I recently put up a new layout video on YouTube. This one follows a Southern Pacific TOFC train between the Palisade tunnels and the west end of the paired track at Weso, just east of Winnemucca. The era for this video would be in the early 1990's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sljcpPF6VlE
In the previous post I mentioned that I had purchased two sets of the Micro-Trains DODX heavy duty flat cars. This is the second of what will be a series of posts related to my project to build up a military equipment train and vehicles to use as loads appropriate for my mid 1970's to late 1980's eras. The US Army has a large maintenance depot near Susanville, California that has been there since 1942 and is rail served. This depot is west of my modeled area on the WP/UP line. It is reasonable to think that movements to and from the east would pass through my modeled area.
Again referring videos I have watched of these types of trains, it is noticed that there are other types of vehicles besides the ones offered in the Micro-Trains kits. I discovered a great source for some of them at the on line hobby shop PnP Trains. They offer a line of 3D printed N Scale military vehicle kits of great quality and reasonable prices when compared to other 3D printed vehicle kits I have purchased.
One of my favorites is this model of the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle or IFV. Thousands of these were built and have been in service since 1981 so could fit into any of my three layout eras.
The HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) family of vehicles has been around since the early 1980's so it also fits well into 2 of my 3 modeled eras. This version, the M977 is the only version offered by PnP Trains. Hopefully they will do some other versions in the near future. I would really like to get a couple of the M978 tanker version.
The M106 Mortar Carrier is based on the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier which has been in service from since the early 1960's so could also fit into any of my 3 eras.
PnP trains also has a 3D printed HUMVEE that I did not get as I already have the Micro-Trains version but I did get this HUMVEE ambulance. I still need to put the red crosses on it.
PnP Trains has several other military vehicles besides these. Some are too modern for my era but others do fit in and I'll be ordering those to add to the fleet.
Recently I purchased two of the Micro-Trains heavy duty DODX flat car sets. Each set had 3 flat cars and a number of military vehicles. Between the two sets I got a pair of M1 Abrams tanks, a pair of M270 rocket launchers, and 9 HUMVEEs.
The Micro-Trains HUMVEE is a nice model of the 4 door sloped back version but there are several versions of this vehicle as shown in the photo below which is a screen shot from a YouTube video. I wanted a variety of HUMVEEs for my military equipment train so set out to modify a few of them.
Because the model is injection molded it is durable and will tolerate quite a bit of modification. The basic parts are the body, the chassis, and a clear window insert. This is how I made a 2 door pickup version similar to the one in the far right of the above photo. On the body he upper part of everything behind the front doors was removed to create an open truck bed. A solid panel was installed on the back of the shortened cab and the turret hatch on the roof was sanded smooth. Benches and side boards were added along both sides of the bed. On the chassis a raised platform was installed to fit inside the bed. The clear plastic insert was cut to fit inside the smaller cab.
This is what the almost finished vehicle looks like after painting and weathering. I did not add all of the details as I felt they were going to be too delicate for handling. I did add the front screen, the snorkel, and the spare tire. And I still do plan to add some mud flaps.
And here is another photo showing one that I assembled, painted, and weathered without any modification. I am planning several more versions of the HUMVEE as I build up my military equipment train and some of those will be subjects of future posts.
Since the middle of December I have been involved with the annual trainboard.com layout party. Last Sunday was the end of this years event. This is a thread on the board that last for about 10 weeks during the winter where participants declare a particular project on their layouts and then post regular updates on the progress. I have been participating in the event for the past several years and each time have expanded the layout. This year I had just started the Palisade Ranch expansion when the party started with the intended goal to have the expansion mostly completed and the main line open for operation. I was able to accomplish what I set out to do and perhaps a bit more. This is what the Palisade Ranch area looked like when I started.
And this is what it looks like now. Still quite a bit of scenery to work on but the basic construction is done and trains are running. The lower photo shows where the tracks exit the tunnels on the other side of the hill and cross the doorway lift bridge.
Lately I have been enjoying the YouTube channel called "N-Scale Union Pacific Evanston Subdivision" done by Roy Smith. On a recent episode someone had challenged Roy to run a train with all cabooses but he has no cabooses as he models the modern era.
That got me to thinking about all the cabooses I have. Some do run on my mid 1970's to 1996 era layout but many others have never been run on the layout. So I thought it would be fun to get them all out and run them as a special train. The train was pulled by an F3A/B pair and I made a video of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qD_q3VlAUo
After installing the bridge and the track on the westbound / Southern Pacific line, the main line of the layout is again opened. Test trains have been running with all the different type of cars and one of those is seen in this photo. There is still work to do on the scenery but it is great to be able to run trains again.
On the other side of the lift bridge in an area that will someday become Carlin, a new return loop and stub end staging yard has been setup with Kato Unitrack. The 4 stub end tracks are equal in length to the main staging yards below and the passing siding in Battle Mountain. Using a double crossover at the throat of the yard allows a train to enter or leave any of the 4 tracks. I am trying this arrangement out here because this would fit in what will someday be the permanent east end staging yard above Weso and I want to see how I like it.
As mentioned in the last post on January 26th, I did something a little different to finish the bridge abutments for the Palisade Ranch area. I have never been really happy with the look of my concrete surfaces and have been experimenting with different colors and techniques. I ordered just about every shade of light gray Model Master acrylic that I did not already have and settled on # 4762 Light Ghost Gray (F) as a base color. The tunnel portals were also repainted in this color and one of them is shown below.
I saw in a Youtube video someone using a technique of splattering tiny drops of white and black paint onto a surface to give the appearance of the aggregate that can show up in a concrete surface. So I gave it a tray. It took some practice and some time but I found the results to be satisfying. Besides white and black I also added some darker shades of gray and some brown. One of the finished bridge abutments is shown in the photo below.
After some weathering with acrylic washes the same bridge abutment looks like this and I am ready to install it on the layout. Once it is locked into the right position I cover it with painters tape to protect it while I am adding scenery materials around it.
And here is that same bridge abutment after being installed and scenery material worked around it.
It's been a few posts since I have directly mentioned any progress on the current layout expansion and a lot has been done since then so I thought it was time for an update. Almost all of the land forms along about 4-1/2 linear feet of the layout under construction have been completed. The building of the mountain side that the tunnels go into will be done after the track has been installed and tested.
Bridge abutments have been made and installed for the two bridges near the Palisade Tunnels. I did something a little different in finishing these bridge abutments and the details of that will be in a future post.
Much of the scenery along the back edge of the area is almost done and the concrete trestle has been installed. The front edge will have to wait until I can get some more tempered hard board for the fascia.
The track assemblies for both those bridges have been finished. The bridge in the photo below will have Micro Engineering bridge track with guard rails. The other bridge will use Central Valley bridge ties put into a section of Micro Engineering track.
Having always enjoyed seeing layout videos I wanted to create some for my own layout. What has kept me from doing this was that I could not find a video editor that was easy enough for me to use. Over the past several years I had tried several both purchased and free and I found them all rather hard to learn and tedious to use.
As a sort of new years resolution I was determined to try again to find something I could use. After looking at a few more editor programs I found something called Shotcut. It was a free download but what made it work for me were the many tutorial videos on youtube that are presented by many different people. After finding some presenters that spoke in an understandable way and did not go too fast, I was able to go back and forth between the program the video tutorials until I caught on.
Not having any good videos of the layout right now I put together as a first project a short slide show of still photos including captions and some background music. This allowed me to practice working with most of the same functions that would be in an actual video. When this current layout expansion is done and the main line is opened I plan to get some videos. So here's the link to the video slideshow:
