First Craftsman Kit - Farmhouse

It's still under construction, but this is my first attempt at a wood craftsman kit. I've enjoyed building it and when you consider how long it has taken me so far, that's a lot of bang for my buck when you consider the purchase price and hours of enjoyment. I still need to do touch up painting, add the chimneys, do some weathering, add interior detail, and add lighting. This will occupy a special place in the Hoovertown residential district.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Christmas Present Early

I've been wanting a steam engine for the layout, but I've got a couple of tight curves so I had to choose a little loco to go around the curves. Since I'm modeling in the 60's & 70's it's after steam, so this loco will be for excursions. Bachmann has this nice little 4-4--0 with sound that fits the bill. It's not L&N, but then it's not uncommon for excursions to "run what you got". It looks & sounds great on the layout. Who knows - maybe I'll backdate to the steam age and become a steam convert?

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Gettin' the Kinks Out

From the beginning I've had a kink in track in the mainline going around the Matthews freight yard that I've tried to ignore. I was doing great with that until I tried to run my new (Christmas present) Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 locomotive through the kink. The front "4" wheels derail almost every time they hit the kink. Poor trackwork will eventually catch up with you!


Here's another view of the kink shown on the right track by the turnout.



Here's the tools I used to fix the problem. The alcohol is 90% which is the same stuff I use to wet areas before I apply white glue when I'm doing ballast or scenery.

The good thing about alcohol is that is will quickly dissolve dried white glue, and since I used track nails to secure the track and not contact cement, the removal was a simple matter of wetting down the ballast and landscape around the track section I needed to remove.

After allowing the glue to work a few minutes I went to work with the scraping using various tools including a screwdriver, putty knife, and dental tool.

I had the vacuum handy and cleaned up the loosened material as I went along.

Next I pulled out the track nails using my track cutting pliers.

I used my Dremel tool with a fiber reinforced cutoff wheel to cut the track. I used a fiber reinforced cutoff wheel instead of standard cutoff wheel for two reasons: 1.) The reinforced wheel doesn't shatter like the non-reinforced wheel, and 2.) the reinforced wheel is larger in diameter making it easier to make a right angle cut through the track.

So, once you cut the track, how do you undercut the plastic ties so they can be removed to allow for the track joiners? It's easy to remove the ties when the track isn't in place because you can just snip them with your cutters and slide them off the end of the track. With the track in place there isn't any way to easily cut up through the plastic tie joiners. I solved the problem by heating the tip of my dental tool, sliding it up under the track and through the plastic piece joining the ties. I could then easily slide the ties off the end of the track.

Here's a view of the cut before I used my hot dental tool technique to remove the ties. The joints have to be offset.

Here's the area cleared of ballast and track. I also cut back the plaster scenery area to the right to allow for a larger radius turn.

Here is the new track in place with the rail joiners soldered on both ends.

And the finished (not painted or ballasted) product with the kink gone. The new 4-4-0 locomotive runs though the area without a hitch!

I learned my lesson on track laying - do it right the first time! If something is not right after you lay the track, fix it right away.

Piedmont Pilgrimage at the Richlawn Railroad

The Piedmont Tour included the Richlawn Railroad on Sunday, November 1st from 1pm until 5pm. This is the second year on the tour, with the major progress on the layout in the mountain area which didn't exist last year. As visitors entered they were able to see a pictorial history of the railroad along with information sheets about the concept and future.
Click on pictures for a larger view.


My chief operator/assistant this year was Charlie Crawford (right)who did a fantastic job of keeping things running while I was able to spend time chatting with the visitors. Charlie really "earned his pay" late in the afternoon when some gremlins entered the trains and we started getting some "hickups" that required switching out some locos. Later examination showed a combination of dirty track & loco wheels. This is interesting as I did a "wet" and "dry" cleaning of the entire layout and locos that morning.


My other operation/ assistant was I.D. Jackson (left) who kept busy backing up Charlie, keeping an eye on things, and chatting with our guests. Speaking of guests, "Coalfinger" Ken (right) from our NCIOG group showed up to offer support and talk L&N to another "Old Reliable" fan (me).

The visitors trickled in at the start and we had a number of visitors from the neighborhood as this was the first year I put flyer on all 37 house's mailboxes in our neighborhood.

It was great to see a number of small children (future model railroaders?) and everybody did a great job of "look, but don't touch". The camera car was a hit with both the children and adults as they could see themselves on TV!

Many of the visitors commented on the mountain area and liked the waterfall and lake area. The group below is looking at the Matthews freight yard where there is alot of potential action with locos and rolling stock.

"What scale are those buildings on the mountain" was a popular question. The answer is they start as HO down at the bottom, reduce to N scale half way up, and are Z scale at the top. The Z scale vehicles at the top are actually charms used on a charm bracelet. They're only $1.23 at Hobby Lobby instead of $$$ from the model railroad suppliers.

George Potter's wonderful N scale layout was on tour the same time as ours, and just like last year we had flyers for each other's railroads with directions and pictures. It was a popular handout and many of the visitors had just come from George's or were headed there next.

We had a "jam" of people for a period of about an hour were we had up to 15 people there at one time! The railroad room was full of people and people had to wait outside for their turn. This gave them time to visit the refreshment table and have a seat in the waiting area. Is that Joe in the hat??? He was a first time visitor and it was great to have him visit and give his input.

With the two running trains speed set correctly, Charlie stepped out of the room to allow more space for the guests. Speaking of guests, another member of the NCIOG, Paul stopped by to visit and also dropped off some stuff I left at Bob's. Thanks, Paul. His layout is on the tour and he and the NCIOG group have been working hard to get him ready.

It was a very successful open house with a total of 63 people with 44 of them not being member of the NMRA. I believe we helped promote model railroading and had a great time doing it by spending time with our guest listening and talking to them.

A special thanks to Charlie Crawford, I.D. Jackson, and the Piedmont Division for allowing us to showcase our layout on the tour!

Piedmont Tour progress

With the Piedmont Pilgrimage tour stopping at our layout this Sunday, November 1st this is as far as I got on the lake & trestle area. Last year was our first year on the tour and we had 91 people! I understand it's not unusual to have a large attendance for new layouts added to the tour. I'm hoping there's been enough progress on the layout to make it worth while to visit for past visitors. (Click on picture for a larger view)

L&N Historical Society Annual Convention - Chattanooga, TN

I attended the convention (my first L&N) Sept 24th - 27th held at the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn. The convention registration didn't start until 3pm so they had arranged for an open house at a modeler that models the "Hook & Eye" in 1/48" scale. The layout room is over a 2 car garage and features some very nice work, especially the structures (trestles & buildings). It's hard to photograph & show the entire layout.



Here's an example of the fine work on structures, including weathering.


You can't find this trestle in a kit - nicely scratch built.

The evening was filled with talks about different aspects of the L&N and was very interesting; however, I was looking forward to the trains rides on Friday and Saturday. The rains flooded some of the trackage, so some changes had to be made.

Friday's ride was on the famous "Hook & Eye" - just the hook part. It was supposed to leave from the hotel, but we had a little bus ride of about an hour - nice time to get to know some of the people at the convention. We had a couple of photo run-by opportunities and where's a shot of the train crossing the trestle.



Later on in the "hook" portion here's the trestle you first cross over, then under - a very neat experience!

Speaking of neat, I had been chatting with the gentlemen across the way from me when I recognized his voice - Allen Keller of video fame! I couldn't resist showing him a couple of pix of the Richlawn Railroad and he gave me his card and asked me to send him a CD with more pictures. We both agreed that my RR is too small at present to be considered for his productions, but maybe in the future??? Allen is a very nice "regular" guy and very interesting to talk to about railroading.





Here's another photo "run-by". Can you believe the Alco smokes? (ha,ha)

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Day two (Saturday) was a steam day. The train backed right up to the hotel and off we went, only to be delayed about 40 minutes in a switch yard. No problem, it gave me time to have an early lunch and I sat with 3 guys that grew up in Louisville not far from where I lived.



I'm a Diesel guy, but I've got to say that steam is a heck of alot more interesting to look at and to listen to! It rained pretty much the entire trip, so we didn't get any photo run-bys. I was out in the rain with my umbrella to get my shots.


We arrived at Grand Junction and only had a short (40 minutes) layover as the train was late picking us up and we lost time waiting in the yard. I did have time to get a few shots and to see some of the station.


I noticed when our train was backing into the hotel that smoke was coming out of the center of one of the "coach" cars - stupid me! It was a Power Car and was actually pulling the steam engine backwards. You can see the hump on the top of the center of the car.


Here's a closeup look at the controls to operate this thing - notice on the speedometer that we're doing a blazing 10 MPH at the time I took the picture as we were almost at the junction


This was my favorite part of the trip on Saturday - a visit to the TVR Soule Shops. There was all kinds of neat stuff there!

Power, anyone? I wonder if I could stuff that in my new Kia Rio?



There was lots of stuff outside waiting for some TLC. I love these big classy units?
I don't know what this is - kinda looks like something they'd make in Canada (Bob?)

Inside the shop they were working on a steam and an E unit. It's just two guys that work on their weekends and vacations - thank God for people like them!

It looks like this old E could have been the Southern Crescent?

While we were they we got to see the steam engine take a spin on the turntable! By the way, they did a 360 degree turn just for us - no need to actually turn the unit here.

Saturday night was a delicious banquet dinner followed by an L&N employee that had been with them for over 50 years - a very interesting speaker! The night was closed by watching old films of Southern and L&N trains.

I had a great time and plan on attending (God willing) next year when it's in the Frankfort, Ky area.

2 Blu 4 U? Click on pictures for a larger view

Yes, I know it's BLUE....but I wanted a lake like you see in postcards or in dreams...and since it's our railroad, that's what we did! Obviously, it's still under construction as the waterfall has to be added at the edge of the stream and ripples added with the strongest at the point where the waterfall over the dam enters the lake. Oh, and the seams you see in the grass mats on the hills will disappear once I get all mats on and blended together. The lower edge / shoreline will have to be landscaped and loose material added at the seam of the shoreline and lake surface. This loose material will have to be replaced anytime the hatch is removed & put back in place (which I hope won't be often).

The construction of the lake was as follows: 1.) Cover entire top of Masonite with two coats of latex flat paint; 2.) Using an airbrush paint the center area a dark navy blue color created by mixing black with navy blue; 3.) Moving outwards from the center, paint with a translucent blue paint mixed with the dark navy paint; 4.) Continuing outward, vary the mix of translucent blue to dark navy by adding more translucent with each outward sweep; 5.) Let paint dry 24 hours & glue on rocks & sticks using white glue; 6.) Use modeling clay to create a "dam" 1/2" high around the outside of the piece to contain the EnviroTex Lite(tm) high gloss finish; 7.) Level the piece so the coating will be equal depth; 8.) Carefully figure how much EnviroTex Lite(tm) will be required; 9.) Mix according to manufacturer's instructions & pour; 10.) FIND OUT IT WASN'T ENOUGH! - quickly mix & pour another batch; 11.) FIND OUT IT STILL WASN'T ENOUGH...AHHH!! - quickly mix & pour another batch; 12.) Use a propane torch to take out the bubbles (carefully!); and 13.) Let dry (4) days even though manufacturer says 72 hours.

Here we have some swimmers in the water and I'll add some people up on the land to their right. Stay tuned to more pictures as this progresses. My goal is to have this area ready by November 1st for the Piedmont Tour.

New Loco & 1st time consist - Click on picture for a larger view

Loco #914 is a new addition to the railroad that I just purchased from ebay(tm). It's an Atlas RS36 that has a Digitrax decoder and separate MRC sound decoder, all for $89! I already had #911 RS36 that I equipped with a Digitrax decoder. For you old hands it's no big deal, but this was the first time I consisted locos on my layout. The good news is that #911 ran faster than #914 (lead loco), so it was a matter of playing with the CV programming on #911 to slow it down & match the speed and acceleration of #914. It took me about 30 minutes to get it right and I really like the way it looks / runs. I plan on consisting the balance of my locos as it is also more realistic.

Bricked windows details - click on pictures for a larger view

The wife & I were in Copperhill, TN the other day on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway (we work as volunteer car hosts) when I noticed some interesting details about bricked windows. Most often the windows are bricked sometime later from the original construction and with different bricks that vary in color from the originals. The is plainly shown on the picture below.

Something new I noticed was that in some cases besides the colors not matching, the mortar lines also don't match. Notice the mis-match below - the pattern matches at the top but gets

farther off as you look down the window. Not all bricked windows will probably have this mis-match, but a nice detail to model.

The next time I model bricked windows I definitely will make sure the bricked in area is a different color, and perhaps "off" a little on the mortar lines. Thanks to Scott P. for his suggestion to post this to the blog.