Jim's Layout

[starfire700]

Recent progress on the Lake Shore Railway shows use of spray foam on the edges and carving into rock-formations with a sharp knife. The foam always expands much larger than expected, so I have to be careful when applying it. However, it is very easy to carve with a sharp knife to remove unwanted parts, after the foam dries. The wet foam is extremely sticky and difficult to remove from things you don't want it on, such as your fingers or clothes.

[starfire700]

The above photos also show the curved knife that I use, and keep very sharp with my grinding wheel. Also shown are wiring rough-ins for accessories that will be placed on the formation.
I use the longest car that I expect to operate to check clearances, in this case a Lionel 2500 series aluminum passenger car.
A piece of PVC pipe and some left-over rock from construction of a fireplace are used to add some realism.

[starfire700]

Meanwhile on the other side of the layout, the upper level and standard gauge loop and sidings are complete enough to add accessories and trees. Lighting is added to many of the stations and other structures. "night-photos" show the effect best.

[Terry]

I like the night time lights. You have so much stuff jammed in there that everywhere I look I see something neat.

In the area with the roundhouse what's the base? Is it just painted homasote?

I wanted to do my standard gauge on green carpet, but all I can find has "traction" rows in it.  Now I'm thinking about using thick paint or even a tennis court coating. 

 

[starfire700]

I covered all benchwork, which is 3/4" plywood on 1x4 framing, with 1/8" cork. I purchased the cork through Amazon. I used carpet adhesive to lay the cork. This smooths-over the gaps between boards, provides some sound deadening and is a nice textured surface for painting. I even cut strips of cork for the upper level roadbed. I mixed fine ballast with a gallon of dark gray flat latex paint for all roadbed. Other areas are painted dark green or dark brown. I mixed saw-dust in the green paint to look like grass. Some green areas have Lionel grass that I painted over. The area around the roundhouse is mostly brown-painted cork. I have used different types of carpet before and do not like the way it looks when painted and my drill bits get seriously clogged when drilling holes for wiring. The cork is the best choice, in my opinion.

[Terry]

I'll have to play with the cork I have. I have months before I need to make a decision on the standard layout.

Here's a link to my college layout.
https://www.train99.com/layouts/layouta.shtml

That shows the carpet I had.

[starfire700]

That green carpet looks similar to the indoor/outdoor type I used on my Layout when we lived in the Chicago area.
It was smooth, very easy to cut and work with. 

[starfire700]

The mountain area on the Lake Shore Railway is near completion. It has been painted, grassed, populated with trees/shrubs, houses/stations/power station and a few cast iron vehicles. Lamp posts and lights in the houses have been wired. One end features the menacing ceramic house of a mad scientist complete with flashing lights inside. Most landscaping around the Franken-house is noticeably dead, and who knows what flows from the waste culvert at the base of the mountain.
Daylight photos shown first.

[starfire700]

Night time photos of the mountain community.
Note the cave photo with jeweled wall that resembles the wall James Mason could not resist in Journey to the Center of the Earth

[starfire700]

Scale Hudson set 707W out for a spin on the Lake Shore Railway

[starfire700]

I have several videos taken of operation on the layout that can be seen at the link below.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCUfhIqTj6nbDLmY3rXzvn7g

[starfire700]

Note that the videos DO NOT WORK IN CHROME BROWSER.
They should work in any other browser, Edge, Firefox, Explorer, but not in Chrome. 

[Terry]

That's a lot of working making those videos. Good job. Thanks for sharing them.

[starfire700]

Thanks for the endorsement. As we live in such a rural area and I no longer get to train shows, the videos are a way that I can share Trains with other collectors. It is a LOT of work, but pays-off when I get favorable comments. I was just a collector with trains on shelves, maybe a loop of track on a 4x8 for most of my life.......now it is more enjoyable to try to make everything run and tell a story while doing it. I am planning a video of early O gauge, but it is a challenge to get some of the 100-year-old locos to run! I did include a 152 with 800 boxcars in the recent Halloween video.

[starfire700]

I am currently shooting a Marx video. Here are some shots of the set-up. This scene will be panned by the Gopro camera mounted to a car.