Layout for the grocery distribution warehouse

As I have been operating the layout I have noticed the interchange traffic is largely loaded tank cars in and mostly loaded covered hoppers out.  The Lovelock expansion will have one actual industry, EP minerals which will be also be covered hoppers empties in and loads out.  I wanted to create a couple of freelanced industries that would provide for a more diverse traffic flow.

So with the bench work complete, I need to decide what those industries are going to be and the general placement before I can start laying out any track.

The concept for the first freelanced industry is a medium sized grocery distributor that supplies independent grocery stores and supermarkets throughout the region.  Besides receiving loaded box cars and refrigerator cars, it will be a great place to display truck trailers as some products arrive by truck and this company will have it's own fleet of delivery trucks and trailers.

The starting point for this project is a Walthers Cornerstone modern concrete warehouse kit.  As this will end up being the largest single structure on this section, it's a good place to start to see how everything will lay out.

If the kit were to be built following the instructions, it would result with a rectangular 12 inch x 6-1/4 inch warehouse. But the way the kit is designed with multiple small wall sections, it can be easily modified to make a building of your own design.  There are quite a few of these wall sections with both single or double wall panels.  Some have various sized opening for doors and windows and some are solid like in the photo below.

I used the spues that the wall sections came on to temporarily connect several wall sections and form the sides of the building.  I used canopy glue to do this as is can easily be peels off when I am ready to glue the sections permanently together.

After mocking up a couple of different configurations, this is the one I have decided on.  It offers the features I wanted and this shape being narrower on the left side makes the best use of the space for the two turnouts for the two separate spurs.  This kit did not come with a railcar sized opening but it was easy to modify one of the sections to allow a refrigerator car to be pushed inside the refrigerated part of the warehouse.  As the back side will not be visible, it will end up being open or with some solid styrene sheet.  The size of the roof area will require some interior support which can also be done with Evergreen styrene.  So I will soon be returning to the hobby shop for those materials.  Watch for a future post as this project progresses.

Bench work for the Lovelock expansion

This new section of the layout which will represent Lovelock, Nevada will be 76 inches in length and 20 inches deep with the far-left end angling out to a 24-inch depth.  This time I used 2 ft x 4 ft panels of 1/4 in and 1/2-inch plywood from Lowes as they are much easier for me to handle by myself than a full 4 ft x 8 ft sheet.  This worked out very well and was strong enough as I doubled the frame where there was a seam.

The floor of the train room is the flattest surface I have so after cutting the pieces in the garage they were brought into the train room for assembly.

This new section will need to be removable.  It will be 20 inches deep at the end where it connects to the helix so just over 20 inches of the fascia on the helix base was removed.  A ledge from a piece of 3/4 inch plywood was mounted under the helix base so that it sticks out 1 inch.  The end of the new section will rest on this. 

Strips 3/4 inch and 1/2-inch plywood were added to the 20-inch-deep end of the bench work section with the 1/4-inch deck then attached to the entire frame.  This created a little lip on the end of the section that will rest on the ledge.

Several methods were used to make this section removable but still be secure when it's in place.  On the left end I mounted a 2-inch-wide strip of 3/4 inch plywood on the wall that the bench work section will rest on and used a cabinet latch to hold the bench work section to it.

On the end where this new section meets the helix base, I used a long 1/4-20 bolt with a wing nut to secure the lip of this section to the ledge built onto the helix base.

And in the middle, I installed a shelf bracket with a single 8-32 thumb screw going into a tee nut that is on a horizontal cross piece on the bench work. 

So here is the completed bench work for the new Lovelock section.  Next step is to seal the whole thing with paint, and it will be ready for track layout planning.  At some point a tempered hard board fascia will be attached along the front and painted the gloss gray color.

Learning about static grass - Part 1

One of the wonderful things about this hobby is that there is always something new to learn and new techniques to try out.  Static Grass has been around for a few years now and I have admired the appearance of it on layouts and wanted to try it out from myself.

Of course the expensive part of this technique is acquiring the static grass applicator.  At an open house a couple of years ago I picked up what I thought was a great deal on a Noch static grass applicator that appeared to be brand new but found out after bringing it home that is was apparently burned out.

More recently I made a second attempt by acquiring a brand new Woodland Scenics Static King version of the static grass applicator along with some 2mm and 4mm static grass in different colors.  The Static King feels like it is well made and is compact.

I had been watching a number of how to type videos on YouTube and one of the suggestions I heard in the videos was that the Static King works better with the 12 volt adapter than it does on the 9 volt battery.  I was disappointed with my first attempts using the battery and also found out that the fit of the battery into the battery compartment was quite tight.  Using my multi-meter I found that the Static King was drawing close to 150ma from the battery.  At that rate a 9 volt battery might not last very long and as the voltage drops, so would the performance.

I did not buy the Woodland Scenics 12 volt power adapter when I bought the Static King as I had a whole box of similar items and I was sure one of them would work.  When I first tried it, I got nothing and also noticed that the blue light strip on the Static King was not lighted.  Using my DC power supply, I connected a scrap plug with the polarity reversed and that worked.  So, the Power adapter that Woodland Scenics sells for the Static King has the positive polarity on the outside of the plug which is a bit unusual as most have the positive in the center.  I modified my adapter by cutting the cord and reversing the wires.

After trying it out on some scraps of cardboard and satisfied it was working, it was time to try it out on an actual model.  I got out a photo diorama I had made years ago to experiment on.  This diorama is a simple single track on a raised embankment with one side being more green and the other side being more dry.  They already had some ground foam scenery material on them and I added the static grass over that in uneven patches.  Here is the dry side after I had applied some straw colored 4mm static grass..

And here is the results from the green side.

So far I am encouraged by the results.  I'll continue to experiment with some techniques and make a follow-up part 2 post sometime in the future.

Expanding sounds around the layout

I had received another Soundtraxx decoder and got it all installed as the sound for the road switcher in Carlin but was trouble programming it.  I would get a "No Ack" error message on the DT402 throttle I was using to program.

After viewing a YouTube video presented by George at Soundtraxx I learned that programming voltage is half of what track voltage is and that Soundtraxx decoders in particular are sensitive to this issue.  Soundtraxx had made a booster circuit for programming but it seemed to be out of stock and perhaps was no longer being made.

What I had not considered was how all this extra wiring running around the layout would degrade the programming signal so I decided to abandon the programming bus idea and instead use a jumper cord to program the sound decoders.  

I found these great 3D printed panel mounts for Power Pole connectors on ebay and installed them on the fascia next to each of the sound control panels.

A 1 inch diameter hole was drilled through the fascia next to each of the sound control panels.

The panel mounts fit neatly into the hole.  The wires from this connection are connected to the program position on the switch.

Then another connector replaced the existing Cinch Jones connector that my bench programming track plugs into and I made a long enough jumper cord to reach from the programming track output to anywhere on the layout.   The lead for the programming track also got it's Cinch Jones connector replaced.