I have been on a bit of a binge gluing and stapling strips together into a web defining my vision of the Sierra Lumber Company terrain. I had some false starts and some do-overs in the course of the last week but I feel pretty good about the new terrain forms in the vicinity […]

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Basic Scenery landforms can be built very fast using cardboard strips and plaster impregnated cloth. The mountain below was formed in just over an hour and is approximately 2 x 4 feet.

For my last layout I used styrofoam for scenery. I found that approach to be expensive, time-consuming, and messy. The cost of […]

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After watching some TV, I went back downstairs for a final run before bed. In a short period of time I was greeted with a very hostile squeal. Think nails on the chalkboard times 1000. I applied lubrication to all the externally accessible gears and bearings to no avail. As much […]

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Now that I have so much new track, I have been having much joy running one little train around headed up by my little 10 ton Bachmann Shay. If one is fun then certainly two would be funner. I have had a Bachmann Climax, another small logging engine, on the shelf for about […]

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While waiting for the paint to dry I was able to fit and attach profile boards around the layout. This essentially completes the benchwork.
I used 1 x 2’s to build support for the profile boards. I again used my brad nailer with 1 1/4″ nails and glue to attach.

The hardest part was to […]

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I was able to spend most of Saturday immersed in the railroad and made great progress on a few different projects. The most visible one was to paint the sky onto the backdrop. I chose a color called ‘Summer Splash’ in the Valspar brand of paint from Lowes. The code was 5002-9C. […]

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Over the last couple of days I have completed the backdrop seam finishing with another coat of thinned drywall compound and a final smoothing with a sponge. Tonight I primed the backdrop.

I was pretty happy with resulting seams but I did find a few nail holes that I did not get covered. I’ll […]

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Tonight I was able to spend a few minutes in the basement trying to make some progress on finishing the backdrop. I am currently finishing the seams with drywall compound and tape. Personally, I think drywall finishing is very difficult and requires a special touch. I did successfully finish the basement […]

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