious tone. 

Now for the good news. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: 
With the prospect of long prison time hanging over their heads for procuring those Santa Fe F units the crew has been more than diligent in their work 
and we are done with all the foam work and some of the mountains. 

The last of the cotton balls on the south overpass and tunnels. 








A very wet paint brush to smooth things out and add some color.








This is one of the silhouette background mountains, more cotton balls to give some definition to the mountain. 








Used Woodland Scenics Concrete paint on the boulders and rocks with real dirt and WS ground cover for the rest. Some snow capped background mountains and we are ready for some trees. 








A few trees and bushes and we are looking pretty good.








Need some more pine trees on the right mountain. Most of the trees are just stuck into the foam as they will be coming out when I paint and ballast track.
The little cotton ball cloud above is an idea I'm playing with. With all the artistic talant of a lump of coal (I can say that now that I have a steamer) cotton balls seemed like a good solution. 

This all looks much better in real life and when I'm running trains I use a much lower level of light and this all looks pretty good. It's beyond the duck under so not seen up close and personal. 







I use cotton balls for a bunch of different things around the ol' Magic RR.
Even tried some for lunch.   Not that good kind of dry, maybe with some beef gravy? :dunno: 

Tune in next time for the next exciting addition of the Magic RR
Same bat time 
Same bat thread.

Magic


----------



## gator do 65

Magic,
Thank you for the laughs, great way to start my day! I've learned to leave my coffee on the table when reading this thread, which should be good advise to all!


----------



## Chet

Looking great Magic. You have made some excellent improvements. Really like the way things are looking. Well done.


----------



## Fire21

Magic, I love your stories, your pictures, and your work. It might not be artistic, but the cotton cloud is very clever!

As for your crew obtaining those F units, I guess you could conclude that they're not crazy, they just have locomotives.


----------



## Magic

Gator the word on the street is that you're drinking too much coffee.
I'm just doing my part to get you to cut down. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Fire, If what I'm thinking of works the cotton ball clouds should look pretty good but that is sometime in the future. :dunno:

Chet, I keep looking back to your layout and getting not only inspiration but ideas as well. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Before I do much more scenery I think I need to finish my track work and than paint and ballast.

Added a 13th track to the south yard. 
"This is kinda stupid" said the crew "it's under the Daylight parking track and there's no way to uncouple anything." 
They voted 87 to 1 that I was not only an idiot but stupid as well. 
I reminded them of the stolen F units and the track was soon in place.  
It's on switchable power so a good place to park sound locos, sort of a straight house as I don't have room for a roundhouse. :dunno:


When I put in the yard I ran short of flex track so some of it was sectional track. 
Since I had to order more flex I replaced all the sectional track and installed all missing ties as well., so the south yard is done. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:








Since I had the crew scared straight I also added a fourth track to the west yard.
A loco servicing thingie will go where the F7s are parked.








Also added to the inside spur off the upper main, I made it so that a 18 car train will fit and it's also on switchable power, 
good place to get trains off the upper main without running them all the way into the yard. Kind of like a dead end passing siding. 








I'm now getting all the track ready for paint and ballast.
Put in ties to fill all the gaps at the flex track joints and cleaning everything up.
Atlas code 100 track is a bit on the ugly side and what I want to do is minimize the look of the ties. 
Not sure what I'll do yet, trying different paints to see what looks best. 
Spent all day today on it and I think I'm getting close.

SOOO
Tune in next time for another exciting update.
Same bat time.
Same bat thread.

Magic


----------



## Owl

Looking great Magic

Al


----------



## Chet

Quite that yard you have going there. Looking forward to updates. 

I will have to give you a lot of credit. You have really improved over your first layout. Guess you learned a lot. Well done.


----------



## gator do 65

Magic, 
Word on the street is correct! Dr. told me yesterday I needed to quit.. 
I was able to post bail and my lawyer says the Dr. probably won't press charges!


----------



## dsertdog56

Great work as always and with the right amount of panache and humor. Nice to have someone around who isn't 100% serious. May I be half as good.


----------



## Magic

Well it's that same bat time and same bat thread so grab some popcorn and an adult beverage and enjoy the next thrilling episode of the Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

First a Magic tip of the day. If you're using insulated rail joiners try taking a flat file to the lower rail flanges on your
track and put a small rounded end on them. The plastic joiners will just slide right on. 
Don't know why I didn't post this earlier, just though of it today.

Well on to the layout. As I getting ready to ballast track I though I would make sure everything was good to go.
Ran all my locos everywhere and also all the rolling stock.
Cleaned all wheels that needed it and also took all rolling stock off the layout and checked coupler heights and weights. Fixed as necessary.

Also added 7 signal lights like these. They just show which way the turnout is set. Green for the mains and red for sidings etc. They are not properly installed till I ballast.








I also took the two GE 70 ton switchers and MU them. 
Like so. 







These two guys had very little run time on them so I put one on the upper main and the other on the lower main and just ran them for about 45 minutes. 
Ran like crap at first but finally smoothed out.
I ran them all over the layout and they found some not all that great track laying and derailed a few times.
Every other loco ran perfectly but these found some problems. Easily fixed, just some solder joints that 
needed some attention. Put the ribbon rail gauges in and did some re soldering and was good to go. 

This is what I woke up to the day after Easter. 10 inches of snow.    At the end of March?
Pretty much changed my plan to mow the grass. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:









THE "NO PLAN" PLAN STRIKES AGAIN.

With the mowing out of the way I went to running trains, did some operations as well as continuous running
just to see if everything ran as expected, it didn't. I told the crew things just aren't working with the new dead end passing siding and 
we were going to have to do something about it. 
Too my surprise they agreed.   We told you it wouldn't work when we put it in but would you listen, NOOOO.  

The dead end passing siding.








Just couldn't get trains to switch from the upper main to the lower if I had two trains on the tracks.
Should have taking DonRs good advice about passing sidings. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

The new "No plan" plan.







Holy hurricane Batman, what happened to the three bridges we just put in?

To make a real pull through siding I needed to get a turnout right at the bridges. To do that I had to move the bridges south 5 inches so out they came. No plan planing at it's best. :smilie_daumenpos:

Setting up the new siding, matching the mainline grade.








With every thing moved I set up the bridges again.
















Checked to make sure everything cleared. No sense repeating the great train wreck of a few weeks ago.








Also put in a little bridge thingie for the road. More work to do on this later.








I think I got everything all set so track laying tomorrow. 
SOOO tune in next time
Same Bat time.
Same Bat thread.
Magic


----------



## Fire21

Thanks for the continuing story, Magic...love your posts and pictures! :appl:


----------



## Gramps

Fire21 said:


> Thanks for the continuing story, Magic...love your posts and pictures! :appl:


Me too.


----------



## Chet

Excellent work Magic. What an improvement over your old layout. Looks like you really learned a lot. 

We have our choice of bowling tournaments this year. Reno or Las Vegas. If we do Reno, I will be knocking on your door.


----------



## Tomule

Always enjoy your updates. I'm with Chet, a visit to Reno would not be complete without visiting the Magic railroad.


----------



## Gramps

If you die with the most trains, what is it you win?


----------



## Cycleops

What is it that makes model railroaders so acquisative?


----------



## raleets

Gramps said:


> If you die with the most trains, what is it you win?


His ashes take a one month tour around the country on Amtrak?


----------



## dsertdog56

You've been busy again, and it all looks good.

My yard manager Browncoat Billy says I need to start layout work again. My mountain loco modifications are constantly fouling his mainline trackage.


----------



## Magic

Well here it is that same bat time, same bat thread. So here is the latest update for the Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

First off thanks for all the kind comments guys. :thumbsup:

On to the layout. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:
With the passing siding installed the next problem was a turnout motor. Would have been a ideal place for a Peco PL10 
but I needed to match the Tortoise on the other end so Tortoise it is. 
I had to add two inches to the bench work to fit in the siding so major bench work problems were present. 
What to do. The "No Plan" plan strikes again. 







I used Loctite Silicone sealant for glue on all my Tortoises that I mount this way. Holds super strong but is removable if needed.

Mounted and signal light wired up.








A cover to hide all my stupid ideas and we were all set to go.








Works great, enough room for a AB or AA set of locos and 18 cars and 1 caboose. 
I now can switch trains from the lower or upper mains without having to back any thing up. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:







Also installed a cut stone retaining wall on the WS risers.
It's a Chooch Industries Flexible stone wall. 


Old fumble fingers here is forever knocking cars off the track in the yards so a re railer is a welcome addition. 
Here's three of them. They are the removable track sections for my lift out bridge so pretty handy. 








Covered them with some dirt and glue to try and hide the miserable look as a dirt road. 
A little more work when I do the ballasting and ground cover later and they shouldn't look too bad.








I moved this tunnel portal forward two inches, looks better and gives me a marker as where to stop my train to fit on the passing siding.








I have to add some more switches to my remote panels so made new ones. See below.
















That's the good news, now for the bad :smilie_daumenneg:
With all the foresight of a corrupt politician (redundant I know) A major flaw in the "No plan" plan showed it's ugly head. 
I ran trains for a couple of days to see that all was good, again it wasn't. 
The mains were fine the south yard was fine but the reason for the west yard was to make or brake up trains. 
Didn't work not only that but the industries on the 4x12 top section didn't work either. 
Problem, no way to uncouple cars without crawling under the duck unders.   Wonderful planning no.

The solution. Ordered 6 of these.








Comes complete even a LED and resister for the panel.







I've got one installed so far, seems to work OK but the blue LED to locate the cars is of little help when you are as far away as I am but they do a fine job uncoupling cars.
I've got to test these more so I'll let you know how they work in the next update. 

Same bat time same bat thread.

Magic


----------



## Chet

Looks fine Magic. A couple of clever solutions to problems. Love this hobby because it makes you think. The improvements also look quite good.


----------



## Magic

Chet, thanks for the encouragement, sure helps. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

They say that necessity is the mother of invention.
Well the "No Plan" plan is most certainly the father.

It takes some creative solutions to dig myself out of the corners the no plan plan painted me into. 

There is however some good news. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

The remote uncouplers I got have a ton of small gauge wires and I ordered a small gauge wire stripper. 
This gave me some down time so I decided to see what I could do with the SP Daylight.

I pulled it off the parking siding and ran it on the upper main, 22R turns here. Cars fell off the tracks like rain.  :thumbsdown: 
Everywhere curves, turnouts even on straight track.
What in the world happened it ran pretty good before.  

I found two problems, first had to do with scenery. 
After a lot of checking all the track etc. I finally found the problem. 
Right where the baggage car is in the pic the front corner of the cars were hitting a slope and lifting the car a bit, 
not enough to derail it there but enough later on. 
I think the wheel flanges were riding on top of the rails and would come off later.
A little attention there fixed the problem.








As I was picking up the carnage I noticed the second problem.
The cars are too darn light, though I had added weight before but I hadn't. 

Two 1 oz. fishing sinkers pounded into squares fit nicely into the recess in the chassis. Brought the weight to 7.5 oz. 
A little heavy but the weight is down low so it works great. 
I've got a PA and PB pulling it so weight is no problem, if it is got another PA I can hook up. PA PB PA reversed.
They are already speed matched but the front coupler on the reversed PA seems to be more for looks as I couldn't 
keep cars coupled to it. Might change couplers and see what happens, three power units would look soooo cool.








The SP Daylight meeting a SP manifest train on the new passing siding. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:








The reason I parked the Daylight was I couldn't back it onto the parking siding. There is a discussion about this earlier in this thread. We talked about body mounting the couplers. 
With the added weight I don't think that will be necessary. 
It backs in just fine. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: so I'm back in passenger service again. :appl: :appl:

Got the wire strippers today so I can start on the un couplers tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out.

Stay tuned.
Same bat time. 
Same bat thread.
Magic


----------



## Chet

Hopefully the weights will help the problem with backing up the Daylight. I acquired some old IHC and Riverossi Northern Pacific passenger cars and some had body mounted couplers and some had truck mounted couplers. It was a disaster when it came to trying to back it up. 

Mt Walthers North Coat limited cars all have body mounted couplers and I have no problems at all with them and can easily back them through numerous turnouts into the passenger station. The other train with the mix of body mounted couplers and truck mounted couplers had problems running forward and most of my curves are well broader than 32 inches which is my minimum radius, which is just in one spot. Forget about trying to back it up. Once all of the coulpers were changed to body mounts, the train operated just as good as the Walthers train and could easily be backed into the station. 

Scenery clearance can be a problem. That was one thing that I was very careful about. I have a brass Northern Pacific Z-5 (2-8-8-4) which has the rear engine fixed like the prototype and I can easily run it anywhere on the layout (except for industrial sidings) and have plenty of clearance. 

Keep the updates coming Magic. Like keeping up with your progress.


----------



## Fire21

Yeah, love your updates, love your pictures, LOVE those PAs!!


----------



## Magic

Well it's that same bat time same bat thread and I have some good news:thumbsup: :thumbsup: and some bad news. :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

The good news is that the Daylight cars work great on both the upper and lower mains and will back onto the parking siding with no issues. 

The bad news is that I now have to get married.
"What? Married? How come?" said the crew. "Did the rabbit die?" (You younger guys won't get this.)

Well it's along story but here it is in a nut shell.

While the passenger cars work great the PA PB locos are having problems. 
The turnout for the parking siding is a Peco medium curved turnout and in some cases the wheels of a loco will short across the frog on Peco turnouts. 
The simple cure for this according to DonR and others is to put a little clear nail polish on the frog rails.

Now comes the bad news part. I'm single and have no nail polish, gave it up sometime back in the Sixtys.
So the only thing I can do is get married and than borrow some from the new bride. :smokin: :smokin: Problem solved. :smilie_daumenpos:

So if any of you guys knows a nice looking young lady that has a big bankroll and loves model trains PM me the details and I'll get the nuptials started.  

Chet I don't think body mounted couplers will run on the 18R curves on the lower main and that is where I'm planing to put the Southern Pacific type 22 passenger/freight station.

Fire yes the PA PB does look great but once I found the shorting problem and waiting for the new bride to show up I tried running the daylight with a set of F7s 
ABB in Black Widow paint and this also looks pretty cool, don't know if SP ever ran this but it could have happened.
On the Magic RR anything is possible. :smilie_daumenpos:








So stay tuned for further updates on the wedding and the fate of the PA PB locos.

Same bat time.
Same bat thread.

Magic

PS I hope nobody in Las Vegas see those stolen Santa Fe F3s.


----------



## Fire21

Magic, I think you could save a lot of headaches, stress and money...and avoid the nuptials...by buying some clear paint and coating those frogs. May take a couple coats to equal the thickness of clear nail polish, but just think of the time, money and effort savings you'll have!

:hah: Magic!


----------



## Cycleops

Fire21 said:


> Magic, I think you could save a lot of headaches, stress and money...and avoid the nuptials...by buying some clear paint and coating those frogs. May take a couple coats to equal the thickness of clear nail polish, but just think of the time, money and effort savings you'll have!
> 
> :hah: Magic!


Plus the cost of a messy, expensive divorce when you make her sleep in the box room whilst your trains enjoy the biggest bedroom! Horror of horrors, she could even demand some of your railway stock in alimony.


----------



## dsertdog56

Hilarious stuff. Just what I needed to read to finish out the week.  

Your logic is as skewed as my ex claimed mine was...a small reason why she's the ex.


----------



## Magic

dsertdog56 said:


> Your logic is as skewed as my ex claimed mine was...a small reason why she's the ex.


DITTO

Magic


----------



## trains galore

Great passenger cars, the red and yellow ones are beautiful :smilie_daumenpos:


----------



## Magic

Well here it is, that same bat time same bat thread.
I have some good news :thumbsup: :thumbsup: and some bad news. :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

First the bad news. Well it seems that my quest for a new bride isn't going so good.  
No PMs from you guys and my adds in the paper and on Craigslist have had no results so far.
Even my infomercial on late night TV provided no leads.
"We told you not to have Rodney Dangerfield do the spot." said the crew. "We'll go and get some nail polish for you."

Off they went in the old flatbed truck. The store is only 25 scale miles away 
but I became concerned after a couple of hours that they hadn't returned. Finally they showed up.

"What took so long?" said I.
"We didn't take a big enough ladder and couldn't reach the nail polish rack. 
Some nice looking lady with big bankrolls said she loved model railroading and would be glad to get the nail polish for us." :smilie_daumenpos:

"That's a big bankroll not big bankrolls and why didn't you bring this nice looking lady with the big bankrolls home with you?" I asked.  

"She wouldn't fit on the flatbed." 

So here we have the nail polish and since there are no roads into the back country, we loaded it onto a flat car. 








Polish delivered to the job site. An important project like this requires the finest in power. 








We put the polish on the frog with no problems except the crew backed the train onto the wet polish and the flat car got stuck fast. 

So if any of you guys knows a good looking lady with a big bankroll that loves model trains and has some nail polish remover PM me the details. 

"No way we're going through all that again." said the crew.
"We'll go get some." With the flat car removed it seems like our repair worked as planed and all is good. 

The good news is that the SP Daylight is back in operation. 
Actually given what Fire and Cycleops posted about marriage there may not be any bad news after all. 

In other news I got the Rail Crew un couplers mostly installed but not tested yet. Will fill you in next time, maybe with some pics. :dunno: :dunno:

Good to see you again Trains. :smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## Gramps

Glad things are working out. Maybe the lady with the big bankrolls will meet a guy with a big wad of cash.


----------



## Lemonhawk

The picture links appear to be non-functional


----------



## dsertdog56

Love the humor as always. :smilie_daumenpos:

I got ribbed for having a bottle of hair spray on my layout...I should've put it on a flat car. :dunno:

I gotta ask if the steamer and caboose are on a ghost track, or do only steam engine fans see the ghost engine and caboose?


----------



## Magic

That's going to be a display park. 
I've got an old SP depot to go with the steamer.
Some park benches etc. It's a work in progress.

Fixed the pics.

Magic


----------



## Magic

*RailCrew remote uncoupler*

Well it's that same Bat time and same Bat thread so here goes.

A review of the Rapido RailCrew on off remote uncoupler.

This is what I'm talking about. 








Comes pretty complete.








The instructions are pretty good but I had some problems with them. They say you can mount these things from the bottom without removing previously laid track. 
Drilling a 1 3/4 inch hole through plywood without damaging the track above is something I would not even try. I removed my track and roadbed. 

What you have here is basically a set of permanent magnets mounted on some kind of a rotating twin coil switch machine. 
When turned "on" the magnets are parallel to the track rails and will uncouple the cars.
When "off" it operates by rotating the magnets out of line with the tracks and they won't uncouple. The only things that turn on or off are the two LEDs. 

The wiring is pretty straight forward with a 5 wire connector on the uncoupler. Three wires operate the machine just like any other twin coil machine.
The other two wires operate the two LEDs. One for spotting the cars and one on the panel to indicate on or off.

All this works through a per-wired DPDT momentary switch.

This is where I had issues. The spotting LED is supposed to shine on the trip pins of the couplers and spot the cars where needed. 
You can see the spotting LED in the center of the unit. 
It's a pretty small window and the LED is important. However they are remote uncouplers and I was so remote that I could not see the light on the trip pins. 
If you are more than a few feet away you can't see the light. 
Since I was using 4 conductor telephone hook up cable and I couldn't see the spotting LED anyway I didn't hook it up.

They also suggest gluing the unit into the hole, didn't seem to be a good idea to me and I glued on a thin piece of styrene to the top of the unit. 
Drilled a hole for the LED and marked the center line. The center line is very important so get it right. 

Drilled a 1 3/4 inch hole through the foam board and the plywood bench work. 








Plugged in the wiring harness and put the unit into the hole and aligned the center marks. This is on the #2 track on the west yard and is on roadbed. 
The uncoupler will work this way but the small spotting window gets even smaller so I mounted the unit above the roadbed. 








Re laid the track and placed a marker next to it in line with the spotting LED. It took some practice but I can now spot cars where they need to be. 
On the three dead end spurs I will put wheel stops to spot the cars. All this will be covered up when I ballast the track. 









The panel LEDs I won't show the other panel as only one LED is working.  :dunno:









Once I figured out the wiring it all went pretty good. Only problem I had was one of the LEDs didn't work.
Five out of six ain't bad being as I've never worked with LEDs before. Well four out of six, while troubling shooting the wiring 
one of the crew shorted full power to the wrong side of the resister and blew out the LED. 
Fortunately the LED died before the crew member did and no injury resulted. He did however glow a very nice blue for a couple of hours. 

Overall these things work pretty good. Given my circumstances with the units on the other side of my crawl unders there weren't too many options and I'm happy with them. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
They will open the couplers far enough to use the delayed uncoupler function and will uncouple cars just fine if spotted correctly. A good solution to a problem. :smilie_daumenpos:

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Magic, I in awe of you ripping out your original layout and starting over with what looks to be an even better layout. I was wondering about those uncouplers they look good. As far as removing track to install, maybe you could slid a wide blade putty knife under the area where you have to drill. This would allow you to drill the hole and not damage the track. I did this for a turnout motor I forgot to account for before I laid my track down. It worked. Of course you would have to remove the centering bit once you got the hole saw started. Just a thought.
Joe


----------



## Magic

The kit comes with a centering pin, the long black thing in the pic. and instructions on how to use it but my track and roadbed are only nailed not glued so pulling the track was no problem. 

They are a good solution to a problem area and do work great as is but would be even better if you can see the spotting LED. 
The way mine are I just have to get a marker of some kind placed right, trial and error??? A pole, fence, tree, end of a dock, etc. will work. 

Your idea about using a putty knife is a very good one. :smilie_daumenpos:

As far as ripping out the old layout it was an easy/tough decision. 
Not easy ripping out two years work but I was having so many problems and I knew I could do better with all that experience.
I'm in just over a year and still making changes, got one going on right now. Crew not happy as usual. 

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Magic, I thought the same thing about some type of marker to spot the uncouplers. I am new to the hobby and am learning as I go, (no plan plan) as you would say. I used your suggestion on the stone spray paint. I did a road and my yard yesterday, looks good. I'll post a pic when I can. Am already thinking about adding on to the layout. Keep up the good work and pic's.
Joe


----------



## Magic

Well it's that same Bat time, Same Bat thread so relax and enjoy the latest from the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

MIGHTY OAKS FROM SMALL ACORNS GROW. 

Chapter 1 

It's an old story you have heard many times before.
Boy falls in love with Southern Pacific Daylight with PA PB power.
The power units short out on turnout frog.
Boy places adds for nice looking lady with big bankrolls and nail polish. 
While waiting for said lady tries a consist of F7s in an ABB configuration. 

"Looks great." said the crew. "Sure does." I reply.









Chapter 2 The Acorn Grows.

The search for a nice looking lady proves fruitless but some nail polish does show up and the the PA PB units are good to go.
"What do we do with the three F7s?" I ask. 
"Try them on a freight train." 
"Good idea."








Chapter 3 The Mighty Oak Begins.

"That's beginning to look like a real train now." said the crew. "Sure does." Said I "Maybe we should do more of these." 
"I saw an MTH F3B in Santa Fe Warbonnet on E Bay, lets get that." said the crew chief.

Chapter 4 The Mighty Oak Grows.

Boy quickly orders F3B unit and MUs an ABB set up and just as quickly 
finds that DCC Specialties PSX 1 circuit breakers will not take the start up load of three MTH Proto Sound 3 locos. 

Chapter 5 The mighty Oak Comes Crashing Down.

We've got all these MTH locos and can't run them, what to do? 
"I don't know." I said "Maybe as Tim the Toolman Taylor said "More power." 
"We gotta get rid of those circuit breakers and add another booster, they have breakers in them." Said I.
"They cost a lot of money, said the crew "It's a good thing you've got more money than brains." I couldn't argue with that. 

SOOOO if any of you guys knows a nice looking lady with big bankrolls, I mean a big bankroll and a Digitrax DB150 booster PM me the details. :smilie_daumenpos:
That's not going to work and you know it." shouted the crew. "I suppose not, it sure didn't work before."

Chapter 6 Righting the Mighty OAK.

With the arrival of the Digitrax DB150 Booster and getting it installed we are able to run all the MTH locos we have with no issues. 
A lot less money but no issues. 
The Santa Fe Warbonnets are MTH, the SP F7s are Bachmann. 








Chapter 7 The Mighty Oak Lives.

The Magic RRs new road power. 







That's 6 MTH locos and 3 Bachmann all on the same booster and it fires up perfectly. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

The passing siding is still big enough to hold an 19 car train but the tail of the south yard needed some work. A bigger tail track to hold 3 locos. 









It works. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:








What I've got now are the left and right half's of the layout are each on a DB150 5 amp booster. The south yard is on the Zephyr DCS51 command station power so I've still have three power districts. 

I test ran everything ever were and all is good to go.
Tested track power and I've got 14.3 volts every were and I don't have any more redues to the track so I began soldering the few track joints I think may need it. 
All my power drops were on rail joiners because of all the changes I'm making but that is done so out came the solder. 

Painting and ballasting the track are next. 
I gave the crew a few days off so they would be fresh and rested.

They are "Persona non Grata" in San Francisco and the Las Vegas police are still looking for the Santa Fe F3s so Vegas was out. 
They opted for LA as a last resort. 

Magic


----------



## dsertdog56

Looks good...requesting pics of the PA/PB setup.


----------



## Chet

Thanks for the update. Looks like you got the power all figured out. Can't get over the improvement on this layout over your previous one. Impressive. 

We'll be in Reno just before the Memorial Day weekend for a bowling tournament. Hopefully I'll have time to stop by. The schedule looks really tight right now but maybe I can squeeze some time in.


----------



## Magic

dsertdog I've got the PA PB put away right now for track ballasting and all the pics I have have been posted a couple of post back.

Chet, sounds good PM me with details.
Hope it works out and if not good luck in the tournament. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

I think I'm done with track and can get started on some scenery soon. I'm not looking forward to ballasting but it's got to be done. 

Magic


----------



## Magic

Well it's that same Bat time, same Bat thread so here goes. :smilie_daumenpos::smilie_daumenpos:

I have some good news :thumbsup::thumbsup: and some bad news :thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

The good news is I got my crew back from LA and they are all rested, dead broke and ready to start ballasting.

The bad news is that they showed up for work in these.
Stop me if you heard this one before.
"STOP STOP, we've heard it before."
Too bad you're going to hear it again.

"We lost all our money playing the ponies at Santa Anita and were dead broke. 
Found these in the Taylor yard and well you know the rest."
















Now this is more than a shameless post to show off my new road power but an informative post of some importance, or not. 

The F3A and one B were new from Trainworld. com and were perfectly speed matched. 
But the other B was used off E Bay and had some issues. In great shape and ran good but there was something wrong with it's speed control.
It ran much faster than the new units and I mean much faster. Something wrong with the decoader and a factory reset didn't help. 
No warranty on used units so having MTH repair it would cost more than getting another loco, so I decided to try speed matching it with DCC CV programing. 

Setting CV52 to one allows DCC programing.

I keep CV2, start voltage at factory setting of 16
CV5 at factory 000, max voltage.
CV3 and CV4 Acceleration and deceleration at 10.
Matched the way all my other locos run nicely.
CV25 sets speed tables and I chose 2, this is a pretty straight line setting and again matched the other locos. 

I tried it out and now it ran much too slow. 
What to do? Only other option was to set the MTH factory units to the same settings. 
This worked out very good and no further speed matching was required. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos: and 
all the lighting and sound functions work as before. :thumbsup:

The informative part of this post is that all I read about CV programing MTH with Digitrax was that this had to be done on the main, programing tracks won't work.
Not so with the newer Proto Sound 3 locos. I did all the CVs on the programing track with no issues, seems like MTH is getting more DCC friendly.

I don't like programing on the main because you can't read CVs and don't really know if your changes really took. 

Since the B units have no lighting functions I just set all three addresses to the A units road number and was good to go. 

All six of my MTH locos are too loud and setting the volume control on the bottom of the locos didn't have much effect. :dunno: 
Also the F6 button is supposed to set volume up or down in steps but this didn't work either. :dunno: 
Guess I'll have to PM MTH and see what the problem is and how I can lower the volume. The sound is really great especially the horn. :thumbsup: :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I've been running my trains a lot and am pretty happy with the way things are running and operations are working great so it's on to ballasting.  
Not looking forward to that much. I think I have worked out a way that works good for me, I'll let you know. 

So stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the Magic RR.
Same Bat time, same Bat thread.

Magic


----------



## geekchris

I always loved the Black Widow scheme F units....The only thing that tempts me to do west coast modeling....But that's enough

Yeah, those older MTH DCC locos can be difficult. I did some CV programming for a friend on one a little while back.
Glad you got them working!


----------



## VegasN

Wow.....just simply amazing!!


----------



## Chet

Nice looking units Magic. Glad that I don't have to argue with DCC problems. 

I haven't been able to get onto the site for a few weeks because of the changing of passwords. Had to re-register with a new handle

Catch you later................. Chet


----------



## Magic

Chet If you PM one of the moderators they should be able to get your old account working.
I had some issues but managed to get it all straightened out. Everybody had some problems I guess.

I'm waiting for some new ballast I ordered, didn't like what I had so nothing new on the Magic RR for a time.

Magic


----------



## VegasN

Intermission


----------



## Overkast

Really awesome layout progress Magic... love some of the terrain work you're doing and the improvisations like turning re-railers into railroad crossings with dirt on them! Also love that you did a review on the RailCrew electromagnetic uncoupler... I've been dreaming about those but sadly they don't make them in N Scale (yet). Hopefully one day they will.

How do you like your Chooch Industries flexible brick wall product? What's the thickness of those sheets? I've been considering buying some to use as wall linings for inside my tunnel portal entrances, but only if they're thin enough...


----------



## Chet

Really like the progress you're making on the layout. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to stop by when I was in Reno. The schedule we had for the bowling tournament was a real pain. Start early in the morning and maybe have an hour off with just enough time to grab lunch, and then head back to bowl in the afternoon with another set in the early evening. 

We usually don't try to do two tournaments in one trip like this one. Las Vegas wasn't too bad but they had us hopping in Reno. We usually like to take a week for Reno alone giving us time to explore the area. 

Keep the posts coming

I did PM an administrator when I was finally able to get back on the fourm but haven't heard anything back yet. 

Catch you later.


----------



## Magic

Intermission? I wish been to busy with all the house and yard work  
The crew are enjoying it though, up at Lake Tahoe checking out all the bankrolls.  

Chet good to see you got everything worked out. :thumbsup:
I understand about the time thing sorry it didn't work out. 

Overkast Thanks we're getting there. :thumbsup:
The RailCrew uncouplers work good and the way they work it should be possible to do them in N scale, 
just mount the magnets closer. It's a big unit but all hidden under ballast etc.

The Chooch flexible walls are pretty thin and should line a tunnel OK, I'm thinking of doing that myself. 
They're about a sixteenth of an inch thick. 

Your layout is looking great, you do some fine work. Nice track plan as well. 

Magic


----------



## VegasN

Magic said:


> Intermission? I wish been to busy with all the house and yard work
> The crew are enjoying it though, up at Lake Tahoe checking out all the bankrolls.
> 
> Chet good to see you got everything worked out. :thumbsup:
> I understand about the time thing sorry it didn't work out.
> 
> Overkast Thanks we're getting there. :thumbsup:
> The RailCrew uncouplers work good and the way they work it should be possible to do them in N scale,
> just mount the magnets closer. It's a big unit but all hidden under ballast etc.
> 
> The Chooch flexible walls are pretty thin and should line a tunnel OK, I'm thinking of doing that myself.
> They're about a sixteenth of an inch thick.
> 
> Your layout is looking great, you do some fine work. Nice track plan as well.
> 
> Magic


Oh how I understand the intermission thing......this damn real life keeps interrupting my train time......grrr


----------



## RonthePirate

VegasN said:


> Oh how I understand the intermission thing......this damn real life keeps interrupting my train time......grrr


Haha! Oh some real life things are OK.
Like........time to stuff face!
Or, beer thirty o'clock.

Vegas: did you get rain?? It rained kitties and puppies here!
It was raining at the rate of three inches an hour.
Had a 1 1/4 inch total for Thursday, Thursday night and Friday AM.
It almost crept into my laundry room.
(Train room was safe, it's a bit higher up)


----------



## VegasN

RonthePirate said:


> Haha! Oh some real life things are OK.
> Like........time to stuff face!
> Or, beer thirty o'clock.
> 
> Vegas: did you get rain?? It rained kitties and puppies here!
> It was raining at the rate of three inches an hour.
> Had a 1 1/4 inch total for Thursday, Thursday night and Friday AM.
> It almost crept into my laundry room.
> (Train room was safe, it's a bit higher up)



Yes, I agree some real life things are good, but this is a family friendly forum...
We did get massive rain, and a pop hail storm at the shop on the south end of town, not as much in the north, where I live.


----------



## Magic

Well here it is that same Bat time, same Bat thread and the latest from the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

First I have some good news :thumbsup::thumbsup:and some bad news. :thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

First the good news, I got the crew back from Lake Tahoe all rested, dead broke and ready to start ballasting track. :smilie_daumenpos:

More good news :thumbsup::thumbsup: they didn't show up with any stolen locomotives. :smilie_daumenpos: 
Reason, no railroad stuff at the lake. 

"We saw a rotary snow plow at Truckee but couldn't get it started and had to hitchhike back home."

Now the bad news. They did show up with this.








"Best we could do boss."
"What happened to the filling?" I asked.
"She ran off with the drummer."
"We don't have a drummer."
"Well we did but don't anymore."  

More bad news, I asked Jack Benny's writers to wip up a few one liners about ballasting track 
and they said they didn't know anything about ballasting. 
I gave them a few basic pointers and off they went. About an hour later they returned.
"We're going back to Benny, he doesn't pay much but has no idea of what ballasting track is and there is nothing fun or funny about ballasting."
I guess we will have to do without one liners on ballasting.  

So on the the Magic RR news. It's been slow with a lot of summer activities but some progress has been made.

We set about painting and ballasting track and did get it done. I painted the track gray first and than went over it with a dark brown wash, 
trying to minimize the look of the code 100 ties. Came out pretty good and looks like old ties as you'll see later.

Here is the tools used.








Some straight white glue, some mixed, glue, water with some alcohol to the lines on the bottle.
A spoon for spreading ballast, a paint brush with the bristles cut off to make it stiffer, 
an ash tray for mixed glue and the blue thing is from an earwax cleaning kit used for gluing,
Works great easy to control the glue and holds a decent amount of glue.

Well on to the work. The first pics are a test piece I did.
First thing was to paint straight white glue onto the bevels of the roadbed, 
put it on heavy and make sure you don't paint the ties or get any on the base of the layout, just the bevels.
Next I used the spoon to spread ballast over the glue, don't be stingy with the ballast here you want it to cover completely, you'll vacuum off the excess when it is dry. 
I even used the bowl of the spoon or my finger to press the ballast into the glue and than sprayed a little alcohol on it to get a good soaking action going. 
Let it dry completely before vacuuming and use a clean vacuum so you can reuse the ballast. 
















The next thing to do is in between the rails. Here you want to use a minimum of ballast, it's easier to add more than it is to remove too much. 
I put a windrow of ballast in the center and than spread it out with the stiff brush. I used my fingers to put down the ballast.
I would than take the wooden handle of the brush and run it over the ties to vibrate the ballast into the track real good and added more if needed. 
I also did the outside of the ties at this time being careful not to get too much onto the bevels already done. 
Once I had it looking good I gave it a light spray with alcohol and than started adding glue. Used the blue thingie 
and dribbled the very thin glue onto the ties not on the ballast. I used a lot of glue and let it soak into all the ballast even into the bevels.
This gives the bevels a very strong gluing and it won't rub off when you're doing other things near it. 









The next thing I did was to put down some ground cover along all the edges of the ballast. 
I taped off the track and ballast to do this so I would keep the nice clean edges and not get ground cover into the ballast. 

Came out pretty good. I tried some other methods and watched videos and read lots of different ways but this is the only way I've found to get good clean edges and slops. 
























The outside main line is code 100 on HO roadbed.
The inside siding is code 83 and is on N gauge roadbed








The stuff I ended up using was Woodland Scenics medium ballast. 
I tried the fine but didn't like how it looked from a distance so I used medium even though it is too big for HO.
From a distance it looks just fine and I'm happy with it.
What I used was a blend of light gray, gray mix, some buff and a little dark brown. 
It came out a little darker than I wanted, should have used more light gray but it looks good.
I'm edging it with dirt with some greenery to set it off color wise. I'm doing early spring so some grass and weeds looks ok.

This section presented a real challenge, the .032 wires for the turnouts run right on top of the base. How to lay ballast and not stick the wires?  
Answer axle grease.  I coated the wires with a lot of grease so the glue won't stick to them, worked great :smilie_daumenpos: 
I'm no doubt the only guy in the country with axle grease on his layout. :smokin:








All these pics are close ups and with a lot of light, under normal lighting this all looks pretty good. 

Tune in next time for more exciting news from the magic RR
Same Bat time 
Same Bat thread.

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Looking good, I like the way you edged the ballast, very nicely done.


----------



## VegasN

Looks fantastic! That is going to look so friggin awesome with trains running on it.....cant wait.


----------



## Chet

Looking real fine Magic. I can see that you have really learned quite a lot from your previous layout. Well done my friend.


----------



## Overkast

Wow it's looking awesome Magic! Really nice work.


----------



## Magic

Thanks guys.
It was a lot of work and with all the summer activities went very slow.
With all the tape on the rails it took a lot of cleaning to get things running OK but
I think I finely got it all. I'll try to get some train pics tomorrow.

I'm getting ready to paint and ballast all the yards and spurs, they are not on roadbed and will require a different method for the ballast.

Magic


----------



## time warp

Impressive. Plus the different sizes of rail and roadbed between the primary and secondary tracks is an excellent, often overlooked detail. :thumbsup:


----------



## Magic

Well it's that same Bat time and same Bat thread so here is the latest from the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

I have some good news :thumbsup: and some good news :thumbsup: and some more good news. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

First the good news. :thumbsup: I have completed all the ballasting that I'm going to do right now. 

Painted all the yard tracks gray. 
When doing this be sure to concentrate on the rails especially the rail webs, the ties will more or less take care of themselves but you want all the rail painted.









Went over the gray with a dark brown wash, again get the rails good.









Next came the ballast, I went with fine here, medium was to big and doesn't look right when you're up close.
What I ended up using was some fine sand blasting or fish tank sand that was at the house when I bought it. Mixed in a little light gray and some brown.
Put the ballast in between the rails and just a little outside the rails. Glued it down with the same real thin glue water mix I used before. 
When I did the mainlines I over glued at my turnouts some and got a few stuck and freeing them up was a pain.
To prevent this in the yard I put a little liquid graphite on the throw bar etc. keeps the paint and glue from sticking to moving parts.
Worked great :smilie_daumenpos: 

Adding ballast and checking it with this truck to be sure all ballast is away from the track. 
Fine ballast will get into turnout moving parts, frogs etc. Make sure you get everything clean and free moving before you start gluing. 
I ran this truck over everything to make sure. 








Next was ground cover, I used real dirt for this, mixed with some Sculptamold to get different shades. 
The dirt here at the house comes out way too dark. 

First I taped off the track so I could do the whole yard in one application.








I used this strainer to spread the dirt, used some Gorilla Tape to cover the bottom third of the strainer. 
That's about the only thing I found that would stay stuck. 
You just use a shaking motion and it spreads the dirt or fine ground cover out nice and even, 
better than I could do any other way I've tried and I've tried many ways. 
I put down a coat of thinned white glue with a paint brush and than sprinkled the dirt with the strainer. 
When done I sprayed the whole thing with clear matte spray paint to really stick it down.








The finished product.
















The three rerailers as a dirt road, came out pretty good, don't look like rerailers anymore but still work OK.








The good news :thumbsup: Earlier in the thread I mentioned I re painted the walls a darker blue, you can see half painted walls in some of my other pics. 
Well it was just too dark, that's why I never finished painting. Using a very complex mathematical algorithm I came up with this;
1 part too light + 1 part too dark = 2 parts just right. 
"Brilliant" said the crew "That masters in mathematics is really paying off now." 
Also painted the Daylight parking siding gray so it doesn't stick out so much.








All in all it's looking pretty good and I happy with it.   
There is again more light for the pics and with the light I run trains in it looks much better.

More good news :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
After much track cleaning to remove paint, glue and tape glue I've got everything up and running. 
Track clean, turnouts all working and no loose ballast etc. laying around. 
So I'm back into the train running business again. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

We are having a Golden Ballast party so stay tuned for more updates. 
Same Bat time. 
Same Bat thread.

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Very nice and neat work.


----------



## Fire21

Beautiful work, Magic! I love your photos and explanations. Your wall paint algorithm, although difficultly complex, does make sense after one studies it awhile. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I see the key phrase you wrote is this: "All in all it's looking pretty good and I happy with it." THAT'S what it's all about!


----------



## Chet

Looking real fine Magic. The layout is really coming along.


----------



## Overkast

Coming along real nice Magic! You've developed some great techniques for ballasting, which will definitely help me when i get to that point in my layout as well. Love the mountain work you did too!


----------



## VegasN

I am always in awe of your work. I might steal the rerailer road idea....


----------



## wvgca

the grade crossings and paint work look great ...


----------



## Gramps

VegasN said:


> I am always in awe of your work. I might steal the rerailer road idea....


Great minds think alike, I also did that.:thumbsup:


----------



## Magic

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

One thing about the dirt grade crossings/rerailers.
What I did was to grind down the pointed ends of the center and squared them up.
Another thing was the height of the center part. 
Some of my locos have very little ground clearance and would drag and what I had to do was sand off some of the dirt.
Might be easiest to sand down the center a bit to get more clearance.
I didn't remove the rerailers to grind or sand and it made it harder to do, so if you're 
going to do this I suggest doing it before installing the track.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do as far as details in the yard goes, what I've got now is just the base coat more or less.
Some tire ruts on the grade crossing are in the works but for now I'm moving on to different areas, namely the west yard.
I'm building a loco servicing thingie for it now.

The crew is still recovering from the Golden Ballast party,
Agent 99 show up from the old layout:smilie_daumenpos: and things got out of hand a bit. 

Magic


----------



## VegasN

Magic said:


> Thanks for all the nice comments guys.
> 
> One thing about the dirt grade crossings/rerailers.
> What I did was to grind down the pointed ends of the center and squared them up.
> Another thing was the height of the center part.
> Some of my locos have very little ground clearance and would drag and what I had to do was sand off some of the dirt.
> Might be easiest to sand down the center a bit to get more clearance.
> I didn't remove the rerailers to grind or sand and it made it harder to do, so if you're
> going to do this I suggest doing it before installing the track.
> 
> I haven't decided what I'm going to do as far as details in the yard goes, what I've got now is just the base coat more or less.
> Some tire ruts on the grade crossing are in the works but for now I'm moving on to different areas, namely the west yard.
> I'm building a loco servicing thingie for it now.
> 
> The crew is still recovering from the Golden Ballast party,
> Agent 99 show up from the old layout:smilie_daumenpos: and things got out of hand a bit.
> 
> Magic



Thanks for the heads up.....I'll sand it down before adding dirt.:smilie_daumenpos:


----------



## Chops124

Really, really great. Glad you got that SP to go on the curves. You didn't put a big 
fat tunnel over any turnouts, so that is one faux pas you didn't do. I like the grade
and girder bridge; visually dramatic.


----------



## Magic

Thanks Chops, it's nice to finely get the Daylight running properly.

As for turnouts inside tunnels.
Faux pas number one.
One track in








Two tracks out.







This is the east switch for the passing siding.

Faux pas number two.







This is the yard lead for tracks 11 and 12 and the three way wye into the center of the yard.

I do have pretty good access to the turnouts but have really not had any problems so far.
I put in working signal lights to show how the points are set and that helps quite a bit. 
Have 7 of them on the most troublesome turnouts and they have saved me a bunch of head aches.

Since I'm here a little update for the Magic RR.
I needed to take some time off from building and haven't gotten much done for the last few weeks, real life getting in the way.
Have been running the trains a lot and things seem to be working very good.

I've been working on the west yard fueling station and it's been a real pain. 
Nothing would fit the space I have for it. Pretty much got it figured out and will post some pics soon.


So stay tuned for updates
Same Bat time.
Same Bat thread.

Magic


----------



## Chet

Looks good Magic. I do have a couple of hidden switches going into and out of my hidden staging tracks but I do have access to them if need be. So long as your are operating without any problems, I would be concerned. It's been a while since I saw your layout photos.


----------



## VegasN

How come other people's pics always look more realistic than your own? 
It has been a while. Miss seeing your layout. I understand about real life though. So much to do I almost feel guilty being in the train room, but I get very little of that.


----------



## Magic

Well here it is again that same Bat thread same Bat time. The latest on the ol' Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

We are finely back at it, real life kinda kicked us in the shorts.

I wanted to get the west wall done first so here is what we've got done.

I tried several buildings here but nothing looked good, too small a space. 
Where I grew up we had about a quarter section of citrus trees across the street so here they are.







You can click the pic to see bigger view.

I asked the crew where the oil well came from and they replied 
"We got carried away planting trees and struck OIL."
"Sure puts the profits into the orange grove." :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I asked "Does the fact that Standard Oil has a pipeline running through here have anything to do 
with the fact that the well is pumping #2 Diesel?"

"We're cutting out the middleman, got a pipeline run down to the fuel dock, saves buying all that diesel." 

This is a Walthers kit and took some time to build. 
I'm not all that good with tiny parts and you have to glue each part and make sure it's free moving before going on.
It's motorized and looks pretty cool pumping all that free diesel. :smilie_daumenpos:







Try as I may couldn't get rid of the ugly shadow. :dunno:

Workers getting the irrigation system ready after setting out the smudge pots, When they expected a freeze they would put out the pots.
Filled with kerosene and motor oil, put out lots of heavy smoke to keep the frost off the trees.








Moving from north to south we find some cattle grazing.
Soon to go to the soon to be built cattle pens.
I see some stakes in my future. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I'll cut some 16 ozers for Overkast. :smokin:








More to the south we have the storage tank for all that free diesel and 
a tank car to haul the excess to the soon to be built tank farm. 








The fuel dock.
All this started out as two Walters kits.
A two track fuel station and a sanding tower kit.
The fuel station kit got cut down several times before it would fit.
Most of the two kits are still in the box.  this is all that would fit, came out pretty good, I need to get some lights yet.







An overview.
This is the first time I've posted pics with the new resizing thing so I don't know how everybody will see them.
You can click the pics to see them the size I posted.









Magic


----------



## dsertdog56

Wow! Nice work Magic! I need to get working on scenery and details. I relly like the engine servicing center.


----------



## jlc41

Nice work Magic. I like that oil rig. The fueling and sanding stations look real good.


----------



## Chet

Looking fantastic Magic. Excellent looking scenes. You modeling skills have really improved over your previous layout. 

Well done. 

We are planning to do another bowling tournament in Reno sometime this summer and hope to see it in person.


----------



## Overkast

Magic said:


> I see some stakes in my future. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
> I'll cut some 16 ozers for Overkast. :smokin:


LMFAO!!!

Awesome progress Magic! (and it's about time you posted an update!) Everything looks really great - the kit builds, the scenery, even the story narration 

Really loving the progress :appl:


----------



## Fire21

Yeah, love your story, especially how the crew keeps doing things behind your back. :sly:

I worry though about you and Overkast having to eat those 16 oz stakes. Might produce a lot of splinters in the tongue and cheek!! I'm hoping those cattle will give you steaks instead! 

BTW, the scenes look GREAT! :appl:


----------



## VegasN

Well, I believe those are plasteaks.......


----------



## Magic

Fire  :smilie_auslachen: 
I didn't even see that, could explain why my steaks are so tough. 

Thanks guys I'm hoping to get more work done soon.
I had a case of layout burn out, but some free diesel has brightened my sprites. :smilie_daumenpos:

Gotta keep my eye on the crew at all times. 
Trying to figure out a way to cover the 5 Tortoise machines on the north wall. Not too successful so far. 

Did get the track ballasted for the industries just below the orange grove. Working on the stock yard now.

Magic


----------



## time warp

I enjoyed the update, progress is always interesting to see.


----------



## jlc41

Magic, so that's what it's called. I think I may have a touch it. I've been all over my expansion and it seems like no progress to show for it, very disheartening. But, just maybe a light at the end of the tunnel starting to emerge.


----------



## VegasN

I don't think I ever thought of that side of it before. When one of your inspirations loose motivation. We all get to burnout points from time to time. But when you see a layout that is motivating, inspiring, dream invoking......you just never think "hey, it's just a human working on that, he/she/they get in that rut from time to time too.
Thank you for reminding me that you are just human. No matter how superhuman your work is.


----------



## Magic

Thanks guys.

What was happening was that the layout so far has been great fun but I just hit a wall and it was more work than fun.

tw ya, it's nice to finely get something done. 

jlc,
Decided to just take some time off and when it became fun again I got back to work, small things first and than moved on from there. 
Ran the trains a lot and than started to get ideas. 

Vegas I would hardly call it superhuman work. Pretty good maybe but compared to some of the others here I've got a long way to go.

Magic


----------



## Owl

Wow! Being doing sone catching up, and your rail road is looking fantastic!


----------



## Magic

Thanks Owl we're getting there.

Progress on the ol' Magic RR has come to a complete stop.
I have been reworking the west yard for several problems.

It all started when I ballasted the yard, don't know what I did wrong but nothing seemed to work right from that point on.

Trains derailing, loss of power at times and most all the turnouts seem to have problems.

Somehow when I ballasted I got the turnouts out of plumb.
It started when I over glued the turnouts and had to free up the throw bars on most of them. 
In doing so I got them out of level and trains derailed.
Took some doing but finally got them level and working right.
This is the area I had the most trouble with.








Next thing was the throw bars were sticking and the Tortoise machines wouldn't throw far enough, 
re-positioned the Tortoises and got all but two working right. 
All the turnouts in the west yard are old ones that have been laid and relaid many times and they are pretty sticky.

Had to cut off a couple of guide ties to free up the throw bars. Like so.









One was real bad and ended up moving the Tortoise outside the rails. 
I could than get the machine positioned perfectly and that's what it took to salvage the turnout. Working good now.







I'll make something to cover this up, maybe a electrical box?

Also had to add a new power drop, one set of MTH ABB F3s would lose power. The Santa Fe set.
Strange as my other identical set in SP paint ran perfectly.

Got the whole mess fixed up today and I can run every loco every were in the yard with no issues. 
A heck of a lot of work but no issues. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Ran trains today for the first time in a week or more, felt pretty good. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

I can now get on with the scenery and track for the industries on the top of the 4x12 north table. 
Got some of it done so I should be able to show some progress soon.  :thumbsup: 

Magic


----------



## VegasN

Not superhuman my arse............


----------



## Chet

Looks good Magic. One thing you can do to keep the glue from fouling up the throw bars is to give the area where you don't want glue to stick is to give the area a shor of WD40. Glue will not stick.


----------



## VegasN

hmmm.....good tip


----------



## Magic

Thanks Chet. 
I did think of that later and used liquid graphite on the turnouts in the south yard. Worked good. 
Once the solvent evaporates you are left with a little graphite lube

Vegas getting the west yard working right was almost superhuman, it's hard to 
make repairs once the track has been ballasted.

I'm running ABB lash ups and they are very touchy as far as 
turnouts are concerned, even the slightest irregularity causes problems.
Single or even AA units ran just fine but that third unit is problematic with close spaced turnouts.

What I found was even though the turnouts showed level with a 3 inch level they really weren't. 

This is what found the problem for me. 
A little strip of plastic glued on the bottom of a line level,
just long enough to span one set of rails.
Showed me where the low spots were.








All is good now and I'm happy that all those issues are behind me. Got some other small issues fixed today, 
so it's on to making progress instead of re dos.

Magic


----------



## VegasN

Nice.....finally someone who took only 1 step back, and 2 forward! Hope is restored for humanity!! Not necessarily me, but humanity.....


----------



## time warp

Good that you stuck with it Magic. I've never had any running trackwork that didn't require tweaking from time to time.
I use my standards gauge laying flat to check track alignment sometimes, makes a good tell tale.


----------



## jlc41

Nicely done, glad you got it sorted. Good tips too.


----------



## Magic

Thanks guys, feels pretty good getting something done. :thumbsup:
With all these issues and the problems I talked about in the "I'm about to give up" thread with my locos 
I was getting pretty discouraged but with encouragement from you guys I keep at it. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

A great bunch of people on MTF.

Getting some work done on the industries for the top of the 4x12 table. Several revisions so far and more to come. 

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Magic, I'll say it again "how do you eat a 16oz steak....one bite at a time". Keep after it your doing good.


----------



## VegasN

Yes you are doing to darn good to quit now! Believe me brother, I have come stormin out of the train room swearing up and down I was done; "This is not fun!" I don't understand what the problem is!" "I'm done! That's it!" "It's not fun when it's rerail, rerail, rerail!!" But I just keep going. Walk away for a bit, maybe work on something else. 
But trains are not just a hobby to do. They get in us. They permeate every part of our lives. They drive us to think, to calculate, to design, create. They bring us enjoyment we can't explain to others. They stir an emotion in us that can not be met by any other means. They produce friendships of people whom have never met. Anything with those kinds of rewards........can not be easy. But it's worth it.


----------



## gator do 65

VegasN said:


> Yes you are doing to darn good to quit now! Believe me brother, I have come stormin out of the train room swearing up and down I was done; "This is not fun!" I don't understand what the problem is!" "I'm done! That's it!" "It's not fun when it's rerail, rerail, rerail!!" But I just keep going. Walk away for a bit, maybe work on something else.
> But trains are not just a hobby to do. They get in us. They permeate every part of our lives. They drive us to think, to calculate, to design, create. They bring us enjoyment we can't explain to others. They stir an emotion in us that can not be met by any other means. They produce friendships of people whom have never met. Anything with those kinds of rewards........can not be easy. But it's worth it.


Well said Vegas!

Magic, please get back to the updates! I miss them dearly as i'm sure others do!

P.S. Glad the layout's not in the trash, I hate dumpster diving.


----------



## Magic

One bite at a time. Check. :thumbsup:

Vegas
Ya, it does kinda get into the blood.

Gator
Working on some updates.
The weather had finally dried out enough to get some yard work done, 
got the crew cleaning up leaves and cutting the grass. 
Going pretty slow, takes three of them to move one leaf  
and cutting the grass one blade at a time with tiny little chain saws is not going well. :goofball:

I messed with my Athearn GP9s today and I think I've found two that run good enough 
that a keep alive should make them serviceable. :appl: :appl:

So work on industries is in the works. Updates to follow soon.

Magic


----------



## VegasN

YAY!!!!!


----------



## LostInHoboken

*SP Reno*

Magic,

Just saw the pix of your magnificent SP layout. Personally, I think it's astounding. To a real greenhorn like me, all of the complicated track work and levels is something I could only hope to aspire to. And some nice pockets of industry, which is always good to see. I say Bravo.

Rob


----------



## LostInHoboken

VegasN said:


> But trains are not just a hobby to do. They get in us. They permeate every part of our lives. They drive us to think, to calculate, to design, create. They bring us enjoyment we can't explain to others. They stir an emotion in us that can not be met by any other means. They produce friendships of people whom have never met. Anything with those kinds of rewards........can not be easy. But it's worth it.


Well put. I'm beginning to think that way myself. Even though I "put it away" for many years, I never forgot the sheer joy of model railroading as a teen, and the hobby kept haunting me until I realized I probably had to do something about it. Now I can't see living without it.


----------



## VegasN

LostInHoboken said:


> Well put. I'm beginning to think that way myself. Even though I "put it away" for many years, I never forgot the sheer joy of model railroading as a teen, and the hobby kept haunting me until I realized I probably had to do something about it. Now I can't see living without it.


Thank you sir. Yeah, I think it's wonderful so many of you on here have fond memories of model trains and/or real trains as kids. I was always interested in trains, but didn't grow up around them, and never had my first train until December 2015. But, in that year and a half, they have become such a part of me......


----------



## Magic

LostInHoboken said:


> Magic,
> 
> Just saw the pix of your magnificent SP layout. Personally, I think it's astounding. To a real greenhorn like me, all of the complicated track work and levels is something I could only hope to aspire to. And some nice pockets of industry, which is always good to see. I say Bravo.
> 
> Rob


Thanks Rob   Welcome to the madness. 
You have a mighty fine layout greenhorn or otherwise. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Hope to have some new stuff posted in a couple of days.
A new scene that's been giving me fits  for weeks, but is almost complete now. :appl: :appl:

Magic


----------



## VegasN

ooooo.....can't wait to see it!!


----------



## LostInHoboken

VegasN said:


> Thank you sir. Yeah, I think it's wonderful so many of you on here have fond memories of model trains and/or real trains as kids. I was always interested in trains, but didn't grow up around them, and never had my first train until December 2015. But, in that year and a half, they have become such a part of me......


This is probably a self-evident observation, but trains (real and model) are highly addictive. I think even as a dumb kid, I was vaguely aware of how special the trains that roared by my house every day were, how they were something almost out of time. Fifty years later, it's easy to look back at that moment and see how very rare it was. Too many cars, not enough trains. I'm a growler fan myself, but I can see folks who grew up with steam would have absolutely worshiped those majestic locomotives, even as they started to become an endangered species circa World War II.

And I'm beginning to think that you are either born with the train bug or not. I was at our downtown train station recently with a small group of people, male and female, a few of whom were waiting to take a train. There was this magnificent locomotive idling (quite loudly) on one of the tracks, waiting to pull some passenger shuttle somewhere. (I have no idea what type of engine it was, my knowledge of current equipment is zip. I wouldn't even swear it was a diesel, but it sure grunted like one). But I couldn't take my eyes off it. Now, I certainly did not expect the women on the platform to obsess on that locomotive (don't jump on me, I just don't think most women are train buffs!), but I was somewhat surprised to find that the other males, one of whom were around my age, didn't glance at that majestic machine, not even once. What's up with that? It's like finding a diamond in your breakfast cereal and going, "Meh..."


----------



## Magic

Well here it is again, that same Bat thread, same Bat time.
The latest from the Magic RR. :smilie_daumenpos: :smilie_daumenpos:

Last Summer I neglected much of my yard work in favor of laying track to get the Magic RR up and running.
I'm paying a price for that now, last years stuff plus this years.
Train time has been very limited but some progress has been made. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

So here's the latest.
In the last update is mentioned I had laid and ballasted the industry tracks on the top of the north table.
When I got serious about the buildings I found than nothing worked as I "no plan" planned. Nothing looked good at all.

Out came the tracks, ballast and the remote uncouplers.
Ended up with this configuration after three tries moving the track and uncouplers and ballasting.
The second try worked but something went wrong with one of the turnouts and I had to pull it out.
Since it was ballasted I had to be careful and wasn't, destroyed the Peco #6 turnout.
A week later new turnout installed and the track worked OK.

I started to put in buildings. Again nothing worked out, needed new buildings.   
Ended up ordering two new kits. One week each to arrive and another week + each to build.
This kind of work goes very slow for me, I just can't sit still long enough to get anything done and 
paint and glue drying makes for some slow going.

Here is the old track configuration, track for the stock yard stayed, the other two were moved.








The new track and paving for the industries. 
Just decided to pave the entire area and get the buildings set up and than cover with ground cover where needed. 








The lumber yard track makes an S bend but the train handles it OK.
The track for the freight house is 15" radius but is OK as well but I do need a buffer car so the freight car will uncouple.

Two overviews.















The nice looking grass area along Graft Street is the result of a $150,000.00 Stimulus Fund grant 
for the Industrial Park Beautification program.
Not much grass but the town counsel members are driving new cars. 
"We are improving the look of town streets." was the reasoning they gave. :dunno:


The stock yard.
Need to find a mounted cowboy for this.








The lumber yard.
I want to find a building supply building for this but no luck so far.
Will go in the open space by the little office.








New freight station.

















The new Ace auto repair shop.








General store and gas station.
The crew thinks this is a great idea and wants to franchise it 
as the 6 Ten store, not so sure this idea will catch on.








A lot of time and work went into this rather small improvement but it came out pretty good.
I made so many changes it took forever.

Magic


----------



## Owl

Wow Magic! It's amazing to see how that empty space grew inti something beautiful!
Al


----------



## jlc41

Looking good, some fence detail maybe???


----------



## Chet

Really looking good Magic. Nice work. Quite an improvement over the other layout. 

Well done. Waiting for more updates.


----------



## Gramps

Very nice work, well done.:thumbsup:


----------



## Mark VerMurlen

I agree, looks great! Changes in plans can work out well.

Mark


----------



## Magic

Thanks guys.
I still need to find some more details for this.

Mark this thing went through so many changes it about drove me crazy.

41 I did contact Fences R Us but with little luck.
He said that he could move those stolen F units for me at a good profit but 
didn't know anything about other kinds of fencing.
Didn't know those guys listed in the Yellow Pages. :dunno:

I'm starting on the residential area next and fences will be needed there 
so I'm going to hold off till then and set up an assembly line.

Magic


----------



## jlc41

Magic, sounds good, To bad about the fence guy not being able to help you out. Maybe next time if you need something I can call my uncle Veto. Any how am dealing with fences on my farm. Needless to say it's challenging with the rolling hills and grade changes, but am getting there. Also trying to decide on my pasture separations. Should I use stone with gates or keep on with the wood fening?? Have to run that by the COO of the enterprize. 
ON another note, hell of a thing happened while all the fence work is going on. We are haveing a funeral, wedding and new roof going on the stock pen encloser taking place at the same time, life goes on. Hopefully will be able to post some pics this week.


----------



## VegasN

Looking very good!! Its been a minute since we've seen her! Love it!!


----------



## LostInHoboken

Magic - looks amazing! I can only stare in wonder at your scope and vision and perseverance. And seeing that Atlas Lumber Yard did my heart good - one of my earliest childhood kits.

Can I ask how you did those nice background mountains? That's what I need for one side of my layout. Preferably something removable. Is it flat or relief? Looks great, at any rate. Bravo.


----------



## Magic

Lost
The ones above the citrus grove are built in.
The one in the corner was salvaged from my old layout.
Here is a link to the build.
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showpost.php?p=320954&postcount=124
I used cotton balls to give it shape and texture.

The one to the left is almost a flat, about one to three inches wide. Foam and cotton balls same as the other.
Here is a link to how I use cotton balls.
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showpost.php?p=283060&postcount=80

For the flats on the other side of the layout I used 1/4" paper covered foam craft board.
I cut the shapes and fitted everything and than using more cotton balls gave them some definition. 
Used different paints and ground cover to get colors and shading. 
If I had another 1/2 inch of room would have come out much better.
Here is some of what I did for the flats.
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showpost.php?p=941098&postcount=229

I used strips of thin plastic to hook the sections into one piece and they are just stapled to the wall, easy to remove.
I used a very wet paint brush to smooth and shape the cotton balls. You can use small pieces of cotton for extra shapes.


41
You know in your heart that the wood fencing will look better. Suck it up man and go for it. :smilie_daumenpos:
(Says the man with all flat ground fencing.) 


Magic


----------



## jlc41

Magic, I have to really think hard about the wood fences as opposed to stone for the pastures. But you gave me an idea for useing cotton balls. Stay tuned I will do a before and after pic.


----------



## LostInHoboken

Magic,

Thanks for the links to your background builds. Very impressive!

Me, I think I'll try another foam core cut-out with lichen stuck on it. That's about my speed! Yours looks a bit beyond my skill level at the moment. I had a couple of disastrous trials with plaster cloth awhile back, just couldn't get the hang of it. Yours rocks, though!


----------



## VegasN

"Rocks".......haha......no pun intended.....


----------



## Magic

Lost 
Using plaster cloth is pretty EZ the way I do it.
Just rough out the shape of the mountain with foam and than
put dry plaster cloth over it, might have to use some bulletin board pins
to hold it in place. Once everything is covered take a very wet paint brush 
and soak it down good. Dab don't brush the water on till it's very wet.
Never liked the idea of trying to place wet plaster cloth.

Once the cloth is dry add the cotton balls, I stretch them out very thin and use a lot of glue to stick them.
You can add more and shape them with a wet paint brush.
Don't over think this just keep adding cotton balls to shape bluffs and rocks.
It's a just do it and let it take you where it takes you thing.

Some paint and washes to give it some color, I used Woodland Scenics Concrete as a base coat for rocks.
A black wash last over the rocks does wonders.

Glue and WS ground cover for the low spots. 
Put down the glue with a small paint brush and add
different colored ground cover for vegetation.

If you use lichen one tip.
Soak it in full strength glue and set it on waxed paper.
Sprinkle on some WS ground cover to make bushes.

Magic


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## VegasN

Are you watching the same videos I am? Its almost uncanny the similarities in our techniques. Except the cotton balls and dry plaster cloth.
Of course you are MONTHS ahead of me.....so I am actually getting a chance to see these techniques in practice before I get to that point. 
I must admit, I am enjoying seeing progress of similar techniques before I get to that point. Almost like a virtual tour......


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## Steve441

Wow Magic - That is one amazing layout - Your dedication and perseverance really paid off - Its like art for me - Beautiful !! - Steve


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## Magic

Thanks Steve. It's been a project for sure.

Been a while since I've posted an update, still working on the layout but real life has gotten in the way.
Some good things and some not so hot, nothing serious but time consuming.

I'm working on two different areas and neither is going smoothly.
Things not working out like I want them to, so redoing things a lot.
Lots of kits to put together and the going has been slow.

Been operating the RR quite a bit and enjoying it.
Hope to make more progress on building things soon.

I've got one house almost done and one more lazer kit to build.
And than figure out how it's all going to go together.
I just need the time to get it all done.

Real life is slowing down a bit so I should be getting going on the layout progress soon.

Magic


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## Stumpy

Interesting, informative and entertaining thread, Magic. I look forward to the next installment.


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## Magic

Thanks Stumpy.

Right now I'm working on a big section and it's going very slow.
I'm not liking how it's looking and keep making changes.

Magic


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## wvgca

it's looking good ! keep it up


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## Magic

Thanks wvgca It's been a long time since I posted any progress because it's been slow going.

I've been running trains quite a bit but building has been almost stopped.
Too much real life and I just hit writers block or in this case molders block.

I've got two or three sections that have been giving me problems but 
thanks to Overcast giving me a few very good tips I'm starting to make some progress.

These are two very big sections so it'll be some time before I finish. 
I need some warmer weather to do a bunch of painting
and it's coming soon.

Magic


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## Overkast

Aw shucks... happy to help! Can't wait to see more progress Magic.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## Hobbytronics

:smilie_daumenpos:


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## wvgca

well, it's been a year .... time for an update on the layout ??


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## Magic

Boy it has been a long time.
Life kinda got in the way, I've been getting some stuff done
but not enough to really post anything.

Starting to do some scenery stuff and had to relay the tail track for the south yard. 
Had some electrical issues and replaced everything on the lift out section.

For some reason when a loco would go over the point rails they would lose power.
When I tested them with a meter they showed 13.4 volts.
What I found was that the weight of a loco pushing down would cause a power loss.
It happened after I painted and ballasted.

Got paint or glue in the pivots for the points and nothing I did would clean it out without pulling it all up.
The turnouts were old Walthers #4s and had been laid and relaid many times.
Since I had to do that I replaced everything.
All new Peco turnouts and micro-engineering track.
Came out great but still have to replace missing ties and ballast.
I'll post some pics when I get that done and some of the other stuff going on.

Magic
.


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## ted

I grew up in socal. I remember the 50's and 60's and how cool it was to live there. Your layout is not only great looking and cool. but it also brings back memories of days gone by. I was lucky to have lived in that time. Thanks for keeping socal alive. I wish I could build something like that. A DJ friend of mine (shot gun tom kelly) had a socal lay out built by a guy in LA somewhere. It is so cool. You can see it google up his name and train layout. Oh one question. What brand of track did you use and how do you secure it.


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## Magic

Just saw this today Ted. thanks for complement. 
The San Fernando Valley was a great place in the fifties early sixties.
That's what I'm trying to recreate. I am trying for an open not crowded layout. So far so good.

The two mainlines are code 100 Atlas flextrack and Peco turnouts held down with T50 staples to 
cork roadbed until every thing was rock solid track and electrical wise. Once everything was set I 
ballasted the track and removed the staples, only ballast holding the track now.
This worked very well for me, don't like gluing track for a few reasons of my own.
The staples go in against the outside of the rail and you can test run trains as soon as you lay the track.

The West and South yards are Walters code 83 flextrack and turnouts and are on the pink foam baseboard.
Also held with T50 staples. The staples held great for over two years til I ballasted the track, worked good for me.

I've been running trains often but the scenery work has hit a brick wall. 
I know what I want to do but not how to do it. 😢 Nothing I've tried lately has worked out.
Just sorta taking a break for now and hopefully things will get started again soon.

Magic


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## MichaelE

Sometimes you just have to try something to see if it works or if you like the finished product. I wasn't at all certain about plaster coated cheescloth over hardware cloth, and no one I knew here had ever tried it but it worked, and worked well. It is a technique I'm going to use again too.


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## ted

Magic said:


> Just saw this today Ted. thanks for complement.
> The San Fernando Valley was a great place in the fifties early sixties.
> That's what I'm trying to recreate. I am trying for an open not crowded layout. So far so good.
> 
> The two mainlines are code 100 Atlas flextrack and Peco turnouts held down with T50 staples to
> cork roadbed until every thing was rock solid track and electrical wise. Once everything was set I
> ballasted the track and removed the staples, only ballast holding the track now.
> This worked very well for me, don't like gluing track for a few reasons of my own.
> The staples go in against the outside of the rail and you can test run trains as soon as you lay the track.
> 
> The West and South yards are Walters code 83 flextrack and turnouts and are on the pink foam baseboard.
> Also held with T50 staples. The staples held great for over two years til I ballasted the track, worked good for me.
> 
> I've been running trains often but the scenery work has hit a brick wall.
> I know what I want to do but not how to do it. 😢 Nothing I've tried lately has worked out.
> Just sorta taking a break for now and hopefully things will get started again soon.
> 
> Magic


You know, without failures we would not know success.


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## Magic

Well right now my failures are out numbering my success. 
Haven't given up just on hold for a time.

Magic


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## Longvallon

Maybe it's time for an update on the layout ?


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## Magic

Boy it has been a long time Bandit.
Very little to post about as work on scenery has all but stopped. 
I have some good ideas but don't seem to have the skills to pull them off.
Was getting frustrating so I just put scenery on hold for a time.

I've been doing some house remodeling and repairs I've put off for years so 
train time has been limited. Real life getting in the way on many different fronts.

Been running trains quite a bit but no scenery.

I'm starting to get the bug again so hopefully an update will come soon.

Thanks for the interest it helps.  

Magic


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