Poppy

Back when I was young my Dad built this layout for me. It had 2 loops, the inner was elevated at the rear with the outer loop flat. It had a double cross over at the front, with 2 sidings, one expanding to a 3 fork storage road and the other a simple single siding. A home-made C-MOS controller it had and electric point motors were on all points. It provided many hours of joy to me growing up. It had been stored away for many years in the roof of Dad's garage and now that I have a boy of my own, the time was set to get it going again.
Taking it out again, the controller was long gone, so a Gaugemaster Combi was purchased. The track was cleaned and it worked for a Christmas day with a brand new Thomas running around it to the delight of everyone. However, there were a few short-comings. After all this time the plastic of the Peco flex track had become brittle, and the track wanted to straighten itself out. This caused the track to break away from the sleepers, in some cases right apart and trains could not run. It wasn't stored right in the roof, there were many layers of stuff between the roof and the layout. Also, no transitions were made where the slope started, so the tension of the rails pulled the rails from the sleepers, this was disastrous to one of the points.
It finally came to my house and the restoration could begin


The very rough roads that I placed with contact and then painted as a kid would have to go. They were really rough and were just too many roads. I also simplified the track cross overs at the front, and just went for a single cross over, moving the points away from the elevation. The elevated road is the inner loop in grey. Can also see the broken sections. Most of the flex track was replaced, as it is really cheap, but most points were salvaged. The very old peco switches still worked after some cleaning. I am in the process of building a CDU for the point motors, which are the Peco underneath double solenoid type.
The layout then had to be extended, as the curve on the right hand side for the mainline was just too sharp for most bogie wagons with body mounted couplers, they would de-rail at a certain point. Measuring the radius here it was found to be slightly sharper than the one on the left, which did not cause issues. The side of the board would have to be extended, not very much, only a few cm, but I decided to make it worthwhile and install 2 more sidings, this would also re-use 2 of the old point motors that I would be taking away from the front of the layout. One one of these sidings I woiuld be able to install a Bachman manual log loader/unloader in reach of little boys to actually use it. A tyco electric box unloader would be installed on one of the centre roads.


The layout has to live in the garage at this stage, between the two cars, near the door, this still allows for my second workbench, not the modelling one that I posted about earlier. It is quite a generous garage.
Because it is in a garage, as especially because it is near the doors I have had to create a cover. This is quite a large thing, made from Bunnings Connect-It aluminium square section frame. This then had tough translucent builders plastic covering it. The whole thing then lifts off the layout with a pulley system attached to the garage door tracks. It is a lightweight cover, but awkward to lift, especially from the side and then would have to be stored somewhere. The pulley system solves this nicely.

 

I should mention why it's called "Poppy". I am a surveyor and I have chosen to name my layout(s) and its stations after features in the area that we live in, usually not ones in common use. The whole system if you like, encompassing all layouts and the name of my blog is Govett Ridge, this was named after an early surveyor here and is a feature of the area.
Poppy is the name of a trig station in the area, it no longer exists, having the school built on it, but is still shown on the maps. My Dad has taken the name "Pop" for all his grandkids, and since this layout was originally made by "Pop" it seemed appropriate.

 

Buffers

When I extended the layout and put 2 new sidings in they terminated near the edge of the board. This could have disastrous consequences if the train was to over-run the end of the siding. Buffers were needed, and they needed to work.
I am a surveyor, and one of the things we do is 3D laser scan lots of things. The idea is, we go in, set the scanner up, it records every point as it sees as a coordinate, in x,y,z values, then in the office we can draw shapes, like joining the dots so to speak. This is a very simplified version of what we actually do for brevity here.
The real power of this is we can capture everything, but if the client doesn't need something at the time and they decide they do later, we just go back to the data, not have to go back into the field, which can be a real issue with rail work.
One such job we had a few years ago was to laser scan the entire Sydney Yard and platforms at Central station, for platforms 1-15. It occurred to me that there were suitable buffers for my railway there and something that I could have a crack at building. So I found one of these:


Using Microstation and Topodot I pulled the required dimensions out, and was then able to make my own with styrene strip. Once all the pieces were cut they were constructed in place. Holes we drilled in the baseboard and the uprights put in, then the cross-members, then the other steel plates, finally it was painted.
In the scan above the two round things with the arrow patterns are the targets which are used to register different clouds from multiple positions of the scanners together and to real world coordinates. The astute observer will notice the box on top of the beam, this is a red light for the end of the siding. This may get built later, but that will have to wait for fibre optics as the lens is too small for any current LED on the market.
I don't have any pictures of the real thing, but they are common enough in Sydney at least.
Here's one of mine, it will look much better when I get round to ballasting it.


And yes, they do stop runaways, an engine went full power into one, and all survived.

 

Thought I should back myself up with a photo of the real thing, now that I have checked what is on my third camera (yes I have a camera problem, and I'm not counting the phone camera there)

Taken when we scanned the Mortdale maintenance shed.
Cheers
Tony

 

Thanks Toto,

Well, it has been time to make the baseboard something other than a board. I have made half of the ramp up to the higher level a bit of an embankment using polystyrene with chux cloth dipped in plaster laid over it to get the shape i wanted, then painted in experimental tones of sienna and umber to get a base soil cover. After putting in the kerbs it was time to place some raised soil for the houses, also to try to hide that base board effect that the old 80's euro kits have on the bases of their houses.
After a fair bit of reading I decided to go the grout path for my soil. This was bought in a packet of pre-coloured stuff. It says use a power mixer, but since I am making a bowlful at a time the putty knife should be fine for mixing.


The colour is called "truffle".
Then apply it to layout around the houses and behind the kerb and next to the driveways.


After trial and error I found it useful to run electrical tape around the base of the house to act as a mask, this allows me to grout up the the edge of the house base, but not stick to it. I want to be able to remove the houses at some point. Will install lights at some future point, and some still need detailing and rebuilding.
Once this was down I was able to put grass down. A fairly dry grass for this house. With some darker parts to re-present clover and other weeds.



Then, to make the easiest boundary work I have ever done, don't tell the authorites that I'm not registered for that sort of survey work


Doing this as the next house is going to have a greener yard.

This first house has a very weedy yard. Started doing some ballasting work tonight, but no photo of that yet. When I finish building my static grass generator I will do the embankment.

 

Finally doing some ballasting to the track, it has only been about 30 years of waiting for this to happen to the layout, to hide the lime green base paint.
My in-laws live across the road from a beach, and there is a dis-used rail line between them and the beach. The ballast there is far to big (and hard) to do anything with. But there was some material in the ground that looked good. Last year I brought back a big plastic jar of it. Then sent it through a kitchen sieve to get all parts less than 1mm in size. Kept both portions. Used the smaller size stuff for the ballast. Sprayed the track first with isopropyl, then with a tea-spoon, spread the ballast, fist between the rails and then alongside the outer rails. Working in lengths of track of about 200mm at a time. Then I ran my finger along the top of the sleepers between the rail, getting it all between the sleepers and mostly off the top of them. This was followed by using a very stiff fine household paintbrush to clear the inner rails of any "rocks" that would contact flanges. Then spray the lot with isopropyl again. With a cheap paint pipette apply a mixture of Luke Towan's scenic glue, 50:50 water and Modge Podge flat with a few drops of washing up liquid to improve the wettability. Finally spray the whole thing again with isopropyl to make sure the glue wicks out to as much of the ballast as possible.
These tracks were not laid on track bed, but there are plenty of examples of track around here that doesn't have the classic profile of edge of sleeper. top of ballast, bottom of ballast then bottom of bank (drain). Sometimes the whole profile is inverted, found a lot of this in the Melbourne suburban lines, so I can justify my flat layout.
Then put more of my burnt grass scenic scatter between the two lines up to the ballast. Then experimented with a new free material. We live right next to the bush with lots of gum trees around. I picked up a handful of leaves, twigs and bark and stuck them in an old blender (don't use the good one!) ground it up until all was smooth. Then sieved with the 1mm mesh again. Here I used the stuff that was larger than 1mm as misc debris beside the track, glued this down like the ballast.



I'll have to get busy now finishing my static grass applicator.
Cheers
Tony

 

Finished the ballasting, used a lot less ballast than I thought, but a lot more glue than I thought, happy with the results though. Turned attention to the rest of the landscape. Found the sandy fine soil under my house was ideal to use, sift with a 1mm sieve, then apply glue to surface with paint brush, then dust on the sifted soil using a tea strainer, which is a finer grill than the 1mm sieve. Like the ballast a final dusting with Isopropyl sets it all.
Then with my new static grass applicator (had to build one, wasn't keen on the idea of spending $100~$200 on a decent one), I then had a go with it.
My local hobby shop had just got in some Peco static grass, in a nice dead grass colour, only 2mm long though, so gave that a try. Results are very encouraging, will have to get some longer stuff.

 

Hi Dave,
Our last house we had to park the most used car on the street, where it did get at least one mirror knocked off, and coming or going from the house in the rain was a real pain. The other car was in a tiny fibro garage with about 4 doors to open in perfect sequence to get the car in or out. Our new house the double garage with remote doors is right under the house, keeps humans dry, and keeps cars from fading in the Aussie sun, and keep them as rust free as possible, trains run second really...

About time I posted some progress, been doing lots of scenery with grasses and soil, but nothing too photogenic really.

One of Gormo's latest ideas touched a nerve though, the idea of putting superglue to paper, to make a much tougher, but shapable product. I figured I could apply this to home-made advertising signs. You can get signs pre-printed, but they are invariably someone else's idea and time-frame, and geographic area. I really want Australia in the 1980's, when I grew up.
So the method was to image search the logos from the time period, size them up simply using Word, then printing with laser printer, cutting out, then applying the superglue to the resulting small piece of paper, to give it that rigidity, and to stop it curling, which so many paper things do, especially in Sydney's humidity.
I then used them to attempt to "Australianise" an American building. Who can remember Mrs McGregor's margarine, the old Streets logo, Shelleys (Our state drink, now done by Kirks, the northerners won!), or Orchy juice.
This technique seems to age the images too, rather than a real crisp just printed look. This was just printed on 80gsm Reflex brand paper. Not sure what would happen with inkjet printing.
Note the Nissan Prairie just missing the 80 class on the level crossing, no lights here yet, have to give the car the benefit of the doubt! But the Saab 900 is heading for trouble, the Commodore (Senator really) has time to stop
Cheers
Tony

 

Been busy taking photos of other peoples layouts and the real thing, better put a progress photo up of my own work.
Have just about completed all the grass areas, this has been a work of experimentation to get the right look. Tried one house with a burnt grass colour with some dark patches to simulate weeds. The next house had a much greener grass with no weeds, a much more keen gardener is to live in that one.
Tried two types of static grass, which worked well, not sure it was the look I was going for, and might have to make a micro sized head for it to fit between already placed structures.
Hit on the idea of blending three different coloured fine turf together and scattering that with a sieve, this worked very well, with hairspray before and (carefully) after. This resulted in the most lawn like look without big clumping.
Been also making fencing. Attempting some "Good Neighbour" fencing with corrugated styrene and H-beams, make each panel with one piece of of flat panel and one up-right from the h-beam, then start at one end, with a longer h-beam to fit through the base board, then glue on each section in place, following the uneven topography of the ground, just like a real one.
Also had a go at a more urban style post and rail fence.
Also time to practice with long exposures and single point light sources, something hard to do at exhibitions.


Cheers
Tony