Re-working the Melarkey Street overpass.

The Melarkey Street / US 95 overpass in Winnemucca is intended to be the western exit from the layout for the Western Pacific line.  From here the line enters the helix down to the staging yard.  This is a common arrangement on model railroad layouts and in this case it resembles the prototype location.    I have used this same setup just a few feet away with the Southern Pacific line exiting under the Interstate 80 overpass.   I have never been entirely happy with the the way the WP track left the layout under the US 95 overpass in Winnemucca.   I suspect this has kept me from really finishing the Winneumcca area.

Here is a view of the US 95 overpass right after I built it back in July of 2017.  It seemed fine then but I had not yet built the sky board.  After the sky board was in place I was not as happy with this arrangement.

Here is what the area looked like after the sky board was installed.  I did not like the fact that the inside of the helix could be so easily seen and the gap between the bridge and the sky board.

So I reshaped the hillside just a bit to align the bridge to be parallel with the sky board and painted the area of the sky board that would be under the bridge flat black.

This view is from the other side of the sky board inside the helix.  Using a scrap of PVC drain pipe I made this tunnel liner.   I painted the inside of the tunnel liner and the bench around it a flat black color.

The track in the foreground is the SP track which enters the helix at the Interstate 80 overpass.

I replaced the bridge columns on the outside with a solid bridge abutment and have started to build a new bridge.

This photo shows how it looks now.  I am patching up the scenery and need to finish the bridge but already like this better.

Diesel fuel distributor open for business

After looking at a few on line photos of tank car unloading I came up with this arrangement for the diesel fuel distributor.

The Chevron diesel fuel distributor in Battle Mountain is now finished and has received it's first shipment of product from the company's refinery in Richmond, California.  I now have an excuse to buy a few more of the right tank cars.

Scratch built end of track bumpers

I like to have nice end of track bumpers at the ends of my spur tracks.  After seeing some scratch built ones on the Internet done in larger scales I decided to make my own N scale ones from brass.  I used this photo of something done in a larger scale as a reference.

The materials used include scraps of code 55 rail, PCB ties, and brass stock and all soldered together.  This photo shows the one I made for the diesel distributor before I had painted it.

Here is the same bumper after painting, being glued into place, and some ballast and scenery added.  The PCB tie material is covered by the scenery.

Because it is made of brass and can conduct electricity it is important to keep the bumper from actually touching the track.  I somehow blew it on this one at the warehouse and had to cut a gap in one of the rails to clear a short as shown in this photo.

Progress on the Diesel fuel distributor

There is actually a fuel transfer facility in Battle Mountain and I am including a similar facility on my layout.  The purpose of my facility is to distribute Diesel fuel to the many mining operations in the area that maintain their own fuel pumps for their mining equipment.

I already had a good start on this industry by using parts left over from past layouts and posted about this just about a year ago in the post Reuniting a Walthers Interstate Fuel & Oil kit.  As the site of this facility was near the edge of the Battle Mountain section I decided to wait until the Harney section was installed to finish it.

The Faller silo kit I used on the Diamond Plastics complex had a tool for bending the ladder safety cages that same with that kit.  I found that this tool works just as well in shaping the safety cages from Gold Metal Models.

Here are the storage tanks with the ladders installed.  The concrete base shown here is removable so all the work can be done at the bench then placed back on the layout.

Here is the same scene after a few more details were added to the tanks and they were painted.  The truck loading platform is from the Walthers Interstate Oil kit and the pump is from the old Micro Engineering gas station kit.  Still a bit more to do here and some weathering.




Next I will need to work on how the Diesel fuel is removed from the tank cars, that will be in the next post.

A belated happy new year

We are already half way through January and I have yet to make a post.  We were in Arizona visiting family and got back a couple days ago.  Time for an update.

Before leaving for Arizona I had ballasted both lines where they connected between the Battle Mountain and Harney sections and started to blend the scenery in the area.  After giving the track a good cleaning the main line has now re-opened.

Again this year I am taking part in the Trainboard.com winter layout party.  Besides presenting a few projects on the home layout I am also giving one of my Ntrak modules a tune up with the goal of displaying it in a layout at a show in late February.

Creating a place for the DCC system

Up to this point in the layouts life the DCC system has been sitting on the floor under the staging yard.  The command station and power supply are attached to a piece of plywood with a small section of track with the output being being at a jack that the layout can be connected to.  I have often taken this setup with me to Ntrak layout setups to use as a programming station.

What I decided on was a similar setup that is mounted in a drawer that is directly under the bridge on the Harney section.  This is right next to the work bench so a test / programming track can be on the bench where I wanted it.  I actually reused the same drawer hardware salvaged from the last layouts control panel.

There is room underneath to set up a spare computer to use as a JMRI programmer.

So now with the old setup gone and not available to take to shows I think I better get going on building the long promised programming station for the Ntrak club.

Home made throttle holders

Several years ago I bought a couple of these throttle holders from a local shop and have really liked them.  These are designed to fit the throttles from several different DCC manufacturers.




The layout as grown to the point that I wanted some more but they don't seem to be in shops any more and on line they are now about $15.00 each which is quite a bit more than what I had paid before so I started looking at making my own using scraps.  It needed to be simple and only had to work with Digitrax throttles.

The design I came up with uses 6 scraps of 1/4 inch plywood and tempered hard board shown here.  These are the pieces and sizes.

1 Hard board back 4.25" x 3.00"
2 Hard board fronts 4.25" x .562"
1 Plywood bottom 3.00" x 1.00"
2 Plywood sides 4.00" x 1.00"

Here is the throttle holder after being assembled with yellow carpenters glue and sanded.   I rounded the top corners on the front strips before assembly.   There are a couple of mounting holes in the back which can't be seen in this photo because of the throttle.

I test fitted several types of Digitrax throttles and they all fit nicely.  I don't know if this would work with throttles of other DCC brands.





I like these home made holders well enough that I may make these standard for the home layout as they will all look the same.  Then adapt the other holders for use on the Ntrak modules.

The latest layout expansion

The Harney section has been installed into the layout and the end of it was close enough to the old test layout to connect to it rather than use the turn around loop again.   Bridges were made from scraps and tracks laid across connecting the layouts.

The test layout is Kato Unitrack on a shelf that has been changed many times in the last 5 years. This latest configuration is a combination of return loop for the main layout while still being an operating layout by itself.  More about that in a future post.

Trying my hand at sky board painting

In preparation for installing the Harney section into the layout the plastic sky board needed to be extended and as only the first few inches above the mountains would show I thought I would paint a sky backdrop to match the sky that is on the photo backdrops.

The test layout that has been along the end wall was taken down for access and another 16 inch wide sheet of fiberglass reinforced plastic panel was installed.  Seams and nail holes were patched with Spackle and then the panel was painted the wall color.

I have been using Artist Acrylic paints for my river bottoms and happy with those results picked up what I thought was a light blue and some white to add to my collection for working on sky boards.

I read somewhere that the higher sky is slightly darker than close to the horizon and that can be seen in the photo backdrops.

Even with lightening the blue, it dries a bit darker so I kept lightening.  Getting closer with each application.  I think when all is right I may need to spray some flat to get rid of the reflections from the lights.

The Winnemucca area also has a small sky board that I am painting.  This one also needs some lightening.

It's fun working with these Acrylic paints to get the results I want.  I may also try adding some clouds as I go along.